Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-Resolution 3T MR Angiography of the Carotid Arteries: Comparison of Manual and Semiautomated Quantification of Stenosis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: High-resolution contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) acquired at 3T exquisitely depict carotid artery (CA) stenosis. In this study, we examined the agreement of different vessel-analysis tools with manual quantitative measurement by 2 readers using CE-MRA data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three vessel tools determining the trajectory of the vessel of interest and, subsequently, the vessel dimensions were tested against manual measurements. Diameter and area stenoses were calculated. CE-MRA data of 32 patients with CA stenosis were evaluated. The agreement between different measurements was assessed with κ statistics after categorizing stenosis (<25%, 25%–49%, 50%–69%, 70%–99%, and 100%). RESULTS: The mean grades of stenosis based on diameter measurements were 59% (readers) and 60%/56%/59% based on the analysis with tools A/B/C (P = 0.2–0.7). κ values for agreement between readers and the vessel tools were 0.73/0.77/0.77 (tools A/B/C for all CAs) and 0.66/0.74/0.75 (for the symptomatic side). The mean grades of stenoses based on area measurements for tools A/B/C were 68%/63%/69% versus 58% for readers. Values from readers differed significantly from those for tools A and C (P < 0.01). κ values for agreement between readers and the vessel tools were 0.66/0.55/0.64 (for all CAs) and 0.53/0.44/0.57 (for the symptomatic side). CONCLUSIONS: The automated approach allows accurate assessment of vessel dimensions in MRA images at least for diameter measurements according to the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial criteria.
Quantum detection with uncertain states

We address the problem of distinguishing among a finite collection of quantum states, when the states are not entirely known. For completely specified states, necessary and sufficient conditions on a quantum measurement minimizing the probability of a detection error have been derived. In this work, we assume that each of the states in our collection is a mixture of a known state and an unknown state. We investigate two criteria for optimality. The first is minimization of the worst-case probability of a detection error. For the second we assume a probability distribution on the unknown states, and minimize the expected probability of a detection error. We find that under both criteria, the optimal detectors are equivalent to the optimal detectors of an effective ensemble. In the worst case, the effective ensemble is comprised of the known states with altered prior probabilities, and in the average case it is made up of altered states with the original prior probabilities.
Polarity Detection of Named Entities and their Coreferences

This paper presents an opinion analysis application for the Spanish language based on proximity between polar words, entities and their coreferences. This is a named entity centered approach in comparison with a document or sentence level analysis. Examining the context of coreferences allows us to combine evidence to determine the polarity of entities with a higher confidence level. Making use of specific polarity lexicons for each class of entity allows us to improve precision in polarity detection.
Parallelizing HMMER for Hardware Acceleration on FPGAs

Profile based Hidden Markov Model is a widely used tool in bioinformatics. While being very valuable to biologists, it is extremely compute intensive and suffers from prohibitive execution time. We propose an original parallelization scheme of the hmmsearch tool for FPGA technology. We show how to derive a flexible and generic hardware architecture which accelerates the hmmsearch main kernel by two orders of magnitude without modifying its original algorithm.
Evolution of the temporal persistence of immune protection

The evolution of resistance to parasites has been the focus of numerous theoretical studies and several mechanisms, ranging from innate to acquired immune responses, have been considered. Life-history theory predicts that long-lived species should invest more resources into maintenance and immunity than short-lived species. Here, we provide further theoretical and empirical support for this hypothesis. First, an analysis of the evolution of the persistence of immune protection in a theoretical framework accounting for maternal transfer of immunity reveals that longer-lived hosts are expected to invest in more persistent intragenerational and transgenerational immune responses. Controlling for phylogenetic structure and for the confounding effect of catabolic activity, we further showed that immunoglobulin half-life and longevity are positively correlated in mammal species. Our study confirms that persistence of immunity has evolved as part of elaborate anti-parasitic defence strategies.
Emotion Perception in Schizophrenia: Context Matters

Research on emotion perception in schizophrenia has focused primarily on the perception of static faces displaying different emotion signals or expressions. However, perception of emotion in daily life relies on much more than just the face. In this article, we review the role of context in emotion perception among people with and without schizophrenia. We argue that not only is context central to the perception of emotion, it in fact helps to construct the perception. Implications for future research on emotion perception are discussed.
What are the potentialities of crowdsourcing for dynamic maps of on-street parking spaces?

Finding a parking space is a crucial mobility problem, which could be mitigated by dynamic maps of parking availability. The creation of these maps requires current information on the state of the parking stalls, which could be obtained by (I) instrumenting the road infrastructure with sensors, (II) using probe vehicles, or (III) using mobile apps. In this paper, we investigate the potential predictive performances of a random forest binary classifier, comparing these three data collection strategies. As for the dataset, we used real infrastructure measurements in San Francisco for solution I. We simulated the crowdsourcing solutions II and III by downsampling that dataset, based on different assumptions. Evaluations show that the instrumented solution is clearly superior over the two crowdsourcing strategies, but with remarkably small differences to the probe vehicle scenario. On the other hand, a mobile app would require a very high penetration rate in order to be used for meaningful predictions.
SKALID 2012 – Spatial Knowledge Acquisition with Limited Information Displays

This paper proposes an interface that uses automatically-generated Natural Language (NL) descriptions to describe indoor scenes based on photos taken of that scene from smartphones or other portable camera-equipped mobile devices. The goal is to develop a non-visual interface based on spatio-linguistic descriptions which could assist blind people in knowing the contents of an indoor scene (e.g., room structure, furniture, landmarks, etc.) and supporting efficient navigation of this space based on these descriptions. In this paper, we concentrate on understanding the most salient content of a stereotypic indoor scene that is described by an observer, categorizing the description strategies employed in this process, and evaluating the best presentation of directional information using NL descriptions in order to support the most accurate spatial behaviors and mental representations of these scenes by means of human behavioral experiments. This knowledge will then be used to develop a domain specific indoor scene ontology, which in turn will be used to generate automated NL descriptions of indoor scenes based on their photographs, which will finally be integrated into a real-time non-visual scene description system.
Changes in Agglomeration Economies and Linkage Externalities for Japanese Urban Manufacturing Industries:1990 and 2000

Urban agglomeration economies are usually divided into two categories: urbanization economies and localization economies. In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of attempts were made to estimate urbanization economies and/or localization economies directly in the production function. Since the work by Glaeser et al. in 1992, however, historical effects on agglomeration called dynamic externalities in agglomeration are tried to estimate indirectly by use of the growth equation of urban labor force extensively. These externalities are called MAR in a dynamic sense, whereas traditional agglomeration economies are evaluated in static sense. Alongside urbanization and localization, more traditional sources of industrial concentration are found in various industrial linkages, such as customer and supplier linkages or backward and forward linkages. These linkage effects come from the concentration of different kinds of industries whereas localization economies mean the benefit from the concentration of firms within the same industry. Also, linkage effects are often referred as pecuniary externalities. This paper tries to clarify theose agglomeration concepts, and to construct an estimable model of linkage effects among industries as well as agglomeration economies, and to estimate these effects separately within the framework of the Translog production function. In this model intermediate inputs play an important role as linkage effects. Also, in order to investigate the change of agglomeration economies the estimations are implemented using data for 1990 and 2000. The empirical analysis is based on two-digit data for manufacturing industries in Japanese cities. The estimated results regarding agglomeration economies vary significantly among the two-digit industries, but most of the agglomeration effects have fallen since 1990.
IVal--An Alternative WordNet Browser for Evaluating Semantic Informativeness of Concepts

This paper describes theoretical and practical aspects of a procedure for calculating semantic informativeness of concepts on the basis of WordNet. The IVal system is introduced which provides enhanced functionality for accessing the WordNet database including the computation of the concept’s informativeness, the decompositional analysis of terms, and an interface for extending the lexicon.
Control-Based Continuation of Periodic orbits with a Time-Delayed Difference Scheme

This paper presents a method that is able to continue periodic orbits in systems where only output of the evolution over a given time period is available, which is the typical situation in an experiment. The starting point of our paper is an analysis of time-delayed feedback control, a method to stabilize periodic orbits experimentally that is popular among physicists. We show that the well-known topological limitations of this method can be overcome by an embedding into a pseudo-arclength continuation and prove that embedded time-delayed feedback control is able to stabilize periodic orbits that have at most one unstable Floquet multiplier sufficiently close to the unit circle. In the second part we introduce preconditioning into the time-delayed feedback control. In this way, we extract a nonlinear system of equations from time profiles, which we solve using Newton iterations. We demonstrate the feasibility of our method by continuing periodic orbits in a laser model through folds, and by computing the family of canard orbits of the classical stiff Van der Pol system with constant forcing.
Etyka konsumenta w perspektywie aretologicznej

The paper examines the moral choices of consumers from the perspective of virtue ethics. The paper starts with an outline of consumption ethics in the context of a critique of consumerism assuming a lack of consumer autonomy. I dispute the latter assumption, which leads me to consider the consumer as a moral agent and focus on the role that specific dispositions of character can play in consumer choices. The question of subjective or situational conditioning of consumer choices is answered by acknowledging the basic freedom of decision, albeit limited, concerning not individual acts but the possibility of choosing the style of consumption. The next step is an attempt to build a model of consumer excellence. It is constituted by the virtues of prudence, activity, and environmental responsibility. In the last part of the paper, the structure of these virtues is analyzed and their in-depth interpretation offered.
Role of Editing of R–R Intervals in the Analysis of Heart Rate Variability

This paper reviews the methods used for editing of the R–R interval time series and how this editing can influence the results of heart rate (HR) variability analyses. Measurement of HR variability from short and long-term electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings is a non-invasive method for evaluating cardiac autonomic regulation. HR variability provides information about the sympathetic-parasympathetic autonomic balance. One important clinical application is the measurement of HR variability in patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction. However, HR variability signals extracted from R–R interval time series from ambulatory ECG recordings often contain different amounts of artifact. These false beats can be either of physiological or technical origin. For instance, technical artifact may result from poorly fastened electrodes or be due to motion of the subject. Ectopic beats and atrial fibrillation are examples of physiological artifact. Since ectopic and other false beats are common in the R–R interval time series, they complicate the reliable analysis of HR variability sometimes making it impossible. In conjunction with the increased usage of HR variability analyses, several studies have confirmed the need for different approaches for handling false beats present in the R–R interval time series. The editing process for the R–R interval time series has become an integral part of these analyses. However, the published literature does not contain detailed reviews of editing methods and their impact on HR variability analyses. Several different editing and HR variability signal pre-processing methods have been introduced and tested for the artifact correction. There are several approaches available, i.e., use of methods involving deletion, interpolation or filtering systems. However, these editing methods can have different effects on HR variability measures. The effects of editing are dependent on the study setting, editing method, parameters used to assess HR variability, type of study population, and the length of R–R interval time series. The purpose of this paper is to summarize these pre-processing methods for HR variability signal, focusing especially on the editing of the R–R interval time series.
Analysis and Reduction of Radiated EMI of Power Modules

The presented paper introduces a novel type of EMI optimised, balanced power modules with reduced EMI in the frequency range for radiated emissions from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. The comparison of the novel modules to a conventional module layout with same semiconductor chips shows a noise reduction up to 30 dB in the critical frequency region around 30 MHz. For frequencies above 50 MHz the noise reduction is 15 dB to 20 dB. In the frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz the emission is strongly influenced by the module layout in addition to the semiconductor behaviour. Two basic noise sources have to be taken into account. First, stray inductances between DC-Link and power stage create together with semiconductor capacitances differential mode oscillations. Second, the permanent voltage change at the output node drives noise currents through the stray capacitances of the output and of the gates to power ground. The investigations shows that the output capacitances of the module can be minimized by using flip chip technology for the low side IGBT¿s. The gate-stray capacitances can be minimized by layout measures as well. Additionally, an unbalanced layout of the DC-Bus bar promotes the spreading of the noise created by DC-Link oscillations. Therefore a balanced layout is to recommend. The suggested layout measures for power modules are tested by production and measurement of EMI optimised power modules.
Attachment, dissociation and social support

Whilst transient dissociative states are commonplace in the face of overwhelming traumatic events, long¬ standing dissociative phenomena are also frequently reported in adults who have childhood histories of severe sexual or physical abuse. Dissociation itself may take a number of forms, including isolation, absorption, fragmentation and memory disturbance: the relative importance of environmental and personality variables in determining an individual's "style" of dissociation is unclear, although there is good evidence for a cumulative effect, such that dissociation in the face of trauma is most frequent in individuals who have also suffered childhood abuse. Bowlby's attachment theory may help to explain the relationship between social support, dissociative phenomena and traumatic events in childhood and adulthood. Attachment theory is a theory of affect regulation which proposes that individuals make use of social and cognitive strategies in their attempts to manage negative affect. These strategies are thought to be selected on the basis of an individual's childhood experiences with caregivers and are maintained through the operation of relatively stable "internal working models". Social support is widely cited as a protective factor mitigating against the development of psychopathology following exposure to trauma, but it is unclear whether social support directly protects against the effects of trauma, or whether both perceived social support and adaptation to trauma reflect underlying attachment patterns, as suggested by attachment theory. This thesis examines the relationship between attachment pattern and (i) tendency to experience particular dissociative states and (ii) use made of available social support. Two groups were recruited. These were (i) control subjects with no history of treatment for psychological problems, and (ii) out-patient psychology department attendees with a broad range of psychological problems. Measures of attachment, social support, dissociation, exposure to life events and mood were administered. The results are presented and discussed in light of current theories of attachment, social support and dissociation.
Wiener filter design by estimating sensitivities between distributed asynchronous microphones and sound sources

A Wiener filter design method for distributed asynchronous microphones is proposed. The major approach to speech enhancement with a distributed microphone array has been to form directivity after adjusting the sampling rate between asynchronous microphones. However, since the synchronization accuracy varies with the source signal, noise reduction performance is often degraded. To achieve speech enhancement without accurate synchronization adjustment, we applied Wiener filtering to the highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) microphone observation signal. To design a Wiener filter, which is composed of the estimated power spectrum density (PSD) of a target source and other noises, it is necessary to estimate the sensitivities between sound sources and microphones and the number of sound sources without prior information. Under the assumption that source signals are sparse in the time-frequency domain, the sensitivities from a sound source to the microphones are estimated from observed signals. By classifying the estimated sensitivities, the number of sound sources is estimated. Through experiments with asynchronous microphones implemented in smart-phones, we confirmed that the sensitivities between sound sources and microphones were estimated accurately and that the output SNR was improved with the proposed method.
Hierarchical Trust Architecture in a Mobile Ad-Hoc Network Using Ant Algorithms

Trust relationships change frequently in ad-hoc networks, so it is difficult to build certification paths among their nodes. When trust relationships are bidirectional, certification path discovery becomes more difficult because multiple paths can exist between two entities and all the options do not lead to the target entity. On the other hand, certificates can establish relationships of different trust level. In this paper, we propose a protocol that establishes a virtual hierarchy from a peer-to-peer web of trust. This protocol uses swarm intelligence to obtain information about the certification paths and to establish the trustworthiness of each node. Our protocol does not require to issue new certificates among network entities, facilitates the certification path discovery process and the maximum path length can be adapted to the characteristics of users with limited processing and storage capacity.
Digital Predistortion Using a Vector-Switched Model

A switched behavioral model considering memory effects with a special focus on “difficult” amplifier architectures is proposed in this paper. The proposed model is shown to be very low-complex and linearly identifiable. A digital predistorter based on the proposed model is implemented for a 100-W 2.6-GHz Doherty power amplifier that has been considered difficult in other reports, and it is shown that the proposed models can successfully linearize the amplifier, both for a WCDMA signal and a more wideband long-term evolution signal. In particular, the proposed model and the digital predistorter is shown to outperform other state-of-the-art models and digital predistorters in terms of computational complexity for a given desired accuracy.
School Choice: A Mechanism Design Approach

A central issue in school choice is the design of a student assignment mechanism. Education literature provides guidance for the design of such mechanisms but does not offer specific mechanisms. The flaws in the existing school choice plans result in appeals by unsatisfied parents. We formulate the school choice problem as a mechanism design problem and analyze some of the existing school choice plans including those in Boston, Columbus, Minneapolis, and Seattle. We show that these existing plans have serious shortcomings, and offer two alternative mechanisms each of which may provide a practical solution to some critical school choice issues.
A combined dynamics model for active roll stability control of ground vehicles

This paper presents a combined dynamics modeling methodology which can be used to establish a complex 4-DOF (degree of freedom) vehicle dynamics model for active roll stability control of ground vehicles. The methodology is based on setting up three coordinate systems centered on the ground, the vehicle roll center and CG (center of gravity) respectively. The complex vehicle dynamics model including longitudinal, lateral, yaw and roll motions is established by applying this methodology and simplifying a more complicated full vehicle dynamics model of previous work. A simulation is also made for validating this combined dynamics modeling methodology and the established vehicle model.
Tagging Portuguese with a Spanish Tagger

We describe a knowledge and resource light system for an automatic morphological analysis and tagging of Brazilian Portuguese. We avoid the use of labor intensive resources; particularly, large annotated corpora and lexicons. Instead, we use (i) an annotated corpus of Peninsular Spanish, a language related to Portuguese, (ii) an unannotated corpus of Portuguese, (iii) a description of Portuguese morphology on the level of a basic grammar book. We extend the similar work that we have done (Hana et al., 2004; Feldman et al., 2006) by proposing an alternative algorithm for cognate transfer that effectively projects the Spanish emission probabilities into Portuguese. Our experiments use minimal new human effort and show 21% error reduction over even emissions on a fine-grained tagset.