Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Author's Personal Copy Molecular Cloning, Characterization and Expression Analysis of Cathepsin a Gene in Chinese Mitten Crab, Eriocheir Sinensis

In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: a b s t r a c t Cathepsins, a superfamily of hydrolytic enzymes produced and enclosed within lysosomes, function in immune response in vertebrates; however, their function within the innate immune system of invertebrates remains largely unknown. Therefore, we investigated the immune functionality of cathepsin A (catA) in Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis), a commercially important and disease vulnerable aquaculture species. The full length catA cDNA (2200 bp) was cloned via PCR based upon an initial expressed sequence tag (EST) isolated from a hepatopancreatic cDNA library. The catA cDNA contained a 1398 bp open reading frame (ORF) that encoded a putative 465 amino acid (aa) protein. Comparisons with other reported vertebrate cathepsins sequences revealed percent identity range from 48 to 51%. CatA mRNA expression in E. sinensis was (a) tissue-specific, with the highest expression observed in gill and (b) responsive in hemocytes to a Vibrio anguillarum challenge, with peak exposure observed 12 h post-injection. Collectively, data demonstrate the successful isolation of catA from the Chinese mitten crab, and its involvement in the innate immune system of an invertebrate.
A practical attack to AINA2014's countermeasure for cancelable biometric authentication protocols

Cancelable biometrics is known as a template protection approach, and concrete protocols with high accuracy and efficiency have been proposed. Hattori et al. proposed provably-secure cancelable biometric authentication protocols based on somewhat homomorphic encryption (Journal on Information Processing, 2012). In AINA2014, under abnormal but feasible parameter settings, Izu et al. showed a spoofing attack to the protocol and its variants proposed in ISITA2012 and IWSEC2013, and further proposed its countermeasure based on an existing method for e-voting protocols. In this paper, we point out that their countermeasure is broken by simply modifying their spoofing attack. Additionally, we show a further countermeasure directly using the existing method.
Associations Between Excessive Sodium Intake and Smoking and Alcohol Intake Among Korean Men: KNHANES V

In this study, we evaluated the associations of smoking and alcohol intake, both independently and collectively, with sodium intake in Korean men. Subjects (6340 men) were from the fifth Korean National Health Examination Survey (2010–2012). Smoking-related factors included smoking status, urinary cotinine level, and pack-years of smoking. Food intake was assessed using a 24-h recall. The odds of excessive sodium intake were estimated using survey logistic regression analysis. The smoking rate was 44.1%. The geometric mean of the urinary cotinine level was 0.05 µg/mL, and the median (min–max) pack-years of smoking was 13.2 (0–180). When adjusted for related factors, the odds (95% confidence interval) of excessive sodium intake were 1.54 (1.00, 2.37), 1.55 (1.23, 1.94), 1.44 (1.07, 1.95), and 1.37 (1.11, 1.68) times higher in the group exposed to smoking and drinking than in the group that never smoked nor drank, the group that never smoked and drank <5 times per month, the group that did not currently smoke and never drank, and the group that did not currently smoke or drink <5 times per month, respectively. There was an interaction effect between smoking and alcohol intake (p-interaction = 0.02). The results suggest that simultaneous exposure to smoking and alcohol intake is associated with increased odds of excessive sodium intake.
Clustering with Similarity Rough Set Model

Ho et al. proposed a tolerance rough set model (TRSM) for representing documents and successfully applied it to document clustering. In this paper we analyze their algorithm to point out its drawback. We introduce similarity rough set model (SRSM) as another model for presenting documents in document clustering. The model has been evaluated by experiments on test collection.
Why not scale free? Simulating company ego networks on Twitter

This paper simulates Companies' ego networks on Twitter, meaning the companies' number and type of followers. Evident from our data, we show that followers' distribution, in our focus, is neither scale free nor random, thus common network simulations cannot be used to mimic observed data. We present novel rate equations model to capture the complex dynamics of these ego networks.
Parameters estimation using a random linear array and compressed sensing

Existing sensor array signal processing techniques always use linear arrays sampled at Nyquist rate which demands the inter-element spacing is less than or equal to half of the system wavelength. Only in this way can algorithms such as MUSIC, Capon's beamformer estimate the direction-of-arrival (DOA) of the sources unambiguously. However, in some practical use, it seems difficult to satisfy the spatial sampling theorem. Compressed Sensing (CS) is a novel theory which enables perfect recovery of signals and data from what appear highly sub-Nyquist-rate samples on the condition that the signals or data are sparse or compressible in some domain. This implies that for spatially sparse signals, we can design a linear array with sparse property that will enable us to implement DOA estimates or even reconstruct the original signals accurately. In this paper, we proposed a parameters estimation method based on arrays with sub-Nyquist spatio-temporal sampling. We first sample the signals randomly in spatial domain, which means extracting a finite number of elements from a conventional uniform linear array. Then the signal in each channel is sampled by a random demodulator. By performing CS reconstruction algorithms, not only the DOAs can be estimated, but the original sources' waveforms will be recovered accurately.
On the production of open strings from brane anti-brane annihilation

We investigate the leading contribution to open string production in the time dependent background of the Brane Anti-Brane. This is a 1-loop diagram and we use Boundary Conformal Field Theory (BCFT) techniques to study it. We show that the amplitude to a single open string na? vely diverges when one looks at it as an expansion in oscillator levels. Nevertheless, we show that once we sum over all oscillator levels we get a finite result. We also clarify where to perform the inverse Wick rotation in this kind of problems. This calculation could have important consequences for the theory of reheating in brane inflationary models.
Sveriges Riksbank Working Paper Series 273 Identifying Fiscal Inflation* Identifying Fiscal in ‡ation

The Working Paper series presents reports on matters in the sphere of activities of the Riksbank that are considered to be of interest to a wider public. The papers are to be regarded as reports on ongoing studies and the authors will be pleased to receive comments. The views expressed in Working Papers are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not to be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Executive Board of Sveriges Riksbank. Abstract Fiscal theorists warn about the risk of future in ‡ation as a consequence of current …scal imbalances in the US. Because actual in ‡ation remains historically low and data on in ‡ation expectations do not corroborate such risks, warnings for …scal in ‡ation are often ignored in policy and academic circles. This paper shows that a canonical NK-DSGE model enables identifying an anticipated component of in ‡ation expectations that is closely related to …scal policy. Estimation results suggest that …scal in ‡ation concerns have induced a 1.6%-points increase in long-run in ‡ation since 2001. The model also rationalizes why data on in ‡ation expectations do not reveal such concerns outright. Western Ontario for valuable suggestions. The views expressed in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as re ‡ecting the views of the Executive Board of Sveriges
A clustering-based approach for discovering interesting places in trajectories

Because of the large amount of trajectory data produced by mobile devices, there is an increasing need for mechanisms to extract knowledge from this data. Most existing works have focused on the geometric properties of trajectories, but recently emerged the concept of semantic trajectories, in which the background geographic information is integrated to trajectory sample points. In this new concept, trajectories are observed as a set of stops and moves, where stops are the most important parts of the trajectory. Stops and moves have been computed by testing the intersections of trajectories with a set of geographic objects given by the user. In this paper we present an alternative solution with the capability of finding interesting places that are not expected by the user. The proposed solution is a spatio-temporal clustering method, based on speed, to work with single trajectories. We compare the two different approaches with experiments on real data and show that the computation of stops using the concept of speed can be interesting for several applications.
Mosquito natriuretic peptide identified as a calcitonin-like diuretic hormone in Anopheles gambiae (Giles)

SUMMARY Mosquito natriuretic peptide (MNP), an uncharacterised peptide from the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, acts via cyclic AMP to stimulate secretion of Na+-rich urine by opening a Na+ conductance in the basolateral membrane of Malpighian tubule principal cells. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF)-related peptides and calcitonin (CT)-like diuretic peptides use cyclic AMP as a second messenger and were therefore considered likely candidates for MNP. BLAST searches of the genome of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae, gave sequences for the CRF-related peptide Anoga-DH44 and the CT-like peptide Anoga-DH31, which were synthesised and tested for effects on Malpighian tubules from An. gambiae and Ae. aegypti, together with 8-bromo-cyclic AMP. The cyclic AMP analogue stimulated secretion of Na+-rich urine by An. gambiae Malpighian tubules, reproducing the response to MNP in Ae. aegypti. It also depolarised the principal cell basolateral membrane voltage (Vb) while hyperpolarising the transepithelial voltage (Vt) to a similar extent. Anoga-DH44 and Anoga-DH31 stimulated production of cyclic AMP, but not cyclic GMP, by Malpighian tubules of An. gambiae. Both peptides had diuretic activity, but only Anoga-DH31 had natriuretic activity and stimulated fluid secretion to the same extent as 8-bromo-cyclic AMP. Likewise, Anoga-DH31 reproduced the effects of cyclic AMP on tubule electrophysiology, whereas Anoga-DH44 initially hyperpolarised Vb and depolarised Vt, which is the opposite of the effect of Anoga-DH31. Anoga-DH44 and Anoga-DH31 were also tested for effects on fluid secretion and ion transport by Ae. aegypti tubules. As in An. gambiae, the CRF-related peptide Anoga-DH44 had a non-specific effect on the transport of Na+ and K+, whereas the CT-like peptide Anoga-DH31 specifically stimulated transepithelial Na+ transport. We conclude that the CT-like peptide Anoga-DH31 is the previously uncharacterised mosquito natriuretic peptide.
A S TUDY OF NON-LINEAR COMPLEMENTARY FILTER DESIGN FOR KINEMATIC SYSTEMS ON THE SPECIAL ORTHOGONAL GROUP

This report considers the problem of obtaining good attitude estimates from measurements obtained from typical low cost inertial measurement units. The outputs of such systems are characterised by high noise levels and time varying additive biases. We formulate the filtering problem as deterministic observer kinematics posed directly on the special orthogonal group SO(3) driven by reconstructed attitude and angular velocity measurements. Lyapunov stability results for the proposed observers are derived. The approach taken leads to an observer we term the direct complementary filter. By exploiting the geometry of the special orthogonal group a related observer, termed the passive complementary filter, is derived that decouples the gyro measurements from the reconstructed attitude in the observer inputs. Both the direct and passive filters can be extended to estimate gyro bias on-line. The passive filter is further developed to provide a formulation in terms of the measurement error that avoids any algebraic reconstruction of the attitude. This leads to an observer on SO(3), termed the explicit complementary filter, that requires only accelerometer and gyro outputs; is suitable for implementation on embedded hardware; and provides good attitude estimates as well as estimating the gyro biases on-line. The performance of the observers are demonstrated with a set of experiments performed on a robotic test-bed and a radio controlled unmanned aerial vehicle.
Support Vector Machines for Text Categorization Based on Latent Semantic Indexing

Text Categorization(TC) is an important component in many information organization and information management tasks. Two key issues in TC are feature coding and classifier design. In this paper Text Categorization via Support Vector Machines(SVMs) approach based on Latent Semantic Indexing(LSI) is described. Latent Semantic Indexing[1][2] is a method for selecting informative subspaces of feature spaces with the goal of obtaining a compact representation of document. Support Vector Machines[3] are powerful machine learning systems, which combine remarkable performance with an elegant theoretical framework. The SVMs well fits the Text Categorization task due to the special properties of text itself. Experiments show that the LSI+SVMs frame improves clustering performance by focusing attention of Support Vector Machines onto informative subspaces of the feature spaces.
In vitro evaluation of stereoscopic liver surface reconstruction

Introduction Tracking abdominal motion of organs is an important factor in image-guided navigation systems. The paper presents the evaluation methodology of a practical approach to measure liver motion, both respiratory and laparoscopic, with a tool guided in the operating room. Aim Evaluation of the methodology of a practical approach to measure liver motion, both respiratory and laparoscopic, with a tool guided in the operating room. Material and methods The presented evaluation method is based on standard operating room equipment, i.e. laparoscopic cameras. We decided to use two rigid cameras to gain stereo in order to reconstruct characteristic points by triangulation. Our research aim was to survey the impact of three parameters on reconstruction accuracy: the number of calibration points, the imprecision of camera assembly, and the difference in resolution of images. Results Three calibration chessboard configurations were tested. The reconstructed landmark positions and residual mean square errors were presented in three phantom poses: the reference position, translated position and rotated position. Conclusions The presented approach is a development of the previous work. Our research proved the importance of a rigid stereo camera system and the use of high definition image resolution for both stages, namely calibration and reconstruction.
Dissociating Distractor-Filtering at Encoding and During Maintenance

The effectiveness of distractor-filtering is a potentially important determinant of working memory capacity (WMC). However, a distinction between the contributions of distractor-filtering at WM encoding as opposed to filtering during maintenance has not been made and the assumption is that these rely on the same mechanism. Within 2 experiments, 1 conducted in the laboratory with 21 participants, and the other played as a game on smartphones (n = 3,247) we measure WMC without distractors, and present distractors during encoding or during the delay period of a WM task to determine performance associated with distraction at encoding and during maintenance. Despite differences in experimental setting and paradigm design between the 2 studies, we show a unique contribution to WMC from both encoding and delay distractor performance in both experiments, while controlling for performance in the absence of distraction. Thus, within 2 separate experiments, 1 involving an extremely large cohort of 3,247 participants, we show a dissociation between encoding and delay distractor-filtering, indicating that separate mechanisms may contribute to WMC.
Adaptive Cruise Control System: Comparing Gain-Scheduling PI and LQ Controllers

Abstract Over the recent years, a considerable growth in the number of vehicles on the road has been observed. This increases importance of vehicle safety and minimization of fuel consumption, subsequently prompting manufacturers to equip cars, with more advanced features such as adaptive cruise control (ACC)or collision avoidance and collision warning system (CWS). This paper investigates two control applications design namely the gain scheduling proportional-integral (GSPI) control and gain scheduling Linear Quadratic (GSLQ)control for ACC, covering a high range speed. The control system consist of two loops in cascade, with the inner loop controlling the vehicle speed and the outer loop switching between the cruise control (CC) and the ACC mode and calculating the reference speed. A nonlinear dynamic model of the vehicle is constructed and then a set of operating points is determined and then a of linear models is extracted in operating point. For each operating point, PI and LQ controllers are obtained off-line. An integrated Simulink model including the nonlinear dynamic vehicle model and the ACC controller (either PI or LQ) was used to test the controllers in various traffic scenarios. Comparison results between the two controllers applications is provided to show the validity of the design.
Studying robot social cognition within a developmental psychology framework

The paper discusses two prominent theories of cognitive development and relates them to experiments in social robotics. The main difference between these theories lies in the different views on the relationship between a child and its social environment: a) the child as a solitary thinker (Piaget) and b) the child in society (Vygotsky). We discuss the implications this has on the design of socially intelligent agents, focusing on robotic agents. We argue that the framework proposed by Vygotsky provides a promising research direction in autonomous agents. We give examples of implementations in the area of social robotics which support our theoretical considerations. More specifically, we demonstrate how a teacher-learner setup can be used to teach a robot a proto-language. The same control architecture is also used for a humanoid doll robot which can interact with a human by imitation. Another experiment addresses dynamic coupling of movements between a human and a mobile robot. Here, emergent robot-human interaction dynamics are influenced by the temporal coordination between the robot's and the human's movements.
Design and design automation of rectification logic for engineering change

In a later stage of a VLSI design, it is quite often to modify a design implementation to accommodate the new specification, design errors, or to meet design constraints. In addition to meet the design schedule for the new implementation, the reduction of the mask set have become very critical. In this paper, we propose a new method to add a programmable rectification module to reduce the mask cost and to improve the turn around time. When a modification is needed, one can program the rectification module to achieve the new implementation. The rectification module can be designed by one mask programmable gate array, or an embedded FPGA. To reduce the size needed for the rectification module, we also propose algorithms, which can intelligently select some internal signals of the old implementation to become pseudo primary inputs and primary outputs. Our experimental results are very encouraging.
Mixed excitation for HMM-based speech synthesis

This paper describes improvements on the excitation model of an HMM-based text-to-speech system. In our previous work, natural sounding speech can be synthesized from trained HMMs. However, it has a typical quality of “vocoded speech” since the system uses a traditional excitation model with either a periodic impulse train or white noise. In this paper, in order to reduce the synthetic quality, a mixed excitation model used in MELP is incorporated into the system. Excitation parameters used in mixed excitation are modeled by HMMs, and generated from HMMs by a parameter generation algorithm in the synthesis phase. The result of a listening test shows that the mixed excitation model significantly improves quality of synthesized speech as compared with the traditional excitation model.
Cyberbullying detection using probabilistic socio-textual information fusion

Cyberbullying is an important socio-technical challenge in Online Social Networks (OSN). With the growth trends of heterogeneous data in OSN, better network characterization, and textual feature sophistication, recent efforts have realized the value of looking at heterogeneous modes of information including textual features, social features, and image-based features for better cyberbullying detection. These approaches, however, still use these features either individually or combine them `naively' without considering the different confidence levels associated with each feature or the interdependencies between features. We propose a novel probabilistic information fusion framework that utilizes confidence score and interdependencies associated with different social and textual features and uses those to build better predictors for cyberbullying. The performance of the proposed approach was compared to a recent approach in literature which used a similar dataset and features and the proposed approach resulted in significant improvements in terms of cyberbullying detection.