Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Phenotypic Point of View of the Adaptive Radiation of Crested Newts (Triturus cristatus Superspecies, Caudata, Amphibia)

The divergence in phenotype and habitat preference within the crested newt Triturus cristatus superspecies, examined across different ontogenetic stages, provides an excellent setting to explore the pattern of adaptive radiation. The crested newts form a well-supported monophyletic clade for which at least the full mitochondrial DNA phylogeny is resolved. Here we summarise studies that explored the variation in morphological (larval and adult body form, limb skeleton, and skull shape) and other phenotypic traits (early life history, developmental sequences, larval growth rate, and sexual dimorphism) to infer the magnitude and direction of evolutionary changes in crested newts. The phenotypic traits show a high level of concordance in the pattern of variation; there is a cline-like variation, from T. dobrogicus, via T. cristatus, T. carnifex, and T. macedonicus to the T. karelinii group. This pattern matches the cline of ecological preferences; T. dobrogicus is relatively aquatic, followed by T. cristatus. T. macedonicus, T. carnifex, and the T. karelinii group are relatively terrestrial. The observed pattern indicates that phenotypic diversification in crested newts emerged due to an evolutionary switch in ecological preferences. Furthermore, the pattern indicates that heterochronic changes, or changes in the timing and rate of development, underlie the observed phenotypic evolutionary diversification.
Constructing a Geodynamic A Priori Seismic (GAPS) velocity model of upper mantle heterogeneity

Seismic studies of the deep mantle suffer from the fact that the probing seismic waves must traverse the highly heterogeneous and poorly resolved shallow structure. One potential way forward is to develop high‐resolution models of the crust and upper mantle using other information. Here we describe the construction of a geodynamic a priori model of some aspects of upper mantle seismic velocity heterogeneity. It is based on an equal area tomographic grid and it has been produced at two scales, a 1° × 1° resolution at the equator, (i.e., each cell has an approximate dimension of 100 km by 100 km), and a 5° × 5° resolution at the equator. Both have a constant layer thickness of 100 km. Currently, the model accommodates the subducting lithosphere and global variation in continental crustal thickness and age of oceanic lithosphere. The shape of subducting oceanic lithosphere was derived from profiles through seismicity. The shape was combined with estimates of plate velocities and age of subducting lithosphere using an analytic solution of the thermal field to define the slab thermal anomaly. The temperature perturbation was converted to a slowness (1/velocity) perturbation. For oceanic lithosphere, a plate‐cooling model was used to convert lithosphere age to slowness perturbation via a temperature perturbation. The variation in the thickness of continental crust, around a global average, formed the third element of the slowness perturbation model. This model has already been applied in a high‐resolution mantle tomographic study of lower mantle heterogeneity.
Coalition Formation Games for Collaborative Spectrum Sensing

Collaborative spectrum sensing (CSS) between secondary users (SUs) in cognitive networks exhibits an inherent tradeoff between minimizing the probability of missing the detection of the primary user (PU) and maintaining a reasonable false alarm probability (e.g., for maintaining good spectrum utilization). In this paper, we study the impact of this tradeoff on the network structure and the cooperative incentives of the SUs that seek to cooperate to improve their detection performance. We model the CSS problem as a nontransferable coalitional game, and we propose distributed algorithms for coalition formation (CF). First, we construct a distributed CF algorithm that allows the SUs to self-organize into disjoint coalitions while accounting for the CSS tradeoff. Then, the CF algorithm is complemented with a coalitional voting game to enable distributed CF with detection probability (CF-PD) guarantees when required by the PU. The CF-PD algorithm allows the SUs to form minimal winning coalitions (MWCs), i.e., coalitions that achieve the target detection probability with minimal costs. For both algorithms, we study and prove various properties pertaining to network structure, adaptation to mobility, and stability. Simulation results show that CF reduces the average probability of miss per SU up to 88.45%, relative to the noncooperative case, while maintaining a desired false alarm. For CF-PD, the results show that up to 87.25% of the SUs achieve the required detection probability through MWCs.
An Unsupervised Approach for Identifying the Infobox Template of Wikipedia Article

Wikipedia infoboxes serve as important structured information source in the web. To author infobox for a particular article, volunteers required a considerable amount of manual effort to identify the respective infobox template. Thus, an automatic process to mark infobox template might be useful and beneficial for the Wikipedia contributors. In this paper, we present a Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based automated approach to identify the infobox template in an unsupervised fashion. The proposed approach has been developed by using semantic relations (hyponym and holonym) and word features of Wikipedia articles. Our approach works in three steps: first it processes the raw text of the article to generate sets of words, next it apply the proposed algorithm to identify the infobox type and finally point out the infobox template from the large pool of template list. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been proved in terms of autonomous and accuracy, by a data-driven experiment.
Balanced Energy Consumption Adaptive Sensing Algorithm for Multi-layer Wireless Sensor Network

In practical application, energy resource of node is extremely limited in Wireless Sensor Network. To solve the problem of hardware capacity limited and global network energy unbalance, we divide the large-scale network into equivalent layers and propose a Balanced Energy Consumption Adaptive Sensing Algorithm based on multi-hop transmission. Involving Compressive Sensing Theory, the novel algorithm obviously has great advantages in reducing energy consumption during transmission, prolonging network life-time and eliminating information redundancy, which could realize load balance for Multi-layer Wireless Sensor Network and will get more important role in guiding the application for large-scale Wireless Networks. It can really achieve the network self-adapting organization, and has significantly performance for real networks.
Robust stabilization of flat and chained systems

A design method for robust stabilization of at systems , feedback equivalent to chained ones, is proposed. The method is based on iterations of well chosen open-loop steering controls. Robustness is characterized by exponential convergence to the equilibrium for any driftless systems close to the original one. The case of chained systems of dimension 4 is treated in details. Simulation of a car-like robot are given.
Storytelling and Story Reading: A Catalyst for Inculcate Moral Values and Ethics among Preschoolers

Value needs to be inculcate since young age to form a human personality which rooted in moral and ethics. Teachers have to deal with a variety of teaching methods and pedagogy that emphasizes the concept of 'student-edutainment' in the process of teaching and learning. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the use of storytelling and story reading to inculcate moral values and ethics among preschool children. Data collected qualitatively using focus group interviews, observations, document analysis (children's creative painting) and video recording. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis using NVivo software version 10.0. The result shows, storytelling and story reading methods capable of fostering moral values such as helping, loving and well behaved. In addition, aspects such as regulation of the code of ethics, social ethics, human relations, well-mannered and courteous are the practice of pre-school children. The results of this study can build a reference database for the kindergarten teachers, Development Research Centre of the National Child (CDRC), parents and the community.
A multilayer personality model

Virtual humans have been the focus of computer graphics research for several years now. The amalgamation of computer graphics and artificial intelligence has lead to the possibility of creating believable virtual personalities. The focus has shifted from modeling and animation towards imparting personalities to virtual humans. The aim is to create virtual humans that can interact spontaneously using a natural language, emotions and gestures. This paper discusses a system that allows the design of personality for emotional virtual human. We adopt the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality from psychology studies. To realize the model, we use Bayesian Belief Network. We introduce a layered approach for modeling personality, moods and emotions. In order to demonstrate a virtual human with emotional personality, we integrate the system into a chat application. Thus, the system enables the developer to design and implement personalities and enables the user to interact with them.
Observational constraints on the afterglow of GRB 020531

We present the data acquired by the TAROT automated observatory on the afterglow of GRB 020531. Up to now, no convincing afterglow emission has been reported for this short/hard GRB at any wavelength, including X-ray and optical. The combination of our early limits, with other published data allows us to put severe constraints on the afterglow magnitude and light curve. The limiting magnitude is 18.5 in R band, 88 min after the GRB, and the decay slope power law index could be larger than 2.2.
XML document retrieval by developing an effective indexing technique

A Semistructured data can be represented in a tree structure which is an efficient tool for describing different kinds of data. This paper furnishes the method of full text data searches that can be integrated with XML database and the performance can be improved by implementing structured and text index based technique. The searching keyword of structure index should be a node identifier whereas the searching keyword of text index should be a content fragment of an XML document. The experimental results exhibit the improved performance of document retrieval.
Trisensory backward digit span in middlehood

The present study was designed to investigate whether trisensory (auditory, vision and touch) presentation of backward digit span (BDS) tasks could enhance the BDS and this measurement varied in terms of increasing ages. To this end, 20 subjects with ages ranging from 47 to 53 were presented three lists of numbers containing 10 numbers each with vision, auditory and touch and instructed to recall the numbers in reverse order as these ones were presented. An assessment of the BDS tasks found 3.35 as the mean of BDS that was accepted as normal in line with the Osterweil, Mulford, Syndulko and Martin’s studies (1994) but less that of Hester, Kinsella and Ong”s studies (2004) suggesting no further enhancement in BDS. These findings were discussed in terms of age, education and physiological basis of human beings.
Conditional Ablation of Ezh2 in Murine Hearts Reveals Its Essential Roles in Endocardial Cushion Formation, Cardiomyocyte Proliferation and Survival

Ezh2 is a histone trimethyltransferase that silences genes mainly via catalyzing trimethylation of histone 3 lysine 27 (H3K27Me3). The role of Ezh2 as a regulator of gene silencing and cell proliferation in cancer development has been extensively investigated; however, its function in heart development during embryonic cardiogenesis has not been well studied. In the present study, we used a genetically modified mouse system in which Ezh2 was specifically ablated in the mouse heart. We identified a wide spectrum of cardiovascular malformations in the Ezh2 mutant mice, which collectively led to perinatal death. In the Ezh2 mutant heart, the endocardial cushions (ECs) were hypoplastic and the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process was impaired. The hearts of Ezh2 mutant mice also exhibited decreased cardiomyocyte proliferation and increased apoptosis. We further identified that the Hey2 gene, which is important for cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac morphogenesis, is a downstream target of Ezh2. The regulation of Hey2 expression by Ezh2 may be independent of Notch signaling activity. Our work defines an indispensible role of the chromatin remodeling factor Ezh2 in normal cardiovascular development.
Empowering Families of Adolescents and Adults with Developmental Disabilities

Social work interventions with persons with developmental disabilities and their families often take a pathological approach by labeling children and parents. Although families with a child or young adult with a develop' mental disability experience, many stresses, they also experience joys and bring their own strengths and skills to the caregiving situation. The authors review the stresses of caregiving and the strengths of families and present a case study that highlights a model for social work services that addresses these issues.
Gene Transfer Using Micellar Nanovectors Inhibits Choroidal Neovascularization In Vivo

Purpose Age-related macular degeneration caused by choroidal neovascularization (CNV) remains difficult to be treated despite the recent advent of several treatment options. In this study, we investigated the in vivo angiogenic control by intravenous injection of polyion complex (PIC) micelle encapsulating plasmid DNA (pDNA) using a mice CNV model. Methods The transfection efficiency of the PIC micelle was investigated using the laser-induced CNV in eight-week-old male C57 BJ/6 mice. Firstly, each mouse received intravenous injection of micelle encapsulating pDNA of Yellow Fluorescent Protein (pYFP) on days 1,3 and 5. The expression of YFP was analyzed using fluorescein microscopy and western blotting analysis. In the next experiments, each mouse received intravenous injection of micelle encapsulating pDNA of soluble Fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (psFlt-1) 1,3 and 5 days after the induction of CNV and the CNV lesion was analyzed by choroidal flatmounts on day 7. Results Fluorescein microscopy and western blotting analysis revealed that the expression of YFP was confirmed in the CNV area after injection of the PIC micelle, but the expression was not detected neither in mice that received naked pDNA nor those without CNV. Furthermore, the CNV area in the mice that received intravenous injection of the psFlt-1-encapsulated PIC micelle was significantly reduced by 65% compared to that in control mice (p<0.01). Conclusions Transfection of sFlt-1 with the PIC micelle by intravenous injection to mice CNV models showed significant inhibition of CNV. The current results revealed the significant potential of nonviral gene therapy for regulation of CNV using the PIC micelle encapsulating pDNA.
Inspection of rail surface defect based on machine vision system

An inspection system based machine vision technique for rail surface defects is presented. Automatic detection of noised cracks on surface is analyzed by means of image processing. Image enhancement, denoising and feature extraction are applied in processing the images of track. The region of defect is extracted on the adaptive threshold. Based on morphology of cracks, dynamic template is designed to detect continuous crack boundary, and then length of cracks can be estimated.
Real time evaluation of soft microphones on a local active noise control system

Systems for the active control of acoustic noise (ANC) rely on measurements of the noise signal in order to produce the required “quiet zone. ” Soft microphones (SM) are a virtual microphone alternative already proposed by the authors, employing estimates rather than measurements of the noise signal obtained from room impulse responses based on measurements. Therefore, a single microphone can be used to estimate the noise signal at multiple points. This has already been successfully applied on single microphone noise mapping. In the present work, the SM method is evaluated on a real time local ANC system. The proposed scheme is a filtered‐s least mean square (FXLMS) based control structure, incorporating SM. Following the proposed system design‐simulation with Matlab‐Simulink, a three‐dimensional enclosure (office‐simulating) and a real electroacoustic ANC system based on a TI® TMS320C6713 DSP, developed for this purpose, were built in the laboratory to carry out the experiments. Different options of estim.
Hecke algebras , reflection equation and boundary symmetries

Solutions of the reflection equation for the Uq(ŝln) case are obtained by implementing certain realisations of the affine Hecke algebra. The boundary non–local charges associated to nondiagonal solutions of the reflection equation are constructed systematically, and the symmetry of the corresponding open spin chain is investigated. We prove that the symmetry of the open spin chain is essentially a remnant of the Uq(gln) algebra. LAPTH-1066/04 September 2004 e-mail: doikou@lapp.in2p3. fr
Generalized proportional conflict redistribution rule applied to Sonar imagery and Radar targets classification

AbstractIn this chapter, we present two applications in information fusion inorder to evaluate the generalized proportional conﬂict redistribution rulepresented in the chapter [5]. Most of the time the combination rules areevaluated only on simple examples. We study here diﬀerent combinationrules and compare them in terms of decision on real data. Indeed, in realapplications, we need a reliable decision and it is the ﬁnal results thatmatter. Two applications are presented here: a fusion of human expertsopinions on the kind of underwater sediments depict on sonar image anda classiﬁer fusion for radar targets recognition.Keywords: Experts fusion, classiﬁcation, DST, DSmT, generalizedPCR, Sonar, Radar. 1 Introduction We have presented and discussed on some combination rules in the chapter [5]. Our study was essentially on the redistribution of conﬂict rules. We have pro-posed a new proportional conﬂict redistribution rule. We have seen that thedecision can be diﬀerent following the rule. Most of the time the combinationrules are evaluated only on simple examples. In this chapter, we study diﬀerentcombination rules and compare them in terms of decision on real data. In-deed, in real applications, we need a reliable decision and it is the ﬁnal resultsthat matter. Hence, for a given application, the best combination rule is therule given the best results. For the decision step, diﬀerent functions such ascredibility, plausibility and pignistic probability [9, 13, 2] are usually used.In this chapter, we present the advantages of the DSmT for the modelizationof real applications and also for the combination step. First, the principles of theDST and DSmT are recalled. We present the formalization of the belief functionmodels, diﬀerent rules of combination and decision. One the combination rule(PCR5) proposed by [12] for two experts is mathematically one of the best forthe proportional redistribution of the conﬂict applicable in the context of theDST and the DSmT. We compare here an extension of this rule for more experts,the PCR6 rule presented in the chapter [5]. Two applications are presented here: a fusion of human experts opinions onthe kind of underwater sediments depict on sonar image and a classiﬁer fusionfor radar targets recognition.1
Novel Genetic Loci Identified for the Pathophysiology of Childhood Obesity in the Hispanic Population

Genetic variants responsible for susceptibility to obesity and its comorbidities among Hispanic children have not been identified. The VIVA LA FAMILIA Study was designed to genetically map childhood obesity and associated biological processes in the Hispanic population. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) entailed genotyping 1.1 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using the Illumina Infinium technology in 815 children. Measured genotype analysis was performed between genetic markers and obesity-related traits i.e., anthropometry, body composition, growth, metabolites, hormones, inflammation, diet, energy expenditure, substrate utilization and physical activity. Identified genome-wide significant loci: 1) corroborated genes implicated in other studies (MTNR1B, ZNF259/APOA5, XPA/FOXE1 (TTF-2), DARC, CCR3, ABO); 2) localized novel genes in plausible biological pathways (PCSK2, ARHGAP11A, CHRNA3); and 3) revealed novel genes with unknown function in obesity pathogenesis (MATK, COL4A1). Salient findings include a nonsynonymous SNP (rs1056513) in INADL (p = 1.2E-07) for weight; an intronic variant in MTNR1B associated with fasting glucose (p = 3.7E-08); variants in the APOA5-ZNF259 region associated with triglycerides (p = 2.5-4.8E-08); an intronic variant in PCSK2 associated with total antioxidants (p = 7.6E-08); a block of 23 SNPs in XPA/FOXE1 (TTF-2) associated with serum TSH (p = 5.5E-08 to 1.0E-09); a nonsynonymous SNP (p = 1.3E-21), an intronic SNP (p = 3.6E-13) in DARC identified for MCP-1; an intronic variant in ARHGAP11A associated with sleep duration (p = 5.0E-08); and, after adjusting for body weight, variants in MATK for total energy expenditure (p = 2.7E-08) and in CHRNA3 for sleeping energy expenditure (p = 6.0E-08). Unprecedented phenotyping and high-density SNP genotyping enabled localization of novel genetic loci associated with the pathophysiology of childhood obesity.
All About Audio Equalization: Solutions and Frontiers

Audio equalization is a vast and active research area. The extent of research means that one often cannot identify the preferred technique for a particular problem. This review paper bridges those gaps, systemically providing a deep understanding of the problems and approaches in audio equalization, their relative merits and applications. Digital signal processing techniques for modifying the spectral balance in audio signals and applications of these techniques are reviewed, ranging from classic equalizers to emerging designs based on new advances in signal processing and machine learning. Emphasis is placed on putting the range of approaches within a common mathematical and conceptual framework. The application areas discussed herein are diverse, and include well-defined, solvable problems of filter design subject to constraints, as well as newly emerging challenges that touch on problems in semantics, perception and human computer interaction. Case studies are given in order to illustrate key concepts and how they are applied in practice. We also recommend preferred signal processing approaches for important audio equalization problems. Finally, we discuss current challenges and the uncharted frontiers in this field. The source code for methods discussed in this paper is made available at https://code.soundsoftware. ac.uk/projects/allaboutaudioeq.