Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling and coding of spot microphone signals for immersive audio based on the sinusoidal model

In this paper, the Sinusoids plus Noise Model (briefly SNM) is applied in a novel manner, in order to efficiently encode spot audio signals. These are the microphone recordings of a performance, before obtaining the multichannel mix, and are important for immersive audio applications since they can be used to provide interactivity. The SNM, as well as the SNM error spectral envelope, are extracted from each spot signal, providing a low-quality version of the signals. The main contribution of the paper corresponds to the use of a single audio reference signal which significantly enhances the quality of all the modeled spot signals. Reproduction of good quality and without loss of image width can be achieved using the proposed approach (above 4.0 perceptual grade for modeling and coding), by encoding a single audio (reference) signal, with side information per spot signal on the order of 19 kbps.
Thermo-Responsive Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide)-Cellulose Nanocrystals Hybrid Hydrogels for Wound Dressing

Thermo-responsive hydrogels containing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm), reinforced both with covalent and non-covalent interactions with cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), were synthesized via free-radical polymerization in the absence of any additional cross-linkers. The properties of PNIPAAm-CNC hybrid hydrogels were dependent on the amounts of incorporated CNC. The thermal stability of the hydrogels decreased with increasing CNC content. The rheological measurement indicated that the elastic and viscous moduli of hydrogels increased with the higher amounts of CNC addition, representing stronger mechanical properties of the hydrogels. Moreover, the hydrogel injection also supported the hypothesis that CNC reinforced the hydrogels; the increased CNC content exhibited higher structural integrity upon injection. The PNIPAAm-CNC hybrid hydrogels exhibited clear thermo-responsive behavior; the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) was in the range of 36 to 39 °C, which is close to normal human body temperature. For wound dressing purposes, metronidazole, an antibiotic and antiprotozoal often used for skin infections, was used as a target drug to study drug-loading and the release properties of the hydrogels. The hydrogels showed a good drug-loading capacity at room temperature and a burst drug release, which was followed by slow and sustained release at 37 °C. These results suggested that newly developed drugs containing injectable hydrogels are promising materials for wound dressing.
Lifestyle Intervention in Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer Receiving Androgen Suppression Therapy: A Feasibility Study

Background: Healthy lifestyle behaviors could have a role in ameliorating some of the adverse effects of androgen suppression therapy (AST) in men with prostate cancer. The primary aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a tapered supervised exercise program in combination with dietary advice in men with advanced prostate cancer receiving AST. Methods: Advanced prostate cancer patients receiving AST for a minimum of 6 months were randomized to a 12-week lifestyle program comprising aerobic and resistance exercise, plus dietary advice (n = 25), or standard care (n = 25). Exercise behavior, dietary macronutrient intake, quality of life, fatigue, functional fitness, and biomarkers associated with disease progression were assessed at baseline, after the intervention, and at 6 months. Results: The lifestyle group showed improvements in exercise behavior (P < 0.001), dietary fat intake (P = 0.001), total energy intake (P = 0.005), fatigue (P = 0.002), aerobic exercise tolerance (P < 0.001), and muscle strength (P = 0.033) compared with standard care controls. Although a high rate of attrition (44%) was observed at 6 months, the improvements in key health outcomes were sustained. No effects on clinical prostate cancer disease markers were observed. Conclusions: This preliminary evidence suggests that pragmatic lifestyle interventions have potential to evoke improvements in exercise and dietary behavior, in addition to other important health outcomes in men with advanced prostate cancer receiving AST. Impact: This study shows for the first time that pragmatic lifestyle interventions are feasible and could have a positive impact on health behaviors and other key outcomes in men with advanced prostate cancer receiving AST. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(4); 647–57. ©2011 AACR.
An Operational Framework for Specifying Memory Models using Instantaneous Instruction Execution

There has been great progress recently in formally specifying the memory model of microprocessors like ARM and POWER. These specifications are, however, too complicated for reasoning about program behaviors, verifying compilers etc., because they involve microarchitectural details like the reorder buffer (ROB), partial and speculative execution, instruction replay on speculation failure, etc. In this paper we present a new Instantaneous Instruction Execution (I2E) framework which allows us to specify weak memory models in the same style as SC and TSO. Each instruction in I2E is executed instantaneously and in-order such that the state of the processor is always correct. The effect of instruction reordering is captured by the way data is moved between the processors and the memory non-deterministically, using three conceptual devices: invalidation buffers, timestamps and dynamic store buffers. We prove that I2E models capture the behaviors of modern microarchitectures and cache-coherent memory systems accurately, thus eliminating the need to think about microarchitectural details.
SPANNER: taxonomic assignment of sequences using pyramid matching of similarity profiles

Background: Homology-based taxonomic assignment is impeded by differences between the unassigned read and reference database, forcing a rank-specific classification to the closest (and possibly incorrect) reference lineage. This assignment may be correct only to a general rank (e.g. order) and incorrect below that rank (e.g. family and genus). Algorithms like LCA avoid this by varying the predicted taxonomic rank based on matches to a set of taxonomic references. LCA and related approaches can be conservative, especially if best matches are taxonomically widespread because of events such as lateral gene transfer (LGT). Results: Our extension to LCA called SPANNER (similarity profile annotater) uses the set of best homology matches (the LCA Profile) for a given sequence and compares this profile with a set of profiles inferred from taxonomic reference organisms. SPANNER provides an assignment that is less sensitive to LGT and other confounding phenomena. In a series of trials on real and artificial datasets, SPANNER outperformed LCA-style algorithms in terms of taxonomic precision and outperformed best BLAST at certain levels of taxonomic novelty in the dataset. We identify examples where LCA made an overly conservative prediction, but SPANNER produced a more precise and correct prediction. Conclusions: By using profiles of homology matches to represent patterns of genomic similarity that arise because of vertical and lateral inheritance, SPANNER offers an effective compromise between taxonomic assignment based on best BLAST scores, and the conservative approach of LCA and similar approaches. Availability: C++ source code and binaries are freely available at http://kiwi.cs.dal.ca/Software/SPANNER. Contact: beiko@cs.dal.ca Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Low-Complexity Predictive Coding of Color Video Using Optimum Switched Two-Level Quantizers

Two-Level Quantizers Frank Hartung and Bernd Girod Telecommunications Institute University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Cauerstrasse 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany fhartung, girodg@nt.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de ABSTRACT Di erential pulse code modulation (DPCM) and its signal-adaptive derivative, the adaptive di erential pulse code modulation (ADPCM), are well-known schemes for coding of images and video [1, 2]. We present a novel low-complexity scheme for adaptive di erential pulse code modulation of color video using a set of two-level quantizers which are switched adaptively on a block-by-block basis. The quantizers are designed by statistical optimization with a new design criterion that borrows from DPCM, block truncation coding (BTC) and vector quantization (VQ). Coding results show that our scheme has a better performance than other lowcomplexity schemes. At 2 bit/pixel, it performs more than 2.0 dB better in peak signal-to-noise ratio than DPCM and up to 3.5 dB better than BTC. Possible applications include VLSI implementations and real-time compression for video transmission over local area networks. 1. ADAPTIVE DIFFERENTIAL PULSE CODE MODULATION (ADPCM) The principle of DPCM (Di erential Pulse Code Modulation) of images is that pixels to be coded are predicted from previously coded neighbouring pixels, and only the quantized prediction error is transmitted for each pixel. Coder and decoder use the same reconstructed pixel amplitudes for prediction and are thus conform to each other. Usually predictor and quantizer are xed. Adaptive DPCM has the additional feature of several predictors and/or several quantizers that can be chosen adaptively. If the choice of the predictor and/or quantizer is based on previously transmitted pixels, no side information has to be signaled. If the choice of the predictor and/or quantizer is based on future pixels to be coded and transmitted, side information has to be transmitted in order to notify the decoder which predictor/quantizer to use. 2. ADPCM WITH SWITCHED TWO-LEVEL QUANTIZERS We employ an ADPCM scheme with adaptive one-bit (i.e., two-level) quantizers for the prediction error. The choice of a quantizer is based on pixels to be coded, thus side information has to be transmitted (Figure 1). Each pixel to be coded is predicted from already trans-
Calibration of the Dutch‐Flemish PROMIS Pain Behavior item bank in patients with chronic pain

The aims of the current study were to calibrate the item parameters of the Dutch‐Flemish PROMIS Pain Behavior item bank using a sample of Dutch patients with chronic pain and to evaluate cross‐cultural validity between the Dutch‐Flemish and the US PROMIS Pain Behavior item banks. Furthermore, reliability and construct validity of the Dutch‐Flemish PROMIS Pain Behavior item bank were evaluated.
Passive mid-stream monitoring of real-time properties

Passive monitoring or testing of complex systems and networks running in the field can provide valuable insights into their behavior in actual environments of use. In certain contexts, such as network management and intrusion detection for security, passive monitoring is the most applicable methodology for assuring correctness of the system's behavior. More generally, it can serve to complement and extend functional testing and fault detection efforts that take place during the software/product development lifecycle. Two distinguishing aspects of passive monitoring are that: (a) the fault detection process cannot influence the execution of the system by providing particular inputs to the system, and (b) observations are obtained mid-stream, from an unknown state in the middle of the execution of the system. In this paper, we present results on passively testing for real-time behavioral properties that can be applied to a large class of systems including those that can be modeled as timed automata. Our results provide a natural extension of the passive testing study conducted in [17] for untimed properties. We have implemented our approach using the real-time model checker UPPAAL, and we report on its application to passively test fault tolerance software in a telecommunications switch developed at Lucent Technologies.
Contrast Echocardiography in Coronary Artery Disease

Conventional echocardiography is widely used and well documented in evaluation of patients with stable and unstable coronary artery disease (Mollema et al., 2009). In particular, assessment of left ventricular function, volumes and ejection fraction adds important prognostic information in individual patients. In addition, echocardiography may detect any concomitant valvular heart disease as well as acute complications in unstable coronary syndromes. Stress echocardiography has through several studies established its role in diagnosis of stable coronary artery disease and assessment of myocardial viability (Sicari et al., 2008). However, introduction of ultrasound contrast agents and contrast specific imaging modalities have significantly improved the usefulness of echocardiography in diagnosis and assessment of coronary artery disease (Dijkmans et al., 2006). Indications for use of ultrasound contrast are implemented in guidelines for assessment of left ventricular function at rest and during stress echocardiography (Senior et al., 2009; Mulvagh et al., 2008). Ultrasound contrast is recommended for assessing left ventricular ejection fraction at rest when image quality is suboptimal and for stress echocardiography when the endocardial boarder is not visualized in 2 or more left ventricular segments (Senior et al., 2009; Mulvagh et al., 2008). In contrast echocardiography regional myocardial function and perfusion may be assessed simultaneously, thereby optimizing the non-invasive diagnostics of coronary artery disease. The incremental value of assessing myocardial perfusion in diagnosing coronary artery disease is emphasised by the ischemic cascade (Fig. 1), demonstrating that hypoperfusion precedes functional impairment, ECG changes, symptoms and myocardial necrosis as depicted in Fig.1. (Crossman, 2004; Leong-Poi et al., 2002). Diagnosing distribution and extent of myocardial ischemia by contrast echocardiography can give information on the total ischemic burden and has become a supplemental tool in evaluation of the physiological impact of an angiographic coronary artery stenosis. Consequently, myocardial perfusion assessment by contrast echocardiography may also be used for risk prediction in patients with known coronary artery disease and in prioritizing the need for urgent revascularization among patients with acute coronary syndromes (Jeetley et al., 2007; Rinkevich et al., 2005; Lonnebakken et al., 2011). It has the potential to become a future tool to tailor and evaluate the effect of treatment on myocardial perfusion in patients with different clinical syndromes of coronary artery disease. Furthermore,
A genetic path planning algorithm for redundant articulated robots

In some daily tasks, such as pick and place, the robot is requested to reach with its hand tip a desired target location while it is operating in its environment. Such tasks become more complex in environments cluttered with obstacles, since the constraint for collision-free movement must be also taken into account. This paper presents a new technique based on genetic algorithms (GAs) to solve the path planning problem of articulated redundant robot manipulators. The efficiency of the proposed GA is demonstrated through multiple experiments carried out on several robots with redundant degrees-of-freedom. Finally, the computational complexity of the proposed solution is estimated, in the worst case.
USE OF VIDEOGAMES AND COMPUTER GAMES: INFLUENCES ON ATTENTION, MEMORY, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND PROBLEMS BEHAVIOR

El presente estudio se diseno con el proposito de identificar la relacion existente entre el consumo de videojuegos y juegos por ordenador, con la memoria, la atencion, el rendimiento academico y problemas de conducta en ninos escolarizados de Bogota. La memoria y la atencion se evaluaron mediante un conjunto de diferentes escalas de la Bateria ENI (Matute, Rosselli, Ardila, & OstroskySolis, 2007), el rendimiento academico con boletines escolares y los problemas de conducta a traves del cuestionario CBCL / 6-18 (Child Behavior Checklist) de (Achenbach y Edelbrock, 1983). Participaron 123 ninos y 99 padres de familia en 2 estudios experimentales con diseno factorial. Con los resultados no fue posible confirmar las hipotesis respecto a un cambio significativo en las pruebas de memoria, atencion visual selectiva y atencion auditiva a nivel intrasujeto, sin embargo a partir de estas variables se identificaron diferencias estadisticamente significativas entre los ninos(as) por influencia del factor consumo habitual a videojuegos. No se encontraron diferencias entre el nivel de consumo habitual de los ninos(as) y las variables de rendimiento academico y la lista de problemas de conducta. Palabras clave: Exposicion, Videojuegos, Juegos por ordenador, Problemas de conducta, Ninos, Memoria, Rendimiento academico, Efectos medios.
Isolation and Characterization of Metalloproteases with a Novel Domain Structure by Construction and Screening of Metagenomic Libraries

ABSTRACT Small-insert metagenomic libraries from four samples were constructed by a topoisomerase-based and a T4 DNA ligase-based approach. Direct comparison of both approaches revealed that application of the topoisomerase-based method resulted in a higher number of insert-containing clones per μg of environmental DNA used for cloning and a larger average insert size. Subsequently, the constructed libraries were partially screened for the presence of genes conferring proteolytic activity. The function-driven screen was based on the ability of the library-containing Escherichia coli clones to form halos on skim milk-containing agar plates. The screening of 80,000 E. coli clones yielded four positive clones. Two of the plasmids (pTW2 and pTW3) recovered from positive clones conferred strong proteolytic activity and were studied further. Analysis of the entire insert sequences of pTW2 (28,113 bp) and pTW3 (19,956 bp) suggested that the DNA fragments were derived from members of the genus Xanthomonas. Each of the plasmids harbored one gene (2,589 bp) encoding a metalloprotease (mprA, pTW2; mprB, pTW3). Sequence and biochemical analyses revealed that MprA and MprB are similar extracellular proteases belonging to the M4 family of metallopeptidases (thermolysin-like family). Both enzymes possessed a unique modular structure and consisted of four regions: the signal sequence, the N-terminal proregion, the protease region, and the C-terminal extension. The architecture of the latter region, which was characterized by the presence of two prepeptidase C-terminal domains and one proprotein convertase P domain, is novel for bacterial metalloproteases. Studies with derivatives of MprA and MprB revealed that the C-terminal extension is not essential for protease activity. The optimum pH and temperature of both proteases were 8.0 and 65°C, respectively, when casein was used as substrate.
Speaker and Session Variability in GMM-Based Speaker Verification

We present a corpus-based approach to speaker verification in which maximum-likelihood II criteria are used to train a large-scale generative model of speaker and session variability which we call joint factor analysis. Enrolling a target speaker consists in calculating the posterior distribution of the hidden variables in the factor analysis model and verification tests are conducted using a new type of likelihood II ratio statistic. Using the NIST 1999 and 2000 speaker recognition evaluation data sets, we show that the effectiveness of this approach depends on the availability of a training corpus which is well matched with the evaluation set used for testing. Experiments on the NIST 1999 evaluation set using a mismatched corpus to train factor analysis models did not result in any improvement over standard methods, but we found that, even with this type of mismatch, feature warping performs extremely well in conjunction with the factor analysis model, and this enabled us to obtain very good results (equal error rates of about 6.2%)
Persistent Aerial Tracking system for UAVs

In this paper, we propose a persistent, robust and autonomous object tracking system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) called Persistent Aerial Tracking (PAT). A computer vision and control strategy is applied to a diverse set of moving objects (e.g. humans, animals, cars, boats, etc.) integrating multiple UAVs with a stabilized RGB camera. A novel strategy is employed to successfully track objects over a long period, by `handing over the camera' from one UAV to another. We evaluate several state-of-the-art trackers on the VIVID aerial video dataset and additional sequences that are specifically tailored to low altitude UAV target tracking. Based on the evaluation, we select the leading tracker and improve upon it by optimizing for both speed and performance, integrate the complete system into an off-the-shelf UAV, and obtain promising results showing the robustness of our solution in real-world aerial scenarios.
Free Brick1 Is a Trimeric Precursor in the Assembly of a Functional Wave Complex

Background The Wave complex activates the Arp2/3 complex, inducing actin polymerization in lamellipodia and membrane ruffles. The Wave complex is composed of five subunits, the smallest of which, Brick1/Hspc300 (Brk1), is the least characterized. We previously reported that, unlike the other subunits, Brk1 also exists as a free form. Principal Findings Here we report that this free form of Brk1 is composed of homotrimers. Using a novel assay in which purified free Brk1 is electroporated into HeLa cells, we were able to follow its biochemical fate in cells and to show that free Brk1 becomes incorporated into the Wave complex. Importantly, incorporation of free Brk1 into the Wave complex was blocked upon inhibition of protein synthesis and incorporated Brk1 was found to associate preferentially with neosynthesized subunits. Brk1 depleted HeLa cells were found to bleb, as were Nap1, Wave2 or ARPC2 depleted cells, suggesting that this blebbing phenotype of Brk1 depleted cells is due to an impairment of the Wave complex function rather than a specific function of free Brk1. Blebs of Brk1 depleted cells were emitted at sites where lamellipodia and membrane ruffles were normally emitted. In Brk1 depleted cells, the electroporation of free Brk1 was sufficient to restore Wave complex assembly and to rescue the blebbing phenotype. Conclusion Together these results establish that the free form of Brk1 is an essential precursor in the assembly of a functional Wave complex.
Early Phishing

The history of phishing traces back in important ways to the mid-1990s when hacking software facilitated the mass targeting of people in password stealing scams on America Online (AOL). The first of these software programs was mine, called AOHell, and it was where the word phishing was coined. The software provided an automated password and credit card-stealing mechanism starting in January 1995. Though the practice of tricking users in order to steal passwords or information possibly goes back to the earliest days of computer networking, AOHell's phishing system was the first automated tool made publicly available for this purpose. The program influenced the creation of many other automated phishing systems that were made over a number of years. These tools were available to amateurs who used them to engage in a countless number of phishing attacks. By the later part of the decade, the activity moved from AOL to other networks and eventually grew to involve professional criminals on the internet. What began as a scheme by rebellious teenagers to steal passwords evolved into one of the top computer security threats affecting people, corporations, and governments.