Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Searching for faint companions with VLTI/PIONIER. I. Method and first results

Context. A new four-telescope interferometric instrument called PIONIER has recently been installed at VLTI. It provides improved imaging capabilities together with high precision. Aims. We search for low-mass companions around a few bright stars using different strategies, and determine the dynamic range currently reachable with PIONIER. Methods. Our method is based on the closure phase, which is the most robust interferometric quantity when searching for faint companions. We computed the χ^2 goodness of fit for a series of binary star models at different positions and with various flux ratios. The resulting χ^2 cube was used to identify the best-fit binary model and evaluate its significance, or to determine upper limits on the companion flux in case of non-detections. Results. No companion is found around Fomalhaut, tau Cet and Regulus. The median upper limits at 3σ on the companion flux ratio are respectively of 2.3 × 10^(-3) (in 4 h), 3.5 × 10^(-3) (in 3 h) and 5.4 × 10^(-3) (in 1.5 h) on the search region extending from 5 to 100 mas. Our observations confirm that the previously detected near-infrared excess emissions around Fomalhaut and tau Cet are not related to a low-mass companion, and instead come from an extended source such as an exozodiacal disk. In the case of del Aqr, in 30 min of observation, we obtain the first direct detection of a previously known companion, at an angular distance of about 40 mas and with a flux ratio of 2.05 × 10^(-2) ± 0.16 × 10^(-2). Due to the limited u,v plane coverage, its position can, however, not be unambiguously determined. Conclusions. After only a few months of operation, PIONIER has already achieved one of the best dynamic ranges world-wide for multi-aperture interferometers. A dynamic range up to about 1:500 is demonstrated on unresolved targets, but significant improvements are still required to reach the ultimate goal of directly detecting hot giant extrasolar planets.
Agdc1p – a Gallic Acid Decarboxylase Involved in the Degradation of Tannic Acid in the Yeast Blastobotrys (Arxula) adeninivorans

Tannins and hydroxylated aromatic acids, such as gallic acid (3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid), are plant secondary metabolites which protect plants against herbivores and plant-associated microorganisms. Some microbes, such as the yeast Arxula adeninivorans are resistant to these antimicrobial substances and are able to use tannins and gallic acid as carbon sources. In this study, the Arxula gallic acid decarboxylase (Agdc1p) which degrades gallic acid to pyrogallol was characterized and its function in tannin catabolism analyzed. The enzyme has a higher affinity for gallic acid (Km −0.7 ± 0.2 mM, kcat −42.0 ± 8.2 s−1) than to protocatechuic acid (3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid) (Km −3.2 ± 0.2 mM, kcat −44.0 ± 3.2 s−1). Other hydroxylated aromatic acids, such as 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid, 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid and 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid are not gallic acid decarboxylase substrates. A. adeninivorans G1212/YRC102-AYNI1-AGDC1, which expresses the AGDC1 gene under the control of the strong nitrate inducible AYNI1 promoter achieved a maximum gallic acid decarboxylase activity of 1064.4 U/l and 97.5 U/g of dry cell weight in yeast grown in minimal medium with nitrate as nitrogen source and glucose as carbon source. In the same medium, gallic acid decarboxylase activity was not detected for the control strain G1212/YRC102 with AGDC1 expression under the control of the endogenous promoter. Gene expression analysis showed that AGDC1 is induced by gallic acid and protocatechuic acid. In contrast to G1212/YRC102-AYNI1-AGDC1 and G1212/YRC102, A. adeninivorans G1234 [Δagdc1] is not able to grow on medium with gallic acid as carbon source but can grow in presence of protocatechuic acid. This confirms that Agdc1p plays an essential role in the tannic acid catabolism and could be useful in the production of catechol and cis,cis-muconic acid. However, the protocatechuic acid catabolism via Agdc1p to catechol seems to be not the only degradation pathway.
Searching for a Parent Instead of Fighting Over Children : A Fast Breadth-First Search Implementation for Graph 500

This report provides a summary of an efficient breadth-first search implementation that is advantageous for social networks. This implementation uses a hybrid approach, combining a conventional top-down algorithm along with a novel bottom-up algorithm. The bottom-up algorithm can dramatically reduce the number of edges examined, which in turn accelerates the search as a whole. This hybrid approach is used to make a fast implementation for the Graph500 Benchmark [2], achieving 5.1 GTEPs at scale=28 (256M vertices with 4B undirected edges) on a quad-socket 40-core Intel Xeon compute node. It ranks 19 out of 50 on the November 2011 Graph500 Rankings.
Performance Evaluation of Compressed Inverted Index in Lucene

Inverted index is the most popular index structure in search engine. Applying index compression can reduce storage space on inverted index, and improve the search performance. In this paper, we compare three typical index compression schemes in Lucene—the open source information retrieval system. First, index compression schemes are realized in Lucene. Then we present the comparison results of these compression schemes in compression ratio, decompression speed, and scalability. In different algorithms, the impact caused by whether index file is interleaving has remarkable discrepancies in compression ratio and decompression speed, and the scale of data also influences the algorithm’s efficiency.
Correct equations for the dynamics of the cart-pole system

The problem of balancing a pole on a moving cart is a widely used benchmark problem for testing reinforcement learning algorithms. The classic papers that introduced this problem contain mistakes in the equations that govern the dynamics of the cart-pole system, and these mistakes propagated in other studies that used the same problem as a benchmark. Here we provide the equations that describe correctly the dynamics of the system.
Crux: Locality-Preserving Distributed Systems

Distributed systems achieve scalability by balancing load across many machines, but wide-area distribution can introduce worst-case response latencies proportional to the network's delay diameter. Crux is a general framework to build locality-preserving distributed systems, by transforming some existing scalable distributed algorithm A into a new algorithm A' that guarantees for any two clients u and v interacting via service requests to A', these interactions exhibit worst-case response latencies proportional to the network delay between u and v. Locality-preserving PlanetLab deployments of a memcached distributed cache, a bamboo distributed hash table, and a redis publish/subscribe service indicate that Crux is effective and applicable to a variety of existing distributed algorithms. Crux achieves several orders of magnitude latency improvement for localized interactions at the cost of increasing per-node overheads, as each physical node must participate in multiple instances of algorithm A.
ON THE CALIBRATION OF SILVERMAN'S TEST FOR MULTIMODALITY

It is known that Silverman's bootstrap test for multimodality tends to- wards conservatism, even in large samples, in the sense that the actual level tends to be less than the nominal one. In this paper, and in the context of testing for a single mode, we propose a means of calibrating Silverman's test so as to improve its level accuracy. The calibration takes two forms — first, an asymptotic approach, which involves identifying the limiting distribution of the test statistic and adjust- ing for its departure from a hypothetical Uniform distribution; and second, a Monte Carlo technique, which enables a degree of correction for second-order effects to be incorporated. As an aid to applying Silverman's test to contexts rather different from those he envisaged, for example to the case of testing for the number of modes of a density in a compact interval, we show that the modes of the density estimator remain separated as the bandwidth is decreased, at least until a point is reached where the first three derivatives of the estimator vanish simultaneously. Theoretical and numerical properties of alternative forms of Silverman's test are addressed. In seminal work on bootstrap methods and the analysis of modality, Sil- verman (1981, 1983) proposed a method for testing the null hypothesis that a distribution has j modes, versus the alternative that it has j + 1 or more modes. It is known that Silverman's test is not asymptotically accurate, in the sense that even for infinite sample sizes its exact significance level is different from the nom- inal one, although the extent of level errors is not known with any precision. In the present paper, in the important case j = 1, we describe the level inaccuracy of Silverman's test in both theoretical and numerical terms, and suggest a way of calibrating the test so as to improve its accuracy. Calibration produces a test with asymptotically correct level accuracy, and may be conducted in at least two ways. First, a straightforward adjustment, depending only on the significance level and applicable for all sample sizes, may be used. The size of the adjustment is given explicitly by a table, in the case of a formal test based on a preset level, or by an interpolation formula, if p-values are
CREB1 modulates the influence of childhood sexual abuse on adult's anger traits

Childhood maltreatment and genes underlie vulnerability to suicidal behaviours (SB), possibly by affecting the constitution of endophenotypes such as anger traits. The CREB protein has been implicated in antidepressant response, suicide and mood disorders in general. The aim of this study was to investigate if CREB1 gene is associated with SB and/or anger‐related traits and if these associations are modulated by childhood maltreatment. Five hundred and thirty‐four male suicide attempters and 357 male non‐suicide attempters were genotyped for several polymorphisms within CREB1 gene. Four hundred and thirty‐seven (156 non‐suicide attempters and 281 suicide attempters) completed the State‐Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) and 288 (265 suicide attempters and 23 controls) fulfilled the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). In total, 72 males had experienced childhood sexual abuse. Our results did not show any significant association between CREB1 and suicide behaviour. We found a significant interaction showing that CREB1 rs4675690 polymorphism modulated the effect of childhood sexual abuse on adulthood anger‐out levels (P = 0.003). Sexually abused subjects carrying the CC genotype showed higher anger‐out scores than T allele carriers, whereas no difference was observed in non‐sexually abused subjects. CREB1 rs4675690 polymorphism modulates the association between childhood sexual abuse and adulthood anger‐trait level. This is, to our knowledge, the first study to show such an interaction and to highlight the main effect of this gene on modulating the effect of child abuse on psychopathologies and warrant further investigation on this topic.
On the Determinants of Derivative Hedging by Insurance Companies: Evidence from Taiwan

There has been considerable growth in the derivatives holdings of Taiwanese insurance companies in recent years and this study examines the determinants of derivative use for both life and non-life companies. The determinants are different in the two insurance sectors. For the life sector, we find that large firms and firms exposed to either foreign exchange risk or interest rate risk (due to the duration of liabilities being greater than that of the assets) are more likely to participate in derivative hedging activities. In the case of foreign exchange risk, the greater the exposure, the greater the derivative holdings (as a proportion of the total assets of the firm). For the non-life sector, exposure to interest rate risk (as measured by net interest margin) and foreign exchange risk have a significant influence on the derivative participation decision. The level of derivative holdings is then positively related to foreign exchange exposure and negatively related to the level of reinsurance.
Point and discard: A hard-error-tolerant architecture for non-volatile last level caches

Technology scaling of SRAM and embedded DRAM is increasingly constrained by limitations such as leakage power and silicon area. Emerging non-volatile memory technologies are considered as the potential SRAM/eDRAM alternatives for last-level caches in terms of energy and area savings. Unfortunately, these non-volatile memory technologies usually have limited write endurance. Even worse, process variation causes some cells to wear out much earlier than others. While state-of-the-art error-tolerant techniques such as ECC can handle transient soft errors, we need a new architecture for non-volatile last-level caches whose reliability is mainly challenged by hard errors. This paper presents Point-and-Discard (PAD), a hard-failure-tolerant architecture for non-volatile caches. PAD has no initial performance penalty and ensures gradual performance overhead with small storage overhead. By adopting PAD, the lifetime of non-volatile caches can be improved by 4.6X over the conventional architecture under a typical process variation condition.1
Automated Collector of Terrestrial Systems Used for the Gathering of Soil Atmospheric‐Gas Emissions

Soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are complex, and their study requires considerable sampling of field spatial and temporal differences. Manual and simple automated gas‐collection techniques used at multiple sites during specific time intervals are labor intensive. The objective of this work was to construct a device that can independently collect GHG samples with the accuracy and precision of manually drawn samples. An automated collector of terrestrial systems (ACTS) is a 24‐h, 7‐d/week programmable sampler used in the field for real‐time gathering and containment of soil GHG emissions. The sampler opens and closes an exterior soil gas chamber, mixes gases in the chamber by turning fans on/off, and utilizes programmable circuits to purge the system and draw a sample from the chamber with a pneumatic‐driven syringe. Each sample was stored in an evacuated vial held in a 30‐vial capacity carousel. Vial content was analyzed for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)–Agricultural Research Services (ARS) Agroecosystem Management Research Unit (AMRU). A Tracor MT‐220 gas chromatograph (GC) configured with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD) was used for CO2 analysis, and an automated gas‐sampling system (AGSS) attached to a Varian 3700 GC configured with flame ionization detection (FID) and electron capture detection (ECD) was used for CH4 and N2O analysis. Field and laboratory mean values and coefficients of variation (standards and field concentrations of CO2, CH4, and N2O ranging from ambient to 71 kg ha−1 d−1 had coefficients of variation ranging from 1.2 to 4.2%) were similar between ACTS and manually drawn samples. Results showed strong correlation (R2 = 0.81 to 1.00) between sampling methods. The sampler design provides a realistic and inexpensive approach for collecting emission samples while reducing human error associated with adverse sampling conditions and fatigue. The ACTS has potential for use in monitoring and comparing management practices in terrestrial systems to determine their contribution to GHG emissions.
Automated reconstruction of 3D object from sequences images based on SVD

This paper proposes a linear estimation algorithm in order to restore the three-dimensional coordinates of feature points in three images. Using the singular value decomposition algorithm to calculate spatial point which corresponding all the match points in the image sequence based on triangle algorithm, and it introduces the triangle centre of gravity as constraint condition. Then, it uses Delauny triangulation to establish a three-dimensional network for discrete three-dimensional point. Consequently, it realizes the automated reconstruction of 3D object based on multiple sequences of images. Finally, the texture mapping and color rendering be used to reconstruct a highly realistic three-dimensional target. Experimental results show that: This method directly extracts three-dimensional information from two-dimensional image without manual modeling, and it improves the efficiency of building large-scale virtual scene. Thus it has a lot of advantage such as high reconstruction accuracy, robustness and so on, and it has practical significance for improving the accuracy and efficiency of the three-dimensional reconstruction.
Development of Computer Vision-Based Percussion Systems using 3 D Stereoscopic Object Tracking and Gesture Recognition

With the introduction of consumer-level computer vision platforms, such as Microsoft’s Kinect, and the powerful capabilities of open source computer vision software there has been a recent surge in the use of computer vision in the fields of art and entertainment. [9] The ability to reliably recognize a wide range of user motions, and to determine more information from a scene has allowed computer vision systems to provide much more life-like forms of user interaction. Interfaces continue to be developed which make the use of physical hardware such as controllers and mice obsolete. While these new computer vision-based systems and interfaces are currently mainly focused on user interaction for videogames and computer systems, there is a rich potential for their use in the music industry. Most musical instruments demand high prices for their craftsmanship and sound quality. In many cases these instruments are prohibitively expensive for the average consumer. An interface designed using computer vision techniques and hardware could provide a user with the musical capabilities of a high-end instrument, but with minimal cost. The goal of this project is to develop a gesture recognition system that emulates the output of a percussion instrument using stereoscopic computer vision techniques. By analyzing the movement of user controlled drumsticks, the system can determine if a user is striking a virtual drumhead. When these events are registered, the system then produces audio feedback in order to copy the output of a normal acoustic drum. Based on the groundwork laid by this project, a full feature real-time computer vision percussion set is feasible with current consumer grade video camera equipment and open source software. Many different computer vision techniques are required in order to implement this type of project. Calibrated stereovision is at the heart of the project, and it is used to convert two-dimensional pixel coordinates into real world three-dimensional coordinates. The calibration of the two cameras allows the system to interpret positional information about the real world scene in front of the camera, and recognize user actions based on this information. For object recognition and tracking, techniques such as image thresholding and block processing are utilized in the system software. Corresponding tracked points in both the left and right camera feeds must be matched in order to get the three-dimensional position of the tracked points. The program must also be able to correctly reqister only specific user actions, and then generate the proper sound feedback for these events. This senior capstone design project implements all of these components in one program in order to create a purely computer vision-based percussion system.
On words and brains: linking psycholinguistics with neural dynamics in speech production

ABSTRACT Obtaining a neurophysiology of language production is a complex endeavour which, at present, is in its “infancy”. It will require the integration of long-standing psycholinguistic models and phenomena with the anatomical and dynamical constraints of neural coding. In our target article [Strijkers, K. , & Costa, A. (2016). The cortical dynamics of speaking: Present shortcomings and future avenues. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1–20. doi:10.1080/23273798.2015. 1120878; henceforth S&C], we hypothesized that one promising way of doing so is by perceiving words as cortical assemblies in a proactive brain. Conceptualizing word production as such means that some of the traditional assumptions underlying psycholinguistic models will need to be re-assessed (or at least extended) in light of this novel perspective. However, it does not mean that it is the only conceivable way to integrate language and the brain nor that neuroscience should be prioritized over psycholinguistics. Rather, its importance lies in making the linking hypothesizes between linguistic function and neural code explicit so that we can empirically test the integration of both domains. Likely, some of the linking hypotheses proposed in S&C may be proven wrong, but more importantly, others may prove to be an advance in the right direction towards a mechanistic framework of the cortical dynamics of speaking.
An adaptive decision threshold scheme for the matched filter method of spectrum sensing in cognitive radio using artificial neural networks

Spectrum sensing methods in Cognitive Radio have been one of the key areas of research. To maximize the Probability of Detection for a given Probability of False Alarm in varying environmental conditions has been a challenging task. Making the decision threshold adaptive to the channel conditions is one of the ideas that become an optimal solution for the same. Here we propose an Adaptive Threshold scheme for Matched Filter based detection over an Additive White Gaussian Noise channel by implementing Artificial Neural Networks. Predictive analysis and experiential learning become viable components in achieving high performance even during extreme fading conditions.
Evidence for Recycling of the Resident medial/trans Golgi Enzyme, N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferase I, in ldlD Cells (*)

ldlD cells, which lack the UDP-Gal/UDP-GalNAc 4-epimerase, were stably transfected with a Myc-tagged version of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I (Myc-GlcNAc-T I). In the absence of GalNAc and Gal, newly synthesized GlcNAc-T I did not acquire O-linked oligosaccharides but was catalytically active and was transported to the Golgi region as defined using both immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. After addition of cycloheximide to prevent further synthesis, GalNAc and Gal were added, and the unglycosylated GlcNAc-T I was found to acquire mature, O-linked oligosaccharides with a half-time of about 150 min. The addition of these sugars was sensitive to N-ethylmaleimide and okadaic acid, both inhibitors of vesicle-mediated traffic. Together, these results suggest that Myc-GlcNAc-T I undergoes retrograde transport to the early part of the Golgi apparatus where the first O-linked sugar, GalNAc, is added followed by anterograde transport back to the Golgi stack, where addition of Gal and sialic acid occurs.