Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tight Hardness Results for LCS and Other Sequence Similarity Measures

Two important similarity measures between sequences are the longest common subsequence (LCS) and the dynamic time warping distance (DTWD). The computations of these measures for two given sequences are central tasks in a variety of applications. Simple dynamic programming algorithms solve these tasks in O(n2) time, and despite an extensive amount of research, no algorithms with significantly better worst case upper bounds are known. In this paper, we show that for any constant ε >0, an O(n2-ε) time algorithm for computing the LCS or the DTWD of two sequences of length n over a constant size alphabet, refutes the popular Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH).
Changing Perceptions of Forest Value and Attitudes toward Management of a Recently Established Nature Reserve: A Case Study in Southwest China

Identifying the main sources of conflict and understanding the relationships between protected areas and local communities are critical to conflict resolution related to protected area management. We surveyed and assessed the perceptions of local people related to forest values of the Bulong Nature Reserve (BNR), Yunnan, China, and their attitudes toward forest management of the recently-established nature reserve. Factors influencing the differences in perceptions and attitudes were investigated. Our results indicated local residents preferred the economic value of forests, and they perceived more forest values after reserve establishment than before, especially for ecological services. Interviewees believed the value of the forests have increased, and predicted that the forest will have increased importance to their livelihoods and health in the future. Nonetheless, the majority of interviewees were dissatisfied with current reserve management. Variation in these perceptions and attitudes were related to several social variables: age, gender, education, and distance from the reserve. Embedding the findings of the present study, specifically the perceptions and attitudes of local people, into management guidelines for mitigation of potential conflicts is proposed and should help managers to achieve biodiversity-related goals. This study offers new insights related to the identification of the underlying sources of conflict in forest management and provides a better understanding of the relationship between local people and protected areas. The study also contributes to the literature on forest values of indigenous populations by examining those of remote, rural populations in China.
Young isolated neutron stars from the Gould Belt

The origin of the local population of young, cooling neutron stars is investigated with a population synthesis model taking into account the contribution of neutron stars born in the Gould Belt, in addition to those originating in the Galactic disk. We estimate their emission in the soft X-ray band as a function of distance and age and construct the Log N –Log S distribution. It is shown that the inclusion of neutron stars from the Gould Belt provides a good fit to the observed Log N –Log S distribution. As the Sun is situated inside the Gould Belt, one can naturally explain the comparative local overabundance of massive progenitors and can remove the difficulty of the deficit of relatively bright ($\ga$0.1 ROSAT PSPC cts s -1 ) cooling neutron stars previously reported from models where only neutron stars from the Galactic disk were accounted for.
Family Hardiness, Social Support, and Well-Being of Thai Traumatic Brain Injury Family Caregivers

This study aimed to examine the level of family hardiness, social support, well-being, and the relationships between family hardiness, social support, and well-being among TBI family caregivers. The Family Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation was used to guide this study. Ninety-eight TBI family caregivers were purposively selected from neurosurgical outpatient departments of two tertiary government hospitals in the southern part of Thailand. The set of questionnaires consisted of the Demographic Data Form of Family Caregivers and TBI Persons, the Family Hardiness Index (FHI), the Social Support Index (SSI), and the Family Member Well-being Index (FMWB). The validity and reliability test of these questionnaires were completed and the reliability showed Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the FHI, SSI, and FMWB of . 70, . 80, and . 80, respectively. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that the family hardiness and the social support were at a high level. The TBI family caregivers’ well-being was found at a moderate
Theoretical foundations of the sound analog membrane potential that underlies coincidence detection in the barn owl

A wide variety of neurons encode temporal information via phase-locked spikes. In the avian auditory brainstem, neurons in the cochlear nucleus magnocellularis (NM) send phase-locked synaptic inputs to coincidence detector neurons in the nucleus laminaris (NL) that mediate sound localization. Previous modeling studies suggested that converging phase-locked synaptic inputs may give rise to a periodic oscillation in the membrane potential of their target neuron. Recent physiological recordings in vivo revealed that owl NL neurons changed their spike rates almost linearly with the amplitude of this oscillatory potential. The oscillatory potential was termed the sound analog potential, because of its resemblance to the waveform of the stimulus tone. The amplitude of the sound analog potential recorded in NL varied systematically with the interaural time difference (ITD), which is one of the most important cues for sound localization. In order to investigate the mechanisms underlying ITD computation in the NM-NL circuit, we provide detailed theoretical descriptions of how phase-locked inputs form oscillating membrane potentials. We derive analytical expressions that relate presynaptic, synaptic, and postsynaptic factors to the signal and noise components of the oscillation in both the synaptic conductance and the membrane potential. Numerical simulations demonstrate the validity of the theoretical formulations for the entire frequency ranges tested (1–8 kHz) and potential effects of higher harmonics on NL neurons with low best frequencies (<2 kHz).
A Kernel-Based Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm

We propose a kernel-based fuzzy clustering algorithm to cluster data in the feature space. Our method uses kernel functions to project data from the original space into a high dimensional feature space, and then divides them into groups through their similarities in the feature space with an incremental clustering approach. After clustering, data patterns of the same cluster in the feature space are then grouped with an arbitrarily shaped boundary in the original space. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated in the experiments
A load balanced SIMD polygon renderer

This document describes a parallel polygon rendering algorit.hrn designed for a SIMD supercomputer architecture. The overall algorithm can be implemented on any SIMD machine; in this paper, we expand upon an implementation which is specific to the Princeton Engine, a product of the David Sarnoff Research Center. The algorithm has a number of improvements over previously developed SIMD renderers in that load balancing is considered and designed into the algorithm with minimal overhead.
An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values

This article presents an overview of the Schwartz theory of basic human values. It discusses the nature of values and spells out the features that are common to all values and what distinguishes one value from another. The theory identifies ten basic personal values that are recognized across cultures and explains where they come from. At the heart of the theory is the idea that values form a circular structure that reflects the motivations each value expresses. This circular structure, that captures the conflicts and compatibility among the ten values is apparently culturally universal. The article elucidates the psychological principles that give rise to it. Next, it presents the two major methods developed to measure the basic values, the Schwartz Value Survey and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Findings from 82 countries, based on these and other methods, provide evidence for the validity of the theory across cultures. The findings reveal substantial differences in the value priorities of individuals. Surprisingly, however, the average value priorities of most societal groups exhibit a similar hierarchical order whose existence the article explains. The last section of the article clarifies how values differ from other concepts used to explain behavior—attitudes, beliefs, norms, and traits. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. This article is available in Online Readings in Psychology and Culture: http://scholarworks.gvsu. edu/orpc/vol2/iss1/11
An Efficient Multiscale Approach to Audio Synchronization

We present an efficient and robust multiscale DTW (MsDTW) approach to music synchronization for time-aligning CD recordings of different interpretations of the same piece. The general strategy is to recursively project an alignment path computed at a coarse resolution level to the next higher level and then to refine the projected path. As main contributions, we address several crucial issues including the design and specification of robust and scalable audio features, suitable local cost measures, MsDTW levels, constraint regions, as well as sampling rate adaptation and structural enhancement strategies. Extensive experiments on Western classical music show that our MsDTW-based algorithm yields the same alignment result as the classical DTW-based strategy while significantly reducing the running time and memory requirements. Even for pieces of a duration of 10 to 15minutes, the alignment (based on previously extracted feature sequences) can be computed in less than a second.
I T L:  J

We discuss a family of modal logics for reasoning about relational structures of intervals over (usually) linear orders, with modal operators associated with the various binary relations between such intervals, known as Allen’s interval relations. The formulae of these logics are evaluated at intervals rather than points and the main effect of that semantic feature is substantially higher expressiveness and computational complexity of the interval logics as compared to point-based ones. Without purporting to provide a comprehensive survey of the field, we take the reader to a journey through the main developments in it over the past 10 years and outline some landmark results on expressiveness and (un)decidability of the satisfiability problem for the family of interval logics.
Change or be changed: Diagnosing the readiness to change in the Canadian police sector

Concerns have emerged over the readiness of police agencies to adapt to change. To better understand why this might be the case, we used Lewin’s theory of change and an emic methodology to investigate the internal and external forces for and against change within this sector. Using a qualitative methodology we analysed the data from 103 interviews with key police and community stakeholders to identify the drivers and barriers to planned change. Examination of the resulting force field diagram revealed that: (1) community stakeholders feel the forces for change exceed the barriers, while police stakeholders perceive the reverse, (2) strong drivers of change are largely external to the police service, (3) key barriers to change were internal to the police service, and (4) police culture is a strong barrier to change. We end by offering suggestions on how this information can be used to manage change in this sector better.
XMM-Newton Observations of Optically Selected Sloan Digital Sky Survey Clusters

We explore the X-ray properties of a subset of the optically selected Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) cluster sample of Goto et al. by analyzing seven public XMM-Newton pointings, with exposure times ranging from ~4 to 46 ks. There are in total 17 SDSS clusters out of which only eight are detected at X-ray wavelengths with f0.5-2 keV ≳ 1.2 × 10-14 ergs cm-2 s-1. For the remaining nine SDSS clusters, we estimate their 3 σ luminosity upper limits (corresponding to LX ≲ 5 × 1042 ergs s-1 in the 0.5-2 keV band). This relatively low luminosity suggests that if they are real structures, these galaxy aggregations correspond to poor groups of galaxies. Using the SDSS photometric catalog, we also derive the cluster optical r-band luminosities. The resulting scaling relations (Lopt-LX, Lopt-TX) are consistent with those of other recent studies.
A Role for Interferon‐Gamma in Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Mice

The pro-inflammatory cytokine interferon-gamma (IFNγ) has traditionally been associated with inflammatory CNS disease and more recently with ischemia-induced pathology. Using a murine model of focal cerebral ischemia, we found no evidence for induction of IFNγ mRNA after permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion. In addition, we found that mice deficient in IFNγ or IFNγ receptors developed neocortical infarcts similar in size to those in wild type. In contrast, MBP promoter-IFNγ-transgenic mice consistently developed significantly larger infarcts than non-transgenic mice. Because IFNγ is a potent activator of microglia-macrophages, we investigated the involvement of microglial-macrophage-derived TNF in the larger infarcts. Numbers of TNF mRNA-expressing microglia-macrophages and levels of TNF mRNA and TNF in IFNγ-transgenic and non-transgenic mice were similar. Furthermore, the ischemic brain damage in IFNγ-transgenic mice was unaffected by recombinant soluble TNF receptor I. Taken together, the data argues against a role for IFNγ in cerebral ischemia under normal conditions. However, when present, IFNγ significantly exacerbates ischemia-induced brain damage by mechanisms that appear to be independent of TNF or synergistic neurotoxic interactions of IFNγ and TNF. Irrespective of the mechanism(s) involved, this enhancing effect of IFNγ on ischemia-induced neurotoxicity may need to be considered in diseases where immune IFNγ is involved, such as multiple sclerosis.
Microbiology of ‘Candidatus Accumulibacter’ in activated sludge

‘Candidatus Accumulibacter’ is a biotechnologically important bacterial group that can accumulate large amounts of intracellular polyphosphate, contributing to biological phosphorus removal in wastewater treatment. Since its first molecular identification more than a decade ago, this bacterial group has drawn significant research attention due to its high abundance in many biological phosphorus removal systems. In the past 6 years, our understanding of Accumulibacter microbiology and ecophysiology has advanced rapidly, largely owing to genomic information obtained through shotgun metagenomic sequencing efforts. In this review, we focus on the metabolism, physiology, fine‐scale population structure and ecological distribution of Accumulibacter, aiming to integrate the information learned so far and to present a more complete picture of the microbiology of this important bacterial group.
Size-Tunable Gd2O3@Albumin Nanoparticles Conjugating Chlorin e6 for Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Photo-Induced Therapy

Protein nanoparticles as nanocarriers are of particular interest in the field of cancer therapy. Nevertheless, so far a facile fabrication of theranostic protein nanoparticles have been explored with limited success for cancer imaging and therapy. In this work, we demonstrate the controllable synthesis of size-tunable Gd2O3@albumin conjugating photosensitizer (PS) (GA-NPs) using hollow albumin as the nanoreactor for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided photo-induced therapy. The growth of Gd2O3 nanocrystals within the hollow nanoreactors is well regulated through reaction time, and a typical PS (e.g. chlorin e6) is further conjugated with the protein corona of the nanoreactor through facile chemical coupling, followed by the formation of theranostic GA-NPs. GA-NPs exhibit good longitudinal relaxivity, ideal photostability, enhanced cellular uptakes, and preferable size-dependent tumor accumulation. Moreover, GA-NPs effectively generate remarkable photothermal effect, intracellular reactive oxygen species from Ce6, and subsequent cytoplasmic drug translocation, thereby leading to severe synergistic photothermal and photodynamic cell damages. Consequently, GA-NPs exhibit an in vivo size-dependent MRI capacity with enhanced imaging contrast for effective tumor localization, and also generate a potent synergistic photodynamic therapy/photothermal therapy efficacy under irradiation owing to their enhanced tumor accumulation and strong photo-induced cytotoxicity. These results suggest that GA-NPs can act as a promising theranostic protein nanoplatform for cancer imaging and photo-induced therapy.
The Different Sources of Variation in Inbreeding Depression, Heterosis and Outbreeding Depression in a Metapopulation of Physa acuta

Understanding how parental distance affects offspring fitness, i.e., the effects of inbreeding and outbreeding in natural populations, is a major goal in evolutionary biology. While inbreeding is often associated with fitness reduction (inbreeding depression), interpopulation outcrossing may have either positive (heterosis) or negative (outbreeding depression) effects. Within a metapopulation, all phenomena may occur with various intensities depending on the focal population (especially its effective size) and the trait studied. However, little is known about interpopulation variation at this scale. We here examine variation in inbreeding depression, heterosis, and outbreeding depression on life-history traits across a full-life cycle, within a metapopulation of the hermaphroditic snail Physa acuta. We show that all three phenomena can co-occur at this scale, although they are not always expressed on the same traits. A large variation in inbreeding depression, heterosis, and outbreeding depression is observed among local populations. We provide evidence that, as expected from theory, small and isolated populations enjoy higher heterosis upon outcrossing than do large, open populations. These results emphasize the need for an integrated theory accounting for the effects of both deleterious mutations and genetic incompatibilities within metapopulations and to take into account the variability of the focal population to understand the genetic consequences of inbreeding and outbreeding at this scale.
Exploiting the characteristics of matrix factorization for active learning in recommender systems

Recommender systems help web users to address information overload. However their performance depends on the number of provided ratings by users. This problem is amplified for a new user because he/she has not provided any rating. To address this problem, active learning methods have been proposed to acquire those ratings from users, that will help most in determining their interests. However, different from the classic active learning, users (the "oracle") are not always able to provide an answer for queries. The easiest way to solve this problem is to ask most popular items, i.e items which have received many ratings from training users. But it is static and presents the same items to all users regardless of the ratings they have provided so far. In this paper we propose a method that improves the most popular selection strategy using the characteristics of matrix factorization. It finds similar users to the new user in the latent space and then selects item which is most popular among the similar users. The experimental results show the proposed method outperforms the most popular method both in terms of error and the number of received ratings.
Item Types: Their Effect on the Sensitivity of Multiple-Choice Cloze Tests

To evaluate the sensitivity of multiple-choice cloze (MCC) tests that use different types of items—syntactic, semantic, and connective—to assess reading ability, 170 English as a foreign language (EFL) students in a vocational college in Taiwan were recruited. The students were divided into two groups (level A and level B) based on their scores on 4 classroom reading comprehension tests. Both groups then took 9 MCC tests that included a total of 50 cloze questions. Connective items were most sensitive for assessing reading ability. Research results and pedagogical applications are discussed.
The Oxford–Dartmouth Thirty Degree Survey – I. Observations and calibration of a wide-field multiband survey

The Oxford-Dartmouth Thirty Degree Survey (ODTS) is a deep, wide, multiband imaging survey designed to cover a total of 30 deg(2) in BV Ri'Z, with a subset of U- and K-band data, in four separate fields of 5-10 deg(2) centred at 00:18:24 + 34:52, 09:09:45 + 40:50, 13:40:00 +02:30 and 16:39:30 +45:24. Observations have been made using the Wide Field Camera on the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in La Palma to average limiting depths (5sigma Vega, aperture magnitudes) of U = 24.8, B = 25.6, V = 25.0, R = 24.6 and i' = 23.5, with observations taken in ideal conditions reaching the target depths of U = 25.3, B = 26.2, V = 25.7, R = 25.4 and i' = 24.6. The INT Z-band data were found to be severely effected by fringing and, consequently, are now being obtained at the MDM observatory in Arizona. A complementary K-band survey has also been carried out at MDM, reaching an average depth of K 5 approximate to18.5. At present, approximately 23 deg(2) of the ODTS have been observed, with 3.5 deg(2) of the K- band survey completed. This paper details the survey goals, field selection, observation strategy and data reduction procedure, focusing on the photometric calibration and catalogue construction. Preliminary photometric redshifts have been obtained for a subsample of the objects with R less than or equal to 23. These results are presented alongside a brief description of the photometric redshift determination technique used. The median redshift of the survey is estimated to be z approximate to 0.7 from a combination of the ODTS photometric redshifts and comparison with the redshift distributions of other surveys. Finally, galaxy number counts for the ODTS are presented which are found to be in excellent agreement with previous studies.
Automatic Group-Outlier Detection

We propose in this paper a new measure called GOF (Group Outlier Factor) to detect groups outliers. To validate this measure we inte- grated it in a clustering process using Self-organizing Map. The proposed approach is based on relative density of each group of data and simultane- ously provides a partitioning of data and a quantitative indicator (GOF). The obtained results are very encouraging to continue in this direction.
Identifying the ß-Hairpin Motifs in Enzymes by Using Support Vector Machine

Based on enzyme sequence information and predicted secondary structure information as feature parameters, by using support vector machine (SVM), a novel method for identifying the ¦Â-hairpin motifs in enzymes is proposed. The method is trained and tested on an enzymes database of 4030 ¦Â-hairpins and 1780 non-¦Â-hairpins. For training dataset in 5-fold cross-validation, the overall accuracy is 91.00%, Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC) is 0.79, and for testing dataset in independent test, the overall accuracy is 88.93%, MCC is 0.76. In addition, this method has been further used to predict 1345 ¦Â-hairpins which contain ligand binding sites. For training dataset in 5-fold cross-validation and for testing dataset in independent test, the overall accuracy reach 89.28% and 88.79%, MCC are 0.77 and 0.74, respectively.