Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Border Tourism in Israel: Conflict, Peace, Fear and Hope

Abstract The main aim of this research is to describe and analyse cultural elements that express the symbolic landscape of Israel's border-tourism attractions. The methodology selected is based on the naturalistic approach of landscape interpretation. A descriptive analysis is provided of the symbolism of elements in two case studies of border tourism in Israel. These places have grown into unique tourist attractions, and they illustrate the conflict or the co-operation between Israel and its neighbouring countries. Visits to Israeli border sites usually entail observation and hold a special meaning for tourists, either because they can sense the danger and fear of battles conducted in the past near the border, or because they have a close and clear look at the neighbouring country. On the other hand, these sites are also places of hope for a better future – one of peace and co-operation between the two sides. In many cases the observation points have grown to signify both the core of the conflict and a prayer for peace, a special simultaneity of fear and hope.
Dietary Restriction in Drosophila: Delayed Aging or Experimental Artefact?

Lifespan can be extended by reduction of dietary intake. This practice is referred to as dietary restriction (DR), and extension of lifespan by DR is evolutionarily conserved in taxonomically diverse organisms including yeast, invertebrates, and mammals. Although these two often-stated facts carry the implication that the mechanisms of DR are also evolutionarily conserved, extension of lifespan could be a case of evolutionary convergence, with different underlying mechanisms in different taxa. Furthermore, extension of lifespan by different methods of DR in the same organism may operate through different mechanisms. These topics remain unresolved because of the very fact that the mechanisms of DR are unknown. Given these uncertainties, it is essential that work on the mechanisms of DR is not clouded by imprecise descriptions of methods or by technical problems. Here we review the recent literature on DR in Drosophila to point out some methodological issues that can obscure mechanistic interpretations. We also indicate some experiments that could be performed to determine if DR in Drosophila operates through similar mechanisms to the process in rodents.
Twin-twin transfusion syndrome: neurodevelopmental screening test.

OBJECTIVE To assess the neurodevelopmental functions (cognition, language and motor function) of survivors of twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). METHOD Observational cross-sectional study of a total of 67 monochorionic diamniotic twins who underwent fetoscopic laser coagulation (FLC) for treatment of TTTS. The study was conducted at the Center for Investigation in Pediatrics (CIPED), Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Ages ranged from one month and four days to two years four months. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Screening Test-III, were used for evaluation. RESULTS Most children reached the competent category and were classified as having appropriate performance. The preterm children scored worse than term infants for gross motor subtest (p = 0.036). CONCLUSION The majority of children reached the expected development according to their age. Despite the good neurodevelopment, children classified at risk should be monitored for development throughout childhood.
An improved methodology for determining MV to LV voltage unbalance transfer coefficient

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has recently released a technical report (IEC/TR 61000-3-13, Ed. 1.0, 2008) in relation to the assessment of voltage unbalance emission by installations connected to MV, HV and EHV power systems. As in the cases of harmonics and flicker, this requires a quantitative measure of propagation of voltage unbalance from upstream (higher voltage) to downstream (lower voltage) systems in terms of transfer coefficients. Naturally, these transfer coefficients depend on the downstream load composition. The existing method for determining MV to LV voltage unbalance transfer coefficient suggests a value of unity in relation to passive loads in general. However, this paper reports that MV to LV transfer coefficient of unity is conservative in the presence of commonly prevailing constant power loads. Further, the paper reports on an improved methodology for estimating MV to LV voltage unbalance transfer coefficient taking system and load characteristics into account.
Cognitive and Emotional Deficits Associated with Minor and Serious Delinquency in High-Risk Adolescents

This study aims at evaluating how minor and serious delinquency relates to cognitive and emotional functioning in high-risk adolescents, taking problematic substance use into account. In 80 high-risk adolescent males (13–19 years), the frequency of minor and serious offences committed over the last year was predicted, in multiple regression analyses, from problematic substance use, intellectual efficiency, trait impulsivity, alexithymia (inability to express feelings in words), and cognitive coping strategies. Both minor and serious delinquency were more frequent in adolescents with more problematic substance use and higher intellectual efficacy. Minor delinquency was further related to a tendency to act out when experiencing negative emotions, and difficulties in focusing energy on instrumental action when under stress; while serious delinquency was predominantly and strongly related to rigid and dichotomous thinking. The results underline the heterogeneous nature of delinquency, minor offences being primarily associated with emotional regulation deficits, while major offences are related with a lack of cognitive flexibility.
Trapping botnets by DNS failure graphs: Validation, extension and application to a 3G network

In the last years, botnets have become one of the major sources of cyber-crime activities carried out via the public Internet. Typically, they may serve a number of different malicious activities such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, email spam and phishing attacks. In this paper we validate the Domain Name System (DNS) failure graph approach presented earlier in [1]. In our work we apply this approach in an operational 3G mobile network serving a significantly larger user population.Based on the introduction of stable host identifiers we implement a novel approach to the tracking of botnets over a period of several weeks. Our results reveal the presence of several groups of hosts that are members of botnets. We analyze the host groups exhibiting the most suspicious behavior and elaborate on how these participate in botnets and other malicious activities. In the last part of this work we discuss how the accuracy of our detection approach could be improved in the future by correlating the knowledge obtained from applying our method in different networks.
Context-dependent Deep Neural Networks for audio indexing of real-life data

We apply Context-Dependent Deep-Neural-Network HMMs, or CD-DNN-HMMs, to the real-life problem of audio indexing of data across various sources. Recently, we had shown that on the Switchboard benchmark on speaker-independent transcription of phone calls, CD-DNN-HMMs with 7 hidden layers reduce the word error rate by as much as one-third, compared to discriminatively trained Gaussian-mixture HMMs, and by one-fourth if the GMM-HMM also uses fMPE features. This paper takes CD-DNN-HMM based recognition into a real-life deployment for audio indexing. We find that for our best speaker-independent CD-DNN-HMM, with 32k senones trained on 2000h of data, the one-fourth reduction does carry over to inhomogeneous field data (video podcasts and talks). Compared to a speaker-adaptive GMM system, the relative improvement is 18%, at very similar end-to-end runtime. In system building, we find that DNNs can benefit from a larger number of senones than the GMM-HMM; and that DNN likelihood evaluation is a sizeable runtime factor even in our wide-beam context of generating rich lattices: Cutting the model size by 60% reduces runtime by one-third at a 5% relative WER loss.
Updating Search Engines Using Meta-Updates

In a magnetic floating type of super high speed transportation system using a linear synchronous motor system as its drive system in which a field magnet is carried on a train and a series of armature coils are provided along a track, a speed of a train is regulated under control of a frequency converter of the variable frequency and voltage type for supplying power to the armature coils. For the speed regulation, a relative position of the field magnet to the armature coils is detected to form a train of position detecting pulses. A reference frequency pattern with a frequency corresponding to a speed command is formed. A phase difference between the reference frequency pattern and the position detecting pulse train is detected. A propulsion force command of a linear motor is obtained by setting different limit values in the positive and negative parts of the phase difference signal. A sinusoidal current waveform pattern is formed in synchronism with the position detecting pulse train. By multiplying the current waveform pattern by the propulsion force command, a sinusoidal armature current pattern is obtained of which the frequency and the crest value are fixed. The cycloconverter is controlled so as to provide an armature current following the armature current pattern, whereby the vehicle speed accurately follows the speed command.
Queue maximum proportional fair scheduling for saturated and non-saturated regimes

A new cross-layer proportional fair scheduling algorithm suited for delay tolerant traffic in both saturated and non-saturated regimes is presented. Unlike the classical proportional fair scheduling algorithm where the instantaneous rate is normalized by the past average throughput, in the proposed algorithm the normalization is done with respect to the past maximal values. And unlike cumulative distribution function (CDF) based fair scheduling, the knowledge of the CDF of users' rates is not required in the proposed solution. In saturated regime, the proposed algorithm outperforms the classical ones. Moreover, in the non-saturated regime it even outperforms the multiuser diversity scheduling in term of spectral efficiency and classical fair schedulers in term of fairness.
A Fast Approach for Overcomplete Sparse Decomposition Based on Smoothed $\ell ^{0}$ Norm

In this paper, a fast algorithm for overcomplete sparse decomposition, called SL0, is proposed. The algorithm is essentially a method for obtaining sparse solutions of underdetermined systems of linear equations, and its applications include underdetermined sparse component analysis (SCA), atomic decomposition on overcomplete dictionaries, compressed sensing, and decoding real field codes. Contrary to previous methods, which usually solve this problem by minimizing the l 1 norm using linear programming (LP) techniques, our algorithm tries to directly minimize the l 1 norm. It is experimentally shown that the proposed algorithm is about two to three orders of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art interior-point LP solvers, while providing the same (or better) accuracy.
Automatic markup of neural cell membranes using boosted decision stumps

To better understand the central nervous system, neurobiologists need to reconstruct the underlying neural circuitry from electron microscopy images. One of the necessary tasks is to segment the individual neurons. For this purpose, we propose a supervised learning approach to detect the cell membranes. The classifier was trained using AdaBoost, on local and context features. The features were selected to highlight the line characteristics of cell membranes. It is shown that using features from context positions allows for more information to be utilized in the classification. Together with the nonlinear discrimination ability of the AdaBoost classifier, this results in clearly noticeable improvements over previously used methods.
Distributed RSSI processing for intrusion detection in indoor environments

In the context of WSNs, the RSSI has been traditionally exploited for localization, distance estimation, and link quality assessment. Recent research has shown that variations of the signal strength in indoor environments where nodes have been deployed can reveal movements of persons. Moreover, the time-histories of the RSSI over multiple links allow reconstructing the paths followed by the persons inside the monitored area. This approach, though effective, requires the transmission of multiple entire RSSI time-histories to a sink where these signals are processed, increasing latency and power consumption. This work aims at applying distributed processing of the RSSI signals for intrusion detection. Through distributed processing, the nodes are able to detect and localize moving persons autonomously. The latency and power consumption of the proposed intrusion detection system is minimized by transmitting to the sink only alert notifications related to significant events. Moreover, an accurate time-synchronization allows the nodes to keep the radio off most of the time. The proposed system was able to detect the intrusion of a person walking inside the monitored area, and to correctly keep track of the path he had followed. Possible applications of such a system include surveillance of critical buildings, support to emergency workers in locating people e.g. during fires and earthquakes, and to police in hostage situations or terrorist attacks.
Video Game Addiction and Engagement in Adult Gamers: Differentiation Based on Relationships with Health and Functioning

Video game addiction now has a tentative diagnosis in the DSM-5, with its validity hinging on differentiation from close constructs and demonstrable negative consequences. Investigations of candidate consequences have produced mixed results. Deleterious correlates vary across studies, and the few which have investigated confounding factors or temporal precedence draw opposing conclusions. Resultantly expert opinions range from an example of dangerous superficial mental illness proliferation to a genuinely new, pathogenic condition. This PhD measured video game addiction, engagement and the possible negative consequences of diminished health (mental, social and physical) and functioning (at work, study, parenting and in romantic relationships), in adult avid gamers. Possible confounds included measures of satisfaction, stressful events, mental illness history, treatment seeking and coping styles. 506 geographically dispersed participants (84.7% male, mostly mid-twenties in age) were surveyed, with 111 returning to complete the measures six consecutive times. Life circumstances were diverse at baseline, with 62.8% working, 55.3% studying, 14.9% seeking work, 48.9% in a romantic relationship and 9.5% acting in a parenting role.
The quantitative description of action disorganisation after brain damage: a case study

Abstract This paper outlines a theoretical approach to the study of action in simple, routine activities, along with a coding system for describing and analysing performance. The approach is exemplified through a single case study involving a patient who developed a profound action disorder following rupture of a pericallosal artery aneurysm and concomitant anterior cerebral artery spasm. The Action Coding System provides a detailed, quantitative picture of this patient's action disorder as it was manifested in two routine tasks and as it recovered over time. Discussion focuses on the cognitive organisation and processing of simple, everyday tasks and suggests how disruption of performance may ensue when intentional control of action is compromised.
Performance Comparison of HEVC and H.264/AVC Standards in Broadcasting Environments

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the most recent video codec standard of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group. The main goal of this newly introduced standard is for catering to high-resolution video in low bandwidth environments with a higher compression ratio. This paper provides a performance comparison between HEVC and H.264/AVC video compression standards in terms of objective quality, delay, and complexity in the broadcasting environment. The experimental investigation was carried out using six test sequences in the random access configuration of the HEVC test model (HM), the HEVC reference software. This was also carried out in similar configuration settings of the Joint Scalable Video Module (JSVM), the official scalable H.264/AVC reference implementation, running on a single layer mode. According to the results obtained, the HM achieves more than double the compression ratio compared to that of JSVM and delivers the same video quality at half the bitrate. Yet, the HM encodes two times slower (at most) than JSVM. Hence, it can be concluded that the application scenarios of HM and JSVM should be judiciously selected considering the availability of system resources. For instance, HM is not suitable for low delay applications, but it can be used effectively in low bandwidth environments.
Loading Architecture for a Sensor Web Browser on Digital Earth

The world-wide sensor web observes real world phenomena at a particular moment in time with a large number of geo-referenced sensors. Sensor web needs a sensor web browser for accessing distributed and heterogeneous sensor networks in a coherent frontend. The Digital Earth provides a geo-referenced three-dimensional environment for intuitively browsing and displaying sensor observations. However, the major challenge is to load the vast amount of sensor observations from servers to a sensor web browser while minimizing the delay that a user experiences. This research uses two techniques to address the challenge. First, the browser caches transmitted data onto the local hard drive to reduce redundant internet bandwidth consumption. Second, this work designs a loading architecture to decouple sensor data loading, rendering
Resolution of initial-state in security applications of DES

A non-deterministic labeled finite automaton is initial-state opaque if the membership of its true initial state to a set of secret states S remains opaque (i.e., uncertain) to an intruder who observes system activity through some natural projection map. The verification of initial-state opacity has been shown to be a PSPACE-complete problem by establishing that it is equivalent to the language containment problem. In this paper we take a slightly different viewpoint and try to assess the ability of a user (who is dictating the activity in the system and indirectly the observations generated) to avoid revealing to the outside observer that the initial state of the system lied within the set of secret states S. A system that does not allow the user to act indefinitely in such a way is said to posses the property of resolution of initial state with respect to S. We show that in discrete event systems that can be modeled as non-deterministic labeled finite automata, this property can be verified with polynomial complexity in a way that resembles the verification of diagnosability.
International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007 the Effects of Colour Image Features on the Performance of a Wavelet-based Codec

The objective of this research is to identify which characteristics of a colour image can influence the coding performance of a wavelet-based codec. It is envisage that the result from this study can be used to select the most appropriate wavelet to compress still colour images. Correlation coefficients between many statistical features of colour images and their PSNR, CR and bpp values are computed. The results show that the colour histogram statistics of the images do not influence the coding performance. However, image gradient and spatial frequency of the colour images have good correlation with the PSNR, CR and bpp.
Enterprise as sunset career? Entrepreneurial intentions in the ageing population

The contribution of our study is twofold. Firstly, it responds to the great need for the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to examine entrepreneurial intentions in other demographic segments than students. Secondly, we address the topical policy issue of explaining the entrepreneurial intentions of the ageing population (individuals aged 50 or over). We found support for the TPB model in our sample of 531 older individuals in Finland. The most important predictor of entrepreneurial intentions was Perceived Behavioural Control, which is in keeping with earlier studies of students' entrepreneurial intentions. As such, the entrepreneurial intentions of older individuals are mostly influenced by their perception as to how easy or difficult they think starting up a business would be – an issue that policy planners are well advised to keep in mind.
Understanding of auditory discourse in older adults: The effects of syntax and working memory

Background: As people age, language-processing ability changes. While several factors modify discourse comprehension ability in older adults, syntactic complexity of auditory discourse has received scant attention. This is despite the widely researched domain of syntactic processing of single sentences in older adults. Aims: The aims of this study were to investigate the ability of healthy older adults to understand stories that differed in syntactic complexity, and its relation to working memory. Methods & Procedures: A total of 51 healthy adults (divided into three age groups) took part. They listened to brief stories (syntactically simple and syntactically complex) and had to respond to false/true comprehension probes following each story. Working memory capacity (digit span, forward and backward) was also measured. Outcomes & Results: Differences were found in the ability of healthy older adults to understand simple and complex discourse. The complex discourse in particular was more sensitive in discerning age-related language patterns. Only the complex discourse task correlated moderately with age. There was no correlation between age and simple discourse. As far as working memory is concerned, moderate correlations were found between working memory and complex discourse. Education did not correlate with discourse, neither simple, nor complex. Conclusions: Older adults may be less efficient in forming syntactically complex representations and this may be influenced by limitations in working memory.
The More We Know, the More We See

The role of visual perception in media literacy is paramount in understanding the shift from a linear perceptual process (literacy) to a holistic perceptual process (visuality) by which almost all information is now transmitted through the visual forms of mass media: television, film, and the Internet. The media-literate individual must be educated in the processes of visual perception and how the media use the visual channels to transmit, and often distort, information. The media-literate person understands the meaning of the primary axiom of visual communication—The more we know the more we see—as well as the next most important axiom: What is not seen is as important as what is seen.