Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing Functional Neural Connectivity as an Indicator of Cognitive Performance

Abstract : Studies in recent years have demonstrated that neural organization and structure impact an individuals ability to perform a given task. Specifical-ly, more efficient functional networks have been shown to produce better per-formance. We apply this principle to evaluation of a working memory task by providing two novel approaches for characterizing functional network connec-tivity from electroencephalography (EEG). Our first approach represents func-tional connectivity structure through the distribution of eigenvalues making up channel coherence matrices in multiple frequency bands. Our second approach uses a connectivity matrix at each frequency band, assessing variability in aver-age path lengths and degree across the network. We also use features based on the pattern of frequency band power across the EEG channels. Failures in digit and sentence recall on single trials are detected using a Gaussian classifier for each feature set at each frequency band. The classifier results are then fused across frequency bands, with the resulting detection performance summarized using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) statistic. Fused AUC results of 0.63/0.58/0.61 for digit recall failure and 0.57/0.59/0.47 for sentence recall failure are obtained from the connectivity structure, graph variability, and channel power features respectively.
Cool WISPs for stellar cooling excesses

Several stellar systems (white dwarfs, red giants, horizontal branch stars and possibly the neutron star in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A) show a mild preference for a non-standard cooling mechanism when compared with theoretical models. This exotic cooling could be provided by Weakly Interacting Slim Particles (WISPs), produced in the hot cores and abandoning the star unimpeded, contributing directly to the energy loss. Taken individually, these excesses do not show a strong statistical weight. However, if one mechanism could consistently explain several of them, the hint could be significant. We analyze the hints in terms of neutrino anomalous magnetic moments, minicharged particles, hidden photons and axion-like particles (ALPs). Among them, the ALP or a massless HP represent the best solution. Interestingly, the hinted ALP parameter space is accessible to the next generation proposed ALP searches, such as ALPS II and IAXO and the massless HP requires a multi TeV energy scale of new physics that might be accessible at the LHC.
Isolation of Highly Active Monoclonal Antibodies against Multiresistant Gram-Positive Bacteria

Multiresistant nosocomial pathogens often cause life-threatening infections that are sometimes untreatable with currently available antibiotics. Staphylococci and enterococci are the predominant Gram-positive species associated with hospital-acquired infections. These infections often lead to extended hospital stay and excess mortality. In this study, a panel of fully human monoclonal antibodies was isolated from a healthy individual by selection of B-cells producing antibodies with high opsonic killing against E. faecalis 12030. Variable domains (VH and VL) of these immunoglobulin genes were amplified by PCR and cloned into an eukaryotic expression vector containing the constant domains of a human IgG1 molecule and the human lambda constant domain. These constructs were transfected into CHO cells and culture supernatants were collected and tested by opsonophagocytic assay against E. faecalis and S. aureus strains (including MRSA). At concentrations of 600 pg/ml, opsonic killing was between 40% and 70% against all strains tested. Monoclonal antibodies were also evaluated in a mouse sepsis model (using S. aureus LAC and E. faecium), a mouse peritonitis model (using S. aureus Newman and LAC) and a rat endocarditis model (using E. faecalis 12030) and were shown to provide protection in all models at a concentration of 4 μg/kg per animal. Here we present a method to produce fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibodies that are opsonic in vitro and protective in vivo against several multiresistant Gram-positive bacteria. The monoclonal antibodies presented in this study are significantly more effective compared to another monoclonal antibody currently in clinical trials.
FLOSS in an Industrial Economics Perspective

Ces dernieres annees, la diffusion du logiciel libre, ou open source, represente une des evolutions les plus importantes de l’industrie des technologies de l’information. Dans un contexte d’une economie basee sur la connaissance, ce modele apparait comme exemplaire pour de nombreuses industries, ou la quantite de connaissance qu’il faut maitriser est trop grande pour etre maitrisee par un seul agent, meme puissant. Considerer la connaissance comme une ressource partagee implique de repenser le concept de chaine de valeur, car la richesse est generee par les usages de cette base de connaissance (services, produits complementaires) et non plus de la connaissance par elle-meme. Si l’on se place dans une perspective d’economie industrielle « classique », cette restructuration de la valeur doit etre etudiee au niveau de l’ecosysteme global (qui produit quoi entre les entreprises et les universites, entre les utilisateurs et les producteurs, etc.), mais aussi au niveau industriel (une fois que le role de l’industrie est compris, comment celle-ci s’organise). De nombreuses explications ont ete proposees, mais, la plupart du temps, les chercheurs etudient soit l’implication des entreprises dans les communautes, soit l’integration du logiciel libre dans leurs strategies commerciales, rarement les deux. Dans cet article, nous defendons l’idee d’une approche plus structuree et globale, partant des conditions initiales du marche de l’informatique et des competences des acheteurs en terme de developpement logiciel (les competences de l’utilisateur « representatif »). Ce cadre conceptuel permet d’eclairer les differents comportements des entreprises que l’on constate dans l’ecosysteme libre, et specifiquement la variation de leur implication.
Magnetic field reduction by optimal connection for power transmission lines with underground power cables

The purpose of this paper is to search for the optimal connection of power transmission lines with underground power cables for a newly constructed substation to reduce the magnetic flux density around it. The genetic algorithm method is employed for solving the problem of optimization mentioned above to get a best connection. With the optimal connection, the magnetic flux density can be reduced effectively without spending or utilizing extra time, manpower, and equipment.
Acemannan, a polysaccharide extracted from Aloe vera, is effective in the treatment of oral aphthous ulceration.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to elucidate the safety and effectiveness of acemannan, a polysaccharide extracted from Aloe vera, in the treatment of oral aphthous ulceration. DESIGN A skin patch test was performed on 100 healthy subjects, and 0.5% acemannan in Carbopol® 934P NF (Lubrizol Corporation, USA) was applied to the oral mucosa of the lower lip of 50 healthy participants 3 times/day for 7 days. Oral examinations and blood tests measuring liver and kidney function were performed prior to, and following, 7 days of application to assess the side-effects of acemannan when used on oral mucosa. Another 180 subjects with recurrent aphthous ulceration randomly received one of three treatments: 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide (HOE Pharmaceuticals, Malaysia), 0.5% acemannan in Carbopol® 934P NF, or pure Carbopol® 934P NF. Medications were applied to the ulcers 3 times/day for 7 days. Measurements of ulcer size and patient satisfaction ratings were performed on days 2, 5, and 7. Pain ratings were recorded daily. RESULTS No subjects exhibited allergic reactions or side-effects to acemannan. There were no significant differences between the blood test values before and after 7 days of acemannan application. The effectiveness of acemannan in reducing ulcer size and pain was superior to that of control, but inferior to that of 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide. Patients were mostly satisfied with 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide and acemannan treatment. CONCLUSIONS Acemannan can be used for the treatment of oral aphthous ulceration in patients who wish to avoid the use of steroid medication, although the effectiveness was not comparable to that of 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide.
A flexible image database system for content-based retrieval

There is a growing need for the ability to query image databases based on similarity of image content rather than strict keyword search. As distance computations can be expensive, there is a need for indexing systems and algorithms that can eliminate candidate images without performing distance calculations. As user needs may change from session to session, there is also a need for run-time creation of distance measures. In this paper we present FIDS (flexible image database system). FIDS allows the user to query the database based on complex combinations of dozens of pre-defined distance measures. Using an indexing scheme and algorithms based on the triangle inequality, FIDS can often return matches to the query image without directly comparing the query image to more than a small percentage of the database.
The Persistence of Extreme Gender Segregation in the Twenty-first Century1

Why is there so much occupational sex segregation in the 21st century? The authors cast light on this question by using the O*NET archive of occupation traits to operationalize the concepts of essentialism and vertical inequality more exhaustively than in past research. When the new model is applied to recent U.S. Census data, the results show that much vertical segregation remains even after the physical, analytic, and interactional forms of essentialism are controlled; that essentialism nonetheless accounts for much more of total segregation than does vertical inequality; that the physical and interactional forms of segregation are especially strong; that the physical form of essentialism is one of the few examples of female-advantaging segregation; and that essentialism takes on a fractal structure that generates much finely detailed segregation at detailed occupational levels. The authors conclude by discussing how essentialist processes partly account for the intransigence of occupational sex segregation.
Ieee Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 1 a Noninterferometric Procedure for Deformation Measurement Using Gb-sar Imagery

—Deformation monitoring using ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR) data usually exploits the in-terferometric phases. In this letter, a new noninterferometric procedure is proposed, which exploits the geometric content of GB-SAR amplitude imagery and estimates deformation through image matching. This letter describes, step by step, this procedure. In order to achieve acceptable deformation measurement performances, the technique needs special targets, which have to guarantee a good image matching quality. If the available natural targets are insufficient, artificial corner reflectors are required. The new approach overcomes some of the main limitations of GB-SAR interferometry; it yields aliasing-free deformation estimates, is insensitive to atmospheric effects, and provides 2-D displacement measurements while interferometry only has a mono-dimensional measurement capability. Several experiments focusing on the performances of the new procedure are described. The procedure is validated using different scenarios. On a real-size landslide scenario, a mean absolute error over 12 corner reflectors of 0.59 cm is achieved, i.e., 1/85th of the pixel size. These encouraging results can be of interest for several deformation monitoring applications.
Application to Vehicle Routing Optimization Problem Using Information System Based on Intelligent Optimization Algorithm

Information system based on intelligent optimization algorithm is provided in this paper to solve the vehicle routing optimization problem with time constraint. And a hybrid optimization algorithm-PBIL combined with Ant algorithm is proposed and applied to VRP. The objective function is to minimize the cost and reduce the loss caused by customers’ time restriction. The probability matrix of PBIL algorithm is modified with the positive feedback and information disappearing mechanisms of Ant algorithm. Also, the probability statistics for the road traffic status distributed is considered in decision-making for the vehicles’ routing. All the demands of customers are taken as the main constraints in this information system. And the optimal scheme is obtained by t he hybrid intelligent evolutionary algorithm. The actual case is used to test the algorithm and system. The result is excited.
Dynamic simulation of hydrodynamically interacting suspensions

A general method for computing the hydrodynamic interactions among an infinite suspension of particles, under the condition of vanishingly small particle Reynolds number, is presented. The method follows the procedure developed by O'Brien (1979) for constructing absolutely convergent expressions for particle interactions. For use in dynamic simulation, the convergence of these expressions is accelerated by application of the Ewald summation technique. The resulting hydrodynamic mobility and/or resistance matrices correctly include all far-field non-convergent interactions. Near-field lubrication interactions are incorporated into the resistance matrix using the technique developed by Durlofsky, Brady & Bossis (1987). The method is rigorous, accurate and computationally efficient, and forms the basis of the Stokesian-dynamics simulation method. The method is completely general and allows such diverse suspension problems as self-diffusion, sedimentation, rheology and flow in porous media to be treated within the same formulation for any microstructural arrangement of particles. The accuracy of the Stokesian-dynamics method is illustrated by comparing with the known exact results for spatially periodic suspensions.
Towards the imaging of Weibel–Palade body biogenesis by serial block face-scanning electron microscopy

Electron microscopy is used in biological research to study the ultrastructure at high resolution to obtain information on specific cellular processes. Serial block face‐scanning electron microscopy is a relatively novel electron microscopy imaging technique that allows three‐dimensional characterization of the ultrastructure in both tissues and cells by measuring volumes of thousands of cubic micrometres yet at nanometre‐scale resolution. In the scanning electron microscope, repeatedly an image is acquired followed by the removal of a thin layer resin embedded biological material by either a microtome or a focused ion beam. In this way, each recorded image contains novel structural information which can be used for three‐dimensional analysis.
Location Determination Systems for WLANs

In this paper we discuss three location determination mechanisms for WLANs based on geolocation models (Global Positioning System, Angle of Arrival, Timebased Models and a Signal Strength based model). We also present a new mechanism that determines the location of a WLAN station within a triangle or quadrangle with probabilistically the strongest vertices. The Signal Strength based model is identified to be the most appropriate location determination system in a local wireless network, because of its proven accuracy. Such an algorithm can be used to locate all users in an infrastructure type of WLAN, including an attacker. Thus, it provides privacy in a wireless local environment that is equivalent to the inherent privacy in wired local environments due to the tools available to detect the location of an attacker on a cabled network.
Radner equilibrium in incomplete Lévy models 1

We construct continuous-time equilibrium models based on a finite number of exponential utility investors. The investors’ income rates as well as the stock’s dividend rate are governed by discontinuous Lévy processes. Our main result provides the equilibrium (i.e., bond and stock price dynamics) in closed-form. As an application, we show that the equilibrium Sharpe ratio can be increased and the equilibrium interest rate can be decreased (simultaneously) when the investors’ income streams cannot be traded. The first author has been supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMS1411809 (2014-2017). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF). 1 ar X iv :1 50 7. 02 97 4v 2 [ qfi n. M F] 1 3 Ju l 2 01 5
Improved apriori algorithm based on selection criterion

Association rule mining is used to uncover closely related item sets in transactions for deciding business policies. Apriori algorithm is widely adopted is association rule mining for generating closely related item sets. Traditional apriori algorithm is space and time consuming since it requires repeated scanning of whole transaction database. In this paper we propose improved apriori algorithm based on compressed transaction database. Transaction database is compressed based on the consequence of interest.
CRPV Genomes with Synonymous Codon Optimizations in the CRPV E7 Gene Show Phenotypic Differences in Growth and Altered Immunity upon E7 Vaccination

Papillomaviruses use rare codons relative to their hosts. Recent studies have demonstrated that synonymous codon changes in viral genes can lead to increased protein production when the codons are matched to those of cells in which the protein is being expressed. We theorized that the immunogenicity of the virus would be enhanced by matching codons of selected viral genes to those of the host. We report here that synonymous codon changes in the E7 oncogene are tolerated in the context of the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus (CRPV) genome. Papilloma growth rates differ depending upon the changes made indicating that synonymous codons are not necessarily neutral. Immunization with wild type E7 DNA yielded significant protection from subsequent challenge by both wild type and codon-modified genomes. The reduction in growth was most dramatic with the genome containing the greatest number of synonymous codon changes.
Using noun class information to model selectional preferences for translating prepositions in SMT

Translating prepositions is a difficult and under-studied problem in SMT. We present a novel method to improve the translation of prepositions by using noun classes to model their selectional preferences. We compare three variants of noun class information: (i) classes induced from the lexical resource GermaNet or obtained from clusterings based on either (ii) window information or (iii) syntactic features. Furthermore, we experiment with PP rule generalization. While we do not significantly improve over the baseline, our results demonstrate that (i) integrating selectional preferences as rigid class annotation in the parse tree is sub-optimal, and that (ii) clusterings based on window co-occurrence are more robust than syntax-based clusters or GermaNet classes for the task of modeling selectional preferences.
The progressivity and regressivity of aid to the social sectors

This paper analyses the distribution of total aid and aid to the social sectors between 2009 and 2011. Its key findings are four-fold. First, despite the stated objectives of donors, total aid disbursements are broadly neutral, favouring neither the most deprived nor relatively well-off countries. Second, the pattern of social sector aid disbursements follows those for total aid. Third, the aid allocation patterns of bilateral and multilateral donors differ, with multilateral donors generally being more focused on the poorest countries. Finally, the distribution of aid for health and population is more progressive than that for education or other social sectors.
Thermal Imaging to Study Stress Non-invasively in Unrestrained Birds

Stress, a central concept in biology, describes a suite of emergency responses to challenges. Among other responses, stress leads to a change in blood flow that results in a net influx of blood to key organs and an increase in core temperature. This stress-induced hyperthermia is used to assess stress. However, measuring core temperature is invasive. As blood flow is redirected to the core, the periphery of the body can cool. This paper describes a protocol where peripheral body temperature is measured non-invasively in wild blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) using infrared thermography. In the field we created a set-up bringing the birds to an ideal position in front of the camera by using a baited box. The camera takes a short thermal video recording of the undisturbed bird before applying a mild stressor (closing the box and therefore capturing the bird), and the bird’s response to being trapped is recorded. The bare skin of the eye-region is the warmest area in the image. This allows an automated extraction of the maximum eye-region temperature from each image frame, followed by further steps of manual data filtering removing the most common sources of errors (motion blur, blinking). This protocol provides a time series of eye-region temperature with a fine temporal resolution that allows us to study the dynamics of the stress response non-invasively. Further work needs to demonstrate the usefulness of the method to assess stress, for instance to investigate whether eye-region temperature response is proportional to the strength of the stressor. If this can be confirmed, it will provide a valuable alternative method of stress assessment in animals and will be useful to a wide range of researchers from ecologists, conservation biologists, physiologists to animal welfare researchers.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Cc by Improved Architectures for Fused Floating Point Add-subtract Unit

The fused floating point add-subtract unit is useful for digital signal processing (DSP) applications Such as fast Fourier transform (FFT) & discrete cosine transform (DCT) butterfly operations. To improve the performance of fused floating point add-subtract unit, a dual path algorithm& pipelining algorithms are useful . The designs are implemented for both single and double precision. The fused floating point add-subtract unit saves area and power consumption compared to discrete floating point add-subtract unit. The dual path design reduces latency compared to discrete design with area and power consumption between discrete and fused design. The fused dual path floating point add-subtract unit can be split into two pipeline stages, since latencies of two pipeline stages will be fairly well balanced.
Identity Formation in Adolescence: The Dynamic of Forming and Consolidating Identity Commitments

The biological, cognitive, and social changes that occur in adolescence stimulate young people to think about themselves, reflect on the kind of people they want to become, and find their place in society. Traditionally, these changes have been explained by Erikson's theory and Marcia's identity status model, but process-oriented models of identity provide new insights. In particular, dual-cycle models, such as the three-factor identity model, focus on the dynamic process by which young people iteratively form and maintain their identity over time. This iterative process is captured by the interplay of commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment, as well as by distinct identity statuses. Furthermore, the extent to which adolescents find a stable identity is intertwined strongly with their psychosocial functioning and well-being.