Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC PITCH RANGES AMONG SIMULTANEOUS K’ICHEE’-SPANISH BILINGUALS

Twenty-four simultaneous bilinguals of K’ichee’ (Mayan) and Spanish produced broad focus declaratives in both languages. Target words, taken from the middle of syntactically parallel phrases, were analyzed prosodically in terms of both pitch register and pitch span, and compared across both languages according to language dominance in order to determine if these bilinguals have languagespecific pitch ranges. Results demonstrate that the participants produce lower L tones in Spanish than in K’ichee’ regardless of language dominance. However, the speakers produce higher H tones in their non-dominant language than in their dominant language and K’ichee’-dominant bilinguals produce larger between-language differences in pitch span than Spanish-dominant bilinguals. It is argued that these findings may correspond to the frequency code, in that a higher pitch may be a manifestation of the bilinguals’ uncertainty or lower level of confidence when speaking their less-dominant language.
Chapter 12 Access Control and Authentication in the Internet of Things Environment

The scientific and business communities have realized the importance of IoT (Internet of Things) and its emergence in enhancing our day-to-day lifestyle. According to Gartner’s forecast, there will be 20 billion devices connected to the IoT by 2020 [1]. Vast numbers of diverse devices from different vendors have already been connected towards achieving this target. The capabilities of these devices range from tiny measuring sensors to RFID mechanisms to traditional processing devices such as PCs and notebooks. The IoT application areas also vary from homes to hospitals, supply chain systems to industry automation, farming to electric grids, etc. It is important to address the concern of heterogeneity, scalability, energy efficiency (due to power and cost constraints of devices), integration and mining of enormous generated data (widely termed as Big Data), device configuration management, and most importantly the security (both at the logical level and physical level) and privacy. Security of data and devices is one of the most significant concerns in the IoT. For example, security breaches and unwanted alterations in smart healthcare systems and faulty/irregular readings of health parameters of the patient could lead to unwanted or even fatal treatment. The whole credibility and deployability of the IoT solely depend on security aspects only. Authentication and access control are the first steps towards any security measures. With whom and up to what extent, one can access/communicate the devices in IoT scenario, are important aspects of security, especially when diverse devices with different capability have to perform collaborative tasks. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the reader with access
EFFECTS OF DISCRETIZATION ON REDUCIBILITY FOR PDE MODELS WITH VARIABLE GEOMETRY : A PRELIMINARY STUDY

When modelling boundary value problems numerically, the choice of discretization is of great importance. While the effect of the discretization on the approximation accuracy has been studied extensively, little has been said about model order reduction aspects. In this study, we explore how this choice can affect the reducibility of geometrically parameterized models. In particular, the focus is on comparing the performance of isogeometric and conventional finite element methods. To this end, we use a hybrid Krylov-POD procedure to reduce isogeometric and finite element models of two test cases involving linear dynamics. The results of this preliminary investigation indicate that isogeometric methods may lead to models that are more amenable to reduction.
Neutrinos , Symmetries and the Origin of Matter

In this thesis, we explore seesaw extensions of the Standard Model, where heavy states mediate neutrino mass generation and the smallness of these masses is naturally accounted for. Nonvanishing neutrino masses allow for leptonic mixing, whose structure strongly differs from that of quark mixing. The closeness of the lepton mixing matrix to the tribimaximal pattern points to the presence of discrete symmetries in the underlying high-energy theory – such as invariance under transformations of the A4 group, considered in this work. The Standard Model also fails to provide a satisfactory mechanism for the generation of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. A remarkable feature of the seesaw extensions is the possibility that the out-of-equilibrium decays of the new heavy states are responsible for the dynamical generation of this asymmetry. This corresponds to the leptogenesis mechanism, whose efficiency is here determined by numerically solving a system of Boltzmann equations. A particular model for spontaneous leptonic CP violation is analysed where neutrino masses and mixing are explained imposing an A4 discrete symmetry. The implementation of the leptogenesis mechanism in this context is discussed in detail.
Title Rampart : Protecting Web Applications from CPU-Exhaustion Denial-of-Service Attacks Permalink

Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks pose a severe threat to the availability of web applications. Traditionally, attackers have employed botnets or amplification techniques to send a significant amount of requests to exhaust a target web server’s resources, and, consequently, prevent it from responding to legitimate requests. However, more recently, highly sophisticated DoS attacks have emerged, in which a single, carefully crafted request results in significant resource consumption and ties up a web application’s back-end components for a non-negligible amount of time. Unfortunately, these attacks require only few requests to overwhelm an application, which makes them difficult to detect by state-of-the-art detection systems. In this paper, we present Rampart, which is a defense that protects web applications from sophisticated CPUexhaustion DoS attacks. Rampart detects and stops sophisticated CPU-exhaustion DoS attacks using statistical methods and function-level program profiling. Furthermore, it synthesizes and deploys filters to block subsequent attacks, and it adaptively updates them to minimize any potentially negative impact on legitimate users. We implemented Rampart as an extension to the PHP Zend engine. Rampart has negligible performance overhead and it can be deployed for any PHP application without having to modify the application’s source code. To evaluate Rampart’s effectiveness and efficiency, we demonstrate that it protects two of the most popular web applications, WordPress and Drupal, from real-world and synthetic CPU-exhaustion DoS attacks, and we also show that Rampart preserves web server performance with low false positive rate and low false negative rate.
MAPPING POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES USING MACHINE LEARNING, SATELLITE IMAGERY, AND CROWD-SOURCED GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION

Mapping the distribution of poverty in developing countries is essential for humanitarian organizations and policymakers to formulate targeted programs and aid. However, traditional methods for obtaining socioeconomic data can be timeconsuming, expensive, labor-intensive. Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of combining machine learning with satellite images to estimate wealth in sub-Saharan African countries (Xie et al., 2015; Jean et al., 2016). In this study, we investigate the extent to which this method can be applied in the context of the Philippine archipelago to predict four different socioeconomic indicators: wealth level, years of education, access to electricity, and access to water. We also propose a cost-effective approach that leverages a combination of volunteered geographic information from OpenStreetMap (OSM) and nighttime lights satellite imagery for estimating socioeconomic indicators. The best models, which incorporate regional indicators as predictors, explain approximately 63% of the variation in asset-based wealth. Our findings also indicate that models trained on publicly available, volunteer-curated geographic data achieve the same predictive performance as that of models trained using proprietary satellite images.
EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF MULTITARGETED KINASE INHIBITORS IN PROGRESSIVE , RADIOIODINE-REFRACTORY DIFFERENTIATED THYROID CANCERS : A META-ANALYSIS

Purpose: A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of oral multitargeted kinase inhibitors (MTKIs) in radioactive-iodine refractory locally advanced, recurrent/metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) on disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates. Materials and Methods: The PubMed/MEDLINE, CANCERLIT, EMBASE, Cochrane Library database and other search engines were searched to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing MTKIs with placebo in locally advanced, recurrent/metastatic DTC. Pooled data were expressed as odds ratio (OR), with 95% confidence intervals (CIs, Mantel–Haenszel fixed-effect model). Results: Three RCTs with a total patient population of 954 patients were identified. The use of MTKIs was associated with improved PFS (OR: 0.262, 95% CI: 0.19–0.35; heterogeneity (I2) = 22.4%; P < 0.0001), improved DCR (complete and partial responses + stable disease, P < 0.0001) and improved OS 0.66, 95% CI: 0.46–0.96 (I2 = 43%, P = 0.034). Lenvatinib (compliance = 87%) was associated with more grade ≥3 hypertension. However, its other adverse effects were much lower than sorafenib (compliance = 56%) and vandetanib. Conclusion: In radioactive iodine-refractory recurrent, metastatic DTC patients, lenvatinib and sorafenib were associated with improved PFS, DRC and OS rates, while the compliance was better with lenvatinib.
The Labelled Cycle-Decomposition Trees of a Connected Graph

The notion of a labelled cycle-decomposition tree for an arbitrary graph is introduced in this paper. The idea behind the labelled cycle-decomposition tree, one constructed for each vertex in the graph, is to attach to each vertex a data structure that gives more than local information about the vertex, where the data structures can be compared in polynomial time. The fact that trees can be compared in linear time, with particularly efficient algorithms for solving the isomorphism problem for rooted and labelled trees, led us to consider how we could represent the vertex's view of the graph by means of a labelled rooted tree. Of course, cycles in the graph can't be directly recorded by means of a tree structure, but in this article, we present one method for recording certain of the cycles that are encountered during a breadth-first search from the vertex in question. The collection of labelled, so-called cycle-decomposition trees for the graph, one for each vertex, provide an invariant of the graph.
Applying CRISPR-Cas9 Off-Target Editing on DNA based Steganography

Different from cryptography which encodes data into an incomprehensible format difficult to decrypt, steganography hides the trace of data and therefore minimizes attention to the hidden data. To hide data, a carrier body must be utilized. In addition to the traditional data carriers including images, audios, and videos, DNA emerges as another promising data carrier due to its high capacity and complexity. Currently, DNA based steganography can be practiced with either biological DNA substances or digital DNA sequences. In this article, we present a digital DNA steganography approach that utilizes the CRISPR-Cas9 off-target editing such that the secret message is fragmented into multiple sgRNA homologous sequences in the genome. Retrieval of the hidden message mimics the Cas9 off-target detection process which can be accelerated by computer software. The feasibility of this approach is analyzed, and practical concerns are discussed.
Case recommender: a recommender framework

Case Recommender is a Python implementation of a number of popular content-based and collaborative recommendation algorithms which use implicit and explicit feedback. The framework aims to provide a rich set of components from which developers can construct a customized recommender system. One differential of the framework is the possibility to combine multiple recommenders in a post-processing ensemble approach to produce more accurate results. Case Recommender can be used for rating prediction and item recommendation tasks, and it includes different metrics and procedures for validation and evaluation.
Treatment Allocation for Linear Models with Covariate Information

This paper analyses optimal treatment allocation of experimental units to treatment and control group. ’Optimal’ means that the allocation of treatments should balance covariates across treatment and control group in a way that minimizes the variance of the treatment estimator in a given linear model. This paper shows the benefits as well as the limits of this approach. In particular, it presents a sample size formula as well as several simulations to give some intuition on the minimum as well as the maximum benefits of this approach compared to random allocation as well as to alternative methods of treatment allocation. JEL Classification: C90, C61
Measurements of instantaneous flow structure – influence of vortical structures on mass transfer in vicinity of a fixed bubble

The particular knowledge of mass transfer is of high interest for industrial processes in chemical, pharmaceutical, biological and food industry. To date, the mass transfer performance of apparatuses is mainly estimated by empirical Sherwood correlations, which take into account the flow regime with the Reynolds number of the bubble motion or with the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate (Lamont and Scott 1970). The dependence of flow structure on mass transfer processes has not been exhaustively researched yet. As a result of the rapid development of (spatial and temporal) high resolution image based measurement techniques, the detailed acquisition of both flow and concentration fields has become possible. The processing of a magnitude of instantaneous data allows a deeper insight into transport processes. In all engineering flows, vortices are present, and there are various reasons for their formation. They arise from turbulence, wakes, secondary flows and moving of fluidic interfaces. The understanding of processes in multiphase reactors and apparatuses can be enhanced by investigating the influence of the flow topology and thus, of vortex generation, evolution, interaction and decay (Kolar 2007), on mass transfer processes. In this work, a brief overview is given over how vortical structures can be identified in measurement data and how they can be characterized in terms of their mass transfer relevance. Furthermore, experimental results with high spatial and temporal resolution are shown, illustrating the flow pattern and mass transfer in the vicinity of a single bubble at different flow conditions (different Reynolds numbers, artificial upstream wakes, etc.). Hydrodynamics are investigated by conducting high-speed Particle Image Velocimetry, the mass transfer coefficient is determined from the shrinking rate of a CO2 bubble in water (Kastens et al. 2015) by conducting high-speed videography.
Development and Validation of a Simultaneous HPLC Method for Quantification of Amlodipine Besylate and Metoprolol Tartrate in Tablets

A reverse phase method has been developed for the quantitative estimation of amlodipine besylate and metoprolol tartrate in tablet. The quantification was carried out using RP stainless steel column ODS C18 250 x 4.6 x 5 μ L1 packing in isocratic mode with mobile phase containing 0.03 M phosphate buffer and acetonitrile in the ratio of 32: 68 (pH 3.5). Flow rate of 1.2 ml/min and the detection wavelength were set at 230 nm and the linearity was found to be in the range of 8-12 ìg/ml for amlodipine besylate and metoprolol tartrate. The proposed method was found to be simple, precise, accurate, and reproducible for the estimation of amlodipine besylate and metoprolol tartrate.
Clinical Study The Long-TermResults of Frontalis Suspension Using Autogenous Fascia Lata in Children with Congenital Ptosis under 3 Years Old Lale

Purpose. To describe the long-term results of frontalis suspension using autogenous fascia lata in children with congenital ptosis under 3 years old. Methods. Forty three-eyes of 35 patients were enrolled in the study. Frontalis suspension using autogenous fascia lata was performed in all patients. The postoperative eyelid level, ptosis recurrence, visual acuity, and cosmetic results were evaluated. Results. The mean age of the patients was 16.8 ± 9 months (7–36 months). The mean follow-up time was 52.8 ± 15 months (14–95 months). All patients had good (ptosis < 2 mm) or moderate (2-3 mm ptosis) eyelid level after the operation. All patients achieved satisfactory cosmetic results. Succesfull harvesting was performed in all cases and no additional materials or surgical manipulation were needed during the surgery. Conclusion. Frontalis suspension using autogenous fascia lata can be used in children under 3 years old without harvesting problems. Surgical experience and good knowledge of anatomy are important factors for successful results after the surgery.
Rational, political and cultural explanations of the utilization of relative performance evaluation in Swedish local government

One of the more lasting imprints that New Public Management (NPM) has made in the public sector is an increased popularity of performance measurement. Sweden is one of the countries where performance measurement is gaining popularity in the public sector. This is especially true when it comes to the local government level and the use of relative performance evaluations (RPE). Due to the fact that the utilization of RPE is a decentralized and totally optional decision and mode of governance a somewhat differentiated and heterogeneous practice has evolved. The aim of this paper is to examine what has caused this differentiated practice. We jointly test economic, political and institutional/cultural explanations to explain the relative utilization of RPE. Our findings indicate that all three perspectives has contribution to the overall understanding of RPE utilization but that political and institutional explanations primarily has explanatory power for the adoption of RPE whilst economic and cultural explanations primarily matters for the stated use of the method. A discrepancy between stated adoption and use for a certain group of organisations is seen as an indication of decoupling. The empirical material constitutes of archival data and a questionnaire sent out to all municipalities in late 2005. 1 Corresponding author: tobias.johansson@spa.gu. se; School of Public Administration, P.O. Box 712, 405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Unmanned System and vehicle for infrastructure inspection – image correction , quantification , reliabilities and formation of Façade map

Structure deterioration cause by aging and plus extreme weather is the one of the major problem in developed country, at same time, aging of society makes the industry automation more important than anything else. The first step of condition/damage assessment is usually visual inspection, which can be expensive, laborious and dangerous as it is often performed by climbers or inspector with special equipment. As a solution to these problem, researcher around the world has all come up similar idea – using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle / Drone to perform some part of the visual inspection. Even though, conventional drone performing visual inspection produce high resolution photo and high definition video, however, none of them are quantified, hence the use for engineering is very limited (this is one of the main reason why infrastructure inspection by drone didn’t get popular despite the drone technologies has been around for at least ten plus years). Research team in Chung-Yuan Christian University has developed a universal unmanned vehicle control system for controlling different type of vehicle for visually inspection of infrastructure. With system integration technologies, data fusion and novel image processing method, the team is able to quantify the recorded photo or video to provide the measurement in mm scale, plus unique image processing (correction) technique that research team has developed. Next, the paper will also discuss the accuracy and reliability of the image quantification plus the processing results. Finally, the generation of Façade map from processed image will be also discussed. M or e in fo a bo ut th is a rt ic le : ht tp :// w w w . n dt . n et /? id = 23 40 5
Surface detection andmodeling of an arbitrary point cloud from 3 D sketching

This work describes a method for converting unorganized point cloud data from 3D sketching into an explicit 3D model, contributing to closing the knowledge gap in transferring 3D sketches from a conceptual design to the detailed design. The main challenge in the work is processing an unorganized point cloud where the points fill the volume of the object and do not only lie on the surface, as they would inmost scanned data. The scope of the work is a single object, genus 0. The 3Dmodel is constructed by building a loft feature through curves generated by slicing the point cloud. Firstly, the point cloud is sliced and points worked onto slicing planes; secondly, the external points that describe the contour of each slice are isolated using alpha shapes; lastly, smooth curves are created through the external points, and a loft is generated.
WEB IMAGE RE-RANKING USING QUERY-SPECIFIC SEMANTIC SIGNATURES WITH DUPLICATE REMOVAL

Web mining uses the data mining techniques to automatically discover and extract information from web documents/services. Image re-ranking is an effective way to improve the results of web based image search. The challenge in image re-ranking is that the similarities of visual features do not correlate with images semantic meanings of users search intention. In the existing system visual features of images are compared and the semantic spaces of the query keyword are used to re-rank the images. It produce 25% to 40 % re-ranking precision using query specific semantic signature and the duplicates images are not eliminated. The proposed system improves the re-ranking precision by using semantic signatures and hashing technique and the duplicate images are identified and eliminated using similarity algorithms.50% of re-ranking precision may be expected.
CHAPTER 36 Localizing Cingulate Subregions-of-Interest in Magnetic Resonance Images Guided by Cytological Parcellations

Cingulate Parcellations in Neuron-free, Structural Images 804 The Eight-Subregion Model 805 A Template Case with Rigorous Histology 806 Case GPC 806 Landmarks and orientation 807 Comments on Sulcal Variations in Relation to SOIs 808 Identifying Subregion Borders in the Rostral-Caudal (y-) Axis 809 Evaluating the External Subregion Limits 810 Voluming the Subregions 811 Applying the Protocol to the Five Test Cases 811 Perspectives on the Cingulate SOI Voluming Method 813 Acknowledgments 816 References 816 Chapter contents