Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Some Observations on the Use of theExtended

The extended Kalman lter (EKF) can be used as an on-line algorithm to determine the weights in a recurrent network given target outputs as it runs. This involves forming an augmented network state vector consisting of all unit activities and weights. This report notes some relationships between the EKF as applied to recurrent net learning and some simpler techniques that are more widely used. In particular, it is shown that making certain simpliications to the EKF gives rise to an algorithm essentially identical to the real-time recurrent learning (RTRL) algorithm. That is, the resulting algorithm both maintains the RTRL data structure and prescribes identical weight changes. In addition, because the EKF also involves adjusting unit activity in the network, it provides a principled generalization of the useful \teacher forcing" technique. Very preliminary experiments on simple nite-state Boolean tasks indicate that the EKF works well for these, generally giving substantial speed-up in number of time steps required for convergence to a solution when compared with the behavior of simpler on-line gradient algorithms like RTRL or truncated backpropagation through time (BPTT). The computational requirements of the EKF for this application are also compared with those of RTRL and BPTT. For a network having n units its storage requirements scale as O(n 4), which exceeds the O(n 3) storage required by RTRL. Interestingly, however, the computation can be organized so that the number of arithmetic operations per time step scales as O(n 4), which is no worse (except by a constant factor) than RTRL. Finally, some speculation is ooered that the EKF and related algorithms may help provide a basis for both gaining a deeper understanding of existing recurrent network learning techniques and creating more computationally attractive algorithms that nevertheless retain the advantages of the EKF, most notably its incrementality and superior convergence speed.
Cortical current density vs. surface EEG for event-related potential-based Brain-Computer Interface

In this paper we use the cortical current density based inverse solution to classify Event Related Potentials, in particular for error-related potentials elicited during a Brain-Computer Interface experiment. We selected discriminant cortical sources for comparing classification performance with respect to surface EEG. We found that the data from estimated cortical sources achieves higher classification accuracy for most of the subjects. In addition, the inverse method exhibits consistently discriminant activity for the sources located over the anterior cingulate cortex region for different time points. This level of neurophysiological interpretation in terms of localisation of selected cortical sources is enabled with the use of inverse solution.
Population Coding and the Labeling Problem: Extrinsic Versus Intrinsic Representations

Current population coding methods, including weighted averaging and Bayesian estimation, are based on extrinsic representations. These require that neurons be labeled with response parameters, such as tuning curve peaks or noise distributions, which are tied to some external, world-based metric scale. Firing rates alone, without this external labeling, are insufficient to represent a variable. However, the extrinsic approach does not explain how such neural labeling is implemented. A radically different and perhaps more physiological approach is based on intrinsic representations, which have access only to firing rates. Because neurons are unlabeled, intrinsic coding represents relative, rather than absolute, values of a variable. We show that intrinsic coding has representational advantages, including invariance, categorization, and discrimination, and in certain situations it may also recover absolute stimulus values.
Differential temporal expression of matrix metalloproteinases after spinal cord injury: relationship to revascularization and wound healing.

OBJECT Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), particularly MMP-9/gelatinase B, promote early inflammation and barrier disruption after spinal cord injury (SCI). Early blockade of MMPs after injury provides neuroprotection and improves motor outcome. There is recent evidence, however, that MMP-9 and MMP-2/gelatinase A participate in later wound healing in the injured cord. The authors therefore examined the activity of these gelatinases during revascularization and glial scar formation in the contused murine spinal cord. METHODS Gelatinase activity was evaluated using gelatin zymography 24 hours after a mild, moderate, or severe contusion injury. The active form of MMP-2 was not detected, whereas MMP-9 activity was evident in all SCI groups and rose with increasing injury severity. The temporal expression of gelatinases was then examined using gelatin zymography after a moderate SCI. The active form of MMP-9 was most prominent at 1 day, extended through the early period of revascularization, and returned to control by 14 days. The active form of MMP-2 appeared at 7 days postinjury and remained elevated compared with that documented in sham-treated mice for at least 21 days. Increased MMP-2 activity coincided with both revascularization and glial scar formation. Using in situ zymography, gelatinolytic activity was detected in the meninges, vascular elements, glia, and macrophage-like cells in the injured cord. Results of immunolabeling confirmed the presence of gelatinase in vessels during revascularization and in reactive astrocytes associated with glial scar formation. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that although MMP-9 and -2 exhibit overlapping expression during revascularization, the former is associated with acute injury responses and the latter with formation of a glial scar.
Recent research development and new challenges in analog layout synthesis

Analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits play an important role in many modern emerging system-on-chip (SoC) design applications. With the expansion of the markets of those applications, the demands of analog/mixed-signal ICs have been dramatically increased. Although analog/mixed-signal ICs have gained more and more importance and demands in modern SoC applications, the development of analog electronic design automation (EDA) tools is still farther behind that of digital EDA tools. As a result, analog/mixed-signal IC design, especially the analog layout design, is still a manual, time-consuming, and error-prone task. In order to speed up modern SoC design for large varieties of emerging applications, it is desirable to develop novel analog/mixed-signal IC deign methodologies and algorithms, as well as new analog EDA tools. The purpose of this paper is to summarize recent research progress during the past decade, address new analog layout design challenges in advanced technology nodes, and facilitate more research activities in analog layout synthesis.
Target Face Detection Using Pulse Coupled Neural Network and Skin Color Model

This paper presented a target face detection method combining pulse coupled neural network (PCNN) with skin color model. First we use "reference white" method to achieve light compensation, and reuse a mixture skin color model based on HSV and YCbCr to detect skin color areas, and then use mathematical morphology and a face detection algorithm to obtain the sub-graph of face. Finally, we use PCNN to extract time series of benchmark face and all sub-graphs, and achieve the target face detection through computing the correlation of time series. Simulation results show that this method has higher accuracy independent of the benchmark face training set, and reflect better detection performance.
Formation of Massive Primordial Stars in a Reionized Gas

We use cosmological hydrodynamic simulations with unprecedented resolution to study the formation of primordial stars in an ionized gas at high redshifts. Our approach includes all the relevant atomic and molecular physics to follow the thermal evolution of a prestellar gas cloud to very high densities of ~1018 cm-3. We locate a star-forming gas cloud within a reionized region in our cosmological simulation. The gas cloud cools down to a few tens of kelvins by HD line cooling, and this is lower than possible by H2 cooling only. Owing to the low temperature, the first runaway collapse is triggered when the gas cloud's mass is ~40 M☉. We show that the cloud core remains stable against chemothermal instability and also against gravitational deformation throughout its evolution. Consequently, a single protostellar seed is formed, which accretes the surrounding hot gas at the rate ≳ 10-3 M☉ yr-1. We carry out protostellar evolution calculations using the inferred accretion rate. The resulting mass of the star when it reaches the zero-age main sequence is MZAMS ~ 40 M☉. Since the obtained MZAMS is as large as the mass of the collapsing parent cloud, the final stellar mass is likely close to this value. Such massive, rather than exceptionally massive, primordial stars are expected to cause early chemical enrichment of the universe by exploding as black hole-forming super/hypernovae and may also be progenitors of high-redshift γ-ray bursts. The elemental abundance patterns of recently discovered hyper-metal-poor stars suggest that they might have been born from the interstellar medium that was metal-enriched by the supernovae of these massive primordial stars.
Beyond 2/3 and 1/3: The Complex Signatures of Sex-Biased Admixture on the X Chromosome

Sex-biased demography, in which parameters governing migration and population size differ between females and males, has been studied through comparisons of X chromosomes, which are inherited sex-specifically, and autosomes, which are not. A common form of sex bias in humans is sex-biased admixture, in which at least one of the source populations differs in its proportions of females and males contributing to an admixed population. Studies of sex-biased admixture often examine the mean ancestry for markers on the X chromosome in relation to the autosomes. A simple framework noting that in a population with equally many females and males, two-thirds of X chromosomes appear in females, suggests that the mean X-chromosomal admixture fraction is a linear combination of female and male admixture parameters, with coefficients 2/3 and 1/3, respectively. Extending a mechanistic admixture model to accommodate the X chromosome, we demonstrate that this prediction is not generally true in admixture models, although it holds in the limit for an admixture process occurring as a single event. For a model with constant ongoing admixture, we determine the mean X-chromosomal admixture, comparing admixture on female and male X chromosomes to corresponding autosomal values. Surprisingly, in reanalyzing African-American genetic data to estimate sex-specific contributions from African and European sources, we find that the range of contributions compatible with the excess African ancestry on the X chromosome compared to autosomes has a wide spread, permitting scenarios either without male-biased contributions from Europe or without female-biased contributions from Africa.
AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

This study attempts to understand how website interactivity (level of active control and direction of communication) can impact purchase intention through consumer involvement. The product type featured on the website is a moderating factor in the effects of interactivity. In a laboratory experiment, subjects were asked to perform purchasing tasks of non-fictional books or greeting cards on websites of varying levels of interactivity. Measures were obtained for the subjects’ cognitive involvement, affective involvement and purchase intention. Results indicate that websites with high level of active control lead to cognitive involvement and, in some instances, affective involvement. Websites with bi-direction of communication lead to affective involvement for functional products but not expressive products. Responses from the subjects also revealed that there is a correlation between consumer involvement and purchase intention. Finally, future directions for researchers and implications for practitioners are addressed.
TD-RECS Chaotic System Based Digital Image Encryption Algorithm Protecting from Shearing Attack

In order to protect digital image's information and renew the image that is attacked by shearing, this paper presents a novel image encryption algorithm based on Tangent-Delay Ellipse Reflecting Cavity map System (TD-ERCS) chaos sequences. One of the TD-ERCS is used to shift the image's pixel position, another is used to alter the pixel value, so that the image will be scrambled and encrypted. While doing the decryption, a method, which is based on the neighboring pixels characteristic, is provided to recover the sheared image. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the algorithm has a large space of keys, a good encryption and decryption effects, a better security performance to statistical analysis and a strong ability against shearing.
Acute coronary syndromes , response to clopidogrel , and worsened cardiovascular outcomes : the hen and the egg dilemma

Fadini et al. mention that antibodies used and staining performed in our study were not described. In order to condense the methods section, we referred to the publication of the EPCAD study (Circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells and Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease Study), in which the patients from our study were enrolled from. Flow cytometry and staining procedures are described in detail in this publication. This study demonstrated a clear and significant association of EPC and cardiovascular outcome in patients with coronary artery disease. Moreover, we could demonstrate that EPC are an independent risk factor for erectile dysfunction. Thus, in our opinion, event counts used in both studies are adequate, especially regarding the high number of patients included. We could demonstrate in our study that only CD133þ, but not CD34þ, cells correlate with erectile function. We discussed this finding in the paper, but explanations remain speculative. CD133þ cells are precursors of CD34þ cells with an increased potency for endothelial repair. This finding was clearly demonstrated by Friedrich et al. in vitro as well as in vivo in a mouse model and in humans. Hence, those experiments can be translated to the ex vivo determination of circulating EPC, particularly with flow cytometry, which is, at this time, the only and most validated method for EPC measurement. In the cardiovascular high-risk patients of our study, CD133þ cells might be upregulated because of the increased endothelial dysfunction. Hence, these increased CD133þ cell counts might allow to detect associations of CD133þ cells with target variables more reliably. In contrast, consumption of CD34þ cells into vascular lesion areas in these patients might result in decreased cell counts without the opportunity to detect distinct differences in our study population. Fadini et al. criticize that EPC, in our study, was not further differentiated. We agree with this suggestion, but when the study was performed, detailed information about differentiation in CD133þ/CD34þ or CD133þ/CD342 cells were not yet available. Thus, we further agree with the conclusion of Fadini et al. that consensus on EPC definition and evaluation is needed.
Survey of SIFT Compression Schemes

Transmission and storage of local feature descriptors are of critical importance for mobile visual search applications. We perform a comprehensive survey of Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) compression schemes proposed in the literature and evaluate them in a common framework. Further, we compare the different schemes to the recently proposed low bit-rate Compressed Histogram of Gradients (CHoG) descriptor. We show that CHoG outperforms all SIFT compression schemes. We implement CHoG in a large-scale mobile image retrieval system and show that transmitting CHoG feature data are an order of magnitude smaller than transmitting SIFT descriptors or JPEG images.
A Real-time LAN/WAN and Web Attack Prediction Framework Using Hybrid Machine Learning Model

Real-time network attacks have become an increasingly serious issue to LAN/WAN security in recent years. As the size of the network flow increases, it becomes difficult to pre-process and analyze the network packets using the traditional network intrusion detection tools and techniques. Traditional NID tools and techniques require high computational memory and time to process large number of packets in incremental manner due to limited buffer size. Web intrusion detection is also one of the major threat to real-time web applications due to unauthorized user’s request to web server and online databases. In this paper, a hybrid real-time LAN/WAN and Web IDS model is designed and implemented using the machine learning classifier. In this model, different types of attacks are detected and labelled prior to train the machine learning model. Future network packets are predicted using the trained machine learning classifier for attack prediction. Experimental results are simulated on real-time LAN/WAN network and client-server web application for performance analysis. Simulated results show that the proposed machine learning based attack detection model is better than the traditional statistical and rule based learning models in terms of time, detection rate are concerned.
Patient Loyalty in the HospitalPatient Relationship: The Mediating Role of Social Media

Bu calisma, sosyal medyanin hasta sadakati uzerindeki rolunu incelemeyi hedeflemistir. Hasta sadakatini degerlendirmek icin; hastalar tarafindan sosyal medyada paylasilan memnuniyeti, hasta guvenini, sosyal medya uzerinde hastanehasta iletisiminin gucunu ve hastanenin sosyal medyada algilanan imajini test eden bir olcum envanteri, ilgili literatur temel alinarak gelistirilmistir. Veriler cevrimici anket vasitasiyla 625 kisiden toplanmistir. Literaturde yer alan bulgular goz onunde bulundurularak hipotezler gelistirilmis ve hasta sadakatini yordayan degiskenlerin Yapisal Esitlik Modeli (YEM) araciligi ile incelenmesi amaclanmistir. Calismanin sonuclari, sosyal medyada hastalar tarafindan paylasilan memnuniyetin; yordayici degiskenler (hasta guveni, sosyal medya uzerinde hastane-hasta iletisiminin gucu, hastanenin sosyal medyada algilanan imaji) ve hasta sadakati arasindaki iliski uzerinde araci degisken oldugunu gostermistir. Bulgular, hastanelerin musterileri olan sadik hastalar kazanma noktasinda ozgun ampirik bir model saglamakla beraber sosyal medyanin saglik iletisimindeki onemini vurgulamaktadir.
A Tool for Monitoring and Optimizing Data Center Performance and Quality of Service in Cloud

Cloud computing has become a reality which provides new model of computing. It facilitates sharing of computing resources in pay per use fashion without the need for investing huge amounts. On top of virtualization technology it became affordable. However, its success depends largely on the data center on which it depends on IaaS services. Cloud data center management is crucial for the availability of cloud services. There are many strategies for maintaining quality of service and performance of data centers including federation with other clouds and VM replacement. Influenced by the work of Bruneo, in this paper, we build a prototype application that demonstrates various strategies for optimizing data center for achieving goals such as utilization, availability, responsiveness and waiting time. The application has also provision for automatically setting parameters based on the runtime experience of the system. The system configuration is done implicitly on the fly as per the prevailing conditions at runtime. Xen hypervisor is used in the background for making experiments with VMs. The empirical results revealed that the proposed tool is capable of optimizing datacenter performance and quality of service.
The Remote Sensing of Clouds and Precipitation from Space: A Review

Abstract This paper presents a critical review of a number of popular methods that have been developed to retrieve cloud and precipitation properties from satellite radiance measurements. The emphasis of the paper is on the retrieval uncertainties associated with these methods, as these shape future data assimilation applications, either in the form of direct radiance assimilation or assimilation of retrieved geophysical data, or even in the use of retrieved information as a source of model error characterization. It is demonstrated throughout the paper how cloud and precipitation observing systems developed around seemingly simple concepts are in fact very complex and largely underconstrained, which explains, in part, why assigning realistic errors to these properties has been so elusive in the past. Two primary sources of error that define the observing system are highlighted throughout: (i) the first source is errors associated with the identification of cloudy scenes from clear scenes and the identifi.
Air Pollution and Serum Glucose Levels

AbstractRecent studies demonstrated an adverse effect of chronic exposure to air pollution (AP) on metabolic syndrome and its components. In a population-based study, we investigated the association between exposure to ambient AP and serum glucose (SG), among subjects with normal glucose, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), and diabetes mellitus (DM). We included 1,063,887 SG tests performed in 131,882 subjects (years 2001–2012). Exposure data included daily levels of SO2, NO2 and other pollutants of industrial, traffic, and nonanthropogenic sources. Demographical, clinical, and medications purchase data were assessed. Log-transformed SG levels were analyzed by linear mixed models adjusted for seasonal variables and personal characteristics.SG increases (%increase [95% CI]), among subjects with normal glucose, IFG, and DM, respectively, were associated with 6.36 ppb increase of NO2 measured 24 to 72 hours before the test (0.40% [0.31%; 0.50%], 0.56% [0.40%; 0.71%], and 1.08% [0.86%; 1.29%]); and with 1.17 ppb increase of SO2 measured 24 hours before the test (0.29% [0.22%; 0.36%], 0.20% [0.10%; 0.31%], and 0.33% [0.14%; 0.52%]). Among DM population, weakest association was observed among patients treated with Metformin (0.56% increase in SG [0.18%; 0.95%]). In conclusion, NO2 and SO2 exposure is associated with small but significantly increased levels of SG. Although DM patients were found to be more susceptible to the AP induced SG variations, Metformin treatment seem to have a protective effect. Given the chronic lifetime exposure to AP and the broad coverage of the population, even small associations such as those found in our study can be associated with detrimental health effects and may have profound public health implications.
Cultural Forces in World Politics

Professor Mazrui, Reith Lecturer and presenter of BBC1's "The Africans", makes us reconsider the realities of power in world politics. He argues that the emphasis continues to be on arms, on resources and on strategic calculations and that the importance of culture has been grossly underestimated. Professor Mazrui's own mind is a cultural cross-roads; he can give Islamic insights to Western audiences about "The Satanic Verses"; he relates the Beijing Spring to the Palestinian Intifada; he compares the effects of Zionism and Apartheid; he puts together Muhammad, Marx and market forces; and he tells the Americans that their attitude to the Third World is "a dialogue of the deaf".