Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distrust is not Always the Complement of Trust (Position Paper)

We believe that distrust can be as important as trust when agents are making a decision. An agent may not trust a source because of lack of positive evidence, but this does not necessarily mean the agent distrusts the source. Trust and distrust have to be considered as two separate concepts which can coexist. We are aware that an adequate way to take this fact into account is by considering explicitly not only the agent's degree of trust in a source but also its independent degree of distrust. Explicitly taking distrust into account allows us to mark a clear difference between the distinct notions of negative trust and insufficient trust. More precisely, it is possible, unlike in approaches where only trust is explicitly accounted for, to "weigh" differently information from helpful, malicious, unknown, or neutral sources.
Returning to semi-bounded sets

Abstract An o-minimal expansion of an ordered group is called semi-bounded if there is no definable bijection between a bounded and an unbounded interval in it (equivalently, it is an expansion of the group by bounded predicates and group automorphisms). It is shown that every such structure has an elementary extension N such that either N is a reduct of an ordered vector space, or there is an o-minimal structure , with the same universe but of different language from N, with (i) Every definable set in N is definable in , and (ii) has an elementary substructure in which every bounded interval admits a definable real closed field. As a result certain questions about definably compact groups can be reduced to either ordered vector spaces or expansions of real closed fields. Using the known results in these two settings, the number of torsion points in definably compact abelian groups in expansions of ordered groups is given. Pillay's Conjecture for such groups follows.
Techniques for in-band phase noise suppression in re-circulating DLLs

This paper presents a re-circulating delay-locked loop (DLL) with various innovations to improve in-band phase noise suppression. The voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and bias circuitry incorporate circuit-level techniques that reduce 1/f noise through switched biasing. The phase realignment theory presented in (S. Ye, L. Jansson et al, IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, vol.37, no.12, p.1795-1803 (2002)) is applied to optimize the VCO so as to maximize the phase noise suppression achieved by periodically switching in a clean reference pulse, and it is further applied to optimize the loop filter. Theoretical predictions are verified through a 100 MHz prototype IC fabricated in a 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS process.
Improve Biomedical Information Retrieval Using Modified Learning to Rank Methods

In these years, the number of biomedical articles has increased exponentially, which becomes a problem for biologists to capture all the needed information manually. Information retrieval technologies, as the core of search engines, can deal with the problem automatically, providing users with the needed information. However, it is a great challenge to apply these technologies directly for biomedical retrieval, because of the abundance of domain specific terminologies. To enhance biomedical retrieval, we propose a novel framework based on learning to rank. Learning to rank is a series of state-of-the-art information retrieval techniques, and has been proved effective in many information retrieval tasks. In the proposed framework, we attempt to tackle the problem of the abundance of terminologies by constructing ranking models, which focus on not only retrieving the most relevant documents, but also diversifying the searching results to increase the completeness of the resulting list for a given query. In the model training, we propose two novel document labeling strategies, and combine several traditional retrieval models as learning features. Besides, we also investigate the usefulness of different learning to rank approaches in our framework. Experimental results on TREC Genomics datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework for biomedical information retrieval.
AdaPNet: Adapting process networks in response to resource variations

A widely considered strategy to prevent interference issues on multi-processor systems is to isolate the execution of the individual applications by running each of them on a dedicated virtual guest machine. The amount of computing power available to a single application, however, depends on the other applications running on the system and may change over time. A promising approach to maximize the performance under such conditions is to adapt the application's degree of parallelism when the resources allocated to the application are changed. This enables an application to exploit not more parallelism than required, thereby reducing inter-process communication and scheduling overheads. In this paper, we introduce AdaPNet, a run-time system to execute streaming applications, which are modeled as process networks, efficiently on platforms with dynamic resource al-location. AdaPNet responds to changes in the available resources by first calculating a process network that maximizes the performance of the application on the new resources. Then, AdaPNet transparently transforms the application into the alternative network without discarding the program state. Targeting two many-core systems, we demonstrate that AdaPNet outperforms comparable run-time systems, which do not adapt the degree of parallelism, in terms of speed-up and memory usage.
A case‐control study of the association of the polymorphisms and haplotypes of DNA ligase I with lung and upper‐aerodigestive‐tract cancers

Tobacco smoking is a major risk factor for lung and upper‐aerodigestive‐tract (UADT) cancers. One possible mechanism for the associations may be through DNA damage pathways. DNA Ligase I (LIG1) is a DNA repair gene involved in both the nucleotide excision repair (NER) and the base excision repair (BER) pathways. We examined the association of 4 LIG1 polymorphisms with lung and UADT cancers, and their potential interactions with smoking in a population‐based case‐control study in Los Angeles County. We performed genotyping using the SNPlex method from Applied Biosystems. Logistic regression analyses of 551 lung cancer cases, 489 UADT cancer cases and 948 controls showed the expected associations of tobacco smoking with lung and UADT cancers and new associations between the LIG1 haplotypes and these cancers. For lung cancer, when compared to the most common haplotype (rs20581‐rs20580‐rs20579‐rs439132 = T‐C‐C‐A), the adjusted odds ratio (OR) is 1.2 (95% confidence limits (CL) = 0.95, 1.5) for the CACA haplotype, 1.4 (1.0, 1.9) for the CATA haplotype and 1.8 (1.1, 2.8) for the CCCG haplotype, after controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education and tobacco smoking. We observed weaker associations between the LIG1 haplotypes and UADT cancers. Our findings suggest the LIG1 haplotypes may affect the risk of lung and UADT cancers. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Secure Data Container: An Approach to Harmonize Data Sharing with Information Security

Smart devices became Marc Weiser's Computer of the 21st Century. Due to their versatility a lot of private data enriched by context data are stored on them. Even the health industry utilizes smart devices as portable health monitors and enablers for telediagnosis. So they represent a severe risk for information security. Yet the platform providers' countermeasures to these threats are by no means sufficient. In this paper we describe how information security can be improved. Therefore, we postulate requirements towards a secure handling of data. Based on this requirements specification, we introduce a secure data container as an extension for the Privacy Management Platform. Since a complete isolation of an app is usually not practicable, our approach also provides secure data sharing features. Finally, we evaluate our approach from a technical point of view as well as a security point of view and show its applicability in an eHealth scenario.
Transcription Analysis of the Major Antigenic Protein 1 Multigene Family of Three In Vitro-Cultured Ehrlichia ruminantium Isolates

ABSTRACT Ehrlichia ruminantium, an obligate intracellular bacterium transmitted by ticks of the genus Amblyomma, causes heartwater disease in ruminants. The gene coding for the major antigenic protein MAP1 is part of a multigene family consisting of a cluster containing 16 paralogs. In the search for differentially regulated genes between E. ruminantium grown in endothelial and tick cell lines that could be used in vaccine development and to determine if differences in the map1 gene cluster exist between different isolates of E. ruminantium, we analyzed the map1 gene cluster of the Senegal and Gardel isolates of E. ruminantium. Both isolates contained the same number of genes, and the same organization as found in the genome sequence of the Welgevonden isolate (H. Van Heerden, N. E. Collins, K. A. Brayton, C. Rademeyer, and B. A. Allsopp, Gene 330:159-168, 2004). However, comparison of two subpopulations of the Gardel isolate maintained in different laboratories demonstrated that recombination between map1-3 and map1-2 had occurred in one subpopulation with deletion of one entire gene. Reverse transcription-PCR on E. ruminantium derived mRNA from infected cells using gene-specific primers revealed that all 16 map1 paralogs were transcribed in endothelial cells. In one vector (Amblyomma variegatum) and several nonvector tick cell lines infected with E. ruminantium, transcripts were found for between 4 and 11 paralogs. In all these cases the transcript for the map1-1 gene was detected and was predominant. Our results indicate that the map1 gene cluster is relatively conserved but can be subject to recombination, and differences in the transcription of map1 multigenes in host and vector cell environments exist.
Consumers' Intention to Attend Soccer Events: Application and Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior

The purpose of this study was to identify important factors of consumers' intention to attend professional soccer events among Saudi Arabian soccer fans. To explore the decision-making process of this relatively understudied population, the theory of planned behavior was used as theoretical background. Particularly, this study measured the effect of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (time and money), and game importance on intention to attend, and examined the moderating role of commitment. Structural equation modeling (SEM) using 231 Saudi university students (M = 21.9 yr., SD = 1.21) indicate that attitude and game importance were significantly related to attendance intention. The effect of subjective norms was significant only for the low commitment group and game importance was more important for the low than the high commitment group.
Waiting for service on the internet: Defining the phenomenon and identifying the situations

Purpose – E‐consumers consistently complain that the internet is frustratingly slow. Most existing research on this phenomenon is based on the concept of “download delay”, that is, the time required for a web page to fully download to the e‐consumer's computer screen. This paper reports on an exploratory study of the phenomenon of waiting for service on the internet with the intention of extending the narrow conceptualisation of the phenomenon of “download delay” to a more user‐based perspective of waiting on the internet.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a qualitative research methodology. The research methods are seven asynchronous virtual focus groups involving 126 intensive internet users over 17 days and 92 participants who maintained personal diaries of waiting on the internet over a nine‐week period.Findings – A new definition of waiting on the internet is proposed based on extensive virtual focus group research. Subsequently, 14 distinct types of internet waiting situations are i.
Bringing Mobile Map-Based Access to Digital Audio to the End User

Private as well as commercial music collections keep growing in size and diversity. With an increasing number of tracks and the resulting complexity users quickly face proplems in handling their collections in an adequate way. At the same time, new business models of online vendors arise and the inherent industry interest in new ways of distribution channels and devices becomes immanent. In this paper, we show alternative ways of interacting with large music collections, based on the Self-Organising Map clustering algorithm applied to an audio feature representation of audio files. We therein focus on the presentation of full desktop applications as well as applications for mobile devices like PDAs and Smartphones with the goal of bringing Music Information Retrieval technologies closer to end users. Further, the presented interfaces give an outlook to means of access to other types of media in streaming environments, e.g. video.
How Do Python Programs Use Inheritance? A Replication Study

In this work we present an empirical study on the use of inheritance in a curated corpus of Python systems. Replicating a study preformed on Java, we analyzed a collection of 51 software systems written in Python, and investigated how inheritance is effectively used by Python developers in practice through a convenient set of inheritance metrics. Our results suggest that on average fewer classes inherit from other classes than in Java, but more classes are inherited from. We also see a sort of symmetry relating the number of ancestors and the number of descendants in each system.
Improved Optical Network Topology Redesign Ensuring Biconnectivity

This paper presents an efficient strategy for the optical network redesign with a biconnectivity-oriented topology (both two-connected edge and vertex). Based on the graph theory and previous approaches, it is developed to retain essential network links, improve their utilization, and ensure network reliability and survivability. A new cost-effective network structure is found subject to several important constraints. The proposed strategy composed of reduction, augmentation, and fine-tuning reduction, is tested for some IP-backbone networks. Furthermore, it can also contribute to other optical backbone (or access) network redesign problems.
A recursive algorithm for the three-dimensional imaging of brain electric activity: shrinking LORETA-FOCUSS

Estimation of intracranial electric activity from the scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) requires a solution to the EEG inverse problem, which is known as an ill-conditioned problem. In order to yield a unique solution, weighted minimum norm least square (MNLS) inverse methods are generally used. This paper proposes a recursive algorithm, termed Shrinking LORETA-FOCUSS, which combines and expands upon the central features of two well-known weighted MNLS methods: LORETA and FOCUSS. This recursive algorithm makes iterative adjustments to the solution space as well as the weighting matrix, thereby dramatically reducing the computation load, and increasing local source resolution. Simulations are conducted on a 3-shell spherical head model registered to the Talairach human brain atlas. A comparative study of four different inverse methods, standard Weighted Minimum Norm, L1-norm, LORETA-FOCUSS and Shrinking LORETA-FOCUSS are presented. The results demonstrate that Shrinking LORETA-FOCUSS is able to reconstruct a three-dimensional source distribution with smaller localization and energy errors compared to the other methods.
The Price of Options Illiquidity

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of illiquidity on the value of currency options. We use a unique data set which allows us to explore this issue in special circumstances where options are issued by a central bank and are not traded prior to maturity. The value of these options is compared to similar options traded on the exchange. We find that the non-tradable options are priced about 21% less than the exchange traded options. It is an anomaly that cannot be explained by non-hedgeable risks like jumps in the prices of the liquid options which we use in replicating the payoffs of the illiquid options.
Integrating Local Material Recognition with Large-Scale Perceptual Attribute Discovery

Material attributes have been shown to provide a discriminative intermediate representation for recognizing materials, especially for the challenging task of recognition from local material appearance (i.e., regardless of object and scene context). In the past, however, material attributes have been recognized separately preceding category recognition. In contrast, neuroscience studies on material perception and computer vision research on object and place recognition have shown that attributes are produced as a by-product during the category recognition process. Does the same hold true for material attribute and category recognition? In this paper, we introduce a novel material category recognition network architecture to show that perceptual attributes can, in fact, be automatically discovered inside a local material recognition framework. The novel material-attribute-category convolutional neural network (MAC-CNN) produces perceptual material attributes from the intermediate pooling layers of an end-to-end trained category recognition network using an auxiliary loss function that encodes human material perception. To train this model, we introduce a novel large-scale database of local material appearance organized under a canonical material category taxonomy and careful image patch extraction that avoids unwanted object and scene context. We show that the discovered attributes correspond well with semantically-meaningful visual material traits via Boolean algebra, and enable recognition of previously unseen material categories given only a few examples. These results have strong implications in how perceptually meaningful attributes can be learned in other recognition tasks.
Studies on cathepsins of rat liver lysosomes. III. Hydrolysis of peptides, and inactivation of angiotensin and bradykinin by cathepsin A.

Systematic analysis of the hydrolysis of benzyloxycarbonyl (Cbz)-dipeptides by cathepsin A [EC 3.4. 12.1] purified from rat liver lysosomes showed that multiple forms of cathepsin A preferentially cleave peptide bonds with leucine, methionine, and phenylalanine. Cbz-Met-Met, -Met-Phe, -Phe-Met, and -Phe-Ala were hydrolyzed 6 to 8 times faster than the standard substrates, Cbz-Glu-Phe and Cbz-Glu-Tyr. The pH optima of the hydrolyses were 4.6 to 5.8. Hydrolysis of peptide bonds with glycine, isoleucine, and proline was very slow, but the rate depended on the nature of the adjacent amino acids. Proteins such as albumin, cytochrome c, gamma-globulin, hemoglobin, histone, myoglobin, and myosin were scarecely degraded. Peptide hormones, such as glucagon and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were hydrolyzed markedly with optimum pH's of 4.5 and 4.6, respectively. Angiotensin I, II, bradykinin, Lys- and Met-Lysbradykinin (kallidin and Met-kallidin), and substance P were also hydrolyzed at appreciable rates. pH optima for these peptide hormones were 5.2 to 5.6. On the other hand, insulin and its A chain, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH), oxytocin and vasopressin were cleaved slowly. In the hydrolyses of glucagon and other peptides, multiple forms of rat liver lysosomal cathepsin A again showed a carboxypeptidase nature, cleaving peptide bonds sequentially from the carboxyl terminal. Almost all of the amino acids were cleaved on prolonged incubation. Vaso-activites of angiotensin II and bradykinin were rapidly lost on hydrolysis by cathepsin A. Lysosomal cathepsin C [dipeptidylaminopeptidase I, EC 3.4. 14.1] also activated angiotensin II, but did not inactive bradykinin. Cathepsin A, therefore, can be regarded as one of the lysosomal angiotensinases and kinases. No distinct differences were observed between the multiple forms of cathepsin A in these hydrolyses and inactivations of peptides.
The Impact of Heterogeneity on a Reconfigurable Multicore System

Modern embedded system must efficiently exploit parallelism at thread-and instruction-level to achieve the best performance with the lowest energy consumption possible. While Multiprocessor System-on-Chip (MPSoCs) are a commonly used solution, they do not provide an effective environment for software production, as each processing element implements a different Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). On the other hand, processors such as the ARM big.LITTLE comprise multicores with different organizations and the same ISA. However, such cores are power consuming superscalar microarchitectures. Dynamic Reconfigurable Architectures (DRA) emerge as a solution to fill this gap. By taking advantage of its regular fabric, it is possible to develop a low-energy heterogeneous system by coupling to the cores DRAs with different processing capabilities and that implements the same ISA. In this work, we evaluate such system, varying both the size of the DRAs and the memory system involved. We show that, by tuning the latter, one can reach energy savings of up to 36%, while by using a fully heterogeneous system, saves of 28% in energy and losses of 7% in performance are observed when compared to its counterpart homogeneous version.
SVM output score based text line refinement for accurate text localization

In this paper, we propose the text line refinement method based on the SVM (support vector machine) output score for accurate text localization. In general, SVM output scores for the verification of text candidates provide a measure of the closeness to the text. Up to the present, most researchers used the score for the verification of the text candidate region. However, we use the output score for refining the initial text localization results. By means of the proposed approach, we can obtain more accurate text localization results. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method is validated by extensive experiments on a complex database containing 435 images.
LOSS OF THE PROPERTIES OF HEMOLYSIN AND PIGMENT FORMATION WITHOUT CHANGE IN IMMUNOLOGICAL SPECIFICITY IN A STRAIN OF STREPTOCOCCUS HAEMOLYTICUS

1. A variant arising in a culture of hemolytic streptococcus was shown to have lost the properties of producing pigment and hemolyzing blood. Despite the loss of these two functions, it had in common with the strain from which it was derived certain other distinguishing biochemical characteristics, as follows: Both attained the same hydrogen ion concentration in dextrose broth; both hydrolyzed sodium hippurate, grew on bile agar, and fermented trehalose but not sorbitol; both failed to reduce methylene blue in milk cultures, and were insusceptible to the action of streptococcus bacteriophage. In addition, the virulence of the variant remained the same as that of the original culture. 2. The antigenic and serological specificity of the variant was identical with the group and type specificity of the original strain (Group B, Type I). These specificities were established by the use of immune sera prepared by immunization of rabbits with each form. The immunological reactions employed were reciprocal agglutination, precipitation, agglutinin and precipitin absorption, and passive mouse protection.