Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implicit context awareness by face recognition

In recent years, technical improvements to sensors have attracted a great deal of attention, in particular due to the sensors' capability recognizing user contexts. In this paper, we propose an implicit context awareness system that identifies user context by sensing the context of surrounding environments. We implemented a prototype two cameras in a variely of situations. Evaluation results showed that the system was effective and improved context recognition. Our method can be used to identify rich contexts that cannot be recognized by conventional methods.
Reinforced and Nonreinforced Head‐Turn Responses of Infants as a Function of Stimulus Bandwidth

The purpose of this study was to investigate auditory-stimulus effects on head-turn response behavior of infants under conditions where responses were either reinforced or not reinforced with a visual stimulus. The auditory stimuli contained different frequency bandwidths between 2000 and 4000 Hz. The stimulus with the widest bandwidth resulted in more responses than the other two stimuli in the no-reinforcement condition. When conditioning was established and all responses were visually reinforced, there was no difference in response behavior among stimulus groups for either suprathreshold or threshold stimulation. These findings have implications for clinical assessment using visual reinforcement audiometry. Results suggest that bandwidth characteristics of the auditory stimulus have no influence on response behavior of infants providing conditioning can be established and maintained through the use of visual reinforcement.
Genie: la niña salvaje. El experimento prohibido (un caso de maltrato familiar y profesional)

os casos de niños salvajes o que han vivido confinados siempre han provocado una enorme fascinación social. Los historiales o testimonios de casos que precedieron al de £ Genie han sido muchos y de muy diferente índole (véase Malson, 1973). Científicamente, todavía no hay acuerdo en cuanto a la polémica naturaleza-cultura; inclusive, en el caso de "el niño salvaje de Aveyron" -el mejor documentado-, se discute sobre si los métodos de aprendizaje empleados fueron los adecuados, dadas las especiales características de Víctor (Itard, 1982; Lañe, 1984).
An Overview of Application Traffic Management Approaches: Challenges and Potential Extensions

The Internet has seen a strong move to support overlay applications and services, which demand a coherent and integrated control in underlying heterogeneous networks in a scalable, resilient, and energy-efficient manner. To do so, a tighter integration of network management and overlay service functionality can lead to cross-layer optimization of operations and management, which is a promising approach and may offer a large business potential in operational perspectives for all players involved. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present and discuss the impact of new paradigms such as cloud computing and software-defined networking which will play central role in the Future Internet, discuss major traffic trends and identify key challenges due to the adoption and operation of the new applications. Translating the key challenges to requirements for Future Internet traffic management mechanisms, the paper provides an overview of existing mechanisms in literature, assesses them w.r. t. the aforementioned requirements, and qualitatively estimates the expected optimization potential and gain, as well as provides hint for their potential extension and exploitation within the challenging environment of the Future Internet.
On the hierarchical inheritance of aftereffects in the visual system

The emotion perceived in a face can be influenced by prior exposure to a face expressing a different emotion. Here we show that displacement along a particular emotional axis, that encoding happiness and sadness, can be effected solely by a systematic change in the angle, at the center of the mouth, between the left and right halves of the mouth. We then demonstrate that adaptation to a face with the mouth distorted to change this angle, such that the face expresses an emotion on this axis, causes a face with a neutral expression to be perceived as having the opposite expression. By abstracting the mouths from the faces and examining the magnitude of the angle aftereffects in the mouths alone and in an unfamiliar orientation, we show that the magnitudes of the angle aftereffects are sufficient to account for the changes in perceived emotion in the faces. Further, by applying the distortion to the mouths asymmetrically so that the distortion is manifested by a change in orientation of the mouth stimulus rather than a change in angle, we show that the magnitude of the aftereffect can be predicted by the local tilt aftereffect. We argue, therefore, that the aftereffects of emotion are due to misperception of morphology of the face and that the misperception is due to the local change in perceived orientation due to the systematic application of the tilt aftereffect in a tilt aftereffect field. All adaptation experiments were performed using stimuli that were either high-pass or low-pass filtered for spatial frequency. Results showed that the spatial frequency specificity of the aftereffects was the same for the face, angled mouth, and oriented mouth stimuli, lending further support to the hypothesis that the aftereffects are instantiated in processes early in the visual cortex and that the aftereffects assumed to be higher level are, in fact, inherited.
Interprocedural Placement-Aware Configuration Prefetching for FPGA-Based Systems

One of the major impediments to deploying partially run-time reconfigurable FPGAs as hardware accelerators is the time overhead involved in loading the hardware modules. While configuration prefetching is an effective method that can be employed to reduce this overhead, mispredicted prefetches may worsen the situation by increasing the number of reconfigurations needed. In this paper, we present a static algorithm for configuration prefetching in partially reconfigurable FPGAs that minimizes the reconfiguration overhead. By making use of profiling, the interprocedural control flow graph, and the placement information of hardware modules, our algorithm predicts hardware execution and tries to prefetch hardware modules as early as possible while minimizing the risk of mis-predictions. Our experiments show that our algorithm performs significantly better than current state-of-the-art prefetching algorthms for control-bound applications.
Use of derived heuristics in improved performance of evolutionary optimization: An application to gold processing plant

The importance of using heuristics in an optimization algorithm is well established, particularly in solving complex real-world problems. It is then expected that users know certain key problem information a priori and are able to implement the information in a suitable optimization algorithm. However, in many problems, such problem information may not be available before an optimization task is performed, thereby making the heuristics-based algorithms difficult to be implemented. In this paper, we suggest a ‘derived heuristics’ based optimization methodology for this purpose. In such a method, past results from an optimization algorithm are utilized to derive problem heuristics and then used in a future applications to achieve a faster and more accurate optimization task. Heuristics can also be derived from the optimization run and used in subsequent iterations. In a particular gold processing plant optimization problem, we demonstrate the use of derived heuristics by developing a customized evolutionary optimization procedure which is capable of handling various complexities offered by the problem, in a way which is much better than a classical point-based method and a population-based generic approach. The results of this paper is motivating for evolutionary computation researchers to apply the methodology to other more complex real-world problems.
PSR J1518+4904: A Mildly Relativistic Binary Pulsar System

PSR J1518+4904 is a recently discovered 40.9 ms pulsar in an 8.6 day, moderately eccentric orbit. We have measured pulse arrival times for this pulsar over 1.4 yr at several radio frequencies, from which we have derived high-precision rotational, astrometric, and orbital parameters. The upper limit for the period derivative of the pulsar, Ṗ < 4 × 10-20, gives a characteristic age of at least 1.6 × 1010 yr, which is among the highest known. We find the orbit to be precessing at a rate of 0. °0111 ± 0. °0002 yr-1, which yields a total system mass (pulsar plus companion) of 2.62 ± 0.07 M☉ according to general relativity. Further analysis of the orbital parameters yields a firm upper limit of 1.75 M☉ on the pulsar mass and constrains the companion mass to the range 0.9-2.7 M☉. These masses, together with the sizable orbital eccentricity and other evidence, strongly suggest that the companion is a second neutron star.
PRAME gene expression in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: impact on prognosis.

BACKGROUND The PRAME (preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma) gene is frequently overexpressed in a wide variety of malignant diseases, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute B-cell malignancies. AIM To study the expression of PRAME gene and clarify its prognostic impact on disease outcome. METHODS Screening for PRAME gene expression was assessed using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in 55 pretreated ALL bone marrow samples. RESULTS PRAME positivity was found in 14 (31.3%) of 45 patients. No significant correlation could be observed between PRAME expression and clinical characteristics. Positive PRAME expressers had a statistically higher CR (p = 0.001), lower relapse (p = 0.02), lower mortality (p < 0.001), a trend towards lower Refractory disease (p = 0.10), and a statistically longer DFS and OS (p < 0.001, < 0.001, respectively) in comparison to negative PRAME expressers. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggested that PRAME was a predictor for better outcome, could be a useful target for immunotherapy, and might represent a candidate marker for the monitoring of minimal residual disease.
Phase leg voltage balancing of a cascaded H-Bridge converter based STATCOM using zero sequence injection

In cascaded H-bridge wye and delta connected STATCOMs the phase leg capacitor voltages can diverge, even under ideal balanced voltage conditions, due to different leg losses and capacitor values. This paper presents a novel strategy for achieving phase leg voltage balance for wye and delta connected STATCOMs by making use of zero sequence injection into the STATCOM. The proposed strategy also makes the STATCOM leg voltages tolerant to terminal voltage imbalance.
Gd(ABE-DTTA), a Novel Contrast Agent, at the MRI-Effective Dose Shows Absence of Deleterious Physiological Effects in Dogs

The physiological effects of a novel MRI contrast agent, Gd(ABE-DTTA), were investigated in dogs, monitoring parameters in blood samples. Each animal (n = 8 in the short-term, n = 4 in the long-term group) underwent isoflurane anesthesia followed by the generation of myocardial infarction and received a contrast agent at the MRI effective dose. Blood samples were collected 24 and 48 h, and 7, 14, 28, 35, 49 and 56 days after contrast agent administration. No significant changes exceeding the normal range were detected in any of the investigated parameters except in alanine aminotransferase (ALT). ALT enzyme activity increased in the short-term group 24 and 48 h after agent administration as expected from the effect of isoflurane anesthesia. Between days 7 and 56 no elevation in ALT was observed. In dogs no substantial short- or long-term effect was observed on the investigated, physiological parameters after Gd(ABE-DTTA) administration at the MRI effective dose.
Socio-religious and socio-cultural perspectives of delayed marriage

Marriage is a social institution that is highly regarded but is in decline due to the impact of modernity. Marriage, meaning the institution regulating sex, reproduction, and family life (Brake, 2012) has generated much controversy in the contemporary world because of considerable variation in its meaning and practices. In this paper, we examine family and marriage as well as the interconnectedness between them from Western, cultural and religious context with reference to Islam. We discuss how modernity and modernization have impacted timing of marriage. Also, we discuss how the meaning of marriage has been redefined in the 21st century leading to changing marital practices such as delayed marriage. We provide explanation of delayed marriage using sociological theories. Furthermore, we provide understanding of delayed marriage from both cultural and Islamic perspectives. We then conclude that most cultures of the world as well as the religion of Islam vision of marriage and family are intolerant of delayed marriage
Epidemiological surveillance of Campylobacter jejuni in chicken, dairy cattle and diarrhoea patients

SUMMARY Campylobacter jejuni of different subtypes were identified in chicken, dairy cattle and diarrhoea patients in China from 2005 to 2006, using multiplex PCR and RFLP. The results indicated that, of the three types of samples, C. jejuni was most frequently detected in poultry of the three types of samples, with an average isolation rate of up to 18·61% and a flock contamination rate of 86·67%. The average incidence of C. jejuni in overall cattle and environmental samples, milk cows, heifers and diarrhoea patients was 7·77, 5·02, 8·70 and 4·84%, respectively. A higher prevalence was detected in outpatients than ward patients (P<0·01), and in patients aged <7 years than in older patients (P<0·01). The 265 isolates of C. jejuni were classified into 20 distinct types by PCR–RFLP analysis of the flaA gene, with the genotype distribution in humans overlapping that in poultry and cattle. This suggests that certain C. jejuni strains circulate between humans and domestic animals such as cattle and poultry.
Effects of risk aversion on investment decisions in electricity generation: What consequences for market design?

This article deals with the effect of risk aversion on the temporal evolution of electricity generation mix and its consequences for market design. Risk aversion of private investors may have significant effects on their decision especially in the current context of limited economic growth. To analyze this issue, a representation of risk aversion through an exponential utility function is proposed within a simulation tool belonging to System Dynamics. The model is used to test the evolution of installed capacity in a context of stable electricity demand and exogenous entry of wind power under three different market designs (energy-only market with price cap; energy-only market with scarcity pricing and capped energy market plus a capacity mechanism) and for different levels of risk aversion. The results highlight that there are more endogenous closures of power plants when risk aversion increases. The results also emphasize that taking risk aversion can significantly change the comparison of market designs.
A Computational Model of Non-Cooperation in Natural Language Dialogue

A common assumption in the study of conversation is that participants fully cooperate in order to maximise the effectiveness of the exchange and ensure communication flow. This assumption persists even in situations in which the private goals of the participants are at odds: they may act strategically pursuing their agendas, but will still adhere to a number of linguistic norms or conventions which are implicitly accepted by a community of language users. However, in naturally occurring dialogue participants often depart from such norms, for instance, by asking inappropriate questions, by avoiding to provide adequate answers or by volunteering information that is not relevant to the conversation. These are examples of what we call linguistic non-cooperation. This thesis presents a systematic investigation of linguistic non-cooperation in dialogue. Given a specific activity, in a specific cultural context and time, the method proceeds by making explicit which linguistic behaviours are appropriate. This results in a set of rules: the global dialogue game. Non-cooperation is then measured as instances in which the actions of the participants are not in accordance with these rules. The dialogue game is formally defined in terms of discourse obligations. These are actions that participants are expected to perform at a given point in the dialogue based on the dialogue history. In this context, non-cooperation amounts to participants failing to act according to their obligations. We propose a general definition of linguistic non-cooperation and give a specific instance for political interview dialogues. Based on the latter, we present an empirical method which involves a coding scheme for the manual annotation of interview transcripts. The degree to which each participant cooperates is automatically determined by contrasting the annotated transcripts with the rules in the dialogue game for political interviews. The approach is evaluated on a corpus of broadcast political interviews and tested for correlation with human judgement on the same corpus. Further, we describe a model of conversational agents that incorporates the concepts and mechanisms above as part of their dialogue manager. This allows for the generation of conversations in which the agents exhibit varying degrees of cooperation by controlling how often they favour their private goals instead of discharging their discourse obligations.
Human Information Processing: Vision, Memory, and Attention

As we interact with our environment, our senses absorb large amounts of information that our brains interpret and catalogue. This sensory data then influences how we learn from our environment and interact with it in the future. Understanding the mechanisms by which we perceive, decipher, and retain information is key to understanding ourselves and answering the questions, "How do we learn? " and "How can we improve our learning experiences? " This book seeks to answer these questions by focusing on three topics within the field of cognitive psychology that directly influence human information processing: vision, memory, and attention. Inspired by the work of George Sperling, a renowned expert in cognitive science and an early pioneer in the study of human information processing, the contributors to this book examine new computational models and methodologies. They study concepts such as the effects of human eye movements on our interpretation of visual stimuli to demonstrate how vision, memory, and attention are interlinked, and how they influence how we learn. The contributors also describe real-world applications for research, including technological innovations that can augment our senses and help us derive more information from our environment.
Quikr: a method for rapid reconstruction of bacterial communities via compressive sensing

MOTIVATION Many metagenomic studies compare hundreds to thousands of environmental and health-related samples by extracting and sequencing their 16S rRNA amplicons and measuring their similarity using beta-diversity metrics. However, one of the first steps--to classify the operational taxonomic units within the sample--can be a computationally time-consuming task because most methods rely on computing the taxonomic assignment of each individual read out of tens to hundreds of thousands of reads. RESULTS We introduce Quikr: a QUadratic, K-mer-based, Iterative, Reconstruction method, which computes a vector of taxonomic assignments and their proportions in the sample using an optimization technique motivated from the mathematical theory of compressive sensing. On both simulated and actual biological data, we demonstrate that Quikr typically has less error and is typically orders of magnitude faster than the most commonly used taxonomic assignment technique (the Ribosomal Database Project's Naïve Bayesian Classifier). Furthermore, the technique is shown to be unaffected by the presence of chimeras, thereby allowing for the circumvention of the time-intensive step of chimera filtering. AVAILABILITY The Quikr computational package (in MATLAB, Octave, Python and C) for the Linux and Mac platforms is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/quikr/.
Can We Help Dropouts: Thinking about the Undoable

Recognizing that we live in a complex world, Dale Mann reminds us that there are few simple answers to persistent educational problems. He argues that the dropout problem calls for imaginative and multiple approaches to what is really a diverse set of problems preventing students from completing high school. His overview sets the stage for the articles that follow.
Role of Temporal Integration and Fluctuation Detection in the Highly Irregular Firing of a Leaky Integrator Neuron Model with Partial Reset

Partial reset is a simple and powerful tool for controlling the irregularity of spike trains fired by a leaky integrator neuron model with random inputs. In particular, a single neuron model with a realistic membrane time constant of 10 ms can reproduce the highly irregular firing of cortical neurons reported by Softky and Koch (1993). In this article, the mechanisms by which partial reset affects the firing pattern are investigated. Itisshown theoretically that partial reset is equivalent to the use of a time-dependent threshold, similar to a technique proposed by Wilbur and Rinzel (1983) to produce high irregularity. This equivalent model allows establishing that temporal integration and fluctuation detection can coexist and cooperate to cause highly irregular firing. This study also reveals that reverse correlation curves cannot be used reliably to assess the causes of firing. For instance, they do not reveal temporal integration when it takes place. Further, the peak near time zero does not always indicate coincidence detection. An alternative qualitative method is proposed here for that later purpose. Finally, it is noted that as the reset becomes weaker, the firing pattern shows a progressive transition from regular firing, to random, to temporally clustered, and eventually to bursting firing. Concurrently the slope of the transfer function increases. Thus, simulations suggest a correlation between high gain and highly irregular firing.
Flk-2 is a marker in hematopoietic stem cell differentiation: A simple method to isolate long-term stem cells

Clonogenic multipotent mouse hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and progenitor cells are contained within the c-kit+ (K) lineage−/lo (L) Sca-1+ (S) population of hematopoietic cells; long-term (LT) and short-term (ST) HSCs are Thy-1.1lo. c-kit is a member of the receptor tyrosine kinase family, a class of receptors that are important in the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells. To establish whether the Flk-2/Flt3 receptor tyrosine kinase was expressed on the most primitive LT-HSCs, we sorted highly purified multipotent stem and progenitor cells on the basis of Flk-2 surface expression and used them in competitive reconstitution assays. Low numbers of Flk-2− HSCs gave rise to long-term multilineage reconstitution in the majority of recipients, whereas the transfer of Flk-2+ multipotent cells resulted in mostly short-term multilineage reconstitution. The KLS subset of adult mouse bone marrow was analyzed for Flk-2 and Thy-1.1 expression. Three phenotypically and functionally distinct populations were isolated: Thylo Flk-2− (LT-HSCs), Thylo Flk-2+ (ST-HSCs), and Thy− Flk-2+ multipotent progenitors. The loss of Thy-1.1 and gain of Flk-2 expression marks the loss of self-renewal in HSC maturation. The addition of Flk-2 antibody to the lineage mix allows direct isolation of LT-HSC from adult bone marrow as c-kit+ lin− Sca-1+ Flk-2− from many strains of mice. Fetal liver HSCs are contained within Flk-2− and Flk-2+ KTLS cells.