Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LOW-VELOCITY HALO CLOUDS

Models that reproduce the observed high-velocity clouds (HVCs) also predict clouds at lower radial velocities that may easily be confused with Galactic disk (|z|< 1 kpc) gas. We describe the first search for these low-velocity halo clouds (LVHCs) using Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) data and the initial data from the Galactic Arecibo L-band Feed Array survey in H i. The technique is based upon the expectation that such clouds should, like HVCs, have very limited infrared (IR) thermal dust emission as compared to their H i column density. We describe our “displacement-map” technique for robustly determining the dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) of clouds and the associated errors that take into account the significant scatter in the IR flux from the Galactic disk gas. We find that there exist lower-velocity clouds that have extremely low DGRs, consistent with being in the Galactic halo—candidate LVHCs. We also confirm the lack of dust in many HVCs with the notable exception of complex M, which we consider to be the first detection of dust in HVCs. We do not confirm the previously reported detection of dust in complex C. In addition, we find that most intermediate- and low-velocity clouds that are part of the Galactic disk have a higher 60 μm/100 μm flux ratio than is typically seen in Galactic H i, which is consistent with a previously proposed picture in which fast-moving Galactic clouds have smaller, hotter dust grains.
Albert, Al & Bart and the special relativity theory

This paper expounds the development of a 3D multimedia product intended to explain elements of physics. It could be an innovative approach to m-learning, using cartoonspsila language to stimulate the youngest studentspsila attention. The aim is the exploration of cartoons as an alternative way of lesson. The short film has one leading character and three supporting characters. It was totally developed in Computer Graphics (CGI) using four virtual sets and nine lighting schemata. Albert, a nice scientist with flowing hair, explains the special relativity theory. He shows Bart, his bouncing assistant, that travels close to the speed of light and the effects of velocity.
Analysis of Flood Hydrographs in Order to Predict the Shape of Their Falling Limbs

This paper presents preliminary analyses carried out in order to assess the possibility to treat a small simple catchment as linear reservoir when modeling the runoff from a precipitation event. This analysis was carried out for the catchment of Černá Desná stream to the profile Jezdecká. The applicability of linear reservoir concept was tested by calculating the recession constant values for hydrographs falling limbs which were then evaluated in a statistical way. Specifically, five events were selected for the detail analysis. The results indicate that the linear reservoir concept can be applied in this case to predict relatively well the discharges in next 48 h. However, the results also show that there are limitations in the application of linear concept and that the introduction of non-linear reservoir could improve the prediction results.
Semantic Role Labeling for News Tweets

News tweets that report what is happening have become an important real-time information source. We raise the problem of Semantic Role Labeling (SRL) for news tweets, which is meaningful for fine grained information extraction and retrieval. We present a self-supervised learning approach to train a domain specific SRL system to resolve the problem. A large volume of training data is automatically labeled, by leveraging the existing SRL system on news domain and content similarity between news and news tweets. On a human annotated test set, our system achieves state-of-the-art performance, outperforming the SRL system trained on news.
dAElite: A TDM NoC Supporting QoS, Multicast, and Fast Connection Set-Up

Networks-on-Chip (NoC) are seen as promising interconnect solutions, offering the advantages of scalability and high-frequency operation which the traditional bus interconnects lack. Several NoC implementations have been presented in the literature, some of them having mature tool-flows. The main differentiating factor between the various implementations is the set of services and communication patterns they offer to the end-user. In this paper we present dAElite, a TDM Network-on-Chip that offers a unique combination of features, namely, guaranteed bandwidth and latency per connection, built-in support for multicast, and a short connection set-up time. While our NoC was designed from the ground up, we leverage on existing tools for network dimensioning, analysis, and instantiation. We have implemented and tested our proposal in hardware and we compared it to Æthereal, a state-of-the-art NoC with similar features, but no multicast. We find that the connection set-up time is reduced by a factor of 10 and the network traversal latency is decreased by 33 percent. Moreover, considering realistic values of the network parameters, dAElite has a lower hardware area when synthesized in 65 nm technology.
Development and validation of a new screening tool for hypoactive sexual desire disorder: The Brief Profile of Female Sexual Function© (B-PFSF©)

Aim. To develop a screening tool to allow a postmenopausal woman to determine whether to seek evaluation for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). Methods. The Brief Profile of Female Sexual Function© (B-PFSF©) was developed using items from the Profile of Female Sexual Function© (PFSF©) and the Personal Distress Scale© (PDS©). Logistic regression analysis was used to select items best able to discriminate between women with HSDD (n = 743) and controls (n = 226) and a screening cut-off score was identified. Cross-validation analyses were conducted using PFSF and PDS responses from an independent group of 147 HSDD women and 104 controls. Forty cognitive interviews were additionally conducted to assess validity of the final tool. Results. A seven-item instrument was found to provide good discrimination between postmenopausal women with HSDD and controls and to be a reliable and valid tool. Ninety-six percent of women with HSDD and 97% of control women in the independent validation were classified correctly using the identified cut-off score. In the cognitive interviews, all women stated that the questionnaire was easy to complete and covered relevant aspects of sexual function. Conclusion. The Brief Profile of Female Sexual Function (B-PFSF) is psychometrically valid and appropriate for use as a self-administered screening tool.
A Markov model for a wind energy conversion system with condition monitoring

Wind power is one of the most economical sources of energy. Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) comprises of several components with diverse characteristics that affect system reliability at different level. In order to operate WECS reliably and economically, accurate modeling of a WECS is needed to study the effects of, and possibly identify, components that lead the system to fail. This paper proposes a suitable Markov model for a WECS with condition monitoring (CM). A sensitivity analysis is carried out using the developed model to identify the characteristics of components that are likely to affect system reliability the most. Results show that the components with high mean down times and high failure frequencies are more critical to the availability of a WECS than the others.
Solinas primes of small weight for fixed sizes

We give a list of the Solinas prime numbers of the form f(2 k ) = 2 m 2 n ±1, m � 2000, with small modular reduction weight wt < 15, and k = 8, 16, 32, 64, i.e., k is a multiple of the computer integer arithmetic word size. These can be useful in the construction of cryptographic protocols.
Incremental Training and Intentional Over-fitting of Word Alignment

We investigate two problems in word alignment for machine translation. First, we compare methods for incremental word alignment to save time for large-scale machine translation systems. Various methods of using existing word alignment models trained on a larger, general corpus for incrementally aligning smaller new corpora are compared. In addition, by training separate translation tables, we eliminate the need for any re-processing of the baseline data. Experimental results are comparable or even superior to the baseline batch-mode training. Based on this success, we explore the possibility of sharpening alignment model via incremental training scheme. By first training a general word alignment model on the whole corpus and then dividing the same corpus into domainspecific partitions, followed by applying incremental training to each partition, we can improve machine translation quality as measured by BLEU.
Postthymic Maturation in a Humanized Development, Suppressive Function, and Human Natural Regulatory T Cell

CD4 + regulatory T cells (Tregs) control adaptive immune responses and promote self-tolerance. Various humanized mouse models have been developed in efforts to reproduce and study a human immune system. However, in models that require T cell differentiation in the recipient murine thymus, only low numbers of T cells populate the peripheral immune systems. T cells are positively selected by mouse MHC and therefore do not function well in an HLA-restricted manner. In contrast, cotransplantation of human fetal thymus/liver and i.v. injection of CD34 + cells from the same donor achieves multilineage human lymphohematopoietic reconstitution, including dendritic cells and formation of secondary lymphoid organs, in NOD/SCID mice. Strong Ag-speciﬁc immune responses and homeostatic expansion of human T cells that are dependent on peripheral human APCs occur. We now demonstrate that FOXP3 + Helios + “natural” Tregs develop normally in human fetal thymic grafts and are present in peripheral blood, spleen, and lymph nodes of these humanized mice. Humanized mice exhibit normal reversal of CD45 isoform expression in association with thymic egress, postthymic “naive” to “activated” phenotypic conversion, and suppressive function. These studies demonstrate the utility of this humanized mouse model for the study of human Treg ontogeny, immunobiology and therapy. The Journal of Immunology , 2011, 187: 3895–3903.
Nutzung von Biokohlesubstraten zur Wiederaufforstung von Windwurfflächen und auf Weihnachtsbaumkulturen

The goal of this PhD thesis was the investigation of the potential of biochar-compost substrates (BKS) usage in forestry. For this purpose, the model region Hochsauerlandkreis (Nordrhein-Westfalia) and two potential application cases in the restoration of wind breakage areas and Christmas tree cultures were chosen. The Application of BKS had only a small growth increasing effect on common spruce (Picea abies) on wind breakage areas and normann fir (Abies nordmanniana) in christmas tree cultures. Through the Application of BKS a significant increase in growth of common beech (Fagus sylvatica) on wind breakage areas was reached. These results are in accordance with results from literature, which indicate, that broad leaf trees show a stronger response to the increased supply with nutrients than conifer trees.
The Future of Electronic Power Processing and Conversion: Highlights from FEPPCON IX

Since 1991, every second year the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) has organized the technical long-range planning meeting "Future of Electronic Power Processing and Conversion" (FEPPCON). FEPPCON IX was held 12-16 June 2017 in beautiful Kruger Park in South Africa (Figure 1). The overall goal of the meeting was to discuss challenges, opportunities, and research directions beyond 2025 for power electronics and systems technology.
Embodied Organization of Octopus vulgaris Morphology, Vision, and Locomotion

The rich motor behavior of Octopus vulgaris is an outstanding biological example of motor control in a soft-bodied animal. The flexible hyper-redundant arms of the octopus endow it with high maneuverability but also place a great burden on its control system. The main difficulty in using the arms for precise goal-directed movements and coordinated locomotion is the problems of interfacing the incoming sensory information with the issuing of the proper motor commands. Skeletal animals evolved a solution for this interfacing difficulty by employing central " representation maps " that represent the sensory and the motor information in an organization that maintains the spatial relationships of the body morphology (somatotopic representation), yet the relative size of each body part reflects the number of sensory receptors and the number of muscle groups in each of the body parts. Therefore, in our brain, this brain organization resembles a topography of a " little man " —homunculus in Latin. The implication of such topological organization is that in the central brain, (e.g., in our motor and sensory cortices) the sensory and motor activities are represented in " body parts coordinates. " This representation format likely serves as a useful " reference table " for the brain to compute feedforward motor commands for motor interaction with the external world. This computational mechanism is feasible because the number of body parts and their dynamic locations with respect to each other is constrained by the limited number of joints and the fixed configuration of the skeleton which limits the number of controlled parameters (i.e., degrees of freedom, DOFs) needed to be computed for the execution of specific movements. Implementing in the octopus a motor control mechanism that is similarly based on body parts representation would be ineffective because of the lack of fixed spatial relationships between the flexible body parts that would require an enormous computational power to calculate the feedforward commands that are needed to control the enormous number of DOFs that are required for computing the coordinated interaction of eight long and flexible arms with the external world. Indeed, the body of the octopus is not represented somatotopically in the higher motor centers (the basal lobes) in the octopus brain (Zullo et al., 2009) and as we describe below, the evolved control algorithms of the arms in goal directed movement and locomotion highlights control strategies that seem to overcome the need for central representation of …
A different view on immunity: spatial mapping of human T cells over a lifetime.

A lloreactive T cells are widely accepted as the main driving force in the induction and progression of allograft rejection and as such are frequently analyzed to ascertain a patient's immune reactivity to a transplant. Antigenexperienced T cells formed either de novo after a period of suboptimal immunosuppression or previously generated subsequent to sensitizing events or through heterologous immunity contribute significantly to rejection. Thus far, studies of human T cells have been limited to sampling peripheral blood, which contains less than 3% of total T cells. This raises the question as to how accurately peripheral blood lymphocytes reflect the immune status of transplant patients. A seminal paper by Farber and colleagues published in Cell, provides important insights into the localisation, phenotype and trafficking of different T cell subsets in humans through a unique collaboration with New York Organ Donor Network. Their utilization of tissue and blood samples from deceased donors allowed for a systematic analysis of T-cell subsets across a broad range of anatomical locations, ages, and races resulting in a comprehensive picture of memory T-cell distribution as a function of time and space. The term memory T cell encompasses several subsets of antigen-experienced cells that differ in their homing capacities and effector functions. Each of these subtypes may play distinct roles in immunity and can be defined by the expression of CD4 or CD8 coreceptors and the differential expression pattern of CD45RA and chemokine (C-C motif ) receptor 7 (CCR7). Using this approach, the authors subdivided CD4 and CD8 T cells into naive or antigenexperienced TEMRA (short-lived, terminally differentiated cells), central memory (TCM) and effector memory (TEM) Tcells. In addition, they also analysed tissue resident memory cells, that are located and retained in the skin, liver, andmucosal tissues. This elegant and comprehensive study has significantly increased our understanding of memory T cell subsets, their localization, and the dynamic changes that occur during the lifetime of an individual with a number of clear implications for the analysis of T-cell immunity to transplanted tissue.
Learning a Set of Interrelated Tasks by Using a Succession of Motor Policies for a Socially Guided Intrinsically Motivated Learner

We aim at a robot capable to learn sequences of actions to achieve a field of complex tasks. In this paper, we are considering the learning of a set of interrelated complex tasks hierarchically organized. To learn this high-dimensional mapping between a continuous high-dimensional space of tasks and an infinite dimensional space of unbounded sequences of actions, we introduce a new framework called “procedures”, which enables the autonomous discovery of how to combine previously learned skills in order to learn increasingly complex combinations of motor policies. We propose an active learning algorithmic architecture, capable of organizing its learning process in order to achieve a field of complex tasks by learning sequences of primitive motor policies. Based on heuristics of active imitation learning, goal-babbling and strategic learning using intrinsic motivation, our algorithmic architecture leverages our procedures framework to actively decide during its learning process which outcome to focus on and which exploration strategy to apply. We show on a simulated environment that our new architecture is capable of tackling the learning of complex motor policies by adapting the complexity of its policies to the task at hand. We also show that our “procedures” enable the learning agent to discover the task hierarchy and exploit his experience of previously learned skills to learn new complex tasks.
Serial Review : Causes and Consequences of Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer ’ s Disease

Historically, amyloidand (tau), the major components of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, respectively, have been considered central mediators of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. Therefore, efforts to understand disease mechanisms have concentrated on understanding either the processes involved in amyloiddeposition as senile plaques or on the phosphorylation and aggregation of as neurofibrillary tangles. However, in light of recent evidence, such “lesion-centric” approaches look to be inappropriate. In fact, rather than initiators of disease pathogenesis, the lesions occur consequent to oxidative stress and function as a primary line of antioxidant defense. Given this, it is perhaps not surprising that the increased sensitivity to oxidative stress in the aged brain, even in control individuals, is invariably marked by the appearance of both amyloidand tau. Additionally, in Alzheimer disease, where chronic oxidative stress persists and is superimposed upon an age-related vulnerable environment, one would predict, and there is, an increased lesion load. The notion that amyloidand function as protective components brings into serious question the rationale of current therapeutic efforts targeted toward lesion removal. © 2002 Elsevier
Recent progress on the Jacobian conjecture

In this paper we describe some recent developments concerning the Jacobian Conjecture(JC). First we describe Druzkowski’s result in [6] which asserts that it suffices to study the JC for Druzkowski mappings of the form x + (Ax)∗3 with A = 0. Then we describe the authors’ result of [2] which asserts that it suffices to study the JC for so-called gradient mappings i.e. mappings of the form x − ∇f , with f ∈ k homogeneous of degree 4. Using this result we explain Zhao’s reformulation of the JC which asserts the following: for every homogeneous polynomial f ∈ k (of degree 4) the hypothesis ∆(f) = 0 for all m ≥ 1 implies that ∆m−1(fm) = 0 for all large m (∆ is the Laplace operator). In the last section we descibe Kumar’s formulation of the JC in terms of smoothness of a certain family of hypersurfaces. 1
Historical Single Image-Based Modeling: The Case of Gobierna Tower, Zamora (Spain)

Historical perspective images have been proved to be very useful to properly provide a dimensional analysis of buildings facades or even to generate a pseudo-3D reconstruction based on rectified images of the whole structure. In this paper, the case of Gobierna Tower (Zamora, Spain) is analyzed from a historical single image-based modeling approach. In particular, a bottom-up approach, which takes advantage from the perspective of the image, the existence of the three vanishing points and the usual geometric constraints (i.e., planarity, orthogonality, and parallelism) is applied for the dimensional analysis of a destroyed historical building. Results were compared with ground truth measurements existing in a historical topographical surveying obtaining deviations of about 1%.
Impact of Digitization on Media and Media Presence of Debut Bands within Hard Rock and Metal Genres

Since its introduction to the market, digital technology has continuously challenged various industries and their business models, including that of the media industry. Although the media industry was formerly ascribed the role of a gatekeeper and tastemaker for music, in a world in which the digital realm is profoundly related to daily life and new devices, platforms, and forms of media regularly emerge, it is questionable whether media industry channels can continue in the same role. The aim of this study is to understand and evaluate how the current status of media industries is affected by digitization. In particular, the project focuses on the role of newspapers, magazines, and their online counterparts within contemporary music journalism and publicity practices, and the way in which the relationships between these affect media presences of debut bands within the hard rock and metal genres. This thesis is based on a study of literature and reports from various bodies such as Reuters Institute and IFPI as well as of recent articles and discussions in relevant media outlets. The study also draws on in-depth interviews with high-ranking figures in the media and publicity spheres. The discussion chapter of this thesis reflects on findings from the above-mentioned research and attempts to anticipate future developments within the media industry; it also identifies opportunities and provides possible strategies for improving the media presence of debut artists within the hard rock and metal genres.
Feature Selection for Machine Learning: Comparing a Correlation-Based Filter Approach to the Wrapper

Feature selection is often an essential data processing step prior to applying a learning algorithm. The removal of irrelevant and redundant information often improves the performance of machine learning algorithms. There are two common approaches: a wrapper uses the intended learning algorithm itself to evaluate the usefulness of features, while a fllter evaluates features according to heuristics based on general characteristics of the data. The wrapper approach is generally considered to produce better feature subsets but runs much more slowly than a fllter. This paper describes a new fllter approach to feature selection that uses a correlation based heuristic to evaluate the worth of feature subsets When applied as a data preprocessing step for two common machine learning algorithms, the new method compares favourably with the wrapper but requires much less computation.
Realization of a New Association Rule Mining Algorithm

Based on fully analyzing the PF_growth, an association rule mining algorithm, this paper presents a new association rule mining algorithm called MFP. The MFP algorithm can convert a transaction database into an MFP_tree through scanning the database only once, and then do the mining of the tree. Because the MFP algorithm scans a transaction database one time less than the FP_growth algorithm, the MFP algorithm is more efficient.