Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validation Testing for Temporal Neural Networks for RBF Recognition

(cid:3) Abstract — A neuron can emit spikes in an irregular time basis and by averaging over a certain time window one would ignore a lot of information. It is known that in the context of fast information processing there is no sufficient time to sample an average firing rate of the spiking neurons. The present work shows that the spiking neurons are capable of computing the radial basis functions by storing the relevant information in the neurons' delays. One of the fundamental findings of the this research also is that when using overlapping receptive fields to encode the data patterns it increases the network’s clustering capacity. The clustering algorithm that is discussed here is interesting from computer science and neuroscience point of view as well as from a perspective.
A New Multiple Classifiers Combination Algorithm

Classification has an important role in data mining, but the individual classifier has its limited applicable field, so combining the classified output of multiple classifiers to get much more accuracy is very valuable. There are many combination algorithms such as product, sum, median and vote rules. But these integration algorithms always have not good capability in different datasets. So in this paper a new parallel multiple classifiers combining algorithm, that is maximum of posterior probability average with self-adaptive weight based on output vectors and decision template (MASWOD) is proposed. The experiment on standard UCI dataset show that this algorithm improve the classified accuracy and extend the applicable area of data mining greatly
Correlations and fluctuations of a confined electron gas

The grand potential $\Omega$ and the response $R = - \partial \Omega /\partial x$ of a phase-coherent confined noninteracting electron gas depend sensitively on chemical potential $\mu$ or external parameter $x$. We compute their autocorrelation as a function of $\mu$, $x$ and temperature. The result is related to the short-time dynamics of the corresponding classical system, implying in general the absence of a universal regime. Chaotic, diffusive and integrable motions are investigated, and illustrated numerically. The autocorrelation of the persistent current of a disordered mesoscopic ring is also computed.
Peer mentored teams to support undergraduate group work in higher education.

This research starts with a set of practical research questions to investigate a problem which occurs in some computing undergraduate modules that use group work as part of the learning and assessment strategy. In this study final year students with experience in information systems project work and trained in team processes met with small groups of first year computing students with the aim of turning the first year project group into a team. This study seeks to explore the experience of the final year students as they take on the role of peer tutor looking at the problems they perceive within the first year teams and the skills and knowledge they use to help them. The study includes the recruitment and training of final year students (n=9) and allocation to first year teams. The final year students acted as co-researchers and team leaders in L4 Information Systems project work and recorded their thoughts and observations in a diary during the first semester of 2008/9 academic year. Diary data was supplemented by interview data from a sample of final year students (n=4). The sample was selected based on the richness of the data provided in the diaries and the number of meetings held with their teams. Rich data and thick descriptions were essential for a phenomenological examination of the experience of the final year students. A number of findings emerged. A critical approach to analysis revealed ongoing conflicts occurred across cultural divides within the first year teams that final year leaders did not articulate or appear fully aware of. This had important implications for individual team members. Other findings which relate to issues of changing levels of motivation in the teams over the ten weeks, roles adopted by the leaders, ability to systematize the project or team processes and the ability to reflect on unsuccessful strategies also had implications for peer mentoring training and support. The picture that emerged from the data suggested that lack of intercultural sensitivity and empathy within the student group reduces the value of peer mentoring interventions for some first year undergraduate team members in computing. In order to improve the experience for all students, methods to develop intercultural sensitivity within the student body are examined and a framework for training and support is proposed.
The Globular Cluster System of the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy

Prompted by the discovery of the accreted Canis Major dwarf galaxy and its associated globular cluster (GC) system, we investigate the contribution of accreted GCs to the Galactic system. The Canis Major GCs, and those associated with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, exhibit a range of Galactocentric radii, prograde and retrograde motions, and horizontal-branch morphologies, indicating that such properties are of limited use in identifying accreted GCs. In contrast, we find that the age-metallicity relation (AMR) of these dwarf galaxies is distinct from that of the main Galactic GC distribution at intermediate-to-high metallicities ([Fe/H] ≳ -1.3). The accretion of GCs with a distinct AMR would explain much of the apparent age spread in the Galactic GC system. The Canis Major and Sagittarius AMRs are similar to those of other Local Group dwarf galaxies and are consistent with a simple closed-box chemical enrichment model—a further indication that these GCs formed outside of the Milky Way. The Canis Major GCs all have smaller-than-average sizes for their Galactocentric distances, lending further support to their origin outside of the Milky Way. Our findings suggest that accretion of similar mass dwarfs does not appear to have played a major role in building the stellar mass of the thick disk or bulge of the Milky Way.
A fuzzy approximator with Gaussian membership functions to estimate a human's head pose

Estimating the head pose plays an important role in computer vision and also as a key task for visual surveillance and face recognition applications hence a prominent problem in computer vision. Most of the works in this field suffer from lack of continuous estimating of the head pose and high accuracy. We know fuzzy systems as universal approximator capable of approximating an unknown function by having just few limited information while attaining high accuracy. In this paper, an improved approach is proposed for estimating the rotation angle of the head along horizontal axis based on a fuzzy approximator in which the membership functions are of Gaussian type. The proposed method is able to provide a continuous estimate of the head along horizontal axis with high accuracy, low computational cost while avoiding from getting involved into complex mathematical equations. Experiments on images from two standard well-known databases showed less than 6° of average absolute error in estimation which is a significant improvement over the approximator with simple triangular membership functions.
A framework for reliable exchange of periodic and event-driven messages in platoons

Platooning is widely considered a promising approach to decrease fuel consumption by reducing the air drag. However, in order to achieve the benefits of aerodynamic efficiency, the inter-vehicle distances must be kept short. This implies that the intra-platoon communication must not only be reliable but also able to meet strict timing deadlines. In this paper, we propose a framework that reliably handles the co-existence of both time-triggered and event-driven control messages in platooning applications and we derive an efficient message dissemination technique. We propose a semi-centralized time division multiple access (TDMA) approach, which e.g., can be placed on top of the current standard IEEE 802.11p and we evaluate the resulting error probability and delay, when using it to broadcast periodic beacons and disseminating event-driven messages within a platoon. Simulation results indicate that the proposed dissemination policy significantly enhances the reliability for a given number of available time-slots, or alternatively, reduces the delay, in terms of time-slots, required to achieve a certain target error probability, without degrading the performance of co-existing time-triggered messages.
Metagenomic Analysis of Fungal Diversity on Strawberry Plants and the Effect of Management Practices on the Fungal Community Structure of Aerial Organs

An amplicon metagenomic approach based on the ITS2 region of fungal rDNA was used to identify the composition of fungal communities associated with different strawberry organs (leaves, flowers, immature and mature fruits), grown on a farm using management practices that entailed the routine use of various chemical pesticides. ITS2 sequences clustered into 316 OTUs and Ascomycota was the dominant phyla (95.6%) followed by Basidiomycota (3.9%). Strawberry plants supported a high diversity of microbial organisms, but two genera, Botrytis and Cladosporium, were the most abundant, representing 70–99% of the relative abundance (RA) of all detected sequences. According to alpha and beta diversity analyses, strawberry organs displayed significantly different fungal communities with leaves having the most diverse fungal community, followed by flowers, and fruit. The interruption of chemical treatments for one month resulted in a significant modification in the structure of the fungal community of leaves and flowers while immature and mature fruit were not significantly affected. Several plant pathogens of other plant species, that would not be intuitively expected to be present on strawberry plants such as Erysiphe, were detected, while some common strawberry pathogens, such as Rhizoctonia, were less evident or absent.
Excellent : een handleiding voor de toepassing van het EFQM-Excellence model

0. Situering 1. Leiderschap 2. Beleid en strategie 3. Medewerkers 4. Partnerschap en middelen 5. Processen 6. Klantenresultaten 7. Medewerkersresultaten 8. Samenlevingsresultaten 9. Sleutelprestatieresultaten 10. Van diagnose naar remedie Bijlage 1: Interpretatie van de begrippen klanten, aandeelhouders en samenleving voor de publieke sector Bijlage 2: Relatie tussen het EFQM-Excellence model en de organisatiecultuur
The Ahlfors Iteration for Conformal Mapping

of the Dissertation The Ahlfors Iteration for Conformal Mapping by Christopher Michael Green Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics Stony Brook University 2011 The Riemann Mapping Theorem states that for any proper, simply connected planar domain there exists a conformal mapping from the disk onto the domain. But can this map be explicitly described? For general domains, there is no obvious answer. However, if the domain is the interior of a simple polygon, a convenient formula for the Riemann map was discovered independently by Schwarz and Christoffel. In this dissertation, we present a local quadratically convergent algorithm, the Ahlfors Iteration, based on the theory of quasiconformal maps in the plane, to compute the Schwarz-Christoffel mapping. This algorithm will also apply to a larger collection of simply connected Riemann surfaces. The Ahlfors Iteration improves upon current algorithms that compute the Schwarz-Christoffel map, in that, it is proven to converge, has a simple iterative form, and is easy to implement.
Gamers' cognitive process on gameplay in massively multi-player online role-playing game: towards world of warcrafts players' the difference

The objective of this study is to explore the differences according to gamers' expertise: experts, intermediate gamers, and novices. To this end, this study proposes an analytic framework that focuses on the gamers' cognitive process. An empirical experiment within the domain of MMORPG game was conducted where verbal protocols and action protocols were collected. The results of the study reveal that the different behavior patterns result from standardizing of their actions for experts and forming the specific patterns of action for intermediate game players. The gameplay pattern was elucidated by much more time and steps in the game for novices than for intermediate gamers. While there was an intensive distribution in the early stage of the game for experts, the novices' behavior pattern appeared in a divergent distribution in the whole gameplay. This study is concluded with key implications to support game design to improve the quality of game product.
Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications the (3,1)-ordering for 4-connected Planar Triangulations

Canonical orderings of planar graphs have frequently been used in graph drawing and other graph algorithms. In this paper we introduce the notion of an (r, s)-canonical order, which unifies many of the existing variants of canonical orderings. We then show that (3, 1)-canonical ordering for 4-connected triangulations always exist; to our knowledge this variant of canonical ordering was not previously known. We use it to give much simpler proofs of two previously known graph drawing results for 4-connected planar triangulations, namely, rectangular duals and rectangle-of-influence drawings.
Azidothymidine Sensitizes Primary Effusion Lymphoma Cells to Kaposi Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus-Specific CD4+ T Cell Control and Inhibits vIRF3 Function

Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is linked with the development of Kaposi sarcoma and the B lymphocyte disorders primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and multi-centric Castleman disease. T cell immunity limits KSHV infection and disease, however the virus employs multiple mechanisms to inhibit efficient control by these effectors. Thus KSHV-specific CD4+ T cells poorly recognize most PEL cells and even where they can, they are unable to kill them. To make KSHV-infected cells more sensitive to T cell control we treated PEL cells with the thymidine analogue azidothymidine (AZT), which sensitizes PEL lines to Fas-ligand and TRAIL challenge; effector mechanisms which T cells use. PELs co-cultured with KSHV-specific CD4+ T cells in the absence of AZT showed no control of PEL outgrowth. However in the presence of AZT PEL outgrowth was controlled in an MHC-restricted manner. To investigate how AZT sensitizes PELs to immune control we first examined BJAB cells transduced with individual KSHV-latent genes for their ability to resist apoptosis mediated by stimuli delivered through Fas and TRAIL receptors. This showed that in addition to the previously described vFLIP protein, expression of vIRF3 also inhibited apoptosis delivered by these stimuli. Importantly vIRF3 mediated protection from these apoptotic stimuli was inhibited in the presence of AZT as was a second vIRF3 associated phenotype, the downregulation of surface MHC class II. Although both vFLIP and vIRF3 are expressed in PELs, we propose that inhibiting vIRF3 function with AZT may be sufficient to restore T cell control of these tumor cells.
Adaptive Technique for Computationally Efficient Time Delay and Magnitude Estimation of Sinusoidal Signals

An online, adaptive method of time delay and magnitude estimation for sinusoidal signals is presented. The method is based on an adaptive gradient descent algorithm that directly determines the time delay and magnitudes of two noisy sinusoidal signals. The new estimator uses a novel quadrature carrier generator to produce the carriers for an adaptive quadrature phase detector, which in turn uses an arc tan function to compute the time delay. The proposed method is quite robust and can adapt to significant variation in input signal characteristics like magnitude and frequency imposing no requirement on the magnitudes of the two signals. It even works effectively when the signals have time-varying magnitudes. The convergence analysis of the proposed technique shows that estimate converges exponentially fast to their nominal values. In addition, if the technique is implemented in the continuous time domain, the delay estimation accuracy will not be constrained by the sampling frequency as observed in some of the classical techniques. Extensive simulations show that the proposed method provides very accurate estimates of the time delay comparable to that of the popular methods like Sinc-based estimator, Lagrange estimator, and the Quadrature estimator, as well the magnitude estimate of the input signals at lower signal to noise ratio at appreciably reduced computational cost.
Structure-accentuating Dense Flow Visualization

Vector field visualization approaches can broadly be categorized into approaches that directly visualize local or integrated flow and approaches that analyze the topological structure and visualize extracted features. Our goal was to come up with a method that falls into the first category, yet reveals structural information. We have developed a dense flow visualization method that shows the overall flow behavior while accentuating structural information without performing a topological analysis. Our method is based on a geometry-based flow integration step and a texture-based visual exploration step. The flow integration step generates a density field, which is written into a texture. The density field is generated by tracing particles under the influence of the underlying vector field. When using a quasi-random seeding strategy for initialization, the resulting density is high in attracting regions and low in repelling regions. Density is measured by the number of particles per region accumulated over time. We generate one density field using forward and one using backward propagation. The density fields are explored using texture-based rendering techniques. We generate the two output images separately and blend the results, which allows us to distinguish between inflow and outflow regions. We obtained dense flow visualizations that display the overall flow behavior, emphasize critical and separating regions, and indicate flow direction in the neighborhood of these regions. We have test our method for isolated first-order singularities and real data sets.
A common spectrum of polypeptides occurs in secretion granule membranes of different exocrine glands

A highly purified membrane preparation from rat parotid secretion granules has been used as a comparative probe to examine the extent of compositional overlap in granule membranes of three other exocrine secretory tissues--pancreatic, lacrimal, and submandibular--from several standpoints. First, indirect immunofluorescent studies using a polyclonal polyspecific anti-parotid granule membrane antiserum has indicated a selective staining of granule membrane profiles in all acinar cells of all tissues. Second, highly purified granule membrane subfractions have been isolated from each exocrine tissue; comparative two-dimensional (isoelectric focusing; SDS) PAGE of radioiodinated granule membranes has identified 10-15 polypeptides of identical pI and apparent molecular mass. These species are likely to be integral membrane components since they are not extracted by either saponin- sodium sulfate or sodium carbonate (pH 11.5) treatments, and they do not have counterparts in the granule content. Finally, the identity among selected parotid and pancreatic radioiodinated granule membrane polypeptides has been documented using two-dimensional peptide mapping of chymotryptic and tryptic digests. These findings clearly indicate that exocrine secretory granules, irrespective of the nature of stored secretion, comprise a type of vesicular carrier with a common (and probably refined) membrane composition. Conceivably, the polypeptides identified carry out general functions related to exocrine secretion.
Relación entre condición física y salud mental en escolares de primaria.

ABSTRACT There is scientific evidence that physical fitness is a biological marker of health. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between physical fitness and state weight with mental health in primary school children from the southeast of Span. An cross sectional design was implemented, evaluating handgrip strength, explosive lower body strength, aerobic capacity and speed-agility through ALPHA-fitness test battery of a sample of 214 students between 8 and 11 years. The analysis of simple variance showed that physical fitness and state weight is not associated significantly with the mental health. The results indicate that physical fitness and state weight is not a differentiator of mental health in school children from the southeast of Spain. Keywords: health, physical exercise, children.
Wireless Sensor Network Design for Wildfire Monitoring

This paper describes a system design approach for wireless sensor network based wildfire monitoring, including the system architecture, hardware and software framework. Effectiveness of the solution is evaluated in terms of reactivity, reliability, robustness and network lifetime. The main contribution of the paper is the design of a sensor network that can meets the goal of reactivity and reliability, and that demonstrates satisfactory robustness and relatively longer network lifetime
Association between serum angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 levels and postoperative myocardial infarction following coronary artery bypass grafting

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a predominant and severe complication in patients that undergo aortocoronary bypass surgery. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) activation is reportedly a protective mechanism in MI; therefore, in the present study, the association between serum ACE2 levels and postoperative MI following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) was investigated. Preoperative and postoperative serum ACE2 levels in 136 subjects undergoing CABG were observed and the serum ACE2 levels, 1 h post surgery, were divided into quartile categories. Following adjustment for age, gender, body mass index, hypertension, previous MI, current smoking status, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, Gensini score, aortic clamp time, number of grafts and pre-CABG medications; the risk of developing postoperative MI following CABG was observed to be significantly higher in the lowest serum ACE2 level quartile than when compared with the highest quartile (hazard ratio, 2.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.85–4.16; P=0.009). The subjects that exhibited a serum ACE2 level ≤1.06 ng/ml showed significantly higher rates of postoperative MI, arrhythmia and reduced cardiac output in addition to increased instances of in-hospital mortality post CABG, compared with those exhibiting a serum ACE2 level >1.06 ng/ml. A significant negative correlation was observed between serum ACE2 and serum cardiac troponin I levels, however, no significant association was identified between the serum ACE2 level quartiles and the ACE2 gene polymorphisms. The present study indicated that a low serum ACE2 level, 1 h post CABG was independently associated with an increased risk of postoperative MI. Thus, the serum ACE2 level may be a potential novel prognostic factor for postoperative MI following CABG.