Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PaperPulse: an integrated approach for embedding electronics in paper designs

We present PaperPulse, a design and fabrication approach that enables designers without a technical background to produce standalone interactive paper artifacts by augmenting them with electronics. With PaperPulse designers overlay pre-designed visual elements with interactive widgets and specify functional relations between them using a logic demonstration and recording approach, called Pulsation. When the design is finished, PaperPulse generates layered electronic circuit designs, code that can be deployed on a microcontroller, and instructions for assembly.
Individual Success and the Strategy Process: an Exploratory Study

Today’s business press questions the link—by no means automatic—between individual and organizational success. Top performers or mavericks (“straight shooters”) display idiosyncratic behaviour that, while it brings innovation, puts organizational success at risk. The study reveals that individual success is a social construct that is part of the process of strategy formation and stems from a corporatist attitude to official strategy.
Asymmetric Distribution of Prickle-Like 2 Reveals an Early Underlying Polarization of Vestibular Sensory Epithelia in the Inner Ear

Vestibular hair cells have a distinct planar cell polarity (PCP) manifest in the morphology of their stereocilia bundles and the asymmetric localization of their kinocilia. In the utricle and saccule the hair cells are arranged in an orderly array about an abrupt line of reversal that separates fields of cells with opposite polarity. We report that the putative PCP protein Prickle-like 2 (Pk2) is distributed in crescents on the medial sides of vestibular epithelial cells before the morphological polarization of hair cells. Despite the presence of a line of polarity reversal, crescent position is not altered between hair cells of opposite polarity. Frizzled 6 (Fz6), a second PCP protein, is distributed opposite Pk2 along the lateral side of vestibular support cells. Similar to Pk2, the subcellular localization of Fz6 does not differ between cells located on opposite sides of the line of reversal. In addition, in Looptail/Van Gogh-like2 mutant mice Pk2 is distributed asymmetrically at embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5), but this localization is not coordinated between adjacent cells, and the crescents subsequently are lost by E18.5. Together, these results support the idea that a conserved PCP complex acts before stereocilia bundle development to provide an underlying polarity to all cells in the vestibular epithelia and that cells on either side of the line of reversal are programmed to direct the kinocilium in opposite directions with respect to the polarity axis defined by PCP protein distribution.
Dependency Parsing with Reference to Slovene, Spanish and Swedish

We describe a parser used in the CoNLL 2006 Shared Task, "Multingual Dependency Parsing. " The parser first identifies syntactic dependencies and then labels those dependencies using a maximum entropy classifier. We consider the impact of feature engineering and the choice of machine learning algorithm, with particular focus on Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
Patient-reported olfactory function following endoscopic sinus surgery with modified endoscopic Lothrop procedure / Draf 3.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS The Modified Endoscopic Lothrop procedure (MELP) or Draf 3 is a complex procedure, performed for chronic frontal sinusitis that is refractory to standard functional endoscopic sinus surgery. The procedure involves drilling of the frontal T (formed by the septum and middle turbinate`s attachment to the skull base) onto the olfactory fossa often with exposure of the first olfactory neuron and may affect olfactory function. This study was performed to assess patients` subjective sense of smell following this procedure. STUDY DESIGN Prospective study of retrospective data. METHODS Sixty-eight patients, who underwent modified endoscopic Lothrop by the senior author (PJW) between 2003 and 2008, completed a post-operative questionnaire asking about their perception of olfactory function. All patients had their pre-operative subjective sense of smell documented prior to undergoing surgery. Patient records were reviewed for pertinent medical information such as the presence of asthma, aspirin sensitivity and nasal polyps. RESULTS This study found that the majority of patients reported improvement in their sense of smell post-operatively, while only a small number reported a negative impact on their smell. Thirty-nine patients reported an improvement in their post-operative smell grade. Twenty patients reported no change in their smell grade, while the remaining 9 patients stated that their sense of smell worsened after surgery. No statistically significant correlation was found between patient outcome and the presence of asthma, nasal polyps, or Samter`s triad. CONCLUSIONS The Modified endoscopic Lothrop procedure/Draf 3 had a positive effect on subjective sense of smell post-operatively in this cohort of patients.
Incremental Slow Feature Analysis: Adaptive Low-Complexity Slow Feature Updating from High-Dimensional Input Streams

We introduce here an incremental version of slow feature analysis (IncSFA), combining candid covariance-free incremental principal components analysis (CCIPCA) and covariance-free incremental minor components analysis (CIMCA). IncSFA's feature updating complexity is linear with respect to the input dimensionality, while batch SFA's (BSFA) updating complexity is cubic. IncSFA does not need to store, or even compute, any covariance matrices. The drawback to IncSFA is data efficiency: it does not use each data point as effectively as BSFA. But IncSFA allows SFA to be tractably applied, with just a few parameters, directly on high-dimensional input streams (e.g., visual input of an autonomous agent), while BSFA has to resort to hierarchical receptive-field-based architectures when the input dimension is too high. Further, IncSFA's updates have simple Hebbian and anti-Hebbian forms, extending the biological plausibility of SFA. Experimental results show IncSFA learns the same set of features as BSFA and can handle a few cases where BSFA fails.
Development and evaluation of a web-based asynchronous discussion system on e-learning materials

This paper describes an asynchronous discussion system by writing annotations directly on web-based learning materials and its evaluation. We have already developed an annotation system on web-based learning materials. This system enables learners to write annotations such as markers and memorandums directly on materials and to share annotations among lecturers and learners. The lecturers and learners can have asynchronous discussions directly on materials by adding their comments to others' annotations. Then, we have conducted a trial experiment to evaluate the system in an actual class. The system is valuated from three aspects. The first aspect is the effect of the asynchronous discussion, which is measured from the scores obtained in a written assignment, the second aspect is the functionality of the features based on the result of a questionnaire survey carried out after the experiment and the last one is the usability of the system based on the result of the survey.
Density Adaptive Parallel Clustering

In this paper we are going to introduce a new nearest neighbours based approach to clustering, and compare it with previous solutions; the resulting algorithm, which takes inspiration from both DBscan and minimum spanning tree approaches, is deterministic but proves simpler, faster and doesnt require to set in advance a value for k, the number of clusters.
The contrast between Atlantic and Pacific surface water fluxes

The Atlantic Ocean is known to have higher sea surface salinity than the Pacific Ocean at all latitudes. This is thought to be associated with the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and deep water formation in the high latitude North Atlantic – a phenomenon not present anywhere in the Pacific. This asymmetry may be a result of salt transport in the ocean or an asymmetry in the surface water flux (evaporation minus precipitation; ) with greater over the Atlantic than the Pacific. In this paper, we focus on the surface water flux. Seven estimates of the net freshwater flux ( including run-off, R), calculated with different methods and a range of data sources (atmospheric and oceanic reanalyses, surface flux data-sets, hydrographic sections), are compared. It is shown that over the Atlantic is consistently greater than over the Pacific by about 0.4 Sv (1 Sv m s). The Atlantic/Pacific asymmetry is found at all latitudes between 30S and 60N. Further analysis with ERA-Interim combined with a run-off data-set demonstrates that the basin asymmetry is dominated by an evaporation asymmetry in the northern high-latitudes, but by a precipitation asymmetry everywhere south of 30N. At the basin scale, the excess of precipitation over the Pacific compared to the Atlantic (S N) dominates the asymmetry. Also it is shown that the asymmetry is present throughout the year and quite steady from year to year. Investigation of the interannual variability and trends suggest that the precipitation trends are not robust between data-sets and are indistinguishable from variability. However, a positive trend in evaporation (comparable to other published estimates) is seen in ERA-Interim, consistent with sea surface temperature increases.
Classification of Bio-Optical Signals using Soft Computing Tools

The identification of the state of human skin tissues is discussed here. The bio-optical signals recorded in vitro have been analyzed by extracting various statistical features. Using LAB VIEW 7.1 programs/tools, different statistical features are extracted from both normal and pathology spectra. Each spectrum is filttered and normalized. Then different features like skewness, summation, median residuals, power spectral density, etc. were extracted. The values of the feature vector reveal information regarding tissue state. The values of the feature vector reveal information regarding tissue state. These parameters have been analyzed for discrimination between normal and pathology conditions. For analysis, a specific data set has been considered. Further discrimination between normal and pathology spectra is also be achieved by using MATLAB @6.1 tool based classical multilayer feed forward neural network with back propagation algorithm.
Discovering Music Structure via Similarity Fusion

Automatic methods for music navigation and music recommendation exploit the structure in the music to carry out a meaningful exploration of the “song space”. To get a satisfactory performance from such systems, one should incorporate as much information about songs similarity as possible; however, how to do so is not obvious. In this paper, we build on the ideas of the Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) that have been successfully used in the document retrieval community. Under this probabilistic framework, any song will be projected into a relatively low dimensional space of “latent semantics”, in such a way that all observed similarities can be satisfactorily explained using the latent semantics. Therefore, one can think of these semantics as the real structure in music, in the sense that they can explain the observed similarities among songs. The suitability of the PLSA model for representing music structure is studied in a simpliﬁed scenario consisting of 4412 songs and two similarity measures among them. The results suggest that the PLSA model is a useful framework to combine different sources of information, and provides a reasonable space for song representation.
Responses of Wild Chimpanzees to Fresh Carcasses of Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) in Mahale

meaning that human observers were also there on a regular basis. Second, because Psydrax trees are relatively short with sparse canopies, it was easy for the observer to notice the dead body. We may not have been able to notice the remains if a higher and denser-canopied tree were involved or in a place less frequented by the chimpanzees. In such cases, we cannot solve the disappearances of infants. This dilemma poses the distinct possibility that arboreal deaths may be more common than we know. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank COSTECH, TAWIRI, and TANAPA for their permission to conduct long-term research at Mahale. Demography, female life history, and reproductive profiles among the chimpanzees of Mahale. 2008. Arboreal nesting as anti-predator adaptation by savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in southeastern Senegal. Am J Primatol 70:393–401. Stewart FA, Pruetz JD 2013. Do chimpanzee nests serve an anti-predatory function? Am J Primatol 75:593–604. Takemoto H 2004. Seasonal change in terrestriality of chimpanzees in relation to microclimate in the tropical forest. A case report about the death accident of captive chimpanzee infant. Primate Res 10:321–331, in Japanese with English summary.
A rate-distortion problem for a communication system with a secondary decoder to be hindered

A rate-distortion problem is considered for a communication system (f, phi /sub 1/) with a secondary decoder phi /sub 2/ to be hindered which uses a different distortion measure from the primary system. The least achievable distortion of the secondary decoder is evaluated for the most secure primary system. Source coding for sources with additional outputs to be kept secret from the receiver or wiretappers is also discussed. Security is evaluated by distortion measures instead of the equivocation function used by H. Tamamoto (1983). >
CORBA request portable interceptors: a performance analysis

Interceptors are a mean to add specific network-oriented capabilities (such as authentication, flow control, caching etc.) to a distributed application which runs over a middleware without changing either the application code or the middleware. However, interceptors could be nonintuitive and this could in turn limit their use on a large scale. We present results of an investigation on CORBA portable interceptors in Java on various CORBA platforms. This study includes the identification of the basic mechanisms provided by an interceptor, of their limitations, a proxy-based technique to overcome some of these limitations and a performance analysis. We also release fragments of Java code used for experiments on Interceptor.
Phylogenetics and Differentiation of Salmonella Newport Lineages by Whole Genome Sequencing

Salmonella Newport has ranked in the top three Salmonella serotypes associated with foodborne outbreaks from 1995 to 2011 in the United States. In the current study, we selected 26 S. Newport strains isolated from diverse sources and geographic locations and then conducted 454 shotgun pyrosequencing procedures to obtain 16–24 × coverage of high quality draft genomes for each strain. Comparative genomic analysis of 28 S. Newport strains (including 2 reference genomes) and 15 outgroup genomes identified more than 140,000 informative SNPs. A resulting phylogenetic tree consisted of four sublineages and indicated that S. Newport had a clear geographic structure. Strains from Asia were divergent from those from the Americas. Our findings demonstrated that analysis using whole genome sequencing data resulted in a more accurate picture of phylogeny compared to that using single genes or small sets of genes. We selected loci around the mutS gene of S. Newport to differentiate distinct lineages, including those between invH and mutS genes at the 3′ end of Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 1 (SPI-1), ste fimbrial operon, and Clustered, Regularly Interspaced, Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) associated-proteins (cas). These genes in the outgroup genomes held high similarity with either S. Newport Lineage II or III at the same loci. S. Newport Lineages II and III have different evolutionary histories in this region and our data demonstrated genetic flow and homologous recombination events around mutS. The findings suggested that S. Newport Lineages II and III diverged early in the serotype evolution and have evolved largely independently. Moreover, we identified genes that could delineate sublineages within the phylogenetic tree and that could be used as potential biomarkers for trace-back investigations during outbreaks. Thus, whole genome sequencing data enabled us to better understand the genetic background of pathogenicity and evolutionary history of S. Newport and also provided additional markers for epidemiological response.
Essential roles of the histone methyltransferase ESET in the epigenetic control of neural progenitor cells during development

In the developing brain, neural progenitor cells switch differentiation competency by changing gene expression profiles that are governed partly by epigenetic control, such as histone modification, although the precise mechanism is unknown. Here we found that ESET (Setdb1), a histone H3 Lys9 (H3K9) methyltransferase, is highly expressed at early stages of mouse brain development but downregulated over time, and that ablation of ESET leads to decreased H3K9 trimethylation and the misregulation of genes, resulting in severe brain defects and early lethality. In the mutant brain, endogenous retrotransposons were derepressed and non-neural gene expression was activated. Furthermore, early neurogenesis was severely impaired, whereas astrocyte formation was enhanced. We conclude that there is an epigenetic role of ESET in the temporal and tissue-specific gene expression that results in proper control of brain development.
Small cargo proteins and large aggregates can traverse the Golgi by a common mechanism without leaving the lumen of cisternae

Procollagen (PC)-I aggregates transit through the Golgi complex without leaving the lumen of Golgi cisternae. Based on this evidence, we have proposed that PC-I is transported across the Golgi stacks by the cisternal maturation process. However, most secretory cargoes are small, freely diffusing proteins, thus raising the issue whether they move by a transport mechanism different than that used by PC-I. To address this question we have developed procedures to compare the transport of a small protein, the G protein of the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVG), with that of the much larger PC-I aggregates in the same cell. Transport was followed using a combination of video and EM, providing high resolution in time and space. Our results reveal that PC-I aggregates and VSVG move synchronously through the Golgi at indistinguishable rapid rates. Additionally, not only PC-I aggregates (as confirmed by ultrarapid cryofixation), but also VSVG, can traverse the stack without leaving the cisternal lumen and without entering Golgi vesicles in functionally relevant amounts. Our findings indicate that a common mechanism independent of anterograde dissociative carriers is responsible for the traffic of small and large secretory cargo across the Golgi stack.
Efficiently synthesizing virtual video

Given a set of synchronized video sequences of a dynamic scene taken by different cameras, we address the problem of creating a virtual video of the scene from a novel viewpoint. A key aspect of our algorithm is a method for recursively propagating dense and physically accurate correspondences between the two video sources. By exploiting temporal continuity and suitably constraining the correspondences, we provide an efficient framework for synthesizing realistic virtual video. The stability of the propagation algorithm is analyzed, and experimental results are presented.
Self-position estimation for virtual 3D city model construction with the use of horizontal line laser scanning

This paper proposes a novel notion of spatio-temporal range image and an efficient way to construct 3D geometric model of urban scene with the use of this range image. We mount vertical and horizontal line-scanning laser range finders on our vehicle. The vertical one is for acquiring the scene geometry itself, and the horizontal one is for self-positioning of the vehicle. Laminating horizontal-scanning data along time axis, we can get a spatio-temporal range image which simultaneously represents spatial feature and temporal continuity of the scene geometry. Analyzing this range image, we can estimate the velocity or the self-position of our vehicle without using any external devices as GPS or INS. With this information, we can align the position of the vertical scanning lines and construct a proper 3D model of urban scene.
A place for host–microbe symbiosis in the comparative physiologist's toolbox

ABSTRACT Although scientists have long appreciated that metazoans evolved in a microbial world, we are just beginning to appreciate the profound impact that host-associated microbes have on diverse aspects of animal biology. The enormous growth in our understanding of host–microbe symbioses is rapidly expanding the study of animal physiology, both technically and conceptually. Microbes associate functionally with various body surfaces of their hosts, although most reside in the gastrointestinal tract. Gut microbes convert dietary and host-derived substrates to metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids, thereby providing energy and nutrients to the host. Bacterial metabolites incorporated into the host metabolome can activate receptors on a variety of cell types and, in doing so, alter host physiology (including metabolism, organ function, biological rhythms, neural activity and behavior). Given that host–microbe interactions affect diverse aspects of host physiology, it is likely that they influence animal ecology and, if they confer fitness benefits, the evolutionary trajectory of a species. Multiple variables – including sampling regime, environmental parameters, host metadata and analytical methods – can influence experimental outcomes in host–microbiome studies, making careful experimental design and execution crucial to ensure reproducible and informative studies in the laboratory and field. Integration of microbiomes into comparative physiology and ecophysiological investigations can reveal the potential impacts of the microbiota on physiological responses to changing environments, and is likely to bring valuable insights to the study of host–microbiome interactions among a broad range of metazoans, including humans. Summary: The rapid growth in knowledge of how microbial symbionts may affect their hosts is expanding our view of animal physiology and ecology in profound ways.
The relationships between team attributes, team identification and sponsor image

This study tested the paths of a structural model that was conceptualised by hypothesising that team attributes affect team identification, which in turn plays a mediating role in sponsor identification and image transfer from event to sponsor. A questionnaire adapted items from relevant constructs in past research and responses were collected from 991 conveniently sampled fans of professional soccer teams in Korea. Data analysis using the SPSSWIN statistical program (v. 12.0) and the AMOS structural modelling program (v. 4.0) found that the data fitted the conceptualised structural model.