Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comprehensive approach towards guard zone computation detecting and excluding the overlapped regions

The guard zone computation problem finds immense applications in the field of VLSI physical design automation and design of embedded systems, where one of the major purposes is to find an optimized way to place a set of two-dimensional blocks on a chip floor. In VLSI layout design, the circuit components (or the functional units / modules or groups / blocks of different sub-circuits) that may be viewed as a set of polygonal regions on a two-dimensional plane, are not supposed to be placed much closer to each other in order to avoid electrical (parasitic) effects among them [12]. Each (group of) circuit component(s) Ci is associated with a parameter δi such that a minimum clearance zone of width δi is to be maintained around Ci. If the guard zonal regions overlap, we have to remove the overlapped regions in order to compute the resultant outer guard zone (sometimes inner guard zones are also an issue to be considered). The location of the guard zone (of specified width) for a simple polygon is a very important problem for resizing the (group of) circuit components. In this paper, we have developed an algorithm to compute the guard zone of a simple polygon as well as to exclude the overlapped regions among the guard zonal segments (if any) in O(n log n) time, where n is the number of vertices of the given simple polygon.
City Ads: Embedding Virtual Worlds and Augmented Reality in Everyday Educational Practice

The use of immersive environments such as 3D virtual worlds (3DVWs) and augmented reality (AR) in education has been profusely explored during the last decades, showing significant evidence of its benefits for learning. However, the attempts to integrate immersive environments in everyday educational practice are hampered by the difficulties that these environments pose to teachers willing to set them up within the already demanding ecology of technological resources present in the classroom. GLUEPS-AR is a system aimed to help teachers deploy and enact learning designs that make use of web technologies (Virtual Learning Environments and Web 2.0 tools), as well as immersive environments such as virtual globes (e.g. Google Earth) used as 3DVW, and general-purpose mobile AR apps. This paper presents the evaluation of the support provided by GLUEPS-AR for teachers that want to appropriate immersive environments in their everyday practice with an affordable orchestration effort. The evaluation followed an interpretive research perspective, and it was carried out in the context of an authentic learning situation about advertising, conducted at a university undergraduate course for pre-service teachers. The results of the evaluation showed that GLUEPS-AR effectively supported the teacher in seamlessly embedding 3DVWs and AR in her practice.
Estimation of Ready Queue Processing Time using Efficient Factor Type Estimator (E-F-T) in Multiprocessor Environment

The ready queue processing time estimation problem appears when many processes remain in the ready queue after the sudden failure. The system manager has to decide immediately how much further time is required to process remaining jobs in the ready queue. In lottery scheduling, this prediction is possible with the help of sampling techniques. Ratio method, existing in literature of sampling, was previously used by authors to predict the time required provided highly correlated source of auxiliary information is available and used. This paper suggests two new estimation methods which are compared in terms of estimating the total processing time. Under large sample approximation, the bias and m.s.e of proposed estimators have been obtained in the set up of random sampling applicable to lottery scheduling. Performance of both is compared in terms of mean squared error. The confidence intervals are calculated for the estimate and they provide strong numerical support to the theoretical findings.
Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of a Mutual Understanding Scale (MUS) – Indonesia version

Introduction: Transactional communication between a doctor/dentist and a patient is important. Doctors and patients should equate clinical realities or explanatory models in health consultations and communicate in accordance with mutual understanding. Objectives: The aims of this study were to cross-culturally adapt the Mutual Understanding Scale (MUS) to Indonesian language and to test its reliability and validity. Material and methods: MUS is a questionnaire for measuring mutual understanding; however, the oral health services version and Indonesian version of the scale is not yet available. In this study, we assessed the validity and reliability of an Indonesian version of MUS for assessment of mutual understanding between dentist and patients in oral health service at Jakarta. A sample of patients was recruited from among 100 Papuan with oral health complaints. After translating the instrument, we conducted psychometric testing. Results: The reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s α) for Indonesian version of MUS dentist and MUS patient questionnaires were 0.928 and 0.925, respectively. The test-retest reliability test of MUS Indonesian version was rated as excellent interclass correlation coefficient for MUS dentist and MUS patient as 0.845 and 0.825, respectively. With respect to validity, the scores of MUS Indonesian version showed significant correlation coefficient r = 0.70-0.80, with global ratings on a five-point Likert scale. The perception with global rating dichotomies questions was defined as significant in Mann-Whitney test, with p < 0.05. Conclusions: The questionnaire showed excellent discriminant validity for measurement of mutual understanding of dentists and patients in dentist-patient communications. This study provides strong evidence of the reliability and validity of the Indonesian MUS for assessment of mutual understanding during dentist-patient communication in oral health services.
The Cognitive Anteater Robotics Laboratory (CARL) at the University of California, Irvine

ions and Simulation of Large-Scale Cortical Networks," in IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), San Jose, CA, 2011, pp. 334-338. [19] J. M. Nageswaran, M. Richert, N. Dutt, and J. L. Krichmar, "Towards reverse engineering the brain: Modeling abstractions and simulation frameworks," in VLSI System on Chip Conference (VLSI-SoC), 2010 18th IEEE/IFIP, 2010, pp. 1-6. [20] J. M. Nageswaran, N. Dutt, J. L. Krichmar, A. Nicolau, and A. V. Veidenbaum, "A configurable simulation environment for the efficient simulation of large-scale spiking neural networks on graphics processors," Neural Netw, vol. 22, pp. 791-800, Jul-Aug 2009. [21] M. Richert, J. M. Nageswaran, N. Dutt, and J. L. Krichmar, "An efficient simulation environment for modeling large-scale cortical processing," Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, vol. 5, pp. 1-15, 2011-September-14 2011. [22] M. Avery, J. L. Krichmar, and N. Dutt, "Spiking Neuron Model of Basal Forebrain Enhancement of Visual Attention," in IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, Brisbane, Australia, 2012.
Strategic adjustment of parental care in tree swallows: life-history trade-offs and the role of glucocorticoids

Life-history theory predicts that optimal strategies of parental investment will depend on ecological and social factors, such as current brood value and offspring need. Parental care strategies are also likely to be mediated in part by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and glucocorticoid hormones. Here, we present an experiment in tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), a biparental songbird with wide geographical distribution, asking whether parental care is strategically adjusted in response to signals of offspring need and brood value and if so, whether glucocorticoids are involved in these adjustments. Using an automated playback system, we carried out playbacks of nestling begging calls specifically to females in two populations differing in their brood value: a northern population in Ontario, Canada (relatively higher brood value) and a southern population in North Carolina, USA (relatively lower brood value). We quantified female offspring provisioning rates before and during playbacks and plasma corticosterone levels (cort) once during late incubation and once immediately after playbacks. Females in both populations increased feeding rates temporarily during the first 2 h of playback but the increase was not sustained for the entire duration of playback (6 h). Cort levels from samples at the end of the playback did not differ between control females and females that received playbacks. However, females that had higher increases in cort between the incubation and nestling period had greater fledging success. These results suggest that females are able to strategically respond to offspring need, although the role of glucocorticoids in this strategic adjustment remains unclear.
Efficient recovery from power outage (extended abstract)

We study problems that are motivated by a real-life pratkm of efficient recovery from a wide scale electric power outage caused by a major disaster such as a hurricane or an equipment failure. In most of these cases an optimized scheduling of the workforce is required, since the work crews on hand cannot handle the immediate recovery of the whole network. We model two variants of this problem: the budgeted problem, and the minimum weighted latency problem. We consider the problems for the general case as well as for two special cases: trees, and bipartite networks. All, but one of the problems (the budgeted tree problem), are NP-Hard and the algorithms given for them are approximation algorithms. For the budgeted tree problem we give an optimal solution. Interestingly, the budgeted problem for bipartite networks is exactly the budgeted maximum set cover problem, for which we give the best ratio approximation algorithm.
Mature Mice Lacking Rbl2/p130 Gene Have Supernumerary Inner Ear Hair Cells and Supporting Cells

Adult mammalian auditory hair cells (HCs) and their associated supporting cells (SCs) do not proliferate, and HC death leads to irreversible neurosensory hearing loss and balance impairment. In nonmammalian vertebrates, loss of HCs induces mitotic proliferation of adjacent nonsensory SCs and/or direct SC transdifferentiation to generate replacement cells. This results in the structural and functional recovery of the nonmammalian sensory systems. Potential replacement of mammalian auditory HCs, either by transplanting cells or by transforming existing cells through molecular therapy, has long been proposed. However, HC replacement strategies with clear therapeutic potential remain elusive. The retinoblastoma (pRB) family of cell cycle regulators, Rb1, Rbl1 (p107), and Rbl2 (p130), regulate the G1- to S-phase transition in proliferating cells. In the inner ear, the biochemical and molecular pathways involving pRBs, particularly p107 and p130, are relatively unexplored and their therapeutic suitability is yet to be determined. In this study, we analyzed the cochleae of adult p130 knock-out (p130−/−) mice and showed that lack of the p130 gene results in extra rows of HCs and SCs in the more apical regions of the cochlea. No evidence of transdifferentiation of these supernumerary SCs into HCs was observed in the p130−/− mouse. Nevertheless, unscheduled proliferation of SCs in the adult p130−/− cochlea coupled to downregulation of bona fide cell cycle inhibitors provides a mechanistic basis for the role of p130 as a regulator of SC and HC mitotic quiescence in the more apical regions of the cochlea. Interestingly, p130−/− mice exhibited nearly normal peripheral auditory sensitivity.
Monte Carlo valuation of American options

This paper introduces a dual way to price American options, based on simulating the paths of the option payoff, and of a judiciously chosen Lagrangian martingale. Taking the pathwise maximum of the payoff less the martingale provides an upper bound for the price of the option, and this bound is sharp for the optimal choice of Lagrangian martingale. As a first exploration of this method, four examples are investigated numerically; the accuracy achieved with even very simple choices of Lagrangian martingale is surprising. The method also leads naturally to candidate hedging policies for the option, and estimates of the risk involved in using them.
Phoneme Recognition as a Member of Predefined Class using Hybrid Cascaded LVQ/Elman Neural Network

What is presented is a new approach for implementing Bosnian phoneme recognition. While most of the literature on phoneme recognition is based on hidden Markov models (HMM), or on the recognition by neural networks (NN) of one type, the present system is implemented by hybrid cascaded LVQ/Elman NN. This model was created, because we noted that some types of NN achieve better recognition rate for some phonemes, while the other types of NN better recognize other phonemes. Presented system uses LVQ NN as a front-end recognizer, and depending on the obtained output, makes the re-recognition of the same phoneme by Elman NN. This system achieved higher recognition accuracy then standalone NN models.
SUMOylation of the Hyperpolarization-Activated Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channel 2 Increases Surface Expression and the Maximal Conductance of the Hyperpolarization-Activated Current

Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) is a ∼10 kDa peptide that can be post-translationally added to a lysine (K) on a target protein to facilitate protein–protein interactions. Recent studies have found that SUMOylation can be regulated in an activity-dependent manner and that ion channel SUMOylation can alter the biophysical properties and surface expression of the channel. Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channel surface expression can be regulated in an activity-dependent manner through unknown processes. We hypothesized that SUMOylation might influence the surface expression of HCN2 channels. In this manuscript, we show that HCN2 channels are SUMOylated in the mouse brain. Baseline levels of SUMOylation were also observed for a GFP-tagged HCN2 channel stably expressed in Human embryonic kidney (Hek) cells. Elevating GFP-HCN2 channel SUMOylation above baseline in Hek cells led to an increase in surface expression that augmented the hyperpolarization-activated current (Ih) mediated by these channels. Increased SUMOylation did not alter Ih voltage-dependence or kinetics of activation. There are five predicted intracellular SUMOylation sites on HCN2. Site-directed mutagenesis indicated that more than one K on the GFP-HCN2 channel was SUMOylated. Enhancing SUMOylation at one of the five predicted sites, K669, led to the increase in surface expression and Ih Gmax. The role of SUMOylation at additional sites is currently unknown. The SUMOylation site at K669 is also conserved in HCN1 channels. Aberrant SUMOylation has been linked to neurological diseases that also display alterations in HCN1 and HCN2 channel expression, such as seizures and Parkinson’s disease. This work is the first report that HCN channels can be SUMOylated and that this can regulate surface expression and Ih.
Comparison of the Mechanical Properties of Early Leukocyte- and Platelet-Rich Fibrin versus PRGF/Endoret Membranes

Objectives. The mechanical properties of membranes are important factors in the success of treatment and clinical handling. The goal of this study was to compare the mechanical properties of early leukocyte- and platelet-rich fibrin (L-PRF) versus PRGF/Endoret membrane. Materials and Methods. In this experimental study, membranes were obtained from 10 healthy male volunteers. After obtaining 20 cc venous blood from each volunteer, 10 cc was used to prepare early L-PRF (group 1) and the rest was used to get a membrane by PRGF-Endoret system (group 2). Tensile loads were applied to specimens using universal testing machine. Tensile strength, stiffness, and toughness of the two groups of membranes were calculated and compared by paired t-test. Results. The mean tensile strength and toughness were higher in group 1 with a significant difference (P < 0.05). The mean stiffness in group 1 was also higher but not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Conclusions. The results showed that early L-PRF membranes had stronger mechanical properties than membranes produced by PRGF-Endoret system. Early L-PRF membranes might have easier clinical handling and could be a more proper scaffold in periodontal regenerative procedures. The real results of the current L-PRF should be in fact much higher than what is reported here.
Prior Polarity Lexical Resources for the Italian Language

In this paper we present SABRINA (Sentiment Analysis: a Broad Resource for Italian Natural language Applications) a manually annotated prior polarity lexical resource for Italian natural language applications in the field of opinion mining and sentiment induction. The resource consists in two different sets, an Italian dictionary of more than 277.000 words tagged with their prior polarity value, and a set of polarity modifiers, containing more than 200 words, which can be used in combination with non neutral terms of the dictionary in order to induce the sentiment of Italian compound terms. To the best of our knowledge this is the first prior polarity manually annotated resource which has been developed for the Italian natural language.
Recursive Object-Oriented Modules

ML-style modules and classes are complementary. The former are better at structuring and genericity, the latter at extension and mutual recursion. We investigate the convergence of both mechanisms by designing an object-oriented calculus based on a nominal module system with mutual recursion. Our modules assume simultaneously the roles of classes with subtyping, nested structures with type members, and simple functors. Flexible inter-module recursion is obtained by allowing free references not constrained by the order of definitions. We closely examine the well-foundedness of the recursion, in the presence of nesting and functors. The presented type system is provably decidable, and ensures the well-foundedness. We also define a call-by-value semantics, for which type soundness is proved.
Understanding oral health challenges for children and young people with autistic spectrum conditions: views of families and the dental team

Anxiety regarding dental procedures and fear regarding dental re-attendance when families have experienced problems relating to difficult behaviour at a previous visit, can result in unmet dental treatment needs for patients with autism. The aim of this project was to involve key stakeholders meaningfully to gain understanding of the issues and challenges facing children and young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) when they attend for dental visits. Qualitative data regarding dental experiences was gathered from children diagnosed with ASC, parents of children with ASC and dental service providers. Children were engaged to participate, where possible, in interviews with their parents present. Individual interviews were conducted with parents of children from across the autism spectrum (with and without learning difficulties) and across ages from 5 to 14 years. Information from primary care dental providers was gathered through participation in a focus group discussion. Sensory difficulties, dentist expectations and attitudes, and lack of pre-visit preparation for dental visits were highlighted as important factors influencing dental experiences for patients with ASC and their families. Pre-appointment preparation and education regarding ASC were identified as areas where positive action could be taken to improve dental experience. Sensory reactivity was identified as a common and significant obstacle to optimal oral care requiring further research. The aim of this project was to involve key stakeholders meaningfully to gain understanding of the issues and challenges facing children and young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) when they attend for dental visits.
Offline signature-based fuzzy vault: A review and new results

An offline signature-based fuzzy vault (OSFV) is a bio-cryptographic implementation that uses handwritten signature images as biometrics instead of traditional passwords to secure private cryptographic keys. Having a reliable OSFV implementation is the first step towards automating financial and legal authentication processes, as it provides greater security of sensitive documents by means of the embedded handwritten signatures. The authors have recently proposed the first OSFV implementation, where a machine learning approach based on the dissimilarity representation concept is employed to select a reliable feature representation adapted for the fuzzy vault scheme. In this paper, some variants of this system are proposed for enhanced accuracy and security. In particular, a new method that adapts user key size is presented. Performance of proposed methods are compared using the Brazilian PUCPR and GPDS signature databases and results indicate that the key-size adaptation method achieves a good compromise between security and accuracy. As the average system entropy is increased from 45-bits to about 51-bits, the AER (average error rate) is decreased by about 21%.
Improved phase shifted control method for isolated asymmetric HB bidirectional converter

A improved control method i.e PWM plus phase-shift (PS) control applied for IAHB is presented. In this control method, PWM control and phase-shift control are combined. Voltage balance between the two sides of energy transport inductor can be realized automatically and the transformer can be saved. The current press and the loss are reduced and ZVS range is expanded. The operation principle of the method is analyzed, a state space average model is set up and ZVS condition is derived. The feature of converter with improved PS control and realization method are introduced. The comparison of current press under the same power and comparison of ZVS range are given. A prototype using this control method is built to verify analysis. Experimental results show the novel control method is reliable.
Understanding Set Cover: Sub-exponential Time Approximations and Lift-and-Project Methods

Recently, Cygan, Kowalik, and Wykurz [IPL 2009] gave sub-exponential-time approximation algorithms for the Set-Cover problem with approximation ratios better than ln(n). In light of this result, it is natural to ask whether such improvements can be achieved using lift-and-project methods. We present a simpler combinatorial algorithm which has nearly the same time-approximation tradeoff as the algorithm of Cygan et al., and which lends itself naturally to a lift-and-project based approach. At a high level, our approach is similar to the recent work of Karlin, Mathieu, and Nguyen [IPCO 2011], who examined a known PTAS for Knapsack (similar to our combinatorial Set-Cover algorithm) and its connection to hierarchies of LP and SDP relaxations for Knapsack. For Set-Cover, we show that, indeed, using the trick of "lifting the objective function", we can match the performance of our combinatorial algorithm using the LP hierarchy of Lovasz and Schrijver. We also show that this trick is essential: even in the stronger LP hierarchy of Sherali and Adams, the integrality gap remains at least (1-eps) ln(n) at level Omega(n) (when the objective function is not lifted). As shown by Aleknovich, Arora, and Tourlakis [STOC 2005], Set-Cover relaxations stemming from SDP hierarchies (specifically, LS+) have similarly large integrality gaps. This stands in contrast to Knapsack, where Karlin et al. showed that the (much stronger) Lasserre SDP hierarchy reduces the integrality gap to (1+eps) at level O(1). For completeness, we show that LS+ also reduces the integrality gap for Knapsack to (1+eps). This result may be of independent interest, as our LS+ based rounding and analysis are rather different from those of Karlin et al., and to the best of our knowledge this is the first explicit demonstration of such a reduction in the integrality gap of LS+ relaxations after few rounds.