Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
iTree: Efficiently Discovering High-Coverage Configurations Using Interaction Trees

Modern software systems are increasingly configurable. While this has many benefits, it also makes some software engineering tasks,such as software testing, much harder. This is because, in theory,unique errors could be hiding in any configuration, and, therefore,every configuration may need to undergo expensive testing. As this is generally infeasible, developers need cost-effective technique for selecting which specific configurations they will test. One popular selection approach is combinatorial interaction testing (CIT), where the developer selects a strength t and then computes a covering array (a set of configurations) in which all t-way combinations of configuration option settings appear at least once. In prior work, we demonstrated several limitations of the CIT approach. In particular, we found that a given system's effective configuration space - the minimal set of configurations needed to achieve a specific goal - could comprise only a tiny subset of the system's full configuration space. We also found that effective configuration space may not be well approximated by t-way covering arrays. Based on these insights we have developed an algorithm called interaction tree discovery (iTree). iTree is an iterative learning algorithm that efficiently searches for a small set of configurations that closely approximates a system's effective configuration space. On each iteration iTree tests the system on a small sample of carefully chosen configurations, monitors the system's behaviors, and then applies machine learning techniques to discover which combinations of option settings are potentially responsible for any newly observed behaviors. This information is used in the next iteration to pick a new sample of configurations that are likely to reveal further new behaviors. In prior work, we presented an initial version of iTree and performed an initial evaluation with promising results. This paper presents an improved iTree algorithm in greater detail. The key improvements are based on our use of composite proto-interactions - a construct that improves iTree's ability to correctly learn key configuration option combinations, which in turn significantly improves iTree's running time, without sacrificing effectiveness. Finally, the paper presents a detailed evaluation of the improved iTree algorithm by comparing the coverage it achieves versus that of covering arrays and randomly generated configuration sets, including a significantly expanded scalability evaluation with the ~ 1M-LOC MySQL. Our results strongly suggest that the improved iTree algorithm is highly scalable and can identify a high-coverage test set of configurations more effectively than existing methods.
A lower bound on the entropy rate for a large class of stationary processes and its relation to the hyperplane conjecture

We present a new lower bound on the differential entropy rate of stationary processes whose sequences of probability density functions fulfill certain regularity conditions. This bound is obtained by showing that the gap between the differential entropy rate of such a process and the differential entropy rate of a Gaussian process with the same autocovariance function is bounded. This result is based on a recent result on bounding the Kullback-Leibler divergence by the Wasserstein distance given by Polyanskiy and Wu. Moreover, it is related to the famous hyperplane conjecture, also known as slicing problem, in convex geometry originally stated by J. Bourgain. Based on an entropic formulation of the hyperplane conjecture given by Bobkov and Madiman we discuss the relation of our result to the hyperplane conjecture.
Mining call and mobility data to improve paging efficiency in cellular networks

Locating mobile users and devices efficiently is a critical operation in cellular networks. This is done using a combination of location update(by the mobile) and paging (by the network). The paging scheme determines how and where to search for a mobile user given the latestlocation update information from that user. In this paper, we considerhow to increase the efficiency of the paging scheme. Much previous work has relied on simulation or modeling to design and evaluate the performance of proposed paging schemes. We take a different, data-driven approach in how we design and evaluate our solution. Specifically, we mine more than 300 million call records from a large cellular operator to characterize user mobility and create mobility profiles. We then develop a family ofprofile-based paging techniques, considering both static schemes and dynamic schemes which adapt as user profiles continuously get updated. We find that our paging techniques can dramatically reducesignaling load (up to 80%) with minimal increase in paging delay (usually less than 10%).
The evolution of language and languages

Human languages, such as French, Cantonese or American Sign Language, are socio- cultural entities. Knowledge of them (`competence') is acquired by exposure to the ap- propriate environment. Languages are maintained and transmitted by acts of speaking and writing; and this is also the means by which languages evolve. The utterances of one generation are processed by their children to form mental grammars, which in some sense summarize, or generalize over, the children's linguistic experiences. These grammars are the basis for the production of a new avalanche of utterances to which the next generation in its turn is subjected. (This picture is simplified, of course, as generations overlap.) Languages inhabit two distinct and separate modes of existence, which have been called (by Chomsky, 1986) `E-Language' and `I-Language'. E-language is the external observable behaviour --- utterances and inscriptions and manifestations of their meanings. E-language is regarded by some as so chaotic and subject to the vicissitudes of everyday human life as to be a poor candidate for systematic study. (E-Language corresponds to what Chomsky, in earlier terminology, called `performance'.) Out of this blooming buzzing confusion the individual child distils an order internal to the mind; the child constructs a coherent systematic set of rules mapping meanings onto forms. This set of rules is the child's I-Language (where `I' is for `internal'). No two individuals' I-Languages have to be the same, although those of people living in the same community will overlap very significantly. But there will usually be at least some slight difference between the I-language features prevalent in one generation and those prevalent in the next. This is the stuff of language evolution, in the sense of the historical development of individual languages, such as Swedish, Navaho or Zulu.
Exact BER Analysis of Selection Combining for Differential SWIPT Relaying Systems

An exact closed-form average bit-error rate expression of a selection combining (SC) scheme is derived for a differential cooperative system employing an amplify-and-forward relay with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer capability. Monte Carlo simulations verify the analytical expressions. In particular, the SC scheme can achieve the same performance as that of a suboptimal maximal ratio combining scheme, and this is achieved with lower implementation complexity and energy consumption for SC.
Stimulation in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Subjective Evaluation of Percepts

Nelson and Narens have proposed a metacognition model that dissociates the objective processing of information (object-level) and the subjective evaluation of the performance (i.e., the metalevel). Neurophysiological evidence also indicates that the prefrontal cortices (PFC) are the brain areas which perform the metalevel function [1]–[3]. A corresponding neural mechanism of Nelson and Narens’s model, called dynamic filtering theory [4], [5], indicates that object-level processing is distributed in the posterior cortices and regulated by the prefrontal cortices with a filtering or gating mechanism to select appropriate signals and suppress inappropriate signals and noise. Based on this model, a hypothesis can be developed that, in the case of uncertainty or overloading of object-level processing, the prefrontal cortices will become more active in order to modulate signals and noise. This hypothesis is supported by a recent fMRI study [6] showing that the PFC (Brodmann area 9, BA9) was activated when subjects were overloaded in a bimodal attentional task, compared to a unimodal task. Here, we report a study showing that applying repetitive transmagnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the BA9 in order to interfere with its functional activity resulted in significant increas in guessed responses, compared to three other control conditions (i.e., no-TMS, sham TMS on BA9, and rTMS on Cz). The results are compatible with the dynamic filtering theory and suggest that a malfunction of the PFC would weaken the quality of meta-cognitive percepts and increase the number of guessed responses.
Parasite prevalence in a village in Burkina Faso: the contribution of new techniques.

INTRODUCTION Parasites are a major public health problem in developing countries. A coproparasitological and immunoparasitological study was conducted in Burkina Faso, in the rural village of Touguri, in November and December 2011. The coproparasitologic analysis was conducted in the pediatric population and seroprevalence surveys were conducted in the adult population to research intestinal, blood, and helminth parasites. METHODOLOGY The coproparasitologic study was performed on stool samples using two diagnostic methods - standard microscopy and the FLOTAC technique. The total of 49 stool samples analyzed were obtained from children between two months and eleven years of age. The serology study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of P. falciparum, Echinococcus spp. , Tenia solium, and A. lumbricoides using different immunological techniques such as ELISA and Western Blot techniques. The study population included 85 adult patients between 15 and 70 years of age. RESULTS Results of coproparasitological analyses showed Hymenolepis nana as the only helminth found, in 28.6% of the total number of patients. Results of serological evaluation revealed a practically null prevalence of Echinococcus, Taenia solium, and Ascaris lumbricoides, and a 77.64% prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum. CONCLUSIONS Despite the small number (especially in terms of coprological samples) of individuals examined, this study showed that the parasite prevalence in a rural area of Burkina Faso has a significant impact in the general population, particularly in children. Another finding was that FLOTAC had a higher sensitivity than the widely used ethyl ether-based concentration technique for coprological sample analysis.
Immunohistochemical analysis reveals high frequency of PMS2 defects in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Germline mutations in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes MSH2, MSH6, or MLH1 predispose to colorectal cancer (CRC) with an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. The protein encoded by PMS2 is also essential for MMR; however, alterations in this gene have been documented only in extremely rare cases. We addressed this unexpected finding by analyzing a large series of CRCs. METHODS Expression of MSH2, MSH6, MLH1, and PMS2 was studied by immunohistochemistry in 1048 unselected, consecutive CRCs. Where absence of MMR proteins was detected, microsatellite instability and cytosine methylation of the respective gene promoter were analyzed. The DNA of patients presenting with PMS2-deficient cancers was examined for germline and somatic alterations in the PMS2 gene. RESULTS An aberrant pattern of MMR protein expression was detected in 13.2% of CRCs. Loss of expression of MSH2, MSH6, or MLH1 was found in 1.4%, 0.5%, and 9.8%, respectively. PMS2 deficiency accompanied by microsatellite instability was found in 16 cases (1.5%) with a weak family history of cancer. The PMS2 promoter was not hypermethylated in these cases. Despite interference of the PMS2 pseudogenes, we identified several heterozygous germline mutations in the PMS2 gene. CONCLUSIONS PMS2 defects account for a small but significant proportion of CRCs and for a substantial fraction of tumors with microsatellite instability. However, the penetrance of heterozygous germline mutations in PMS2 is considerably lower than that of mutations in other MMR genes. The possible underlying causes of this unorthodox inheritance pattern are discussed.
The school trip: Travelling with, not to or from

The school trip is relatively under-researched. In the present study the aim was to explore 14–15 year-old children's reasons and motivations for going on such a trip. In the first part of the study, a Norwegian school class (25 children) was surveyed some four months prior to departure concerning their motives for travelling and activities they wanted to engage in while on the school trip. In the second part of the study, the children were interviewed while they were on the trip, while the final data was collected some 4 weeks after the children had returned home. The most prevalent theme observed in these children regarding the school trip was a social being together motive (“doing things together”). Further norm governed motives including responding to school demands concerning learning, utilitarian motives including punishment avoidance, reward and getting away from school, and finally pull motives referring to a wish to gather experiences were also observed. Concerning activities, our informants most frequently referred to fantasies about social activities, some of them of an extreme nature such as mountain climbing, rafting and other sports activities. Even though this study was explorative, the results imply that the main reasons children give for the school trip can be described as travelling with, more than travelling to or from.
An Adaptive, Robust and Multiresolution Image Watermarking for Progressive Wavelet Image Coding

An adaptive, multiresolution watermarking approach in DWT domain is introduced. A multiresolution representation of a binary watermark is inserted into the selected coefficients of the wavelet decomposed image that represent the high activity regions of the image. In the lowest frequency subband, coefficients with maximum local variance and in the higher frequency subbands,coefficients with maximum magnitude are selected. The watermarked image is transparent according to the human vision system characteristics and robust against progressive wavelet image coding even at very low bit rates. The watermark extraction process is completely blind and multiple spatial resolution levels of the watermark are detectable from the lossy decoded watermarked image progressively. The proposed approach is a good candidate for secure progressive image transmission especially over heterogeneous networks where different end users with different capabilities (e.g. network access bandwidth) require different levels of security.
From ‘Growth Centre’ to ‘Cluster’: Restructuring, Regional Development, and the Teesside Chemical Industry

Agglomeration offers both static, cost-based advantages and dynamic, innovation-related benefits to participating firms. These ideas have informed regional development policy from the growth poles/centres of the 1950/1960s to the contemporary focus on clusters. Although such policies imply the theoretical prospect of regional diversification by exploiting supply-chain and information-based/knowledge-based relationships, in practice they tend to promote regional specialisation. The experiences of many old industrial areas emphasise the risks of specialisation as advantages mutate into liabilities (territorial lock-in). These experiences are ignored in much of the clusters discourse which often lacks historical perspective. This paper provides such perspective by reflecting upon the relationships between the dynamics of industry evolution, agglomeration, and regional development policy with reference to the chemical industry on Teesside in North East England.
Drawing on Experience: an holistic approach to student evaluation of courses

ABSTRACT Many traditional methods of course evaluation are fragmentary, seeking feedback on particular dimensions of teaching or courses. This paper reports on a trial of an innovative holistic approach, which allows students to express more global feelings about their course experience. Students from years 2–6 in an architecture degree course were asked, as part of an evaluation of their course, to pictorially represent their impression of the preceding year. Students illustrated their experiences in a number of ways including, self‐portraits, cartoons, metaphorical images, and diagrammatic representations (flow charts, etc.). The variety of content of the drawings and the validity and comprehensibility of this approach to evaluation is addressed in this paper. It is suggested that drawings by students or staff can be a valuable source of information for course evaluation. Not just in terms of what has happened but how people feel about what has happened. They appear to generate information which is not .
Transition-Age Youth Who Are Transition-Age Youth ?

Who Are Transition-Age Youth? ransition-age youth are people between the ages of 16 and 25. Individuals in this age group are at high risk for substance use and mental health disorders, but they are also among those least likely to seek help. Many who have previously received services as youth fail to receive continued services as they move into the adult health care system (Now Is the Time, 2013; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2009a). Given the vulnerabilities of this age group, they can benefit from additional social and behavioral health supports to promote healthy life-course trajectories.
Likelihood calculation for a class of multiscale stochastic models, with application to texture discrimination

A class of multiscale stochastic models based on scale-recursive dynamics on trees has previously been introduced. Theoretical and experimental results have shown that these models provide an extremely rich framework for representing both processes which are intrinsically multiscale, e.g., 1/f processes, as well as 1D Markov processes and 2D Markov random fields. Moreover, efficient optimal estimation algorithms have been developed for these models by exploiting their scale-recursive structure. The authors exploit this structure in order to develop a computationally efficient and parallelizable algorithm for likelihood calculation. They illustrate one possible application to texture discrimination and demonstrate that likelihood-based methods using the algorithm achieve performance comparable to that of Gaussian Markov random field based techniques, which in general are prohibitively complex computationally.
Comparison of effects of nicked and unnicked Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin on Chinese hamster ovary cells

The effect on nicking (proteolytic cleavage) of heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) on its activities on Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells was examined. LT nicked with trypsin induced morphological change (elongation) of CHO cells from round to spindle-shaped cells faster than did unnicked LT. The times for elongation of 50% of the CHO cells with nicked and unnicked LT were 3 and 6 h, respectively. The activity of nicked LT on CHO cells was not inhibited by antiserum 20 min after treatment, whereas that of unnicked LT was inhibited by antiserum until ca. 130 to 160 min after treatment. These data suggest that unnicked LT remains on the cell surface longer than nicked LT and thus induces morphological changes of CHO cells more slowly than does nicked LT.
World of Warcraft, the aftermath: How game elements transfer into perceptions, associations and (day)dreams in the everyday life of massively multiplayer online role-playing game players

This paper describes the phenomenon of game-biased perceptions and associations, or how, through intensive game play, elements from the game world can trigger thoughts and imagery outside the game world, influencing the perception and interpretation of stimuli in everyday life. Examples include the insertion of game elements in thoughts, perceptions and dreams, the use of specific vocabulary or slang – typical to the game world – in everyday conversations, and the association of real-life objects with game elements. Results from an online survey with habitual players of World of Warcraft confirm the existence of this phenomenon and show that the occurrence of these game-biased perceptions and associations is reinforced by increasing playing time and narrative involvement.
Transient Neurologic Symptoms Related to Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: Usefulness of T2*-Weighted Imaging

J.A. Roch a , N. Nighoghossian a, c , M. Hermier b, c , S. Cakmak a , M. Picot a , J. Honnorat a , L. Derex a , P. Trouillas a a Cerebrovascular Unit, Prof. P. Trouillas and b Department of Neuroradiology, Hôpital Neurologique et Neurochirurgical Pierre Wertheimer, Bron , and c UMR 5515 CNRS, Inserm U630, Lyon , France and recurrent transient sensory or motor symptoms. Cognitive status was assessed with appropriate neuropsychological testing (Minimental status: MMS and BREF battery). The following imaging protocol was performed: CT scan and MRI using a 1.5-T whole-body MR imager (Phillips Imaging). The imaging protocol included: (1) time-of-fl ight magnetic resonance angiography (3D TOF turbo MRA); (2) a T 2 *-weighted gradient-echo sequence; (3) diffusion-weighted imaging using an isotropic echo-planar sequence, and (4) conventional T 2 imaging. CAA was suspected if a loss of signal consistent with hemosiderin deposits was observed close to the course of the leptomeningeal arteries. In 2 patients, CAA was confi rmed by neuropathological studies of leptomeningeal tissue using congophilic staining and immunocytochemical studies. An exhaustive neurovascular screening including ECG, echocardiogram, carotid ultrasound, blood pressure monitoring, risk factors assessment, and routine biological testing was performed in all cases.
A plasma diagnostic model of human T-cell leukemia virus-1 associated myelopathy

Human T‐cell leukemia virus‐1 (HTLV‐1) associated myelopathy/tropic spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is induced by chronic inflammation in spinal cord due to HTLV‐1 infection. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neopterin or proviral load are clinically measured as disease grading biomarkers, however, they are not exactly specific to HAM/TSP. Therefore, we aimed to identify HAM/TSP‐specific biomarker molecules and establish a novel less‐invasive plasma diagnostic model for HAM/TSP.
Neighbourhood Effects on Masked Form Priming in Developing Readers

The processing of a written word can be facilitated by the brief prior presentation of an orthographically similar stimulus. However, for adults, this masked form-priming effect does not occur if the target looks like many other words (i.e. if it has many neighbours). The usual interpretation of this result is that the adult word recognition system is tuned to the differing discrimination demands of words: If a word looks like many others, a more precise recognition procedure is required than if it is orthographically distinctive. This theory has developmental implications: Children should show more form priming for high neighbourhood words than adults and should show a gradual reduction in priming as their written vocabularies become larger. Masked form priming was examined in three groups of developing readers, from grades 2, 4 and 6, and a group of adults. In a lexical decision task, the children showed significantly greater priming overall than the adults for high N words. However, the predicted gradu.