Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stacking angle‐domain common‐image gathers for normalization of illumination

Unequal illumination of the subsurface highly impacts the quality of seismic imaging. Different image points receive different folds of reflection‐angle illumination, which can be caused by irregular acquisition or by wave propagation in complex media. Illumination problems can deteriorate amplitudes in migrated images. To address this problem, we present a method of stacking angle‐domain common‐image gathers, in which we use local similarity with soft thresholding to determine the folds of local illumination. Normalization by local similarity regularizes local illumination of reflection angles for each image point of the subsurface model. This approach compensates for irregular illumination by selective stacking in the image space, regardless of the cause of acquisition or propagation irregularities. Additional migration is not required because the methodology is implemented in the reflection angle domain after migration. We use two synthetic examples to demonstrate that our method can normalize migration amplitudes and effectively suppress migration artefacts.
Identity-specific coding of future rewards in the human orbitofrontal cortex

Significance To make adaptive choices based on reward-predicting stimuli, organisms must take into account information about both the value and the specific identity of the reward to be obtained. Using appetizing food odors and pattern-based functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that the human orbitofrontal cortex encodes future rewards in the form of identity-specific value codes. That is, even if valued the same, different expected rewards, such as pizza and chocolate cake, are differently encoded in this region. We further show that identity-specific and -general value coding regions are functionally linked to distinct regions, providing a novel account for the neural circuitry that underlies integration of both sensory and affective information to guide reward-related behavior. Nervous systems must encode information about the identity of expected outcomes to make adaptive decisions. However, the neural mechanisms underlying identity-specific value signaling remain poorly understood. By manipulating the value and identity of appetizing food odors in a pattern-based imaging paradigm of human classical conditioning, we were able to identify dissociable predictive representations of identity-specific reward in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and identity-general reward in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Reward-related functional coupling between OFC and olfactory (piriform) cortex and between vmPFC and amygdala revealed parallel pathways that support identity-specific and -general predictive signaling. The demonstration of identity-specific value representations in OFC highlights a role for this region in model-based behavior and reveals mechanisms by which appetitive behavior can go awry.
A retrieval model based on an extended modal logic and its application to the RIME experimental approach

This paper focuses on the query processing module of RIME, an experimental prototype of an intelligent information retrieval system designed to manage high-precision queries on a corpus of medical reports. Though highly specific this particular corpus is representative of an important class of applications: information retrieval among full-text specialized documents which constitute critical sources of information in several organizations (medicine, law, space industry…). This experience allowed us to design and implement an elaborate model for the semantic content of the documents which is an extension of the Conceptual Dependency approach. The underlying retrieval model is inspired from the Logic model proposed by C.J. Van Rijsbergen, which has been considerably refined using an Extended Modal Logic. After presenting the context of the RIME project, we briefly describe the models designed for the internal representation of medical reports and queries. The main part of the paper is then devoted to the retrieval model and its application to the query processing module of RIME which has a natural language interface. Processing a query involves two main phases: the interpretation which transforms the natural language query into a search expression, and the evaluation phases which retrieves the corresponding medical reports. We focus here on the evaluation phases and show its relationship with the underlying retrieval model. Evaluations from practical experiments are also given, along with indications about current developments of the project.
Effect of Depth on Sponge Assemblage Structure at Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific

We examined the influence of depth on sponge assemblages across three lagoons at Palmyra; a remote atoll situated in the Central Pacific. The atoll is unusual in that it was heavily altered during WWII resulting in an atypical lagoon system. We conducted surveys at both 6-8m and 12-14m at 3 sites at the atoll and recorded sponge densities, area cover and available substrate for the 29 species found at these sites. Multivariate analysis of sponge densities and area cover revealed significant variability in sponge assemblages between both site and depth. Univariate analysis also showed significant differences in area cover between depths, but not between sites. Diversity indices and the average number of species at each site showed an increase in diversity across lagoons from West to East. This study indicates that despite the small size of the atoll, depth is a factor that shapes sponge assemblages at Palmyra Atoll. The heavy alterations to the lagoon, particularly the area near the channel entrance may be influencing the sponge assemblage structure, however, other environmental variables still need to be investigated.
The Placental Microbiome Varies in Association with Low Birth Weight in Full-Term Neonates

Substantial evidence indicated that low birth weight was an independent risk factor for obesity, impaired glucose regulation, and diabetes later in life. However, investigations into the association between low birth weight and placental microbiome in full-term neonates are limited. Placentas were collected from low birth weight (LBW) and normal birth weight (NBW) full-term neonates (gestational age 37 w0d–41 w6d) consecutively born at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The anthropometric measurements were measured and 16S ribosomal DNAamplicon high-throughput sequencing were utilized to define bacteria within placenta tissues. It showed that birth weight, ponderal index, head circumference, and placenta weight were significantly lower in LBW than NBW neonates (p < 0.05). The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (p < 0.05) and the estimators of community richness (Chao) indexes (p < 0.05) showed a significantly lower diversity in LBW than NBW neonates. There were significant variations in the composition of placenta microbiota between the LBW and NBW neonates at the phylum and genus level. Furthermore, it indicated that Lactobacillus percentage was positively associated with birth weight (r = 0.541, p = 0.025). In conclusion, our present study for the first time detected the relationship between birth weight and placental microbiome profile in full-term neonates. It is novel in showing that the placental microbiome varies in association with low birth weight in full-term neonates.
Prediction of treatment outcomes in psychiatry—where do we stand ?

Psychiatric treatment relies on a solid armamentarium of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment modalities that perform reasonably well for many patients but leave others in a state of chronic disability or troubled by problematic side effects. Treatment planning in psychiatry remains an art that depends on considerable trial and error. Thus, there is an urgent need for better tools that will provide a means for matching individual patients with the most effective treatments while minimizing the risk of adverse events. This review will consider the current state of the science in predicting treatment outcomes in psychiatry. Genetic and other biomarkers will be considered alongside clinical diagnostic, and family history data. Problems inherent in prediction medicine will also be discussed, along with recent developments that support the hope that psychiatry can do a better job in quickly identifying the best treatments for each patient.
Serum soluble CD163 predicts risk of type 2 diabetes in the general population.

BACKGROUND Activation of adipose tissue macrophages with concomitant low-grade inflammation is believed to play a central role in the development of type 2 diabetes. We tested whether a new macrophage-derived biomarker, soluble CD163 (sCD163), identifies at-risk individuals before overt disease has developed. METHODS A prospective cohort study of 8849 study participants from the general population, the Copenhagen City Heart Study, was followed for 18 years for incidence of type 2 diabetes. Risk of disease was calculated according to age- and sex-adjusted percentile categories of serum sCD163 concentrations: 0%-33%, 34%-66%, 67%-90%, 91%-95%, and 96%-100%. RESULTS A total of 568 participants developed type 2 diabetes. The cumulative incidence increased with increasing baseline sCD163 (trend P < 0.001), and sCD163 was strongly associated with known risk factors such as physical inactivity, body mass index, C-reactive protein, and triglycerides (all P < 0.001). Multifactorially adjusted hazard ratios for type 2 diabetes were 1.4 (95% CI, 1.0-1.9), 2.4 (1.8-3.2), 3.8 (2.6-5.5), and 5.2 (3.6-7.6) for categories 34%-66%, 67%-90%, 91%-95%, and 96%-100%, respectively, vs the 0%-33% category. In overweight men 50-70 and >70 years of age, serum sCD163 concentrations in the top 5% group predicted an absolute 10-year risk of type 2 diabetes of 29% and 36% vs 7% and 8% in the lowest percentile group. Equivalent values in women were 19% and 24% vs 4% and 5%. CONCLUSIONS Increased concentrations of sCD163 predict increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the general population and may be useful for identification of high-risk overweight individuals.
Leishmaniasis and Climate Change—Case Study: Argentina

Vector-borne diseases closely associated with the environment, such as leishmaniases, have been a usual argument about the deleterious impact of climate change on public health. From the biological point of view interaction of different variables has different and even conflicting effects on the survival of vectors and the probability transmission of pathogens. The results on ecoepidemiology of leishmaniasis in Argentina related to climate variables at different scales of space and time are presented. These studies showed that the changes in transmission due to change or increase in frequency and intensity of climatic instability were expressed through changes in the probability of vector-human reservoir effective contacts. These changes of contact in turn are modulated by both direct effects on the biology and ecology of the organisms involved, as by perceptions and changes in the behavior of the human communities at risk. Therefore, from the perspective of public health and state policy, and taking into account the current nonlinear increased velocity of climate change, we concluded that discussing the uncertainties of large-scale models will have lower impact than to develop-validate mitigation strategies to be operative at local level, and compatibles with sustainable development, conservation biodiversity, and respect for cultural diversity.
Towards the Next Generation Service Oriented Enterprise Architecture

Emerging business models such as digital ecosystems involving collaborative innovation, participatory decision-making and flexible organizational structures are set to significantly affect inter- and intra-enterprise structure and functionality. This has seen the appearance of increasingly complex Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) scenarios featuring various partnership levels, increased resilience and adaptation to tougher compliance regulations, more seamless integration with process layers, etc. This complexity has brought about the need to broaden the SOA paradigm, so as to include business, infrastructure and multi-layering, resulting in an evolved concept known as Service-Oriented Enterprise Architecture (SOEA). This paper aims to describe the way new business and technology paradigms continue to affect the new SOEA approach and how the inherently holistic Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks and related practices can support the emerging complex dynamic, multi-layered and value-chained service-based scenario.
A Probabilistic CMOS Switch and its Realization by Exploiting Noise

By viewing noise as a resource rather than as an impediment, we demonstrate an entirely novel approach to ultra low-energy computing. The subject of this study is the probabilistic inverter, ubiquitous to the design of dig ital systems, whose behavior is rendered probabilistic by noise. Summarized through the concept of an energyprobability relationship for inverters based on AMI 0. 5μm andTSMC 0. 25μm processes, we quantitatively show that significant energy savings are possible when a probabilistic inverter is switched with probability1/2 < p < 1, and that these savings increase exponentially as p is lowered. We also quantitatively show that for a fixed p, increasing the noiseRMS has the effect of increasing energy dissipation quadratically. Collectively, we refer to thes e two facts as the energy-probability laws governing probabilistic CMOS switches—these laws constitute the first contribution of this work. Furthermore, we also present a practical realization of a probabilistic inverter in a read ily available TSMC 0. 25μm technology. Finally, by using the probabilistic inverter as a building block, we provide early evidence that probabilistic switches can yield signi ficant improvements to the energy ×performance metric at the application level, by a factor of more than 288, for a probabilistic neural network application.
The Global Public Management Revolution: A Report on the Transformation of Governance

Over the last two decades, governments around the world have launched ambitious efforts to reform the way they manage their programs. Citizens in nations like Mongolia and Sweden, New Zealand, and the United States have demanded smaller, cheaper, more effective governments. They have also asked for more programs and better services. To resolve this paradox, governments have experimented with scores of ideas to be more productive, to improve performance, and to reduce costs. In The Global Public Management Revolution , Donald F. Kettl charts the basic models of reform that are being employed worldwide, including New Zealand's "new public management," the U.S. effort at "reinventing government," and related efforts in developed and developing nations. In reviewing the standard strategies and tactics behind these reforms, Kettl has identified six common core ideas: the search for greater productivity; more public reliance on private markets; a stronger orientation toward service; more decentralization from national to subnational governments; increased capacity to devise and track public policy; and tactics to enhance accountability for results. Kettl predicts that reform and reinvention will likely become mantras for governments of all stripes, requiring the instinct for reform to be hardwired into government practice. Ultimately, this strategy means coupling the reform impulse with governance --government's increasingly important relationship with civil society and the institutions that shape modern life.
On-Site Generation Simulation with EnergyPlus for Commercial Buildings

Building energy simulation software (e.g. EnergyPlus) is a powerful tool used widely by designers and researchers. However, current software is limited in modeling distributed generation (DG), including DG with heat recovery applied to building end-use, i.e. combined heat and power (CHP). Concurrently, DG investment and dispatch optimization software has been developed, yet has not been linked to a building energy simulation program for accurate assessment of DG designs, particularly under uncertainty in future end-use loads and equipment availability. CHP is a proven approach to cost effective reductions in primary fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Integrating DG system design and controls into building energy simulation is an important step towards popular DG acceptance. We propose to extend the existing building energy simulation program, EnergyPlus (E+), to enable the simulation of various DG modules and associated control strategies in order to achieve more accurate and holistic analysis of DG technologies. Extension of EnergyPlus is conveniently facilitated by SPARK, a program capable of modeling building equipment and controls as individual modules. These modules can be automatically integrated with EnergyPlus building models. Candidate DG systems can be selected from the DG investment optimization program, Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM). The dispatch of the modeled DG system can be determined by a novel dispatch optimization algorithm, the Energy Manager, that accounts for uncertainty in future load and DG availability, as well as curtailment options. DG equipment and controls can modeled in SPARK and integrated into EnergyPlus building models. The way to this holistic approach will be described in this paper.
EVIDENCE FOR “UNERTAN SYNDROME” AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN MIND

A new family exhibiting “Unertan Sydnrome” was discovered. The pedigree analysis showed marriages between relatives. This family was similar to the first one (see ), providing a firm evidence for the new syndrome. The affected children showed habitual quadrupedal walking gait, that is, they walked on wrists and feet with straight legs and arms. Their heads and bodies were mildly flexed; they exhibited mild cerebellar signs, and severe mental retardation. The pedigree demonstrated a typical autosomal-recessive inheritance. The genetic nature of this syndrome suggests a backward stage in human evolution (devolution), which would be consistent with theories of punctuated evolution. The results reflected a new theory on the evolution of human beings. That is, the evolution of humans would in fact be the evolution of the extensor motor system, responsible for upright posture, against the gravitational forces. This would be coupled with the emergence of the human mind, which can be considered a reflexion of the human motor system, in accord with the psychomotor theory (see ). The most important characteristic of the newly emerged human mind was the resistance against gravitational forces. This was the resistive mind, the origins of human creativity.
Fast deterministic sorting on large parallel machines

Many sorting algorithms that perform well on uniformly distributed data suffer significant performance degradation on non-random data. Unfortunately many real-world applications require sorting on data that is not uniformly distributed. In this paper we consider distributions of varying entropies. We describe A-Ranksort, a new sorting algorithm for parallel machines, whose behavior on input distributions of different entropies is relatively stable. Our algorithm is based on a deterministic strategy to find approximate ranks for all keys. We implemented A-Ranksort, B-Flashsort, Radixsort, and Bitonic sort on a 2048 processor Maspar MP-1. Our experiments show that A-Ranksort out-performs all the other algorithms on a variety of input distributions, when the output is required to be balanced. We are also able to provide bounds on the average-case and worst-case complexities of our algorithm, in terms of the costs of some chosen primitive operations. The predicted performance is very close to the empirical results, thus justifying our model.
POSTER: A Lightweight Unknown HTTP Botnets Detecting and Characterizing System

The ability of the HTTP protocol to bypass Firewalls and IDSs has resulted in it becoming the most popular command and control (C&C) protocol adopted for use by most current botnets. To date, most botnet detection approaches either operate at packet-level or flow-level by identifying signatures or flow patterns. In addition, some detection technologies correlate both flow and malicious behaviors to detect botnets. However, most of these approaches relay on obvious behavior characteristics of botnets and cannot simultaneously detect and characterize unknown bots in the early stages subsequent to an infection. In an effort to rectify this situation, we studied the distribution pattern of relevant packets and determined that, in general, the first request packet from bots and the first response packet from C&C servers contain the most valuable information. Consequently, we propose a technique that automatically detects unknown HTTP botnets and generates the signatures of C&C activities on the basis of this knowledge. The results of preliminary experiments conducted indicate that our proposed approach can accurately detect unknown HTTP botnets (such as SpyEye and ZeuS) with low false positive rates and generate their signatures automatically.
Approaches to evaluation of websites for public sector services

A brief review of developments in evaluation of e-government Websites is undertaken in order to introduce an instrument which is presently being tested for evaluating such sites. This instrument enables assessment and comparison of Websites according to criteria grouped under the categories of Security and privacy; Usability; Content; Services; Citizen participation; and Features. Examples of elements within each of the categories are described.
Fine frequency tuning using injection-control in a 1.2V 65nm CMOS quadrature oscillator

Fine frequency tuning based on injection locking applicable to analog and digitally-controlled LC quadrature-oscillators is proposed. The operating frequency varies linearly with relative strength of the controllable injected signal with a slope proportional to 1/2Q. Its linear characteristic makes it suitable for digitization. An 8 GHz prototype fabricated in 65nm CMOS, operating from a 1.2 V supply, exhibits linear fine-tuning of 60 MHz at an output swing where digital switches and CMOS varactors would encounter fine-tuning limitations. For 10 mA drawn by differential oscillator cores, the phase noise at 1 MHz, varies by only 1.15 dB, and quadrature error from 0.3-1.6 degrees over the fine-tuning range. The deviation of the fine-tuning from a linear response is less than 4%.
The pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of job displacement. An evaluation of the post-displacement injury rate

This paper investigates the pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of involuntary job loss by focusing on both post-displacement earnings losses and injury rates. To this end we employ a unique dataset. Administrative data from Italy describing individual work histories have been merged with individual data on workplace injuries. Propensity score matching techniques are employed to measure the causal effect of displacement on workplace injury rates. We find that in a period marked by tight labour market, re-employed displaced workers experience only moderate and short-lived earnings losses but are about 70 percent more likely to be injured at their subsequent jobs compared to the control group of non-displaced workers. These results suggest that re-employed displaced workers may trade pecuniary job attributes for non-pecuniary ones.