Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generalizing the Partial Global Planning Algorithm

The distributed coordination problem can be described as "how should the local scheduling of activities at each agent be affected by non-local concerns and constraints? " Partial global planning (PGP) is a flexible approach to distributed coordination that allows agents to respond dynamically to their current situation. It is based on detecting relationships in the computational goal structures of the distributed agents. However, the detailed PGP mechanisms depend on the existence and availability of certain characteristics and structures that are idiosyncratic to the Distributed Vehicle Monitoring Testbed (DVMT). Generalized Partial Global Planning tries to extend the PGP approach by communicating more abstract and hierarchically organized information, detecting in a general way the coordination relationships that are needed by the partial global planning mechanisms, and separating the process of coordination from local scheduling. This new characterization of partial global planning has less communication overhead and can be more easily adapted and extended to new styles of problem solving and new multi-agent environments that have different characteristics from the original DVMT. This paper first describes the coordination problem as it was viewed by the PGP algorithm, and then extensions to that problem. It then briefly describes our model of task structures and coordination relationships. Finally, we show how the PGP algorithm, as an example, can be described using our method.
Comparison of the Vaginal environment of Macaca mulatta and Macaca nemestrina Throughout the Menstrual Cycle

Pigtail macaques, Macaca nemestrina (PT), are more susceptible to vaginal transmission of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases (STD) than rhesus macaques (RM). However, comparative studies to explore the reasons for these differences are lacking.
Swine flu. After delays, WHO agrees: the 2009 pandemic has begun.

Swine FluWhen World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan declared last week that for the first time in more than 40 years the world is facing an influenza pandemic, she simply stated what everybody already knew. Many leading influenza scientists and public health experts say that the scientific criteria for phase 6—the highest level in WHO's pandemic alert system—had been satisfied for several weeks and that WHO postponed its decision unnecessarily. But WHO says that science wasn't the only factor and that the timing was carefully calibrated to ensure that countries were well-prepared to prevent overreaction.
Quantifying DNA melting transitions using single-molecule force spectroscopy

We stretched a DNA molecule using an atomic force microscope (AFM) and quantified the mechanical properties associated with B and S forms of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), molten DNA, and single-stranded DNA. We also fit overdamped diffusion models to the AFM time series and used these models to extract additional kinetic information about the system. Our analysis provides additional evidence supporting the view that S-DNA is a stable intermediate encountered during dsDNA melting by mechanical force. In addition, we demonstrated that the estimated diffusion models can detect dynamical signatures of conformational degrees of freedom not directly observed in experiments.
The memristive grid outperforms the resistive grid for edge preserving smoothing

Nonlinear resistive grids have been proposed for image smoothing that preserves discontinuities. The recent development of nonlinear memristors using nanotechnology has opened the possibility for expanding the capabilities of such circuit networks by replacing the nonlinear resistors by memristors. We demonstrate here that replacing the connections between nodes in a nonlinear resistive grid with memristors yields a network that performs a similar discontinuity-preserving image smoothing, but with significant functional advantages. In particular, edges extracted from the outputs of the nonlinear memristive grid more closely match the results of human segmentations.
MaskVer: a tool helping designers detect flawed masking implementations

Hardening cryptographic algorithms against sidechannel attacks is a complex but crucial task in today's hardware implementations. One of the most promising countermeasures is Boolean Masking. Designers spend much effort to optimise and customise their masking schemes, but many proposed masked implementations were eventually broken, because they are somehow flawed - not necessarily restricted to a specific error, but to an overall leakage problem. As today's EDA tools hardly support masking, the masking process is still a manual task for the designer. Even worse, due to the lack of capable EDA tools, after synthesis there is no guarantee that the masking still applies and is not optimised. Checking each and every gate of a netlist for masking flaws after synthesis is a time consuming, expensive, and infeasible task. In this paper, we propose a graph based method to reduce the number of gates to be checked. We also present a prototype implementation of our tool to help designers detecting flawed masking in their designs.
A cost-effectiveness analysis comparing a clinical decision rule versus usual care to risk stratify children for intraabdominal injury after blunt torso trauma.

OBJECTIVES Recently a clinical decision rule (CDR) to identify children at very low risk for intraabdominal injury needing acute intervention (IAI) following blunt torso trauma was developed. Potential benefits of a CDR include more appropriate abdominal computed tomography (CT) use and decreased hospital costs. The objective of this study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of implementing the CDR compared to usual care for the evaluation of children with blunt torso trauma. The hypothesis was that compared to usual care, implementation of the CDR would result in lower CT use and hospital costs. METHODS A cost-effectiveness decision analytic model was constructed comparing the costs and outcomes of implementation of the CDR to usual care in the evaluation of children with blunt torso trauma. Probabilities from a multicenter cohort study of children with blunt torso trauma were derived; estimated costs were based on those at the study coordinating site. Outcome measures included missed IAI, number of abdominal CT scans, total costs, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios. Sensitivity analyses varying imputed probabilities, costs, and scenarios were conducted. RESULTS Using a hypothetical cohort of 1,000 children with blunt torso trauma, the base case model projected that the implementation of the CDR would result in 0.50 additional missed IAIs, a total cost savings of $54,527, and 104 fewer abdominal CT scans compared to usual care. The usual care strategy would cost $108,110 to prevent missing one additional IAI. Findings were robust under multiple sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS Compared to usual care, implementation of the CDR in the evaluation of children with blunt torso trauma would reduce hospital costs and abdominal CT imaging, with a slight increase in the risk of missed intraabdominal IAI.
Slotted bow-tie antenna with embedded meandered monopole for triple-band operation

This work presents a compact coplanar waveguide fed slotted monopole bow-tie antenna with an embedded monopole for WLAN and WiMAX applications. While occupying a small area of 30 × 30 mm2 on a 0.8 mm-thick substrate with a dielectric constant of 4.2, the proposed antenna operates at three designated bands including 2.4 GHz-2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 5.2 GHz-5.8 GHz. Additionally, Dimensions of the dual-band slotted monopole bow-tie with different edge lengths and the embedded meandered monopole are evaluated by the quarter wavelength resonance condition. Therefore, the proposed antenna can be easily designed to satisfy the requirements of different operating frequencies, based on theoretical analysis and evaluation. The simulated and measured results indicate a satisfactory input reflection coefficient.
Lateral Inhibition in Cortical

This work presents explorations in the microstructure of natural vision systems based on large scale computer simulations. Similarly to previous work in this area, we compute the functional inner products of a two-dimensional input signal (image) with a set of two-dimensional Gabor functions which have been shown to t the receptive elds of simple cells in the primary visual cortex of mammals. These inner products are then considered as net inputs to the cortical cells and used to compute the cell activations as non-linear functions. A previously used model is extended with a pixel-wise winner-takes-all competition between diierent Gabor lters which is introduced in order to model lateral inhibition between cortical cells. The eeect of lateral inhibition is qualitatively estimated by visualization of computed cortical images and quantitatively evaluated by applying the model to a face recognition problem. Recognition rate of 97% was achieved on a database of 205 face images of 30 persons vs. 94% achieved with a previously used model.
Spectral Analysis on Time-Course Expression Data: Detecting Periodic Genes Using a Real-Valued Iterative Adaptive Approach

Time-course expression profiles and methods for spectrum analysis have been applied for detecting transcriptional periodicities, which are valuable patterns to unravel genes associated with cell cycle and circadian rhythm regulation. However, most of the proposed methods suffer from restrictions and large false positives to a certain extent. Additionally, in some experiments, arbitrarily irregular sampling times as well as the presence of high noise and small sample sizes make accurate detection a challenging task. A novel scheme for detecting periodicities in time-course expression data is proposed, in which a real-valued iterative adaptive approach (RIAA), originally proposed for signal processing, is applied for periodogram estimation. The inferred spectrum is then analyzed using Fisher's hypothesis test. With a proper p-value threshold, periodic genes can be detected. A periodic signal, two nonperiodic signals, and four sampling strategies were considered in the simulations, including both bursts and drops. In addition, two yeast real datasets were applied for validation. The simulations and real data analysis reveal that RIAA can perform competitively with the existing algorithms. The advantage of RIAA is manifested when the expression data are highly irregularly sampled, and when the number of cycles covered by the sampling time points is very reduced.
Kompetenzentwicklung durch Mentoring an Schulen: die Förderung von Soft Skills

Zusammenfassung Seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre hat sich in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland eine Vielzahl zumeist auserschulisch initiierter Schulerhilfe-Projekte etabliert, die den Anforderungen und Belastungen insbesondere sozial benachteiligter Schulerinnen und Schuler mit Formen des Mentoring begegnen mochten. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Initiativen stehen stets einzelne Kinder bzw. Jugendliche, die im Rahmen einer intensiven Eins-zu-Eins-Betreuung durch externe Mentoren – vorwiegend Studierende des Faches Erziehungswissenschaft – gefordert werden sollen. Die entstehenden Beziehungen beruhren notwendig auch eine emotionale Ebene und somit indirekt die Entwicklung der Soft Skills von Heranwachsenden. Der Beitrag konkretisiert zunachst die Idee des Mentoring und versucht im Anschluss, den noch immer recht konturlosen Soft-Skills-Begriff zu einer starkeren Differenzierung zu fuhren. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird eine Auswahl von Schulerhilfe-Projekten vorgestellt und die Frage diskutiert, inwiefern die darin verwandten Formen des Mentoring fur die Forderung uberfachlicher Kompetenzen geeignet erscheinen. Schlagworter: Mentoring, Schule, Soft Skills ----- Competency development by mentoring in school: support of soft skills Abstract Since the mid 1990s, a variety of extracurricular after school tutoring programs have been established to meet the needs and demands of socially disadvantaged students through mentoring. The main focus of these initiatives has been on the support of individual children and adolescents in one-to-one mentoring programmes with outside mentors, with a particular focus on mentoring for students interested in becoming science teachers. Relationships that have resulted from extracurricular mentoring programs possess an inherently emotional character, and have thus indirectly expanded students’ soft skills. This article defines the idea of mentoring concretely and tries to better define the still quite ambiguous term, “soft skills“. Against this background, a selection of student assistance projects is presented and the question of the extent to which these forms of mentoring appear suitable to reinforce the social, emotional and communicative competencies of children and adolescents is discussed. Keywords: mentoring, school, soft skills
Derivative Convergence forIterative Equation Solvers

When nonlinear equation solvers are applied to parameter-dependent problems, their iterates can be interpreted as functions of these variable parameters. The derivatives (if they exist) of these iterated functions can be recursively evaluated by the forward mode of automatic diierentiation. Then one may ask whether and how fast these derivative values converge to the derivative of the implicit solution function, which may be needed for parameter identiication, sensitivity studies, or design optimization. It is shown here that derivative convergence is achieved with an R-linear or possibly R-superlinear rate for a large class of memoryless contractions or secant updating methods. For a wider class of multistep contractions, we obtain R-linear convergence of a simpliied derivative recurrence, which is more economical and can be easily generalized to higher-order derivatives. We also formulate a constructive criterion for derivative convergence based on the implicit function theorem. All theoretical results are connrmed by numerical experiments on small test examples.
How to divide a territory? A new simple differential formalism for optimization of set functions

In many practical problems, we must optimize a set function, i.e., find a set A for which f(A)→max, where f is a function defined on the class of sets. Such problems appear in design, in image processing, in game theory, etc. Most optimization problems can be solved (or at least simplified) by using the fact that small deviations from an optimal solution can only decrease the value of the objective function; as a result, some derivative must be equal to 0. This approach has been successfully used, e.g., for set functions in which the desired set A is a shape, i.e., a smooth (or piece‐wise smooth) surface. In some real‐life problems, in particular, in the territorial division problem, the existing methods are not directly applicable. For such problems, we design a new simple differential formalism for optimizing set functions. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Critical phosphoprotein elements that regulate polymerase architecture and function in vesicular stomatitis virus

The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) of nonsegmented negative-sense RNA viruses consists of a large catalytic protein (L) and a phosphoprotein cofactor (P). During infection, the RdRP replicates and transcribes the viral genome, which resides inside an oligomer of nucleocapsid protein (N-RNA). The classical view of P as a cofactor for L assigns a primary role of P as a bridge mediating the access of L to the RNA template, whereby its N-terminal domain (PNTD) binds L and its C-terminal domain (PCTD) binds N-RNA. Recent biochemical and structural studies of a prototype nonsegmented negative-sense RNA virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, suggest a role for P beyond that of a mere physical link: P induces a structural rearrangement in L and stimulates polymerase processivity. In this study, we investigated the critical requirements within P mediating the functional interaction with L to form a fully functional RdRP. We analyzed the correlation between the impact of P on the conformation of L and its activity in RNA synthesis and the consequences of these events on RdRP function. We identified three separable elements of the PNTD that are required for inducing the conformational rearrangement of L, stimulating polymerase processivity, and mediating transcription of the N-RNA. The functional interplay between these elements provides insight into the role of P as a dynamic player in the RNA synthesis machine, influencing essential aspects of polymerase structure and function.
WebSeer: An Image Search Engine for the World Wide Web

Because of the size of the World Wide Web and its inherent lack of structure, finding what one is looking for can be a challenge. PC-Meters March, 1996, survey found that three of the five most visited Web sites were search engines. However, while Web pages typically contain both text and images, all the currently available search engines only index text. This paper describes WebSeer, a system for locating images on the Web. WebSeer uses image content in addition to associated text to index images, presenting the user with a selection that potentially fits her needs.
Mutations in Genes Coding for Synaptonemal Complex Proteins and Their Impact on Human Fertility

Human infertility is often classified as idiopathic in both males and females. Meiotic errors may account for at least part of these cases. As the synaptonemal complex (SC, a meiosis-specific protein scaffold) is essential for successful meiosis progression, in this paper, we analyzed the mutations in genes coding for SC components described in infertile patients to assess to what extent alterations in the SC can be related to human infertility. So far, mutations in SYCP3 and SYCE1 genes have been reported. While most SYCP3 mutations are heterozygous mutations with dominant-negative effect on the region encoding the C-terminal coiled coil of the protein, SYCE1 mutations are homozygous, which is consistent with a recessive inheritance. Similarities and differences between males and females as well as between mice and humans have been found and are discussed herein. The results suggest that a low percentage of human infertility cases may be explained by mutations in genes coding for SC components. The characterization of these mutations, together with available information from the study of knockout mice, will enable a deeper understanding of the underlying molecular bases for some of the cases of idiopathic infertility.
Utility and distribution of conserved noncoding sequences in the grasses

Control of gene expression requires cis-acting regulatory DNA sequences. Historically these sequences have been difficult to identify. Conserved noncoding sequences (CNSs) have recently been identified in mammalian genes through cross-species genomic DNA comparisons, and some have been shown to be regulatory sequences. Using sequence alignment algorithms, we compared genomic noncoding DNA sequences of the liguleless1 (lg1) genes in two grasses, maize and rice, and found several CNSs in lg1. These CNSs are present in multiple grass species that represent phylogenetically disparate lineages. Six other maize/rice genes were compared and five contained CNSs. Based on nucleotide substitution rates, these CNSs exist because they have biological functions. Our analysis suggests that grass CNSs are smaller and far less frequent than those identified in mammalian genes and that mammalian gene regulation may be more complex than that of grasses. CNSs make excellent pan-grass PCR-based genetic mapping tools. They should be useful as characters in phylogenetic studies and as monitors of gene regulatory complexity.
Adaptive license plate image extraction

The paper represents the automatic plate localization component of a Car License Plate Recognition system. The approach concerns stages of preprocessing, edge detection, filtering, detection of the plate's position, slope evaluation, and character segmentation and recognition. Single frame gray-level images are used as the only source of information. In the experiments Israeli and Bulgarian license plates were used, camera obtained at different daytime and whether conditions. The results derived have shown that the approach is robust to illumination, plate slope, scale, and is insensitive to plate's country peculiarities. These results could be also usable for other applications in the input-output transport systems, where automatic recognition of registration plates, shields, signs, etc., is often necessary.
Effects of Paired Housing and Acute d-Amphetamine on Delay Discounting in Lewis and Fischer 344 rats

Effects of Paired Housing and Acute d-Amphetamine Administration on Delay Discounting in Lewis and Fischer 344 rats Marissa Turturici Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats are two genetically different strains that differ in impulsive choices made in a delay-discounting task. An operational definition of impulsive choice is a choice of a smaller-sooner reinforcer over a larger-later reinforcer. Research using LEW and F344 rats has housed rats singly. Studies have shown that paired housing influences impulsive choice, but it is not known if paired housing affects impulsive choice in the LEW and F344 strains specifically. The present study compared impulsive choice in pair-housed LEW and F344 rats to archival data from singly housed LEW and F344 rats. Impulsive choices were measured at baseline and after d-amphetamine (d-AMP) administration. In singly housed rats, LEW rats made more impulsive choices at baseline compared to F344 rats. In addition, impulsive choices decreased for LEW rats but increased or did not change for F344 rats when dAMP was administered. The present study found the reverse in pair-housed rats: F344 rats made more impulsive choices at baseline than LEW rats. In addition, d-AMP either increased or did not affect impulsive choices in LEW rats, but decreased impulsive choices in F344 rats. Though a small sample size limits the conclusions that may be drawn from the data, this study demonstrates that environmental variables, particularly social conditions, may affect impulsive choice in the LEW and F344 strains differently. In addition, effects of d-AMP on impulsive choice are likely baseline-dependent, evidenced by the occurrence of decreases in impulsive choice in response to d-AMP for rats making larger numbers of baseline impulsive choices in both studies. DELAY DISCOUNTING AND PAIRED HOUSING IN LEW AND F344 RATS iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Karen Anderson, Dr. Elizabeth Kyonka, and Dr. Melissa Blank for serving on the committee and providing insightful feedback on the project. I would like to express special thanks to my adviser, Dr. Karen Anderson, for her dedicated mentorship, guidance, and support throughout my graduate career. I am especially grateful for Dr. Elizabeth Kyonka’s phenomenal teaching and for sharing her invaluable knowledge of statistics with me. Thank you to my big lab-siblings, Chris Krebs and Meagan Follett for their teaching and support. Thank you to Jenny Ozga, Ashley Shultz, and Amanda Press for their help in the lab while conducting this experiment. Thank you (always) to my parents, Frank and Diane Turturici, who have been an unending source of love and support. Finally, I would like to thank my friends at WVU and abroad for their encouragement and laughs: Paul Enlow, Elizabeth Edens, Trisha Hopkins, Rebecca Delaney, Carolyn Rudy, Apral Foreman, and Rachel Stoiko. DELAY DISCOUNTING AND PAIRED HOUSING IN LEW AND F344 RATS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE . i ABSTRACT.ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.iv LIST OF TABLES.v LIST OF FIGURES.v