Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE ENVIRONMENTS OF STARBURST AND POST-STARBURST GALAXIES AT z = 0.4–0.8

Post-starburst (E+A or k+a) spectra, characterized by their exceptionally strong Balmer lines in absorption and the lack of emission lines, belong to galaxies in which the star formation (SF) activity ended abruptly sometime during the past Gyr. We perform a spectral analysis of galaxies in clusters, groups, poor groups, and the field at z = 0.4–0.8 based on the ESO Distant Cluster Survey. We find that the incidence of k+a galaxies at these redshifts depends strongly on environment. K+a's reside preferentially in clusters and, unexpectedly, in a subset of the σ = 200–400 km s−1 groups, those that have a low fraction of O ii emitters. In these environments, 20%–30% of the star-forming galaxies have had their SF activity recently truncated. In contrast, there are proportionally fewer k+a galaxies in the field, the poor groups, and groups with a high O ii fraction. An important result is that the incidence of k+a galaxies correlates with the cluster velocity dispersion: more massive clusters have higher proportions of k+a's. Spectra of dusty starburst candidates, with strong Balmer absorption and emission lines, present a very different environmental dependence from k+a's. They are numerous in all environments at z = 0.4–0.8, but they are especially numerous in all types of groups, favoring the hypothesis of triggering by a merger. We present the morphological type, stellar mass, luminosity, mass-to-light ratio, local galaxy density, and clustercentric distance distributions of galaxies of different spectral types. These properties are consistent with previous suggestions that cluster k+a galaxies are observed in a transition phase, at the moment they are rather massive S0 and Sa galaxies, evolving from star-forming, recently infallen later types to passively evolving cluster early-type galaxies. The correlation between k+a fraction and cluster velocity dispersion supports the hypothesis that k+a galaxies in clusters originate from processes related to the intracluster medium, while several possibilities are discussed for the origin of the puzzling k+a frequency in low-O ii groups.
Negative Numbers in Simple Arithmetic

Are negative numbers processed differently from positive numbers in arithmetic problems? In two experiments, adults (N = 66) solved standard addition and subtraction problems such as 3 + 4 and 7 – 4 and recasted versions that included explicit negative signs—that is, 3 – (–4), 7 + (–4), and (–4) + 7. Solution times on the recasted problems were slower than those on standard problems, but the effect was much larger for addition than subtraction. The negative sign may prime subtraction in both kinds of recasted problem. Problem size effects were the same or smaller in recasted than in standard problems, suggesting that the recasted formats did not interfere with mental calculation. These results suggest that the underlying conceptual structure of the problem (i.e., addition vs. subtraction) is more important for solution processes than the presence of negative numbers.
Image Statistics for Clustering Paintings According to their Visual Appearance

Untrained observers readily cluster paintings from different art periods into distinct groups according to their overall visual appearance or 'look' [WCF08]. These clusters are typically influenced by both the content of the paintings (e.g. portrait, landscape, still-life, etc.), and stylistic considerations (e.g. the 'flat' appearance of Gothic paintings, or the distinctive use of colour in Fauve works). Here we aim to identify a set of image measurements that can capture this 'naive visual impression of art', and use these features to automatically cluster a database of images of paintings into appearance-based groups, much like an untrained observer. We combine a wide range of features from simple colour statistics, through mid-level spatial features to high-level properties, such as the output of face-detection algorithms, which are intended to correlate with semantic content. Together these features yield clusters of images that look similar to one another despite differences in historical period and content. In addition, we tested the performance of the feature library in several classification tasks yielding good results. Our work could be applied as a curatorial or research aid, and also provides insight into the image attributes that untrained subjects may attend to when judging works of art.
New perspective on lifetime prediction approach for BTI and HCI stressed device and its impact on circuit lifetime

Device and circuit lifetime is investigated for poly silicon gated MOSFET. New findings are: (1) More than 1 order lifetime is increased by quantifying the influence of poly depletion effect (PDE) and accumulated trap charge effect (ATCE). (2) We demonstrate that conventional lifetime model produce an incorrect and reverse lifetime result for each degradation data measured by fast and slow method. (3) We evaluate the impact on circuit parameter, propagation delay time (tPD), degradation in the light of new findings.
Sensor node lifetime: An experimental study

Node lifetime is a key performance metric in wireless sensor network (WSN) research. Simplistic assumptions and naïve lifetime estimation techniques invariably prove to be extremely unreliable in practice, to the point that premature battery depletion notoriously affects real-world deployments. In this paper we adopt an experimental approach and employ various types of real-world batteries to determine the actual lifespan of a sensor node under common operating conditions. We present a rich set of results from an extensive experimental campaign based on the widely used TelosB platform running TinyOS. We have measured the actual node lifetime using various brands of commercial batteries as a function of different combinations of application parameters. Some of our observations match previously published results that are often neglected, while others underscore less known properties of low-power radios.
Image classification using appearance based features

In this paper, a small set of features based on local appearance and texture is applied to the task of image recognition and classification. These features are used to train and subsequently test three different machine learning techniques, namely k-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN), Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Ensemble Learning (Bagging). A case study on a publicly available object classification dataset was conductor from which it was concluded that, while simple, the proposed approach was able to produce extremely high classification accuracies.
COHESIVE DEVICES IN NARRATIVE SONGS OF

The main purpose of this study is to explore the cohesive strategies in the narrative lyrics of songs by Jaran Manopetch. The song data used in this research include the lyrics of twenty-eight narrative songs composed and arranged by Jaran Manopetch. The songs are classified as narrative discourse on the basis of two major traits of discourse type identified by Longacre (1983): Contingent Temporal Succession and Agent Orientation. Moreover, the song data are divided into two groups according to terminology and pronunciation of Jaran Manopetch: five standard Thai songs and twenty-three Kham Muang/northern Thai songs were studied. The lyrics’ cohesive devices were analyzed semantically and syntactically according to theoretical frameworks of Robert E. Longacre on the grammar of discourse and of M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan on cohesion in English. The cohesive devices in the narrative lyrics of Jaran Manopetch include the thematic elements identified by serial thematic verb construction, punctual and sequential indicators of events, structural cohesion: cycles, participant cohesion composed of two sections: introduction and maintenance of participants, demonstrative reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunctive elements, and lexical cohesion.
Tighter bounds on entropy of secret keys in authentication codes

The traditional theory of information-theoretically secure authentication codes (A-codes) developed by Simmons and others usually assumes that a uniformly random source for truly random keys is available. However, if we consider the scenario without the assumption, previously known bounds on key-entropy are not tight. In this paper, tighter lower bounds of A-codes with non-uniformly random secret keys are investigated and derived in terms of the Rényi entropy.
Maximum Entropy Models, Dynamic Games, and Robust Output Feedback Control for Nonlinear Systems

In this paper, we develop a framework for designing controllers for general, partially observed discrete-time nonlinear systems which are robust with respect to uncertainties (disturbances). A general deterministic model for uncertainties is introduced, leading to a dynamic game formulation of the robust control problem. This problem is solved using an appropriate information state. We derive a partially observed nonlinear stochastic model as the maximum entropy stochastic model for the nonlinear system. A risk-sensitive stochastic control problem is formulated and solved for this partially observed stochastic model. The two problems are related using small noise limits. These small noise asymptotics are for the first time justified as the appropriate randomization, using time asymptotics of the Lagrange multipliers involved in the maximum entropy model construction. Thus for the first time a complete unification of deterministic and randomized uncertainty models is achieved. Various interpretations, consequences and applications of this unification are explained and discussed
Portraying Children's Voices Through Creative Approaches to Enhance Their Transition Experience and Improve the Transition Practice

In this paper, I have made a case for using creative approaches to facilitate educational transitions. I have presented examples from research and practice which suggest that creative activities can be used in multiple ways to portray children and young people’s voices. I argue that these voices, as well as the process of being heard, can help modify existing transition practices, identify new transition practices, and enhance children and young people’s ability to manage change. Theories of self-esteem, resilience, and emotional intelligence have been used to explain the psycho-social processes that a child, or young person, goes through during transitions, as well as how creative approaches can be used to support these processes.
Web Services for Music Information Retrieval

In the emerging world of networked and distributed digital libraries, the Web services framework will be a key to facilitating simple inter-application communication between them. Yet, despite the popularity of Web services in the business sector and their seemingly obvious applicability to the digital library domain, and to MIR in particular, the adoption of these new protocols has not been widespread. To demonstrate the tremendous potential of Web services for MIR, this paper presents an application using the Google and Amazon.com databases to generate clusters of related musical artists based on cultural metadata. The use of cultural metadata to determine artist relatedness is valuable and interesting because it captures emergent popular opinion about music. Starting from an initial seed artist, Amazon Listmania! lists are traversed to find potentially related artists. Google is used to determine which of these candidates are in fact related by assessing the co-occurrence of the two artists’ names on Internet web pages. A list of artists related to the seed is returned once a given number of artists is found. The positive results generated by the system illustrate the use of Web services for exploiting the vast amount of untapped data that are available today and highlight their importance for the future, when even more musical data will become available.
Ongoing Activation Signals Tyrosine Phosphatase 1 and Interruption of Src Homology Domain 2-Containing Protein Ig-Like Receptors Induce Colocalization with Ligand Binding to Inhibitory Killer Cell

Interaction of NK cells with target cells leads to formation of an immunological synapse (IS) at the contact site. NK cells form two distinctly different IS, the inhibitory NK cell IS (NKIS) and the cytolytic NKIS. Cognate ligand binding is sufﬁcient to induce clustering of inhibitory killer cell Ig-like receptors (KIR) and phosphorylation of both the receptor and the phosphatase Src homology domain 2-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 1 (SHP-1). Recruitment and activation of SHP-1 by a signaling competent inhibitory receptor are essential early events for NK cell inhibition. We have in the present study used three-dimen-sional immunoﬂuorescence microscopy to analyze distribution of inhibitory KIR, SHP-1, LFA-1, and lipid rafts within the NKIS during cytolytic and noncytolytic interactions. NK clones retrovirally transduced with the inhibitory KIR2DL3 gene fused to GFP demonstrate colocalization of KIR2DL3 with SHP-1 in the center of early inhibitory NKIS. Ligand binding translocates the receptor to the center of the IS where activation signals are accumulating and provides a docking site for SHP-1. SHP-1 and rafts cluster in the center of early inhibitory NKIS and late cytolytic NKIS, and whereas rafts continue to increase in size in cytolytic conjugates, they are rapidly dissolved in inhibitory conjugates. Furthermore, rafts are essential only for cytolytic, not for inhibitory, outcome. These results indicate that the outcome of NK cell-target cell interactions is dictated by early quantitative differences in cumulative activating and inhibitory signals. The Journal of Immunology, 2004, 173: 1571–1578.
Windows And Linux Operating Systems From A Security Perspective

Operating systems are vital system software that, without them, humans would not be able to manage and use computer systems. In essence, an operating system is a collection of software programs whose role is to manage computer resources and provide an interface for client applications to interact with the different computer hardware. Most of the commercial operating systems available today on the market have buggy code and they exhibit security flaws and vulnerabilities. In effect, building a trusted operating system that can mostly resist attacks and provide a secure computing environment to protect the important assets of a computer is the goal of every operating system manufacturer. This paper deeply investigates the various security features of the two most widespread and successful operating systems, Microsoft Windows and Linux. The different security features, designs, and components of the two systems are to be covered elaborately, pin-pointing the key similarities and differences between them. In due course, a head-to-head comparison is to be drawn for each security aspect, exposing the advantage of one system over the other.
Enamel matrix derivative, inflammation and soft tissue wound healing.

Over 15 years have now passed since enamel matrix derivative (EMD) emerged as an agent capable of periodontal regeneration. Following thorough investigation, evidenced-based clinical application is now established for a multitude of clinical settings to promote regeneration of periodontal hard tissues. Despite the large number of studies and review articles written on this topic, no single review has compiled the influence of EMD on tissue inflammation, an area of research that merits substantial attention in periodontology. The aim of the present review was to gather all studies that deal with the effects of EMD on tissue inflammation with particular interest in the cellular mechanisms involved in inflammation and soft tissue wound healing/resolution. The effects of EMD on monocytes, macrophages, lymphocytes, neutrophils, fibroblasts and endothelial cells were investigated for changes in cell behavior as well as release of inflammatory markers, including interleukins, prostaglandins, tumor necrosis factor-α, matrix metalloproteinases and members of the OPG-RANKL pathway. In summary, studies listed in this review have reported that EMD is able to significantly decrease interleukin-1b and RANKL expression, increase prostaglandin E2 and OPG expression, increase proliferation and migration of T lymphocytes, induce monocyte differentiation, increase bacterial and tissue debris clearance, as well as increase fibroplasias and angiogenesis by inducing endothelial cell proliferation, migration and capillary-like sprout formation. The outcomes from the present review article indicate that EMD is able to affect substantially the inflammatory and healing responses and lay the groundwork for future investigation in the field.
Peer-Assisted File Distribution: The Minimum Distribution Time

With the emergence of BitTorrent, Swarm-cast, and CDNs, peer-assisted file distribution has become a prominent Internet application, both in terms of user popularity and traffic volumes. We consider the following fundamental problem for peer-assisted file distribution. There are seed nodes, each of which has a copy of the file, and leecher nodes, each of which wants a copy the file. The goal is to distribute the file to all the leechers - with the assistance of the upload capacity of the leechers - in order to minimize the time to get the file to all the leechers (the distribution time). We obtain explicit expressions for the minimum distribution time of a general heterogeneous peer-assisted file distribution system. Derived with fluid-flow arguments, the expressions are in terms of the file size, the seeds' upload rates and the leechers' upload and download rates. We demonstrate the utility of the result by comparing the optimal distribution time with the measured distribution time when BitTorrent is used to distribute a file from a seed to ten leechers
Alternative Recruitment Strategies Influence Saliva Sample Return Rates in Community‐Based Genetic Association Studies

Collection of saliva for DNA extraction has created new opportunities to recruit participants from the community for genetic association studies. However, sample return rates are variable. No prior study has specifically addressed how study design impacts sample return. Using data from three large‐scale genetic association studies we compared recruitment strategy and sample return rates. We found highly significant differences in sample return rates between the studies. In studies that recruited retrospectively, overall returns were much lower from families with a self‐limiting condition who provided samples at a research centre or home visit, than adult elderly individuals with a chronic disease who provided samples by post (59% vs. 84%). Prospective recruitment was associated with high agreement to participate (72%), but subsequent low return of actual saliva samples (42%). A telephone call had marginal effect on recruitment in a retrospective family study, but significantly improved returns in a prospective family study. We found no effect upon DNA yield comparing observed versus unobserved sample collection, or between male and female adult participants. Overall, study design significantly impacts upon response rates for genetic association studies recruiting from the community. Our findings will help researchers in constructing and costing a recruitment protocol.
Efficient simulations of spiking neurons on parallel and distributed platforms: Towards large-scale modeling in computational neuroscience

Human brain communicates information by means of electro-chemical reactions and processes it in a parallel, distributed manner. Computational models of neurons at different levels of details are used in order to make predictions for physiological dysfunctions. Advances in the field of brain simulations and brain computer interfaces have increased the complexity of this modeling process. With a focus to build large-scale detailed networks, we used high performance computing techniques to model and simulate the granular layer of the cerebellum. Neuronal firing patterns of cerebellar granule neurons were modeled using two mathematical models Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) and Adaptive Exponential Leaky Integrate and Fire (AdEx). The performance efficiency of these modeled neurons was tested against a detailed multi-compartmental model of the granule cell. We compared different schemes suitable for large scale simulations of cerebellar networks. Large networks of neurons were constructed and simulated. Graphic Processing Units (GPU) was employed in the pleasantly parallel implementation while Message Passing Interface (MPI) was used in the distributed computing approach. This allowed to explore constraints of different parallel architectures and to efficiently load balance the tasks by maximally utilizing the available resources. For small scale networks, the observed absolute speedup was 6X in an MPI based approach with 32 processors while GPUs gave 10X performance gain compared to a single CPU implementation. In large networks, GPUs gave approximately 5X performance gain in processing time compared to the MPI implementation. The results enabled us to choose parallelization schemes suitable for large-scale simulations of cerebellar circuits. We are currently extending the network model based on large scale simulations evaluated in this paper and using a hybrid - heterogeneous MPI based multi-GPU architecture for incorporating millions of cerebellar neurons for assessing physiological disorders in such circuits.
New performance/power/area efficient, reliable full adder design

Arithmetic circuits have always played one of the most important roles in the designs of processors, FPGAs, and the rapidly evolving domain of media processing architectures. The full adder cell forms the basic building block of majority of these arithmetic circuits. In this paper we describe a hybrid pseudo static full adder cell designed using Data Driven Dynamic Logic. Simulation results show the adder to out perform its competitors, both static as well as dynamic topologies in terms of performance, while maintaining relatively similar area and power characteristics. This paper presents a complete characterization of the popular adder cells in terms of delay, area, power, noise margin and reliability analysis for both super threshold and sub threshold operating regimes.