Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Helium enhancements in luminous OB-type stars: the effect of microturbulence

We present non-LTE analyses of high quality spectra for two B-type supergiants, κ Orionis & Orionis (spectral types B0.5 Ia & B0 Ia respectively). We investigate the effect of including a microturbulent velocity in the H i, He ii and He i line broadening on the derived stellar atmospheric parameters (Teff , log g and y). Its inclusion has a significant effect on the profiles of the lines of neutral helium and leads to approximately normal estimates for the helium fractional abundances for both supergiants. By contrast, adopting zero microturbulence implies significant helium overabundances, if we adopt the mean abundance of all the lines considered here. The He i lines at 4437, 4387 and 5047Å are found to be rather insensitive to microturbulence and hence are more reliable indicators of helium abundance. There are some remaining unresolved discrepancies, such as a systematic difference between singlet and triplet transitions which we attribute to the neglect of line blocking, while the 5015Å 21S – 31P transition remains much stronger than predicted. This latter problem we tentatively attribute to the neglect of sphericity; the generalized dilution effect discussed by Voels et al. (1989). We suggest that a judicious choice of He i lines, and the use of an appropriate microturbulent velocity, may contribute to resolving the ‘helium discrepancy’ in O-type stars. The question of the origin of a perceived microturbulence in supergiants is also briefly discussed in the context of stellar winds. That two normal supergiants have close to solar helium abundances clearly implies that they have not undergone dredgeup in a previous red supergiant phase of evolution, supporting the contention that massive stars do not perform blue loops in the HR diagram at solar metallicity. Marginal evidence for a mild helium overabundance in κOri however could be interpreted as being due to mixing processes, perhaps during its main sequence lifetime.
Leaf economics of evergreen and deciduous tree species along an elevational gradient in a subtropical mountain

We used leaf economics spectrum (LES) theory to explain the bimodal elevational distribution of evergreen tree species, which is one of the most puzzling biogeographic patterns in the world. Our results suggest that elevation acts as an environmental filter to both select the locally adapted evergreen and deciduous species with sufficient phylogenetic variation and distinct leaf economic strategies and regulate their distribution along the elevational gradient based on their coordinated spreading of phylogenetic divergence and leaf economic variation. If species are filtered from regional species pools, changing climate may affect both the species and leaf economic composition of plant communities.
Growing Event Memories for Autonomous Robots

The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic overview of methods that are potentially useful for growing event memories in autonomous robots. Recognizing events in sequences of sensor and motor signals is viewed as an important step toward intelligent robot behaviour and part of concept formation, needed for learning tasks such as navigation, planning or language use. Here we concentrate on selfor unsupervised techniques in the context of autonomous, behaviour-based robots. Our ultimate goal will be to use information in timeseries of sensor and motor signals to recognize important events or characteristic features in the environment of a navigating mobile robot. We discuss potential approaches and their respective suitability for this problem and propose the basics for an event detection and memory architecture for the mobile robot platform KURT2.
Exploring Quantitative Methods for Evaluating Sports Games

The evaluation of Game User Experience is an emergent and important field in game and HCI research due to its direct impact on the multi-billion dollar interactive entertainment industry. Special attention has been given to the shooter genre. This paper focuses on evaluation of sports games. In particular, it presents an ongoing project that aims to assess the utility of triangulating several quantitative methods, including eye-tracking, psycho-physiological data and game telemetry. This research is an on-going collaboration between Simon Fraser University and Electronic Arts. Results of research including the triangulation of this data for the evaluation of the NBA Live 10 title and evaluation of these methods by EA's production team will be discussed.
Augmented Reality for Rehabilitation Using Multimodal Feedback

It is usual for a patient to continue performing exercises outside of the clinic and without any therapist's supervision, after being exempted from in-clinic physical therapy. While performing unsupervised exercises, it is desirable for the patient to receive similar feedback as otherwise provided by a physical therapist, to maintain an accurate execution of the rehabilitation tasks. To address this problem, several approaches have been proposed using multimodal feedback for rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the test subjects frequently reported difficulty in completely understanding the feedback given to them, therefore failing to correctly execute the given movement. In this work, we present SleeveAR, a novel approach to address multimodal feedback strategies, and evaluate which different combinations are more suitable to successfully guide a subject through an exercise prescribed by a physical therapist. Therefore we expect this work will contribute to facilitate the rehabilitation process.
Research on Searching Scheme in P2P System Based on Semantic Overlay Network and the Small-world Theory

To improve the insufficiency of super-peer overlay network, an efficient, robust and expansible searching model, SSP2P, is put forward. The peers were organized into varied area autonomy system (AAS) according to their physical topology. Owing to heterogeneity, the peer with highest capability was selected as super-peer in each AAS. And super-peers were formed into many super-peer semantic overlay networks (SSN) based on semantic relationship. Thus a hierarchical P2P network was formed. Through the simulation on Neuogrid, the rationality and validity of model were proved. It has a higher recall, less messages, smaller response time and better expansibility than that in LimeWire
Fast Multiplication of Matrices with Decay

A fast algorithm for the approximate multiplication of matrices with decay is introduced; the Sparse Approximate Matrix Multiply (SpAMM) reduces complexity in the product space, a different approach from current methods that economize within the matrix space through truncation or rank reduction. Matrix truncation (element dropping) is compared to SpAMM for quantum chemical matrices with approximate exponential and algebraic decay. For matched errors in the electronic total energy, SpAMM is found to require fewer to far fewer floating point operations relative to dropping. The challenges and opportunities afforded by this new approach are discussed, including the potential for high performance implementations.
Preliminary version Does Investor Misvaluation Drive the Takeover Market ?

This paper provides evidence that irrational market misvaluation affects the volume of takeovers and the behavior of participants in takeover contests. As proxies for market misvaluation, we examine pre-takeover book/price ratios and pre-takeover ratios of residual income model valuation to price for bidders, targets, and the aggregate stock market. Misvaluation of bidders, targets, and the aggregate stock market influences the aggregate volume of takeovers, the means of payment chosen, the premia paid, target hostility to the offer, the likelihood of offer success, bidder and target announcement period abnormal stock returns, and post-acquisition long-run abnormal returns.
Background recovery from video sequences via online motion-assisted RPCA

Background modeling is an important technique for video analysis. Robust principal component analysis (RPCA) assisted with motion information has shown improved background recovery performance, but still suffers from the deficiency in handling steaming video due to the batch-mode formulation and implementation. This paper proposes an online motion-assisted robust principal component analysis (OMA-RPCA) model for background recovery from video sequences. The inherent batch-mode nuclear norm for low-rank approximation is replaced with an explicitly low-rank matrix factorization. Motion information extracted by an optical flow method is incorporated into the data term to facilitate the separation of moving objects from the background. The proposed model is effectively solved by an alternating optimization scheme in an online mode. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods with lower memory cost and scalability to online applications.
Isolation of Human Islets for Autologous Islet Transplantation in Children and Adolescents with Chronic Pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis is an inflammatory disease of the pancreas that causes permanent changes in the function and structure of the pancreas. It is most commonly a complication of cystic fibrosis or due to a genetic predisposition. Chronic pancreatitis generally presents symptomatically as recurrent abdominal pain, which becomes persistent over time. The pain eventually becomes disabling. Once specific medical treatments and endoscopic interventions are no longer efficacious, total pancreatectomy is the alternative of choice for helping the patient achieve pain control. While daily administrations of digestive enzymes cannot be avoided, insulin-dependent diabetes can be prevented by transplanting the isolated pancreatic islets back to the patient. The greater the number of islets infused, the greater the chance to prevent or at least control the effects of surgical diabetes. We present here a technical approach for the isolation and preservation of the islets proven to be efficient to obtain high numbers of islets, favoring the successful treatment of young patients.
Improving the evaluation of generator matrix G by initial upper bound estimation

Space-Time Trellis Code (STTC) can achieve both the diversity and coding gains. To maximize the advantages of STTC, two design criteria for slow Rayleigh fading channels will be used: i.e. the rank and determinant criteria. This paper focuses on the determinant criteria, which involves the evaluation of the generator matrix G. Evaluation is improved by pruning the search process earlier, which is made possible by estimating the initial upper bound prior to the search. In order to reduce the search complexity, the initial upper bound will be calculated at the minimal cycle. Comparatively, it can reduce the search space by 25.8%.
Creating a Linchpin for Financial Data: The Need for a Legal Entity Identifier

The financial industry, like many others, is powered by information and data. A number of government agencies, quasi-government agencies, and private companies collect, process, use, and distribute information about a variety of players in the financial world. While the subjects of the data (balance sheet items or counterparty information, for example) may vary dramatically by agency and use, they all describe a particular financial institution or legal entity. Yet a standard way to uniquely identify one financial entity from another does not currently exist. A Social Security number distinguishes one John Smith from another John Smith, but at present no single identifier distinguishes one First National Bank from another. Several private companies have developed proprietary identifiers created for their own purposes but none of those identifiers are industry-wide, universal, or strictly focused on identifying a specific institution. A diverse group of analysts from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Treasury have developed guidelines detailing the best way the industry might create, develop, and maintain such a crucial identifier. The paper summarizes the current environment of entity identification and the problems that are currently encountered in both the private and public sectors by the lack of an industry-wide identifier. The paper identifies the key components that should be incorporated into the LEI such as uniqueness, persistence, and public availability. The paper identifies possible alternative approaches to solving the LEI problem and supports a collaborative public and private sector approach. The paper also considers the need for an international solution, as financial markets grow ever more interconnected across the globe.
Oscillations of a given size of some arithmetic error terms

A general method of estimating the number of oscillations of a given size of arithmetic error terms is developed. Special attention is paid to the remainder terms in the prime number formula, in the Dirichlet prime number theorem for primes in arithmetic progressions and to the remainder term in the asymptotic formula for the number of square free divisors of an integer.
Audio signal separation using supervised NMF with time-variant all-pole-model-based basis deformation

We address a novel nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) with a new basis deformation method to handle various music sounds. Conventional supervised NMF has a critical problem that a mismatch between bases trained in advance and an actual target sound reduces the accuracy of separation. To solve this problem, we proposed an advanced supervised NMF that applies a single time-invariant filter to the bases for making them fit into the target sound. However, this method suffers from limitations on basis deformation ability, especially for transient instrumental sounds. In this paper, we propose a new time-variant all-pole-model-based basis deformation method. Our proposed deformation method consists of two types of filter that individually deforms attack and sustain parts in one note. Each of the all-pole models can be automatically selected and adapted to the open data via a statistical signal sampling approach. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms conventional methods in many types of instrumental sound.
ESC4: a modern caching ESC for Java

JML4 is an Eclipse-based Integrated Verification Environment for the Java Modeling Language (JML) that supports several forms of verification, including Runtime Assertion Checking, Extended Static Checking (ESC), and Full Static Program Verification. The first of these developed was ESC4, JML4's ESC component. This paper presents its architecture. ESC4's verification-condition (VC) generation is based on the approach described by Barnett and Leino, but we provide an optimization for loops. A configurable Prover Coordinator allows the easy implementation of various proof strategies. Caching discharged VCs helps reduce the number of calls to the provers when reverifying code. Caches are not commonly used because of their fragility w.r. t. source code changes, but we propose a simple way to make them more resilient.
A Framework for Software Reuse and Research Challenges

Software reuse is the use of existing software or software components to build new software and reuse ideas with the ability to combine independent software components to form a larger unit of software. The key idea in software reuse is domain engineering. Most software systems are not new but they are the variations of the already built software systems. Software reuse improves the quality and productivity of the software production process. This paper briefly summarizes the current research status in the field of software reuse and major research contributions. Some future directions for research in software reuse are also discussed.
The demand for broad money in the United Kingdom

Using annual data from Friedman and Schwartz (1982), Hendry and Ericsson (1991a) developed an empirical model of the demand for broad money in the United Kingdom over 1878-1975. We update that model over 1976-1993, accounting for changed data definitions and clarifying the concept of constancy. With appropriate measures of opportunity cost and credit deregulation, the model's parameters are empirically constant over the extended sample, which was economically turbulent. Policy implications follow for parameter nonconstancy and predictive failure, causation between money and prices, monetary targeting, deregulation and financial innovation, and the effect of policy on economic agents' behavior.
Random pattern testing for sequential circuits revisited

Random pattern testing methods are known to result in poor fault coverage for most sequential circuits unless costly circuit modification methods are employed. We propose a novel approach to improve the random pattern testability of sequential-circuits. We introduce the concept of holding signals at primary inputs and scan flip-flops for a certain length of time instead of applying a new random vector at each clock cycle. When a random vector is held at the primary inputs of the circuit under test or at the scan flip-flops, the system clock is applied and the primary outputs of the circuit are observed. The number of clock cycles, k, for which each random input is held at a fixed value before applying the next random vector, is determined by using testability analysis or a test pattern generator for a very small number of lines or faults in the circuit. The lines of faults that are analyzed are the primary inputs to flip-flops. The information obtained from the testability analysis or test generator is used to determine the number k of clock cycles for which each random vector is to be held constant without changing the signal values. The algorithm consists of simulating a sequential circuit systematically, possibly with partial scan, in conjunction with the hold method. The method is low cost and the results of our experiment on the benchmark circuits show that it is very effective in providing fault coverage close to the maximum obtainable fault coverage using random patterns with full scan.
The Role of Asymmetric Information on the Cause of Corruption: A Theoretical Point of View

Difference of information among economic agents leads one side to have more information relatively to the other side in economic transactions. The issue of asymmetric information may cause market failure like corruption. In this framework, the existence of asymmetric information could lay the groundwork for opportunism in economic transactions and increase transaction costs. Therefore the circumstances of corruption come out. Economic agents make a benefit of information superiority because of their institutions of self-interesting. In this paper, the effect of asymmetric information in economic structure on the issue of corruption is analyzed. In this context, this effect is evaluated in the framework of two kind of microeconomic methods such as “PrincipalAgents Model” and “Game Theory”.
The Substrate-Driven Transition to an Inward-Facing Conformation in the Functional Mechanism of the Dopamine Transporter

Background The dopamine transporter (DAT), a member of the neurotransmitter:Na+ symporter (NSS) family, terminates dopaminergic neurotransmission and is a major molecular target for psychostimulants such as cocaine and amphetamine, and for the treatment of attention deficit disorder and depression. The crystal structures of the prokaryotic NSS homolog of DAT, the leucine transporter LeuT, have provided critical structural insights about the occluded and outward-facing conformations visited during the substrate transport, but only limited clues regarding mechanism. To understand the transport mechanism in DAT we have used a homology model based on the LeuT structure in a computational protocol validated previously for LeuT, in which steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations guide the substrate along a pathway leading from the extracellular end to the intracellular (cytoplasmic) end. Methodology/Principal Findings Key findings are (1) a second substrate binding site in the extracellular vestibule, and (2) models of the conformational states identified as occluded, doubly occupied, and inward-facing. The transition between these states involve a spatially ordered sequence of interactions between the two substrate-binding sites, followed by rearrangements in structural elements located between the primary binding site and the cytoplasmic end. These rearrangements are facilitated by identified conserved hinge regions and a reorganization of interaction networks that had been identified as gates. Conclusions/Significance Computational simulations supported by information available from experiments in DAT and other NSS transporters have produced a detailed mechanistic proposal for the dynamic changes associated with substrate transport in DAT. This allosteric mechanism is triggered by the binding of substrate in the S2 site in the presence of the substrate in the S1 site. Specific structural elements involved in this mechanism, and their roles in the conformational transitions illuminated here describe, a specific substrate-driven allosteric mechanism that is directly amenable to experiment as shown previously for LeuT.
Structural Group Analysis of Functional Activation Maps

We present here a new method for cerebral activation detection over a group of subjects. This method is performed using individual activation maps of any sort. It aims at processing a group analysis while preserving individual information and at overcoming as far as possible limitations of the spatial normalization used to compare different subjects. We designed it such that it provides the individual occurrence of the activations detected at a group level. The localization can then be performed on the individual anatomy of each subject. The analysis starts with a hierarchical multiscale object-based description of each individual map. These descriptions are then compared, rather than comparing the images directly. The analysis is thus performed at an object level instead of voxel by voxel. It is made using a comparison graph, on which a labeling process is performed. The label field on the graph is modeled by a Markov random field, which allows us to introduce high-level rules of interrogation of the data. The process has been evaluated on simulated data and real data from a PET protocol.