Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new perspective on adiposity in a naturally obese mammal.

Many mammals seasonally reduce body fat due to inherent periods of fasting, which is associated with decreased leptin concentrations. However, no data exist on the correlation between fat mass (FM) and circulating leptin in marine mammals, which have evolved large fat stores as part of their adaptation to periods of prolonged fasting. Therefore, FM was estimated (by tritiated water dilution), and serum leptin and cortisol were measured in 40 northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) pups early (<1 wk postweaning) and late (6-8 wk postweaning) during their natural, postweaning fast. Body mass (BM) and FM were reduced late; however, percent FM (early: 43.9 +/- 0.5, late: 45.5 +/- 0.5%) and leptin [early: 2.9 +/- 0.1 ng/ml human equivalents (HE), late: 3.0 +/- 0.1 ng/ml HE] did not change. Cortisol increased between early (9.2 +/- 0.5 microg/dl) and late (16.3 +/- 0.9 microg/dl) periods and was significantly and negatively correlated with BM (r = 0.426; P < 0.0001) and FM (r = 0.328; P = 0.003). FM and percent FM were not correlated (P > 0.10) with leptin at either period. The present study suggests that these naturally obese mammals appear to possess a novel cascade for regulating body fat that includes cortisol. The lack of a correlation between leptin and FM may reflect the different functions of fat between terrestrial and marine mammals.
PageRank: A modified random surfer model

PageRank is an approach to evaluate the importance of a web page implemented by Google. It is one of the important system features that Google usedin order to improve the quality of search result in the original version of Google apart from utilizing link (anchor) in web pages. The success of Google has led to various researches on the theory behind Google search. PageRank is one of the theories that arestudied over the years by researchers. Various theories are proposed to enhance PageRank in terms of its quality andcomputation time. This paper explains the behavior of Markov chain involved in a random surfer model from the original PageRank. A modified random surfer model is proposed, which could lead to a more predictable time for computing PageRank.
Seamless Customer Identification

This paper proposes seamless customer identification (SCI), a means to identify physically present customers without any effort on customers’ part beyond a one-time opt-in. With SCI, customers need not present cards or operate smartphones to convey their identities. So, stores can provide personalized shopping experiences at any time, not just at check-out. SCI uses two complementary technologies: device detection and face recognition. Device detection identifies customers by detecting their phones through low-power wireless discovery, in our case using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Face recognition recognizes customers by matching pictures captured during registration with images captured by a store camera. Device detection makes face recognition feasible by limiting the number of potential customers, while face recognition provides directional information that device detection lacks. Together, these technologies provide an ordering of likely candidates to a store employee, who makes the final determination of identity. We have designed and built SCI, and demonstrated its usefulness in an application called Zero-Effort Payments (ZEP). ZEP uses SCI to let customers effortlessly make small purchases at a coffee stand. We conducted two real-world deployments of ZEP on actual customers: a two-day deployment during a technology fair and a four-month deployment in our building. Across both deployments, 274 customers made 705 purchases using ZEP. Through these deployments and other experiments, we demonstrate how our techniques make seamless customer identification feasible and practical.
Analysis of self-stabilization for infinite-state systems

The problem of deciding whether an infinite-state system is self-stabilizing or not is investigated from the decidability viewpoint. We develop a unified strategy through which checking self-stabilization is shown to be decidable for one-counter machines and conflict-free Petri nets. Our strategy relies on the reachability sets being semilinear; as well as on the capability of extracting periodic behaviors of infinite computations, which, in turn, facilitates the expression of self-stabilization by Presburger Arithmetic. As fairness is frequently used as a qualitative measure to capture the notion of a quantitative measure of 'something happens with probability one,' it is of interest to examine the fair version of the self-stabilization problem, i.e., the problem of asking whether all 'fair' infinite computations eventually become self-stabilizing. We propose a potential method through which the problem is shown to be decidable for conflict-free Petri nets.
Multimodal Physiological Quality-of-Experience Assessment of Text-to-Speech Systems

With the growing complexity of various text-to-speech systems, it is becoming more important to understand the underlying perceptual and judgement processes that drive user Quality-of-Experience (QoE) perception. Typical QoE assessment techniques, such as listening tests with self-report ratings, are useful but provide limited insight into these underlying processes. Recent advances in neuroimaging and physiological monitoring technologies, however, have opened new doors and allowed us to better understand and measure QoE perception. In this paper, we explore the use of two neuroimaging techniques, namely electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to better understand neuronal and cerebral haemodynamic changes resultant from synthesized speech of varying quality. Neural correlates of several QoE dimensions were derived and validated on the publicly available PhySyQX database. Fusion of EEG, fNIRS, and fNIRS-derived physiological parameters, combined with conventional features extracted from the synthesized speech signal showed to accurately represent several QoE dimensions, including those related to listener affective states. It is hoped that these findings will help researchers build better instrumental QoE models that incorporate technological, contextual, and human influence factors.
EMD Sifting Based on Bandwidth

Empirical-mode decomposition (EMD) provides a powerful tool for adaptive multiscale analysis of nonstationary signals. Aiming at the intrinsic mode function (IMF) criteria in sifting process and the scale mixing problem in EMD, this paper proposes a bandwidth criterion for IMF. By analyzing the simulated signal, it is confirmed that the IMFs obtained with the bandwidth criterion approximate the real components better and reflect the intrinsic information of the analyzed signal. Furthermore, the criterion based on bandwidth can weaken the scale mixing problem.
Facial Expression Recognition using Virtual Neutral Image Synthesis

A novel feature extraction technique for expression recognition is proposed in this article. The proposed method exploits the properties of eigenvector decomposition in extracting the neutral and expression component of an expression containing test image. The methodology synthesizes a virtual neutral image from the given expression image of a person and then uses it obtain the difference image which captures the expression content of the test image. The proposed method eliminates the requirement of a registered neutral image of the same subject whose expression is to be recognized. Thereby, provides a way for application of difference-image methods in expression recognition to any unknown subject. The proposed methodology is extensively tested on Cohn-Kanade expression data set using three different classifiers: FLDA, Multilayer Perceptron and Support Vector Machine. The accuracy obtained by SVM is 92.4% which is comparable to state-of-art methods. Moreover, the required computation has also been decreased because the proposed method does not require the local features for classification.
The research on psychological type of netizens in internet public opinion's embryonic stage: A case study of Malaysia Airlines loss of communication

With the popularity of the Internet, the propagation velocity of events via internet is faster than via traditional media, internet public opinion has drawn people's attention. The development of internet public opinion usually takes on periodicity, which can be roughly divided into five stages-the embryonic stage, the outbreak stage, diffusion stage, transition stage and decaying stage. The keynote of this paper is the research of embryonic stage in the internet public opinion. Firstly, this paper divides the psychological type of netizens in embryonic stage into three categories and eight kinds of specific psychology. Then this paper explains the internet public opinion's development trend of Malaysia Airlines loss of communication event in its embryonic stage from a psychological point of view. Finally, this paper gets the conclusion that the reason of embryonic stage in internet public opinion is not only the sensitivity of public opinion event itself, but also the psychological type of netizens in promoting.
Global burden of hepatitis C: considerations for healthcare providers in the United States.

An estimated 2%-3% of the world's population is living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and each year, >350 000 die of HCV-related conditions, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. The epidemiology and burden of HCV infection varies throughout the world, with country-specific prevalence ranging from <1% to >10%. In contrast to the United States and other developed countries, HCV transmission in developing countries frequently results from exposure to infected blood in healthcare and community settings. Hepatitis C prevention, care, and treatment programs must recognize country-specific epidemiology, which varies by setting and level of economic development. Awareness of the global epidemiology of HCV infection is important for US healthcare providers treating foreign-born patients from countries where HCV infection is endemic and for counseling patients who travel to these countries. Countries with a high burden of HCV infection also would benefit from establishing comprehensive prevention, care, and treatment programs.
The Allocation of Liability : Why Financial Intermediation ?

The paper proposes that the organization of nancial markets is decided by the allocation of the liability to repay investors. Based on the liability allocation, the paper examines all possible modes of organizing nance and monitoring in an economy a la Townsend (1979). The equilibrium mode is either Financial Intermediation (FI) where the monitor alone takes the liability, or Conglomeration where it is taken by a Conglomerate composed of entrepreneurs and the monitor. Conglomeration also implements the bene t of diversi cation, which thus does not drive FI. Moreover, opposed to what Diamond (1984) would predict, monitoring costs advantage FI.
Shareholders’ Demand for Conservatism? Accounting Conservatism, Earnings Management, and the Stewardship Value of Information

This article aims to clarify the consequences of accounting conservatism from a stewardship (principal-agent) point of view. Prior literature argues that the limited liability of the agent always results in a demand for conservatism, and that conservatism is beneficial because it deters earnings management. I challenge both arguments. Firstly, I show and derive the conditions under which an aggressive (or liberal) accounting information system might be preferred to a conservative one when the agent has limited liability. Risk aversion plays a crucial role, with a higher degree of risk aversion encouraging increased aggressiveness. Secondly, I provide the stylized example of choosing between rules-based (Rules ) and principles-based (Principles ) accounting. The latter, involving greater subjectivity, might increase the likelihood of earnings manipulation, but enables the agent to communicate relevant, albeit self-serving, private information. Both effects result in Principles being less conservative than Rules. I show that Principles might, nonetheless, be optimal, depending on the value of the likelihood ratio of manipulation versus the provision of relevant information. Manipulation and self-serving reports, which introduce an aggressive bias, might be the price to pay for more informative accounts.
The Role of Attentional Priority and Saliency in Determining Capacity Limits in Enumeration and Visual Working Memory

Many common tasks require us to individuate in parallel two or more objects out of a complex scene. Although the mechanisms underlying our abilities to count the number of items, remember the visual properties of objects and to make saccadic eye movements towards targets have been studied separately, each of these tasks require selection of individual objects and shows a capacity limit. Here we show that a common factor—salience—determines the capacity limit in the various tasks. We manipulated bottom-up salience (visual contrast) and top-down salience (task relevance) in enumeration and visual memory tasks. As one item became increasingly salient, the subitizing range was reduced and memory performance for all other less-salient items was decreased. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that our abilities to enumerate and remember small groups of stimuli are grounded in an attentional priority or salience map which represents the location of important items.
OMAP TM : Enabling Multimedia Applications in Third Generation ( 3 G ) Wireless Terminals

This paper describes how the Open Multimedia Applications PlatformTM software and hardware architecture enables multimedia applications in third-generation (3G) wireless appliances. It provides an overview of OMAPTM strategy, concepts, main milestones, and achievements. It also describes OMAP hardware architecture, explains how multimedia applications can benefit from this advanced architecture, and why a RISC/DSP approach is superior to RISC-only architecture. This paper outlines OMAP software concepts to show how an architecture that combines two heterogeneous processors (RISC and DSP), several operating system (OS) combinations, and applications running on both DSP and RISC can be made accessible seamlessly to third parties. The final parts of the paper outline how key multimedia applications such as speech and video can be integrated in an OMAP solution.
An SIS-type Marketing Model on Random Networks

Marketing on random networks displays similarities to epidemiological models in the sense that \word-of-mouth" information passes between individuals and may \infect" susceptible buyers such that they end up buying the product. The dierence to epidemics is that there are usually many competing products (rather than just one disease), and in addition to word-of-mouth transmission, products are also advertised by the producers, which can be thought of as external nodes connected to the network. In this paper we develop a model in which these various transmission pathways compete, and, in addition, where product fatigue and product switching are possible. This is a genuine and realistic extension of the model developed in [4], where a customer would never abandon a product after purchase. The model presented here is similar to and was inspired by SIS epidemiological models.
Haptic and Tactile Feedback in Directed Movements

Directed movements with a user’s arms and hands are the basis of many types of human-computer interaction. Several previous research projects have proposed or studied the idea of haptic and tactile feedback in directed movement-based interaction with computer systems. In this paper we collect and review existing recommendations for haptic feedback in both single-user and collaborative situations, and derive a design space for haptics in this area.
Accumulation of physical activity for health gains: what is the evidence?

Introduction Physical activity is recognised as an important component of a healthy lifestyle, by the population at large as well as by scientists and clinicians. Nevertheless, most adult men and women in this country are physically inactive. To alleviate the considerable public health burden of this level of inactivity requires nothing less than a major shift of behaviour to a more active style of living. A start has been made with eVorts to develop a physical activity strategy for England and the Health Education Authority’s campaign “Active Living”. Both initiatives reflect a change of emphasis in making recommendations for physical activity. Traditionally, recommendations were for 20–60 minutes of moderate to high intensity endurance-type exercise performed three or more times per week. By contrast, recent consensus statements from expert bodies in the United States (on which the United Kingdom recommendations are modelled) encompass the notion that many health gains may be acquired through moderate intensity physical activities outside formal exercise programmes. This review is concerned with one particular aspect of these recommendations, namely that one eVective pattern of physical activity is several short sessions during the day.
1 MULTICOMMODITY FLOW PROBLEMS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate multicommodity flow problems that appear in the network design and operation of modern broadband packet-switched networks. We present arc-node and arc-path models and analyze specialized formulations corresponding to hard to solve instances like the minimax congestion problem and the capacity assignment of data networks in the presence of failures. Decomposition methods are studied to cope with the coupling constraints which define interactions between commodities on critical arcs or the combinatorial choice between normal and spare capacities. We focus here mainly on continuous flow models with linear or convex costs.
A systematic review of modafinil: Potential clinical uses and mechanisms of action.

BACKGROUND Modafinil is a novel wake-promoting agent that has U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for narcolepsy and shift work sleep disorder and as adjunctive treatment of obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome. Modafinil has a novel mechanism and is theorized to work in a localized manner, utilizing hypocretin, histamine, epinephrine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and glutamate. It is a well-tolerated medication with low propensity for abuse and is frequently used for off-label indications. The objective of this study was to systematically review the available evidence supporting the clinical use of modafinil. DATA SOURCES The search term modafinil OR Provigil was searched on PubMed. Selected articles were mined for further potential sources of data. Abstracts from major scientific conferences were reviewed. Lastly, the manufacturer of modafinil in the United States was asked to provide all publications, abstracts, and unpublished data regarding studies of modafinil. DATA SYNTHESIS There have been 33 double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of modafinil. Additionally, numerous smaller studies have been performed, and case reports of modafinil's use abound in the literature. CONCLUSIONS Modafinil is a promising drug with a large potential for many uses in psychiatry and general medicine. Treating daytime sleepiness is complex, and determining the precise nature of the sleep disorder is vital. Modafinil may be an effective agent in many sleep conditions. To date, the strongest evidence among off-label uses exists for the use of modafinil in attention-deficit disorder, postanesthetic sedation, and cocaine dependence and withdrawal and as an adjunct to antidepressants for depression.
Studying how the past is remembered: towards computational history through large scale text mining

History helps us understand the present and even to predict the future to certain extent. Given the huge amount of data about the past, we believe computer science will play an increasingly important role in historical studies, with computational history becoming an emerging interdisciplinary field of research. We attempt to study how the past is remembered through large scale text mining. We achieve this by first collecting a large dataset of news articles about different countries and analyzing the data using computational and statistical tools. We show that analysis of references to the past in news articles allows us to gain a lot of insight into the collective memories and societal views of different countries. Our work demonstrates how various computational tools can assist us in studying history by revealing interesting topics and hidden correlations. Our ultimate objective is to enhance history writing and evaluation with the help of algorithmic support.
Automatic error correction of tri-state circuits

Boolean equivalence checking is a well established approach for verifying combinational circuits and is on the verge of becoming an integrated part of the design cycle. Previously (1999), we have presented a method for performing automatic error correction in combinational circuits if equivalence checking fails. However like all other automatic error correction techniques proposed in the past, it cannot handle circuits containing tri-states. This is a restriction for practical applications since tri-states occur in many real-life circuits. In this paper we present two solutions how the rectification method can be extended to locate and rectify errors in tri-state circuits. This makes the method applicable to a much broader range of circuits.
Experimental characterization of BTI defects

Selected physical and electrical characterization of gate-oxide defects is reviewed. Interfacial dangling bond defects at interfaces of Si and SiGe are characterized electrically and compared to the electron spin resonance data. It is found that additional silicon dangling bonds (Pb0-ceters) acting as amphoteric interface traps are generated upon oxygen scavenging anneal. A close density of Pb0 centers is also found in Si/SiGe/Si/HfO2 stack. The Ge dangling bond defects (Ge Pb1 centers) found at interfaces of SiGe with thermal SiO2 are shown to behave as acceptor centers. The properties of individual gate-oxide defects in FETs are studied with Time-Dependent Defect Spectroscopy (TDDS), an electrical characterization technique. The primary properties of a defect are its capture and emission time constants, both dependent on the local electric gate field and the temperature. Considering the wide distributions of these defect properties, complete characterization of many defects is required over the full gate and drain voltage range from 0 to VDD at different temperatures. This is desirable in order to model degradation for large, “analog” FETs and to model the ΔVth-variability of deeply-scaled FETs. The impact of individual charged defects on transistor properties is then discussed. It is shown that the shift in the threshold voltage is exponentially distributed, with a small fraction of defects causing significant shifts of tens of mV. The average impact per charged defect is experimentally confirmed to be increasing with the gate oxide thickness, the substrate doping, and with the decreasing FET area. The average impact per charged defect is found to be reduced in SiGe substrates, contributing to lower degradation of SiGe-based FETs. In low-doped substrates, other sources of variability, such as interface states, are shown to take over. The impact of a single charged gate-oxide defect on the full I-V characteristic is measured and corroborated by atomistic device simulations, thus enabling the path to compact modeling of degraded deeply-scaled FET devices. Finally, the model explaining the correlation between drain and gate current RTN is discussed.