Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for Pianist-specific Rubato Style in Chopin Nocturnes

The performance of music usually involves a great deal of interpretation by the musician. In classical music, the final ritardando is a good example of the expressive aspect of music performance. Even though expressive timing data is expected to have a strong component that is determined by the piece itself, in this paper we investigate to what degree individual performance style has an effect on the timing of final ritardandi. The particular approach taken here uses Friberg and Sundberg’s kinematic rubato model in order to characterize performed ritardandi. Using a machinelearning classifier, we carry out a pianist identification task to assess the suitability of the data for characterizing the individual playing style of pianists. The results indicate that in spite of an extremely reduced data representation, when cancelling the piece-specific aspects, pianists can often be identified with accuracy above baseline. This fact suggests the existence of a performer-specific style of playing ritardandi.
Individual foraging behaviors and population distributions of a planktonic predator aggregating to phytoplankton thin layers

Resource distributions in the ocean are heterogeneous in time and space. Theory predicts planktonic predators may exploit these resource patches by modifying their movements in response to mechanical or chemical stimuli. In the laboratory, we used the protistan predator Oxyrrhis marina to simultaneously quantify changes in predator population distributions on scales of centimeters and hours and predators' individual three‐dimensional swimming behaviors on scales of micrometers and seconds. Movements of O. marina in a 0.3‐m column were monitored for several hours before and after introducing a 5‐mm layer of either Isochrysis galbana prey cells or cell‐free I. galbana filtrate. Within both types of layers, significant increases in turning rates and decreases in vertical velocities were observed. O. marina swimming speed increased significantly in response to intact I. galbana cells, but not in response to I. galbana exudates. Changes in predators' microscopic movements were concurrent with rapid (minutes) and sustained (hours) increases in relative predator abundance within layers. After 4 h, predator abundance inside the thin layers was up to 20 times higher than before introduction of prey. Estimates of realized growth rates for predator populations with aggregate behaviors were an order of magnitude faster than estimates for hypothetical, nonaggregating predators. The observed foraging behaviors of O. marina, and by implication other planktonic predators, increase effective prey availability to the predators. Modulation of individual‐level behaviors can result in significant changes in community‐level characteristics, including population distributions, growth, and ingestion rates.
Entity Resolution in Familial Networks

Entity resolution is an important graph mining problem. Entity resolution is particularly interesting and challenging when there is rich relational structure. In this paper, we study the problem of performing entity resolution in familial networks. In our setting, we are given partial views of a familial network as described from the point of view of different people in the network and our goal is to reconstruct the underlying familial network from these perspective partial views. The data and relations provided may be inaccurate, missing or incomplete. In our approach, we start by augmenting the known set of familial relations with additional ones that are either inversed or derived from the original set of relations by linkage heuristics. Additionally, we propose a set of measures that capture the similarity of persons in the familial network based on both personal and relational information. We present a supervised learning approach where we view entity resolution in familial networks as a classification problem. Our experiments on real-world data from multiple-informant pedigrees show that our approach works well and that we can improve performance by considering separate similarity scores for each relation type.
Browser function calls modeling for banking malware detection

Financial service providers are moving many services on-line to reduce their costs and facilitate customers' interaction. Criminals have quickly found several ways to exploit multiple vulnerabilities to perpetrate attacks. Traditional signature based detection methods are nowadays easily circumvented due to the amount of new malware samples and the use of sophisticated evasion techniques. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we developed a new detection system based in the modeling of the browser execution behavior within an isolated environment. Second, we analyse the results of our system over a set of malware samples. Financial institutions are now playing an important role against malware that specifically affect their customers by deploying their own detection tools. However, most approaches tend to rely on the malware sample itself in order to deploy useless signatures or perform time consuming reverse engineering methods to understand malware actions, so our work aims to help them to be more proactive, implementing tools to protect themselves from new threats.
The Principal's Role in Creating a School Culture That Fosters Achievement of Students with High Incidence Disabilities: A Study of One School.

The Principal’s Role in Creating a School Culture that Fosters Achievement of Students with High Incidence Disabilities: A Study of One School Shelby B. Haines The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the principal in shaping a school culture that fostered academic achievement of students with high incidence disabilities. Research was conducted by means of a qualitative case study approach with data courses of informant interviews, parent focus group, observations of the daily workings of the school, and artifact reviews. Data unveiled five prominent areas of school culture: rituals, collaboration, an individualized instructional focus, community, and social emotional support. Each of these findings are defined and discussed based on data collected throughout the study. Data also support four additional findings in regard to the roles the principal played to impact each component of school culture including: serving as an administrator, instructional leader, community liaison, and child advocate. Matrix analysis compared the interactions of the school culture and the impact the principal played in each to determine what roles the school principal filled that directly affected the culture including the academic performance of students with high incidence disabilities. Principal’s Role in Shaping School Culture iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my doctoral committee beginning with chairperson, Dr. Barbara Ludlow whose encouragement and support served as continual motivation through this project. Also, I would like to recognize Dr. David Hoppey whose experience in completing qualitative research provided advice and support throughout the study as well as Dr. Paul Chapman who sparked my interest in the importance of school culture. Also, Dr. Elizabeth Dooley’s passion for choosing a topic of interest and researching it in depth was an inspiration for seeing this project through. Finally, Dr. Katherine Calabria, without you I would have never had the faith in myself to enter the program, let alone complete the degree. You provided two of the most important roles, emotional support and professional mentorship. Principal’s Role in Shaping School Culture iv
The Association of Maternal Lifestyle with Birth Defects in Shaanxi Province, Northwest China

Background The main objective was to investigate the burden of birth defects among alive infants and explore the impact of maternal lifestyle during pregnancy on the burden of birth defects in Northwest China. Methods A stratified multi-stage sampling method was used to study infants born during 2010–2013 (and their mothers) in Shaanxi province of Northwest China. Socio-demographic information was collected using a structured questionnaire, and medical records from the local hospitals were used to determine the final diagnosis of birth defects. Poisson regression analysis was performed to assess the association between maternal lifestyles during pregnancy and the burden of birth defects, while adjusting for potential confounders. Results We sampled 29098 infants, of whom 629 (i.e. 216.17 per 10000) were observed to have congenital defects. Cardiovascular system defects (77.32 per 10000) were found to be the most common. Mothers who had ever consumed alcohol during pregnancy were found to have infants with a higher prevalence of some categories of birth defects, including nervous system (Prevalence Rate Ratio, PRR:14.67, 95%CI:1.94, 110.92), cardiovascular system (PRR:3.22, 95%CI: 1.02, 10.16) and oral clefts (PRR:9.02, 95%CI: 2.08, 39.10) in contrast to infants of mothers without any alcohol consumption. Maternal passive smoking during pregnancy lead to the increased burden of malformations of eye, ear, face and neck (PRR:1.95, 95%CI:1.15, 3.33), cardiovascular system (PRR:1.70, 95%CI: 1.25, 2.31) and respiratory system (PRR:9.94, 95%CI: 2.37, 41.76) in their newborns. Further, tea or coffee consumption during pregnancy was positively correlated with the burden of specific birth defects, such as cardiovascular system (PRR: 2.44, 95%CI: 1.33, 4.46) and genital organs (PRR:14.72, 95%CI: 1.87, 116.11) among infants. Conclusions The prevalence of birth defects was high in Shaanxi province of Northwest China. The unhealthy lifestyles of mothers during pregnancy may increase the prevalence of congenital malformations. These findings in future may have some important implications for prevention of birth defects in Northwest China.
The Role of Technology Diffusion on Industrial Export: Empirical Analysis of Iranian Economy

Recent theories of international economics deal with oriented innovation in reaction to economic incentives as a main engine of technological progress and competitiveness. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of real variables such as stock accumulation of domestic RD while the coefficient of inflation rate indicated that the rate of inflation has negative and significant effect on industrial export in the Iranian economy.
Fault detection for time-delay systems: a parity space approach

It is shown how a residual generator can be synthesized for time-delay systems using parity relations. The goal of this study is to investigate the application of a modern symbolic computation like MAPLE to the development and the design of fault detection systems for time-delay systems. In the literature, the problem brought up by time-delay systems has been solved in two different ways at least: first; retarded functional differential equations based upon the Razumikhin theorem; the second method is based upon the use of the delay operator V and the properties of the ring R[/spl nabla/]. Taking into account these properties, a FDI scheme based on the parity space is proposed. Finally, the applicability of the presented scheme is illustrated by a numerical example.
Continental speciation in the tropics: contrasting biogeographic patterns of divergence in the Uroplatus leaf‐tailed gecko radiation of Madagascar

A fundamental expectation of vicariance biogeography is for contemporary cladogenesis to produce spatial congruence between speciating sympatric clades. The Uroplatus leaf-tailed geckos represent one of most spectacular reptile radiations endemic to the continental island of Madagascar, and thus serve as an excellent group for examining patterns of continental speciation within this large and comparatively isolated tropical system. Here we present the first phylogeny that includes complete taxonomic sampling for the group, and is based on morphology and molecular (mitochondrial and nuclear DNA) data. This study includes all described species, and we also include data for eight new species. We find novel outgroup relationships for Uroplatus and find strongest support for Paroedura as its sister taxon. Uroplatus is estimated to have initially diverged during the mid-Tertiary in Madagascar, and includes two major speciose radiations exhibiting extensive spatial overlap and estimated contemporary periods of speciation. All sister species are either allopatric or parapatric. However, we found no evidence for biogeographic congruence between these sympatric clades, and dispersal events are prevalent in the dispersal–vicariance biogeographic analyses, which we estimate to date to the Miocene. One sister-species pair exhibits isolated distributions that we interpret as biogeographic relicts, and two sister-species pairs have parapatric distributions separated by elevation. Integrating ecological niche models with our phylogenetic results finds both conserved and divergent niches between sister species. We also found substantial intra-specific genetic variation, and for the three most widespread species, poor intra-specific predictive performance for ecological niche models across the latitudinal span of Madagascar. These latter results indicate the potential for intra-specific niche specialization along environmental gradients, and more generally, this study suggests a complex speciation history for this group in Madagascar, which appears to include multiple speciation processes.
Analyzing Theoretical Basis and Inconsistencies of Object Oriented Metrics

Metrics help in identifying potential problem areas and finding these problems in the phase they are developed decreases the cost and avoids major ripple effects from these in later development stages. These days, Object Oriented Paradigm is mainly used for all practical purposes, hence accessing Object Oriented Systems is a major research area in Software Engineering. As proved by researchers Procedural metrics are unfit for measuring various OO characteristics. Many researchers have proposed different OO metrics suite. This paper discusses the most commonly used OO metrics suite (CK, MOOD & LI) on the basis of characteristic they measure. An advanced metric for inheritance is also discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of all these are identified. The paper concludes by identifying that none of the metrics suite is full proof and there are flaws in almost all of them. Moreover, there is no single metric that can measure all the aspects of an OO System. Rather some of the suites have been found to be complimentary. Also, the paper stresses on the fact that metrics should not be treated as rules. Rather appropriate metrics identified using GQM approach act as indicators of the progress that a project has made.
Swaption pricing under the Hull-White One Factor Model

We price a swaption, an interest rate derivative, under the Hull-White one factor model. We calibrate the parameters of the model to best fit the observed market prices of a set of swaptions. We discuss the goodness of fit, and evaluate the differences between the observed price and the theoretical price in order to find mispriced swaptions. After which we develop a trading strategy that aims to exploit this mispricing.
Guardian : A Router Mechanism for Extreme Overload

Disasters such as the 9/11 attacks, as well as major and unpredictable events, can cause extreme network overload. By \extreme overload" we mean, rst, that the ooered load at a link is signiicantly higher than the link's capacity, and second, that the average throughput per session is too low. Under such conditions, the network can suuer from a form of \livelock" in which even though links are fully utilized, most users cannot complete their transfers. The underlying reasons are that the network carries many retransmitted packets, and that it services ows that are nally aborted by users or applications. To prevent extreme network overload, we propose a router mechanism called Guardian. Guardian is a form of admission control module that is automatically activated when it detects the onset of extreme overload at a network link. Guardian's objective is to allow at least some sessions to complete, rejecting new TCP or UDP sessions that would probably not manage to acquire a minimum acceptable throughput. Guardian does not require signalling, and it can be implemented using standard techniques for session counting and caching. This paper describes ongoing work. As such, we focus on the motivation for the proposed mechanism, and on Guardian's main design.
A distributed mechanism for dynamic resource trading in cooperative mobile video streaming

With the emergence of high speed mobile Internet access in smart devices, providing a specific quality of service (QoS) for video delivery is a challenging task due to the dynamic nature of the wireless channels. In this paper, we propose an auction based mechanism that facilitates cooperation among mobile nodes, in order to increase the level of QoS satisfaction in the network. In the proposed mechanism, users with excess resources that are surplus to their QoS requirement (sellers) are motivated to provide a relaying service to users with low QoS (buyers), in exchange for monetary compensation. Our mechanism is entirely distributed and does not require a coordination by a centralized auctioneer, which helps to minimize the implementation overhead and allows it to be applied regularly with short period times. The efficiency of the auction mechanism is verified using simulation over a range of typical practical scenarios.
Mapping the Antigenicity of the Parasites in Leishmania donovani Infection by Proteome Serology

Background Leishmaniasis defines a cluster of protozoal diseases with diverse clinical manifestations. The visceral form caused by Leishmania donovani is the most severe. So far, no vaccines exist for visceral leishmaniasis despite indications of naturally developing immunity, and sensitive immunodiagnostics are still at early stages of development. Methodology/Principle Findings Establishing a proteome-serological methodology, we mapped the antigenicity of the parasites and the specificities of the immune responses in human leishmaniasis. Using 2-dimensional Western blot analyses with sera and parasites isolated from patients in India, we detected immune responses with widely divergent specificities for up to 330 different leishmanial antigens. 68 antigens were assigned to proteins in silver- and fluorochrome-stained gels. The antigenicity of these proteins did not correlate with the expression levels of the proteins. Although some antigens are shared among different parasite isolates, there are extensive differences and no immunodominant antigens, but indications of antigenic drift in the parasites. Six antigens were identified by mass spectrometry. Conclusions/Significance Proteomics-based dissection of the serospecificities of leishmaniasis patients provides a comprehensive inventory of the complexity and interindividual heterogeneity of the host-responses to and variations in the antigenicity of the Leishmania parasites. This information can be instrumental in the development of vaccines and new immune monitoring and diagnostic devices.
Task-Based and Situated Language Learning and Its Impact on Language Teaching

The most imperative function of language for human beings is to communicate meaningfully with each other; humans first need to understand the language used among them to communicate their meaning and intention (Hassan, 2014) . This means speech is the primary skill in the language arts; speech is the fundamental first tool of expression for conveying information, feelings, emotions, ideas, and beliefs. This further implies that speaking, long before reading or writing, is the first stage of language learning, even when learning a new second or foreign language. Abdallah and Mansour (2015) confirm that language learning requires giving attention to speaking skills, acquiring realistic usages and contextual-pragmatic practices. Other skills such as reading and writing are equally important in advanced language usage, as they enhance eloquence and comprehension; however, speaking takes precedence.
Recursive Binary Particle Swarm Optimization based Face Localization

Face Localization on frontal pose grayscale images under varying conditions of illumination, background and gender is challenging. Developing a robust technique to handle all the aforementioned variations requires a lot of training time and hardware to obtain a good localization rate. In this paper, a novel Recursive Binary Particle Swarm Optimization is proposed, to create a generic template of the face. This template is then used for template matching in the Block DCT Signal Space to obtain the position of the face in the test image. Experimental results, obtained by applying the proposed algorithm on CalTech, FERET and Extended Yale B face databases, show that the proposed system provides good localization rates with a low training time.
Coding of Sounds in the Auditory System and Its Relevance to Signal Processing and Coding in Cochlear Implants

Objective To review how the properties of sounds are “coded” in the normal auditory system and to discuss the extent to which cochlear implants can and do represent these codes. Data Sources Data are taken from published studies of the response of the cochlea and auditory nerve to simple and complex stimuli, in both the normal and the electrically stimulated ear. Review Content The review describes: 1) the coding in the normal auditory system of overall level (which partly determines perceived loudness), spectral shape (which partly determines perceived timbre and the identity of speech sounds), periodicity (which partly determines pitch), and sound location; 2) the role of the active mechanism in the cochlea, and particularly the fast-acting compression associated with that mechanism; 3) the neural response patterns evoked by cochlear implants; and 4) how the response patterns evoked by implants differ from those observed in the normal auditory system in response to sound. A series of specific issues is then discussed, including: 1) how to compensate for the loss of cochlear compression; 2) the effective number of independent channels in a normal ear and in cochlear implantees; 3) the importance of independence of responses across neurons; 4) the stochastic nature of normal neural responses; 5) the possible role of across-channel coincidence detection; and 6) potential benefits of binaural implantation. Conclusions Current cochlear implants do not adequately reproduce several aspects of the neural coding of sound in the normal auditory system. Improved electrode arrays and coding systems may lead to improved coding and, it is hoped, to better performance.
AUTOMATED IMAGE ANALYSIS FOR DNA FINGERPRINTING

Methods for automated detection of DNA restriction fragments resolved on agarose fingerprinting gels are described. We present a mathematical model for the location and shape of the restriction fragments as a function of fragment size, with model parameters determined empirically from marker lanes containing molecular size standards. Automated identification of restriction fragments involves several steps, including: image preprocessing, to put the data in a form consistent with a linear model; marker lane analysis, for determination of the model parameters; and data lane analysis, a procedure for detecting restriction fragment multiplets while simultaneously determining the amplitude curve which describes band amplitude as a function of mobility. In validation experiments conducted on fingerprinted and sequenced Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) clones, sensitivity and specificity of fragment identification exceeded 96% on fragments ranging in size from 600 base pairs to 30k base pairs.