Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High frequency action potential bursts (≥ 100 Hz) in L2/3 and L5B thick tufted neurons in anaesthetized and awake rat primary somatosensory cortex

High frequency (≥ 100 Hz) bursts of action potentials (APs) generated by neocortical neurons are thought to increase information content and, through back‐propagation, to influence synaptic integration and efficacy in distal dendritic compartments. It was recently shown in acute slice experiments that intrinsic bursting properties differ between neocortical L2/3 and L5B (thick tufted) neurons. In L2/3 neurons for instance, dendritic APs were brief and generated only one additional AP after the initial somatic AP. In L5B neurons, dendritic plateau potentials facilitated the generation of trains of three or more APs. We recently showed in vivo that spiking frequencies are very different for L2/3 and L5B thick tufted neurons under anaesthesia. Here, we addressed the question whether in vivo the bursting properties are different for these two cell types. We recorded from L2/3 and L5B thick tufted neurons of rat primary somatosensory (barrel) cortex under anaesthetized and awake conditions and found that AP activity is dominated by single APs. In addition, we found that in the anaesthetized animal also bursts of two APs were observed in L2/3 neurons but the relative occurrence of these bursts was low. In L5B thick tufted neurons, bursts consisting of up to six APs were recorded and their relative occurrence was significantly higher. Frequencies within bursts were also significantly higher in L5B thick tufted neurons than in L2/3 neurons. In awake (head‐restrained) animals, average spike frequencies of L2/3 and L5B thick tufted neurons were surprisingly similar to spike rates under anaesthesia. However, bursting behaviour in L2/3 neurons was comparable to L5B thick tufted neurons. Thus, the distribution of interspike intervals was changed in L2/3 neurons without affecting the average spiking rate. We observed bursts consisting of up to five APs in both cell types and both probability of bursts and AP frequency within bursts were similar for L2/3 and L5B thick tufted neurons. Our analysis shows that most cortical APs occur as single APs, although a minor fraction of APs in L2/3 and L5B thick tufted neurons are part of high frequency bursts (15%). This AP bursting is dependent on the behavioural state of the animal in a cell‐type dependent manner.
"I did it because I trusted you" : Challenges with the Study Environment Biasing Participant Behaviours

We recently replicated and extended a 2009 study that investigated the effectiveness of SSL warnings. Our experimental design aimed to mitigate some of the limitations of that prior study, including allowing participants to use their web browser of choice and recruiting a more representative user sample. However, during this study we observed and measured a strong bias in participants’ behaviour due to the laboratory environment. In this paper we discuss the challenges of observing natural behaviour in a study environment, as well as the challenges of replicating previous studies, given the rapid changes in web technology. Finally, we propose alternatives to traditional laboratory study methodologies that can be considered by the usable security research community when investigating research questions involving sensitive data where trust may influence behaviour.
A Hybrid Approach for Eye Localization in Video

Eye Localization is a preprocessing step for operations such as orientation correction and scaling required in face recognition problem. The success of facial feature analysis and face recognition system depends on eye position detected and the other facial features estimated on this. This paper presents a hybrid approach for eye localization in a video which integrates efficiency of a feature based approach and accuracy of an appearance based approach. In particular, the proposed approach combines Line Edge Map (feature based) approach and Bayesian Classifier (appearance based) approach. The experiments have been carried out on videos of people in normal blink as well as in sleepy condition. The performance of proposed algorithm has been validated on various non-parametric tests.
An Adaptive Inductorless Continuous Time Equalizer for Gigabit Links in 0.13 um CMOS

A multi-gigabit inductor-less wide-range adaptive continuous time equalizer (CTE) architecture is presented. The incoming data stream is equalized using one-bit post-cursor clock-less dynamic feedback. The circuit adapts to a given link environment (noisy channel and the termination) by controlling the amount of feedback and thereby defining the high-frequency and low-frequency response. The architecture is scalable to higher speeds with technology. The circuit can be operated in different modes based on the attenuation in the input signal at a given operating frequency. Measurement results depict the successful equalization of channels having an attenuation of up to -19 dB at 10 GHz. The circuit is fabricated in 0.13 μm CMOS technology and consumes a current of 39 mA (max.) at (Vdd = 1.32 V) in the low power mode.
Automatic Ranking of Machine Translation Outputs Using Linguistic Factors

Machine Translation is the challenging problem in Indian languages. The main goal of MT research are to develop an MT systems that consistently provide high accuracy translations and that have broad coverage to handle the full range of languages. At an age of Internet and Globalization MT have a great demand. Since MT is an automated system; therefore, it is not necessary that the system will provide us the accurate translated output. To know the accuracy of the output, ranking of MT engines is required. There are many applications and statistical measures for computing the analysis of the performance of various MT engines based on various criteria; the oldest is by using human judges which can tell the quality of a translation, while newer automated methods include some linguistic factors. Human ranking is slow, time consuming and very tedious task. It takes too long to provide ranks for MT engine outputs. Due to this problem, a need for automatic ranking of MT outputs is required. For that we provide some automatic ranks for selecting the best translation among options from multiple systems which correlates better with humans.
Located Accountabilities in Technology Production

This paper explores the relevance of recent feminist reconstructions of objectivity for the development of alternative practices of technology production and use. I take as my starting place the working relations that make up the design and use of technical systems. Working relations are understood as sociomaterial connections that sustain the visible and invisible work required to construct coherent technologies and put them into use. I outline the boundaries that characterize current relations of development and use, and the boundary crossings required to transform them. Three contrasting positions for design - the view from nowhere, detached intimacy, and located accountability - are discussed as alternative bases for a politics of professional design practice. From the position of located accountability, I close by sketching aspects of what a feminist politics and associated practices of technology production could be.
Adaptive case-based reasoning using support vector regression

One important step in case-based reasoning systems is the adaptation phase. This paper presents a case-based reasoning system which automatically adapts past solutions to propose a solution for new problems. The proposed method for case adaptation is based on support vector regression. At first, case base is partitioned using SOM technique. Then, a support vector regression is constructed for each cluster using local information. For solving a new problem, its local information is computed with respect to the most similar cluster and the corresponding support vector regression propose a solution. Experiment shows this approach greatly improves the accuracy of a retrieve-only CBR system with minimizing each didactic model.
Are Concurrent Programs That Are Easier to Write Also Easier to Check?

This quote expresses the importance of choosing the right vocabulary to describe and reason about a concept. There is a long and rich history of language proposals for concurrency: semaphores, locks, wait-and-notify, monitors, conditional critical regions, rendezvous, message passing, and transactional memory. Which of these, if any, forms a good vocabulary? What criteria should one apply? My touchstone is the expression of common concurrency patterns. An important criterion for a vocabulary, in my view, is that it is possible to express common patterns in an “obviously correct” manner. The expectation is that simpler solutions are likely to have fewer or more easily detectable errors. An alternative view of this test is that common concurrency patterns should have simple and short proofs of correctness. To this end, consider three common concurrency patterns: a pipeline, a barrier, and a thread pool. The pipeline is pervasive in network processing. Typically, incoming packets are passed through a number of processing stages. This pattern is trivial to describe in terms of message exchanges (Figure 1). The particular style of message exchange is from Hoare’s work on Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) [2]: in? msg represents a read from channel in to a variable msg, out! msg represents a write of the value of msg to channel out. Each channel has a single reader and writer. Communication is unbuffered and synchronous, in that both reads and writes block until the complementary operation is enabled, at which point the communication takes place. Next, consider a barrier for N processes. All processes have to reach the barrier before any can proceed. In the code in Figure 2, the barrier process counts arrivals; once all processes have arrived, it issues Proceed messages. The alt construct (also from CSP) is used to synchronize with one of toBarrier[1]? Arrived, . , toBarrier[N]? Arrived. For the final, everyday example, consider a taxi rank at an airport (Figure 3). A taxi driver registers with a dispatcher, she is assigned a passenger, and she
Skills, Productivity and the Evaluation of Teacher Performance

We examine the relationships between observational ratings of teacher performance, principals’ evaluations of teachers’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills and test-score based measures of teachers’ productivity. We find that principals can distinguish between high and low performing teachers, but the overall correlation between principal ratings of teachers and teachers’ value-added contribution to student achievement is modest. The variation across metrics occurs in part because they are capturing different traits. While past teacher value-added predicts future value-added, principals’ subjective ratings can provide additional information, particularly when prior value-added measures are based on a single year of teacher performance.
Extension of TCP To Improve the Throughput

TCP was originally designed for wired communication. Internet was accessed with the help of Ethernet LAN giving the ability to share the same network between many users. In today's world due to the advancement of technologies, wireless LAN is becoming a preferred criterion for communication between many users. In many countries, hotspots are being created for providing free Wi-Fi service. However, WLAN throughput suffers from losses due to its TCP congestion mechanism which is much more suited for wired communication than wireless communication. In this paper, we would like to discuss various mechanisms that have been implemented to improve TCP throughput in WLAN and would like to suggest some improvement over the current method to achieve much better performance.
The Effect of Visual Aids on Elementary Iranian EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Learning

This study aimed to investigate the effect of visual aids on elementary Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. To achieve the aim of the study, 60 elementary EFL learners were selected based on their performance on proficiency test. After administering the pretest, the participants of the experimental group received vocabulary visually. The teacher used different kinds of strategies such as: physical demonstration, creating a visual memory for the word, etc. Control group received vocabulary instruction through the conventional method, which was popular in similar courses by means of using dictionaries, definitions, synonyms, translation, etc. Finally, both groups took posttest. The results of independent sample t-test showed that visual aids were more effective to help elementary EFL learners to learn vocabulary. Accordingly, it was recommended that all the EFL teachers should feel responsible and use various types of visual aids as much as possible effectively.Key words: Teaching aids; visual Aids; educational technology; teaching; learning; English language learners (ELLs)
New perspective on sampling-based motion planning via random geometric graphs

Roadmaps constructed by many sampling-based motion planners coincide, in the absence of obstacles, with standard models of random geometric graphs (RGGs). Those models have been studied for several decades and by now a rich body of literature exists analyzing various properties and types of RGGs. In their seminal work on optimal motion planning, Karaman and Frazzoli conjectured that a sampling-based planner has a certain property if the underlying RGG has this property as well. In this paper, we settle this conjecture and leverage it for the development of a general framework for the analysis of sampling-based planners. Our framework, which we call localization–tessellation, allows for easy transfer of arguments on RGGs from the free unit hypercube to spaces punctured by obstacles, which are geometrically and topologically much more complex. We demonstrate its power by providing alternative and (arguably) simple proofs for probabilistic completeness and asymptotic (near-)optimality of probabilistic roadmaps (PRMs) in Euclidean spaces. Furthermore, we introduce three variants of PRMs, analyze them using our framework, and discuss the implications of the analysis.
Enhancing employee communication behaviors for sensemaking and sensegiving in crisis situations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the organizational effectiveness of internal crisis communication within the strategic management approach, whether it enhanced voluntary and positive employee communication behaviors (ECBs) for sensemaking and sensegiving. By doing so, this study provides meaningful insight into: new crisis communication theory development that takes a strategic management approach, emphasizing employees’ valuable assets from an organization, and effective crisis communication practice that reduces misalignment with employees and that enhances voluntary and positive ECBs for the organization during a crisis. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a nationwide survey in the USA among full-time employees (n=544). After dimensionality check through confirmatory factor analysis, this study tested hypothesis and research question by conducting ordinary least squares multiple regression analyses using STATA 13. Findings This study found that strategic internal communication factors, including two-way symmetrical communication and transparent communication, were positive and strong antecedents of ECBs for sensemaking and sensegiving in crisis situations, when controlling for other effects. The post hoc analysis confirmed theses positive and strong associations across different industry areas. Originality/value This study suggests that voluntary and valuable ECBs can be enhanced by listening and responding to employee concerns and interests; encouraging employee participation in crisis communication; and organizational accountability through words, actions and decisions during the crisis. As a theoretical implication, the results of this study indicate the need for crisis communication theories that emphasize employees as valuable assets to an organization.
Performance Interference of Multi-tenant , Big Data Frameworks in Resource Constrained Private Clouds

In this paper, we investigate and characterize the behavior of “big” and “fast” data analysis frameworks, in multitenant, shared settings for which computing resources (CPU and memory) are limited. Such settings and frameworks are frequently employed in both public and private cloud deployments. Resource constraints stem from both physical limitations (private clouds) and what the user is willing to pay (public clouds). Because of these constraints, users increasingly attempt to maximize resource utilization and sharing in these settings. To understand how popular analytics frameworks behave and interfere with each other under such constraints, we investigate the use of Mesos to provide fair resource sharing for resource constrained private cloud systems. We empirically evaluate such systems using Hadoop, Spark, and Storm multi-tenant workloads. Our results show that in constrained environments, there is significant performance interference that manifests in multiple ways. First, Mesos is unable to achieve fair resource sharing for many configurations. Moreover, application performance over competing frameworks depends on Mesos offer order and is highly variable. Finally, we find that resource allocation among tenants that employ coarse-grained and fine-grained framework scheduling, can lead to a form of deadlock for fine-grained frameworks and underutilization of system resources. Keywords—Hadoop, Spark, Storm, Mesos
Network Virtualization on Optical Networks

Network Virtualization is a simple method to implement multi vendor networks and is essential for Overlay Services in which Open Transport Switch (OTS), a light weight software switch is installed on transport switches for network resource. The control structure that supports the functionality of the different network protocols by separating the data plane and control plane is called as Software Defined Network (SDN). This paper presents the idea of Software Defined Optical Networks that surveys the key technologies at different layers of the network which helps in applying SDN-like elements to the network and also the software named Mininet which is used to rapidly prototype networks on the limited available resources of a system. The best advantage of Mininet will be supporting the research community by making independent SDN models which anybody with a system can download run, assess, and expand upon. The paper also describes the results of a SDN test-bed which combines data centre switching, long distance optical networking and other functions under a common network controller.
Estimation of semiparametric stochastic frontiers under shape constraints with application to pollution generating technologies

A number of studies have explored the semi- and nonparametric estimation of stochastic frontier models by using kernel regression or other nonparametric smoothing techniques. In contrast to popular deterministic nonparametric estimators, these approaches do not allow one to impose any shape constraints (or regularity conditions) on the frontier function. On the other hand, as many of the previous techniques are based on the nonparametric estimation of the frontier function, the convergence rate of frontier estimators can be sensitive to the number of inputs, which is generally known as “the curse of dimensionality” problem. This paper proposes a new semiparametric approach for stochastic frontier estimation that avoids the curse of dimensionality and allows one to impose shape constraints on the frontier function. Our approach is based on the singleindex model and applies both single-index estimation techniques and shape-constrained nonparametric least squares. In addition to production frontier and technical efficiency estimation, we show how the technique can be used to estimate pollution generating technologies. The new approach is illustrated by an empirical application to the environmental adjusted performance evaluation of U.S. coal-fired electric power plants.
A large-scale study of agents learning from human reward (Extended abstract)

The TAMER framework, which provides a way for agents to learn to solve tasks using human-generated rewards, has been examined in several small-scale studies, each with a few dozen subjects. In this paper, we present the results of the first large-scale study of TAMER, which was performed at the NEMO science museum in Amsterdam and involved 561 subjects. Our results show for the first time that an agent using TAMER can successfully learn to play Infinite Mario, a challenging reinforcement-learning benchmark problem based on the popular video game, given feedback from both adult (N = 209) and child (N = 352) trainers. In addition, our study supports prior studies demonstrating the importance of bidirectional feedback and competitive elements in the training interface. Finally, our results also shed light on the potential for using trainers’ facial expressions as a reward signal, as well as the role of age and gender in trainer behavior and agent performance.
Distortion Measurement for Automatic Document Verification

Document forgery detection is important as techniques to generate forgeries are becoming widely available and easy to use even for untrained persons. In this work, two types of forgeries are considered: forgeries generated by re-engineering a document and forgeries that are generated using scanning and printing a genuine document. An unsupervised approach is presented to automatically detect forged documents of these types by detecting the geometric distortions introduced during the forgery process. Using the matching quality between all pairs of documents, outlier detection is performed on the summed matching quality to identify the tampered document. Quantitative evaluation is done on two public data sets, reporting a true positive rate from to 0.7 to 1.0.
Immunocytochemical Localization of the Postsynaptic Density Protein PSD-95 in the Mammalian Retina

Synapse-associated proteins are the scaffold for the selective aggregation of ion channels at synapses; they provide the link to cytoskeletal elements and possibly are involved with the regulation of synaptic efficacy by electrical activity. The localization of the postsynaptic density protein PSD-95 was studied in different mammalian retinae (rat, monkey, and tree shrew) by using immunocytochemical methods. Immunofluorescence for PSD-95 was most prominent in the outer plexiform layer (OPL). The axon terminals of rods and cones, the rod spherules and cone pedicles, were strongly labeled. Electron microscopy, using preembedding immunocytochemistry, showed PSD-95 localized presynaptically within the photoreceptor terminals. Distinct PSD-95 labeling was also present in the inner plexiform layer (IPL). It had a punctate appearance suggesting the synaptic clustering of PSD-95 in the IPL. Electron microscopy showed that PSD-95 was concentrated in processes that were postsynaptic at bipolar cell ribbon synapses (dyads). As a rule, only one of the two postsynaptic members of the dyad was labeled for PSD-95. Double-labeling experiments were performed for PSD-95 and for SAP 102 or PSD-93, respectively, two other members of the family of synapse-associated proteins. All three were found to be colocalized in the synaptic hot spots in the IPL. In the OPL, however, PSD-95 and PSD-93 were found presynaptically, whereas SAP 102 was located postsynaptically at photoreceptor synapses. Double-labeling experiments also were performed for PSD-95 and for the NR1 subunit of the NMDA receptor. They were found to be colocalized in synaptic hot spots in the IPL.