Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The superorbital variability and triple nature of the X-ray source 4U 1820-303

We perform a comprehensive analysis of the superorbital modulation in the ultracompact X-ray source 4U 1820‐303, consisting of a white dwarf accreting on to a neutron star. Based on RXTE data, we measure the fractional amplitude of the source superorbital variability (with a ∼170-d quasi-period) in the folded and averaged light curves, and find it to be by a factor of ∼2. As proposed before, the superorbital variability can be explained by oscillations of the binary eccentricity. We now present detailed calculations of the eccentricity-dependent flow through the inner Lagrangian point, and find a maximum of the eccentricity of � 0.004 is sufficient to explain the observed fractional amplitude. We then study hierarchical triple models yielding the required quasi-periodic eccentricity oscillations through the Kozai process. We find the resulting theoretical light curves to match well the observed ones. We constrain the ratio of the semimajor axes of the outer and inner systems, the component masses and the inclination angle between the inner and outer orbits. Last but not least, we discover a remarkable and puzzling synchronization between the observed period of the superorbital variability (equal to the period of the eccentricity oscillations in our model) and the period of the general-relativistic periastron precession of the binary.
The Effects of News Bias-Induced Anger, Anxiety, and Issue Novelty on Subsequent News Preferences

Research has established that political partisans’ emotional responses to identity-threatening information can affect their subsequent information preferences. Based on the hostile media effect and the cognitive motivational-relational theory of emotion, we examined the influence of emotions stimulated by perceptions of news bias on information seeking preferences, as well as the role of issue novelty. An experiment with a 2 (Novel vs. Familiar issues) × 2 (Threatening news stories vs. Non-threatening/control news story) design explored mediating effects of anger and anxiety on subsequent information preferences (identi-ty-bolstering information and identity-threatening information), as well as moderating effects of issue novelty. Bias-induced anger, but not anxiety, motivated participants to want to read additional identity-threatening information. Perceived issue novelty elicited greater anger and enhanced bias-induced anger’s effects on identity-threatening information preferences. The findings have implications for the relationship between exposure to identity-threatening news and selective exposure in a democratic society.
GAMMA-RAYS FROM THE QUASAR PKS 1441+25: STORY OF AN ESCAPE

Outbursts from gamma-ray quasars provide insights on the relativistic jets of active galactic nuclei and constraints on the diffuse radiation fields that fill the universe. The detection of significant emission above 100 GeV from a distant quasar would show that some of the radiated gamma-rays escape pair-production interactions with low-energy photons, be it the extragalactic background light (EBL), or the radiation near the supermassive black hole lying at the jet’s base. VERITAS detected gamma-ray emission up to ∼200 GeV from PKS 1441+25 (z = 0.939) during 2015 April, a period of high activity across all wavelengths. This observation of PKS 1441+25 suggests that the emission region is located thousands of Schwarzschild radii away from the black hole. The gamma-ray detection also sets a stringent upper limit on the near-ultraviolet to near-infrared EBL intensity, suggesting that galaxy surveys have resolved most, if not all, of the sources of the EBL at these wavelengths.
Calculation of SCARA manipulator optimal path subject to constraints

The proposed general the problem of optimization for motion planning of articulated SCARA robotic structures, whose trajectories are subject to constraints, the stated objective is to obtain a sequence of collision-free positions that connect an initial configuration with end using search strategies based on heuristics working space, for which we use the space of the configurations. In order to evaluate the performance of this algorithm, we generated, simulated different work environments and the subsequent display of the planned collision-free paths, applied to articulated SCARA robot. To corroborate this work later this algorithm is implemented on an FPGA allowing varying some basic features of the robot.
Smart card distribution for E-government digital identity promotion: problems and solutions

The introduction of e-government services and applications leads to significant changes in the structure and organization of public administrations. In this paper we analyze a new solution ideated by Regione Marche to access electronic services that is the national services card, called Raffaello. Furthermore we explain the difference between a digital identity and a digital citizenship in order to introduce a new framework for e-government authentication: the "e-government identity management framework" composed by shared and standardized services that support specific mechanisms of authentication. We explain the use of the presented framework together with smart cards technologies for the digital citizenship
Thinking out of the box - user experience as viewed from an egocentric interaction perspective

This position paper focuses on our emerging conceptual framework for modelling and designing everyday activity support systems: egocentric interaction. Although we depart from a classical instrumental HCI design perspective, we identify various common interests with the emerging research field of User Experience. In particular we attempt to contribute to the workshop by providing a user-body centered model that bridges the gap between the physical and the virtual world, and by suggesting a personal computing platform inspired by wearable and ubiquitous computing research, which we expect to emerge within the coming 5-10 years. The paper is concluded with two example projects where the proposed egocentric interaction framework is applied in practice.
Implications of a possible 23 day periodicity for binary black hole models in Mkn~501

We investigate the implications of a massive binary system in the centre of the gamma-ray blazar Mkn~501 and show that the periodical behaviour recently observed in the TeV and X-ray lightcurves may possibly be related to the orbital motion of the relativistic jet emerging from the less massive black hole. For the special relativistic jet properties inferred from emission models, we derive an intrinsic orbital period of $(6-14)$ yrs and a centre-of-mass distance of $(2.0-3.5) \times 10^{16}$ cm. If the binary is very close with a separation of the order of that for which gravitational radiation becomes dominant, we find a maximum primary mass of $\sim 10^8 M_{\sun}$ and a corresponding secondary mass in the range of $\sim (4-42)\times 10^6 M_{\sun}$ depending on the intrinsic jet properties. Such values are in line with the black hole masses expected from merger scenarios.
UWB tracking of mobile robots

A local positioning system (LPS) for tracking mobile robots using a newly developed ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging radio technology is presented in this paper. However, measured ranges from these radios often have uncertain biases and large sporadic errors due to multipath and attenuation effect. A fuzzy neighborhood tracking filtering technique was developed to deal with the range outlier problems. A progressive update trilateration filter technique is introduced. The paper then describes a UWB LPS based on triangulation or trilateration of the ranges, which is fused with other vehicle kinematics/dynamics sensors including a compass, rate gyros and wheel speed sensors. The UWB LPS was applied to navigation and guidance of an experimental autonomous mobile robot. Simulation theoretical and real-time experimental results were validated against the true results of the experiment recorded by video.
Who Is the Sufferer and What Is Being Suffered? Subjectivity in Times of Social Malaise

This paper encourages clinicians to consider how patients’ conflicts and symptoms reveal not only familial etiology but the internalization of hegemonic structures and ideology. It explores how the subject evolves within the cultural matrix of neoliberalism, the contemporary hegemonic system that shapes unconscious fantasy, conflicts and defenses. Several clinical case vignettes illustrate the benefits to both analyst and patient of exploring within the transference and countertransference how neoliberal hierarchical arrangements of class, race and gender affect subjective and intersubjective experience.
Giant abdominal osteosarcoma causing intestinal obstruction treated with resection and adjuvant chemotherapy

Extraskeletal osteosarcoma (ESOS) is an uncommon tumor that accounts for 1% of all soft tissue sarcomas and 4% of all osteosarcomas. Its presentation may be atypical, while pain has been described as the most common symptom. Radiological findings include a large mass in the soft-tissues with massive calcifications, but no attachment to the adjacent bone or periosteum. We present the case of a 73-year-old gentle man who presented with a palpable, tender abdominal mass and symptoms of bowel obstruction. Computer tomography images revealed a large space-occupying heterogeneous, hyper dense soft tissue mass involving the small intestine. Explorative laparotomy revealed a large mass in the upper mesenteric root of the small intestine, measuring 22 cm × 12 cm × 10 cm in close proximity with the cecum, which was the cause of the bowel obstruction. Pathology confirmed the diagnosis of an ESOS. ESOS is an uncommon malignant soft tissue tumor with poor prognosis and a 5-year survival rate of less than 37%. Regional recurrence and distant metastasis to lungs, regional lymph nodes and liver can occur within the first three years of diagnosis in a high rate (45% and 65% respectively). Wide surgical resection of the mass followed by adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy has been the treatment of choice.
Use of Local Intelligence to Reduce Energy Consumption of Wireless Sensor Nodes in Elderly Health Monitoring Systems

The percentage of elderly people in European countries is increasing. Such conjuncture affects socio-economic structures and creates demands for resourceful solutions, such as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), which is a possible methodology to foster health care for elderly people. In this context, sensor-based devices play a leading role in surveying, e.g., health conditions of elderly people, to alert care personnel in case of an incident. However, the adoption of such devices strongly depends on the comfort of wearing the devices. In most cases, the bottleneck is the battery lifetime, which impacts the effectiveness of the system. In this paper we propose an approach to reduce the energy consumption of sensors' by use of local sensors' intelligence. By increasing the intelligence of the sensor node, a substantial decrease in the necessary communication payload can be achieved. The results show a significant potential to preserve energy and decrease the actual size of the sensor device units.
On Making Behavioral Genetics Truly Developmental

What will it take to make behavioral genetics truly developmental? In my opinion, the purely statistical population view will have to be abandoned in favor of the study of individuals: An analysis of the bi-directional relations from gene action to the external environment over the life course, including the prenatal period. I critically examine the somewhat vexed concept of ‘gene-environment interaction’, a crucial first step in correctly understanding the relational view of causality at the organism-environment level of analysis. I conclude by presenting a highly detailed psychobiological model for analyzing behavioral development, with special attention to the genetic level of analysis.
Performance improvement of machine learning via automatic discovery of facilitating functions as applied to a problem of symbolic system identification

The recently developed genetic programming paradigm provides a way to genetically breed a population of computer programs to solve problems. The technique of automatic function definition enables genetic programming to define potentially useful functions dynamically during a run, much as a human programmer writing a computer program creates subroutines to perform certain groups of steps which must be performed in more than one place in the main program. An approximation is found to the impulse response function, in symbolic form, for a linear time-invariant system. The value of automatic function definition in enabling genetic programming to accelerate the solution to this illustrative problem is demonstrated. <<ETX>>
Adolescents' Sexual Health in Uganda: Abstinence-Only and Perceived Autonomy

Abstinence-only programmes are said to be endangering adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights in Uganda. The Ugandan government has been implementing an ABC strategy, i.e. Abstinence, Be faithful, use Condoms, which has been assigned to a successful drop in HIV prevalence since 1992. However, for unmarried adolescents, the government narrowed down this successful strategy to the criticised Abstinence-only strategy. Nowadays, HIV prevention programmes in schools contain mainly abstinence-until-marriage messages and the promotion of condoms is prohibited in secondary schools. Based on in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions with 15-to-19-year-old adolescents at a mixed secondary school in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, this paper explores adolescents’ perceptions on abstaining from sexual intercourse. Using the Reasoned Action Approach (Fishbein and Ajzen 2010), the paper concludes that abound messages of abstinence, from teachers among others, may lead to a feeling of perceived low autonomy of “bodily urges” to abstain from sexual intercourse.
The Anatomy of Web Censorship in Pakistan

Over the years, the Internet has democratized the flow of information. Unfortunately, in parallel, authoritarian regimes and other entities (such as ISPs) for their vested interests have curtailed this flow by partially or fully censoring the web. The policy, mechanism, and extent of this censorship varies from country to country. We present the first study of the cause, effect, and mechanism of web censorship in Pakistan. Specifically, we use a publicly available list of blocked websites and check their accessibility from multiple networks within the country. Our results indicate that the censorship mechanism varies across websites: some are blocked at the DNS level while others at the HTTP level. Interestingly, the government shifted to a centralized, Internet exchange level censorship system during the course of our study, enabling our findings to compare two generations of blocking systems. Furthermore, we report the outcome of a controlled survey to ascertain the mechanisms that are being actively employed by people to circumvent censorship. Finally, we discuss some simple but surprisingly unexplored methods of bypassing restrictions.
SearchPanel: framing complex search needs

People often use more than one query when searching for information. They revisit search results to re-find information and build an understanding of their search need through iterative explorations of query formulation. These tasks are not well-supported by search interfaces and web browsers. We designed and built SearchPanel, a Chrome browser extension that supports people in their ongoing information seeking. This extension combines document and process metadata into an interactive representation of the retrieved documents that can be used for sense-making, navigation, and re-finding documents. In a real-world deployment spanning over two months, results show that SearchPanel appears to have been primarily used for complex information needs, in search sessions with long durations and high numbers of queries. When process metadata was present in the UI, searchers in explorative search sessions submitted more and longer queries and interacted more with the SERP. These results indicate that the process metadata features in SearchPanel seem to be of particular importance for exploratory search.
Influences of ISMIR and MIREX Research on Technology Patents

Much of the current Music Information Retrieval (MIR) research aims to contribute to the field by creating practical music applications or algorithms that can be used as part of such applications. Understanding how academic research results influence and translate to commercial products can be useful for MIR researchers, especially when we try to measure the impact of our research. This study aims to improve our understanding of the commercial influence of academic MIR research by analyzing the patents citing publications from ISMIR (International Society for Music Information Retrieval) Conference proceedings and its associated MIREX (Music Information Retrieval Evaluation eXchange) MIR algorithm trials. In this paper, we provide our preliminary analyses of the relevant patents as well as the ISMIR publications that are referenced in those patents.
Comparative Study of the Impact of Class Repetition and Mass Promotion on Students’ Academic Achievement in Anambra State

This study investigated the impact of the practice of class repetition and mass promotion of failed JSS1 students on their academic achievement in Anambra State. The causal comparative or ex-post-facto type of the survey research design was adopted with four research questions and four hypotheses guiding the study. The population of the study consisted of all failed Junior Secondary School (JSS1) students in Anambra State secondary schools in the base year (2004/2005), from which a sample of 636 was drawn. A researcher designed form was used to collect the students’ results. The statistical analysis of frequencies, range of scores, percentages and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. Findings of the study, among other things, show that the repeated students made a significant positive change in their repeated JSS1 and that the repeated students’ results were significantly better than those of the mass promoted group JSS2 results. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that educational policy makers adopt an eclectic promotion policy that will enable the school managers repeat students in cases where it is felt that class repetition will enhance students’ learning and academic achievement.
Irrelevant Sound Disrupts Order Information in Free Recall as in Serial Recall

The claim that the sensitivity of free recall to disruption by irrelevant sound is a function of the extent to which rote rehearsal is employed as a mnemonic strategy was investigated in two experiments. The degree of disruption by irrelevant sound in terms of both item and order information was contrasted under serial and free recall instructions. Irrelevant sound was found to disrupt order and item information equally in serial and free recall tasks (Experiment 1). Contrary to previous reports, an effect of irrelevant sound was also demonstrated on free recall of particularly long lists, and the interaction between list length and retention interval in the irrelevant sound effect was examined (Experiment 2). Generally, the results support the view that irrelevant sound disrupts the use of order cues.
Neural Dynamics and Cognitive Synthesis

Nervous systems facing complex environments have to balance two seemingly opposing requirements. First, there is a need quickly and reliably to extract important features from sensory inputs. This is accomplished by functionally segregated (specialized) sets of neurons, e.g. those found in different cortical areas. Second, there is a need to generate coherent perceptual and cognitive states allowing an organism to respond to objects and events, representing conjunctions of numerous individual features. This is accomplished by functional integration of the activity of specialized neurons through their dynamic interactions. These interactions produce patterns of temporal correlations or functional connectivity involving distributed neuronal populations, both within and across cortical areas. Empirical and computational studies suggesting that changes in functional connectivity may underlie specific perceptual and cognitive states involving the integration of information across specialized areas of the brain offer new insights into the linkage between neural dynamics and cognitive synthesis. results were compared to those obtained from an analysis of real cortical connection matrices, describing the interconnectivity of the macaque visual cortex or the cat cortex It was found that real cortical connection matrices share most structural features of graphs selected for high complexity. In fact, when implemented as dynamical systems, the resulting pattern of functional connectivity was found to be highly complex. These structural and functional analyses indicated that the actual organization of cortico-cortical connection pathways is highly conducive to a near-optimal balance between functional segregation and functional integration.
On the k-switching reachability sets of single-input positive switched systems

In the paper, the k-switching reachability set R<inf>k</inf> of a single-input positive switched system is introduced, and conditions for the chain of this sets {R<inf>k</inf>; k ∈ ℕ}, to stop increasing after some finite index k are given. For the special class of positive switched systems, which commute among n single-input n-dimensional systems, sufficient conditions that ensure that the n-switching reachability set coincides with the positive orthant ℝ<inf>+</inf><sup>n</sup> are given. In particular, it is proved that when the system is reachable and n = 2; 3, this is always true, namely R<inf>n</inf> = ℝ<inf>+</inf><sup>n</sup>.
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Daytime and Nighttime Sleep Duration in Early Childhood

OBJECTIVES: To determine the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors on daytime and nighttime continuous sleep duration at 6, 18, 30, and 48 months of age, and to identify different subgroups of children who followed different daytime and nighttime sleep duration trajectories and to investigate their etiology. METHODS: The current study included 995 twins (405 monozygotic and 586 dizygotic) of the Quebec Newborn Twin Study recruited from the birth records of the Quebec Statistics Institute. Daytime and nighttime sleep was assessed through maternal reports at 6, 18, 30, and 48 months of age. A semiparametric modeling strategy was used to estimate daytime and nighttime sleep duration trajectories. Quantitative genetic models were used to examine to what extent genetic and environmental factors influenced daytime and nighttime continuous sleep duration. RESULTS: Genetic modeling analyses revealed environmental influences for all daytime sleep duration trajectories. In contrast, strong genetic influences were found for consolidated nighttime sleep duration (except at 18 months and for the short-increasing sleep duration trajectory). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first indication that early childhood daytime sleep duration may be driven by environmental settings, whereas the variance in consolidated nighttime sleep duration is largely influenced by genetic factors with a critical environmental time-window influence at ∼18 months.
The Sonoristic Triangle, Or, What Claude Lévi-Strauss Would Have Said About Sound Culture If He Had Not Talked About Cooking Instea

The aim of this article is cultural analysis of modern and postmodern sound culture, based on a structuralist description of the differences between acoustic (traditional), electroacoustic (modern) and electronic (postmodern) sound. The analytical model applied in this study is the so-called “culinary triangle” proposed by Claude Lévi-Strauss and modified here to a “sonoristic triangle” which describes the transition of culture from modernity to postmodernity.