Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Evaluation of the Fidelity of the Integrate-and-Fire Model for Neural Data

Finding a simple, one-dimensional neural model that can replicate the input/output behaviour of a complex, conductance based model is a key goal in current neuroscience research. In this work, we aim to match the spike train produced by a Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model in response to a white noise stimulus using a variant of the integrate-andfire model, the Spike Response Model (SRM). The parameters of the SRM are fitted to membrane potential data produced by the HH model by finding the optimal linear filter of the stimulus, given the subthreshold potential. We evaluate two different forms of the SRM, where the filter is either independent or dependent on previous spike times. We find both versions of the SRM reproduce the HH data well when fitted using this method, with up to 71% of the spikes produced by the HH model being predicted to within 2ms by the SRM. The spike-time dependent filter is found to perform better, but there are circumstances in which the spike-time independent filter would be a better choice, in particular if data is limited.
Metamaterial-Inspired Efficient Electrically Small Antennas

Planar two-dimensional (2D) and volumetric three-dimensional (3D) metamaterial-inspired efficient electrically-small antennas that are easy to design; are easy and inexpensive to build; and are easy to test; are reported, i.e., the EZ antenna systems. The proposed 2D and 3D electrical- and magnetic-based EZ antennas are shown to be naturally matched to a 50 source, i.e., without the introduction of a matching network. It is demonstrated numerically that these EZ antennas have high radiation efficiencies with very good impedance matching between the source and the antenna and, hence, that they have high overall efficiencies. The reported 2D and 3D EZ antenna designs are linearly scalable to a wide range of frequencies and yet maintain their easy-to-build characteristics. Several versions of the 2D EZ antennas were fabricated and tested. The measurement results confirm the performance predictions. The EZ antennas systems may provide attractive alternatives to existing electrically-small antennas.
Automating Crowd-supervised Learning for Spoken Language Systems

Spoken language systems often rely on static speech recognizers. When the underlying models are improved on-the-fly, training is usually performed using unsupervised methods. In this work, we explore an alternative approach that uses human computation to provide crowd-supervised training of a deployed system. Although the framework we describe is applicable to any stochastic model for which the training data can be generated by non-experts, we demonstrate its utility on the lexicon and language model of a speech recognizer in a cinema voicesearch domain. We show how an initially shaky system can achieve over a 10% absolute improvement in word error rate (WER) – entirely without expert intervention. We then analyze how these gains were made.
Mediating Influences of Ethical Leadership on Employee Creativity

Since the global financial crisis in the first decade of the 21st century, ethical leadership has emerged as a form of organizational management that promotes employee well-being, positive citizenship behaviors, and innovation. In this study, we examined the relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity in Chinese businesses. We hypothesized the mediating roles of psychological empowerment and willingness to take risks in the relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity. Survey data were collected from 380 employee–supervisor pairs working in 8 businesses across 5 sectors of the economy. The results indicated that, as hypothesized, a positive relationship exists between ethical leadership and employee creative behaviors. Psychological empowerment and willingness to take risks were found to partially mediate this relationship. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Crosstalk-Insensitive Method for Testing of Delay Faults in Interconnects Between Cores in SoCs

A method for reliable measurement of interconnect delays is presented in the paper. The mode of test vectors generation never induces crosstalks. That is why the delay measurement is reliable. Also, minimization of ground bounce noises and reduction of power consumption during the test is an additional advantage. The presented method allows also localizing and identifying static faults of both stuck-at (SaX) and short types. The paper deals with the hardware that is necessary for implementing the method. The techniques for test data compression, that allow substantial reduction of data volume transferred between SoC and ATE, are also proposed.
Those who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching

I don't know in what fit of pique George Bernard Shaw wrote that infamous aphorism, words that have plagued members of the teaching profession for nearly a century. They are found in "Maxims for Revolutionists," an appendix to his play Man and Superman. "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches" is a calamitous insult to our profession, yet one readily repeated even by teachers. More worrisome, its philosophy often appears to underlie the policies concerning the occupation and activities of teaching. Where did such a demeaning image of the teacher's capacities originate? How long have we been burdened by assumptions of ignorance and ineptitude within the teaching corps? Is Shaw to be treated as the last word on what teachers know and don't know, or do and can't do?
Mass Selection and the Evolution of the Morphology-Density Relation from z = 0.8 to 0

We examined the morphology-density relations for galaxy samples selected by luminosity and by mass in each of five massive X-ray clusters from z = 0.023 to 0.83 for 674 spectroscopically confirmed members. Rest-frame optical colors and visual morphologies were obtained primarily from Hubble Space Telescope images. The visual morphologies ensure consistency with the extensive published results on galaxy evolution in dense environments. Morphology-density relations (MDRs) are derived in each cluster from a complete, luminosity-selected sample of 452 galaxies with a magnitude limit MV < M + 1. The change in the early-type fraction with redshift matches previous work for massive clusters of galaxies. We performed a similar analysis, deriving MDRs for complete, mass-selected samples of 441 galaxies with a mass limit of 1010.6 M☉. Our mass limit includes faint objects, the equivalent of ≃1 mag below L⋆ for the red cluster galaxies, and encompasses ≃70% of the stellar mass in cluster galaxies. The MDRs in the mass-selected sample at densities of Σ > 50 galaxies Mpc-2 are similar to those in the luminosity-selected sample but show larger early-type fractions, with a weak indication of a shallower slope. However, the trend with redshift in the fraction of elliptical and S0 galaxies with masses >1010.6 M☉ differs significantly between the mass- and luminosity-selected samples. The clear trend seen in the early-type fraction from z = 0 to ≃0.8 is not found in mass-selected samples. The early-type galaxy fraction changes much less and is consistent with being constant at 92% ± 4% at Σ > 500 galaxies Mpc-2 and 83% ± 3% at 50 galaxies Mpc-2 < Σ < 500 galaxies Mpc-2. Given the mass limit in our sample, this suggests that galaxies of mass lower than >1010.6 M☉ play a significant role in the evolution of the early-type fraction in luminosity-selected samples; i.e., they are larger contributors to the luminosity-selected samples at higher redshifts than at low redshifts.
Is the Drift of the Interest Rate Process Linear ? A New Approach and Evidence

Continuous-time models are important for investigating interest rate term structure and pricing fixed income derivatives. Economic theory often provides little guidance on the choice of the form of continuous-time models, and existing one-factor and multi-factor continuous-time interest rate models often assume a linear drift, among other things. Some studies, based smoothed nonparametric kernel estimation, suggest that the drift of the interest rate process is nonlinear, particularly at high interest rate levels. However, this has been doubted as an artifact of smoothed nonparametric estimation in comparison with highly persistent interest rate data. Whether the drift of the interest rate process is linear or nonlinear remains an unsolved issue in the literature. In this paper, we take a new approach to re-address this important issue by first considering a general continuous-time regression for the interest rate process and then testing it via a generalized spectral derivative approach of Hong and Lee (2005) which is tailored to the continuous-time setting. Our method avoids the undesirable features of smoothed nonparametric estimation for highly persistent financial time series data. Unlike the existing approaches to testing linearity in drift, we allow for stochastic volatility and jumps, which have been well documented for the interest rate process in the literature. An empirically realistic simulation study shows that the generalized spectral derivative provides reliable inference in finite samples for continuous-time models. Based on the widely used 7-day Eurodollar rates, we document strong evidence that the interest rate process has a nonlinear drift and such evidence is robust to the presence of level effect, stochastic volatility, jumps, and different methods of drift parameter estimation. We further document that such popular nonlinear drift models as Aït-Sahalia’s (1996a) nonlinear drift model and Ahn and Gao’s (1991) Inverse-Feller drift model can capture some nonlinear drift dynamics of the short rate, and Aït-Sahalia’s nonlinear model outperforms Ahn and Gao’s nonlinear drift model due to its flexibility to capture asymmetric mean-reverting feature. However, they are still firmly rejected, indicating room for further improving the modelling of the drift function of the interest rate.
Allocating dynamic time-spectrum blocks in cognitive radio networks

A number of studies have shown the abundance of unused spectrum in the TV bands. This is in stark contrast to the overcrowding of wireless devices in the ISM bands. A recent trend to alleviate this disparity is the design of Cognitive Radios, which constantly sense the spectrum and opportunistically utilize unused frequencies in the TV bands. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a time-spectrum block to model spectrum reservation, and use it to present a theoretical formalization of the spectrum allocation problem in cognitive radio networks. We present a centralized and a distributed protocol for spectrum allocation and show that these protocols are close to optimal in most scenarios. We have implemented the distributed protocol in QualNet and show that our analysis closely matches the simulation results.
The pleasures of sad music: a systematic review

Sadness is generally seen as a negative emotion, a response to distressing and adverse situations. In an aesthetic context, however, sadness is often associated with some degree of pleasure, as suggested by the ubiquity and popularity, throughout history, of music, plays, films and paintings with a sad content. Here, we focus on the fact that music regarded as sad is often experienced as pleasurable. Compared to other art forms, music has an exceptional ability to evoke a wide-range of feelings and is especially beguiling when it deals with grief and sorrow. Why is it, then, that while human survival depends on preventing painful experiences, mental pain often turns out to be explicitly sought through music? In this article we consider why and how sad music can become pleasurable. We offer a framework to account for how listening to sad music can lead to positive feelings, contending that this effect hinges on correcting an ongoing homeostatic imbalance. Sadness evoked by music is found pleasurable: (1) when it is perceived as non-threatening; (2) when it is aesthetically pleasing; and (3) when it produces psychological benefits such as mood regulation, and empathic feelings, caused, for example, by recollection of and reflection on past events. We also review neuroimaging studies related to music and emotion and focus on those that deal with sadness. Further exploration of the neural mechanisms through which stimuli that usually produce sadness can induce a positive affective state could help the development of effective therapies for disorders such as depression, in which the ability to experience pleasure is attenuated.
Fusion Mappings for Multimodal Affect Recognition

Affect recognition is an inherently multi-modal task that makes it appealing to investigate classifier combination approaches in real world scenarios. Thus a variety of different independent classifiers can be constructed from basically independent features without having to rely on artificial feature views. In this paper we study a large variety of fusion approaches based on a multitude of features that were extracted from audio, video and physiological signals. For this purpose the RECOLA data collection is used and we show how an ensemble of classifiers can outperform the best individual classifier.
Effect of noisy fitness in RTS Player Behaviour Optimisation Using Evolutionary Algorithms

This paper investigates the performance and the results of an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) specifically designed for evolving the decision engine of a program (which, in this context, is called bot) that plays Planet Wars. This game, which was chosen for the Google Artificial Intelligence Challenge in 2010, requires the bot to deal with multiple target planets, while achieving a certain degree of adaptability in order to defeat different opponents in different scenarios. The decision engine of the bot is initially based on a set of rules that have been defined after an empirical study, and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used for tuning the set of constants, weights and probabilities that those rules include, and therefore, the general behaviour of the bot. Then, the bot is supplied with the evolved decision engine and the results obtained when competing with other bots (a bot offered by Google as a sparring partner, and a scripted bot with a pre-established behaviour) are thoroughly analysed. The evaluation of the candidate solutions is based on the result of non-deterministic battles (and environmental interactions) against other bots, whose outcome depends on random draws as well as on the opponents’ actions. Therefore, the proposed This work has been supported in part by the projects P08-TIC-03903 (Junta de Andalućıa), TIN2011-28627C04-02 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) and FCT (ISR/IST plurianual funding) through the PIDDAC Program funds. C. Fernandes wishes to thank FCT, Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia, his Research Fellowship SFRH/BPD/66876/2009. This paper extends two articles previously published by the authors, [1, 2], having some text parts in common. 2 J. Comput. Sci. & Technol. , August. 2012, , GA is dealing with a noisy fitness function. After analysing the effects of the noisy fitness, we conclude that tackling randomness via repeated combats and reevaluations reduces this effect and makes the GA a highly valuable approach for solving this problem.
Quantitative Genetics of the Aging of Reproductive Traits in the Houbara Bustard

Do all traits within an organism age for the same reason? Evolutionary theories of aging share a common assumption: the strength of natural selection declines with age. A corollary is that additive genetic variance should increase with age. However, not all senescent traits display such increases suggesting that other mechanisms may be at play. Using longitudinal data collected from more than 5400 houbara bustards (Chlamydotis undulata) with an exhaustive recorded pedigree, we investigated the genetics of aging in one female reproductive trait (egg production) and three male reproductive traits (courtship display rate, ejaculate size and sperm viability), that display senescence at the phenotypic level. Animal models revealed an increase in additive genetic variance with age for courtship display rate and egg production but an unexpected absence of increased additive genetic variance for ejaculate size and no additive genetic variance for sperm viability. Our results suggest that the mechanisms behind the senescence of some traits are linked with a change in genetic expression, whereas for some other traits, aging may result from the constraints associated with physiological wear and tear on the organism throughout the life of the individual.
Combinatorial aspects of elliptic curves

Given an elliptic curve C, we study here Nk = #C(Fqk), the number of points of C over the finite field Fqk. This sequence of numbers, as k runs over positive integers, has numerous remarkable properties of a combinatorial flavor in addition to the usual number theoretical interpretations. In particular, we prove that Nk = W k(q, N1), whereWk(q,t) is a (q,t)-analogue of the number of spanning trees of the wheel graph. Additionally we develop a determinantal formula for Nk, where the eigenvalues can be explicitly written in terms of q, N1, and roots of unity. We also discuss here a new sequence of bivariate polynomials related to the factorization of Nk, which we refer to as elliptic cyclotomic polynomials because of their various properties.
From educational usability to context-specific teachability: development and use of the network-based teaching material contents in higher engineering education

The purpose of this article is to introduce the thematics of my doctoral dissertation research. The study is a part of national KASVA -graduate school (2003-2006) which is funded by Finnish Academy. The aim of the research is to study teachability of the teaching material contents in higher engineering network-based mobile education (NBME). Teachability will be studied in authentic educational settings at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). The strategic and methodological approach is phenomenographic including mixed methdods with qualitative and quantitative sources. Teachers will be interviewed with semi-structured thematic interview (N=20).
6.0 Discussion and Alternative Potential Functions

dominant pole no longer is changing as we add more mutuals) at r 0 =4mm, we have a matrix sparsity of 95.02%. Because of the large size of the full dense partial inductance matrix, we are unable to compare the approximation result with the exact solution. However, we will assert correctness of our result in terms of eigen-value pattern of the partial inductance matrix in Fig.6. Fig.6 gives the eigenvalue distributions for the full matrix and the sparsified matrix. One interesting observation is that the eigenvalues of the sparsified matrix agree very well with those of the full matrix for all but the few largest eigenvalues. Noting that these large eigen-values of L correspond to the low frequency current assemblies, and since we are accurately approximating the dominant pole, we can assume that these eigenvalues correspond to impossible or negligible current assemblies given the connectivity of this circuit. We would further postulate that by matching the eigenvalues corresponding to the high frequency energies, we are providing an accurate approximation over all frequencies of interest. Next, we consider two 30-conductor packaging examples in Fig.7. The length of the lines is 0.5cm and the spacing between the lines is 0.2cm. Both circuits have the same horizontal topology but different connectivity. In order to consider the edge effect, we also model the vertical inductance effect in our extracted circuits. Referring to circuit Fig.7 (a), each signal line has its return path nearby. The r 0 for this circuit when moment ratio reaches convergence is 0.6cm, which translates to 84% sparsity for horizontal partial inductance matrix, and 90% sparsity for vertical partial inductance matrix. However, in circuit Fig.7 (b), all of the signal lines share one return path and the r 0 at moment ratio convergence is 1.2cm. The sparsity for horizontal partial inductance matrix and vertical partial inductance matrix are 50% and 65% respectively. Our methodology agrees with our understanding of good packaging design practice, namely, the circuit in Fig.7 (a) is a superior design. For the original partial inductance concept, the return current is assumed at infinity. However, this introduces a full matrix, which is a formidable task for simulation. A simple solution is to truncate the smallest terms in the partial inductance matrix to achieve sparsity, but this can cause an unstable circuit model, as shown in Section 3.0. Fig. 7: Two circuits with identical partial inductance matrices (in the horizontal …
Statistical Properties of Circumnuclear H II Regions in Nearby Galaxies

We analyze the statistical properties of the circumnuclear H II regions of a sample of 52 nearby galaxies (v < 1000 km s-1) from archival HST/NICMOS H-band and Paα (1.87 μm) observations at unprecedented spatial resolutions of between 1 and 30 pc. We catalog H II regions from the continuum-subtracted Paα images and find H II regions in the central regions of most galaxies, and more than a hundred in each of eight galaxies. In contrast to disk H II regions, the physical properties (luminosity and size) of individual circumnuclear H II regions do not vary strongly with the morphological type of the host galaxy, nor does the number of circumnuclear H II regions per unit area. The Hα luminosity within the central kiloparsec, as derived from H II region emission, is significantly enhanced in early-type (S0/a–Sb) galaxies. We find evidence that bars increase the circumnuclear star formation, presumably by funneling gas from the disk toward the nucleus. Barred galaxies exhibit enhanced luminosities of the brightest H II region, the central kiloparsec Hα luminosities (an effect mostly due to the early-type galaxies in our sample), and the star formation rates per unit stellar mass (which could also be understood as the integral equivalent widths of Paα) over the central kiloparsec with respect to nonbarred galaxies. We fit the luminosity functions (LFs) and diameter distributions of the circumnuclear H II regions in eight galaxies where we can catalog enough H II regions to do so in a meaningful way. We use power laws and find that the fitted slopes of the H II region LF are exactly in the previously found ranges and even confirm a trend with steeper slopes in galaxies of earlier morphological type. This implies that the physical processes giving rise to enhanced star formation in the circumnuclear regions of galaxies must be similar to those in disks.
Death receptors as targets in cancer

Anti‐tumour therapies based on the use pro‐apoptotic receptor agonists, including TNF‐related apoptosis‐inducing ligand (TRAIL) or monoclonal antibodies targeting TRAIL‐R1 or TRAIL‐R2, have been disappointing so far, despite clear evidence of clinical activity and lack of adverse events for the vast majority of these compounds, whether combined or not with conventional or targeted anti‐cancer therapies. This brief review aims at discussing the possible reasons for the lack of apparent success of these therapeutic approaches and at providing hints in order to rationally design optimal protocols based on our current understanding of TRAIL signalling regulation or resistance for future clinical trials.
Enhanced phase tracking for unique word based SC-FDE on frequency selective channels

This paper proposes a new residual carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation technique for the unique word (UW) based single-carrier transmission with frequency domain equalizer (SC-FDE) on frequency selective channels. In extremely frequency selective channels, UW symbols for CFO estimation can also be corrupted by the inter-symbol interference (ISI). Since the UW can be included in the equalizer, we employ the FDE before the CFO estimation. Moreover, we utilize the repeated pattern of UW symbols to improve the estimation accuracy.