Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AUDITORY EVOKED POTENTIALS IN CHILDREN WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

This is a preliminary and exploratory study designed to investigate the use of electrophysiologic recordings of cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) as an objective test measure for patients who have a cochlear implant (CI), with a more specific goal of learning best practices for extracting the CI artifact from the collected data. The particular evoked potential of interest was the P1-N1-P2 complex. It was hypothesized that normal latencies and peak amplitudes of the late-evoked potential (P1-N1-P2) would reveal characteristics that may correlate with behavioral data to indicate the level of benefit with a cochlear implant. The study included three participants, each with one cochlear implant on the right side: two males, age 13, and one female, age 10. The study also evaluated electrophysiologic data from two normal-hearing volunteers, age 21. Data was collected via a 64-channel electrode cap with two reference electrodes placed on the mastoid and two additional upper and lower vertical eye channels. The stimulus was created using the guidelines by Dimitrijevic et al. (2008, 2011) and consisted of two test blocks of 250 Hz and 4000 Hz, respectively, with frequency modulations at 0% (no change), 2%, 4%, 10%, 25%, and 50% every 1.4s, lasting for approximately 100ms. Evoked potentials were recorded in response. The ongoing EEG was decimated and converted into MATLAB® format to run an independent component analysis (ICA) using the runica algorithm (Bell & Sejnowski, 1995). A method of waveform extraction was developed in MATLAB® and EEGLAB in order to evaluate the peak amplitudes and latencies. Following ICA, independent components presumably affected by the cochlear implant were identified and rejected according to methods adapted from Gilley et al. (2006). Data was highly variable across the small number of subjects, raising several questions about age at implantation, length of CI use, etiology of hearing loss and speech/language processing abilities in the pediatric user. From this study, it appears that the artifactual component from the implant can be removed from the electrophysiologic response so that CAEPs in children with CIs can be investigated across a larger number of individuals from this pediatric population.
An assessment of a metric space database index to support sequence homology

Hierarchical metric-space clustering methods have been commonly used to organize proteomes into taxonomies. Consequently, it is often anticipated that hierarchical clustering can be leveraged as a basis for scalable database index structures capable of managing the hyper-exponential growth of sequence data. M-tree is one such data structure specialized for the management of large data sets on disk. We explore the application of M-trees to the storage and retrieval of peptide sequence data. Exploiting a technique first suggested by Myers (1994), we organize the database as records of fixed length substrings. Empirical results are promising. However, metric-space indexes are subject to "the curse of dimensionality" and the ultimate performance of an index is sensitive to the quality of the initial construction of the index. We introduce new hierarchical bulk-load algorithm that alternates between top-down and bottom-up clustering to initialize the index. Using the Yeast Proteomes, the bi-directional bulk load produces a more effective index than the existing M-tree initialization algorithms.
A Compact low power SDR receiver with 0.5–20MHz baseband sampled filter

This paper presents a low-power flexible receiver chain in digital 90nm CMOS for multimode mobile communication. The receiver is based on a wideband front-end for a frequency range from 200MHz to 5.5GHz. A low-pass sampler with strong second order anti-alias protection based on triangular-wave integration sampling is employed in the baseband to provide a clock tunable flexible baseband bandwidth ranging from 500kHz to 20MHz. The cascaded receiver chain has between 5.5 to 6dB NF, −0.9dBm IIP3 and 20 to 65dB of gain. It draws 14.5mA from a 1.2V supply.
Limit Theorems in Hidden Markov Models

In this paper, under mild assumptions, we derive a law of large numbers, a central limit theorem with an error estimate, an almost sure invariance principle, and a variant of the Chernoff bound in finite-state hidden Markov models. These limit theorems are of interest in certain areas of information theory and statistics. Particularly, we apply the limit theorems to derive the rate of convergence of the maximum likelihood estimator in finite-state hidden Markov models.
AVAILABILITY OF JOB TRACKER MACHINE IN HADOOP /M AP REDUCE ZOOKEEPER COORDINATED CLUSTERS

It is difficult to use the traditional Message Passing Interface (MPI) approach to implement synchronization, coordination, and prevent deadlocks in distributed systems. This difficulty is lessened by the use of Apache's Hadoop/MapReduce and Zookeeper to provide Fault Tolerance in a Homogeneously Distributed Hardware/Software environment. A mathematical model for the availability of the JobTracker in Hadoop/MapReduce using Zookeeper's Leader Election Service is presented in this paper. Although the availability is less than what is expected in f+1 Fault Tolerance systems for crash failures, this approach makes coordination and synchronization easy, reduces the effect of Byzantine faults and provides Fault Tolerance for distributed systems. The results obtained show that the availability changes with change in the number of Zookeeper servers. This model can help determine how many servers are optimal for high availability, from which vendor they must be purchased, and when to use a Zookeeper coordinated Hadoop cluster to perform safety critical tasks.
Sentence based semantic similarity measure for blog-posts

Blogs-Online digital diary like application on web 2.0 has opened new and easy way to voice opinion, thoughts, and like-dislike of every Internet user to the World. Blogosphere has no doubt the largest user-generated content repository full of knowledge. The potential of this knowledge is still to be explored. Knowledge discovery from this new genre is quite difficult and challenging as it is totally different from other popular genre of web-applications like World Wide Web (WWW). Blog-posts unlike web documents are small in size, thus lack in context and contain relaxed grammatical structures. Hence, standard text similarity measure fails to provide good results. In this paper, specialized requirements for comparing a pair of blog-posts is thoroughly investigated. Based on this we proposed a novel algorithm for sentence oriented semantic similarity measure of a pair of blog-posts. We applied this algorithm on a subset of political blogosphere of Pakistan, to cluster the blogs on different issues of political realm and to identify the influential bloggers.
GeoSwarm: A multi-source download scheme for peer-to-peer location-based services

Existing peer-to-peer (p2p) overlays for location-based services suffer from two major drawbacks: (i) they do not store data persistently under peer churn and (ii) they do not allow for the fast retrieval of large files, especially under asymmetric link conditions. This tremendously limits the use of current and future p2p location-based services as users are not able to share larger files such as high resolution pictures or video snippets. To overcome these two problems, we present GeoSwarm: a reliable multi-source download scheme for p2p location-based services. GeoSwarm combines the strengths of a BitTorrent-like download scheme with the locality awareness of an overlay for location-based search and its built-in replication mechanism. Thereby, a robust and fast download as well as a reliable storage of location-related multimedia content is achieved. Through extensive evaluation, we show that 95% of all downloads in GeoSwarm are carried out successfully even under churn, while downloads benefit from a 100% increased throughput in comparison to traditional single-source downloads.
General framework for a portfolio theory with non-Gaussian risks and non-linear correlations

Using a family of modified Weibull distributions, encompassing both sub-exponentials and super-exponentials, to parameterize the marginal distributions of asset returns and their natural multivariate generalizations, we give exact formulas for the tails and for the moments and cumulants of the distribution of returns of a portfolio make of arbitrary compositions of these assets. Using combinatorial and hypergeometric functions, we are in particular able to extend previous results to the case where the exponents of the Weibull distributions are different from asset to asset and in the presence of dependence between assets. We treat in details the problem of risk minimization using two different measures of risks (cumulants and value-at-risk) for a portfolio made of two assets and compare the theoretical predictions with direct empirical data. While good agreement is found, the remaining discrepancy between theory and data stems from the deviations from the Weibull parameterization for small returns. Our extended formulas enable us to determine analytically the conditions under which it is possible to ``have your cake and eat it too'', i.e., to construct a portfolio with both larger return and smaller ``large risks''.
Mode Competition in Gas and Semiconductor Lasers

The output spectrum of both gas and semiconductor lasers usually contains more than one frequency. Multimode operation in gas versus semiconductor lasers arises from different physics. In gas lasers, slow equilibration of the electron populations at different energies makes each frequency an independent single-mode laser. The slow electron diffusion in semiconductor lasers, combined with the spatially varying optical intensity patterns of the modes, makes each region of space an independent single-mode laser. We develop a rate equation model for the photon number in each mode which captures all these effects. Plotting the photon number versus pumping rate for the competing modes, in both subthreshold and above threshold operation, illustrates the changes in the laser output spectrum due to either slow equilibration or slow diffusion of electrons.
Rift Valley fever virus (Bunyaviridae: Phlebovirus): an update on pathogenesis, molecular epidemiology, vectors, diagnostics and prevention

Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus is an arbovirus in the Bunyaviridae family that, from phylogenetic analysis, appears to have first emerged in the mid-19th century and was only identified at the begininning of the 1930s in the Rift Valley region of Kenya. Despite being an arbovirus with a relatively simple but temporally and geographically stable genome, this zoonotic virus has already demonstrated a real capacity for emerging in new territories, as exemplified by the outbreaks in Egypt (1977), Western Africa (1988) and the Arabian Peninsula (2000), or for re-emerging after long periods of silence as observed very recently in Kenya and South Africa. The presence of competent vectors in countries previously free of RVF, the high viral titres in viraemic animals and the global changes in climate, travel and trade all contribute to make this virus a threat that must not be neglected as the consequences of RVF are dramatic, both for human and animal health. In this review, we present the latest advances in RVF virus research. In spite of this renewed interest, aspects of the epidemiology of RVF virus are still not fully understood and safe, effective vaccines are still not freely available for protecting humans and livestock against the dramatic consequences of this virus.
BabelRef: Detection and renaming tool for cross-language program entities in dynamic web applications

In a dynamic web application, client-side code is often dynamically generated from server-side code. Client-side program entities such as HTML presentation elements and Javascript functions/variables are embedded within server-side string literals or variables' values. However, existing tools for code maintenance such as automatic renaming support only work for program entities in a single language on either the server side or the client side. In this paper, we introduce BabelRef, a novel tool that is able to automatically identify and rename client-side program entities and their references that are embedded within server-side code.
A Hybrid Combining Hard and Soft Robots

Abstract This article describes a hybrid robotic system combining hard and soft subsystems. This hybrid comprises a wheeled robot (an iRobot Create; hard) and a four-legged quadruped (soft). It is capable (using a simple, wireless control system) of rapid locomotion over flat terrain (using the wheeled hard robot) and of gripping and retrieving an object (using the independent locomotive capabilities of the soft robot). The utility of this system is demonstrated by performing a mission requiring the capabilities of both components: retrieving an object (iPod Nano) from the center of a room. This class of robot—hybrids comprising hard and soft systems functioning synergistically—is capable of performing tasks that neither can do alone. In contrast to specialized hard robotic arms with grippers (capable of performing some of the functions we describe here), which are complex, relatively expensive, and require sophisticated controls, this hybrid system is easy to construct, simple to control, and low in cost.
Pedagogical Uses of Thymio II: How Do Teachers Perceive Educational Robots in Formal Education?

Robots have generated interest for use in schools since Seymour Papert's work; however, when his Logo turtles were introduced in the 1980s, they proved to be unreliable, expensive, and limited [1]. Since then, we have seen various affordable, reliable, and polyvalent platforms such as LEGO Mindstorms [1] or the Bee-Bot [2]. Robotics has become more appealing, and it is an established fact that educational robots can improve children? s motivation [3], [4]. Robotics also embodies a wide range of disciplines that allow its use in a broad educational area and in interdisciplinary studies. Its use in compulsory schools can bring technology to a larger audience that includes both genders.
Elastase-like enzymes in human neutrophils localized by ultrastructural cytochemistry

The thiol ester N-t-Boc-L-alanine-p-nitrothiophenyl ester (Boc-Ala-SNp) was synthesized and applied as an ultrastructural cytochemical substrate for intracellular elastase-like enzymes. Mature human neutrophils incubated with Boc-Ala-SNp and gold ions generate an electron-dense reaction product, gold p-nitrothiophenolate, which is found in the nuclear membrane, Golgi complex, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and granules of these cells. Enzyme activity against Boc- Ala-SNp is also observed in developing monkey bone marrow neutrophils and in other blood cells. The intracellular neutrophil enzyme activity is elastase-like because it is characterized by a slightly alkaline pH optimum and is inactivated by exposure of the cells to general and specific active site inhibitors of neutrophil elastase. This substrate appears to have important potential for use in ultrastructural studies of intracellular elastase-like enzymes.
PaCCSS-IT: A Parallel Corpus of Complex-Simple Sentences for Automatic Text Simplification

In this paper we present PaCCSS–IT, a Parallel Corpus of Complex–Simple Sentences for ITalian. To build the resource we develop a new method for automatically acquiring a corpus of complex–simple paired sentences able to intercept structural transformations and particularly suitable for text simpliﬁcation. The method requires a wide amount of texts that can be easily extracted from the web making it suitable also for less–resourced languages. We test it on the Italian language making available the biggest Italian corpus for automatic text simpliﬁcation.
Applied ethology: the basis for improved animal welfare in organic farming.

Consumers associate organic animal husbandry with good animal welfare and ‘happy’ animals (Sies and Mahlau, 1997). Organic husbandry is seen in opposition to intensive, conventional agriculture with large groups, barren environments, and behavioural problems. In fact, the starting point of organic animal husbandry is to give both the animals and the humans concerned a higher quality of life by respecting their nature and requirements: the principles of organic animal husbandry postulate that housing systems are adapted to the species-specific needs of the animals and that the preservation and promotion of animal health result from optimizing the animals’ housing, feeding, breeding and care (Sundrum, 1993). These principles are also reflected in organic standards. Consequently, with respect to their behaviour the welfare of the animals in general is better than in conventional systems (e.g. Hörning, 1998). At present the focus is often on health problems, because classical treatments of disease may not be compatible with the principles and standards of organic husbandry, but experience with alternative treatments still is limited (as discussed in Chapter 13). However, in a more holistic approach, behaviour is what constitutes the bridge between the animal and its environment, and many health problems are certainly related to deficits in husbandry, management and knowledge. Therefore, further improvements of organic husbandry systems also are needed concerning behavioural requirements. Furthermore, severe problems such as cross suckling in calves, tail biting in pigs and feather pecking in poultry need to be solved. Ethology, the study of animal behaviour, has a critical role to play in the further development of organic husbandry that goes hand-in-hand with improved animal welfare. We will briefly discuss the meaning of animal welfare in science, the organic context, and public understanding. Natural behaviour plays a central role here, and we outline what natural behaviour means, its role for a life of quality in farm animals, and the implications for husbandry. We will then apply this for three main farm animal species – cattle, pigs and laying hens – and at the end summarize the significance of ethology and animal behaviour for organic animal husbandry now and in the future.
Unique stigmatic hairs and pollen-tube growth within the stigmatic cell wall in the early-divergent angiosperm family Hydatellaceae.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The ultrastructure of the pollen tubes and the unusual multicellular stigmatic hairs of Trithuria, the sole genus of Hydatellaceae, are described in the context of comparative studies of stigmatic and transmitting tissue in other early-divergent angiosperms. METHODS Scanning and transmission electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry are used to study the structure and composition of both mature and immature stigmatic hair cells and pollen-tube growth in Trithuria. KEY RESULTS Trithuria possesses a dry-type stigma. Pollen tubes grow within the cell walls of the long multicellular stigmatic hairs. Immunocytochemistry results suggest that arabinogalactan proteins are involved in attracting the pollen tubes through the stigmatic cuticle. Most tubes grow along the hair axis towards its base, but some grow towards the hair apex, suggesting that pollen tubes are guided by both physical constraints such as microfibril orientation and the presence of binding factors such as unesterified pectins and adhesive proteins. CONCLUSIONS The presence of a dry-type stigma in Trithuria supports the hypothesis that this condition is ancestral in angiosperms. Each multicellular stigmatic hair of Hydatellaceae is morphologically homologous with a stigmatic papilla of other angiosperms, but functions as an independent stigma and style. This unusual combination of factors makes Hydatellaceae a useful model for comparative studies of pollen-tube growth in early angiosperms.
SPATIAL POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE IN TRILLIUM GRANDIFLORUM: THE ROLES OF DISPERSAL, MATING, HISTORY, AND SELECTION

Abstract The roles of the various potential ecological and evolutionary causes of spatial population genetic structure (SPGS) cannot in general be inferred from the extant structure alone. However, a stage-specific analysis can provide clues as to the causes of SPGS. We conducted a stage-specific SPGS analysis of a mapped population of about 2000 Trillium grandiflorum (Liliaceae), a long-lived perennial herb. We compared SPGS for juvenile (J), nonreproductive (NR), and reproductive (R) stages. Fisher's exact test showed that genotypes had Hardy-Weinberg frequencies at all loci and stage classes. Allele frequencies did not differ between stages. Bootstrapped 99% confidence intervals (99%CI) indicate that F-statistic values are indistinguishable from zero, (except for a slightly negative FIT for the R stage). Spatial autocorrelation was used to calculate f, the average kinship coefficient between individuals within distance intervals. Null hypothesis 99%CIs for f were constructed by repeatedly randomizing genotypic locations. Significant positive fine-scale genetic structure was detected in the R and NR stages, but not in the J stage. This structure was most pronounced in the R stage, and declined by about half in each remaining stage: near-neighbor f = 0.122, 0.065, 0.027, for R, NR, and J, respectively. For R and NR, the near-neighbor f lies outside the null hypothesis 99%CI, indicating kinship at approximately the level of half-sibs and first cousins, respectively. We also simulated the expected SPGS of juveniles post dispersal, based on measured R-stage SPGS, the mating system, and measured pollen and seed dispersal properties. This provides a null hypothesis expectation (as a 99%CI) for the J-stage correlogram, against which to test the likelihood that post-dispersal events have influenced J-stage SPGS. The actual J correlogram lies within the null hypothesis 99%CI for the shortest distance interval and nearly all other distance intervals indicating that the observed low recruitment, random mating and seed dispersal patterns are sufficient to account for the disappearance of SPSG between the R and the J stages. The observed increase in SPGS between J and R stages has two potential explanations: history and local selection. The observed low total allelic diversity is consistent with a past bottleneck: a possible historical explanation. Only a longitudinal stage-specific study of SPGS structure can distinguish between historical events and local selection as causes of increased structure with increasing life history stage. Corresponding Editor: O. Savolainen
Saliency detection and feature matching for image trimming and tracking in active video

We develop a new automatic Object of Interest detection method for image trimming and a novel tracking technique in active videos. Both applications consist of salient region detection and feature matching. We deploy a color-saliency weighted Probability-of-Boundary (cPoB) map to detect salient regions. Scale Space Image Pyramid (SSIP) feature matching is proposed for image trimming. An image pyramid is created to imitate the view point change for stable keypoint selection. Successive Classification Maximum Similarities (SCMS) feature matching is used for tracking. A strong classifier trained by AdaBoost is utilized for keypoint classification and subsequent Linear Programming rejects outliers. The object-centered property of Active Video is highly beneficial because it captures the essence of Human Visual Attention and facilitates self-initialization in tracking. Experiments demonstrate the importance of saliency detection and feature matching and confirm that our approach can automatically detect salient regions in images and track reliably in videos.