Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Influenza Seasonality: Reconciling Patterns across Temperate and Tropical Regions

Background Despite the significant disease burden of the influenza virus in humans, our understanding of the basis for its pronounced seasonality remains incomplete. Past observations that influenza epidemics occur in the winter across temperate climates, combined with insufficient knowledge about the epidemiology of influenza in the tropics, led to the perception that cool and dry conditions were a necessary, and possibly sufficient, driver of influenza epidemics. Recent reports of substantial levels of influenza virus activity and well-defined seasonality in tropical regions, where warm and humid conditions often persist year-round, have rendered previous hypotheses insufficient for explaining global patterns of influenza. Objective In this review, we examined the scientific evidence for the seasonal mechanisms that potentially explain the complex seasonal patterns of influenza disease activity observed globally. Methods In this review we assessed the strength of a range of hypotheses that attempt to explain observations of influenza seasonality across different latitudes and how they relate to each other. We reviewed studies describing population-scale observations, mathematical models, and ecological, laboratory, and clinical experiments pertaining to influenza seasonality. The literature review includes studies that directly mention the topic of influenza seasonality, as well as other topics we believed to be relevant. We also developed an analytical framework that highlights the complex interactions among environmental stimuli, mediating mechanisms, and the seasonal timing of influenza epidemics and identify critical areas for further research. Conclusions The central questions in influenza seasonality remain unresolved. Future research is particularly needed in tropical localities, where our understanding of seasonality remains poor, and will require a combination of experimental and observational studies. Further understanding of the environmental factors that drive influenza circulation also may be useful to predict how dynamics will be affected at regional levels by global climate change.
LSP Trajectory Analysis for Speech Recognition

Speech signal is the continuous signal which has the characteristics in its own. For recognizing the speech signal, the system must be able to classify and recognize the speech feature. Almost of this system is speaker-independent speech system. This paper presents statistical methods for speech recognition by extracting the features of the speech and analyzing their trajectory. The speech feature has been extracted to line spectral pairs (LSP) coefficients and then uses the statistic model to pattern the trajectory for recognizing the signal. The result shows that the using technique usually works well which the maximum accuracy of recognition is 99.67% at number 1 of male speech and the minimum accuracy of recognition is 82.33% at number 5 of female speech.
Line-Fitting by Rotation: A Nonparametric Method for Bivariate Allometric Analysis

The choice of an appropriate method for fitting a straight line to data is one of the major procedural problems in bivariate allometric analysis. Commonly used techniques, such as ordinary least-squares regression and major axis, are derived from the general structural relationship model and thus require some knowledge about the distribution of the data. In this paper, we explore a nonparametric alternative, referred to as “rotation method”, which involves no assumptions about error distributions. It is symmetrical in the two variables and highly resistant against the influence of outlying data points. In this initial study, eight alternative versions of line-fitting by rotation are compared, using simulated data. The versions with the best overall performance are applied to empirical data from selected examples in biological anthropology. A comparison with conventional parametric methods reveals some marked advantages of the rotation method for descriptive allometric studies, indicating that further investigation into procedures of this kind is clearly warranted.
Adaptive practical output tracking of stack piezo-actuators with coupling hysteresis for dynamic loading applications

The piezoelectric stack actuators (PEAs), being limited to unknown hysteresis, present undesired accuracy. However, experiments show that the effect of dynamic load and the rate of excitation voltage can also cause inclination in hysteresis loop and deteriorate tracking performance. By taking into account the two factors, we propose a coupling hysteresis model based on the modified Prandtl-Ishlinskii operator to estimate the hysteresis nonlinearity in PEAs. When the bounds of system parameters and reference signal are unknown, we develop an adaptive control technique to solve the problem of practical output tracking of PEAs preceded by a non-measureable coupling hysteresis. The method employs the ideas of adding a power integrator technique and universal control, and combines with the proposed coupling hysteresis model without constructing a hysteresis inverse. Simulations demonstrate the efficacy of this adaptive control strategy.
Poster: towards formal verification of DIFC policies

Decentralized information flow control (DIFC) is a recent important innovation with flexible mechanisms to improve the availability of traditional information flow models. However, the flexibility of DIFC models also makes specifying and managing DIFC policies a challenging problem. The formal policy verification techniques can improve the current state of the art of policy specification and management. We show that in general these problems of policy verification of the main DIFC systems are NP-hard, and show that several subcases remain NP-complete. We also propose an approach of model checking to solve these problems. Experiments are presented to show that this approach is effective.
Evolving Minds: Helping Students with Cognitive Dissonance.

Even 150 years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, public school teachers still find themselves dealing with student resistance to learning about biological evolution. Some teachers deal with this pressure by undermining, deemphasizing, or even omitting the topic in their science curriculum. Others face the challenge and deliver solid scientific instruction of evolutionary theory despite the conflicts that may arise. The latter were the topic of this study. I interviewed five teachers that had experience dealing with resistance to learning evolution in their school community. Through these in-depth interviews, I examined strategies these teachers use when facing resistance and how they help students deal with the cognitive dissonance that may be experienced when learning about evolution. I selected the qualitative method of educational criticism and connoisseurship to organize and categorize my data. From the interviews, the following findings emerged. Experienced teachers increased their confidence in teaching evolution by pursuing outside professional development. They not only learned more about evolutionary theory, but about creationist arguments against evolution. These teachers front-load their curriculum to integrate the nature of science into their lessons to address misunderstandings about how science works. They also highlight the importance of learning evolutionary theory but
A Versatile Monolithic Digital PWM Controller

Digital control promises significant system performance gains resulting from complex control algorithms that are difficult to implement in analog [1,2,7,12]. Digital control has reduced susceptibility to component tolerances. For example, a digital filter can precisely position poles and zeros to the frequency tolerance of the system clock, whereas component tolerances result in 10% or higher pole/zero variations in an analog controller. Another example is found in multiphase supplies, where a digital pulse width modulator (DPWM) can provide very accurate matching among duty cycles for different phases [2,3]. Other advantages include programmability, reduced development time, decreased component count, lower susceptibility to component aging and environmental conditions, improved manufacturing logistics and, ultimately, lower cost.
Optical emission line properties of Narrow Line Seyfert 1s and comparison AGN

Based on a new spectroscopic sample observed using the WHT, we examine the kinematic properties of the various emission line regions in narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) by modelling their profiles using multiple component fits. We interpret these results by comparison with velocity components observed for different lines species covered in the same spectrum, and equivalent components measured in the spectra of some broad line Seyfert 1s and a representative Seyfert 2 galaxy. We find that the fits to the Halpha and Hbeta line profiles in NLS1s require an additional broad (~3000km/s) component that might correspond to a suppressed broad line region with similar kinematics to those of typical broad line Seyfert 1s. From the profiles of the forbidden high ionisation lines (FHILs) in NLS1s, we find evidence that they appear to trace an `intermediate' velocity region with kinematics between the standard broad and narrow line regions. Weaker evidence of this region is also present in the profiles of the permitted Balmer lines. Finally, we note that despite having similar ionisation potentials, the relative intensities of the highly ionised lines of [Fe X]6374 and [FeXI]7892 show considerable dispersion from one galaxy to another. The interpretation of this requires further modelling, but suggests the possibility of using the ratio as a diagnostic to constrain the physical conditions of the FHIL emitting region and possibly the shape of the spectral energy distribution in the vicinity of 200eV. This spectral region is very difficult to observe directly due to photoelectric absorption both in our Galaxy and intrinsic to the source.
Parallel soft ZF detection for turbo-coded QO-STBC scheme

A zero forcing (ZF) decoder using the pseudo inverse of a channel matrix is generally used for detection of quasi-orthogonal space time block coding (QO-STBC). This ZF detection for QO-STBC should sacrifice not only the decoding complexity but also the diversity gain compared to a simple linear detection for orthogonal STBC schemes. This disadvantage of QO-STBC schemes are mainly result from the interference terms in the detection matrix. In this paper, we propose a parallel detection scheme for QO-STBC, which may enhance the computational efficiency compared to the conventional ZF scheme, especially when combining with turbo codes. We present a very efficient soft decision metrics to be used at the iterative decoder for turbo codes. The simulation results in this paper reveal that the proposed detection scheme produces an almost the same performance to that of the the maximum likelihood (ML) detection, with greatly enhanced computational efficiency.
Learning directional relative positions between mediastinal lymph node stations and organs.

PURPOSE To automatically learn directional relative positions (DRP) between mediastinal lymph node stations and anatomical organs. Those spatial relationships are used to semiautomatically segment the stations in thoracic CT images. METHODS Fuzzy maps of DRP were automatically extracted by a learning procedure from a database composed of images with stations and anatomical structures manually segmented by consensus between experts. Spatial relationships common to all patients were retained. The segmentation of a new image used an initial rough delineation of anatomical organs and applied the DRP operators. The algorithm was tested with a leave-one-out approach on a database of 5 patients with 10 lymph stations and 30 anatomical structures each. Results were compared to expert delineations with dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and bidirectional local distance (BLD). RESULTS The overall mean DSC was 66% and the mean BLD was 1.7 mm. Best matches were obtained from stations S3P or S4R while lower matches were obtained for stations 1R and 1L. On average, more than 30 spatial relationships were automatically extracted for each station. CONCLUSIONS This feasibility study suggests that mediastinal lymph node stations could be satisfactory segmented from thoracic CT using automatically extracted positional relationships with anatomical organs. This approach requires the anatomical structures to be initially roughly delineated. A similar approach could be applied to other sites where spatial relationships exists between anatomical structures. The complete database of the five reference cases is made publicly available.
Affine reconstruction from monocular vision in the presence of a symmetry plane

This paper reports a closed-form solution for reconstructing a scene up to an affine transformation from a single image in the presence of a symmetry plane. Unlike scene reconstruction in stereo vision, the affine reconstruction process discussed in this paper does not require any knowledge about camera parameters or camera orientation relative to the scene, so camera self-calibration is totally eliminated. By setting in the scene a plane mirror which creates lateral symmetric world points for an uncalibrated, perspective camera to capture, the linear equations involved in the reconstruction process can be derived from two sets of similar triangles. The affine reconstruction is relative to an arbitrary affine coordinated frame implicitly defined on the mirror plane. Also involved in the process are the estimation of the epipole and recovery of the image-to-mirror plane homography. Implementation on estimating the epipole is detailed. A real experiment is presented to demonstrate the reconstruction.
A Spitzer mid-infrared spectral survey of mass-losing carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present a Spitzer Space Telescopespectroscopic survey of mass-losing carbon stars (and one oxygen-rich star) in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The stars represent the superwind phase on the Asymptotic Giant Branch, which forms a major source of dust for the interstellar medium in galaxies. The spectra cover the wavelength range 5‐38� m. They show varying combinations of dust continuum, dust emission features (SiC, MgS) and molecular absorption bands (C2H2, HCN). A set of four narrow bands, dubbed the Manchester system, is used to define the infrared continuum for dusty carbon stars. The r elations between the continuum colours and the strength of the dust and molecular features are studied, and are compared to Galactic stars of similar colours. The circumstellar 7-� m C2H2 band is found to be stronger at lower metallicity, from a comparison of stars in the Galaxy, the LMC and the SMC. This is explained by dredge-up of carbon, causing higher C/O ratios at low metallicity (less O). A possible 10-� m absorption feature seen in our spectra may be due to C3. This band has also been identified with interstellar silicate or silicon-nitr ite dust. We investigate the strength and central wavelength of the SiC and MgS dust bands as function of colour and metallicity. The line-to-continuum ratio of these bands shows some indication of being lower at low metallicity. The MgS band is only seen at dust temperatures below 600 K. We discuss the selection of carbon versus oxygen-rich AGB stars using the J K vs. K A colours, and show that these colours are relatively insensitive to chemical type. Metal -poor carbon stars form amorphous carbon dust from self-produced carbon. This type of dust forms more readily in the presence of a higher C/O ratio. Low metallicity carbon dust may contain a smaller fraction of SiC and MgS constituents, which do depend on metallicity. The formation efficiency of oxygen-rich dust depends more strongly on metallicity. We suggest that in lower-metallicity environments, the dust input into the Interstellar Medium by AGB stars is efficient but may be strongly biassed towards carbonaceous dust, as compared to the Galaxy.
SUMO-1 Modification on K166 of PolyQ-Expanded aTaxin-3 Strengthens Its Stability and Increases Its Cytotoxicity

Post-translational modification by SUMO was proposed to modulate the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3/Machado-Joseph disease (SCA3/MJD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease caused by polyQ-expanded ataxin-3. We have previously shown that ataxin-3 was a new target of SUMOylation in vitro and in vivo. Here we identified that the major SUMO-1 binding site was located on lysine 166. SUMOylation did not influence the subcellular localization, ubiquitination or aggregates formation of mutant-type ataxin-3, but partially increased its stability and the cell apoptosis. Our findings revealed the role of ataxin-3 SUMOylation in SCA3/MJD pathogenesis.
State Merit‐Based Financial Aid Programs and College Attainment

We examine the effects of recently adopted state merit-based financial aid programs on college attendance and degree completion. Our primary analysis uses microdata from the 2000 Census and 2001-2010 American Community Survey to estimate the effects of merit programs on educational outcomes for 25 merit aid adopting states. We also utilize administrative data for the University System of Georgia to look more in depth at the effects of the HOPE Scholarship on degree completion in Georgia. We find strong consistent evidence that state merit aid programs have no meaningfully positive effect on college completion. Coefficient estimates for our preferred specifications are small and statistically insignificant. State merit aid programs do not appear to increase the percentage of young people with a college education.
Coupling Coefficients of So(n) and Integrals over Triplets of Jakobi and Gegenbauer Polynomials

The expressions of the coupling coefficients (3j-symbols) for the most degenerate (symmetric) representations of the orthogonal groups SO(n) in the canonical basis [with SO(n) restricted to SO(n − 1)] and different semicanonical or tree bases [with SO(n) restricted to SO(n ′)×SO(n ′′), n ′ + n ′′ = n] are considered, respectively, in context of the integrals over triplets of the Gegenbauer and Jakobi polynomials. The straightforwardly derived triple sums are related to the sums that appeared in the semistretched isofactors of the second kind for the complementary chain Sp(4)⊃SU(2)×SU(2) and may be rearranged, in analogy with the stretched 9j coefficients of SU(2), into the formulas with more rich limits for summation intervals and obvious triangle conditions. The isofactors of class-one representations of the orthogonal groups or class-two representations of the unitary groups (and, respectively, related integrals over triplets of the Gegenbauer and Jakobi polynomials) turn into the double sums in the cases of the canonical SO(n) ⊃SO(n − 1) or U(n) ⊃U(n − 1) and semicanonical SO(n) ⊃SO(n − 2)×SO(2) chains, as well as into the single sums under more specific conditions. Some ambiguities of the phase choice of the complementary group approach are adjusted, as well as the problems with alternating sign parameter of SO(2) representations in the SO(3)⊃SO(2) and SO(n) ⊃SO(n − 2)×SO(2) chains.
A Satisfaction Evaluation Method for Scenic Spot based on Linguistic Weighted Arithmetic Average Operator

Based on the level empowerment system and the linguistic operator, a satisfaction evaluation process is proposed in this paper. First of all, a level empowerment system is established to generate the weight of each surveyed tourist. Then, some new linguistic operations are defined which can remedy the defects of the existe d operations. Besides, the expectation and variance in linguistic information environment are defined to generate the weight of ea ch character of tourist and the weights of indicators, and linguistic weighted arithmetic average (LWAA) operator is introduced to aggregate the linguistic information of each touris t and the group linguistic information of each indicator. Finally, a satisfaction evaluatio n case is illustrated to explain the evaluation process.
Modeling Misbehavior in Cooperative Diversity: A Dynamic Game Approach

Cooperative diversity protocols are designed with the assumption that terminals always help each other in a socially efficient manner. This assumption may not be valid in commercial wireless networks where terminals may misbehave for selfish or malicious intentions. The presence of misbehaving terminals creates a social-dilemma where terminals exhibit uncertainty about the cooperative behavior of other terminals in the network. Cooperation in social-dilemma is characterized by a suboptimal Nash equilibrium where wireless terminals opt out of cooperation. Hence, without establishing a mechanism to detect and mitigate effects of misbehavior, it is difficult to maintain a socially optimal cooperation. In this paper, we first examine effects of misbehavior assuming static game model and show that cooperation under existing cooperative protocols is characterized by a noncooperative Nash equilibrium. Using evolutionary game dynamics we show that a small number of mutants can successfully invade a population of cooperators, which indicates that misbehavior is an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS). Our main goal is to design a mechanism that would enable wireless terminals to select reliable partners in the presence of uncertainty. To this end, we formulate cooperative diversity as a dynamic game with incomplete information. We show that the proposed dynamic game formulation satisfied the conditions for the existence of perfect Bayesian equilibrium.
Influence Control for Dynamic Reconfiguration

Dynamic reconfiguration is a useful technique for software update because it can achieve an architectural change without shutdown of a system. However, so far in the state-of arts, there has not been an approach that can evaluate and control both the functional influence and performance influence of reconfiguration in a unified framework. In this paper, we present an approach that addresses the above drawback. In our approach, we use a reconfiguration algorithm and a reconfiguration scheduler to control these two types of influence. The algorithm reduces the logical performance influence by allowing old and new components coexisting and uses a version management mechanism to avoid functional side effect in the coexisting period. The scheduler controls the physical performance influence through restricting the processor time spent on the reconfiguration procedure. We implement the algorithm and the scheduler in our reconfiguration data flow model.
Predation‐dependent oviposition habitat selection by the mosquito Culiseta longiareolata: a test of competing hypotheses

We investigated the mechanism underlying oviposition habitat selection (OHS) in the mosquito Culiseta longiareolata. The putative outcome of a trade-off between the risk of predation and detrimental density dependence, OHS in this species presents an opportunity to test two competing alternatives: (1) a polymorphic scenario, in which a fixed proportion of females constantly avoid ‘predator pools’, while the remainder oviposits at random; and (2) a monomorphic scenario, in which all females oviposit in predator pools with a certain probability. We present a conceptual framework that demonstrates how a simple experimental design – whereby predator incidence in artificial pools is alternated between 0.25 and 0.75 – can distinguish between, or refute, the two scenarios. Given the proportional use, by ovipositing females, of predator-free pools observed under each treatment, and a bootstrap estimate of the ratio of daily oviposition rates, we find the monomorphic scenario twice as likely as the polymorphic.