Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bistatic Transfer Function for a Planar Distribution of Stationary Scatterers: Analytical Results

We present exact and approximate analytical results for signal transmission through a planar distribution of stationary scatterers in a bistatic configuration. The transfer function of this transmission channel is computed by assuming a continuous cross-section density. This approach makes it possible to obtain explicit mathematical expressions for a wide variety of scatterer distributions. The inverse problem, where the scatterer distribution is inferred from the transfer function, is also considered. Analytical results are compared with numerical simulations for randomly distributed point scatterers, using real-life FM signals. Transfer functions for these stylized scatterer distributions may provide a base for more realistic mathematical models of the environment.
Unaided stereo vision based pose estimation

This paper presents the development of a low-cost sensor platform for use in ground-based visual pose estimation and scene mapping tasks. We seek to develop a technical solution using low-cost vision hardware that allows us to accurately estimate robot position for SLAM tasks. We present results from the application of a vision based pose estimation technique to simultaneously determine camera poses and scene structure. The results are generated from a dataset gathered traversing a local road at the St Lucia Campus of the University of Queensland. We show the accuracy of the pose estimation over a 1.6km trajectory in relation to GPS ground truth.
Leveraging large amounts of loosely transcribed corporate videos for acoustic model training

Lightly supervised acoustic model (AM) training has seen a tremendous amount of interest over the past decade. It promises significant cost-savings by relying on only small amounts of accurately transcribed speech and large amounts of imperfectly (loosely) transcribed speech. The latter can often times be acquired from existing sources, without additional cost. We identify corporate videos as one such source. After reviewing the state of the art in lightly supervised AM training, we describe our efforts on exploiting 977 hours of loosely transcribed corporate videos for AM training. We report strong reductions in word error rate of up to 19.4% over our baseline. We also report initial results for a simple, yet effective scheme to identify a subset of lightly supervised training labels that are more important to the training process.
Mitofilin complexes: conserved organizers of mitochondrial membrane architecture

Abstract Mitofilin proteins are crucial organizers of mitochondrial architecture. They are located in the inner mitochondrial membrane and interact with several protein complexes of the outer membrane, thereby generating contact sites between the two membrane systems of mitochondria. Within the inner membrane, mitofilins are part of hetero-oligomeric protein complexes that have been termed the mitochondrial inner membrane organizing system (MINOS). MINOS integrity is required for the maintenance of the characteristic morphology of the inner mitochondrial membrane, with an inner boundary region closely apposed to the outer membrane and cristae membranes, which form large tubular invaginations that protrude into the mitochondrial matrix and harbor the enzyme complexes of the oxidative phosphorylation machinery. MINOS deficiency comes along with a loss of crista junction structures and the detachment of cristae from the inner boundary membrane. MINOS has been conserved in evolution from unicellular eukaryotes to humans, where alterations of MINOS subunits are associated with multiple pathological conditions.
Key Points for Realistic Agent-based Financial Market Simulations

The purpose of this paper is to define software engineering abstractions that provide a generic framework for stock market simulations. We demonstrate a series of key points and principles that has governed the development of an Agent-Based financial market in the form of an API. The simulator architecture is presented. During artificial market construction we have faced the whole variety of agent-based modeling issues and solved them : local interaction, distributed knowledge and resources, heterogeneous environments, agents autonomy, artificial intelligence, speech acts, discrete scheduling and simulation. Our study demonstrates that the choices made for agent-based modeling in this context deeply impact the resulting market dynamics and proposes a series of advances regarding the main limits the existing platforms actually meet.
Efficient Detection of Exact Redundancies in Audio Signals

An efficient method to identify bitwise identical long-time redundant segments in audio signals is presented. It uses audio segmentation with simple time domain features to identify long term candidates for similar segments, and low level sample accurate metrics for the final matching. Applications in compression (lossy and lossless) of music signals (monophonic and multichannel) are discussed.
A Complete Syllable Dictionary for Serinus Canarius Glenda Angle and

This paper is devoted to a detailed quantitative analysis of the vocal repertoire of a domestic male canary (Serinus Canarius) by multivariate statistical methods, and temporal and spectral feature extraction. In the first part of the paper, combination of various methods are employed to extract characteristic features to classify all syllables, and construct a complete seasonal syllable dictionary for the canary. In the second part, synthetic syllables corresponding to all entries in the dictionary are generated providing a standardized framework for behavioral and neural studies of canaries.
The impact of interruptions on clinical task completion

Background Interruptions and multitasking are implicated as a major cause of clinical inefficiency and error. Objective The aim was to measure the association between emergency doctors' rates of interruption and task completion times and rates. Methods The authors conducted a prospective observational time and motion study in the emergency department of a 400-bed teaching hospital. Forty doctors (91% of medical staff) were observed for 210.45 h on weekdays. The authors calculated the time on task (TOT); the relationship between TOT and interruptions; and the proportion of time in work task categories. Length-biased sampling was controlled for. Results Doctors were interrupted 6.6 times/h. 11% of all tasks were interrupted, 3.3% more than once. Doctors multitasked for 12.8% of time. The mean TOT was 1:26 min. Interruptions were associated with a significant increase in TOT. However, when length-biased sampling was accounted for, interrupted tasks were unexpectedly completed in a shorter time than uninterrupted tasks. Doctors failed to return to 18.5% (95% CI 15.9% to 21.1%) of interrupted tasks. Conclusions It appears that in busy interrupt-driven clinical environments, clinicians reduce the time they spend on clinical tasks if they experience interruptions, and may delay or fail to return to a significant portion of interrupted tasks. Task shortening may occur because interrupted tasks are truncated to ‘catch up’ for lost time, which may have significant implications for patient safety.
Highly fluorescent and water-soluble diketopyrrolopyrrole dyes for bioconjugation.

The preparation of highly water-soluble and strongly fluorescent diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) dyes using an unusual taurine-like sulfonated linker has been achieved. Exchanging a phenyl for a thienyl substituent shifts the emission wavelength to near λ=600 nm. The free carboxylic acid group present in these new derivatives was readily activated and the dyes were subsequently covalently linked to a model protein (bovine serum albumin; BSA). The bioconjugates were characterized by electronic absorption, fluorescence spectroscopy and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, thus enabling precise determination of the labeling density (ratio DPP/BSA about 3 to 8). Outstanding values of fluorescence quantum yield (30% to 59%) for these bioconjugates are obtained. The photostability of these DPP dyes is considerably greater than that of fluorescein under the same irradiation conditions. Remarkably low detection limits between 80 and 300 molecules/μm(2) were found for the BSA bioconjugates by fluorescence imaging with a epifluorescence microscope.
Content and Popularity Analysis of Tor Hidden Services

Tor hidden services allow running Internet services while protecting the location of the servers. Their main purpose is to enable freedom of speech even in situations in which powerful adversaries try to suppress it. However, providing location privacy and client anonymity also makes Tor hidden services an attractive platform for every kind of imaginable shady service. The ease with which Tor hidden services can be set up has spurred a huge growth of anonymously provided Internet services of both types. In this paper we analyse the landscape of Tor hidden services. We have studied 39824 hidden service descriptors collected on 4th of Feb 2013: we scanned them for open ports, in the case of 3050 HTTP services, we analysed and classified their content. We also estimated the popularity of hidden services by looking at the request rate for hidden service descriptors by clients. We found that while the content of Tor hidden services is rather varied, the most popular hidden services are related to botnets. We also propose a method for opportunistic deanonymisation of Tor Hidden Service clients. In addtiton, we identify past attempts to track "Silk road" by consensus history analysis.
The Origin of GPCRs: Identification of Mammalian like Rhodopsin, Adhesion, Glutamate and Frizzled GPCRs in Fungi

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in humans are classified into the five main families named Glutamate, Rhodopsin, Adhesion, Frizzled and Secretin according to the GRAFS classification. Previous results show that these mammalian GRAFS families are well represented in the Metazoan lineages, but they have not been shown to be present in Fungi. Here, we systematically mined 79 fungal genomes and provide the first evidence that four of the five main mammalian families of GPCRs, namely Rhodopsin, Adhesion, Glutamate and Frizzled, are present in Fungi and found 142 novel sequences between them. Significantly, we provide strong evidence that the Rhodopsin family emerged from the cAMP receptor family in an event close to the split of Opisthokonts and not in Placozoa, as earlier assumed. The Rhodopsin family then expanded greatly in Metazoans while the cAMP receptor family is found in 3 invertebrate species and lost in the vertebrates. We estimate that the Adhesion and Frizzled families evolved before the split of Unikonts from a common ancestor of all major eukaryotic lineages. Also, the study highlights that the fungal Adhesion receptors do not have N-terminal domains whereas the fungal Glutamate receptors have a broad repertoire of mammalian-like N-terminal domains. Further, mining of the close unicellular relatives of the Metazoan lineage, Salpingoeca rosetta and Capsaspora owczarzaki, obtained a rich group of both the Adhesion and Glutamate families, which in particular provided insight to the early emergence of the N-terminal domains of the Adhesion family. We identified 619 Fungi specific GPCRs across 79 genomes and revealed that Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota phylum have Metazoan-like GPCRs rather than the GPCRs specific for Fungi. Overall, this study provides the first evidence of the presence of four of the five main GRAFS families in Fungi and clarifies the early evolutionary history of the GPCR superfamily.
Importance-Driven Isosurface Decimation for Visualization of Large Simulation Data Based on OpenCL

A new way to define mesh importance for decimation uses transfer functions and visualizes large simulation data in cases where normal visualization methods are insufficient due to memory limit. Next, a parallel isosurface simplification framework uses pyramid peeling to extract the decimated meshes progressively without generating the original surface. A new way to define mesh importance for decimation uses transfer functions and visualizes large simulation data in cases where normal visualization methods are insufficient due to memory limits. Next, a parallel isosurface simplification framework uses an importance pyramid to extract and render the decimated meshes progressively without generating the original surface.
Evaluating an Alternative Risk Preference in Affine Term Structure Models

Dai and Singleton (2002) and Duffee (2002) show that there is a tension in affine term structure models between matching the mean and the volatility of interest rates. This article examines whether this tension can be solved by an alternative parametrization of the price of risk. The empirical evidence suggests that, first, the examined parametrization is not sufficient to solve the mean-volatility tension. Second, the usual result in the estimation of affine models, indicating that some of the state variables are extremely persistent, may have been caused by the lack of flexibility in the parametrization of the price of risk. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
Genome-wide association studies with high-dimensional phenotypes

Abstract High-dimensional phenotypes hold promise for richer findings in association studies, but testing of several phenotype traits aggravates the grand challenge of association studies, that of multiple testing. Several methods have recently been proposed for testing jointly all traits in a high-dimensional vector of phenotypes, with prospect of increased power to detect small effects that would be missed if tested individually. However, the methods have rarely been compared to the extent of enabling assessment of their relative merits and setting up guidelines on which method to use, and how to use it. We compare the methods on simulated data and with a real metabolomics data set comprising 137 highly correlated variables and approximately 550,000 SNPs. Applying the methods to genome-wide data with hundreds of thousands of markers inevitably requires division of the problem into manageable parts facilitating parallel processing, parts corresponding to individual genetic variants, pathways, or genes, for example. Here we utilize a straightforward formulation according to which the genome is divided into blocks of nearby correlated genetic markers, tested jointly for association with the phenotypes. This formulation is computationally feasible, reduces the number of tests, and lets the methods take advantage of combining information over several correlated variables not only on the phenotype side, but also on the genotype side. Our experiments show that canonical correlation analysis has higher power than alternative methods, while remaining computationally tractable for routine use in the GWAS setting, provided the number of samples is sufficient compared to the numbers of phenotype and genotype variables tested. Sparse canonical correlation analysis and regression models with latent confounding factors show promising performance when the number of samples is small compared to the dimensionality of the data.
Stable Prenucleation Calcium Carbonate Clusters

Calcium carbonate forms scales, geological deposits, biominerals, and ocean sediments. Huge amounts of carbon dioxide are retained as carbonate ions, and calcium ions represent a major contribution to water hardness. Despite its relevance, little is known about the precipitation mechanism of calcium carbonate, and specified complex crystal structures challenge the classical view on nucleation considering the formation of metastable ion clusters. We demonstrate that dissolved calcium carbonate in fact contains stable prenucleation ion clusters forming even in undersaturated solution. The cluster formation can be characterized by means of equilibrium thermodynamics, applying a multiple-binding model, which allows for structural preformation. Stable clusters are the relevant species in calcium carbonate nucleation. Such mechanisms may also be important for the crystallization of other minerals.
CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS HIP ARTHRITIS IN A HAEMODIALYSIS PATIENT

Abstract Haemodialysis patients have acquired immunity disturbances, co-morbidities and a vascular access, factors predisposing them to infection and bacteraemia. Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobic bacterium potentially causing severe infections, including rarely septic arthritis. We report the first case of Clostridium perfringens septic arthritis in a haemodialysis patient and suggest a haematogenous spread. After rapid joint lavage combined with appropriate anti-microbial therapy, the patient recovered.
Nusmv: a Reimplementation of Smv

This paper describes the rst results of a joint project between CMU and IRST whose goal is to produce a reimplementation of Smv. The idea is that this new model checker, called NuSmv, should be usable, customizable and extensible, with as little eeort as possible, also by people diierent from the developers. A further goal is to produce a system which is very robust, and close to the standards required by industry.
A Search for C I J = 2-1 Emission in IRAS F10214+4724

This paper presents sensitive new observations of the fine-structure line 3P2 → 3P1 (J = 2-1) of the neutral atomic carbon C I (νrest ~ 809 GHz) in the strongly lensed ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) IRAS F10214+4724 at z = 2.3 obtained with the millimeter/submillimeter James Clerk Maxwell telescope (JCMT). These do not confirm the presence of emission from this line at the flux levels or angular extent previously reported in the literature. The new 2 σ upper limits are S ≲ 7 Jy km s-1 (central position), and ⟨S⟩ ≲ 8.5 Jy km s-1 (average over the two Δα = 0'', Δδ = ±10'' positions). C I emission assumed to be fully concomitant with the bulk of H2 and confined entirely within the strongly lensed object yields an upper limit of M(H2) ≲ 1.5 × 1010 M☉, compatible with the reported CO-derived H2 gas mass, within the uncertainties of the two methods. A comparison is made with the recent detection of the 3P1 → 3P0 (J = 1-0) line in this galaxy by Weiss et al., and the large discrepancy with the previous C I measurements is briefly discussed.
GSTP1 DNA Methylation and Expression Status Is Indicative of 5-aza-2′-Deoxycytidine Efficacy in Human Prostate Cancer Cells

DNA methylation plays an important role in carcinogenesis and the reversibility of this epigenetic modification makes it a potential therapeutic target. To date, DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DNMTi) have not demonstrated clinical efficacy in prostate cancer, with one of the major obstacles being the inability to monitor drug activity during the trial. Given the high frequency and specificity of GSTP1 DNA methylation in prostate cancer, we investigated whether GSTP1 is a useful marker of DNMTi treatment efficacy. LNCaP prostate cancer cells were treated with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5-aza-CdR) either with a single high dose (5–20 µM), every alternate day (0.1–10 µM) or daily (0.005–2.5 µM). A daily treatment regimen with 5-aza-CdR was optimal, with significant suppression of cell proliferation achieved with doses of 0.05 µM or greater (p<0.0001) and induction of cell death from 0.5 µM (p<0.0001). In contrast, treatment with a single high dose of 20 µM 5-aza-CdR inhibited cell proliferation but was not able to induce cell death. Demethylation of GSTP1 was observed with doses of 5-aza-CdR that induced significant suppression of cell proliferation (≥0.05 µM). Re-expression of the GSTP1 protein was observed only at doses of 5-aza-CdR (≥0.5 µM) associated with induction of cell death. Treatment of LNCaP cells with a more stable DNMTi, Zebularine required at least a 100-fold higher dose (≥50 µM) to inhibit proliferation and was less potent in inducing cell death, which corresponded to a lack of GSTP1 protein re-expression. We have shown that GSTP1 DNA methylation and protein expression status is correlated with DNMTi treatment response in prostate cancer cells. Since GSTP1 is methylated in nearly all prostate cancers, our results warrant its testing as a marker of epigenetic therapy response in future clinical trials. We conclude that the DNA methylation and protein expression status of GSTP1 are good indicators of DNMTi efficacy.
Examining Theories of Distributive Justice with an Asymmetric Public Goods Game

In this article, the author presents an asymmetric version of the familiar public goods classroom experiment, in which some players are given more tokens to invest than others, and players collectively decide whether to divide the return to the group investment asymmetrically as well. The asymmetry between players raises normative issues about fairness, rights, and equality that are not present in the symmetric game, where efficiency is the major relevant normative concept. Playing the game in class requires students to confront the distributional question and shows how issues of efficiency can become entangled with other moral issues when solving economic policy problems. The game allows instructors to incorporate theories of distributive justice into economic reasoning in the classroom, as has been widely suggested recently.
A Combinatorial Laplacian with Vertex Weights

One of the classical results in graph theory is the matrix-tree theorem which asserts that the determinant of a cofactor of the combinatorial Laplacian is equal to the number of spanning trees in a graph (see 1, 17, 11, 15]). The usual notion of the combinatorial Laplacian for a graph involves edge weights. Namely, a Laplacian L forGis a matrix with rows and columns indexed by the vertex setVofG, and the (u,v)-entry of L, foru,vinG,u? v, is associated with the edge-weight of the edge (u,v). It is not so obvious to consider Laplacians with vertex weights (except for using some symmetric combinations of the vertex weights to define edge-weights). In this note, we consider a vertex weighted Laplacian which is motivated by a problem arising in the study of algebro-geometric aspects of the Bethe Ansatz 18]. The usual Laplacian can be regarded as a special case with all vertex-weights equal. We will generalize the matrix-tree theorem to matrix-tree theorems of counting “rooted” directed spanning trees. In addition, the characteristic polynomial of the vertex-weighted Laplacian has coefficients with similar interpretations. We also consider subgraphs with non-trial boundary. We will shown that the Laplacian with Dirichlet boundary condition has its determinant equal to the number of rooted spanning forests. The usual matrix-tree theorem is a special case with the boundary consisting of one single vertex.