Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Graph-Based Matching of Points-of-Interest from Collaborative Geo-Datasets

Several geospatial studies and applications require comprehensive semantic information from points-of-interest (POIs). However, this information is frequently dispersed across different collaborative mapping platforms. Surprisingly, there is still a research gap on the conflation of POIs from this type of geo-dataset. In this paper, we focus on the matching aspect of POI data conflation by proposing two matching strategies based on a graph whose nodes represent POIs and edges represent matching possibilities. We demonstrate how the graph is used for (1) dynamically defining the weights of the different POI similarity measures we consider; (2) tackling the issue that POIs should be left unmatched when they do not have a corresponding POI on the other dataset and (3) detecting multiple POIs from the same place in the same dataset and jointly matching these to the corresponding POI(s) from the other dataset. The strategies we propose do not require the collection of training samples or extensive parameter tuning. They were statistically compared with a “naive”, though commonly applied, matching approach considering POIs collected from OpenStreetMap and Foursquare from the city of London (England). In our experiments, we sequentially included each of our methodological suggestions in the matching procedure and each of them led to an increase in the accuracy in comparison to the previous results. Our best matching result achieved an overall accuracy of 91%, which is more than 10% higher than the accuracy achieved by the baseline method.
A novel method to improve the quality of decoded images in fractal image coding

In order to improve the quality of decoded images in fractal image coding, a novel method by making use of a modified image is proposed in this paper. Since the degradation of decoded images in fractal coding mainly comes from the poor self-similarity of the input image, a modified image that satisfies good self-similarity and approximates the original image well is constructed. After transforming the input image into the modified image and performing fractal coding method on it, the decoded image with higher quality can be obtained. Simulations show that compared with the conventional fractal coding method, while the same compression ratio is maintained, the proposed method can provide higher PSNR at the expense of slightly longer encoding time.
Caution regarding exergames: a skill acquisition perspective

ABSTRACT Background: The advent of technology use in physical education is upon us. But the implications of using exergames as a substitute for traditional physical education instruction for some students raise questions. Although exergames have the potential to increase energy expenditure and motivation in some children, it is less clear whether they can provide skill acquisition benefits that are similar to those found in traditional physical education. Purpose: In a previous experiment from our laboratory, we found that deliberate practice can significantly reduce the planning time required for lateral arm movements. The purpose of this study was to determine if exergames can produce a similar effect, by reducing the processing time required for children to initiate arm movements to the contralateral and ipsilateral space. Participants and setting: Thirty children (boys = 15, girls = 15), between the ages of 7 and 12 years, participated in a pre- and post-test each taking 30 min and one 30 min treatment session in a university laboratory. Research design: A repeated measures design was employed to test the effects of deliberate laterality practice on processing speed. Children were randomly assigned (n = 10) to either a Nintendo Wii tennis contralateral movement experimental group, Nintendo Wii bowling ipsilateral movement experimental group, or handheld video-game control group. Each child participated in one 30 min treatment session. Data collection: Upper extremity choice reaction time (RT) was measured through 27 goal-directed aiming movements for each arm separately, during the pre-test and post-test. The stimulus–response trials occurred in three randomly presented directions (ipsilateral, contralateral, and midline). Data analysis: A 3 (treatment group) × 2 (age group) × 2 (test) × 3 (direction) mixed design analysis of variance with repeated measures on the last two factors was used to test for significant differences, with an alpha level set at 0.05. Findings: There were no significant treatment effects on RT across all groups indicating that a short bout of exergame training was unsuccessful in improving lateral movement processing. Conclusions: Deliberate laterality practice using exergames did not improve the motor processing speed of lateral arm movements in the same manner of traditional physical education as indicated by our previous research. Explanations as to why exergames do not exhibit the same positive transfer for skill acquisition as traditional physical education instruction are discussed within this paper.
Trivium Speci(cid:12)cations ?

This document speci(cid:12)es Trivium , a hardware oriented synchronous stream cipher which aims to provide a (cid:13)exible trade-o(cid:11) between speed and area. The description of the cipher is followed by some performance (cid:12)gures and a summary of the cryptographic properties of the algorithm. For a more theoretical discussion of the rationale behind the design, the reader is referred to the accompanying paper [1].
Automated assistance for human factors analysis in complex systems

A tool and a method for scenario-based workload assessment and performance validation in complex socio-technical systems design, such as command and control rooms of military vessels, are described. We assess workload in terms of communication and the task load that each agent is able to handle. The method employs subjective task and communication estimates used to calculate the workload of human operators, using static and scenario-based analyses. This enables the identification of bottlenecks to be addressed by the designer with the appropriate allocation of function between humans and smart technology. This task is supported by the functional allocation adviser tool. A case study demonstrating the use of the tool for the design of the command and control room of a military vessel is presented.
Minimizing Finite Complete Pre xes

MinimizingFiniteCompletePre xesKeijo o HeljankHelsinki y ersit Univ of , hnology ec TLab oratoryfor Theoretical Computer Sciencex . O.Bo P 5400,FIN-02015HUT, Finlandut. o@h Keijo.Heljankb Septemer 13,1999AbstractFinite complete pre xes are used as a eri cation v metho d for etri P netsand other formalisms where a similar notion of partial order bvior eha canb e applied.They ere w tro inducedy b McMillan,who also e v ga an algo-rithm to generate a nite complete pre x from a system description en givas a etri Pnet.Later Esparza,Romer andogler V ed v improMcMillan'spre x generation algorithm, h whic could sometimes create exptially onenlarger pre xes than required.In this ork w e w re ne the h approac of Es-parza et.al.further, and de ne a re ned cut-o criterion, h whic es mak itsometimes p ossibleto create h uc m smaller nite completepre xes.Ex-ptal erimen results from a yp protote tation, implemena pre x minimizer,areted. presenThemetho dcanalsob eapplieddirectlyduringpre xgeneration.1tro Inductionetri Pnetsareawidelyusedmo delforanalyzingt concurrenanddistributedsystems.Finite complete pre xes are used as a eri cation v metho d for etri P netsandotherformalisms wherea similar notion of partial orderbvior ehacanb eapplied.They ere w tro induced y b McMillan , [11 12], who also e v ga an algorithmto generatea nite complete pre x from a system description en giv as a etri Pnet.Later Esparza, Romer and ogler V ed v impro McMillan's pre x generation(i.e.unfolding) algorithm ], [5 h whic could sometimes create exptially onen largerpre xesthanrequired.Inthisork we wre netheh approacofEsparzaet.al.further, and de ne a re ned cut-o criterion, h whic es mak it sometimes p ossibleto create h uc m smaller nite complete pre xes.tly Curren visiting he hnisc ec T ersitat Univ hen, Munc akultat F fur Informatik1
Accuracy-Aware Uncertain Stream Databases

Previous work has introduced probability distributions as first-class components in uncertain stream database systems. A lacking element is the fact of how accurate these probability distributions are. This indeed has a profound impact on the accuracy of query results presented to end users. While there is some previous work that studies unreliable intermediate query results in the tuple uncertainty model, to the best of our knowledge, we are the first to consider an uncertain stream database in which accuracy is taken into consideration all the way from the learned distributions based on raw data samples to the query results. We perform an initial study of various components in an accuracy-aware uncertain stream database system, including the representation of accuracy information and how to obtain query results' accuracy. In addition, we propose novel predicates based on hypothesis testing for decision-making using data with limited accuracy. We augment our study with a comprehensive set of experimental evaluations.
MidiSpace: a temporal constraint-based music spatializer

1. ABSTRACT We develop multimedia technology for enriching the music listening experience. We propose a system - MidiSpace - in which users may listen to music while controlling in real time the localization of sound sources, through a simple interface. We introduce the problem of mixing consistency, and propose a solution based on a constraint propagation mechanism. The proposed system contains both an authoring mode, in which sound engineers may specify spatialization constraints to be satisfied, and a listening mode in which listeners can modify the localization of sources under the supervision of a constraint solver that ensures the spatialization always satisfies the constraints. We describe the architecture of the system and report on experiments done so far.
Peripheral Circadian Oscillators

The lives of plants, animals, and human beings are all regulated by circadian clocks. In mammals, 24‐hour rhythms of physiology and behavior are directed by a master clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the brain hypothalamus, which in turn entrains “slave” oscillators of similar molecular composition in most cells of the body. These peripheral clocks are interesting not only because they control many aspects of circadian physiology, but also because they are model systems through which we understand how the SCN regulates complex behavior. To this end, peripheral oscillators have been exploited both biochemically to understand the proteins that make up biological clocks, and genetically to decipher the ways in which individual differences in human chronotype might arise.
BrownianDiffusion Numerical simulation of moving rigid bodies in rarefied gases

In this paper we present a numerical scheme to simulate a moving rigid body with arbitrary shape suspended in a rarefied gas. The rarefied gas is simulated by solving the Boltzmann equation using a DSMC particle method. The motion of the rigid body is governed by the Newton-Euler equations, where the force and the torque on the rigid body is computed from the momentum transfer of the gas molecules colliding with the body. On the other hand, the motion of the rigid body influences the gas flow in its surroundings. We validate the numerical results by testing the Einstein relation for Brownian motion of the suspended particle. The translational as well as the rotational degrees of freedom are taken into account. It is shown that the numerically computed translational and rotational diffusion coefficients converge to the theoretical values.
The fast Gauss transform with all the proofs

In this report we discuss some technical aspects of the fast Gauss transform (FGT). The FGT is a special case of the single level FMM for the Gaussian potential. We give detailed derivation of the correct error bounds which is rather terse in the original paper. We also briefly discuss about the data structures to implement the space subdivision in higher dimensional spaces. [ FGT ]: April 8, 2006
Blood Biomarkers for Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the major cause of death and disability following blunt head trauma. The term mild TBI (mTBI) or concussion are used interchangeably in the literature. Concussion or mTBI is recognized as a clinical syndrome caused by biochemically induced alterations of brain function secondary to head trauma, typically affecting memory and orientation and may involve loss of consciousness. The diagnosis of mTBI is mainly based on clinical symptoms. Objective tools such as computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging are mainly used to exclude structural brain damage, e.g., intracranial bleeding. Biomarkers are molecules that can be measured in accessible biological fluids, that reflect physiological, pharmacological, or disease processes and can suggest the etiology of, susceptibility to, activity level of, or progress of a disease. The overall aim of this dissertation was to assess both novel and previously studied blood biomarkers reflecting neuronal injury and dysfunction in individuals with mild to severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI). The main research question we sought to answer was whether mTBI was associated with biomarker evidence of axonal injury. For this purpose we used sera from ice hockey players competing in the Swedish Hockey League. In addition, we developed a novel ultrasensitive digital ELISA based on Single molecule array (Simoa) platform for detection of neurofilament light protein (NFL) in serum. NFL is a neuron-specific protein, which is difficult to measure in blood using standard immunochemical techniques due to suboptimal analytical sensitivity. We assessed the diagnostic and prognostic utility of this assay in patients with sTBI, who were treated at the Neurointensive Care Unit at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. The main findings of these studies were that mTBI in professional ice hockey players is associated with altered serum levels of biomarkers associated with neuronal injury. The levels of these biomarkers were also related to the number of days it took for the athletes to return to play. In the context of sTBI, NFL levels assessed in serum showed high diagnostic accuracy, and the levels in serum were also related to overall clinical outcome at follow-up 12 months after the injury. Our overall conclusion is that the novel blood biomarkers presented in this thesis are promising diagnostic and prognostic tools for mild to severe TBI. Furthermore, the findings of this thesis may be extended to other neurological disorders associated with axonal injury, where tracking disease progression and evaluating the efficacy of novel therapy were previously limited to analyses of cerebrospinal fluid.
Guanine Limitation Results in CodY-Dependent and -Independent Alteration of Staphylococcus aureus Physiology and Gene Expression

ABSTRACT In Staphylococcus aureus, the global transcriptional regulator CodY modulates the expression of hundreds of genes in response to the availability of GTP and the branched-chain amino acids isoleucine, leucine, and valine (ILV). CodY DNA-binding activity is high when GTP and ILV are abundant. When GTP and ILV are limited, CodY's affinity for DNA drops, altering expression of CodY-regulated targets. In this work, we investigated the impact of guanine nucleotides (GNs) on S. aureus physiology and CodY activity by constructing a guaA null mutant (ΔguaA strain). De novo biosynthesis of guanine monophosphate is abolished due to the guaA mutation; thus, the mutant cells require exogenous guanosine for growth. We also found that CodY activity was reduced when we knocked out guaA, activating the Agr two-component system and increasing secreted protease activity. Notably, in a rich, complex medium, we detected an increase in alternative sigma factor B activity in the ΔguaA mutant, which results in a 5-fold increase in production of the antioxidant pigment staphyloxanthin. Under biologically relevant flow conditions, ΔguaA cells failed to form robust biofilms when limited for guanine or guanosine. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis of the S. aureus transcriptome during growth in guanosine-limited chemostats revealed substantial CodY-dependent and -independent alterations of gene expression profiles. Importantly, these changes increase production of proteases and δ-toxin, suggesting that S. aureus exhibits a more invasive lifestyle when limited for guanosine. Further, gene products upregulated under GN limitation, including those necessary for lipoic acid biosynthesis and sugar transport, may prove to be useful drug targets for treating Gram-positive infections. IMPORTANCE Staphylococcus aureus infections impose a serious economic burden on health care facilities and patients because of the emergence of strains resistant to last-line antibiotics. Understanding the physiological processes governing fitness and virulence of S. aureus in response to environmental cues is critical for developing efficient diagnostics and treatments. De novo purine biosynthesis is essential for both fitness and virulence in S. aureus since inhibiting production cripples S. aureus's ability to cause infection. Here, we corroborate these findings and show that blocking guanine nucleotide synthesis severely affects S. aureus fitness by altering metabolic and virulence gene expression. Characterizing pathways and gene products upregulated in response to guanine limitation can aid in the development of novel adjuvant strategies to combat S. aureus infections.
Protection of ductile iron water mains against external corrosion : review of methods and case histories

Ductile iron replaced grey cast iron as pipe material in the early 1970s. It has been estimated that almost half of all new water mains in North America are ductile iron. The main cause of the structural deterioration of all metallic mains is external corrosion, which is induced by environmental and operational conditions. Internal corrosion, on the other hand, can cause significant functional (hydraulic, water quality) deterioration within the distribution system. Methods for external corrosion protection include passive (coatings, wraps, etc.), active (cathodic protection) or a combination of both. Successes and failures have been reported on the usage of various methods under different conditions and circumstances. This paper provides the state of the practice in corrosion protection of ductile iron water mains, and describes case histories that have been reported from around the world. Some conclusions are drawn as to the suitability of methods to specific circumstances.
Acoustic component detection for automatic species recognition in environmental monitoring

Automatic species recognition plays an important role in assisting ecologists to monitor the environment. One critical issue in this research area is that software developers need prior knowledge of specific targets people are interested in to build templates for these targets. This paper proposes a novel approach for automatic species recognition based on generic knowledge about acoustic events to detect species. Acoustic component detection is the most critical and fundamental part of this proposed approach. This paper gives clear definitions of acoustic components and presents three clustering algorithms for detecting four acoustic components in sound recordings; whistles, clicks, slurs, and blocks. The experiment result demonstrates that these acoustic component recognisers have achieved high precision and recall rate.
Measuring Defense Systems Against Flooding Attacks

Denial of service (DoS) attacks strive to deny service access to legitimate users. A flooding attack uses massive volumes of otherwise useless traffic to occupy all the resources of a service, or the bandwidth of the network access links. There are many techniques, some implemented in commercial products, which are supposed to protect services against DDoS attacks. Our main contribution in this paper is to present a set of methods, together with their well-known related metrics, for evaluating defence systems against flooding attacks, and thus be able to compare them. We propose and justify that it is important to measure a defence system on several aspects: performance evaluation, deployment costs, degradation and robustness costs, both under and without attacks. We introduce composite metrics to measure the performance and the costs. Finally, another contribution is to proposed guidelines for a testing methodology. This methodology identifies all experiments required for collecting all the metrics and associated costs.
Cs224 Final Project Re­alignment Improvements for Deep Neural Networks on Speech Recognition Systems

The task of automatic speech recognition has traditionally been accomplished by modeling the problem as a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) [1]. Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) have been used to determine how well each state of each HMM fits a frame or a short window of frames of coefficients that represents the acoustic input. However, recent research has shown that current speech recognition systems which use Deep Neural Networks (DNN) with many hidden layers have been shown to outperform GMMs on a variety of speech recognition benchmarks, sometimes by a large margin [2],[3]. We investigate further possible improvements of the DNN­HMM hybrid, by examining the role of forced alignments in the training algorithm.
Tradeoffs between Error Performance and Decoding Complexity in Multilevel 8-PSK Codes with UEP Capabilities and Multistage Decoding

SUMMARY In this paper, we investigate multilevel coding and multistage decoding for satellite broadcasting with moderate decoding complexity. An unconventional signal set partitioning is used to achieve unequal error capabilities. Two possibilities are shown and analyzed for practical systems: (i) linear block component codes with near optimum decoding, (ii) punctured convolutional component codes with a common trellis structure.
An Ising Model Approach to Malware Epidemiology

We introduce an Ising approach to study the spread of malware. The Ising spins up and down are used to represent two states--online and offline--of the nodes in the network. Malware is allowed to propagate amongst online nodes and the rate of propagation was found to increase with data traffic. For a more efficient network, the spread of infection is much slower; while for a congested network, infection spreads quickly.
Learnt Novelty with Overlapping Neural Cell Assemblies

Cell Assemblies (CAs) are central to many higher order cognitive processes such as perception, recognition, and recollection. Concepts are encoded as neuronal CAs in mammalian cortical areas, where CA formation and learning happen based on the Hebbian CA theory. Multiple CAs may share a common subset of neurons that produce dynamics that distinct, localist, orthogonal CAs do not exhibit, such as inherent support for generalisation and learnt novelty. This paper discusses implicit learning of novel behaviour in overlapping CAs, with a simulated agent based on a biologically realistic neural CA model.
Understanding brute force

A properly designed 2-dimensional parallel computer of size n can do both jobs in time n. A serial computer for either problem is much, much, much slower and can’t be much smaller: it needs n serial accesses to n bits of memory. A related myth is that analyzing the time of a computation on a huge serial computer is equivalent to analyzing the price and performance of parallel versions of the same computation. The reality is that parallelization has different effects on different algorithms. When computations that take serial time n are put on a parallel computer of size n, some of them end up taking time n; some of them end up taking time n; some of them end up taking time n; etc. These myths cause three problems in cryptography: