Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Author Verification Approach Based on Differential Features: Notebook for PAN at CLEF 2015

We describe the approach that we submitted to the 2015 PAN competition [7] for the author identification task. The task consists in determining if an unknown document was authored by the same author of a set of documents with the same author. We propose a machine learning approach based on a number of different features that characterize documents from widely different points of view. We construct non-overlapping groups of homogeneous features, use a random forest regressor for each features group, and combine the output of all regressors by their arithmetic mean. We train a different regressor for each language. Our approach achieved the first position in the final rank for the Spanish language.
Charge pump with perfect current matching characteristics in phase-locked loops

Conventional CMOS charge pump circuits have some current mismatching characteristics. The current mismatch of the charge pump in the PLLs generates a phase offset, which increases spurs in the PLL output signals. In particular, it reduces the locking range in wide range PLLs with a dual loop scheme. A new charge pump circuit with perfect current matching characteristics is proposed. By using an error amplifier and reference current sources, one can achieve a charge pump with good current matching characteristics. It shows nearly perfect current matching characteristics over the whole VCO input range, and the amount of the reference spur is <-75 dBc in the PLL output signal. The charge pump circuit is implemented in a 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS process.
Extended Term tXSchema uses SAX Parsing Partially

Wide Web Consortium recommendation for XML Schema illustrates the structure and data types of XML document. tXSchema could be a framework for the creation and validation of time variable documents. All parts of tXSchema changes over time to replicate changes reference world of information. tXSchema could be a model for making temporal Schema from base Schema, logical and Physical Annotations. We also describe how the validator can be extended (temporal validator) to validate documents in this seeming uncertain situation of data that vary across time while its corresponding schema and even its representation are also varies. Since many applications require to keep tracks of the Schema, data evaluation, which suggested a need of versioning. When system is working with huge versions of schema as well as xml data files here we are specially focusing on how to minimize processing time by using SAX parser's partial involvement with conventional DOM parser. In this paper we deal with versioning in tXSchema model, more precisely here we propose a set of Schema change primitive for the maintenance of logical and physical annotations and define their operational perspectives and also minimizes processing time.
Surface current retrieval from TerraSAR-X data using Doppler measurements

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the estimation of surface currents directly on stripmap TerraSAR-X data, as an alternative to Along Track Interferometry. The algorithm relies on efficient baseband magnitude-based Doppler estimation, preventing the estimate from possible biases like azimuth ambiguities and strong target reflections. The validation of the algorithm is made with acquisitions over the Elbe estuary river in Germany and the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.
Implications of Population History of European Romani on Genetic Susceptibility to Disease

Objectives: The population history of European Romani is characterized by extensive bottleneck and admixture events, but the impact of this unique demographic history on the genetic risk for disease remains unresolved. Methods: Genome-wide SNP data on Romani, non-Romani Europeans and Indians were analyzed. The excess of homozygous variants in Romani genomes was assessed according to their potential functional effect. We also explored the frequencies of risk variants associated with five common diseases which are present at an increased prevalence in Romani compared to other Europeans. Results: Slightly deleterious variants are present at increased frequencies in European Romani, likely a result of relaxed purifying selection due to bottlenecks in their population history. The frequencies of SNPs associated with common metabolic and cardiovascular diseases are also increased compared to their European hosts. Conclusions: As observed in other founder populations, we confirm the impact of bottlenecks on the abundance of slightly deleterious variants in Romani groups, probably including metabolic and cardiovascular risk variants.
Subcortical representation of speech fine structure relates to reading ability

Impaired perception of consonants by poor readers is reflected in poor subcortical encoding of speech timing and harmonics. We assessed auditory brainstem representation of higher harmonics within a consonant-vowel formant transition to identify relationships between speech fine structure and reading. Responses were analyzed in three ways: a single stimulus polarity, adding responses to inverted polarities (emphasizing low harmonics), and subtracting responses to inverted polarities (emphasizing high harmonics). Poor readers had a reduced representation of higher speech harmonics for subtracted polarities and a single polarity. No group differences were found for the fundamental frequency. These findings strengthen the evidence of subcortical encoding deficits in poor readers for speech fine structure and delineate effective strategies for capturing these neural impairments in humans.
Segmentation d'orthophotoplans et invariants colorimétriques pour la détection de toitures

In this paper, a segmentation method based on the watershed algorithm using an optimal gradient and colorimetic invariant is presented. This segmentation technique is used in the context of roof detection in orthophotoplans images. To achieve that, eight gray level gradients, six color gradients and 24 colorimetric invariant are tested on a database of 67 roofs. The results shows the quality of the segmentation according to the gradient/colorimetric invariant used. To conclude, the best gradient/colorimetric invariant for roofs detection is given.
Optimal Joint CFO and Channel Estimation in Quasi-Synchronized OFDM Systems

This paper addresses the problem of joint estimation of carrier frequency offset (CFO) and frequency-selective channel in quasi-synchronized orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Two equivalent signal models with embedded timing ambiguity are introduced first, and then two joint CFO and channel estimators are derived from the Maximum Likelihood (ML) criterion. The first estimator obtained is a joint estimator for timing, CFO and channel, which needs a two dimension search for parameter estimation. The second estimator has a reduced complexity, but its performance slightly degrades compared with the first estimator due to more unknown parameters required to be estimated. We analyze and compare the MSE performance of the two estimators and find that when the number of subcarriers is large, the two estimators are equivalent.
Mechanistic and structural studies on legumain explain its zymogenicity, distinct activation pathways, and regulation

The cysteine protease legumain plays important functions in immunity and cancer at different cellular locations, some of which appeared conflicting with its proteolytic activity and stability. Here, we report crystal structures of legumain in the zymogenic and fully activated form in complex with different substrate analogs. We show that the eponymous asparagine-specific endopeptidase activity is electrostatically generated by pH shift. Completely unexpectedly, the structure points toward a hidden carboxypeptidase activity that develops upon proteolytic activation with the release of an activation peptide. These activation routes reconcile the enigmatic pH stability of legumain, e.g., lysosomal, nuclear, and extracellular activities with relevance in immunology and cancer. Substrate access and turnover is controlled by selective protonation of the S1 pocket (KM) and the catalytic nucleophile (kcat), respectively. The multibranched and context-dependent activation process of legumain illustrates how proteases can act not only as signal transducers but as decision makers.
Synergistic interaction of dietary cholesterol and dietary fat in inducing experimental steatohepatitis

The majority of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have “simple steatosis,” which is defined by hepatic steatosis in the absence of substantial inflammation or fibrosis and is considered to be benign. However, 10%‐30% of patients with NAFLD progress to fibrosing nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is characterized by varying degrees of hepatic inflammation and fibrosis, in addition to hepatic steatosis, and can lead to cirrhosis. The cause(s) of progression to fibrosing steatohepatitis are unclear. We aimed to test the relative contributions of dietary fat and dietary cholesterol and their interaction on the development of NASH. We assigned C57BL/6J mice to four diets for 30 weeks: control (4% fat and 0% cholesterol); high cholesterol (HC; 4% fat and 1% cholesterol); high fat (HF; 15% fat and 0% cholesterol); and high fat, high cholesterol (HFHC; 15% fat and 1% cholesterol). The HF and HC diets led to increased hepatic fat deposition with little inflammation and no fibrosis (i.e., simple hepatic steatosis). However, the HFHC diet led to significantly more profound hepatic steatosis, substantial inflammation, and perisinusoidal fibrosis (i.e., steatohepatitis), associated with adipose tissue inflammation and a reduction in plasma adiponectin levels. In addition, the HFHC diet led to other features of human NASH, including hypercholesterolemia and obesity. Hepatic and metabolic effects induced by dietary fat and cholesterol together were more than twice as great as the sum of the separate effects of each dietary component alone, demonstrating significant positive interaction. Conclusion: Dietary fat and dietary cholesterol interact synergistically to induce the metabolic and hepatic features of NASH, whereas neither factor alone is sufficient to cause NASH in mice. (HEPATOLOGY 2013)
On the validity of Gaussian approximation to characterize the multiuser capacity of UWB TH PPM

Ultra-wideband time hopping binary pulse position modulation performance in a free space propagation condition is analyzed. An analytic expression for the bit error rate is obtained, in terms of signal energy-noise power spectral density ratio (E/sub x//N/sub 0/), number of users, bit rate and impulse characteristics. Multiple access interference is assumed to be a zero mean Gaussian process. Theoretical results are compared with simulation analysis and the validity of the Gaussian hypothesis is discussed.
The yields of Streptococcus faecalis grown in continuous culture.

SUMMARY: Streptococcus faecalis has been grown anaerobically in continuous culture on a denned medium. Under these conditions it is possible to maintain (a) the glucose concentration, (b) the tryptophan concentration, and (c) the generation time at predetermined values, and to study the effects of changes in these variables on the culture. When growth was limited by the glucose supply, the glucose yield constant (dry weight of cells formed/weight of glucose used) was greater than when tryptophan was limiting. The glucose yield constant under conditions of tryptophan limitation progressively fell with increasing supplies of glucose until it reached a minimum value. Under conditions of tryptophan limitation and large excess of glucose, the amount of glucose used per unit weight of cells per unit time remained roughly constant irrespective of growth rate. It is concluded that the needs of cell synthesis in S. faecalis do not control the rate of glucose breakdown, i.e. the rate of the energy-yielding metabolism. At slow growth rates the end products of glucose metabolism included volatile fatty acids, which were not present, or present in small amounts, at faster growth rates.
An Interactive Approach for Filtering Out Junk Images From Keyword-Based Google Search Results

The keyword-based Google images search engine is now becoming very popular for online image search. Unfortunately, only the text terms that are explicitly or implicitly linked with the images are used for image indexing but the associated text terms may not have exact correspondence with the underlying image semantics, thus the keyword-based Google images search engine may return large amounts of junk images which are irrelevant to the given keyword-based queries. Based on this observation, we have developed an interactive approach to filter out the junk images from keyword-based Google images search results and our approach consists of the following major components. a) A kernel-based image clustering technique is developed to partition the returned images into multiple clusters and outliers. b) Hyperbolic visualization is incorporated to display large amounts of returned images according to their nonlinear visual similarity contexts, so that users can assess the relevance between the returned images and their real query intentions interactively and select one or multiple images to express their query intentions and personal preferences precisely. c) An incremental kernel learning algorithm is developed to translate the users' query intentions and personal preferences for updating the mixture-of-kernels and generating better hypotheses to achieve more accurate clustering of the returned images and filter out the junk images more effectively. Experiments on diverse keyword-based queries from Google images search engine have obtained very positive results. Our junk image filtering system is released for public evaluation at: http://www.cs. uncc.edu/~jfan/google-demo/.
Habitat Facteur 4. Etude d'une réduction des émissions de CO2 liées au confort thermique dans l'habitat à l'horizon 2050

L'exercice consiste a identifier differentes trajectoires d'une division par 4 des emissions de dioxyde de carbone dues a la consommation energetique des residences principales, pour les deux postes du chauffage et de la production d'eau chaude sanitaire, en s'appuyant sur les meilleures technologies disponibles ou susceptibles de se generaliser avant 2050. (Extrait)
The mafic–ultramafic complex of Salem, southern India: An analogue for Neoproterozoic Alaskan‐type complex

The Salem Mafic–Ultramafic Complex occurs within the northern part of Cauvery Suture Zone (CSZ), Southern Granulite Terrane (SGT), India. The complex occurs as semicircular to elongated linear body with a thick mantle section and comparatively well‐developed crustal section comprising different lithological units, also referred to as the Chalk Hills of Salem. The major rock types in the complex comprise ultramafic cumulates of dunite, peridotite, wherlite, pyroxenite, and hornblendite, mafic and felsic intrusions of gabbros and amphibolites, and quartzo–feldspathic alkaline rocks together with several ultrapotassic dykes. Geochemical studies of amphibolites from this complex indicate tholeiitic parent magma with enrichment of LIL elements (Rb, Ba, Th, and Sr) and are relatively more enriched than N‐MORB as compared with arc‐related rocks. The enrichment of LIL elements over the HFS elements and with distinct Nb, Ta, and Ti depletion relative to other HFS elements suggest the involvement of subduction‐related components in the depleted mantle source and that the magmatism occurred in an oceanic convergent realm. The mineral chemistry of dunite and peridotite shows high content of forsterite (86.9–92.2) in olivine and high Cr# value (80.85–98.73) for spinel. The tectonic discrimination plots of spinel and olivine mineral chemistry together with clinopyroxene chemistry of amphibolites reveal arc signature typical of Alaskan type of complex. The U–Pb zircon analysis of quartz monzonite intrusion within the hornblendite from the complex yielded a weighted mean age of 819 ± 2.4 Ma, suggesting that the complex formed during the Neoproterozoic and can be correlated to the Alaskan‐type complexes described from the Arabian–Nubian Shield.
Organizational probes: exploring playful interactions in work environment

Playfulness, with non-intrusive elements, can be considered a useful resource for enhancing social awareness and community building within work organizations. Taking inspirations from the cultural probes approach, we developed organizational probes as a set of investigation tools that could provide useful information about employees' everyday playful experiences within their work organizations. In an academic work environment, we applied our organizational probes over a period of three weeks. Based on the collected data we developed two design concepts for playful technologies in work environments.
PME-1-Producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Qatar

The novel extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) PME-1 was first described in 2010 in an isolate from a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain obtained from multiple clinical specimens from a single patient admitted to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2008. The patient had had a prolonged period
Estimating Urban Traffic Congestions with Multi-sourced Data

This paper studies the novel problem of more accurately estimating urban traffic congestions by integrating sparse probe data and traffic related information collected from social media. Limited by the lack of reliability and low sampling frequency of GPS probes, probe data are usually not sufficient for fully estimating traffic conditions of a large arterial network. To address the data sparsity challenge, we extensively collect and model traffic related data from multiple data sources. Besides the GPS probe data, we also extensively collect traffic related tweets that report various traffic events such as congestion, accident, and road construction from both traffic authority accounts and general user accounts from Twitter. To further explore other factors that might affect traffic conditions, we also extract auxiliary information including road congestion correlations, social events, road features, as well as point of interest (POI) for help. To integrate the different types of data coming from different sources, we finally propose a coupled matrix and tensor factorization model to more accurately complete the very sparse traffic congestion matrix by collaboratively factorizing it with other matrices and tensors formed by other data. We evaluate the proposed model on the arterial network of downtown Chicago with 1257 road segments. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model by comparison with previous approaches.
Book Reviews: Learning to Classify Text Using Support Vector Machines: Methods, Theory and Algorithms by Thorsten Joachims; Anaphora Resolution by Ruslan Mitkov

Those trying to make sense of the notion of textual content and semantics within the wild, wild world of information retrieval, categorization, and filtering have to deal often with an overwhelming sea of problems. The really strange story is that most of them (myself included) still believe that developing a linguistically principled approach to text categorization is an interesting research problem. This will also emerge in the discussion of the book that is the focus of this review. Learning to Classify Texts Using Support Vector Machines by Thorsten Joachims proposes a theory for automatic learning of text categorization models that has been repeatedly shown to be very successful. At the same time, the approach proposed is based on a rather rough linguistic generalization of (what apparently is) a language-dependent task: topic text classification (TC). The result is twofold: on the one hand, a learning theory, based on statistical learnability principles and results, that avoids the limitations of the strong empiricism typical of most text classification research; and on the other hand, the application of a naive linguistic model, the bag-of-words representation, to linguistic objects (i.e., the documents) that still achieves impressive accuracy.
The atypical amino‐terminal LPNTG‐containing domain of the pneumococcal human IgA1‐specific protease is required for proper enzyme localization and function

Streptococcus pneumoniae produces a zinc metalloproteinase, Iga, which cleaves human immunoglobulin A1 (IgA1), and whose activity is predominantly localized to the bacterial surface. However, proper surface localization is not predicted using current models, as the LPNTG sorting motif is located atypically near the amino‐ rather than the carboxy‐terminus. The cell‐associated form of Iga was confirmed to be external to the bacterial membrane, and while bound tightly, its attachment to the cell wall is non‐covalent, but dependent on both a complete LPNTG sequence and sortase activity. Disruption of the region between the signal peptidase cleavage site and the LPNTG domain resulted in a localization defect, premature degradation, and an alteration of the ability of the enzyme to act on a monoclonal human IgA1 substrate and to enhance bacterial adherence, linking localization to enzyme function. Edman sequencing of cell‐associated Iga determined that the enzyme is processed at an unexpected site downstream of the sorting signal yet still associates with the bacterial surface. Our results indicate a non‐covalent re‐association between the carboxy‐terminal enzymatic domain and the cleaved, sorted amino‐terminal localization domain. This amino‐terminal motif is shared among the other zinc metalloproteinases in streptococci and suggests a novel conserved mechanism for the surface localization of protease activity.