Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A flexible 3d sound system for interactive applications

We have developed a 3D sound system for headphones that allows real-time sound source and user displacement in a virtual acoustic environment. Because of a flexible design that uses different sets of pre-selected, physically modeled filters, the complexity level of simulation can be chosen, making the system adaptable both to available CPU power and to application requirements. No extensive signal processing knowledge is required in order to select the appropriate simulation complexity. A preliminary evaluation involving 4 users showed that the system provides a satisfying localization of sounds and users (even with limited memory and CPU power) while also giving access to low-level control over simulation complexity.
Ethanol Sensitivity of GABAergic Currents in Cerebellar Granule Neurons Is Not Increased by a Single Amino Acid Change (R100Q) in the α6 GABAA Receptor Subunit

Cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs) extrasynaptically express GABAA receptors containing α6βxδ subunits, which mediate tonic inhibitory currents. Although it has been shown that the function of these receptors is potently and directly enhanced by ethanol, this finding has not been reproducible across different laboratories. In outbred Sprague-Dawley rats, a naturally occurring arginine (R) to glutamine (Q) mutation in position 100 of the α6 subunit was reported to increase the ethanol sensitivity of these receptors. However, we did not detect an action of this mutation in selectively bred rats (alcohol-tolerant and alcohol-nontolerant). Consequently, we reexamined the effect of the mutation on ethanol sensitivity in Sprague-Dawley rats. Using patch-clamp electrophysiological techniques in cerebellar vermis parasagittal slices, we found that 25 mM ethanol increases the tonic current amplitude, tonic current noise, and spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic current (sIPSC) frequency to a similar extent in α6-100R/100R and α6-100Q/100Q CGNs. Exposure to 80 mM ethanol increased the tonic current amplitude to a significantly greater extent in α6-100R/100R than in α6-100Q/100Q CGNs; however, the effects of 80 mM ethanol on the tonic current noise and sIPSC frequency were not significantly different between these groups. In the presence of tetrodo-toxin, a non-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, exogenous GABA, and a GABA transporter inhibitor, neither 8 nor 40 mM ethanol consistently affected tonic current amplitude or noise in α6-100R/100R or α6-100Q/100Q CGNs. Thus, the α6-R100Q GABAA receptor subunit polymorphism does not in-crease the acute ethanol sensitivity of extrasynaptic receptors, lending further support to the hypothesis that ethanol modulates these currents indirectly via a presynaptic mechanism.
Generic quantum Fourier transforms

The quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is the principal ingredient of most efficient quantum algorithms. We present a generic framework for the construction of efficient quantum circuits for the QFT by "quantizing" the highly successful separation of variables technique for the construction of efficient classical Fourier transforms. Specifically, we use Bratteli diagrams, Gel'fand-Tsetlin bases, and strong generating sets of small adapted diameter to provide efficient quantum circuits for the QFT over a wide variety of finite Abelian and non-Abelian groups, including all group families for which efficient QFTs are currently known and many new group families. Moreover, our method provides the first subexponential-size quantum circuits for the QFT over the linear groups GLk(q), SLk(q), and the finite groups of Lie type, for any fixed prime power q.
Analyses of C-band microwave backscatter to wind roughened first-year sea ice melt ponds

Variations in wind forcing over summer first-year sea ice (FYI) melt ponds occur at hourly to weekly scales and are a significant contributor to backscatter (/spl sigma//spl deg/) variability observed from space borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) platforms (e.g., ENVISAT-ASAR and RADARSAT-1). This variability impairs our ability to use SAR to derive information on summer sea ice thermodynamic state and energy balance parameters such as albedo and melt pond fraction. The surface roughness contribution to like-polarized, C-band /spl sigma//spl deg/ estimates from FYI melt ponds in the Canadian Arctic is addressed through a spectral and statistical analysis of surface wave height profiles for varying wind speeds, upwind fetch lengths, and melt pond depths. Our hypothesis is that the perturbation of wind-roughened melt pond surfaces to wavelengths that are resonant to C-band SARs is driven by upwind fetch and wind speed. Significant scale surface roughness was observed even at wind speeds of 3 m s/sup -1/ resulting in /spl sigma//spl deg/ (HH) ranging from -6 dB at 20/spl deg/ incidence to -24 dB at 50/spl deg/ incidence. Results from a multivariate linear regression analysis show that 53.4% of observed variance in /spl sigma//spl deg/ (HH or VV) can be explained by wind speed (0.9 m height), upwind fetch from melt pond edges, and depth of melt ponds, with no appreciable difference in the relative contribution of those explanatory variables.
On Hyperpriors and Hypopriors: Comment on Pellicano and Burr

Pellicano and Burr [1] present a compelling explanation for the perceptual symptoms of autism in terms of a failure of Bayesian inference. In this letter, we nuance a few observations relating to the nature of their normative explanation. This leads to the interesting suggestion that autism may be a disorder of metacognition. Normative models – such as the Bayesian brain hypothesis – furnish descriptions of perception or behaviour in terms of optimising something; for example, Bayesian model evidence in the case of the Bayesian brain. The idea presented in [1] is that prior beliefs, which generate top-down predictions, are somehow compromised, leading to increased reliance on bottom-up sensory evidence. To understand the mechanistic implications of this normative explanation, one has to posit a neuronal implementation of Bayesian inference. The most popular implementation of Bayesian inference is predictive coding [2–5]. In this framework, the influence of prior beliefs, relative to sensory evidence, is controlled by the precision (reliability or confidence) of predictions at higher levels of a hierarchical model relative to sensory precision [5]. The precision controls the width of the likelihood of any sensory input (and priors) in exactly the way described in [1]. Statistically speaking, the brain has to estimate precision (cf., expected uncertainty [6]) at each level of the sensorimotor hierarchy. The parameters of these different levels of precision are known as 'hyperpara-meters' and prior beliefs about hyperparameters are called 'hyperpriors' ([5], p. 13). In this context, hyperpriors do not mean an inflation of priors, but rather prior beliefs about hyperparameters: in this particular instance, prior beliefs about the precision of beliefs about the state of the world. We make this point because the term 'hypoprior' introduced in [1] may not be entirely appropriate in the context of hierarchical inference in the brain. In predictive coding, precision is thought to be encoded by the postsynaptic gain of superficial pyramidal cells encoding prediction error [5,7]. This gain corresponds exactly to the synaptic efficacy that underlies the adap-tive changes in connection strengths discussed in [1]. The link between precision in hierarchical inference and synaptic gain provides a graceful and physiologically plausible link between aberrant perception in autism [1] (and schizophrenia [8]) and functional disconnection mediated by neuromodulatory abnormalities [9]. Anchoring the normative Bayesian explanation to its neuronal in-stantiation may be important for empirical studies of autism – when making predictions about psychophysical and electrophysiological responses. For example, it is now …
Ieee Transactions on Software Engineering Skoll: a Process and Infrastructure for Distributed Continuous Quality Assurance

— Software engineers increasingly emphasize agility and flexibility in their designs and development approaches. For example, they increasingly use distributed development teams, rely on component assembly and deployment rather than green field code writing, rapidly evolve the system through incremental development and frequent updating, and use flexible product designs supporting extensive end-user customization. While agility and flexibility have many benefits, they also create an enormous number of potential system configurations built from rapidly changing component implementations. Since today's quality assurance (QA) techniques do not scale to handle highly configurable systems, we are developing and validating novel software QA processes and tools that leverage the extensive computing resources of user and developer communities in a distributed, continuous manner to improve software quality significantly. This paper provides several contributions to the study of distributed, continuous QA (DCQA). First, it shows the structure and functionality of Skoll, which is an environment that defines a generic around-the-world, around-the-clock QA process and several sophisticated tools that support this process. Second, it describes several novel QA processes built using the Skoll environment. Third, it presents two studies using Skoll: one involving user testing of the Mozilla browser and another involving continuous build, integration, and testing of the ACE+TAO communication software package. The results of our studies suggest that the Skoll environment can manage and control distributed continuous QA processes more effectively than conventional QA processes. For example, our DCQA processes rapidly identified problems that had taken the ACE+TAO developers much longer to find and several of which they had not found. Moreover, the automatic analysis of QA task results provided developers information that enabled them to find the root cause of quality problems quickly.
Trehalose 6-phosphate is indispensable for carbohydrate utilization and growth in Arabidopsis thaliana

Genes for trehalose metabolism are widespread in higher plants. Insight into the physiological role of the trehalose pathway outside of resurrection plant species is lacking. To address this lack of insight, we express Escherichia coli genes for trehalose metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana, which manipulates trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) contents in the transgenic plants. Plants expressing otsA [encoding trehalose phosphate synthase (TPS)] accumulate T6P whereas those expressing either otsB [encoding trehalose phosphate phosphatase (TPP)] or treC [encoding trehalose phosphate hydrolase (TPH)] contain low levels of T6P. Expression of treF (encoding trehalase) yields plants with unaltered T6P content and a phenotype not distinguishable from wild type when grown on soil. The marked phenotype obtained of plants accumulating T6P is opposite to that of plants with low T6P levels obtained by expressing either TPP or TPH and consistent with a critical role for T6P in growth and development. Supplied sugar strongly inhibits growth of plants with reduced T6P content and leads to accumulation of respiratory intermediates. Remarkably, sugar improves growth of TPS expressors over wild type, a feat not previously accomplished by manipulation of metabolism. The data indicate that the T6P intermediate of the trehalose pathway controls carbohydrate utilization and thence growth via control of glycolysis in a manner analogous to that in yeast. Furthermore, embryolethal A. thaliana tps1 mutants are rescued by expression of E. coli TPS, but not by supply of trehalose, suggesting that T6P control over primary metabolism is indispensable for development.
Lil3 Assembles with Proteins Regulating Chlorophyll Synthesis in Barley

The light-harvesting-like (LIL) proteins are a family of membrane proteins that share a chlorophyll a/b-binding motif with the major light-harvesting antenna proteins of oxygenic photoautotrophs. LIL proteins have been associated with the regulation of tetrapyrrol biosynthesis, and plant responses to light-stress. Here, it was found in a native PAGE approach that chlorophyllide, and chlorophyllide plus geranylgeraniolpyrophosphate trigger assembly of Lil3 in three chlorine binding fluorescent protein bands, termed F1, F2, and F3. It is shown that light and chlorophyllide trigger accumulation of protochlorophyllide-oxidoreductase, and chlorophyll synthase in band F3. Chlorophyllide and chlorophyll esterified to geranylgeraniol were identified as basis of fluorescence recorded from band F3. A direct interaction between Lil3, CHS and POR was confirmed in a split ubiquitin assay. In the presence of light or chlorophyllide, geranylgeraniolpyrophosphate was shown to trigger a loss of the F3 band and accumulation of Lil3 and geranylgeranyl reductase in F1 and F2. No direct interaction between Lil3 and geranylgeraniolreductase was identified in a split ubiquitin assay; however, accumulation of chlorophyll esterified to phytol in F1 and F2 corroborated the enzymes assembly. Chlorophyll esterified to phytol and the reaction center protein psbD of photosystem II were identified to accumulate together with psb29, and APX in the fluorescent band F2. Data show that Lil3 assembles with proteins regulating chlorophyll synthesis in etioplasts from barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).
Asymptotic behavior of ℓp-based Laplacian regularization in semi-supervised learning

Given a weighted graph with N vertices, consider a real-valued regression problem in a semi-supervised setting, where one observes n labeled vertices, and the task is to label the remaining ones. We present a theoretical study of lp-based Laplacian regularization under a d-dimensional geometric random graph model. We provide a variational characterization of the performance of this regularized learner as N grows to infinity while n stays constant; the associated optimality conditions lead to a partial differential equation that must be satisfied by the associated function estimate f̂ . From this formulation we derive several predictions on the limiting behavior the d-dimensional function f̂ , including (a) a phase transition in its smoothness at the threshold p = d + 1; and (b) a tradeoff between smoothness and sensitivity to the underlying unlabeled data distribution P . Thus, over the range p ≤ d, the function estimate f̂ is degenerate and “spiky,” whereas for p ≥ d + 1, the function estimate f̂ is smooth. We show that the effect of the underlying density vanishes monotonically with p, such that in the limit p = ∞, corresponding to the so-called Absolutely Minimal Lipschitz Extension, the estimate f̂ is independent of the distribution P . Under the assumption of semi-supervised smoothness, ignoring P can lead to poor statistical performance; in particular, we construct a specific example for d = 1 to demonstrate that p = 2 has lower risk than p = ∞ due to the former penalty adapting to P and the latter ignoring it. We also provide simulations that verify the accuracy of our predictions for finite sample sizes. Together, these properties show that p = d + 1 is an optimal choice, yielding a function estimate f̂ that is both smooth and non-degenerate, while remaining maximally sensitive to P .
Distributed Frequency-Locked Loops for Wireless Networks

The establishment of a common frequency reference in a distributed wireless network is a critical factor in enabling cooperative communication strategies. In this paper we employ distributed locked loops to entrain the frequencies of autonomous nodes with wireless communication capabilities. Leveraging recent results from the literature on distributed locked loops, the main problem becomes that of designing local frequency difference detectors. After proposing a novel detector, some insight on the dynamical properties of the overall synchronization system are provided and substantiated through the aid of simulation results.
Prevalence of Panic Disorder in Cardiac Outpatients

Objective: To evaluate outpatients from Toronto-area cardiology clinics for panic disorder (PD) and investigate differences between patients with and without PD. Method: Participants were diagnosed using both standard DSM-IV criteria and an altered formulation that identified a more fearful panic group. Results: There was a prevalence of panic disorder (12.5%) in cardiac outpatients in keeping with previous studies. Patients with PD did not differ significantly from other patients with regard to the presence of significant heart disease. The higher prevalence of palpitations found in patients who met criteria for PD compared with those who did not reflects previous findings. PD cases did not differ significantly in family history from respondents without the disorder, but the more fearful group did (P < 0.05). Conclusion: PD often presents with cardiac symptoms, especially palpitations, and is often comorbid with heart disease.
Predictors of outcome and pathological considerations in the surgical treatment of intractable epilepsy associated with temporal lobe lesions

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the influence of clinical, investigative, and pathological factors on seizure remission after temporal lobectomy for medically intractable epilepsy associated with focal lesions other than hippocampal sclerosis. METHODS From a series of 234 consecutive “en bloc” temporal resections for medically intractable epilepsy performed between 1976 and 1995, neuropathological examination disclosed a focal lesion in 80. The preoperative clinical, neuropsychological, interictal EEG, and neuroimaging characteristics of these patients were assembled in a computerised database. The original neuropathological material was re-examined for lesion classification and completeness of removal. The presence of additional cortical dysplasia and mesial temporal sclerosis was also noted. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplein-Meier curves and actuarial statistics. Logistic regression analysis was used to establish the independent significance of the clinical variables. RESULTS The probability of achieving a 1 year seizure remission was 71% by 5 years of follow up. Factors predicting a poor outcome on multivariate analysis included the need for special schooling and a long duration of epilepsy. Generalised tonic-clonic seizures, interictal EEG discharges confined to the resected lobe, demonstration of the lesion preoperatively on CT, and complete histological resection of the lesion were not predictive of outcome. Neuropsychological tests correctly predicted outcome in left sided cases but apparently congruent findings in right sided resections were associated with a poor outcome. Pathological reclassification established the dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour as the commonest neoplasm (87%) in this series, with a significantly better seizure outcome than for developmental lesions, such as focal cortical dysplasia. CONCLUSIONS The findings highlight the importance of dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour in the pathogenesis of medically refractory lesional temporal lobe epilepsy and the prognostic significance of preoperative duration of epilepsy emphasises the need for early recognition and surgical treatment. Cognitive and behavioural dysfunction, however, is associated with a lower seizure remission rate, independent of duration of epilepsy.
Converse Theorems, Functoriality, and Applications

Converse Theorems traditionally have provided a way to characterize Dirichlet series associated to modular forms in terms of their analytic properties. The prototypical Converse Theorem was due to Hamburger who characterized the Riemann zeta function in terms of its analytic properties [23]. More familiar may be the Converse Theorems of Hecke and Weil. Hecke first proved that Dirichlet series associated to modular forms enjoyed “nice” analytic properties and then proved “Conversely” that these analytic properties in fact characterized modular Dirichlet series [26]. Weil extended this Converse Theorem to Dirichlet series associated to modular forms with level [62]. In their modern formulation, Converse Theorems are stated in terms of automorphic representations instead of modular forms. This was first done by Jacquet and Langlands for GL2 [31]. For GLn, Jacquet, Piatetski-Shapiro, and Shalika have proved that the L-functions associated to automorphic representations have nice analytic properties similar to those of Hecke [32] (see also [15, 9]). The relevant “nice” properties are: analytic continuation, boundedness in vertical strips, and functional equation. Converse Theorems in this context invert this process and give a criterion for automorphy, or modularity, in terms of these L-functions being “nice” [31, 32, 13, 9]. The first application of a Converse Theorem that might come to mind is to the question of modularity of arithmetic or geometric objects. To use the Converse Theorem in this context one must first be able to prove that the Lfunctions of these arithmetic/geometric objects are “nice”. However, essentially the only way to show that an L-function is nice is to have it associated to an automorphic form already! So, on second thought, as a direct tool for establishing modularity the Converse Theorem seems a bit lacking. Instead, the most natural direct application of the Converse Theorem is to Functoriality, in this case the
Falls prevention in residential care homes: a randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE to determine the effect of risk factor modification and balance exercise on falls rates in residential care homes. DESIGN cluster randomised controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS 196 residents (aged 60 years or over) in 20 residential care homes were enrolled (38% response rate). Homes were randomly allocated to intervention and control arms. A total of 102 residents were consigned to the intervention arm and 94 to the control arm. INTERVENTION a multifactorial falls prevention programme including 3 months gait and balance training, medication review, podiatry and optometry. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES number of falls/recurrent falls per person, number of medications per person, and change in Tinetti gait and balance measure. RESULTS in the intervention group there was a mean of 2.2 falls per resident per year compared with 4.0 in the control group; this failed to reach statistical significance (P = 0.2) once the intra-cluster correlation (ICC, 0.10) had been accounted for. Several risk factors were reduced in the intervention arm. CONCLUSIONS falls risk factor reduction is possible in residents of care homes. A modest reduction in falls rates was demonstrated but this failed to reach statistical significance.
On the scheduling algorithm of the dynamically trace scheduled VLIW architecture

In a machine that follows the dynamically trace scheduled VLIW (DTSVLIW) architecture, VLIW instructions are built dynamically through an algorithm that can be implemented in hardware. These VLIW instructions are cached so that the machine can spend most of its time executing VLIW instructions without sacrificing any binary compatibility. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the DTSVLIW instruction-scheduling algorithm by comparing it with the first come first served (FCFS) algorithm, used for microinstruction compaction, and the greedy algorithm, used by the Dynamic Instruction Formatting (DIF) architecture. We also present comparisons between the DTSVLIW, pure VLIW, and the Power PC620 processor. Our results show that the DTSVLIW scheduling algorithm has almost the same performance as the Greedy and FCFS. The results also show that the DTSVLIW performs better than the DIF for important machine configurations, better than pure VLIW implementations in most cases, and better than the Power PC620 using equivalent hardware resources.