Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Future of Small Farms for Poverty Reduction and Growth

A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment " is an initiative of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to develop a shared vision and consensus for action on how to meet future world food needs while reducing poverty and protecting the environment. 2020 Discussion Papers present technical research results that encompass a wide range of subjects drawn from research on policy-relevant aspects of agriculture, poverty, nutrition, and the environment. They contain materials that IFPRI believes are of key interest to those involved in addressing emerging food and development problems. The views expressed in this paper, which has undergone peer review, are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily endorsed by or representative of IFPRI or of the cosponsoring or supporting organizations.
Using Prediction to Improve Network Intrusion Detection Performance

Signature-based and anomaly/behavioral detection offer complementary approaches with respect to precision and recall. My current research effort focuses on signature-based detection due to the need for significant expansion of Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) coverage while maintaining precision and improving performance. Modern NIDS offer precise detection of known threats but suffer poor recall and poor coverage of new threats and polymorphic variants. My research focuses on three complementary techniques to achieving better coverage, performance, and scalability for NIDS: partitioning of large-scale decision procedures into semantic equivalence classes; prediction of equivalence class likelihoods based on known priors; and decision procedure assignment to in-situ information streams to improve performance. These refinements allow us to “bootstrap” and improve detector performance by (counter-intuitively) expanding IDS coverage. The predictor is then used to perform an an intelligent prioritization of future IDS rule applications which results in better performance per signature.
Facial expression analysis

Facial expressions refer to movements of the mimetic musculature of the face. The vast majority of these muscles are innervated by the VIIth cranial nerve, emanating from the brainstem between the pons and medulla (Figure 1). The nerve includes a motor root that supplies somatic muscle fibers to the muscles of the face, scalp, and outer ear, enabling the muscle movements that comprise facial expressions. The sensory part of the nerve enables and augments some aspects of taste and sound (Standring, 2005).
French Foreign investment in the late 19 th Century ; A Modern Portfolio Theory Analysis 1

In this paper we analyze the reasons of French capital export to Russia during the late 19th century. Using the Modern Portfolio Theory we show that the French investors had understood the underlying notions of international portfolio diversification. So in order to maximize their portfolio’s performance they choose to invest also in foreign securities and this almost 50 years before the formal development of optimal portfolio theory by Markowitz. Our results show that although between the foreign securities the German debt would get a significantly higher meanvariance optimized portfolio performance but probably because of the hostile atmosphere toward Germany in France during this period this security was excluded from the French portfolios. JEL classification: N23, O16, G11.
The dynamic adjustment of the U . S . mortgage rate

Potential asymmetries in the relationship between the U.S. mortgage rate and the Federal Funds rate are explored. In contrast to previous studies which have failed to detect evidence of asymmetric adjustment, the present analysis is based upon examination of the differential between the series. Using a recently proposed GLS-based MTAR unit root test, overwhelming evidence of asymmetric behaviour in the interest rate differential is detected. Further analysis using asymmetric error correction models shows (i) the Federal Funds rate to be weakly exogenous with respect to the mortgage rate, (ii) short-run mutual dependence to exist between the series in the form of bidirectional Granger causality, and (iii) the mortgage rate to exhibit asymmetrical behaviour with differing speeds of adjustment detected in response to changes in the interest rate differential. The asymmetry detected is in the form of adjustment occurring more rapidly when the change in the mortgage-Federal Funds rate falls below a derived threshold. The implications of this newly detected asymmetry for monetary policy transmission are noted.
Efficient Multimedia Broadcast for heterogeneous users in cellular networks

Efficient Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS) to heterogeneous users in cellular networks imply adaptive video encoding, layered multimedia transmission, optimized transmission parameters, and dynamic broadcast area definition. This paper deals with MBMS by proposing a multi-dimensional approach for broadcast area definition, which provides an effective solution to all of the above aspects. By using multi-criteria K-means clustering, our scheme provides users with high levels of Quality-of-Experience (QoE) of multimedia services. Adaptive video encoding and allocation of radio resources (i.e., time-frequency resource blocks, and modulation and coding scheme) are performed based on user spatial distribution, channel conditions, service request, and user display capabilities. Simulation results show that our solution provides a 70% improvement in user QoE and 86% in number of served customers, as compared to an existing multimedia broadcast scheme.
Local methods The local approach estimates the topological dimension ( defined as the basis dimension of the tangent space of the data manifold ) from the information contained in sample neigh

A central issue in dimension reduction is choosing a sensible number of dimensions to be retained. This work demonstrates the asymptotic consistency of the maximum likelihood criterion for determining the intrinsic dimension of a dataset in a isotropic version of Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (PPCA). Numerical experiments on simulated and real datasets show that the maximum likelihood criterion can actually be used in practice and outperforms existing intrinsic dimension selection criteria in various situations. This paper exhibits as well the limits of the maximum likelihood criterion and recommends in specific situations the use of the AIC criterion.
Immunoadsorption in nephrology and kidney transplantation.

Immunoadsorption finds incremental implementation in the treatment of several autoimmune disorders as well as for kidney transplant indications (see Table 1). As opposed to plasmapheresis, immunoadsorption allows not only a more specific but also a more effective clearance of circulating immunoglobulins without the side effects associated with the substitution of fresh frozen plasma or albumin. In addition, even multiple plasma volumes may be processed, and a reduction of immunoglobulins of 80% and more is feasible [1]. However, one has to consider that plasmapheresis is not only utilized for removal of immunoglobulins but also for the substitution of different plasma components such as ADAMTS-13 in the case of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura [2]. Therefore, plasma infusion itself may have beneficial effects independent of the removal of circulating pathogenic substances. The use of plasmapheresis for the treatment of different kidney diseases remains controversial due to a lack of randomized controlled trials demonstrating the benefit of this procedure. This applies even more to immunoadsorption. However, for some indications especially in the field of kidney transplantation, there is now growing evidence pointing to the large potential of this treatment modality. This editorial comment will focus on the available evidence on immunoadsorption in kidney diseases and kidney transplant indications.
Detection and Subversion of Virtual Machines

Recent virtual machines have been designed to take advantage of run-time information to provide various services including dynamic optimization, instrumentation, and enforcement of security policies. While these systems must run in the same user space as the program running under their control, they must remain as transparent as possible so as to prevent affecting the correctness of the guest program. However, the virtual machine must store its own code and program state as well as information about the guest program. This data, stored in the program’s user space, may lead to gaps in transparency that can be used to detect their presence. Additionally, while many virtual machines have a smaller code base than operating systems, they may still contain their own unique errors and security holes. This research shows that it is possible to use different run-time clues to detect the existence of several common virtual machines. Further, information about the existence of these virtual machines can be used to attack the system. As a result, this paper presents countermeasures that should be taken by designers of these systems to prevent detection and attacks.
Picornavirus Subversion of the Autophagy Pathway

While autophagy has been shown to act as an anti-viral defense, the Picornaviridae avoid and, in many cases, subvert this pathway to promote their own replication. Evidence indicates that some picornaviruses hijack autophagy in order to induce autophagosome-like membrane structures for genomic RNA replication. Expression of picornavirus proteins can specifically induce the machinery of autophagy, although the mechanisms by which the viruses employ autophagy appear to differ. Many picornaviruses up-regulate autophagy in order to promote viral replication while some members of the family also inhibit degradation by autolysosomes. Here we explore the unusual relationship of this medically important family of viruses with a degradative mechanism of innate immunity.
Stosowanie pregabaliny w leczeniu uogólnionych zaburzeń lękowych. Czy należy bać się wysokich dawek

Marcin Wojtera1, Tomasz Sobów1,2 © Medical Communications Sp. z o.o. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND). Reproduction is permitted for personal, educational, non-commercial use, provided that the original article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited. Received: 10.05. 2016 Accepted: 23.05. 2016 Published: 09.06. 2016 © Psychiatr Psychol Klin 2016, 16 (2), p. 91–98 DOI: 10.15557/PiPK.2016. 0013 Marcin Wojtera, Tomasz Sobów
Modification of aerosol mass and size distribution due to aqueous‐phase SO2 oxidation in clouds: Comparisons of several models

[1] Models of aerosol scavenging and aqueous-phase oxidation of SO2 by H2O2 and O3 in a cloud updraft are compared. Bulk models considering only a single droplet size are compared with size-resolved models that explicitly simulate multiple aerosol and drop sizes. All models simulate growth of cloud drops on a lognormal ammonium bisulfate aerosol distribution, and subsequent aqueous-phase chemistry during adiabatic ascent. In agreement with earlier published studies, it is found that relative to bulk models, the size-resolved cloud chemical models consistently calculate 2–3 times more oxidation via the SO2 + O3 pathway, due to calculated variability of cloud water pH among cloud drops. All models calculate high scavenging of the input dry aerosol mass, but the calculated number of cloud drops formed varies from 275–358 drops cm−3. Differences in the calculated number of cloud drops formed result from the treatment of gaseous species uptake, solution thermodynamics, applied water condensation mass accommodation coefficient, and bin size range definitions over which the input aerosol distribution is numerically approximated. The difference in calculated cloud drop number can under many conditions propagate to appreciable variations in cloud albedo. It is found that the modifications to the aerosol size and mass spectrum are sensitive to the number of cloud drops formed, and differences in the processed aerosol spectra were found to induce up to 13% differences in calculated light extinction properties of the modified particle distributions. These significant discrepancies among cloud aerosol chemistry interaction models, even when used to simulate relatively simple conditions, suggest that parameterizations of these processes used in larger-scale cloud, regional and longer-term climate models can contain high levels of uncertainty.
Lipid regulation of cell membrane structure and function

Recent studies of structure‐function relationships in biological membranes have revealed fundamental concepts concerning the regulation of cellular membrane function by membrane lipids. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the roles played by two membrane lipids: cholesterol and phosphatidylethanolamine. Cholesterol has been shown to regulate ion pumps, which in some cases show an absolute dependence on cholesterol for activity. These studies suggest that an essential role that cholesterol plays in mammalian cell biology is to enable crucial membrane enzymes to provide function necessary for cell survival. Studies of phosphatidylethanolamine regulation of membrane protein activity and regulation of membrane morphology led to hypotheses concerning the roles for this particular lipid in biological membranes. New information on lipid‐protein interactions and on the nature of the lipid head groups has permitted the development of mechanistic hypotheses for the regulation of membrane protein activity by phosphatidylethanolamine. In addition, intermediates in the lamellarnonlamellar phase transitions of membrane systems containing phosphatidylethanolamine, or other lipids with similar properties, have recently been implicated in facilitating membrane fusion. Finally, studies of transmembrane movement of lipids have provided new insight into the regulation of membrane lipid asymmetry and the biogenesis of cell membranes. These kinds of studies are harbingers of a new generation of progress in the field of cell membranes. —Yeagle, P. L. Lipid regulation of cell membrane structure and function. FASEB J. 3: 1833‐1842; 1989.
An Automatic decission support system for medical instrument suppliers using fuzzy multifactor based approach

Most products are inspected for flaws several times during the manufacturing process. For this purpose, object detection is a very fundamental task in most of the image analysis applications. Most of the existing methods for low-level object detection perform color similarity and histogram similarity based approach in the 2-D image space. In this paper, a multi-factorial based approach has been proposed where the decision taking process involves a fuzzy mechanism based on weighted values of different parameters.
Software-Based Packet Capturing with High Precision Timestamping for Linux

Widely used network measurement applications, such as tcpdump and Wireshark, use the same common libpcap packet capture library. Libpcap assigns a 10-6 second precision timestamp to all processed frames. Higher physical bandwidth implies shorter inter-arrival times between consecutive frames. Therefore timestamp precision must be proportional to the link speed. Latest version 1.0. x of libpcap provides 10-6 second native resolution, however pcap format supports a larger 2 x 32-bit timestamp value for each stored packets. On Gigabit Ethernet or faster networks, timestamp resolution that works in the microsecond domain may not enable us to precisely reproduce the time-domain relation between consecutive frames. Therefore overall analysis of the data transmission could drive to a false result. Independently from one other, five impact factors could directly bias the generation of timestamps: hardware architecture, NIC driver operation mode, clock source, kernel queue handler and the libpcap itself. In an idealized case generated timestamps are always converging and suitably close to the real arrival or transmission time of each frames so to conserve the original inter-arrival time values. For packet capturing with libpcap, it is assumed that timestamping performed when a frame is enqueued to the kernel’s input packet queue. Accordingly these timestamps represents the time moment when a frame reaches the input queue. Libpcap must retrieve these timestamps from the kernel. Timestamp resolution of network measurement applications must be increased according to the requirements of advanced high speed data networks. In our paper we are going to show an alternative libpcap-based solution that features nanosecond precision timestamping.
F-quasigroups and generalized modules

In math.GR/0510298, we showed that every F-quasigroup is linear over a special kind of Moufang loop called an NK-loop. Here we extend this relationship by showing an equivalence between the equational class of (pointed) F-quasigroups and the equational class corresponding to a certain notion of generalized module (with noncommutative, nonassociative addition) for an associative ring.
Molecular and geographic patterns of tuberculosis transmission after 15 years of directly observed therapy.

CONTEXT Recent studies suggest that one third of tuberculosis cases in urban areas result from recent transmission. Improved tuberculosis control measures such as uniform implementation of directly observed therapy might reduce the proportion of cases resulting from recent transmission. OBJECTIVE To determine patterns of tuberculosis transmission in Baltimore, Md, after 15 years of community-based directly observed therapy. DESIGN A 30-month (January 1994-June 1996), prospective, city-wide study of all cases of tuberculosis using traditional contact investigations, geographic information systems data, and molecular epidemiologic comparison of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates with 2 DNA probes. PATIENTS One hundred eighty-two patients with culture-positive tuberculosis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Proportion of disease defined as recently transmitted based on epidemiologic linkage by traditional contact tracing and molecular linkage by DNA fingerprint analysis of isolates; geographic foci of transmission based on linkage of residences by geographic information systems data. RESULTS Of the 182 patients who had isolates of M tuberculosis available, 84 (46%) showed molecular clustering with 58 (32%) defined as being recently transmitted. Only 20 (24%) of 84 cases with clustered DNA fingerprints had epidemiologic evidence of recent contact. Geographic analysis showed significant spatial aggregation of the 20 clustered cases with epidemiologic links (P<.001), occurring in areas of low socioeconomic status and high drug use. The 64 cases with clustered DNA fingerprints but without epidemiologic links shared common risk factors and demographic features with the 20 clustered patients who did have epidemiologic links. CONCLUSIONS Recently transmitted tuberculosis accounts for a high proportion of tuberculosis cases in Baltimore. Recently transmitted cases occur in geographically distinct areas of Baltimore, and location-based control efforts may be more effective than contact tracing for the early identification of cases.
Near-Infrared Adaptive Optics Imaging of QSO Host Galaxies

We report near-infrared (primarily H band) adaptive optics (AO) imaging with the Gemini-N and Subaru Telescopes, of a representative sample of 32 nearby (z < 0.3) QSOs selected from the Palomar-Green (PG) Bright Quasar Survey (BQS), in order to investigate the properties of the host galaxies. Two-dimensional modeling and visual inspection of the images shows that ~36% of the hosts are ellipticals, ~39% contain a prominent disk component, and ~25% are of undetermined type. Thirty percent show obvious signs of disturbance. The mean MH(host) = -24.82 (2.1L), with a range -23.5 to -26.5 (~0.63L to 10L). At 2L most are ellipticals. "Disturbed" hosts are found at all MH(host), while "strongly disturbed" hosts appear to favor the more luminous hosts. Hosts with prominent disks have less luminous QSOs, while the most luminous QSOs are almost exclusively in ellipticals or in mergers (which presumably shortly will be ellipticals). At z < 0.13, where our sample is complete at B band, we find no clear correlation between MB(QSO) and MH(host). However, at z > 0.15, the more luminous QSOs (MB < -24.7), and four of five of the radio-loud QSOs, have the most luminous H-band hosts (>7L), most of which are ellipticals. Finally, we find a strong correlation between the "infrared excess," LIR/LBB, of QSOs with host type and degree of disturbance. Disturbed and strongly disturbed hosts and hosts with dominant disks have LIR/LBB twice that of nondisturbed and elliptical hosts, respectively. QSOs with disturbed and strongly disturbed hosts are also found to have morphologies and mid/far-infrared colors that are similar to what is found for "warm" ultraluminous infrared galaxies, providing further evidence for a possible evolutionary connection between both classes of objects.
Visualization Metaphors for Multi-modal Meeting Data

The MISTRAL system, a service oriented architecture for semantic extraction of multimedia data from meeting recordings is described shortly. It improves on other similar systems by extracting a variety of semantic metadata from one media type and integrating it with concepts derived from other media types, as well as by adding inference capabilities to resolve ambiguities and further enrich extracted data. On top of this state-of-the-art extraction functionality a number of semantic-based, cross-modal visual applications for exploration and retrieval of extraction results were developed. Three selected applications, implemented upon the MISTRAL’s semantic application architecture, are presented and described into detail in this paper.
Detecting chaos from a time series

The chaotic behaviour of a driven resonant circuit is studied directly from the experimental data. We use basic nonlinear time series analysis methods that are appropriate for undergraduate courses. Mutual information and false nearest neighbours are explained in detail, and used to obtain the best possible attractor reconstruction. For the reconstructed attractor, a determinism test is performed and the largest Lyapunov exponent is calculated. We show that the largest Lyapunov exponent is positive, which is a strong indicator for the chaotic behaviour of the system. To help the reader reproduce our results and to facilitate further applications on other experimental systems, we provide user-friendly programs with graphical interface for each implemented method on our Web page.