Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zero pronoun resolution in Bulgarian

This paper introduces the problem "zero anaphora resolution" in Bulgarian. Different types of subject ellipses in Bulgarian are described. Rules for identification of clauses with zero pronouns in Bulgarian are proposed. The antecedent of the omitted pronoun is determined by combining morphological knowledge, syntactic knowledge and heuristic rules. The future work will be directed to resolution of the anaphor, when it is expressed by personal, reflexive or demonstrative pronoun.
Inferring fitness landscapes by regression produces biased estimates of epistasis

Significance The dynamics of evolution depend on an organism’s fitness landscape: the mapping from genotypes to reproductive capacity. Knowledge of the fitness landscape can help resolve questions, such as how quickly a pathogen will acquire drug resistance or by what pattern of mutations. However, direct measurement of a fitness landscape is impossible because of the vast number of genotypes. Here, we critically examine regression techniques used to approximate fitness landscapes from data. We find that such regressions are subject to two inherent biases that distort the biological quantities of greatest interest, often making evolution seem less predictable than it actually is. We discuss methods that may mitigate these biases in some cases. The genotype–fitness map plays a fundamental role in shaping the dynamics of evolution. However, it is difficult to directly measure a fitness landscape in practice, because the number of possible genotypes is astronomical. One approach is to sample as many genotypes as possible, measure their fitnesses, and fit a statistical model of the landscape that includes additive and pairwise interactive effects between loci. Here, we elucidate the pitfalls of using such regressions by studying artificial but mathematically convenient fitness landscapes. We identify two sources of bias inherent in these regression procedures, each of which tends to underestimate high fitnesses and overestimate low fitnesses. We characterize these biases for random sampling of genotypes as well as samples drawn from a population under selection in the Wright–Fisher model of evolutionary dynamics. We show that common measures of epistasis, such as the number of monotonically increasing paths between ancestral and derived genotypes, the prevalence of sign epistasis, and the number of local fitness maxima, are distorted in the inferred landscape. As a result, the inferred landscape will provide systematically biased predictions for the dynamics of adaptation. We identify the same biases in a computational RNA-folding landscape as well as regulatory sequence binding data treated with the same fitting procedure. Finally, we present a method to ameliorate these biases in some cases.
An efficient probability framework for error propagation and correlation estimation

Soft error is becoming one of the major reliability concerns with continuously shrinking transistor size. Low level transient events may result in multiple correlated bit flips at high level. Considering this correlation effect is essential for accurate error rate estimation and efficient error mitigation. This paper proposes a novel framework to address this correlation issue at logic level. Based on the concept of error propagation function, graph transformation techniques are utilized to convert the error probability and correlation problem into the computation of signal probability and correlation. The experimental results show that compared with Monte-Carlo simulation, our approach is 72× faster, while the average inaccuracy of error probability estimation is below 0.006.
Modulation of Mycobacterium bovis-Specific Responses of Bovine Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells by 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3

ABSTRACT Historically, administration of vitamin D has been considered beneficial in the treatment of tuberculosis. The interaction of this vitamin {i.e., 1,25-dihdroxyvitamin D3[1,25(OH)2D3]} with the antitubercular immune response, however, is not clear. In the present study, in vitro recall responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from cattle infected with Mycobacterium bovis were used to study the immune-modulatory effects of 1,25(OH)2D3 on M. bovis-specific responses in vitro. Addition of 1 or 10 nM 1,25(OH)2D3 inhibited M. bovis-specific proliferative responses of PBMC from M. bovis-infected cattle, affecting predominately the CD4+ cell subset. In addition, 1,25(OH)2D3 inhibited M. bovis-specific gamma interferon (IFN-γ) production yet enhanced M. bovis-specific nitric oxide (NO) production. Lymphocyte apoptosis, measured by flow cytometry using annexin-V staining, was diminished by addition of 1,25(OH)2D3 to PBMC cultures. These findings support the current hypothesis that 1,25(OH)2D3enhances mycobacterial killing by increasing NO production, a potent antimicrobial mechanism of activated macrophages, and suggest that 1,25(OH)2D3 limits host damage by decreasingM. bovis-induced IFN-γ production.
STABLE ORNSTEIN-UHLENBECK PROCESSES

Abstract The solution of the Langevin equation driven by a Lévy process noise has been well studied, under the name of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type process. It is a stationary Markov process. When the noise is fractional Brownian motion, the covariance of the stationary solution process has been studied by the first author with different coauthors. In the present paper, we consider the Langevin equation driven by a linear fractional stable motion noise, which is a selfsimilar process with long-range dependence but does not have finite variance, and we investigate the dependence structure of the solution process.
Everything for Sale? : The marketisation of UK higher education 1980-2012

The marketisation of higher education is a growing worldwide trend. Increasingly, market steering is replacing or supplementing government steering. Tuition fees are being introduced or increased, usually at the expense of state grants to institutions. Grants for student support are being replaced or supplemented by loans. Commercial rankings and league tables to guide student choice are proliferating with institutions devoting increasing resources to marketing, branding and customer service. The UK is a particularly good example of this, not only because it is a country where marketisation has arguably proceeded furthest, but also because of the variations that exist as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increasingly diverge from England. In Everything for Sale, Roger Brown argues that the competitive regime that is now applicable to our Higher Education system was the logical, and possibly inevitable, outcome of a process that began with the introduction of full cost fees for overseas students in 1980. Through chapters including: Markets and Non-Markets The Institutional Pattern of Provision The Funding of Research The Funding of Student Education Quality Assurance The Impact of Marketisation: Efficiency, diversity and equity; He shows how the evaluation and funding of research, the funding of student education, quality assurance, and the structure of the system have increasingly been organised on market or quasi-market lines. As well as helping to explain the evolution of British higher education over the past thirty years, the book contains some important messages about the consequences of introducing or extending market competition in universities' core activities of teaching and research. This timely and comprehensive book is essential reading for all academics at University level and anyone involved in Higher Education policy.
AN IMPROVED ROBUST AND SECURED IMAGE STEGANOGRAPHIC SCHEME

Due to the nature of the current digital world, many techniques have become essential for the protection of secret data. The protection of such secret information has led to the development of different kinds of techniques in different categories. Of all of these, steganography has the advantage of concealing vital information in an imperceptible manner. An improved steganographic system is presented in this paper, which successfully embeds secret data within the frequency domain by modifying the Discrete Cosine Transformation (DCT) coefficients. Based on selection criteria, certain blocks are selected for the concealment of data. To ensure a full recovery for the hidden message, an embedding map is proposed to indicate the selected embedding blocks. To secure the embedding map, SpeedUp Robust Features (SURF) is used to dynamically define the locations in which the embedding map is concealed. In addition, the embedding map is hidden in the frequency domain as well by modifying the Discreet Wavelet Transformation (DWT) coefficients in a content-based manner. The obtained results show the robustness of the proposed system against Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and JPEG compression attacks. Moreover, the resultant stego-images demonstrate good visual quality in terms of Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR). Nevertheless, the hiding capacity which is achieved is still limited due to the fact that only part of the image serves to hide the embedding map.
Singular compactifications and cosmology

We summarize our recent results of studying five-dimensional Kasner cosmologies in a time-dependent Calabi-Yau compactification of Mtheory undergoing a topological flop transition. The dynamics of the additional states, which become massless at the transition point and give rise to a scalar potential, helps to stabilize the moduli and triggers short periods of accelerated cosmological expansion.
Contributions of Fusarium virguliforme and Heterodera glycines to the Disease Complex of Sudden Death Syndrome of Soybean

Background Sudden death syndrome (SDS) of soybean caused by Fusarium virguliforme spreads and reduces soybean yields through the North Central region of the U.S. The fungal pathogen and Heterodera glycines are difficult to manage. Methodology/Principal Findings The objective was to determine the contributions of H. glycines and F. virguliforme to SDS severity and effects on soybean yield. To quantify DNA of F. virguliforme in soybean roots and soil, a specific real time qPCR assay was developed. The assay was used on materials from soybean field microplots that contained in a four-factor factorial-design: (i) untreated or methyl bromide-fumigated; (ii) non-infested or infested with F. virguliforme; (iii) non-infested or infested with H. glycines; (iv) natural precipitation or additional weekly watering. In years 2 and 3 of the trial, soil and watering treatments were maintained. Roots of soybean ‘Williams 82’ were collected for necrosis ratings at the full seed growth stage R6. Foliar symptoms of SDS (area under the disease progress curve, AUDPC), root necrosis, and seed yield parameters were related to population densities of H. glycines and the relative DNA concentrations of F. virguliforme in the roots and soil. The specific and sensitive real time qPCR was used. Data from microplots were introduced into models of AUDPC, root necrosis, and seed yield parameters with the frequency of H. glycines and F. virguliforme, and among each other. The models confirmed the close interrelationship of H. glycines with the development of SDS, and allowed for predictions of disease risk based on populations of these two pathogens in soil. Conclusions/Significance The results modeled the synergistic interaction between H. glycines and F. virguliforme quantitatively in previously infested field plots and explained previous findings of their interaction. Under these conditions, F. virguliforme was mildly aggressive and depended on infection of H. glycines to cause highly severe SDS.
Statistics of Correlated Generalized Gamma Variates

In this paper the most important statistical metrics of the product and the ratio of two correlated Generalized Gamma (GG) random variables (RV)s, raised to an arbitrary power, are studied. The probability density function (PDF) and the cumulative distribution function (CDF) have been derived in most cases in closed form. Moreover, an upper bound for the CDF of the sum of the two correlated GG RVs has been also obtained. Finally several numerical evaluated results have been also obtained.
Yearling scrotal circumference prediction equation and age adjustment factors for various breeds of beef bulls

Scrotal circumference measurements and other data were collected on 4,218 Angus, Red Angus, Brangus, Charolais , Gelbvieh, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Limousine, Salers, and Simmental bulls born in the spring of 1991. All were participants in selected on-farm and central bull tests. Our objectives for the study were to develop 205-and 365-day age-adjust-ment factors for scrotal circumference and derive a 365-day scrotal circumference prediction equation based on adjusted 205-day scrotal circumference. We determined that a 205-day scrotal circumfer ence of approximately 21 cm is necessary to reach 32 cm at 1 year. Age-of-da m adjustment factor for 205-day scrotal circumference is +. 8 cm for 2-and 3-year-old dams. The factor for 365-day circumference is +. 6 cm for 2-year-old dams.
Novel Visceral-Anastomosis-First Approach in Open Repair of a Ruptured Type 2 Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Causes behind a Mortal Outcome

Case reports to analyze causes and possible prevention of complications in a new setting are important. We present an open repair of a ruptured type 2 thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm in a 78-year-old man. Lower-body perfusion through a temporary extracorporeal axillobifemoral arterial prosthesis shunt was combined with the use of a branch to the permanent aortic prosthesis to enable rapid visceral revascularization using a visceral-anastomosis-first approach. The patient died due to transfusion-induced capillary leak syndrome and left colon necrosis; the latter was probably caused by a combination of back-bleeding from lumbar arteries causing a steal effect, an accidental shunt obstruction, and hemodynamic instability towards the end of the operation. The visceral-anastomosis-first approach did not contribute to the complications. This approach reduces the time when visceral organs are perfused only via collateral arteries to the time needed for suturing the visceral anastomoses. This may be important when collateral perfusion is marginal.
Opioid Receptors in the Nucleus Accumbens Regulate Attentional Learning in the Blocking Paradigm

Fear learning depends on prediction error, or the discrepancy between the actual and expected outcome of a conditioning trial. These experiments used blocking and unblocking designs to study the role of opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens (Acb) in predictive fear learning. Previous fear conditioning to a context blocked later fear conditioning to a conditioned stimulus (CS) in that context. Fear learning proceeded normally (i.e., unblocking occurred) if the CS signaled a more intense footshock than was used during previous context conditioning. Blocking and unblocking were mediated by Acb opioid receptors. Acb microinjections of a nonselective opioid receptor agonist prevented blocking, whereas a nonselective antagonist prevented unblocking. Examination of the associative mechanism for blocking and unblocking revealed that Acb opioid receptors mediate indirect predictive learning by controlling learned variations in attention. μ-Opioid and κ-opioid receptors contribute to this learned regulation of attention because Acb microinjections of a μ-opioid receptor agonist impaired, whereas a κ-opioid receptor agonist facilitated, blocking. Acb microinjections of a μ-opioid receptor antagonist also prevented unblocking. Microinjections of a δ-opioid receptor agonist or antagonist were without effect on blocking and unblocking. Our data show that the Acb mediates attentional selection between competing predictors of motivationally significant events to enable learning about the best predictor of such events at the expense of worse predictors. During fear learning, Acb μ-opioid receptors upregulate attention to conditioned stimuli that are predictive of shock, whereas κ-opioid receptors downregulate attention to conditioned stimuli that are redundant or noninformative predictors of shock.
An approach towards improved cyber security by hardware acceleration of OpenSSL cryptographic functions

Providing improved Information Security to the rapidly developing Cybernet System has become a vital factor in the present technically networked world. The information security concept becomes a more complicated subject when the more sophisticated system requirements and real time computation speed are considered. In order to solve these issues, lots of research and development activities are carried out and cryptography has been a very important part of any communication system in the recent years. Cryptographic algorithms fulfil specific information security requirements such as data integrity, confidentiality and authenticity. This work proposes an FPGA-based VLSI Crypto-System, integrating hardware that accelerates the cryptographic algorithms used in the SSL/TLS protocol. SSL v3 and TLS v1 protocol is deployed in the proposed system powered with a Nios-2 soft-core processor. The cipher functions used in SSL-driven connection are the Scalable Encryption Algorithm (SEA), Message Digest Algorithm (MD5), Secured Hash Algorithm (SHA2). These algorithms are accelerated in the VLSI Crypto-System that is on an Altera Cyclone III FPGA DE2 development board. The experimental results shows that, by hardware acceleration of SEA, MD5 and SHA2 cryptographic algorithms, the VLSI Crypto-System performance has increased in terms of speed, optimized area and enhanced level security for the target Cybernetic application.
Pruning Boltzmann networks and hidden Markov models

We present sensitivity-based pruning algorithms for general Boltzmann networks. Central to our methods is the efficient calculation of a second-order approximation to the true weight saliencies in a cross-entropy error. Building upon previous work which shows a formal correspondence between linear Boltzmann chains and hidden Markov models (HMMs), we argue that our method can be applied to HMMs as well. We illustrate pruning on Boltzmann zippers, which are equivalent to two HMMs with cross-connection links. We verify that our second-order approximation preserves the rank ordering of weight saliencies and thus the proper weight is pruned at each pruning step. In all our experiments in small problems, pruning reduces the generalization error; in most cases the pruned networks facilitate interpretation as well.
Involvement of stress-released corticotropin-releasing hormone in the basolateral amygdala in regulating memory consolidation

It is well established that adrenal stress hormone-induced activation of the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) influences memory consolidation. The present experiments investigated the involvement of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in the BLA in modulating memory consolidation. Bilateral infusions of the CRH receptor antagonist [9–41]-α-helical CRH (0.3, 1.0, or 3.0 μg in 0.2 μl) administered into the BLA of male Sprague–Dawley rats immediately after aversively motivated inhibitory avoidance training produced dose-dependent impairment of 48-h retention performance. Because the CRH receptor antagonist infusions did not impair retention when administered into the BLA 3 h after training, the retention impairment selectively was due to time-dependent influences on memory consolidation. Furthermore, because immediate posttraining infusions of [9–41]-α-helical CRH into the adjacent central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA) were ineffective, the effect selectively involved the BLA. Immunocytochemistry showed that the aversive training stimulus of a single, brief footshock increased CRH levels in the CEA. These findings indicate that activation of CRH receptors in the BLA, likely by training-induced release of endogenous peptide originating from the CEA, participates in mediating stress effects on memory consolidation.
Cdc14: a highly conserved family of phosphatases with non-conserved functions?

CDC14 was originally identified by L. Hartwell in his famous screen for genes that regulate the budding yeast cell cycle. Subsequent work showed that Cdc14 belongs to a family of highly conserved dual-specificity phosphatases that are present in a wide range of organisms from yeast to human. Human CDC14B is even able to fulfill the essential functions of budding yeast Cdc14. In budding yeast, Cdc14 counteracts the activity of cyclin dependent kinase (Cdk1) at the end of mitosis and thus has important roles in the regulation of anaphase, mitotic exit and cytokinesis. On the basis of the functional conservation of other cell-cycle genes it seemed obvious to assume that Cdc14 phosphatases also have roles in late mitosis in mammalian cells and regulate similar targets to those found in yeast. However, analysis of the human Cdc14 proteins (CDC14A, CDC14B and CDC14C) by overexpression or by depletion using small interfering RNA (siRNA) has suggested functions that are quite different from those of ScCdc14. Recent studies in avian and human somatic cell lines in which the gene encoding either Cdc14A or Cdc14B had been deleted, have shown – surprisingly – that neither of the two phosphatases on its own is essential for viability, cell-cycle progression and checkpoint control. In this Commentary, we critically review the available data on the functions of yeast and vertebrate Cdc14 phosphatases, and discuss whether they indeed share common functions as generally assumed.
WCIT-2010 Evaluation of fractal dimension estimation methods for feature extraction in motor imagery based brain computer interface

A brain computer interface (BCI) enables direct communication between a brain and a computer translating brain activity into computer commands usi ng preprocessing, feature extraction and classification operations. Feature extraction is crucial as it has a substantial effect on the classification accuracy and speed. While fractal dimension has been successfully used in various domains to characterize data exhibiting fractal properties, its usage in motor imagery based BCI has been more recent. There are several fractal dimension estimation methods, some of which are not applicable to all types of data exhibiting fractal properties. In this study, commonly used fractal dimension estimation methods to characterize time series (Katz's method, Higuchi's method and the rescaled range method) were evaluated for feature extraction in motor imagery based BCI by conducting offline analyses of a two class motor imagery dataset. Different classifiers (fuzzy k nearest neighbors (FKNN), support vector machine and linear discriminant analysis) were tested in combination with these methods to determine the methodology with the best performance. This methodology was then modified by implementing the time dependent fractal dimension (TDFD), differential fractal dimension and differential signals methods to determine if the results could be further improved. Katz’s method with FKNN resulted in the highest classification accuracy (of 85%), and further improvements (by 3 %) were achieved by implementing the TDFD method. The results point to Katz’s method with FKNN as a favorable methodology for motor imagery based BCI and warrant further research to implement this methodology in online analysis of motor imagery data and analysis of other signals.
Insider trading among central bankers: A treatise on temptation and policy choice

Corruption among central banks induces distorted policies by, first, increasing the inflation bias and, second, potentially inducing a pro-cyclical adjustment of employment. In response to a negative supply shock a corrupt central banker is tempted to decrease money supply. In this case, he pretends an ultraconservative attitude while in reality he is driven by self interest. If societies with extreme tastes (relating only to inflation or employment) are not governed by central bankers with similar preferences, corruption might be tolerated as an instrument of bringing factual policies more in line with its public desire. This finding provides a warning signal against the choice of non-representative central bankers.