Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The ‘wet mind’: water and functional neuroimaging

Functional neuroimaging has emerged as an important approach to study the brain and the mind. Surprisingly, although they are based on radically different physical approaches both positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) make brain activation imaging possible through measurements involving water molecules. So far, PET and MRI functional imaging have relied on the principle that neuronal activation and blood flow are coupled through metabolism. However, a new paradigm has emerged to look at brain activity through the observation with MRI of the molecular diffusion of water. In contrast with the former approaches diffusion MRI has the potential to reveal changes in the intrinsic water physical properties during brain activation, which could be more intimately linked to the neuronal activation mechanisms and lead to an improved spatial and temporal resolution. However, this link has yet to be fully confirmed and understood. To shed light on the possible relationship between water and brain activation, this introductory paper reviews the most recent data on the physical properties of water and on the status of water in biological tissues, and evaluates their relevance to brain diffusion MRI. The biophysical mechanisms of brain activation are then reassessed to reveal their intimacy with the physical properties of water, which may come to be regarded as the ‘molecule of the mind’.
Orbifolds as diffeologies

We consider orbifolds as diffeological spaces. This gives rise to a natural notion of differentiable maps between orbifolds, making them into a subcategory of diffeology. We prove that the diffeological approach to orbifolds is equivalent to Satake’s notion of a V-manifold and to Haefliger’s notion of an orbifold. This follows from a lemma: a diffeomorphism (in the diffeological sense) of finite linear quotients lifts to an equivariant diffeomorphism.
A Mean Field Model for Species Abundance

In this paper, we use the multitype mean field voter model as a model of species interaction, to obtain results about species abundance. Briefly, we start with the complete graph on n vertices, Cn, with each site occupied by a particle. Particles are represented by a value in (0;1), where distinct values represent dierent species. Particles then undergo mutation at rate fi, and are relabelled with a value chosen uniformly from (0;1). Particles also give birth at rate 1, and invade any of the other n sites randomly. This process has a unique stationary distribution denoted by » n , which is given by the Ewens sampling formula. For each value in (0;1) that is present in » n 1, we count the number of particles represented by the same value, and call that the patch size of the species. Let Kn[a;b] denote the number of species with patch size in [a;b]. We study the limiting distribution of Kn[a;b], for certain values of a and b, as the mutation rate fi tends to 0, which will in turn force n ! 1.
Measuring the Software Product Quality during the Software Development Life-Cycle: An ISO Standards Perspective

: Problem statement: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published a set of international standards related to the software engineering, such as ISO 12207 and ISO 9126. However, there is a set of cross-references between the two standards. Approach: The ISO 9126 on software product quality and ISO 12207 on software life cycle processes had been analyzed to invistigate the relationships between them and to make a mapping from the ISO 9126 quality characteristics to the ISO 12207 activities and vers versa. Results: This study presented a set of comments and suggestions to improve the ISO 9126. Conclusion: The weaknesses of the cross-references between the two ISO standards had been highlighted. In addition, this study provided a number of comments and suggestions to be taken into account on the next version of the ISO 9126 international standard.
The ( hopefully ) Definitive Guide to Coordinate Systems and Transformation in the Low Energy Hall A Experiments

In the upcoming polarized beam Hall A experiment the polarization of a detected proton (or deuteron) is measured in the Focal Plane Polarimeter (FPP) installed in the detector stack of the left HRS. As the name implies the FPP measures the polarization components of the detected particle in the focal plane using the coordinate system of the FPP (see 2.4). The physics observables, however are calculated by theorists in different coordinate system depending on the reaction under study. It is therefore necessary to perform a coordinate transformation on the extracted polarization in order to allow comparison with the theory (it should also be noted that since the definition of the FPP coordinate system varies per event, the calculation needs to be performed on an event by event basis, or at least for small bins, before the extraction of the polarization components). The transformation from the frame in which the physics observables are reported (henceforth the ”physics frame”) and the FPP proceeds through the transport (HRS) frame and the spin transport matrix which rotates the spin of the detected particle on the magnetic field of the HRS. In total the polarization of the detected particle in the FPP may be written as:
Demonstration abstract: Crowdsourced indoor localization and navigation with Anyplace

In this demonstration paper, we present the Anyplace system that relies on the abundance of sensory data on smartphones (e.g., WiFi signal strength and inertial measurements) to deliver reliable indoor geolocation information. Our system features two highly desirable properties, namely crowdsourcing and scalability. Anyplace implements a set of crowdsourcing-supportive mechanisms to handle the enormous amount of crowdsensed data, filter incorrect user contributions and exploit WiFi data from heterogeneous mobile devices. Moreover, Anyplace follows a big-data architecture for efficient and scalable storage and retrieval of localization and mapping data.
Write-aware buffer cache management scheme for nonvolatile RAM

Nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) technology is advancing rapidly with 1-2Mb capacity single-chip prototypes becoming available from major semiconductor companies. We will soon see NVRAM become an everyday component of our commodity computers. This paper explores the use of NVRAM as part of the buffer cache. A nonvolatile buffer cache provides a computer system with a means to maintain complete consistency as well as improved performance. The results of this paper can be summarized as follows. First, we show that the hit ratio that has been a commonly used metric to measure buffer cache performance is no longer adequate for caches with NVRAM. Instead of the hit ratio, we need to count the number of disk accesses to assess user perceived cache performance. Second, we show that because of this change in performance metric, when managing a buffer cache with NVRAM, one can do better than when using the MIN replacement algorithm mainly by distinguishing read and write operations. With this, we show that there is room for improvement in efficiently handling caches with NVRAM. Finally, based on these findings, we propose a simple and practical buffer management technique that improves on using the LRU algorithm.
Semantic role labeling using Chinese dependency parsing tree

Although recent years have seen much progress in semantic role labeling in English, only a little research focuses on Chinese dependency relationship. This paper presents an SRL system on Chinese dependency relation by using the similar method in an English SRL system. We also explore dependency-based predicate analysis in Chinese SRL. We perform our experiments on two datasets. Our results show that dependency-based Chinese SRL is not only feasible but also superior to the constituent-based SRL in some respects.
Accelerometer Cut Points for Physical Activity Assessment of Older Adults with Parkinson’s Disease

Objective To define accelerometer cut points for different walking speeds in older adults with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease. Method A volunteer sample of 30 older adults (mean age 73; SD 5.4 years) with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease walked at self-defined brisk, normal, and slow speeds for three minutes in a circular indoor hallway, each wearing an accelerometer around the waist. Walking speed was calculated and used as a reference measure. Through ROC analysis, accelerometer cut points for different levels of walking speed in counts per 15 seconds were generated, and a leave-one-out cross-validation was performed followed by a quadratic weighted Cohen’s Kappa, to test the level of agreement between true and cut point–predicted walking speeds. Results Optimal cut points for walking speeds ≤ 1.0 m/s were ≤ 328 and ≤ 470 counts/15 sec; for speeds > 1.3 m/s, they were ≥ 730 and ≥ 851 counts/15 sec for the vertical axis and vector magnitude, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity were 61%–100% for the developed cut points. The quadratic weighted Kappa showed substantial agreement: κ = 0.79 (95% CI 0.70–0.89) and κ = 0.69 (95% CI 0.56–0.82) for the vertical axis and the vector magnitude, respectively. Conclusions This study provides accelerometer cut points based on walking speed for physical-activity measurement in older adults with Parkinson’s disease for evaluation of interventions and for investigating links between physical activity and health.
Beyond Counting Climate Consensus

ABSTRACT Several studies have been using quantified consensus within climate science as an argument to foster climate policy. Recent efforts to communicate such scientific consensus attained a high public profile but it is doubtful if they can be regarded successful. We argue that repeated efforts to shore up the scientific consensus on minimalist claims such as “humans cause global warming” are distractions from more urgent matters of knowledge, values, policy framing and public engagement. Such efforts to force policy progress through communicating scientific consensus misunderstand the relationship between scientific knowledge, publics and policymakers. More important is to focus on genuinely controversial issues within climate policy debates where expertise might play a facilitating role. Mobilizing expertise in policy debates calls for judgment, context and attention to diversity, rather than deferring to formal quantifications of narrowly scientific claims.
H I shells in the outer Milky Way

We present results of a method for an automatic search for Hi shells in 3D data cubes and apply it to the Leiden-Dwingeloo Hi survey of the northern Milky Way. In the 2nd Galactic quadrant, where identifications of structures are not substantially influenced by overlapping, we find nearly 300 structures. The Galactic distribution of shells has an exponential profile in the radial direction with a scale length of σ gsh = 3 kpc. In the z direction, one half of the shells are found at distances smaller than 500 pc. We also calculate the energies necessary to create the shells: there are several structures with energies greater than 10E SN but only one with an energy exceeding 100E SN . Their size distribution, corrected for distance effects, is approximated by a power-law with an index α = 2.1. Our identifications provide a lower limit to the filling factor of shells in the outer Milky Way: f 2D = 0.4 and f 3D = 0.05.
A tracking method of end-effectors in a vision-based marker-free motion capture system

We describe a tracking method for analyzing 3D motions of human in a real-time vision-based marker-free motion capturing system. We capture human motions by using three synchronized color CCD cameras when an actor wearing normal clothes without any attached marker. We obtain the 2D positions of blobs such as the head, the hands, the feet and the root of an actor to use in a proposed tracking method. Then, this proposed tracking method reconstructs end-effectors having 3D coordinates from 2D blob data by using a grouping and an epipolar constraint. For correct tracking of freely moving end-effectors in real-time, we apply the spatial and temporal analysis to each 3D end-effector to distinguish right and left directions, restore a disappeared or an occluded end-effectors. Finally, we generate a 3D virtual human having 20 joints that moves like real human by using an inverse kinematics method in real-time.
Unimodal Bandits: Regret Lower Bounds and Optimal Algorithms

We consider stochastic multi-armed bandits where the expected reward is a unimodal function over partially ordered arms. This important class of problems has been recently investigated in (Cope, 2009; Yu & Mannor, 2011). The set of arms is either discrete, in which case arms correspond to the vertices of a finite graph whose structure represents similarity in rewards, or continuous, in which case arms belong to a bounded interval. For discrete unimodal bandits, we derive asymptotic lower bounds for the regret achieved under any algorithm, and propose OSUB, an algorithm whose regret matches this lower bound. Our algorithm optimally exploits the unimodal structure of the problem, and surprisingly, its asymptotic regret does not depend on the number of arms. We also provide a regret upper bound for OSUB in nonstationary environments where the expected rewards smoothly evolve over time. The analytical results are supported by numerical experiments showing that OSUB performs significantly better than the state-of-the-art algorithms. For continuous sets of arms, we provide a brief discussion. We show that combining an appropriate discretization of the set of arms with the UCB algorithm yields an order-optimal regret, and in practice, outperforms recently proposed algorithms designed to exploit the unimodal structure.
Dispersy Bundle Synchronization

In this technical report we present Dispersy, a fully decentralized system for data bundle synchronization, capable of running in challenged network environments. Key features of Dispersy are stateless synchronization using Bloomfilters, decentralized NAT traversal, and data bundle selection algorithms that allow the system to scale over 100,000 bundles in the presence of high churn and high-load scenario’s. The versatility and good performance of Dispersy is shown by comparing it to Cassandra using the Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB). We have modified YCSB as to include nodes randomly joining and leaving, a kind of behaviour that is very typical in challenged network environments. Furthermore, we integrated Dispersy in the BitTorrent client Tribler and show that it is performing very well in various real-time challenged network scenario’s (3G and WIFI).
Stability analysis of genetic regulatory networks with time-varying delay via new convex combination technique

A new methodology is presented for the stability problem of genetic networks with time-varying delay in the current article. Novel stability criteria with delay dependency in terms of linear matrix inequalities for gene regulatory nets are derived by the proposed augmented Lyapunov-Krasovski (L-K) functional. Our proof deployment applies the technique of second order convex combination, and the property of quadratic convex function without resort to Jensen's inequality.
The Challenge of Energy Management - Status-Quo and Perspectives for Reference Models

Energy management is one of the great challenges of the industry in the next years. Energy becomes more and more to a critical resource. Until now, enterprises need to implement energy management system with nearly no guidance. In the following paper we present the foundation of a reference model-based method that serves for setting up energy management systems in various industrial sectors. The goal is to support reduction emission and cost reduction as well as certification needs. In contrast to previous approaches, this approach enables a model-based certification and allows an automation of activities of the process of supervision of the consumption of energy and the appropriate reengineering of business processes.
Cd8 Expression up to the Double-Positive CD3Low/Intermediate Stage of Thymic Differentiation Is Sufficient for Development of Peripheral Functional Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes

Control of CD8α transcription during development of α/β T cell receptor (TCR) T lymphocytes is mediated by at least two distinct stage-specific cis-acting transcriptional mechanisms (i.e., enhancers). On the CD8α−/−knockout (KO) background, cis-mechanism I and cis-mechanism II together mediate appropriate stage- and sublineage-specific transgenic (Tg) CD8α expression and “rescue” development of peripheral CD8+ single-positive (SP) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). In contrast, on the wild-type (WT)/CD8+/+ or CD8α−/−KO backgrounds, a CD8α Tg directed by cis-mechanism I alone is activated during the double negative [DN] to double positive [DP] transition and expressed up to the CD3low/intermediate DP stage but not in more mature DP or SP thymocytes or peripheral T cells. As loss of cis mechanism I activity occurs around the onset of positive selection, it is possible that events associated with TCR/major histocompatibility complex (MHC) interactions and selection are involved in initiating these changes in CD8α transcription. To examine this issue, phenotypic and functional studies were performed for thymocytes and T cells of CD8α−/−KO mice that expressed a CD8α Tg under control of cis-mechanism I only. Despite loss of CD8α expression at the DP CD3low/intermediate stage, increased populations of mature CD3hiCD4−CD8− thymocytes and CD3+CD4−CD8− peripheral T cells were detected. By several criteria, including MHC class I–restricted antigen recognition, these cells have at least partially undergone positive and negative selection. Therefore, initiation of selection and sublineage commitment are determined before loss of cis-mechanism I–mediated control of CD8α transcription. Further, CD8 expression beyond the CD3low/intermediate DP thymic stage is not essential for CTL development in vivo or function.
Statistical Methods for Analyzing Tissue Microarray Images - Algorithmic Scoring and Co-training

Recent advances in tissue microarray technology have allowed immunohistochemistry to become a powerful medium-to-high throughput analysis tool, particularly for the validation of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. However, as study size grows, the manual evaluation of these assays becomes a prohibitive limitation; it vastly reduces throughput and greatly increases variability and expense. We propose an algorithm—Tissue Array Co-Occurrence Matrix Analysis (TACOMA)—for quantifying cellular phenotypes based on textural regularity summarized by local inter-pixel relationships. The algorithm can be easily trained for any staining pattern, is absent of sensitive tuning parameters and has the ability to report salient pixels in an image that contribute to its score. Pathologists’ input via informative training patches is an important aspect of the algorithm that allows the training for any speciﬁc marker or cell type. With co-training, TACOMA can be trained with a radically small training sample (e.g., with size 30). We give theoretical insights into the success of co-training via thinning of the feature set in a high dimensional setting when there is “suﬃcient” redundancy among the features. TACOMA is ﬂex-ible, transparent and provides a scoring process that can be evaluated with clarity and conﬁdence. In a study based on an estrogen receptor (ER) marker, we show that TACOMA is comparable to, or outperforms, pathologists’ performance in terms of accuracy and repeatability.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy with Youth

Abstract Cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs) with children and adolescents use enactive, performance-based procedures, as well as cognitive interventions to produce changes in thinking, feeling, and behavior. Various forms of CBT have a common goal to help the child develop a constructive worldview and a problem-solving attitude. The problem-solving orientation can also be referred to as a "coping template. " Through the provision of carefully planned experiences, CBT helps the child and family build an adaptive, problem-solving perspective.
Automatic creation of 3D facial models

Model-based encoding of human facial features for narrowband visual communication is described. Based on an already prepared 3D human model, this coding method detects and understands a person's body motion and facial expressions. It expresses the essential information as compact codes and transmits it. At the receiving end, this code becomes the basis for modifying the 3D model of the person and thereby generating lifelike human images. The feature extraction used by the system to acquire data for regions or edges that express the eyes, nose, mouth, and outlines of the face and hair is discussed. The way in which the system creates a 3D model of the person by using the features extracted in the first part to modify a generic head model is also discussed. <<ETX>>
Cyclooxygenases, Thromboxane, and Atherosclerosis: Plaque Destabilization by Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibition Combined With Thromboxane Receptor Antagonism

Background—Antagonism or deletion of the receptor (the TP) for the cyclooxygenase (COX) product thromboxane (Tx)A2, retards atherogenesis in apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE KO) mice. Although inhibition or deletion of COX-1 retards atherogenesis in ApoE and LDL receptor (LDLR) KOs, the role of COX-2 in atherogenesis remains controversial. Other products of COX-2, such as prostaglandin (PG) I2 and PGE2, may both promote inflammation and restrain the effects of TxA2. Thus, combination with a TP antagonist might reveal an antiinflammatory effect of a COX-2 inhibitor in this disease. We addressed this issue and the role of TxA2 in the promotion and regression of diffuse, established atherosclerosis in Apobec-1/LDLR double KOs (DKOs). Methods and Results—TP antagonism with S18886, but not combined inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2 with indomethacin or selective inhibition of COX-2 with Merck Frosst (MF) tricyclic, retards significantly atherogenesis in DKOs. Although indomethacin depressed urinary excretion of major metabolites of both TxA2, 2,3-dinor TxB2 (Tx-M), and PGI2, 2,3-dinor 6-keto PGF1&agr; (PGI-M), only PGI-M was depressed by the COX-2 inhibitor. None of the treatments modified significantly the increase in lipid peroxidation during atherogenesis, reflected by urinary 8,12-iso-iPF2&agr;-VI. Combination with the COX-2 inhibitor failed to augment the impact of TP antagonism alone on lesion area. Rather, analysis of plaque morphology reflected changes consistent with destabilization of the lesion coincident with augmented formation of TxA2. Despite a marked effect on disease progression, TP antagonism failed to induce regression of established atherosclerotic disease in this model. Conclusions—TP antagonism is more effective than combined inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2 in retarding atherogenesis in Apobec-1/LDLR DKO mice, which perhaps reflects activation of the receptor by multiple ligands during disease initiation and early progression. Despite early intervention, selective inhibition of COX-2, alone or in combination with a TP antagonist, failed to modify disease progression but may undermine plaque stability when combined with the antagonist. TP antagonism failed to induce regression of established atherosclerotic disease. TP ligands, including COX-1 (but not COX-2)–derived TxA2, promote initiation and early progression of atherogenesis in Apobec-1/LDLR DKOs but appear unimportant in the maintenance of established disease.
Distinguishing Primitive Permutation Groups

Let G be a permutation group acting on a set V. A partitionof V is distinguishing if the only element of G that fixes each cell ofis the identity. The distinguishing number of G is the minimum number of cells in a distinguishing partition. We prove that if G is a primitive permutation group and j V j � 336, its distinguishing number is two.