Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Data Stream Clustering: A Fast EM-based Approach

Clustering data streams has been attracting a lot of research efforts recently. However, this problem has not received enough consideration when the data streams are generated in a distributed fashion, whereas such a scenario is very common in real life applications. There exist constraining factors in clustering the data streams in the distributed environment: the data records generated are noisy or incomplete due to the unreliable distributed system; the system needs to on-line process a huge volume of data; the communication is potentially a bottleneck of the system. All these factors pose great challenge for clustering the distributed data streams. In this paper, we proposed an EM-based (Expectation Maximization) framework to effectively cluster the distributed data streams, with the above fundamental challenges in mind. In the presence of noisy or incomplete data records, our algorithms learn the distribution of underlying data streams by maximizing the likelihood of the data clusters. A test-and-cluster strategy is proposed to reduce the average processing cost, which is especially effective for online clustering over large data streams. Our extensive experimental studies show that the proposed algorithms can achieve a high accuracy with less communication cost, memory consumption and CPU time.
Comment on "Temporal modulation transfer functions in patients with cochlear implants" [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91,2156-2164 (1992)].

Shannon [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91, 2156–2164 (1992)] reports a strong decrease of modulation detection thresholds with cochlear implant patients for an increase of the stimulus level. His conclusion that this result differs from the findings for acoustical stimulation in normal‐hearing subjects needs some clarification. His statement about acoustic stimulation is based on modulation detection measurements for noise carriers, where, indeed, thresholds in normal‐hearing subjects are nearly independent of level, at least for carrier levels of more than 20 dB SL. For sinusoidal carriers, however, the modulation detection thresholds decrease with increasing carrier levels over the entire hearing range, similar to his findings with implant listeners.
Taxanes in the management of gynecologic malignancies

The taxanes (paclitaxel and docetaxel) currently play an important role in the managment of cancers of the ovary, uterus and cervix. In each of these gynecologic malignancies, the drugs are routinely employed in combination with a platinum agent, although when delivered as single agents they may provide substantial palliative benefit. It is important to recognize that despite the documented major utility of this class of agents in the treatment of gynecologic cancers, many highly relevant questions remain, including determining optimal drug delivery schedules, the duration of treatment and the role of regional paclitaxel administration.
FTIR Microspectroscopy Coupled with Two-Class Discrimination Segregates Markers Responsible for Inter- and Intra-Category Variance in Exfoliative Cervical Cytology

Infrared (IR) absorbance of cellular biomolecules generates a vibrational spectrum, which can be exploited as a “biochemical fingerprint” of a particular cell type. Biomolecules absorb in the mid-IR (2–20 μm) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy applied to discriminate different cell types (exfoliative cervical cytology collected into buffered fixative solution) was evaluated. This consisted of cervical cytology free of atypia (i.e. normal; n = 60), specimens categorised as containing low-grade changes (i.e. CIN1 or LSIL; n = 60) and a further cohort designated as high-grade (CIN2/3 or HSIL; n = 60). IR spectral analysis was coupled with principal component analysis (PCA), with or without subsequent linear discriminant analysis (LDA), to determine if normal versus low-grade versus high-grade exfoliative cytology could be segregated. With increasing severity of atypia, decreases in absorbance intensity were observable throughout the 1,500 cm–1 to 1,100 cm–1 spectral region; this included proteins (1,460 cm–1), glycoproteins (1,380 cm–1), amide III (1,260 cm–1), asymmetric (νas) PO2– (1,225 cm–1) and carbohydrates (1,155 cm–1). In contrast, symmetric (νs) PO2–(1,080 cm–1) appeared to have an elevated intensity in high-grade cytology. Inter-category variance was associated with protein and DNA conformational changes whereas glycogen status strongly influenced intra-category. Multivariate data reduction of IR spectra using PCA with LDA maximises inter-category variance whilst reducing the influence of intra-class variation towards an objective approach to class cervical cytology based on a biochemical profile.
An open embedded industrial robot hardware and software architecture applied to position control and visual servoing application

This paper presents an open embedded hardware and software architecture for industrial robot control applied to visual servoing system. This architecture is a hardware and software co-design where embedded processors drive the FPGA for motor control. It is robot type independent, as long as the motors are equipped with incremental position encoders and driven by PWM signals. Low cost, low power consumption, high stability, flexibility and expandability are the key advantages. The architecture and related IP cores are developed through a component-based design model which interprets a mechatronic system by computation, communication, configuration and coordination components, together with composition of these components and blackboxes. The motor controller IP core is provided in the consistency of open hardware. Open software implies the use of OROCOS (Bruyninckx, 2001). The performance of visual servoing behaviour is evaluated by visual coupling of a Performer MK2 robot and a KUKA lightweight robot.
Intelligibility of Excerpts from Fluent Speech: Effects of Rate of Utterance and Duration of Excerpt

The purpose was to study factors in the intelligibility of words removed from fluent speech. The talker recorded a short text at three rates of continuous utterance: very fast, normal, and very slow. Then samples representing one or more text words were removed by gating. The same text words were removed at each rate of utterance. The samples were presented to listeners in intelligibility tests. Four talkers were tested, each with a different text from which 24 to 28 samples were removed at each rate. Short samples were less intelligible than long samples. On the average, fast and slow samples were equal in intelligibility when equated in duration. This is interpreted to indicate a balanced trade-off between slow, precise articulation of a small amount of text and rapid, slurred articulation of a large amount of text in the same time interval. Slow utterance was slightly more intelligible in noise. Finally, the samples were vocoded and then reconstructed synthetically on both a stretched time base and the normal time base. The stretch-vocoded fast samples were slightly longer in duration than the normal-vocoded slow samples representing the same words. However, the stretch-vocoded samples were lower in intelligibility.
An HDR (hypoparathyroidism, deafness, renal dysplasia) syndrome locus maps distal to the DiGeorge syndrome region on 10p13/14

Partial monosomy 10p is a rare chromosomal condition and a significant proportion of patients show features of DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) and velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS). A critical haploinsufficiency region for DGS/VCFS was defined on 10p (DGCR2). We performed molecular deletion analysis of two further patients with partial monosomy 10p, who showed hypoparathyroidism, deafness, and renal dysplasia or renal insufficiency, but no cardiac defect, cleft palate, or reduced T cell levels. Previously, the combination of hypoparathyroidism, deafness, and renal dysplasia has been proposed to represent a specific syndrome (MIM 146255) under the acronym HDR. In addition to the two patients in this report, at least four published cases with partial monosomy 10p show the triad of HDR and 14 other patients present with at least two of the three features. We therefore conclude that HDR syndrome can be associated with partial monosomy 10p. Based on molecular deletion analysis and the clinical data, we suggest that the DGS/VCFS phenotype associated with 10p deletion can be considered as a contiguous gene syndrome owing to haploinsufficiency of two different regions. Hemizygosity of the proximal region, designatedDGCR2, can cause cardiac defect and T cell deficiency. Hemizygosity of the distal region, designatedHDR1, can cause hypoparathyroidism and in addition sensorineuronal deafness and renal dysplasia/insufficiency or a subset of this triad.
CAV1 Promotes HCC Cell Progression and Metastasis through Wnt/β-Catenin Pathway

Caveolin-1 (CAV1) has significant roles in many primary tumors and metastasis, despite the fact that malignant cells from different cancer types have different profiles of CAV1 expression. There is little information concerning CAV1 expression and role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progresion and metastasis. The role of CAV1 in HCC progression was explored in this study. We reported that CAV1 was overexpressed in highly invasive HCC cell lines compared with poorly invasive ones. The immunohistochemical staining was obviously stronger in metastatic HCC samples than in the non-metastatic specimens via tissue microarrays. Furthermore, CAV1 overexpression enhanced HCC cell invasiveness in vitro, and promoted tumorigenicity and lung metastasis in vivo. By contrast, CAV1 stable knockdown markedly reduced these malignant behaviors. Importantly, we found that CAV1 could induce EMT process through Wnt/β-catenin pathway to promote HCC metastasis. We also identify MMP-7 as a novel downstream target of CAV1. We have determined that CAV1 acts as a mediator between hyperactive ERK1/2 signaling and regulation of MMP-7 transcription. Together, these studies mechanistically show a previously unrecognized interplay between CAV1, EMT, ERK1/2 and MMP-7 that is likely significant in the progression of HCC toward metastasis.
Quasi-Abelian categories and sheaves

— This memoir is divided in three parts. In the first one, we introduce the notion of quasi-abelian category and link the homological algebra of these categories to that of their abelian envelopes. Note that quasi-abelian categories form a special class of non-abelian additive categories which contains in particular the category of locally convex topological vector spaces and the category of filtered abelian groups. In the second part, we define what we mean by an elementary quasi-abelian category and show that sheaves with values in such a category can be manipulated almost as easily as sheaves of abelian groups. In particular, we establish that the Poincare-Verdier duality and the projection formula hold in this context. The third part is devoted to an application of the results obtained to the cases of filtered and topological sheaves. Resume (Categories et faisceaux quasi-abeliens). — Ce memoire est divise en trois parties. Dans la premiere, nous introduisons la notion de categoric quasi-abelienne et relions Palgebre homologique de ces categories a celle de leurs enveloppes abeliennes. Notons que les categories quasi-abeliennes forment une classe speciale de categories additives non-abeliennes qui contient en particulier la categoric des espaces vectoriels topologiques localement convexes et la categoric des groupes abeliens filtres. Dans la seconde partie, nous definissons ce que nous entendons par categoric quasi-abelienne elementaire et montrons que les faisceaux a valeurs dans une telle categoric sont presque aussi aises a manipuler que les faisceaux de groupes abeliens. En particulier, nous etablissons que la dualite de Poincare-Verdier et la formule de projection sont valides dans ce contexte. La troisieme partie est consacree a une application des resultats obtenus aux cas des faisceaux filtres et topologiques. © Memoires de la Societe Mathematique de France 76, SMF 1999
Is container-based technology a winner for high performance scientific applications?

High Performance Computing (HPC) applications require systems with environments for maximum use of limited resources to facilitate efficient computations. However, these systems are faced with a large trade-off between efficient resource allocation and minimum execution times for the applications executed on them. Also, deploying applications in newer environments is exacting. To alleviate this challenge, container-based systems are recently being deployed to reduce the trade-off. In this paper, we investigate container-based technology as an efficient virtualization technology for running high performance scientific applications. We select Docker as the container-based technology for our test bed. We execute autodock3, a molecular modeling simulation software mostly used for Protein-ligand docking, in Docker containers and VMs created using OpenStack. We compare the execution times of the docking process in both Docker containers and in VMs.
Two-dimensional Markov chain simulation of soil type spatial distribution

Soils typically exhibit complex spatial variation of multi-categorical variables such as soil types and soil textural classes. Quantifying and assessing soil spatial variation is necessary for land management and environmental research, especially for accurately assessing the water and solute transport processes in watershed scales. This study describes an efficient Markov chain model for two-dimensional modeling and simulation of spatial distribution of soil types (or classes). The model is tested through simulations of a simplified soil map. The application of the model for predictive soil mapping with parameters estimated from survey lines is explored. Analyses of both simulated maps and associated semi-variograms show that the model can effectively reproduce observed spatial patterns of soil types and their spatial autocorrelation given an adequate number of survey lines. This indicates that the model is a feasible method for modeling spatial distributions of soil types (or classes) and the transition probability matrices of soil types in different directions can adequately capture the spatial interdependency relationship of soil types. The model is highly efficient in terms of computer time and storage. The model also provides an approach for assessing the uncertainty of soil type spatial distribution in areas where detailed survey data are lacking. The major constraint on applications of the model at this stage is that the minor soil types are relatively underestimated when survey lines are too sparse.
DEVELOPMENT OF A DROWSINESSWARNING SYSTEM USING NEURALNETWORK

In this paper, a vehicle driver drowsiness warning system using image processing technique with neural network is proposed. The proposed system is based on facial images analysis for warning the driver of drowsiness or inattention to prevent traffic accidents. The facial images of driver are taken by a video camera which is installed on the dashboard in front of the driver. A Neural network based algorithm is proposed to determine the level of fatigue by measuring the eye opening and closing, and warns the driver accordingly. The results indicated that the proposed expert system is effective for increasing safety in driving.
A Pentatricopeptide Repeat Protein Facilitates the trans-Splicing of the Maize Chloroplast rps12 Pre-mRNA[W]

The pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) is a degenerate 35–amino acid repeat motif that is widely distributed among eukaryotes. Genetic, biochemical, and bioinformatic data suggest that many PPR proteins influence specific posttranscriptional steps in mitochondrial or chloroplast gene expression and that they may typically bind RNA. However, biological functions have been determined for only a few PPR proteins, and with few exceptions, substrate RNAs are unknown. To gain insight into the functions and substrates of the PPR protein family, we characterized the maize (Zea mays) nuclear gene ppr4, which encodes a chloroplast-targeted protein harboring both a PPR tract and an RNA recognition motif. Microarray analysis of RNA that coimmunoprecipitates with PPR4 showed that PPR4 is associated in vivo with the first intron of the plastid rps12 pre-mRNA, a group II intron that is transcribed in segments and spliced in trans. ppr4 mutants were recovered through a reverse-genetic screen and shown to be defective for rps12 trans-splicing. The observations that PPR4 is associated in vivo with rps12-intron 1 and that it is also required for its splicing demonstrate that PPR4 is an rps12 trans-splicing factor. These findings add trans-splicing to the list of RNA-related functions associated with PPR proteins and suggest that plastid group II trans-splicing is performed by different machineries in vascular plants and algae.
Speech and communication in cerebral palsy

Abstract. Children communicate using speech, vocalisation,facial expression, gesture and body movement. The motor disorders of cerebralpalsy (CP) may affect the movements needed to produce any type of communicationsignal. Movements intended to be the same may vary in range, speed, strengthand accuracy and as a result communication signals may be difficult tounderstand. Children’s communication development may also be affected bycognitive or sensory disturbances, which are also common in CP (1). This paperwill describe the speech and communication difficulties often experienced bychildren with CP and will summarise the interventions that have been found tobe clinically effective with this population of children.Key words:Cerebral palsy, speech, communication, language, children
Influence of cell number on the characteristics and synchrony of Ca2+ oscillations in clusters of mouse pancreatic islet cells

1 The cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) was measured in single cells and cell clusters of different sizes prepared from mouse pancreatic islets. 2 During stimulation with 15 mM glucose, 20 % of isolated cells were inert, whereas 80 % showed [Ca2+]i oscillations of variable amplitude, duration and frequency. Spectral analysis identified a major frequency of 0.14 min−1 and a less prominent one of 0.27 min−1. 3 In contrast, practically all clusters (2–50 cells) responded to glucose, and no inert cells were identified within the clusters. As compared to single cells, mean [Ca2+]i was more elevated, [Ca2+]i oscillations were more regular and their major frequency was slightly higher (but reached a plateau at ≈0.25 min−1). In some cells and clusters, faster oscillations occurred on top of the slow ones, between them or randomly. 4 Image analysis revealed that the regular [Ca2+]i oscillations were well synchronized between all cells of the clusters. Even when the Ca2+ response was irregular, slow and fast [Ca2+]i oscillations induced by glucose were also synchronous in all cells. 5 In contrast, [Ca2+]i oscillations resulting from mobilization of intracellular Ca2+ by acetylcholine were restricted to certain cells only and were not synchronized. 6 Heptanol and 18α‐glycyrrhetinic acid, two agents widely used to block gap junctions, altered glucose‐induced Ca2+ oscillations, but control experiments showed that they also exerted effects other than a selective uncoupling of the cells. 7 The results support theoretical models predicting an increased regularity of glucose‐dependent oscillatory events in clusters as compared to isolated islet cells, but contradict the proposal that the frequency of the oscillations increases with the number of coupled cells. Islet cell clusters function better as electrical than biochemical syncytia. This may explain the co‐ordination of [Ca2+]i oscillations driven by depolarization‐dependent Ca2+ influx during glucose stimulation.
STARS: enlightenment in the office space for behavioral change

Distractions in the office do not only disturb co-workers and prevent them from being productive, but also cost the company a lot of money. The following paper describes an ambient lighting system for large office spaces called STARS. It is intended to support self-guided changes towards less distracting behaviors of workers, in respect to their loudness. With variations of brightness, color, and pulsing at a defined threshold of measured loudness in the respective location, the ceiling unobtrusively visualizes the sound level to the person being the source of noise. The lighting system communicates through the internet with a smartphone app that kindly proposes a nearby, available meeting room to the bothersome person. The following paper describes the components of the system, as well as their relation to existing behavioral change theories from psychology.
Differences between feelings, emotions and desires in terms of interactive quality

The importance of interactive quality has become central to understanding the meaning of wildness, the natural state. This article examines the differences between feelings, emotions and desires according to their roles during interaction. Emotions and desires are placed on the engaging side of the interactive loop, while feelings register the feedback gained from interaction. Feelings are further divided into somatic and neocortical feelings, where somatic feelings such pain and hunger register how the body is being affected, while neocortical feelings are based upon the pleasure or displeasure for how a constructed sense of fairness and personal context was affected. Desires are thought to arise directly from bodily organs and from a theorised neocortical ‘interaction desire’ that seeks parsimony within the organisation of its developing pathways. The production of emotions is influenced by the level of wildness or ease of interaction being experienced within a given environment, so that they become more prevalent, varied and extreme during conditions of difficulty and conflict.
Constructing Bayesian networks by harvesting knowledge from online resources

In this paper, the development of a human-like intelligent system, named AKEOS (Automatic Knowledge Extraction from Online Sources), is introduced. AKEOS can automatically harvest knowledge from online resources to build a Bayesian network inference engine. Starting from a single event, the AKEOS system performs unsupervised knowledge extraction to convert unstructured text into structured knowledge. By performing repeated knowledge extraction for multiple similar events, AKEOS produces structured databases. Thus, various machine learning algorithms can be directly applied to explore relations between attributes, to discover patterns hidden in the data, or to build inference engines such as Bayesian networks for predictive and diagnostic reasoning. AKEOS is an end-to-end system with lists of events as input, structured databases as intermediate products, and inference engines as end products.