Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Pet Dogs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their Families: Expectations versus reality

Previous studies have examined the specific benefits of therapy and assistance dogs on children with autism, but until recently only anecdotes existed concerning the benefits of pet dogs. We conducted structured interviews with 40 parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to investigate the perceived impact of pet dogs. Half the sample (20) owned a pet dog and half the sample was looking to acquire one. Restrictions associated with dog ownership were underestimated, whilst enjoyment, fun and improvements in communication and social interaction were overestimated by the non-owners, indicating important areas where expectations are unlikely to be met. These areas represent important factors to consider when deciding whether to acquire a pet dog in families living with ASD, and as such is of interest to a broad audience including clinicians, veterinarians and parents.
Motion mechanism and simulation of the human jumping robot

The jumping procedure of the human was captured with a high-speed video camera. The geometrical configurations and motion postures of the human during jumping were analyzed from the high-speed photographs. By biological observation and kinematic analysis, the human jump was divided into stance phase, flight phase and land phase. Based on the observation, the human jump was simplified and a mechanical model was put forward. The velocity and the torque of the hip joint, knee joint and ankle joint of the limb were analyzed. It was shown that the changes of hip joint angle were more remarkable, which provided the driving force for the body. The results would provide some theoretical and practical references for biomimetic design for improving the reasonable motion of the jumping robot. This work may provide the basic theory in developing human jumping robot in structural design. Besides, it provides an important reference to study the other bionic robots.
Spatial Interpolation for Lattice Option Pricing -- or Well Pruned Bushy Trees

This paper proposes a novel lattice method of option valuation that is especially suitable to American-style options whose values depend on multiple factors. The key to the method is multidimensional interpolation, which allows using sparse lattices and thus mitigates the curse of dimensionality. A pricing algorithm and suitable methods of interpolation are discussed in detail. Some results about convergence and stability of the algorithm are derived. The method is illustrated by an application to rainbow options and compared to various benchmark results. Cornerstone Research, 599 Lexington Avenue 43 floor, New York, NY 10022
TCP-Friendly Bandwidth Sharing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: From Theory to Reality

This article addresses a problem of the severe unfairness between multiple TCP sessions in a wireless context also known as "TCP capture" phenomenon. We present an adapted max-min fairness framework to the specifics of MANETs. We introduce a practically implementable cross-layer network architecture which enforces our formal model. We have verified with simulations and real world experiments that under our adaptive rate limiting scheme unfair behavior virtually vanishes. The direct consequence of this work guaranteed stable services for TCP-based applications in MANETs, including traditional FTP, web as well as for UDP-based sessions.
Interacting with a human or a humanoid robot?

Recently, remote-controlled communication robots have been studied. Our question is whether the person interacting with them feels that he/she is interacting with the robot itself or the human behind it. How do such beliefs affect interaction? We conducted an experiment to study the effect of a human presence behind an interactive humanoid robot. We used an interactive robot system based on a motion-capturing system where participants can bodily interact with the robot. They were deceptively informed that they would either be interacting with a robot controlled by a program or a human; in fact, in both conditions the robot was autonomous. Experimental results indicated that two-thirds of the participants felt that they were interacting with the robot itself. Their enjoyment was unaffected by the knowledge of whether the robot was controlled by a program or a human, although their impression of robot intelligence indicated that they distinguished between these conditions. On the contrary, since the remaining one-third of the participants felt they were interacting with a human behind the robot, they were affected by the knowledge: when they were told they were interacting with a teleoperated robot, they enjoyed it less; in contrast, their enjoyment increased when they were told they were interacting with an autonomous robot.
Automatic conjugation and identification of regular and irregular verb neologisms in Spanish

In this paper, a novel system for the automatic identification and conjugation of Spanish verb neologisms is presented. The paper describes a rule-based algorithm consisting of six steps which are taken to determine whether a new verb is regular or not, and to establish the rules that the verb should follow in its conjugation. The method was evaluated on 4,307 new verbs and its performance found to be satisfactory both for irregular and regular neologisms. The algorithm also contains extra rules to cater for verb neologisms in Spanish that do not exist as yet, but are inferred to be possible in light of existing cases of new verb creation in Spanish.
Optimized Energy Management for Mixed Uplink Traffic in LTE UE

Battery life is a major issue for any mobile equipment, and reducing energy consumption via energy management in 3G LTE user equipment (UE) will be essential for the delivery of a variety of services. Discontinuous transmission (DTX) and reception (DRX) have been designed to facilitate power management, but they can provide energy savings only via proper tuning. Relevant work in the literature mainly pertains only to discontinuous reception mode (DRX) for downlink data. However, today's increasingly powerful UEs can generate and upload significant amount of data. This paper proposes an energy management framework applicable to both discontinuous transmission (DTX) and DRX power saving modes. In particular, in DTX mode it can reduce UE energy consumption for uplink intensive applications like telemedicine or social networking. The proposed novel energy management framework is based on jointly using a-priori analytical evaluation of a M/G/1/K finite uplink queue system for mixed traffic with an optimized DTX/DRX algorithm. DTX mode is modeled by an expression, through which the impact of quality of service (QoS) parameters on the UE's mean energy consumption for uplink transfer is determined. The model extracts and operates on the values computed for the M/G/1/K queue. Finally, a dynamic energy management algorithm for DRX/DTX modes is proposed for energy consumption optimization based on an integrated Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). Analytical evaluation has shown that using our algorithm to tune DTX can achieve 49-73% energy saving over not using DTX.
A Role of the Inflammasome in the Low Storage Capacity of the Abdominal Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue in Obese Adolescents

The innate immune cell sensor leucine-rich–containing family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome controls the activation of caspase-1, and the release of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. The NLRP3 inflammasome is implicated in adipose tissue inflammation and the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that adipose tissue inflammation and NLRP3 inflammasome are linked to the downregulation of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) adipogenesis/lipogenesis in obese adolescents with altered abdominal fat partitioning. We performed abdominal SAT biopsies on 58 obese adolescents and grouped them by MRI-derived visceral fat to visceral adipose tissue (VAT) plus SAT (VAT/VAT+SAT) ratio (cutoff 0.11). Adolescents with a high VAT/VAT+SAT ratio showed higher SAT macrophage infiltration and higher expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome–related genes (i.e., TLR4, NLRP3, IL1B, and CASP1). The increase in inflammation markers was paralleled by a decrease in genes related to insulin sensitivity (ADIPOQ, GLUT4, PPARG2, and SIRT1) and lipogenesis (SREBP1c, ACC, LPL, and FASN). Furthermore, SAT ceramide concentrations correlated with the expression of CASP1 and IL1B. Infiltration of macrophages and upregulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome together with the associated high ceramide content in the plasma and SAT of obese adolescents with a high VAT/VAT+SAT may contribute to the limited expansion of the subcutaneous abdominal adipose depot and the development of insulin resistance.
Airborne LiDAR strip adjustment based on LSM

An airborne LiDAR system is an integration of GPS, INS, and laser scanner. Because of errors of these instruments or sub-optimalities of the GPS/INS integration, points of neighbouring laser scanner strips will usually show vertical and horizontal discrepancies. Currently the more common way for the reducing or ultimately eliminating discrepancies found in strip overlap areas is strip adjustment. Based on Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 C++ platform, a data-driven method of seven parameters conformal transformation for airborne LiDAR strip adjustment is realized in our paper, the algorithm improved Robert (2004) least squares surface matching algorithm, by introducing the Gauss-Markoff model, Acquired the unbiased minimum variance estimation for the unknown parameters. Real data sets are used to validate the method. We study the matching precision of different reference surface from two strips, the need for using Gauss-Markoff model and the matching accuracy. Experimental results show that after correction the point clouds show much better alignment and the vertical matching error is less than 0.05m.
A cross-national comparison of police attitudes about domestic violence: a focus on gender

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first goal is to conduct a cross-national examination of law enforcement officer attitudes about domestic violence (DV) by comparing officer attitudes in the USA to officer attitudes in Australia. The second goal is to examine law enforcement officer attitudes about DV using a gender lens to identify whether patterns in attitudes among male and female officers in the USA are similar to those among Australian male and female law enforcement officers. Design/methodology/approach The current study involves a comparative analysis of DV attitudes in two different countries (the USA and Australia). Officers in the USA were asked to indicate their level agreement with 28 attitudinal statements about DV. The Australian survey adapted the Gover et al. (2011) instrument by including 24 of the 28 attitudinal statements. The survey followed a mixed-methods design with both quantitative and qualitative components. Bivariate analyses were conducted to determine whether attitudes varied by country and gender of the responding officers. Analyses of attitudinal questions and categorical variables (e.g. gender) were conducted using t-tests. Findings According to survey data gathered from police officers in Colorado (USA) and Queensland (Australia), male and female officer attitudes within each country are more similar than different. When comparing the overall sample of American officer attitudes to Australian officer attitudes, they significantly differ about half the time. Research limitations/implications The Australian survey had a considerably low response rate, and therefore it cannot be stated with certainty whether the responses given are truly representative of the views of Australian officers as a whole, although the demographic characteristics of the sample were comparable with the overall police population demographics. Another limitation is that not all demographic and background variables were collected by both surveys. For example, the US survey asked about officers’ ethnicity, while the Australian survey did not, and the Australian survey asked about how many DV jobs officers attended per month, while the US survey did not. Practical implications Improving knowledge about police attitudes towards DV can help to inform future policy or practice implementation, as well as training programmes and better overall responses to the pervasive and ongoing problem of DV internationally. Originality/value This is a unique and original piece of research as it is a partial cross-national replication of an existing survey. This work does have the potential for great impact in understanding and developing innovative law enforcement responses to DV. In developing such responses officer attitudes need to be considered and integrated into the response, as their opinions will guide the support of future interventions.
A least squares based methodology for the extraction of corner model parameters

For SPICE level circuit development, corner models address the designer’s need for fast simulations which can reproduce specific scenarios of interest. To systematically and automatically determine the model parameters for the corners, we present a methodology based on a constrained least squares optimization. We also show how it performs when applied to some of our devices for best and worst case scenarios.
Identification of OmpA, a Coxiella burnetii Protein Involved in Host Cell Invasion, by Multi-Phenotypic High-Content Screening

Coxiella burnetii is the agent of the emerging zoonosis Q fever. This pathogen invades phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells and uses a Dot/Icm secretion system to co-opt the endocytic pathway for the biogenesis of an acidic parasitophorous vacuole where Coxiella replicates in large numbers. The study of the cell biology of Coxiella infections has been severely hampered by the obligate intracellular nature of this microbe, and Coxiella factors involved in host/pathogen interactions remain to date largely uncharacterized. Here we focus on the large-scale identification of Coxiella virulence determinants using transposon mutagenesis coupled to high-content multi-phenotypic screening. We have isolated over 3000 Coxiella mutants, 1082 of which have been sequenced, annotated and screened. We have identified bacterial factors that regulate key steps of Coxiella infections: 1) internalization within host cells, 2) vacuole biogenesis/intracellular replication, and 3) protection of infected cells from apoptosis. Among these, we have investigated the role of Dot/Icm core proteins, determined the role of candidate Coxiella Dot/Icm substrates previously identified in silico and identified additional factors that play a relevant role in Coxiella pathogenesis. Importantly, we have identified CBU_1260 (OmpA) as the first Coxiella invasin. Mutations in ompA strongly decreased Coxiella internalization and replication within host cells; OmpA-coated beads adhered to and were internalized by non-phagocytic cells and the ectopic expression of OmpA in E. coli triggered its internalization within cells. Importantly, Coxiella internalization was efficiently inhibited by pretreating host cells with purified OmpA or by incubating Coxiella with a specific anti-OmpA antibody prior to host cell infection, suggesting the presence of a cognate receptor at the surface of host cells. In summary, we have developed multi-phenotypic assays for the study of host/pathogen interactions. By applying our methods to Coxiella burnetii, we have identified the first Coxiella protein involved in host cell invasion.
Compressed sensing based random routing for multi-hop wireless sensor networks

Compressed sensing (CS) is an emerging theory based on the fact that the salient information of a signal can be preserved in a relatively small number of linear projections. Besides its applications in image compression and signal processing in the past few years, compressed sensing has been attracting ever-increasing interests in the areas of wireless communication and sensor networks. According to its advantageous characteristics, compressed sensing is able to play a significant role in the fields like wireless channel estimation, signal detection, data gathering, network monitoring, and so on. This study describes current researches on the applications of CS in wireless communication and sensor networks, and then specially focuses on bringing out a novel random routing scheme for efficient data gathering. Accordingly, we first introduce the basic approach of compressed sensing, and then summarize recent technical advancements of compressed sensing schemes and their applications in wireless communication and sensor networks. Then, we propose a random routing method executed with CS for efficient data gathering in typical wireless sensor networking environment, and analyze the relevant performances comparing with those of the existing data gathering schemes, obtaining the conclusion that the proposed scheme is effective in signal reconstruction and efficient in reducing routing energy consumption.
An Anti-Spam Engine using Fuzzy Logic with Enhanced Performance Tuning

E-mail has been considered as one of the most primary communication channels among the users with the rapid extension of internet. Unfortunately e-mail is also one of those tools, if not used properly could bring in irreparable consequences. But, recently the increasing popularity and fewer cost of sending an email makes it very easy to send unsolicited messages blindly to thousands of people at no cost at all by using easily available bulk mailing software and large lists of e-mail addresses typically harvested, even purchased or rented from web pages and news group archives. The Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy (ASSP) mail server engine is preferred one of the best from all the existing Mail filters as it is a platform independent open source-filtering engine and its file size is 565.5KB, which much less compared to other mail filters. General Terms Spam, Web security, Mail Filtering engine, Threshold analysis, Fuzzy logic, MTA
MAR-CPS: Measurable Augmented Reality for Prototyping Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) refer to engineering platforms that rely on the integration of physical systems with control, computation, and communication technologies. Autonomous vehicles are instances of CPSs that are rapidly growing with applications in many domains. Due to the integration of physical systems with computational sensing, planning, and learning in CPSs, hardware-in-the-loop experiments are an essential step for transitioning from simulations to real-world experiments. This paper proposes an architecture for rapid prototyping of CPSs that has been developed in the Aerospace Controls Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This system, referred to as MAR-CPS (Measurable Augmented Reality for Prototyping Cyber-Physical Systems), includes physical vehicles and sensors, a motion capture technology, a projection system, and a communication network. The role of the projection system is to augment a physical laboratory space with 1) autonomous vehicles’ beliefs and 2) a simulated mission environment, which in turn will be measured by physical sensors on the vehicles. The main focus of this method is on rapid design of planning, perception, and learning algorithms for autonomous single-agent or multi-agent systems. Moreover, the proposed architecture allows researchers to project a simulated counterpart of outdoor environments in a controlled, indoor space, which can be crucial when testing in outdoor environments is disfavored due to safety, regulatory, or monetary concerns. We discuss the issues related to the design and implementation of MAR-CPS and demonstrate its real-time behavior in a variety of problems in autonomy, such as motion planning, multi-robot coordination, and learning spatio-temporal fields.
A Noise-Insensitive Offset Calibration Technique for Time Interleaved SAR ADC

Digital calibration can be used to aid ADCs in improving their performances. In this paper a calibration method is proposed to reduce the effect of the channel offset mismatch in the time-interleaved ADC, with the calibration circuit in the digital domain. In order to avoid the circuit noise that degrades the calibration performance an averaging algorithm will be employed. A 12 bit two-channel time-interleaved SAR ADC is used to verify the calibration technique. The simulation results using a 65-nm CMOS process show that the calibration can reduce the offset between different channels and improve the SNDR.
On the periodic clustering of cosmic ray exposure ages of iron meteorites

Two recent papers claimed to have found a periodic variation of the galactic cosmic ray (CR) flux over the last 1-2 Gyr, using the CR exposure ages of iron meteorites. This was attributed to higher CR flux during the passage of the Earth through the spiral arms of the Milky Way, as suggested by models. The derived period was 143+-10 Myrs. We perform a more detailed analysis of the CR exposure ages on the same data set, using extensive simulation to estimate the influence of different error sources on the significance of the periodicity signal. We find no evidence for significant clustering of the CR exposure ages at a 143 Myr period nor for any other period between 100 and 250 Myrs. Rather, we find the data to be consistent with being drawn from a uniform distribution of CR exposure ages. The different conclusion of the original studies is due to their neglecting the influence of (i) data treatment on the statistics, (ii) several error sources, and (iii) number statistics.
Les nouvelles approches pharmacologiques du traitement de l'anxiété

Les troubles anxieux sont les maladies psychiatriques les plus courantes. L'anxiete engendre des dysfonctionnements neurobiologiques, sans que les mecanismes en soient completement connus. Le systeme GABAergique (notamment les recepteurs GABA-A) parait jouer un role important dans la physiopathologie du stress, de l'anxiete et des troubles depressifs. L'avancee des nouvelles connaissances neurobiologiques sur les troubles anxieux a entraine la recherche de nouveaux traitements comme alternative aux benzodiazepines utilisees depuis plus de 40 ans. Les molecules actives sur les sous-unites du recepteur GABA-A semblent presenter un grand interet pour le traitement des patients anxieux. Par ailleurs, l'utilisation des anticonvulsivants (tiagabine, pregabaline, etc.) dans ces troubles semble etre une voie de recherche interessante, comme cela a ete montre dans differentes etudes cliniques en ouvert ou en double aveugle. Parmi ces voies de recherche nouvelles, certaines concernent les neuropeptides, les molecules ayant une affinite pour certains sous-types de recepteurs serotoninergiques, ou encore les antagonistes du glutamate. Toutefois, il n'a pour l'instant pas encore ete determine si ces molecules devaient etre utilisees en premiere intention, ou en cas de resistance ou de non-reponse aux traitements classiques.
The deuterium abundance and nucleocosmochronology

We examine galactic chemical evolution models which reproduce the present-day and pre-solar values of deuterium starting with a primordial value which is consistent with a baryon-to-photon ratio of $3 \times 10^{-10}$. We consider various galactic chemical evolution models to determine the viability of significant deuterium destruction and which provide a consistent age of the galaxy at the time of the formation of the solar system and consequently its present day age from nuclear chronometers. These models generally require some amount of infall which we take with rates proportional to the gas mass as well as exponentially decreasing rates and some initial disk enrichment which we limit to the range of 0\% to 30\%. We present those models which give the observed pre-solar value and present-day value of D/H and which lead to a present-day gas fraction of $\sigma = . 05\quad - \quad . 2$. These models result in a braod range for the age of galaxy between $9.8 - 21.6$ Gyrs.