Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lecture 8 of the Theoretician ' s Toolkit Error-Correcting Codes January 19 , 2010

If a message is sent in plain text, any single error may prevent us from recovering the original message. Such as sending cat and receiving rat . To circumvent this, redundant bits of information can be introduced to identify and correct errors. A simple example of encoding for this purpose would be to send each symbol thrice. To decode a received message (possibly with errors), one could look at every group of three symbols and taking it to mean whichever symbol appears the most often. For example, if we wish to send cat , we actually send cccaaattt . If the received message reads rccaaattt , the decoding scheme successfully recovers cat since the c's still outnumber the r 's. This scheme is able to correct a single error at the expense of blowing up the message size by a factor 3, or, in other words, its information rate is 1/3. This coding scheme is e cient ; we can easily implement this encoding and decoding scheme in, e.g., time polynomial in the original message length. In this lecture, we will see how to e ciently correct an arbitrary, but xed, number of errors with considerably better rate.
Query optimization with value path materialization in column-stored DWMS

Materialization is a key issue for query execution in column-oriented Data Warehouse Management System (DWMS) due to the fact that it has direct influence on the query efficiency. Focusing on the defects of traditional strategies Early Materialization and Late Materialization, this paper propose a new materialization strategy called VPMS (Value path Materialization Strategy) to solve those problem. First, VPMS define a new descriptor structure---pass block for the intermediate results during physical execution. For a given physical query tree, VPMS generates value path. Depending on the value path, the values of the column are saved in the value area of the pass block when needed by the upper nodes, otherwise, only save the location information. Finally, during the query execution, the physical sub-operation is specified according to the materialization path and the query object itself, which effectively reduces the unnecessary duplication of judgments. Experiments on benchmark dataset SSB demonstrate the overall effectiveness of our approach.
Unsupervised cue-words discovery for tag-sense disambiguation: comparing dissimilarity metrics

Although tagging simplifies resource browsing and retrieval, it suffers from several issues: among them are redundancy and ambiguity. In this work we focus on the problem of resolving tag word-sense ambiguity within a typical semi-automatic tagging procedure. In that process a user proposes a tag for a resource, if the tag is found to be related to more than one context, she is provided with two or more cues among which to choose, so as to remove the tag ambiguity. Key phases, in such a disambiguation procedure, are ambiguous tag detection and cue discovery. Both should rely on effective word-to-context relatedness metrics. Among the most effective relatedness metrics are those defined on the basis of a feature vector representation of the words. In this work we compare different word-to-context relatedness metrics in terms of effectiveness within the disambiguation process. We propose to use a metrics derived from a Maximum Likelihood estimator of the Jensen-Shannon Divergence among feature-count histograms and we show that such a metrics performs -- in terms of quality of the output -- better than both the Jensen-Shannon and the Symmetrized Kullback-Leibler divergence between histograms. We study the relative gain in quality within the task of unsupervised cue discovery by using a synthetic language corpus.
Heart Rate Variability in Shift Workers: Responses to Orthostatism and Relationships with Anthropometry, Body Composition, and Blood Pressure

In order to investigate the response of heart rate variability (HRV) components to postural change and their association with cardiovascular risk factors in shift workers, a cross-sectional study with 438 Brazilian males rotating shift workers was done. Anthropometric, body composition, and clinical measures were collected. Electrocardiogram was recorded for 3 minutes, in the supine and orthostatic position, and HRV components were extracted. Descriptive analyses showed that mean values of body mass index, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio, visceral fat area (VFA), and blood pressure (BP) were higher than the reference values. In the regression model, age, WC, VFA, and systolic BP showed negative association with HRV components. These findings suggest the need for determining effective strategies for the evaluation and promotion of health among shift workers focused on the altered variables.
Disuse-induced Preferential Loss of the Giant Protein Titin Depresses Muscle Performance via Abnormal Sarcomeric Organization

Persistent muscle weakness due to disuse-associated skeletal muscle atrophy limits the quality of life for patients with various diseases and individuals who are confined to bed. Fibers from disused muscle exhibit a marked reduction in active force production, which can exacerbate motor function, coupled with the well-known loss of muscle quantity. Despite recent understanding of the signaling pathways leading to the quantity loss, the molecular mechanisms of the depressed qualitative performance still remain elusive. Here we show that long-term disuse causes preferential loss of the giant sarcomere protein titin, associated with changes in physiologic muscle function. Ca2+ sensitivity of active force decreased following 6 wk of hindlimb immobilization in the soleus muscle of the rat, accompanied by a shift in the length-active force relationship to the shorter length side. Our analyses revealed marked changes in the disused sarcomere, with shortening of thick and thin filaments responsible for altered length dependence and expansion of interfilament lattice spacing leading to a reduction in Ca2+ sensitivity. These results provide a novel view that disuse-induced preferential titin loss results in altered muscle function via abnormal sarcomeric organization.
Interval-valued differential evolution for evolving neural networks with interval weights and biases

The ordinary differential evolution (DE) algorithm employs real-valued vectors as genotypes. The author previously proposed an extension of DE which can handle interval-valued genotypes. In this paper, the proposed method is applied to evolution of neural networks with interval connection weights and biases. Experimental results show that the interval DE can evolve neural networks which model interval functions well despite that no training data is explicitly provided.
Prismatic quantum heterostructures synthesized on molecular-beam epitaxy GaAs nanowires.

Keywords: molecular beam epitaxy ; nanowires ; photoluminescence ; quantum wells ; Cleaved Edge Overgrowth ; Core-Shell ; Growth ; Electron ; Silicon ; Mechanism ; Diffusion ; Wires ; Au Reference EPFL-ARTICLE-148571doi:10.1002/smll.200701091 Record created on 2010-04-28, modified on 2017-05-10
From a Research Prototype to a Deployed System: the Case of the Hecht Museum Visitor's Guide

Cultural heritage (such as museums, archeological sites etc) is both an appealing and challenging research area for applying novel information technologies. It is appealing because it provides a wide range of research possibilities and involves users that are generally willing to experience novel technologies. It is challenging because it requires the research prototype to be a complete, robust and high quality system usable by regular visitors. However, once such a system is in place then a wide range of research directions can be explored. After achieving such a high quality research prototype, an interesting question arises about what it takes to make a research prototype into a working system to be used daily by visitors. This paper describes the experience gained at the PIL project, which started as a research project applying novel technologies for museum visitors and progressed into a system that is deployed at the museum and can be used by visitors on a daily basis. In the process, infrastructure, positioning and interface challenges were tackled. The result is a system that is available for the benefit of researchers and visitors alike, by being both a research platform for human computer interaction (as well as additional more specific technological aspects) and a museum visitor’s guide system.
Vehicle-to-Anything Application (V2Anything App) for Electric Vehicles

This paper presents a mobile information system denominated as vehicle-to-anything application (V2Anything App) and explains its conceptual aspects. This application is aimed at giving relevant information to full electric vehicle (FEV) drivers by supporting the integration of several sources of data in a mobile application, thus contributing to the deployment of the electric mobility process. The V2Anything App provides recommendations to the drivers about the FEV range autonomy, location of battery charging stations, information of the electricity market, and also a route planner, taking into account the public transportations and car or bike sharing systems. The main contributions of this application are related to the creation of an information and communication technology platform, recommender systems, data integration systems, driver profile, and personalized range prediction. Thus, it is possible to deliver relevant information to the FEV drivers related to the electric mobility process, the electricity market, the public transportation, and the FEV performance.
Structuring effects of chemicals from the sea fan Phyllogorgia dilatata on benthic communities

Despite advances in understanding the ecological functions of secondary metabolites from marine organisms, there has been little focus on the influence of chemically-defended species at the community level. Several compounds have been isolated from the gorgonian octocoral Phyllogorgia dilatata, a conspicuous species that forms dense canopies on rocky reefs of northern Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Manipulative experiments were performed to study: (1) the effects of live colonies of P. dilatata (physical presence and chemistry) on recruitment of sympatric benthic organisms; (2) the allelopathic effects of its chemicals on competitors; and (3) chemotactic responses of the non-indigenous brittle star, Ophiothela mirabilis. Early establishment of benthic species was influenced on substrates around live P. dilatata colonies and some effects could be attributed to the gorgonian’s secondary metabolites.In addition, the gorgonian chemicals also exerted an allelopathic effect on the sympatric zoanthid Palythoa caribaeorum, and positive chemotaxis upon O. mirabilis. These results indicate multiple ecological roles of a chemically-defended gorgonian on settlement, sympatric competitors, and non-indigenous species.
Dynamic Deviation Reduction-Based Volterra Behavioral Modeling of RF Power Amplifiers

A new representation of the Volterra series is proposed, which is derived from a previously introduced modified Volterra series, but adapted to the discrete time domain and reformulated in a novel way. Based on this representation, an efficient model-pruning approach, called dynamic deviation reduction, is introduced to simplify the structure of Volterra-series-based RF power amplifier behavioral models aimed at significantly reducing the complexity of the model, but without incurring loss of model fidelity. Both static nonlinearities and different orders of dynamic behavior can be separately identified and the proposed representation retains the important property of linearity with respect to series coefficients. This model can, therefore, be easily extracted directly from the measured time domain of input and output samples of an amplifier by employing simple linear system identification algorithms. A systematic mathematical derivation is presented, together with validation of the proposed method using both computer simulation and experiment
Integrating Virtual Worlds and Virtual Learning Environments through Sloodle: from theory to practice in a case of study for teaching of algorithms

of technology in education resulted in important changes on methods and techniques applied, as the use of virtual learning environments and virtual worlds, providing a high level of interactivity and immersion. This paper presents a summary of research that seeks to integrate two distinct technologies (VLE and Virtual World), through a solution called Sloodle. The main focus is to present the use of such a solution and its main features, as well as present a case study involving the teaching of algorithms and programming. Tools used in this research were: Open Simulator for metaverse; Moodle was chosen as AVA; IDEOne as an online tool for teaching algorithms and Sloodle. With the study, it was revealed that the use of virtual world added to Moodle through Sloodle tool, is a valid alternative to the process of teaching and learning, but also identified difficulties to be overcome in this type solution, as use of Sloodle and technological limitations of their resources.
The Missing Link between Corporate Performance Measurement Systems and Chief Executive Officer Incentive Plans

While offering a literature review regarding several aspects and pitfalls of performance measurement and compensation literature and practice, we discuss the separation between corporate performance measurement systems (CPMSs) and incentive plans for chief executive officer (CEOIPs). Through performance measurement and compensation, organizations align competing interests and achieve management control. CPMS orient organizational actions toward organizational goals. CEOIP orient CEOs' actions toward shareholders' value. Despite the common nature (i.e., management control mechanisms) and, thus, purpose (i.e., influence on actions) of CPMS and CEOIP, both literature and practice neglect the link connecting the two mechanisms. In search for an explanation, we develop a framework that examines the link between CPMS and CEOIP under the three forms of governance proposed by transaction cost economics—namely, markets, hierarchies, and hybrids. Whereas in markets and hierarchies the control problem can be solved with a focus on one mechanism (i.e., CEOIP and CPMS, respectively), hybrid governance structures require the integration of CPMS and CEOIP. By exploring areas of integration between CPMS and CEOIP, we generate questions for future research. We expect that the integration between CPMS and CEOIP could benefit the alignment of interests and lead to more effective management control within modern organizations.
LTR Retrotransposons Contribute to Genomic Gigantism in Plethodontid Salamanders

Among vertebrates, most of the largest genomes are found within the salamanders, a clade of amphibians that includes 613 species. Salamander genome sizes range from ∼14 to ∼120 Gb. Because genome size is correlated with nucleus and cell sizes, as well as other traits, morphological evolution in salamanders has been profoundly affected by genomic gigantism. However, the molecular mechanisms driving genomic expansion in this clade remain largely unknown. Here, we present the first comparative analysis of transposable element (TE) content in salamanders. Using high-throughput sequencing, we generated genomic shotgun data for six species from the Plethodontidae, the largest family of salamanders. We then developed a pipeline to mine TE sequences from shotgun data in taxa with limited genomic resources, such as salamanders. Our summaries of overall TE abundance and diversity for each species demonstrate that TEs make up a substantial portion of salamander genomes, and that all of the major known types of TEs are represented in salamanders. The most abundant TE superfamilies found in the genomes of our six focal species are similar, despite substantial variation in genome size. However, our results demonstrate a major difference between salamanders and other vertebrates: salamander genomes contain much larger amounts of long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons, primarily Ty3/gypsy elements. Thus, the extreme increase in genome size that occurred in salamanders was likely accompanied by a shift in TE landscape. These results suggest that increased proliferation of LTR retrotransposons was a major molecular mechanism contributing to genomic expansion in salamanders.
Archival tagging of a basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, in the western North Atlantic

A 6·1-m long female basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) was tagged 73 km east of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts on 27 September 2001 with a pop-up archival transmitting tag. The tag detached prematurely on 6 December 2001 in an area approximately 800 km south-west of the tag site off the coast of North Carolina. The basking shark was vertically active for the 71-d tracking period, moving through depths and temperatures ranging from the surface to 320 m and 5·8 to 21·0°C, respectively. The shark displayed temporal variation in its residence depth and exhibited a marked temperature preference, with 72% of the temperature observations between 15·0 and 17·5°C. This track provides evidence that the basking shark associates with the continental shelf and shelf edge off the south-eastern United States during autumn. Moreover, it corroborates previous studies indicating that the basking shark remains active and does not hibernate during autumn.
Weighted average problem revisited under hybrid and malicious model

It is getting more common for two or more parties to jointly compute some statistics, say for marketing, by combining information on their private databases without disclosing the private data to the others. The core problem is usually known as secure multi-party computation (SMC). A number of solutions have been proposed. However, almost all of them assume a semi-honest model which is unrealistic. On the other hand, protocols that work under the malicious model (all participating parties can be malicious) are usually complicated and expensive in terms of communication and computation. In this paper, we try to consider a more reasonable model, the hybrid security model, in which at least one party is semi-honest. We want to make sure that the malicious parties will not get the correct final result if they perform malicious behaviors. We propose a scheme to solve the two-party weighted average problem (WAP) under this hybrid security model. We also show that the scheme can be extended to work under the malicious model using any fair exchange scheme. We formally show that our schemes are secure. We also implemented the schemes and showed that our scheme under the hybrid security model is reasonably fast and efficient for practical use.
Automatic Transformation of the Thai Categorial Grammar Treebank to Dependency Trees

A method for deriving an approximately labeled dependency treebank from the Thai Categorial Grammar Treebank has been implemented. The method involves a lexical dictionary for assigning dependency directions to the CG types associated with the grammatical entities in the CG bank, falling back on a generic mapping of CG types in case of unknown words. Currently, all but a handful of the trees in the Thai CG bank can unambiguously be transformed into directed dependency trees. Dependency labels can optionally be assigned with a learned classifier, which in a preliminary evaluation with a very small training set achieves 76.5% label accuracy. In the process, a number of annotation errors in the CG bank were identified and corrected. Although rather limited in its coverage, excluding e.g. long-distance dependencies, topicalisations and longer sentences, the resulting treebank is believed to be sound in terms of structural annotational consistency and a valuable complement to the scarce Thai language resources in existence.
Vision-based hand grasping posture recognition in drinking activity

Drinking activity recognition is not a well-researched area in the human activity recognition area. In this paper, a novel technique to recognize the hand grasping posture in drinking activities is proposed. The proposed method aims to overcome the accuracy issue of Kinect in detecting the correct hand position during drinking activities and no training is required to recognize the grasping posture. Instead, the proposed technique directly extracts the unique features of the grasp posture by using a special Haar-like feature on the input image. By comparing the difference between the total pixel values of each region to a set of thresholds, the grasping posture of the hand can be detected and distinguished from other non-grasping postures or non-hand images. Experimental results indicate that the proposed technique is able to achieve a relatively high accuracy (88% true positive rate and 20% false positive rate) in detecting and recognizing the normal hand grasping posture, which mainly appears in drinking activities where someone is holding a cup.
In Vivo and In Vitro Suppression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by EF24, a Curcumin Analog

The synthetic compound 3,5-bis(2-flurobenzylidene)piperidin-4-one (EF24) is a potent analog of curcumin that exhibits enhanced biological activity and bioavailability without increasing toxicity. EF24 exerts antitumor activity by arresting the cell cycle and inducing apoptosis, suppressing many types of cancer cells in vitro. The antiproliferative and antiangiogenic properties of EF24 provide theoretical support for its development and application to liver cancers. We investigated the in vitro and in vivo activities of EF24 on liver cancer to better understand its therapeutic effects and mechanisms. EF24 induced significant apoptosis and G2/M-phase cell cycle arrest in mouse liver cancer cell lines, Hepa1-6 and H22. The expression levels of G2/M cell cycle regulating factors, cyclin B1 and Cdc2, were significantly decreased, pp53, p53, and p21 were significantly increased in EF24-treated cells. In addition, EF24 treatment significantly reduced Bcl-2 concomitant with an increase in Bax, enhanced the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria into the cytosol, resulting in an upregulation of cleaved-caspase-3, which promoted poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage. EF24-treated cells also displayed decreases in phosphorylated Akt, phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase and vascular endothelial growth factor. Our in vitro protein expression data were confirmed in vivo using a subcutaneous hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor model. This mouse HCC model confirmed that total body weight was unchanged following EF24 treatment, although tumor weight was significantly decreased. Using an orthotopic HCC model, EF24 significantly reduced the liver/body weight ratio and relative tumor areas compared to the control group. In situ detection of apoptotic cells and quantification of Ki-67, a biomarker of cell proliferation, all indicated significant tumor suppression with EF24 treatment. These results suggest that EF24 exhibits anti-tumor activity on liver cancer cells via mitochondria-dependent apoptosis and inducing cell cycle arrest coupled with antiangiogenesis. The demonstrated activities of EF24 support its further evaluation as a treatment for human liver cancers.