Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Faster Bounded-Cost Search Using Inadmissible Estimates

Many important problems are too difficult to solve optimally. A traditional approach to such problems is bounded suboptimal search, which guarantees solution costs within a user-specified factor of optimal. Recently, a complementary approach has been proposed: bounded-cost search, where solution cost is required to be below a user-specified absolute bound. In this paper, we show how bounded-cost search can incorporate inadmissible estimates of solution cost and solution length. This information has previously been shown to improve bounded suboptimal search and, in an empirical evaluation over five benchmark domains, we find that our new algorithms surpass the state-of-the-art in bounded-cost search as well, particularly for domains where action costs differ.
The Swedish Twin Registry in the Third Millennium: An Update

Abstract The Swedish Twin Registry was first established in the late 1950s. Today it includes more than 170,000 twins — in principle all twins born in Sweden since 1886. In this article we describe some ongoing and recently completed projects based on the registry. In particular, we describe recent efforts to screen all twins born between 1959 and 1985, and young twin pairs when they turn 9 and 12 years of age. For these studies, we present initial frequencies of common conditions and exposures.
Binary forensic code for multimedia signals: resisting minority collusion attacks

Digital forensic marking is a technology to discourage unauthorized redistribution of multimedia signals by embedding a unique mark into each user's copy of the content. A powerful class of attacks on forensic marking is the collusion attack by a group of users. Recently, a new collusion attack, called the minority attack, has been proposed against forensic marking schemes with correlation-based detectors. Although this attack is not very effective on Gaussian-based forensic marking, it is quite powerful on removing the traces of users when the forensic marking is binary. In this paper, we first study the performance of an ECC-based binary forensic code under the minority attack and we model the additional processing, such as compression, applied on colluded copy as a binary symmetric channel. We confirm that the system can be defeated by a minority attack from only 3 colluders. To resist the minority attack, we propose a row-permuted binary orthogonal code to serve as the inner code for ECC-based forensic code, coupled with an adaptive detector. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme has a significantly improved resistance to a minority attack.
EXPLORING THE GENETIC BASIS AND PROXIMATE CAUSES OF FEMALE FERTILITY ADVANTAGE IN GYNODIOECIOUS THYMUS VULGARIS

Abstract In many gynodioecous species, females produce more viable seeds than hermaphrodites. Knowledge of the relative contribution of inbreeding depression in hermaphrodites and maternal sex effects to the female fertility advantage and the genetic basis of variation in female fertility advantage is central to our understanding of the evolution of gender specialization. In this study we examine the relative contribution of inbreeding and maternal sex to the female fertility advantage in gynodioecious Thymus vulgaris and quantify whether there is genetically based variation in female fertility advantage for plants from four populations. Following controlled self and outcross (sib, within-population, and between-population) pollination, females had a more than twofold fertility advantage (based on the number of germinating seeds per fruit), regardless of the population of origin and the type of pollination. Inbreeding depression on viable seed production by hermaphrodites occurred in two populations, where inbreeding had been previously detected. Biparental inbreeding depression on viable seed production occurred in three of four populations for females, but in only one population for hermaphrodites. Whereas the maternal sex effect may consistently enhance female fertility advantage, inbreeding effects may be limited to particular population contexts where inbreeding may occur. A significant family × maternal sex interaction effect on viable seed production was observed, illustrating that the extent of female fertility advantage varies significantly among families. This result is due to greater variation in hermaphrodite (relative to female) seed fertility between families. Despite this genetic variation in female fertility advantage and the highly female biased sex ratios in populations of T. vulgaris, gynodioecy is a stable polymorphism, suggesting that strong genetic and/or ecological constraints influence the stability of this polymorphism. Corresponding Editor: K. Holsinger
Professional Women at Work: Interactions, Tacit Understandings, and the Non-Trivial Nature of Trivia in Bureaucratic Settings

Introduction Qualitative and Quantitative Studies of Work: Some Essential Differences Understanding Work and Workers: A Respect for Trivia and the Need for Rich Description and Subjective Assessments Office Work: Joan, Publication Coordinator Good Work and Bad Jobs: Ann, Principal Administrative Analyst God Bless the Children: Toni, Educator and Child Care Administrator God Help the Needy: Fran, HIV Clinic Director Public vs. Private Practice: Freda, Clinical Psychologist Summary and Conclusions Bibliography Index
Pricing SPX and DIX by HAR models

Previous studies have documented that, with use of high-frequency data, the Heteroskedasticity AR (HAR-RV) model performs better than other models in fitting financial return volatility measurement and has a more accurate forecasting ability. However, to our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated whether HAR-RV model can improve option pricing performance in financial markets. This study compares HAR-RV model and EGARCH model in terms of option pricing performance. As expected, the results of this study demonstrate that HAR-RV model is more accurate than EGARCH model in terms of S&P500 Index options (SPX) and Dow Jones Index options (DIX).
Comparison of Anchor Selection algorithms for improvement of position estimation during the Wi-Fi localization process in disaster scenario

It is very common that during the localization process redundant reference data can be collected. This reference data is called “anchors”. For some position estimation algorithms, like trilateration or Min-Max, only three or four anchors for 2-d or 3-d localization respectively are required. The selection of certain anchors from collected amount can affect the localization accuracy significantly [1]. The main purpose of this paper is to propose and analyze several most promising Optimum Anchor Selection algorIthmS (OASIS) that can contribute to the improvement of the localization precision.
Positively Regulating the Generation of T Ligand 1) Enhances Humoral Immunity by Blockade of B7-H1 (Programmed Death

T follicular helper (T FH ) cells are critical initiators in the development of T cell-dependent humoral immunity and the generation of protective immunity. We demonstrate that T FH cell accumulation and Ab production are negatively regulated by B7-H1 (programmed death ligand 1) in response to both helminth infection and active immunization. Following immunization of B7-H1 2 / 2 mice with keyhole limpet hemocyanin or helminth Ags, there is a profound increase in induction of T FH cells as a result of increased cell cycling and decreased apoptosis relative to wild-type mice. The increase in T FH cells in the absence of B7-H1 was associated with signiﬁcant elevations in Ag-speciﬁc Ig response. Cotransfer experiments in vivo demonstrated that B7-H1 expression on B cells was required for negatively regulating T FH cell expansion and production of Ag-speciﬁc Ig. Treatment of immunized wild-type mice with anti–B7-H1 or anti-programmed death 1 mAbs, but not anti–B7-DC, led to a signiﬁcant expansion of the T FH cell population and an enhanced Ag-speciﬁc Ig response. Our results demonstrate that the coinhibitory B7-H1/programmed death 1 pathway can limit the expansion of T FH cells and constrain Ag-speciﬁc Ig responses. This ﬁnding has direct implications for investigations examining the feasibility of therapeutically manipulating this pathway and reveals new insights into the regulation of the humoral immune response. The Journal of Immunology , 2011, 186: 000–000.
Statistical parameters in the dual tree complex wavelet transform domain for the detection of epilepsy and seizure

In this paper, a comprehensive statistical analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is carried out in the dual tree complex wavelet transform domain using a publicly available EEG database. It is shown that variance and kurtosis can be effective in distinguishing EEG signals at sub-band levels. It is further shown that the parameters of a normal inverse Gaussian probability density function can equally discriminate the EEG signals at sub-band levels. Thus, these statistical quantities may be used to characterize EEG signals and help the researchers in developing improved classifiers for the detection of epilepsy and seizure and building a better understanding of the diverse process of EEG signals.
Amino acid exchange by the mammary gland of lactating goats when histidine limits milk production.

The aim of this study was to monitor amino acid (AA) exchange kinetics of the mammary gland in response to an imposed limitation on His supply for milk production. Lactating goats (n = 4, approximately 120 DIM) were fed a low protein ration that provided only 77% of metabolizable protein and 100% of energy requirements for milk production. The protein deficiency was alleviated by infusion into the abomasum of an AA mixture (67 g/d) including (+H; 4.4 g/d) or excluding (-H) His. Goats were assigned to treatments (6 to 7 d) according to a switchback design. On the last day of the first two periods, [U-13C]AA were continuously infused i.v. for 7 h and arterial and mammary vein blood was withdrawn to determine plasma AA concentration and enrichment. Flow probes monitored mammary blood flow. The secretion and enrichments of AA in milk casein were monitored each hour. A three-pool model of the gland was used to derive bi-directional rates of plasma AA exchange. Arterial plasma His concentration was lower during -H infusion (8 vs. 73 microM), but those of other AA changed little. Responses to low levels of plasma His were: 1) mammary blood flow increased by approximately 33%; 2) the gland's capacity to remove plasma His increased 43-fold, whereas the gland's capacity for other AA declined by two- to threefold; and 3) influx and efflux of His by the gland decreased. Thus, as the reduction in His efflux was insufficient to offset the reduced influx, milk protein yield decreased from 118 to 97 g/d.
Use of stimulant medication for treatment of attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder: a survey of middle and high school students’ attitudes

Six hundred fifty-one students (ages 11–18) completed a questionnaire that asked if they were taking stimulant medication for ADHD. Those who responded positively were then asked to answer a section of the questionnaire that asked them about their experiences and attitudes related to their treatment with the medication. If they responded that they were not diagnosed with ADHD and not receiving treatment with stimulant medication, they answered a section of the questionnaire that inquired about their perceptions of students who did take medication. Fifty students completed the taking-medication portion of the questionnaire. Although the students reported that the medication helped them somewhat in the areas of behavior, social ability with friends, parents, and teachers, and attention, they reported that the medication did not help them in the area of academic achievement. The majority of the students reported some side effects from their medication. Thirty-four percent of students taking ADHD medication reported being approached to sell or trade their medication, and 53% of students not taking ADHD medication reported that some students taking ADHD medication gave away or sold their medication. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Incidence of salmonellae in animal feed and the effect of pelleting on content of enterobacteriaceae.

During a survey of meat and bone meals, fish meals and poultry feeds salmonellae were found only in samples of meat and bone meal, for which 19% were Salmonella-positive. MPN estimations on 2 meat and bone meal samples gave figures of 6 and 39 salmonellae/ 100 g, respectively. Sampling of poultry feed before and after pelleting showed that this process gave up to 1000-fold reduction in numbers of Enterobacteriaceae depending on the type of processing involved.
A psicologia como neurociência cognitiva : implicações para a compreensão dos processos básicos e suas aplicações

O presente artigo procura ilustrar o modo como os desenvolvimentos das neurociencias cognitivas poderao ajudar a compreender alguns dos processos psicologicos basicos e, simultaneamente, ser traduzidos para importantes dominios da psicologia aplicada, particularmente no dominio clinico. Exemplificaremos a partir de algumas linhas de investigacao programatica em curso nas diferentes subseccoes do Laboratorio de Neuropsicofisiologia da Escola de Psicologia da Universidade do Minho. As potencialidades metodologicas proporcionadas pela neurofisiologia, neuroimagiologia, neuromodelacao, psicofisiologia, neurobioquimica e neurogenetica serao exemplificadas nas suas aplicacoes a linguagem (e suas implicacoes para a compreensao da esquizofrenia), funcionamento socio-cognitivo (e implicacoes para a compreensao das perturbacoes do neurodesenvolvimento), funcionamento executivo (com implicacoes para a compreensao das perturbacoes do espectro obsessivo), empatia (e implicacoes para a compreensao da psicoterapia), mecanismos de stress (com implicacoes para a compreensao das perturbacoes de ansiedade), e, finalmente, comportamento animal (com implicacoes para o conhecimento dos sistemas sensoriais e perceptuais).
Invariant Geometric Representation of 3D Point Clouds for Registration and Matching

Though implicit representations of surfaces have often been used for various computer graphics tasks like modeling and morphing of objects, it has rarely been used for registration and matching of 3D point clouds. Unlike in graphics, where the goal is precise reconstruction, we use isosurfaces to derive a smooth and approximate representation of the underlying point cloud which helps in generalization. Implicit surfaces are generated using a variational interpolation technique. Implicit function values on a set of concentric spheres around the 3D point cloud of object are used as features for matching. Geometric-invariance is achieved by decomposing implicit values based feature set into various spherical harmonics. The decomposition provides a compact representation of 3D point clouds while achieving rotation invariance.
Performance of four computer-based diagnostic systems.

BACKGROUND Computer-based diagnostic systems are available commercially, but there has been limited evaluation of their performance. We assessed the diagnostic capabilities of four internal medicine diagnostic systems: Dxplain, Iliad, Meditel, and QMR. METHODS Ten expert clinicians created a set of 105 diagnostically challenging clinical case summaries involving actual patients. Clinical data were entered into each program with the vocabulary provided by the program's developer. Each of the systems produced a ranked list of possible diagnoses for each patient, as did the group of experts. We calculated scores on several performance measures for each computer program. RESULTS No single computer program scored better than the others on all performance measures. Among all cases and all programs, the proportion of correct diagnoses ranged from 0.52 to 0.71, and the mean proportion of relevant diagnoses ranged from 0.19 to 0.37. On average, less than half the diagnoses on the experts' original list of reasonable diagnoses were suggested by any of the programs. However, each program suggested an average of approximately two additional diagnoses per case that the experts found relevant but had not originally considered. CONCLUSIONS The results provide a profile of the strengths and limitations of these computer programs. The programs should be used by physicians who can identify and use the relevant information and ignore the irrelevant information that can be produced.
Cooperative transactions: a data-driven approach

We present a new cooperative transaction model. The model has been developed using a data-driven approach, where we have not considered constraints specific to one application class, but only data-specific constraints. This approach is more general than the application-driven approach adopted in other cooperative transaction models. The notion of a set of complementary objects is intrinsic here. Two objects belong to a set of complementary objects if they are connected by dependency relations, directly or transitively. A set of users, represented by cooperative transactions within a cooperative unit, shares the consistency preservation of a set of complementary objects (global consistency). Responsibilities are separated: the set of complementary objects is divided into disjointed subsets, each being manipulated by at most one user. Global consistency is achieved by selective cooperation between users in order to take into account the dependency relations between the respective objects that they manipulate. The model enforces two grades of selective cooperation. In weak cooperation, a user makes his final effects visible to another (one-way cooperation). In strong cooperation users make their intermediate effects symmetrically visible (two-way cooperation). Global consistency is ensured when there are concurrent transactions external to the cooperative unit, and in case of failure.
Enhancing tracking performance in a smartphone-based navigation system for visually impaired people

In this paper we show how to enhance the tracking performance of Arianna, a low-cost augmented reality system designed to meet the needs of people with problems of orientation, people with sight impairment and blind people. For augmented reality system we mean the design of: i) a set of paths and tags to be deployed in the environment, realized in various ways depending on the context (decorative elements easily identifiable, colorful stripes, QR code, RFID, etc.); ii) an instrument of mediation between the reality and the user (typically a smartphone) to access the information disseminated in the environment by means of a camera and provide a vibration feedback signal to the users for following pre-defined paths. In this paper we explore the possibility of applying optical flow techniques to the sequence of images captured by the camera along the paths, to identify the user movements and provide a position estimate. Experimental results show that the approach is promising.
Perception in Volleyball: The Effects of Competitive Stress

Volleyball players and nonplayers were compared for speed and accuracy of performance in a task involving detection of the presence of a volleyball in rapidly presented slides of a volleyball situation. Slides depicted both game and nongame situations, and subjects performed the task in both noncompetitive and competitive conditions. For all subjects, game information was perceived more quickly and accurately than nongame information. In competition all subjects showed decreased perceptual accuracy and no change in criterion, supporting the Easterbrook (1959) notion of perceptual narrowing with stress. Very large accompanying increases in response speed, however, suggested that competition may induce adoption of a particular speed-accuracy trade-off. Cognitive flexibility in the adoption of particular speed-accuracy trade-offs is discussed with reference to volleyball.
Genetic correlations of pig performance and sow productivity traits.

Records for a total of 732 daughter-dam pairs were analyzed to estimate the genetic correlations of pig performance traits with sow productivity traits, with implications to the development of specialized sire and dam lines for use in crossing. Major pig performance traits analyzed included average daily gain from 56 d of age to a final weight of 90.7 kg (ADG), average backfat thickness at 90.7 kg (BF) and a performance index (PI) consisting of ADG and BF. Major sow productivity traits included number of pigs born alive in a litter (NA), litter size (N21) and litter weight (W21) at 21 d of age and two sow productivity indexes, one with NA, N21 and W21 (SPI-3) and one with NA and W21 (SPI-2). All records were expressed as deviations from breed-line-year-season means of this population. Genetic correlations were computed from daughter-dam covariances. The mean genetic correlation of PI with SPI consisted of two correlations, that of daughters' PI with dams' SPI and that of dams' PI with daughters' SPI. The mean genetic correlation of PI with SPI-3 and SPI-2 was . 07 +/- . 12, suggesting that concurrent improvement in both PI and SPI would not be restricted by selection within a single composite line. The genetic correlation of daughters' PI with dams' SPI (-.18 +/- .13) was appraised as more critical than the reciprocal correlation of dams' PI with daughters' SPI (+.28 +/- .13). This appraisal is based on the fact that only one generation separates a daughter's PI from her dam's SPI, as compared with two generations in the reciprocal covariance. However, the -. 18 correlation was not significantly different from zero, indicating that formation of specialized sire and dam lines for use in crossing would be only marginally more effective at best for improving the overall efficiency in pork production than use of a single composite line, aside from the heterosis effects from crossing the lines. Indexes were proposed for combining PI and SPI for use either in specialized sire and dam lines or in a single composite line.
Dependable computing: From concepts to design diversity

This paper is composed of two sections. The first provides a conceptual framework for expressing the attributes of what constitutes dependable and reliable computing: a) the impairments to dependability (faults, errors, and failures), b) the means for dependability (fault avoidance, tolerance, removal, and forecasting), and c) the measures of dependability (reliability, availability, safety). The second section focuses on one of the most challenging problems for dependable computing: coping with design faults.
SENSORY PROFILE DESCRIPTION OF MOZZARELLA CHEESE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH CONSUMER PREFERENCE

The aim of this work was to set up the sensory profile and consumer preference test of three different Mozzarella cheeses (from full-fat cow milk, from low-fat cow milk and from full-fat water buffalo milk). The most remarkable difference in composition was the fat content. Nine commercial Mozzarella cheeses (three for each type) were evaluated in triplicate by a trained panel consisting of 10 assessors. Six Mozzarella cheeses (two for each type) out of the nine samples were selected and used for the preference test by 105 consumers. The three different Mozzarella cheeses were sensorially well differentiated. A good discrimination between the Mozzarella cheeses was obtained using the internal preference map method. The combination of cluster analysis and internal preference mapping has lead to a deeper understanding of consumer liking for Mozzarella cheeses.