Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Splittings of the metaplectic covers of some reductive dual pairs

In this paper, we construct a splitting of the metaplectic cover of the reductive dual pairs of orthogonal and symplec-tic groups or the reductive dual pairs of unitary groups over a nonarchimedean local field with respect to a generalized lattice model of the Weil representation. We also prove a result concerning the splitting that we construct and the theta di-chotomy for unitary group. The splitting plays a very crucial role in the study of theta correspondence for p-adic and finite reductive dual pairs. Let F be a p-adic field with odd residual characteristic. Let D be F itself or a quadratic extension of F. Let O D be the ring of integers, p D be the maximal ideal in O D , f D be the (finite) residue field and be a prime element in D. Let V (resp. V) be a finite-dimensional nondegenerate-hermitian (resp.-hermitian) space over D where , are 1 or −1 and = −1. Let U (V) (resp. U (V)) denote the group of isometries of V (resp. V). We can define a skew-symmetric F-bilinear form on W := V ⊗ D V. Then the pair of two groups (U (V), U(V)) forms a reductive dual pair in the symplectic group Sp(W). In particular, we have embeddings ι V : U (V) → Sp(W) and ι V : U (V) → Sp(W). Let (M [g], S) be a model of the Weil (projective) representation of Sp(W) with respect to a fixed nontrivial character ψ of F. Then there is a two-cocycle c : Sp(W) × Sp(W) → C × associated to (M [g], S) given by M [g] • M [g ] = c(g, g)M [gg ]. This two-cocycle c(g, g) determines an extension
PDP: A Privacy-Preserving Data Provenance Scheme

Data provenance, which records the history of the ownership of a document, as well as the actions performed on it, has received great attention in recent years. However, the privacy issue in data provenance has not been well investigated. In this paper, to simultaneously protect the security of data provenance and achieve user privacy preservation, we propose a new privacy-preserving data provenance (PDP) scheme. With the proposed PDP scheme, users can anonymously access the remoter servers and execute the secure provenance operations. Detailed security analysis demonstrates the security of the proposed PDP scheme, In addition, extensive efficiency analyses have also been conducted to examine its superior efficiency in terms of secure provenance storage and verification costs.
Facial expression recognition based on Gabor wavelet transformation and elastic templates matching

In order to achieve subject-independent facial expression recognition and obtain robustness against illumination variety and image deformation, facial expression recognition methods based on Gabor wavelet transformation and elastic templates matching are presented in this paper. Firstly, given a still image containing facial expression information, preprocessors are executed. Secondly, Gabor wavelets are adopted to extract expression features. Then the elastic graph for expression features is constructed. Finally, elastic templates matching algorithm is used to recognize facial expression. Experiments show that the expression features can be extracted effectively by Gabor wavelet transformation and high recognition rate can be obtained using elastic templates matching algorithm.
Aggression in children: unravelling the interplay of genes and environment through (epi)genetics and metabolomics

Aggression inflicts a huge burden on affected children, their families, and society. Estimates for the prevalence of clinical aggression in children range between 2 and 16%, and childhood aggression tends to continue into adulthood. Current psychological treatments and pharmacological interventions are not effective for all children with aggressive behaviors and there is a huge need for more personalized approaches, which requires insight into the heterogeneity and the mechanisms underlying aggression and its associated comorbidities. Here we discuss what is currently known with regard to individual differences in childhood aggression. Studies employing new opportunities in large scale genotyping, epigenetics and metabolomics technology will in future help to explain heterogeneity and highlight pathways from molecule to phenotype. The FP7-ACTION project (Aggression in Children: Unravelling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies) aims to contribute to knowledge that will help children, their families, teachers and society at large.
The Development of a Test of Earth Science Inquiry Skills for High School Student

Since the late of 1960,s, the improvement of science inquiry skills has been one of the most important goals in secondary science education. To achieve this goal, it is essential to develop a valid and reliable instrument for evaluating science inquiry skills. The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument for evaluating science inquiry skills for high school students. The instrument is developed through R & D procedure, which includes two field trials of the instrument. This study has formed a clear definition of the elements of science inquiry skills (formulating a hypothesis, controlling variables, designing an experiment, numeric calculation, graphing experimental data, inference, determining relationship, determining causalities, predicting experimental results , drawing a conclusion, formulating a generalization or model), and established the goals of assessment and developed the items of assessment. The instrument, Test of Earth Science Inquiry Skills, consists of 33 items which measure 11 science inquiry skills. There are content-free items for each science inquiry skills. This study has selected 11 science inquiry skills which are considered appropriate for being evaluated by paper-and-pencil test with SIEI (Hur,1984). The content validity of items, objectivity of the scoring keys and clarity of the items were checked by six experienced specialists in science education. At the same time, the two field trials has been executed and produced the reliability of the instrument, item difficulty index, and the effectiveness of distracters. The first field trial was performed using a sample of 304 high school students, and the second one using a sample of 872 high school students. Because the content validity is 84 % and the reliability (K-R 20) is 0.84, the developed instrument in this study is considered valid and reliable. The difficulty index is 49.4 %, answer ratio 59.1 %, the discrimination index 0.47 and the effectiveness of distracters evenly distributed, which also suffice the criteria of good instrument. The developed instrument in this study can diagnosis the well-developed science inquiry skills and the ill-developed science inquiry skills of the students, and trace the degree of the improvement of science inquiry skills.
Heterogenic expression of stem cell markers in patient-derived glioblastoma spheroid cultures exposed to long-term hypoxia

Aim: To investigate the time profile of hypoxia and stem cell markers in glioblastoma spheroids of known molecular subtype. Materials & methods: Patient-derived glioblastoma spheroids were cultured up to 7 days in either 2% or 21% oxygen. Levels of proliferation (Ki-67), hypoxia (HIF-1α, CA9 and VEGF) and stem cell markers (CD133, nestin and musashi-1) were investigated by immunohistochemistry. Results: Hypoxia markers as well as CD133 and partially nestin increased in long-term hypoxia. The proliferation rate and spheroid size were highest in normoxia. Conclusion: We found differences in hypoxia and stem cell marker profiles between the patient-derived glioblastoma cultures. This heterogeneity should be taken into consideration in development of future therapeutic strategies.
Edge Detection in Ultrasound Images Using Speckle Reducing Anisotropic Diffusion in Canny Edge Detector Framework

Conventional Canny edge detector can detect edges in image with additive noise effectively but not ultrasound image that are corrupted by multiplicative speckle noise which alleviates image resolution resulting in inaccurate characterization of object features. In this paper, we proposed to incorporate the modified SRAD into the Canny edge detector to replace the Gaussian blurring in the conventional Canny edge detector in order to suppress the multiplicative noise effectively while preserving the edge of the object in ultrasound image. The result shows that the proposed method can provide better result than conventional method in a much wider range of parameter values. The proposed method through experimental result indicates that it is capable of producing promising edge detection result in ultrasound image. Key-Words: edge detection, speckle reducing anisotropic diffusion, ultrasound image enhancement, noise filtering
The encoding of complex visual stimuli by a canonical model of the primary visual cortex: Temporal population code for face recognition on the iCub robot

The connectivity of the cerebral cortex is characterized by dense local and sparse long-range connectivity. It has been proposed that this connection topology provides a rapid and robust transformation of spatial stimulus information into a temporal population code (TPC). TPC is a canonical model of cortical computation whose topological requirements are independent of the properties of the input stimuli and, therefore, can be generalized to the processing requirements of all cortical areas. Here we propose a real time implementation of TPC for classifying faces, a complex natural stimuli that mammals are constantly confronted with. The model consists of a network comprising a primary visual cortex V1 network of laterally connected integrate-and-fire neurons implemented in the humanoid robot platform iCub. The experiment was performed using human faces presented to the robot under different angles and position of light incidence. We show that the TPC-based model can recognize faces with a correct ratio of 97 % without any face-specific strategy. Additionally, the speed of encoding is coherent with the mammalian visual system suggesting that the representation of natural static visual stimulus is generated based on the combined temporal dynamics of multiple neuron populations. Our results provides that, without any input dependent wiring, TPC can be efficiently used for encoding local features in a high complexity task such as face recognition.
Interest of Integrating Spaceborne LiDAR Data to Improve the Estimation of Biomass in High Biomass Forested Areas

Mapping forest AGB (Above Ground Biomass) is of crucial importance to estimate the carbon emissions associated with tropical deforestation. This study proposes a method to overcome the saturation at high AGB values of existing AGB map (Vieilledent's AGB map) by using a map of correction factors generated from GLAS (Geoscience Laser Altimeter System) spaceborne LiDAR data. The Vieilledent's AGB map of Madagascar was established using optical images, with parameters calculated from the SRTM Digital Elevation Model, climatic variables, and field inventories. In the present study, first, GLAS LiDAR data were used to obtain a spatially distributed (GLAS footprints geolocation) estimation of AGB (GLAS AGB) covering Madagascar forested areas, with a density of 0.52 footprint/km 2. Second, the difference between the AGB from the Vieilledent's AGB map and GLAS AGB at each GLAS footprint location was calculated, and additional spatially distributed correction factors were obtained. Third, an ordinary kriging interpolation was thus performed by taking into account the spatial structure of these additional correction factors to provide a continuous correction factor map. Finally, the existing and the correction factor maps were summed to improve the Vieilledent's AGB map. The results showed that the integration of GLAS data improves the precision of Vieilledent's AGB map by approximately 7 t/ha. By integrating GLAS data, the RMSE on AGB estimates decreases from 81 t/ha (R 2 = 0.62) to 74.1 t/ha (R 2 = 0.71). Most importantly, we showed that this approach using LiDAR data avoids underestimating high biomass values (new maximum AGB of 650 t/ha compared to 550 t/ha with the first approach).
The Potential Value of Decentralized Trunking as Regulatory Precedent for the Introduction of Dynamic Spectrum Access Technology

One important way of obtaining the necessary regulatory permissions for dynamic spectrum access ("DSA") technologies from domestic government agencies and the International Spectrum Management Community is to demonstrate that there are policy and legal precedents for their introduction. A recent precedent centers on efforts in the U.S. to allow Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure devices to operate in the 5.25- 5.35 GHz and 5.47-5.725 GHz bands without causing interference to existing radio frequency operations (government radars) through the use of dynamic frequency selection ("DFS") and Transmit Power Control ("TPC"). Another, slightly older precedent is the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's policies and rules that permit the utilization of "decentralized trunking" in the VHF and UHF private land mobile radio ("PLMR") service bands. Under these rules, adequate "monitoring" (a.k.a., "listen-before-talk" or "LBT") is required in order to share spectrum under a decentralized trunking approach. This paper analyzes the potential value of this older precedent in advocating for broader regulatory acquiescence and near-term deployment of DSA technology. Arguably, in the U.S., a DSA radio system using technology to achieve decentralized trunking capabilities could be introduced onto shared channels in the PLMR bands without any major changes in the Commission's existing rules or policies. Using LBT functionality with advanced sensing algorithms, together with DFS and TPC capabilities, could promote shared access via decentralized trunking in the VHF PLMR band, where licensees often employ non-standard channel pairs or un-paired (simplex) channels, and the UHF PLMR band, which is often characterized as overcrowded but underutilized. However, some economic and regulatory barriers to the development of robust secondary market access to these spectrum bands may hinder the full potential of DSA technologies in these bands.
Comparison between Normalised and Unnormalised 454-Sequencing Libraries for Small-Scale RNA-Seq Studies

Next-generation sequencing of transcriptomes (RNA-Seq) is being used increasingly in studies of nonmodel organisms. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of normalising cDNA libraries prior to sequencing in a small-scale study of the zebra finch. We find that assemblies produced from normalised libraries had a larger number of contigs but used fewer reads compared to unnormalised libraries. Considerably more genes were also detected using the contigs produced from normalised cDNA, and microsatellite discovery was up to 73% more efficient in these. There was a positive correlation between the detected expression level of genes in normalised and unnormalised cDNA, and there was no difference in the number of genes identified as being differentially expressed between blood and spleen for the normalised and unnormalised libraries. We conclude that normalised cDNA libraries are preferable for many applications of RNA-Seq and that these can also be used in quantitative gene expression studies.
Technology diffusion theory revisited: a regulation, environment, strategy, technology model for technology activation analysis of mobile ICT

Theory on the diffusion of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) is mainly focused on technology diffusion, while prerequisites to such diffusion are largely disregarded or taken for granted. Moreover, few constructs for the assessment of technology diffusion take into account the inherent link between technology and strategy analysis. This study proposes that analysing what comes prior to diffusion and use of technology – here defined as ‘technology activation’ – is equally important, so as to identify external, not user-related determinants that enable or hinder a value proposition based on the new technology. To fill the existing gap and extend technology diffusion theory upstream, the limitations of the technology–organisation–environment model and of other technology diffusion models are reviewed, together with external strategy analysis models, and an original model is proposed to address four macro-determinants that affect technology activation: Regulation, environment, strategy, technology (REST). The REST model is then applied to the Italian mobile location-based services market, to qualitatively validate its comprehensiveness. Conclusions are drawn on the opportunities to extend the mobile technology diffusion analysis process upstream, and to integrate technology analysis with existing research on strategy analysis, thus providing new momentum to mainstream research on innovation diffusion.
On the Diversity of Electric Signals in a Community of Mormyrid Electric Fish in West Africa

SYNOPSIS. Communication through electric discharges is a rich and varied modality of social communication among mormyrid fishes of West Africa. Field studies permitted an analysis of the electric signals of over 20 species of Mormyridae living sympatrically in and near the Ivindo River of Gabon. Electric discharges can be classified according to their waveforms and can be shown to be species-specific in many cases. The waveform of the discharge is a signature which is a carrier for social communication signals. The paper asks: “Why is the signature, or carrier, adaptive? ” An analysis points to competitive and cooperative forces in the evolution of electrical waveforms, not physical or habitat forces. Competition between species, as well as mutualistic interactions, appear important in explaining how electrical signatures are adaptive for: 1) channel privacy (noise immunity); 2) unique signals for species recognition ; and 3) electrolocation signals less vulnerable to jamming.
E-learning and sentiment analysis: a case study

E-Learning is becoming one of the most effective training approaches. In particular, the blended learning is considered a useful methodology for supporting and understanding students and their learning issues. Thanks to e-Learning platforms and their collaborative tools, students can interact with other students and share doubts on certain topics. However, teachers often remain outside of this process and do not understand the learning problems that are in their classrooms. A solution for ensuring the privacy of communication among students could be the adoption of a Sentiment Analysis methodology for the detection of the classroom mood during the learning process. In this paper, we investigate the adoption of a probabilistic approach based on the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) as Sentiment Grabber. The proposed approach can detect the mood of students on the various topics and teacher can better tune his/her teaching approach. The proposed method has been tested in real cases with effective and satisfactory results.
Decentralized control of autonomous vehicles

Decentralized control methods are appealing in coordination of multiple vehicles due to their low demand for long-range communication and their robustness to single-point failures. In this paper we explore a decentralized approach to path generation for a group of vehicles in a battlefield scenario. The mission is to maneuver the vehicles to cover a target area while avoiding obstacles and threats during the maneuver. Each vehicle makes its moving decision by minimizing a potential function that encodes information about its neighbours, obstacles, threats and the target. Preliminary analysis of vehicle behaviors is conducted. Simulation has shown that this approach leads to interesting emergent behaviors, and the behaviors can be varied by adjusting the weighting coefficients of different potential function terms.
ON-LINE PORTFOLIO SELECTION VIA MEAN REVERSION STRATEGY

This paper presents a novel adaptive algorithm using mean reversion strategy without transaction cost. The antiocr algorithm only exploits the property of “reversal to the mean” and its performance not only significantly depends on the size of window but also fluctuates wildly according to the different size of window. To overcome these limitations, this proposed algorithm is designed to deal with the portfolio selection problem by fully exploiting both the price momentum and the price reversal in Chinese stock markets. Equipped with several parameters, the proposed mean reversion strategy can better track the changing stock market. Extensive experiments on real stock data from Chinese markets demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategies in comparison with the anticor algorithm without knowledge of the investment duration.
Editorial: The Search for Biological Active Agent(s) From Actinobacteria

Novel Bacteria and Drug Discovery Research Group, School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia, 2 Biofunctional Molecule Exploratory Research Group, School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia, 3 Biomedical Research Laboratory, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia, Center of Health Outcomes Research and Therapeutic Safety, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand, 5 International Genome Centre, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China, Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 7 School of Natural & Environment Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom, 8 School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
Role of TRPC1 and TRPC3 Channels in Contraction and Relaxation of Mouse Thoracic Aorta

Background/Aims: Canonical transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels modulate membrane potential and intracellular Ca2+. We examined the role of TRPC1 and TRPC3 channels in vasocontraction and relaxation in mouse aorta. Methods: Vasocontraction and relaxation of aorta from wild-type (WT), TRPC1 KO and TRPC3 knockout (KO) mice were measured for phenylephrine (Phe) and carbachol (CCh). Intracellular Ca2+ was measured in primary aorta endothelial cells (EC) and whole cell K+ current in freshly isolated smooth muscle cells (SMC). Results and Conclusion: TRPC1 KO aorta showed increased vasocontraction to Phe compared to WT and TRPC3 KO aorta due to diminished role of BKCa channels. BKCa mRNA (aorta) and whole cell current (SMC) were reduced versus WT. Contraction in WT aorta was increased to TRPC1 KO level by BKCa channel inhibition. Relaxation to CCh was reduced in TRPC1 KO and TRPC3 KO aortas with concomitant reduction in EC Ca2+ response. Pyr3 (TRPC3 blocker) reduced the Ca2+ response to CCh in EC from WT, but not TRPC3 KO mice. In summary, TRPC1 attenuates receptor-mediated contraction through activation and/or expression of SMC BKCa channels while TRPC3 does not contribute to receptor-mediated constriction. Both TRPC1 and TRPC3 participate in EC Ca2+ influx and vasorelaxation of aorta.