Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dominant structure of word meanings moderates ageing-related decline in visual figure discrimination

ABSTRACT This is a follow-up study to Tammik and Toomela [(2013). Relationships between visual figure discrimination, verbal abilities, and gender. Perception, 42, 971984] which established a correlational relationship between the propensity to use scientific as opposed to everyday concepts (as distinguished by L. Vygotsky) and visual figure discrimination. The purpose of the current study was to test a further prediction derived from Vygotskys theory in the context of ageing postponed start but faster rate of cognitive decline for scientific conceptual thinkers which is characteristic of cognitive reserve [Stern, Y. (2009). Cognitive reserve. Neuropsychologia, 47, 20152028]. The emergence of such a pattern with age was investigated by extending the original sample of 428 participants up to age 70 with additional 119 participants older than 70 years. The hypothesis was tested with piecewise (segmented) and local polynomial (loess) regression models and was confirmed.
An Algorithm-Agile Cryptographic Co-processor Based on FPGAs

Cryptographic algorithm agility, or the capability to switch between several encryption algorithms, has become a desirable feature due to the algorithm-independent design paradigm of modern security protocols. Moreover, applications such as cell encryption in ATM networks require the ability to quickly change ciphers. A promising answer to algorithm agility in hardware is reconfigurable logic. This contribution describes the design and implementation of an algorithm-agile cryptographic co-processor board. The core of the board is an FPGA which can be dynamically configured with a variety of block ciphers. The FPGA is capable of encrypting data at high speed through an ISA bus interface. The board contains a RAM with a collection of FPGA configuration files. In addition, the algorithms can be added or deleted during operation. The co-processor board also contains other reconfigurable logic and a microprocessor for control functions, and high-speed FIFOs for data storage. We report about the general design, our experiences with this proof-of-concept implementation, and recommendations for future work.
Flower-Visiting Butterflies Avoid Predatory Stimuli and Larger Resident Butterflies: Testing in a Butterfly Pavilion

The flower-visiting behaviors of pollinator species are affected not only by flower traits but also by cues of predators and resident pollinators. There is extensive research into the effects of predator cues and resident pollinators on the flower-visiting behaviors of bee pollinators. However, there is relatively little research into their effects on butterfly pollinators probably because of the difficulty in observing a large number of butterfly pollination events. We conducted a dual choice experiment using artificial flowers under semi-natural conditions in the butterfly pavilion at Tama Zoological Park to examine the effects of the presence of a dead mantis and resident butterflies have on the flower-visiting behavior of several butterfly species. From 173 hours of recorded video, we observed 3235 visitations by 16 butterfly species. Statistical analysis showed that (1) butterflies avoided visiting flowers occupied by a dead mantis, (2) butterflies avoided resident butterflies that were larger than the visitor, and (3) butterflies showed greater avoidance of a predator when the predator was present together with the resident butterfly than when the predator was located on the opposite flower of the resident. Finally, we discuss the similarities and differences in behavioral responses of butterfly pollinators and bees.
All-Optical Modulation Format Conversion Using Nonlinear Dynamics of Semiconductor Lasers

Under proper injection of an incoming optical signal to be format-converted, a semiconductor laser can be driven at period-one dynamics due to the dynamical competition between the injection-imposed laser oscillation and the injection-shifted cavity resonance. Equally separated spectral components therefore emerge, the intensity and frequency of which strongly depend on the intensity and frequency of the incoming optical signal. Optical modulation format conversion between amplitude-shift keying (ASK) and frequency-shift keying (FSK) can thus be achieved by applying such a mechanism. The conversion depends solely on the property of the incoming optical signal for a given laser and therefore only a typical semiconductor laser is necessary as the key conversion unit. Due to the unique underlying mechanism, both ASK-to-FSK and FSK-to-ASK conversions can be achieved using the same system. The bit-error ratio at 10 Gb/s is observed down to 10-12 with a slight power penalty for both conversions. Simultaneous frequency conversion of the incoming optical carrier is also possible. By adopting different spectral components or different injection conditions, different output modulation indices can be obtained.
Colleagueship in different types of post-secondary institutions: a lever for faculty vitality

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyzed 50 faculty interviews to explore the function of colleagueship across different types of institutions. Our findings highlight that colleagueship served toward the improvement of teaching, disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning, securing one’s research agenda, career management, and friendship. We attend to the nuances of our findings within distinct institutional types, and offer several suggestions for practice and research.
Current status of percutaneous vertebroplasty and percutaneous kyphoplasty – a review

Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PV) and kyphoplasty (PK) are the 2 vertebral augmentation procedures that have emerged as minimally invasive surgical options to treat painful vertebral compression fractures (VCF) during the last 2 decades. VCF may either be osteoporotic or tumor-associated. Two hundred million women are affected by osteoporosis globally. Vertebral fracture may result in acute pain around the fracture site, loss of vertebral height due to vertebral collapse, spinal instability, and kyphotic deformity. The main goal of the PV and PK procedures is to give immediate pain relief to patients and restore the vertebral height lost due to fracture. In percutaneous vertebroplasty, bone cement is injected through a minimal incision into the fractured site. Kyphoplasty involves insertion of a balloon into the fractured site, followed by inflation-deflation to create a cavity into which the filler material is injected, and the balloon is taken out prior to cement injection. This literature review presents a qualitative overview on the current status of vertebral augmentation procedures, especially PV and PK, and compares the efficacy and safety of these 2 procedures. The review consists of a brief history of the development of these 2 techniques, a discussion on the current research on the bone cement, clinical outcome of the 2 procedures, and it also sheds light on ongoing and future research to maximize the efficacy and safety of vertebral augmentation procedures.
Smooth affine shear tight frames: digitization and applications

In this paper, we mainly discuss one of the recent developed directional multiscale representation systems: smooth affine shear tight frames. A directional wavelet tight frame is generated by isotropic dilations and translations of directional wavelet generators, while an affine shear tight frame is generated by anisotropic dilations, shears, and translations of shearlet generators. These two tight frames are actually connected in the sense that the affine shear tight frame can be obtained from a directional wavelet tight frame through subsampling. Consequently, an affine shear tight frame indeed has an underlying filter bank from the MRA structure of its associated directional wavelet tight frame. We call such filter banks affine shear filter banks, which can be designed completely in the frequency domain. We discuss the digitization of affine shear filter banks and their implementations: the forward and backward digital affine shear transforms. Redundancy rate and computational complexity of digital affine shear transforms are also investigated in this paper. Numerical experiments and comparisons in image/video processing show the advantages of digital affine shear transforms over many other state-of-art directional multiscale representation systems.
Evaluation of Channel Fairness Models for Ad-Hoc networks

Abstract—In this paper, we will first demonstrate the effects of unfairness performance of the IEEE 802.11 standard under a pre-computed routing scheme for two network configurations and a fixed traffic patterns. Firstly, we will examine the send rate, a quantity similar to the local throughput, for very simple chain and lattice networks with regular traffic patterns, and then we will investigate the performance of both types of fairness improvement schemes on this rate. The recently developed JEmu network simulator will be used for all simulations [1]. It is intended that the results will illustrate both the impacts of the traffic patterns on the performance of the link-level fairness models and will also highlight the better approach to guaranteeing fairness among subscribers.
CS 231 A : Project Final Report Object Localization and Tracking using Microsoft Kinect

Localization and tracking of objects is a fundamental component of robotics. In order to effectively interact with its environment and manipulate objects, a robot must be able to classify and distinguish between multiple objects and the environment, determine the position as well as orientation of these objects, and update these states in real-time. This project uses Microsoft’s Kinect sensor and the Scaling Series algorithm to achieve these goals. The algorithm that was developed for this project was able to accurately perform planar tracking (2 linear positions plus orientation) of a triangle that was segmented by color.
Streaming Data from HDD to GPUs for Sustained Peak Performance

In the context of the genome-wide association studies (GWAS), one has to solve long sequences of generalized least-squares problems; such a task has two limiting factors: execution time --often in the range of days or weeks-- and data management --data sets in the order of Terabytes. We present an algorithm that obviates both issues. By pipelining the computation, and thanks to a sophisticated transfer strategy, we stream data from hard disk to main memory to GPUs and achieve sustained peak performance; with respect to a highly-optimized CPU implementation, our algorithm shows a speedup of 2.6x. Moreover, the approach lends itself to multiple GPUs and attains almost perfect scalability. When using 4 GPUs, we observe speedups of 9x over the aforementioned implementation, and 488x over a widespread biology library.
Illuminating the Transcriptome through the Genome

Sequencing the human genome was a huge milestone in genetic research that revealed almost the total DNA sequence required to create a human being. However, in order to function, the DNA genome needs to be expressed as an RNA transcriptome. This article reviews how knowledge of genome sequence information has led to fundamental discoveries in how the transcriptome is processed, with a focus on new system-wide insights into how pre-mRNAs that are encoded by split genes in the genome are rearranged by splicing into functional mRNAs. These advances have been made possible by the development of new post-genome technologies to probe splicing patterns. Transcriptome-wide approaches have characterised a “splicing code” that is embedded within and has a significant role in deciphering the genome, and is deciphered by RNA binding proteins. These analyses have also found that most human genes encode multiple mRNA isoforms, and in some cases proteins, leading in turn to a re-assessment of what exactly a gene is. Analysis of the transcriptome has given insights into how the genome is packaged and transcribed, and is helping to explain important aspects of genome evolution.
The RNA modification database, RNAMDB: 2011 update

Since its inception in 1994, The RNA Modification Database (RNAMDB, http://rna-mdb.cas.albany.edu/RNAmods/) has served as a focal point for information pertaining to naturally occurring RNA modifications. In its current state, the database employs an easy-to-use, searchable interface for obtaining detailed data on the 109 currently known RNA modifications. Each entry provides the chemical structure, common name and symbol, elemental composition and mass, CA registry numbers and index name, phylogenetic source, type of RNA species in which it is found, and references to the first reported structure determination and synthesis. Though newly transferred in its entirety to The RNA Institute, the RNAMDB continues to grow with two notable additions, agmatidine and 8-methyladenosine, appended in the last year. The RNA Modification Database is staying up-to-date with significant improvements being prepared for inclusion within the next year and the following year. The expanded future role of The RNA Modification Database will be to serve as a primary information portal for researchers across the entire spectrum of RNA-related research.
Effect of Wheelchair Frame Material on Users' Mechanical Work and Transmitted Vibration

Wheelchair propulsion exposes the user to a high risk of shoulder injury and to whole-body vibration that exceeds recommendations of ISO 2631-1:1997. Reducing the mechanical work required to travel a given distance (WN-WPM, weight-normalized work-per-meter) can help reduce the risk of shoulder injury, while reducing the vibration transmissibility (VT) of the wheelchair frame can reduce whole-body vibration. New materials such as titanium and carbon are used in today's wheelchairs and are advertised to improve both parameters, but current knowledge on this matter is limited. In this study, WN-WPM and VT were measured simultaneously and compared between six folding wheelchairs (1 titanium, 1 carbon, and 4 aluminium). Ten able-bodied users propelled the six wheelchairs on three ground surfaces. Although no significant difference of WN-WPM was found between wheelchairs (P < 0.1), significant differences of VT were found (P < 0.05). The carbon wheelchair had the lowest VT. Contrarily to current belief, the titanium wheelchair VT was similar to aluminium wheelchairs. A negative correlation between VT and WN-WPM was found, which means that reducing VT may be at the expense of increasing WN-WPM. Based on our results, use of carbon in wheelchair construction seems promising to reduce VT without increasing WN-WPM.
Computational Integral Imaging Reconstruction Technique with High Image Resolution

This paper presents a new method to improve the resolution of integral imaging. According to integral imaging system principle, a volume pixel of 3D scene is projected in several elemental images through micro-lens array. Contrary optic-ray pickup method is introduced in the CIIR process to reconstruct integral image by acquiring multiple pixels from various elemental images for corresponding volume pixel. To show the feasibility of proposed method, some experiments are performed, and the results are compared and discussed with those of the conventional method. The resolution of reconstruction image can be dramatically improved by the proposed method.
Strategies for Improving DSS Research

This paper analyses the nature and state of decision support systems (DSS) research. To understand the state of DSS research an empirical investigation of published DSS research is presented. This investigation is based on the detailed analysis of 1,020 DSS articles published in 14 major journals from 1990 to 2012. The analysis of the professional or practical contribution of DSS research shows a field that is facing a crisis of relevance. Using the history and empirical study as a foundation, a number of strategies for improving DSS research are suggested.
Spatial diversity for FSO communication systems over atmospheric turbulence channels

This paper investigates the bit error rate (BER) performance of spatial diversity free-space optical (FSO) communication systems using on-off keying modulation. The study considers correlated log-normal FSO channels as well as path losses due to weather effects using intensity modulation and direct detection schemes. An approximated moment generating functions (MGF) for the joint probability density function of correlated log-normal channels are considered. Using MGF approximation, BER expressions for repetition codes (RCs) and orthogonal space time block codes (OSTBCs) in correlated lognormal channels are derived. Results show that RCs outperform OSTBCs in correlated channel conditions. In addition, the effect of different weather conditions (e.g., haze, rain and fog) on the BER performance of the FSO links are studied. Monte Carlo simulation results are further provided to demonstrate the validity of the proposed mathematical analysis.
An Effective and Efficient Similarity-Matrix-Based Algorithm for Clustering Big Mobile Social Data

Nowadays a great deal of attention is devoted to the issue of supporting big data analytics over big mobile social data. These data are generated by modern emerging social systems like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so forth. Mining big mobile social data has been of great interest, as analyzing such data is critical for a wide spectrum of big data applications (e.g., smart cities). Among several proposals, clustering is a well-known solution for extracting interesting and actionable knowledge from massive amounts of big mobile (geo-located) social data. Inspired by this main thesis, this paper proposes an effective and efficient similarity-matrix-based algorithm for clustering big mobile social data, called TourMiner, which is specifically targeted to clustering trips extracted from tweets, in order to mine most popular tours. The main characteristic of TourMiner consists in applying clustering over a well-suited similarity matrix computed on top of trips. A comprehensive experimental assessment and analysis over Twitter data finally comfirms the benefits coming from our proposal.
Modeling House Values : Extremal Equilibria in Allocation Markets with Non-Transferable Utility

Wealth effects impact the valuation and allocation of large indivisible goods such as houses. Yet no general method exists for quantifying these effects. We introduce an algorithm for identifying equilibria in allocation markets with non-transferable utility, thereby filling this gap. In cases with multiple equilibria, the algorithm can be used to solve for maximum and minimum equilbrium prices, and thereafter to uncover the full set of equilibria.
Performance engineering of software systems: a case study

This paper summarizes the concepts of performance engineering in large software systems and illustrates the application of performance engineering techniques to the early design phase of a large database system. Performance engineering is a methodology for evaluating the performance of software systems throughout their life cycles. The case study given here demonstrates that it is possible to predict resource usage patterns of complex software systems even in early design phases of the system, although detailed predictions of resource usage are not likely to be validated. The results presented here show the leverage of considering performance implications in the early design phases of a software project.
Implementing and evaluating Dynamic Partial Order Reduction Using Probe Sets

Currently, one of the major problems in explicit state model checking is state space explosion; the number of states in modern software systems is growing so rapidly that even the most advanced computers no longer provide enough power to compute a complete state space. Kastenberg and Rensink [1] have proposed a new algorithm to reduce state space. However there is no implementation and thus no knowledge on how it will perform in practice. This paper reports on a preliminary implementation and benchmark results of the algorithm, which is called Dynamic Partial Order Reduction Using Probe Sets (DROPS).
A grid-connected photovoltaic system with a maximum power point tracker using passivity-based control applied in a boost converter

The power generated by a solar photovoltaic panel is strongly dependent on climate conditions. For this reason, a grid-connected system needs a good response for variations in the solar irradiance and temperature. A non-linear control technique which has a good rejection of disturbances is the passivity-based control. This work presents the application of the passivity-based control in a maximum power tracker boost converter for a grid-connected photovoltaic system. The fast response of the control allows a better use of the photovoltaic array energy, increasing the efficiency of the system, and ensuring stability for all operation range.
Digital Smith Predictor for Control of Unstable and Integrating Time-delay Processes

(dead time) are found in many processes in industrial practice. Time-delays are mainly caused by the time required to transport mass, energy or information, but they can also be caused by processing time or accumulation. This paper deals with a design of algorithms for digital control of the unstable and integrating time-delay processes using one suitable modification of the Smith Predictor (SP). This digital modification of the Smith Predictor is based on Linear Quadratic (LQ) method. A minimization of the quadratic criterion is realized using spectral factorization. The designed algorithms have universal usage; they are suitable for control of stable, non-minimum phase, unstable and integrative time-delay processes. The main contribution of this paper is design and simulation verification of this Smith Predictor for control of the unstable and integrative processes, because classical continuous Smith Predictors are not suitable for control of such processes. Of course, some continuous-time modifications have been designed for control of like these processes. The designed algorithms for control of individual processes influenced by external disturbance were verified. The program system MATLAB/SIMULINK was used for simulation of designed algorithms. I. INTRODUCTION IME-delay appear in many processes in industry and other fields, including economical and biological systems They are caused by some of the following phenomena [1]: • the time needed to transport mass, energy or information, • the accumulation of time lags in a great numbers of low order systems connected in series, • the required processing time for sensors, such as analyzers; controllers that need some time to implement a complicated control algorithms or process. Time-delay is very often encountered in various technical systems, such as electric, pneumatic and hydraulic networks, chemical processes, long transmission lines, robotics, etc. The existence of pure time lag, regardless if it is present in the
Supplemental Material : Exploratory Font Selection Using Crowdsourced Attributes 1 Attribute Estimation

Number of Pairwise Comparisons. Selecting the number of pairwise comparisons n is an important choice when estimating font attributes. If n is too low, the estimated attributes are inaccurate. Exhaustive testing of all pairs (i.e., n = 200) is cost-prohibitive and unnecessary since the attribute values will converge to accurate values after far fewer comparisons. To determine a reasonable n, we ran a smaller study on 5 attributes varying n from 2 to 15. For each n, we evaluated the mean log-likelihood of a testing set of 5 additional comparisons per font. In Figure 1, we show a figure plotting the log-likelihood for n for each attribute. We found the log-likelihood plateaued after n = 8, so we used this value in our final study for the remaining attributes.