Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Streaming Algorithms For Computing Edit Distance Without Exploiting Suffix Trees

The edit distance is a way of quantifying how similar two strings are to one another by counting the minimum number of character insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to transform one string into the other. In this paper we study the computational problem of computing the edit distance between a pair of strings where their distance is bounded by a parameter $k\ll n$. We present two streaming algorithms for computing edit distance: One runs in time $O(n+k^2)$ and the other $n+O(k^3)$. By writing $n+O(k^3)$ we want to emphasize that the number of operations per an input symbol is a small constant. In particular, the running time does not depend on the alphabet size, and the algorithm should be easy to implement. Previously a streaming algorithm with running time $O(n+k^4)$ was given in the paper by the current authors (STOC'16). The best off-line algorithm runs in time $O(n+k^2)$ (Landau et al., 1998) which is known to be optimal under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis.
Ostracods (Crustacea) as shelf to basin indicators: evidence from Late Devonian Yangdi and Nandong sections in Guangxi, South China

Abstract. Forty-eight ostracod species belonging to 28 genera from the Late Devonian of Guangxi in South China are described and figured. The ostracod assemblage from the Nandong section can be attributed to the rhenana–linguiformis conodont zones. The ecological assemblages of ostracods from the Yangdi section correspond to a smooth-podocopid association accompanied by some pelagic entomozoids. This mixed assemblage is indicative of an environment of carbonate platform to slope during an ongoing regression. The ostracod faunas from the Nandong section are on the contrary composed of both pelagic and benthic ostracods and pelagic forms dominate in number of specimens suggesting a basin environment.
A Multi-accuracy-Level Approximate Memory Architecture Based on Data Significance Analysis

Approximate memory is a promising technology for emerging recognition, mining and vision applications. These applications require the processing of large volumes of data to achieve energy-efficiency with negligible accuracy loss. This paper proposes a multi-level approximate memory architecture based on data significance analysis. In this architecture, a memory array is divided into several separated banks with different predefined accuracy levels. A key novelty of this work is the design of a memory controller that distributes data to the memory banks according to the results of data significance analysis. When applied to a DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) processing module, the proposed approximate memory controller can achieve over 60% power saving with onchip memory model of multiple supply voltage SRAM banks, at the cost of a marginal output PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) degradation of 3.34 dB.
Global tracer modeling during SOLVE: High‐latitude descent and mixing

[1] We compare tracer observations made during the northern winter of 1999/2000 with the results of simulations with a three-dimensional chemical transport model, driven by assimilated winds. During the course of the winter, very low concentrations of tracers of tropospheric origin (such as N2O) descend into the lower stratosphere within the polar vortex. The altitude of origin of this air has been a matter of debate in the literature; by midwinter, both observations and model results indicate a significant fraction of mesospheric air in the lower stratosphere. Observations from aircraft and balloon flights reveal markers of mesospheric air within the Arctic vortex in the lower and middle stratosphere. An artificial tracer introduced into the model mesosphere at the start of winter descends (being diluted as it does so) all the way down to the 450 K potential temperature surface by March. Modeled tracer-tracer relationships evolve through the winter in a way similar to observations, but the separation between vortex and extravortex curves is exaggerated, suggesting that the model exhibits excessive horizontal mixing within and into the vortex. The tracer-tracer relationships are used to identify partly mixed air as lying, in tracer-tracer space, in a region intermediate between the characteristic vortex and midlatitude relationships. Air lying in a collar region just inside the vortex edge is thus identified as being mixed, and this indicates excessive horizontal mixing in the model across the vortex edge. INDEX TERMS: 0341 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Middle atmosphere—constituent transport and chemistry (3334); 3334 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342); KEYWORDS: stratosphere, polar vortex, tracer modeling, stratospheric tracers
Loops in Reeb Graphs of 
2-Manifolds

Abstract Given a Morse function f over a 2-manifold with or without boundary, the Reeb graph is obtained by contracting the connected components of the level sets to points. We prove tight upper and lower bounds on the number of loops in the Reeb graph that depend on the genus, the number of boundary components, and whether or not the 2-manifold is orientable. We also give an algorithm that constructs the Reeb graph in time O(n log n), where n is the number of edges in the triangulation used to represent the 2-manifold and the Morse function.
Acetylcysteine for Prevention of Renal Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Coronary and Peripheral Vascular Angiography: Main Results From the Randomized Acetylcysteine for Contrast-Induced Nephropathy Trial (ACT)

Background— It remains uncertain whether acetylcysteine prevents contrast-induced acute kidney injury. Methods and Results— We randomly assigned 2308 patients undergoing an intravascular angiographic procedure with at least 1 risk factor for contrast-induced acute kidney injury (age >70 years, renal failure, diabetes mellitus, heart failure, or hypotension) to acetylcysteine 1200 mg or placebo. The study drugs were administered orally twice daily for 2 doses before and 2 doses after the procedure. The allocation was concealed (central Web-based randomization). All analysis followed the intention-to-treat principle. The incidence of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (primary end point) was 12.7% in the acetylcysteine group and 12.7% in the control group (relative risk, 1.00; 95% confidence interval, 0.81 to 1.25; P=0.97). A combined end point of mortality or need for dialysis at 30 days was also similar in both groups (2.2% and 2.3%, respectively; hazard ratio, 0.97; 95% confidence interval, 0.56 to 1.69; P=0.92). Consistent effects were observed in all subgroups analyzed, including those with renal impairment. Conclusions— In this large randomized trial, we found that acetylcysteine does not reduce the risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury or other clinically relevant outcomes in at-risk patients undergoing coronary and peripheral vascular angiography. Clinical Trial Registration— http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00736866.
Congestion-Minimizing Network Update in Data Centers

The SDN control plane needs to frequently update the data plane as the network conditions change. Since each switch updates its flow table independently and asynchronously, the transition of data plane state—if done directly from the initial to the final stage—may result in serious flash congestion. Prior work strives to find a congestion-free update plan with multiple stages, each with the property that there will be no congestion independent of the update order. Yet congestion-free update may prevent the network from being fully utilized. It also requires solving a series of LP which is time-consuming. In this paper, we propose congestion-minimizing update and focus on two general problems: The first is to find routing at each intermediate stage that minimizes transient congestion for a given number of intermediate stages. The second is to find the minimum number of intermediate stages and an update plan for a given maximum level of transient congestion. We formulate them as two optimization programs and prove their hardness. We propose a set of algorithms to find the update plan in a scalable manner. Extensive experiments with Mininet show that our solution reduces update time by 50 percent and saves control overhead by 38 percent compared to prior work.
Self-Associations Influence Task-Performance through Bayesian Inference

The way we think about ourselves impacts greatly on our behavior. This paper describes a behavioral study and a computational model that shed new light on this important area. Participants were primed “clever” and “stupid” using a scrambled sentence task, and we measured the effect on response time and error-rate on a rule-association task. First, we observed a confirmation bias effect in that associations to being “stupid” led to a gradual decrease in performance, whereas associations to being “clever” did not. Second, we observed that the activated self-concepts selectively modified attention toward one’s performance. There was an early to late double dissociation in RTs in that primed “clever” resulted in RT increase following error responses, whereas primed “stupid” resulted in RT increase following correct responses. We propose a computational model of subjects’ behavior based on the logic of the experimental task that involves two processes; memory for rules and the integration of rules with subsequent visual cues. The model incorporates an adaptive decision threshold based on Bayes rule, whereby decision thresholds are increased if integration was inferred to be faulty. Fitting the computational model to experimental data confirmed our hypothesis that priming affects the memory process. This model explains both the confirmation bias and double dissociation effects and demonstrates that Bayesian inferential principles can be used to study the effect of self-concepts on behavior.
Gene Technology for Papaya Ringspot Virus Disease Management

Papaya (Carica papaya) is severely damaged by the papaya ringspot virus (PRSV). This review focuses on the development of PRSV resistant transgenic papaya through gene technology. The genetic diversity of PRSV depends upon geographical distribution and the influence of PRSV disease management on a sequence of PRSV isolates. The concept of pathogen-derived resistance has been employed for the development of transgenic papaya, using a coat protein-mediated, RNA-silencing mechanism and replicase gene-mediated transformation for effective PRSV disease management. The development of PRSV-resistant papaya via post-transcriptional gene silencing is a promising technology for PRSV disease management. PRSV-resistant transgenic papaya is environmentally safe and has no harmful effects on human health. Recent studies have revealed that the success of adoption of transgenic papaya depends upon the application, it being a commercially viable product, bio-safety regulatory issues, trade regulations, and the wider social acceptance of the technology. This review discusses the genome and the genetic diversity of PRSV, host range determinants, molecular diagnosis, disease management strategies, the development of transgenic papaya, environmental issues, issues in the adoption of transgenic papaya, and future directions for research.
Elevated Levels of Volatile Organic Carcinogen and Toxicant Biomarkers in Chinese Women Who Regularly Cook at Home

Background: Epidemiologic studies associate lung cancer in nonsmoking Chinese women with Chinese-style wok cooking. Our goal was to quantify carcinogen and toxicant biomarkers in Chinese women who reported regularly doing home cooking compared with women randomly selected from the Singapore Chinese Health Study as controls. Methods: Biomarkers were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Results: Compared with controls, women who engaged in regular home cooking had significantly higher levels of mercapturic acids of acrolein {geometric mean, 1,959 pmol/mg creatinine [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1,554-2,467] versus 1,370 (95% CI, 1,077-1,742); P = 0.038}, crotonaldehyde [geometric mean, 232 pmol/mg creatinine (95% CI, 193-277) versus 142 (95% CI, 118-171); P = 0.0004], and benzene [geometric mean, 0.58 pmol/mg creatinine (95% CI, 0.44-0.78) versus 0.18 (95% CI, 0.14-0.24); P < 0.0001]. No significant differences were found in levels of mercapturic acids of 1,3-butadiene, metabolites of pyrene and phenanthrene, or acetaldehyde-leukocyte DNA adduct levels between the groups. Levels of the ethylene oxide mercapturic acid were significantly higher in the controls. Conclusions: The higher levels of the mercapturic acid of benzene, a multiorgan carcinogen, in the women who cooked are particularly notable. Overall, the results showing increased exposure to the volatile toxicants and carcinogens acrolein, crotonaldehyde, and benzene in Chinese women who regularly cook provide a plausible lead for further investigating the role of volatile compounds generated during high-temperature cooking with oils as causes of lung cancer. Impact: A new direction for research on lung cancer etiology is suggested. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(5); 1185–92. ©2010 AACR.
Recurrent Microdeletions at Xq27.3-Xq28 and Male Infertility: A Study in the Czech Population

Background Genetic causes of male infertility are hypothesized to involve multiple types of mutations, from single gene defects to complex chromosome rearrangements. Recently, several recurrent X-chromosome microdeletions (located in subtelomeric region of the long arm) were reported to be associated with male infertility in Spanish and Italian males. The aim of our study was to test their prevalence and infertility association in population of men from the Czech Republic. Methods 107 males with pathological sperm evaluation resulting in nonobstructive infertility were compared to 131 males with normal fecundity. X-chromosome microdeletions were assessed by +/- PCR with three primer pairs for each region Xcnv64 (Xq27.3), Xcnv67 (Xq28) and Xcnv69 (Xq28). The latter microdeletion was further characterized by amplification across the deleted region, dividing the deletion into three types; A, B and C. Results We detected presence of isolated Xcnv64 deletion in 3 patients and 14 controls, and Xcnv69 in 3 patients and 6 controls (1 and 1 patient vs.4 and 1 control for types A and B respectively). There was one control with combined Xcnv64 and Xcnv69 type B deletions, and one patient with combination of Xcnv64 and Xcnv69 type C deletions. The frequency of the deletions was thus not higher in patient compared to control group, Xcnv64 was marginally associated with controls (adjusted Fisher´s exact test P = 0.043), Xcnv69 was not associated (P = 0.452). We excluded presence of more extensive rearrangements in two subjects with combined Xcnv64 and Xcnv69 deletions. There was no Xcnv67 deletion in our cohort. Conclusion In conclusion, the two previously reported X-linked microdeletions (Xcnv64 and Xcnv69) do not seem to confer a significant risk to impaired spermatogenesis in the Czech population. The potential clinical role of the previously reported patient-specific Xcnv67 remains to be determined in a larger study population.
Assessing neuromuscular mechanisms in human-exoskeleton interaction

In this study, we propose to evaluate a 7 DOF exoskeleton in terms of motion control. Using criteria from the human motor control literature, inverse optimization was performed to assess an industrial screwing movement. The results of our study show that the hybrid composition of the free arm movement was accurately determined. At contrary, when wearing the exoskeleton, which produces an arbitrary determined torque compensation, the motion is different from the naturally adopted one. This study is part of the evaluation and comprehension of the complex neuromuscular mechanism resulting in wearing an exoskeleton several hours per day for industrial tasks assistance.
Understanding and Assessing Nonverbal Expressiveness: The Affective Communication Test.

The concept of nonverbal emotional expressiveness was explored through the development of a 13-item self-report Affective Communication Test (ACT). Studies reported here show the ACT to be a reliable and valid measure of individual differences in expressiveness or what is sometimes called "charisma. " In the course of the validation, expressiveness was shown to be a likely element of social influence in face-to-face interaction, a logical extension of past approaches to a basic element of personality (exhibition), and a valuable construct in approaching current problems in nonverbal communication research. The measure (and the concept it represents) suggests a new approach for personality research on emotional expression, studies of individual differences in nonverbal communication, and research on the process of face-to-face interaction.
Prediction and measurement of wall insertion loss

A propagation loss study is presented to determine the attenuation of various building walls. An approximate model was developed for the propagation of a spherical electromagnetic wave through a building wall of known material properties. This model is based on the method of images and geometrical optics. This approximate model is shown to be in good agreement with measured results. This work is part of a feasibility study for a miniature microwave powered surveillance vehicle that would be capable of operating inside buildings. For this application, the reflection and attenuation (insertion loss) of a focused microwave beam by interior and exterior walls is of interest. The insertion loss measurements were taken over a frequency range of 2 to 6 GHz.
Multiscale Image Fusion Using the Undecimated Wavelet Transform With Spectral Factorization and Nonorthogonal Filter Banks

Multiscale transforms are among the most popular techniques in the field of pixel-level image fusion. However, the fusion performance of these methods often deteriorates for images derived from different sensor modalities. In this paper, we demonstrate that for such images, results can be improved using a novel undecimated wavelet transform (UWT)-based fusion scheme, which splits the image decomposition process into two successive filtering operations using spectral factorization of the analysis filters. The actual fusion takes place after convolution with the first filter pair. Its significantly smaller support size leads to the minimization of the unwanted spreading of coefficient values around overlapping image singularities. This usually complicates the feature selection process and may lead to the introduction of reconstruction errors in the fused image. Moreover, we will show that the nonsubsampled nature of the UWT allows the design of nonorthogonal filter banks, which are more robust to artifacts introduced during fusion, additionally improving the obtained results. The combination of these techniques leads to a fusion framework, which provides clear advantages over traditional multiscale fusion approaches, independent of the underlying fusion rule, and reduces unwanted side effects such as ringing artifacts in the fused reconstruction.
Possible association of BLM in decreasing DNA double strand breaks during DNA replication

Bloom's syndrome (BS) is a rare genetic disorder and the cells from BS patients show genomic instability and an increased level of sister chromatid exchange (SCE). We generated BLM−/− and BLM−/−/RAD54−/− DT40 cells from the chicken B‐lymphocyte line DT40. The BLM−/− DT40 cells showed higher sensitivity to methyl methanesulfonate and elevated levels of SCE as expected. The targeted integration frequency was also increased remarkably in BLM−/− cells. The SCE frequency increase in BLM−/− cells was considerably reduced and the enhanced targeted integration observed in BLM−/− cells was almost completely abolished in BLM−/−/RAD54−/− cells, indicating that a large portion of the SCE in BLM−/− cells occurs via homologous recombination, and homologous recombination events increase with the defect of BLM function. The BLM−/−/RAD54−/− cells showed a slow growth phenotype and an increased incidence of chromosome‐type breaks/gaps while each single mutant showed relatively small numbers of chromosome‐type breaks/gaps.
'Preparedness' and the development of aversive associations.

The paper presents two studies investigating the role of the preparedness value of stimulus content in an aversive compound signal conditioning procedure. It was predicted that greater compound to component transfer would occur to 'potentially phobic' compared to 'neutral' stimulus components, and that responses to potentially phobic components would show a relatively greater resistance to extinction. Results from both studies failed to support these hypotheses thus questioning the generality of the previously demonstrated role of 'preparedness' in average associative processes.
VERTICAL FOREST SRUCTURE ESTIMATION BY MEANS OF MULTI-BASELINE POL-INSAR AT L-BAND FOR GLOBAL BIOMASS MAPPING POTENTIAL & LIDAR SYNERGIES

A central parameter of the terrestrial carbon budget is forest biomass which represents a proxy for the stored carbon. Despite its crucial role in the terrestrial carbon budget, forest biomass is poorly quantified across most parts of the planet due to the great difficulties in measuring biomass on the ground and consistently aggregating measurements across scales. Today’s information is largely based on ground measurements on a plot basis and for many regions is still missing. Accurate and reliable estimation of forest biomass is today one of the “hot topics” within the radar and lidar remote sensing communities. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a new approach for biomass estimation based on the estimation of the forest vertical structure. Biomass a Function of Vertical Structure and Height In [7] a method for biomass estimation using the allometric relationship between biomass and forest height is described. 58 . 1 H 66 . 1 B Eq.1 B is the Biomass in Mg/ha and H the forest top height. This method provides reliable results for closed canopy forest systems without strong density variations. However, changes in forest density and structure caused for example by tree species composition, management system or disturbances introduce deviations in vertical structure. With increasing horizontal and/or vertical forest heterogeneity the variance of the biomass height relationship increases. An extension of the height to biomass allometry has been recently proposed in terms of vertical structure information
Scaling Laws in the Fine-Scale Structure of Range Margins

Margins of the geographic distributions of species are important regions in terms of ecological and evolutionary processes, including the species’ response to climate change. This paper reviews some spatially explicit metapopulation models of range margins across environmental gradients (e.g., across latitudes or altitudes). These models share some robust results, which allow for generalizations within a broad variety of species and environments: (1) sharp edges can emerge even across relatively smooth environmental gradients; (2) intraspecific competition combined with dispersal limitation is a sufficient condition for the sharpening; (3) at the margin, the “mainland” of continuous occurrence splits into “islands”. Computer simulations pointed out some characteristic scaling laws in the size distribution of the islands, and in the structure of the hull of the mainland. The hull is a fractal with a dimension 7/4. Its width and length scale with the gradient according to characteristic scaling laws (with exponents 3/7 and 4/7, respectively). These general features follow from a second-order phase transition from a connected to a fragmented state. The results contribute to understanding the origin of vegetation zones and the spatial pattern of ecotones.