Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Universal Sparse Superposition Codes With Spatial Coupling and GAMP Decoding

Sparse superposition codes, or sparse regression codes, constitute a new class of codes, which was first introduced for communication over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. It has been shown that such codes are capacity-achieving over the AWGN channel under optimal maximum-likelihood decoding as well as under various efficient iterative decoding schemes equipped with power allocation or spatially coupled constructions. Here, we generalize the analysis of these codes to a much broader setting that includes all memoryless channels. We show, for a large class of memoryless channels, that spatial coupling allows an efficient decoder, based on the generalized approximate message-passing (GAMP) algorithm, to reach the potential (or Bayes optimal) threshold of the underlying (or uncoupled) code ensemble. Moreover, we argue that spatially coupled sparse superposition codes universally achieve capacity under GAMP decoding by showing, through analytical computations, that the error floor vanishes and the potential threshold tends to capacity, as one of the code parameters goes to infinity. Furthermore, we provide a closed-form formula for the algorithmic threshold of the underlying code ensemble in terms of Fisher information. Relating an algorithmic threshold to a Fisher information has theoretical as well as practical importance. Our proof relies on the state evolution analysis and uses the potential method developed in the theory of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and compressed sensing.
Spur suppression technique for multiplied delay locked loop

This paper presents spur suppression technique for multiplied delay locked loop (MDLL), and a spur model of MDLL using Markov chain analysis. By randomly reloading the reference edge to the delay line, the reference spur caused by systematic timing error are reduced by more than 20 dB compared to a conventional MDLL. On the other hand, the rms jitter is reduced by half compared to a PLL without reference reload. The effectiveness of spur and noise reduction are verified by the proposed model and experimental results.
Novel Liposomes for Targeted Delivery of Drugs and Plasmids

Novel Liposomes for Targeted Delivery of Drugs and Plasmids Marjan Javadi Department of Chemical Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy People receiving chemotherapy not only suffer from side effects of therapeutics but also must buy expensive drugs. Targeted drug and gene delivery directed to specific tumor-cells is one way to reduce the side effect of drugs and use less amount of therapeutics. In this research, two novel liposomal nanocarriers were developed. This nanocarrier, called an eLiposome, is basically one or more emulsion droplets inside a liposome. Emulsion droplets are made of perfluorocarbons which usually have a high vapor pressure. Calcein (as a model drug) and Paclitaxel were used to demonstrate drug delivery, and plasmids and siRNA were used to exemplify gene delivery. Drugs or genes were encapsulated inside the interior of the liposomes along with emulsion droplets; targeting moieties were attached to the outside of the phospholipid bilayer. Ultrasound was used to break open the bilayer by changing the liquid emulsion droplets to gas, which released the content of the eLiposomes. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to prove the formation of eLiposomes and confocal microscopy showed the uptake of drugs and genes in vitro. Cell viability was measured to show the effect of uptake in cancer cells. Results indicate that eLiposomes were successfully made and that they were endocytosed into the cell. It was observed that the emulsion and the targeting moiety in combination with ultrasound are the essential elements required to produce release from eLiposomes.
JunGL: a scripting language for refactoring

Refactorings are behaviour-preserving program transformations, typically for improving the structure of existing code. A few of these transformations have been mechanised in interactive development environments. Many more refactorings have been proposed, and it would be desirable for programmers to script their own refactorings. Implementing such source-to-source transformations, however, is quite complex: even the most sophisticated development environments contain significant bugs in their refactoring tools.We present a domain-specific language for refactoring, named JunGL. It manipulates a graph representation of the program: all information about the program, including ASTs for its compilation units, variable binding, control flow and so on is represented in a uniform graph format. The language is a hybrid of a functional language (in the style of ML) and a logic query language (akin to Datalog). JunGL furthermore has a notion of demand-driven evaluation for constructing computed information in the graph, such as control flow edges. Borrowing from earlier work on the specification of compiler optimisations, JunGL uses so-called `path queries' to express dataflow properties.We motivate the design of JunGL via a number of non-trivial refactorings, and describe its implementation on the.NET platform.
Amyloid-associated depression: a prodromal depression of Alzheimer disease?

CONTEXT A high ratio of plasma amyloid-beta peptide 40 (Abeta(40)) to Abeta(42), determined by both high Abeta(40) and low Abeta(42) levels, increases the risk of Alzheimer disease. In a previous study, we reported that depression is also associated with low plasma Abeta(42) levels in the elderly population. OBJECTIVE To characterize plasma Abeta(40):Abeta(42) ratio and cognitive function in elderly individuals with and without depression. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Homecare agencies. PARTICIPANTS A total of 995 homebound elderly individuals of whom 348 were defined as depressed by a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression score of 16 or greater. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Cognitive domains of memory, language, executive, and visuospatial functions according to levels of plasma Abeta(40) and Abeta(42) peptides. RESULTS Subjects with depression had lower plasma Abeta(42) levels (median, 14.1 vs 19.2 pg/mL; P = .006) and a higher plasma Abeta(40):Abeta(42) ratio (median, 8.9 vs 6.4; P < .001) than did those without depression in the absence of cardiovascular disease and antidepressant use. The interaction between depression and plasma Abeta(40):Abeta(42) ratio was associated with lower memory score (beta = -1.9, SE = 0.7, P = .006) after adjusting for potentially confounders. Relative to those without depression, "amyloid-associated depression," defined by presence of depression and a high plasma Abeta(40):Abeta(42) ratio, was associated with greater impairment in memory, visuospatial ability, and executive function; in contrast, nonamyloid depression was not associated with memory impairment but with other cognitive disabilities. CONCLUSION Amyloid-associated depression may define a subtype of depression representing a prodromal manifestation of Alzheimer disease.
Hydration and dimensional stability of calcium aluminate cement based systems

Calcium aluminate cements (CAC) are often used in combination with calcium sulfate and Portland cement for special applications where rapid setting, rapid drying and shrinkage compensation are required. A growing fraction of the clinker, which has the highest CO2 intensity, is being replaced by supplementary cementitious materials (SCM). These SCM are usually from industrial by-products such as slag, fly ashes or can simply be raw materials such as limestone. This project aims at replacing the Portland cement and fraction of the CAC in ternary binders with such SCM. Indeed, the understanding of their interactions, both physical and chemical, with calcium aluminate cements and calcium sulfate is fundamental for the development of innovative products. This thesis focuses first on the hydration of systems with and without SCM, slag or limestone, from the first hours up to two years of hydration. Second, this study focuses on the expansion of these systems and on the mechanisms underlying the dimensional stability. The influence of the ratio between calcium sulfate and calcium aluminate on the hydration of the cement, on the reaction of SCM, and on the expansion is highlighted. This study indicated that the calcium sulfate reacts with CAC from the first hours of hydration and, only when sulfate is exhausted, does slag or limestone react with aluminate phases. Moreover, this research brings new insights on the main parameters influencing the dimensional stability of the studied systems and on the mechanisms governing expansion. Pore solution analyses showed that supersaturation with respect to ettringite increases with the calcium sulfate content, which results in an increase of the crystallization pressure. The supersaturation determines the minimum pore size in which crystals can grow. Therefore, with increasing supersaturation a larger pore volume can be accessed by ettringite crystals exerting pressure. This could explain the critical amount of calcium sulfate leading to high expansion. Both the confinement in nanometer size pores and the supersaturation of ettringite are necessary for expansion to occur.
Lexicalized grammar and the description of motion events

In natural language generation, the use of a lexicalized grammar formalism and incremental syntactic and semantic processing places strong and specific constraints on the form and meaning of grammatical entries. These principles restrict which grammatical representations are possible and suggest examples an analyst can consult to decide among possibilities. We discuss and justify a number of such constraints, and describe how they inform the design of lexical entries for motion verbs. Our entries allow a generator to match the lexical choices found in a target corpus of action descriptions by assessing how the interpretation of a verb in context contributes towards the hearer’s identification of the intended action.
COHOMOLOGY AND INDEX JOINT WORK WITH PIERRE ALBIN FOR WERNER MÜLLER ’ S 60 TH BIRTHDAY

In this talk I describe the resolution to unique isotropy type of the smooth action of a compact Lie group as contained in joint work with Pierre Albin, [2], [3]. The resulting ‘resolution tower’ leads to resolved and reduced models for equivariant cohomology, including the delocalized cohomology of Baum, Brylinski and MacPherson, and K-theory. Combining these constructions with a lifting map gives a families version of the pseudodifferential equivariant index theorem of Atiyah and Singer with corresponding representations of the Chern character.
Tracing the footprint of knowledge spillover: Evidence from U.S.-China collaboration in nanotechnology

The impact of international collaboration on research performance has been extensively explored over the past two decades. Most research, however, focuses on quantity and citation-based indicators. Using the turnover of keywords, this study develops an integrative approach, tracking and visualizing the shift of the research stream, and tests it within the context of U.S.–China collaboration in nanotechnology. The results show evidence in support of the linkage between the emergence of a new research stream of Chinese researchers with the event of U.S.–China collaboration. We also find that the triggered research stream diffused further via extended coauthorship. Policy implications for science and technology development and resource allocation in the United States and China are discussed.
Properties of BK(Ca) channels formed by bicistronic expression of hSloalpha and beta1-4 subunits in HEK293 cells.

Large-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) (BK(Ca)) channels are sensitive to both voltage and internal [Ca(2+)] and are found in many tissues. Their physiological roles range from causing relaxation of smooth muscle to regulating the frequency of action potential firing. There is considerable variation between different tissues in their Ca(2+)- and voltage-dependence. Much of this variation results from the association of the pore-forming alpha subunit (hSloalpha) with different beta subunits leading to altered channel properties. Since hSloalpha alone produces functional BK(Ca) channels, we have used a bicistronic expression method to ensure that both alpha and beta subunits are expressed, with the beta subunit being in excess. Using this method we have investigated the effect of four beta subunits (beta1 to beta4) on cloned BK(Ca) channels. The four beta subunits were individually cloned into a vector that had hSloalpha cDNA inserted downstream of an internal ribosome entry site. The constructs were transiently transfected into HEK293 cells together with a construct that expresses green fluorescent protein, as a marker for transfection. Fluorescent cells expressed BK(Ca) channels whose currents were recorded from inside-out or outside-out patches. The currents we measured using this expression system were similar to those expressed in Xenopus oocytes by Brenner et al. (Brenner, R., Jegla, T.J., Wickenden, A., Liu, Y., Aldrich, R.W. 2000. Cloning and functional expression of novel large-conductance calcium-activated potassium channel beta subunits, hKCNMB3 and hKCNMB4. J. Biol. Chem.275:6453-6461.)
Evaluation of a Commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the Diagnosis of Paratuberculosis in Dairy Cattle

The performance of a commercially available ELISA for detection of antibodies to Mycobacterium paratuberculosis was evaluated using sera from 1,146 cows. Samples were from uninfected cattle, infected subclinical cattle shedding low numbers of organism in feces, subclinical heavy shedders, clinical cases, and randomly selected cattle in a slaughterhouse survey for paratuberculosis. The overall sensitivity of the test, using the manufacturer's recommended cutoff was 45% ± 4.8%, and the specificity was 99% ± 0.9%. The ELISA result was significantly correlated with the number of colonies of M. paratuberculosis detected by fecal culturing. The sensitivity of the test was highest for clinical cases of paratuberculosis (87% ± 8.4%), and lowest for subclinical, light-shedding cattle (15% ± 6.6%). Changing the cutoff point did not improve performance of the test. Evaluating ELISA results with a kinetics-based method reduced plate-to-plate variation in results but did not improve performance of the test based on receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis.
Highly Integrated Homodyne Receiver for Short-reach Coherent Communication

A highly integrated homodyne receiver has been demonstrated within a footprint of 1 cm2. The receiver successfully receives 40 Gbit/s BPSK and error free is achieved up to 35 Gbit/s. Theoretical analysis has been also carried out showing the feasibility of integrated 16 QAM homodyne coherent receivers.
Croatian Fish Dataset: Fine-grained classification of fish species in their natural habitat

This paper presents a new dataset for fine-grained visual classification (FGVC) of fish species in their natural environment. It contains 794 images of 12 different fish species collected at the Adriatic sea in Croatia. All images show fishes in real live situations, recorded by high definition cameras. Remote and diver-based videography is used by a growing number of marine researchers to understand spatial and temporal variability of habitats and species. The required large numbers of independent observations necessitate the development of computer vision tools for an automated processing of high volumes of videos featuring high fish richness and density. As baseline experiment, we are using CNN features [1] and a linear SVM classifier and achieve an accuracy of 66.78% on our dataset.
Identification of Social Acts in Dialogue

The emergence of dialogue on social medial neccessitates the development of new dialogue processing models. We argue that to address coherence and to infer the implicatures of social dialogue it is vital to understand the social aspirations of the dialogue participants. One key aspect of understanding social dialogue is to understand the intentions and goals of participants. In this paper, we present 11 social acts that capture a broad number of social intentions and goals. We define social acts as pragmatic speech acts designed to give insight into the socio-cognitive processes that individuals unconsciously go through when communicating in dialogue. Identification of the social acts is done using a combination of a generative model in which utterances are generated from gappy patterns, which define a given social act, and a series of binary classifiers. Our experimentation shows that we can capture these social acts with an overall F-measure of 50.4%.
CYP19 (aromatase) haplotypes and endometrial cancer risk

Endogenous estrogen exposure is an important determinant of endometrial cancer risk. Aromatase, encoded by CYP19, catalyzes the aromatization of androstenedione and testosterone to estrone and estradiol, respectively. Several common genetic polymorphisms in CYP19 have been identified, including a TCT insertion/deletion and a (TTTA)n repeat polymorphism in intron IV as well as a 3′UTR C/T polymorphism. We evaluated these 3 polymorphisms plus an additional 9 noncoding polymorphisms as individual genotypes and predicted haplotypes as risk factors for endometrial cancer using a nested case‐control study design. Invasive endometrial cancer cases (n = 222) and matched controls (n = 666) were identified among participants in the Nurses' Health Study who had provided a blood sample in 1989–1990 (n = 32,826). We estimated haplotypes from unphased genotype data spanning >123 kb of CYP19. Six haplotypes constructed from 10 SNPs were estimated with a frequency ≥5%. The highest prevalence haplotype (33% among cases, 28% among controls) was significantly associated with endometrial cancer risk (p = 0.03). Loci with variant alleles that comprise the risk haplotype were independently associated with endometrial cancer, with relative risk estimates ranging from 1.68 (95% CI 1.13–2.48) to 2.07 (95% CI 1.33–3.23), comparing variant allele carriers to wild‐type homozygotes. We observed significant interactions between menopausal status and 2 of the high‐risk loci (p = 0.03 and p < 0.01), with >2‐fold increased risk for variant allele carriers who were postmenopausal but no association between genotype and endometrial cancer among premenopausal women. We evaluated associations between CYP19 haplotypes and plasma steroid hormone levels. The haplotype associated with endometrial cancer risk is also significantly associated with the ratios of estrone to androstenedione and estradiol to testosterone, the products and substrates of the enzyme aromatase, encoded by CYP19. Our data suggest that there is a high‐frequency CYP19 haplotype related to higher estrogen to androgen ratios and increased risk of endometrial cancer and that this association may primarily pertain to postmenopausal women. (Supplementary material for this article can be found on the International Journal of Cancer website at http:www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0020‐7136/suppmat/index.html.) © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Linear FPT reductions and computational lower bounds

We develop new techniques for deriving very strong computational lower bounds for a class of well-known NP-hard problems, including weighted satisfiability, dominating set, hitting set, set cover, clique, and independent set. For example, although a trivial enumeration can easily test in time O(nk) if a given graph of n vertices has a clique of size k, we prove that unless an unlikely collapse occurs in parameterized complexity theory, the problem is not solvable in time f(k) no(k) for any function f, even if we restrict the parameter value k to be bounded by an arbitrarily small function of n. Under the same assumption, we prove that even if we restrict the parameter values k to be Θ(μ(n)) for any reasonable function μ, no algorithm of running time no(k) can test if a graph of n vertices has a clique of size k. Similar strong lower bounds are also derived for other problems in the above class. Our techniques can be extended to derive computational lower bounds on approximation algorithms for NP-hard optimization problems. For example, we prove that the NP-hard distinguishing substring selection problem, for which a polynomial time approximation scheme has been recently developed, has no polynomial time approximation schemes of running time f(1/ε)no(1/ε) for any function f unless an unlikely collapse occurs in parameterized complexity theory.
Context-dependent representation in recurrent neural networks

In order to assess the short-term memory performance of non-linear random neural networks, we introduce a measure to quantify the dependence of a neural representation upon the past context. We study this measure both numerically and theoretically using the mean-field theory for random neural networks, showing the existence of an optimal level of synaptic weights heterogeneity. We further investigate the influence of the network topology, in particular the symmetry of reciprocal synaptic connections, on this measure of context dependence, revealing the importance of considering the interplay between non-linearities and connectivity structure.
Content based search mode improvement for B frame in HEVC

Motion Estimation is most important part of almost all video coding standards such as H.262/MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 and High Efficiency Video Coding (H.265/HEVC). The HEVC is latest video compression standard and has incorporated many improvements like bitrate reduction, increased coding efficiency and compression efficiency but at the cost of increased complexity. The complexity of H.265 is increased due to Motion Estimation (ME), as it consumes almost half time of total time. Motion Estimation algorithm used in reference software code is robust and it is independent of motion information of videos. Real world video sequences show a wide range of motion related information which varies from uniform to random. If the motion characteristics of video sequences are taken into account earlier, it is possible to develop a fast motion estimation algorithm for video sequences. The proposed algorithm includes motion vector prediction which uses motion data of neighboring candidates and motion classification using the characteristics of video sequences. Based on the type of motion the algorithm chooses between different search patterns to enhance the matching process. Early termination helps to additional speedup and improves the process. The proposed method is going to be evaluated using different metrics like percentage reduction in coding time, PSNR, Bit Rate and RD graph.
Eye morphogenesis driven by epithelial flow into the optic cup facilitated by modulation of bone morphogenetic protein

The hemispheric, bi-layered optic cup forms from an oval optic vesicle during early vertebrate eye development through major morphological transformations. The overall basal surface, facing the developing lens, is increasing, while, at the same time, the space basally occupied by individual cells is decreasing. This cannot be explained by the classical view of eye development. Using zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model, we show that the lens-averted epithelium functions as a reservoir that contributes to the growing neuroretina through epithelial flow around the distal rims of the optic cup. We propose that this flow couples morphogenesis and retinal determination. Our 4D data indicate that future stem cells flow from their origin in the lens-averted domain of the optic vesicle to their destination in the ciliary marginal zone. BMP-mediated inhibition of the flow results in ectopic neuroretina in the RPE domain. Ultimately the ventral fissure fails to close resulting in coloboma. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.05216. 001