Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Fast Clustering Algorithm Based on Reference and Density

The efficiency of data mining algorithms is strongly needed with data becoming larger and larger. Density-Based clustering analysis is one kind of clustering analysis methods that can discover clusters with arbitrary shape and is insensitive to noise data. In this paper, a new kind of clustering algorithm that is called CURD (clustering using references and density) is presented. The creativity of CURD is capturing the shape and extent of a cluster by references, and then analyzes the data based on the references. CURD keeps the ability of density based clustering method抯 good features, and it can reach high efficiency because of its linear time complexity, so it can be used in mining very large databases. Both theory analysis and experimental results confirm that CURD can discover clusters with arbitrary shape and is insensitive to noise data. In the meanwhile, its executing efficiency is much higher than traditional DBSCAN algorithm based on R*-tree.
Confidence Regions for Parameters of Linear Models | NIST

A method is suggested for constructing a conservative confidence region for the parameters of a linear model on the basis of a linear estimator. In meta- analytical applications, when the results of independent but heterogeneous studies are to be combined, this region can be employed with little to no knowledge of error variances. The formulas for the smallest volume and the corresponding critical con- stant are derived. The method is compared to several resampling schemes by Monte Carlo simulation, and particular cases of one or two parameters are examined.
Inexact proximal stochastic second-order methods for nonconvex composite optimization

ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose a framework of Inexact Proximal Stochastic Second-order (IPSS) method for solving nonconvex optimization problems, whose objective function consists of an average of finitely many, possibly weakly, smooth functions and a convex but possibly nonsmooth function. At each iteration, IPSS inexactly solves a proximal subproblem constructed by using some positive definite matrix which could capture the second-order information of original problem. Proper tolerances are given for the subproblem solution in order to maintain global convergence and the desired overall complexity of the algorithm. Under mild conditions, we analyse the computational complexity related to the evaluations on the component gradient of the smooth function. We also investigate the number of evaluations of subgradient when using an iterative subgradient method to solve the subproblem. In addition, based on IPSS, we propose a linearly convergent algorithm under the proximal Polyak–Łojasiewicz condition. Finally, we extend the analysis to problems with weakly smooth function and obtain the computational complexity accordingly.
Treated Melon Seeds and Aflatoxin Profile in Relation to Blood Parameters in Exposed Mice

The stored contaminated melon seeds (5kg) were treated with 250g of each of ginger, cinnamon and pepper for 35 days, to observe their possible antiaflatoxin potentials. The effect of contaminated untreated melon seeds and the ginger-, cinnamonand peppertreated melon seeds on blood parameters (PCV, WBC, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils, neutrophils and platelets) in mice were also carried out. The mice were fed with ground melon seeds from each group alongside the normal rat chow for 14 days after which the blood parameters were assessed. The LC-MS 2 analyses showed a significant induction of aflatoxin B1, B2 and deoxynivanelol in the melon seeds used. Ginger, cinnamon and pepper were able to reduce the concentrations of these mycotoxins significantly, with ginger being the most effective followed by cinnamon and then pepper. The mycotoxin contaminated untreated melon seeds induced severe effects on blood parameters in exposed mice while treatments significantly reversed some of the mycotoxic effects on blood parameters. The 3 treatments showed promise as preservatives against mycotoxin contamination in stored melon seeds. This detection of some Fusarium toxins in Nigerian melon seeds is worthy of special note. The result of this study is important because mycotoxin control will result in economic gains as well as health improvement in Africa. Reducing mycotoxin levels in foods will confer international trade advantages as well as offer long-term health benefit to the local population.
Adaptability of Lucerne , Cocksfoot and Tall Fescue Genotypes in Mediterranean Environment under Different Application of Water Supply

Dry matter of perennial species in Mediterranean environments depends on agronomic management, weather conditions and edaphic habitus of growing plants. Experiments on genotypes of perennial legume (lucerne, Medicago sativa L.; and graminaceous, cocksfoot, Dactylis glomerata L. and tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) were established, from 1996 to 2001, in an environment (Foggia, southern Italy) with a typical Mediterranean climate. The genotypes of three species were evaluated under rainfed and irrigated conditions. Irrigation integrated 80% of water lost by evapotranspiration from the lucerne, cocksfoot and tall fescue genotypes. Forage defoliation of the genotypes was performed when 45-50% of stems in the plot had flowered. The experimental design was a combined split-plot in time and factorial design replicated four times. The parameters assessed in the study were dry matter (t ha), stem height (cm), stems m and leaf: stem ratio (%). Irrigation treatment, in comparison to rainfed, doubled the time of agronomic utilization of the crops (3 vs. 6 years) and increased the dry matter yield by 24.35 t ha in lucerne, 11.71 t ha in cocksfoot and 14.67 t ha in tall fescue. The adaptability of genotypes within crops to growing conditions were determined by cluster analysis which identified genotypes with superior fitness and adaptability to weather resources. Tall fescue was the crop with highest percentage of genotypes in all traits of the selected homogeneous group. Furthermore, because the genotypes Coussouls, Equipe, Lodi and Romagnola in lucerne; Cesarina and breeding population in cocksfoot; Maris Kasba and Tanit in tall fescue are included in more than one selected cluster group, they are endowed by physiological mechanisms able to better adapt and perform in weather conditions of Mediterranean climate. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BeleniosVS: Secrecy and Verifiability Against a Corrupted Voting Device

Electronic voting systems aim at two conflicting properties, namely privacy and verifiability, while trying to minimise the trust assumptions on the various voting components. Most existing voting systems either assume trust in the voting device or in the voting server. We propose a novel remote voting scheme BeleniosVS that achieves both privacy and verifiability against a dishonest voting server as well as a dishonest voting device. In particular, a voter does not leak her vote to her voting device and she can check that her ballot on the bulletin board does correspond to her intended vote. More specifically, we assume two elections authorities: the voting server and a registrar that acts only during the setup. Then BeleniosVS guarantees both privacy and verifiability against a dishonest voting device, provided that not both election authorities are corrupted. Additionally, our scheme guarantees receipt-freeness against an external adversary. We provide a formal proof of privacy, receipt-freeness, and verifiability using the tool ProVerif, covering a hundred cases of threat scenarios. Proving verifiability required to develop a set of sufficient conditions, that can be handled by ProVerif. This contribution is of independent interest.
clinical significance of lipid metabolism in evaluating the prognosis of hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis

Objective: To investigate the correlation between serum lipid metabolic indicators and MCTSI score in hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis. Methods: The serum lipid metabolic indicators and MCTSI scores of 97 cases ofhyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis were retrospectively analyzed from Jul. 2012 to Jul. 2016. The correlation of serum lipid metabolic indicators and MCTSI score were analyzed. Results: There existed statistically significant difference of the apoA1 levels of patients among MCTSI score =2, =4, and ≥6 group, and the higher the MCTSI score was, the lower the apoA1 level was (F =10.004, P<0.01). The serum apoA1 level of hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis patient was negatively correlated with MCTSI score(rs= -0.420, P <0.01). In the patients with lower serum apoA1 values, the number of patients whose MCTSI scores were ≥4 was significantly more than that of those whose MCTSI scores were 2(2 =9.343, P <0.01). But there existed no statistically significant differenceof serum TG, TC, HDL-C, LDH-C, apoB and LP(A) levels among patients with MCTSI score =2, =4, and ≥6 group(F =1.358, 0.585, 0.049, 0.439, 0.228, 0.168, P >0.05). There was no correlation between the levels of serum TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, apoB, and Lp(A) and MCTSI score(rs =0.014, 0.036, -0.061, -0.050, -0.008, -0.004, P >0.05). Conclusion: Serum apoA1 level is a better indicator to evaluate the severity of hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis. There is negative correlation between severity of hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis and serum apoA1 level.
Competitive Co-Evolutionary Robotics: From Theory to Practice

It is argued that competitive co-evolution is a viable methodology for developing truly autonomous and intelligent machines capable of setting their own goals in order to face new and continuously changing challenges. The paper starts giving an introduction to the dynamics of competitive co-evolutionary systems and reviews their relevance from a computational perspective. The method is then applied to two mobile robots, a predator and a prey, which quickly and autonomously develop efficient chase and evasion strategies. The results are then explained and put in a longterm framework resorting to a visualization of the Red Queen effect on the fitness landscape. Finally, comparative data on different selection criteria are used to indicate that co-evolution does not optimize “intuitive” objective criteria.
IMPACT OF REMOTELY SENSED LEAF AREA INDEX ON A GLOBAL LAND DATA ASSIMILATION SYSTEM

The parameterization of vegetation in land surface models plays a major role in the simulation of the surface energy balance and therefore weather and climate prediction. Historically, parameters in land surface process models have been assigned based on generalized land surface classifications that do not account for local anomalies in phenology. More recently, however, there have been studies that have incorporated satellite remote sensing data in the parameterization of the vegetation used in land surface models (Sellers et al. 1996; Los et al. 2000; Zeng et al. 2001). Satellite data provides better spatial and temporal resolution and so improved sampling of the seasonal variability of critical vegetation parameters such as leaf area index (LAI) and fractional vegetation cover. Our hypothesis is that using these improved remotelysensed parameters may produce improved land surface simulations and our group is actively working on incorporating satellite remote sensing data into the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS, http://ldas.gsfc.nasa.gov) currently being developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and at NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Prediction. This paper presents the current state of this work -our initial methodology and preliminary findings.
Du vinyle à YouTube : les habitudes de consommation et de recherche de musique des jeunes adultes québécois

Il existe peu d’etudes recentes sur les habitudes de consommation et le comportement dans la recherche d’information musicale au Quebec et au Canada. Pourtant, les etudes realisees sur le sujet dans d’autres pays suggerent que l’evolution rapide des technologies a entraine des changements importants dans les habitudes et comportements des amateurs de musique. Il est essentiel d’avoir une bonne connaissance de ces pratiques pour concevoir des systemes de reperage et d’exploration de la musique qui repondent aux besoins reels de leurs utilisateurs. Cet article presente les resultats d’une enquete menee aupres de 278 personnes âgees de 18 a 35 ans habitant au Quebec. Les objectifs de l’enquete etaient de mieux connaitre les habitudes d’achat et d’ecoute de musique des jeunes adultes quebecois ainsi que la facon dont ils s’y prennent pour decouvrir de nouveaux artistes et de nouvelles musiques. Les resultats revelent que les services d’ecoute de musique en continu et les sites de partage de videos etaient utilises par 78% des repondants. Malgre la popularite croissante de ces services, les jeunes quebecois n’ont pas totalement delaisse certaines pratiques plus traditionnelles. Ils continuent de valoriser les recommandations musicales de leurs proches, d’ecouter de la musique sur CD et d’acheter des fichiers musicaux, meme si ces pratiques sont de moins en moins frequentes. Very few recent studies have focused on Quebeckers’ and Canadians’ consumption and information-seeking behaviour of music for leisure. However, studies conducted in other countries suggest that the rapid evolution of technologies has resulted in important changes in practices. It is essential to gain a better knowledge of these new practices to design music information retrieval and exploration systems that meet the real needs of users. This article presents the results of a survey of 278 younger adults aged 18 to 35 living in Quebec. The objective of the survey was to increase knowledge of the music listening and purchasing behaviour of young music lovers, and to better understand how they discover new artists and new music. Results reveal that music streaming services and video-sharing websites were used by 78% of respondents. Despite the increasing popularity of these services, young Quebeckers have not entirely abandoned past practices. They still value music recommendations from friends,colleagues or relatives, listen to CDs, and purchase music files, even though these practices are becoming less frequent.
Molecular basis for the plasticity of aromatic prenyltransferases in hapalindole biosynthesis

Aromatic prenyltransferases (PTases) are enzymes that catalyze Friedel–Crafts reactions between aromatic compounds and isoprenoid diphosphates. In hapalindole biosynthesis, the aromatic PTases AmbP1 and AmbP3 exhibit surprisingly plastic selectivities. AmbP1 not only transfers the geranyl group on the C-3 of cis-indolylvinyl isonitrile, but also on the C-2, which is supressed in the presence of Mg2+ ions. AmbP3 transfers the dimethylallyl group on C-2 of hapalindole U in the reverse manner, but on C-2 of its C-10 stereoisomer in the normal manner. This review highlights the molecular bases of the AmbP1 and AmbP3 functions, elucidated through their X-ray crystal structures. The knowledge presented here will contribute to the understanding of aromatic PTase reactions and will enhance their uses as biocatalysts.
A Diverse Monitoring for Post-Accident using Alternative Powers

After the Fukushima accident, nuclear industry has launched quite exhaustive research projects to address safety challenges in in Beyond Design Basis Accident (BDBA). It has been suggested that the Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMG) could only be useful if the monitoring of critical parameters is somehow made available to the operator, even in SBO condition. A task of this research is to develop self-powered sensors that can function under a loss of power event, and to incorporate them with plant communication for data transmission and remote actuation. Design of a sensor network to optimize fault monitoring is part of the research effort with applications to a typical PWR. This research will focus on developing self-powered sensors, a sensor network strategy, and data communication and control
Prevalence of Anemia among Preschool Age Children

Preschoolers have the highest risks of anemia as a result of their physiological vulnerability and liability to infection2. Iron deficiency is the main type of anemia among preschoolers and is primarily due to the increased iron requirement as they grow5-6. Moreover, iron is likely to be inadequate in children’s diets, particularly if parents were unaware2,7. Anemia affects cognitive development, physical growth, immunity and school performance8-9. Prevalence of Anemia among Preschool Age Children
Worldwide trends in the development of education and academic research , 15-18 June 2015 Cross-Linguistic Interactions in Bilingual Mental Lexicon and Professional Linguistic Competence Formation : an experimental research with native speakers of the Komi-Permyak and Russian languages

The paper presents an experimental research of cross-linguistic interactions in the mental lexicon of Komi-Permyak-Russian bilingual native speakers. Cross-linguistic interactions were considered in the dynamic aspect: as depending on the participants’ professional linguistic competence formation in relation to both languages (connected with getting higher education as school teachers of the Komi-Permyak and Russian languages). The research included a sociolinguistic survey, and a free associative test with the separate Komi-Permyak and Russian stimuli lists. The test was carried out at the initial and final stages of university studies. The experimental results demonstrate that simultaneous progress in both languages’ proficiency leads to significant changes in the bilinguals’ speech behaviour, as well as in the nature of cross-linguistic interactions in their mental lexicon. The dynamics revealed concerns the 3 main factors: 1) usage frequency of both languages by bilingual speakers; 2) general frequency and direction of cross-linguistic interactions in their mental lexicon; 3) the ratio of translational and non-translational shares of cross-linguistic interactions. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of: Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), Sofia, Bulgaria & International Research Center (IRC) ‘Scientific Cooperation’, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
On the Existence of Absolutely Maximally Entangled States of Minimal Support II

Absolutely maximally entangled, AME, states are pure multipartite states that give rise to the maximally mixed states when half or more of the parties are traced out. AME states find applications in fields like teleportation or quantum secret sharing, and the problem of finding conditions on their existence has been considered in a number of papers. We consider here AME states of minimal support, that are simpler to analyse. An equivalence with coding theory gives a sufficient condition for their existence, that the number of sites be equal to the local dimension plus one, when the local dimension $d$ is a power of a prime number. In this paper, an equivalence with latin hypercubes is used to prove that the above sufficient condition fails in the first case in which the local dimension is not a prime power, $d=6$. Results for other values of $d$ are also given.
L G ] 1 1 A pr 2 01 7 Federated Tensor Factorization for Computational Phenotyping

Tensor factorization models offer an effective approach to convert massive electronic health records intomeaningful clinical concepts (phenotypes) for data analysis. ese models need a large amount of diverse samples to avoid population bias. An open challenge is how to derive phenotypes jointly across multiple hospitals, in which direct patient-level data sharing is not possible (e.g., due to institutional policies). In this paper, we developed a novel solution to enable federated tensor factorization for computational phenotyping without sharing patient-level data. We developed secure data harmonization and federated computation procedures based on alternating directionmethod of multipliers (ADMM). Using this method, themultiple hospitals iteratively update tensors and transfer secure summarized information to a central server, and the server aggregates the information to generate phenotypes. We demonstrated with real medical datasets that our method resembles the centralized training model (based on combined datasets) in terms of accuracy and phenotypes discovery while respecting privacy.
AGENDA : SOLUTIONS FOR PROJECT-BASED MANUFACTURING [ 004-0136 ]

Manufacturers that supply equipment for capital investment projects operate in the interface of two management paradigms. While their products are installed according to the practices of project management, the manufacturing operations are managed according to the methods of discrete manufacturing. The latter are mainly based on the MRPII logic, which is embedded in the production planning modules of conventional ERP systems. This article discusses how currently-used practices and information systems encumber the co-ordination between installation projects and manufacturing. The greatest challenges seem to be in managing changes and exceptions among interdependent end-products. Based on a literature review and preliminary results of an ongoing multiple-case study, the article presents five solutions to the identified challenges. They are: manual coordination, project MRP, ERP systems’ project modules, bolt-on software, and systems integration. Due to the prevalence of ERP systems and the importance of project-based industries, the solutions have diverse implications for both research and practice.
PE ] 8 D ec 2 01 7 Primordial Sex Facilitates the Emergence of Evolution

Sam Sinai, Jason Olejarz, Iulia A. Neagu, and Martin A. Nowak Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA (Dated: October 13, 2018)
On Inferring Additive and Replacing Horizontal Gene Transfers Through Phylogenetic Reconciliation

Horizontal gene transfer is one of the most important mechanisms for microbial evolution and adaptation. It is well known that horizontal gene transfer can be either additive or replacing depending on whether the transferred gene adds itself as a new gene in the recipient genome or replaces an existing homologous gene. Yet, all existing phylogenetic techniques for the inference of horizontal gene transfer assume either that all transfers are additive or that all transfers are replacing. This limitation not only affects the applicability and accuracy of these methods but also makes it difficult to distinguish between additive and replacing transfers. Here, we address this important problem by formalizing a phylogenetic reconciliation framework that simultaneously models both additive and replacing transfer events. Specifically, we (1) introduce the DTRL reconciliation framework that explicitly models both additive and replacing transfer events, along with gene duplications and losses, (2) prove that the underlying computational problem is NP-hard, (3) perform the first experimental study to assess the impact of replacing transfer events on the accuracy of the traditional DTL reconciliation model (which assumes that all transfers are additive) and demonstrate that traditional DTL reconciliation remains highly robust to the presence of replacing transfers, (4) propose a simple heuristic algorithm for DTRL reconciliation based on classifying transfer events inferred through DTL reconciliation as being replacing or additive, and (5) evaluate the classification accuracy of the heuristic under a range of evolutionary conditions. Thus, this work lays the methodological and algorithmic foundations for estimating DTRL reconciliations and distinguishing between additive and replacing transfers. An implementation of our heuristic for DTRL reconciliation is freely available open-source as part of the RANGER-DTL software package from https://compbio.engr. uconn.edu/software/ranger-dtl/.