Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trellis: Robust and Scalable Metadata-private Anonymous Broadcast

—Trellis is a mix-net based anonymous broadcast system with cryptographic security guarantees. Trellis can be used to anonymously publish documents or communicate with other users, all while assuming full network surveillance. In Trellis, users send messages through a set of servers in successive rounds. The servers mix and post the messages to a public bulletin board, hiding which users sent which messages. Trellis hides all network-level metadata, remains robust to changing network conditions, guarantees availability to honest users, and scales with the number of mix servers. Trellis provides three to five orders of magnitude faster performance and better network robustness compared to Atom, the state-of-the-art anonymous broadcast system with a similar threat model. In achieving these guarantees, Trellis contributes: (1) a simpler theoretical mixing analysis for a routing mix network constructed with a fraction of malicious servers, (2) anonymous routing tokens for verifiable random paths, and (3) lightweight blame protocols built on top of onion routing to identify and eliminate malicious parties. We implement and evaluate Trellis in a networked deployment. With 64 servers located across four geographic regions, Trellis achieves a throughput of 220 bits per second with 100,000 users. With 128 servers, Trellis achieves a throughput of 320 bits per second. Trellis’s throughput is only 100 to 1000 × slower compared to Tor (which has 6,000 servers and 2M daily users) and is therefore potentially deployable at a smaller “enterprise” scale. Our implementation is open-source.
Complementary and alternative medicine as preferable management of epilepsy among the population of Makkah City: a cross-sectional study

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) usage is widespread. Epilepsy patients may believe in administering CAM as a therapy. However, evidence-based data about frequency, types, and drivers for CAM use are scarce. This study aimed at evaluating CAM as preferable management of epilepsy among the population of Makkah City. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study conducted In Makkah, involving adult patients aged ≥18 years diagnosed with epilepsy using a survey questionnaire for 10 months in 2021. Results: Out of the screened patients, a total of 131 patients fulfilled inclusion criteria, (100%) agreed to participate in the study with a mean age (±SD) of 31.4 ± 12.3 years, and 76 (58%) patients were males. About 56.5% of the patients tried using any type of CAM. The most commonly used CAM types were religious healers (78.4%), followed by herbal (56.8%), cupping (33.8%), and acupuncture (33.8%). 52.7% reported that they had no benefit. In comparison, 28.4% reported feeling better and more relaxed, 17.6% experienced staying positive, 12.2% of patients had reduced symptoms or side effects, and 9.5% had more feeling of being in control. Most patients (86.5%) had no complications from CAM. No significant predictive factors were detected for the use of CAM as regards age, gender, education, employment, seizure frequency, and duration, in addition to a family history of epilepsy or usage or compliance to antiepileptic drugs. Conclusion: Almost half of the people with epilepsy used CAM, mainly through religious healers or herbal medicine. Half of them reported no benefit from CAM usage. Most of them had no complications.
Dynamical Gibbs-non-Gibbs transitions in Curie-Weiss Widom-Rowlinson models

We consider the Curie-Weiss Widom-Rowlinson model for particles with spins and holes, with a repulsion strength beta between particles of opposite spins. We provide a closed solution of the model, and investigate dynamical Gibbs-non-Gibbs transitions for the time-evolved model under independent stochastic symmetric spin-flip dynamics. We show that, for sufficiently large beta after a transition time, continuously many bad empirical measures appear. These lie on (unions of) curves on the simplex whose time-evolution we describe.
New Limits on 21cm EoR From PAPER-32 Consistent with an X-Ray Heated IGM at z=7.7

We present new constraints on the 21cm Epoch of Reionization (EoR) power spectrum derived from 3 months of observing with a 32-antenna, dual-polarization deployment of the Donald C. Backer Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) in South Africa. In this paper, we demonstrate the efficacy of the delay-spectrum approach to avoiding foregrounds, achieving over 8 orders of magnitude of foreground suppression (in $\textrm{mK}^2$). Combining this approach with a procedure for removing off-diagonal covariances arising from instrumental systematics, we achieve a best 2-sigma upper limit of $(41\,\textrm{mK})^2$ for $k=0.27 h\textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ at $z=7.7$. This limit falls within an order of magnitude of the brighter predictions of the expected 21cm EoR signal level. Using the upper limits set by these measurements, we generate new constraints on the brightness temperature of 21cm emission in neutral regions for various reionization models. We show that for several ionization scenarios, our measurements are inconsistent with cold reionization. That is, heating of the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) is necessary to remain consistent with the constraints we report. Hence, we have suggestive evidence that by $z=7.7$, the HI has been warmed from its cold primordial state, probably by X-rays from high-mass X-ray binaries or mini-quasars. The strength of this evidence depends on the ionization state of the IGM, which we are not yet able to constrain. This result is consistent with standard predictions for how reionization might have proceeded.
Cosmological perturbations from statistical thermal fluctuations

Cosmological perturbations due to statistical thermal fluctuations in a single fluid characterized by an arbitrary equation of state are computed. Formulas to predict the scalar and tensor perturbation spectra and nongaussianity parameters at a given temperature are derived. These results are relevant to any cosmological scenario where cosmic structures may have been seeded thermally instead of originating purely from quantum vacuum fluctuations.
Random lasing in structures with multi-scale transport properties

In a random laser (RL), a system possessing in itself both resonator and amplifying medium while lacking a macroscopic cavity, the feedback is provided by the scattering, which forces light to travel very long random paths. Here, we demonstrate that RL properties may be tuned by the topology of the scattering system retaining unchanged scattering strength and gain efficiency. This is possible in a system based on sparse clusters, possessing two relevant structural lengths: the macroscopic inter cluster separation and the mesoscopic intra-cluster mean free path.
Literature in the ‘Languaging’ Classroom

This paper contends that the shift from language learning to `languaging` is a necessary precondition for aligning the aims of language education with the goals of liberal education. It seeks to establish that `languaging` is the coexistence of two very different ideas: the belief in the meaning-making potential of language, and the awareness of the radical instability of meaning in language. ‘Languaging’ is the experience of being in a language, an experience with both cognitive and affective dimensions. This paper attempts to redefine the distinction between L1 and L2/FL, as well as some of the pet-notions in the field of language education in the light of the notion “languaging”: cognitive language instruction, and learner autonomy. It aims to persuade the reader that literature, which is a compact expression of the potential for meaning and the problems in language, alone can be a major stimulus for `languaging`. ,
On pulsar-driven mass ejection in low-mass X-ray binaries

There is accumulating evidence for mass ejection in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) driven by radio pulsar activity during X-ray quiescence. We consider the condition for mass ejection by comparing the radiation pressure from a millisecond pulsar, and the gas pressure at the inner Lagrange point or at the surrounding accretion disk. We calculate the critical spin period of the pulsar below which mass ejection is allowed. Combining with the evolution of the mass transfer rate, we present constraints on the orbital periods of the systems. We show that mass ejection could happen in both wide and compact LMXBs. It may be caused by transient accretion due to thermal instability in the accretion disks in the former, and irradiation-driven mass-transfer cycles in the latter.
LiveSketch: Query Perturbations for Guided Sketch-Based Visual Search

LiveSketch is a novel algorithm for searching large image collections using hand-sketched queries. LiveSketch tackles the inherent ambiguity of sketch search by creating visual suggestions that augment the query as it is drawn, making query specification an iterative rather than one-shot process that helps disambiguate users' search intent. Our technical contributions are: a triplet convnet architecture that incorporates an RNN based variational autoencoder to search for images using vector (stroke-based) queries; real-time clustering to identify likely search intents (and so, targets within the search embedding); and the use of backpropagation from those targets to perturb the input stroke sequence, so suggesting alterations to the query in order to guide the search. We show improvements in accuracy and time-to-task over contemporary baselines using a 67M image corpus.
Cn-moves and the difference of Jones polynomials for links

The Jones polynomial VL(t) for an oriented link L is a one-variable Laurent polynomial link invariant discovered by Jones. For any integer n ≥ 3, we show that: (1) the difference of Jones polynomials for two oriented links which are Cn-equivalent is divisible by (t − 1)n(t2 + t + 1)(t2 + 1), and (2) there exists a pair of two oriented knots which are Cn-equivalent such that the difference of the Jones polynomials for them equals (t − 1)n(t2 + t + 1)(t2 + 1).
VEHICLE DEPTH ESTIMATION FOR AUTONOMOUS DRIVING

In the latest years, it has been done a lot of research regarding the depth estimation of the objects in an image. In autonomous driving, one of the most important tasks is to estimate the distance to the surrounding cars. This paper analyzes the state of the art regarding the depth estimation from single and stereo sources and the datasets that were made for these tasks and proposes a new depth dataset, recorded with an Intel RealSense depth camera. This dataset is used together with another dataset made previously in our university in order to compare one of the most used neural networks for depth prediction from a single camera, for both full image depth estimation and vehicle-only depth estimation. The results are computed regarding the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and take in account the time of the day (day, dusk or night), the inference time and the dimension of the cars.
Evaluation of the Advantages of Myocardial Blood Flow Index in the Diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease Versus Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography: A Feasibility Study

Background: There is a hidden relationship between the degree of coronary artery stenosis and downstream myocardial remodeling. The mutual influence in myocardial ischemia and myocardial remodeling provides an index for quantifying the myocardial blood flow based on the principles of physics. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the advantages of myocardial blood flow index (MBFI) in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Patients and Methods: The data of 68 patients (39 males; mean age: 57.0 ± 10.20 years) with suspected CAD were analyzed retrospectively, including the imaging findings of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and invasive coronary angiography (ICA) within one week. The MBFI was also calculated for the patients. After determining the optimal cut-off value based on ICA (stenosis ≥ 70%) as the gold standard test, the diagnostic performance of MBFI and CCTA was compared. The diagnostic accuracy was examined by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. For statistical analysis, chi-square test was performed to analyze influence data, and a P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In 68 cases evaluated in this study, the average scan dose of CCTA was 3.02 ± 1.15 mSv. There were 28 cases with stenosis ≥ 70%. The optimal cutoff value of MBFI and CCTA was 0.111 and 70%, respectively. Also, the area under the curve (AUC) for MBFI and CCTA was 0.857 and 0.621 (Z = 2.091, P = 0.0365), respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 92.31%, 92.86%, 88.89%, and 95.12% for MBFI and 61.54%, 78.57%, 64.00%, and 76.74% for CCTA, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy was also estimated at 92.65% for MBFI and 72.06% for CCTA (χ2 = 9.844, P = 0.0017). Conclusion: In this study, MBFI performed better than CCTA in identifying lesions with stenosis ≥ 70%. A lower MBFI indicated the need for an upcoming active intervention, while a higher MBFI suggested avoiding unnecessary invasive testing.
Landau free energy and analytic tricritical point in holographic superfluid

We investigate the analytical method in studying the holographic superfluid model which is described by Maxwell field minimally coupling to a charged scalar field in a fixed AdS black hole background. We propose a method that enables us to find exact value of coefficient in the solution and thus obtain higher-order expansion of the associated Landau free energy of the holographic superfluid with flow. We determine the critical value of superfluid velocity at the tricritical point of holographic superfluid and compare it with the numerical value.
LITHIUM ABUNDANCES IN RED GIANTS OF M4: EVIDENCE FOR ASYMPTOTIC GIANT BRANCH STAR POLLUTION IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS?

The determination of Li and proton-capture element abundances in globular cluster (GC) giants allows us to constrain several key questions on the multiple population scenarios in GCs, from formation and early evolution to pollution and dilution mechanisms. In this Letter, we present our results on Li abundances for a large sample of giants in the intermediate-metallicity GC NGC 6121 (M4), for which Na and O have been already determined by Marino et al. The stars analyzed are both below and above the red giant branch bump luminosity. We found that the first and second generation stars share the same Li content, suggesting that a Li production must have occurred. This provides strong observational evidence supporting the scenario in which asymptotic giant branch stars are GC polluters.
Capturing the onset of psychosis with automated speech markers

Psychotic disorders are characterized by key abnormalities in language and speech. Due to advances in technology, such abnormalities can be objectively and automatedly measured via speech analysis and Natural Language Processing techniques. Here, I present initial results on acoustic, prosodic, structural and semantic markers of speech that might be able to detect psychosis and its early signs from few-minutes long, remotely collected speech samples.
The Doubling of Stellar Black Hole Nuclei

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NEAR-INFRARED AND MILLIMETER-WAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS OF Mol 160: A MASSIVE YOUNG PROTOSTELLAR CORE

We have discovered two compact sources of shocked H2 2.12 μm emission coincident with Mol 160 (IRAS 23385+6053), a massive star-forming core thought to be a precursor to an ultracompact H ii region. The 2.12 μm sources lie within 2″ (0.05 pc) of a millimeter-wavelength continuum peak where the column density is ⩾1024 cm−2. We estimate that the ratio of molecular hydrogen luminosity to bolometric luminosity is >0.2%, indicating a high ratio of mechanical to radiant luminosity. CS J = 2→1 and HCO+ J = 1→0 observations with the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) indicate that the protostellar molecular core has a peculiar velocity of ∼2 km s−1 with respect to its parent molecular cloud. We also observed 95 GHz CH3OH J = 8→7 Class I maser emission from several locations within the core. Comparison with previous observations of 44 GHz CH3OH maser emission shows that the maser sources have a high mean ratio of 95 GHz to 44 GHz intensity. Our observations strengthen the case that Mol 160 (IRAS 23385+6053) is a rapidly accreting massive protostellar system in a very early phase of its evolution.
Disease gene prioritization using network topological analysis from a sequence based human functional linkage network

Sequencing large number of candidate disease genes which cause diseases in order to identify the relationship between them is an expensive and time-consuming task. To handle these challenges, different computational approaches have been developed. Based on the observation that genes associated with similar diseases have a higher likelihood of interaction, a large class of these approaches relay on analyzing the topological properties of biological networks. However, the incomplete and noisy nature of biological networks is known as an important challenge in these approaches. In this paper, we propose a two-step framework for disease gene prioritization: (1) construction of a reliable human FLN using sequence information and machine learning techniques, (2) prioritizing the disease gene relations based on the constructed FLN. On our framework, unlike other FLN based frameworks that using FLNs based on integration of various low quality biological data, the sequence of proteins is used as the comprehensive data to construct a reliable initial network. In addition, the physicochemical properties of amino-acids are employed to describe the functionality of proteins. All in all, the proposed approach is evaluated and the results indicate the high efficiency and validity of the FLN in disease gene prioritization.
Testicular hernia and herbal medicine in Dodinda and Ngondong in western Logone occidental province in Chad

In Chad, testicular hernia is one of the public health problems with more than 1,423 cases treated in 2015. Medicinal plants are widely used by the local population to treat this disease. The objective of this work is to make an evaluation of the contribution of ethno-pharmacological knowledge of plants used in the treatment of testicular hernia in the villages of Dodinda and Ngondong, Department of Lac-Wey in Chad (Province of Logone Occidental). Data on traditional testicular hernia treatments reviewed as well as surveys were carried out using semi-structured questionnaires between September 2019 and January 2021. A total of 100 active traditional practitioners and knowledgeable villagers estimated their contribution to this treatment. Data were analyzed based on use value (UV), fidelity level (FL) and relative citation frequency (RFC). Then, the most cited species were the subject of a photochemical study. All of six (06) plant species belonging to four (04) families have been reported. In the study area, 40% of healers use the combination of Cassia sieberiana bark with Cassia occidentalis roots. 35% use the combination of the bark of Indigofera tinctorium with the roots of Ipomoea hederifolia . 25% use the combination of the bark of Sacocephalus latifolius with the roots of Salix alba . Biochemical characterization of these six (06) main species used in the treatment of testicular hernia revealed considerable levels of chemical constituents with different colorations. Such results are a prerequisite for the development of improved traditional medicines.
Pulsar Wind Nebulae: On their growing diversity and association with highly magnetized neutron stars

Abstract The 1968 discovery of the Crab and Vela pulsars in their respective supernova remnants (SNRs) confirmed Baade and Zwicky's 1934 prediction that supernovae form neutron stars. Observations of Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe), particularly with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, have in the past decade opened a new window to focus on the neutron stars' relativistic winds, study their interaction with their hosting SNRs, and find previously missed pulsars. While the Crab has been thought for decades to represent the prototype of PWNe, we now know of different classes of neutron stars and PWNe whose properties differ from the Crab. In this talk, I review the current status of neutron stars/PWNe-SNRs associations, and highlight the growing diversity of PWNe with an X-ray eye on their association with highly magnetized neutron stars. I conclude with an outlook to future high-energy studies.
Linearized reconstruction for diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging

In this paper, we present a novel reconstruction method for diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging with a commonly used tissue model of optical absorption and scattering. It is based on linearization and group sparsity, which allows the diffusion coefficient and absorption coefficient to be recovered simultaneously, provided that their spectral profiles are incoherent and a sufficient number of wavelengths are judiciously taken for the measurements. We also discuss the reconstruction for an imperfectly known boundary and show that, with multi-wavelength data, the method can reduce the influence of modelling errors and still recover the absorption coefficient. Extensive numerical experiments are presented to support our analysis.