nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Factors affecting the accuracy of near-infrared spectroscopy concentration calculations for focal changes in oxygenation parameters

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can be used to noninvasively measure changes in the concentrations of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin in tissue. We have previously shown that while global changes can be reliably measured, focal changes can produce erroneous estimates of concentration changes (NeuroImage 13 (2001), 76). Here, we describe four separate sources for systematic error in the calculation of focal hemoglobin changes from NIRS data and use experimental methods and Monte Carlo simulations to examine the importance and mitigation methods of each. The sources of error are: (1). the absolute magnitudes and relative differences in pathlength factors as a function of wavelength, (2). the location and spatial extent of the absorption change with respect to the optical probe, (3). possible differences in the spatial distribution of hemoglobin species, and (4). the potential for simultaneous monitoring of multiple regions of activation. We found wavelength selection and optode placement to be important variables in minimizing such errors, and our findings indicate that appropriate experimental procedures could reduce each of these errors to a small fraction (<10%) of the observed concentration changes.
Enhancing Sparsity by Reweighted L1 Minimization

It is now well understood that (1) it is possible to reconstruct sparse signals exactly from what appear to be highly incomplete sets of linear measurements and (2) that this can be done by constrained !1 minimization. In this paper, we study a novel method for sparse signal recovery that in many situations outperforms !1 minimization in the sense that substantially fewer measurements are needed for exact recovery. The algorithm consists of solving a sequence of weighted !1-minimization problems where the weights used for the next iteration are computed from the value of the current solution. We present a series of experiments demonstrating the remarkable performance and broad applicability of this algorithm in the areas of sparse signal recovery, statistical estimation, error correction and image processing. Interestingly, superior gains are also achieved when our method is applied to recover signals with assumed near-sparsity in overcomplete representations—not by reweighting the !1 norm of the coefficient sequence as is common, but by reweighting the !1 norm of the transformed object. An immediate consequence is the possibility of highly efficient data acquisition protocols by improving on a technique known as Compressive Sensing.
Modeling cocaine relapse in rodents: Behavioral considerations and circuit mechanisms

Addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder, in that most addicted individuals who choose to quit taking drugs fail to maintain abstinence in the long-term. Relapse is especially likely when recovering addicts encounter risk factors like small "priming" doses of drug, stress, or drug-associated cues and locations. In rodents, these same factors reinstate cocaine seeking after a period of abstinence, and extensive preclinical work has used priming, stress, or cue reinstatement models to uncover brain circuits underlying cocaine reinstatement. Here, we review common rat models of cocaine relapse, and discuss how specific features of each model influence the neural circuits recruited during reinstated drug seeking. To illustrate this point, we highlight the surprisingly specific roles played by ventral pallidum subcircuits in cocaine seeking reinstated by either cocaine-associated cues, or cocaine itself. One goal of such studies is to identify, and eventually to reverse the specific circuit activity that underlies the inability of some humans to control their drug use. Based on preclinical findings, we posit that circuit activity in humans also differs based on the triggers that precipitate craving and relapse, and that associated neural responses could help predict the triggers most likely to elicit relapse in a given person. If so, examining circuit activity could facilitate diagnosis of subgroups of addicted people, allowing individualized treatment based on the most problematic risk factors.
Blind user wearable audio assistance for indoor navigation based on visual markers and ultrasonic obstacle detection

This paper presents an indoor navigation wearable system based on visual markers recognition and ultrasonic obstacles perception used as an audio assistance for blind people. In this prototype, visual markers identify the points of interest in the environment; additionally this location status is enriched with information obtained in real time by other sensors. A map lists these points and indicates the distance and direction between closer points, building a virtual path. The blind users wear also glasses built with sensors like RGB camera, ultrasonic, magnetometer, gyroscope, and accelerometer enhancing the amount and quality of the available information. The user navigates freely in the prepared environment identifying the location markers. Based on the origin point information or the location point information and on the gyro sensor value the path to next marker (target) is calculated. To raise the perception of the environment, avoiding possible obstacles, it is used a couple of ultrasonic sensors. The audio assistance provided to the user makes use of an audio bank, with simple known instructions to indicate precisely the desired route and obstacles. Ten blind users tested and evaluated the system. The results showed rates of about 94.92% successful recognition of the markers using only 26 frames per second and 98.33% of ultrasonic obstacles perception disposed between 0.50 meters and 4.0 meters.
Budget Optimization for Online Advertising Campaigns with Carryover Effects

While it is relatively easy to start an online advertising campaign, proper allocation of the marketing budget is far from trivial. A major challenge faced by the marketers attempting to optimize their campaigns is in the sheer number of variables involved, the many individual decisions they make in fixing or changing these variables, and the nontrivial short and long-term interplay among these variables and decisions. In this paper, we study interactions among individual advertising decisions using a Markov model of user behavior. We formulate the budget allocation task of an advertiser as a constrained optimal control problem for a Markov Decision Process (MDP). Using the theory of constrained MDPs, a simple LP algorithm yields the optimal solution. Our main result is that, under a reasonable assumption that online advertising has positive carryover effects on the propensity and the form of user interactions with the same advertiser in the future, there is a simple greedy algorithm for the budget allocation with the worst-case running time cubic in the number of model states (potential advertising keywords) and an efficient parallel implementation in a distributed computing framework like MapReduce. Using realworld anonymized datasets from sponsored search advertising campaigns of several advertisers, we evaluate performance of the proposed budget allocation algorithm, and show that the greedy algorithm performs well compared to the optimal LP solution on these datasets and that both show consistent 5-10% improvement in the expected revenue against the optimal baseline algorithm ignoring carryover effects.
A Characterization of Chameleon Hash Functions and New, Efficient Designs

This paper shows that chameleon hash functions and Sigma protocols are equivalent. We provide a transform of any suitable Sigma protocol to a chameleon hash function, and also show that any chameleon hash function is the result of applying our transform to some suitable Sigma protocol. This enables us to unify previous designs of chameleon hash functions, seeing them all as emanating from a common paradigm, and also obtain new designs that are more efficient than previous ones. In particular, via a modified version of the Fiat–Shamir protocol, we obtain the fastest known chameleon hash function with a proof of security based on the standard factoring assumption. The increasing number of applications of chameleon hash functions, including on-line/off-line signing, chameleon signatures, designated-verifier signatures and conversion from weakly-secure to fully-secure signatures, make our work of contemporary interest.
Practical Secure Computation Outsourcing: A Survey

The rapid development of cloud computing promotes a wide deployment of data and computation outsourcing to cloud service providers by resource-limited entities. Based on a pay-per-use model, a client without enough computational power can easily outsource large-scale computational tasks to a cloud. Nonetheless, the issue of security and privacy becomes a major concern when the customer’s sensitive or confidential data is not processed in a fully trusted cloud environment. Recently, a number of publications have been proposed to investigate and design specific secure outsourcing schemes for different computational tasks. The aim of this survey is to systemize and present the cutting-edge technologies in this area. It starts by presenting security threats and requirements, followed with other factors that should be considered when constructing secure computation outsourcing schemes. In an organized way, we then dwell on the existing secure outsourcing solutions to different computational tasks such as matrix computations, mathematical optimization, and so on, treating data confidentiality as well as computation integrity. Finally, we provide a discussion of the literature and a list of open challenges in the area.
Stain susceptibility of composite and ceramic CAD/CAM blocks versus direct resin composites with different resinous matrices

To evaluate the stain susceptibility of CAD/CAM blocks and direct composite after long term exposure to various staining agents. 40 disk-shaped samples were fabricated from each of nine materials; six CAD/CAM (Vitablocs Mark II, Paradigm MZ100, Experimental Vita Hybrid Ceramic, Vita Enamic, Experimental Kerr and Lava Ultimate) and three direct composites (Filtek Supreme, Venus Diamond and Filtek Silorane). Samples were randomly divided into five groups (n = 8) according to different staining solutions (distilled water, tea, red wine, coffee and artificial saliva). Initial L*a*b* values were assessed using a calibrated digital spectrophotometer. Specimens were immersed in staining solutions and stored in an incubator at 37 °C for 120 days. L*a*b* values were assessed again and color change (∆E) was calculated as difference between recorded L*a*b* values. ANOVA, and Duncan test were used to identify differences between groups (α = 0.05). Significant differences in ∆E values were detected between materials (p = 0.000). Among all staining solutions, the highest ∆E value was observed with red wine. The new CAD/CAM blocks (Vita Enamic, Vita Hybrid Ceramic and Lava Ultimate) showed the highest resistance to staining compared to the MZ100 composite resin blocks. Filtek Silorane, a direct composite, showed high stain resistance values compared to CAD/CAM materials and other direct composites. Ceramic and composite CAD/CAM blocks had lower staining susceptibility than methacrylate based direct composite. Staining susceptibility of the new resin based CAD/CAM materials Vita Enamic and Lava Ultimate was comparable to feldspathic ceramic blocks (Vitablocs Mark II). Filtek Silorane showed promising results that were comparable to some CAD/CAM blocks.
Plants: a source for new antimycobacterial drugs.

Tuberculosis, also called TB, is currently a major health hazard due to multidrug-resistant forms of bacilli. Global efforts are underway to eradicate TB using new drugs with new modes of action, higher activity, and fewer side effects in combination with vaccines. For this reason, unexplored new sources and previously explored sources were examined and around 353 antimycobacterial compounds ( Rep 2007; 24: 278-297) 7 have been previously reported. To develop drugs from these new sources, additional work is required for preclinical and clinical results. Since ancient times, different plant part extracts have been used as traditional medicines against diseases including tuberculosis. This knowledge may be useful in developing future powerful drugs. Plant natural products are again becoming important in this regard. In this review, we report 127 antimycobacterial compounds and their antimycobacterial activities. Of these, 27 compounds had a minimum inhibitory concentration of < 10 µg/mL. In some cases, the mechanism of activity has been determined. We hope that some of these compounds may eventually develop into effective new drugs against tuberculosis.
High efficiency and high power factor single-stage balanced forward-flyback converter

In this paper, a high efficiency and high power factor single-stage balanced forward-flyback converter merging a foward and flyback converter topologies is proposed. The conventional AC/DC flyback converter can achieve a good power factor but it has a high offset current through the transformer magnetizing inductor, which results in a large core loss and low power conversion efficiency. And, the conventional forward converter can achieve the good power conversion efficiency with the aid of the low core loss but the input current dead zone near zero cross AC input voltage deteriorates the power factor. On the other hand, since the proposed converter can operate as the forward and flyback converters during switch on and off periods, respectively, it cannot only perform the power transfer during an entire switching period but also achieve the high power factor due to the flyback operation. Moreover, since the current balanced capacitor can minimize the offset current through the transformer magnetizing inductor regardless of the AC input voltage, the core loss and volume of the transformer can be minimized. Therefore, the proposed converter features a high efficiency and high power factor. To confirm the validity of the proposed converter, theoretical analysis and experimental results from a prototype of 24W LED driver are presented.
A nutrition and conditioning intervention for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: case study

Bodybuilding competitions are becoming increasingly popular. Competitors are judged on their aesthetic appearance and usually exhibit a high level of muscularity and symmetry and low levels of body fat. Commonly used techniques to improve physique during the preparation phase before competitions include dehydration, periods of prolonged fasting, severe caloric restriction, excessive cardiovascular exercise and inappropriate use of diuretics and anabolic steroids. In contrast, this case study documents a structured nutrition and conditioning intervention followed by a 21 year-old amateur bodybuilding competitor to improve body composition, resting and exercise fat oxidation, and muscular strength that does not involve use of any of the above mentioned methods. Over a 14-week period, the Athlete was provided with a scientifically designed nutrition and conditioning plan that encouraged him to (i) consume a variety of foods; (ii) not neglect any macronutrient groups; (iii) exercise regularly but not excessively and; (iv) incorporate rest days into his conditioning regime. This strategy resulted in a body mass loss of 11.7 kg's, corresponding to a 6.7 kg reduction in fat mass and a 5.0 kg reduction in fat-free mass. Resting metabolic rate decreased from 1993 kcal/d to 1814 kcal/d, whereas resting fat oxidation increased from 0.04 g/min to 0.06 g/min. His capacity to oxidize fat during exercise increased more than two-fold from 0.24 g/min to 0.59 g/min, while there was a near 3-fold increase in the corresponding exercise intensity that elicited the maximal rate of fat oxidation; 21% V̇O2max to 60% V̇O2max. Hamstring concentric peak torque decreased (1.7 to 1.5 Nm/kg), whereas hamstring eccentric (2.0 Nm/kg to 2.9 Nm/kg), quadriceps concentric (3.4 Nm/kg to 3.7 Nm/kg) and quadriceps eccentric (4.9 Nm/kg to 5.7 Nm/kg) peak torque all increased. Psychological mood-state (BRUMS scale) was not negatively influenced by the intervention and all values relating to the Athlete's mood-state remained below average over the course of study. This intervention shows that a structured and scientifically supported nutrition strategy can be implemented to improve parameters relevant to bodybuilding competition and importantly the health of competitors, therefore questioning the conventional practices of bodybuilding preparation.
Initialisation flaws in the A5-GMR-1 satphone encryption algorithm

A5-GMR-1 is a synchronous stream cipher used to provide confidentiality for communications between satellite phones and satellites. The keystream generator may be considered as a finite state machine, with an internal state of 81 bits. The design is based on four linear feedback shift registers, three of which are irregularly clocked. The keystream generator takes a 64-bit secret key and 19-bit frame number as inputs, and produces an output keystream of length berween 28 and 210 bits.
 Analysis of the initialisation process for the keystream generator reveals serious flaws which significantly reduce the number of distinct keystreams that the generator can produce. Multiple (key, frame number) pairs produce the same keystream, and the relationship between the various pairs is easy to determine. Additionally, many of the keystream sequences produced are phase shifted versions of each other, for very small phase shifts. These features increase the effectiveness of generic time-memory tradeoff attacks on the cipher, making such attacks feasible.
User-centric ultra-dense networks for 5G: challenges, methodologies, and directions

Ultra-dense networking (UDN) is considered as a promising technology for 5G. In this article, we define user-centric UDN (UUDN) by introducing the philosophy of the network serving user and the "de-cellular" method. Based on the analysis of challenges and requirements of UUDN, a new architecture is presented that breaks through the traditional cellular architecture of the network controlling user. Dynamic AP grouping is proposed as the core function of UUDN, through which a user could enjoy satisfactory and secure service following her movement. Furthermore, we provide methods for mobility management, resource management, interference management, and security issues. We point out that these functions should be co-designed and jointly optimized in order to improve the system throughput with higher resource utilization, better user experience, and increased energy efficiency. Finally, future works in UUDN are discussed.
A 60-dB Gain OTA Operating at 0.25-V Power Supply in 130-nm Digital CMOS Process

This paper presents a 60-dB gain bulk-driven Miller OTA operating at 0.25-V power supply in the 130-nm digital CMOS process. The amplifier operates in the weak-inversion region with input bulk-driven differential pair sporting positive feedback source degeneration for transconductance enhancement. In addition, the distributed layout configuration is used for all the transistors to mitigate the effect of halo implants for higher output impedance. Combining these two approaches, we experimentally demonstrate a high gain of over 60-dB with just 18-nW power consumption from 0.25-V power supply. The use of enhanced bulk-driven differential pair and distributed layout can help overcome some of the constraints imposed by nanometer CMOS process for high performance analog circuits in weak inversion region.
AM An Ontology-Based Forensic Analysis Tool

The analysis of forensic investigation results has generally been identified as the most complex phase of a digital forensic investigation. This phase becomes more complicated and time consuming as the storage capacity of digital devices is increasing, while at the same time the prices of those devices are decreasing. Although there are some tools and techniques that assist the investigator in the analysis of digital evidence, they do not adequately address some of the serious challenges, particularly with the time and effort required to conduct such tasks. In this paper, we consider the use of semantic web technologies and in particular the ontologies, to assist the investigator in analyzing digital evidence. A novel ontology-based framework is proposed for forensic analysis tools, which we believe has the potential to influence the development of such tools. The framework utilizes a set of ontologies to model the environment under investigation. The evidence extracted from the environment is initially annotated using the Resource Description Framework (RDF). The evidence is then merged from various sources to identify new and implicit information with the help of inference engines and classification mechanisms. In addition, we present the ongoing development of a forensic analysis tool to analyze content retrieved from Android smart phones. For this purpose, several ontologies have been created to model some concepts of the smart phone environment.
Extracellular matrix-based biomaterial scaffolds and the host response.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) collectively represents a class of naturally derived proteinaceous biomaterials purified from harvested organs and tissues with increasing scientific focus and utility in tissue engineering and repair. This interest stems predominantly from the largely unproven concept that processed ECM biomaterials as natural tissue-derived matrices better integrate with host tissue than purely synthetic biomaterials. Nearly every tissue type has been decellularized and processed for re-use as tissue-derived ECM protein implants and scaffolds. To date, however, little consensus exists for defining ECM compositions or sources that best constitute decellularized biomaterials that might better heal, integrate with host tissues and avoid the foreign body response (FBR). Metrics used to assess ECM performance in biomaterial implants are arbitrary and contextually specific by convention. Few comparisons for in vivo host responses to ECM implants from different sources are published. This review discusses current ECM-derived biomaterials characterization methods including relationships between ECM material compositions from different sources, properties and host tissue response as implants. Relevant preclinical in vivo models are compared along with their associated advantages and limitations, and the current state of various metrics used to define material integration and biocompatibility are discussed. Commonly applied applications of these ECM-derived biomaterials as stand-alone implanted matrices and devices are compared with respect to host tissue responses.
Dual arm manipulation - A survey

Recent advances in both anthropomorphic robots and bimanual industrial manipulators had led to an increased interest in the specific problems pertaining to dual armmanipulation. For the future, we foresee robots performing human-like tasks in both domestic and industrial settings. It is therefore natural to study specifics of dual arm manipulation in humans and methods for using the resulting knowledge in robot control. The related scientific problems range from low-level control to high level task planning and execution. This review aims to summarize the current state of the art from the heterogenous range of fields that study the different aspects of these problems specifically in dual arm manipulation.
Long-term Child-Robot Tutoring Interactions : Lessons Learned

As social robots become more widely used as educational tutoring agents, it is important to study how children interact with these systems, and how effective they are as assessed by learning gains, sustained engagement, and perceptions of the robot tutoring system as a whole. In this paper, we summarize our prior work involving a long-term child-robot interaction study and outline important lessons learned regarding individual differences in children. We then discuss how these lessons inform future research in child-robot interaction.