Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preconditioning for Edge-Preserving Image Super Resolution

We propose a simple preconditioning method for accelerating the solution of edge-preserving image super-resolution (SR) problems in which a linear shift-invariant point spread function is employed. Our technique involves reordering the high-resolution (HR) pixels in a similar manner to what is done in preconditioning methods for quadratic SR formulations. However, due to the edge preserving requirements, the Hessian matrix of the cost function varies during the minimization process. We develop an efficient update scheme for the preconditioner in order to cope with this situation. Unlike some other acceleration strategies that round the displacement values between the low-resolution (LR) images on the HR grid, the proposed method does not sacrifice the optimality of the observation model. In addition, we describe a technique for preconditioning SR problems involving rational magnification factors. The use of such factors is motivated in part by the fact that, under certain circumstances, optimal SR zooms are nonintegers. We show that, by reordering the pixels of the LR images, the structure of the problem to solve is modified in such a way that preconditioners based on circulant operators can be used.
Adaptive threshold optimization for a blanking nonlinearity in OFDM receivers

The application of a blanking nonlinearity to cope with impulsive interference is a common approach in OFDM systems. The choice of the amplitude threshold to decide whether a received sample is blanked, heavily affects the performance of the entire transmission. As a matter of fact, the perfect blanking threshold strongly depends on the characteristics of the interference. In previous publications this perfect threshold has been derived, given knowledge about the interference statistics. In general, however, no reliable information about the interference statistics is known at the receiver side. In this paper a practical method for calculating an adaptive blanking threshold to maximize the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio after the blanking nonlinearity is proposed. The calculation is based on the distribution of the amplitude of the received signal at the OFDM receiver. Simulation results show only a negligible performance degradation when comparing the proposed method to the case where the theoretically derived perfect threshold is applied for blanking.
A New Approach to Low-Power and Low-Latency Wake-Up Receiver System for Wireless Sensor Nodes

A new wake-up receiver is proposed to reduce energy consumption and latency through adoption of two different data rates for the transmission of wake-up packets. To reduce the energy consumption, the start frame bits (SFBs) of a wake-up packet are transmitted at a low data rate of 1 kbps, and a bit-level duty cycle is employed for detection of SFBs. To reduce both energy consumption and latency, duty cycling is halted upon detection of the SFB sequence, and the rest of the wake-up packet is transmitted at a higher data rate of 200 kbps. The proposed wake-up receiver is designed and fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology with a core size of 1850×1560 μm for the target frequency range of 902-928 MHz. The measured results show that the proposed design achieves a sensitivity of -73 dBm, while dissipating an average power of 8.5 μW from a 1.8 V supply.
JMangler – A Powerful Back-End for Aspect-Oriented Programming

AOSD improves separation of concerns in software de velopment by enabling the modular expression of crosscutting aspects. However , modular implementation of an aspect requires techniques for “weaving” the aspect into the code of all classes that require it. Often, weaving is complicated by the unavailabi lity or dynamic creation of source code. We present JMangler, a freely available framework f load-time transformation of compiled Java programs. We introduce the notions of generic class file interception and order-independent composition a d explain JMangler’s contribution in these areas. Then we show how JMangler can be used for load-time weav ing and for injecting hooks that enable run-time weaving. JMangler enables behaviors b eyond the ability of current high-level AOSD languages and systems.
Comparing evolutionary algorithms on binary constraint satisfaction problems

Constraint handling is not straightforward in evolutionary algorithms (EAs) since the usual search operators, mutation and recombination, are 'blind' to constraints. Nevertheless, the issue is highly relevant, for many challenging problems involve constraints. Over the last decade, numerous EAs for solving constraint satisfaction problems (CSP) have been introduced and studied on various problems. The diversity of approaches and the variety of problems used to study the resulting algorithms prevents a fair and accurate comparison of these algorithms. This paper aligns related work by presenting a concise overview and an extensive performance comparison of all these EAs on a systematically generated test suite of random binary CSPs. The random problem instance generator is based on a theoretical model that fixes deficiencies of models and respective generators that have been formerly used in the evolutionary computing field.
Skeletal Muscle Mitochondria and Aging: A Review

Aging is characterized by a progressive loss of muscle mass and muscle strength. Declines in skeletal muscle mitochondria are thought to play a primary role in this process. Mitochondria are the major producers of reactive oxygen species, which damage DNA, proteins, and lipids if not rapidly quenched. Animal and human studies typically show that skeletal muscle mitochondria are altered with aging, including increased mutations in mitochondrial DNA, decreased activity of some mitochondrial enzymes, altered respiration with reduced maximal capacity at least in sedentary individuals, and reduced total mitochondrial content with increased morphological changes. However, there has been much controversy over measurements of mitochondrial energy production, which may largely be explained by differences in approach and by whether physical activity is controlled for. These changes may in turn alter mitochondrial dynamics, such as fusion and fission rates, and mitochondrially induced apoptosis, which may also lead to net muscle fiber loss and age-related sarcopenia. Fortunately, strategies such as exercise and caloric restriction that reduce oxidative damage also improve mitochondrial function. While these strategies may not completely prevent the primary effects of aging, they may help to attenuate the rate of decline.
Grain size effects in rime judgment across literacy development in German

Abstract Phonological similarity effects are biases to judge words as phonologically similar (i.e., rhyming), even if they are not. First found in rime awareness tasks in preliterates, these biases have recently also been found in proficient adult readers. In this study, we evaluated underlying phonological processing in rime judgment longitudinally, across literacy development. To this end, we created a new rime judgment task (rime; i.e., /t∙aɪ̯∙l/ - /z∙aɪ̯∙l/) with two distractor conditions that varied in size of phonological overlap (body; i.e., /t∙aɪ̯∙l/ - /t∙aɪ̯ ç/; nucleus; i.e., /t∙aɪ̯∙l/ - /r∙aɪ̯∙s/). The task was administered to a group of 61 German-speaking children at four time points across school entry and to 21 adults. Accuracy and latency responses were recorded. Results indicated that children and adults showed phonological similarity effects but the effect decreased gradually over time. However, preliterate children were more sensitive to large compared to small phonological overlap, while the same effect was significantly smaller in literate children and adults. Results suggest that preliterate children are more sensitive to larger grain sizes and become more sensitive to fine-grained units across literacy development. The findings are in line with the assumptions of the psycholinguistic grain size theory.
Extended-Spectrum beta (β)-Lactamases and Antibiogram in Enterobacteriaceae from Clinical and Drinking Water Sources from Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

Background The spread of Extended-Spectrum beta (β)-Lactamases (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae has become a serious global problem. ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae vary based on differences in antibiotic use, nature of patients and hospital settings. This study was aimed at determining ESBL and antibiogram in Enterobacteriaceae isolates from clinical and drinking water sources in Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods Enterobacteriaceae species were isolated from clinical materials and tap water using standard culturing procedures from September 2013 to March 2015. ESBL-producing-Enterobacteriaceae were detected using double-disk method by E-test Cefotaxim/cefotaxim+ clavulanic acid and Ceftazidime/ceftazidime+ clavulanic acid (BioMerieux SA, France) on Mueller Hinton agar (Oxoid, UK). Results Overall, 274 Enterobacteriaceae were isolated. Of these, 210 (44%) were from patients and 64 (17.1%) were from drinking water. The median age of the patients was 28 years. Urinary tract infection and blood stream infection accounted for 60% and 21.9% of Enterobacteriaceae isolates, respectively. Klebsiella pneumoniae was isolated from 9 (75%) of neonatal sepsis. The overall prevalence of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae in clinical and drinking water samples were 57.6% and 9.4%, respectively. The predominant ESBL-producers were K. pneumoniae 34 (69.4%) and Escherichia coli 71 (58.2%). Statistically significant associations were noted between ESBL-producing and non- producing Enterobacteriaceae with regard to age of patients, infected body sites and patient settings (P = 0.001). ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae showed higher levels of resistance against chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin and cotrimoxazole than non-ESBL producers (P = 0.001) Conclusions ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae coupled with high levels of other antimicrobials become a major concern for treatment of patients with invasive infections such as blood stream infections, neonatal sepsis and urinary tract infections. ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae were also detected in drinking water sources.
Archival and experimental evidence on employees subjective valuations of stock options

Complementing proprietary archival data with an experiment, we examine employees' subjective valuations of their employee stock options and explore a stock option education program as a mechanism for influencing those valuations. We argue that the conflicting evidence on employee subjective valuations in prior studies can be attributed in part to knowledge differences. Our archival and experimental results show most employees value their options lower than the corresponding Black-Scholes cost. We find that a stock option education program that provides descriptive information about the Black-Scholes option pricing model and quantitative information about option values using that model increases not only employees' subjective valuations but also their self-reported loyalty and motivation. We complement our primary results with analyses of the cross-sectional determinants of subjective valuations, the differential effects on valuations of different components of the education program, and the heuristics used to formulate subjective valuations.
GaN HEMT Junction Temperature Dependence on Diamond Substrate Anisotropy and Thermal Boundary Resistance

A thermal model of Gallium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistors (GaN HEMTs) examines the impact of diamond substrate parameters on device thermal performance. These parameters include substrate thickness, GaN-substrate thermal boundary resistance (TBR), and a simplified anisotropic substrate thermal conductivity. Diamond substrates appear to only provide thermal improvement over GaN-on-Silicon Carbide (SIC) devices when the corresponding GaN-on-diamond TBR is not substantially larger than the GaN-on-SiC range, independent of the degree of substrate anisotropy. The reduced lateral conductivity due to substrate anisotropy also proves to be of less significance to substrate thermal resistance when vertical conductivity is very high, but decreased spreading in the substrate can significantly impact cold plate temperature rise. Finally, for any degree of anisotropy, substrates thinner than 150μm are shown to significantly increase cold plate temperature rise as they restrict heat spreading and impose higher heat fluxes to downstream components.
Potential Role of NK Cells in the Pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

NK cells are a major component of the innate immune system and play an important role in the tissue inflammation associated with autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). NK cells are unique in bearing both stimulatory and inhibitory receptors specific for MHC class I molecules, and their function is regulated by a series of inhibiting or activating signals. The delicate balance between activation and inhibition that decides NK cell final action provides an opportunity for their possible modulatory effect on specific therapeutic settings. Intestinal NK cells are phenotypically distinct from their counterparts in the blood and resemble “helper” NK cells, which have potentially important functions both in promoting antipathogen responses and in the maintenance of intestinal epithelial homeostasis. NK cell activities have been found to be significantly below normal levels in both remissive and active stages of IBD patients. However, some proinflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL-15, IL-21, and IL-23) could potently induce NK cell activation to secret high levels of proinflammatory cytokines (e.g., IFN-γ and TNF) and promote the cytolytic activities against the target cells. This paper provides the characteristics of intestinal NK cells and their potential role in the pathogenesis of IBD.
Short-Term Traffic Speed Forecasting Based on Data Recorded at Irregular Intervals

Recent growth in demand for proactive real-time transportation management systems has led to major advances in short-time traffic forecasting methods. Recent studies have introduced time series theory, neural networks, and genetic algorithms to short-term traffic forecasting to make forecasts more reliable, efficient, and accurate. However, most of these methods can only deal with data recorded at regular time intervals, which restricts the range of data collection tools to presence-type detectors or other equipment that generates regular data. The study reported here is an attempt to extend several existing time series forecasting methods to accommodate data recorded at irregular time intervals, which would allow transportation management systems to obtain predicted traffic speeds from intermittent data sources such as Global Positioning System (GPS). To improve forecasting performance, acceleration information was introduced, and information from segments adjacent to the current forecasting segment was adopted. The study tested several methods using GPS data from 480 Hong Kong taxis. The results show that the best performance in terms of mean absolute relative error is obtained by using a neural network model that aggregates speed information and acceleration information from the current forecasting segment and adjacent segments.
Seasonal Dependence of ENSO Teleconnections over South America and Relationships with Precipitation in Uruguay

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has an established impact on precipitation in Uruguay during austral spring (October-December). This impact is absent in peak summer (January-February), and returns weakly in fall- winter (March-July). Interannual and intraseasonal variability of the atmospheric circulation over South America and the South Pacific is investigated using the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data for these seasons. The leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF) of seasonally averaged 200-hPa winds over South America is found to be associated with ENSO through a pronounced Walker cell component in all seasons. However, during spring, this pattern acquires an extratropical teleconnection that links the circulation over southeastern South America (SESA) with ENSO. This extratropical teleconnection disappears in summer, when the circulation over SESA is dominated by variability in the South Atlantic convergence zone. In fall, extratropical South America again becomes affected by a wavelike pattern that extends over the South Pacific, but it is uncorrelated with ENSO. On intraseasonal timescales, a cluster analysis of daily geopotential height fields over the South Pacific sector reveals three wave train-like circulation regimes with similar structures in all seasons. During the transition seasons (but not summer), the frequencies of occurrence of two of these regimes are found to be significantly different from normal in years when the interannual wavelike EOFs are pronounced. Interannual anomaly patterns are constructed from the intraseasonal regimes according to these changes in their frequency of occurrence, and shown to resemble quite closely the interannual EOFs over the South Pacific sector. These results provide evidence that the interannual teleconnection patterns seen over the South Pacific in austral spring and fall-winter are due to changes in the frequency of occurrence and amplitude of intraseasonal circulation regimes. The Rossby wave source composited over ENSO years suggests that ENSO heating anomalies are able to trigger these changes in regime occurrence and amplitude during October-December through Rossby wave propagation, leading to the known ENSO teleconnection in austral spring. By contrast, the interannual teleconnection over the South Pacific during fall-winter appears to be due to essentially random changes in the frequency of occurrence of the intraseasonal circulation regimes, which are found to be much larger than during austral summer when no extratropical teleconnection pattern exists.
Speech Dereverberation Based on Variance-Normalized Delayed Linear Prediction

This paper proposes a statistical model-based speech dereverberation approach that can cancel the late reverberation of a reverberant speech signal captured by distant microphones without prior knowledge of the room impulse responses. With this approach, the generative model of the captured signal is composed of a source process, which is assumed to be a Gaussian process with a time-varying variance, and an observation process modeled by a delayed linear prediction (DLP). The optimization objective for the dereverberation problem is derived to be the sum of the squared prediction errors normalized by the source variances; hence, this approach is referred to as variance-normalized delayed linear prediction (NDLP). Inheriting the characteristic of DLP, NDLP can robustly estimate an inverse system for late reverberation in the presence of noise without greatly distorting a direct speech signal. In addition, owing to the use of variance normalization, NDLP allows us to improve the dereverberation result especially with relatively short (of the order of a few seconds) observations. Furthermore, NDLP can be implemented in a computationally efficient manner in the time-frequency domain. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach in comparison with two existing approaches.
V4641Sgr - A super-Eddington source enshrouded by an extended envelope

Optical spectroscopy of an unusual fast transient V4641 Sgr constrains its mass to be 8.7{11.7 M (9:6 M is the best t value) and the distance to 7.4{12.3 kpc (Orosz et al. 2001). At this distance the peak flux as measured by ASM/RXTE in 2{12 keV energy band implies the X-ray luminosity exceeding 2{3 10 39 erg s 1 , i.e. near or above the Eddington limit for a 9:6 M black hole. Optical photometry shows that at the peak of the optical outburst the visual magnitude increased by mV > 4:7 m relative to the quiescent level and reached mV 3 10 41 erg s 1 300 LEdd. We argue that the optical data strongly suggest the presence of an extended envelope surrounding the source which absorbs X{ray flux and reemits it in the optical and UV. The data also suggest that this envelope should be optically thin in UV, EUV and soft X-rays. The observed properties of V4641 Sgr at the peak of an optical flare are very similar to those of SS433. This envelope is likely the result of a near- or super-Eddington rate of mass accretion onto the black hole. The envelope vanishes during subsequent evolution of the source when the apparent luminosity drops well below the Eddington value. Thus this transient source provides us with direct proof of the dramatic change in the character of an accretion flow at the mass accretion rate near or above the critical Eddington value as predicted long ago by the theoretical models.
The application of Dempster-Shafer theory demonstrated with justification provided by legal evidence

In forecasting and decision making, people can and often do represent a degree of belief in some proposition. At least two separate constructs capture such degrees of belief: likelihoods capturing evidential balance and support capturing evidential weight. This paper explores the weight or justification that evidence affords propositions, with subjects communicating using a belief function in hypothetical legal situations, where justification is a relevant goal. Subjects evaluated the impact of sets of 1–3 pieces of evidence, varying in complexity, within a hypothetical legal situation. The study demonstrates the potential usefulness of this evidential weight measure as an alternative or complement to the more-studied probability measure. Subjects’ responses indicated that weight and likelihood were distinguished; that subjects’ evidential weight tended toward single elements in a targeted fashion; and, that there were identifiable individual differences in reactions to conflicting evidence. Specifically, most subjects reacted to conflicting evidence that supported disjoint sets of suspects with continued support in the implicated sets, although an identifiable minority reacted by pulling back their support, expressing indecisiveness. Such individuals would likely require a greater amount of evidence than the others to counteract this tendency in support. Thus, the study identifies the value of understanding evidential weight as distinct from likelihood, informs our understanding of the psychology of individuals’ judgments of evidential weight, and furthers the application and meaningfulness of belief functions as a communication language.