Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impulse Noise Removal from Gray Scale Images Based on ANN Classification Based Fuzzy Filter

In this paper, artificial neural network (ANN) based fuzzy filter is proposed for removal of impulse noise from gray images. ANN is used for classification of noisy and non-noisy pixels from the image corrupted by impulse noise. Based on the classification, fuzzy filtering is done adjusting the corrupted and non-corrupted pixels. In this method, feature set comprises of predicted error, absolute difference between the median and processing kernel, pixel under operation and median value within the kernel. It has been observed that this proposed method increases peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) not only for low density of noise but also for high density of noise. This method maintains structural similarity of the original image from that corrupted one to a great extent. It reduces computation time of the removal process while removing noise from the corrupted image. It is shown in this work how this proposed method outperforms other conventional filters.
Almost difference sets and their sequences with optimal autocorrelation

Almost difference sets have interesting applications in cryptography and coding theory. We give a well-rounded treatment of known families of almost difference sets, establish relations between some difference sets and some almost difference sets, and determine the numerical multiplier group of some families of almost difference sets. We also construct six new classes of almost difference sets, and four classes of binary sequences of period n/spl equiv/0 (mod 4) with optimal autocorrelation. We have also obtained two classes of relative difference sets and four classes of divisible difference sets (DDSs). We also point out that a result due to Jungnickel (1982) can be used to construct almost difference sets and sequences of period 4l with optimal autocorrelation.
Beyond Host Language Proficiency

As international students navigate in a foreign educational environment, having higher levels of coping or stress-resistance resources—both internal and external—could be related to increased satisfaction with personal and university life. The internal coping resources examined in this study were host language proficiency, self-esteem, intercultural social self-efficacy, and academic self-efficacy. The external resources studied were perceived social support from (a) hosts and (b) non-hosts. Survey participants were 385 Asian-born international students in Australian universities. Regression analyses revealed that academic self-efficacy and social support from hosts were significant predictors of both personal and university life satisfaction, but the effects of English language proficiency and social support from non-hosts disappeared when other resources were considered. Additional predictors of personal satisfaction were intercultural social self-efficacy and self-esteem. We discuss the implications for future research on the international student experience and for learning support provision for international university students.
What Fraction of Gravitational Lens Galaxies Lie in Groups?

We predict how the observed variations in galaxy populations with environment affect the number and properties of gravitational lenses in different environments. Two trends dominate: lensing strongly favors early-type galaxies, which tend to lie in dense environments, but dense environments tend to have a larger ratio of dwarf to giant galaxies than the field. The two effects nearly cancel, and the distribution of environments for lens and nonlens galaxies are not substantially different (lens galaxies are slightly less likely than nonlens galaxies to lie in groups and clusters). We predict that ~20% of lens galaxies are in bound groups (defined as systems with a line-of-sight velocity dispersion σ in the range 200 < σ < 500 km s-1), and another ~3% are in rich clusters (σ > 500 km s-1). Therefore, at least ~25% of lenses are likely to have environments that significantly perturb the lensing potential. If such perturbations do not significantly increase the image separation, we predict that lenses in groups have a mean image separation that is ~0. ″2 smaller than that for lenses in the field, and we estimate that 20-40 lenses in groups are required to test this prediction with significance. The tail of the distribution of image separations is already illuminating. Although lensing by galactic potential wells should rarely produce lenses with image separations θ ≳ 6′′, two such lenses are seen among 49 known lenses, suggesting that environmental perturbations of the lensing potential can be significant. Further comparison of theory and data will offer a direct probe of the dark halos of galaxies and groups and reveal the extent to which they affect lensing estimates of cosmological parameters.
Radio Ejection and Bump-related Orbital Period Gap of Millisecond Binary Pulsars

The monotonic increase of the radius of low-mass stars during their ascent on the red giant branch halts when they suffer a temporary contraction. This occurs when the hydrogen-burning shell reaches the discontinuity in hydrogen content left from the maximum increase in the convective extension, at the time of the first dredge-up, and produces a well known "bump" in the luminosity function of the red giants of globular clusters. If the giant is the mass-losing component in a binary in which mass transfer occurs on the nuclear evolution timescale, this event produces a temporary stop in the mass transfer, which we call "bump-related" detachment. If the accreting companion is a neutron star, in which the previous mass transfer has spun up the pulsar down to millisecond periods, the subsequent mass transfer phase may be altered by the presence of the energetic pulsar. In fact, the onset of a radio ejection phase produces loss of mass and angular momentum from the system. We show that this sequence of events may be at the basis of the shortage of systems with periods between ~20 and ~60 days in the distribution of binaries containing millisecond pulsars. We predict that systems that would be discovered with periods in this gap should preferentially have magnetic moments either smaller than ~2 × 1026 or larger than ~4 × 1026 G cm3. We further show that this period gap should not be present in Population II.
Cognitive psychopathology in Schizophrenia: Comparing memory performances with Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients and normal subjects on the Wechsler Memory Scale-IV.

BACKGROUND Memory system turns out to be one of the cognitive domains most severely impaired in schizophrenia. Within the theoretical framework of cognitive psychopathology, we compared the performance of schizophrenia patients on the Wechsler Memory Scale-IV with that in matched patients with Obsessive-compulsive disorder and that in healthy control subjects to establish the specific nature of memory deficits in schizophrenia. SUBJECTS AND METHODS 30 schizophrenia patients, 30 obsessive-compulsive disorder patients and 40 healthy controls completed the Wechsler Memory Scale-IV. Schizophrenia symptom severity was assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Performances on memory battery including Indexes and subtests scores were compared by a One-Way ANOVA (Scheffé post-hoc test). Spearman Rank correlations were performed between scores on PANSS subscales and symptoms and WMS-IV Indexes and subtests, respectively. RESULTS Schizophrenia patients showed a memory profile characterized by mild difficulties in auditory memory and visual working memory and poor functioning of visual, immediate and delayed memory. As expected, schizophrenia patients scored lower than healthy controls on all WMS-IV measures. With regard to the WMS-IV Indexes, schizophrenia patients performed worse on Auditory Memory, Visual Memory, Immediate and Delayed Memory than Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients but not on Visual Working Memory. Such a pattern was made even clearer for specific tasks such as immediate and delayed recall and spatial recall and memory for visual details, as revealed by the lowest scores on Logical Memory (immediate and delayed conditions) and Designs (immediate condition) subtests, respectively. Significant negative correlations between Logical Memory I and II were found with PANSS Excitement symptom as well as between DE I and PANSS Tension symptom. Significant positive correlations between LM II and PANSS Blunted affect and Poor rapport symptoms as well as DE I and PANSS Blunted affect and Mannerism and Posturing symptoms, were found too. CONCLUSIONS Memory damage observed in schizophrenia patients was more severe and wider than that of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, except for visual working memory. Memory dysfunction, mainly related to episodic memory damage and reduced efficiency of central executive, is intimately connected to the specific psychopathological processes characterizing schizophrenia. Implications for therapeutics and cognitive remediation techniques are discussed.
A sub-µA power management circuit in 0.18µm CMOS for energy harvesters

We explore a miniature sensor node that could be placed in an environment which would interrogate, take decisions and transmit autonomously and seamlessly without the need of a battery. With the system completely powered by an energy harvester for autonomous operation, the power management becomes crucial. In this paper, we propose an ultra low power management circuit implemented in 0. 18µm CMOS technology. As part of a stringent power requirements and very limited power offered by the energy harvesters, the proposed circuit provides a nanowatt power management scheme. Using post-layout simulation, we have evaluated the power consumption of the proposed power management unit (PMU) and report results that compares favorably to the state of the art.
Does Language Matter? Exploring Chinese–Korean Differences in Holistic Perception

Cross-cultural research suggests that East Asians display a holistic attentional bias by paying attention to the entire field and to relationships between objects, whereas Westerners pay attention primarily to salient objects, displaying an analytic attentional bias. The assumption of a universal pan-Asian holistic attentional bias has recently been challenged in experimental research involving Japanese and Chinese participants, which suggests that linguistic factors may contribute to the formation of East Asians' holistic attentional patterns. The present experimental research explores differences in attention and information processing styles between Korean and Chinese speakers, who have been assumed to display the same attentional bias due to cultural commonalities. We hypothesize that the specific structure of the Korean language predisposes speakers to pay more attention to ground information than to figure information, thus leading to a stronger holistic attentional bias compared to Chinese speakers. Findings of the present research comparing different groups of English, Chinese, and Korean speakers provide further evidence for differences in East Asians' holistic attentional bias, which may be due to the influence of language. Furthermore, we also extend prior theorizing by discussing the potential impact of other cultural factors. In line with critical voices calling for more research investigating differences between cultures that are assumed to be culturally similar, we highlight important avenues for future studies exploring the language-culture relationship.
Flow‐induced reconfiguration of buoyant and flexible aquatic vegetation

Plant posture can play a key role in the health of aquatic vegetation, by setting drag, controlling light availability, and mediating the exchange of nutrients and oxygen. We study the flow‐induced reconfiguration of buoyant, flexible aquatic vegetation through a combination of laboratory flume experiments and theoretical modeling. The laboratory experiments measure drag and posture for model blades that span the natural range for seagrass stiffness and buoyancy. The theoretical model calculates plant posture based on a force balance that includes posture‐dependent drag and the restoring forces due to vegetation stiffness and buoyancy. When the hydrodynamic forcing is small compared to the restoring forces, the model blades remain upright and the quadratic law, Fx ∝ U2, predicts the drag well (Fx is drag, U is velocity). When the hydrodynamic forcing exceeds the restoring forces, the blades are pushed over by the flow, and the quadratic drag law no longer applies. The model successfully predicts when this transition occurs. The model also predicts that when the dominant restoring mechanism is blade stiffness, reconfiguration leads to the scaling Fx ∝ U4/3. When the dominant restoring mechanism is blade buoyancy, reconfiguration can lead to a sub‐linear increase in drag with velocity, i.e., Fx ∝ Ua with a < 1. Laboratory measurements confirm both these predictions. The model also predicts drag and posture successfully for natural systems ranging from seagrasses to marine macroalgae of more complex morphology.
A novel cylindrical microwell featuring inverted-pyramidal opening for efficient cell spheroid formation without cell loss

Spheroid cultures have been often used to simulate and understand in situ biological occurrences with potential to be further applied to therapeutic approaches, such as cell transplantation. However, traditional lab-scale techniques hardly reached the needed large scale production of cell spheroids, thus limiting their versatility in many biomedical fields. Microscale technologies have rapidly improved in the last decade, and contributed to the large scale production of cell spheroids with high controllability and reproducibility. Nonetheless, the existing microwell culture platforms are problematic due to unwanted cellular adhesion to the substrate as well as due to substantial amounts of cell loss. In this study, we have developed a novel configuration of cylindrical type polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel microwells featuring inverted-pyramidal openings (iPO). Highly refined microstructures of our novel microwell could be fabricated by our optimized micro-electro mechanical system protocols consisting of a silicon (Si) wet/dry etching, Si-to-polydimethylsiloxane substrate bonding, and the established soft-lithography techniques. The iPO, the PEG hydrogel, and the cylindrical geometry of our microwell successfully (1) avoided inefficient washing steps after cell seeding, (2) achieved the complete resistance to cellular adhesion on the microwell substrate, and (3) made all seeded cells readily gathered and jam-packed to form cell spheroids with uniform size, respectively. The maximal sizes of cell spheroids were confined to below 200 μm according to the size of microwells used in this study. The efficiency testing for cell spheroid formation was conducted in comparison with other types of microwells that have been often used in the fields. The results showed that our novel microwell platform effectively reached almost zero percent of cell loss while mass-producing human mesenchymal stem cell spheroids with highly precise control over spheroid’s size and cell number. We believe that this study could deliver an effective method to extend the practical usability of cell spheroids in a variety of biomedical applications.
The complex dynamics of collaborative tagging

The debate within the Web community over the optimal means by which to organize information often pits formalized classifications against distributed collaborative tagging systems. A number of questions remain unanswered, however, regarding the nature of collaborative tagging systems including whether coherent categorization schemes can emerge from unsupervised tagging by users. This paper uses data from the social bookmarking site delicio. us to examine the dynamics of collaborative tagging systems. In particular, we examine whether the distribution of the frequency of use of tags for "popular" sites with a long history (many tags and many users) can be described by a power law distribution, often characteristic of what are considered complex systems. We produce a generative model of collaborative tagging in order to understand the basic dynamics behind tagging, including how a power law distribution of tags could arise. We empirically examine the tagging history of sites in order to determine how this distribution arises over time and to determine the patterns prior to a stable distribution. Lastly, by focusing on the high-frequency tags of a site where the distribution of tags is a stabilized power law, we show how tag co-occurrence networks for a sample domain of tags can be used to analyze the meaning of particular tags given their relationship to other tags.
PENGARUH MOTIVASI, LATAR BELAKANG PENDIDIKAN DAN KEMAMPUAN MENGGUNAKAN MEDIA TERHADAP KOMPETENSI PROFESIONAL GURU IPS MADRASAH IBTIDAIYYAH (MI) DI KABUPATEN KUDUS

Ibtidaiyyah Madrasah (MI) is an essential part ofIslamic education. In MI, students begin learning basic process.One of the main subjects taught in MI is a social sciences (IPS). Ingeneral, the IPS has a great purpose in order to make learners to begood citizens. In realizing its effectiveness, teachers are importantfactors of IPS learning process in MI. The competent ones must besupported by some of the factors that influence it. This study carriedout tests on the influence of motivation, educational background,and ability to use the media to the professional competence of anMI social studies teacher at Kudus Regency. It used a quantitativeapproach by statistical method. Data analysis used SPSS. Fromthe analysis of the data, it is concluded that motivation variable,educational background, and media ability doubly influence 55,4%of professional competence variable While 44.6 % of the teachers’professional competence is influenced by factors or other variables . Key words: educational background, media ability motivation,professional competence
What Drives the Arrangement Timetable of Bank Loan Syndication

We investigate the influence of loan and syndicate characteristics and information disclosure and legal environment factors on the arrangement timetable of bank loan syndications (measured as the time elapsed from the launching until the completion of the deal) from 68 countries over the 1992-2006 period. Employing accelerated failure time models from survival analysis methodology, we find that loan, syndicate, legal environment and information disclosure characteristics which reduce agency problems related to syndication reduce the arrangement timetable. Among the country level characteristics, information disclosure which reduces moral hazard due to informational frictions between syndicate members appears to be the most important driver of a faster deal arrangement timetable, while better creditor rights protection increase the arrangement timetable, consistently with recontracting risk issues.
The Research on Chinese Taxation Policies Based on E-commerce Model Classification

The formulation of a country’s e-commerce taxation policies needs the combination of this country’s developing status quo of e-commerce and its international economy status. By comparing with the e-commerce taxation policies of US, EU and India, analyzing the similarities and differences of various countries' policies as well as the reasons, this paper suggests China should impose the taxation to the e-commerce. According to the thought of classification, analyzing the characteristics of different models of e-commerce, based on comparing the proportion of trading amount of Chinese different e-commerce in the recent years and analyzing its development, this paper proposes different models of e-commerce should adopt different taxation policies; On the basis of referring to overseas experience and unifying the actual developing situation of Chinese e-commerce, this paper proposes the taxation policies that suit the development of Chinese e-commerce.
Beta Regression in R

The class of beta regression models is commonly used by practitioners to model variables that assume values in the standard unit interval (0, 1). It is based on the assumption that the dependent variable is beta-distributed and that its mean is related to a set of regressors through a linear predictor with unknown coefficients and a link function. The model also includes a precision parameter which may be constant or depend on a (potentially different) set of regressors through a link function as well. This approach naturally incorporates features such as heteroskedasticity or skewness which are commonly observed in data taking values in the standard unit interval, such as rates or proportions. This paper describes the betareg package which provides the class of beta regressions in the R system for statistical computing. The underlying theory is briefly outlined, the implementation discussed and illustrated in various replication exercises.
Expression and activation of TGF-β isoforms in acute allergen-induced remodelling in asthma

Background: Airway wall remodelling and inflammation are features of chronic asthma. Transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) has been implicated in these processes. Aim: To determine the effect of allergen challenge on airway inflammation and remodelling and whether TGF-β isoforms and the Smad signalling pathways are involved. Methods: Thirteen patients with atopic asthma underwent inhalational challenge with 0.9% saline, followed by allergen 3–4 weeks later. After both challenges, fibreoptic bronchoscopy was undertaken to obtain bronchial biopsies and tissue samples were processed for immunohistochemistry and examined by microscopy. Results: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) fell after allergen challenge (mean (SE) −28.1 (0.9)% at 30 min with a late response at 7 hours (−23.0 (1.2)%). Allergen challenge caused an increase in neutrophils and eosinophils in the bronchial mucosa compared with saline. Sub-basement membrane (SBM) thickness did not change after allergen, but tenascin deposition in SBM was increased. Intranuclear (activated) Smad 2/3 and Smad 4 detected by immunohistochemistry were increased after allergen challenge in epithelial and subepithelial cells of bronchial biopsies. No inhibitory Smad (Smad 7) protein was detected. TGF-β isoforms 1, 2 and 3 were expressed predominantly in bronchial epithelium after saline and allergen challenges, but only TGF-β2 expression was increased after allergen. Double immunostaining showed an increase in TGF-β2 positive eosinophils and neutrophils but not in TGF-β1 positive eosinophils and neutrophils after allergen challenge. Conclusions: TGF-β2 may contribute to the remodelling changes in allergic asthma following single allergen exposure.