Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LBP Histogram Selection based on Sparse Representation for Color Texture Classification

1 Abstract Texture classification is a fundamental task in image processing and computer vision. Among the proposed approaches in the recent years to represent the texture images, Local Binary Pattern (LBP) proposed by Ojala et al. has been known as one of the most successful statistical approaches due to its efficacy, robustness against illumination changes and relative fast calculation [1]. In order to encode LBP, the gray level of each pixel is compared with those of its neighbors and the results of these comparisons are weighted and summed. The obtained texture feature is the LBP histogram whose bin count depends on the number of neighbors. Otherwise, it has been demonstrated that color information is very important to represent the texture, especially natural textures. However, the extension of LBP to color leads to consider several LBP histograms and only some of which are relevant for texture classification. Kalakech et al. introduced a histogram selection score, named ”Adapted Supervised Laplacian score” (ASL-score) based on Jeffrey distance and a similarity matrix [2]. This matrix is deduced from the class labels. It is a hard value which is 0 or 1. In this paper, we propose to extend the ASL-score by using sparse representation to build a soft similarity matrix that takes values between 0 and 1. The soft value of the similarity obtained by the sparse representation could better reflect the geometric structure of different classes. Indeed a value between 0 and 1 will measure the similarity in a subtle way, instead of being binary with just two values 0 and 1. This may lead to more powerful discriminating information. The proposed score, called Sparse Adapted Supervised Laplacian score (SpASL-score)
Atomic layer deposition of hafnium oxide from tert-butoxytris(ethylmethylamido)hafnium and ozone: rapid growth, high density and thermal stability

HfO2 thin films were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using a novel heteroleptic precursor, tert-butoxytris(ethylmethylamido)hafnium [HfOtBu(NEtMe)3; BTEMAH] and ozone. The structure of BTEMAH is similar to that of tetrakis(ethylmethylamido)hafnium [Hf(NEtMe)4; TEMAH] except that one of its four amido ligands is replaced with a tert-butoxy ligand. This heteroleptic structure largely improves the ALD growth rate (0.16 nm cycle−1) and Hf density (Hf mass per unit volume of HfO2 film, 7.6 g cm−3) of the HfO2 films. The self-regulated ALD growth behavior was confirmed at a growth temperature of 300 °C. Higher Hf density induces anti-crystallization properties in the as-grown film. Consequently, the amorphous phase of a HfO2 film is retained up to ∼15 nm during deposition at 300 °C. The more amorphous-like nature and the higher Hf density of the HfO2 film also retard crystallization during post-deposition annealing (PDA), which strongly enhances the thermal stability of the electrical performance. The capacitance equivalent thickness of the films with thicknesses ranging from 4 to 13 nm is relatively constant up to a PDA temperature of 1000 °C.
A Computational Model for Behavioural Monitoring and Cognitive Analysis using Cognitive Models

This paper proposes a way in which cognitive models can be exploited in practical applications in the context of Ambient Intelligence. A computational model is introduced in which a cognitive model that addresses some aspects of human functioning is taken as a point of departure. From this cognitive model relationships between cognitive states and behavioural aspects affected by these states are determined. Moreover, representation relations for cognitive states are derived, relating them to external events such as stimuli that can be monitored. Furthermore, by automatic verification of the representation relations on monitoring information the occurrence of cognitive states affecting the human behaviour is determined. In this way the computational model is able to analyse causes of behaviour.
WLC47-4: Analysis of Unfairness between TCP Uplink and Downlink Flows in Wi-Fi Hot Spots

This paper focuses on the unfairness problem between TCP uplink and downlink flows in the 802.11 Wi-Fi hot spots and shows that the service is prone to be unfair. The cause of unfairness is analyzed from two aspects: TCP-induced asymmetry and MAC-induced asymmetry. Due to the asymmetric behavior of TCP congestion control with a cumulative acknowledgment mechanism between uplink and downlink flows, the service is biased toward the uplink flow and the downlink flow tends to starve. The contention-based channel access mechanism of 802.11 MAC exacerbates this unfairness problem because it intends to provide fair access opportunity only to the sending stations. Next, the analysis of the interaction between congestion control of TCP and contention control of MAC reveals interesting and counter-intuitive results: (i) Even when a station has a sufficiently large amount of traffic to send, it does not always participate in the MAC-layer contention, its opportunity for MAC-layer contention is controlled by the TCP congestion control, (ii) The aggregate throughput remains almost constant with respect to the number of stations sending/receiving TCP traffic. (Hi) Both TCP-induced unfairness and MAC-induced unfairness can be resolved if packet loss due to buffer overflow in an access point does not occur.
Resourceful method to remove mixed Gaussian-Impulse noise in color images

It is a challenging task to suppress mixed noise in a color image. Simple fuzzy method could reduce the mixed Gaussian-Impulse noise with preservable edge and detail of image; however, the method provides some drawbacks and led to inappropriate outputs. This paper proposed a resourceful method to remove the mixed Gaussian-Impulse noise by designing the sequential cases to estimate the optimal weights in small window for filtering the noise signals. The sequential cases consisted of impulse detection, fuzzy system for initial weights, improving the weights and optimizing the weights, and finally the output pixels estimated by either alpha trimmed mean or convex hull techniques. As depicted in the experimental results, the proposed algorithm provided the best solutions when comparison with the vector median filter and the simple fuzzy method.
Nucleic Acids Research

To elucidate the function of hnRNP in the splicing of premRNA, we studied the distribution of the transcripts from the early region 3 of adenovirus-2 in hnRNP from infected HeLa cells. In addition to premRNAs and mRNAs, we detected excised IVS 1 and the products of cleavage of premRNA at the 5' splice site of IVS 1 (free leader 1 and IVS 1-exon 2). All these molecules were present in hnRNP and persisted in the salt-resistant complexes after a 400 mM KCl treatment. None of them was exclusively part of the salt dissociable monoparticles. The precursors, intermediates and products of the splicing reaction were associated with both monoparticles and salt resistant complexes. This eliminates the possibility that one of the classes of RNP is exclusively involved in one of the steps of RNA processing. Whereas the size of hnRNP was related to that of its RNA for most molecules, the small molecules free leader 1 and excised IVS 1 were found in the large hnRNP containing premRNA as well as in small size hnRNP. A probable interpretation of these results is that the cleavage products are associated with the premRNP complex inmnediately after cleavage and are then released in the form of an individual RNP. INTRODUCTION HnRNP is assumed to be the site of splicing in vivo and this was mainly suggested by the presence of premRNA and processed mRNA in these structures (1-9). On the other hand, premRNA and mRNA were also shown to be associated with nuclear matrix (10-16). This apparent discrepancy could be understood when it was shown that the isolation of hnRNP containing intact premRNA required a breakage of the nucleus and of its matrix (8). Thus, isolated hnRNP is formed of nuclear matrix fragments, probably protected by the RNA, in addition to more specific structures designated as monoparticles (8, 17 and Fig. 1A). To understand the function of hnRNP protein in premRNA splicing, it was necessary to demonstrate that splicing intermediates and not only premRNA and mRNA are associated with hnRNP and to determine whether some of these RNAs are selectively present in one of the 2 classes of hnRNP units. For instance, one interesting possibility would have been that excised IVS 1 whose fate is quite different from that of the splicing © I R L Press Limited, Oxford, England. Nucleic Acids Research Volume 14 Number 1
Twenty-four-hour rhythmicity of circulating metabolites: effect of body mass and type 2 diabetes

Metabolic profiling of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has previously been limited to single‐time‐point samples, ignoring time‐of‐day variation. Here, we tested our hypothesis that body mass and T2DM affect daily rhythmicity and concentrations of circulating metabolites across a 24‐h day in 3 age‐matched, male groups—lean, overweight/obese (OW/OB), and OW/OB with T2DM—in controlled laboratory conditions, which were not confounded by large meals. By using targeted liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry metabolomics, we quantified 130 plasma metabolites every 2 h over 24 h, and we show that average metabolite concentrations were significantly altered by increased body mass (90 of 130) and T2DM (56 of 130). Thirty‐eight percent of metabolites exhibited daily rhythms in at least 1 study group, and where a metabolite was rhythmic in >1 group, its peak time was comparable. The optimal time of day was assessed to provide discriminating biomarkers. This differed between metabolite classes and study groups—for example, phospholipids showed maximal difference at 5:00 am (lean vs. OW/OB) and at 5:00 pm (OW/OB vs. T2DM). Metabolites that were identified with both robust 24‐h rhythms and significant concentration differences between study groups emphasize the importance of controlling the time of day for diagnosis and biomarker discovery, offering a significant improvement over current single sampling. —Isherwood, C.M. , Van der Veen, D.R. , Johnston, J.D. , Skene, D. J. Twenty‐four‐hour rhythmicity of circulating metabolites: effect of body mass and type 2 diabetes. FASEB J. 31, 5557‐5567 (2017). www.fasebj. org
vCUDA: GPU accelerated high performance computing in virtual machines

This paper describes vCUDA, a GPGPU (General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit) computing solution for virtual machines. vCUDA allows applications executing within virtual machines (VMs) to leverage hardware acceleration, which can be beneficial to the performance of a class of high performance computing (HPC) applications. The key idea in our design is: API call interception and redirection. With API interception and redirection, applications in VMs can access graphics hardware device and achieve high performance computing in a transparent way. We carry out detailed analysis on the performance and overhead of our framework. Our evaluation shows that GPU acceleration for HPC applications in VMs is feasible and competitive with those running in a native, non-virtualized environment. Furthermore, our evaluation also identifies the main cause of overhead in our current framework, and we give some suggestions for future improvement.
Characterization of Ag-Pd nanocomposite paste for electrochemical migration resistance.

Direct printing such as inkjet, gravure, and screen printing is an attractive approach for achieving low-cost circuitry in the printed circuit board industry. One of the challenges for direct printing technology, however, is the poor resistance to electrochemical migration (ECM), especially for silver (Ag) which has been widely used in printed electronics. We demonstrate improved resistance to Ag electrochemical migration by adding palladium (Pd) nanoparticles to the Ag nanopaste. Conductive comb-type patterns were fabricated on a bismaleimide-triazine substrate via screen printing. Their ECM characteristics were assessed by water drop test with deionized water. These results showed that the ECM time required for dendritic growth from cathode to anode to cause short-circuit failure was affected by the Pd content and applied voltages: the ECM time of Ag-15wt. % Pd nanopaste was nearly threefold that of Ag nanopaste, and the ECM time decreased by 94.22%, on average, while the applied voltage increased from 3 V to 9 V.
Full-coverage Identification of English Light Verb Constructions

The identification of light verb constructions (LVC) is an important task for several applications. Previous studies focused on some limited set of light verb constructions. Here, we address the full coverage of LVCs. We investigate the performance of different candidate extraction methods on two English full-coverage LVC annotated corpora, where we found that less severe candidate extraction methods should be applied. Then we follow a machine learning approach that makes use of an extended and rich feature set to select LVCs among extracted candidates.
Neutrophil Functions and Cytokines Expression Profile in Buffaloes with Impending Postpartum Reproductive Disorders

The study was conducted to correlate the periparturient immune status in terms of neutrophil functions and cytokine expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cell culture with impending postpartum reproductive disorders in buffaloes. Forty pregnant buffaloes were observed for occurrence of postpartum reproductive disorders (PRD), i.e., metritis, endometritis and delayed uterine involution etc., during one week prepartum to four weeks postpartum period. A representative number (n = 6) of buffaloes that did not develop any PRD were included in group I (healthy, control), while the animals which experienced PRD were assigned into group II (PRD, n = 8). The blood samples were collected at weekly interval from one week prepartum to four weeks postpartum period considering the day of calving as ‘d 0’. Differential leucocytes counts, superoxide and hydrogen peroxide production activity in isolated neutrophils and the mRNA expression profile of cytokines i.e., IL-2, IL-4 and IFN-γ in PBMC culture were studied in all the samples. A higher total leucocytes, neutrophil and band cells count along with impaired neutrophil functions i.e., lowered level of production of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide before parturition and during early postpartum period were observed in buffaloes developing PRD. Further, a lower expression of IL-2, IFN-γ and IL-4 mRNA in PBMC culture was observed at calving in buffaloes that subsequently developed PRD at later postpartum. Thus, suppression in neutrophil function and cytokine expression at prepartum to early postpartum period predisposes the buffaloes to develop postpartum reproductive disorders. Hence, monitoring of neutrophils function and cytokine expression profile would be effective to predict certain reproductive disorders at late pregnancy or immediately after parturition in buffaloes. In future, this may be a novel approach for determining suitable management and therapeutic decisions for prevention of commonly occurring reproductive disorders in farm animals.
Baseline Striatal Functional Connectivity as a Predictor of Response to Antipsychotic Drug Treatment.

OBJECTIVE Clinical response to antipsychotic drug treatment is highly variable, yet prognostic biomarkers are lacking. The authors recently demonstrated that successful antipsychotic drug treatment alters resting-state functional connectivity of the striatum. The goal of the present study was to test whether intrinsic striatal connectivity patterns provide prognostic information and can serve as a potential biomarker of treatment response to antipsychotic drugs. METHOD The authors used resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) to develop a prognostic index in a discovery cohort of 41 first-episode schizophrenia patients, then tested this index in an independent cohort of 40 newly hospitalized chronic patients with acute psychosis. In the discovery cohort, patients underwent resting-state fMRI scanning at the initiation of randomized controlled treatment with a second-generation antipsychotic. Whole-brain functional connectivity maps were generated for each subject from striatal seed regions. A stringent measure of clinical response was calculated that required sustained improvement over two consecutive study visits. Clinical response was entered into a survival analysis, and Cox regression was applied to the functional connectivity data. A striatal connectivity index was created, comprising functional connections of the striatum that predicted treatment response. This striatal connectivity index was tested on a generalizability cohort of patients with psychotic disorders who were hospitalized for an acute psychotic episode. RESULTS A total of 91 regions functionally connected with the striatum provided significant prognostic information. Connectivity in these regions was used to create a baseline striatal connectivity index that predicted response to antipsychotic treatment with high sensitivity and specificity in both the discovery and generalizability cohorts. CONCLUSIONS These results provide evidence that individual differences in striatal functional connectivity predict response to antipsychotic drug treatment in acutely psychotic patients. With further development, this has the potential to serve as a prognostic biomarker with clinical utility and to reduce the overall burden associated with psychotic illnesses.
Coating Binder Migration and Affected Parameters: Influence of Pigments and Base Paper

The Paper studied the effects of pigments and base paper on binder migration and affected factors. The z-direction distribution of the coating binder which was tagged with Br in coating layer and its concentration in coating surface were examined quantitatively by using SEM-EDXA and ESCA analysis. The results showed that the increase of the ratio of calcium carbonate in the pigment content, coating surface binder concentration increased, and coating surface binder concentration increased with the increase of particle size of pigments. The result also indicated to small base paper absorbency, coating surface has high binder migration level, the coating layer bottom (base paper direction) has low binder concentration. To high absorbency base paper, the opposite is true.
From L3 to seL4 what have we learnt in 20 years of L4 microkernels?

The L4 microkernel has undergone 20 years of use and evolution. It has an active user and developer community, and there are commercial versions which are deployed on a large scale and in safety-critical systems. In this paper we examine the lessons learnt in those 20 years about microkernel design and implementation. We revisit the L4 design papers, and examine the evolution of design and implementation from the original L4 to the latest generation of L4 kernels, especially seL4, which has pushed the L4 model furthest and was the first OS kernel to undergo a complete formal verification of its implementation as well as a sound analysis of worst-case execution times. We demonstrate that while much has changed, the fundamental principles of minimality and high IPC performance remain the main drivers of design and implementation decisions.
Playing games with approximation algorithms

In an online linear optimization problem, on each period t, an online algorithm chooses st ∈ S from a fixed (possibly infinite) set S of feasible decisions. Nature (who may be adversarial) chooses a weight vector wt ∈ R, and the algorithm incurs cost c(st,wt), where c is a fixed cost function that is linear in the weight vector. In the full-information setting, the vector wt is then revealed to the algorithm, and in the bandit setting, only the cost experienced, c(st,wt), is revealed. The goal of the online algorithm is to perform nearly as well as the best fixed s ∈ S in hindsight. Many repeated decision-making problems with weights fit naturally into this framework, such as online shortest-path, online TSP, online clustering, and online weighted set cover. Previously, it was shown how to convert any efficient exact offline optimization algorithm for such a problem into an efficient online bandit algorithm in both the full-information and the bandit settings, with average cost nearly as good as that of the best fixed s ∈ S in hindsight. However, in the case where the offline algorithm is an approximation algorithm with ratio α > 1, the previous approach only worked for special types of approximation algorithms. We show how to convert any offline approximation algorithm for a linear optimization problem into a corresponding online approximation algorithm, with a polynomial blowup in runtime. If the offline algorithm has an α-approximation guarantee, then the expected cost of the online algorithm on any sequence is not much larger than α times that of the best s ∈ S, where the best is chosen with the benefit of hindsight. Our main innovation is combining Zinkevich's algorithm for convex optimization with a geometric transformation that can be applied to any approximation algorithm. Standard techniques generalize the above result to the bandit setting, except that a "Barycentric Spanner" for the problem is also (provably) necessary as input.Our algorithm can also be viewed as a method for playing largerepeated games, where one can only compute approximate best-responses, rather than best-responses.
IPNs around the world : science and engineering

The Current Status of IPNs Phase Separation During Synthesis of Polyetherimide/Epoxy Semi-IPNs A Review of Kinetic Studies on the Formation of IPNs IPNs Based on Polyurethane and Poly(butyl-methacrylate): Interrelation Between Reaction Kinetics and Microphase Structure Latex IPNs: From Structures to Properties Poly(ethylene oxide)/Poly(methyl methacrylate) (Semi-)IPNs: Synthesis and Phase Diagrams IPNs of Polyurethane and Maleimide-terminated Polyurethane for Biomedical Applications Polyurethane/Polystyrene One-shot IPNs with Good Damping Ability: Transition Broadening through Crosslinking, Internetwork Grafting and Compatibilization A Study of Three-layered Latex IPNs Used as Processing Modifiers of Thermo-plastic Resins Radiation Polymerization of Alkyl Methacrylates in Polymer-Monomer Compositions Morphology Development During the Polymerization of Styrene Within a Polyurethane Network: Investigations by Small-angle X-ray and Light Scattering.