Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VO-based Dynamic Security Associations in Collaborative Grid Environment

This paper discusses how the Virtual Organisation (VO) concept can be used for managing dynamic security associations in collaborative Grid applications and for complex resource provisioning. The paper contains both research part and discusses further development of the popular VO management software the VO Membership Service (VOMS). The paper provides an overview of current practices in VO management in major Grid projects including operational procedures and the supporting security middleware. The paper identifies open issues and basic requirements to the VO security functionality and services and suggests possible directions of further research and development. The proposed conceptual VO model and VO management framework provide a basis for consistent VO services definition and development to support different VO operational models. The paper intends to provide a framework for common understanding of the VO concept among Grid community and collaborative community and industry. The paper is based on experiences gained from the major Grid based and Grid oriented projects in collaborative applications and complex resource provisioning.
The Role of Information Technology in Technology- Mediated Learning: A Review of the Past for the Future

Technology-mediated learning refers to an environment in which the learner’s interactions with learning materials, peers, and/or instructors are mediated through information technologies (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). The objective of this paper is to review current research on technology-mediated learning on the basis of a theoretical framework derived from the existing literature. In the theoretical framework, three groups of determinants (human dimension, design dimension, and information technology) are presented that influence students’ psychological learning process, which eventually lead to different learning outcomes. The literature review shows that some of the relationships between information technology and other dimensions have been heavily examined (e.g., the influence of a technology feature on learning outcomes), while some others have been ignored (e.g., the influence of IT on student’s psychological process). Research questions that can help advance our understanding of technology-mediated learning are also presented and discussed.
Involvement of an Actomyosin Contractile Ring in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cytokinesis

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the mother cell and bud are connected by a narrow neck. The mechanism by which this neck is closed during cytokinesis has been unclear. Here we report on the role of a contractile actomyosin ring in this process. Myo1p (the only type II myosin in S. cerevisiae) forms a ring at the presumptive bud site shortly before bud emergence. Myo1p ring formation depends on the septins but not on F-actin, and preexisting Myo1p rings are stable when F-actin is depolymerized. The Myo1p ring remains in the mother–bud neck until the end of anaphase, when a ring of F-actin forms in association with it. The actomyosin ring then contracts to a point and disappears. In the absence of F-actin, the Myo1p ring does not contract. After ring contraction, cortical actin patches congregate at the mother–bud neck, and septum formation and cell separation rapidly ensue. Strains deleted for MYO1 are viable; they fail to form the actin ring but show apparently normal congregation of actin patches at the neck. Some myo1Δ strains divide nearly as efficiently as wild type; other myo1Δ strains divide less efficiently, but it is unclear whether the primary defect is in cytokinesis, septum formation, or cell separation. Even cells lacking F-actin can divide, although in this case division is considerably delayed. Thus, the contractile actomyosin ring is not essential for cytokinesis in S. cerevisiae. In its absence, cytokinesis can still be completed by a process (possibly localized cell–wall synthesis leading to septum formation) that appears to require septin function and to be facilitated by F-actin.
Implementing first-class polymorphic delimited continuations by a type-directed selective CPS-transform

We describe the implementation of first-class polymorphic delimited continuations in the programming language Scala. We use Scala's pluggable typing architecture to implement a simple type and effect system, which discriminates expressions with control effects from those without and accurately tracks answer type modification incurred by control effects. To tackle the problem of implementing first-class continuations under the adverse conditions brought upon by the Java VM, we employ a selective CPS transform, which is driven entirely by effect-annotated types and leaves pure code in direct style. Benchmarks indicate that this high-level approach performs competitively.
On psychoacoustic noise shaping for audio requantization

Signal requantization to reduce the word-length of an audio stream introduces distortions. Noise shaping can be applied in combination with a psychoacoustic model in order to make requantization distortions minimally audible. The psychoacoustically optimal noise shaping curve depends on the time-varying characteristics of the input signal. Therefore, the noise shaping filter coefficients are to be computed and updated on a regular basis. In this paper, we present a least squares theory for optimal noise shaping of audio signals. It provides shorter and more straightforward proof of known properties, and in contrast with the standard theory, it does show how noise shaping filters that attain the theoretical optimum can be designed in practice.
Do International Technological Spillovers Facilitate Regional Innovation Performance in China? Evidence from the Provincial Panel Data

Based on the provincial panel data put forward by National Bureau of Statistics of China, over the period 2000-2006, this paper empirically investigates the impacts of different channels for international technological spillovers on regional innovation performance, using regional innovation performance as dependent variable, and the channels for international technological spillovers as independent variables. The empirical results in this paper indicate that learning-by-exporting and learning-by-importing have positive effects on regional innovation performance in China, and that foreign R&D activities by multinational enterprises in China have positive and statistically significant effects on regional innovation performance. In addition, absorptive capability is an important driving factor for increasing the regional innovation performance in China. Research results indicate that both international technological spillover sources and indigenous efforts, including domestic R&D intensity and absorptive capacity jointly determine the regional innovation performance in China.
Ncfm: Accurate handwritten digits recognition using Convolutional Neural Networks

Convolutional Neural Networks(CNNs) have been confirmed as a powerful technique for classification of visual inputs like handwritten digits and faces recognition. Traditional convolutional layer's input feature maps are convolved with learnable kernel then combined for achieving better performance. The biggest drawback is that the combination of feature maps can lose features and do not apply well to large-scale neural networks. In this paper, we introduce Ncfm(No combination of feature maps), a novel technique to improve the performance of CNNs. By applying Ncfm technique, the input feature maps are not combined, which implies that the number of input feature maps is equal to output feature maps. The Ncfm technique converges faster and performs better than Cfm (Combination of feature maps) with fewer filters. Through the type of feature map, experimental evaluation shows that the performance is improved and we achieve the state-of-the-art performance with 99.81% accuracy rate on the MNIST datasets.
Rapid discrimination of the stimulus properties of 5-hydroxytryptamine agonists using conditioned taste aversion.

Separate groups of rats were trained to discriminate the stimulus properties of selective agonists at 5-HT receptors using a conditioned taste aversion procedure. Fluid-restricted rats were injected with drug or saline and then given access to a 0.25% saccharin solution for 30 min. When rats received a drug trial, saccharin consumption was followed by an injection of LiCl (1.8 mEq/kg i.p.), whereas on saline trials saccharin consumption was followed by a second injection of saline instead of LiCl. Rats were trained using injections of either 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (0.4 mg/kg i.p.), an agonist selective for the 5-HT1A receptor, or 1-(m-trifluoromethylphenyl)piperazine (0.8 mg/kg i.p.), an agonist selective for 5-HT1B and 5-HT1C receptors, as the drug stimuli. Acquisition of the discriminated taste aversion, as measured by the differential effects on saccharin drinking between drug and saline trials, required only two to three pairings of either drug stimulus with LiCl injections. The 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin discriminative stimulus cue generalized to other drugs that are selective for the 5-HT1A receptor, such as ipsapirone (8-16 mg/kg i.p.) or buspirone (4 mg/kg i.p.), but not to agonists that are selective for the 5-HT1B/1C receptor, such as 1-(m-trifluoromethylphenyl)piperazine or 1-(m-chlorophenyl)piperazine. The discriminative stimulus properties of 1-(m-trifluoromethylphenyl)piperazine generalized to 1-(m-chlorophenyl)piperazine (0.2-0.8 mg/kg i.p.) but not to the 5-HT1A agonist 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (0.4 mg/kg i.p.). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Mechanical and Microstructural Investigation of Nickel‐Based Superalloy IN718 Manufactured by Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

Selective laser melting, a quite new layer‐wise manufacturing process for metals, is used for processing the nickel‐based superalloy IN718. The objective of this work is to compare the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the produced specimens, directly after the manufacturing process and additionally after two diverse heat treatments subsequent to the manufacturing process. As the resulting microstructure and properties for specimens manufactured by selective laser melting are directional, all investigations are made for specimens oriented vertically and horizontally. Optical, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy are carried out in order to characterize the microstructure explicitly. For investigating the texture of the material, additional EBSD measurements are undertaken. Mechanical tests include tensile testing at room temperature and at elevated temperatures and hardness measurements. The investigations reveal a very good quality of the SLM‐produced specimens. Nonetheless, differences in the grain sizes, the orientation, and especially in the precipitation behavior could be found.
Almost Perfect Lattices, the Covering Radius Problem, and Applications to Ajtai's Connection Factor

Lattices have received considerable attention as a potential source of computational hardness to be used in cryptography, after a breakthrough result of Ajtai [in Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, Philadelphia, PA, 1996, pp. 99--108] connecting the average-case and worst-case complexity of various lattice problems. The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the expository side, we present a rigorous self-contained proof of results along the lines of Ajtai's seminal work. At the same time, we explore to what extent Ajtai's original results can be quantitatively improved. As a by-product, we define a random class of lattices such that computing short nonzero vectors in the class with nonnegligible probability is at least as hard as approximating the length of the shortest nonzero vector in any n-dimensional lattice within worst-case approximation factors $\gamma(n) = n^{3} \omega(\sqrt{\log n\log\log n})$. This improves previously known best connection factor $\gamma(n) = n^{4+\epsilon}$ [J.-Y. Cai and A. P. Nerurkar, in Proceedings of the 38th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, Miami Beach, FL, 1997, pp. 468--477]. We also show how our reduction implies the existence of collision resistant cryptographic hash functions based on the worst-case inapproximability of the shortest vector problem within the same factors $\gamma(n) = n^{3} \omega(\sqrt{\log n\log\log n})$. In the process we distill various new lattice problems that might be of independent interest, related to the covering radius, the bounded distance decoding problem, approximate counting of lattice points inside convex bodies, and the efficient construction of lattices with good geometric and algorithmic decoding properties. We also show how further investigation of these new lattice problems might lead to even stronger connections between the average-case and worst-case complexity of the shortest vector problem, possibly leading to connection factors as low as $\gamma(n) = n^{1.5} \omega(\log n)$.
A comparative study of Local directional pattern for texture classification

Texture is an important feature for image analysis in which each pixel is classified based on its neighborhood. It is used for surface characterization in many applications, such as medical imaging, remote sensing and quality control. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance for the newly purposed Local directional pattern (LDP) and compared to the popular Gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). In this paper, texture classification power of two feature methods, Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Local Directional Pattern(LDP) are compared. Experiments are conducted on 25 Texture types selected from Brodatz album. Classification are carried out using 4 different classifiers (Naive-bayes(NB), Multilayer Perceptron(MLP), Support Vector Machine (SVM), k-nearest Neighbor Algorithm(k-NN)) in different conditions. In this study it is established that the LDP has the best accuracy at 97% using Multilayer Perceptron and 96% using SVM, compared to GLCM. In the literature Local Directional Pattern (LDP) has mainly been used to extract features in biometrics applications. In this paper LDP is used to characterize general purpose textures. It is shown that outperforms the very popular Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix and Haralick features.
Multichannel identification of room acoustic systems with adaptive filters based on orthonormal basis functions

Many acoustic signal enhancement applications require adaptive filters with a long impulse response, but with a small number of filter parameters. Fixed-poles infinite impulse response (IIR) adaptive filters based on orthonormal basis functions (OBFs) present advantages over finite impulse response filters and other IIR filters, assuring stability and fast global convergence in the adaptation of the filter parameters. A scalable algorithm is introduced for the estimation of the poles of an adaptive OBF filter from multichannel input-output data. The set of poles, common to all the acoustic channels considered, is estimated in parallel to the adaptation of the linear filter parameters. It will be shown that the result of the identification with common poles is quite robust to variations in the room transfer function, suggesting the possibility that poles may be kept fixed after estimation.
Disruption of fast axonal transport is a pathogenic mechanism for intraneuronal amyloid beta

The pathological mechanism by which Aβ causes neuronal dysfunction and death remains largely unknown. Deficiencies in fast axonal transport (FAT) were suggested to play a crucial role in neuronal dysfunction and loss for a diverse set of dying back neuropathologies including Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the molecular basis for pathological changes in FAT were undetermined. Recent findings indicate that soluble intracellular oligomeric Aβ (oAβ) species may play a critical role in AD pathology. Real-time analysis of vesicle mobility in isolated axoplasms perfused with oAβ showed bidirectional axonal transport inhibition as a consequence of endogenous casein kinase 2 (CK2) activation. Conversely, neither unaggregated amyloid beta nor fibrillar amyloid beta affected FAT. Inhibition of FAT by oAβ was prevented by two specific pharmacological inhibitors of CK2, as well as by competition with a CK2 substrate peptide. Furthermore, perfusion of axoplasms with active CK2 mimics the inhibitory effects of oAβ on FAT. Both oAβ and CK2 treatment of axoplasm led to increased phosphorylation of kinesin-1 light chains and subsequent release of kinesin from its cargoes. Therefore pharmacological modulation of CK2 activity may represent a promising target for therapeutic intervention in AD.
Application of Electromagnetic Waves and Dielectric Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) refers to the recovery of oil that is left behind in a reservoir after primary and secondary recovery methods, either due to exhaustion or no longer economical, through application of thermal, chemical or miscible gas processes. Most conventional methods are not applicable in recovering oil from reservoirs with high temperature and high pressure (HTHP) due to the degradation of the chemicals in the environment. As an alternative, electromagnetic (EM) energy has been used as a thermal method to reduce the viscosity of the oil in a reservoir which increased the production of the oil. Application of nanotechnology in EOR has also been investigated. In this study, a non-invasive method of injecting dielectric nanofluids into the oil reservoir simultaneously with electromagnetic irradiation, with the intention to create disturbance at oil-water interfaces and increase oil production was investigated. During the core displacement tests, it has been demonstrated that in the absence of EM irradiation, both ZnO and Al2O3 nanofluids recovered higher residual oil volumes in comparison with commercial surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). When subjected to EM irradiation, an even higher residual oil was recovered in comparison to the case when no irradiation is present. It was also demonstrated that a change in the viscosity of dielectric nanofluids when irradiated with EM wave will improve sweep efficiency and hence, gives a higher oil recovery.
The flame retardant mechanism of polyolefins modified with chalk and silicone elastomer

This paper presents the current understanding of the flame retardant mechanism of Casico™. The study includes the flame retardant effect of each individual component: ethylene–acrylate copolymer, chalk and silicone elastomer, as well as the formation of an intumescent structure during heating. The flame retardant properties were investigated by cone calorimetry and oxygen index tests. To obtain insight into the flame retardant mechanism, heat treatment under different conditions has also been performed. The results indicate that the flame retardant mechanism of Casico is complex and is related to a number of reactions, e.g. ester pyrolysis of acrylate groups, formation of carbon dioxide by reaction between carboxylic acid and chalk, ionomer formation and formation of an intumescent structure stabilized by a protecting char. Special emphasis is given to the formation of the intumescent structure and its molecular structure as evaluated from 13C MAS‐NMR and 29Si MAS‐NMR, ESCA and XRD analysis. After treatment at 500°C the intumescent structure consists mainly of silicon oxides and calcium carbonate and after treatment at 1000°C the intumescent structure consists of calcium silicate, calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The relationship of alcohol use and physical activity from an ecologic perspective.

PURPOSE To determine the predictors of alcohol use (AU) and their relationship to physical activity (PA) among adolescents and to examine differences among groups using an ecologic model. DESIGN AND METHODS Cross sectional secondary analysis of 11,432 adolescents (51% 8th and 49% 10th graders). RESULTS Attitude, perception of risk, and academic performance were the strongest predictors of AU. PA did not moderate, but it had a positive influence on AU in 10th graders. Differences were observed among groups. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Nurses can address individual and school factors in an effort to decrease AU and guide nurses in creating an individualized plan.
Applying Epsilon-Differential Private Query Log Releasing Scheme to Document Retrieval

Web search logs are valuable and widely used for improving Information Retrieval (IR) research. However, these query logs contain sensitive data, which makes them difficult to be released directly even for research purposes. More companies can release their query logs if adequate privacy protection can be placed. This workshop paper introduces our research project on this privacy preserving query log releasing problem. In this paper, we propose a framework using differential privacy on query logs to guarantee high levels of privacy which achieves -differential privacy. We also provide a proof for why the user IDs for each of the individual search records can not be released in order to achieve differential privacy. Experiments show that our approach is a strong option for maintaining both high privacy and high utility. We believe this project is an important step forward to find practical solutions to this query log releasing problem.
The Molecular and Dust Envelope of HD 56126

We present millimeter interferometry images of the CO J = 1-0 line emission arising in the circumstellar envelope of HD 56126 (=IRAS 07134+1005), which is one of the best-studied 21 μm proto-planetary nebulae (PPNs). The CO emission extends from 1. ″2 to 7'' in radius from the central star and appears consistent with a simple expanding envelope, as expected for a post-AGB star. The CO envelope is very clumpy with no apparent fast wind to explain these microstructures that must have arisen during the AGB mass loss. We quantitatively model the molecular envelope using a radiative transfer code that we have modified for detached shells. Our best-fit model reveals that two sequential winds created the circumstellar envelope of HD 56126: an AGB wind that lasted 6500 yr with a mass-loss rate of 5.1 × 10-6 M☉ yr-1 and a more intense superwind that lasted 840 yr with a mass-loss rate of 3 × 10-5 M☉ yr-1 and that ended the star's life on the AGB 1240 yr ago. The total mass of this envelope is 0.059 M☉, which indicates a lower limit progenitor mass for the system of 0.66 M☉, quite reasonable for this low-metallicity star that probably resides in the thick disk of the Galaxy. Comparison with images of the dust emission reveals a structure similar to that of the gas in the inner regions. Using 2-D UST, we model the dust emission of this source so that the model is consistent with the CO emission model and find a total dust mass of 7.8 × 10-4 M☉, a superwind-dust mass-loss rate of 1.9 × 10-7 M☉ yr-1 and an AGB-dust mass-loss rate of 9.6 × 10-8 M☉ yr-1. We derive an average gas-to-dust mass ratio of 75, which is consistent with ISM values but low for what most consider for carbon stars. Our results indicate that TiC nanocrystals are probably not the carrier of the 21 μm feature.