Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiframe Super-Resolution Employing a Spatially Weighted Total Variation Model

Total variation (TV) has been used as a popular and effective image prior model in regularization-based image processing fields, such as denoising, deblurring, super-resolution (SR), and others, because of its ability to preserve edges. However, as the TV model favors a piecewise constant solution, the processing results in the flat regions of the image being poor, and it cannot automatically balance the processing strength between different spatial property regions in the image. In this paper, we propose a spatially weighted TV image SR algorithm, in which the spatial information distributed in different image regions is added to constrain the SR process. A newly proposed and effective spatial information indicator called difference curvature is used to identify the spatial property of each pixel, and a weighted parameter determined by the difference curvature information is added to constrain the regularization strength of the TV regularization at each pixel. Meanwhile, a majorization-minimization algorithm is used to optimize the proposed spatially weighted TV SR model. Finally, a significant amount of simulated and real data experimental results show that the proposed spatially weighted TV SR algorithm not only efficiently reduces the “artifacts” produced with a TV model in fat regions of the image, but also preserves the edge information, and the reconstruction results are less sensitive to the regularization parameters than the TV model, because of the consideration of the spatial information constraint.
The Positive Effect of Physical Activity on Health and Health-related Quality of Life in Elderly Korean People—Evidence from the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Background: The proportion of elderly people in the population is growing, and Korea has one of the fastest growing populations among the world’s major regions. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of physical activity on the health and quality of life of elderly Korean people. Methods: A nationally representative sample of 2,853 elderly Korean people (1,239 males and 1,614 females) aged more than 65 years was evaluated to determine whether they met guidelines for vigorous PA (VPA), moderate PA (MPA), and low PA (LPA) and how those results were associated with self-rated health (SRH) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Results: The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of males and females who reported very good SRH significantly decreased with VPA (males: AOR = 0.42, females: AOR = 0.44), MPA (males: AOR = 0.46, females: AOR = 0.48), and LPA (males: AOR = 0.44, females: AOR = 0.32). Subjects who met the guidelines for VPA (males: AOR = 0.40, females: AOR = 0.43), MPA (males: AOR = 0.49, females: AOR = 0.45), and LPA (males: AOR = 0.33, females: AOR = 0.39) and reported no problems with their HRQoL showed significantly decreased AORs compared with subjects who reported HRQoL problems. Conclusion: Elderly Korean people were fairly inactive, but participation in vigorous, moderate, or low PA was positively associated with SRH and HRQoL.
Evolution of loess‐derived soil along a climatic toposequence in the Qilian Mountains, NE Tibetan Plateau

Holocene loess has been recognized as the primary source of the silty topsoil in the northeast Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau. The processes through which these uniform loess sediments develop into diverse types of soil remain unclear. In this research, we examined 23 loess‐derived soil samples from the Qilian Mountains with varying amounts of pedogenic modification. Soil particle‐size distribution and non‐calcareous mineralogy were changed only slightly because of the weak intensity of chemical weathering. Accumulation of soil organic carbon (SOC) and leaching of carbonate were both identified as predominant pedogenic responses to soil forming processes. Principal component analysis and structural analysis revealed the strong correlations between soil carbon (SOC and carbonate) and several soil properties related to soil functions. Accretion of SOC effectively decreased soil bulk density (R2 = 0.81) and increased cation exchange capacity (R2 = 0.96), soil water retention at saturation (R2 = 0.77), field capacity (R2 = 0.49) and wilting point (R2 = 0.56). These results indicate that soil ecological functions are strengthened during pedogenic modification of such loess sediments. Soil C/N ratio was constant at small SOC contents, but after reaching a threshold of approximately 35 g kg−1 SOC, soil C/N increased linearly with SOC. This indicates a change from a carbon‐limited loess ecosystem in arid regions to a nitrogen‐limited one in alpine settings. This research suggests that loess sequences within environmental gradients offer great potential as natural experiments to explore intrinsic soil behaviour and ecosystem evolution because the effect of parent material is well constrained.
Geographic location of developers at SourceForge

The development of libre (free/open source) software is usually performed by geographically distributed teams. Participation in most cases is voluntary, sometimes sporadic, and often not framed by a pre-defined management structure. This means that anybody can contribute, and in principle no national origin has advantages over others, except for the differences in availability and quality of Internet connections and language. However, differences in participation across regions do exist, although there are little studies about them. In this paper we present some data which can be the basis for some of those studies. We have taken the database of users registered at SourceForge, the largest libre software development web-based platform, and have inferred their geographical locations. For this, we have applied several techniques and heuristics on the available data (mainly e-mail addresses and time zones), which are presented and discussed in detail. The results show a snapshot of the regional distribution of SourceForge users, which may be a good proxy of the actual distribution of libre software developers. In addition, the methodology may be of interest for similar studies in other domains, when the available data is similar (as is the case of mailing lists related to software projects).
Total iron-binding capacity calculated from serum transferrin concentration or serum iron concentration and unsaturated iron-binding capacity.

Total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) indicates the maximum amount of iron needed to saturate plasma or serum transferrin (TRF), which is the primary iron-transport protein (1). Theoretically, 1 mol of TRF [average molecular mass, 79 570 Da (2)] can bind 2 mol of iron (55.8 Da) at two high-affinity binding sites for ferric iron (3). Therefore, TIBC correlates well with TRF concentration, and the theoretical ratio of TIBC (in μmol/L) to TRF (in g/L) is 25.1: TIBC (μmol/L) = 25.1 × TRF (g/L) (4)(5). Measurements of TIBC, serum iron, and the percentage of iron saturation of TRF are useful for the clinical diagnosis of iron-deficiency anemia and chronic inflammatory disorders (6)(7) and as screening tests for other clinical conditions (8). TIBC is routinely determined (9)(10)(11)(12) by saturation of TRF with an excess predetermined amount of iron, removal of the unbound iron, and measurement of the iron that is dissociated from TRF. For removal of the unbound iron, magnesium carbonate (9), ion-exchange resin (10), alumina columns (11), or magnetic particles(12) are used. Most direct TIBC measurement methods require manual procedures that involve centrifugation or pretreatment of serum samples. As an alternative to direct measurement methods, TIBC values are also calculated from the sum of serum iron and unsaturated iron-binding capacity (UIBC), both of which are determined by colorimetric methods (calculation method). We developed a direct and fully automated TIBC (DTIBC) assay for use with an automated multipurpose analyzer (13)(14). A fully automated TIBC measurement method is also commercially available (15). In our previous study (14), TIBC values obtained by DTIBC assay correlated strongly with serum TRF concentrations ( r = 0.984; n = 59), and the slope of the regression line was consistent with the theoretical TIBC/TRF ratio. We …
Ad hoc WLAN throughput improvement by reduction of RTS range

In this paper, we evaluate a novel method for reducing exposed nodes in IEEE 802.11 ad hoc WLANs using asymmetric transmission ranges for RTS and CTS frames. The RTS/CTS handshake communication control mechanism used in IEEE 802.11 networks solves the hidden node problem but causes the exposed node problem. Our proposed method uses asymmetric transmission ranges for RTS and CTS control frames to solve the exposed node problem. Simulations using the Network Simulator 2 (NS-2) show that asymmetric transmission of RTS and CTS frames improves overall network throughput compared to the standard RTS/CTS method.
Material damping ratio from free-vibration method

Abstract One important aspect of soil dynamics is attenuation or energy loses. This inherent dynamic property is essential in the analysis of soil behavior subjected to a dynamic load. Energy absorption in soils leads to the definition of an equivalent viscous damping ratio (D). In resonant column testing there are commonly two different approaches in measuring material damping: during a steady-state vibration (SSV), when the specimen is vibrated at its first mode; and during free-vibration decay (FVD). The study reports results associated with the small to medium strain range material damping from FVD method, i.e. there is a cut off the constant vibration of the specimen at resonance and the specimen is allowed to free-vibration mode while the decay strain amplitude during free-vibration is calculated. The experiments were conducted on cohesive soils (sasiCl, Cl, clSa) from various test sites located in Warsaw, Poland. All the specimens were subjected to torsional mode of vibration at their first natural frequency, at different mean effective stress. The authors paid particular attention to the number of successive cycles after the free-vibration of the material is initiated. They examined various propositions from the literature and compare the received damping values using different number of cycles of vibration. The results showed that the most stable values of material damping ratio can be obtained by selecting each time a line of best fit on the authors’ choice of number of free-vibration cycles. However, the number of these cycles should not exceed 10.
Instant radiosity

We present a fundamental procedure for instant rendering from the radiance equation. Operating directly on the textured scene description, the very efﬁcient and simple algorithm produces photorealistic images without any ﬁnite element kernel or solution discretization of the underlying integral equation. Rendering rates of a few sec-ondsareobtainedby exploitinggraphicshardware, thedeterministic technique of the quasi-random walk for the solution of the global il-luminationproblem, and the new method of jittered low discrepancy sampling. CR
Emergence of a prestressed eukaryotic nucleus during cellular differentiation and development

Nuclear shape and size are emerging as mechanistic regulators of genome function. Yet, the coupling between chromatin assembly and various nuclear and cytoplasmic scaffolds is poorly understood. The present work explores the structural organization of a prestressed nucleus in a variety of cellular systems ranging from cells in culture to those in an organism. A combination of laser ablation and cellular perturbations was used to decipher the dynamic nature of the nucleo-cytoplasmic contacts. In primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts, ablation of heterochromatin nodes caused an anisotropic shrinkage of the nucleus. Depolymerization of actin and microtubules, and inhibition of myosin motors, resulted in the differential stresses that these cytoplasmic systems exert on the nucleus. The onset of nuclear prestress was then mapped in two contexts—first, in the differentiation of embryonic stem cells, where signatures of prestress appeared with differentiation; second, at an organism level, where nuclear or cytoplasmic laser ablations of cells in the early Drosophila embryo induced a collapse of the nucleus only after cellularization. We thus show that the interplay of physical connections bridging the nucleus with the cytoplasm governs the size and shape of a prestressed eukaryotic nucleus.
Relational Learning of Pattern-Match Rules for Information Extraction

Information extraction is a form of shallow text processing that locates a specified set of relevant items in a natural-language document. Systems for this task require significant domain-specific knowledge and are time-consuming and difficult to build by hand, making them a good application for machine learning. We present a system, RAPIER, that uses pairs of sample documents and filled templates to induce pattern-match rules that directly extract fillers for the slots in the template. RAPIER employs a bottom-up learning algorithm which incorporates techniques from several inductive logic programming systems and acquires unbounded patterns that include constraints on the words, part-of-speech tags, and semantic classes present in the filler and the surrounding text. We present encouraging experimental results on two domains.
A Global Tracking Controller for Underactuated Aerial Vehicles: Design, Analysis, and Experimental Tests on Quadrotor

This paper investigates the global tracking control of underactuated aerial vehicles. In particular, the globally exponentially stable attitude tracking controller serving as the inner loop of the overall controller is investigated. It can avoid the common problems that may be accompanied by other attitude controllers, such as singularity and unwinding. In order to overcome the topological obstacles of global control on SO(3), rotational motion of a rigid body is expressed in the exponential coordinate restricted in a compact domain. We then construct a hybrid tracking error dynamics whose states are all represented in Euclidean space. The geometric properties of the state space are mathematically analyzed. The tracking controller of underactuated aerial vehicles is, thus, designed based on the hybrid tracking error dynamics. The global exponential stability of the closed-loop attitude subsystem, as well as the global asymptotical stability of the closed-loop overall system under assumptions, is analyzed using Lyapunov's method strictly. These properties are demonstrated by simulation results. The proposed controller is also implemented and tested on our self-developed quadrotor, showing the feasibility of the controller in realtime applications.
Mixture input transformations for adaptation of hybrid connectionist speech recognizers

Abstract : We extend the input transformation approach for adapting hybrid connectionist speech recognizers to allow multiple transformations to be trained. Previous work has shown the efficacy of the linear input transformation approach for speaker adaptation [1][2][3], but has focused only on training global transformations. This approach is clearly suboptimal since it assumes that a single transformation is appropriate for every region in the acoustic feature input space, that is, for every phonetic class, microphone, and noise level. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to train mixtures of transformation networks (MTNs) in the hybrid connectionist recognition framework. This approach is based on the idea of partitioning the acoustic feature space into R regions and training an input transformation for each region. The transformations are combined probabilistically according to the degree to which the acoustic features belong to each region, where the combination weights are derived from a separate acoustic gating network (AGN). We apply the new algorithm to nonnative speaker adaptation, and present recognition results for the 1994 WSJ Spoke 3 development set. The MTN technique can also be used for noise or microphone robust recognition or for other nonspeech neural network pattern recognition problems.
The molecular origin of fast fluid transport in carbon nanotubes : theoretical and molecular dynamics study of liquid/solid friction in graphitic nanopores

Within the scope of this thesis, a theoretical study of liquid flow in graphitic nanopores was performed. More precisely, a combination of numerical simulations and analytic approach was used to establish the special properties of carbon nanotubes for fluid transport: Molecular dynamics flow simulations of different liquids in carbon nanotubes exhibited flow velocities that are 1-3 orders of magnitude higher than predicted from the continuum hydrodynamics framework and the no-slip boundary condition. These results support previous experiments performed by several groups reporting exceptionally high flow rates for water in carbon nanotube membranes. The reason for this important flow enhancement with respect to the expectation was so far unclear. In this work, a careful investigation of the water/graphite friction coefficient which we identified as the crucial parameter for fast liquid transport in the considered systems was carried out. In simulations, the friction coefficient was found to be very sensitive to wall curvature: friction is independent of confinement for water between at graphene walls with zero curvature, while it increases with increasing negative curvature (water at the outside of the tube), and it decreases with increasing positive curvature (water inside the tube), eventually leading to quasi frictionless flow for water in a single file configuration in the smallest tubes. A similar behaviour was moreover found with several other liquids, such as alcohol, alcane and OMCTS. urthermore, a theoretical approximate expression for the friction coefficient is presented which predicts qualitatively and semi-quantitatively its curvature dependent behavior. Moreover, a deeper analysis of the simulations according to the proposed theoretical description shed light on the physical mechanisms at the origin of the ultra low liquid/solid friction in carbon nanotubes. In fine, it is due to their perfectly ordered molecular structure and their atomically smooth surface that carbon nanotubes are quasi-perfect liquid conductors compared to other membrane pores like, for example, nanochannels in amorphous silica. The newly gained understanding constitutes an important validation that carbon nanotubes operate as fast transporters of various liquids which makes them a promising option for different applications like energy conversion or filtration on the molecular level.
Null hypothesis significance testing: a short tutorial

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) remains the statistical method of choice used to provide evidence for an effect, in biological, biomedical and social sciences. In this short tutorial, I first summarize the concepts behind the method, distinguishing test of significance (Fisher) and test of acceptance (Newman-Pearson) and point to common interpretation errors regarding the p-value. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals and again point to common interpretation errors. Finally, I discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts to avoid interpretation errors and propose reporting practices.
Fairness-Aware Resource Allocation in Relay-Enhanced TD-LTE-A Systems

Relay technique is introduced in the Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-Advanced) system to extend the network coverage, improve the performance of cell-edge user equipments (UEs) and increase the fairness among different UEs. The combination of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) and relay can further increase frequency efficiency and improve system performance. In this paper, based on the architecture of MIMO relay-enhanced TD-LTE-Advanced system, a fairness -aware resource allocation algorithm is proposed, and the resource allocation is divided into 3 phases: a frequency resource partition scheme is firstly proposed to realize the tradeoff between fairness among UEs served by various relay nodes (RNs) and system throughput; secondly, a backhaul resource allocation algorithm is presented to match the eNB to relay transmission with the relay to UE transmission with reduced feedback overhead; finally, a resource allocation algorithm from eNB and relay to UEs is given to maximize the proportional fairness so that user fairness can be guaranteed. Simulation results show that both system throughput and user fairness can be improved with limited feedback overhead, using the proposed algorithms.
A∞ functors for Lagrangian correspondences

We construct A∞ functors between Fukaya categories associated to monotone Lagrangian correspondences between compact symplectic manifolds. We then show that the composition of A∞ functors for correspondences is homotopic to the functor for the composition, in the case that the composition is smooth and embedded. Mathematics Subject Classification 53D40
Smart Touch: Improving Touch Accuracy for People with Motor Impairments with Template Matching

We present two contributions toward improving the accessibility of touch screens for people with motor impairments. First, we provide an exploration of the touch behaviors of 10 people with motor impairments, e.g., we describe how touching with the back or sides of the hand, with multiple fingers, or with knuckles creates varied multi-point touches. Second, we introduce Smart Touch, a novel template-matching technique for touch input that maps any number of arbitrary contact-areas to a user's intended (x,y) target location. The result is that users with motor impairments can touch however their abilities allow, and Smart Touch will resolve their intended touch point. Smart Touch therefore allows users to touch targets in whichever ways are most comfortable and natural for them. In an experimental evaluation, we found that Smart Touch predicted (x,y) coordinates of the users' intended target locations over three times closer to the intended target than the native Land-on and Lift-off techniques reported by the built-in touch sensors found in the Microsoft PixelSense interactive tabletop. This result is an important step toward improving touch accuracy for people with motor impairments and others for whom touch screen operation was previously impossible.
Electrical stimulation based on chronaxie reduces atrogin‐1 and myoD gene expressions in denervated rat muscle

Denervation induces muscle fiber atrophy and changes in the gene expression rates of skeletal muscle. Electrical stimulation (ES) is a procedure generally used to treat denervated muscles in humans. This study evaluated the effect of ES based on chronaxie and rheobase on the expression of the myoD and atrogin‐1 genes in denervated tibialis anterior (TA) muscle of Wistar rats. Five groups were examined: (1) denervated (D); (2) D+ES; (3) sham denervation; (4) normal (N); and (5) N+ES. Twenty muscle contractions were stimulated every 48 h using surface electrodes. After 28 days, ES significantly decreased the expression of myoD and atrogin‐1 in D+ES compared to the D group. However, ES did not prevent muscle‐fiber atrophy after denervation. Thus, ES based on chronaxie values and applied to denervated muscles using surface electrodes, as normally used in human rehabilitation, was able to reduce the myoD and atrogin‐1 gene expressions, which are related to muscular growth and atrophy, respectively. The results of this study provide new information for the treatment of denervated skeletal muscle using surface ES. Muscle Nerve, 2006