Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Propulsion System Airframe Integration Issues and Aerodynamic Database Development for the Hyper-X Flight Research Vehicle

NASA''s Hyper-X Research Vehicle will provide a unique opportunity to obtain data on an operational airframe integrated scramjet propulsion system at true flight conditions. The airframe integrated nature of the scramjet engine with the Hyper-X vehicle results in a strong coupling effect between the propulsion system operation and the airframe''s basic aerodynamic characteristics. Comments on general airframe integrated scramjet propulsion system effects on vehicle aerodynamic performance, stability, and control are provided, followed by examples specific to the Hyper-X research vehicle. An overview is provided of the current activities associated with the development of the Hyper-X aerodynamic database, including wind tunnel test activities and parallel CFD analysis efforts. A brief summary of the Hyper-X aerodynamic characteristics is provided, including the direct and indirect effects of the airframe integrated scramjet propulsion system operation on the basic airframe stability and control characteristics.
Identification of intermediates in the pathway of protein import into chloroplasts and their localization to envelope contact sites

We have used a hybrid precursor protein to study the pathway of protein import into chloroplasts. This hybrid (pS/protA) consists of the precursor to the small subunit of Rubisco (pS) fused to the IgG binding domains of staphylococcal protein A. The pS/protA is efficiently imported into isolated chloroplasts and is processed to its mature form (S/protA). In addition to the mature stromal form, two intermediates in the pathway of pS/protA import were identified at early time points in the import reaction. The first intermediate represents unprocessed pS/protA bound to the outer surface of the chloroplast envelope and is analogous to a previously characterized form of pS that is specifically bound to the chloroplast surface and can be subsequently translocated in the stroma (Cline, K., M. Werner-Washburne, T. H. Lubben, and K. Keegstra. 1985. J. Biol. Chem. 260:3691-3696.) The second intermediate represents a partially translocated form of the precursor that remains associated with the envelope membrane. This form is processed to mature S/protA, but remains susceptible to exogenously added protease in intact chloroplasts. We conclude that the envelope associated S/protA is spanning both the outer and inner chloroplast membranes en route to the stroma. Biochemical and immunochemical localization of the two translocation intermediates indicates that both forms are exposed at the surface of the outer membrane at sites where the outer and inner membrane are closely apposed. These contact zones appear to be organized in a reticular network on the outer envelope. We propose a model for protein import into chloroplasts that has as its central features two distinct protein conducting channels in the outer and inner envelope membranes, each gated open by a distinct subdomain of the pS signal sequence.
Alternative Vegetation States in Tropical Forests and Savannas: The Search for Consistent Signals in Diverse Remote Sensing Data

Globally, the spatial distribution of vegetation is governed primarily by climatological factors (rainfall and temperature, seasonality, and inter-annual variability). The local distribution of vegetation, however, depends on local edaphic conditions (soils and topography) and disturbances (fire, herbivory, and anthropogenic activities). Abrupt spatial or temporal changes in vegetation distribution can occur if there are positive (i.e., amplifying) feedbacks favoring certain vegetation states under otherwise similar climatic and edaphic conditions. Previous studies in the tropical savannas of Africa and other continents using the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation continuous fields (VCF) satellite data product have focused on discontinuities in the distribution of tree cover at different rainfall levels, with bimodal distributions (e.g., concentrations of high and low tree cover) interpreted as alternative vegetation states. Such observed bimodalities over large spatial extents may not be evidence for alternate states, as they may include regions that have different edaphic conditions and disturbance histories. In this study, we conduct a systematic multi-scale analysis of diverse MODIS data streams to quantify the presence and spatial consistency of alternative vegetation states in Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis is based on the premise that major discontinuities in vegetation structure should also manifest as consistent spatial patterns in a range of remote sensing data streams, including, for example, albedo and land surface temperature (LST). Our results confirm previous observations of bimodal and multimodal distributions of estimated tree cover in the MODIS VCF. However, strong disagreements in the location of multimodality between VCF and other data streams were observed at 1 km scale. Results suggest that the observed distribution of VCF over vast spatial extents are multimodal, not because of local-scale feedbacks and emergent bifurcations (the definition of alternative states), but likely because of other factors including regional scale differences in woody dynamics associated with edaphic, disturbance, and/or anthropogenic processes. These results suggest the need for more in-depth consideration of bifurcation mechanisms and thus the likely spatial and temporal scales at which alternative states driven by different positive feedback processes should manifest.
Agent-Based Control In A Global-Vision Robotic Soccer Team

Robotic soccer is a highly complex domain that has become a significant challenge problem in both mobile robotics and artificial intelligence. Two well-known annual competitions, ROBOCUPand FIRA, allow teams to compete in a number of different leagues distinguished by robot size and hardware restrictions. Because the domain is based on teamwork in a real-time environment, we have found agent-based control of individual robots to be a very convenient approach to designing a robotic soccer team. While we have worked with both local vision and global vision robots in the past, our most recent work has been with global vision. This paper describes the nature of this robotic domain, its suitability to agent-based methodologies, some of our particular motivations, and our use of agent-based control to deal with the difficult problems it encompasses.
Before senescence: the evolutionary demography of ontogenesis

The age-specific mortality curve for many species, including humans, is U-shaped: mortality declines with age in the developing cohort (ontogenescence) before increasing with age (senescence). The field of evolutionary demography has long focused on understanding the evolution of senescence while largely failing to address the evolution of ontogenescence. The current review is the first to gather the few available hypotheses addressing the evolution of ontogenescence, examine the basis and assumptions of each and ask what the phylogenetic extent of ontogenescence may be. Ontogenescence is among the most widespread of life-history traits, occurring in every population for which I have found sufficiently detailed data, in major groups throughout the eukaryotes, across many causes of death and many life-history types. Hypotheses seeking to explain ontogenescence include those based on kin selection, the acquisition of robustness, heterogeneous frailties and life-history optimization. I propose a further hypothesis, arguing that mortality drops with age because most transitions that could trigger the risks caused by genetic and developmental malfunctions are concentrated in early life. Of these hypotheses, only those that frame ontogenescence as an evolutionary by-product rather than an adaptation can explain the tremendous diversity of organisms and environments in which it occurs.
Active semi-supervised framework with data editing

Self-labeled training data in semi-supervised learning may contain much noise due to the initial insufficient training data, which may hurt the generalization ability of the final hypothesis. In this paper, we propose an Active Semi-Supervised framework with Data Editing(ASSDE) to improve sparsely labeled text classification. A data editing technique is used to identify and remove noise introduced by semi-supervised labeling. We carry out the data editing technique by fully utilizing the advantage of active learning, which is novel according to our knowledge. The fusion of active learning with data editing makes ASSDE more robust to the sparseness and the distribution bias of the initial training data, and it further simplifies the design of semi-supervised learning which makes ASSDE more efficient. Extensive experimental study on several real-world text data sets shows the encouraging results of the proposed framework for sparsely labeled text classification, compared with several state-of-the-art methods.
Classifying Articles in Chinese Wikipedia with Fine-Grained Named Entity Types

Named entity classification of Wikipedia articles is a fundamental research area that can be used to automatically build large-scale corpora of named entity recognition or to support other entity processing, such as entity linking, as auxiliary tasks. This paper describes a method of classifying named entities in Chinese Wikipedia with fine-grained types. We considered multi-faceted information in Chinese Wikipedia to construct four feature sets, designed different feature selection methods for each feature, and fused different features with a vector space using different strategies. Experimental results show that the explored feature sets and their combination can effectively improve the performance of named entity classification.
On orthogonal tensors and best rank-one approximation ratio

As is well known, the smallest possible ratio between the spectral norm and the Frobenius norm of an $m \times n$ matrix with $m \le n$ is $1/\sqrt{m}$ and is (up to scalar scaling) attained only by matrices having pairwise orthonormal rows. In the present paper, the smallest possible ratio between spectral and Frobenius norms of $n_1 \times \dots \times n_d$ tensors of order $d$, also called the best rank-one approximation ratio in the literature, is investigated. The exact value is not known for most configurations of $n_1 \le \dots \le n_d$. Using a natural definition of orthogonal tensors over the real field (resp., unitary tensors over the complex field), it is shown that the obvious lower bound $1/\sqrt{n_1 \cdots n_{d-1}}$ is attained if and only if a tensor is orthogonal (resp., unitary) up to scaling. Whether or not orthogonal or unitary tensors exist depends on the dimensions $n_1,\dots,n_d$ and the field. A connection between the (non)existence of real orthogonal tensors of order three and the classical Hurwitz problem on composition algebras can be established: existence of orthogonal tensors of size $\ell \times m \times n$ is equivalent to the admissibility of the triple $[\ell,m,n]$ to the Hurwitz problem. Some implications for higher-order tensors are then given. For instance, real orthogonal $n \times \dots \times n$ tensors of order $d \ge 3$ do exist, but only when $n = 1,2,4,8$. In the complex case, the situation is more drastic: unitary tensors of size $\ell \times m \times n$ with $\ell \le m \le n$ exist only when $\ell m \le n$. Finally, some numerical illustrations for spectral norm computation are presented.
Hypertension in Low-Income Adolescents

Disadvantaged adolescents are at higher risk for undiagnosed and untreated obesity and hypertension. Using nurse-measured weight, height, and blood pressure (BP) as well as self-reported age and activity/lifestyle behaviors, we assessed the prevalence of obesity and hypertension in 573 adolescent patients aged 13.0 to 17.9 years (females: n = 267, 46.6%; males: n = 306, 53.4%) from a clinic serving low-income, ethnically diverse pediatric patients. Body mass index distribution was as follows: 11, underweight (1.9%); 330, healthy weight (57.6%); 105, overweight (18.3%); and 127, obese (22.2%). The age-adjusted height percentile was normally distributed, but distribution by BP category was 326 normotensive (56.9%), 147 prehypertensive (25.7%), 60 with stage 1 hypertension (10.5%), and 40 with stage 2 hypertension (7.0%). Activity and lifestyle behaviors did not adequately explain obesity and hypertension rates. Efforts to prevent/reduce childhood overweight, obesity, and hypertension in underserved populations need to include dietary education, weight control interventions, and physical activity programs specifically tailored to overweight/obese youth and parents.
Decadal‐Scale Climate Forcing of Alpine Glacial Hydrological Systems

Quantification of climate forcing of glacial hydrological systems at the decadal scale is rare because most measurement stations are too far downstream for glacier impacts to be clearly detected. Here we apply a measure of daily hydrograph entropy to a unique set of reliable, high‐altitude gauging stations, dating from the late 1960s. We find a progressive shift to a greater number of days with diurnal discharge variation as well as more pronounced diurnal discharge amplitude. These changes were associated with the onset of rapid warming in the 1980s as well as declining end of winter snow depths as inferred from climate data. In glaciated catchments, lower winter snow depths reduce the magnitude and duration of snowpack buffering and encourage the earlier onset of glacier ice exposure, with associated lower surface albedo and more rapid melt. Together, these processes explain the increase in the observed intensity of diurnal discharge fluctuations.
Productivity of mechanized wood ash application in forest

Importance of the study is determined by increasing consumption of woody biomass as a renewable energy source. Whole-tree harvesting is commonly applied for bioenergy use, however intensified biomass removal from forests can cause significant nutrient loss in soil. Nutrients can be returned to forest ecosystem by fertilizing soil with wood ash, which is generated as a by-product of combustion in wood-burning power plants and heating plants. Studies on ash spreading technological processes and costs so far have been insufficient. Aim of the study is to compare the productivity and prime cost of ash spreading with modular spreading trailer and Amazone mineral fertilizer spreader. According to study results productivity of modular trailer is 0.57 ha h-1 and the spreading costs are 88 EUR ha-1, but that of mineral fertilizer spreader Amazone – 0.61 ha h-1 and 41 EUR ha-1, respectively. Despite lower productivity modular trailer is more suitable for spreading wood ash, because a larger amount can be delivered and ash is applied more evenly. Productivity of modular trailer can be increased by technical improvements, like equipping the tractor with a crane and a small excavator bucket. Comparing costs of ash spreading and deposition, additional 8.72 EUR ha-1 were required, when using modular trailer, whereas, when using mineral fertilizer spreader, 77.52 EUR ha-1 can be saved. The main reason for the difference is smaller dosage when using modular spreader and additional loading costs.
Computing Persistent Homology

Abstract We show that the persistent homology of a filtered d-dimensional simplicial complex is simply the standard homology of a particular graded module over a polynomial ring. Our analysis establishes the existence of a simple description of persistent homology groups over arbitrary fields. It also enables us to derive a natural algorithm for computing persistent homology of spaces in arbitrary dimension over any field. This result generalizes and extends the previously known algorithm that was restricted to subcomplexes of S3 and Z2 coefficients. Finally, our study implies the lack of a simple classification over non-fields. Instead, we give an algorithm for computing individual persistent homology groups over an arbitrary principal ideal domain in any dimension.
Min-cut floorplacement

Large macro blocks, predesigned datapaths, embedded memories, and analog blocks are increasingly used in application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs. However, robust algorithms for large-scale placement of such designs have only recently been considered in the literature. Large macros can be handled by traditional floorplanning, but are harder to account for in min-cut and analytical placement. On the other hand, traditional floorplanning techniques do not scale to large numbers of objects, especially in terms of solution quality. The authors propose to integrate min-cut placement with fixed-outline floorplanning to solve the more general placement problem, which includes cell placement, floorplanning, mixed-size placement, and achieving routability. At every step of min-cut placement, either partitioning or wirelength-driven fixed-outline floorplanning is invoked. If the latter fails, the authors undo an earlier partitioning decision, merge adjacent placement regions, and refloorplan the larger region to find a legal placement for the macros. Empirically, this framework improves the scalability and quality of results for traditional wirelength-driven floorplanning. It has been validated on recent designs with embedded memories and accounts for routability. Additionally, the authors propose that free-shape rectilinear floorplanning can be used with rough module-area estimates before logic synthesis
Trust Based Recommender System for Semantic Web

This paper proposes the design of a recommender system that uses knowledge stored in the form of ontologies. The interactions amongst the peer agents for generating recommendations are based on the trust network that exists between them. Recommendations about a product given by peer agents are in the form of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets specified using degree of membership, non membership and uncertainty. In literature, the recommender systems use databases to generate recommendations. The presented design uses ontologies, a knowledge representation technique for creating annotated content for Semantic Web. Seeing the potential and popularity of ontologies among researchers, we believe that ontologies will be build and maintained in numerous knowledge domains for the Semantic Web and future applications. The presented recommender system uses temporal ontologies that absorb the effect of changes in the ontologies due to the dynamic nature of domains, in addition to the benefits of ontologies. A case study of tourism recommender system is chosen to generate the recommendations for the selection of destination, travel agents and the flight schedule. A comparison of the generated recommendations with the manual recommendations by peers establishes the validity of the presented recommender system.
Scalable Synchronization and Reciprocity Calibration for Distributed Multiuser MIMO

Large-scale distributed Multiuser MIMO (MU-MIMO) is a promising wireless network architecture that combines the advantages of "massive MIMO" and "small cells. " It consists of several Access Points (APs) connected to a central server via a wired backhaul network and acting as a large distributed antenna system. We focus on the downlink, which is both more demanding in terms of traffic and more challenging in terms of implementation than the uplink. In order to enable multiuser joint precoding of the downlink signals, channel state information at the transmitter side is required. We consider Time Division Duplex (TDD), where the downlink channels can be learned from the user uplink pilot signals, thanks to channel reciprocity. Furthermore, coherent multiuser joint precoding is possible only if the APs maintain a sufficiently accurate relative timing and phase synchronization. AP synchronization and TDD reciprocity calibration are two key problems to be solved in order to enable distributed MU-MIMO downlink. In this paper, we propose novel over-the-air synchronization and calibration protocols that scale well with the network size. The proposed schemes can be applied to networks formed by a large number of APs, each of which is driven by an inexpensive 802.11-grade clock and has a standard RF front-end, not explicitly designed to be reciprocal. Our protocols can incorporate, as a building block, any suitable timing and frequency estimator. Here we revisit the problem of joint ML timing and frequency estimation and use the corresponding Cramer-Rao bound to evaluate the performance of the synchronization protocol. Overall, the proposed synchronization and calibration schemes are shown to achieve sufficient accuracy for satisfactory distributed MU-MIMO performance.
Expression and function of ATP-dependent potassium channels in zebrafish islet β-cells

ATP-sensitive potassium channels (KATP channels) are critical nutrient sensors in many mammalian tissues. In the pancreas, KATP channels are essential for coupling glucose metabolism to insulin secretion. While orthologous genes for many components of metabolism–secretion coupling in mammals are present in lower vertebrates, their expression, functionality and ultimate impact on body glucose homeostasis are unclear. In this paper, we demonstrate that zebrafish islet β-cells express functional KATP channels of similar subunit composition, structure and metabolic sensitivity to their mammalian counterparts. We further show that pharmacological activation of native zebrafish KATP using diazoxide, a specific KATP channel opener, is sufficient to disturb glucose tolerance in adult zebrafish. That β-cell KATP channel expression and function are conserved between zebrafish and mammals illustrates the evolutionary conservation of islet metabolic sensing from fish to humans, and lends relevance to the use of zebrafish to model islet glucose sensing and diseases of membrane excitability such as neonatal diabetes.
Influence of Realistic Perception and Surroundings on Qualitative Results in Automated and Connected Vehicle Simulation

Automated and connected vehicles are emerging in the market. Currently, solutions are being proposed to use these technologies for cooperative driving, which can significantly improve road safety. Vehicular safety applications must be tested before deployment. It is challenging to verify and validate them in the real world. Therefore, simulation is used for this purpose. Modeling these technologies necessitates coupled the use of traffic flow, vehicle dynamics, communication network, perception and signal propagation models. State-of-the-art tools exist in these domains; however, they lack full domain coverage, and the low-level processes that affect each vehicle’s behavior are often left unaccounted for, which (according to complex system theory) can lead to erroneous assumptions about system-level outcomes. This paper analyzes the requirements for an integrated connected and automated vehicle simulation environment for simulating vehicle behavior with consideration of surrounding objects’ influence on machine perception and signal propagation. We discuss the shortcomings of existing methods, propose an architecture for a simulation environment with full domain coverage, and develop a preliminary version of the CAVISE integrated simulation environment for connected and automated vehicles using open-source tools. Scenarios of object detection and signal exchange were simulated, and data on the influence of surrounding objects on quantitative and qualitative changes in scenario simulation results was obtained. It was found that a more accurate description of surrounding objects and their influence on machine perception and signal transmission does lead to quantitative and qualitative changes in the measured parameters. This conclusion should be further used in simulation environment development for connected and automated vehicle technology verification and validation.