Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Upward Extension of the Polar Vortices Into the Mesosphere

The polar vortices play a central role in vertically coupling the atmosphere from the ground to geospace by shaping the background wind field through which atmospheric waves propagate. This work extends the vertical range of previous polar vortex climatologies into the upper mesosphere. The mesospheric polar vortices are defined using the CO gradient method with Microwave Limb Sounder satellite data; the stratospheric polar vortices are defined using a stream function‐based algorithm with data from meteorological reanalyses. Strengths and weaknesses of the two vortex definitions are given, as well as recommendations for when, where, and why to use each definition. Midwinter mean vortex geometry in the mesosphere is funnel shaped in the Arctic, with a wide top and narrow bottom. The Antarctic mesospheric vortex tapers with height in early winter and broadens with height in late winter. The seasonal evolution of mesospheric vortex frequency of occurrence, size, and zonal symmetry in both hemispheres is presented. Unexpected behavior above 60 km includes late season vortex broadening in both hemispheres, especially following winters without sudden stratospheric warmings. Following extreme stratospheric disturbances the polar night jet in the mesosphere strengthens and shifts poleward, resulting in a mesospheric vortex that contracts. Overall, the mesospheric polar vortices are more similar between the two hemispheres than their stratospheric counterparts. The vortex climatology presented here serves as an observational benchmark to which the mesospheric polar vortices in high‐top climate models can be evaluated.
Lighting the Path

This report outlines key implications for governments and investors aiming to align their policies and investments with the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement, based on different energy pathways published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Sixth Assessment Report, published in April 2022. In the report, Working Group III of the IPCC provides a picture of multiple possible futures for the energy system. These pathways—based on varying policy assumptions and environmental and distributional
Temporal Planning with Mutual Exclusion Reasoning

Many planning domains require a richer notion of time in which actions can overlap and have different durations. The key to fast performance in classical planners (e.g., Graphplan, IPP, and Blackbox) has been the use of a disjunctive representation with powerful mutual exclusion reasoning. This paper presents TGP, a new algorithm for temporal planning. TGP operates by incrementally expanding a compact planning graph representation that handles actions of differing duration. The key to TGP performance is tight mutual exclusion reasoning which is based on an expressive language for bounding mutexes and includes mutexes between actions and propositions. Our experiments demonstrate that mutual exclusion reasoning remains valuable in a rich temporal setting.
Two Query PCP with Sub-Constant Error

We show that the NP-Complete language 3Sat has a PCPverifier that makes two queries to a proof of almost-linear size and achieves sub-constant probability of error o(1). The verifier performs only projection tests, meaning that the answer to the first query determines at most one accepting answer to the second query.Previously, by the parallel repetition theorem, there were PCP Theorems with two-query projection tests, but only (arbitrarily small) constant error and polynomial size.There were also PCP Theorems with sub-constant error andalmost-linear size, but a constant number of queries that is larger than 2.As a corollary, we obtain a host of new results. In particular, our theorem improves many of the hardness of approximation results that are proved using the parallel repetition theorem. A partial list includes the following:(1) 3Sat cannot be efficiently approximated to withina factor of 7/8+o(1), unless P = NP. This holds even under almost-linear reductions. Previously, the best knownNP-hardness factor was 7/8+epsilon for any constant epsilonGt0, under polynomial reductions. (2) 3Lin cannot be efficiently approximated to withina factor of 1/2+o(1), unless P = NP. This holdseven under almost-linear reductions. Previously, the best known NP-hardness factor was 1/2+epsilon for any constant epsilonGt0, under polynomial reductions. (3) A PCP Theorem with amortized query complexity 1 + o(1)and amortized free bit complexity o(1). Previously, the best known amortized query complexity and free bit complexity were 1+epsilon and epsilon, respectively, for any constant epsilon Gt 0.One of the new ideas that we use is a new technique for doing the composition step in the (classical) proof of the PCP Theorem, without increasing the number of queries to the proof. We formalize this as a composition of new objects that we call Locally Decode/Reject Codes (LDRC). The notion of LDRC was implicit in several previous works, and we make it explicit in this work. We believe that the formulation of LDRCs and their construction are of independent interest.
Ellipse detection using an improved randomized Hough transformation

This paper proposes an ellipse detection algorithm based on the analytical solution to the parameters of ellipse in images. In the first instance, edge detection is processed, from which line segments are extracted. Then the method of finding the center coordinates of the ellipse is described based on the property of ellipse by using three points voting at a sense of randomized Hough Transformation (RHT). Finally, an analytical solution of the other three parameters of the ellipse (semi-major axis length, semi-minor axis length and the angle between the X-axis and the major axis of the ellipse) are given via coordinate transformation. Based on this solution, we propose the separated parameter voting scheme for ellipse center and the other three parameters instead of 5 parameters voting scheme of RHT. The experiments show that the proposed algorithm performs well in various images.
The Reaction to Social Stress in Social Phobia: Discordance between Physiological and Subjective Parameters

Background Research on the biopsychological background of social phobia (SP) is scarce and inconsistent. We investigated endocrine and autonomic markers along with subjective responses to a standardized stress situation (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) in SP patients and healthy controls (HC). Methods We examined 88 patients with the primary diagnosis of SP as well as 78 age and sex comparable HCs with the TSST. Blood and saliva samples were obtained before and after the TSST for the assessment of salivary cortisol, plasma cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), and prolactin. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded continuously. Scalp-near hair samples were collected for the assessment of long-term cortisol secretion. The self-reported stress response was measured with different state and trait scales. Results While self-reported anxiety was elevated in SP before, during, immediately after, and one week after the TSST, no significant differences in biological stress responses were observed between SP and HC. There was a trend for SP to show higher baseline stress markers. Also long-term cortisol deposition in hair remained unaltered. Conclusions Our results suggest that the excessive self-reported stress in SP is not reflected by a respective biological stress response. Patients with SP apparently show neither an extreme form of focused fear reactivity nor excessive defensive impairment.
Effect of Chronic Administration of Low Dose Rapamycin on Development and Immunity in Young Rats

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) regulates cell growth, cell differentiation and protein synthesis. Rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR, has been widely used as an immunosuppressant and anti-cancer drug. Recently, mTOR inhibitors have also been reported to be a potential anti-epileptic drug, which may be effective when used in young patients with genetic epilepsy. Thus, a suitable dose of rapamycin which can maintain the normal function of mTOR and has fewer side effects ideally should be identified. In the present study, we first detected changes in marker proteins of mTOR signaling pathway during development. Then we determined the dose of rapamycin by treating rats of 2 weeks of age with different doses of rapamycin for 3 days and detected its effect on mTOR pathway. Young rats were then treated with a suitable dose of rapamycin for 4 weeks and the effect of rapamycin on mTOR, development and immunity were investigated. We found that the expression of the marker proteins of mTOR pathway was changed during development in brain hippocampus and neocortex. After 3 days of treanent, 0.03 mg/kg rapamycin had no effect on phospho-S6, whereas 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin inhibited phospho-S6 in a dose-dependent manner. However, only 1.0 mg/kg and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin inhibited phospho-S6 after 4 weeks treatment of rapamycin. Parallel to this result, rats treated with 0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg rapamycin had no obvious adverse effects, whereas rats treated with 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin showed significant decreases in body, spleen and thymus weight. Additionally, rats treated with 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin exhibited cognitive impairment and anxiety as evident by maze and open field experiments. Furthermore, the content of IL-1β, IL-2, IFN-γ, TNF-α in serum and cerebral cortex were significantly decreased in 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin-treated rats. The expression of DCX was also significantly decreased in 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin-treated rats. However, rats treated with 1.0 mg/ kg rapamycin exhibited fewer and milder side effects than those treated with 3.0 mg/kg. In summary, all these data suggest that there is not a rapamycin dose that can inhibit mTOR for epilepsy without causing any side effects, but 1 mg /kg may be the optimal dose for young rats for suppressing mTOR with relatively few side effects.
GuarDroid : A Trusted Path for Password Entry

Sensitive online transactions are now frequently executed using smartphone clients. Whereas users of personal computers execute these transactions in a browser, smartphone users tend to use installed apps. These apps use username and password pairs as the primary authentication method and may come from untrusted parties, opening users up to attacks that steal user’s passwords. We present GuarDroid, a system that protects user’s password from untrusted apps. The key idea is to prevent apps from seeing passwords directly and establishing a trusted path between the user and the service that leverages the smartphone operating system as a trusted computing base. Our system does not require any modifications to existing apps or services, while still providing users with high assurances that they are not providing sensitive passwords to a rogue app.
Comparative genomics approach to detecting split-coding regions in a low-coverage genome: lessons from the chimaera Callorhinchus milii (Holocephali, Chondrichthyes)

Recent development of deep sequencing technologies has facilitated de novo genome sequencing projects, now conducted even by individual laboratories. However, this will yield more and more genome sequences that are not well assembled, and will hinder thorough annotation when no closely related reference genome is available. One of the challenging issues is the identification of protein-coding sequences split into multiple unassembled genomic segments, which can confound orthology assignment and various laboratory experiments requiring the identification of individual genes. In this study, using the genome of a cartilaginous fish, Callorhinchus milii, as test case, we performed gene prediction using a model specifically trained for this genome. We implemented an algorithm, designated ESPRIT, to identify possible linkages between multiple protein-coding portions derived from a single genomic locus split into multiple unassembled genomic segments. We developed a validation framework based on an artificially fragmented human genome, improvements between early and recent mouse genome assemblies, comparison with experimentally validated sequences from GenBank, and phylogenetic analyses. Our strategy provided insights into practical solutions for efficient annotation of only partially sequenced (low-coverage) genomes. To our knowledge, our study is the first formulation of a method to link unassembled genomic segments based on proteomes of relatively distantly related species as references.
Energy-saving coordinated napping (CoNap) for wireless networks

We propose a time-slot-based transmission strategy, referred to as coordinated napping (CoNap) for energy saving in cellular networks. In CoNap, multiple base stations (BSs) form a cluster and each BS operates in a transmit mode (TM) and a nap mode (NM) independently through an implicitly coordinated manner. The implicit coordination is implemented by the binary matrices to assign TM and NM to each BS in the cluster. CoNap can effectively reduce the network energy consumption and reduce the inter-cell interference, especially during the non-peak traffic load hours. Our numerical results based on a realistic energy consumption model in a cellular network show that as high as 50% saving can be achieved without compromising the quality of service to users.
Heterogeneous Data Fusion via Space Alignment Using Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling

Heterogeneous data sets are typically represented in different feature spaces, making it difficult to analyze relationships spanning different data sets even when they are semantically related. Data fusion via space alignment can remedy this task by integrating multiple data sets lying in different spaces into one common space. Given a set of reference correspondence data that share the same semantic meaning across different spaces, space alignment attempts to place the corresponding reference data as close together as possible, and accordingly, the entire data are aligned in a common space. Space alignment involves optimizing two potentially conflicting criteria: minimum deformation of the original relationships and maximum alignment between the different spaces. To solve this problem, we provide a novel graph embedding framework for space alignment, which converts each data set into a graph and assigns zero distance between reference correspondence pairs resulting in a single graph. We propose a graph embedding method for fusion based on nonmetric multidimensional scaling (MDS). Its criteria using the rank order rather than the distance allows nonmetric MDS to effectively handle both deformation and alignment. Experiments using parallel data sets demonstrate that our approach works well in comparison to existing methods such as constrained Laplacian eigenmaps,more » Procrustes analysis, and tensor decomposition. We also present standard cross-domain information retrieval tests as well as interesting visualization examples using space alignment. « less
Denoising Monte Carlo Renderings based on a Robust High-order Function

Image space rendering methods are efficient at removing Monte Carlo noise. However, a major challenge is optimizing the bandwidth to denoise images while preserving their fine details. In this paper, a high-order function is proposed to leverage the correlation between features and pixel colors. We consider feature buffers to fit data while computing regression weights using pixel colors. A collaborative prefiltering framework is first proposed to denoise features. The input pixel colors are then denoised using a guided image filter that maintains fine details in the output by constructing a guidance image using features. The optimal bandwidth is selected through an iterative error estimation process performed at multiple pixels to smooth the details. Finally, we adaptively select center pixels to build our regression models and vary the window size to reduce computational overhead. Experimental results showed that the new approach outperforms competing methods in terms of the quality of the visual image and the numerical error incurred.
A 2.4-GHz BAW-Based Transceiver for Wireless Body Area Networks

This paper presents a BAW-based transceiver targeting wireless networks for biomedical applications. The use of high-Q microelectromechanical-systems resonators brings interesting benefits to the fundamental building blocks of the frequency synthesis, receiver, and transmitter and allows achieving at the same time low-power consumption, improved phase noise, and high selectivity in the receiver and transmitter paths. In the baseband, the power consumption is minimized thanks to the use of a phase analog-to-digital converter (ADC) which directly quantizes the phase of the received signal instead of using two separate amplitude ADCs. A complete wireless node composed of the transceiver integrated circuit (IC) and a microprocessing IC, both integrated in a standard digital 0.18-μm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology are described and validated by measurement results. The RF carrier phase noise is -136.2 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset. The transmitter demonstrates 1-Mb/s Gaussian frequency-shift keying modulation at an output power of 5.4 dBm with an overall current of 35 mA, in compliance with Bluetooth and Bluetooth low energy output spectrum requirements. At the receiver, further investigations are needed to find the origins of an unexpected sensitivity of -75 dBm at 200 kb/s.
Logical attestation: an authorization architecture for trustworthy computing

This paper describes the design and implementation of a new operating system authorization architecture to support trustworthy computing. Called logical attestation, this architecture provides a sound framework for reasoning about run time behavior of applications. Logical attestation is based on attributable, unforgeable statements about program properties, expressed in a logic. These statements are suitable for mechanical processing, proof construction, and verification; they can serve as credentials, support authorization based on expressive authorization policies, and enable remote principals to trust software components without restricting the local user's choice of binary implementations. We have implemented logical attestation in a new operating system called the Nexus. The Nexus executes natively on x86 platforms equipped with secure coprocessors. It supports both native Linux applications and uses logical attestation to support new trustworthy-computing applications. When deployed on a trustworthy cloud-computing stack, logical attestation is efficient, achieves high-performance, and can run applications that provide qualitative guarantees not possible with existing modes of attestation.
Microfluidic device prototyping via laser processing of glass and polymer materials

In this thesis, three different processes for the fabrication of microchannels in three different base materials were experimentally and numerically modelled in detail in order to understand the effects of processing conditions on process fabrication capabilities. CO2 and Nd:YAG laser processing systems as well as a xurography technique were employed in this work for the development of microfluidic channels. The effects of CO2 laser processing on the process of directly writing microchannels on surface of four different types of glass: soda lime, fused silica, borosilicate and quartz were studied. Mathematical models were developed to relate the process input parameters to the dimensions of the microchannels. The effect of laser processing on the optical transmission capabilities of the glass was also assessed. A novel method, using Nd:YAG laser system, was employed for the fabrication of internal microchannels inside polymeric materials. Microchannels up to three millimetres long were successfully created inside a polycarbonate within a single laser processing step. Mathematical models were developed to express the relationship between laser processing input parameters and the width of these internal microchannels. The Nd:YAG processing parameters for laser welding of polycarbonate sheets were also determined. A new rapid low-cost prototyping method for the fabrication of multilayer microfluidic devices from cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) films was developed. CO2 laser cutting and xurography techniques were employed for the fabrication of the microfluidic features, followed by multilayer lamination via cyclohexane vapour exposure. Process parameters were optimised including solvent exposure time. Functional UV-transparent microfluidic mixing devices were demonstrated which included internally bound polymer monolithic columns within the microfluidic channels. There is a growing interest to use technologies which are in this thesis, the three different developed processes for the fabrication of microchannels in three different base materials provides the basis for achieving higher dimensional accuracies and novel designs within lab-on-a-chip microfluidic sensing devices.
XTC -- The XML Transformation Coordinator for XML Document Transformation Technologies

In the recent time the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is playing an increasing role in the exchange of nearly all kind of Web-based data and elsewhere. Hence, the development and enhancement of XML document transformation technologies and concepts become essential in the future. However, numerous specific transformation approaches specify their transformation definitions in XML files themselves. In this paper we present the XML transformation coordinator (XTC) which supports the composition and adaptation step in the development of these XML transformation definitions implementing a hierarchy concept of transformation operators. This hierarchy concept allows the specification of complex transformation operators without changing the underlying transformation technology. The complex operators are either generic or specifically suited to develop transformations in a certain domain or application area
Myc inhibition impairs autophagosome formation

Autophagy, a major clearance route for many long-lived proteins and organelles, has long been implicated in cancer development. Myc is a proto-oncogene often found to be deregulated in many cancers, and thus is an attractive target for design of cancer therapy. Therefore, understanding the relationship between anti-Myc strategies and autophagy will be important for development of effective therapy. Here, we show that Myc depletion inhibits autophagosome formation and impairs clearance of autophagy substrates. Myc suppression has an inhibitory effect on autophagy via reduction of c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1 (JNK1) and B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl2) phosphorylation. Additionally, the decrease in JNK1 phosphorylation observed with Myc knockdown is associated with a reduction in ROS production. Our data suggest that targeting Myc in cancer therapy might have the additional benefit of inhibiting autophagy in the case of therapy resistance associated with chemotherapy-induced autophagy.
A refactoring-based tool for software component adaptation

Adapting software components usable by a particular application is a crucial issue in software component based technology. In fact, software components can be used in contexts that can be different from the context assumptions made by the component designers. We present in this paper a tool aiming at adapting software component structure. Among the motivations of this kind of adaptation, we note its possible application to prepare a flexible deployment of software components according to the available resources (CPU, memory). Our adaptation process is based on refactoring and fragmentation of component source code. To support this structural adaptation technique, we developed an adaptation process which we have experimented using the Java framework of the Fractal component model