Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Opto-Electrical Simulation of Organic Solar Cells

In this paper the optical and electrical simulation of the organic solar cells are represented. It is shown that the results of optical simulation are consistent with previously calculated ones. Due to interference, the peak amplitude of wave and its position change within the structure and cause the exciton generation to oscillate inside the active layer. Electrical simulation of devices is done and it is seen that the solar cell fill factor decreases with enhancing the thickness due to the increased serial resistance. For the thickness of 90nm the fill factor of solar cell is 75% however by increasing the thickness to the 320nm it decreases to 42%. The effect of active layer thickness on the short circuit current and efficiency in organic solar cells is studied. Comparing our results with experimental data confirms that the model is well simulated the behavior of the Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells. According to the obtained results from simulations, despite of the increased photon absorption, the power conversion efficiency is reduced by increasing the thickness due to the low mobility of organic materials and non-geminate recombination.
Outburst susceptibility assessment of moraine‐dammed lakes in Western Himalaya using an analytic hierarchy process

Glacier retreat results in the formation and expansion, and sometimes outburst, of moraine‐dammed lakes worldwide. Sudden outburst floods from such lakes have caused enormous damage to settlements and infrastructure located downstream. Such lakes located in the Himalayan region are highly prone to outburst floods due to climatic conditions and geotectonic settings. In this study, multi‐temporal Landsat images from 2002–2014, digital elevation models (DEMs), geomorphic analysis and modelling were used to assess the changes in glacial lakes and the outburst susceptibility of moraine‐dammed lakes in the Chandra–Bhaga basin of the north‐western Indian Himalaya. An inventory of lakes was developed using satellite data, thematic maps and ground‐based investigations for the Chandra–Bhaga basin. The total area of all glacial lakes (size >5000 m2) increased by 47% from 2002 to 2014, with a pronounced increase of 57% for moraine‐dammed lakes. Sixteen moraine‐dammed lakes were identified and assessed for outburst susceptibility using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Forty‐one reported glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) events from moraine‐dammed lakes in Himalayan regions were analysed, culminating in the identification of 11 critical factors for assessing outburst susceptibility using the AHP, including those related to the lake area and change, surrounding terrain characteristics, dam geometry, regional seismicity and rainfall history. The past three GLOF events in the Himalayan region were used to validate the method and to classify moraine‐dammed lakes as having very high, high, medium or low outburst susceptibility. Eight lakes classified as very high and high outburst susceptibility should be further investigated in detail. The proposed AHP‐based approach is suitable for first‐order identification of critical lakes for prioritising future detailed investigation and monitoring of moraine‐dammed glacial lakes in the Himalayan region. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Flexible analysis of distributed protocol implementations using virtual time

Analyzing the run-time behavior of network protocol implementations in a distributed setting is difficult. However, such analyses are both vital for assuring their functionality and for performance optimizations. Common debuggers typically do not facilitate the inspection of the global state of a protocol implementation that is distributed among several hosts. In this paper we present a virtual machine (VM) based approach for the analysis of distributed protocol implementations. From each of the VMs we extract local state information of choice. By consolidating a global soft-state based on this information and by providing the virtual machines with a virtual and logical progression of time, we facilitate the flexible analysis of x86-based implementations in a distributed fashion.
Curing Epidemics on Networks Using a Polya Contagion Model

We study the curing of epidemics of a network contagion, which is modelled using a variation of the classical Polya urn process that takes into account spatial infection among neighbouring nodes. We introduce several quantities for measuring the overall infection in the network and use them to formulate an optimal control problem for minimizing the average infection rate using limited curing resources. We prove the feasibility of this problem under high curing budgets by deriving conservative lower bounds on the amount of curing per node that turn our measures of network infection into supermartingales. We also provide a provably convergent gradient descent algorithm to find the allocation of curing under limited budgets. Motivated by the fact that this strategy is computationally expensive, we design a suit of heuristic methods that are locally implementable and nearly as effective. Extensive simulations run on large-scale networks demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed strategies.
An integrated approach of AHP-DEMATEL methods applied for the selection of allied hospitals in outpatient service

Nowadays, the citizens are more aware of high-quality medical care than ever. They pay much attention to medical treatment safety, instructions from physicians, and the overall service quality performed by the hospital. To manage a hospital successfully, the important goals are to attract and then retain as many patients as possible by meeting potential demands of various kinds of the patients. In this context, the decision making process is important in order to achieve a strategic decision and strategy. When the decision making problem occurs there is usually a limited number of possible alternatives but a large number of criteria according to which the optimal solution is selected. It is important to use an appropriate approach. This study presents a hybrid methodological approach based on the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method and analytic hierarchy process method to define the best allied hospital for an integrated network of outpatient service. The goal of this paper is to present a methodological approach and a practical application of hybrid method in a real case study.
Traffic-aware frequency scaling for balanced on-chip networks on GPGPUs

General-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) can provide orders of magnitude more computing power than general purpose processors (CPU) for highly parallel applications. For such parallel applications, the memory traffic pattern of GPGPUs behaves considerably different from that of CPUs. This gives rise to opportunities for optimizing the on-chip interconnection network (NoC) of GPGPUs. In this work, we first investigate the characteristics of GPGPU memory traffic of typical benchmarks and categorize the memory traffic patterns. Different traffic patterns require different throughput in the request and reply paths of the NoC to match the network load. To meet this requirement, we examine the feasibility of scaling the network frequency dynamically to balance the throughput of the request and reply networks. The decision is guided by monitoring some shader cores to identify the memory traffic pattern. Performance evaluation shows that this dynamic frequency tuning design can achieve up to 27% improvement in terms of execution speedup compared to a baseline setting and 7.4% improvement on average.
Multiresolution Motion Analysis with Applications

In this paper, we presents a new approach to multiresolution motion analysis as a unified framework to facilitate a variety of motion editing tasks. Motion data are represented as a collection of coefficients that form a coarse-to-fine hierarchy. The coefficients at the coarsest level describe the global pattern of a motion signal, while those at fine levels provide different details at successively finer resolutions. Due to the inherent non-linearity of the orientation space, it is challenging to generalize multiresolution representations for motion data that contain orientations as well as positions. We employ two novel ideas, that is, hierarchical displacement mapping and coordinate-invariant motion filtering. The notion of hierarchical displacement mapping provides an elegant formulation to describe positions and orientations in a coherent manner. With the coordinateinvariant motion filters, we are able to separate motion details level-by-level to build a multiresolution representation. Our representation facilitates multiresolution motion editing through level-wise coefficient manipulation to uniformly address issues raised by motion modification, blending, and stitching.
Exploiting site-level information to improve web search

Ranking Web search results has long evolved beyond simple bag-of-words retrieval models. Modern search engines routinely employ machine learning ranking that relies on exogenous relevance signals. Yet the majority of current methods still evaluate each Web page out of context. In this work, we introduce a novel source of relevance information for Web search by evaluating each page in the context of its host Web site. For this purpose, we devise two strategies for compactly representing entire Web sites. We formalize our approach by building two indices, a traditional page index and a new site index, where each "document" represents the an entire Web site. At runtime, a query is first executed against both indices, and then the final page score for a given query is produced by combining the scores of the page and its site. Experimental results carried out on a large-scale Web search test collection from a major commercial search engine confirm the proposed approach leads to consistent and significant improvements in retrieval effectiveness.
Self-, other-, and joint monitoring using forward models

In the psychology of language, most accounts of self-monitoring assume that it is based on comprehension. Here we outline and develop the alternative account proposed by Pickering and Garrod (2013), in which speakers construct forward models of their upcoming utterances and compare them with the utterance as they produce them. We propose that speakers compute inverse models derived from the discrepancy (error) between the utterance and the predicted utterance and use that to modify their production command or (occasionally) begin anew. We then propose that comprehenders monitor other people’s speech by simulating their utterances using covert imitation and forward models, and then comparing those forward models with what they hear. They use the discrepancy to compute inverse models and modify their representation of the speaker’s production command, or realize that their representation is incorrect and may develop a new production command. We then discuss monitoring in dialogue, paying attention to sequential contributions, concurrent feedback, and the relationship between monitoring and alignment.
A fast identification method for P2P flow based on nodes connection degree

P2P traffic has taken up the most significant portion of the network traffic. Effective identification of P2P traffic becomes an important role for network traffic management. However, with the wide application of dynamic port and content encrypted techniques, traditional P2P identification methods are powerless. To address the issues of port hopping and unconspicuous application characters, a fast identification method of P2P flow is proposed in this study, in which the connection degree distribution of network nodes is used to judge the effective character of P2P flow. At the same time, some common P2P protocols are tested with the method, including HTTP, OICQ, DNS and Edonkey. Experimental results show that using this identification method can quickly and effectively judge P2P flow. The method can also deal with network congestion to a certain extent by identifying and monitoring P2P traffic.
The impact of fruit flavonoids on memory and cognition

There is intense interest in the studies related to the potential of phytochemical-rich foods to prevent age-related neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. Recent evidence has indicated that a group of plant-derived compounds known as flavonoids may exert particularly powerful actions on mammalian cognition and may reverse age-related declines in memory and learning. In particular, evidence suggests that foods rich in three specific flavonoid sub-groups, the flavanols, anthocyanins and/or flavanones, possess the greatest potential to act on the cognitive processes. This review will highlight the evidence for the actions of such flavonoids, found most commonly in fruits, such as apples, berries and citrus, on cognitive behaviour and the underlying cellular architecture. Although the precise mechanisms by which these flavonoids act within the brain remain unresolved, the present review focuses on their ability to protect vulnerable neurons and enhance the function of existing neuronal structures, two processes known to be influenced by flavonoids and also known to underpin neuro-cognitive function. Most notably, we discuss their selective interactions with protein kinase and lipid kinase signalling cascades (i.e. phosphoinositide-3 kinase/Akt and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways), which regulate transcription factors and gene expression involved in both synaptic plasticity and cerebrovascular blood flow. Overall, the review attempts to provide an initial insight into the potential impact of regular flavonoid-rich fruit consumption on normal or abnormal deteriorations in cognitive performance.
Asian Summer Precipitation over the Past 544 Years Reconstructed by Merging Tree Rings and Historical Documentary Records

Sparse long-term Asian monsoon (AM) records have limited our ability to understand and accurately model low-frequency AM variability. Here we present a gridded 544-yr (from 1470 to 2013) reconstructed Asian summer precipitation (RAP) dataset by weighted merging of two complementary proxies including 453 tree-ring-width chronologies and 71 historical documentary records. The RAP dataset provides substantially improved data quality when compared with single-proxy-type reconstructions. Skillful reconstructions are obtained in East and North China, northern India and Pakistan, the Indochina Peninsula, midlatitude Asia, the Maritime Continent, and southern Japan. The RAP faithfully illustrates large-scale regional rainfall variability but has more uncertainties in representing small-scale local rainfall anomalies. The RAP reproduces a realistic climatology and captures well the year-to-year rainfall variability averaged over monsoon Asia, arid central Asia, and all of Asia during the twentieth century. It also shows a general agreement with other proxies (speleothems and ice cores) during the period of 1470–1920. The RAP captures the remarkably abrupt change during the 1600s recorded in the upwelling proxy over the Arabian Sea. Four major modes of variability of the Asian summer precipitation are identified with the long record of the RAP, including a biennial El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) mode, a low-frequency ENSO mode, a central Pacific El Niño–like decadal mode, and an interdecadal mode. In sum, the RAP provides a valuable dataset for study of the large-scale Asian summer precipitation variability, especially the decadal–centennial variability that is caused by external forcing and internal feedback processes within the Earth climate system.
Confirmation of Expectations and Satisfaction with Hospital Information Systems: A Nursing Perspective

Objectives This study aimed to compare nurses' satisfaction with, and expectations of, hospital information systems in two teaching hospitals. Methods This was a survey study, which was completed in 2014. The potential participants were 267 nurses who worked in two teaching hospitals and used the same hospital information system. Data were collected using two questionnaires. Both questionnaires were examined in terms of content validity and reliability. Results The results showed that, for a majority of nurses, their expectations of the system were not met in either hospital. Moreover, there was a significant association between the nurses' expectations and the perceived usefulness of the systems (p < 0.001), between the nurses' expectations and their satisfaction with the systems (p < 0.001), and between the perceived usefulness and nurses' satisfaction with the systems (p < 0.001). Conclusions The results suggested that, apart from the technical issues of implementing clinical information systems, non-technical factors should be taken into account. Among them, the nature of clinical tasks and the organizational culture require more attention to allow a successful system to be designed and implemented.
Observations related to the pathogenesis of dengue hemorrhagic fever. II. Antigenic and biologic properties of dengue viruses and their association with disease response in the host.

One of the hypotheses invoked to explain the occurrence of different diseases associated with dengue virus infection is that dengue viruses differ in virulence properties. Observations on virologically studied dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF)"'8 patients have reasonably established that both of these diseases are associated with dengue viruses of all known antigenic types. The possibility that virus strains within the same type differ in their virulence properties and that these differences might be genetically associated with surface antigen or other readily measured markers has not been examined. This hypothesis was the initiating motivation for this study. Using single lots of mouse immune ascitic fluids, we tested a large number of dengue viruses by a plaque reduction neutralization test and the results were compared with the disease response and geographic origin of virus strains. A few observations on biologic properties of the examined dengue virus strains are included.
Somatotopic Activation in the Human Trigeminal Pain Pathway

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to image pain-associated activity in three levels of the neuraxis: the medullary dorsal horn, thalamus, and primary somatosensory cortex. In nine subjects, noxious thermal stimuli (46°C) were applied to the facial skin at sites within the three divisions of the trigeminal nerve (V1, V2, and V3) and also to the ipsilateral thumb. Anatomical and functional data were acquired to capture activation across the spinothalamocortical pathway in each individual. Significant activation was observed in the ipsilateral spinal trigeminal nucleus within the medulla and lower pons in response to at least one of the three facial stimuli in all applicable data sets. Activation from the three facial stimulation sites exhibited a somatotopic organization along the longitudinal (rostrocaudal) axis of the brain stem that was consistent with the classically described “onion skin” pattern of sensory deficits observed in patients after trigeminal tractotomy. In the thalamus, activation was observed in the contralateral side involving the ventroposteromedial and dorsomedial nuclei after stimulation of the face and in the ventroposterolateral and dorsomedial nuclei after stimulation of the thumb. Activation in the primary somatosensory cortex displayed a laminar sequence that resembled the trigeminal nucleus, with V2 more rostral, V1 caudal, and V3 medial, abutting the region of cortical activation observed for the thumb. These results represent the first simultaneous imaging of pain-associated activation at three levels of the neuraxis in individual subjects. This approach will be useful for exploring central correlates of plasticity in models of experimental and clinical pain.
Modeling and numerical study of the electroacoustic behavior in integrated piezoelectric structures under external mechanical stress

The purpose of this study is to model and understand the role of an applied mechanical stress in piezoelectric materials as far as electroacoustic parameters are concerned. In the field of thick or thin film technology, understanding and predicting the behavior of integrated structures when submitted to external or internal mechanical stress is of primary importance. Thus, we propose a modified KLM electroacoustic model of transducer that enables to take into account the effect of a mechanical pre-stress. Then, a numerical study of the electroacoustic parameters for lithium niobate piezoelectric material (coupling coefficient, velocities, associated polarizations, and electrical input impedance) is conducted with regard to the azimuthal and elevation angles, as well as initial pre-stress values. Finally, we study the pulse-echo response of a complete piezoelectric transducer consisting of a piezoelectric film laid down upon a backing material and matching layers, with and without an initial stress, to highlight some benefits of a prestress load.
Strong and Weak Policy Relations

Access control and privacy policy relations tend to focus on decision outcomes and are very sensitive to defined terms and state. Small changes or updates to a policy language or vocabulary may make two similar policies incomparable. To address this we develop two flexible policy relations derived from bisimulation in process calculi. Strong licensing compares the outcome of two policies strictly, similar to strong bisimulation. Weak licensing compares the outcome of policies more flexibly by ignoring irrelevant (non-conflicting)differences between outcomes, similar to weak bisimulation. We illustrate the relations using examples from P3P.
Segmenting the periocular region using a hierarchical graphical model fed by texture / shape information and geometrical constraints

Using the periocular region for biometric recognition is an interesting possibility: this area of the human body is highly discriminative among subjects and relatively stable in appearance. In this paper, the main idea is that improved solutions for defining the periocular region-of-interest and better pose / gaze estimates can be obtained by segmenting (labelling) all the components in the periocular vicinity. Accordingly, we describe an integrated algorithm for labelling the periocular region, that uses a unique model to discriminate between seven components in a single-shot: iris, sclera, eyelashes, eyebrows, hair, skin and glasses. Our solution fuses texture / shape descriptors and geometrical constraints to feed a two-layered graphical model (Markov Random Field), which energy minimization provides a robust solution against uncontrolled lighting conditions and variations in subjects pose and gaze.
Carbon Monoxide Generated by Heme Oxygenase 1 Suppresses Endothelial Cell Apoptosis

Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) inhibits apoptosis by regulating cellular prooxidant iron. We now show that there is an additional mechanism by which HO-1 inhibits apoptosis, namely by generating the gaseous molecule carbon monoxide (CO). Overexpression of HO-1, or induction of HO-1 expression by heme, protects endothelial cells (ECs) from apoptosis. When HO-1 enzymatic activity is blocked by tin protoporphyrin (SnPPIX) or the action of CO is inhibited by hemoglobin (Hb), HO-1 no longer prevents EC apoptosis while these reagents do not affect the antiapoptotic action of bcl-2. Exposure of ECs to exogenous CO, under inhibition of HO-1 activity by SnPPIX, substitutes HO-1 in preventing EC apoptosis. The mechanism of action of HO-1/CO is dependent on the activation of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling transduction pathway. Expression of HO-1 or exposure of ECs to exogenous CO enhanced p38 MAPK activation by TNF-α. Specific inhibition of p38 MAPK activation by the pyridinyl imidazol SB203580 or through overexpression of a p38 MAPK dominant negative mutant abrogated the antiapoptotic effect of HO-1. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the antiapoptotic effect of HO-1 in ECs is mediated by CO and more specifically via the activation of p38 MAPK by CO.