Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed birefringence measurement of a polarization maintaining fiber with a 20cm resolution over a 500m range based on Brillouin dynamic grating

We demonstrate a distributed birefringence measurement of a polarization-maintaining fiber with a 20 cm resolution over a 500 m fiber based on Brillouin dynamic grating with the scheme including a CW pump1, a 20 ns square pump2 pulse, and a 2 ns square probe pulse. The measurement results show ~ 3% fluctuation of the birefringence over the entire 500 m fiber. We also observed the birefringence change caused by the uneven stress as winding the fiber around a spool with a spatial period of 49 cm and the residual stress during the fiber drawing and coating processes.
(Ba,Sr)TiO3-based planar photonic bandgap crystal

Index-tunable photonic crystals based on ferroelectric materials provide a means for active modulation of optical signals, and hold promises for novel device applications. In this study, (Ba,Sr)TiO3 (BST)-based planar photonic crystals with different cavity geometries were modeled. Photonic crystals with square-shaped air rod geometry, which can be prepared in a straight-forward manner by interference lithography, were compared with photonic crystals having circular air rods. Calculations were performed on square lattice, with either square or circular air rods, by the plane wave expansion method. Simulation results suggested comparable bandstructures and gap maps for square or circular air rod photonic crystal, if (1) the dimension of the air rod was small compared to the electromagnetic wavelengths inside the photonic crystal being considered, or (2) the frequencies of the electromagnetic waves were less than 0.35(2πc/a). A better correlation in bandstructures and gap maps between the square and circular air rod photonic crystals can be achieved, if we compare them by the volume fractions of the photonic crystals in stead of the characteristic lengths of the rods (i.e. diameter of the circular rod and width of the square rod).
Inclusion and Education: 3D Printing for Integrated Classrooms

Over 60% of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the U.S. are unemployed; this is more than twice the unemployment rate of the general population [19]. Of the adults with ID who are employed, only half receive competitive wages alongside co-workers without disabilities. While the enactment of IDEA [20] has helped to promote access to education for people with ID and other disabilities, there are still obstacles to employment. Misconceptions about ability and lack of opportunities to learn and practice employability skills contribute to this problem. Our research explores employability and integration through the lens of 3D printing, an innovative technology touted as a means to self-employment. We successfully taught young adults with intellectual disabilities many technical skills required for 3D printing through an integrated, post-secondary course on 3D printing for entrepreneurship. In this paper we report on our methods for designing this course and discuss the benefits, challenges, and strategies for teaching 3D printing to an integrated cohort of students. We offer recommendations for educators and describe technology obstacles unique to this user demographic, and the impact of integrated, postsecondary courses on employment outcomes for students with ID.
HEAT TRANSFER ANALYSIS OF GEOTHERMAL HEAT EXCHANGERS IN GROUND-COUPLED HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS

Utilizing the ground as a heat source/sink, ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) systems have been gaining increasing popularity for space conditioning in residential and commercial buildings. The geothermal heat exchanger (GHE) is devised for extraction or injection of thermal energy from/into the ground. This paper summarizes the authors’ studies on heat transfer in groundcoupled heat pump systems. Taking the fluid axial convective heat transfer and thermal “shortcircuiting” among U-tube legs into account, a quasi-3-D model has been solved for heat transfer inside boreholes. The transient 2-D temperature response in a semi-infinite medium with a linesource of finite length has also been derived for heat conduction outside boreholes. In order to investigate the impact of groundwater advection on the performance of ground heat exchangers, an analytical solution is obtained for a line heat source in an infinite porous medium with groundwater advection. These explicit expressions have more solid theoretical basis, and can be easily incorporated into computer programs for thermal analysis and engineering design of the ground heat exchangers.
Properties of Starch Blends with Biodegradable Polymers

Abstract Starch, one of the most inexpensive and most readily available of all natural polymers, can be processed into thermoplastic materials only in the presence of plasticizers and under the action of heat and shear. Poor water resistance and low strength are limiting factors for the use of materials manufactured only from starch, and hence the modification of starch is often achieved by blending aliphatic polyesters. In this review, the literatures concerning the properties of various blends of starch and aliphatic polyesters have been summarized. The biodegradable rates of blends can be controlled to a certain extent depending on the constitutions of blends, and the mechanical properties of blends are close to those of traditional plastics such as polyethylene and polystyrene. The reduction of their sensitivity to humidity makes these materials suitable for the production of biodegradable films, injection-molded items, and foams.
High-throughput single-molecule analysis of DNA–protein interactions by tethered particle motion

Tethered particle motion (TPM) monitors the variations in the effective length of a single DNA molecule by tracking the Brownian motion of a bead tethered to a support by the DNA molecule. Providing information about DNA conformations in real time, this technique enables a refined characterization of DNA–protein interactions. To increase the output of this powerful but time-consuming single-molecule assay, we have developed a biochip for the simultaneous acquisition of data from more than 500 single DNA molecules. The controlled positioning of individual DNA molecules is achieved by self-assembly on nanoscale arrays fabricated through a standard microcontact printing method. We demonstrate the capacity of our biochip to study biological processes by applying our method to explore the enzymatic activity of the T7 bacteriophage exonuclease. Our single molecule observations shed new light on its behaviour that had only been examined in bulk assays previously and, more specifically, on its processivity.
Cosine Transformed Row and Column Mean Content based Image Retrieval using Higher Energy Coefficients with Image Tiling and Assorted Similarity Measures

Content based image retrieval is an application of computer vision technique used to solve the problem of searching images in large databases. The paper introduces three different techniques tested with two different datasets in order to compare the retrieval efficiency and accuracy. The feature vector is formed using Color and texture information extracted. The color information extraction process includes separation of image into Red, Green and Blue planes. Then each plane is divided into 4 blocks and for each block row mean vectors are calculated. This system uses Cosine transform to generate the feature vectors of the query and database images. Cosine transform is applied over a row mean vector of each block separately, which gives a set of feature vector of size 15elementsin the first technique. In the second technique first 60 coefficients are considered for feature vector formation. In the third technique after extraction of Red, Green and Blue components, they are divided into four parts. From each part separate row mean is calculated and discrete cosine transform is applied on it and from each component taking 5 values each block. For each color component. The total feature vector of size 60 is created. Euclidean, Minkowski and Absolute difference are used as similarity measures to compare the image features for image retrieval in proposed CBIR techniques. Two standard datasets namely COIL and Wang are used for the experimentation purpose. COIL dataset consist of 500 processed images in 10 different categories and Wang’s dataset consist of 1000 unprocessed images in 10 different categories. Average Precision and Recall values are considered for checking performance of all three techniques. Keyword Image Retrieval, Energy Coefficients, CBIR, Cosine Transform
Learning to Paraphrase for Question Answering

Question answering (QA) systems are sensitive to the many different ways natural language expresses the same information need. In this paper we turn to paraphrases as a means of capturing this knowledge and present a general framework which learns felicitous paraphrases for various QA tasks. Our method is trained end-to-end using question-answer pairs as a supervision signal. A question and its paraphrases serve as input to a neural scoring model which assigns higher weights to linguistic expressions most likely to yield correct answers. We evaluate our approach on QA over Freebase and answer sentence selection. Experimental results on three datasets show that our framework consistently improves performance, achieving competitive results despite the use of simple QA models.
PrivSuper: A Superset-First Approach to Frequent Itemset Mining under Differential Privacy

Differential privacy, which has been applied in Google Chrome and Apple iOS, provides strong privacy assurance to users while retaining the capability to discover statistical patterns from sensitive data. We focus on top-k frequent itemset mining on sensitive data, with the goal of obtaining high result utility while satisfying differential privacy. There are two basic methodologies to design a high-utility solution: one uses generic differential privacy mechanisms as building blocks, and minimizes result error through algorithm design. Most existing work follows this approach. The other methodology is to devise a new building block customized for frequent itemset mining. This is much more challenging: to our knowledge, only one recent work, NoisyCut, attempts to do so, unfortunately, Noisycut has been found to violate differential privacy. This paper proposes a novel solution PrivSuper, which contains both a new algorithm and a new differential privacy mechanism. Unlike most existing methods that follow the Apriori framework, which starts from single items and iteratively forms larger itemsets, PrivSuper directly searches for maximal frequent itemsets, and subsequently adds their sub-itemsets to the results without additional privacy budget consumption. During the search, PrivSuper applies a customized mechanism to extend the current itemset with one more item, which we call the sequence exponential mechanism (SEM). Notably, SEM does not consume any privacy budget at all, if it turns out that the current itemset cannot be extended. Extensive experiments using several real datasets demonstrate that PrivSuper achieves significantly higher result utility compared to previous solutions.
THE EFFECT OF COLD GAMMA RADIATION STERILISATION ON THE PROPERTIES OF DEMINERALISED BONE MATRIX

Demineralised bone in a viscous hyaluronan carrier was processed at sterilising and sub-sterilising doses of gamma radiation (10.2, 17.2 and 29.5 kGy). The pH, viscosity and osteoinductivity were measured. Osteoinductivity (OI) measured by implantation in an athymic (nude) mouse demonstrated significant loss at a dose of 17.2 kGy; OI scores declined 53% (p = 0.024). Viscosity also declined with increasing radiation dose. pH was unaffected.
Refining temperature measures in thermal/optical carbon analysis

Abstract. Thermal/optical methods have been widely used for quantifying total carbon (TC), organic carbon (OC), and elemental carbon (EC) in ambient and source particulate samples. Thermally defined carbon fractions have been used for source identification. Temperature precision in thermal carbon analysis is critical to the allocation of carbon fractions. The sample temperature is determined by a thermocouple, which is usually located in the oven near the sample. Sample and thermocouple temperature may differ owing to different thermal properties between the sample filter punch and the thermocouple, or inhomogeneities in the heating zone. Quick-drying temperature-indicating liquids (Tempil Inc., South Plainfield, NJ) of different liquefying points are used as temperature calibration standards. These consist of chemicals that change their appearance at specific temperatures and can be optically monitored to determine the sample temperature. Temperature measures were evaluated for three different models of carbon analyzers. Sample temperatures were found to differ from sensor temperatures by 10 to 50°C. Temperature biases of 14 to 22°C during thermal analysis were found to change carbon fraction measurements. The temperature indicators allow calibration curves to be constructed that relate the sample temperature to the temperature measured by a thermocouple.
Control of a Snake Robot for Ascending and Descending Steps

This paper proposes control method for a snake robot to ascend and descend steps. In a multiplane step environment, it is necessary for locomotion to transfer from one plane to another. When a snake robot moves, it touches several planes as its body is long and thin. In this paper, we propose a control method to track the trajectory of a snake robot in a step environment. We decomposed the 3-D motion of the robot into two simple models by introducing an assumption that simplifies the model and controller, and derive a model of the robot as a hybrid system with switching. The control method consists of a tracking controller, a method for shifting the robot's part connecting the planes, and active lifting to control the shape of the robot. Ascent and descent experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed controller and the method for shifting the connecting part of the robot's body.
Cardiac Repair With a Novel Population of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Resident in the Human Heart

Cardiac resident stem cells (CRSCs) hold much promise to treat heart disease but this remains a controversial field. Here, we describe a novel population of CRSCs, which are positive for W8B2 antigen and were obtained from adult human atrial appendages. W8B2+ CRSCs exhibit a spindle‐shaped morphology, are clonogenic and capable of self‐renewal. W8B2+ CRSCs show high expression of mesenchymal but not hematopoietic nor endothelial markers. W8B2+ CRSCs expressed GATA4, HAND2, and TBX5, but not C‐KIT, SCA‐1, NKX2.5, PDGFRα, ISL1, or WT1. W8B2+ CRSCs can differentiate into cardiovascular lineages and secrete a range of cytokines implicated in angiogenesis, chemotaxis, inflammation, extracellular matrix remodeling, cell growth, and survival. In vitro, conditioned medium collected from W8B2+ CRSCs displayed prosurvival, proangiogenic, and promigratory effects on endothelial cells, superior to that of other adult stem cells tested, and additionally promoted survival and proliferation of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Intramyocardial transplantation of human W8B2+ CRSCs into immunocompromised rats 1 week after myocardial infarction markedly improved cardiac function (∼40% improvement in ejection fraction) and reduced fibrotic scar tissue 4 weeks after infarction. Hearts treated with W8B2+ CRSCs showed less adverse remodeling of the left ventricle, a greater number of proliferating cardiomyocytes (Ki67+cTnT+ cells) in the remote region, higher myocardial vascular density, and greater infiltration of CD163+ cells (a marker for M2 macrophages) into the border zone and scar regions. In summary, W8B2+ CRSCs are distinct from currently known CRSCs found in human hearts, and as such may be an ideal cell source to repair myocardial damage after infarction. Stem Cells 2015;33:3100–3113
A Comparative Study of Fingerprint Thinning algorithms

Copyright: 2011 IEEE. This is the post-print version of the work. Reprinted, with permission, from Khanyile, NP, Tapamo, JR and Dube, E. A comparative study of fingerprint thinning algorithms. 10th Annual Information Security for South Africa Conference (ISSA 2011), Hayatt Regency Hotel, Rosebank, South Africa, 15-17 August 2011. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of CSIR Information Services' products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.
Contribution of polysynaptic pathways in the mediation and plasticity of Aplysia gill and siphon withdrawal reflex: evidence for differential modulation

The gill and siphon withdrawal (GSW) reflex of Aplysia is centrally mediated by a monosynaptic and a polysynaptic pathway between sensory and motor neurons. The first objective of this article was to evaluate quantitatively the relative importance of these two components in the mediation of the GSW reflex. We have used an artificial sea water (ASW) solution containing a high concentration of divalent cations to raise the action potential threshold of the interneurons without affecting the monosynaptic component of the reflex (2:1 ASW). Compound EPSPs induced in gill or siphon motor neurons by direct stimulation of the siphon nerve or by tactile stimulation of the siphon skin were reduced by more than 75% in 2:1 ASW. These results indicate that interneurons intercalated between sensory and motor neurons are responsible for a considerable proportion of the afferent input to the motor neurons of the reflex. The second objective of this article was to compare the modulation of the monosynaptic and polysynaptic pathways. We have evaluated their respective contribution in sensitization of the GSW reflex by testing the effects of two neuromodulators of the reflex, 5- HT and small cardioactive peptide B (SCPB). We found that these two neuromodulators have a differential action on the two components of the GSW neuronal network. The polysynaptic pathway was more facilitated than the monosynaptic pathway by the neuropeptide SCPB. By contrast, 5- HT displayed an opposite selectivity. These results suggest that the polysynaptic component of the neuronal network underlying the GSW reflex is very important for its mediation. The data also indicate that the monosynaptic and polysynaptic components of the reflex can be differentially modulated. The diversity of modulatory actions at various sites of the GSW network should be relevant for learning- associated modifications in the intact animal.
Clonal Lineages of Staphylococcus aureus Do Not Produce a Capsular Polysaccharide Due to Conserved Mutations in the cap 5 Locus

The surface capsular polysaccharide (CP) is a virulence factor that has been used as an antigen in several successful vaccines against bacterial pathogens. A vaccine has not yet been licensed against Staphylococcus aureus, although two multicomponent vaccines that contain CP antigens are in clinical trials. In this study, we evaluated CP production in USA300 methicillinresistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates that have become the predominant community-associated MRSA clones in the United States. We found that all 167 USA300 MRSA and 50 USA300 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) isolates were CP negative (CP ). Moreover, all 16 USA500 isolates, which have been postulated to be the progenitor lineage of USA300, were also CP . Wholegenome sequence analysis of 146 CP USA300 MRSA isolates revealed they all carry a cap5 locus with 4 conserved mutations compared with strain Newman. Genetic complementation experiments revealed that three of these mutations (in the cap5 promoter, cap5D nucleotide 994, and cap5E nucleotide 223) ablated CP production in USA300 and that Cap5E75 Asp, located in the coenzyme-binding domain, is essential for capsule production. All but three USA300 MSSA isolates had the same four cap5 mutations found in USA300 MRSA isolates. Most isolates with a USA500 pulsotype carried three of these four USA300-specific mutations, suggesting the fourth mutation occurred in the USA300 lineage. Phylogenetic analysis of the cap loci of our USA300 isolates as well as publicly available genomes from 41 other sequence types revealed that the USA300-specific cap5 mutations arose sequentially in S. aureus in a common ancestor of USA300 and USA500 isolates. IMPORTANCE The USA300 MRSA clone emerged as a community-associated pathogen in the United States nearly 20 years ago. Since then, it has rapidly disseminated and now causes health care-associated infections. This study shows that the CP-negative (CP ) phenotype has persisted among USA300 isolates and is a universal and characteristic trait of this highly successful MRSA lineage. It is important to note that a vaccine consisting solely of CP antigens would not likely demonstrate high efficacy in the U.S. population, where about half of MRSA isolates comprise USA300. Moreover, conversion of a USA300 strain to a CP-positive (CP ) phenotype is unlikely in vivo or in vitro since it would require the reversion of 3 mutations. We have also established that USA300 MSSA isolates and USA500 isolates are CP and provide new insight into the evolution of the USA300 and USA500 lin-
A Topic-Map-based Framework to Enhance Components' Retrieval in a Process Control

Controlling a manufacturing process to meet customers’ requirements is crucial for many industrial companies to remain at the forefront. The control of a manufacturing process requires for each actor involved in this process to be reactive and effective in monitoring the process in order to meet company objectives. Enhancing the sharing and the retrieval of the components that support the control of such a process is necessary to effectively meet actors’ requirements for the accomplishment of their business tasks. Semantic description with knowledge representation techniques is one of the widely used techniques to address components’ retrieval. Existing methods focus on describing components according to their functionalities, thus they don’t really tackle user requirements that the components meet. We propose in this paper a layered conceptual framework to add semantic description to the components that support the manufacturing process control starting from the users’ requirements. A Topic-Map-based solution is proposed to support the implementation of this framework.
Phase Retrieval via Structured Modulations in Paley-Wiener Spaces

This paper considers the recovery of continuous time signals from the magnitude of its samples. It uses a combination of structured modulation and oversampling and provides sufficient conditions on the signal and the sampling system such that signal recovery is possible. In particular, it is shown that an average sampling rate of four times the Nyquist rate is sufficient to reconstruct a signal from its magnitude measurements.