Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computational model of neuron-astrocyte interactions during focal seizure generation

Empirical research in the last decade revealed that astrocytes can respond to neurotransmitters with Ca2+ elevations and generate feedback signals to neurons which modulate synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability. This discovery changed our basic understanding of brain function and provided new perspectives for how astrocytes can participate not only to information processing, but also to the genesis of brain disorders, such as epilepsy. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures that can arise focally at restricted areas and propagate throughout the brain. Studies in brain slice models suggest that astrocytes contribute to epileptiform activity by increasing neuronal excitability through a Ca2+-dependent release of glutamate. The underlying mechanism remains, however, unclear. In this study, we implemented a parsimonious network model of neurons and astrocytes. The model consists of excitatory and inhibitory neurons described by Izhikevich's neuron dynamics. The experimentally observed Ca2+ change in astrocytes in response to neuronal activity was modeled with linear equations. We considered that glutamate is released from astrocytes above certain intracellular Ca2+ concentrations thus providing a non-linear positive feedback signal to neurons. Propagating seizure-like ictal discharges (IDs) were reliably evoked in our computational model by repeatedly exciting a small area of the network, which replicates experimental results in a slice model of focal ID in entorhinal cortex. We found that the threshold of focal ID generation was lowered when an excitatory feedback-loop between astrocytes and neurons was included. Simulations show that astrocytes can contribute to ID generation by directly affecting the excitatory/inhibitory balance of the neuronal network. Our model can be used to obtain mechanistic insights into the distinct contributions of the different signaling pathways to the generation and propagation of focal IDs.
Extracting spatial semantics in association rules for ocean image retrieval

Several research institutions and governmental departments provide ocean images for research purposes. For example, Argo, a worldwide ocean research organization, produces ocean salinity and temperature images and researchers can download those images from the Internet. One may build an image system to store ocean images and retrieve them later for further research, for example, to predict future salinity or temperature variation. Image retrieval technology is therefore important. This paper describes an ocean image retrieval system based on content-based image retrieval. Currently, content-based image retrieval technology does not exploit high-level semantics, and it is hard to obtain predictive information from retrieved images. Our improvement involves a spatial reference method that is used to help get the spatial relationships between objects for a certain image. This allows the spatial semantics between the query image and images in database to be considered. Spatial association rules are also mined and are subsequently used as a basis for retrieving additional images. As the spatial semantics in both the query image and spatial association rules, the retrieved images are more accurate. The experimental results verify that the system effectively predicts the occurrence of salinity or temperature variations.
Speed modulation in energy-aware real-time systems

This paper presents a general framework for analyzing and designing embedded systems with energy and timing requirements. A set of realistic assumptions is considered in the model in order to apply the results in practical realtime applications. For example, the processor is assumed to have as a set of discrete operating modes, each characterized by speed, power consumption. The transition delay between modes is considered. To take I/O operations into account, task computation times are modeled with a part that scales with the speed and a part having a fixed duration. Given a set of real-time tasks, the proposed method allows to compute the optimal sequence of voltage/speed changes that approximates the minimum continuous speed which guarantees the feasibility of the system. The analysis is performed both under fixed and dynamic priority assignments.
Feature Discovery for Inductive Concept Learning

This paper describes Zenith, a discovery system that performs constructive induction. The system is able to generate and extend new features for concept learning using agenda-based heuris- tic search. The search is guided by feature worth (a composite measure of discriminability and cost). Zenith is distinguished from existing constructive induction systems by its interaction with a performance system, and its ability to extend its knowledge base by creating new domain classes. Zenith is able to discover known useful features for the Othello board game.
Dynamic Programming and Suboptimal Control: A Survey from ADP to MPC

We survey some recent research directions within the field of approximate dynamic programming, with a particular emphasis on rollout algorithms and model predictive control (MPC). We argue that while they are motivated by different concerns, these two methodologies are closely connected, and the mathematical essence of their desirable properties (cost improvement and stability, respectively) is couched on the central dynamic programming idea of policy iteration. In particular, among other things, we show that the most common MPC schemes can be viewed as rollout algorithms and are related to policy iteration methods. Furthermore, we embed rollout and MPC within a new unifying suboptimal control framework, based on a concept of restricted or constrained structure policies, which contains these schemes as special cases.
EBIMed - text crunching to gather facts for proteins from Medline

UNLABELLED To allow efficient and systematic retrieval of statements from Medline we have developed EBIMed, a service that combines document retrieval with co-occurrence-based analysis of Medline abstracts. Upon keyword query, EBIMed retrieves the abstracts from EMBL-EBI's installation of Medline and filters for sentences that contain biomedical terminology maintained in public bioinformatics resources. The extracted sentences and terminology are used to generate an overview table on proteins, Gene Ontology (GO) annotations, drugs and species used in the same biological context. All terms in retrieved abstracts and extracted sentences are linked to their entries in biomedical databases. We assessed the quality of the identification of terms and relations in the retrieved sentences. More than 90% of the protein names found indeed represented a protein. According to the analysis of four protein-protein pairs from the Wnt pathway we estimated that 37% of the statements containing such a pair mentioned a meaningful interaction and clarified the interaction of Dkk with LRP. We conclude that EBIMed improves access to information where proteins and drugs are involved in the same biological process, e.g. statements with GO annotations of proteins, protein-protein interactions and effects of drugs on proteins. AVAILABILITY Available at http://www.ebi. ac.uk/Rebholz-srv/ebimed
Nonlinear frequency conversion in fiber lasers

The concept of nonlinear frequency conversion entails generating light at new frequencies other than those of the source light. The emission wavelength of typical fiber laser systems, relying on rare-earth dopants, are constrained within specific bands of the infrared region. By exploiting nonlinear processes, light from these specific wavelength bands can be used to generate light at new frequencies otherwise not obtainable by rare-earth elements. This thesis describes work covering Raman fiber lasers (RFLs) and amplifiers for nonlinear frequency down-conversion, and also the method of fiberoptic Cherenkov radiation (FCR) using ultrafast pulses as a means for generating tunable visible (VIS) light at higher frequencies. Two different polarization maintaining (PM) RFL cavities are studied with an emphasis on stability and spectral broadening. The cavities are formed by inscription of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in a PM Raman fiber. Active temperature control feedback of the cavity resonators is investigated as a means for obtaining a high degree of power and spectral stability. The impact of accurate cavity resonator alignment upon the RFL stability and emission characteristics is investigated and a highly stable PM RFL emitting at 1679 nm with a narrow spectral emission bandwidth is demonstrated. A driftless output was obtained for an output power of 680 mW at a 29 pm linewidth while having high output power and spectral stability; with a sub-pm standard deviation in the emission wavelength and linewidth. Subsequently, the RFL is used for the demonstration of a Raman amplifier, for which both the gain and noise characteristics in the vicinity of 1800 nm wavelength are examined. The VIS FCR source can be considered for a broad range of applications in the field of biophotonics. FCR emission is characterized by a high temporal and spatial coherence, short temporal pulse duration, a tunable emission wavelength in the tens of nanometer range, along with a potential for having very low noise properties. The pursuit of a compact, portable, and robust VIS FCR source, suitable for applications outside of the optical lab, defined the work on an all fiber based system. Experimentally, the generation of VIS light using the FCR process is demonstrated in both uniform and tapered nonlinear fibers. VIS emission from the blue to the red parts of the VIS spectrum is demonstrated; extending across a 430 to 610 nm wavelength range for output powers up to 2 mW. Utilization of tapered nonlinear fibers resulted in a substantial increase in the obtainable wavelength tunability, with an increase from 20 to 118 nm, when compared to the results obtained for uniform nonlinear fibers.
Place recognition in 3D scans using a combination of bag of words and point feature based relative pose estimation

Place recognition, i.e., the ability to recognize previously seen parts of the environment, is one of the fundamental tasks in mobile robotics. The wide range of applications of place recognition includes localization (determine the initial pose), SLAM (detect loop closures), and change detection in dynamic environments. In the past, only relatively little work has been carried out to attack this problem using 3D range data and the majority of approaches focuses on detecting similar structures without estimating relative poses. In this paper, we present an algorithm based on 3D range data that is able to reliably detect previously seen parts of the environment and at the same time calculates an accurate transformation between the corresponding scan-pairs. Our system uses the estimated transformation to evaluate a candidate and in this way to more robustly reject false positives for place recognition. We present an extensive set of experiments using publicly available datasets in which we compare our system to other state-of-the-art approaches.
Fade-resistant CDMA transmission and reception over time-varying wireless channels

Physical limitations due to fading and interference in wireless channels pose technical challenges in achieving reliable communication. To adapt to this adverse radio environment efficiently, we propose a fade-resistant transmission system based on code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. In this system, all the symbols of a user are transmitted simultaneously using parallel sequences over a time-varying wireless channel. We derive the relationship between the self-interference and the multiple-access interference in such a system. We prove that instantaneous signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the matched filter output of a system with parallel sequences is statistically higher than that of the conventional CDMA system. Numerical results demonstrate that the parallel sequence transmission scheme can provide capacity improvement over the conventional CDMA system depending on variations in the channel.
APPLICATION OF THERMALLY SPRAYED WC CERMET COATING ON STEEL SUBSTRATE

Thermally sprayed WC-Cr-Ni cermet coating was formed onto the blasted substrate or ground substrate by means of the conventional high velocity oxyfuel flame spraying (HVOF) as well as the high energy type flame spraying (HiHVOF). The substrate material was thermally refined steel and carburized hardened steel. The WC cermet coated steel roller was mated with the uncoated carburized hardened steel roller. As a result, it was found that cermet coating on the blasted substrate generally exhibits a higher durability compared with that on the ground substrate and coating formed by HVOF shows a higher durability than that formed by Hi-HVOF with the coating thickness up to 200 μm in the case of thermally refined steel substrate. It was also found that cermet coating exhibits a long life with the coating thickness of 400 μm in the case of thermally refined steel substrate and durability or life to flaking of the coating is not influenced by the spraying method. In addition, depending on the blasted substrate or ground substrate, significant differences in the properties of cermet coating were found.
Synthesis and Photocatalytic Activities of Bamboo-Like FeVO4 Nanocrystalline

The bamboo-like FeVO4 nanocrystallines were synthesized by a two-step method of the microwave hydrothermal-calcination, using Fe (NO3)3·9H2O and NH4VO3 as raw materials. The physical and photophysical properties of the as-prepared photocatalysts were fully characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra and photoluminescence (PL) analysis. The photocatalytic activities were evaluated by the decolorization of RhB solution under UV and visible light irradiation. The results reveal that the precursor solution concentration is 0.15 mol/L, the molar ratio n (Fe)/n (V) is 1, pH=3.0. The microwave hydrothermal reaction is at 180 °C for 120 min and then calcinated under 550 °C for 3 h so as to obtain the triclinic FeVO4 nanocrystalline. Along [120] and [110], the fore and aft phases of the crystal orientation are bonded self-assembly to grow into the bamboo-like nanocrystalline with the energy gap of 2.42 eV. Under the UV-light irradiation for 240 min, the degradation rate of RhB is up to 91.2%. Adding 0.1 mL H2O2 to the solution, the out-phase photo-fenton reaction occurs and the degradation rate to RhB can reach to 98.8% after 8 h visible-light irradiation.
Satisfaction with daily occupations amongst asylum seekers in Denmark

Abstract Aim: The aim of this study was to describe asylum seekers’ satisfaction with daily occupations and activity level while in a Danish asylum centre, and whether this changed over time. Another aim was to describe whether exposure to torture, self-rated health measures, and ADL ability were related to their satisfaction with daily occupations and activity level. Methods: A total of 43 asylum seekers at baseline and 17 at follow-up were included. The questionnaires Satisfaction with Daily Occupations, Major Depression Inventory, WHO-5 Wellbeing, Pain Detect, a questionnaire covering torture, and basic social information were used as well as Assessment of Motor and Process Skills. Results: The results showed a low level of satisfaction with daily occupations at both baseline and follow-up. There was no statistically significant change in satisfaction or activity level between baseline and the follow-up. Associations between AMPS process skills – education, worst pain and activity level – were present at baseline, as was a relationship between AMPS process skills and satisfaction. At follow-up, associations between WHO-5 and satisfaction and activity level and between MDI scores and activity level were found. Conclusion: Asylum seekers experience a low level of satisfaction with daily occupations, both at arrival and after 10 months in an asylum centre. There is a need for further research and development of occupation-focused rehabilitation methods for the asylum seeker population.
Designing a Football Team of Robots from Beginning to End

The Combination of path planning and path following is the main purpose of this paper. This paper describes the developed practical approach to motion control of the MRL small size robots. An intelligent controller is applied to control omni-directional robots motion in simulation and real environment respectively. The Brain Emotional Learning Based Intelligent Controller (BELBIC), based on LQR control is adopted for the omni-directional robots. The contribution of BELBIC in improving the control system performance is shown as application of the emotional learning in a real world problem. Optimizing of the control effort can be achieved in this method too. Next the implicit communication method is used to determine the high level strategies and coordination of the robots. Some simple rules besides using the environment as a memory to improve the coordination between agents make the robots' decision making system. With this simple algorithm our team manifests a desirable cooperation. Keywords—multi-agent systems (MAS), Emotional learning, MIMO system, BELBIC, LQR, Communication via environment
An Evaluation of Several Two-Summand Binary Adders

Five fairly representative members of the class of two-summand binary adders are described and evaluated. Hopefully, this will help the development of more general approaches to computer subsystems evaluation. The adders are evaluated on the basis of three quantities: the number of two-input AND gates and OR gates, G; the gate-normalized addition time, ? ; and the number of bits, n, in each summand. Three plausible formulas for computational efficiency, ? , are postulated, and plotted vs n for the five adders. Based on a comparison of the resulting curves, the following efficiency formula seems preferable: ? = n/? log2G. Of the five adders considered, the new ``conditional-sum adder'' is best by the above formula when n? 3. Other adders, however, are shown to be superior when the assumptions underlying the evaluation of G and ? are changed. The evaluation is found to have several limitations; these are discussed. Curves of G and ? vs n are given. It is suggested that these curves can serve as raw data for other evaluations, so that various evaluation methods may be compared.
Coordinated Operational Planning for Wind Farm With Battery Energy Storage System

This paper proposes a coordinated operational dispatch scheme for a wind farm with a battery energy storage system (BESS). The main advantages of the proposed dispatch scheme are that it can reduce the impacts of wind power forecast errors while prolonging the lifetime of BESS. The scheme starts from the planning stage, where a BESS capacity determination method is proposed to compute the optimal power capacity and energy capacity of BESS based on historical wind power data; and then, at the operation stage, a flexible short-term BESS-wind farm dispatch scheme is proposed based on the forecasted wind power generation scenarios. Three case studies are provided to validate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed scheme can largely improve the wind farm dispatchability.
A New Adaline Approach for Online Voltage Components Extraction from Unbalanced and Perturbed Power Systems

This work presents theoretical studies and practical results obtained with voltage component extraction. The paper is centered on a new method for estimating the direct, inverse and homopolar voltage components from unbalanced and disturbed power systems. We introduce and develop a new decomposition of the voltages in the DQ-space that results in linear expressions explicitly separating AC from DC components. These expressions are learned by Adaline neural networks because of their simplicity and capabilities to approximate linear relationships and to learn online with respect to real-time applications. While learning, the Adalines estimate the amplitude and the phase of the direct, inverse and homopolar voltages of the electrical network and efficiently compensate for the disturbance events, i.e., time-varying nonlinear loads, parameters changes, noise perturbations, fluctuating distortion harmonics. The method was studied and successfully implemented, simulations and experiments under stationary and nonstationary conditions are reported. A demonstrative comparison with other methods is also addressed
A Framework for Rapid Development of Advanced Web-based Configurator Applications

For the last two decades product configurators relying on Artificial Intelligence techniques have been successfully applied in industrial environments. These systems support the configuration of complex products and services in shorter time with fewer errors and therefore reduce costs of a mass-customization business model. The EU-funded CAWICOMS project aims at the next generation of Web-based configurator applications that cope with the new challenges of today's open, networked economy: this includes the support for heterogeneous user groups in an open market environment as well as the integration of configurable sub-products provisioned by specialized suppliers. This paper describes the CAWICOMS Workbench for the development of configurator applications that support both adaptive and personalized user interaction as well as distributed configuration of products in a supply chain. The developed tools and techniques rely on a harmonized knowledge representation and knowledge acquisition mechanism, open XML-based protocols, and advanced distributed reasoning techniques. We applied the workbench based on the real-world business scenario of distributed configuration of services in the domain of IP-based Virtual Private Networks.
A Viable Electrode Material for Use in Microbial Fuel Cells for Tropical Regions

Electrode materials are critical for microbial fuel cells (MFC) since they influence the construction and operational costs. This study introduces a simple and efficient electrode material in the form of palm kernel shell activated carbon (AC) obtained in tropical regions. The novel introduction of this material is also targeted at introducing an inexpensive and durable electrode material, which can be produced in rural communities to improve the viability of MFCs. The maximum voltage and power density obtained (under 1000 Ω load) using an H-shaped MFC with AC as both anode and cathode electrode material was 0.66 V and 1.74 W/m3, respectively. The power generated by AC was as high as 86% of the value obtained with the extensively used carbon paper. Scanning electron microscopy and Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of AC anode biofilms confirmed that electrogenic bacteria were present on the electrode surface for substrate oxidation and the formation of nanowires.
Generalizing Syntactic Structures for Product Attribute Candidate Extraction

Noun phrases (NP) in a product review are always considered as the product attribute candidates in previous work. However, this method limits the recall of the product attribute extraction. We therefore propose a novel approach by generalizing syntactic structures of the product attributes with two strategies: intuitive heuristics and syntactic structure similarity. Experiments show that the proposed approach is effective.