Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Field‐enhanced scanning near‐field optical microscopy

This manuscript reviews the principles and recent advances of scanning near‐field optical microscopy based on tip‐induced field enhancement. These scanning microscopes utilize minute probes to locally enhance an electromagnetic field through a complex interplay between surface plasmon excitation and localization of electric charges by geometrical singularities. The necessary conditions leading to an electromagnetic enhancement will be reviewed, as well as the means to characterize it. A brief account of the theoretical framework will be given, together with applications of the technique ranging from chemical imaging to nanolithography. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Observation of electronic excitation by extremely slow protons with applications to the detection of supermassive charged particles.

The sensitivity of scintillators to grand unification monopoles and other supermassive charged particles is inferred from measurements of scintillation by recoil protons with velocities as low as 2.5 x 10/sup -4/c. No evidence for a response cutoff is observed at velocities extending well below the electronic-excitation threshold of 6 x 10/sup -4/c expected from two-body kinematics. The relevance of these measurements to searches for supermassive relic charged particles is discussed.
Social Web Mining for Addressing Flash Crowds in CDNs

The paper presents a survey of the current replica placement strategies on surrogates in Content Delivery Networks and proposes novel ways in which mining social networks can help derive useful insights in predicting user traffic on websites thereby helping CDNs to prepare for the abnormal spurts and traffic outages (called Shashdot Effect or Flash crowds). In this paper, we present metrics to extract vital information from tweets that we later feed to Machine Learning algorithms which eventually help in taking important decisions on moving user content around the CDN composed of hundreds of surrogate servers scattered across the globe.
A communication workload estimation model based on relationships among shared works for software development projects

Software development project managers have already known that adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. This is a famous sentence in "Mythical man-month" written by Brooks (1975). The managers also recognize that even if two man-month workloads are assigned to two developers, the development period is not one month. However, the managers want to see when the two developers finish the two man-months workload. Of course, the managers don't think that the development period reduces from two months to one month. If the development period in the two developers is shorter than two months, the managers will decide to add the new developer to the work. Therefore, we propose a new workload estimation model based on communications among shared works. The model includes the Concept Model of UML of a software development project. The classes and relationships in the Concept Model present the kinds of works and relationships among the works, respectively. Sharing works causes increments of communication workload. The communication workload is derived from the relationships among the classes in the Concept Model. In case studies using the model, we were able to reconfirm quantitatively the famous sentence of "Mythical man-month".
Biomechanical Evaluation of an Innovative Spring-Loaded Axillary Crutch Design

ABSTRACT We evaluated an innovative spring-loaded crutch design by comparing its performance with standard crutches through a biomechanical approach. Gait analysis was conducted for 7 male subjects under two conditions: walking with standard crutches and with spring-loaded crutches. Three-dimensional kinematic data and ground reaction force were recorded. Spatiotemporal variables, external mechanical work, and elastic energy (for spring crutches) were calculated based on recorded data. The trajectories of vertical ground reaction forces with standard crutches had two main peaks before and after mid-stance, and those with optimized spring-loaded crutches had only one main peak. The magnitude of external mechanical work was significantly higher with spring-loaded crutches than with standard crutches for all subjects, and the transferred elastic energy made an important contribution to the total external work for spring-loaded crutches. No significant differences in the spatiotemporal parameters were observed. Optimized spring-loaded crutches can efficiently propel crutch walkers and could reduce the total energy expenditure in crutch walking. Further research using optimized spring-loaded crutches with respect to energy efficiency is recommended.
Global goodness‐of‐fit tests in logistic regression with sparse data

The logistic regression model has become the standard analysing tool for binary responses in medical statistics. Methods for assessing goodness‐of‐fit, however, are less developed where this problem is especially pronounced in performing global goodness‐of‐fit tests with sparse data, that is, if the data contain only a small numbers of observations for each pattern of covariate values. In this situation it has been known for a long time that the standard goodness‐of‐fit tests (residual deviance and Pearson chi‐square) behave unsatisfactorily if p‐values are calculated from the χ2‐distribution. As a remedy in this situation the Hosmer–Lemeshow test is frequently recommended; it relies on a new grouping of the observations to avoid sparseness, where this grouping depends on the estimated probabilities from the model. It has been shown, however, that the Hosmer–Lemeshow test also has some deficiencies, for example, it depends heavily on the calculating algorithm and thus different implementations might lead to different conclusions regarding the fit of the model. We present some alternative tests from the statistical literature which should also perform well with sparse data. Results from a simulation study are given which show that there exist some goodness‐of‐fit tests (for example, the Farrington test) that have good properties regarding size and power and that even outperform the Hosmer–Lemeshow test. We illustrate the various tests with an example from dermatology on occupational hand eczema in hairdressers. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Towards Gaining the Best Information About Vision to Assist the Recovery of a Patient with Stroke

Abstract Aim: The aim of this paper is to report on the development and evaluation of a tool, to be used by any healthcare practitioner, to screen for the presence of eye issues and problems in patients who have been diagnosed to have had a stroke. Practitioners caring for patients with stroke often detect stroke-related vision defects but miss pre-existing eye diseases, the need for glasses, and reduced acuity. In stroke units where orthoptists are employed the detection of eye conditions is high (83%) . The availability of orthoptists to work in stroke units is limited, so affected patients are likely to have undetected vision-based problems that may decrease the responsiveness to rehabilitation or prevent adaptations being made that can assist the patient with tasks. Research design: A retrospective study using patient data collected from 100 patient case histories. Methodology: The tool is a single page, tick-box checklist. It has 3 sections, each with actions to be implemented as required. The sections are: a. questions about ocular history and symptoms b. observation of ocular conditions (red eye, ptosis) c. tests requiring responses that could be affected by vision defects (ability to fix and follow) The tool was tested against 100 case histories of patients admitted to hospital following a stroke, comparing the ocular information noted by nonorthoptic healthcare practitioners and information from the orthoptic assessment. Results: Of the 498 ocular conditions found by the orthoptic assessment, the tool identified 309 (62%). Nonorthoptic healthcare practitioners identified 85 (17%) ocular conditions. Conclusion: In the absence of orthoptic services, the tool has the capacity to enable improved detection of vision conditions resulting in improved management as well as enhancing the response for rehabilitation. The study has at all times followed the principles as outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
Innovational Teaching Practice and Learning Engagement of Students

The purpose of this study was to determine the significant influence of innovational teaching practice to the learning engagement of the students. This study also aimed to determine which domains of creative teaching construct significantly influenced the learning engagement of students. This study utilized the non-experimental quantitative research design utilizing descriptive-correlational technique which included thirty grade six teachers of the 12 elementary schools of Jose Abad Santos II District, Davao del Sur Division. Research instruments on innovational teaching practice and learning engagement of the students were used as sources of data. Utilizing Pearson r, this study found out that the indicators of innovational teaching practice and learning engagement of students are significantly correlated. When the learning engagement of students were regressed to innovational teaching practice, the creative teaching construct of teachers significantly influenced the learning engagement of the students. The following indicators of innovational teaching practice have higher influence compared to the rest of the domains: personal quality, growing-up experience, and learning attitudes.
The impact of storm events on solute exports from a glaciated forested watershed in western New York, USA

This study analysed the importance of precipitation events from May 2003 to April 2004 on surface water chemistry and solute export from a 696 ha glaciated forested watershed in western New York State, USA. The specific objectives of the study were to determine: (a) the temporal patterns of solutes within individual storm events; (b) the impact of precipitation events on seasonal and annual export budgets; and (c) how solute concentrations and loads varied for precipitation events among seasons as functions of storm intensity and antecedent moisture conditions. Analysis of solute trajectories showed that NH4+, total Al and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) peaked on the hydrograph rising limb, whereas dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations peaked following the discharge peak. Sulphate and base‐cations displayed a dilution pattern with a minimum around peak discharge. End‐member mixing analysis showed that throughfall contributions were highest on the rising limb, whereas valley‐bottom riparian waters peaked following the discharge peak. The trajectories of NO3− concentrations varied with season, indicating the influence of biotic processes on the generation, and hence flux, of this solute. Storm events had the greatest impact on the annual budgets for NH4+, K+, total dissolved Al, DON and DOC. Storm events during summer had the greatest impact on seasonal solute budgets. Summer events had the highest hourly discharges and high concentrations of solutes. However, NO3− and DOC exports during a spring snowmelt event were considerably more than those observed for large events during other periods of the year. Comparisons among storms showed that season, precipitation amount, and antecedent moisture conditions affected solute concentrations and loads. Concentrations of solutes were elevated for storms that occurred after dry antecedent conditions. Seven of the largest storms accounted for only 15% of the annual discharge, but were responsible for 34%, 19%, 64%, 13%, 39% and 24% of the annual exports of NH4+, K+, Al, NO3−, DON and DOC respectively. These results suggest that the intense and infrequent storms predicted for future climate‐change scenarios will likely increase the exports of solutes like DOC, DON, NH4+, Al and K+ from watersheds. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Development of a medical fiber-optic pH sensor based on optical absorption

A new fiber-optic pH sensor system has been developed. The sensor uses an absorptive indicator compound with a long wavelength absorption peak near 625 nm; change in absorption over the pH range 6.8 to 7.8 is reasonably linear. The sensor is interrogated by a pulsed, red LED. The return light signal is split into short- and long-wavelength components with a dichroic mirror; the respective signals are detected by photodiodes, and their photocurrents are used to form a radiometric output signal. In laboratory tests, the sensor system provided resolution of 0.01 pH, accuracy of +or-0.01 pH, and response time of 30-40 s. Following gamma sterilization, laboratory sensor testing with heparinized human blood yielded excellent agreement with a clinical blood gas analyzer. Excellent sensor performance and low cost, solid-state instrumentation are hallmarks of this sensor-system design. <<ETX>>
Distribution of Self-Reported Alcohol Consumption in New Zealand, 1978–1979

The problem of estimating how much alcohol individuals actually drink is discussed with particular reference to the log-normal frequency distribution of alcohol consumption. It is then presented as being a problem of inference from the recent history of a time series. Following directly from this presentation, data obtained in a national survey of 10,000 New Zealand residents are analyzed (a) to yield the frequency distribution of estimated drinking rates; (b) to test whether this distribution is log-normal in form; and (c) to provide further information about the distribution of alcohol consumption. This analysis enabled us to account for almost the whole of the actual total alcohol consumption in New Zealand. The results are different from those expected on the basis of the uncorrected log-normal description of consumption.
Nuclear Import and Export Functions in the Different Isoforms of the AUF1/Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Protein Family*

The heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein D family of proteins also known as AUF1 consists of four isoforms implicated in both nuclear and cytoplasmic functions. The AUF1 proteins are largely nuclear but also are found in the cytoplasm and are thought to undergo nucleocytoplasmic shuttling. The nucleocytoplasmic distribution and potential shuttling activity of the individual AUF1 isoforms have not been previously studied in detail. Therefore, we characterized the nucleocytoplasmic transport of each of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein D/AUF1 isoforms. All four AUF1 proteins were found to undergo rapid nucleocytoplasmic shuttling in a manner that is transcription-independent, carrier-mediated, and energy-requiring. Nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of the AUF1 proteins is shown to utilize a novel arrangement of nuclear import and export signals. Mutagenesis of the AUF1 proteins and fusion of polypeptides to a green fluorescent protein reporter demonstrated that a nuclear import signal is located in the C-terminal domain of the protein and is found only in the two smaller isoforms. Further mapping demonstrated that nuclear export is facilitated by sequences in AUF1 exon 7 found in the C-terminal domain of the two larger AUF1 isoforms. A subset of AUF1 proteins are shown to directly interact in vitro using purified recombinant proteins and in vivo in the absence of RNA. These results suggest that nuclear import of AUF1 is facilitated by sequences found only in the two smaller isoforms and that nuclear export is facilitated by sequences (exon 7 and the C-terminal domain) found only in the two larger isoforms. This novel arrangement of signals might represent a mechanism to assure co-shuttling of a subset of AUF1 proteins that interact in a heterocomplex.
Simple fabrication of glucose biosensor based on Graphene-Nafion composite by amperometric detections

In this paper, we report the enhanced performance of Graphene-Nafion-GOD based enzymatic biosensors to detection glucose used fast, simple, and easy to control fabrication method. These materials are prepared by mixing graphene, a Nafion perfluorinated resin, and glucose oxidase (GOD) in appropriate amounts. The graphene has a diameter of 8 μm. As a result, the sensitivity of lower GOD concentration is two times the higher concentration. It can be seen that the sensitivity was enhanced by graphene. The sensor was characterized electrochemically using cyclic voltammetry and amperometry in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and glucose.
QoS enhancements in energy harvesting cognitive radio communications networks

Due to the scarcity of the allocated spectrum and power supply of wireless sensor networks, Cognitive Radio Networks (CRN) and Energy Harvesting (EH) techniques have extensively been investigated. The power and spectrum efficiencies are enhanced with merging CRNs and EH technologies to the wireless sensor networks. In this paper, an optimization of the Markovian battery model is introduced to enhance the probability of packet loss with respect to energy harvesting probabilities. Moreover, the enhanced packet loss probability is modeled in different spectrum availability of spectrum being idle/occupied. Furthermore, multi-objective optimization of probability of packet loss and the probability of false alarm is discussed for improving the overall system performance. In addition, derivation of average queuing delay based on little's low is discussed.
Axial Dynamics, Stability, and Interspecies Similarity of Bacterial Community Structure in the Highly Compartmentalized Gut of Soil-Feeding Termites (Cubitermes spp.)

ABSTRACT The highly compartmentalized gut of soil-feeding termites is characterized by pronounced axial dynamics in physicochemical conditions and microbial processes. In a companion paper (D. Schmitt-Wagner, M. W. Friedrich, B. Wagner, and A. Brune, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:6007-6017, 2003), we demonstrated that the variety of physicochemical conditions in the different gut compartments of Cubitermes spp. is reflected in the diversity of the respective intestinal microbial communities. Here, we used molecular fingerprints of 16S rRNA genes of the bacterial community, obtained by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis, to describe the axial dynamics of the bacterial community structure in the different gut sections. Comparison of the T-RFLP profiles with the predicted terminal restriction fragments of the clones in clone libraries of the gut segments in Cubitermes orthognathus confirmed that all hindgut sections harbored distinct bacterial communities. Morisita indices of community similarity, calculated by comparing the different patterns, revealed large differences between the bacterial communities of soil, gut, and nest material and also among the individual gut sections. By contrast, comparison of the homologous gut segments of different Cubitermes species indicated that the three termite species investigated possessed a similar, gut-specific microbiota that remained comparatively stable even during several months of maintenance in the laboratory.
A thesaurus-based statistical language model for broadcast news transcription

This paper describes a thesaurus-based class n-gram model for broadcast news transcription. The most important issue concerned with class n-gram models is how to develop a word classification. We construct a word classification mapping based on a thesaurus so as to maximize the average mutual information function on a training corpus. To examine the effectiveness of the new method, we compare it with two our previous methods, in which the same thesaurus is used but word-class mappings are determined in different manners. The new method achieved substantially lower perplexity for 83 news transcription sentences broadcast on June 4, 1996.
Optimization of ultrasound contrast agent for high frequency ultrasound molecular imaging using subharmonic oscillation

Ultrasound molecular imaging visualizes disease biomarkers using targeted ultrasound contrast agents (t-UCA). Different lipids result in UCA with different acoustic behavior. In this study, subharmonic (SH) response of MicroMarker UCA and four homemade UCA with different lipid coatings were compared in vitro with a high frequency ultrasound system (Vevo 2100 with MS250 probe). UCA with different size distribution were made with DSPC (UCA A and C) or DPPC (UCA B and D) as main lipid by sonication or Vialmix. We transmitted long bursts (20-cycle, 30 MHz, 10% power, MS250 probe) with pulse inversion sequence for optimized SH imaging. The effect of the UCA concentration on SH imaging was tested using two concentrations: 8.0×106 and 4.0×105 microbubbles per milliliter. For A, B and D type UCA, attenuation effect is dominant at high concentration. MicroMarker and C type UCA had the highest and most spatially homogeneous distribution of SH response throughout the entire UCA area at high concentration. SH amplitude of MicroMarker dropped about 11 dB when UCA concentration was reduced by a factor of 20. For this low concentration, SH amplitude of B type UCA was 10 dB higher than that for MicroMarker and was homogeneous throughout the UCA area. We showed that for 30 MHz transmit frequency, at low concentration of UCA, DPPC microbubbles have higher SH response than DSPC ones and at high concentration, smaller bubbles (MicroMarker and C) produced the most homogeneous SH responses. Our results suggest that for molecular imaging applications where UCA concentration is low, our B-type and MicroMarker UCA are suitable choices for SH imaging.
Multi-channel synchronous reference frame PLL based on feedback structure

This paper presents a multi-channel synchronous reference frame PLL based on feedback structure, which is called MSRF-PLL. The proposed method is based on the feedback structure in synchronous reference frame. Positive- and negative-sequence components at fundamental frequency are extracted accurately even with harmonics in grid voltage. The structure is quite simple because no complex decoupling networks between each channel are required. Moreover, both dq components and αβ components are generated in MSRF-PLL which makes it suitable for current and power control in either stationary frame or synchronous frame. In this paper, mathematical derivations of MSRF-PLL structure are presented. Also the validity of MSRF-PLL is verified by both simulations and Experiments results.
LiveCod: A mesh-pull P2P live streaming system with XOR-based Network Coding

This paper presents a mesh-pull peer-to-peer (P2P) live video streaming system. The proposed XOR-based Network Coding (XOR-NC) system is based on GIA protocol and introduces new search and answer data formats for chunks which are used by the network coding algorithm for exchanging data among peers. The search message contains the XORed GOP (Group of Picture) keys and some meta-data such as search key. The answer message, however, has the XORed GOP data and a summary of video blocks of the encoded GOP. In order to reduce the encoding complexity at each peer, a new content-based cache (CCache) is also introduced. Comparison of LiveCod with traditional GIA and GIA with random network coding demonstrates that this system can achieve a significant improvement in average request delay, video layer providers' fast availability, network throughput and bandwidth redundancy usage performance metrics.
Analysis of power converters with devices of sic for applications in electric traction systems

This article presents the analysis of two topologies of power converters. Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) and Current Source Inverter (CSI) proposals for traction system applications, these topologies are implemented with silicon carbide devices. The use of SiC semiconductors allow working at high switching frequency (100KHz), increase the working temperature range and and decreasing power losses during conduction and activation of the semiconductors. The objective is analyze these topologies and select the one that provides the best performance and behavior at high frequency to improve it on a electric traction system.