Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Theory of the electronic structure and carrier dynamics of strain-induced (Ga, In)As quantum dots

Strain-induced quantum dots (SIQD) confine electrons and holes to a lateral potential minimum within a near-surface quantum well (QW). The potential minimum is located in the QW below a nanometre-sized stressor crystal grown on top of the QW. SIQD exhibit well-resolved and prominently atomic-like optical spectra, making them ideal for experimental and theoretical studies of mesoscopic phenomena in semiconductor nanocrystals. In this report we review the theory of strain-induced confinement, electronic structure, photonics and carrier relaxation dynamics in SIQD. The theoretical results are compared with available experimental data. Electronic structure calculations are mainly performed using the multiband envelope function approach. Many-body effects are discussed using a direct diagonalization method, albeit, for the sake of computational feasibility, within a two-band model. The QD carrier dynamics are discussed in terms of a master equation model, which accounts for the details of the electronic structure as well as the leading photon, phonon and Coulomb interaction processes. We also discuss the quantum confined Stark effect, the Zeeman splitting and the formation of Landau levels in external fields. Finally, we review a recent theory of the cooling of radiative QD excitons by THz radiation. In particular we discuss the resonance charge transfer of holes between piezoelectric trap states and the deformation potential minima. The agreement between the theory and experiment is fair throughout, but calls for further investigations.
Evaluation of Anchor Texts for Automated Link Discovery in Semi-structured Web Documents

Using an English noun phrase grammar defined by Hulth (2004a) as a starting point, we created an English noun phrase chunker to extract anchor text candidates identified within web-based articles. These phrases served as candidates for anchor texts linking articles within the About.com network of content sites. Freelance writers—serving as annotators with little to no training outside the domain authority of their respective fields—evaluated articles that received these machine-generated anchor texts using an annotation environment. Unlike other large-scale linguistic annotation projects, where annotators receive an evaluation based on a reference corpus, there was not sufficient time or funding to create a corpus of documents for anchor text comparisons amongst the annotators—thereby complicating the computation of inter-labeler agreement. Instead of using a reference corpus, we assumed that the anchor text generator was another annotator. We then computed the average Cohen’s Kappa Coefficient (Landis and Koch, 1977) across all pairings of the anchor text generator and an annotator. Our approach showed a fair agreement level on average (as described in Pustejovsky and Stubbs (2013, p. 131–132)).
Applying Domain Analysis Techniques for Domain-Dependent Control in TALplanner

A number of current planners make use of automatic domain analysis techniques to extract information such as state invariants or necessary goal orderings from a planning domain. There are also planners that allow the user to explicitly specify additional information intended to improve performance. One such planner is TALplanner, which allows the use of domain-dependent temporal control formulas for pruning a forward-chaining search tree. This leads to the question of how these two approaches can be combined. In this paper we show how to make use of automatically generated state invariants to improve the performance of testing control formulas. We also develop a new technique for analyzing control rules relative to control formulas and show how this often allows the planner to automatically strengthen the preconditions of the operators, thereby reducing time complexity and improving the performance of TALplanner by a factor of up to 400 for the largest problems from the AIPS-2000 competition.
Saving energy in IP-over-WDM networks by switching off line cards in low-demand scenarios

We estimate potential energy savings in IP-over-WDM networks achieved by switching off router line cards in low-demand hours. We compare three approaches to react on dynamics in the IP traffic over time, FUFL, DUFL and DUDL. They provide different levels of freedom in adjusting the routing of lightpaths in the WDM layer and the routing of demands in the IP layer. Using MILP models based on realistic network topologies and node architectures as well as realistic demands, power, and cost values, we show that already a simple monitoring of the lightpath utilization in order to deactivate empty line cards (FUFL) brings substantial benefits. The most significant savings, however, are achieved by rerouting traffic in the IP layer (DUFL), which allows emptying and deactivating lightpaths together with the corresponding line cards. A sophisticated reoptimization of the virtual topologies and the routing in the optical domain for every demand scenario (DUDL) yields nearly no additional profits in the considered networks.
A structured nonnegative matrix factorization for source separation

In this paper, we propose a new unconstrained nonnegative matrix factorization method designed to utilize the multilayer structure of audio signals to improve the quality of the source separation. The tonal layer is sparse in frequency and temporally stable, while the transient layer is composed of short term broadband sounds. Our method has a part well suited for tonal extraction which decomposes the signals in sparse orthogonal components, while the transient part is represented by a regular nonnegative matrix factorization decomposition. Experiments on synthetic and real music data in a source separation context show that such decomposition is suitable for audio signal. Compared with three state-of-the-art harmonic/percussive decomposition algorithms, the proposed method shows competitive performances.
Towards an engineering of multi-agent eco-systems

Different approaches for engineering multi-agent systems have been proposed over time. However, there is a lack of attention towards the social aspects of multi-agent systems. In this paper we present an approach for engineering multi-agent systems, which considers multi-agent systems as digital ecologies. Different agent ecologies can work together and act as digital ecosystem. In such ecosystem the social aspects of the agents are well defined and all the subcomponents of the multi-agent system work together to achieve a fine integration of the whole ecosystem. Instead of focusing on internal model of software agents our methodology attempts to capture the dynamic and social behaviors of agents by focusing on the cooperation, coordination, negotiation and management attributes of the system. From implementation point of view, the proposed engineering methodology is grounded in our multi-agent framework and the concepts developed using this methodology can be mapped to implementation easily. The framework provides support for integration of web-services and uses peer-to-peer approach for resource discovering.
Meiotic Segregation, Synapsis, and Recombination Checkpoint Functions Require Physical Interaction between the Chromosomal Proteins Red1p and Hop1p

ABSTRACT In yeast, HOP1 and RED1 are required during meiosis for proper chromosome segregation and the consequent formation of viable spores. Mutations in either HOP1 orRED1 create unique as well as overlapping phenotypes, indicating that the two proteins act alone as well as in concert with each other. To understand which meiotic processes specifically require Red1p-Hop1p hetero-oligomers, a novel genetic screen was used to identify a single-point mutation of RED1,red1-K348E, that separates Hop1p binding from Red1p homo-oligomerization. The Red1-K348E protein is stable, phosphorylated in a manner equivalent to Red1p, and undergoes efficient homo-oligomerization; however, its ability to interact with Hop1p both by two-hybrid and coimmunoprecipitation assays is greatly reduced. Overexpression of HOP1 specifically suppressesred1-K348E, supporting the idea that the only defect in the protein is a reduced affinity for Hop1p. red1-K348E mutants exhibit reduced levels of crossing over and spore viability and fail to undergo chromosome synapsis, thereby implicating a role for Red1p-Hop1p hetero-oligomers in these processes. Furthermore,red1-K348E suppresses the sae2/com1 defects in meiotic progression and sporulation, indicating a previously unknown role for HOP1 in the meiotic recombination checkpoint.
A Safe Dynamic Adaptation Framework for Aspect-Oriented Software Development

One focus of current software development is the re-use of components in the construction of systems. Software Adaptation facilitates the consequent need to adapt these components to the new environment by employing adaptors which are obtained automatically and hence with a certain guarantee of suitability, from formal descriptions of the interface behaviour. One appropriate technique for Software Adaptation is Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) which makes use of aspects to facilitate the dynamic adaptation of components transparently and non-intrusively. However, owing to the way that aspects are integrated, these can unexpectedly modify the functionality of the system, and consequently completely alter its semantics. It is hence necessary to study the final behaviour of the system to ensure its correctness after adding aspects for its adaptation. This study must go beyond just detecting problems at the protocol level, to analyze the potential semantic problems. This is the main focus of the present communication. We start from the Unified Modeling Language (UML 2.0) specification of both the initial system and the aspects. This specification is validated by generating an algebraic Calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS) description of the system. Next, extended (finite) state machines are automatically generated to verify, simulate, and test the modeled system's behaviour. The result of that process can also be compared with the behaviour of the new running system. To facilitate this task, we propose grouping components so as to centre the study on the points actually affected by the behaviour of the aspects.
Identification of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus isolated from Pacific cod Gadus macrocephalus in Prince William Sound , Alaska

Ulcerative slun tissues from 2 Pacific cod Gadus rnacrocephalus caught in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, were examined for virus by Fish Pathology staff within the F.R. E.D. Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Six days after inoculation of Epitheliorna papulosum cyprini (EPC) cells at 14"C, diffuse rounding and lifting of cells from the monolayers suggestive of cytopathlc effect became visible in the lower sample dilutions. Ultrastructural examinations of affected EPC cells showed rhabdovirus particles within cytoplasmic vacuoles and on the cell surface membranes. Virus isolates from both cod were subsequently confirmed as viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) by serum neutralizabon and immunoblot assay. This is the first VHSV isolated from Pacific cod, which represents a new host species for the virus. Histologically, cod skin ulcers appeared to be caused by a foreign-body-type inflammatory response to foci of protozoa resembling X cells that also had plasmodial stages. Whether the rhabdovirus was incidental to the slun lesion or played a role in its etiology remains to be determined. The possible relationship between thls virus and the recent occurrences of VHSV in anadromous salmoruds from Washington State, USA, is discussed.
Molecular mechanism and functional role of brefeldin A-mediated ADP-ribosylation of CtBP1/BARS

ADP-ribosylation is a posttranslational modification that modulates the functions of many target proteins. We previously showed that the fungal toxin brefeldin A (BFA) induces the ADP-ribosylation of C-terminal–binding protein-1 short-form/BFA–ADP-ribosylation substrate (CtBP1-S/BARS), a bifunctional protein with roles in the nucleus as a transcription factor and in the cytosol as a regulator of membrane fission during intracellular trafficking and mitotic partitioning of the Golgi complex. Here, we report that ADP-ribosylation of CtBP1-S/BARS by BFA occurs via a nonconventional mechanism that comprises two steps: (i) synthesis of a BFA–ADP-ribose conjugate by the ADP-ribosyl cyclase CD38 and (ii) covalent binding of the BFA–ADP-ribose conjugate into the CtBP1-S/BARS NAD+-binding pocket. This results in the locking of CtBP1-S/BARS in a dimeric conformation, which prevents its binding to interactors known to be involved in membrane fission and, hence, in the inhibition of the fission machinery involved in mitotic Golgi partitioning. As this inhibition may lead to arrest of the cell cycle in G2, these findings provide a strategy for the design of pharmacological blockers of cell cycle in tumor cells that express high levels of CD38.
Helgrind+: An efficient dynamic race detector

Finding synchronization defects is difficult due to non-deterministic orderings of parallel threads. Current tools for detecting synchronization defects tend to miss many data races or produce an overwhelming number of false alarms. In this paper, we describe Helgrind+, a dynamic race detection tool that incorporates correct handling of condition variables and a combination of the lockset algorithm and happens-before relation. We compare our techniques with Intel Thread Checker and the original Helgrind tool on two substantial benchmark suites. Helgrind+ reduces the number of both false negatives (missed races) and false positives. The additional accuracy incurs almost no performance overhead.
Visual Tracking via Sparse Representation Based Linear Subspace Model

The modeling of the object appearance is one of the key issues in the development and application of effective object tracking. This paper presents a tracking algorithm based on representing the appearance of the object using a sparse representation based subspace model. the sparse representation theory offers us a powerful tool to model the object by only a small fraction of the training set. The multi-part subspace appearance model(MSAM) is learned via L1-minimization and the Gramm-Schmidt process given enough training samples (overcomplete dictionary). Furthermore, a novel model updating strategy is designed to incrementally update the proposed subspace model and the dictionary. Finally, an observation model integrating both sparsity and the likelihood information is designed to embed the proposed modeling approach into the particle filter framework for efficient object tracking. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the algorithm, especially when the images are noisy or the objects exhibit large appearance changes.
Moral Character Impression Formation Depends on the Valence Homogeneity of the Context

People quickly form impressions about moral character; for example, if people learn that someone cheated, they form a negative impression about that person’s character and expect that person to cheat in the future. Four studies show that the formation of such moral character impressions depends on the degree of valence homogeneity in the target’s context. We argue that this is the case because the degree of homogeneity in the context (the evaluative ecology) informs perceivers about the reliability of signals. Experiments 1 and 2 found that people form less strong impressions about moral character when a person’s behavior occurred in a heterogeneous context, that is, if unrelated positive and negative context information cooccurred. Experiment 3 demonstrated that nonmoral valence homogeneity produces similar effects. In Experiment 4, this effect also influenced strategic decisions in economic games. Together, these studies demonstrate the evaluative ecology plays a critical role in shaping moral character impressions.
Change of Patient Selection Strategy and Improved Surgical Outcome in MRI-negative Neocortical Epilepsy

Background and Purpose It is crucial to make selection strategy to identify surgical candidates among medically refractory MRI-negative neocortical epilepsy patients. In our previous study, we suggested two or more concordance between noninvasive studies (EEG, ictal scalp EEG, interictal FDG-PET, and SPECT) as a new patient selection strategy for MRI-negative neocortical epilepsy surgery. The objective of this study was to evaluate the surgical outcomes of MRI-negative neocortical epilepsy patients before and after the implementation of a new selection strategy. Methods From 1995 to 2011, we included 153 consecutive MRI-negative neocortical epilepsy patients who received focal resection and had a follow-up period of at least 2 years. These patients were divided into two groups according to their date of surgery (before and after July 2002). The old group consisted of 89 patients and the new one consisted of 53 patients. Clinical characteristics, presurgical evaluations, and pathology were reviewed. Results The new patient selection strategy led to a significant increase in the concordance between two or more modalities. The improvement in surgical outcome after 2002 was significant (seizure-free outcome, 47.2% vs. 75.5%; p = 0.001). Concordance between two or more presurgical evaluations and localizing PET were related to a seizure-free outcome in a multivariate analysis. Conclusions After a change in surgical strategy to select patients with two or more concordance between noninvasive studies, the seizure-free outcome improved up to 75.5%. MRI-negative neocortical epilepsy patients with two or more concordance between noninvasive studies seem to be good candidates for epilepsy surgery.
HIGH PERFORMANCE ORDERING SCHEME FOR MIMO TRANSMISSION

T he QR-OSIC receiver design f or the transmitter-side power allocated MIMO system. Based on the properties of the f unction and ordering results, we develop the ef f icient ordering algorithms in combination with the PA scheme. From the convexity of the-f unction, we derive the ordering strategy that makes the channel gains converge to their geometric mean. Based on this approach, the f ixed ordering algorithm is f irst designed, f or which the geometric mean is used f or a constant threshold. To f urther improve the perf ormance, the modif ied scheme employing adaptive thresholds is developed using the correlation among ordering results. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that proposed ordering schemes using QR-decomposition not only require a reduced computational complexity compared to the conventional scheme, but result in improved error perf ormance.
Changed lamellipodial extension, adhesion plaques and migration in epidermal keratinocytes containing constitutively expressed sense and antisense hyaluronan synthase 2 (Has2) genes

Hyaluronan is a major component of the epidermal extracellular matrix, is actively synthesized by keratinocytes and shows fast matrix turnover in the stratified epithelium. We probed the importance of hyaluronan synthesis in keratinocytes by establishing cell lines carrying the exogenous hyaluronan synthase 2 (Has2) gene in sense and antisense orientations to increase and decrease their hyaluronan synthesis, respectively. Compared with cell lines transfected with the vector only, most clones containing the Has2 sense gene migrated faster in an in vitro wounding assay, whereas Has2 antisense cells migrated more slowly. Has2 antisense clones showed delayed entry into the S phase of cell cycle following plating, smaller lamellipodia and less spreading on the substratum. The decrease of hyaluronan on the undersurface of Has2 antisense cells was associated with an increased area of adhesion plaques containing vinculin. Exogenous hyaluronan added to the keratinocyte cultures had a minor stimulatory effect on migration after wounding but did not restore the reduced migratory ability of Has2 antisense cells. Hyaluronan decasaccharides that displace receptor bound hyaluronan in keratinocytes, and Streptomyces hyaluronidase sufficient to remove most cell surface hyaluronan had little effect on cell migration. The results suggest that the dynamic synthesis of hyaluronan directed by Has2, rather than the abundance of pericellular hyaluronan, controls keratinocyte migration, a cell function vital for the repair of squamous epithelia following wounding.
CitySee: not only a wireless sensor network

CitySee, an environment monitoring system with 1196 sensor nodes and 4 mesh nodes in an urban area, is mainly motivated by the needs of precise carbon emission measurement and real-time surveillance for CO2 management in cities. Being one of the largest working wireless sensor networks, CitySee faces several challenges such as hardware design, software development, platforms, network protocols, and, most important, satisfactory services to users. We share some early lessons learned from this project, illustrate the potential benefits and risks of current solutions, and discuss the possible extensions of CitySee applications.
ELMO: Energy Aware Local Monitoring in Sensor Networks

Over the past decade, local monitoring has been shown to be a powerful technique for improving security in multihop wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Indeed, local monitoring-based security algorithms are becoming the most popular tool for providing security in WSNs. However, local monitoring as it is currently practiced is costly in terms of energy consumption, a major drawback for energy-constrained systems such as WSNs. In WSN environments, the scarce power resources are typically addressed through sleep-wake scheduling of the nodes. However, sleep-wake scheduling techniques in WSNs are vulnerable even to simple attacks. In this paper, a new technique is proposed that promises to allow operation of WSNs in a manner that is both energy-efficient and secure. The proposed technique combines local monitoring with a novel, more secure form of sleep-wake scheduling. The latter is a new methodology dubbed Elmo (Energy Aware Local MOnitoring in Sensor Networks), which enables sleep-wake management in a secure manner even in the face of adversarial nodes that choose not to awaken nodes responsible for monitoring their traffic. An analytical proof is given showing that security coverage is not weakened under Elmo. Moreover, ns-2 simulation results show that the performance of local monitoring is practically unchanged, while energy savings of 20 to 100 times are achieved, depending on the scenario.
Generating Pedestrian Trajectories Consistent with the Fundamental Diagram Based on Physiological and Psychological Factors

Pedestrian crowds often have been modeled as many-particle system including microscopic multi-agent simulators. One of the key challenges is to unearth governing principles that can model pedestrian movement, and use them to reproduce paths and behaviors that are frequently observed in human crowds. To that effect, we present a novel crowd simulation algorithm that generates pedestrian trajectories that exhibit the speed-density relationships expressed by the Fundamental Diagram. Our approach is based on biomechanical principles and psychological factors. The overall formulation results in better utilization of free space by the pedestrians and can be easily combined with well-known multi-agent simulation techniques with little computational overhead. We are able to generate human-like dense crowd behaviors in large indoor and outdoor environments and validate the results with captured real-world crowd trajectories.