Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Loss Resilient Entanglement Swapping Protocol using Non-Classical States of Light

Distributing and sharing entanglement at a distance is a key ingredient in many future quantum communication protocols, however entanglement is a fragile resource and can break down upon interacting with the environment. Within this thesis we present two possible entanglement swapping protocols, and show that these protocols are resilient to small levels of photonic losses. We propose the use of these protocols in quantum communication schemes that require shared entangled qubits, in the form of a Bell state. The input states to our proposed protocols are hybrid entangled states, which are discrete-variable and continuous-variable entangled states. We use the vacuum and single photon Fock state as our discrete half, which is stationary in our entanglement swapping protocol, whereas the continuous variable half is modelled as travelling through lossy optical fibre before being measured. The first protocol uses coherent states in a superposition as propagating modes in our entanglement swapping setup, whereas the second, more complicated, protocol uses superposed cat states. We model photonic losses by applying a beam-splitter of transmission T to our propagating continuous variable modes, along with an input vacuum state. We also model the more realistic circumstance in which the losses in these two continuous variable modes are not equal. We then detect these continuous variable modes using a vacuum projective measurement and balanced homodyne detection. We also investigate homodyne measurement imperfections and non-ideal outcomes, as well as success probabilities of these measurement schemes. We calculate the entanglement negativity and linear entropy of our final two qubit state, as well as fidelity against the |\Phi^+> Bell state in the coherent state protocol, and a phase-rotated |\Phi^+(\alpha)> Bell state in the cat state regime. We demonstrate that a small amount of loss mismatch does not destroy the overall entanglement, thus demonstrating the physical practicality of this protocol.
Human intestinal tract serves as an alternative infection route for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus

Human intestinal tract as an alternative route to acquire MERS-CoV infection. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has caused human respiratory infections with a high case fatality rate since 2012. However, the mode of virus transmission is not well understood. The findings of epidemiological and virological studies prompted us to hypothesize that the human gastrointestinal tract could serve as an alternative route to acquire MERS-CoV infection. We demonstrated that human primary intestinal epithelial cells, small intestine explants, and intestinal organoids were highly susceptible to MERS-CoV and can sustain robust viral replication. We also identified the evidence of enteric MERS-CoV infection in the stool specimen of a clinical patient. MERS-CoV was considerably resistant to fed-state gastrointestinal fluids but less tolerant to highly acidic fasted-state gastric fluid. In polarized Caco-2 cells cultured in Transwell inserts, apical MERS-CoV inoculation was more effective in establishing infection than basolateral inoculation. Notably, direct intragastric inoculation of MERS-CoV caused a lethal infection in human DPP4 transgenic mice. Histological examination revealed MERS-CoV enteric infection in all inoculated mice, as shown by the presence of virus-positive cells, progressive inflammation, and epithelial degeneration in small intestines, which were exaggerated in the mice pretreated with the proton pump inhibitor pantoprazole. With the progression of the enteric infection, inflammation, virus-positive cells, and live viruses emerged in the lung tissues, indicating the development of sequential respiratory infection. Taken together, these data suggest that the human intestinal tract may serve as an alternative infection route for MERS-CoV.
Improving the Accuracy Rate of Link Quality Estimation Using Fuzzy Logic in Mobile Wireless Sensor Network

Link quality estimation is essential for improving the performance of a routing protocol in a wireless sensor network. Many methods have been proposed to increase the performance of the link quality estimation; however, most of them are not able to evaluate link quality accurately. In this study, a method that uses fuzzy logic to combine both hardware-based and software-based metrics is proposed to improve the accuracy rate for evaluating a link quality. This proposed method consists of three types of modules, the Fuzzifier module, the Inference module, and the Defuzzifier module. The Fuzzifier module is used to determine the degree to which input link quality metrics belong to each fuzzy set through proposed membership functions. The Inference module obtains the rule outputs based on the proposed fuzzy rules and the given inputs acquired from the Fuzzifier module. The Defuzzifier module is used to aggregate the rule outputs inferred from the Inference module. The result from the Defuzzifier module is then used to evaluate the link quality. A simulation conducted to compare the accuracy rates of the proposed method and those found in related works showed that the proposed method had higher accuracy rates for evaluating a link quality.
Citation for Published Item: Durham Research Online Publication Status of Attached File: Citation for Published Item: Use Policy Rapid Prototyping a Virtual Fire Drill Environment Using Computer Game Technology *

(2009) 'Rapid prototyping a virtual fire drill environment using computer game technology. ', Fire safety journal. , 44 (4). pp. 559-569. The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. (2009) 'Rapid prototyping a virtual fire drill environment using computer game technology. ', Fire safety journal. , 44 (4). pp. 559-569. The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes provided that :  a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source  a link is made to the metadata record in DRO  the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract Conducting fire evacuation drills in modern buildings under realistic fire conditions can be difficult. Typical fire drills do not feature dynamic events such as smoke filled corridors, fires in unexpected places or blocked fire exits that require on the spot decisions from evacuees. One alternative is the use of virtual environments. Virtual environments can support the training and observation of fire evacuee behaviours in 3D virtual buildings. However complex virtual environments can be difficult to build. This paper explores how the reuse of computer game technology can aid in the rapid prototyping of virtual environments which can be populated with fire drill evacuation scenarios. Over a three week period, a single developer constructed a realistic model of a real world building to support virtual fire drill evaluations. While participants in a user study found the simulated environment realistic, performance metrics indicated clustering in the results based on participants previous gaming experience.
Evolution and Structural Analyses of Glossina morsitans (Diptera; Glossinidae) Tetraspanins

Tetraspanins are important conserved integral membrane proteins expressed in many organisms. Although there is limited knowledge about the full repertoire, evolution and structural characteristics of individual members in various organisms, data obtained so far show that tetraspanins play major roles in membrane biology, visual processing, memory, olfactory signal processing, and mechanosensory antennal inputs. Thus, these proteins are potential targets for control of insect pests. Here, we report that the genome of the tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans (Diptera: Glossinidae) encodes at least seventeen tetraspanins (GmTsps), all containing the signature features found in the tetraspanin superfamily members. Whereas six of the GmTsps have been previously reported, eleven could be classified as novel because their amino acid sequences do not map to characterized tetraspanins in the available protein data bases. We present a model of the GmTsps by using GmTsp42Ed, whose presence and expression has been recently detected by transcriptomics and proteomics analyses of G. morsitans. Phylogenetically, the identified GmTsps segregate into three major clusters. Structurally, the GmTsps are largely similar to vertebrate tetraspanins. In view of the exploitation of tetraspanins by organisms for survival, these proteins could be targeted using specific antibodies, recombinant large extracellular loop (LEL) domains, small-molecule mimetics and siRNAs as potential novel and efficacious putative targets to combat African trypanosomiasis by killing the tsetse fly vector.
Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, a Marker of Subclinical Atherosclerosis, and Particulate Air Pollution Exposure: the Meta-Analytical Evidence

Introduction Studies on the association between atherosclerosis and long-term exposure to ambient air pollution suggest that carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, is positively associated with particulate matter (PM) exposure. However, there is heterogeneity between the different studies concerning the magnitude of this association. We performed a meta-analysis to determine the strength of the association between CIMT and particulate air pollution. Methods We queried PubMed citation database and Web of Knowledge up to March 2015 in order to identify studies on CIMT and particulate air pollution. Two investigators selected and computerized all relevant information, independently. Eight of the reviewed epidemiological publications provided sufficient details and met our inclusion criteria. Descriptive and quantitative information was extracted from each selected study. The meta-analysis included 18,349 participants from eight cohorts for the cross-sectional association between CIMT and PM and 7,268 participants from three cohorts for the longitudinal analysis on CIMT progression and PM exposure. Results The average exposure to PM2.5 in the different study populations ranged from 4.1 to 20.8 µg/m3 and CIMT averaged (SD) 0.73 (0.14) mm. We computed a pooled estimate from a random-effects model. In the combined cross-sectional studies, an increase of 5 µg/m3 PM2.5 was associated with a 1.66% (95% CI: 0.86 to 2.46; P<0.0001) thicker CIMT, which corresponds to an average increase of 12.1 µm. None of the studies moved the combined estimate outside the confidence interval of the overall estimate. A funnel plot suggested absence of publication bias. The combined longitudinal estimate showed for each 5 µg/m3 higher PM2.5 exposure, a 1.04 µm per year (95% CI: 0.01 to 2.07; P=0.048) greater CIMT progression. Conclusion Our meta-analysis supports the evidence of a positive association between CIMT, a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, and long-term exposure to particulate air pollution.
Understanding user intent in community question answering

Community Question Answering (CQA) services, such as Yahoo! Answers, are specifically designed to address the innate limitation of Web search engines by helping users obtain information from a community. Understanding the user intent of questions would enable a CQA system identify similar questions, find relevant answers, and recommend potential answerers more effectively and efficiently. In this paper, we propose to classify questions into three categories according to their underlying user intent: subjective, objective, and social. In order to identify the user intent of a new question, we build a predictive model through machine learning based on both text and metadata features. Our investigation reveals that these two types of features are conditionally independent and each of them is sufficient for prediction. Therefore they can be exploited as two views in co-training - a semi-supervised learning framework - to make use of a large amount of unlabelled questions, in addition to the small set of manually labelled questions, for enhanced question classification. The preliminary experimental results show that co-training works significantly better than simply pooling these two types of features together.
ESMAP: A Multi-agent Platform for Extending a Knowledge Management System

For more than one decade knowledge management has taken advantage of some abilities that software agents are endowed with. Agent features such as autonomy, cooperation, communication, and learning capacity have been used to improve the performance of knowledge management applications. In this paper we outline our proposal for implementing a Jade-based multi-agent platform to enhance the potential of KnowCat: a fully consolidated, thoroughly tested and validated knowledge management system which has been in active use at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) since 1998. We also give a succinct description of the agent platform architecture and a brief presentation of its current status
Addressing surface waves on modulated metasurfaces

This work presents an extension of Transformation Optics (TO) to control the wavefront of surface waves (SW) through the use of modulated metasurfaces. As the outputs of the conventional TO approach are the metamaterial constitutive parameters able to perform a certain modification of the ray-field path, here the outcomes are the components of the metasurface reactance tensor. This methodology can be applied to design a large number of planar devices including lenses, beam splitters and invisibility cloaks.
Setting healthcare priorities in hospitals: a review of empirical studies

Priority setting research has focused on the macro (national) and micro (bedside) level, leaving the meso (institutional, hospital) level relatively neglected. This is surprising given the key role that hospitals play in the delivery of healthcare services and the large proportion of health systems resources that they absorb. To explore the factors that impact upon priority setting at the hospital level, we conducted a thematic review of empirical studies. A systematic search of PubMed, EBSCOHOST, Econlit databases and Google scholar was supplemented by a search of key websites and a manual search of relevant papers’ reference lists. A total of 24 papers were identified from developed and developing countries. We applied a policy analysis framework to examine and synthesize the findings of the selected papers. Findings suggest that priority setting practice in hospitals was influenced by (1) contextual factors such as decision space, resource availability, financing arrangements, availability and use of information, organizational culture and leadership, (2) priority setting processes that depend on the type of priority setting activity, (3) content factors such as priority setting criteria and (4) actors, their interests and power relations. We observe that there is need for studies to examine these issues and the interplay between them in greater depth and propose a conceptual framework that might be useful in examining priority setting practices in hospitals.
Comprehensive Review of the Relative Clinical Utility of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide and N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Assays in Cardiovascular Disease

Measurable B-type natriuretic peptides, which are largely produced by the left ventricle, include B-type natri- uretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). These proteins are released by cardio- myocytes in response to wall-tension and neurohumoral signals. In this review the literature is summarized to date with respect to the approved indications for testing which include the diagnostic evaluation and prognosis of heart failure. PubMed in 2009 was searched and 5496 references were reduced to 242 studies that reported on either diagnosis, progno- sis, screening, or monitoring of heart failure. In head-to-head diagnostic comparisons, 58 studies measured both assays, and 11 studies in adults that included at least 100 patients compared commercially available tests. We performed the analogous search in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and found 82 articles of which 11 papers focused on the study of BNP and NT-proBNP in either stable angina, non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction or ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. For heart failure diagnosis, BNP and NT-proBNP had similar decision statistics; however, while optimal diagnostic cutpoints for both markers varied depended on age and degree of renal dysfunction, and the clinical application; NT-proBNP had a much more widely variable optimal cutpoint than did BNP. Sufficient evidence for clinical utility of both tests exists for other applications of prognosis, screening, and monitoring of heart failure. In addition, both tests have a role in the risk stratification of all forms of ACS. Future trials of clinical strategies are warranted using these tools in advancing both inpatient and outpatient management of heart failure and ACS.
An optimal code rate design of multilevel coded modulation for multimedia data transmission employing unequal error protection

In this paper, we propose a novel unequal error protection (UEP) design based on multilevel coded modulation (MLC) for a broadcasting system which attempts to maximize average user satisfaction within the coverage area of the transmitter. To this end, a new quantitative measure is introduced that takes into account both quality of the received data and the distance of the user location from the transmitter. Based on the proposed measure, an optimal rate allocation algorithm utilizing the capacity rule is developed for MLC. As a specific example, by employing JPEG images for source coding and modern capacity-approaching codes for component codes of MLC, our numerical results reveal that well-designed MLC systems can provide better average user satisfaction than a conventional coded modulation (CM) system.
Two Cytosolic Glutamine Synthetase Isoforms of Maize Are Specifically Involved in the Control of Grain Production[W][OA]

The roles of two cytosolic maize glutamine synthetase isoenzymes (GS1), products of the Gln1-3 and Gln1-4 genes, were investigated by examining the impact of knockout mutations on kernel yield. In the gln1-3 and gln1-4 single mutants and the gln1-3 gln1-4 double mutant, GS mRNA expression was impaired, resulting in reduced GS1 protein and activity. The gln1-4 phenotype displayed reduced kernel size and gln1-3 reduced kernel number, with both phenotypes displayed in gln1-3 gln1-4. However, at maturity, shoot biomass production was not modified in either the single mutants or double mutants, suggesting a specific impact on grain production in both mutants. Asn increased in the leaves of the mutants during grain filling, indicating that it probably accumulates to circumvent ammonium buildup resulting from lower GS1 activity. Phloem sap analysis revealed that unlike Gln, Asn is not efficiently transported to developing kernels, apparently causing reduced kernel production. When Gln1-3 was overexpressed constitutively in leaves, kernel number increased by 30%, providing further evidence that GS1-3 plays a major role in kernel yield. Cytoimmunochemistry and in situ hybridization revealed that GS1-3 is present in mesophyll cells, whereas GS1-4 is specifically localized in the bundle sheath cells. The two GS1 isoenzymes play nonredundant roles with respect to their tissue-specific localization.
Upper bounds on the photon mass

The effects of a nonzero photon rest mass can be incorporated into electromagnetism in a simple way using the Proca equations. In this vein, two interesting implications regarding the possible existence of a massive photon in nature, i.e., tiny alterations in the known values of both the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron and the gravitational deflection of electromagnetic radiation, are utilized to set upper limits on its mass. The bounds obtained are not as stringent as those recently found; nonetheless, they are comparable to other existing bounds and bring new elements to the issue of restricting the photon mass.
The long wave.

I. R. N. Jones, J. E. Diem, H. Glindmeyer, V. Dharmarajan, Y. Y. Hammad, J. Carr, H. Weill, Br. J. Ind. Med. 36, 305 (1979). 2. J. M. Peters, personal communication to George Perkel, 8 June 1977 (OSHA Hearing Record, Exhibit No. 143-A, 1977), p. 7. 3. A. Engelberg et al., "Characterization of byssinosis and other pulmonary abnormalities in the cotton waste utilization industry" (Paper submitted to the Department of Labor by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Morgantown, W.Va., November 1981). 4. J. A. Merchant, Am. J. Public Health 73, 137 (1983). 5. H. Weill, in "Transcript of informal public hearing on proposed standard for exposure to cotton dust" (OSHA Hearing Record, Washington, D.C., 6 April 1977), pp. 295-434.
Unsupervised Wireless Spectrum Anomaly Detection With Interpretable Features

Detecting anomalous behavior in wireless spectrum is a demanding task due to the sheer complexity of the electromagnetic spectrum use. Wireless spectrum anomalies can take a wide range of forms from the presence of an unwanted signal in a licensed band to the absence of an expected signal, which makes manual labeling of anomalies difficult and suboptimal. We present, spectrum anomaly detector with interpretable features (SAIFE), an adversarial autoencoder (AAE)-based anomaly detector for wireless spectrum anomaly detection using power spectral density (PSD) data. This model achieves an average anomaly detection accuracy above 80% at a constant false alarm rate of 1% along with anomaly localization in an unsupervised setting. In addition, we investigate the model’s capabilities to learn interpretable features, such as signal bandwidth, class, and center frequency in a semi-supervised fashion. Along with anomaly detection the model exhibits promising results for lossy PSD data compression up to $120 {\times }$ and semi-supervised signal classification accuracy close to 100% on three datasets just using 20% labeled samples. Finally, the model is tested on data from one of the distributed electrosense sensors over a long term of 500 h showing its anomaly detection capabilities.
Improved recognition performance with LDA and ICA using vertically and horizontally partitioned facial images

A comparative recognition performance of LDA- and ICA-based multiple classifier systems for face recognition is presented using vertically and horizontally partitioned facial images. A face image is partitioned into several vertical and horizontal segments and a multiple classifier based divide-and-conquer approach is used to combine these segments to recognize the whole face. The experiments demonstrate that vertical and horizontal partitioning result in a better recognition performance compared to the performance results of the holistic methods.