Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrasonic defect detection in multi-material, axis-symmetric devices with an improved synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT)

This paper describes an improved synthetic-aperture-focusing-technique (SAFT) for ultrasonic defect detection in multi-material devices with a circular cylindrical geometry. In conventional SAFT, defect imaging resolution in such specimen is limited, due to refraction at material interfaces. Hence, the improved technique allows to increase the probability of detection (POD) and the resolution of defects in multi-material, axis-symmetric devices. Especially, if defects are located in layers far away from the device surface and the discrepancies in the speed of sound (SOS) of the specimen materials are thoroughly substantial, it is indispensable to implicate refraction effects in the SAFT processing. Thereby, the examination is divided into three major steps. First, a specimen is scanned by rotating a spherically focused immersion ultrasound transducer around it. In a second step, a corrected time of flight (TOF) distribution is calculated by a fast marching method (FMM) with the `a-priori knowledge of the specimen layout and the different SOS in the materials. As third and last step, the improved SAFT is performed utilizing the TOF distribution. To verify improvements in comparison to a conventional SAFT, a specimen is inspected, consisting of a steel and a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) part.
Current density aware power switch placement algorithm for power gating designs

Due to advances in manufacture technology, leakage current increases dramatically in modern ICs. Power gating technique is an efficient and effective method to resolve this problem. In order to turn off supply voltage in a low-power domain, it has to insert power switches into designs. However, chip area and IR-drop of circuits are impacted by the number and locations of inserted power switches. Unlike previous works using greedy algorithm to handle this problem, this paper proposes a simple model to approximate the equivalent resistance of power switches in a low-power domain, and uses the binary search method to get the precise value. Based on this value, power switches are allocated by a partition-based approach. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach can insert less number of power switches and still satisfy the IR-drop constraint than other approaches. Moreover, this method is very efficient.
Dynamic Visualizations for Soccer Statistical Analysis

The analysis of large sums of soccer statistics can be extremely difficult if the data is not presented graphically. As a result, we developed an application, titled Soccer Scoop, which provides two separate visualizations that can aid a soccer team manager. With our application, a team manager can compare two players on different teams, analyze a particular player before signing them to a contract, measure the performance of a particular player at different positions, generate practice exercises, and determine if a particular player plays better on the road or at home. The visualizations used in our application apply information visualization techniques, such as glyphs, modified star plots, details on demand, color, and gestalt principles.
Hearing visuo‐tactile synchrony – Sound‐induced proprioceptive drift in the invisible hand illusion

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) and its variant the invisible hand illusion (IHI) are useful for investigating multisensory aspects of bodily self-consciousness. Here, we explored whether auditory conditioning during an RHI could enhance the trisensory visuo-tactile-proprioceptive interaction underlying the IHI. Our paradigm comprised of an IHI session that was followed by an RHI session and another IHI session. The IHI sessions had two parts presented in counterbalanced order. One part was conducted in silence, whereas the other part was conducted on the backdrop of metronome beats that occurred in synchrony with the brush movements used for the induction of the illusion. In a first experiment, the RHI session also involved metronome beats and was aimed at creating an associative memory between the brush stroking of a rubber hand and the sounds. An analysis of IHI sessions showed that the participants' perceived hand position drifted more towards the body-midline in the metronome relative to the silent condition without any sound-related session differences. Thus, the sounds, but not the auditory RHI conditioning, influenced the IHI. In a second experiment, the RHI session was conducted without metronome beats. This confirmed the conditioning-independent presence of sound-induced proprioceptive drift in the IHI. Together, these findings show that the influence of visuo-tactile integration on proprioceptive updating is modifiable by irrelevant auditory cues merely through the temporal correspondence between the visuo-tactile and auditory events.
Capacity of time-slotted ALOHA systems

We consider the capacity of time-slotted ALOHA systems, where multiple users synchronously send packets, which may collide at the receiver. Specific coding for ALOHA systems had previously been proposed to avoid complete loss of packets involved in collisions, but the capacity of ALOHA systems had not been previously determined. We consider capacity in terms of reliably received rate rather than transmitted rate. We consider capacity achieving strategies under AWGN for transmission of a single packet which is long enough to achieve capacity over the duration of the packet. We combine concepts from multi-access channels and broadcast channels to determine the capacity region for a single transmission of a packet in an ALOHA system. The coding for each user takes into account the possibility of collisions with other users in order to establish a capacity region. Next, we consider the case where we transmit several packets under a channel model where users receive the right to transmit the package according to independent Bernoulli processes. We can then apply the single-packet coding strategies in order to maximize the expected reliable received rate.
A GAME THEORETIC POWER CONTROL APPROACH FOR MIMO MC-DS / CDMA SYSTEMS

A major challenge to enhance the performance of multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multi-carrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC -DS/ CDMA) system relies on the effective multiple access interference suppression. In this work a novel distributed non cooperative power control game with pricing (NPGP) is considered for utilizing the system resource more efficiently. The ratio of throughput versus power is referred to as the utility function which should be maximized by combating the multiple access interference (MAI). Simulation results show that the propounded scheme achieves significant performance improvement, compared with the conventional system without NPGP.
Protean Code: Achieving Near-Free Online Code Transformations for Warehouse Scale Computers

Rampant dynamism due to load fluctuations, co runner changes, and varying levels of interference poses a threat to application quality of service (QoS) and has limited our ability to allow co-locations in modern warehouse scale computers (WSCs). Instruction set features such as the non-temporal memory access hints found in modern ISAs (both ARM and x86) may be useful in mitigating these effects. However, despite the challenge of this dynamism and the availability of an instruction set mechanism that might help address the problem, a key capability missing in the system software stack in modern WSCs is the ability to dynamically transform (and re-transform) the executing application code to apply these instruction set features when necessary. In this work we introduce protean code, a novel approach for enacting arbitrary compiler transformations at runtime for native programs running on commodity hardware with negligible (<;1%) overhead. The fundamental insight behind the underlying mechanism of protean code is that, instead of maintaining full control throughout the program's execution as with traditional dynamic optimizers, protean code allows the original binary to execute continuously and diverts control flow only at a set of virtualized points, allowing rapid and seamless rerouting to the new code variants. In addition, the protean code compiler embeds IR with high-level semantic information into the program, empowering the dynamic compiler to perform rich analysis and transformations online with little overhead. Using a fully functional protean code compiler and runtime built on LLVM, we design PC3D, Protean Code for Cache Contention in Datacenters. PC3D dynamically employs non-temporal access hints to achieve utilization improvements of up to 2.8x (1.5x on average) higher than state-of-the-art contention mitigation runtime techniques at a QoS target of 98%.
A quick measure of achievement motivation—validated in Australia and reliable in Britain and South Africa

A 14 item short form of the Ray Achievement Motivation scale was developed. When tested on seven samples from Sydney, London, Glasgow and Johannesburg it showed reliabilities of over . 70 when applied to English speakers. It is also balanced against acquiescent response set and has validities well comparable with other longer scales. General population norms obtained in the four countries revealed the English, Scots and Australians to have similar levels of achievement motivation with South Africans significantly higher. The scale would appear to be unlike previous scales in that it was developed on general population rather than student samples.
A stereospecific analysis of triglycerides

A method is presented for the analysis of the fatty acid compositions in each of the three positions of a triglyceride. Diglycerides are obtained from the triglyceride by lipolysis with pancreatic lipase, and converted to a mixture of Dand L-phosphatidyl phenol. The L-phosphatide is then hydrolyzed by phospholipase A, leaving a lysophosphatide with the fatty acid in position 1, free fatty acid from position 2, and unhydrolyzed D-phosphatidyl phenol. The fatty acid composition in position 3 of the original triglyceride is obtained by calculation. The method was tested on two triglyceride mixtures with known fatty acid distributions. A natural triglyceride, corn oil, was analyzed. The distribution of the major fatty acids between positions l and 3 was found to be nearly random.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Replication Is Severely Impaired by MG132 due to Proteasome-Independent Inhibition of M-Calpain

ABSTRACT The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is involved in the replication of a broad range of viruses. Since replication of the murine hepatitis virus (MHV) is impaired upon proteasomal inhibition, the relevance of the UPS for the replication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was investigated in this study. We demonstrate that the proteasomal inhibitor MG132 strongly inhibits SARS-CoV replication by interfering with early steps of the viral life cycle. Surprisingly, other proteasomal inhibitors (e.g., lactacystin and bortezomib) only marginally affected viral replication, indicating that the effect of MG132 is independent of proteasomal impairment. Induction of autophagy by MG132 treatment was excluded from playing a role, and no changes in SARS-CoV titers were observed during infection of wild-type or autophagy-deficient ATG5−/− mouse embryonic fibroblasts overexpressing the human SARS-CoV receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Since MG132 also inhibits the cysteine protease m-calpain, we addressed the role of calpains in the early SARS-CoV life cycle using calpain inhibitors III (MDL28170) and VI (SJA6017). In fact, m-calpain inhibition with MDL28170 resulted in an even more pronounced inhibition of SARS-CoV replication (>7 orders of magnitude) than did MG132. Additional m-calpain knockdown experiments confirmed the dependence of SARS-CoV replication on the activity of the cysteine protease m-calpain. Taken together, we provide strong experimental evidence that SARS-CoV has unique replication requirements which are independent of functional UPS or autophagy pathways compared to other coronaviruses. Additionally, this work highlights an important role for m-calpain during early steps of the SARS-CoV life cycle.
Subject and informant characteristics influence the reliability and validity of family history information: an analysis based on the generalized estimating equations approach

Family history information is a necessary surrogate for unavailable interview information in family studies. However, the reliability and validity of such information has rarely been assessed during the conduct of family studies. This paper presents a reanalysis of data on the reliability and validity of family history information for dementia and depression using the general estimation equations approach.
The Ambivalent Relations Between Bureaucracy and Public Innovation: The Case of the Successful Failure of Dial Police

Building on a growing body of literature on public innovation and the rediscovery of bureaucracy, this article explores the relations between innovation and bureaucracy. A framework for studying innovation in a bureaucratic context is developed and its relevance assessed through a case study of the successful implementation but failed diffusion of an innovation project. The case study demonstrates how a bureaucratic context represents not only barriers to innovation but also a number of complex drivers. The outline of these ambivalent relations is used to tease out the Janus face of the new spirit of innovation in public administration.
Cache Complexity and Multicore Implementation for Univariate Real Root Isolation

We present parallel algorithms with optimal cache complexity for the kernel routine of many real root isolation algorithms, namely the Taylor shift by 1. We then report on multicore implementation for isolating the real roots of univariate polynomials with integer coefficients based on a classical algorithm due to Vincent, Collins and Akritas. For processing some well-known benchmark examples with sufficiently large size, our software tool reaches linear speedup on an 8-core machine. In addition, we show that our software is able to fully utilize the many cores and the memory space of a 32-core machine to tackle large problems that are out of reach for a desktop implementation.
THE COMPETITIVENESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT AND INPUT MARKETS: A REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF RECENT RESEARCH

This article reviews literature on competitiveness of agricultural product and input markets. Although researchers in the United States and Europe emphasize different stages of the agricultural and food marketing system, their focus is similar: extent of buyer power, although both have largely ignored the sector supplying inputs to agriculture. The key conclusion is that there is little robust empirical evidence for food processing ﬁrms exerting buyer power, and there are limited data concerning vertical contracts between food processing and agriculture, but there is a small body of evidence concerning food retailer behavior and vertical coordination between food retailing and processing.
SDN Issues - A Survey

SDN separates the control plane and data plane. SDN needs to be equipped with complex and proprietary networking devices as it needs to separate the infrastructure layer (network device) from the control layer (network OS, which provides a central view and control over the network and network services) and the application layer (software/business application)[1][6][8]. When a single controller is given the job of controlling multiple devices (switches/routers) these changes in network structure brought about by SDN will inevitably impact on network security. In this paper we studied issues and security challenges in SDN and current status.
Progress in Serodiagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection

One‐third of the world population is estimated to have Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Accurate and timely identification of infected individuals is critical for treatment and control. The current diagnostic methods lack the desired sensitivity and specificity, require sophisticated equipment and skilled workforce or take weeks to yield results. Diagnosis of extrapulmonary TB, TB‐HIV co‐infection, childhood TB and sputum smear‐negative pulmonary TB pose serious challenges. Interest in developing serodiagnostic methods is increasing because detection of antibody is rapid, simple and relatively inexpensive, and does not require a living cell for detection. Three types of tests, namely screening tests to overcome diagnostic delay, specific tests for diagnosis of extrapulmonary TB and other bacteriologically negative cases, and tests for vaccine‐induced immunity need critical consideration. Several factors must be considered to develop serodiagnostic methods for TB. Antigen recognition by infected individuals is highly heterogeneous due to stage of disease, differences in HLA types, strain of the bacilli, health of the patient and bacillary load. With advances in molecular biological techniques, a number of novel antigens have been identified. Some of these antigens have proven valuable in detecting specific antibodies in some of the most challenging TB patients. The best example is a fusion protein containing several M. tuberculosis proteins (e.g. CFP‐10, MTB8, MTB48, MTB81 and the 38‐kDa protein) which showed encouraging results in detecting antibodies in sera of patients, including TB‐HIV co‐infection. This review presents progress made in the serodiagnosis of TB during the last decade.
Mining intelligent E-voting data: A framework

Intelligent e-voting data has been shown to pose a lot of benefit to e-voting especially in the area of security and recounting. After the election and balloting processes, valuable knowledge can still be extracted from this data. This work provides a framework model as roadmap for developers to follow in future development of such a system. The Perl based sample tested showed optimum performance and hence proves the viability of the methodology.
Institutional Theories and Management Accounting Change: Contributions, Issues and Paths for Development

Purpose – To explore the contributions made by two strands of institutional research that have been applied to the study of management accounting change: “old institutional economics” and “new institutional sociology”. To propose ways of developing these theories, and in general to develop an institutional understanding of management accounting change. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of the literature on management accounting change, with a special emphasis on the literature drawing on institutional theory. Theoretical discussion based on the concept of the “circuits of power”. Illustration with observations made during a case study of an organisation in which attempts to promote change in management accounting were conducted in recent years. Findings – Identification of some complementarities between these two strands of institutional theorising, and suggestions of how they can be developed by drawing on insights from the “circuits of power” framework. Research limitations/implications – The case study analysis is limited to an illustration of the theoretical discussion. A building of bridges between the various developments in institutional approaches to management accounting change is necessary. Originality/value – The paper is of value to researchers studying management accounting change. It clarifies the theoretical underpinnings of the institutional frameworks and suggests areas for institutional research into management accounting change.
Determination and Optimization of Spatial Samples for Distributed Measurements

There are no accepted standards for determining how many measurements to take during part inspection or where to take them, or for assessing confidence in the evaluation of acceptance based on these measurements. The goal of this work was to develop a standard method for determining the number of measurements, together with the spatial distribution of measurements and the associated risks for false acceptance and false rejection. Two paths have been taken to create a standard method for selecting sampling points. A wavelet-based model has been developed to select measurement points and to determine confidence in the measurement after the points are taken. An adaptive sampling strategy has been studied to determine implementation feasibility on commercial measurement equipment. Results using both real and simulated data are presented for each of the paths.
Artificial Neural Networks for Modeling Chemosensory Reception

A modeling approach for chemosensory reception using artiicial neu-ral networks is presented. We introduce a new model for chemosen-sory receptors, that models reactions between odor molecules and receptor proteins and the activation of second messenger by receptor proteins. The mathematical formulation of the reaction kinetics is transformed into an artiicial neural network (ANN). Many previously proposed models we have transformed to ANNs in the same way. For the resulting feed-forward networks learning algorithms provide a powerful means for parameter tting. The weights of the networks corresponding to chemical parameters can be trained by presenting experimental data. We demonstrate the simulation capabilities of our model with experimental data from honey bee chemosensory neurons and compare it with previously proposed models. It can be shown that our model based on the reaction kinet-ics is suucient to rebuild the observed data, whereas simpler models are not able to do this task.
Limits of the McDonaldization thesis: eBayization and ascendant trends in post-industrial consumer culture

Ritzer's McDonaldization thesis holds that McDonald's, with its efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control, is a good model for the forces of modern capitalism that structure both production and consumption. This article argues that while McDonaldization represents a particular collection of forces, there also exists a rising countertrend in post-industrial societies that we call eBayization. Whereas McDonaldization produces homogeneity and predictability, eBayization provides variety, adventure, and surprise, both for better and worse. Underlying these differences in the product line and consumer experience is a difference in organizational structures wherein McDonaldization emphasizes a centrally coordinated market, while eBayization brings the freedoms and abuses of a risk society.
Perception of Dyspnea during Histamine- and Methacholine-Induced Bronchoconstriction

Background: Perception of dyspnea is poorly related to bronchoconstriction and may be influenced by distinct psychophysiologic stimuli. Objective: This study compared the perceived psychophysiologic changes during histamine- and methacholine-induced bronchoconstriction using verbal as well as nonverbal assessment techniques. Methods: Perception of dyspnea was studied during induced bronchoconstriction in 40 atopic subjects randomly ascribed to either histamine (n = 20) or methacholine (n = 20) bronchial challenge. A 100% increase in specific airway resistance (sRaw) indicated airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). Dyspnea was verbally assessed by the Borg Scale (BS) and the Asthma Symptom Checklist (ASL). A hand dynamometer (HD) served for nonverbal assessment. Both challenge groups did not differ significantly with respect to age, anthropometric data, smoking and lung function before challenge. Results: AHR did not differ between groups but groups differed significantly with respect to the number of symptoms and to symptom intensity reported after challenge. Subjects who underwent the histamine challenge scored significantly higher on both measures derived from the ASL. BS ratings and HD scores correlated significantly but were not significantly related to the degree of AHR. Accurate and poor perceivers could be discriminated by analysis of the relationship between BS and sRaw. Conclusions: These findings suggest that perception of induced dyspnea differs between histamine and methacholine when assessed by a symptom report.