Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A study on top-down word image generation for handwritten word recognition

This paper describes a top-down word image generationmodel for holistic handwritten word recognition. To generatea word image, it uses likelihoods based, respectively,on a linguistic model, a segmentation model, and a charactergeneration model. In the recognition process withrespect to a given input image, it first generates, for eachword in a dictionary of possible words, a word image thatapproximates as closely as possible the input image. Themodel next calculates distance values between each generatedword image and the input image and selects for recognitionthat generated word image having the smallest distancevalue. The proposed method has been evaluated inan experiment using handwritten word images, and resultsshow it to be effective for use in handwritten word imagerecognition.
Irreversible investment †

Investment is often irreversible: once installed, capital has little or no value unless used in production. This paper proposes, solves and characterizes a model of sequential irreversible investment by a firm facing uncertainty in technology, demand and price of capital. The solution can be found in closed form if simple (but not totally unrealistic) functional forms are assumed, and can be given an optimal stopping interpretation. The marginal revenue product of capital that induces additional investment is higher, under irreversibility, than the conventionally measured user cost of capital. In ergodic steady state, however, the former quantity is on average lower than the latter.  1998 Academic Press Limited
Sampling and Pooling Methods for Capturing Herd Level Antibiotic Resistance in Swine Feces using qPCR and CFU Approaches

The aim of this article was to define the sampling level and method combination that captures antibiotic resistance at pig herd level utilizing qPCR antibiotic resistance gene quantification and culture-based quantification of antibiotic resistant coliform indicator bacteria. Fourteen qPCR assays for commonly detected antibiotic resistance genes were developed, and used to quantify antibiotic resistance genes in total DNA from swine fecal samples that were obtained using different sampling and pooling methods. In parallel, the number of antibiotic resistant coliform indicator bacteria was determined in the same swine fecal samples. The results showed that the qPCR assays were capable of detecting differences in antibiotic resistance levels in individual animals that the coliform bacteria colony forming units (CFU) could not. Also, the qPCR assays more accurately quantified antibiotic resistance genes when comparing individual sampling and pooling methods. qPCR on pooled samples was found to be a good representative for the general resistance level in a pig herd compared to the coliform CFU counts. It had significantly reduced relative standard deviations compared to coliform CFU counts in the same samples, and therefore differences in antibiotic resistance levels between samples were more readily detected. To our knowledge, this is the first study to describe sampling and pooling methods for qPCR quantification of antibiotic resistance genes in total DNA extracted from swine feces.
Supramolecular Complexation of Carbohydrates for the Bioavailability Enhancement of Poorly Soluble Drugs

In this review, a comprehensive overview of advances in the supramolecular complexes of carbohydrates and poorly soluble drugs is presented. Through the complexation process, poorly soluble drugs could be efficiently delivered to their desired destinations. Carbohydrates, the most abundant biomolecules, have diverse physicochemical properties owing to their inherent three-dimensional structures, hydrogen bonding, and molecular recognition abilities. In this regard, oligosaccharides and their derivatives have been utilized for the bioavailability enhancement of hydrophobic drugs via increasing the solubility or stability. By extension, polysaccharides and their derivatives can form self-assembled architectures with poorly soluble drugs and have shown increased bioavailability in terms of the sustained or controlled drug release. These supramolecular systems using carbohydrate will be developed consistently in the field of pharmaceutical and medical application.
Seed Selection for Distantly Supervised Web-Based Relation Extraction

In this paper we consider the problem of distant supervision to extract relations (e.g. origin(musical artist, location)) for entities (e.g. ‘The Beatles’) of certain classes (e.g. musical artist) from Web pages by using background information from the Linking Open Data cloud to automatically label Web documents which are then used as training data for relation classifiers. Distant supervision approaches typically su er from the problem of ambiguity when automatically labelling text, as well as the problem of incompleteness of background data to judge whether a mention is a true relation mention. This paper explores the hypothesis that simple statistical methods based on background data can help to filter unreliable training data and thus improve the precision of relation extractors. Experiments on a Web corpus show that an error reduction of 35% can be achieved by strategically selecting seed data.
Grobner Bases for Binomials with Parametric Exponents

We study the uniformity of Buchberger algorithms for computing Gröbner bases with respect to a natural number parameter k in the exponents of the input polynomials. The problem is motivated by positive results of T. Takahashi on special exponential parameter series of polynomial sets in singularity theory. For arbitrary input sets uniformity is in general impossible. By way of contrast we show that the Buchberger algorithm is indeed uniform up to a finite case distinction on the exponential parameter k for inputs consisting of monomials and binomials only. Under this hypothesis the case distinction is algorithmic and partitions the parameter range into Presburger sets. In each case the Buchberger algorithm is uniform and can be described explicitly and algorithmically. In the course of the algorithm the exponential parameter k enters also the coefficients as exponent. Thus the uniformity in k is established with respect to parametric exponents in both terms and coefficients. These results are obtained as a consequence of a much more general theorem concerning Buchberger algorithms for sets of monomials and binomials with arbitrary parametric coefficients and exponents, generalizing the construction of Gröbner systems.
Morphological scale-space analysis and feature extraction

This paper presents a morphological scale-space approach to the problem of feature extraction. The method relies on two steps: a hierarchical simplification step based on pyramids of morphological operators and a feature extraction step consisting in measuring the persistence of each image structure through the simplification scales. Specific scale-space properties are needed: the features should be ranked in a monotonic way and the contours should not be corrupt. Adequate scale-space operators are designed according to these properties. Depending on the filtering criteria on which they are build, a variety of attributes of the objects in the images may be extracted: the size, the shape, the contrast. Different examples illustrate the usefulness of this strategy.
What S in it for Me? Personal Benefits Obtained by Ceos Whose Firms are Acquired

We study benefits received by target company CEOs in completed mergers and acquisitions. These executives obtain wealth increases with a median of $4 to $5 million and a mean of $8 to $11 million, roughly in line with the permanent income streams that they sacrifice. CEOs receive lower financial gains from those transactions in which they become executives of the buyer, suggesting that tradeoffs exist between the financial and career-related benefits they extract. Regression estimates suggest that target shareholders receive lower acquisition premia in transactions that involve extraordinary personal treatment of the CEO.
Principles of Proper Inferences from Complex Survey Data

This paper discusses commonly-encountered features of complex survey datasets that should be accounted for by employing the SURVEY family of SAS® procedures. Concepts of clustering, stratification, unequal weighting, finite population corrections, and replication variances approximation methods new to SAS 9.2 will be presented. Potential pitfalls will be highlighted as will a few methods to trick SAS into performing techniques not yet available, such as DOMAIN analysis under replication variance approximations. FEATURES SPECIFIC TO COMPLEX SAMPLES A complex sample survey is defined as any sample selection scheme other than simple random sampling (SRS), the more familiar scheme in which every potentially sampled element has an identical and known, non-zero probability of selection. Data collected from complex sample surveys requires special attention due to four commonly present features: clustering, stratification, unequal weights, and finite populations. Whereas we might use PROC MEANS to report averages and standard errors from a physical science experiment, surveys of populations (especially humans) often require employing PROC SURVEYMEANS to properly account for standard error formula modifications attributable to these design features. By walking through a hypothetical complex sample of students selected to participate in a statewide mathematics aptitude test, the necessary SAS syntax amendments will be presented. In this paper we assume a state board of education aims to measure mathematics aptitude for 8th graders attending public schools by posing 100 questions of varying quantitative topics. A student’s score is treated as a continuous variable, ranging between 0 and 100. It was determined infeasible to collect data via a simple random sample, since no universal list of students exists. There was, however, a list of all public schools within the state and corresponding geographic information. From this list, a complex sample was designed.
Continuously Power Delivering for Passive Backscatter Wireless Sensor Networks

Nowadays wireless sensor networks (WSNs) depend on the battery duration and there is a lot of interest in creating a passive sensor network scheme in the area of Internet of Things (IoT) and space-oriented WSN systems. Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting enables the control and the delivery of wireless power to RF devices. All the devices made with this technology can be sealed, embedded with these structures, or made mobile, so they can be battery-independent. In this paper, we show that it is possible to have a complete passive WSN that could potentiate the IoT area and space craft sensing. This WSN should be capable of receiving a continuous flow of energy, so that the sensing mechanisms can be continuously powered. For this, we propose a combination of backscatter modulation with wireless power transfer, using the same diode based approach as in a traditional RF identification circuit. This way the cost is maintained low, but the amount of gathered energy is maximized during the backscatter communication. This paper also presents all the steps that are needed in order to implement such a circuit.
Arabic Computational Morphology in the West

This paper presents an overview of research on computational Arabic morphology which is done in the West, as well as a new multi-tape model which consits of three components: A lexical component which mapps the autoseg-mental morphemes of Arabic (e.g., pattern , root and vocalism in stems) to a surface form. A rewrite-rules component takes care of conditional changes. A morphotactic component provides for morphotactic parsing.
Location Based Services Recommendation with Budget Constraints

The paper reports the approach of our team “711” to recommend Brick-and-Mortar Store with Budget Constraints. By extensive studies, we find that the history data is very effective in this location based service recommendation and we exploit the history data in our recommendation from both the users’ aspect and the merchants’ aspect. Moreover, we extract predicative features from the train set and implement some existing methods, e.g., Xgboost. Our final ensemble method obtains a F1 score of 0.452 and reaches the third place in the SocInf’16 competition.
Mechanisms and insights into drug resistance in cancer

Cancer drug resistance continues to be a major impediment in medical oncology. Clinically, resistance can arise prior to or as a result of cancer therapy. In this review, we discuss different mechanisms adapted by cancerous cells to resist treatment, including alteration in drug transport and metabolism, mutation and amplification of drug targets, as well as genetic rewiring which can lead to impaired apoptosis. Tumor heterogeneity may also contribute to resistance, where small subpopulations of cells may acquire or stochastically already possess some of the features enabling them to emerge under selective drug pressure. Making the problem even more challenging, some of these resistance pathways lead to multidrug resistance, generating an even more difficult clinical problem to overcome. We provide examples of these mechanisms and some insights into how understanding these processes can influence the next generation of cancer therapies.
Expression of Intermediate Filament Proteins and Neuronal Markers in the Human Fetal Gut

The human enteric nervous system (ENS) derives from migrating neural crest cells (NCC) and is structured into different plexuses embedded in the gastrointestinal tract wall. During development of the NCC, a rearrangement of various cytoskeletal intermediate filaments such as nestin, peripherin, or alpha-internexin takes place. Although all are related to developing neurons, nestin is also used to identify neural stem cells. Until now, information about the prenatal development of the human ENS has been very restricted, especially concerning potential stem cells. In this study the expression of nestin, peripherin, and alpha-internexin, but also of neuronal markers such as protein gene product (PGP) 9.5 and tyrosine hydroxylase, were investigated in human fetal and postnatal gut. The tissue samples were rapidly removed and subsequently processed for immunohistochemistry or immunoblotting. Nestin could be detected in all samples investigated with the exception of the 9th and the 12th week of gestation (WOG). Although the neuronal marker PGP9.5 was coexpressed with nestin at the 14th WOG, this could no longer be observed at later time points. Alpha-internexin and peripherin expression also did not appear before the 14th WOG, where they were coexpressed with PGP9.5. This study reveals that the intermediate filament markers investigated are not suitable to detect early neural crest stem cells.
Costs and Performance of Non-Cooperative Relay Networks

—Two promising types of networks exist for future wireless cellular networks. The first one is a conventional network (CNT) in which a subscriber station (SS) is directly connected to a base station (BS). The other one is a relay network (RNT). In the considered RNT, a SS is directly connected to a BS or connected to a BS by using a relay station (RS). In this paper, different layouts of a RNT are compared with a CNT in an urban scenario modeled by a Manhattan grid. Two protocols are considered in the RNT, namely a non-cooperative amplify-and-forward and a non-cooperative decode-and-forward protocol. The comparison is based on a physical layer taken from IEEE 802.16 standard. Each network is analyzed separately in the same service area. The bits per second which can be transmitted per cost unit in the considered service area are determined for each type of network. The networks are compared by a cost model introduced in this paper. The costs of a RS are assumed to be a fraction of the costs of a BS. The maximum costs of a RS in relation to the costs of a BS are determined for which a RNT is more cost-efficient than a CNT. It is shown that, depending on the layout of the RNT, a RS may cost up to 6% of the costs of a BS.
Cerebellar and Hippocampal Activation During Eyeblink Conditioning Depends on the Experimental Paradigm: A MEG Study

The cerebellum and the hippocampus are key structures for the acquisition of conditioned eyeblink responses. Whereas the cerebellum seems to be crucial for all types of eyeblink conditioning, the hippocampus appears to be involved only in complex types of learning. We conducted a differential conditioning study to explore the suitability of the design for magnetencephalography (MEG). In addition, we compared cerebellar and hippocampal activation during differential delay and trace conditioning. Comparable conditioning effects were seen in both conditions, but a greater resistance to extinction for trace conditioning. Brain activation differed between paradigms: delay conditioning provoked activation only in the cerebellum and trace conditioning only in the hippocampus. The results reflect differential brain activation patterns during the two types of eyeblink conditioning.
Repeated Batch Fermentation Biotechnology for the Biosynthesis of Lipid and Gamma-Linolenic Acid by Cunninghamella bainieri 2A1

The biosynthesis of biomedical products including lipid and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) by Cunninghamella bainieri 2A1 was studied in repeated batch fermentation. Three key process variables, namely, glucose concentration, ammonium tartrate concentration, and harvesting time, were optimized using response surface methodology. Repeated batch fermentation was carried out by the cultivation of Cunninghamella bainieri 2A1 in nitrogen-limited medium with various nitrogen concentration (1–4 g/L) and glucose concentration (20–40 g/L) at three time intervals (12 h, 24 h, and 48 h). Experimental results showed that the highest lipid concentration of 6.2 g/L and the highest GLA concentration of 0.4 g/L were obtained in optimum conditions, where 20.2 g/L glucose, 2.12 g/L ammonium tartrate, and 48 h harvesting time were utilized. Statistical results showed that the interaction between glucose and ammonium tartrate concentration had highly significant effects on lipid and GLA biosynthesis (P < 0.01). Moreover, harvesting time had a significant interaction effect with glucose and ammonium tartrate concentration on lipid production (P < 0.05).
The effect of finite population on IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs throughput/delay performance

The theoretical performance of CSMA/CA, as it is used in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs, is investigated in this paper. We adopt and modify a previously presented analytical approach for CSMA/CA protocols in wireless LANs with a finite number of stations and find closed-form equations for throughput and delay. The presented numerical results highlight the characteristics of both CSMA/CA methods and define how their performance depends on the number of stations and on traffic conditions.
Wavelet Based Encoder/Decoder for Compression of ECG Signal

Signal compression is an important problem encountered in many applications. Various techniques have been prop osed over the years for addressing the problem. In this paper three compression algorithms are presented. In EZW algorithm, 3 -level decomposition is performed to the original ECG samples, and the wavelet coefficients at different sub -band representing the same spatial location in the ECG samples are loaded into a spanning tree.MEZW is a method derived from EZW method. The difference between them is that only on e dominant pass and one subordinate pass are performed in MEZW. If the computation time is a conce rn, both EZW and MEZW, especially EZW method, need to be applied to each of the ECG beats in order to break down the computational complexity. Index Terms: Compression Ratio, ECG, Embedded zerotree wavelet (EZW), Modified embedded zerotree wavelet (MEZW), NMAE, NRMSE, Wavelet based linear prediction (WBLP) ——————————  ——————————
Strong pathwise solutions of the stochastic Navier-Stokes system

We consider the stochastic Navier-Stokes equations forced by a multiplicative white noise on a bounded domain in space dimensions two and three. We establish the local existence and uniqueness of strong or pathwise solutions when the initial data takes values in H 1 . In the two-dimensional case, we show that these solutions exist for all time. The proof is based on finite-dimensional approximations, decomposition into high and low modes and pairwise comparison techniques.
Reduction of Current Mismatch in PLL Charge Pump

Low static phase offset is desired in Phase Locked Loops (PLL) employed in high speed I/O interfaces and frequency synthesizers. In this work, non idealities in phase frequency detector and charge pump contributing to static phase offset have been studied and their relative contributions analyzed in detail. A new charge pump architecture with reduced mismatch between Up and Dn current sources has been presented. It makes use of a single two stage amplifier for both current steering and reduction of mismatch. The efficacy of this architecture has been demonstrated with simulation results on a PLL running at an input reference frequency of 500MHz in65nm CMOS technology.
Functionalized Antimicrobial Composite Thin Films Printing for Stainless Steel Implant Coatings

In this work we try to address the large interest existing nowadays in the better understanding of the interaction between microbial biofilms and metallic implants. Our aimed was to identify a new preventive strategy to control drug release, biofilm formation and contamination of medical devices with microbes. The transfer and printing of novel bioactive glass-polymer-antibiotic composites by Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation into uniform thin films onto 316 L stainless steel substrates of the type used in implants are reported. The targets were prepared by freezing in liquid nitrogen mixtures containing polymer and antibiotic reinforced with bioglass powder. The cryogenic targets were submitted to multipulse evaporation by irradiation with an UV KrF* (λ = 248 nm, τFWHM ≤ 25 ns) excimer laser source. The prepared structures were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and profilometry, before and after immersion in physiological fluids. The bioactivity and the release of the antibiotic have been evaluated. We showed that the incorporated antibiotic underwent a gradually dissolution in physiological fluids thus supporting a high local treatment efficiency. Electrochemical measurements including linear sweep voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy studies were carried out to investigate the corrosion resistance of the coatings in physiological environments. The in vitro biocompatibility assay using the MG63 mammalian cell line revealed that the obtained nanostructured composite films are non-cytotoxic. The antimicrobial effect of the coatings was tested against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli strains, usually present in implant-associated infections. An anti-biofilm activity was evidenced, stronger against E. coli than the S. aureus strain. The results proved that the applied method allows for the fabrication of implantable biomaterials which shield metal ion release and possess increased biocompatibility and resistance to microbial colonization and biofilm growth.