Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TSV-LR: topological signature vector-based lexicon reduction for fast recognition of pre-modern Arabic subwords

Automatic recognition of Arabic words is a challenging task and its complexity increases as the lexicon grows. In pre-modern documents, the vocabulary is unconstrained; therefore a lexicon-reduction strategy is needed to reduce the recognition computational complexity. This paper proposes a novel lexicon-reduction method for Arabic subwords based on their shapes' topology and geometry. First the sub-word shape's topological and geometrical information is extracted from its skeleton and encoded into a graph. Then the graph is converted into a topological signature vector (TSV) which preserves the graph structure. The lexicon is reduced based on the TSV distance between the lexicon sub-words' shapes and a query shape, by keeping the i nearest subwords. The value of i is selected according to a predetermined lexicon-reduction accuracy. The proposed framework has been tested on a database of pre-modern Arabic subword shapes with promising results.
ASCCP Patient Management Guidelines: Pap Test Specimen Adequacy and Quality Indicators

Objectives. To provide management guidelines according to Pap test specimen adequacy based on literature review and expert opinion. Methods. A task force named by the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology conducted a literature review and discussed appropriate management. The steering committee of the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology and other experts reviewed the guidelines. Results. The guidelines recommend a repeat Pap test in 12 months for most women who are undergoing routine annual/biennial screening if the current Pap test is negative but either lacks an endocervical/transformation zone component or is partially obscured. Indications for considering an earlier repeat are also provided. The preferred management for unsatisfactory Pap tests is a repeat Pap test within a short interval of 2 to 4 months. Conclusions. The management guidelines will help promote optimal and uniform follow-up of women's Pap tests, according to Pap test specimen adequacy.
A Study of the Structure and Properties of Novel Fabrics for Knee Braces

The knee is the most used joint in the human body and is also most prone to injuries. Knee braces are medical devices used in the treatment of some form of injuries providing compression and warmth to the joint thus promoting healing. They can also be used for protection in several contact sports. At the moment there are no regulations governing the textile materials used in braces. The authors believe that knitted spacer fabrics have the desirable mechanical and comfort properties which could make these materials suitable for some medical applications. Commercially available knee braces have been tested and analyzed for their mechanical as well as thermophysiological properties. A range of novel spacer fabrics have been designed, developed, and characterized for comparison with commercial products. It has been found that knitted spacers can be engineered in terms of yarn type and structure used in each of the three layers in order to match and even outperform the properties exhibited by commercially available products, such as neoprene and other knitted fabrics, including composite materials. The test results obtained for a range of existing and novel products studied in this work have been explained in terms of their raw material, structure, and finishing treatments applied to them.
Silicon Carbide and Its Nanostructures

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising ceramic for various industrial applications thanks to its excellent properties at high temperature, high power, high frequency, high radiation environment and chemically harsh conditions. Substantial efforts have been made to develop new approaches to the synthesis of SiC and its nanostructures. Nanostructured SiC including nanoparticles and one-dimensional (1D) structures are superior to their bulk counterpart in many properties, and have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their important role in basic science and their potential applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices, and composite reinforcement. This paper outlines the various methods for fabricating SiC nanostructures. 1. Crystal structure Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising ceramic for various industrial applications thanks to its excellent properties. SiC is a binary compound semiconductor consisting of carbon and silicon, where each atom is sp3-hybridized and forms four bonds to four other atoms of the opposite kind (Fig. 1). On the other hand, the crystal structure gives rise to polytypism, which is a one-dimensional polymorphism. Unlike most other semiconductors, which only occur in one or two different crystal structures each, SiC exists in over 250 known polytypes [1, 2]. The difference among the polytypes is the stacking sequence along the с-axis of the lattice. The cubic polytype is referred to as β-SiC, whereas the hexagonal and rhombohedral structures are referred to as α-SiC. Due to the low stacking-fault energy, it is easy to form different SiC polytypes, making it possible to obtain SiC crystals with different properties for various applications. Fig.1 Unit cell structure of SiC single crystal [1]. 2. Properties and applications SiC has been widely studied for various applications because of its high Young’s modulus and hardness, excellent oxidation and corrosion durability, high strength at elevated temperatures, and good thermal shock resistance [3-5]. Moreover, SiC is a promising semiconducting material for application in areas of high temperature, high power, high frequency and harsh environments. Therefore, the synthesis of SiC for application in electronic devices has been widely investigated in recent decades. As a result of its large band gap (2.39, 3.02, 3.26, and 3.33 eV for 3C-SiC, 6H-SiC, 4H-SiC, and 2H-SiC, respectively, at room temperature), SiC shows a very high breakdown field (2.12, 2.2, and 2.5 MV/cm for 3C-SiC, 4H-SiC, and 6H-SiC, respectively) [6]. In addition, the prominent thermal conductivity of SiC (3.2, 3.7, and 4.9 W/cmK for 3C-SiC, 4H-SiC, and 6H-SiC, respectively) is typically 2–3 times higher than that of silicon (1.5 W/cmK), which allows SiC to remove heat more efficiently [7].
Using Internet and Mobile Phone Technology to Deliver an Automated Physical Activity Program: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background The Internet has potential as a medium for health behavior change programs, but no controlled studies have yet evaluated the impact of a fully automated physical activity intervention over several months with real-time objective feedback from a monitor. Objective The aim was to evaluate the impact of a physical activity program based on the Internet and mobile phone technology provided to individuals for 9 weeks. Methods A single-center, randomized, stratified controlled trial was conducted from September to December 2005 in Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, with 77 healthy adults whose mean age was 40.4 years (SD = 7.6) and mean body mass index was 26.3 (SD = 3.4). Participants were randomized to a test group that had access to an Internet and mobile phone–based physical activity program (n = 47) or to a control group (n = 30) that received no support. The test group received tailored solutions for perceived barriers, a schedule to plan weekly exercise sessions with mobile phone and email reminders, a message board to share their experiences with others, and feedback on their level of physical activity. Both groups were issued a wrist-worn accelerometer to monitor their level of physical activity; only the test group received real-time feedback via the Internet. The main outcome measures were accelerometer data and self-report of physical activity. Results At the end of the study period, the test group reported a significantly greater increase over baseline than did the control group for perceived control (P < .001) and intention/expectation to exercise (P < .001). Intent-to-treat analyses of both the accelerometer data (P = .02) and leisure time self-report data (P = .03) found a higher level of moderate physical activity in the test group. The average increase (over the control group) in accelerometer-measured moderate physical activity was 2 h 18 min per week. The test group also lost more percent body fat than the control group (test group: −2.18, SD = 0.59; control group: −0.17, SD = 0.81; P = .04). Conclusions A fully automated Internet and mobile phone–based motivation and action support system can significantly increase and maintain the level of physical activity in healthy adults.
Next century challenges: Nexus—an open global infrastructure for spatial-aware applications

Due to the lack of a generic platform for locationand spatial-aware systems, many basic services have to be reimplemented in each application that uses spatial-awareness. A cooperation among different applications is also difficult to achieve without a common platform. In this paper we present a platform that solves these problems. It provides an infrastructure that is based on digital models of regions of the physical world, which are augmented by virtual objects. We show how virtual objects make the integration of existing information systems and services in spatial-aware systems easier. Furthermore, our platform supports interactions between the computer models and the real world and integrates single models in a global “Augmented World”.
TB-WPRO: Title-Block Based Web Page Reorganization

For cell phone users and blind people using non-visual browsers, browsing Web by common browsers is quite inefficient due to the problem of information overload. This paper presents the TB-WPRO (Title-Block based Web Page Re-Organization) method, which hierarchically segments web pages into blocks using visual and layout information reflecting the web designers' intent. TB-WPRO segments the web pages with a clear goal to extract self-described title blocks. To reorganize web pages, the segmentation result is transformed to a serial of small web pages that could be easily accessed. Compared to current methods, the proposed approach obtains a promising segmentation result where blocks are visually and semantically consistent with original web pages.
Invited Talk: Electron Microscopy of Quantum Dots for Display Applications

CdSe/ZnCdS core/shell Quantum dots with high quantum yield (~84%) were used in this experiment. For the first time the red filtered cathodoluminescence images are shown along with their corresponding electron energy loss spectrum map, and high angle annular dark field image of the corresponding particles is shown.
How Much Do Bank Shocks Affect Investment? Evidence from Matched Bank-Firm Loan Data

We show that supply-side financial shocks have a large impact on firms’ investment. We do this by developing a new methodology to separate firm credit shocks from loan supply shocks using a vast sample of matched bank-firm lending data. We decompose loan movements in Japan for the period 1990 to 2010 into bank, firm, industry, and common shocks. The high degree of financial institution concentration means that individual banks are large relative to the size of the economy, which creates a role for granular shocks as in Gabaix (2011). As a result, idiosyncratic bank shocks i.e., movements in bank loan supply net of borrower characteristics and general credit conditions can have large impacts on aggregate loan supply and investment. We show that these idiosyncratic bank shocks explain 40 percent of aggregate loan and investment fluctuations.
Linewidth metrology for sub-10-nm lithography

As optical lithography advances toward the 10 nm mark, much effort is being expended to push electron beam lithography into the deep sub-10-nm regime. A significant issue at this length scale is the ability to accurately measure and compare linewidths. Measurements using secondary electron micrographs have a bias of a few nanometers and are therefore difficult to interpret in the sub-10-nm regime. Transmission electron microscopy can give greater accuracy but requires significant effort. This article shows that the use of a backscattered electron image together with a metal coating where appropriate can yield better measurement results than by using secondary electrons. With the use of a suitable model, linewidths for sub-10-nm hydrogen silsesquioxane lines were extracted with an estimated error of 1 nm.
Cooperative D1 Degradation in the Photosystem II Repair Mediated by Chloroplastic Proteases in Arabidopsis1[W][OA]

Light energy constantly damages photosynthetic apparatuses, ultimately causing impaired growth. Particularly, the sessile nature of higher plants has allowed chloroplasts to develop unique mechanisms to alleviate the irreversible inactivation of photosynthesis. Photosystem II (PSII) is known as a primary target of photodamage. Photosynthetic organisms have evolved the so-called PSII repair cycle, in which a reaction center protein, D1, is degraded rapidly in a specific manner. Two proteases that perform processive or endopeptidic degradation, FtsH and Deg, respectively, participate in this cycle. To examine the cooperative D1 degradation by these proteases, we engaged Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutants lacking FtsH2 (yellow variegated2 [var2]) and Deg5/Deg8 (deg5 deg8) in detecting D1 cleaved fragments. We detected several D1 fragments only under the var2 background, using amino-terminal or carboxyl-terminal specific antibodies of D1. The appearance of these D1 fragments was inhibited by a serine protease inhibitor and by deg5 deg8 mutations. Given the localization of Deg5/Deg8 on the luminal side of thylakoid membranes, we inferred that Deg5/Deg8 cleaves D1 at its luminal loop connecting the transmembrane helices C and D and that the cleaved products of D1 are the substrate for FtsH. These D1 fragments detected in var2 were associated with the PSII monomer, dimer, and partial disassembly complex but not with PSII supercomplexes. It is particularly interesting that another processive protease, Clp, was up-regulated and appeared to be recruited from stroma to the thylakoid membrane in var2, suggesting compensation for FtsH deficiency. Together, our data demonstrate in vivo cooperative degradation of D1, in which Deg cleavage assists FtsH processive degradation under photoinhibitory conditions.
PubMed search and exploration with real-time semantic network construction

Exploring PubMed to find relevant information is challenging and time-consuming because PubMed typically returns a long list of articles as a result of query. Semantic network helps users to explore a large document collection and to capture key concepts and relationships among the concepts. The semantic network also serves to broaden the user's knowledge and extend query keyword by detecting and visualizing new related concepts or relations hidden in the retrieved documents. The problem of existing semantic network techniques is that they typically produce many redundant relationships, which prevents users from quickly capturing the underlying relationships among concepts. This paper develops an online PubMed search system, which displays semantic networks having no redundant relationships in real-time as a result of query. To do so, we propose an efficient semantic network construction algorithm, which prevents producing redundant relationships during the network construction. Our extensive experiments on actual PubMed data show that the proposed method is significantly faster than the method removing redundant relationships afterward. Our method is implemented and integrated into a relevance feedback PubMed search engine, called RefMed, "http://dm.postech. ac.kr/refmed", and will be demonstrated through the website.
Public Versus Private Investment and Growth in a Hierarchical Education System

The paper studies the interaction between public and private spending in a two-stage education framework (K-12 and tertiary education) and their effects on economic growth. We find that an increase in the overall education public spending crowds out the total level of private contributions and increases the share of resources that households devote to K-12 education. For a given public budget, a higher share of K-12 public funding induces higher private education spending overall, of which a larger share goes towards higher education. The model broadly matches data on education finance in the OECD countries. The calibrated parameter values suggest that at both stages public and private inputs are good yet imperfect substitutes, with a higher degree of complementarity in basic education. We show that the growth maximizing share of public spending devoted to K-12 should be high, irrespective of the size of the public budget. Using the calibrated model to compare the structure of education funding in the EU and the US, we find that, to maximize growth, high tax countries should use more of their public resources in tertiary education relative to low tax countries. This suggests that US efforts to improve K-12 education and the reform of higher education in Europe are consistent with the objective of increased economic growth.
High Doses of Romiplostim Induce Proliferation and Reduce Proplatelet Formation by Human Megakaryocytes

Background Romiplostim (AMG531) is a Thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor agonist with no homology with the endogenous TPO that has been used to treat patients affected by immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Despite the use of TPO mimetics in the clinical practice, the mechanisms underlying their impact on megakaryocyte function is still unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings In this project we took advantage of an in vitro human model, that we have established in our laboratory for long time to study megakaryocyte development from human cord blood-derived progenitor cells, and we demonstrated that increasing doses of AMG531 (100 to 2000 ng/mL) determine a progressive increase of megakaryocyte proliferation with a parallel decrease in megakaryocyte ploidy and capacity of extending proplatelets. Most importantly, these differences in megakaryocyte function seemed to be correlated to modulation of AKT phosphorylation. Conclusions/Significance Overall our results shed new light on the mechanisms and on the relevance of dosage related to AMG531 impact on megakaryocyte function.
On the use of EEG features towards person identification via neural networks

Person identification based on spectral information extracted from the EEG is addressed in this work-a problem that has not yet been seen in a signal processing framework. Spectral features are extracted non-parametrically from real EEG data recorded from healthy individuals. Neural network classification is applied on these features using a Learning Vector Quantizer in an attempt to experimentally investigate the connection between a person's EEG and genetically specific information. The proposed method, compared with previously proposed methods, has yielded encouraging correct classification scores in the range of 80% to 100% (case-dependent). These results are in agreement with previous research showing evidence that the EEG carries genetic information.
Load Balancing Approach for QoS Management of Multi-instance Applications in Clouds

The success of the technology of cloud computing lies mainly in its business model of pay-as-you-go where users pay only for the resources really consumed. However it is known that there is no warranty for the QoS that these resources will provide at runtime. In this paper, we suggest an approach to make load balancing more dynamic to better manage the QoS of multi-instance applications in the Clouds. This approach is based on limiting the number of requests that, at a given time, can be effectively sent and stored in queues of virtual machines through a load balancer equipped with a queue for incoming user requests. This limitation is intended on the one hand to allow requests to go on to the faster instances, and on the other hand to better mitigate the effects of interference of sharing resources by the fact that a large part of the requests which were intended to instances that have become affected by degradation are still stored at the load balancer and can be allocated to non-affected instances or to new instances which will be created. A performance study using the simulator CloudSim showed the gain that this approach can generate, compared to classical approaches of load balancing.
Fibers and Fabrics for Chemical and Biological Sensing

Wearable sensors can be used to monitor many interesting parameters about the wearer’s physiology and environment, with important applications in personal health and well-being, sports performance and personal safety. Wearable chemical sensors can monitor the status of the wearer by accessing body fluids, such as sweat, in an unobtrusive manner. They can also be used to protect the wearer from hazards in the environment by sampling potentially harmful gas emissions, such as carbon monoxide. Integrating chemical sensors into textile structures is a challenging and complex task. Issues which must be considered include sample collection, calibration, waste handling, fouling and reliability. Sensors must also be durable and comfortable to wear. Here, we present examples of wearable chemical sensors that monitor the person and also his/her environment. We also discuss the issues involved in developing wearable chemical sensors and strategies for sensor design and textile integration.