Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classical and Quantum Consistency of the DGP Model

We study the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati model by the method of the boundary effective action. The truncation of this action to the bending mode π consistently describes physics in a wide range of regimes both at the classical and at the quantum level. The Vainshtein effect, which restores agreement with precise tests of general relativity, follows straightforwardly. We give a simple and general proof of stability, i.e. absence of ghosts in the fluctuations, valid for most of the relevant cases, like for instance the spherical source in asymptotically flat space. However we confirm that around certain interesting self-accelerating cosmological solutions there is a ghost. We consider the issue of quantum corrections. Around flat space π becomes strongly coupled below a macroscopic length of 1000 km, thus impairing the predictivity of the model. Indeed the tower of higher dimensional operators which is expected by a generic UV completion of the model limits predictivity at even larger length scales. We outline a non-generic but consistent choice of counterterms for which this disaster does not happen and for which the model remains calculable and successful in all the astrophysical situations of interest. By this choice, the extrinsic curvature Kµ� acts roughly like a dilaton field controlling the strength of the interaction and the cut-off scale at each space-time point. At the surface of Earth the cutoff is ∼ 1 cm but it is unlikely that the associated quantum effects be observable in table top experiments.
Design and implementation of the real-time color image correction system

When the color linear array CCD camera works, the output color image has the dislocation phenomenon which has seriously affected the human visual effect. At the same time the dislocation phenomenon has also brought great trouble to the image processing. In order to resolve this problem, a real-time collection system with the PCI interface has been developed. The system not only has the image collection function but also has the communication function. The system is so convenient that it can be easy to achieve control and data transfer. In the system, hardware circuit module is designed with the block-style thinking. The FPGA is the core of the whole hardware circuit module, responsible for data transmission, timing logic control and serial communication. Double buffer structure ensures the data transmission reliably. The PCI driver development and the PC software application are described seriously in the software module. The DMA mode and the event notification method are adopted in the driver. The RGB color correction algorithm is introduced seriously in the software application. The experiment results show that the system has met the requirement targets. It can achieve the maximum transfer rate of 40MBps when running in the DMA mode. The system is stable and real-time when it works outdoors.
Interplay between Matrix Metalloproteinase-9, Matrix Metalloproteinase-2, and Interleukins in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Matrix Metalloproteases (MMPs) and cytokines have been involved in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, no studies have still explored the possible associations between the two families of molecules. The present study aimed to evaluate the contribution of active MMP-9, active MMP-2, interleukin- (IL-) 17, IL-18, IL-23, and monocyte chemotactic proteins-3 to the pathogenesis of MS and the possible interconnections between MMPs and cytokines. The proteins were determined in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 89 MS patients and 92 other neurological disorders (OND) controls. Serum active MMP-9 was increased in MS patients and OND controls compared to healthy subjects (p < 0.001 and p < 0.01, resp.), whereas active MMP-2 and ILs did not change. CSF MMP-9, but not MMP-2 or ILs, was selectively elevated in MS compared to OND (p < 0.01). Regarding the MMPs and cytokines intercorrelations, we found a significant association between CSF active MMP-2 and IL-18 (r = 0.3, p < 0.05), while MMP-9 did not show any associations with the cytokines examined. Collectively, our results suggest that active MMP-9, but not ILs, might be a surrogate marker for MS. In addition, interleukins and MMPs might synergistically cooperate in MS, indicating them as potential partners in the disease process.
Hybrid Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel-Inverter Induction-Motor-Drive Direct Torque Control for Automotive Applications

This paper presents a hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel motor drive Direct Torque Control (DTC) scheme for electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrid EVs. The control method is based on DTC operating principles. The stator voltage vector reference is computed from the stator flux and torque errors imposed by the flux and torque controllers. This voltage reference is then generated using a hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter, where each phase of the inverter can be implemented using a dc source, which would be available from fuel cells, batteries, or ultracapacitors. This inverter provides nearly sinusoidal voltages with very low distortion, even without filtering, using fewer switching devices. In addition, the multilevel inverter can generate a high and fixed switching frequency output voltage with fewer switching losses, since only the small power cells of the inverter operate at a high switching rate. Therefore, a high performance and also efficient torque and flux controllers are obtained, enabling a DTC solution for multilevel-inverter-powered motor drives.
Spheres of Influence: A Reconceptualization

Spheres of influence (SOI) – defined as formations in which one nation exercises an intermediate level of control over others through ideational and economic rather than coercive means – may contribute to international stability by reducing the risk of conflict. From a realist viewpoint, a superpower has no reason to oppose other powers forming an SOI as long as its core interests are not harmed. SOI may not only serve as a physical buffer between regional powers, but also provide a psychological sense of security. At the same time, SOI may be reconciled with the liberal international order as long as they are non-coercive in nature. Thus, SOI may play a role in helping a prevailing global superpower (such as the United States) adapt to a rising regional power (such as China).
Broadband modelling of indoor power-line channels

The main purpose of this paper is to describe and model the characteristics of low voltage distribution lines inside consumer premises, when used as a broadband communication channel. Results from measurements performed both in the laboratory and in residential buildings, are presented and discussed. Also a channel model to simulate the behaviour of these lines for high bit-rate digital communications is proposed. The model contemplates the topology of the power grid and the characteristics of the wires and loads connected to them; it incorporates as well statistical time variation of the loads, so that the dynamic evolution of the channel performance can be evaluated.
Women's Participation in Senior Management Positions: Gender Social Relations, Law and Corporate Governance

We provide an empirical overview of women’s under-representation in positions of senior management in Brazil, including the board of directors and "C" level positions. We do so by collecting data on 73,901 top managerial positions of 837 different publicly held companies throughout sixteen years from 1997 until 2012. We find that the proportion of women in top management positions in Brazilian companies is currently around 8% and relatively stagnant over the years under analysis. Around half of the companies did not appoint a single woman to their boards during the years under analysis, whereas around two-thirds did not exhibit at least one woman on their senior management teams. We also investigate the corporate attributes associated with a higher or lower presence of women on board and top executive positions. Contrary to the common sense, we find that companies listed on the Novo Mercado as well as state-owned companies are associated with a lower presence of women on the board of directors. We conclude by discussing some possible institutional solutions, including the possibility of affirmative actions such as quotas, in order to promote higher gender equality at the top of the Brazilian corporate world.
Bit Error Rate Performance in OFDM System Using MMSE & MLSE Equalizer Over Rayleigh Fading Channel Through The BPSK , QPSK , 4 QAM & 16 QAM Modulation Technique

In this paper Bit Error Rate performance of OFDM BPSK, QPSK, 4-QAM, 16-QAM System over Rayleigh fading channel is analyzed. OFDM is a orthogonal frequency division multiplexing to reduce inter-symbol interference problem. Two of the most equalization algorithms are minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer and maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) equalizer. Finally simulations of OFDM signals are carried with Rayleigh faded signals to understand the effect of channel fading and to obtain optimum value of Bit Error Rate (BER) and Signal to noise ratio (SNR).
Optimal Performance Enhancement of Capacitor in Radial Distribution System Using Fuzzy and HSA

This paper presents a new two-stage methodology using the fuzzy and advanced Harmony search algorithm (HSA) for the placement of optimal capacitors on the primary feeders of the radial distribution systems with an objective to reduce the power losses and to improve the voltage profile. In the first stage, fuzzy approach is used to find the optimal capacitor locations and in the second stage, An advanced Harmony search algorithm is used to find the optimal sizes of the capacitors in the optimal capacitor locations identified by using the fuzzy approach. The proposed method is tested on 15-bus, 33-bus, 34-bus and 69-bus test systems and the results are presented.
HaploGrep: a fast and reliable algorithm for automatic classification of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups

An ongoing source of controversy in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) research is based on the detection of numerous errors in mtDNA profiles that led to erroneous conclusions and false disease associations. Most of these controversies could be avoided if the samples' haplogroup status would be taken into consideration. Knowing the mtDNA haplogroup affiliation is a critical prerequisite for studying mechanisms of human evolution and discovering genes involved in complex diseases, and validating phylogenetic consistency using haplogroup classification is an important step in quality control. However, despite the availability of Phylotree, a regularly updated classification tree of global mtDNA variation, the process of haplogroup classification is still time‐consuming and error‐prone, as researchers have to manually compare the polymorphisms found in a population sample to those summarized in Phylotree, polymorphism by polymorphism, sample by sample. We present HaploGrep, a fast, reliable and straight‐forward algorithm implemented in a Web application to determine the haplogroup affiliation of thousands of mtDNA profiles genotyped for the entire mtDNA or any part of it. HaploGrep uses the latest version of Phylotree and offers an all‐in‐one solution for quality assessment of mtDNA profiles in clinical genetics, population genetics and forensics. HaploGrep can be accessed freely at http://haplogrep.uibk. ac.at. Hum Mutat 31:–8, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Estimation of speech presence probability in the field of microphone array

The subject of this work is the robust estimation of speech presence probability of every spectral component of a speech signal impinging on a linear microphone array. The approach is based on the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) applied to the multichannel framework and far-field, wideband sources. It is shown that under certain distributional assumptions the GLRT provides a framework for speech presence detection by exploiting both the spatial localization and spectral content of the speech signal. The efficiency of the approach and its superiority over a state-of-the-art one-channel speech presence estimation technique is illustrated when additive white Gaussian noise is present in the acoustical field in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
Hibernating Little Brown Myotis (Myotis lucifugus) Show Variable Immunological Responses to White-Nose Syndrome

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging infectious disease devastating hibernating North American bat populations that is caused by the psychrophilic fungus Geomyces destructans. Previous histopathological analysis demonstrated little evidence of inflammatory responses in infected bats, however few studies have compared other aspects of immune function between WNS-affected and unaffected bats. We collected bats from confirmed WNS-affected and unaffected sites during the winter of 2008–2009 and compared estimates of their circulating levels of total leukocytes, total immunoglobulins, cytokines and total antioxidants. Bats from affected and unaffected sites did not differ in their total circulating immunoglobulin levels, but significantly higher leukocyte counts were observed in bats from affected sites and particularly in affected bats with elevated body temperatures (above 20°C). Bats from WNS-affected sites exhibited significantly lower antioxidant activity and levels of interleukin-4 (IL-4), a cytokine that induces T cell differentiation. Within affected sites only, bats exhibiting visible fungal infections had significantly lower antioxidant activity and levels of IL-4 compared to bats without visible fungal infections. Overall, bats hibernating in WNS-affected sites showed immunological changes that may be evident of attempted defense against G. destructans. Observed changes, specifically elevated circulating leukocytes, may also be related to the documented changes in thermoregulatory behaviors of affected bats (i.e. increased frequencies in arousal from torpor). Alterations in immune function may reflect expensive energetic costs associated with these processes and intrinsic qualities of the immunocapability of hibernating bats to clear fungal infections. Additionally, lowered antioxidant activity indicates a possible imbalance in the pro- versus antioxidant system, may reflect oxidative tissue damage, and should be investigated as a contributor to WNS-associated morbidity and mortality.
MuTUAL: A Controlled Authoring Support System Enabling Contextual Machine Translation

The paper introduces a web-based authoring support system, MuTUAL, which aims to help writers create multilingual texts. The highlighted feature of the system is that it enables machine translation (MT) to generate outputs appropriate to their functional context within the target document. Our system is operational online, implementing core mechanisms for document structuring and controlled writing. These include a topic template and a controlled language authoring assistant, linked to our statistical MT system.
A wave function approach to dissipative processes

We present a wave function approach to study the evolution of a small system when it is coupled to a large reservoir. Fluctuations and dissipation original in this approach from quantum jumps occurring randomly during the time evolution of the system. This approach can be applied to a wide class of relaxation operators in the Markovian regime, and it is equivalent to the standard Master Equation approach.
Social Computing Privacy Concerns : Antecedents & Effects

Social computing systems are increasingly a part of people’s social environment. Inherent to such communities is the collection and sharing of personal information, which in turn may raise concerns about privacy. In this study, we extend prior research on internet privacy to address questions about antecedents of privacy concerns in social computing communities, as well as the impact of privacy concerns in such communities. The results indicate that users' trust in other community members, and the community's information sharing norms have a negative impact on community-specific privacy concerns. We also find that community-specific privacy concerns not only lead users to adopt more restrictive information sharing settings, but also reduce the amount of information they share with the community. In addition, we find that information sharing is impacted by network centrality and the tenure of the user in the community. Implications of the study for research and practice are discussed.
Investigating the impact of e-customer relationship management on hotels 'website service quality

As online tourists are becoming more price sensitive, less brand loyal and more sophisticated, eCustomer Relationship Management (CRM) becomes a strategic necessity for attracting and increasing guests’ patronage. Despite the vital role of eCRM for e-commerce success, its deployment frequently fails or it does not always deliver the expected results. The latter has boosted research, but studies have been primarily focused on investigating eCRM implementation from a company’s perspective ignoring its customer perspective. In this vein, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of eCRM on hotels’ website service quality as perceived by their guests. To achieve that, first the concept of eCRM is analysed and then, a customer-centric eCRM model that directly identifies eCRM impact on e-services is proposed and used for measuring hotels’ eCRM practices. Later, a literature review synthesizes the concept and dimensions of website service quality providing a scale of website service quality measurement. Data from eCRM hotels guests were gathered and findings provide useful implications for successful implementing eCRM and enhancing website service quality. Finally, the limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.
Dual band and Broadband Rectangular Patch Mircostrip Antenna with T Shaped Slot for WiMax Application

–The paper presents the good matching between simulated and measured results of dual band and broad band rectangular patch mircostrip antenna with T shaped slot (RPMATSS) for the WiMax Application. This antenna is designed on glass epoxy FR-4 substrate. The performance of this antenna is also compared with that of a simple rectangular patch antenna. The simulated results for this antenna are optimized by varying position, length and width of T shaped slot. The Simulated and measured results indicate that the designed structure resonate at various closely spaced frequencies which lying between two different frequency bands (median and higher) allocation for WiMax application [WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) has been allocated (IEEE 802.16) frequency bands, which will be called the median band (3.25 to 3.85 GHz) and the high band (5.25 to 5.85 GHz), respectively] and offers much improved bandwidth 8.9% at central resonance frequency 3.55GHz and 12.53% at central resonance frequency 5.84GHz in comparison to an rectangular patch antenna (having band width 3.27%). The directivity and gain of antenna also improves significantly at some of the resonance frequencies. Keywords––Microstrip antenna, dual band, broadband, impedance bandwidth, gain.
Correlations of near-infrared, optical and X-ray luminosity for early-type galaxies

The relation between X-ray luminosity and near-infrared (NIR) luminosity for early-type galaxies has been examined. NIR luminosities should provide a superior measure of stellar mass compared to optical luminosities used in previous studies, especially if there is significant star formation or dust present in the galaxies. However, we show that the X-ray-NIR relations are remarkably consistent with the X-ray-optical relations. This indicates that the large scatter of the relations is dominated by scatter in the X-ray properties of early-type galaxies, and is consistent with early-types consisting of old, quiescent stellar populations. We have investigated scatter in terms of environment, surface brightness profile, Mg 2 , Hβ, Hy line strength indices, spectroscopic age and nuclear Ha emission. We found that galaxies with high Mg 2 index, low Hβ and Hy indices or a 'core' profile have a large scatter in L X , whereas galaxies with low Mg 2 , high Hβ and Hy indices or 'power-law' profiles generally have L X < 10 41 erg s -1 . There is no clear trend in the scatter with environment or nuclear Ha emission.
Priority-Hints: An Algorithm for Priority-Based Buffer Management

In this paper, we address the problem of buffer management in a DBMS when the workload consists of transactions of different priority levels. We present Priority-Hints. a new buffer management algorithm that uses hints provided by the DBMS access methods. The performance of Priority-Hints is compared to that of priority buffer management schemes introduced earlier for a variety of workloads. Our simulation results indicate that Priority-Hints performs consistently better than simple LRU-based algorithms. Furthermore, our algorithm approaches (and in some cases surpasses) the performance of highly sophisticated algorithms that require much more information to be provided to the buffer manager.
A study on recognizing non-artistic face sketches

Face sketches are being used in eyewitness testimonies for about a century. These sketches are crucial in finding suspects when no photo is available, but a mental image in the eyewitness's mind. However, research shows that current procedures used for eyewitness testimonies have two main problems. First, they can significantly disturb the memories of the eyewitness. Second, in many cases, these procedures result in face images far from their target faces. These two problems are related to the plasticity of the human visual system and the differences between face perception in humans (holistic) and current methods of sketch production (piecemeal). In this paper, we present some insights for more realistic sketch to photo matching. We describe how to retrieve identity specific information from crude sketches, directly drawn by the non-artistic eyewitnesses. The sketches we used merely contain facial component outlines and facial marks (e.g. wrinkles and moles). We compare results of automatically matching two types sketches (trace-over and user-provided, 25 each) to four types of faces (original, locally exaggerated, configurally exaggerated, and globally exaggerated, 249 each), using two methods (PDM distance comparison and PCA classification). Based on our results, we argue that for automatic non-artistic sketch to photo matching, the algorithms should compare the user-provided sketches with globally exaggerated faces, with a soft constraint on facial marks, to achieve the best matching rates. This is because the user-provided sketch from the user's mental image, seems to be caricatured both locally and configurally.
OF NON-SPEECH SOUNDS IN USER INTERFACES

We review the literature on the integration of non-speech sounds to visual interfaces and applications from a usability perspective and subsequently recommend which auditory feedback types serve to enhance human interaction with computers by conveying useful and comprehensible information. We present an overview over varied tasks, functions and environments with a view to establishing the best practices for introducing non-speech sounds in order to improve the overall experience of users.