Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reading Egypt’s Postcolonial State Through Frantz Fanon: Hegemony, Dependency and Development

This essay looks at how Fanon’s work on the postcolonial state can be used to interpret political changes in the postcolonial world, particularly his call to “stretch Marxism”. I use his notion of a dependent “native bourgeoisie” created through colonialism to look at the Egyptian capitalist class under British colonial rule, the Nasser era and the Sadat era. I argue the Nasserist ruling class did not resemble the dependent “native bourgeoisie” Fanon spoke of as emerging right after the end of colonial rule, and that it was the Egyptian bourgeoisie under British colonial rule and the ruling class formed by Sadat that more closely fulfilled this role. Moreover, I argue Fanon’s call to understand capitalist development in postcolonial contexts as tied to colonialism provides a useful lens through which to revisit the evolution of the Egyptian postcolonial state.
A Field Based Representation for Vague Areas Defined by Spatial Prepositions

Natural language is one of the primary means of communicating spatial information, but existing geographic information retrieval (GIR) facilities are weak in this respect. One of the major challenges in automated interpetation of spatial natural language is how to model the regions implied by spatial expressions. This paper presents a field-based model for representing the vague regions defined by spatial language, including a method for defining field values from existing spatial language data sources. To interface this new vague field model with existing GIR systems and methods, an algorithm for extracting crisp boundaries from the field representation is also presented.
Neural vision sensors for surface defect detection

Vision sensors are built from a camera and intelligent hardware and/or software. Steadily decreasing microelectronic costs have spawned a large number of vision sensory applications, such as surface defect detection. A constructive method for defect detection entails a mixture of mathematical and intelligent modules. Such a heterogeneous modular system can be realized in many ways. In this paper we discuss a packet-switched implementation on a macro-enriched field-programmable gate-array.
Can MAP and Planck map Planck physics

We investigate whether a recently proposed modulation of the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations generated through transplankian (maybe stringy) effects during inflation can be observed. We briefly review the mechanism leading to the modulation and apply it to a generic slow-roll scenario of inflation. We then investigate how these primordial modulation effects leave an imprint in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Our conclusions are that for favourable parameter values already the presently flying MAP satellite will have a chance to detect such transplanckian oscillations in the pattern of temperature fluctuations on the sky, and that the upcoming Planck satellite will either detect them or put stringent limits related to the mass scale where the new effects appear.
Introducing Structured Methods: An Undelivered Promise? - A Case Study

Structured methods for the development of computer-based systems have been promoted for more than 20 years. This paper takes its starting point in the question why structured methods are still not in wide spread use. We focus on the role the introduction process of a method and its context in an organisation plays for this problem and present an empirical case study of an attempt to take a structured method into use in the IT Unit of a U.K. public sector organisation. A framework consisting of interdependent key factors is used to structure the presentation of the case. Based on the analysis of the interplay of these factors, recommendations for the improvement of method introduction are given. Some of these recommendations have a more general character, and some are directed in particular towards the organisation under consideration. They do not offer a guaranteed prescription for success, but we feel that they have some value in that they may help to promote the further diffusion of structured development methods.
Benefits of Wide Area Intrusion Detection Systems using FMCW Radar

The history of perimeter protection is based on building fences. That basic concept evolved into detecting activity along the fences using a variety of sensors. Today a wide variety of fiber and wire-based sensors are available to mount on a fence, as well as many different types of IR, radar, optical, seismic and acoustic sensors to place along the fence line. Generally some camera support is provided, with the cameras programmed to point to pre-set locations along the fence. A more robust perimeter protection would consist of wide area sensors with the capability to look out beyond the fence to detect potential intrusion and track intruders to determine their intention. In looking beyond the perimeter, wide area sensors can provide precious time to plan and initiate the appropriate response. In addition, because they sweep a 360-degree circle, the sensors can provide continued tracking of the intrusion even after penetration of the perimeter, greatly enhancing the effectiveness and safety of the response team. The new wide-area concept consists of using modern radar technology for wide area detection of objects which are moving, and then using the precise location information from the radar to point a camera for assessment. Without having to continually stare at a bank of video monitors, the operator is presented with the location, direction of travel and identification and number of potential intruders, all in a matter of seconds. This paper first presents the features of this new wide area system, followed by an overview of radar technology and closes with a discussion on the benefits of the FMCW topology over pulse Doppler in security and surveillance applications.
The Morphing Space

Morphing is a well known technique to generate smooth transitions between two objects. We propose a more general understanding of morphing: First, we use morphing to describe objects as a composite of other objects. Second, we allow this description to incorporate more than two base objects. Given this concept a set of objects produced by morphing among multiple objects forms a mathematical space, which we call morphing space. We present a mathematical framework to discuss the properties of such spaces and their relation to the applied morphing algorithms for synthesizing the elements. We show that not only synthesis of objects but also analysis of objects is possible in a morphing space. Analysis results in the definition of an object in terms of the base objects of which it is comprised. Algorithms are proposed for both the synthesis and the analysis process.
View Sequence Coding using Warping-based Image Alignment for Multiview Video

Multi-view video sequences are recorded by multiple cameras simultaneously. In view direction the images captured by different cameras in the same time instant form the view image sequences. The view sequence represents the geometry changes of the scene in space. The compression of view sequence provides the great contribution to the whole multi-view video compression. This paper discusses the view sequence coding (VSC) and proposes a warping-based alignment technology to improve the compression performance. Proposed method caters to the traits of view sequence and adopts the affine model to warp reference image. Image inpainting making use of information from adjacent warped image is proposed to process the missing regions formed while warping. The aligned multi-hypothesis disparity prediction is employed to further improve the prediction effects. The experiment shows that the coding efficiency of the proposed scheme keeps head and shoulders above all the intra coding in simulcast coding scheme and the proposed scheme also improves the coding efficiency by up 0.3 ~ 0.5 dB at low bit rates when compared with the standard coding method.
Temporal variations characterization for fixed wireless at 29.5 GHz

The reliability of the communication channel is one of the most important issues for successful deployment of LMCS/LMDS systems. This paper focuses on the temporal variations of the signal because of passing vehicles and foliage movement imparted from wind. CW measurements at 29.5 GHz with the transmitter and receiver at fixed locations were carried out for a maximum distance of 1.5 km between transmitting and receiving antennas. The presented results include power profile at various locations, cumulative distribution function of received signal strength, autocorrelation function, power spectral density, level crossing rates, duration of fades and interfade statistics. The Kolmogrov Smirnov test is also performed to find the closeness of the acquired data with standard fading channel models.
Liver damage in primary biliary cirrhosis and accompanied by primary Sjögren's syndrome: a retrospective pilot study

Introduction Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) have been referred to as “generalized autoimmune epithelitis”. Indeed, the pathogenic mechanisms, clinical features, and optimal therapeutic approaches for them are not yet fully defined. Material and methods A retrospective analysis was carried out on clinical data obtained from 302 inpatients newly diagnosed with PBC, pSS, or the coexistence of PBC and SS between May 2011 and December 2014. Forty-two patients with abnormal hepatic function were divided into the PBC group (n = 17), the coexistent group (PBC accompanied by SS, n = 13), and the pSS group (n = 12). Their clinical symptoms, laboratory data, and pathological features were collected and analyzed when they were first diagnosed. The clinical and laboratory data were collected at 0, 1, and 3 months after treatment. Results Of the 42 patients with abnormal liver function, 4 were male and 38 were female patients. Compared with the patients in the PBC group, the patients in the other 2 groups were more likely to have an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels. Abnormal serum immunoglobulin M levels (IgM) were more frequent in the PBC group. Corticosteroids were effective in normalizing elevated liver enzyme levels in patients with SS and in those with coexistent conditions. Conclusions This pilot study suggests that patients with PBC, pSS, and PBC/SS coexistence and having liver function abnormality share similar symptoms, but have different pathogenesis and prognosis.
Linguistic Redundancy in Twitter

In the last few years, the interest of the research community in micro-blogs and social media services, such as Twitter, is growing exponentially. Yet, so far not much attention has been paid on a key characteristic of micro-blogs: the high level of information redundancy. The aim of this paper is to systematically approach this problem by providing an operational definition of redundancy. We cast redundancy in the framework of Textual Entailment Recognition. We also provide quantitative evidence on the pervasiveness of redundancy in Twitter, and describe a dataset of redundancy-annotated tweets. Finally, we present a general purpose system for identifying redundant tweets. An extensive quantitative evaluation shows that our system successfully solves the redundancy detection task, improving over baseline systems with statistical significance.
Changes in the management of the information systems organization: an exploratory study

The present study was conducted as exploratory research to understand the activities and beliefs of IS and line managers, with regard to the management of information technology (IT). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 managers in seven firms to understand their current initiatives, future vision, and the factors driving change. Managers from three different positions from each company were interviewed—a senior IS manager, an IS application development manager, and a line manager. The results showed that there were a variety of different initiatives underway—with the most common ones being rapid prototyping, an emphasis on purchasing packages, business reengineering, and building IT infrastructure. Beyond these few commonalities, different firms were adopting a variety of changes to their IS organization structure, working relationships with users and outside vendors, system development tools and methodologies, and their training and other human resource policies. Similarly, a broad range of factors were cited as driving changes in IT management practice—with these clustering into four major sets of drivers: business cost pressures, business service pressures, IS service pressures, and technology-push factors. Few respondents were able to articulate a vision for the IS organization of the future, beyond describing their expectations for the initiatives currently underway. Of those respondents who provided such a vision, few described the steps required to achieve the transition. These findings are analyzed in terms of a management framework derived from Harold Leavitt and discussed in light of other recent research on IS management. Questions for follow-up research are suggested.
Measure of image focus using image segmentation and SML for light field images

In this paper, a detection method of in-focused regions in the light field stack images is proposed. Its main motivation is that the focus measure with region-based image algorithms can be more meaningful than the focus measure with pixel-based algorithms which just consider individual pixels or associated local neighborhoods of pixels in the focus measure process. After we employ the normalized cut method to segment the light field stack images, we apply the sum-modified-Laplacian operation to the corresponding segmented regions. This process provides a focus measurement to select suitable in-focused areas of the stack images. Since only sharply focused regions have high responses, the in-focused regions can be detected. In addition, the all-focused image can be reconstructed by combining all in-focused image regions.
Longitudinal migration and inducible displacement of the Mobility Total Ankle System

Background and purpose RSA can be used for early detection of unstable implants. We assessed the micromotion of the Mobility Total Ankle System over 2 years, to evaluate the stability of the bone-implant interface using radiostereometric analysis measurements of longitudinal migration and inducible displacement. Patients and methods 23 patients were implanted with the Mobility system. Median age was 62 (28–75) years and median BMI was 28.8 (26.0–34.5). Supine radiostereometric analysis examinations were done from postoperatively to the 2-year follow-up. Standing examinations were taken from the 3-month to the 2-year follow-up. Migrations and displacements were assessed using model-based RSA software (v. 3.2). Results The median maximum total point motion (MTPM) for the implants at 2 years was 1.19 (0.39–1.95) mm for the talar component and 0.90 (0.17–2.28) mm for the spherical tip of the tibial component. The general pattern for all patients was that the slope of the migration curves decreased over time. The main direction of motion for both components was that of subsidence. The median 2-year MTPM inducible displacement for the talar component was 0.49 (0.27–1.15) mm, and it was 0.07 (0.03–0.68) mm for the tibial component tip. Interpretation The implants subside into the bone over time and under load. This corresponds to the direction of primary loading during standing or walking. This statistically significant motion may become a clinically significant finding that would correspond with premature implant failure.
Level conversion for dual-supply systems

Dual-supply voltage design using a clustered voltage scaling (CVS) scheme is an effective approach to reduce chip power. The optimal CVS design relies on a level converter implemented in a flip-flop to minimize energy, delay, and area penalties due to level conversion. Additionally, circuit robustness against supply bounce is a key property that differentiates good level converter design. Novel flip-flops presented in this paper incorporate a half-latch level converter and a precharged level converter. These flip-flops are optimized in the energy-delay design space to achieve over 30% reduction of energy-delay product and about 10% savings of total power in a CVS design as compared to the conventional flip-flop. These benefits are accompanied by 24% flip-flop robustness improvement leading to 13% delay spread reduction in a CVS critical path. The proposed flip-flops also show 18% layout area reduction. Advantages of level conversion in a flip-flop over asynchronous level conversion in combinational logic are also discussed in terms of delay penalty and its sensitivity to supply bounce.
Effects of brane-flux transition on black holes in string theory

Extremal = 2 black holes in four dimensions can be described by an ensemble of D3-branes wrapped on internal supersymmetric three-cycles of Calabi-Yau threefolds on which type IIB superstring theory is compactified. We construct a similar configuration, with extra RR and NS-NS three-form fluxes being turned on. We can avoid the Freed-Witten anomaly on the D3-branes by enforcing the pullback of these extra fluxes to the D3-branes to vanish at the classical level. In the setup the D3-brane charge is not conserved since it is classified as a trivial class in twisted K-theory. Consequently, the D3-branes may disappear by encountering an instantonic D5-brane localized in time. We discuss what happens on the black hole described by such disappearing D3-branes, relying mainly on topological arguments. Especially, we argue that another RR three-form flux will be left as a lump of remnant which is localized in the uncompactified four-dimensional space-time and that it may carry the same amount of degrees of freedom to describe a black hole, in cooperation with the original NS-NS flux, after this transition of the D3-branes.
Lack of Endogenous Adenosine Tonus on Sympathetic Neurotransmission in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat Mesenteric Artery

Background Increased sympathetic activity has been implicated in hypertension. Adenosine has been shown to play a role in blood flow regulation. In the present study, the endogenous adenosine neuromodulatory role, in mesenteric arteries from normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats, was investigated. Methods and Results The role of endogenous adenosine in sympathetic neurotransmission was studied using electrically-evoked [3H]-noradrenaline release experiments. Purine content was determined by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Localization of adenosine A1 or A2A receptors in adventitia of mesenteric arteries was investigated by Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy. Results indicate a higher electrically-evoked noradrenaline release from hypertensive mesenteric arteries. The tonic inhibitory modulation of noradrenaline release is mediated by adenosine A1 receptors and is lacking in arteries from hypertensive animals, despite their purine levels being higher comparatively to those determined in normotensive ones. Tonic facilitatory adenosine A2A receptor-mediated effects were absent in arteries from both strains. Immunohistochemistry revealed an adenosine A1 receptors redistribution from sympathetic fibers to Schwann cells, in adventitia of hypertensive mesenteric arteries which can explain, at least in part, the absence of effects observed for these receptors. Conclusion Data highlight the role of purines in hypertension revealing that an increase in sympathetic activity in hypertensive arteries is occurring due to a higher noradrenaline/ATP release from sympathetic nerves and the loss of endogenous adenosine inhibitory tonus. The observed nerve-to-glial redistribution of inhibitory adenosine A1 receptors in hypertensive arteries may explain the latter effect.
Fabrication of Schottky Diode in Standard CMOS Process

This paper describes design and fabrication of schottky barrier diodes (SBD) with a commercial standard 0.35um CMOS process. In order to reduce the series resistor of schottky contact, interdigitating the fingers of schottky diode layout was adopted. The I-V, C-V and S parameter results were measured. The parameters of realized SBD such as saturation current (Is), break down voltage (Vb) and the Schottky barrier height ( B φ ) are given. And in the end gives the Spice simulation model of the realized SBDs. Key word: Schottky ; CMOS; Integration EEACC: 2560H, 2570D
Making a case for a Green500 list

For decades now, the notion of "performance" has been synonymous with "speed" (as measured in FLOPS, short for floating-point operations per second). Unfortunately, this particular focus has led to the emergence of supercomputers that consume egregious amounts of electrical power and produce so much heat that extravagant cooling facilities must be constructed to ensure proper operation. In addition, the emphasis on speed as the performance metric has caused other performance metrics to be largely ignored, e.g., reliability, availability, and usability. As a consequence, all of the above has led to an extraordinary increase in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a supercomputer. Despite the importance of the TOP500 List, we argue that the list makes it much more difficult for the high-performance computing (UPC) community to focus on performance metrics other than speed. Therefore, to raise awareness to other performance metrics of interest, e.g., energy efficiency for improved reliability, we propose a Green500 List and discuss the potential metrics that would be used to rank supercomputing systems on such a list
Submitted to Autonomous Robots , Special Issue on Intelligent Embedded Systems An IncrementalSelf-DeploymentAlgorithm for Mobile Sensor Networks

This paperdescribesan incremental deployment algorithm for mobilesensornetworks. A mobile sensornetwork is a distributedcollectionof nodes,eachof which hassensing,computation, communication and locomotion capabilities. The algorithm deploys nodesone-at-atime into anunknown environment, with eachnode making useof informationgather ed by previously deployed nodes to determine its target location. The algorithm is designedto maximizenetwork ‘coverage’whilst simultaneously ensuringthatnodesretainline-of-sightwith one another (this latter constraint arisesfrom the needto localizethenodes;in our previouswork on mesh-basedlocalization[12, 13] we have shown how nodescanlocalize themselvesin a completely unknown environmentby using other nodes as landmarks). This paperdescribes the incrementaldeployment algorithm and presents the resultsof an extensi ve seriesof simulationexperiments. Theseexperimentsserve to both validatethe algorithm andilluminate its empiricalproperties.
Nanoscale dynamics of synaptic vesicle trafficking and fusion at the presynaptic active zone

The cytomatrix at the active zone (CAZ) is a macromolecular complex that facilitates the supply of release-ready synaptic vesicles to support neurotransmitter release at synapses. To reveal the dynamics of this supply process in living synapses, we used super-resolution imaging to track single vesicles at voltage-clamped presynaptic terminals of retinal bipolar neurons, whose CAZ contains a specialized structure—the synaptic ribbon—that supports both fast, transient and slow, sustained modes of transmission. We find that the synaptic ribbon serves a dual function as a conduit for diffusion of synaptic vesicles and a platform for vesicles to fuse distal to the plasma membrane itself, via compound fusion. The combination of these functions allows the ribbon-type CAZ to achieve the continuous transmitter release required by synapses of neurons that carry tonic, graded visual signals in the retina.