Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The frequency dependence of a 10 nF gas-dielectric capacitor

A direct realization of the farad from the quantum Hall effect involve the comparison of the Hall resistance with a capacitor, using a dedicated impedance bridge. Best measurement uncertainty is achieved for frequencies not corresponding to the traditional ones employed in dissemination (1 kHz, or 10 krad s-1). Hence, standards having a known frequency dependence are necessary to perform a correction. Here we investigate, with network analysis techniques, the frequency dependence of a new commercial 10 nF gas-dielectric capacitance standard.
Connected keywords

To improve the expressivity and accuracy of database query interfaces, a keyword-based constrained query language is introduced to let users explicitly express the intent of their search using keywords linked by meaningful grammatical connectives. Individually, keywords and connectives correspond to textual descriptions attached to components of the database graph schema, and as a whole, a so-called connected keywords query corresponds to a textual description of an SQL query. The translation process of such a query into SQL is mainly composed of two steps: first, the syntactic structure of the keyword query is analyzed to exhibit projection and selection statements using predefined graph patterns, then non explicit joins are deduced to obtain a complete translation of the keyword query as a meaningful connected subgraph. Experimentations show the relevance of the approach in terms of expressivity and efficiency.
Defining Strong Privacy for RFID

In this work, we consider privacy in radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. Our contribution is twofold: (1) we propose a simple, formal definition of strong privacy useful for basic analysis of RFID systems, as well as a different (weaker) definition applicable to multi-verifier systems; and (2) we apply our definition to reveal vulnerabilities in proposed privacy-enhancing RFID protocols. This paper is a highly abbreviated version of Juels, A et al, (2005)
Coseismic Slip and Afterslip of the Great Mw 9.15 Sumatra–Andaman Earthquake of 2004

We determine coseismic and the first-month postseismic deformation associated with the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 26 December 2004 from near- field Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys in northwestern Sumatra and along the Nicobar-Andaman islands, continuous and campaign GPS measurements from Thailand and Malaysia, and in situ and remotely sensed observations of the vertical motion of coral reefs. The coseismic model shows that the Sunda subduction mega- thrust ruptured over a distance of about 1500 km and a width of less than 150 km, releasing a total moment of 6.7-7.0 � 10 22 N m, equivalent to a magnitude M w 9.15. The latitudinal distribution of released moment in our model has three distinct peaks at about 4 N, 7 N, and 9 N, which compares well to the latitudinal variations seen in the seismic inversion and of the analysis of radiated T waves. Our coseismic model is also consistent with interpretation of normal modes and with the amplitude of very-long-period surface waves. The tsunami predicted from this model fits rela- tively well the altimetric measurements made by the JASON and TOPEX satellites. Neither slow nor delayed slip is needed to explain the normal modes and the tsunami wave. The near-field geodetic data that encompass both coseismic deformation and up to 40 days of postseismic deformation require that slip must have continued on the plate interface after the 500-sec-long seismic rupture. The postseismic geodetic moment of about 2.4 � 10 22 Nm( Mw 8.8) is equal to about 30 � 5% of the coseismic moment release. Evolution of postseismic deformation is consistent with rate-strengthening frictional afterslip. Online material: Summary of geodetic data used in this study.
Mobile Visual Location Recognition

With recent advances in CBIR, mobile visual location recognition becomes feasible. Using video recordings of a mobile device as a visual fingerprint of the environment and matching them to a georeferenced database provides pose information in a very natural way. Hence, LBSs can be provided without complex infrastructure in areas where the accuracy and availability of GPS is limited. This includes indoor environments where georeferenced data are just about to become publicly available.
Concurrent programming without locks

Mutual exclusion locks remain the de facto mechanism for concurrency control on shared-memory data structures. However, their apparent simplicity is deceptive: It is hard to design scalable locking strategies because locks can harbor problems such as priority inversion, deadlock, and convoying. Furthermore, scalable lock-based systems are not readily composable when building compound operations. In looking for solutions to these problems, interest has developed in nonblocking systems which have promised scalability and robustness by eschewing mutual exclusion while still ensuring safety. However, existing techniques for building nonblocking systems are rarely suitable for practical use, imposing substantial storage overheads, serializing nonconflicting operations, or requiring instructions not readily available on today's CPUs. In this article we present three APIs which make it easier to develop nonblocking implementations of arbitrary data structures. The first API is a multiword compare-and-swap operation (MCAS) which atomically updates a set of memory locations. This can be used to advance a data structure from one consistent state to another. The second API is a word-based software transactional memory (WSTM) which can allow sequential code to be reused more directly than with MCAS and which provides better scalability when locations are being read rather than being updated. The third API is an object-based software transactional memory (OSTM). OSTM allows a simpler implementation than WSTM, but at the cost of reengineering the code to use OSTM objects. We present practical implementations of all three of these APIs, built from operations available across all of today's major CPU families. We illustrate the use of these APIs by using them to build highly concurrent skip lists and red-black trees. We compare the performance of the resulting implementations against one another and against high-performance lock-based systems. These results demonstrate that it is possible to build useful nonblocking data structures with performance comparable to, or better than, sophisticated lock-based designs.
Investigation of Low Temperature Cracking in Asphalt Mixtures by Acoustic Emission

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the use of acoustic emission (AE) to characterize microstructural phenomena and the corresponding macroscopic behavior during the low temperature fracture of asphalt mixtures. An acoustic emission system with eight channels of recording was used to monitor the failure process during testing at low temperature using the semi circular bend (SCB) configuration in three Superpave mixtures used at MnROAD facility. Algorithms to automatically detect the relative arrival time of the AE signal and to locate the AE source were developed. The analysis of the accumulated AE events illustrated the relationship between the micro damage and macroscopic behavior at different loading levels. The damage level under certain loading conditions was evaluated and preliminary results showed that the load level corresponding to the localization played a critical role in the damage process of the material. As a first step, the fracture energy of asphalt concrete specimen was related to the accumulated AE energy. By observing the distribution of microcracks with different energy levels, it was reasonably assumed that 95% of the total AE energy before peak load corresponded to the process zone and this zone was determined to be around 3–6 mm in width and 20–30 mm in length for the materials tested in this research effort.
A theory of reverse engineering and its application to Boolean systems

To reverse engineer a system is to infer how its underlying mechanism works. This paper presents a theory of the process, which postulates that individuals rely on an initial strategy of either focusing on the outputs of a system one by one, or on the components of the system one by one. They then try to assemble the system guided by both local and global constraints. The theory predicts that three main factors should affect the difficulty of reverse engineering: the number of variable components in the system, the number of their settings that yield an output, and, most importantly, the interdependence of components on one another in yielding outputs. Five experiments corroborated these predictions, using a test bed of electric light circuits and water-flow systems based on Boolean logic.
An Approach to Explore the Role of Color Models and Color Descriptors in the Optimization of Semantic Gap in Content based Image Retrieval

based image retrieval (CBIR) systems retrieve images based on their primitive features such as color, texture, shape etc. The semantic gap is defined as the inconsistency between the image retrieval based on these low level image features and high level human semantics. In this paper, the comparative analysis of various color model transformations is presented with the help of our proposed methods based on three color descriptors i.e. color histogram, color moments and color coherence vectors to determine the applicability of these models and descriptors for the reduction of semantic gap. Support vector machines are used to classify images into different semantic classes. The results are inferred with the help of performance parameters like precision, recall, and mean average precision. Experimental results suggest that the proposed approach gives a good evaluation of the applicability of color models as well as color descriptors for optimization of semantic gap in CBIR.
Learning Robot Soccer from Demonstration : Ball Grasping

We approach floor-level robotic manipulation from a Learning from Demonstration direction. In this paradigm, a robot learns new tasks in new environments from observations of the task itself. Many current robot learning algorithms require the existence of basic behaviors that can be combined to perform the desired task. However, robots that exist in the world for long timeframes may exhaust this basis set. In particular, a robot may be asked to perform an unknown task for which its built in behaviors may not be appropriate. We demonstrate a learning framework that is capable of learning both low-level motion primitives and high-level tasks built on top of them from interactive demonstration. We apply nonparametric regression within this framework towards learning a complete robot soccer player and successfully teach a robot dog to first walk, and then to seek and grasp a ball.
Memory forwarding: enabling aggressive layout optimizations by guaranteeing the safety of data relocation

By optimizing data layout at run-time, we can potentially enhance the performance of caches by actively creating spatial locality, facilitating prefetching, and avoiding cache conflicts and false sharing. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to guarantee that such optimizations are safe in practice on today's machines, since accurately updating all pointers to an object requires perfect alias information, which is well beyond the scope of the compiler for languages such as C. To overcome this limitation, we propose a technique called memory forwarding which effectively adds a new layer of indirection within the memory system whenever necessary to guarantee that data relocation is always safe. Because actual forwarding rarely occurs (it exists as a safety net), the mechanism can be implemented as an exception in modern superscalar processors. Our experimental results demonstrate that the aggressive layout optimizations enabled by memory forwarding can result in significant speedups-more than twofold in some cases-by reducing the number of cache misses, improving the effectiveness of prefetching, and conserving memory bandwidth.
Development of blood extraction system designed by female mosquito's blood sampling mechanism for bio-MEMS

A compact and wearable wristwatch type Bio-MEMS such as a health monitoring system (HMS) to detect blood sugar level for diabetic patient, was newly developed. The HMS consists of (1) a indentation unit with a microneedle to generate the skin penetration force using a shape memory alloy(SMA) actuator, (2) a pumping unit using a bimorph PZT piezoelectric actuator to extract the blood and (3) a gold (Au) electrode as a biosensor immobilized GOx and attached to the gate electrode of MOSFET to detect the amount of Glucose in extracted blood. GOx was immobilized on a self assembled spacer combined with an Au electrode by the cross-link method using BSA as an additional bonding material. The device can extract blood in a few microliter through a painless microneedle with the negative pressure by deflection of the bimorph PZT piezoelectric actuator produced in the blood chamber, by the similar way the female mosquito extracts human blood with muscle motion to flex or relax. The performances of the liquid sampling ability of the pumping unit through a microneedle (3.8mm length, 100μm internal diameter) using the bimorph PZT piezoelectric microactuator were measured. The blood extraction micro device could extract human blood at the speed of 2μl/min, and it is enough volume to measure a glucose level, compared to the amount of commercial based glucose level monitor. The electrode embedded in the blood extraction device chamber could detect electrons generated by the hydrolysis of hydrogen peroxide produced by the reaction between GOx and glucose in a few microliter extracted blood, using the constant electric current measurement system of the MOSFET type hybrid biosensor. The output voltage for the glucose diluted in the chamber was increased lineally with increase of the glucose concentration.
On the second-order cyclostationarity properties of long-code DS-SS signals

In this letter, the cyclostationarity properties of a general class of long-code direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS-SS) signals are analyzed, and it is shown that these properties can be exploited in long-code DS code-division multiple-access systems. Specifically, it is shown that a continuous-time DS-SS signal exhibits cyclostationarity at cycle frequencies related to both the symbol rate and the chip rate. Moreover, it is pointed out that the discrete-time signal obtained by uniformly sampling a continuous-time long-code DS-SS signal exhibits cyclostationarity, provided that at least two samples per chip are taken. Finally, it is shown how such a cyclostationarity can be suitably exploited for blind signal-parameter estimation
Correlates of homicide: new space/time interaction tests for spatiotemporal point processes

Statistical inference on spatiotemporal data often proceeds by focusing on the temporal aspect of the data, ignoring space, or the spatial aspect, ignoring time. In this paper, we explicitly focus on the interaction between space and time. Using a geocoded, time-stamped dataset from Chicago of almost 9 millions calls to 911 between 2007 and 2010, we ask whether any of these call types are associated with shootings or homicides. Standard correlation techniques do not produce meaningful results in the spatiotemporal setting because of two confounds: purely spatial e ﬀ ects (i.e. “bad” neighborhoods) and purely temporal e ﬀ ects (i.e. more crimes in the summer) could introduce spurious correlations. To address this issue, a handful of statistical tests for space-time interaction have been proposed, which explicitly control for separable spatial and temporal dependencies. Yet these classical tests each have limitations. We propose a new test for space-time interaction, using a Mercer kernel-based statistic for measuring the distance between probability distributions. We compare our new test to existing tests on simulated and real data, where it performs comparably to or better than the classical tests. For the application we consider, we ﬁnd a number of interesting and signiﬁcant space-time interactions between 911 call types and shootings / homicides.
An empirical study of the smart grid Technology Acceptance Model in Korea

The success of smart grid deployment depends on consumers' acceptance of smart grid products and services. This study tests a model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of consumers' acceptance of smart grid technologies. The research model was designed to examine the process by which electrical power consumers accept a smart grid. The results suggest that it is important to increase the perceived usefulness and ease of use in order to enhance consumers' smart grid participation. If the perception of smart grid's usefulness is to increase, smart grid's environmental and economic benefits must be emphasized. It is also important to eliminate unnecessary consumer anxiety concerning cyber security threats.
Task-dependent coordination of rapid bimanual motor responses

Optimal feedback control postulates that feedback responses depend on the task relevance of any perturbations. We test this prediction in a bimanual task, conceptually similar to balancing a laden tray, in which each hand could be perturbed up or down. Single-limb mechanical perturbations produced long-latency reflex responses (“rapid motor responses”) in the contralateral limb of appropriate direction and magnitude to maintain the tray horizontal. During bimanual perturbations, rapid motor responses modulated appropriately depending on the extent to which perturbations affected tray orientation. Specifically, despite receiving the same mechanical perturbation causing muscle stretch, the strongest responses were produced when the contralateral arm was perturbed in the opposite direction (large tray tilt) rather than in the same direction or not perturbed at all. Rapid responses from shortening extensors depended on a nonlinear summation of the sensory information from the arms, with the response to a bimanual same-direction perturbation (orientation maintained) being less than the sum of the component unimanual perturbations (task relevant). We conclude that task-dependent tuning of reflexes can be modulated online within a single trial based on a complex interaction across the arms.
Expectations of increased and decreased pain explain the effect of conditioned pain modulation in females

Objective Chronic pain is believed to be related to a dysfunction of descending pain modulatory mechanisms. Functioning of descending pain modulation can be assessed by various methods, including conditioned pain modulation (CPM). CPM refers to the inhibition of one source of pain by a second noxious stimulus, termed the conditioning stimulus. This procedure can activate an endogenous pain inhibitory mechanism that inhibits early nociceptive processing. Chronic pain and anxiety disorders are more prevalent among females and it has been hypothesized that females react with more negative emotions towards unpleasant stimuli and this might be part of the explanation of greater pain sensitivity in females. The present study investigated whether expectations modulate the effect of conditioning stimulation on pain, subjective stress, and heart rate. In addition, we investigated whether the modulation of CPM by expectations differed between males and females. Methods Seventy-two subjects (including 36 women) received six noxious heat stimuli to the forearm. During three of these stimuli, a conditioning stimulus (cold-water bath) was applied to the contralateral arm in order to activate CPM. One third of the subjects were told that this would reduce pain (analgesia group), one-third that it would increase pain (hyperalgesia group), and one third received no information about its effect (no info group). Results Information that conditioning stimulation decreased or enhanced pain had the corresponding effect in females, but not in males. Conditioning stimulation increased stress, but not heart rate in females in the hyperalgesia group. A higher expectation of analgesia and lower stress during conditioning stimulation was associated with larger inhibitory CPM. Conclusion These results suggest that reduced inhibitory CPM can be due to contextually induced cognitive and emotional factors and not necessarily a dysfunction of descending inhibitory pathways.
Mutational analyses of the SOCS proteins suggest a dual domain requirement but distinct mechanisms for inhibition of LIF and IL‐6 signal transduction

SOCS‐1 (suppressor of cytokine signaling‐1) is a representative of a family of negative regulators of cytokine signaling (SOCS‐1 to SOCS‐7 and CIS) characterized by a highly conserved C‐terminal SOCS box preceded by an SH2 domain. This study comprehensively examined the ability of several SOCS family members to negatively regulate the gp130 signaling pathway. SOCS‐1 and SOCS‐3 inhibited both interleukin‐6 (IL‐6)‐ and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF)‐induced macrophage differentiation of murine monocytic leukemic M1 cells and LIF induction of a Stat3‐responsive reporter construct in 293T fibroblasts. Deletion of amino acids 51–78 in the N‐terminal region of SOCS‐1 prevented inhibition of LIF signaling. The SOCS‐1 and SOCS‐3 N‐terminal regions were functionally interchangeable, but this did not extend to other SOCS family members. Mutation of SH2 domains abrogated the ability of both SOCS‐1 and SOCS‐3 to inhibit LIF signal transduction. Unlike SOCS‐1, SOCS‐3 was unable to inhibit JAK kinase activity in vitro, suggesting that SOCS‐1 and SOCS‐3 act on the JAK–STAT pathway in different ways. Thus, although inhibition of signaling by SOCS‐1 and SOCS‐3 requires both the SH2 and N‐terminal domains, their mechanisms of action appear to be biochemically different.
Prophylactic HPV Vaccines

Cervical cancer and its precursor intra-epithelial lesions are linked to infection by a subset of human papillomavirus (HPV) types, the so-called "high-risk" HPVs, the most prevalent being HPV16 and HPV18. Two prophylactic vaccines containing combinations of the major capsid protein (L1) of HPV16 and HPV18 have been shown to efficiently prevent infection by inducing capsid-specific neutralizing antibodies. Since the year 2006 these vaccines have been implemented in many countries in the hope that the incidence of cervical cancer will be drastically reduced in coming decades. Nevertheless, the real efficacy of the present HPV vaccines in preventing cervical cancer is not known. This review summarizes the clinical studies that led to assess the prophylactic power of these vaccines and discusses some open questions and controversy on cervical cancer prevention in relation with the HPV vaccine.
Nache: Design and Implementation of a Caching Proxy for NFSv4

In this paper, we present Nache, a caching proxy for NFSv4 that enables a consistent cache of a remote NFS server to be maintained and shared across multiple local NFS clients. Nache leverages the features of NFSv4 to improve the performance of file accesses in a widearea distributed setting by bringing the data closer to the client. Conceptually, Nache acts as an NFS server to the local clients and as an NFS client to the remote server. To provide cache consistency, Nache exploits the read and write delegations support in NFSv4. Nache enables the cache and the delegation to be shared among a set of local clients, thereby reducing conflicts and improving performance. We have implemented Nache in the Linux 2.6 kernel. Using Filebench workloads and other benchmarks, we present the evaluation of Nache and show that it can reduce the NFS operations at the server by 10-50%.