Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Chinese Text Input Brain–Computer Interface Based on the P300 Speller

A visual speller is a brain–computer interface that empowers users with limited motor functionality to input text into a computer by measuring their electroencephalographic responses to visual stimuli. Most prior research on visual spellers has focused on input of alphabetic text. Adapting a speller for other types of segmental or syllabic script is straightforward because such scripts comprise sufficiently few characters that they may all be displayed to the user simultaneously. Logographic scripts, such as Chinese hanzi, however, impose a challenge: How should the thousands of Chinese characters be displayed to the user? Here, we present a visual speller, based on Farwell and Donchin's P300 Speller, for Chinese character input. The speller uses a novel shape-based method called the First–Last, or FLAST, method to encode more than 7,000 Chinese characters. Characters are input by selecting two components, from a set of 56 distinct components, that match the shape of the target character, followed by selection of the character itself. At the input speed of one character per 107 s, 24 able-bodied participants achieved mean online accuracy of 82.8% per component selection and 63.5% per character input. At the faster input speed of one character per 77 s, mean online accuracy was 59.4% per component selection and 33.3% per character input.
Operational Mechanism and Characteristic Analysis of Novel Hybrid HVDC system

Conventional HVDC has the advantages of mature state of art and lower cost and the disadvantages of absorbing large reactive power and the danger of commutation fault. Voltage source converter (VSC) based HVDC (VSC-HVDC) has the advantages of flexible operation and control and the disadvantages of high cost. Combining the advantages of the two kinds of transmissions, a novel hybrid HVDC transmission type is analyzed in this paper, which the sending terminal adopts phase control converter (PCC) and the receiving terminal adopts VSC. The hybrid HVDC system can supply to passive network, supply reactive power to AC system and expediently extend to two bi-terminal or multi-terminal systems from conventional HVDC system. The expressions of voltage, current and power in rectifier and inverter sides are deduced. The relationship between the operational variables and control variables is analyzed. The basic regulation characteristics are gotten. The simulation model is founded based on the simulation software PSCAD/EMTDC. Simulation results show that the hybrid HVDC system could be operated steadily when the system active power changes slowly and quickly. It has the application prospect in scope of long distance small load supplying, multi-terminal DC system connection and system black-start etc.
Genetic Mutation Analysis of Human Gastric Adenocarcinomas Using Ion Torrent Sequencing Platform

Gastric cancer is the one of the major causes of cancer-related death, especially in Asia. Gastric adenocarcinoma, the most common type of gastric cancer, is heterogeneous and its incidence and cause varies widely with geographical regions, gender, ethnicity, and diet. Since unique mutations have been observed in individual human cancer samples, identification and characterization of the molecular alterations underlying individual gastric adenocarcinomas is a critical step for developing more effective, personalized therapies. Until recently, identifying genetic mutations on an individual basis by DNA sequencing remained a daunting task. Recent advances in new next-generation DNA sequencing technologies, such as the semiconductor-based Ion Torrent sequencing platform, makes DNA sequencing cheaper, faster, and more reliable. In this study, we aim to identify genetic mutations in the genes which are targeted by drugs in clinical use or are under development in individual human gastric adenocarcinoma samples using Ion Torrent sequencing. We sequenced 737 loci from 45 cancer-related genes in 238 human gastric adenocarcinoma samples using the Ion Torrent Ampliseq Cancer Panel. The sequencing analysis revealed a high occurrence of mutations along the TP53 locus (9.7%) in our sample set. Thus, this study indicates the utility of a cost and time efficient tool such as Ion Torrent sequencing to screen cancer mutations for the development of personalized cancer therapy.
A METHOD FOR BUSINESS MODEL DEVELOPMENT IN WEB START-UPS Technical solution paper

In order to profit from innovation, web entrepreneurs should not only excel at product innovation but also at developing a viable business model that suits the product. A method to guide such business model development is therefore needed. In this paper, a method for the development of viable business models in web start-ups is created based on expert interviews and process descriptions from literature. Finally, the resulting business model development method is evaluated in practice by applying it in the case of a Dutch web start-up in the e-learning domain. The general conclusions are that the method is straightforward to use, guides rational business model thinking and fosters the structured development of viable business models.
Random Walk Factoid Annotation for Collective Discourse

In this paper, we study the problem of automatically annotating the factoids present in collective discourse. Factoids are information units that are shared between instances of collective discourse and may have many different ways of being realized in words. Our approach divides this problem into two steps, using a graph-based approach for each step: (1) factoid discovery, finding groups of words that correspond to the same factoid, and (2) factoid assignment, using these groups of words to mark collective discourse units that contain the respective factoids. We study this on two novel data sets: the New Yorker caption contest data set, and the crossword clues data set.
The architecture of the Obelix-an improved Internet search engine

Contemporary Internet search engines can hardly cope with enormous amounts of indexed data, and very seldom succeed in extracting useful information. In order to anticipate the usefulness of a Web page, the proposed solution keeps track of users' actions on a Web page. A modified Web client informs a dedicated server of users' actions performed on a Web page, such as printing, bookmarking or mailing. The search algorithm relies on this information when ranking pages according to their usefulness. The paper describes the proposed paradigm in detail and focuses on the architecture of the server dedicated to collecting information of users' actions. The server's architecture is based on reconfigurable technology and VCC HOT II reconfigurable boards.
Sensor Network Localization, Euclidean Distance Matrix completions, and graph realization

We study Semidefinite Programming, SDP, relaxations for Sensor Network Localization, SNL, with anchors and with noisy distance information. The main point of the paper is to view SNL as a (nearest) Euclidean Distance Matrix, EDM, completion problem that does not distinguish between the anchors and the sensors. We show that there are advantages for using the well studied EDM model. In fact, the set of anchors simply corresponds to a given fixed clique for the graph of the EDM problem.We next propose a method of projection when large cliques or dense subgraphs are identified. This projection reduces the size, and improves the stability, of the relaxation. In addition, by viewing the problem as an EDM completion problem, we are able to derive a new approximation scheme for the sensors from the SDP approximation. This yields, on average, better low rank approximations for the low dimensional realizations. This further emphasizes the theme that SNL is in fact just an EDM problem.We solve the SDP relaxations using a primal-dual interior/exterior-point algorithm based on the Gauss-Newton search direction. By not restricting iterations to the interior, we usually get lower rank optimal solutions and thus, better approximations for the SNL problem. We discuss the relative stability and strength of two formulations and the corresponding algorithms that are used. In particular, we show that the quadratic formulation arising from the SDP relaxation is better conditioned than the linearized form that is used in the literature.
Green business among certified companies in Malaysia towards environmental sustainability: benchmarking on the drivers, initiatives and outcomes

In recent years, environmental issues become more intense and widespread. This calls for considering the issues of sustainable development in business operations. This paper utilised interviews with three organisations to identify green initiatives adopted in Malaysia, their drivers and outcomes. Analysis of the interviews indicates that the most adopted green initiatives in Malaysia are eco-design and green purchasing, followed by reverse logistics. The key drivers are regulations, customer pressures, expected business benefits and social responsibility. The study indicates that the outcomes of green initiatives are environmental, cost reductions, economic, in addition to company and brand image and reputation.
A CAD framework for Malibu: an FPGA with time-multiplexed coarse-grained elements

Modern FPGAs are used to implement a wide range of circuits, many of which have coarse-grained and fine-grained components. The ever-increasing size of these circuits places great demand on CAD tools to synthesize circuits faster and without loss in quality. Synthesizing coarse-grained components onto fine-grained FPGA resources is inefficient, and past attempts to optimize FPGAs for word-oriented datapaths have met with limited success. This paper presents a CAD flow to fully compile Verilog into a configuration bitstream for a new type of FPGA with time-multiplexed coarse-grained resources. We demonstrate two approaches with gains of 61x and 42x in synthesis time on average compared to QuartusII, but due to time-multiplexing and current synthesis limitations we achieve circuit speeds of 14x and 8.5x slower on average. We show the tools can also trade density for maximum clock frequency.
Distinct Thalamo-Cortical Controls for Shoulder, Elbow, and Wrist during Locomotion

Recent data from this laboratory on differential controls for the shoulder, elbow, and wrist exerted by the thalamo-cortical network during locomotion is presented, based on experiments involving chronically instrumented cats walking on a flat surface and along a horizontal ladder. The activity of the following three groups of neurons is characterized: (1) neurons of the motor cortex that project to the pyramidal tract (PTNs), (2) neurons of the ventrolateral thalamus (VL), many identified as projecting to the motor cortex (thalamo-cortical neurons, TCs), and (3) neurons of the reticular nucleus of thalamus (RE), which inhibit TCs. Neurons were grouped according to their receptive field into shoulder-, elbow-, and wrist/paw-related categories. During simple locomotion, shoulder-related PTNs were most active in the late stance and early swing, and on the ladder, often increased activity and stride-related modulation while reducing discharge duration. Elbow-related PTNs were most active during late swing/early stance and typically remained similar on the ladder. Wrist-related PTNs were most active during swing, and on the ladder often decreased activity and increased modulation while reducing discharge duration. In the VL, shoulder-related neurons were more active during the transition from swing-to-stance. Elbow-related cells tended to be more active during the transition from stance-to-swing and on the ladder often decreased their activity and increased modulation. Wrist-related neurons were more active throughout the stance phase. In the RE, shoulder-related cells had low discharge rates and depths of modulation and long periods of activity distributed evenly across the cycle. In sharp contrast, wrist/paw-related cells discharged synchronously during the end of stance and swing with short periods of high activity, high modulation, and frequent sleep-type bursting. We conclude that thalamo-cortical network processes information related to different segments of the forelimb differently and exerts distinct controls over the shoulder, elbow, and wrist during locomotion.
A Driver Circuit for Body-Coupled

The main concept of Body-Coupled Communication (BCC) is to transmit the electrical information through the human body as a communication medium by means of capacitive coupling. Nowadays the current research of wireless body area network are expanding more with the new ideas and topologies for better result in respect to the low power and area, security, reliability and sensitivity since it is first introduced by the Zimmerman in 1995. In contrast with the other existing wireless communication technology such as WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee, the BCC is going to increase the number of applications as well as solves the problem with the cell based communication system depending upon the frequency allocation. In addition, this promising technology has been standardized by a task group named IEEE 802.15. 6 addressing a reliable and feasible system for low power in-body and on-body nodes that serves a variety of medical and non medical applications. The entire BAN project is divided into three major parts consisting of application layer, digital baseband and analog front end (AFE) transceiver. In the thesis work a strong driver circuit for BCC is implemented as an analog front end transmitter (Tx). The primary purpose of the study is to transmit a strong signal as the signal is attenuated by the body around 60 dB. The Driver circuit is cascaded of two single-stage inverter and an identical inverter with drain resistor. The entire driver circuit is designed with ST65 nm CMOS technology with 1.2 V supply operated at 10 MHz frequency, has a driving capability of 6 mA which is the basic requirement. The performance of the transmitter is compared with the other architecture by integrating different analysis such as corner analysis, noise analysis and eye diagram. The cycle to cycle jitter is 0.87% which is well below to the maximum point and the power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) is 65 dB indicates the good emission of supply noise. In addition, the transmitter does not require a filter to emit the noise because the body acts like a low pass filter. In conclusion the findings of the thesis work is quite healthy compared to the previous work. Finally, there is some point to improve for the driver circuit in respect to the power consumption, propagation delay and leakage power in the future.
Gravity Field and Structure of the Niger Delta, Nigeria, West Africa

Data are given for 73 gravity stations situated on land in the general area of the Niger delta, Nigeria, West Africa. This information is presented in the form of maps showing the location and height of the gravity stations, Bouguer anomalies, and isostatic anomalies for a normal crustal thickness of 30 km. The bathymetric map of the Gulf of Guinea (adjacent to the Niger delta) shows a bulge in the isobaths opposite the Niger delta. This bulge is interpreted as an indication that the delta occupies an area once occupied by sea water reaching oceanic depths. This interpretation allows one to estimate the extra load of sediment on the crust of the earth which the Niger delta would represent if there had been no subsidence under this load. In the extreme southwestern part of the subaerial Niger delta the sediments constituting this hypothetical extra load are about 3000 m thick. In a comparison between observed gravity anomalies and anomalies computed on the assumption that no subsidence under load has occurred, the observed gravity field shows negative values of low magnitude, whereas the computed anomalies are positive and large. Thus there must have been considerable subsidence; the Niger delta must in fact be nearly in isostatic equilibrium. Following earlier work by Lawson, the relationships between load and subsidence and the resulting total thickness of deposited sediment are analyzed quantitatively. The resulting total thickness of deposited sediment is proportional to the difference between former and present water depth; the constant of proportionality can be calculated from the densities of sea water, sediments, and the substratum on which the crust is assumed to float. The results of this analysis allow one to construct a hypothetical section of the Niger delta. Assuming a value of 2.40 g/cm 3 for the average density of the sediments of the delta, the maximum thickness of these sediments appears to be about 8000 m, and the total volume, about 500,000 km 3 . The latter result is considered in terms of the age of, and present sediment supply to, the Niger delta. The “Niger delta Minimum,” a gentle gravity minimum reaching –40 mgal that covers most of the subaerial part of the Niger delta, may be a result of an uncompensated downwarp of the crust, density contrasts within the basement, imperfect corrections for the presence of light sediments, or a combination of any or all these factors.
Androgen Secreting Adrenocortical Tumors , 08-0324 Revised 1 Sex steroids in androgen-secreting adrenocortical tumors : clinical and hormonal features in comparison with non tumoral causes of androgen excess

Objective: Adrenocortical tumors (ACT) account for no more than 0.2% of the androgen excess (AE) causes. Conversely, these rare tumors have a very poor prognosis. It is difficult and important to exclude this diagnosis whenever there is AE. Design: Retrospective investigation of androgen profiles in a large consecutive series of androgen secreting (AS) ACT to assess their relative diagnostic value. Methods: 44 consecutive female patients with ACT-AS and a comparison group of 102 women with non tumor causes of AE (NTAE). Results: Patients with ACT-AS were older than the ones with NTAE (37.7 vs 24.8 yr; p<0.001) and the prevalence of hirsutism, acne and oligo/amenorrhea were not different. Free testosterone was the most commonly elevated androgen in ACT-AS (94%), followed by androstenedione (90%), DHEAS (82%) and total testosterone (76%), and all 3 androgens were simultaneously elevated in 56% of the cases. Androgen serum levels became subnormal in all ACT-AS patients after complete tumor removal. In NTAE, the most commonly elevated androgen was androstenedione (93%), while all 3 androgens were elevated in only 22% of the cases. Free testosterone values above 6.85 pg/mL (23.6 pmol/L) had the best diagnostic value for ACT-AS (sensitivity 82%, CI: 57-96%; specificity 97%, CI: 91100%). Basal LH and FSH levels were significantly lower in ACT-AS group. Conclusion: Free testosterone was the most reliable marker of ACT-AS. However, the large overlap of androgen levels between ACT-AS and NTAE groups suggests that additional hormonal and/or imaging investigations are required to rule out ACT-AS in case of increased androgens. Page 2 of 22
Mycorrhizal colonization variation produced by mulching and zinc sulphate overlapped on differentiated fertilization.

Vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizas act in the rhizosphere of plants as regulators of the processes of absorption and transfer of nutrients. High absorption potential show the involvement in nutrients cycle, reducing nutrient losses across the entire ecosystem and enhancing host plant resistance to stress factors. High biodiversity of grassland ecosystems is susceptible to the type of fertilization and maintenance of the land, climate contributing to the accentuation of plants sensitivity. The use of substances based on zinc in order to increase the root system of the plants and at the same time the surface on which will be established mycorrhizal fungi, or mulching, as an alternative to mowing, can act as stabilizers of the effect produced by mineral or organo-mineral fertilizers. Under the same fertilization conditions zinc sulfate acts, generally, to double the intensity and the colonization degree compared to mulching, and the maximum frequency is obtained only in the case of zinc sulphate application.
Prior Design for Dependent Dirichlet Processes: An Application to Marathon Modeling

This paper presents a novel application of Bayesian nonparametrics (BNP) for marathon data modeling. We make use of two well-known BNP priors, the single-p dependent Dirichlet process and the hierarchical Dirichlet process, in order to address two different problems. First, we study the impact of age, gender and environment on the runners’ performance. We derive a fair grading method that allows direct comparison of runners regardless of their age and gender. Unlike current grading systems, our approach is based not only on top world records, but on the performances of all runners. The presented methodology for comparison of densities can be adopted in many other applications straightforwardly, providing an interesting perspective to build dependent Dirichlet processes. Second, we analyze the running patterns of the marathoners in time, obtaining information that can be valuable for training purposes. We also show that these running patterns can be used to predict finishing time given intermediate interval measurements. We apply our models to New York City, Boston and London marathons.
An interface composed of a collection of "smart hairs"

The smart hair is the basic component of the hairlytop interface, which is a visual/haptic interface patterned with smart hair. The hair is composed of shape memory alloy(s), drive circuit(s), and light sensor(s) capable of controlling their bending. The bending of each smart hair is controlled through the intensity of light from below. The high flexibility in its configuration and unique motion enables us to construct various types of interface. In this paper, we describe details about several prototypes of the hairlytop interface. In addition, we also report experimental results from an evaluation of the accuracy in flex-control of the smart hairs.
Rockfall rebound: comparison of detailed field experiments and alternative modelling approaches

The accuracy of rockfall trajectory simulations mainly rests on the calculation of the rebound of fragments following their impact on the slope. This paper is dedicated to the comparative analysis of two rebound modelling approaches currently used in rockfall simulation using field experiments of single rebounds. The two approaches consist in either modelling the rock as a single material point (lumped mass approach) or in explicitly accounting for the fragment shape (rigid body approach). A lumped mass model accounting for the coupling between translational and rotational velocities and introducing a slope perturbation angle was used. A rigid body approach modelling the rocks as rigid locally deformable (in the vicinity of the contact surface) assemblies of spheres was chosen.