Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Imaging and manipulation of nanoscale materials with coaxial and triaxial AFM probes

Submitted for the MAR11 Meeting of The American Physical Society Imaging and manipulation of nanoscale materials with coaxial and triaxial AFM probes KEITH A. BROWN, R.M. WESTERVELT, Harvard SEAS and Physics — We present coaxial and triaxial Atomic Force Microscope (AFM ) probes and demonstrate their applications to imaging and manipulating nanoscale materials. A coaxial probe with concentric electrodes at its tip creates a highly confined electric field that decays as a dipole field, making the coaxial probe useful for near field imaging of electrical properties. We show nearly an order of magnitude improvement in the step resolution of Kelvin probe force microscopy with coaxial probes. We further demonstrate that coaxial probes can image dielectric materials with the dielectrophoretic force. In addition to imaging, the capacitive structure that makes up the cantilever of a coaxial probe is used to locally mechanically drive the probe, making them self-driving probes. Finally, coaxial probes can create strong forces with dielectrophoresis (DEP) which we combine with the nanometer precision of the AFM to create a nanometer scale pick-and-place tool. We demonstrate 3D assembly of micrometer scale objects with coaxial probes using positive DEP and discuss the assembly of nanometer scale objects with triaxial probes using negative DEP. Keith A. Brown Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science Date submitted: 19 Nov 2010 Electronic form version 1.4
Nd:YAG laser drilling of 8.3 mm thick partially stabilized tetragonal zirconia-control of recast layer microcracking using localized heating techniques

The machining of ceramic components using conventional techniques is slow and expensive due to low yields. High power lasers are capable of machining these materials at far greater speeds. However, the performance of ceramic substrates is dependent on the quality of the processed region, with specific reference to the level of microcracking. The propagation of microcracks into the bulk substrate inevitably leads to component failure. Generation of recast layer microcracking is the Achilles heel of laser processing of ceramics. The fundamental process of laser radiation interaction with ceramic substrates generates a severe thermal gradient between the recast layer and bulk substrate. This in turn leads to the stresses which cause microcracks to form. Techniques for the reduction of this thermal shear have been investigated. Optimization of Nd:YAG laser drilling enabled repeatable and high quality processing to be undertaken. However, adaptation of these conventional techniques was required to reduce the l.
Ranking Designs and Users in Online Social Networks

This work-in-progress presents a new algorithm that leverages social network structure to rank designs and users in online design communities. The algorithm is based on the intuition that the importance of a design should depend on the rank of the users that created and promoted it, and the importance of a user should depend on the rank of the designs he creates and promotes in turn. The algorithm produces design rankings that are positively correlated with existing social metrics such as number of likes, but also allows designs with second-order social import to rise through the ranks. We demonstrate that the algorithm converges, and analyze the rankings it produces on both simulated and scraped social design networks.
Discriminative map for acoustic model adaptation

In this paper we show how a discriminative objective function such as Maximum Mutual Information (MMI) can be combined with a prior distribution over the HMM parameters to give a discriminative Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) estimate for HMM training. The prior distribution can be based around the Maximum Likelihood (ML) parameter estimates, leading to a technique previously referred to as I-smoothing; or for adaptation it can be based around a MAP estimate of the ML parameters, leading to what we call MMI-MAP. This latter approach is shown to be effective for task adaptation, where data from one task (Voicemail) is used to adapt a HMM set trained on another task (Switchboard). It is shown that MMI-MAP results in a 2.1% absolute reduction in word error rate relative to standard ML-MAP with 30 hours of Voicemail task adaptation data starting from a MMI-trained Switchboard system.
A new multichannel multi modal dyadic interaction database

In this work we present a new multi-modal database for analysis of participant behaviors in dyadic interactions. This database contains multiple channels with closeand far-field audio, a high definition camera array and motion capture data. Presence of the motion capture allows precise analysis of the body language low-level descriptors and its comparison with similar descriptors derived from video data. Data is manually labeled by multiple human annotators using psychologyinformed guides. This work also presents an initial analysis of approach-avoidance (A-A) behavior. Two sets of annotations are provided, one based on video only and the other obtained by using both the audio and video channels. Additionally, we describe the statistics of interaction descriptors and A-A labels on participants’ roles. Finally we provide an analysis of relations between various non-verbal features and approach/avoidance labels.
Automatic Hip Bone Segmentation Using Non-Rigid Registration

This paper presents a method for automatic segmentation of bone from volumetric computed tomography (CT) data. Due to osteoporosis, which degenerates the bone density and hence decreases the intensity of the bone in the CT dataset, it is not possible to use conventional thresholding techniques to handle the segmentation. Furthermore we want to use prior knowledge about shapes and relations of the bones in the area of interest to be able to e.g. separate adjoining bones from each other. The method we suggest is the morphon algorithm in Knutsson and Andersson (2005). This is a non-rigid registration technique where an 2D or 3D image is iteratively deformed to match the corresponding structure in a target image. The method uses difference in local quadrature phase and certainty measures to estimate the deformations
Elementary bounds on Poincaré and log-Sobolev constants for decomposable Markov chains

We consider finite-state Markov chains that can be naturally decomposed into smaller ``projection'' and ``restriction'' chains. Possibly this decomposition will be inductive, in that the restriction chains will be smaller copies of the initial chain. We provide expressions for Poincare (resp. log-Sobolev) constants of the initial Markov chain in terms of Poincare (resp. log-Sobolev) constants of the projection and restriction chains, together with further a parameter. In the case of the Poincare constant, our bound is always at least as good as existing ones and, depending on the value of the extra parameter, may be much better. There appears to be no previously published decomposition result for the log-Sobolev constant. Our proofs are elementary and self-contained.
Putting your best foot forward: investigating real-world mappings for foot-based gestures

Foot-based gestures have recently received attention as an alternative interaction mechanism in situations where the hands are pre-occupied or unavailable. This paper investigates suitable real-world mappings of foot gestures to invoke commands and interact with virtual workspaces. Our first study identified user preferences for mapping common mobile-device commands to gestures. We distinguish these gestures in terms of discrete and continuous command input. While discrete foot-based input has relatively few parameters to control, continuous input requires careful design considerations on how the user's input can be mapped to a control parameter (e.g. the volume knob of the media player). We investigate this issue further through three user-studies. Our results show that rate-based techniques are significantly faster, more accurate and result if far fewer target crossings compared to displacement-based interaction. We discuss these findings and identify design recommendations.
Online tracking of mobile users

This paper deals with the problem of maintaining a distributed directory server, that enables us to keep track of mobile users in a distributed network. The paper introduces the graph-theoretic concept of regional matching, and demonstrates how finding a regional matching with certain parameters enables efficient tracking. The communication overhead of our tracking mechanism is within a polylogarithmic factor of the lower bound.
Monte Carlo Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Generalized Long-Memory Time Series Models

An exact maximum likelihood method is developed for the estimation of parameters in a non-Gaussian nonlinear density function that depends on a latent Gaussian dynamic process with long-memory properties. Our method relies on the method of importance sampling and on a linear Gaussian approximating model from which the latent process can be simulated. Given the presence of a latent long-memory process, we require a modification of the importance sampling technique. In particular, the long-memory process needs to be approximated by a finite dynamic linear process. Two possible approximations are discussed and are compared with each other. We show that an autoregression obtained from minimizing mean squared prediction errors leads to an effective and feasible method. In our empirical study, we analyze ten daily log-return series from the S&P 500 stock index by univariate and multivariate long-memory stochastic volatility models. We compare the in-sample and out-of-sample performance of a number of models within the class of long-memory stochastic volatility models.
Human Vs. Automatic Measurement of Biometric Sample Quality

Biometric systems are designed to identify a person based on physiological or behavioral characteristics. In order to predict the utility of a particular image for identification, there is an interest in measures to calculate the biometric image quality. Such measures often assume (implicitly or explicitly) that human image quality evaluations are a gold standard. In order to test this assumption, we measured biometric image quality for face and iris recognition by 8 human volunteers and from 6 face recognition and 1 iris recognition algorithm. Algorithm quality measures were based on a log-linear fit of quality to genuine score values. Results indicate that human quality scores correlate strongly with each other (r=0.723 (iris), r=0.613 (face), p<0.001). Algorithm scores also correlate strongly with each other (r=0.534, p<0.001 (face)). However, human quality scores do not correlate with those from algorithms (r=0.234 (face), r=0.175 (iris))
Applications of predicate abstraction to software analysis

Given the increasingly significant roles of software systems in the world today, the need for reliable, automatic verification techniques continues to grow. Unfortunately, concrete systems (i.e. specifications or actual programs) generally posess characteristics that are problematic for many types of analysis, making program verification a particularly difficult task. For example, many concrete systems cannot be model checked to find or verify invariants because they correspond to infinite state machines. As a consequence, one of the main challenges in this area of research is coming up with expressive models for software that are amenable to analysis.
Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis for Broadcast News Story Segmentation

This paper proposes to perform probabilistic latent semantic analysis (PLSA) for broadcast news (BN) story segmentation. PLSA exploits a deeper underlying relation among terms beyond their occurrences thus conceptual matching can be employed to replace literal term matching. Different from text segmentation, lexical based BN story segmentation has to be carried out over LVCSR transcripts, where the incorrect recognition of out-of-vocabulary words inevitably impacts the semantic relation. We use phoneme subwords as the basic term units to address this problem. We integrate a cross entropy measurement with PLSA to depict lexical cohesion and compare its performance with the widely used cosine similarity metric. Furthermore, we evaluate two approaches, namely TextTiling and dynamic programming (DP), for story boundary identification. Experimental results show that the PLSA based methods bring a significant performance boost to story segmentation and the cross entropy based DP approach provides the best perfor
FoxM1 as a novel therapeutic target for cancer drug therapy.

BACKGROUND Current cancer therapy mainly focuses on identifying novel targets crucial for tumorigenesis. The FoxM1 is of preference as an anticancer target, due to its significance in execution of mitosis, cell cycle progression, as well as other signal pathways leading to tumorigenesis. FoxM1 is partially regulated by oncoproteins or tumor suppressors, which are often mutated, lost, or overexpressed in human cancer. Since sustaining proliferating signaling is an important hallmark of cancer, FoxM1 is overexpressed in a series of human malignancies. Alarge- scale gene expression analysis also identified FoxM1 as a differentially-expressed gene in most solid tumors. Furthermore, overexpressed FoxM1 is correlated with the prognosis of cancer patients, as verified in a series of malignancies by Cox regression analysis. Thus, extensive studies have been conducted to explore the roles of FoxM1 in tumorigenesis, making it an attractive target for anticancer therapy. Several antitumor drugs have been reported to target or inhibit FoxM1 expression in different cancers, and down-regulation of FoxM1 also abrogates drug resistance in some cancer cell lines, highlighting a promising future for FoxM1 application in the clinic.
Integrated single-beam optical tweezer and planar curved grating for multiple optical traps

This paper presents a single-beam optical tweezer integrated with a planar curved grating for microbeads manipulation. The different curvatures of the surface micromachined planar curved grating are systematically investigated. The planar curved grating was fabricated using Multi-User MEMS Processes (MUMPs) provided by MEMSCAP Inc. The angular separation and the number of diffracted orders were found. Experimental results indicate that the diffraction patterns and the curvature of the planar curved grating reveal a close relationship. As the curvature of planar curved grating increases, the vertical diffraction angle increases, resulting in a strip patterns of the planar curved grating. Moreover, a single-beam optical tweezer has been established. Finally, we demonstrate a technique for creating multiple optical traps from a single laser beam using the developed planar curved grating.
On the Exact Solution to a Smart Grid Cyber-Security Analysis Problem

This paper considers a smart grid cyber-security problem analyzing the vulnerabilities of electric power networks to false data attacks. The analysis problem is related to a constrained cardinality minimization problem. The main result shows that an relaxation technique provides an exact optimal solution to this cardinality minimization problem. The proposed result is based on a polyhedral combinatorics argument. It is different from well-known results based on mutual coherence and restricted isometry property. The results are illustrated on benchmarks including the IEEE 118-bus, IEEE 300-bus, and the Polish 2383-bus and 2736-bus systems.
Structure and Inhibition of Tuberculosinol Synthase and Decaprenyl Diphosphate Synthase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

We have obtained the structure of the bacterial diterpene synthase, tuberculosinol/iso-tuberculosinol synthase (Rv3378c) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a target for anti-infective therapies that block virulence factor formation. This phosphatase adopts the same fold as found in the Z- or cis-prenyltransferases. We also obtained structures containing the tuberculosinyl diphosphate substrate together with one bisphosphonate inhibitor-bound structure. These structures together with the results of site-directed mutagenesis suggest an unusual mechanism of action involving two Tyr residues. Given the similarity in local and global structure between Rv3378c and the M. tuberculosis cis-decaprenyl diphosphate synthase (DPPS; Rv2361c), the possibility exists for the development of inhibitors that target not only virulence but also cell wall biosynthesis, based in part on the structures reported here.
Melanoma Is Skin Deep: A 3D Reconstruction Technique for Computerized Dermoscopic Skin Lesion Classification

Melanoma mortality rates are the highest amongst skin cancer patients. Melanoma is life threating when it grows beyond the dermis of the skin. Hence, depth is an important factor to diagnose melanoma. This paper introduces a non-invasive computerized dermoscopy system that considers the estimated depth of skin lesions for diagnosis. A 3-D skin lesion reconstruction technique using the estimated depth obtained from regular dermoscopic images is presented. On basis of the 3-D reconstruction, depth and 3-D shape features are extracted. In addition to 3-D features, regular color, texture, and 2-D shape features are also extracted. Feature extraction is critical to achieve accurate results. Apart from melanoma, in-situ melanoma the proposed system is designed to diagnose basal cell carcinoma, blue nevus, dermatofibroma, haemangioma, seborrhoeic keratosis, and normal mole lesions. For experimental evaluations, the PH2, ISIC: Melanoma Project, and ATLAS dermoscopy data sets is considered. Different feature set combinations is considered and performance is evaluated. Significant performance improvement is reported the post inclusion of estimated depth and 3-D features. The good classification scores of sensitivity = 96%, specificity = 97% on PH2 data set and sensitivity = 98%, specificity = 99% on the ATLAS data set is achieved. Experiments conducted to estimate tumor depth from 3-D lesion reconstruction is presented. Experimental results achieved prove that the proposed computerized dermoscopy system is efficient and can be used to diagnose varied skin lesion dermoscopy images.
Two-handed polygonal surface design

This paper describes a Computer Aided Design system for sketching free-form polygonal surfaces such as terrains and other natural objects. The user manipulates two 3D position and orientation trackers with three buttons, one for each hand. Each hand has a distinct role to play, with the dominant hand being responsible for picking and manipulation, and the less-dominant hand being responsible for context setting of various kinds. The less-dominant hand holds the workpiece, sets which refinement level that can be picked by the dominant hand, and generally acts as a counterpoint to the dominant hand. In this paper, the architecture of the system is outlined, and a simple surface is shown.
Deletion of the Pichia pastoris KU70 Homologue Facilitates Platform Strain Generation for Gene Expression and Synthetic Biology

Targeted gene replacement to generate knock-outs and knock-ins is a commonly used method to study the function of unknown genes. In the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris, the importance of specific gene targeting has increased since the genome sequencing projects of the most commonly used strains have been accomplished, but rapid progress in the field has been impeded by inefficient mechanisms for accurate integration. To improve gene targeting efficiency in P. pastoris, we identified and deleted the P. pastoris KU70 homologue. We observed a substantial increase in the targeting efficiency using the two commonly known and used integration loci HIS4 and ADE1, reaching over 90% targeting efficiencies with only 250-bp flanking homologous DNA. Although the ku70 deletion strain was noted to be more sensitive to UV rays than the corresponding wild-type strain, no lethality, severe growth retardation or loss of gene copy numbers could be detected during repetitive rounds of cultivation and induction of heterologous protein production. Furthermore, we demonstrated the use of the ku70 deletion strain for fast and simple screening of genes in the search of new auxotrophic markers by targeting dihydroxyacetone synthase and glycerol kinase genes. Precise knock-out strains for the well-known P. pastoris AOX1, ARG4 and HIS4 genes and a whole series of expression vectors were generated based on the wild-type platform strain, providing a broad spectrum of precise tools for both intracellular and secreted production of heterologous proteins utilizing various selection markers and integration strategies for targeted or random integration of single and multiple genes. The simplicity of targeted integration in the ku70 deletion strain will further support protein production strain generation and synthetic biology using P. pastoris strains as platform hosts.
Primary care management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: an integrated goal-directed approach

Purpose of review This review discusses the role of the primary care physician in the care of the patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and considers how an integrated chronic care model can be applied. Recent findings Evidence suggests that a multidisciplinary approach can be successfully applied to a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient. These interventions can lead to improvement in quality of life and reduced healthcare utilization. Summary An integrated care program for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to assist the primary care provider should include the elements of the chronic care model. The support of a community-based outreach nurse, allied health staff, rehabilitation services and a case manager can assure best practices and identify gaps in quality care.
The Effect of Private Information and Monitoring on the Role of Accounting Quality in Investment Decisions

We investigate how private information and monitoring affect the role of accounting quality in reducing the investment-cash flow sensitivity. We argue that access to private information and direct restrictions on investments are likely to affect the extent to which accounting quality reduces financing constraints. Our results suggest that for financially constrained firms, banks’ access to private information decreases the value of accounting quality. We further find that, for both financially constrained and unconstrained firms, covenants directly restricting capital expenditures also mitigate the importance of accounting quality. Our results suggest that when information asymmetry problems are likely to be the largest, accounting quality is most important. However, the importance of accounting quality is mitigated if outside capital suppliers have access to private information and is eliminated if they impose contractual restrictions on investment. We also provide evidence that banks’ access to private information reduces the cash flow sensitivity of cash and mitigates the importance of accounting quality in reducing this sensitivity. This additional evidence suggests that our investment-cash flow sensitivity results are not driven by measurement error of the investment opportunity set.