Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optically Transparent Electrodes for Photoresponse Enhancement of MSM Photodetector

The paper presents the obtaining of transparent conducting ZnO thin layers and their application as interdigitated transparent Schottky electrodes in a silicon based metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM-PD) photodiode structure. Optically transparent electrodes from impurity-doped ZnO thin layers have been prepared by vacuum thermal deposition method from metallic powders of Zn, Al and Sn followed by oxidation at 623K. The optical properties, investigated by spectro-photometry, show a high transparency (T>85%) over a large spectral range 0.4-1mum and from electrical properties measurements a low resistivity of <10-4 resulted. These TCO layers have been deposited on silicon epitaxial wafers and MSM-PD with interdigitated transparent ZnO electrodes was achieved. An enhanced responsivity, was obtained by eliminating the surface shadowing by opaque electrodes. The measured capacitance of 1.4pF assures a high speed response in the GHz range
Chinese Spelling Check System Based on Tri-gram Model

This paper describes our system in the Chinese spelling check (CSC) task of CLP-SIGHAN Bake-Off 2014. CSC is still an open problem today. To the best of our knowledge, n-gram language modeling (LM) is widely used in CSC because of its simplicity and fair predictive power. Our work in this paper continues this general line of research by using a tri-gram LM to detect and correct possible spelling errors. In addition, we use dynamic programming to improve the efficiency of the algorithm, and additive smoothing to solve the data sparseness problem in training set. Empirical evaluation results demonstrate the utility of our CSC system.
Distributed Edge Partitioning for Graph Processing

The availability of larger and larger graph datasets, growing exponentially over the years, has created several new algorithmic challenges to be addressed. Sequential approaches have become unfeasible, while interest on parallel and distributed algorithms has greatly increased. Appropriately partitioning the graph as a preprocessing step can improve the degree of parallelism of its analysis. A number of heuristic algorithms have been developed to solve this problem, but many of them subdivide the graph on its vertex set, thus obtaining a vertex-partitioned graph. Aim of this paper is to explore a completely different approach based on edge partitioning, in which edges, rather than vertices, are partitioned into disjoint subsets. Contribution of this paper is twofold: first, we introduce a graph processing framework based on edge partitioning, that is flexible enough to be applied to several different graph problems. Second, we show the feasibility of these ideas by presenting a distributed edge partitioning algorithm called d-fep. Our framework is thoroughly evaluated, using both simulations and an Hadoop implementation running on the Amazon EC2 cloud. The experiments show that d-fep is efficient, scalable and obtains consistently good partitions. The resulting edge-partitioned graph can be exploited to obtain more efficient implementations of graph analysis algorithms.
Hexamodal Imaging with Porphyrin‐Phospholipid‐Coated Upconversion Nanoparticles

Hexamodal imaging using simple nanoparticles is demonstrated. Porphyrin-phospholipids are used to coat upconversion nanoparticles in order to generate a new biocompatible material. The nanoparticles are characterized in vitro and in vivo for imaging via fluorescence, upconversion, positron emission tomography, computed tomography, Cerenkov luminescence, and photoacoustic tomography.
Can Seminar and Computer-Based Training Improve the Effectiveness of Electronic Mail Communication within the Workplace?

Email communication has become an integral part of the communication structure within organisations. However, we are far from efficient in using this organisational communication and knowledge sharing tool. We aim to improve workplace communications by improving the way email is used within the workplace. We undertake extensive two-phase research to demonstrate the need to give employees training regarding email communication, and conduct both seminar based training and computer-based training. Findings indicate that email training can lead to significant improvements in the way that employees use email within the workplace with computer-based training (or e-learning) showing a greater improvement. This study demonstrates that while email is a powerful organisational and knowledge tool, it can be optimised to better leverage its benefits by training employees in its use
Embedded SRAM design in deep deep submicron technologies

Static RAM memory is more than ever a key component in systems on chip. Static memories are dominating factors in the cost, the performance and the energy consumption of such systems. Deep deep submicron scaling beyond 130 nm complicates the design of SRAM circuits that make a good compromise between performance and energy consumption. This is mainly caused by leakage and technological variability. The effect of leakage and variability is amplified by the fact that large area penalties are unacceptable for cost reasons. As a consequence, novel circuit designs are needed to alleviate the additional problems introduced by advanced scaling while keeping classic scaling advantages intact. This paper gives an overview of circuit techniques that have recently been proposed to improve the position of SRAMS in the area-energy-performance design space. This paper starts from the SRAM cell, expands to the local bitline to conclude with the circuit architecture of complete SRAMs.
Adipokines at the crossroad between obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Objective: Investigate serum levels of chemerin, apelin, betatrophin and leptin adipokines and HsCRP in obese and non-obese patients either prediabetic or diabetic and correlate their levels with other biochemical parameters of IR. Additionally, studying the effect of their combinations on the sensitivity of investigation for the development and/or progression of T2DM. Subjects and Methods: Serum levels of adipokines were analyzed using ELISA technique in 160 subjects. Results: Serum Chemerin, and HsCRP levels were significantly higher in all obese groups compared to non-obese of the same group.Serum levels of both betatrophin & HsCRP were positively correlated with glycemic indices (FPG, A1c, HOMA-IR). Serum levels of chemerin were positively correlated with FPG, A1c. Serum Chemerin, betatrophin, HsCRP all showed negative correlation with HOMA-β level. The combination of different markers improved their sensitivity of detection, with the highest level of sensitivity shown between betatrophin with HsCRP. Conclusion: These results indicate crucial roles played by the studied adipokines and HsCRP in IR caused by obesity and consequently T2DM development. Combination of Betatrophin and HsCRP can be an early sensitive predictor for IR occurrence in obese patients. These adipokines may be targets for the development of therapies to treat or inhibit IR associated to obesity.
High Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Characterization of the Neuroligin-3 Knock-in Mouse Model Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) comprise an etiologically heterogeneous set of neurodevelopmental disorders. Neuroligin-3 (NL-3) is a cell adhesion protein that mediates synapse development and has been implicated in ASD. We performed ex-vivo high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and behavioral (social approach and zero maze) tests at 3 different time points (30, 50 and 70 days-of-age) on NL-3 and wild-type littermates to assess developmental brain abnormalities in NL-3 mice. MRI data were segmented in 39 different gray and white matter regions. Volumetric measurements, along with DTI indices from these segmented regions were also performed. After controlling for age and gender, the NL-3 knock-in animals demonstrated significantly reduced sociability and lower anxiety-related behavior in comparison to their wild type littermates. Significantly reduced volume of several white and gray matter regions in the NL-3 knock-in mice were also observed after considering age, gender and time point as covariates. These findings suggest that structural changes in the brain of NL-3 mice are induced by the mutation in the NL-3 gene. No significant differences in DTI indices were observed, which suggests that the NL-3 mutation may not have a profound effect on water diffusion as detected by DTI. The volumetric and DTI studies aid in understanding the biology of disrupting function on an ASD risk model and may assist in the development of imaging biomarkers for ASD.
Affective Medicine

Summary Background: Affective computing (AC) is concerned with emotional interactions performed with and through computers. It is defined as “computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotions”. AC enables investigation and understanding of the relation between human emotions and health as well as application of assistive and useful technologies in the medical domain. Objectives: 1) To review the general state of the art in AC and its applications in medicine, and 2) to establish synergies between the research communities of AC and medical informatics. Methods: Aspects related to the human affective state as a determinant of the human health are discussed, coupled with an illustration of significant AC research and related literature output. Moreover, affective communication channels are described and their range of application fields is explored through illustrative examples. Results: The presented conferences, European research projects and research publications illustrate the recent increase of interest in the AC area by the medical community. Tele-home healthcare, Am I, ubiquitous monitoring, e-learning and virtual communities with emotionally expressive characters for elderly or impaired people are few areas where the potential of AC has been realized and applications have emerged. Conclusions: A number of gaps can potentially be overcome through the synergy of AC and medical informatics. The application of AC technologies parallels the advancement of the existing state of the art and the introduction of new methods. The amount of work and projects reviewed in this paper witness an ambitious and optimistic synergetic future of the affective medicine field.
Ray tracing point set surfaces

Point set surfaces (PSS) are a smooth manifold surface approximation from a set of sample points. The surface definition is based on a projection operation that constructs local polynomial approximations and respects a minimum feature size. We present techniques for ray tracing PSSs. For the computation of ray-surface intersection the properties of the projection operation are exploited. The surface is enclosed by a union of minimum feature size spheres. A ray is intersected with the spheres first and inside the spheres with local polynomial approximations. Our results show that 2-3 projections are sufficient to accurately intersect a ray with the surface.
Kinetics of Haemopoietic Colony Growth

Summary. On continuous whole‐body γ irradiation at a dose rate of 70 rad/day the colony forming haemopoietic stem cells (CFU) show a biphasic dose–response curve where the first steeper phase is indistinguishable from the acute dose–response curve, indicating a lack of dose‐rate effect. The response of growing CFU to chronic irradiation gives a quantitative indication of the rate of differentiation of the CFU, and the growth of the individual splenic colonies indicates an age structure (process of maturation) in the erythropoietin responsive cell (ERC) population. A model is constructed illustrating the interrelationship between the pluripotent CFU and its descendants in the ‘committed’ ERC population.
Wide-band and high-gain microstrip antenna with thick parasitic patch substrate

A stacked microstrip antenna which is composed, of a fed patch, a parasitic patch and a thick parasitic patch substrate, is proposed. Its characteristics have been investigated in detail using the FDTD method. The behavior mechanism for the high gain performances of the stacked microstrip antenna is explained clearly for the first time. The characteristics of the stacked antenna depend on the patch separation distance, that is, the thickness of the parasitic patch substrate. When the patch distance is approximately half a wavelength in the dielectric, an electric standing wave contributing to the radiation exists in the cavity between patches, and the amplitude of the electric fields becomes large. Because the thick dielectric is inserted in the space between the fed and the parasitic patches, the height of this stacked antenna becomes low. By adjusting the patch distance, the patch size and the feed point, the stacked microstrip antenna which has both wide bandwidth and high gain is successfully realized.
Mutations in the Hyperosmotic Stress-Responsive Mitochondrial BASIC AMINO ACID CARRIER2 Enhance Proline Accumulation in Arabidopsis1[C][W]

Mitochondrial carrier family proteins are diverse in their substrate specificity, organellar location, and gene expression. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), 58 genes encode these six-transmembrane-domain proteins. We investigated the biological role of the basic amino acid carrier Basic Amino Acid Carrier2 (BAC2) from Arabidopsis that is structurally and functionally similar to ARG11, a yeast ornithine and arginine carrier, and to Arabidopsis BAC1. By studying the expression of BAC2 and the consequences of its mutation in Arabidopsis, we showed that BAC2 is a genuine mitochondrial protein and that Arabidopsis requires expression of the BAC2 gene in order to use arginine. The BAC2 gene is induced by hyperosmotic stress (with either 0.2 m NaCl or 0.4 m mannitol) and dark-induced senescence. The BAC2 promoter contains numerous stress-related cis-regulatory elements, and the transcriptional activity of BAC2:β-glucuronidase is up-regulated by stress and senescence. Under hyperosmotic stress, bac2 mutants express the P5CS1 proline biosynthetic gene more strongly than the wild type, and this correlates with a greater accumulation of Pro. Our data suggest that BAC2 is a hyperosmotic stress-inducible transporter of basic amino acids that contributes to proline accumulation in response to hyperosmotic stress in Arabidopsis.
Meningeal Worm Infection in Central Iowa Goat Herds II: Individual Cases and Treatment Using a Camelid Therapeutic Protocol

Meningeal worm (Paralaphostrongylus tenuis) infection, also known as cerebrospinal nematodiasis, is a common parasitic infection in New World Camelids in the United States. There is also a considerable risk for this disease in the Boer goat population. Despite the rapidly increasing size of the national goat herd, there are no treatment protocols reported in the literature for goats with this disease. This study describes a successful clinical approach and treatment of 3 Boer goat cases with therapy previously reported for use in New World Camelids. The clinical presentation, diagnosis, and long-term outcome of P. tenuis infections in these goats presented to ISU Food Animal and Camelid Hospital (FACH) is reported here within. Practitioners should be aware that clinical presentation and diagnosis are similar for goats as reported for camelids with cerebrospinal nematodiasis. Additionally, the described treatment protocols for camelids appear to demonstrate a comparative efficacy in goats.
A Practical Way of Testing Security Patterns

—We propose an approach for helping developers devise more secure applications from the threat modelling stage up to the testing one. This approach relies on a Knowledge base integrating varied security data to perform these task. It firstly assists developers in the design of Attack Defense Trees (ADTrees) expressing the attacker possibilities to compromise an application and the defenses that may be implemented. These defenses are expressed by means of security patterns, which are generic and re-usable solutions to design secure applications. ADTrees are then used to guide developers in the generation of test cases and of LTL specifications encoding properties about security pattern behaviours. Test verdicts show whether an application is vulnerable to the attack scenarios and if the security pattern properties hold in the application traces.
IOPA: I/O-aware parallelism adaption for parallel programs

With the development of multi-/many-core processors, applications need to be written as parallel programs to improve execution efficiency. For data-intensive applications that use multiple threads to read/write files simultaneously, an I/O sub-system can easily become a bottleneck when too many of these types of threads exist; on the contrary, too few threads will cause insufficient resource utilization and hurt performance. Therefore, programmers must pay much attention to parallelism control to find the appropriate number of I/O threads for an application. This paper proposes a parallelism control mechanism named IOPA that can adjust the parallelism of applications to adapt to the I/O capability of a system and balance computing resources and I/O bandwidth. The programming interface of IOPA is also provided to programmers to simplify parallel programming. IOPA is evaluated using multiple applications with both solid state and hard disk drives. The results show that the parallel applications using IOPA can achieve higher efficiency than those with a fixed number of threads.
Lithography simulation-based full-chip design analyses

Today's design flows sign-off performance and power prior to application of resolution enhancement techniques (RETs). Together with process variations, RETs can lead to substantial difference between post-layout and on-silicon performance and power. Lithography simulation enables estimation of on-silicon feature sizes at different process conditions. However, current lithography simulation tools are completely shape-based and not connected to the design in any way. This prevents designers from estimating on-silicon performance and power and consequently most chips are designed for pessimistic worst-cases. In this paper we present a novel methodology that uses the result of lithography simulation for estimation of performance and power of a design using standard device- and chip-level analysis tools. The key challenge addressed by our methodology is to transform shapes generated by lithography simulation to a form that is acceptable by standard analysis tools such that electrical properties are preserved. Our approach is sufficiently fast to be run full-chip on all layers of a large design. We observe that while the difference in power and performance estimates at post-layout and on-silicon is small at ideal process conditions, it increases substantially at non-ideal process conditions. With our RET recipes, linewidths tend to decrease with defocus for most patterns. According to the proposed analyses of layouts litho-simulated at 100nm defocus, leakage increases by up to 68%, setup time improves by up to 14%, and dynamic power reduces by up to 2%. The key challenge addressed by our methodology is to transform shapes generated by lithography simulation to a form that is acceptable by standard analysis tools such that electrical properties are preserved. Our approach is sufficiently fast to be run full-chip on all layers of a large design. We observe that while the difference in power and performance estimates at post-layout and on-silicon is small at ideal process conditions, it increases substantially at non-ideal process conditions. With our RET recipes, linewidths tend to decrease with defocus for most patterns. According to the proposed analyses of layouts litho-simulated at 100nm defocus, leakage increases by up to 68%, setup time improves by up to 14%, and dynamic power reduces by up to 2%.
SopD acts cooperatively with SopB during Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium invasion

The intracellular bacterial pathogen, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. typhimurium), causes disease in a variety of hosts. To invade and replicate in host cells, these bacteria subvert host molecular machinery using bacterial proteins, called effectors, which they translocate into host cells using specialized protein delivery systems. One of these effectors, SopD, contributes to gastroenteritis, systemic virulence and persistence of S. typhimurium in animal models of infection. Recently, SopD has been implicated in invasion of polarized epithelial cells and here we investigate the features of SopD‐mediated invasion. We show that SopD plays a role in membrane fission and macropinosome formation during S. typhimurium invasion, events previously shown to be mediated by the SopB effector. We further demonstrate that SopD acts cooperatively with SopB to promote these events during invasion. Using live cell imaging we show that a SopD–GFP fusion does not localize to HeLa cell cytosol as previously described, but instead is membrane associated. Upon S. typhimurium infection of these cells, SopD‐GFP is recruited to the invasion site, and this recruitment required the phosphatase activity of SopB. Our findings demonstrate a role for SopD in manipulation of host‐cell membrane during S. typhimurium invasion and reveal the nature of its cooperative action with SopB.
Semi-supervised Extraction of Entity Aspects Using Topic Models

Information extraction techniques (such as Named Entity Recognition) have long been used to extract useful pieces of information from text. The types of information to be extracted are generally fixed and well defined (e.g., names of people, organizations, etc.). However in some cases, the user goal is more abstract and information types cannot be narrowly defined. For example, a reader of online user reviews typically has the goal of making a good choice and is interested to learn about the different aspects or attributes that people have mentioned for an entity (e.g., quality of service for a restaurant or battery life of a digital camera). Some of these aspects may be known by the reader and some others may need to be discovered from the inherent text structure in a large collection. Even for the known aspects (such as " service " for a restaurant), the challenge is to recognize various expressions (e.g., " long wait " or " friendly waiter "). In this thesis, we model the entity aspects as topics with identifiable word distributions across documents. We review several probabilistic graphical models (such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation) and propose a new model which can operate in a semi-supervised setting. We provide empirical evaluation for the success of this model in biasing the natural topic distribution toward entity aspects in user reviews. iv v Acknowledgements
Detecting linguistic HCI markers in an online aphasia support group

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder resulting from trauma or injury to language areas of the brain. Despite extensive research on the impact of aphasia on traditional forms of communication, little is known about the impact of aphasia on computer-mediated communication (CMC). In this study we asked whether the well-documented language deficits associated with aphasia can be detected in online writing of people with aphasia. We analyzed 150 messages (14,754 words) posted to an online aphasia support forum, by six people with aphasia and by four controls. Significant linguistic differences between people with aphasia and controls were detected, suggesting five putative linguistic HCI markers for aphasia. These findings suggest that interdisciplinary research on communication disorders and CMC has both applied and theoretical implications.