Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantum-mechanical histories and the uncertainty principle: Information-theoretic inequalities.

This paper is generally concerned with understanding how the uncertainty principle arises in formulations of quantum mechanics, such as the decoherent histories approach, whose central goal is the assignment of probabilities to histories. We first consider histories characterized by position or momentum projections at two moments of time. Both exact and approximate (Gaussian) projections are studied. Shannon's information is used as a measure of the uncertainty expressed in the probabilities for these histories. We derive a number of inequalities in which the uncertainty principle is expressed as a lower bound on the information of phase space distributions derived from the probabilities for two-time histories. We go on to consider histories characterized by position samplings at $n$ moments of time. We derive a lower bound on the information of the joint probability for $n$ position samplings. Similar bounds are derived for histories characterized by samplings of other variables. All lower bounds on the information of histories have the general form $\mathrm{ln}(\frac{{V}_{H}}{{V}_{S}})$, where ${V}_{H}$ is a volume element of history space, which we define, and ${V}_{S}$ is the volume of that space probed by the projections. We thus obtain a concise and general form of the uncertainty principle referring directly to the histories description of the system, and making no reference to notions of phase space.
A second order minimum-energy filter on the special orthogonal group

This work documents a case study in the application of Mortensen's nonlinear filtering approach to invariant systems on general Lie groups. In this paper, we consider the special orthogonal group SO(3) of all rotation matrices. We identify the exact form of the kinematics of the minimum-energy (optimal) observer on SO(3) and note that it depends on the Hessian of the value function of the associated optimal control problem. We derive a second order approximation of the dynamics of the Hessian by neglecting third order terms in the expansion of the dynamics. This yields a Riccati equation that together with the optimal observer equation form a second order minimum-energy filter on SO(3). The proposed filter is compared to the multiplicative extended Kalman filter (MEKF), arguably the industry standard for attitude estimation, by means of simulations. Our studies indicate superior transient and asymptotic tracking performance of the proposed filter as compared to the MEKF.
Maximum likelihood estimation of a bivariate ordered probit model: implementation and Monte Carlo simulations

We discuss the estimation of a two-equation ordered probit model. We have written a Stata command bioprobit that computes full-information maxi- mum likelihood estimates of this model. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we com- pare the performance of this and other estimators under various conditions. The ordered univariate probability models have been applied extensively in biostatics, economics, political science and sociology. Estimations of the joint probability distri- bution of two ordered categorical variables are less common in the literature. The bivariate ordered probit models could be treated as an extension of a standard bivariate probit model when the number of categories of the dependent variables is greater than two. While sharing many properties of bivariate probit estimator, the likelihood func- tion for bivariate ordered probit requires modifications in cases when one of underlying DGP contains an endogenous regressor. Despite a potentially wide applicability of this estimator we know of no general routine for estimation of the bivariate ordered prof- itability models, both in seemingly unrelated and simultaneous specifications 1 . In this paper we describe the implementation of the general full-information maximum (FIML) algorithm to estimate such models. We compare properties of this and other estimators using Monte Carlo simulations.
Color models of shadow detection in video scenes

In this paper we address the problem of appropriate modelling of shadows in color images. While previous works compared the different approaches regarding their model structure, a comparative study of color models has still missed. This paper attacks a continuous need for defining the appropriate color space for this main surveillance problem. We introduce a statistical and parametric shadow model-framework, which can work with different color spaces, and perform a detailed comparision with it. We show experimental results regarding the following questions: (1) What is the gain of using color images instead of grayscale ones? (2) What is the gain of using uncorrelated spaces instead of the standard RGB? (3) Chrominance (illumination invariant), luminance, or ”mixed” spaces are more effective? (4) In which scenes are the differences significant? We qualified the metrics both in color based clustering of the individual pixels and in the case of Bayesian foreground-background-shadow segmentation. Experimental results on real-life videos show that CIE L*u*v* color space is the most efficient.
Vasco: A visual approach to explore object churn in framework-intensive applications

Bloat, and particularly object churn, is a common performance problem in framework-intensive applications. Object churn consists of an excessive use of temporary objects. Identifying and understanding sources of churn is a difficult and labor-intensive task, despite recent advances in automated analysis techniques. We present an interactive visualization approach designed to help developers quickly and intuitively explore the behavior of their application with respect to object churn. We have implemented this technique in Vasco, a new flexible and scalable visualization platform. Vasco is designed to minimize the cognitive effort required for the visualization task. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by applying it to three framework-intensive applications and identifying previously unreported churn in a commercial system.
Sugar composition of wild fruits in Hong Kong, China

Soluble carbohydrates are the major nutritional reward in the pulp of most vertebrate dispersed fruits (Corlett 1996, Herrera 1987, Johnson et al. 1985, Jordano 1995). However, although detailed analyses have been made of the carbohydrate content of many cumtivated fruits (e.g. Nagy et al. 1990, Widdowson & McCance 1935), most studies of wild fruits have only quantified total soluble carbohydrates (e.g. Conklin & Wrangham 1994, Corlett 1996, Foster & McDiarmid 1983, Herrera 1987, Izhaki 1992). This is unfortunate because relatively minor differences in the chemical structure of nutrients can have profound implications for frugivorous animals (Martinez del Rio & Restrepo 1993), and the fruit choices of these animals in turn, may have major implications for the abundance and distribution of the plant species.
Object race detection

We present an on-the-fly mechanism that detects access conflicts in executions of multi-threaded Java programs. Access conflicts are a conservative approximation of data races. The checker tracks access information at the level of objects (object races) rather than at the level of individual variables. This viewpoint allows the checker to exploit specific properties of object-oriented programs for optimization by restricting dynamic checks to those objects that are identified by escape analysis as potentially shared. The checker has been implemented in collaboration with an "ahead-of-time"Java compiler. The combination fo static program analysis (escape-analysis) and inline instrumentation during code generation allows us to reduce the runtime overhead of detecting access conflicts. This overhead amounts to about 16-129% in time and less than 25% in space for typical benchmark applications and compares favorably to previously published on-the-fly mechanism that incurred an overhead of about a factor of 2-80 in time and up to a factor of 2 in space.
Comparing Three Methods of Co-culture of Retinal Pigment Epithelium with Progenitor Cells Derived Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Background: Close interaction between retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and photoreceptors plays an essential role in visual function. The objective of this study is to determine the effects of RPE cells in the differentiation of progenitor derived human embryonic stem cells (hESC) into retinal cells; we developed in vitro co-culture models and compare these models to investigate in which model the expression of photoreceptor markers is superior. It seems the effects of RPE cells on differentiation of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) through the cell-to-cell contact or with the use of insert and compare of these methods has not been reported yet. Methods: Initially, retinal progenitors (RPs) were differentiated from hESC. After isolation of RPE sheet from rabbit eyes, demonstrated these cells maintains the integrity and feature after 2 weeks. Next, we examined the induction of photoreceptors by the co-culture of RPE through insert in 1 week and 2 weeks (indirect) or without insert by the cell-to-cell contact (direct). The differentiation of retinal cells was verified by protein and gene expression in these three methods. The adherent cells were morphologically examined using phase contrast microscopy and characterized by immunofluorescent staining and reverse transcription.polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) Results: Evaluation of immunostaining showed that hESC, highly (>80%) can be directed to the RPs fate. Upon co-culture of RPCs with RPE sheet using insert for 2 weeks or by the cell-to-cell contact, these cells differentiated to neural retina and expressed photoreceptor-specific markers. However, in direct co-culture, some mature photoreceptor markers like arrestin expressed in compare with indirect co-culture. Conclusions: The expression of late photoreceptor marker could be improved when RPE cells seeded on RPCs in compare with the use of insert.
Detection of exudates from retinal images using morphological compact tree

Exudates are an important sign of Diabetic Retinopathy. Retinal Exudates are formed when lipid leakage occurs from damage capillaries. They are deep yellowish in colour and can be easily confused with other yellowish regions in retina. Detection of exudates is very important for developing an automated screening system for detection of diabetic retinopathy. In this paper we focus on detection of exudates through morphological compact tree. We did some pre-processing for removal of noise and enhancement of image. Blobbing technique was applied and all the connected pixels were counted as single blob. These blobs are then passed through an area filter which removes blobs with very large areas. The remaining blobs are then divided into three categories small, medium and large. The medium and large blobs are again fed into pre-processing mode one by one to remove strong boundaries effect and extract the exact suspected candidate location. All the blobs are then passed through morphological compact tree of filters which removes the non-exudates regions through different. For each image different set of threshold values for the filters are required. In our technique we are setting it manually but further research is needed to find out the optimal threshold values or a technique which can calculate adaptive thresholds values for these filters. This is very simple method for the detection of exudates as it uses only a morphological filtration tree. 10 images of dimension 500*752 were analysed in this experiment. The results were compared with ophthalmologist's hand drawn ground truths. Mean recall of 78 percent and mean precision of 56 percent were obtained.
What lessons can the agile community learn from a maverick fighter pilot?

For the agile software development community, agility is defined by the values expressed in the agile manifesto. But in concrete terms, what does it mean for a software project to be agile? US Air Force Colonel John Boyd defined agility as the ability to operate the observation-orientation-decision-action (OODA) loop faster than an adversary. Agility therefore depends on the tempo at which we can exploit the OODA loop, and it is culture, not methodologies or tools that determine our OODA loop speed. This definition of agility has implications for the software development community. This short paper introduces Colonel Boyd, the OODA loop, the factors which influence OODA loop speed and the possible research opportunities into software engineering culture we are considering
Preparation of Porous Titanium with High Porous Titanium and Surface Modification with High Concentration Alkaline Treatment

Porous titanium scaffolds with high porosity are fabricated by sintering. The bioactivity of the porous titanium has been improved by high concentration alkaline treatment. Through the modification, the titanium surface showed a network structures. The SBF immersion test indicates that apatite was formed on the porous titanium scaffold with high porosity after 10M/L alkali treatment in 12h. The results of study show the network structured endowed the porous titanium with bioactivity.
A multi-loop robust navigation architecture for mobile robots

Describes a multi-loop, modular navigation architecture for mobile robots whose structure allows the execution of most types of navigation tasks in a highly robust manner. The modularity allows the clear separation of functions according to their complexity and priority. We propose a clear separation between local and global navigation in such a way that both can run independently, but an adequate alternation/competition between them allows accomplishment of trajectory execution including avoidance of unknown obstacles. The multi-loop nature of the architecture ensures adequate stability at different levels yielding safe navigation and accomplishment of higher level tasks. Examples may range from goal reaching in some point of the environment to a 3D-environment mapping application, as this is the case in this work.
A source of error in an autoanalyzer determination of serum iron.

An AutoAnalyzer method for serum iron was found to be giving erroneously high values owing to a Donnan equilibrium effect on the rate of dialysis of ferrous ions. The addition of neutral salt to the reagent corrected the deficiency. The validity of other assays on the AutoAnalyzer that measure dialyzable ions in the presence of relatively high concentrations of protein should be verified in view of this finding.
The interplay between feelings and beliefs about condoms as predictors of their use

Objective: Negative feelings about condoms are a key barrier to their use. Using the behavioural affective associations model, we examined the joint effects of affective associations and cognitive beliefs about condoms on condom use. Design: In Study 1 (N = 97), students completed measures of their affective associations and cognitive beliefs about sex and condoms, sexual activity and condom use. In Study 2 (N = 171), a measure of behavioural intentions and condom selection task were added. Main outcome measures: Condom use measured in Study 1 as (1) current condom use, and (2) willingness to use condoms; in Study 2 as: (1) behavioural intentions, (2) number of condoms selected. Results: Affective associations with sex and condoms were behaviour-specific, were directly associated with the respective behaviour, and mediated the relations of cognitive beliefs to behaviour, ps < . 05. In Study 2, affective associations were associated with behavioural intentions and the number of condoms selected, ps < . 05; cognitive beliefs were indirectly associated with these outcomes through affective associations, indirect effects: ps < . 05. Conclusions: Affective associations are a behaviour-specific and proximal predictor of condom use, mediating the effect of cognitive beliefs, suggesting they may be a particularly viable intervention target.
An open-label study of adjunctive repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for partial remission in major depressive disorder

Abstract Objective. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of adjunctive treatment with rTMS in patients with partial remission major depressive disorder. Method. Subjects were patients meeting DSM-IV-TR criteria for non-psychotic major depressive disorder who responded to 8 weeks of medication treatment but still had residual symptoms (HAM-D score between 7 and 18). All patients were assigned to receive 10 daily sessions (total of 12,500 magnetic pulses) of rTMS applied at the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as adjunctive treatment. The antidepressant effect was measured repeatedly at 6 days, and at 4 and 8 weeks after treatment with the Thai version of HAM-D scale as a primary outcome scale. Results. Seven of nine patients (78%) reached the stage of remission (HAM-D < 8) after being treated with adjunctive rTMS. There was a statistically significant difference in decreasing of the HAM-D score during the treatment, χ2 (df 3) = 17.929, P < 0.001. There was no severe adverse event. One patient had vertigo after the first session of treatment and one patient had a scalp contraction feeling during treatment but full recovered in half an hour with no medical intervention. Conclusion. For patients with a major depressive disorder in partial remission, high frequency rTMS may provide benefits in adjunctive treatment which are tolerated well. However, the long term effects should be observed.
Resource management schemes for Bluetooth scatternets

When several Bluetooth networks interconnect through a number of bridge nodes, they form a scatternet. However, no routing protocol has yet been defined for Bluetooth scatternets. Meanwhile, because of its small size and low cost, Bluetooth is widely "pervasive", in the sense that even low cost electrical appliances will be expected to become Bluetooth enabled. If so, scatternets consisting of several piconets will exist even in a home environment. Thus, there is a pressing need to develop an efficient ad hoc routing algorithm to make effective communication possible between distant devices. This study proposes an integrated ad hoc routing and time-slot scheduling (IARTSS) scheme to address the problem of ad hoc routing in Bluetooth networks. Our proposed scheme contains four main mechanisms to address the different facets of the problem, namely compensation-based time-slot assignment (CTSA), traffic differentiation queuing (TDQ), adaptive master-slave switching (AMSS), and an enhanced AODV algorithm for ad hoc routing. We have built a comprehensive Bluetooth simulator and performed extensive simulations to evaluate the proposed IARTSS. We find that our proposed scheme can perform well under a wide variety of practical circumstances, and provides efficient and high performance intra-piconet and inter-piconet communications.
Leg intramuscular pressures during locomotion in humans.

To assess the usefulness of intramuscular pressure (IMP) measurement for studying muscle function during gait, IMP was recorded in the soleus and tibialis anterior muscles of 10 volunteers during treadmill walking and running by using transducer-tipped catheters. Soleus IMP exhibited single peaks during late-stance phase of walking [181 +/- 69 (SE) mmHg] and running (269 +/- 95 mmHg). Tibialis anterior IMP showed a biphasic response, with the largest peak (90 +/- 15 mmHg during walking and 151 +/- 25 mmHg during running) occurring shortly after heel strike. IMP magnitude increased with gait speed in both muscles. Linear regression of soleus IMP against ankle joint torque obtained by a dynamometer produced linear relationships (n = 2, r = 0.97 for both). Application of these relationships to IMP data yielded estimated peak soleus moment contributions of 0.95-1.65 N . m/kg during walking, and 1.43-2.70 N . m/kg during running. Phasic elevations of IMP during exercise are probably generated by local muscle tissue deformations due to muscle force development. Thus profiles of IMP provide a direct, reproducible index of muscle function during locomotion in humans.
THE EXPRESSION OF EMOTION CONSIDERED IN THE FRAMEWORK OF AN INTONATION MODEL

Studying intonational variation conveying the expression of emotion in speech is presented here as being particularly attractive when the pitch variation is represented in the theoretical framework of a model of intonation. Using such a framework while considering the meaning associated with these variations in terms of identification of emotion in speech facilitates a generalization of study results. Moreover, such an approach provides the opportunity to test the adequacy of the model for processing such extreme variations as the ones occurring in emotional speech. The model can be evaluated and could eventually be extended or fine-tuned. Ultimately, interpreting data in the framework of such a model provides a methodological background for investigating intonation phenomena conveying emotion in speech against the background of intonation phenomena relevant to speech communication. The approach proposed is discussed and illustrated by reporting how it has been applied, in particular to own work, using a specific model of intonation. Using this approach while investigating how prosody conveys meaning would stimulate us to consider the power of existing intonation models for modeling expressiveness. Hence, such an approach helps shedding light on functionality of intonation in terms of conveying meaningful information in the oral communication stream. From this point of view, studies on emotional speech contribute to developing and refining theories concerned with prosody.
Immunofluorescent detection of erythrocyte sialoglycoprotein antigens on murine erythroid cells

A sialoglycoprotein fraction isolated from murine (DBA/2) erythrocytic ghosts (see companion article, Sarris and Palade, 1982, J. Cell. Biol. 93:583-590) was used to raise antibodies in rabbits. By immune-IgG (serum)-[125I] protein A overlays, the antibodies were found to react positively with the four sialoglycoprotein monomers (gp-2.1, gp-2.2, gp- 3.1, and gp-3.2) of the original fraction, with the sialoglycoproteins detected in erythrocytic ghosts (gp-2.1 and gp-3.1), with a diffuse component (probably a macroglycolipid) trailing around gp-3.1 in SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoretograms of solubilized ghosts, and with a minor sialoglycoprotein hidden under this trail. IgG's isolated from immune and nonimmune rabbit sera were conjugated to tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate and used to survey, by fluorescence microscopy, the distribution of the cognate antigens on the three different erythroid lines known to succeed each other during the life span of the mouse. In the peripheral blood of the adult, the antibodies recognized only mature erythrocytes; they did not crossreact with either platelets, monocytes, or different types of granulocytes. In the spleen of adult anemic mice, the antibodies reacted weakly with proerythroblasts and strongly with all types of erythroblasts. In enucleating erythroblasts, antigens were preferentially segregated on the cell membrane of the nascent reticulocyte. In the 10-day-old embryo, antigens were already present on the primitive nucleated erythrocytes (produced by the blood islets of the yolk sack), and in the 14-d fetus they were found on all hepatic erythroblasts and derived non-nucleated erythrocytes. A positive immunoreaction was also obtained on Friend erythroleukemic cells, before or after induction by dimethyl sulfoxide. Nonimmune serum, or nonimmune IgGs gave negative reactions in all cases. The antibodies were species-specific: they did not crossreact with either human or rat erythrocytes.