Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3C-SiС Hetero-Epitaxially Grown on Silicon Compliance Substrates and New 3C-SiС Substrates for Sustainable Wide-Band-Gap Power Devices (CHALLENGE)

The cubic polytype of SiC (3C-SiC) is the only one that can be grown on silicon substrate with the thickness required for targeted applications. Possibility to grow such layers has remained for a long period a real advantage in terms of scalability. Even the relatively narrow band-gap of 3C-SiC (2.3eV), which is often regarded as detrimental in comparison with other polytypes, can in fact be an advantage. However, the crystalline quality of 3C-SiC on silicon has to be improved in order to benefit from the intrinsic 3C-SiC properties. In this project new approaches for the reduction of defects will be used and new compliance substrates that can help to reduce the stress and the defect density at the same time will be explored. Numerical simulations will be applied to optimize growth conditions and reduce stress in the material. The structure of the final devices will be simulated using the appropriated numerical tools where new numerical model will be introduced to take into account the properties of the new material. Thanks to these simulations tools and the new material with low defect density, several devices that can work at high power and with low power consumption will be realized within the project.
Influence of finger amputation on grip strength and objectively measured hand function: a descriptive cross-sectional study

Finger amputations are common and hands are essential for functioning, but studies on factors influencing functioning after finger amputation are lacking. Therefore, we aimed to explore the influence of the number and level of amputated fingers on hand function and grip strength. A prospective descriptive cross-sectional study involving 69 patients with partial or complete amputation of one or more fingers of one hand was carried out. The function of both hands was assessed using the Southampton Hand Assessment Procedure test; grip strength was measured in 42 patients. We confirmed that finger amputation worsens hand function (especially tripod and tip pinch) and reduces grip strength, whereby the extent of the worsening depends on amputation type – it is the smallest after thumb amputation and the largest after amputation of the index finger and fingers III–V. However, because of the variety of amputation types, we recommend that future studies either involve very large samples or focus on specific amputations.
Topic Models + Word Alignment = A Flexible Framework for Extracting Bilingual Dictionary from Comparable Corpus

We propose a flexible and effective framework for extracting a bilingual dictionary from comparable corpora. Our approach is based on a novel combination of topic modeling and word alignment techniques. Intuitively, our approach works by converting a comparable document-aligned corpus into a parallel topic-aligned corpus, then learning word alignments using co-occurrence statistics. This topicaligned corpus is similar in structure to the sentence-aligned corpus frequently used in statistical machine translation, enabling us to exploit advances in word alignment research. Unlike many previous work, our framework does not require any languagespecific knowledge for initialization. Furthermore, our framework attempts to handle polysemy by allowing multiple translation probability models for each word. On a large-scale Wikipedia corpus, we demonstrate that our framework reliably extracts high-precision translation pairs on a wide variety of comparable data conditions.
Authoring of Adaptive Computer Assisted Assessment of Free-text Answers

Adaptation techniques can be applied not only to the multimedia contents or navigational possibilities of a course, but also to the assessment. In order to facilitate the authoring of adaptive free-text assessment and its integration within adaptive web-based courses, Adaptive Hypermedia techniques and Free-text Computer Assisted Assessment are combined in what could be called Adaptive Computer Assisted Assessment of Free-text Answers. This paper focuses on the integration of this type of assessment within adaptive courses, as well as on the presentation of an authoring tool able to manage the insertion and modification of different question statements and reference answers for open-ended questions. The results of the evaluation of this tool with course authors show the feasibility of proposing and evaluating openended questions adapted to each student, as well as that of getting a better model of the student's progress.
High Quality One-Dimensional Low Spatial Frequency Lipss on Sapphire Generated by Top-hat Beam Shaped Ultrashort-Pulsed Laser

We report on the generation of high quality one-dimensional low spatial frequency laser-induced periodic surface structures on sapphire. Therefore, a diffractive optical element is used to form a Top-Hat beam profile on the sapphire specimen for an increased quality of the 1D-structures. By using an infrared femtosecond laser in conjunction with a 2D-galvo scanner, 1D-LSFL having a high degree of homogeneity, parallelism and low damage can be achieved. After optimization of the laser parameters scanning speed and pulse energy a scanning direction parallel to the polarization of the laser turned out to result in the high quality onedimensional LSFL having a width three times as large as the structures generated with the Gaussian beam profile.
Optimally Pruning Decision Tree Ensembles With Feature Cost

We consider the problem of learning decision rules for prediction with feature budget constraint. In particular, we are interested in pruning an ensemble of decision trees to reduce expected feature cost while maintaining high prediction accuracy for any test example. We propose a novel 0-1 integer program formulation for ensemble pruning. Our pruning formulation is general - it takes any ensemble of decision trees as input. By explicitly accounting for feature-sharing across trees together with accuracy/cost trade-off, our method is able to significantly reduce feature cost by pruning subtrees that introduce more loss in terms of feature cost than benefit in terms of prediction accuracy gain. Theoretically, we prove that a linear programming relaxation produces the exact solution of the original integer program. This allows us to use efficient convex optimization tools to obtain an optimally pruned ensemble for any given budget. Empirically, we see that our pruning algorithm significantly improves the performance of the state of the art ensemble method BudgetRF.
An efficient digital search algorithm by using a double-array structure

An efficient digital search algorithm is presented by introducing a new data structure, called a double-array, which combines the fast access of a matrix form with the compactness of a list form. Each transition of the search tree can be computed from the double-array in O(1) time; in other words, the worst-case time for retrieving a key becomes O(k) for the length k of that key. It is theoretically verified that each worst-case time of insertion and deletion is O(m) and O(m*e+e/sup 2/), respectively, where m is the number of redundant-state numbers in the double-array and e is the density of the transition labels. Simulation results are discussed. <<ETX>>
The M-Coffee web server: a meta-method for computing multiple sequence alignments by combining alternative alignment methods

The M-Coffee server is a web server that makes it possible to compute multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) by running several MSA methods and combining their output into one single model. This allows the user to simultaneously run all his methods of choice without having to arbitrarily choose one of them. The MSA is delivered along with a local estimation of its consistency with the individual MSAs it was derived from. The computation of the consensus multiple alignment is carried out using a special mode of the T-Coffee package [Notredame, Higgins and Heringa (T-Coffee: a novel method for fast and accurate multiple sequence alignment. J. Mol. Biol. 2000; 302: 205–217); Wallace, O'Sullivan, Higgins and Notredame (M-Coffee: combining multiple sequence alignment methods with T-Coffee. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006; 34: 1692–1699)] Given a set of sequences (DNA or proteins) in FASTA format, M-Coffee delivers a multiple alignment in the most common formats. M-Coffee is a freeware open source package distributed under a GPL license and it is available either as a standalone package or as a web service from www.tcoffee. org.
Chemical structure of odorants and perceptual similarity in ants

SUMMARY Animals are often immersed in a chemical world consisting of mixtures of many compounds rather than of single substances, and they constantly face the challenge of extracting relevant information out of the chemical landscape. To this purpose, the ability to discriminate among different stimuli with different valence is essential, but it is also important to be able to generalise, i.e. to treat different but similar stimuli as equivalent, as natural variation does not necessarily affect stimulus valence. Animals can thus extract regularities in their environment and make predictions, for instance about distribution of food resources. We studied perceptual similarity of different plant odours by conditioning individual carpenter ants to one odour, and subsequently testing their response to another, structurally different odour. We found that asymmetry in generalisation, where ants generalise from odour A to B, but not from B to A, is dependent on both chain length and functional group. By conditioning ants to a binary mixture, and testing their reaction to the individual components of the mixture, we show that overshadowing, where parts of a mixture are learned better than others, is rare. Additionally, generalisation is dependent not only on the structural similarity of odorants, but also on their functional value, which might play a crucial role. Our results provide insight into how ants make sense of the complex chemical world around them, for example in a foraging context, and provide a basis with which to investigate the neural mechanisms behind perceptual similarity.
Mathematical Models of Contrast Transport Kinetics for Cancer Diagnostic Imaging: A Review

Angiogenesis plays a fundamental role in cancer growth and the formation of metastasis. Novel cancer therapies aimed at inhibiting angiogenic processes and/or disrupting angiogenic tumor vasculature are currently being developed and clinically tested. The need for earlier and improved cancer diagnosis, and for early evaluation and monitoring of therapeutic response to angiogenic treatment, have led to the development of several imaging methods for in vivo noninvasive assessment of angiogenesis. The combination of dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging with mathematical modeling of the contrast agent kinetics enables quantitative assessment of the structural and functional changes in the microvasculature that are associated with tumor angiogenesis. In this paper, we review quantitative imaging of angiogenesis with dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and ultrasound.
Speech Recognition by Composition of Weighted Finite Automata

We present a general framework based on weighted finite automata and weighted finite-state transducers for describing and implementing speech recognizers. The framework allows us to represent uniformly the information sources and data structures used in recognition, including context-dependent units, pronunciation dictionaries, language models and lattices. Furthermore, general but efficient algorithms can used for combining information sources in actual recognizers and for optimizing their application. In particular, a single composition algorithm is used both to combine in advance information sources such as language models and dictionaries, and to combine acoustic observations and information sources dynamically during recognition.
Association of P2X7 A1513C (rs3751143) gene polymorphism with risk of tuberculosis: evidence from a meta-analysis.

AIM Many case-control studies have been performed in the past to elucidate the association between the P2X7 receptor 1513 A>C (rs3751143) polymorphism and tuberculosis (TB) risk. However, their data interpretation was difficult due to scattered and inconsistent results that led to limited power. In this study, a quantitative summary assessment has been done through meta-analysis to appraise the association between the 1513 A>C polymorphism and TB susceptibility. METHODOLOGY Systematic assessment was performed for the published studies related with the association between the P2X7 1513 A>C polymorphism and TB risk retrieved from PubMed (Medline), EMBASE search. A meta-analysis was done using a statistical program to evaluate the said association. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated for allele contrast, homozygous, heterozygous, dominant, and recessive genetic models. RESULTS A total of 2710 controls and 2521 TB cases were included in this meta-analysis. Meta-analysis results showed that C allele carrier status was significantly associated with increased TB risk (C vs. A: p=0.001; OR=1.382, 95% CI=1.248-1.531). Significant risk of TB was associated with the homozygous mutant CC (CC vs. AA: p=0.001; OR=1.676, 95% CI=1.251-2.247) and heterozygous AC (AC vs. AA: p=0.001; OR=1.429, 95% CI=1.260-1.621) comparisons. Similarly, dominant (CC vs. AA+AC: p=0.008; OR=1.481, 95% CI=1.109-1.978) and recessive (CC+AC vs. AA: p=0.001; OR=1.458, 95% CI=1.292-1.645) genetic models also revealed increased risk of developing TB. CONCLUSION We found that the P2X7 1513 A>C gene polymorphism is significantly associated with increased susceptibility to TB. Also, future well-designed epidemiological studies with stratified case-control and biological characterization may be beneficial to validate these findings.
ECG-based wireless home infant apnoea monitor

A safe and wireless system for infant apnoea monitoring and treatment is proposed. It consists of two separate modules that detect apnoea based on a microcontroller processing and transmitting signals to the remote unit using wireless communication arrangement. Depending on the ECG signal, this system records the infant's heart and respiratory rates. Recognition of the consecutive QRS complexes within the ECG signal helps in calculating these vitals. Abnormal breathing rate or heart rate (apnoea) triggers both an alarm system on the remote unit to inform parents of this abnormality and a treatment device that stimulates the infant to breathe using vibration transducer. Different ECG signals from the MIT-Physionet database were used to test the prototype. The system successfully extracted, analysed and transmitted required vitals and decisions to the receiving unit. Finally, the system was bench tested on 25 adult volunteers and 12 young children; voluntarily cessations of breathing were detected successfully for all subjects.
Working-Class Filipino Women’s Perspectives on Factors That Facilitate or Hinder Prenatal Micronutrients Supplementation to Prevent Congenital Anomalies

The study was conducted to plan for a community-health campaign to inform working-class Filipinos about the causes and prevention of orofacial clefting. Prenatal micronutrients may play a role in preventing orofacial clefting. Therefore, women’s practices and perspectives on barriers to and facilitators of micronutrient supplementation were elicited. A total of 43 women and 22 health care workers were interviewed. Barriers to taking supplements included side effects, late prenatal care, the view that micronutrients are medications, inadequate supply, and health care workers who were unaware that prenatal vitamin supplements prevent congenital anomalies. The main facilitator was women’s understanding that prenatal micronutrients improve the physical well-being of both mother and child. Given that women view having healthy babies as a reason to take micronutrients and that the health care workers lacked knowledge related to the use of micronutrients to prevent congenital anomalies, uptake of prenatal micronutrient supplementation programs may improve by specifically promoting the health benefit of preventing congenital anomalies.
Increase in Telecommunications Expenditure and the Migration of Consumption Online: The Case of South Korea

Using longitudinal time-series data, this article analyzes the causes of the recent sharp increase in household expenditure on telecommunications in South Korea with an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model. The analysis shows that the Korean household demand for telecommunications has become highly price elastic following structural changes associated with the rapid diffusion of mobile phones and the Internet during 1998–2008. Following these structural changes, telecommunications services have become complements for transportation, books and printed matter, and culture and recreation services, but substitutes for culture and recreation durable goods. Consequently, one important reason for the increase in the expenditure on telecommunications in Korea is the migration of many services from offline to online by means of telecommunications.
Collective orientational order and phase behavior of a discotic liquid crystal under nanoscale confinement

The phase behavior and molecular ordering of hexakishexyloxy triphenylene (HAT6) DLCs under cylindrical nanoconfinement are studied utilizing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dielectric spectroscopy (DS), where cylindrical nanoconfinement is established through embedding HAT6 into the nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes, and a silica membrane with pore diameters ranging from 161 nm down to 12 nm. Both unmodified and modified pore walls were considered. In the latter case the pore walls of AAO membranes were chemically treated with n-octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA) resulting in the formation of a 2.2 nm thick layer of grafted alkyl chains. Phase transition enthalpies decrease with decreasing pore size, indicating that a large proportion of the HAT6 molecules within the pores has a disordered structure, which increases with decreasing pore size for both pore walls. In the case of the ODPA-modification, the amount of ordered HAT6 is increased compared to the unmodified case. The pore size dependencies of the phase transition temperatures were approximated using the Gibbs–Thomson equation, where the estimated surface tension is dependent on the molecular ordering of HAT6 molecules within the pores and upon their surface. DS was employed to investigate the molecular ordering of HAT6 within the nanopores. These investigations revealed that with a pore size of around 38 nm, for the samples with the unmodified pore walls, the molecular ordering changes from planar axial to homeotropic radial. However, the planar axial configuration, which is suitable for electronic applications, can be successfully preserved through ODPA-modification for most of the pore sizes.
Intelligent path planning of two cooperating robots based on fuzzy logic

This paper proposes an intelligent path planning scheme for two cooperating robots (TCRs) using fuzzy logic. The proposed scheme requires knowledge of the robots' dynamics, which in turn depends upon the characteristics of the payload carried by the TCRs. However, the dynamic properties of the payload are not known exactly, so that the dynamics of the robots, and hence the required joint torque, must be calculated for nominal set of the payload characteristics. The force of the TCRs is an important factor in carrying the payload (object). It is divided into external force and internal force. In general, effects of the internal force of the TCRs are not considered in performing the load distribution in terms of optimal time, but they are essential in optimal trajectory planning; if they are not taken into consideration, the optimal scheme is no longer feasible. To alleviate this deficiency, we present an algorithm for finding the internal-force factors for the TCRs in terms of the optimal time and for constructing an optimal trajectory. The effectiveness of the proposed system is demonstrated by computer simulations using two three-joint planner robot manipulators.
Lipid metabolism in Giardia: a post-genomic perspective

SUMMARY Giardia lamblia, a protozoan parasite, infects a wide variety of vertebrates, including humans. Studies indicate that this anaerobic protist possesses a limited ability to synthesize lipid molecules de novo and depends on supplies from its environment for growth and differentiation. It has been suggested that most lipids and fatty acids are taken up by endocytic and non-endocytic pathways and are used by Giardia for energy production and membrane/organelle biosynthesis. The purpose of this article is to provide an update on recent progress in the field of lipid research of this parasite and the validation of lipid metabolic pathways through recent genomic information. Based on current cellular, biochemical and genomic data, a comprehensive pathway has been proposed to facilitate our understanding of lipid and fatty acid metabolism/syntheses in this waterborne pathogen. We envision that the current review will be helpful in identifying targets from the pathways that could be used to design novel therapies to control giardiasis and related diseases.
PLS-DA - Docking Optimized Combined Energetic Terms (PLSDA-DOCET) Protocol: A Brief Evaluation

Docking studies have become popular approaches in drug design, where the binding energy of the ligand in the active site of the protein is estimated by a scoring function. Many promising techniques were developed to enhance the performance of scoring functions including the fusion of multiple scoring functions outcomes into a so-called consensus scoring function. Hereby, we evaluated the target oriented consensus technique using the energetic terms of several scoring functions. The approach was denoted PLSDA-DOCET. Optimization strategies for consensus energetic terms and scoring functions based on ROC metric were compared to classical rigid docking and to ligand-based similarity search methods comprising 2D fingerprints and ROCS. The ROCS results indicate large performance variations depending on the biological target. The AUC-based strategy of PLSDA-DOCET outperformed the other docking approaches regarding simple retrieval and scaffold-hopping. The superior performance of PLSDA-DOCET protocol relative to single and combined scoring functions was validated on an external test set. We found a relative low mean correlation of the ranks of the chemotypes retrieved by the PLSDA-DOCET protocol and all the other methods employed here.
Enhanced hierarchical modulation with interference cancellation for OFDM systems

Hierarchical modulation provides layered transmission and is a very promising mechanism to reliably provide basic services to receivers with various reception conditions. Because the high priority layer is allocated with more power, the low priority layer is vulnerable to noise and interference. This paper applies a repetition coding to either of the layers of hierarchical modulation to cancel the inter-carrier-interference, and thus the inter-layer-interference. More importantly, the proposed scheme provides a finer granularity of modulation order, which makes it more flexible to support various radio resource allocation.