Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consistent superconformal boundary states

We propose a supersymmetric generalization of Cardy's equation for consistent N = 1 superconformal boundary states. We solve this equation for the superconformal minimal models (p/p + 2) with p odd, and thereby provide a classification of the possible superconformal boundary conditions. In addition to the Neveu-Schwarz (NS) and Ramond boundary states, there are states. The NS and boundary states are related by a Z2 `spin-reversal' transformation. We treat the tricritical Ising model as an example, and in an appendix we discuss the (non-superconformal) case of the Ising model.
Argumentation for Propositional Logic and Nonmonotonic Reasoning

Argumentation has played a significant role in understanding and unifying under a common framework different forms of defeasible reasoning in AI. Argumentation is also close to the original inception of logic as a framework for formalizing human argumentation and debate. In this context, the purpose of this paper is twofold: to draw a formal connection between argumentation and classical reasoning (in the form of Propositional Logic) and link this to support defeasible, NonMonotonic Reasoning in AI. To this effect, we propose Argumentation Logic and show properties and extensions thereof.
Fast registration of articulated objects from depth images

We present an approach for fast registration of a Global Articulated 3D Model to RGBD data from Kinect. Our approach uses geometry based matching of rigid parts of the articulated objects in depth images. The registration is performed in a parametric space of transformations independently for each segment. The time for registering each frame with the global model is reduced greatly using this method. We experimented the algorithm with different articulated object datasets and obtained significantly low execution time as compared to ICP algorithm when applied on each rigid part of the articulated object.
Bisphenol A and 4-tert-Octylphenol Inhibit Cx46 Hemichannel Currents

Connexins (Cx) are membrane proteins and monomers for forming gap junction (GJ) channels. Cx46 and Cx50 are also known to function as conductive hemichannels. As part of an ongoing effort to find GJ-specific blocker(s), endocrine disruptors were used to examine their effect on Cx46 hemichannels expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Voltage-dependent gating of Cx46 hemichannels was characterized by slowly activating outward currents and relatively fast inward tail currents. Bisphenol A (BPA, 10 nM) reduced outward currents of Cx46 hemichannels up to ~18% of control, and its effect was reversible (n=5). 4-tert-Octylphenol (OP, 1 µM) reversibly reduced outward hemichannel currents up to ~28% (n=4). However, overall shapes of Cx46 hemichannel current traces (outward and inward currents) were not changed by these drugs. These results suggest that BPA and OP are likely to occupy the pore of Cx46 hemichannels and thus obstruct the ionic fluxes. This finding provides that BPA and OP are potential candidates for GJ channel blockers.
Influences of Hunting on the Behavior of White‐Tailed Deer: Implications for Conservation of the Florida Panther

The effects of deer hunting by humans on deer population dynamics and behavior may indirectly affect the population dynamics and behavior of deer predators. We present data on the effects of hunting on the behavior of white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on the Osceola National Forest, a potential reintroduction site for the endangered Florida panther ( Felis concolor coryi). We then use this information to formulate and recommend testable hypotheses to investigate whether these changes in deer behavior influence panther movements, mortality, and hunting success. We monitored 14 radio‐collared deer from June 1990 through July 1991 to compare movement, activity, and habitat‐use patterns between the hunting and nonhunting seasons. Mean distance of deer to the nearest road, mean distance of activity centers of diel home ranges to the nearest road, and mean nocturnal rate of activity were greater during the hunting than the nonhunting seasons. During the hunting season, deer avoided clearcuts, young pine plantations (4 –10 years old), and other open habitats and preferred swamp and mature pine forests, both of which provided cover. These results suggest that deer responded to hunter disturbance by moving away from roads and increasing nocturnal activity. Although recreational deer hunting may reduce the prey base for panthers, the changes we observed in deer behavior during the hunting season may benefit panthers in the following ways: (1) an increase in nocturnal activity and movement away from roads by deer into areas frequented by panthers may increase prey availability for panthers; (2) the movement of deer away from roads may in turn draw panthers away from roads, which may decrease the chance of panthers being killed by vehicular traffic or poachers.
The implicit soul: Factors between the representation of death and dehumanization of patients

Spiritual approaches in healthcare settings proved effective in reducing the negative outcomes of dehumanization processes impacting health professionals and patients. Although previous literature focused on explicit measures of spirituality, the present research explored the role of implicit components of spirituality and their effects on the humanization of patients in two healthcare contexts. Professionals from hospices and nursing homes completed an implicit task to assess whether the diverse representation of death as physical or spiritual led to perceive patients with more uniquely human traits. Results showed that only for hospice participants, implicit and explicit spirituality predicts more humanness attribution to patients. This article discusses palliative care models and death education as a resource for reducing dehumanization.
Interactive information complexity

The primary goal of this paper is to define and study the interactive information complexity of functions. Let f(x,y) be a function, and suppose Alice is given x and Bob is given y. Informally, the interactive information complexity IC(f) of f is the least amount of information Alice and Bob need to reveal to each other to compute f. Previously, information complexity has been defined with respect to a prior distribution on the input pairs (x,y). Our first goal is to give a definition that is independent of the prior distribution. We show that several possible definitions are essentially equivalent. We establish some basic properties of the interactive information complexity IC(f). In particular, we show that IC(f) is equal to the amortized (randomized) communication complexity of f. We also show a direct sum theorem for IC(f) and give the first general connection between information complexity and (non-amortized) communication complexity. This connection implies that a non-trivial exchange of information is required when solving problems that have non-trivial communication complexity. We explore the information complexity of two specific problems - Equality and Disjointness. We show that only a constant amount of information needs to be exchanged when solving Equality with no errors, while solving Disjointness with a constant error probability requires the parties to reveal a linear amount of information to each other.
Complexities in IS sourcing: equifinality and relationship management

Growth in IS outsourcing spurred research in the area that spans many perspectives but contains contradictory findings. Inconsistent findings raise confusion and doubt, leaving managers uncertain about IS sourcing directions and researchers unclear about theoretical perspectives relevant to IS sourcing.We argue that the concept of equifinality accounts for much of this confusion. Equifinality suggests that, in the struggle to match conflicting functional demands with structural options, many equally viable alternatives may exist. For IS sourcing, this means that different sourcing choices can be leveraged producing similar IS capabilities. Thus, embracing equifinality requires that we understand more fully the complexities in the IS function and in the range of sourcing options available. We argue, as well, that the existence of multiple paths raises the importance of implementation and execution issues.Illustrating the complexities of the IS function, we outline several IS function elements, including IT resources, IS activities and IS strategy. An IS-Business Partnering framework is then presented demonstrating the multiplicity of partnering options, situating sourcing as one aspect. We conclude with several company illustrations showing these multiplicities for successful company outcomes.For IS sourcing researchers, equifinality holds important implications. No longer can we afford to view the IS function as a homogeneous entity nor can we limit our scope to a narrow range of sourcing and partnering options. More than one path exists to achieve a particular outcome. Hence, the pursuit in IS sourcing research can no longer be for one good answer but for a few good answers.
Optical detection of the radio supernova SN 2000ft in the circumnuclear region of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 7469

Context. (Ultra)Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) produce massive stars in large quantities in their central starburst regions. The expected rate of supernova explosions is, on average, about one per year. Detection of these supernovae in the expected numbers has proven elusive so far. Aims. Illustrate the general benefits and limitations of supernova searches in (U)LIRGs in the optical using the previously detected luminous type II radio supernova SN 2000ft in NGC 7469 as a study case. Methods. Multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical imaging at different wavelengths and two dimensional PSF fitting algorithms are used to search, and characterize, the optical emission of SN 2000ft. Results. SN 2000ft is detected in two independent Planetary Camera images ( F547W and F814W ) taken May 13, 2000, about two months before the predicted date of the explosion (July 19, 2000), based on the analysis of its radio light evolution by Alberdi and collaborators. The apparent optical magnitudes and red color of SN 2000ft indicate that it is observed through an extinction of at least $A_{\rm V}= 3.0$ mag. The extinction corrected lower limit to the absolute visual magnitude ($M_{\rm V}\leq -18.0$), identifies SN 2000ft as a luminous supernova in the optical, as other luminous radio supernovae before. SN 2000ft exploded in a region located at only 0$\farcs$1 (i.e. $34 \pm 3$ pc) west of a faint cluster (C24). No parent cluster is identified within the detection limits of the HST short exposures. Conclusions. The unambiguous detection of SN 2000ft in the visual shows that multi-epoch sub-arcsecond (${\it FWHM} \sim 0\farcs1$) optical imaging is also a valid tool that should be explored further to detect supernovae in the dusty (circum)nuclear regions of (U)LIRGs.
SUBTHRESHOLD CIRCUIT DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION

Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this thesis is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisor. This thesis does not include proprietary or classified information. Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this thesis at its discretion, upon the request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. integrated circuit (IC) and systems design with an emphasis on low power or energy-efficient circuits and analog/RF IC design. Other interests include VLSI architectures for signal processing, bio-sensing, and biomedical electronics. As an undergraduate, he actively participated in research, teaching, and mentoring. As an independent researcher, he surveyed subthreshold circuit design and optimization for his honors thesis and has worked on his undergraduate research fellowship that focuses on analysis and forecast of stock market prices using signal and statistical analysis and genetic algorithm. Other collaborative research activities include being a research assistant in the VLSI or high-performance computers, are constrained by their power. It is well known that subthreshold circuit design where the supply voltage is less than the device threshold voltage can reduce the energy. That power reduction comes with significant performance drawback and susceptibility to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations. The energy saving and operation of the subthreshold circuit is demonstrated, and its advantages and limitations are discussed here. The analytical model to estimate circuit delay is also analyzed, particularly Alpha-Power Law. The estimated circuit delay by Alpha-Power Law is proven to be not effective in the subthreshold region because the subthreshold drain current exponentially depends on the gate-source voltage and subjects to PVT variations. To better estimate the circuit delay and understand the effect of variations in the subthreshold region, a variations-aware analytical model is proposed and verified through simulations. It is found that the circuit delay exponentially depends on vi λ(V DD2 − V DD1) 2mV T , where λ is the drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) coefficient, m is the subthreshold slope factor, and VT is the thermal voltage. In a 45nm BSIM bulk CMOS technology from the PTM model [21], λ is 0.001 and m is 27. With an average error of 15% in the subthreshold region, the proposed analytical model is proved to be a more effective measure of subthreshold circuit delay. Moreover, the effect of variations is analyzed, and the smaller technology nodes are …
Issues For Students With Executive Function Challenges In College

This research investigates executive functioning challenges faced by students in college. This research responds to a gap in the literature within college student development theories about the development of college students with learning differences, specifically executive function (EF) challenges. Five students with EF challenges were involved in a series of interviews throughout and concluding their first semester at a four-year, public institution. The transcripts were coded and analyzed to identify themes to describe their development through college student development vectors using Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) theory as well as their perceptions of college for students with EF challenges.
Investigation of situational interest effects on learning using physiological sensors: Preliminary result

Recently, extensive attention is given to researches that develop educational outcome by raising student's interest. There are two types of interest, one of them is situational interest that depends on the situation and time. It has been identified as a vital motivational element in developing students' academic performances. The purpose of this research is to present a novel approach to detect the distinct patterns of situational interest while resembling classroom environment using physiological sensors, particularly EEG signals. Personal Interest (PI) test, Study Interest (SI) test and knowledge tests are used to evaluate subjectively student's interest. Objective data obtained using Emotive EPOC supports subjective result and shows that brain activities in frontal and left hemisphere can be associated with situational interest during learning process.
Nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) formation at low NAT supersaturations

Nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) formation at low NAT supersaturations C. Voigt, H. Schlager, B. P. Luo, A. Dornbrack, A. Roiger, P. Stock, J. Curtius, H. Vossing, S. Borrmann, S. Davies, P. Konopka, C. Schiller, G. Shur, and T. Peter Institut fur Physik der Atmosphare (IPA), DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, D-82234 Wessling, Germany Institut fur Atmosphare und Klima, ETH Zurich, Honggerberg HPP, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland Institut fur Physik der Atmosphare, Universitat Mainz, D-55099 Mainz, Germany Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemie, D-55128 Mainz, Germany School of Environment, University of Leeds LS9JT, UK Forschungszentrum Julich, ICG-I, D-52425 Julich, Germany Central aerological observatory, Moscow, reg. 141700, Russia
Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Membrane Extraction Combined with HPLC-UV for Simultaneous Preconcentration and Determination of Urinary Hippuric Acid and Mandelic Acid

This work describes a new extraction method with hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction based on facilitated pH gradient transport for analyzing hippuric acid and mandelic acid in aqueous samples. The factors affecting the metabolites extraction were optimized as follows: the volume of sample solution was 10 mL with pH 2 containing 0.5 mol·L−1 sodium chloride, liquid membrane containing 1-octanol with 20% (w/v) tributyl phosphate as the carrier, the time of extraction was 150 min, and stirring rate was 500 rpm. The organic phase immobilized in the pores of a hollow fiber was back-extracted into 24 µL of a solution containing sodium carbonate with pH 11, which was placed inside the lumen of the fiber. Under optimized conditions, the high enrichment factors of 172 and 195 folds, detection limit of 0.007 and 0.009 µg·mL−1 were obtained. The relative standard deviation (RSD) (%) values for intra- and inter-day precisions were calculated at 2.5%–8.2% and 4.1%–10.7%, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of these metabolites in real urine samples. The results indicated that hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME) based on facilitated pH gradient transport can be used as a sensitive and effective method for the determination of mandelic acid and hippuric acid in urine specimens.
An investigation of static versus dynamic scheduling

Two techniques for instruction scheduling, dynamic and static scheduling, are investigated. A decoupled access execute architecture consists of an execution unit and a memory unit with separate program counters and separate instruction memories. The very long instruction word (VLIW) architecture has only one program counter and relies on the compiler to perform static scheduling of multiple units. To idealize the comparison, the VLIW architecture considered had only two units. The instruction sets and execution times for the two architectures were made as nearly the same as possible. The execution times were compared and analyzed to compare the capabilities of static and dynamic instruction scheduling. Both regular and irregular programs were constructed and optimized by hand for each architecture. <<ETX>>
Energy-Efficient Data Gathering over Wireless Sensor Networks: Correlated Sources and Lossy Channels

In this paper, a proper solution for a capacity-limited lossy wireless sensor network subject to packet loss as a problem has been presented by considering multiple sinks and correlated sources. At first, a joint optimization problem with two objectives, rate allocation and transmission structure, is introduced and solved. Also in the lossy network, a method to allocate the rates to the correlated source nodes is proposed. At the end, the sensitivity of the proposed algorithm to several parameters of the network and the algorithm and the network performance is investigated.
Optimization of Network Invulnerability to Cascading Failure Based on Random-walk Betweenness Model

To prevent cascading failure of complex networks more efficiently, the best preventive strategy for cascading failure model based on random-walk betweenness (RB) should be investigated. Limited resource cascading failure model based on RB is proposed, which can be used for comparison of different preventive strategies. By the invulnerability simulation in scale-free networks, the efficiency of 2 proposed preventive strategies is compared. The results indicate that, load preferential preventive strategy is the best, but the effect of prevention is different among scale-free networks with different degree exponent. By the optimization of load preferential preventive strategy's preferential exponent, dynamic invulnerability of complex networks is improved.
Non monetary determinants of occupational mobility : The Russian labour market investigated

Assuming that the belonging to a specific occupational group is not to be supposed neutral concerning the individual professional mobility choice, we derive in the next development a decision rule for requalification in another profession than the one held in the considered period. The main result of the theoretical approach consists in the enlightment of a group endogeneous effect that influences the individual behaviour. We then test this assumption of the revelancy of social interactions within the group on the agent’s mobility decision. The restructuring of the Russian economy after the prices and trade liberalisation and subsequent worker flows on the labour market appears as an adequate investigation field for this implementation. Using the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, a nationwide representative panel, we conclude for the years 1996 and 1998 on a significatively positive effect of the average group behaviour on the individual decision of occupational mobility. JEL Classification : J62, J24, D71, R23, P31
Extracting Expert Knowledge from Medical Texts

In this paper we argue that researchers in Intelligent Data Analysis (IDA) in Medicine and Pharmacology should conside r textual databases as an additional source of knowledge. We desc rib three areas where medical knowledge extraction from textua l databases can be fruitful: finding new applications for existing drugs, evolution of medical knowledge in time, and drug risk assess ment. We evaluate two textual knowledge extraction methods, wher e an IDA approach shows to be robust and efficient compared to a com mon computational linguistic one.
Different Techniques for the Enhancement of the Intelligibility of a Speech Signal

–Speech enhancement is a popular method for making ASR systems more robust. Spectral subtraction is performed by subtracting the average magnitude of the noise spectrum from the spectrum of the noisy speech to estimate the magnitude of the enhanced speech spectrum. In this paper, adaptive techniques have been explored for the enhancement of the speech such as ANC, ANFIS, DFNN, MDFNN and EDFNN. By using these techniques, it has been observed that the root mean square error (RMSE) and number of epochs are less and at the same time the membership functions are also less. Keywords—ANC, ANFIS, DFNN, EDFNN, RMSE, SNR