Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection and measurement from narrow‐band tunable filter scans

The past 5 years have seen a rapid rise in the use of tunable filters in many diverse fields of astronomy, through Taurus Tunable Filter (TTF) instruments at the Anglo-Australian and William Herschel Telescopes. Over this time we have continually refined aspects of operation and developed a collection of special techniques to handle the data produced by these novel imaging instruments. In this paper, we review calibration procedures and summarize the theoretical basis for Fabry–Perot photometry that is central to effective tunable imaging. Specific mention is made of object detection and classification from deep narrow-band surveys containing several hundred objects per field. We also discuss methods for recognizing and dealing with artefacts (scattered light, atmospheric effects, etc.), which can seriously compromise the photometric integrity of the data if left untreated. Attention is paid to the different families of ghost reflections encountered, and the strategies used to minimize their presence. In our closing remarks, future directions for tunable imaging are outlined and contrasted with the Fabry–Perot technology employed in the current generation of tunable imagers.
A method of extracting skeleton based on FMM

In the process of printing pattern vector, the main information of thin lines is the skeleton and line width. Therefore extraction skeleton and line width is the key factor of generation vector lines. This paper presents a thing algorithm based on fast matching method (FMM) to obtain skeleton and line width information. The algorithms based on thin line's contour points are inside thin line pixel points as the logo. Using the gradient of the logo to achieve the location of the skeleton and the width information of the line is equal to the time which is achieved by FMM. Experiments show that this method is simple and effective.
The distributed open source software development model: observations on communication, coordination and control

There are many reasons why an organisation should consider adopting distributed development of software systems and applications, including access to a larger labour pool and a broader skills base, cost advantages, and round the clock working. However, distributed development presents many challenges stemming from the complexity of maintaining good communication, coordination and control when teams are dispersed in time (e.g. across time zones) and space, as well as socio-culturally. The open source software (OSS) development model is distributed by nature, and many OSS developments are considered success stories. The question therefore arises of whether traditional distributed development models can be improved by transfer of successful practice from OSS development models. In this paper we compare OSS with traditional distributed development models using a framework-based analysis of the extant literature. From our analysis we find that the advantages of temporal and geographical distance dominate in OSS, rather than their associated problems. Further, socio-cultural distance is lowered by active developer selection. However, there is a challenge to satisfying project goals when personal goals dominate.
Diffuse myocardial fibrosis in severe aortic stenosis: an equilibrium contrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance study.

AIMS Haemodynamics alone do not fully explain symptoms and prognosis in clinically severe aortic stenosis (AS). Myocardial disease, specifically diffuse myocardial fibrosis (DMF), may contribute. We used equilibrium contrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance (EQ-CMR) and sought to non-invasively measure DMF in severe AS and determine its clinical significance before and after valve replacement. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with severe AS underwent echocardiography, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), 6 min walk test (6MWT), and EQ-CMR pre- (n = 63) at baseline and at 6 months post- (n = 42) aortic valve replacement (AVR). EQ-CMR was also performed in 30 normal controls. Baseline: patients with AS had more DMF than controls (18 vs. 13%, P = 0.007) with a wide range (5-38%) that overlapped controls. The extent of diffuse fibrosis correlated inversely with the 6MWT performance (r(2) = 0.22, P = 0.001). Those with severe diastolic dysfunction had more DMF (P = 0.01). On multivariable analysis, the predictors of performance at 6MWT were diffuse fibrosis and BNP (P = 0.003 and 0.02, respectively). Post-op: following valve replacement, morphological and functional parameters improved [6 MWT, LA area, BNP, left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, and volumes]. LV hypertrophy regression was shown to be cell volume reduction (P < 0.001) and not fibrosis regression (P = 0.54). Of the five deaths over six-month follow-up, four occurred in patients in the highest tertile of DMF. CONCLUSION DMF as measured by EQ-CMR is elevated in severe AS vs. normal controls but with a considerable overlap. It correlates with functional capacity at baseline. LV hypertrophy regression 6 months after AVR is cellular rather than fibrosis resolution.
Genetics and age-related macular degeneration: a practical review for the clinician

Age-related macular degeneration is a complex disease, with both genetic and environmental risk factors interacting in unknown ways. Currently, 52 gene variants within 34 loci have been significantly associated with age-related macular degeneration. Two well-studied major genes are complement factor H (CFH) and age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2). There exist several commercially available tests that are proposed to stratify patients into high-risk and low-risk groups, as well as predict response to nutritional supplementation. However, at present, the bulk of the available peer-reviewed evidence suggests that genetic testing is more useful as a research tool than for clinical management of patients.
QScale: Thermally-efficient QoS management on heterogeneous mobile platforms

Single-ISA heterogeneous mobile processors integrate low-power and power-hungry CPU cores together to combine energy efficiency with high performance. While running computationally demanding applications, current power management and scheduling techniques greedily maximize quality-of-service (QoS) within thermal constraints using power-hungry cores. We show that such an approach delivers short bursts of high QoS, but also causes severe QoS loss over time due to thermal throttling. To provide mobile users with sustainable QoS over extended durations, this paper proposes QScale. QScale is a novel thermally-efficient QoS management framework for mobile devices with heterogeneous multi-core CPUs. QScale leverages two novel observations to provide thermally-efficient QoS: (1) threads of a mobile application exhibit significant heterogeneity, which can be exploited during scheduling; (2) thermal efficiency of core allocation decisions is significantly altered by thermal interactions across system-on-a-chip (SoC) components and application characteristics. QScale coordinates closed-loop frequency control with thermally-efficient scheduling to deliver the desired QoS with minimal exhaustion of processor thermal headroom. Our experiments on a state-of-the-art heterogeneous mobile platform show that QScale meets target QoS levels while minimizing heating, achieving up to 8× longer durations of sustainable QoS.
The welfare state and social capital in Europe: Reassessing a complex relationship

The article investigates the relationship between the welfare state and social capital in Europe during the 1990s and the 2000s using structural equation modelling (SEM). By formulating and testing the hypothesis that welfare state generosity and welfare state size have different effects on social capital, we reassess the explanatory power of the main theories in the field and the findings of previous empirical work. We strongly support the contention of institutional theory that there is a positive association between high degrees of welfare state generosity and social capital. Moreover, we partially confirm the concern of neoclassical and communitarian theories for the negative correlation between large-size welfare states and social capital. The positive relationship between welfare state generosity and social capital is much stronger than the negative association observed with welfare state size. Finally, we interpret the considerable cross-country variation using welfare regime theory and several country cases. We illuminate different mechanisms linking welfare state development and social capital creation, discussing the Danish and Dutch third sector experiences and pointing to Sweden as an exceptional case of decline. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of regional variation in Belgium, Germany and Italy and complement the analysis also briefly discussing the Austrian, French, Irish and British cases.
Measuring the mass, volume, and density of microgram-sized objects in fluid

Measurements of an object’s fundamental physical properties like mass, volume, and density can offer valuable insights into the composition and state of the object. However, many important biological samples reside in a liquid environment where it is difficult to accurately measure their physical properties. We show that by using a simple piece of glass tubing and some inexpensive off-the-shelf electronics, we can create a sensor that can measure the mass, volume, and density of microgram-sized biological samples in their native liquid environment. As a proof-of-concept, we use this sensor to measure mass changes in zebrafish embryos reacting to toxicant exposure, density changes in seeds undergoing rehydration and germination, and degradation rates of biomaterials used in medical implants. Since all objects have these physical properties, this sensor has immediate applications in a wide variety of different fields including developmental biology, toxicology, materials science, plant science, and many others.
Open string wavefunctions in flux compactifications

We consider compactifications of type I supergravity on manifolds with SU(3) structure, in the presence of RR fluxes and magnetized D9-branes, and analyze the general- ized Dirac and Laplace-Beltrami operators associated to the D9-brane worldvolume fields. These compactifications are T-dual to standard type IIB toroidal orientifolds with NSNS and RR 3-form fluxes and D3/D7 branes. By using techniques of representation theory and harmonic analysis, the spectrum of open string wavefunctions can be computed for Lie groups and their quotients, as we illustrate with explicit twisted tori examples. We find a correspondence between irreducible unitary representations of the Kaloper-Myers algebra and families of Kaluza-Klein excitations. We perform the computation of 2- and 3-point couplings for matter fields in the above flux compactifications, and compare our results with those of 4d effective supergravity.
Genetic Structure of Natural Populations of the Plant RNA Virus Tobacco Mild Green Mosaic Virus

The statistical analysis of population subdivision in five populations of tobacco mild green mosaic virus (TMGMV) naturally infecting Nicotiana glauca has shown that the populations can be considered as samples of an almost panmictic one. In spite of the high mutation rate of this RNA virus, the genetic divergence between pairs of haplotypes, both within and between subpopulations, is very small. The observed amount of variability cannot be exclusively explained in terms of the neutral theory of molecular evolution. Under such a model, an unrealistic estimate of the effective population size equal to 86 viral particles is obtained. Positive Darwinian selection can be invoked to account for the variability observed. No direct experimental evidence of selection is presented, but, by means of both (a) high selection coefficients for driver mutations and (b) reasonable neutral and driver mutation rates for RNA viruses, the amount of variability observed can be accounted for in terms of a model of periodic, positive, Darwinian selection.
PERSPECTIVE: GENE DIVERGENCE, POPULATION DIVERGENCE, AND THE VARIANCE IN COALESCENCE TIME IN PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC STUDIES

Molecular methods as applied to the biogeography of single species (phylogeography) or multiple codistributed species (comparative phylogeography) have been productively and extensively used to elucidate common historical features in the diversification of the Earth's biota. However, only recently have methods for estimating population divergence times or their confidence limits while taking into account the critical effects of genetic polymorphism in ancestral species become available, and earlier methods for doing so are underutilized. We review models that address the crucial distinction between the gene divergence, the parameter that is typically recovered in molecular phylogeographic studies, and the population divergence, which is in most cases the parameter of interest and will almost always postdate the gene divergence. Assuming that population sizes of ancestral species are distributed similarly to those of extant species, we show that phylogeographic studies in vertebrates suggest that divergence of alleles in ancestral species can comprise from less than 10% to over 50% of the total divergence between sister species, suggesting that the problem of ancestral polymorphism in dating population divergence can be substantial. The variance in the number of substitutions (among loci for a given species or among species for a given gene) resulting from the stochastic nature of DNA change is generally smaller than the variance due to substitutions along allelic lines whose coalescence times vary due to genetic drift in the ancestral population. Whereas the former variance can be reduced by further DNA sequencing at a single locus, the latter cannot. Contrary to phylogeographic intuition, dating population divergence times when allelic lines have achieved reciprocal monophyly is in some ways more challenging than when allelic lines have not achieved monophyly, because in the former case critical data on ancestral population size provided by residual ancestral polymorphism is lost. In the former case differences in coalescence time between species pairs can in principle be explained entirely by differences in ancestral population size without resorting to explanations involving differences in divergence time. Furthermore, the confidence limits on population divergence times are severely underestimated when those for number of substitutions per site in the DNA sequences examined are used as a proxy. This uncertainty highlights the importance of multilocus data in estimating population divergence times; multilocus data can in principle distinguish differences in coalescence time (T) resulting from differences in population divergence time and differences in T due to differences in ancestral population sizes and will reduce the confidence limits on the estimates.
Self-adjusting beat detection and prediction in music

This paper proposes a new approach to beat detection and prediction in music. Recurrent timing networks are used to detect and predict periodicities in an onset stream and are contained within nodes that compete for selection as the best beat hypothesis. Beat prediction nodes perform period self adjustment to better represent the detected music beat period. The system is tested using a variety of music from different genres and shows promise, in many cases with high correct beat detection percentages.
H∞ Loop shaping control for PLL-based mechanical resonance tracking in NEMS resonant mass sensors

A simple dynamic detection of the resonance frequency shift in NEMS resonant mass sensors is described. This is done without the use of an external frequency sweep signal nor a frequency counter limiting the dynamic variation detection. Neither an amplitude control nor a phase switcher is required for maintaining the resonant oscillations. The sensor is driven directly by the VCOpsilas output for which the control signal is calculated by a robust Hinfin controller using loop-shaping method. Only the sensor and the VCOpsilas signals signs are detected and compared so that the controller regulates the phase difference between them, maintaining it at pi/2 which occurs on resonance frequency. The measurement issue is transformed to a novel control problem that rejects the disturbance described by the resonance frequency shift, attenuates the phase noise and guarantees good stability margins.
Post-Forecast OT: A Novel Method of 3D Model Compression

In this paper, we present Post-Forecast OT (Octree), a novel method of 3D model compression codec based on Octree. Vertices of 3D meshes are re-classified according to the Octree rule. All the nodes of the Octree are statistically analyzed to identify the type of nodes with the max proportion and are encoded with fewer bits. The vertices positions are predicted and recorded, which can effectively reduce the error between the decoded vertices and the corresponding vertices in the original 3D model. Compared with prior 3D model progressive codec method with severe distortion at low bit rates, Post-Forecast OT has better performance while providing a pleasant visual quality. We also encode the topology and attribute information corresponding to the geometry information, which enables progressive transmission of all encoded 3D data over the Internet. Keywords-octree; data compression; forecast; progressive transmission
Short‐term fitness benefits of physiological integration in the clonal herb Hydrocotyle peduncularis

We test whether physiological integration enhances the short-term fitness of the clonal herb Hydrocotyle peduncularis (Apiaceae, R. Brown ex A. Richards) subjected to spatial variation in water availability. Our measures of fitness and costs and benefits are based on the relative growth rate of fragmented genets. Physiological integration over a gradient in soil moisture resulted in a highly significant net benefit to genet growth of 0.015 g g - 1 day - 1 . This net benefit represents a significant enhancement of the average fitness of fragmented genets spanning the moisture gradient relative to the average of those growing in homogeneous moist or dry conditions. Sections of genet fragments growing in dry conditions in spatially heterogeneous treatments had significantly higher growth than the sections they were connected to that were growing in moist conditions. Within fragments, older (parent) sections growing in moist conditions experienced significant costs from connection to younger (offspring) sections growing in dry conditions. In contrast, offspring sections with ample water did not experience any costs when connected to parent sections growing in dry conditions. However, the net benefit of physiological integration was similar for parent and offspring sections, suggesting that parent and offspring sections contributed equally to the net benefit of physiological integration to genet growth and short-term fitness.
Lexical access in children with specific language impairment and auditory processing deficits

LEXICAL ACCESS IN CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT AND DEFICITS IN AUDITORY PROCESSING By Laura Sylvia Advisor: Dr. Richard G. Schwartz The purpose of this study was to investigate the time line of lexical access in 8-11 yearold children with Specific Language Impairment and with and without deficits in auditory processing. Typically developing children and children with SLI, ages 8-11 years, participated in a Picture-Word Interference (PWI) task and a Picture-Picture Interferene (PPI) task. For both tasks, subjects named a familiar target picture while ignoring an auditory word in the PWI task and an interfering picture in the PPI task. The interfering stimuli were presented at four stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) relative to the onset of the target picture (-150ms, 0ms, +150ms, +300ms) and were either unrelated to the target picture or related semantically or phonologically. Reaction time for naming was measured and reaction time differences (Related-Unrelated) were obtained for both tasks. All children also underwent language, cognitive and auditory processing test batteries which included the SCAN 3:C screening test, individual IMAP tests (Moore et al., 2010) and derived measures of temporal and frequency resolution. Multi-level modeling was employed to investigate relationships between all scores and reaction time in the PWI and PPI tasks. Results demonstrated significant early effects (-150ms SOA) in the lexicalization process in the PWI task and later (+150ms SOA) in the lexicalization process in the PPI task. In the children with SLI, “bottom-up” derived measures of temporal resolution and frequency resolution, contributed to overall reaction time in the PWI task, which LEXICAL ACCESS IN CHILDREN WITH SLI & AP DEFICITS v employed an auditory distractor, but the derived measures did not contribute to overall reaction time in the PPI task, which employed a picture distractor. For typically developing children, this distinction was not observed. LEXICAL ACCESS IN CHILDREN WITH SLI & AP DEFICITS vi DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my husband Michael Lam whose love, support and encouragement have motivated me to both pursue and complete this Ph.D. LEXICAL ACCESS IN CHILDREN WITH SLI & AP DEFICITS vii
Tibetan Base Noun Phrase Identification Framework Based on Chinese-Tibetan Sentence Aligned Corpus

This paper presents an identification framework for extracting Tibetan base noun phrase (NP). The framework includes two phases. In the first phase, Chinese base NPs are extracted from all Chinese sentences in the sentence aligned Chinese-Tibetan corpus using Stanford Chinese parser. In the second phase, the Tibetan translations of those Chinese NPs are identified using four different methods, that is, word alignment, iterative re-evaluation, dictionary and word alignment, and sequence intersection method. We implemented and tested these methods on Chinese-Tibetan sentence aligned unlabelled corpus without Tibetan POS tagger and Treebank. The experimental results demonstrate these methods can get satisfactory results, and the best performance with 0.5283 precision is got using sequence intersection identification method. The identification framework can also be extended to extract Tibetan verb phrase.
Modulation of the Receptive Fields of Midbrain Neurons Elicited by Thalamic Electrical Stimulation through Corticofugal Feedback

The ascending and descending projections of the central auditory system form multiple tonotopic loops. This study specifically examines the tonotopic pathway from the auditory thalamus to the auditory cortex and then to the auditory midbrain in mice. We observed the changes of receptive fields in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus of the midbrain evoked by focal electrical stimulation of the ventral division of the medial geniculate body of the thalamus. The receptive field of an auditory neuron was characterized by five parameters: the best frequency, minimum threshold, bandwidth, size of receptive field, and average spike number. We found that focal thalamic stimulation changed the parametric values characterizing the recorded collicular receptive fields toward those characterizing the stimulated thalamic receptive fields. Cortical inactivation with muscimol prevented the development of the collicular plasticity induced by focal thalamic stimulation. Our data suggest that the intact colliculo-thalamo-cortico-collicular loops are important for the coordination of sound-guided plasticity in the central auditory system.