Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectral Shape Impact of Nonlinear Compensator Signal in LTE RoF System

In this letter, a large scale investigation is carried out, utilizing several spectral shapes as the source for direct modulation-based frequency dithering (DMFD). DMFD mitigates the nonlinear effect of long-term evolution radio-over-fiber systems. The dithering signal shapes are sine, square, saw, sinc, and Gaussian with different spectral width characteristics. We show that by varying the dithering signal with increasing spectral width, no additional distortion is introduced in the linear and optimum optical launch power regions, which are dominated by the frequency chirp and chromatic dispersion. In addition, it is revealed herein that introducing dithering signals with varying spectral widths does not change the nonlinear compensator characteristic toward suppression of nonlinearity. The reason for this is that as long as the optical source linewidth is larger than stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) linewidth, the proposed method completely suppresses SBS. Finally, the degree of freedom for the dithering signal is infinite, with an optical power budget improvement of up to 8 dB at an optical launch power of 10 dBm, which can in turn be used towards connecting multiple relay nodes.
A new efficiency criterion for security oriented error correcting codes

Security oriented codes are considered as one of the most efficient countermeasures against fault injection attacks. Their efficiency is usually measured in terms of their error masking probability. This criterion is applicable in cases where it is possible to distinguish between random errors and malicious attacks. In practice, if the induced errors are not fixed for several clock cycles, it is difficult to distinguish between the two. Moreover, a decoder that tries to correct the tampered word can conceal the fact that the device is under attack. This paper defines a new criterion, named t-robustness, for evaluating the efficiency of robust codes that provide both reliability and security. An error correcting code is called t-robust, if it can correct up to t errors and at the same time detect any attack that changes the data. The paper presents a general structure for concatenated codes that have this property.
Complement in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria: exploiting our current knowledge to improve the treatment landscape

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare hematological disorder associated with an acquired deficiency in glycophosphatidylinositol-anchor biosynthesis that renders erythrocytes susceptible to complement attack. Intravascular hemolysis via the membrane attack complex is a clinical hallmark of the disease, and C5 blockade is currently the only approved treatment for PNH. However, residual anemia is an emerging observation for many PNH patients receiving anti-C5 treatment. A range of complement-targeted therapeutic approaches, encompassing surface-directed inhibition of C3 convertases, blockade of membrane attack complex assembly or C3 interception using peptidic inhibitors, has yielded promising results and offers leverage for even more effective treatment of PNH. This article discusses recent advances in this rapidly evolving field, integrating critical perspectives from preclinical PNH models and diverse complement modulation strategies with genetic insights and therapy response profiles. It also evaluates the relative efficacy, limitations and benefits afforded by C3 or C5 inhibition in the context of PNH therapeutics.
Do Students Wish to 'Go Mobile'?: An Investigation into Student Use of PCs and Cell Phones

Handheld devices are increasingly powerful items in terms of both hardware and software. They have ceased being merely tools of mobile telephony, and are now powerful, multi-purpose, mini-PCs. Technology provision within higher education was via clusters of tethered PCs in designated rooms, but an increasing number of universities are trialing the use of handheld devices to deliver mobile learning. The present research study provides a detailed review of the mobile learning literature, and profiles student usage of PCs and cell phones. Student preferences for a homework vehicle are identified. The results demonstrate that students express a clear preference for the cell phone over the PC as a tool of choice, and state a readiness to 'go mobile' with their learning.
Neurofeedback for Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder A Review of Current Evidence

See last page of the article. a LWL-University Hospital for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ruhr University Bochum, Heithofer Allee 64, D 59071Hamm, Germany; b Developmental Brain-Behaviour Laboratory, Psychology, Institute for Disorders of Impulse & Attention, University of Southampton, University Road SO17 1BJ, Southampton, UK; c Department of Experimental Clinical & Health Psychology, Ghent University, HenriDunantlaan2.B-9000,Ghent,Belgium; d DepartmentofChildPsychiatry,CambridgeUniversity Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge PE29 2BQ, UK; e Division of Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Triumph Road, NG7 2TU Nottingham, UK; f Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zürich, Neumünsterallee 9/Fach, CH-8032 Zürich, Switzerland; g Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, J5, D-68159 Mannheim, Germany * Corresponding author. E-mail address: martin.holtmann@wkp-lwl.org
Validation of a FTIR Spectroscopy Method for Measuring and Monitoring Fuel Dilution in Lubricating Oils

Abstract : A FT-IR based fuel dilution analysis system was validated for long term reliability and precision. Frequency shift and spectral reproducibility tests showed that the instrument could operate for up to 10 months without maintenance. Changes in ambient temperature and humidity levels and the proximity to mechanical and acoustic noise generators did not affect the performance of the instrument. This was accomplished due to the methodic analytical procedures, data analysis and isolation devices developed and employed. The system was calibrated using actual used oils and fuel dilution values determined by the standard ASTM Gas Chromatography method. The calibration model developed with multivariate algorithms was able to predict fuel in SAE 30, 40, 50 and Mil-L-9000 engine oils down to 0.4% dilution.
An Image Reconstruction Algorithm for Electrical Impedance Tomography Using Adaptive Group Sparsity Constraint

Image quality has long been deemed a key challenge for electrical impedance tomography (EIT). High-quality image is of great significance for improving the qualitative and quantitative imaging performance in biomedical or industrial applications. In this paper, a novel image reconstruction algorithm for EIT using adaptive group sparsity constraint is proposed to obtain enhanced image quality. The proposed algorithm takes both the underlying structure characteristics and sparsity prior of the conductivity distribution into account to promote a solution with group sparsity structure and reduce the degree of freedom. Specifically, an adaptive grouping method is incorporated for efficient and dynamic pixel grouping when the conductivity distribution does not have a fixed structure or the prior knowledge of the structure is unavailable. Numerical simulation and phantom experiments are performed to validate the proposed algorithm. The results are compared with those using the Landweber iteration, total variation regularization, and $l_{1}$ regularization. Both simulation and experiment results confirm the significantly improved tomographic imaging quality using the proposed algorithm, which demonstrates great potential for multiphase flow imaging and biological tissue imaging.
GPU-Accelerated Real-Time Tracking of Full-Body Motion With Multi-Layer Search

Compared to monocular pose tracking, 3D articulated body pose tracking from multiple cameras can better deal with self-occlusions and meet less ambiguities. Though considerable advances have been made, pose tracking from multiple images has not been extensively studied: very seldom existing work can produce a solution comparable to that of a marker-based system which generally can recover accurate 3D full-body motion in real-time. In this paper, we present a multi-view approach to 3D body pose tracking. We propose a pose search method by introducing a new generative sampling algorithm with a refinement step of local optimization. This multi-layer search method does not rely on strong motion priors and generalizes well to general human motions. Physical constraints are incorporated in a novel way and 3D distance transform is employed for speedup. A voxel subject-specific 3D body model is created automatically at the initial frame to fit the subject to be tracked. We design and develop the optimized parallel implementations of time-consuming algorithms on GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) using CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), which significantly accelerates the pose tracking process, making our method capable of tracking full body movements with a maximum speed of 9 fps. Experiments on various 8-camera datasets and benchmark datasets (HumanEva-II) captured by 4 cameras demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of our method.
M‐CSF induced differentiation of myeloid precursor cells involves activation of PKC‐δ and expression of Pkare

Macrophage‐colony stimulating factor (M‐CSF) regulates proliferation and differentiation of cells belonging to the monocytic lineage. We investigated the mechanisms of M‐CSF differentiation signaling in follicular dendritic cell‐P1 cells and analyzed the catalytic activation of different protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms. M‐CSF induced rapid catalytic activation of PKC‐δ and membrane transocation of the tyrosine phosphorylated form of PKC‐δ. Mutation of tyrosine 807 in the M‐CSF receptor (Fms) abrogates cell differentiation but not a proliferative response to M‐CSF, and FmsY807F failed to activate PKC‐δ. We also investigated the downstream signaling pathways from PKC‐δ. A cyclic adenosine monophosphate‐regulated Ser/Thr kinase gene, protein kinase X (PRKX), has been associated with macrophage differentiation in human cells. We found that M‐CSF and PKC‐δ induced the expression of the PRKX murine homologue: PKA‐related gene. Taken together, our results indicate that PKC‐δ functions as a critical mediator of M‐CSF‐induced differentiation signaling.
Reconstructing Reticulate Evolution in SpeciesTheory and Practice

We present new methods for reconstructing reticulate evolution of species due to events such as horizontal transfer or hybrid speciation; both methods are based upon extensions of Wayne Maddison's approach in his seminal 1997 paper. Our first method is a polynomial time algorithm for constructing phylogenetic networks from two gene trees contained inside the network. We allow the network to have an arbitrary number of reticulations, but we limit the reticulation in the network so that the cycles in the network are node-disjoint ("galled"). Our second method is a polynomial time algorithm for constructing networks with one reticulation, where we allow for errors in the estimated gene trees. Using simulations, we demonstrate improved performance of this method over both NeighborNet and Maddison's method.
Wages and Firm Performance: Evidence from the 2008 Financial Crisis

We examine the effect of higher wages on firm performance during the 2008 financial crisis. To identify variation in wages, we rely on heterogeneity in the timing of long-term wage agreements for a sample of U.K. firms. We instrument for firms signing long-term agreements overlapping with the crisis by the presence of a contract signed in 2006 or earlier and expiring before September 2008. Treated firms not only paid higher wages but also realized greater labor productivity relative to control firms. These findings are consistent with the intuition that opportunity cost differentials between treated and control firms induce employees to exert higher effort. (JEL J41, J30, J24, G01) Received February 28, 2019; editorial decision July 8, 2020 by Editor Andrew Ellul. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.
Identifying mapping relationships between functions and technologies with association rule mining

It is common that manufacturers strive to develop a diverse range of customised products at low costs and on time. A key to achieving this objective lies in design technologies which provide solution principles to deliver various product functions and help achieve efficiency and effectiveness in component design and production. With the focus on design, most of the studies do not address the selection of appropriate technologies and the determination of corresponding details (e.g. technology attribute values). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address this. In this work, we propose an approach based on association rule mining to identify mapping relationships between functions and technologies. These mapping relationships not only enable companies to reuse proven knowledge about functions and technologies but also help them to effectively decide on technologies and details. A case study using a family of microlithography machines is presented to demonstrate how the mapping relationships can be identified given large volumes of function- and technology-related data and how these relationships help select technologies and determine details.
Isolation and Characterization of Canthaxanthin Biosynthesis Genes from the Photosynthetic Bacterium Bradyrhizobium sp . Strain ORS 278

Bradyrhizobium strains isolated from Aeschynomene stem nodules are photosynthetic (4; see reference 6 for a review), which is a rare trait in Rhizobium bacteria. These strains exhibit a photoheterotrophic and strictly aerobic photosynthesis (6; A. Vermeglio, personal communication). In culture, most of these stem isolates show the same pink coloration, while a few strains produce orange pigmentation (12, 16). Pigment analyses showed that bacteriochlorophyll and spirilloxanthin, two pigments of the light harvesting system, are common to all of these photosynthetic Bradyrhizobium strains, whereas orange strains produce an additional bicyclic carotenoid, canthaxanthin (4,49-diketo-b-carotene) (12). This was the first report on the presence of this carotenoid in photosynthetic bacteria. Bradyrhizobium sp. strain ORS278 produces the highest quantity of canthaxanthin of all tested photosynthetic bacteria; canthaxanthin represents 85% of its total carotenoid content (12). Contrary to anaerobic purple phototrophic bacteria, aerobic phototrophic bacteria synthesize an unusually diverse variety of carotenoids, including photosynthetic carotenoids such as spirilloxanthin or spheroidenone, and often a large amount of bicyclic carotenoid (b-carotene and hydroxyl derivatives) (24; see reference 26 for a review). These carotenoids were shown to not be bound to the photosynthetic apparatus of these aerobic bacteria (17, 27) and their function is still unclear— they could have a protective role against photo-oxidative damage, as already observed for several carotenoids (19, 25). Synthetic canthaxanthin is applied for both direct and indirect food coloring (10, 23). In cosmetology and pharmacology, it is also combined with b-carotene for use as a dermal photoprotector (8). Canthaxanthin is, therefore, a pigment of high economic value, but its level in Bradyrhizobium sp. strain ORS278 (1.43 mg/g of dry cell weight) remains insufficient for this organism to be a realistic candidate for natural canthaxanthin production (12). However, it could be possible to enhance the production of canthaxanthin by cloning carotenoid biosynthesis genes of this strain. In this paper, we describe the cloning and characterization of the canthaxanthin gene cluster of Bradyrhizobium sp. strain ORS278. Isolation of a carotenoid gene cluster. The genes crtB and crtI, encoding, respectively, phytoene synthase and phytoene desaturase, two enzymes involved in the initial steps of carotenoid biosynthesis (Fig. 1), have been isolated and characterized in various microorganisms (1, 9, 11, 14, 15, 21). In all of these cases, these genes were found to be adjacent and oriented in the same direction. Comparison of the deduced amino
Poster Abstract: Detecting Abnormalities in IoT Program Executions through Control-Flow-Based Features

The Internet of Things (IoT) has penetrated various domains, from smart grids to precision agriculture, facilitating remote sensing and control. However, IoT devices are target to a spectrum of reliability and security issues. Therefore, capturing the normal behavior of these devices and detecting abnormalities in program execution is key for reliable deployment. However, existing program anomaly detection techniques that use either flow-sensitive or context-sensitive information only capture system call context and therefore have limited detection scope and accuracy. Control-flow information generated on these devices can capture the paths taken during program execution. In this poster abstract, we propose using context-sensitive features based on control-flow and discuss their effectiveness in detecting anomalous behavior.
Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems Methods , Tools and Applications in Engineering and Related Sciences

The eigensystem realization algorithm (ERA) is a commonly used datadriven method for system identification and reduced-order modelling of dynamical systems. The main computational difficulty in ERA arises when the system under consideration has a large number of inputs and outputs, requiring to compute a singular value decomposition (SVD) of a largescale dense Hankel matrix. In this work, we present an algorithm that aims to resolve this computational bottleneck via tangential interpolation. This involves projecting the original impulse response sequence onto suitably chosen directions. The resulting data-driven reduced model preserves stability and is endowed with an a priori error bound. Numerical examples demonstrate that the modified ERA algorithm with tangentially interpolated data produces accurate reduced models while, at the same time, reducing the computational cost and memory requirements significantly compared to the standard ERA. We also give an example to demonstrate the limitations of the proposed method. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 3 November 2015 Accepted 2 June 2016
Absence of Internal Radiation Contamination by Radioactive Cesium among Children Affected by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster

AbstractChronic internal radiation contamination accounts for a substantial fraction of long-term cumulative radiation exposure among residents in radiation-contaminated areas. However, little information is available on ongoing chronic internal radiation contamination among residents near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Using a whole body counter, internal radiation contamination levels among elementary and middle school students who commute to 22 schools located within Minamisoma city were assessed between May and July 2013 (26 to 28 mo after the disaster). Of 3,299 elementary and middle school students in the city, 3,255 individuals (98%) were screened through school health check-ups. Not a single student was detected with internal radiation contamination due to radioactive cesium. The study found no risk of chronic internal radiation exposure among residents near the crippled nuclear power plant. Current food inspection by local governments, volunteers, and farmers has been functioning well within Fukushima prefecture. However, food management by screening suspected contamination along with whole body counter screening are key public health interventions and should be continued to avoid further internal radiation exposure in radiation-contaminated areas.
Local variability in respiratory syncytial virus disease severity

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract infections are considered to be a serious disease in centres such as the Sophia Children’s Hospital (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), but as more benign infections in others such as the Geneva Children’s Hospital (Switzerland). To assess the clinical severity of RSV infections at the two sites, 151 infants primarily admitted with a virologically confirmed RSV infection were studied prospectively (1994–5) and retrospectively (1993–4) (55 infants in Geneva and 96 in Rotterdam). Parameters of RSV morbidity which were more severe in Rotterdam during the two winter seasons were apnoea (1.8 v23.9%), the rate of admission to the intensive care unit (3.6v 28.1%), mechanical ventilation (0 v7.3%), and length of stay in hospital (6.8 v 9.1 days). In Geneva higher respiratory rates (59.2 v 51.2), more wheezing (65.5 v 28.8%), and more retractions (81.8v 63.3%) were recorded. Fewer infants younger than 4 months (54.9 v 68.7%), but more breast fed infants (94.1v 38.5%), were admitted in Geneva, although the morbidity parameters remained different after correction for these two variables in multivariate analyses. Thus unidentified local factors influence the pattern and severity of RSV infection and may affect the results of multicentre prophylactic and therapeutic studies.
The dual excitation speech model

This thesis presents the new Dual Excitation (DE) speech model which separates speech into two independent components: a voiced component and an unvoiced component. The voiced component is modelled as a time-varying harmonic series, while the unvoiced component is represented by a short-time Fourier Transform. This approach eliminates the need for voiced/unvoiced classification, since information on the voicing state is contained in the relative amplitude of the voiced and unvoiced spectra. In addition this representation provides pitch and spectral envelope information which make it potentially applicable to a wide range of speech processing problems including speech enhancement, pitch scaling and time-scale modification. A speech analysis/synthesis system is described which estimates the DE speech model parameters for each windowed segment of speech. The voiced and unvoiced components are synthesized independently and then summed to produce the synthetic speech. The DE speech model is applied to the problem of speech enhancement. An algorithm is described which processes the DE speech model parameters in order to remove additive wideband acoustic background noise. This speech enhancement method only requires the degraded speech and knowledge of the power spectrum of the noise. It exploits the unique properties of the voiced and unvoiced components to improve the system performance. Specifically the spectral magnitude of the unvoiced component is smoothed to reduce the spurious noise peaks in the enhanced spectrum. The smoothing process is effective due to the fact that the harmonic structure is contained in the voiced component and is not present in the unvoiced component. Informal listening tests have been conducted which indicate that the new enhancement system is capable of reducing a substantial amount of wideband background noise while maintaining the intelligibility and naturalness of the speech. Informal comparisons between the DE speech enhancement system and a traditional spectral subtraction algorithm show a clear preference for the new method. The two methods provide a similar amount of noise reduction, however the DE system does not contain the tonal artifacts commonly associated with spectral subtraction. The DE speech enhancement system has been tested on a hearing impaired listener who is highly susceptable to the presence of background noise. Preliminary results show an average increase in intelligibility of 19 percent for this listener when compared against the unprocessed speech. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)