Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification-based weighted filter for image corrupted by impulse noise

A novel filter for image corrupted by impulse noise is presented. In this approach, each current pixel under consideration will be replaced by its expected value. For that, local neighboring pixels are used to provide a measure of similarity according to the property of impulse noise, by which each pixel of the filter window is classified into either noise-free region or corrupted region. In order to avoid the influence of impulse noise on the estimation of the expected value, only the pixels of noise-free region are used to estimate the expected value based on distance weighs. Simulation results indicate that the proposed filter impressively outperforms other techniques in terms of noise suppression and detail preservation across a wide range of impulse noise corruption, ranging from 1% to 90%, especially where there is a high probability of impulse noise
Design and Implementation of Compensator for Optimizing Linear Time Invariant System Parameters

Most of control systems in vogue are Linear Time Invariant (LTI) systems and are characterized by several parameters such as settling time, over shoot and rise time etc. Optimization of these parameters is required to meet the desired system response and smooth operation of the system. In this paper, an optimization based compensator is designed and implemented for a closed loop LTI system and the system response is observed both in time and frequency domain. The compensator is designed using optimization technique so that the control system meets the system specifications. The LTI system model consisting of gain, limited integrator and a delay unit is considered for optimization. The controller is tuned using Ziegler-Nichols open loop tuning algorithm to optimize mainly settling time, rise time and percentage of over shoot. The feasible and optimal solutions within the specified tolerances of these parameters are obtained and presented.
Multi-objective robust model predictive control using Game Theory

The problem of multi-objective model predictive controller design is solved in this paper. The linear parameter-varying parameter system is considered. The proposed method is based on the solving multi-objective optimization problem using linear matrix inequality approach at each sampling time. The trade-off point among the optimization results is obtained by Nash bargaining solution at each sampling time. The simulation results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Risk of Bacterial Vaginosis Among Women With Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a perturbation of vaginal flora characterized by reduced levels of lactobacilli and concomitant overgrowth of anaerobic bacterial species. BV is highly prevalent and associated with multiple adverse outcomes, including enhanced human immunodeficiency virus transmission. Because recent reports reveal that herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection may increase BV risk, we initiated a systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between HSV-2 infection and BV. METHODS We searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases to identify articles posted before 1 December 2014. Two screeners independently reviewed the titles and abstracts of all identified articles, reviewed the full text of articles deemed potentially eligible, and extracted data from 14 cross-sectional and 3 prospective studies. Using random-effects models, we computed separate pooled estimates for cross-sectional and prospective studies. RESULTS The pooled odds ratio for cross-sectional studies was 1.60 (95% confidence interval, 1.32-1.94). Stronger support for the causal effect of HSV-2 infection on BV risk was revealed by the summary relative risk for the prospective studies, which was 1.55 (95% confidence interval, 1.30-1.84), with minimal heterogeneity (I(2) = 0). CONCLUSIONS These analyses imply that HSV-2 infection is an important BV risk factor. Pharmacologic HSV-2 suppression may reduce BV incidence and BV-associated adverse events.
Ultrasonic inspection of flooded mineshafts for stability monitoring

Inspecting abandoned mine shafts is critical in ensuring their safety through early identification of signs of deterioration. Since the common inspection methods of CCTV and LiDAR are not very effective underwater, two modules have been designed for inspecting the linings of flooded, abandoned mine shafts. Using sonar technology, they allow the early stages of degradation to the lining to be detected which – since this could be indicative of imminent collapse – provides protection against the consequential risk to property and human life. Detailed measurements of several shafts’ cross-sections have been recorded using profiling and imaging sonar technology. Although imaging sonar provides very different results in the confined and reverberant environment of a mine shaft, compared to its more common environment of a seabed, it was shown that when combined with the profiling sonar, it allows shafts to be surveyed in a shorter period of time and improves the reliability of the profiling function.
A Unified Framework for Degraded Thai Historical Document Image Restoration

Binarization method is the key process to restore degraded historical document image. In this paper, the framework for degraded Thai historical document image restoration is proposed. The proposed framework consists of three stage including image filtering stage, local-based thresholding stage, and cluster analysis stage. Image filtering stage aims to eliminate some noises by using Wiener filter. Local-based thresholding stage aims to calculate the optimal threshold of a local block by using Niblack's methods. Cluster analysis stage aims to improve the quality of binary image by using Kim's method. The experiments are implemented by using Matlab and conducted on real degraded Thai historical document image dataset which is provided by Nation Library of Thailand. The experimental results are evaluated by using three widely used indices including precision, recall and f-index. The experimental results show that the proposed framework outperforms four classical binarization methods.
Factoring with Qutrits: Shor's Algorithm on Ternary and Metaplectic Quantum Architectures

We determine the cost of performing Shor's algorithm for integer factorization on a ternary quantum computer, using two natural models of universal fault-tolerant computing: (i) a model based on magic state distillation that assumes the availability of the ternary Clifford gates, projective measurements, classical control as its natural instrumentation set; (ii) a model based on a metaplectic topological quantum computer (MTQC). A natural choice to implement Shor's algorithm on a ternary quantum computer is to translate the entire arithmetic into a ternary form. However, it is also possible to emulate the standard binary version of the algorithm by encoding each qubit in a three-level system. We compare the two approaches and analyze the complexity of implementing Shor's period finding function in the two models. We also highlight the fact that the cost of achieving universality through magic states in MTQC architecture is asymptotically lower than in generic ternary case.
A Mobility Management System for the Global Live Migration of Virtual Machine across Multiple Sites

With rapid spread of virtualization technologies, Live migration which provides the ability to migrate a running virtual machine (VM) among physical hosts without interruption. Especially, Global Live Migration (GLM) which enables to migrate VM across the geographically-distributed Wide Area Networks (WANs) is an essential step towards development of the inter-cloud environment. However, GLM gets a bit complicated for network configuration compared with ordinary live migration. We have already proposed the GLM method which implements IP mobility support architecture with multiple interfaces to enable live migration among distributed sites consisting of different IP network segments. However, there is no sufficient consideration about the management of smooth handoff for the VM migration on the Internet. In this paper, we propose a mobility management system for GLM, and integrate into our developed nation-wide virtualization infrastructure. The proposed system enables VMs seamless handoff without any modification of the hypervisor while keeping network configuration of the migrating site. Performance evaluation shows the processing overhead of the proposed management system with GLM among multiple sites which are more than 600 km distant. As a result, we confirm that the proposed system provides smooth handoff for the VM on the widely-distributed environment if the proposed system is implemented.
Academic Advising

Upon matriculation, every student is assigned to a professional academic adviser on the staff of the dean of students. The primary responsibility of advisers is to support students as they address the range of decisions they will make during college. Advisers help students discover how to pursue their interests within the curricular requirements of the College and plan an appropriate program of study leading to a degree in their selected major. Students should direct questions about courses and programs of study and about University rules and regulations to their College advisers. Advisers are also a good first source of assistance with personal problems. Every effort is made to keep students with the same adviser throughout their time in the College, although for various reasons students are sometimes reassigned to a different adviser within the office.
A dual-mode message delivery system with time constrained paging mechanism

This paper proposes a dual-mode message delivery system with time constrained paging and multiple-class support. The pairing decision depends on the effective pairing time defined by the system when a Bluetooth device comes into the service range. Within the constrained pairing time, a central server can deliver messages to the Bluetooth device directly without re-pairing. To demonstrate the proposed schemes, we implement a central server on Linux and intermediate nodes on Window Mobile platform, respectively. The control packets associated with their message formats are designed to exchange between the central server and the intermediate nodes; thus, data messages can be transmitted between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks. Finally, we measure the time saving in connection set-up time with and without using re-pairing procedure and we also show that the control packet overhead and the processing overhead are so insignificant as they are compared to the time saving in the connection set-up time.
Network Design with Coverage Costs

We study network design with a cost structure motivated by redundancy in data traffic. We are given a graph, g groups of terminals, and a universe of data packets. Each group of terminals desires a subset of the packets from its respective source. The cost of routing traffic on any edge in the network is proportional to the total size of the distinct packets that the edge carries. Our goal is to find a minimum cost routing. We focus on two settings. In the first, the collection of packet sets desired by source-sink pairs is laminar. For this setting, we present a primal-dual based 2-approximation, improving upon a logarithmic approximation due to Barman and Chawla (2012). In the second setting, packet sets can have non-trivial intersection. We focus on the case where each packet is desired by either a single terminal group or by all of the groups, and the graph is unweighted. For this setting we present an O(log g)-approximation. Our approximation for the second setting is based on a novel spanner-type construction in unweighted graphs that, given a collection of g vertex subsets, finds a subgraph of cost only a constant factor more than the minimum spanning tree of the graph, such that every subset in the collection has a Steiner tree in the subgraph of cost at most O(log g) that of its minimum Steiner tree in the original graph. We call such a subgraph a group spanner.
Effects of Chronic Stretching Training on the Torque of Young Adults

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of stretching training in the capacity of hamstring muscles torque maintenance in male young adults. Thirty-eight volunteers were randomly divided into two groups: Stretching Group (SG, n = 19) and Control Group (CG, n = 19). The training protocol consisted of three different static stretching exercises for hamstrings, performed in 3 repetitions, lasting 30s each, and 3 days.wk -1 , totalizing 270 seconds per session, during 6 weeks. Knee Range of Motion (ROM) was assessed by a goniometer and isometric peak torque (Pt), rate of torque maintenance (RTM the resultant of the maximum and minimum isometric peak torque), rate of torque development (RTD ∆Force/∆Time) and impulse (I area under the torque-time curve) were assessed through a load cell. Parametric results were analyzed by mixed model ANOVA. The ROM at post-training of SG was greater than at post-training of CG (163±4o vs. 141±3o Cohen’s d = 5.25; p <0.001). The RTD increased after the stretching training when compared to pre post-training for both groups (23.34±8.8 N.s -1 vs.18.13±10.27 N.s -1 , Cohen’s d = 0.54; p =0.044). Pt, RTM and I did not change. The stretching training for 6 weeks increased the ROM and RTD without interfering on the peak torque of young adult’s hamstring muscles
CLS: New Problems and Completeness

The complexity class CLS was introduced by Daskalakis and Papadimitriou with the goal of capturing the complexity of some well-known problems in PPAD$~\cap~$PLS that have resisted, in some cases for decades, attempts to put them in polynomial time. No complete problem was known for CLS, and in previous work, the problems ContractionMap, i.e., the problem of finding an approximate fixpoint of a contraction map, and PLCP, i.e., the problem of solving a P-matrix Linear Complementarity Problem, were identified as prime candidates. First, we present a new CLS-complete problem MetaMetricContractionMap, which is closely related to the ContractionMap. Second, we introduce EndOfPotentialLine, which captures aspects of PPAD and PLS directly via a monotonic directed path, and show that EndOfPotentialLine is in CLS via a two-way reduction to EndOfMeteredLine. The latter was defined to keep track of how far a vertex is on the PPAD path via a restricted potential function. Third, we reduce PLCP to EndOfPotentialLine, thus making EndOfPotentialLine and EndOfMeteredLine at least as likely to be hard for CLS as PLCP. This last result leverages the monotonic structure of Lemke paths for PLCP problems, making EndOfPotentialLine a likely candidate to capture the exact complexity of PLCP; we note that the structure of Lemke-Howson paths for finding a Nash equilibrium in a two-player game very directly motivated the definition of the complexity class PPAD, which eventually ended up capturing this problem's complexity exactly.
FILL and FUNI: algorithms to identify illegal states and sequentially untestable faults

In this paper, we first present an algorithm (FILL) to efficiently identify a large subset of illegal states in synchronous sequential circuits, without assuming a global reset mechanism. A second algorithm, FUNI, finds sequentially untestable faults whose detection requires some of the illegal states computed by FILL. Although based on binary decision diagrams (BDDs), FILL is able to process large circuits by using a new functional partitioning procedure. The incremental building of the set of illegal states guarantees that FILL will always obtain at least a partial solution. FUNI is a direct method that identifies untestable faults without using the exhaustive search involved in automatic test generation (ATG). Experimental results show that FUNI finds a large number of untestable faults up to several orders of magnitude faster than an ATG algorithm that targeted the faults identified by FUNI. Also, many untestable faults identified by FUNI were aborted by the test generator.
A regenerative change during muscle adaptation to denervation in rats.

The purpose of this study is to examine the cellular and molecular events coincident with muscle denervation, especially the regenerative changes seen following muscle denervation, the role of satellite cells in this process, and the possibility of apoptotic degeneration of myonuclei as a mechanism of myonuclei loss during muscle denervation atrophy. Myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform expression during muscle denervation was examined using pyrophosphate acrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunohistochemistry. DNA fragmentation (apoptosis) in myonuclei of denervated fibers was investigated using agarose gel electrophoresis, the TUNEL technique and ELISA for cytoplasmic histone-associated DNA fragmentation. Immunohistochemistry for MyoD and BrdU was also performed. Following muscle denervation, embryonic MHC, which is not expressed in adult healthy muscles, was expressed in some denervated fibers as well as in small activated satellite cells; maximal expression was observed 2 to 3 weeks after denervation. Activation and proliferation of satellite cells were observed, while few typical regenerating fibers were identified. It is speculated that most activated satellite cells fused to the denervated maternal fibers in order to repair them instead of fusing to each other to form new fibers as a mechanism that compensates for the atrophic changes after denervation. Although DNA ladder formation was not observed with agarose gel electrophoresis, DNA fragmentation was detected by the TUNEL technique and ELISA, suggesting that apoptotic degeneration contributes to the loss of myonuclei associated with denervation atrophy.
Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research by Gary Barkhuizen, Phil Benson, and Alice Chik (review)

Narrative research has been widely used in fields of social sciences such as psychology, sociology, and education. Narrative inquiry is “an established umbrella term for research involving stories” (Barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 3). Narrative research in the field of language teaching and learning, albeit comparatively recent, has been burgeoning since the 1980s (e.g., Curtis & Romney, 2006; Nunan & Choi, 2010). This growing body of narrative research necessitates a comprehensive understanding of what narratives entail, how to conduct narrative studies, and how to apply findings in narrative studies to practice. The book Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research fulfills these purposes. It offers language teachers and researchers an insightful and accessible introduction to understanding, conducting, and utilizing narrative research in the field of applied linguistics. The book consists of an introduction and six chapters including topics such as oral, written, and multimodal narratives, and research methods (data analysis and reporting) in narrative research. The goal for the book is to offer suggestions for those who are interested in narrative research. In order to orient readers to the scope of narrative research in language teaching and learning, the authors select research papers from approximately one hundred and seventy-five published studies and cite examples that address how to conduct narrative research. The large collection of published studies not only provides readers with concrete Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 26, 111–115
Returning Veterans’ Experiences of a Holistic Therapeutic Program

Since 2001, over 2.7 million U.S. military service members have been deployed (Wenger et al., 2018). Many of these soldiers have encountered serious challenges readjusting upon their return home and many may not access the services needed to achieve successful reintegration. Current literature calls for holistic approaches to service provision, involving collaboration of support services to address the underutilization of services. To better understand the gap in treatment utilization, a qualitative approach was used to examine returning veterans’ experiences of an intensive and holistic service delivery program implemented in coordination with local veterans’ organizations. Within the study, a generic qualitative approach was used to analyze interviews with 6 military veterans who had previously been deployed and were participating in the holistic therapeutic program. Results of the analysis revealed the following themes pertaining to participants’ experiences of the treatment process: (a) the importance of trusting relationships in the therapeutic setting; (b) importance of gaining adaptive coping strategies; (c) maintaining a sense of strength and independence; (d) difficulty with adjusting to civilian life and access of support services; and (e) difficulty with self-expression in civilian contexts. Limitations and recommendations are also provided.
Tissue and urinary glycosaminoglycan patterns associated with a fast, an intermediate, and a slow-growing Morris hepatoma.

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the glycosaminoglycans (GAG's) in different behavioral-histological types of i.m. -transplanted hepatomas and in the liver and urine of animals bearing these tumors. Groups of 10 Buffalo rats carrying fast-growing (7777), intermediate (5123tc), and slow-growing (9618A) Morris hepatomas were studied as the tumors reached 3 cm. Urinary and tissue GAG's were isolated by proteolysis, separated as cetylpyridinium complexes, and measured as uronic acid. The GAG's were further purified using anion-exchange chromatography and characterized with mucopolysaccharidases. Tissue GAG,s were also evaluated histochemically using Alcian blue staining and mucopolysaccharidases. Tissue from fast-growing, intermediate, and slow-growing tumors exhibited greater GAG levels than did normal liver in the hyaluronic acid (0.4 M NaCl-soluble) fraction and in the chondroitin sulfate-heparan sulfate (1.2 M NaCl-soluble) fraction. The livers of tumor-bearing animals exhibited GAG levels similar to those of normal liver. Increased urinary GAG excretion was appreciated in animals bearing Tumors 5123tc and 9618A but not in those bearing Tumor 7777.
Physics-driven pattern adjustment for direct 3D garment editing

Designers frequently reuse existing designs as a starting point for creating new garments. In order to apply garment modifications, which the designer envisions in 3D, existing tools require meticulous manual editing of 2D patterns. These 2D edits need to account both for the envisioned geometric changes in the 3D shape, as well as for various physical factors that affect the look of the draped garment. We propose a new framework that allows designers to directly apply the changes they envision in 3D space; and creates the 2D patterns that replicate this envisioned target geometry when lifted into 3D via a physical draping simulation. Our framework removes the need for laborious and knowledge-intensive manual 2D edits and allows users to effortlessly mix existing garment designs as well as adjust for garment length and fit. Following each user specified editing operation we first compute a target 3D garment shape, one that maximally preserves the input garment's style-its proportions, fit and shape-subject to the modifications specified by the user. We then automatically compute 2D patterns that recreate the target garment shape when draped around the input mannequin within a user-selected simulation environment. To generate these patterns, we propose a fixed-point optimization scheme that compensates for the deformation due to the physical forces affecting the drape and is independent of the underlying simulation tool used. Our experiments show that this method quickly and reliably converges to patterns that, under simulation, form the desired target look, and works well with different black-box physical simulators. We demonstrate a range of edited and resimulated garments, and further validate our approach via expert and amateur critique, and comparisons to alternative solutions.