Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Approach To Whole Field Vibration Analysis Using A Pulsed Laser System

Holographic and Speckle Pattern Interferometry utilising continuous wave lasers has so far been useful only as a laboratory tool. A major drawback limiting its introduction to industrial applications is the degree of environmental stability needed to obtain high quality fringes. Application of a pulsed laser to Holographic Interferometry has been demonstrated by several workers to show significant improvement in stability and scope of application. In a similar way, a pulsed laser can produce speckle correlation fringes on a single frame from a CCD TV camera, thus eliminating environmental sensitivity problems and rigid body motion. Results obtained with Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI) incorporating a pulsed YAG laser are reported. Vibration and static deformation fringes have been produced for a clamped metal plate. With a double pulse laser, the first pulse can he positioned at any time during the vibration cycle. The firing of the second pulse depends on the scanning time of a single field of the CCD camera. Due to the pulsing action of the laser the vibration amplitude fringe pattern can he animated on the TV screen to gain a visual impression of the surface motion. A new technique has been developed for extracting deformation and shape information from interferometric fringes. It involves a significant improvement in environmental stability and reduced computational effort. Problems due to noise and data ambiguity are eliminated with the extraction of phase information from only two digitised interferograms. Continuous wave, stroboscopic and pulsed laser illumination are all amenable to this one technique. Results employing the new fringe processing algorithms are presented. Comparisons are made with data obtained with a computer Finite Element prediction for the same target.
Externally Hazard-Free Implementations of Asynchronous Circuits

We present a new sum-of-product based asynchronous architecture, called the N-SHOT architecture, that operates correctly under internal hazardous responses and guarantees hazard-freeness at the observable non-input signals. We formally prove that within this architecture a verywide class of semi-modular state graphs with input choices (either distributive or non-distributive) that satisfy the complete state coding property always admit a correct implementation. As with synchronous circuits,we permit internal hazards in the combinational logic core, which means we can make use of conventional combinational logic minimization methods to produce the sum-of-product implementation. This represents a significant departure from most existing methods that require the combinational logic to be hazard-free and are mainly valid for distributive behaviors.
Characterizing the Capacity for MIMO Wireless Channels with Non-zero Mean and Transmit Covariance

Transmit channel side information (Tx-CSI), particularly th e mean and covariance, helps to increase MIMO wireless capacity. We formulate a dynamic Tx -CSI framework, using outdated channel measurements and channel statistics, to c reate an effective channel mean and covariance and establish the capacity expression given such Tx-CSI. We then derive the asymptotic capacity-optimal input signal at low SNRs and characterize the asymptotic capacity gains due to Tx-CSI at low and high SNRs. The optimal inpu t signal and the capacity gain in general depend on the relative number of tra nsmit and receive antennas. For systems with equal or fewer transmit than receive antenn as, we study a lower bound on the capacity. For systems with more transmit than receive ant nnas, we characterize the conditions for mode dropping at high SNRs, using simplified cha nnel models. Numerical examples are provided to show the impacts of channel paramet ers on the optimal input signal and the capacity gain with Tx-CSI.
Measurement of Accelerometry-based Gait Parameters in People with and without Dementia in the Field

Summary Background: Gait analyses are an important tool to diagnose diseases or to measure the rehabilitation process of patients. In this context, sensor-based systems, and especially accelerometers, gain in importance. They are able to improve objectiveness of gait analyses. In clinical settings, there is usually a supervisor who gives instructions to the patients, but this can have an influence on patients’ gait. It is expected that this effect will be smaller in field studies. Objective: Aim of this study was to capture and evaluate gait parameters measured by a single waist-mounted accelerometer during everyday life of subjects. Methods: Due to missing ground-truth in unsupervised conditions, another external criterion had to be chosen. Subjects of two different groups were considered: patients with dementia (DEM) and active older people (ACT). These groups were chosen, because of the expected difference in gait. The idea was to quantify the expected difference of accelerometric-based gait parameters. Gait parameters were e.g. velocity, step frequency, compensation movements, and variance of the accelerometric signal. Results: Ten subjects were measured in each group. The number of walking episodes captured was 1,187 (DEM) vs. 1,809 (ACT). The compensation and variance parameters showed an AUC value (Area Under the Curve) between 0.88 and 0.92. In contrast, velocity and step frequency performed poorly (AUC values of 0.51 and 0.55). It was possible to classify both groups using these parameters with an accuracy of 89.2%. Conclusion: The results showed a much higher amount of walking episodes in field studies compared to supervised clinical trials. The classification showed a high accuracy in distinguishing between both groups.
To appear in ACM TOG 0 ( 0 ) . Erosion Thickness on Medial Axes of 3 D Shapes

While playing a fundamental role in shape understanding, the medial axis is known to be sensitive to small boundary perturbations. Methods for pruning the medial axis are usually guided by some measure of significance. The majority of significance measures over the medial axes of 3D shapes are locally defined and hence unable to capture the scale of features. We introduce a global significance measure that generalizes in 3D the classical Erosion Thickness (ET) measure over the medial axes of 2D shapes. We give precise definition of ET in 3D, analyze its properties, and present an efficient approximation algorithm with bounded error on a piecewise linear medial axis. Experiments showed that ET outperforms local measures in differentiating small boundary noise from prominent shape features, and it is significantly faster to compute than existing global measures. We demonstrate the utility of ET in extracting clean, shape-revealing and topology-preserving skeletons of 3D shapes.
Diurnal ventilation via mouthpiece: survival in end-stage Duchenne patients

The present study aimed to assess the impact of diurnal mouthpiece intermittent positive pressure ventilation (MIPPV) as the extension of the nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In total, 42 DMD patients aged 15–33 yrs, normocapnic at night with NIPPV and receiving MIPPV since end-diurnal hypercapnia, were studied. Transcutaneous CO2 tension (Pt,CO2) was prospectively monitored at the end of the day, before and after MIPPV initiation. Vital capacity (VC), breathing pattern and maximal inspiratory strength were measured. Patients were asked to score the presence (1 point) or absence (0 point) of seven respiratory-linked symptoms before and after MIPPV establishment. Survival rates reached 88, 77, 58 and 51% after 1, 3, 5 and 7 yrs, respectively. The mean survival rate was 31 yrs. VC stabilised during 5 yrs with MIPPV. Symptom scores significantly decreased and Pt,CO2 normalised during the day (8.17±2.22 to 5.78±0.73 kPa). No accident and minor side-effects were observed in this 184 cumulated patient-yrs study. In conclusion, daytime mouthpiece ventilation is safe, prolongs survival and stabilises vital capacity in Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. It is recommended on the condition that patients are equipped with a self-supporting harness.
Degeneration of neural cells in the central nervous system of mice deficient in the gene for the adhesion molecule on Glia, the beta 2 subunit of murine Na,K-ATPase

We generated mice, null mutant in the adhesion molecule on glia (AMOG), the beta 2 subunit of the murine Na,K-ATPase gene. These mice exhibit motor incoordination at 15 d of age, subsequently tremor and paralysis of extremities, and die at 17-18 d after birth. At these ages, the mutants have enlarged ventricles, degenerating photoreceptor cells, and swelling and degeneration of astrocytic endfeet, leading to vacuoles adjoining capillaries of brain stem, thalamus, striatum, and spinal cord. In tissue homogenates from entire brains of 16-17-d-old mutants, Na,K-ATPase activity and expression of the beta 1 subunit of the Na,K- ATPase and of the neural adhesion molecules L1, N-CAM, and MAG appear normal. We suggest that the mutant phenotype can be related primarily to reduced pump activity, with neural degeneration as a possible consequence of osmotic imbalance.
Formation of Ordered Si Nanowires Arrays on Si Substrate

The paper deals with investigation of silicon nanowires formation by LP CVD method on Si substrate using gold films as a mask. The average diameter of Si nanowires grown by LP CVD was about 60 nm. It was shown that using of Si-Au droplets as the mask allows to obtain vertically aligned silicon nanowires with average diameter of about 60 nm. The kinetics of radial and axial growth was investigated, the growth rates and kinetic coefficient of growth were calculated, which showed a good accordance to experimental data.
Tracking bad apples: reporting the origin of null and undefined value errors

Programs sometimes crash due to unusable values, for example, when Java and C# programs dereference null pointers and when C and C++ programs use undefined values to affect program behavior. A stack trace produced on such a crash identifies the effect of the unusable value, not its cause, and is often not much help to the programmer. This paper presents efficient origin tracking of unusable values; it shows how to record where these values come into existence, correctly propagate them, and report them if they cause an error. The key idea is value piggybacking: when the original program stores an unusable value, value piggybacking instead stores origin information in the spare bits of the unusable value. Modest compiler support alters the program to propagate these modified values through operations such as assignments and comparisons. We evaluate two implementations: the first tracks null pointer origins in a JVM, and the second tracks undefined value origins in a memory-checking tool built with Valgrind. These implementations show that origin tracking via value piggybacking is fast and often useful, and in the Java case, has low enough overhead for use in a production environment.
Statistical analysis of dynamic actions

Real-world action recognition applications require the development of systems which are fast, can handle a large variety of actions without a priori knowledge of the type of actions, need a minimal number of parameters, and necessitate as short as possible learning stage. In this paper, we suggest such an approach. We regard dynamic activities as long-term temporal objects, which are characterized by spatio-temporal features at multiple temporal scales. Based on this, we design a simple statistical distance measure between video sequences which captures the similarities in their behavioral content. This measure is nonparametric and can thus handle a wide range of complex dynamic actions. Having a behavior-based distance measure between sequences, we use it for a variety of tasks, including: video indexing, temporal segmentation, and action-based video clustering. These tasks are performed without prior knowledge of the types of actions, their models, or their temporal extents
Degradation of Phthalic Acids by Denitrifying, Mixed Cultures of Bacteria

Mixed cultures of bacteria, enriched from aquatic sediments, grew anaerobically on all three isomers of phthalic acid. Each culture grew anaerobically on only one isomer and also grew aerobically on the same isomer. Pure cultures were isolated from the phthalic acid (o-phthalic acid) and isophthalic acid (m-phthalic acid) enrichments that grew aerobically on phthalic and isophthalic acids. Cell suspension experiments indicated that protocatechuate is an intermediate of aerobic catabolism. Pure cultures which grew aerobically on terephthalic acid (p-phthalic acid) could not be isolated from the enrichments, and neither could pure cultures that grew anaerobically on any of the isomers. Cell suspension experiments suggested that separate pathways exist for the aerobic and anaerobic oxidation of phthalic acids. Each enrichment culture used only one phthalic acid isomer under anaerobic conditions, but all isomers were simultaneously adapted for the anaerobic catabolism of benzoate. Cells grown anaerobically on a phthalic acid immediately attacked the isomer under anaerobic conditions, whereas there was a lag before aerobic breakdown occurred, and, for phthalic and terephthalic acids, chloramphenicol stopped aerobic adaptation but had no effect on anaerobic catabolism. This work suggests that phthalic acids are biodegradable in anaerobic environments.
Factors Influencing the Utilization of Voluntary Counselling and Testing Services among University Students in Kenya

Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) is recognized as a critical component of effective HIV prevention initiative and has therefore been promoted nationally and within universities in Kenya. Upon successful counselling and testing those found to be HIV negative are informed to take the necessary measures to protect themselves while the infected are advised to start the required medication. This study examined the attitudes toward VCT services among university students in four Kenyan universities. 980 students filled self administered questionnaires. Results showed that 38.5% of the subjects had tested for HIV in the last 12 months and students (55.8%) felt less susceptible to HIV infection. Findings from a factor analysis revealed that the intention to seek the services was associated with five attitude subscales that were ranked as follows (i) people’s and personal concerns, (ii) friends concerns, (iii) value of testing, (iv) confidentiality and support, and (v) perceived susceptibility. The first three items are associated with stigma which was evidenced in the subjects’ report that admitting that one should test for HIV would imply that one has engaged in immoral behaviour. Secondly, subjects felt that their friends would look down on them if they tested for HIV. Knowing the students’ attitudes will therefore assist in the development of appropriate VCT interventions that will promote HIV testing and behaviour change.
Preparation method of Ti powder with oxygen concentration of <1000 ppm using Ca

To reduce the high oxygen concentration of commercial Ti powder and to obtain Ti powder with the oxygen concentration of <1000 ppm, we utilised two types of deoxidation pots to conduct deoxidation experiments: below the melting point of Ca using a contact deoxidation pot (experiment A), and above its melting point using a non-contact deoxidation pot (experiment B). To obtain Ti in powder form even after deoxidation above the melting point of Ca, we developed a new non-contact deoxidation pot in the experiments. In experiment A, the oxygen concentration in the Ti powder decreased down to 50% compared with the initial stage (2200 ppm). In experiment B, the oxygen concentration reduced to ∼63% at the deoxidation temperature of 1000°C. As a result, Ti powder with 820 ppm of oxygen concentration could be prepared using the non-contact deoxidation pot with Ca.
Effect of coupling and linear transformation of waves in shear flows.

A new linear mechanism of reciprocal transformation of waves and a corresponding energy transfer in shear flows is discovered. The effect is demonstrated on the simplest example — the two-dimensional waves in unbounded, parallel hydromagnetic flow with uniform velocity shear. The phenomenon discovered is of importance for magnetohydrodynamics and fusion plasma devices and for various terrestrial and astrophysical shear flows. Grasping the result became possible thanks to the nonmodal analyses of the perturbation evolution in the flow. @S1063-651X~96! 11605-6# PACS number~s! : 52.35. Bj, 03.40. Kf, 47.20. Ft Oscillatory systems are prevalent in the nature and play an important role in the wide variety of physical processes. It should be emphasized that: ~i! these kinds of dynamical systems usually consist of coupled oscillators and have several degrees of freedom; ~ii! parameters of the oscillators in most cases are not constant but vary slowly in time @1#. The processes taking place in such systems are immensely complex and their study is applicable not only to the various branches of physics, but also to chemistry, biology, sociology, and other sciences. Investigation of these two key aspects of dynamics, closely related to each other in some physical situa
Impedance measurements on Inconel and Monel alloys in Dead Sea water and sulphate solution

Abstract The electrochemical behaviour of Inconel 625 and Monel 400 alloys has been investigated in Dead Sea water and 0·5M K2SO4 solution using the impedance technique at several anodic potentials. In Dead Sea water, the Monel alloy is active at anodic potentials ≥ –100 m V; owing to pitting corrosion, while the Inconel alloy is passive up to 300 mV: Above this potential, destruction of the passive layer takes place leading to the formation of two maxima in the phase angle curves, indicating that two different oxide layers are present on the surface of the alloy. The radii of the pores formed at the surface of both alloys were calculated using the Kugel diffusion impedance element. In 0·5M K2SO4 both the Inconel and Monel alloys are passive, up to 500 and 600 mV respectively. Above these potentials both alloys became active. The passivity of the Inconel alloy is explained by the formation of chromium and silicon oxides.
Extended incubation of culture plates improves recovery of Bordetella spp

Extended incubation of culture plates was studied to see if the recovery of Bordetella spp. from nasopharyngeal swabs could be improved. Forty-eight Bordetella isolates were recovered from 103 children (overall positive-culture rate, 46.6%) who met the clinical case definition of pertussis. Seven of 44 (16%) B. pertussis isolates and 2 of 4 (50%) B. parapertussis isolates were recovered only after extended incubation of nasopharyngeal cultures up to 12 days.
MARE: multiuser augmented reality environment on table setup

Using augmented reality (AR) in collaborative situations is appealing: it combines the use of natural metaphors of communication (gesture, voice, expression), with the power of virtual ones (simulation, animation, persistent data). But few 3D AR collaborative systems are devoted to keep human's ability (like grasping, writing). The motivation of this research is to mix together virtual reality techniques ([Schmalstieg et al. 2000]) and computer human interaction techniques ([Fjeld et al. 2002]), so to have the best of both worlds.
RNA-Seq Analysis Implicates Detoxification Pathways in Ovine Mycotoxin Resistance

Mycotoxin induced hepatoxocity has been linked to oxidative stress, resulting from either an increase in levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) above normal levels and/or the suppression of antioxidant protective pathways. However, few detailed molecular studies of mycotoxicoses in animals have been carried out. This study use current RNA-seq based approaches to investigate the effects of mycotoxin exposure in a ruminant model. Having first assembled a de novo reference transcriptome, we use RNA-Seq technology to define in vivo hepatic gene expression changes resulting from mycotoxin exposure in relationship to pathological effect. As expected, characteristic oxidative stress related gene expression is markedly different in animals exhibiting poorer outcomes. However, expression of multiple genes critical for detoxification, particularly members of the cytochrome P450 gene family, was significantly higher in animals exhibiting mycotoxin tolerance (‘resistance’). Further, we present novel evidence for the amplification of Wnt signalling pathway activity in ‘resistant’ animals, resulting from the marked suppression of multiple key Wnt inhibitor genes. Notably, ‘resistance’ may be determined primarily by the ability of an individual to detoxify secondary metabolites generated by the metabolism of mycotoxins and the potentiation of Wnt signalling may be pivotal to achieving a favourable outcome upon challenge.
The State of the Art in Flow Visualisation: Feature Extraction and Tracking

Flow visualisation is an attractive topic in data visualisation, offering great challenges for research. Very large data sets must be processed, consisting of multivariate data at large numbers of grid points, often arranged in many time steps. Recently, the steadily increasing performance of computers again has become a driving force for new advances in flow visualisation, especially in techniques based on texturing, feature extraction, vector field clustering, and topology extraction.
A survey on energy-efficient communications

In this paper, we review the literature on physical layer energy-efficient communications. The most relevant and recent works are mainly centered around two frameworks: the pragmatic and the information theoretical approaches. Both of them aim at finding the best transmit and/or receive policies which maximize the number of bits that can be reliably conveyed over the channel per unit of energy consumed. Taking into account both approaches, the analysis starts with the single user SISO (single-input single-output) channel, and is then extended to the MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) and multi-user scenarios.
Stress granules: sites of mRNA triage that regulate mRNA stability and translatability.

Mammalian stress granules (SGs) are cytoplasmic domains into which mRNAs are sorted dynamically in response to phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 2alpha, a key regulatory step in translational initiation. The activation of one or more of the eIF2alpha kinases leads to SG assembly by decreasing the levels of eIF2-GTP-tRNA(Met), the ternary complex that is normally required for loading the initiator methionine onto the 48 S preinitiation complex to begin translation. This stress-induced scarcity of eIF2-GTP-tRNA(Met) allows the RNA-binding proteins TIA-1 (T-cell internal antigen-1) and TIAR (TIA-1-related protein) to bind the 48 S complex in lieu of the ternary complex, thereby promoting polysome disassembly and the concurrent routing of the mRNA into a SG. The actual formation of SGs occurs upon auto-aggregation of the prion-like C-termini of TIA-1 proteins; this aggregation is reversed in vivo by overexpression of the heat-shock protein (HSP) chaperone HSP70. Remarkably, HSP70 mRNA is excluded from SGs and is preferentially translated during stress, indicating that the RNA composition of the SG is selective. Moreover, the effects of HSP70 on TIA aggregation suggest a feedback loop whereby HSP70 synthesis is auto-regulated. Proteins that promote mRNA stability [e.g. HuR (Hu protein R)] and destabilize mRNA [i.e. tristetraprolin (TTP)] are also recruited to SGs, suggesting that SGs effect a process of mRNA triage, by promoting polysome disassembly and routing mRNAs to cytoplasmic domains enriched for HuR and TTP. This model reveals connections between the eIF2alpha kinase system, mRNA stability and cellular chaperone levels.