Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incremental distribution of timestamp packets: a new approach to distributed garbage collection

A new algorithm for distributed garbage collection is presented. This algorithm collects distributed garbage incrementally and concurrently with user activity. It is the first incremental algorithm that is capable of collecting cyclic distributed garbage. Computational and network communication overhead are acceptable. Hosts may be temporarily inaccessible and synchronization between hosts is not necessary. The algorithm is based on asynchronous distribution of timestamp packets each containing a list of last-access times of some relevant remotely referenced objects. Finally, the correctness and time complexity of the algorithm are discussed.
Characterization and In Vitro Skin Permeation of Meloxicam-Loaded Liposomes versus Transfersomes

The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate the potential use of liposome and transfersome vesicles in the transdermal drug delivery of meloxicam (MX). MX-loaded vesicles were prepared and evaluated for particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency (%EE), loading efficiency, stability, and in vitro skin permeation. The vesicles were spherical in structure, 90 to 140 nm in size, and negatively charged (−23 to −43 mV). The %EE of MX in the vesicles ranged from 40 to 70%. Transfersomes provided a significantly higher skin permeation of MX compared to liposomes. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) analysis indicated that the application of transfersomes significantly disrupted the stratum corneum lipid. Our research suggests that MX-loaded transfersomes can be potentially used as a transdermal drug delivery system.
Solving Hard Problems on Adiabatic Quantum Computers

Quantum Computation has thus far proven a promising new research field, with results that vastly surpass their classical counterparts, but programming a quantum computer is in its infant stage, at best. D-Wave have successfully implemented a computing machine based on adiabatic evolution which natively solves Ising problems by construction. In this paper we present additional solutions to known computational problems by reducing them to mathematical expressions. They will be passed to the quantum computer through Blackbox, a mechanism that maps objective functions to the native Ising form the D-Wave machine recognizes.
Multicarrier DS-CDMA systems with multiple chip waveforms

The influence of bandlimited multiple chip waveforms on the performance of asynchronous, multicarrier, direct sequence code-division multiple access (MC-DS-CDMA) systems is investigated for the downlink. The performance criterion is the average multiple access interference (MAI) at the output of a matched filter receiver. An additive white Gaussian noise channel is assumed. It is demonstrated that for carrier spacing c = 1/(1 + /spl beta/), using the same chip waveform for all the carriers, minimizes the MAI, i.e, there is no need to assign different chip waveforms to different carriers.
Normative Database of Retinal Oximetry in Asian Indian Eyes

Objective To study the oxygen saturation profile in normal Asian Indian eyes. Design A cross sectional prospective study. Subjects Ninety eight consecutive patients presenting to our hospital with best corrected distance visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/20 and a normal ophthalmic examination were included in the study. Patients having any ocular or systemic disease were excluded from the study. Materials and Methods Oximetry was performed on all subjects with the Oxymap T1 retinal oximeter (Oxymap hf, Reykjavik, Iceland). Main Outcome Measures The images were analysed for oxygen saturation and diameter. Results The mean age was 33 years (Range: 18-63; SD: 12.4). The average arteriolar saturation was 90.3 ± 6.6% and the venous saturation was 56.9% ± 6.3. The average A-V (arterio-venous) difference was 33.2% ± 5.2. There was an increase in arteriolar (R2 = 0.264; p=0.001) and venous saturation (R2 = 0.151; p=0.001) with age. There was no significant change in the arterio-venous saturation difference (AVSD). The inferotemporal quadrant had the lowest saturations. Age correlated positively with ocular perfusion pressure (OPP)(R2 = 0.07; p=0.007). OPP correlated positively with global arteriolar saturation (R2=0.057, p=0.018). Conclusion This study provides the normative database for an Indian population and is comparable to previous studies. Age, vessel diameter and OPP were the significant factors that influenced the saturation. Arteriolar and venous saturations increased with age while the AVSD did not change significantly.
Public Infrastructure, Private Input Demand, and Economic Performance of the Greek Industry

In this paper we examine the effects of the services provided by public infrastructure on the cost structure, private input demands, and productivity performance of twenty two-digit Greek manufacturing industries. The model of the paper is the dual cost function. Although the effects of public infrastructure varies across different industries our results provide evidence in favour of a productive public infrastructure. In addition, public infrastructure is found to be complement to private capital stock and substitute to labour. Specifically, the cost-saving impact of public infrastructure ranges from 0.02 percent in food manufacturing industry to 0.78 percent in wood and cork. Moreover, empirical evidence is provided in favour of the argument that the productivity growth of the majority of the twenty Greek manufacturing industries has been depressed by the observed shortage in public infrastructure in the eighties.
An in vitro and in vivo evaluation of the efficacy of recombinant human liver prolidase as a catalytic bioscavenger of chemical warfare nerve agents

Abstract In this study, we determined the ability of recombinant human liver prolidase to hydrolyze nerve agents in vitro and its ability to afford protection in vivo in mice. Using adenovirus containing the human liver prolidase gene, the enzyme was over expressed by 200- to 300-fold in mouse liver and purified to homogeneity by affinity and gel filtration chromatography. The purified enzyme hydrolyzed sarin, cyclosarin and soman with varying rates of hydrolysis. The most efficient hydrolysis was with sarin, followed by soman and by cyclosarin {apparent kcat/Km [(1.9 ± 0.3), (1.7 ± 0.2), and (0.45 ± 0.04)] × 105 M−1 min−1, respectively}; VX and tabun were not hydrolyzed by the recombinant enzyme. The enzyme hydrolyzed P (+) isomers faster than the P (−) isomers. The ability of recombinant human liver prolidase to afford 24 hour survival against a cumulative dose of 2 × LD50 of each nerve agent was investigated in mice. Compared to mice injected with a control virus, mice injected with the prolidase expressing virus contained (29 ± 7)-fold higher levels of the enzyme in their blood on day 5. Challenging these mice with two consecutive 1 × LD50 doses of sarin, cyclosarin, and soman resulted in the death of all animals within 5 to 8 min from nerve agent toxicity. In contrast, mice injected with the adenovirus expressing mouse butyrylcholinesterase, an enzyme which is known to afford protection in vivo, survived multiple 1 × LD50 challenges of these nerve agents and displayed no signs of toxicity. These results suggest that, while prolidase can hydrolyze certain G-type nerve agents in vitro, the enzyme does not offer 24 hour protection against a cumulative dose of 2 × LD50 of G-agents in mice in vivo.
ORDINAL ECONOMETRICS IN REGIONAL AND URBAN MODELLING Peter Nijkamp

Geographical research is often suffering from inaccurate and unreliable data. This paper deals with the treatment of soft (ordinal) data in spatial statistics and econometrics. After a brief discussion of soft spatial data, a set of recently developed techniques is introduced aiming at drawing quantitative (cardinal) inferences from a soft data input. These techniques are inter alia multidimensional scaling, rank order statistics, logit analysis, interdependence analysis, discriminant analysis and canonical correlation. A key stone of this paper is formed by combining Theil's approach to logit analysis with Kendall's rank correlation method based on pairwise comparisons. The paper offers several new perspectives for the treatment of soft data in multivariate techniques (such as multiple regression and clustering analysis) and in decision problems.
Automatic Detection and Tracking of Moving Object Employing a Particle Filter

We proposed a method for automatic detection and tracking of moving object employing a particle filter in conjunction with a color feature method. The particle filtering is used because it is robust for non-linear and non-Gaussian dynamic state estimation problems and performs well when clutter and occlusions are present on the image. A histogram-based framework is used to describe the color feature of the target object. Bhattacharyya distance is used to measure the similarity between each sample's histogram with a specified target model. The target model update is performed to obtain the best match to the target model. The method is capable to detect and track successfully the moving object in different outdoor environment based on variance of the samples and an appearance condition. The experimental results and data show the feasibility and the effectiveness of our method.
Subcellular localization of heparanase in human neutrophils

Abstract The subcellular localization of a heparan sulfate degrading endoglycosidase, heparanase, was studied in human neutrophils. Unstimulated cells were disrupted by nitrogen cavitation and fractionated on a Percoll density gradient into three components, separating the plasma membranes, specific granules, and azurophilic granules. Heparanase activity was measured by gel filtration analysis of 35S‐labeled degradation fragments released from subendothelial extracellular matrix (ECM) or produced during incubation with soluble, ECM‐derived, heparane sulfate proteoglycans. Heparanase activity was found mainly in fractions containing the specific granules; this activity was inhibited by heparin. Freezing and thawing was not needed for recovery of the enzyme from the subcellular fraction, confirming previous data about its ready release. The mechanism of the ready release of heparanase from the specific granules requires further investigation.
Gain Enhancement of Circular Microstrip Antenna for Personal Communication Systems

This paper introduces the design of an enhanced gain compact circular antenna for personal communication systems (PCS). The antenna is designed to operate at 1.8GHz which shows an impedance bandwidth of 100MHz. The return loss and radiation characteristics of the proposed microstrip antenna are compared with that of the reference antenna, which is the conventional circular antenna. A gain enhancement of 3.8dB is achieved by vertically stacking a circular ring shaped parasitic element. The spacing between the driven patch and parasitic element (h) is optimized to maximize electromagnetic coupling between the two, which results in enhancement of the antenna gain. Parametric study of the proposed antenna is also carried out. The results are validated using two different structure simulation methods based EM simulators viz Finite Integration Technique (FIT) based CST and Method of Moment (MOM) based IE3D. A good agreement is obtained in the results from both techniques which verifies the antenna design and strongly recommend the proposed structure for commercial applications.
The Intergenerational Welfare State

The welfare state is not merely a stand-in for missing markets; it can do a whole lot more. When generations overlap and the young must borrow to make educational investments, a dynamically-efficient welfare state, by taxing the middle-aged and offering a compensatory old-age pension, can generate higher long-run human capital and welfare compared to laissez faire. Along the transition, no generation is hurt and some are better off. If an intergenerational human capital externality is present, unfunded pensions can be gradually phased out entirely. Public pension reform can be rationalized on efficiency grounds without relying on political-economy concerns or aging.
Properties of maximum likelihood male fertility estimation in plant populations.

Computer simulations are used to evaluate maximum likelihood methods for inferring male fertility in plant populations. The maximum likelihood method can provide substantial power to characterize male fertilities at the population level. Results emphasize, however, the importance of adequate experimental design and evaluation of fertility estimates, as well as limitations to inference (e.g., about the variance in male fertility or the correlation between fertility and phenotypic trait value) that can be reasonably drawn.
Disseminating an Evidence-Based Disease Self-Management Program for Older Americans: Implications for Diversifying Participant Reach Through Delivery Site Adoption

Matthew Lee Smith1,2,*, Basia Belza3,4, Mary Altpeter5, SangNam Ahn2,6, Justin B. Dickerson2 and Marcia G. Ory2 1College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 2School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, TX, 3Health Promotion Research Center, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 4Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems, School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 5UNC Institute on Aging, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 6School of Public Health, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
The Palestinian labor market between the Gulf War and autonomy

The early 1990s were an eventful time in the Middle East. Key events include the Gulf War, the Madrid peace conference, and the introduction of Palestinian autonomy in all of the Gaza Strip and in most West Bank population centers. This period also provides the last chance to look at economic conditions in the territories through the lens of the long-running Israeli survey program, which ended with the transfer of civil authority to the Palestinians. I use the Israeli survey data to describe labor market conditions in the territories on the eve of autonomy. Special attention is given to the impact of changing employment opportunities for Palestinians in Israel and to the situation of Palestinian refugees. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.
Cell surface antigens of chemically induced sarcomas of the mouse. I. Murine leukemia virus-related antigens and alloantigens on cultured fibroblasts and sarcoma cells: description of a unique antigen on BALB/c Meth A sarcoma

As background for a serological definition of the unique antigens of chemically induced sarcomas, we have typed a series of fibroblast and sarcoma cell lines of BALB/c and C57BL/6 origin by cytoxicity and absorption tests for murine leukemia virus (MuLV)-related cell surface antigens and known alloantigens. 7 of the 17 cultured lines expressed the range of cell surface antigens associated with MuLV (GIX, GCSA, gp70, p30), and this was invariably associated with MuLV production. In nonproducer lines of C57BL/6 (but not BALB/c) origin, a MuLV-gp70-like molecule was found on the surface of fibroblasts and sarcoma cells. The alloantigenic phenotype of these MuLV+ and MuLV- cell lines was H-2D+, H-2K+, Thy-1.2+ or -, PC.1+ or -, Lyt-1.2-, Lyt-2.2-, Ia.7-, and TL.2-. A unique antigen was defined on the BALB/c ascites sarcoma Meth A with antisera prepared in BALB/c or (BALB/c X C57BL/6)F1 mice. Tissue culture lines derived from this tumor were MuLV-, which facilitated serological study of the antigen. Absorption analysis indicated that the antigen was restricted to Meth A; it could not be detected in normal or fetal BALB/c tissue MuLV+ or MuLV- fibroblast lines, 12 syngeneic or allogeneic sarcomas, or normal lymphoid cells from 13 different inbred mouse strains.
Parallel processing priority trie-based IP lookup approach

With the growth of Internet traffic and using Gb/s or 10 Gb/s links in backbone, the speed of forwarding packets in intermediate devices is crucial. Routers must be able to forward millions of packets per second on each of their interfaces. Finding a method that can speed up the IP lookup is one of the challenges in network research. There are two approaches to implement IP lookup, hardware-based and software-based. For software-based approach many algorithms have been proposed based on the tries concept. Some parallel algorithms have been suggested to exploit routers equipped with multi-core CPUs. In this paper, we propose a new approach that was constructed by combining the useful characteristics of the Priority trie and parallel processing. Our method consists of a trie and several subtries based on prefix length. These subtries processed by a specific thread to speed up IP lookup functionality. This proposed data structure inherits simplicity of Priority tries. Simulation results illustrate that our method speeds up IP lookup processing although memory usage has not been increased.
Opportunistic cellular communications with clusters of dual-radio mobiles

Opportunistic scheduling was initially proposed to exploit user channel diversity for network capacity enhancement. However, the achievable gain of opportunistic schedulers is generally restrained due to fairness considerations which impose a tradeoff between fairness and throughput. In this dissertation, we show via analysis and simulation that opportunistic scheduling not only increases network throughput dramatically, but also can be fair to the users when they cooperate, in particular by forming clusters. We propose to leverage smartphone’s dual-radio interface capabilities to form clusters among mobile users, and we design simple and scalable cluster-based opportunistic scheduling strategies which would incentivize mobile users to form clusters. We use a coalitional game theory approach to analyze the cluster formation mechanism, and show that proportional fair-based intra-cluster payoff distribution would bring significant incentive to all mobile users regardless of their channel quality.
Determinants of Idiosyncratic Volatility for Biotech IPO Firms

In this paper we examine the cross-sectional determinants of idiosyncratic volatility of biotech IPO firms. We extend current research in two directions. First, we test whether CEO stock options impact on idiosyncratic volatility. Second, we test new hypotheses that relate some easily identifiable managerial characteristics to idiosyncratic volatility. We find that the CEO stock options, resource dependence capabilities, and the age of board members help predict idiosyncratic volatility. Our results are robust for the various measures of idiosyncratic volatility and model specifications.
Binaural CASA algorithm for speech source localization: Advancements in noisy and reverberant situations

In this thesis a binaural CASA localization algorithm is developed for the implementation in a binaural hearing aid with downstream speech enhancement. Two binaural CASA localization algorithms, based on the Albani model, are proposed to enhance the localization performance in noisy and reverberant acoustic environments. The Albani model is extended with a zero-lag interaural coherence (IC) time window pre-selection, detection of multiple sources per time-window, coincidence detection between interaural level and time differences (ILD and ITD) and a lagged time window comparison, in the proposed extended Albani algorithm. A further addition to the proposed extended Albani algorithm with a binaural cue selector based on an inhibition process, is proposed in the extended Albani algorithm with cue selection by inhibition. Performed simulations show that the extended Albani algorithm performs the best in noisy situations up to a SNR level of -12 dB and the extended Albani algorithm with cue selection by inhibition performs the best in reverberant situations up to a reverberation time of 2.0 s. These proposed localization algorithms show a better performance than the present known CASA methods in both noise and reverberation.
Using XML schema to improve writing, validation, and structure of WS-policies

WS-Policies provide a standard to describe non-functional properties of web services. These properties are usually defined by domain-specific assertions. In some domains, for example security, nested assertions are heavily used to formalize detailed properties. Since the WS-Policy schema syntactically allows the use of arbitrary child elements for the elements defined in the WS-Policy namespace, the validation of policy documents against concrete policy schemata is also complicated. Additionally, policies become bloated by requiring the use of nested policies that are often empty or just containing one entry. In this paper, we suggest to enhance the XML schema of concrete policies to allow for easier writing, better validation, simpler structure, and better tool support when working with policies. The enhancements are realized using domain-specific policy elements and omitting unnecessary nested policy elements. A template for enhancing the XML schema to support these requirements is provided. Old policy documents still remain compatible with the new schema. The proposed improvements are applied to a complex concrete policy, namely WS-SecurityPolicy.
Optimization models for consumer flexibility aggregation in smart grids: The ADDRESS approach

This paper addresses the problem of optimal management of consumer flexibility in an electric distribution system. Aggregation of a number of consumers clustered according to appropriate criteria, is one of the most promising approaches for modifying the daily load profile at nodes of an electric distribution network. Modifying the daily load profile is recognized as one of the strongest needs both for safe and efficient operation of the network. The paper proposes an optimization approach allowing the aggregator, i.e., the operator which manages the aggregated consumers, to gather flexibility and generate bids for the energy market, with the aim of maximizing its revenue. It is shown that this problem can be solved through mixed integer linear programming. Numerical simulation results are provided for validating the proposed approach.
Constellation shaping for non-uniform signals based on truncated Gaussian distribution

We study the signal shaping based on the truncated Gaussian distribution. Since the possibility of reducing peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) by the previous study with clipped Gaussian signal constellation is limited, we study PAPR reduction for one-dimensional signal constellation using the truncated Gaussian distribution. From the numerical results, we show that achievable rate of the truncated Gaussian distribution is larger than that of the clipped Gaussian signal constellation for wide range of SNR, while keeping the expansion of PAPR small. Moreover it is quite close to the uniform signal constellation for high SNR.
Analysis of a Matching Algorithm in a Content-Based Publish / Subscribe Peer-to-Peer Application

The publish/subscribe paradigm is a very beneficial message passing system in a widespread network such as the Internet. Producers and consumers of information are de-coupled in time, space, and synchronization. If subscribers are allowed to formulate subscriptions based on the content of the messages that will be published, the publish/subscribe system must efficiently match up messages to subscriptions, while at the same time being scalable. It has been shown that peer-to-peer networks scale very well, so they can be used underneath a publish/subscribe system to route publications over a network. A matching algorithm will be tested under conditions where the load of subscriptions on network nodes range across allowed values determined by the properties of the underlying peer-topeer network.