Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interwoven Feeding Networks With Aperture Sinc-Distribution for Limited-Scan Phased Arrays and Reduced Number of Phase Shifters

A phased-array feeding network that scans a limited region in space with low-sidelobe levels and a low number of phase shifters is investigated. The interwoven coupling network is composed of power dividers, couplers, and resistive attenuators with each phase shifter feeding all of the antennas and creating a sinc-like current distribution over the array. This results in a boxcar function-like element pattern and suppresses the grating lobes. The width of the scan region is controlled by the interelement spacing and the coupling and attenuation coefficients of the interwoven network. Different configurations along with theoretical limitations are investigated to determine the scanable region, sidelobe level, and power loss. Two prototype linear arrays with 28 elements are fabricated at 7.9 GHz. The first array employs 14 phase shifters, has a half power beamwidth (HPBW) of 4°, and can scan up to ±24° with sidelobe levels less than −15 dB. The second array uses seven phase shifters, has an HPBW of 4°, and can scan up to ±11° with sidelobe levels less than −15 dB. Both of these arrays show state-of-the-art performance in terms of reducing the number of phase shifters while resulting in low sidelobe levels over the entire scan region.
Physical Education, Exercise Science and Pedagogy: Forging the Links

Physical education in New Zealand has been subject to a number of significant changes over the last decade. New school curriculum and senior school qualification requirements have necessitated changes to physical education/teacher education programmes (PETE). Inherent in this change has been the need to ensure that PETE's pedagogical work actually develops appropriate knowledge and facilitates graduating students' preparedness to teach. Reforms have seen the emergence of strong socio-cultural and socio-critical curriculum perspectives and corresponding developments in the utilisation of alternative pedagogies. However there appears to be little if any base-line data relating to the exercise sciences in PETE contexts. This study set out to determine the curriculum content of the exercise sciences in PETE contexts, what pedagogical models are being used and students' preparedness to teach the exercise sciences. Results from the research has identified broad content areas in the exercise sciences PETE curriculum, an absence of the utilisation of coherent and specific pedagogical models and that student's preparedness to teach is dependent on authentic learning contexts. As a result of these finding a series of recommendation are made and discussed.
A Study of the Entrepreneurial Constrains in the Indian Manufacturing Sector

Promotion of entrepreneurship has been recognized world over as key to accelerate the economic development of a region. India also continues to take steps to directly or indirectly promote entrepreneurship. This paper attempts to find out the constraints being faced by entrepreneurs in the Indian manufacturing sector. For this study the entrepreneurs have been classified as per their gender, region, age and education. This study also highlights the steps that can be taken to overcome the various types of constraints being faced by such entrepreneurs.
Plasmodesmatal Function 1s Probed Using Transgenic Tobacco Plants That Express a Virus Movement Protein

A gene encoding a temperature-sensitive mutant (MPP154A) of the 30-kilodalton movement protein (MP) of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was transformed into Nicotiana tabacum cv Xanthi. Transgenic plants expressing the MPP154A gene complemented local and systemic movement of an MP-defective mutant of TMV (U3/12MPfs) at the permissive temperature of 24OC but not at 32OC, the nonpermissive temperature. A microinjection procedure was used to investigate the effects of the modified TMV MP on plasmodesmatal size-exclusion limits. Movement of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran (F-dextran), with an average molecular mass of 9.4 kilodaltons, was detected between leaf mesophyll cells of the transgenic plants at 24OC; however, no movement of either 3.9-kilodalton or 9.4-kilodalton F-dextrans was detected when the transgenic plants were held for 6 hours (or longer) at 32OC. When these plants were shifted back to 24OC for 6 hours, cell-to-cell movement of the F-dextrans was again observed. Accumulation of MPP154A was not affected by the temperature regime, nor was the subcellular distribution of the MP altered. These results are consistent with a change in the protein conformation of MPP154A at the nonpermissive temperature, which gives rise to a protein that fails to modify the molecular size-exclusion limits of plasmodesmata to the same extent as wild-type MP. Surprisingly, at 32OC, movement of the F-dextrans was inhibited in transgenic plants expressing the wild-type MP gene; however, the inhibition was transient and was no longer detected after 48 hours at this elevated temperature. This transient inhibition of plasmodesmatal function was alleviated with Sirofluor, an inhibitor of callose ([ 1+3]-/3-~-glucan) synthesis. This result provides experimental evidence that callose deposition is involved in regulating the molecular size-exclusion limit of plasmodesmata in plants. Sirofluor had no effect on the inhibition of F-dextran movement at 32OC in plants expressing the MPP154A gene, indicating that callose formation was not responsible for the failure of the temperature-sensitive mutant protein to alter the size-exclusion limit of plasmodesmata.
Diagnosing and Improving Topic Models by Analyzing Posterior Variability

Bayesian inference methods for probabilistic topic models can quantify uncertainty in the parameters, which has primarily been used to increase the robustness of parameter estimates. In this work, we explore other rich information that can be obtained by analyzing the posterior distributions in topic models. Experimenting with latent Dirichlet allocation on two datasets, we propose ideas incorporating information about the posterior distributions at the topic level and at the word level. At the topic level, we propose a metric called topic stability that measures the variability of the topic parameters under the posterior. We show that this metric is correlated with human judgments of topic quality as well as with the consistency of topics appearing across multiple models. At the word level, we experiment with different methods for adjusting individual word probabilities within topics based on their uncertainty. Humans prefer words ranked by our adjusted estimates nearly twice as often when compared to the traditional approach. Finally, we describe how the ideas presented in this work could potentially applied to other predictive or exploratory models in future work.
Unemployment and the real wage: the economic basis for contesting political ideologies

Using the Keynesian theory of effective demand, this paper demonstrates how particular models, such as that of "cooperative capitalism" enunciated by the left Keynesian social democrats, the Marxian model of "profit squeeze" emphasizing distributive conflict, and even the conservative model relying on "supply side" stimulus, fit in as particular variants of a more general theoretical scheme through a reconstruction of the familiar IS schedule. The argument is weaved around the theme of the relations between unemployment and real wage in the context of both a closed and an open economy to explain the common macroeconomic basis of contesting ideologies. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.
Reference-based maximum upslope: a CBF quantification method without using arterial input function in dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI.

PURPOSE We assessed errors in cerebral blood flow (CBF) obtained from our proposed reference-based method without using arterial input function (AIF) indices in dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MATERIALS AND METHODS We calculated CBF and the referential tissue-related ratio (CBFratio) using numerical simulation and 3 nondeconvolution methods and a deconvolution method of block-circulant singular value decomposition (cSVD). We compared errors with and without simulated noise as parameters of mean transit time (MTT), AIF delay and temporal resolution, and clinical DSC-MRI maps. RESULTS The errors in CBF obtained using maximum upslope (US) were smallest among the nondeconvolution methods and almost equivalent to errors in the cSVD method under practical imaging conditions. In addition, errors in the CBFratio obtained using reference-based US (Ref-US) referring to white matter were smallest, even compared to all errors in CBF and CBFratio. The Ref-US method introduced less error than the cSVD method, especially at low flow rates, was further robust against AIF noise and coarse temporal resolution, and was comparably robust against transit delay. In pixel-by-pixel correlations between absolute value maps for US and for cSVD-CBF in clinical DSC-MRI, those correlation coefficients (r) between the 2 maps were stable, r > 0.9, despite variation in the slopes of the linear regression line, so the 2 CBFratio maps were visually well correlated in any case. CONCLUSION The Ref-US technique without AIF measurement can become a practical perfusion methodology for DSC-MRI in patients even with acute stroke because it balances robustness with systematic and random errors and it is simply performed.
Tax Authorities' Interaction with Taxpayers: Compliance by Power and Trust

According to the Slippery Slope Framework (SSF; Kirchler, Hoelzl, and Wahl, 2008), tax compliance depends on power of tax authorities and trust in tax authorities. The framework, however, remains silent on the dynamics between power and trust and how these affect the interaction climate between authorities and taxpayers. The aim of the present paper is to differentiate between coercive and legitimate power and between reason-based and implicit trust in order to clarify the dynamics between power and trust. Insights into these dynamics may be utilized to change the interaction climate from an antagonistic climate into a service or confidence climate.
Functional three-dimensional sonographic study of the postpartum uterus

Abstract Objective: To demonstrate sequential changes of the postpartum uterus using two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) ultrasounds and Doppler studies. Methods: Eighty-one women who delivered a singleton at term were recruited for this prospective longitudinal study. Manual and ultrasound examinations of the uterus were performed for seven consecutive weeks. Sequential changes in size of the uterus, endometrial thickness and appearances and Doppler indices of the uterine and arcuate arteries were analyzed. Results: Complete follow ups were achieved in 71 women who had an uncomplicated postpartum course. 2D and 3D ultrasound estimations of uterine volume are highly correlated with each other (r > 0.7), but not manual estimations (r < 0.3). Data generated from 497 3D observations demonstrated rapid involution of the uterus in the first two weeks after delivery. Breastfeeding and parity did not affect uterine involution (r < 0.2). Resistance index (RI) of the uterine artery started to elevate at four weeks after delivery (r > 0.7). RI of the arcuate artery was not significantly changed during the study period (r < 0.2). Uterine involution was independent from progressive thinning of the endometrium and elevation of uterine artery RI. (r < 0.1 and 0.2, respectively). Conclusion: Longitudinal sonographic study showed independent physiologic reversals of uterine volume, endometrium and vascular supply in the first seven weeks following vaginal delivery. Standardization of measurement techniques is essential to apply this information for an early detection of postpartum uterine complications.
Efficient state constraint handling for MPC of the heat equation

This contribution is concerned with model predictive control (MPC) of systems governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) and subject to state and input constraints. In particular, the numerically efficient handling of the underlying optimal control problem (OCP) is considered. It is shown that the state- and input-constrained OCP can be transformed by using saturation functions into an unconstrained OCP. This then can be solved numerically by means of well-established optimization methods. For a numerically efficient implementation of the MPC, a first discretize then optimize-approach is used in conjunction with a tailored gradient method. Both the transformation into an unconstrained OCP and its numerical solution are investigated for a simple heat conduction problem.
A Study on Word2Vec on a Historical Swedish Newspaper Corpus

Detecting word sense changes can be of great interest in the field of digital humanities. Thus far, most investigations and automatic methods have been developed and carried out on English text and most recent methods make use of word embeddings. This paper presents a study on using Word2Vec, a neural word embedding method, on a Swedish historical newspaper collection. Our study includes a set of 11 words and our focus is the quality and stability of the word vectors over time. We investigate whether a word embedding method like Word2Vec can be effectively used on texts where the volume and quality is limited.
Survival Data of Patients with Anthracycline‐ or Taxane Pretreated or Resistant Metastatic Breast Cancer

Metastatic breast cancer is considered incurable. Despite effective response rates achieved with anthracycline or taxane anticancer drugs, cancers in approximately one third of patients fail to respond to first‐line treatment with these agents. Patients who do respond show disease progression after a median of approximately 7–8 months. As a consequence, the development of new salvage treatments and strategies for metastatic breast cancer continues to be a high priority. However, few randomized controlled trials have been conducted in patients in whom previous treatment with anthracyclines and taxanes fails. Among those trials that have, few demonstrated an improvement in overall survival. Overall survival is considered the gold standard for evaluating the benefits of experimental cancer therapies. In addition, many investigators use progression‐free survival or time to progression. Survival outcomes from large trials of newer combinations, such as ixabepilone plus capecitabine and gemcitabine plus vinorelbine, are encouraging. They have shown significant benefits in terms of progression‐free survival, and they have revealed demonstrable benefits for several hard‐to‐treat subgroups of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Addition of the targeted agents trastuzumab, bevacizumab, and lapatinib to chemotherapy has produced significant benefits in time to progression and progression‐free survival. Ongoing research should help in determining which patients are likely to benefit from such agents when first‐ or second‐line therapy fails and in ascertaining whether this therapy can be optimized to maximize therapeutic potential and minimize unnecessary toxicity.
IntGeom: A Server for the Calculation of the Interaction Geometry between Planar Groups in Proteins

IntGeom is a server for the calculation of the relative orientation between any two planar groups in protein side chains. IntGeom1 considers ten planar groups, while IntGeom2 is meant for studying the contact between a S-containing group and an aromatic residue. When the interaction is between two aromatic residues or involving an aromatic ring with Pro or Arg or an amide side chain, the occurrence of any C−H⋅⋅⋅π (N−H⋅⋅⋅π) interaction is also studied. All contacts between any two of the above types of residues juxtaposed on the protein structure can be displayed. The software is available at: http://www.boseinst. ernet.in/resources/bioinfo/stag.html.
Continuous Primary Sequence Requirements in the 18-Nucleotide Promoter of Dicot Plant Mitochondria*

The nucleotide requirements of mitochondrial promoters of dicot plants were studied in detail in a pea in vitro transcription system. Deletions in the 5′ regions of three different transcription initiation sites from pea, soybean, andOenothera identified a crucial AT-rich sequence element (AT-Box) comprising nucleotide positions −14 to −9 relative to the first transcribed nucleotide. Transversion of the AT-Box sequence to comple- mentary nucleotide identities results in an almost complete loss of promoter activity, suggesting that primary structure rather than a simple accumulation of adenines and thymidines in this region is essential for promoter activity. This promoter segment thus appears to be involved in sequence specific binding of a respective protein factor(s) rather than merely loosening and melting the DNA helix during or for an initiation event. Manipulation of nucleotide identities in the 3′ portion of the pea atp9 promoter and the respective 3′-flanking region revealed that essential sequences extend to positions +3/+4 beyond this transcription start site. Efficient transcription initiation at an 18-base pair promoter sequence ranging from nucleotide positions −14 to +4 integrated into different sequence contexts shows this element to be sufficient for autonomous promoter function independent of surrounding sequences.
Coping with national health insurance: Strategic behaviours of Taiwan’s hospitals

The primary goals of this study are to profile the strategic behaviours of Taiwan’s hospitals under the National Health Insurance programme, identify the related factors for such behaviours, and assess the influences of hospitals’ strategic behaviours on their performance. Findings indicate that the most prevalent strategy adopted by hospitals is strategic alliance. The results demonstrate that hospital level is a predictor of strategies employed by hospitals. Furthermore, findings also reveal that although the most embraced strategy by hospitals is strategic alliance, hospital executives perceive that the strategies of focus and differentiation are the ones that exert significantly positive influences on hospital performance.
Efficient Privacy-Aware Authentication Scheme for Mobile Cloud Computing Services

With the exponential increase of the mobile devices and the fast development of cloud computing, a new computing paradigm called mobile cloud computing (MCC) is put forward to solve the limitation of the mobile device's storage, communication, and computation. Through mobile devices, users can enjoy various cloud computing services during their mobility. However, it is difficult to ensure security and protect privacy due to the openness of wireless communication in the new computing paradigm. Recently, Tsai and Lo proposed a privacy-aware authentication (PAA) scheme to solve the identification problem in MCC services and proved that their scheme was able to resist many kinds of existing attacks. Unfortunately, we found that Tsai and Lo's scheme cannot resist the service provider impersonation attack, i.e., an adversary can impersonate the service provider to the user. Also, the adversary can extract the user's real identity during executing the service provider impersonation attack. To address the above problems, in this paper, we construct a new PAA scheme for MCC services by using an identity-based signature scheme. Security analysis shows that the proposed PAA scheme is able to address the serious security problems existing in Tsai and Lo's scheme and can meet security requirements for MCC services. The performance evaluation shows that the proposed PAA scheme has less computation and communication costs compared with Tsai and Lo's PAA scheme.
Face Sketch Synthesis From Coarse to Fine

Synthesizing fine face sketches from photos is a valuable yet challenging problem in digital entertainment. Face sketches synthesized by conventional methods usually exhibit coarse structures of faces, whereas fine details are lost especially on some critical facial components. In this paper, by imitating the coarse-to-fine drawing process of artists, we propose a novel face sketch synthesis framework consisting of a coarse stage and a fine stage. In the coarse stage, a mapping relationship between face photos and sketches is learned via the convolutional neural network. It ensures that the synthesized sketches keep coarse structures of faces. Given the test photo and the coarse synthesized sketch, a probabilistic graphic model is designed to synthesize the delicate face sketch which has fine and critical details. Experimental results on public face sketch databases illustrate that our proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in both quantitive and visual comparisons.
Monte Carlo dose calculation improvements for low energy electron beams using eMC

The electron Monte Carlo (eMC) dose calculation algorithm in Eclipse (Varian Medical Systems) is based on the macro MC method and is able to predict dose distributions for high energy electron beams with high accuracy. However, there are limitations for low energy electron beams. This work aims to improve the accuracy of the dose calculation using eMC for 4 and 6 MeV electron beams of Varian linear accelerators. Improvements implemented into the eMC include (1) improved determination of the initial electron energy spectrum by increased resolution of mono-energetic depth dose curves used during beam configuration; (2) inclusion of all the scrapers of the applicator in the beam model; (3) reduction of the maximum size of the sphere to be selected within the macro MC transport when the energy of the incident electron is below certain thresholds. The impact of these changes in eMC is investigated by comparing calculated dose distributions for 4 and 6 MeV electron beams at source to surface distance (SSD) of 100 and 110 cm with applicators ranging from 6 × 6 to 25 × 25 cm2 of a Varian Clinac 2300C/D with the corresponding measurements. Dose differences between calculated and measured absolute depth dose curves are reduced from 6% to less than 1.5% for both energies and all applicators considered at SSD of 100 cm. Using the original eMC implementation, absolute dose profiles at depths of 1 cm, dmax and R50 in water lead to dose differences of up to 8% for applicators larger than 15 × 15 cm2 at SSD 100 cm. Those differences are now reduced to less than 2% for all dose profiles investigated when the improved version of eMC is used. At SSD of 110 cm the dose difference for the original eMC version is even more pronounced and can be larger than 10%. Those differences are reduced to within 2% or 2 mm with the improved version of eMC. In this work several enhancements were made in the eMC algorithm leading to significant improvements in the accuracy of the dose calculation for 4 and 6 MeV electron beams of Varian linear accelerators.
Cloning and Characterization of Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) MyoD1 Gene and Comparison with Other Vertebrates

Myogenic differentiation factors I (MyoD1) plays a key role in growth and muscle development and therefore is considered as a candidate gene for meat production. In order to get the sequence, we cloned the total coding region of duck MyoD1 gene in this study. The total CDS region of duck MyoD1 gene consists of 894 nucleotides and codes for 297 AA, including the bHLH domain. The similarity between duck and chicken is 93.7% at nucleotide level and 93.6% at protein level. There is higher similarity between duck and turkey, which is 93.8% at nucleotide level and 97% at protein level. Results showed that the MyoD1 gene is very conservative among different animal species and evolution of MyoD1 can well demonstrate the evolution of considered species. This work constructed the basis for further research on the molecular nature and the genetic markers for duck meat production and quality.