Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interactive summed-area table generation for glossy environmental reflections

There are many applications in computer graphics where spatially varying filters are useful. One example is the rendering of glossy reflections. Unlike perfectly reflective materials, which only require a single radiance sample in the direction of the reflection vector, glossy materials require integration over a solid angle. Blurring by filtering the reflected image with a support dependent on the surface‘s BRDF can approximate this effect. This is currently done by pre-filtering off-line, which limits the technique to static environments. Crow [1984] introduced summed-area tables to enable more general texture filtering than was possible with mip maps. Once generated, a summed-area table provides a means to evaluate a spatially varying box filter with a constant number of texture reads.
Potential of bovine kappa - casein as biomarker for detection of adulteration of goat’s milk with cow’s milk

Using two-dimensional (2-D) electrophoresis it was shown that bovine kappa-casein could be an appropriate biomarker of adulteration of goat’s milk with cow’s milk not only in raw milk, but also for milk thermally processed by pasteurization or treated with ultra-high-temperature. The presence of cow’s milk in goat’s milk was detected at level of 2 %. Furthermore, position of bovine kappa-casein spots on 2-D gels remained unchanged even with samples from two different geographical origins, Belgium and Slovenia. These results show that neither thermal processing nor different geographical area seem to affect the position of bovine kappa-casein spots on 2-D gels.
Evaluative Ethnography and Systems Design : can it also be used to assess presence ?

Since the late 1980s an increasing level of interest has been shown in ethnographic approaches, derived from sociology and social anthropology, as promising means to provide some assistance in the complex and delicate problem of systems design. Such methods, a “turn to the social” within system design, are central to attempts to develop a new perspective upon the design of technology. Ethnographic methods, with their emphasis on the “real world” character of settings, are seen by many as the means for thoroughly contextualized enquiry which can overcome some of the problems of systems designed on the basis of abstract models.
Fully-implantable, multi-channel, microstimulator with tracking supply ribbon and energy recovery

This paper proposes a novel energy-efficient approach dedicated to high-density implantable stimulators such as visual prostheses. Energy efficiency of the approach proposed in this work is achieved through two ideas: the `tracking supply ribbon' technique, and `reverse charge pumping'. The proposed approach is implemented, in the multichannel case, in such a way that power efficiency of each stimulation channel is enhanced according to its specific voltage/current condition and independently from other channels. Based on the proposed approach, a 16-channel stimulation backend for a visual prosthesis was designed and simulated in the transistor level in a low-voltage 0. 18μm triple-well CMOS technology, occupying 1 mm2 of silicon area. According to post-layout simulation results, power savings of up to 74.9% are achieved compared to the conventional output stage with a constant supply voltage.
Deterministic sensitivity analysis for first-order Monte Carlo simulations: a technical note.

OBJECTIVES Monte Carlo microsimulations have gained increasing popularity in decision-analytic modeling because they can incorporate discrete events. Although deterministic sensitivity analyses are essential for interpretation of results, it remains difficult to combine these alongside Monte Carlo simulations in standard modeling packages without enormous time investment. Our purpose was to facilitate one-way deterministic sensitivity analysis of TreeAge Markov state-transition models requiring first-order Monte Carlo simulations. METHODS AND RESULTS Using TreeAge Pro Suite 2007 and Microsoft Visual Basic for EXCEL, we constructed a generic script that enables one to perform automated deterministic one-way sensitivity analyses in EXCEL employing microsimulation models. In addition, we constructed a generic EXCEL-worksheet that allows for use of the script with little programming knowledge. CONCLUSIONS Linking TreeAge Pro Suite 2007 and Visual Basic enables the performance of deterministic sensitivity analyses of first-order Monte Carlo simulations. There are other potentially interesting applications for automated analysis.
Sandplay Therapy for the Healing of Trauma

PTSD, or posttraumatic stress disorder, is an emotional disorder that results from experiencing or witnessing events that are extremely traumatic or life threatening. Soldiers who participated in operations and experience firsthand military combats are especially at risk for developing this disorder. Some individuals suffer from nightmares and flashbacks in which they involuntarily relive traumatic events. PTSD is comorbid with other illnesses, such as depression, physical complications, and alcohol abuse and drug addiction. Therapists who are working with veterans often find that talk therapy is not effective as a treatment method. This may be due to the fact that the horrors of war cannot be expressed through words. Veterans need nonverbal ways to express their thoughts and emotions. The value of Sandplay therapy is that it provides space for silent work and clients have opportunity to express themselves without speaking. Sandplay therapy was developed by Jungian psychotherapist Dora Kalff. This method allows clients to create a three-dimensional picture in a sand box with toy miniatures. The client is invited to choose any items he wishes and places the figures any way he wants into the tray, moving sand and objects until the scene feels right. Sandplay therapy brings a depth of understanding and emotional freedom through expressing original sufferings and connecting with them. Step by step the trauma makes its way to symbolic expression that has been blocked verbally, through which it becomes visual and brings liberation and healing. The therapist’s important role is in keeping the therapeutic space in which the client feels so free and protected that it allows the traumatic experiences to surface and dares him to experience horrors of war again. Clinical illustration is included in order to show this process in an analytic setting. Ivan came to me for PTSD treatment following his return from a regional Russian war.
Mechanized relational verification of concurrent programs with continuations

Concurrent higher-order imperative programming languages with continuations are very flexible and allow for the implementation of sophisticated programming patterns. For instance, it is well known that continuations can be used to implement cooperative concurrency. Continuations can also simplify web server implementations. This, in particular, helps simplify keeping track of the state of server’s clients. However, such advanced programming languages are very challenging to reason about. One of the main challenges in reasoning about programs in the presence of continuations is due to the fact that the non-local flow of control breaks the bind rule, one of the important modular reasoning principles of Hoare logic. In this paper we present the first completely formalized tool for interactive mechanized relational verification of programs written in a concurrent higher-order imperative programming language with continuations (call/cc and throw). We develop novel logical relations which can be used to give mechanized proofs of relational properties. In particular, we prove correctness of an implementation of cooperative concurrency with continuations. In addition, we show that that a rudimentary web server implemented using the continuation-based pattern is contextually equivalent to one implemented without the continuation-based pattern. We introduce context-local reasoning principles for our calculus which allows us to regain modular reasoning principles for the fragment of the language without non-local control flow. These novel reasoning principles can be used in tandem with our (non-context-local) Hoare logic for reasoning about programs that do feature non-local control flow. Indeed, we use the combination of context-local and non-context-local reasoning to simplify reasoning about the examples.
Fatal Familial Infantile Myelofibrosis

Malignant megakaryopoiesis can cause chronic or acute myelofibrosis through production of fibrogenic cytokines. Chronic myelofibrosis is a clonal disorder with marrow fibrosis, myeloid metaplasia, gross splenomegaly, and teardrop cells. Acute myelofibrosis differs by its aggressiveness, by the fact that it is more common in children, and by lack of organomegaly or anisopoikilocytosis. Surprisingly, in early childhood and infancy, splenomegaly and teardrop red cells become an important feature. Infantile myelofibrosis is a rare disease, except in Down syndrome. Familial occurrence of infantile myelofibrosis is exceedingly rare. The author describes an unfortunate family whose four consecutive children died of a very fulminant form of acute myelofibrosis during their first year of life. The fulminant nature of the disease, the degree of splenomegaly, and the prominence of anisopoikilocytosis were even more marked than in currently reported cases of infantile myelofibrosis. The mode of inheritance remained illusive. With two female children, sex-linked inheritance was not possible. It could not have been inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion with normal parents and with two normal children from the father's second marriage. A new autosomal dominant mutation in the germ cell of either parent is another possibility. Autosomal recessive inheritance remained a logical explanation, although such a high degree of disease presentation in a non-consanguineous marriage seems to put that possibility in question.
Automatic detection of rust disease of Lentil by machine learning system using microscopic images

Accurate and early detection of plant diseases will facilitate mitigate the worldwide losses experienced by the agriculture area. MATLAB image processing provides quick and non-destructive means of rust disease detection. In this paper, microscopic image data of rust disease of Lentil was combined with image processing with depth information and developed a machine learning system to detect rust disease at early stage infected with fungus Uromyces fabae (Pers) de Bary. A novel feature set was extracted from the image data using local binary pattern (LBP) and HBBP (Brightness Bi-Histogram Equalization) for image enhancement. It was observed that by combining these, the accuracy of detection of the diseased plants at microscopic level was significantly improved. In addition, we showed that our novel feature set was capable of identifying rust disease at haustorium stage without spreading of disease.
Process Feasibility and Reliability Performance of Fine Pitch Si Bare Chip Embedded in Through Cavity of Substrate Core

We demonstrate the concept and fabrication of through cavity core device-embedded substrate for fine-pitch Si bare chips with pad pitches down to 60 μm. Instead of using a real active Si chip, we embedded a Si test element group inside a through cavity of the core. To adjust to the thickness of the passive device with a maximum thickness of 150 μm, the Si chip was thinned to 120 μm, not including bump height. After placing a chip, the cavity is filled by laminating a two-layer structure Ajinomoto build-up film from both sides of the substrate core. To accurately place the chip in the cavity, we strictly controlled the lamination conditions and curing temperature of the epoxy resin. Laser via drilling produced the best alignment for fine-pitch small pads using the local alignment marks of each test frame kit with overhead epoxy resin of the Cu mark pattern removed. To produce a high-quality microvia interconnection to the Al pad of the Si chip, we used a new, combined desmearing technique that included a plasma treatment with CF4 + O2 mixed gas. Finally, we discussed the production yield and reliability of the fine-pitch Si bare chip-embedded substrate using the daisy-chain structure consisted of Si chip pattern, microvia on Si pad, and substrate tracks.
Inshoring: The Geographic Fragmentation of Production and Inequality

The advent of information technology facilitates the geographic separation of production tasks, which is referred to as offshoring in international contexts and inshoring in domestic contexts. Although the literature on offshoring has flourished, the research regarding inshoring is limited. This paper examines inshoring on both empirical and theoretical fronts. Empirically, it shows that business support services have been increasingly sent to small localities for cost savings while being separated from their downstream industries, which have been consistently concentrated in large cities. Guided by empirical findings, a system of cities model is formulated to analyze inshoring and its welfare impact. The analysis shows that support workers are made better off, primarily because inshoring allows support workers to benefit from higher urban productivity without bearing urban costs.
Surface Flux Drivers for the Slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in a High‐Resolution Global Coupled Climate Model

This paper investigates the causation for the decline of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) from approximately 17 Sv to about 9 Sv, when the atmospheric resolution of the Max Planck Institute‐Earth System Model is enhanced from ∼1° to ∼0.5°. The results show that the slowdown of the AMOC is caused by the cessation of deep convection. In most modeling studies, this is thought to be controlled by buoyancy fluxes in the convective regions, for example, by surface freshwater flux that is introduced locally or via enormous input from glacier or iceberg melts. While we find that freshwater is still the key to the reduction of AMOC seen in the higher‐resolution run, the freshening of the North Atlantic does not need to be directly caused by local freshwater fluxes. Instead, it can be caused indirectly through winds via a reduced wind‐driven gyre circulation and salinity transport associated to this circulation, as seen in the higher‐resolution run.
Investigation the effect of Echinophora platyloba and Satureja bachtiarica on MDR1 and ERG11 gene expression in fluconazole resistance clinical isolates Candida albicans using real time PCR

Candida albicans is an opportunist yeast which changes into fungus infection in humans with immunity system deficiency when the required conditions are present. It may cause fatal infections. The Bakhtiari Summer Savoury and Platyloba are anti-fungus plants that effects on MDR 1 and ERG 11 genes expression. This genes have an important role in resistance against Fluconazole.In this study effect of this plants on level expression evaluated by using real time PCR. The ethanolic extract of Savoury and Platyloba were prepared through drying the plants in Percolation method and then 500, 256, 125, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1 mg/ml concentrations of the solution cocultured with 1×106 clinical isolates of C. albicans after 24 h incubation at 37°C the MIC and MFC were determined. Then C . albicans isolates were treated in MIC concentration of plants. The RNA of isolates were extracted before and after treatment with the plants , then cDNA synthesized and the real time- PCR was investigated. The results revealed that the MIC for the alcoholic essences of Satureja and Platyloba were 256 and 64 mg/ml, respectively in the clinical isolates of C. albicans. Also, their MIC and MFC were 512 and 128 mg/ml, respectively. Moreover, the result of expression level of two genes in real-time PCR reaction showed the Platyloba was able to inhibit the ERG11, while the Savoury was neutral in this regard. nowadays, application of the plants with anti-microbial qualities which have less side effects is increasing; because of drug resistances. With regard the present study's findings, the Platyloba is effective in reduction of ERG11 expression which in turn plays a basic role in resistance against Fluconazole. Therefore, the plant may be used as a suitable alternative for drugs and introduced as an efficient anti-fungus factor.
Candida isolates causing refractory or recurrent oropharyngeal candidiasis in 11 hospitals in China

Introduction: We studied the species distribution and antifungal susceptibilities of Candida isolates causing refractory or recurrent oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC) in a multicenter study in China (2013–2016). Methods: Species identification was performed using the Bruker Biotyper (Bruker Daltonics, Germany) matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry system supplemented by internal transcribed spacer sequencing as required. Antifungal susceptibilities were determined by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute document (CLSI) M27-A3 broth microdilution methodology. Results: A total of 558 non-duplicate Candida isolates comprising 10 species were obtained from 535 patients. Candida albicans was the most common species (89.6%), followed by C. glabrata (5.2%), C. tropicalis (2.9%), and C. parapsilosis (0.7%). Azoles were active against C. albicans with susceptibility rates of 96% and 95.8% for fluconazole and voriconazole, respectively. MIC50 values of C. albicans to fluconazole, voriconazole, itraconazole, and miconazole were 1, 0.03, 0.25 and 0.12 μg/mL, respectively, higher than those in previous studies of which OPC patients (corresponding MIC50 values of 0.25 , 0.015 , 0.06 , and 0.03 μg/mL). Except for itraconazole, the MIC50 and MIC90 values of 58 non-C. albicans to other azoles were two to threefold higher than C. albicans. Miconazole, amphotericin B, nystatin, and 5-ﬂucytosine had good in vitro antifungal activity for all isolates. Conclusion: The study provides valuable data on the species distribution and antifungal susceptibility of oropharyngeal Candida isolates from geographically diverse areas of China. C. albicans remains the most common species but with increasing rates of azoles resistance.
A New Channel Model Based on Multiconductor Transmission Line Theory for Broadband Over Distribution Grids

The ordinary power line communications systems has being faced the hostile channels encountered in low voltage distribution grids. One of the possible resolutions maybe the implementation of the multiple inputs systems, which can use the multiple conductors in the grid networks. In this paper, a new channel model dedicated to the multiple input systems was constructed. The signals distributions on different conductors are derived in detail. The proposed channel model is of the format of the reflection matrix and includes the inner sources and loads. The comparison was performed and a good agreement between the measurements and the simulation result can be found
Knowledge representation for self-adaptive behavior

An autonomic system is considered to be a self-adaptive system that changes its behavior in response to stimuli from its execution and operational environment. Such behavior is considered autonomic and self-adaptive and is intended to drive intelligent systems in situations requiring adaptation. Such systems encapsulate rules, constraints and mechanisms for self-adaptation and acquire and process knowledge about themselves and their environment. In this paper, an approach to knowledge representation and reasoning for self-adaptive behavior is presented. The approach is formal and demonstrates how knowledge representation and reasoning help to establish the vital connection between knowledge, perception, and actions realizing the self-adaptive behavior. The knowledge is used against the perception of the world to generate appropriate actions in compliance to some goals and beliefs.
Linear models based on noisy data and the Frisch scheme

We address the problem of identifying linear relations among variables based on noisy measurements. This is a central question in the search for structure in large data sets. Often a key assumption is that measurement errors in each variable are independent. This basic formulation has its roots in the work of Charles Spearman in 1904 and of Ragnar Frisch in the 1930s. Various topics such as errors-in-variables, factor analysis, and instrumental variables all refer to alternative viewpoints on this problem and on ways to account for the anticipated way that noise enters the data. In the present paper we begin by describing certain fundamental contributions by the founders of the field and provide alternative modern proofs to certain key results. We then go on to consider a modern viewpoint and novel numerical techniques to the problem. The central theme is expressed by the Frisch-Kalman dictum, which calls for identifying a noise contribution that allows a maximal number of simultaneous linear relations among the noise-free variables-a rank minimization problem. In the years since Frisch's original formulation, there have been several insights, including trace minimization as a convenient heuristic to replace rank minimization. We discuss convex relaxations and theoretical bounds on the rank that, when met, provide guarantees for global optimality. A complementary point of view to this minimum-rank dictum is presented in which models are sought leading to a uniformly optimal quadratic estimation error for the error-free variables. Points of contact between these formalisms are discussed, and alternative regularization schemes are presented.
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES ON COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR IN THE PRISONER'S DILEMMA GAME ON AN ARTIFICIAL SOCIAL MODEL

In this paper, by simulations on an artificial social model, we analyze cooperative behavior of agents playing the prisoner's dilemma game, in which each of the agents has the two strategies: cooperate and defect. Because defect yields a better payoff whichever strategy an opponent chooses, it is rational for an agent to choose defect in a single game or a finite number of games. However, it is known that a pair of cooperates can also be a Nash equilibrium pair if the players do not know when the game is over or the game is infinitely repeated. To investigate such cooperative behavior, we employ an artificial social model called the Sugarscape and carry out simulations on the model. Arranging three kinds of environments in the Sugarscape, we examine cooperative behavior of agents who are essentially selfish, in a sense that they maximize their payoffs, and investigate influence of environmental changes on the cooperative behavior.
A time efficient indexing scheme for complex spatiotemporal retrieval

The paper is concerned with the time efficient processing of spatiotemporal predicates, i.e. spatial predicates associated with an exact temporal constraint. A set of such predicates forms a buffer query or a Spatio-temporal Pattern (STP) Query with time. In the more general case of an STP query, the temporal dimension is introduced via the relative order of the spatial predicates (STP queries with order). Therefore, the efficient processing of a spatiotemporal predicate is crucial for the efficient implementation of more complex queries of practical interest. We propose an extension of a known approach, suitable for processing spatial predicates, which has been used for the efficient manipulation of STP queries with order. The extended method is supported by efficient indexing structures. We also provide experimental results that show the efficiency of the technique.