Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Synthesis of a Controller for Handling Borders in Systolic Architectures for 1-D Discrete Wavelet Transform

In this paper we describe the control subsystem of a systolic architecture that implements the 1-D discrete wavelet transform (DWT) on the basis of the Recursive Pyramid Algorithm (RPA) and that correctly manages the border problem adopting a periodic extension strategy to obtain a perfect reconstruction of the signal. Usually, the proposed architectures for DWT (either 1-D or 2-D) assume a zero-padding extension. Periodic extension of the input signal allows to set up a new algorithm (PE-RPA) that correctly recovers the input signal without additional computations. A detailed analytical description of this algorithm shows that a certain amount of control is mandatory, to have the underlining systolic structure perform the 1-D DWT computations correctly in time. In this paper, we show the design of the controller required for such a scheduling. The methodology used for such a design is a VHDL RTL description, with the subsequent optimised synthesis. The preliminary results show that the overall complexity of the controller compares to that of the systolic architecture in the case of a 10 stage filter (L=10) with a 20 bit data representation extended to 36 bits for multiplication. The dependency of the controller on the input signal size N is logarithmic, since the local memory fbr handling borders is O(L IogN). The overhead hidden within the handling of borders is clearly non negligible, and must be taken into account.
Virulence of the Shiga Toxin Type 2-Expressing Escherichia coli O104:H4 German Outbreak Isolate in Two Animal Models

ABSTRACT In May 2011, a large food-borne outbreak was traced to an unusual O104:H4 enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) strain that produced Shiga toxin (Stx) type 2 (Stx2). We developed a mouse model to study the pathogenesis and treatment for this strain and examined the virulence of the isolate for Dutch belted rabbits. O104:H4 strain C227-11 was gavaged into C57BL/6 mice at 109 to 1011 CFU/animal. The infected animals were then given water with ampicillin (Amp; 5 g/liter) ad libitum. The C227-11-infected, Amp-treated C57BL/6 mice exhibited both morbidity and mortality. Kidneys from mice infected with C227-11 showed acute tubular necrosis, a finding seen in mice infected with typical Stx-producing E. coli. We provided anti-Stx2 antibody after infection and found that all of the antibody-treated mice gained more weight than untreated mice and, in another study, that all of the antibody-treated animals lived, whereas 3/8 phosphate-buffered saline-treated mice died. We further compared the pathogenesis of C227-11 with that of an Stx-negative (Stx−) O104:H4 isolate, C734-09, and an Stx2− phage-cured derivative of C227-11. Whereas C227-11-infected animals lost weight or gained less weight over the course of infection and died, mice infected with either of the Stx− isolates did not lose weight and only one mouse died. When the Stx-positive (Stx+) and Stx2− O104:H4 strains were compared in rabbits, greater morbidity and mortality were observed in rabbits infected with the Stx2+ isolates than the Stx2− isolates. In conclusion, we describe two animal models for EAEC pathogenesis, and these studies show that Stx2 is responsible for most of the virulence observed in C227-11-infected mice and rabbits.
Three-level SNPC commutation cell: Features and control

The unequal distribution of losses among the semiconductors represents one major disadvantage for 3L-SC (stacked cells) and 3L-NPC (neutral point clamped) commutation cells. The paper studies the loss distribution problem for 3L-SC and 3L-NPC topologies and proposes the 3L-SNPC (stacked NPC) commutation cell to overcome this drawback. A new PWM strategy for 3L-SNPC commutation cell is also presented. It has numerous advantages: (a) natural doubling of the apparent switching frequency without using the flying-capacitor concept, (b) dead times do not influence the operating mode at 50% of the duty cycle, (c) operating at both high and small switching frequencies without structural modifications and (d) better balancing of loss distribution in switches. The PSIM simulation and experimental results are shown in order to validate the proposed PWM strategy and the analysis of the switching states.
A method for identifying global loop basis functions for surface integral equations

A new method is proposed that is aimed to identify all global loop basis functions (GLBFs) for surfaces with at least one genus. The method relies on non-contractible circles on the geometry, based on which all GLBFs are obtained. The method has a low computational complexity of O(g2E), where g is the number of genera, and E is the number of edges. It is especially efficient for a surface with a small number of genera.
A Robust Image Mosaic Algorithm

Image mosaic is important in the filed of computer vision. In this paper, SUSAN corner detector is used to extract feature point, and the phase correlation technique is used to roughly estimate translational parameters of two images. The wrongly matched points are deleted with RANSAC algorithm after the initial matching. At the same time, fundamental matrix and homography matrix are estimated robustly based on the epipolar and homography constraints. The linear weighted transition method is employed in the process of image fusion. Experiments show the robustness and precision of this algorithm.
Scores for Post–Myocardial Infarction Risk Stratification in the Community

Background—Several scores, most of which were derived from clinical trials, have been proposed for stratifying risk after myocardial infarctions (MIs). Little is known about their generalizability to the community, their respective advantages, and whether the ejection fraction (EF) adds prognostic information to the scores. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) and Predicting Risk of Death in Cardiac Disease Tool (PREDICT) scores in a geographically defined MI cohort and determine the incremental value of EF for risk stratification. Methods and Results—MIs occurring in Olmsted County were validated with the use of standardized criteria and stratified with the ECG into ST-segment elevation (STEMI) and non–ST-segment elevation (NSTEMI) MI. Logistic regression examined the discriminant accuracy of the TIMI and PREDICT scores to predict death and recurrent MI and assessed the incremental value of the EF. After 6.3±4.7 years, survival was similar for the 562 STEMIs and 717 NSTEMIs. The discriminant accuracy of the TIMI score was good in STEMI but only fair in NSTEMI. Across time and end points, irrespective of reperfusion therapy, the discriminant accuracy of the PREDICT score was consistently superior to that of the TIMI scores, largely because PREDICT includes comorbidity; EF provided incremental information over that provided by the scores and comorbidity. Conclusion—In the community, comorbidity and EF convey important prognostic information and should be included in approaches for stratifying risk after MI.
Constant Temperature Microfeature Embossing with Slowly Crystallizing Polymers

Abstract A new microfeature embossing method utilizing a slowly crystallizing mechanism was investigated to eliminate thermal cycling, as needed in standard hot embossing. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) was used as a model system for demonstration. Due to its slow crystallization, amorphous PET film can be made by melt casting onto a chilled roll. The resulting amorphous film was embossed at a constant temperature of 180°C for a period of time comparable to or longer than the polymer's half-time of crystallization. During constant-temperature embossing, the film is softened first, caused by rubber softening of the amorphous phase, and is then hardened, resulting from the crystallization of the amorphous phase at the same embossing temperature. Since the embossed film is hardened under the constant mold temperature, no cooling is needed. Selected micro features, including circular microchannels and high aspect ratio microribs, were consistently patterned using a total cycle time about 40s. The embossed films were characterized using DSC and rotational rheometry to elucidate the physical mechanism for softening and hardening the polymer during constant-temperature embossing.
Short-Period Communication and the Role of Zero-Order Holding in Networked Control Systems

We discuss controller design for a networked control system (NCS) in which a stochastic linear time invariant (LTI) plant communicates with a controller over a shared medium. The medium supports a limited number of simultaneous connections between the controller and the plant's sensors and actuators, possibly subject to transmission delays. We restrict communication to periodic medium access sequences which preserve the structural properties of the plant, thus decoupling the selection of the communication from that of the controller. Using the plant's controllability/observability indices as a guide for allocating access, we show that the period of the sequences in question can be shorter than previously established. In addition, we explore the use of sequences designed for a simple NCS model, in which sensors and actuators are "ignored" by the controller when they are not actively communicating, in a more complex, but practical, setting that includes zero-order holding. We include a numerical experiment that illustrates our results in the context of LQG control.
Robust Hamiltonian passive control for higher relative degree outpus

We present an improvement of the well-know Interconnection and Damping Assignment–Passivity-based Control (IDA-PBC) technique. The IDA-PBC method is based on the Port-controlled Hamiltonian System description and requires the knowledge of the full energy (or Hamiltonian) function. This is a problem because, in general, the equilibrium point which is to be regulated depends on uncertain parameters. In this paper, we show how select the target port-Hamiltonian structure so that this dependence is reduced. This new approach allows to improve the robustness for higher relative degree outputs, and, for illustration purposes, is applied to a simple academic nonlinear system.
Classifying responses on online discussion forums

There are online discussions forums covering an endless variety of topics. Each forum has many topic-specific questions with expert answers. However, the best answer is often buried somewhere in the discussion thread. Given a question on an online forum, we focus on the problem of classifying each response to the question as an answer or a non-answer. Where the answer label indicates if the response made a reasonable attempt at answering the question (even if the answer is incorrect). We train a recursive neural network (RNN) using 59,205 question-response pairs from ten online forums with true labels obtained through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our model reads each question-response pair from left-to-right similar to a next-word prediction RNN. The model minimizes the number of incorrectly-classified question-response pairs. After hyperparameter tuning, the model achieved a 76.3% classification accuracy. We qualitatively validate the model by showing common non-answer responses such as “thanks”, “bump”, and “nevermind” result in strong neuronal activation. Our work builds off of previous work done by Aaron Abajian as part of CS 229 and CS 221. In those classes, a logistic regression (LR) classifier and a supportvector machine (SVM) classifier were trained using hand-selected features. The SVM and LR classifiers outperformed the RNN due to hand-crafted features. We suggest ways for improving the RNN to match their performance.
Mechanical and rheological properties of epoxidized soybean oil plasticized poly(lactic acid)

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a well known biodegradable thermoplastic with excellent mechanical properties that is a product from renewable resources. However, the brittleness of PLA limits its general applications. Using epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) as a novel plasticizer of poly(lactic acid), the composite blend with the twin-screw plastic extruder at five concentrations, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 wt %, respectively. Compared with pure PLA, all sets of blends show certain improvement of toughness to different extents. The concentration with 9 wt % ESO increases the elongation at break about 63%. The melt flow rates of these blends with respect to different ESO ratio have been examined using a melt flow indexer. Rheological behaviors about shear viscosity and melt strength analysis are discussed based on capillary rheology measurements. The tensile strength and melt strength of the blends with 6 wt % ESO simultaneity reach the maximums; whereas the elongation at break of the blends is the second highest level. ESO exhibits positive effect on both the elongation at break and melt strength. The results indicate that the blend obtained better rheological performance and melt strength. The content of 6 wt % ESO in PLA has been considered as a better balance of performance. The results have also demonstrated that there is a certain correlation between the performance in mechanical properties and melt rheological characterization for the PLA/ESO blends. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009
COMPGA 99 Dissertation Defence against Profile Injection Attacks on Collaborative Filtering

| ii Abstract Collaborative filtering is a method to make personalised recommendations on information items, such as books and music, for a particular individual. It does this by looking at the items that like-minded people prefer. Collaborative filtering is used by many popular websites. For instance, the online retailer Amazon uses it to identify products that are likely to be of interest to its customers. The video-sharing website YouTube also uses collaborative filtering, to recommend videos to its users. It has been previously shown that collaborative filtering is vulnerable to malicious manipulation. Attackers, who might want to make their products frequently and highly recommended, can try to introduce biased opinions into a recommender system. This could lead to unfair and inaccurate item recommendations being produced. This report describes work that we have undertaken to identify collaborative filtering attacks. In particular, we present some novel classification features that can be used to very accurately detect and neutralise all these attacks. These unique features are derived from observations on the behaviour of users. Our most successful feature uses the observation that real users’ opinions are not missing at random, i.e. such a user is not likely to give their opinion on an item they do not like.
Supporting Large English-Hindi Parallel Corpus using Word Alignment

This paper gives description about methodology to understand parallel English-Hindi sentences using word alignment. This methodology is foundation to develop the parallel EnglishHindi word dictionary after syntactically and semantically analysis of the English-Hindi source text. Methodology of proposed system is used for the English and Hindi sentences; also the methodology can be used for other languages. Outsized parallel corpus of English-Hindi pair language is not frequently available. Development is based on two strategies to solve this problem. First is normalization of tagged English sentences and Hindi sentences. Second is mapping EnglishHindi sentence using parallel English-Hindi word dictionary. Fortunately word alignment is clearly known and few aligning algorithms are without restraint accessible.
Expanding the genetic spectrum of ANOS1 mutations in patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism

STUDY QUESTION What is the prevalence and functional consequence of ANOS1 (KAL1) mutations in a group of men with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH)? SUMMARY ANSWER Three of forty-two (7.1%) patients presented ANOS1 mutations, including a novel splice site mutation leading to exon skipping and a novel contiguous gene deletion associated with ichthyosis. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY CHH is characterized by lack of pubertal development and infertility, due to deficient production, secretion or action of GnRH, and can be associated with anosmia/hyposmia (Kallmann syndrome, KS) or with a normal sense of smell (normosmic CHH). Mutations in the anosmin-1 (ANOS1) gene are responsible for the X-linked recessive form of KS. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION This cross-sectional study included 42 unrelated men with CHH (20 with KS and 22 with normosmic CHH). PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Patients were screened for mutations in the ANOS1 gene by DNA sequencing. Identified mutations were further investigated by RT-PCR analysis and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analysis. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Hemizygous mutations were identified in three (7.1%) KS cases: a novel splice acceptor site mutation (c.542-1G>C), leading to skipping of exon 5 in the ANOS1 transcript in a patient with self-reported normosmia (but hyposmic upon testing); a recurrent nonsense mutation (c.571C>T, p.Arg191*); and a novel 4.8 Mb deletion involving ANOS1 and eight other genes (VCX3B, VCX2, PNPLA4, VCX, STS, HDHD1, VCX3A and NLGN4X) in KS associated with ichthyosis. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Objective olfactory testing was not performed in all cases of self-reported normosmia and this may have underestimated the olfactory deficits. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS This study further expands the spectrum of known genetic defects associated with CHH and suggests that patients with self-reported normal olfactory function should not be excluded from ANOS1 genetic testing. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. The authors have no conflicts of interest. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER N/A.
Practical null pointer dereference detection via value-dependence analysis

This paper proposes a practical static analysis tool named LUKE, for detecting null pointer dereferences (NPD) in C programs. LUKE first uses a guarded value-dependence graph (VDG) to track the dependence relations of values, and then detects NPD by solving the graph reachability problem on its VDG. To improve accuracy as well as scalability, the detection algorithm leverages heuristic inference algorithms and the results of control dependences analysis. We evaluated LUKE on 10 large-scale open source projects, and the results show that LUKE has a false positive rate of only 4.3%, which is much lower than Clang, Saturn and Calysto. The analysis speed is also 4.6X, 15.5X and 17.9X faster, respectively. On the evaluated benchmarks, LUKE succeeds in finding a superset of the bugs reported by the published tools we investigated. We also show that LUKE scales to 416,500 lines of code, the largest benchmark we had.
Objective measurements of distorted image quality evaluation

Measurement of the quality of distorted image still remains an important issue. In this paper, we propose a new objective measurement, denoted as image quality score (IQS) that better matches the visual information fidelity (VIF) than using fundamental image quality measurements. IQS can be used to measure the quality of gray scale image in different distortion types such as blurring, additive Gaussian noise, impulsive salt & pepper noise and JPEG2000 images. From the experiments, we found that IQS correlates well with the judgment of human observers. Moreover, it gives the result of distorted image quality from 1 to 5 (unacceptable to excellent quality).
Joint Eurographics -ieee Tcvg Symposium on Visualization (2003) Feature Flow Fields

Feature tracking algorithms for instationary vector fields are usually based on a correspondence analysis of the features at different time steps. This paper introduces a method for feature tracking which is based on the integration of stream lines of a certain vector field called feature flow field. We analyze for which features the method of feature flow fields can be applied, we show how events in the flow can be detected using feature flow fields, and we show how to construct the feature flow fields for particular classes of features. Finally, we apply the technique to track critical points in a 2D instationary vector field.
Recognition of 3 D-Pointing Gestures for Human-Robot-Interaction

We present a system capable of visually detecting pointing gestures performed by a person interacting with a robot. The 3Dtrajectories of the person’s head and hands are extracted from image sequences provided by a stereo camera. We use Hidden Markov Models trained on different phases of sample pointing gestures to detect the occurrence of pointing gestures. For the estimation of pointing direction, we compare two approaches: 1) Using the head-hand line for estimation and 2) estimating the 3D-forearm direction. In a person-independent test scenario, our system achieves a gesture detection rate of 88%. For 90% of the detected gestures, the correct pointing target (one out of eight objects) could be determined.
dentification of PIK 3 C 3 Promoter Variant Associated ith Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

ackground: Genes involved in phosphoinositide (PI) lipid metabolism are excellent candidates to consider in the pathogenesis of ipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ). One is PIK3C3, a member of the phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase family that maps closely o markers on 18q linked to both BD and SZ in a few studies. ethods: The promoter region of PIK3C3 was analyzed for mutations by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and equencing. A case–control association study was conducted to determine the distribution of variant alleles in unrelated patients from hree cohorts. Electromobility gel shift assays (EMSA) were performed to assess the functional significance of variants. esults: Two polymorphisms in complete linked disequilibrium with each other were identified, -432CT and a “C” insert at osition -86. The -432T allele occurs within an octamer containing an ATTT motif resembling members of the POU family of ranscription factors. In each population analyzed, an increase in -432T was found in patients. EMSAs showed that a -432T ontaining oligonucleotide binds to brain proteins that do not recognize -432C. onclusions: A promoter mutation in a PI regulator affecting the binding of a POU-type transcription factor may be involved in BD nd SZ in a subset of patients.
J ENA E CONOMIC R ESEARCH P APERS

This paper reviews the empirical evidence concerning the regional emergence of innovative new businesses. It is argued that analyses using aggregate data that focus on the regional level and do not account for career patterns of innovative founders are of limited value in guiding policy that is aimed at fostering the emergence of innovative new businesses. Progress can be mainly expected from research that investigates the family backgrounds, education, and employment careers of potential founders. Moreover, it would be helpful to develop clearer empirical definitions of what constitutes an innovative new business, and the distinctions between different types of innovative businesses.
Mean square H− synchronization of coupled nonlinear delay stochastic partial differential systems

This paper considers the synchronization problem for the coupled nonlinear delay stochastic partial differential systems (SPDSs), both mean square asymptotical synchronization and mean square H- synchronization are studied. Making use of the Lyapunov-Krasoviskii functional method and Itö formula, sufficient conditions are derived which guarantee the mean square asymptotical synchronization of the coupled nonlinear delay SPDSs. When the external disturbances appear in the coupled nonlinear delay SPDSs, the mean square H- synchronization is dealt with and sufficient criterion is provided. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the correctness of our results.