Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3D PRESTACK DEPTH MIGRATION WITH FACTORIZATION FOUR-WAY SPLITTING SCHEME

Abstract. 3D prestack depth migration is an important and commonly used way to obtain the images of complex structures in seismic date processing. In this paper, 3D prestack depth migration with hybrid four-way splitting scheme is investigated. Wavefield extrapolation is based on the 3D acoustic one-way. The hybrid four-way splitting algorithm based on factorization is derived. Numerical calculations of 3D post-stack depth migration for an impulse and 3D prestack depth migration for SEG/EAEG benchmark model are implemented. The result of 3D post-stack depth migration show that the numerical anisotropic errors can be reduced effectively and the errors are small when the lateral velocity variations is small. Moreover, the 3D prestack depth migration for SEG/EAEG model both with two-way and four-way hybrid splitting scheme can yield its good images. The Message Passing Interface (MPI) programme is adopted on PC cluster as the large scale computation of 3D prestack depth migration. The parallel efficiency is high because of high parallel feature of 3D prestack depth migration. The methods presented in this paper can be applied in field data processing.
Upper Limb Posture Estimation in Robotic and Virtual Reality-Based Rehabilitation

New motor rehabilitation therapies include virtual reality (VR) and robotic technologies. In limb rehabilitation, limb posture is required to (1) provide a limb realistic representation in VR games and (2) assess the patient improvement. When exoskeleton devices are used in the therapy, the measurements of their joint angles cannot be directly used to represent the posture of the patient limb, since the human and exoskeleton kinematic models differ. In response to this shortcoming, we propose a method to estimate the posture of the human limb attached to the exoskeleton. We use the exoskeleton joint angles measurements and the constraints of the exoskeleton on the limb to estimate the human limb joints angles. This paper presents (a) the mathematical formulation and solution to the problem, (b) the implementation of the proposed solution on a commercial exoskeleton system for the upper limb rehabilitation, (c) its integration into a rehabilitation VR game platform, and (d) the quantitative assessment of the method during elbow and wrist analytic training. Results show that this method properly estimates the limb posture to (i) animate avatars that represent the patient in VR games and (ii) obtain kinematic data for the patient assessment during elbow and wrist analytic rehabilitation.
Young women’s perceptions of the impact of their body image on their sexual experiences

Abstract:The goal of this study was to explore women’s perceptions of their body within the context of their sexual relationship with a male partner. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 young women (ages 19 to 29). Thematic analysis revealed that women described a fluctuating body image that influences their behaviour and experience of sexual activity including initiating or avoiding, openness or inhibition, and feeling engaged or distracted. They described contextual factors that affect their body image in sexual situations (e.g., lighting, sexual position) as well as strategies they used to ameliorate the impact of body image concerns (e.g., self-talk, shifting focus), to varying degrees of success. Most indicated that they were able to enjoy partnered sexual activity despite their insecurities. Thus, women viewed their sexual experiences as influenced by body image in dynamic, fluctuating ways, with numerous influencing factors. Strategies for mitigating these perceived negative effects are discussed.
Heparanase and Syndecan-4 Are Involved in Low Molecular Weight Fucoidan-Induced Angiogenesis

Induction of angiogenesis is a potential treatment for chronic ischemia. Low molecular weight fucoidan (LMWF), the sulfated polysaccharide from brown seaweeds, has been shown to promote revascularization in a rat limb ischemia, increasing angiogenesis in vivo. We investigated the potential role of two heparan sulfate (HS) metabolism enzymes, exostosin-2 (EXT2) and heparanase (HPSE), and of two HS-membrane proteoglycans, syndecan-1 and -4 (SDC-1 and SDC-4), in LMWF induced angiogenesis. Our results showed that LMWF increases human vascular endothelial cell (HUVEC) migration and angiogenesis in vitro. We report that the expression and activity of the HS-degrading HPSE was increased after LMWF treatment. The phenotypic tests of LMWF-treated and EXT2- or HPSE-siRNA-transfected cells indicated that EXT2 or HPSE expression significantly affect the proangiogenic potential of LMWF. In addition, LMWF increased SDC-1, but decreased SDC-4 expressions. The effect of LMWF depends on SDC-4 expression. Silencing EXT2 or HPSE leads to an increased expression of SDC-4, providing the evidence that EXT2 and HPSE regulate the SDC-4 expression. Altogether, these data indicate that EXT2, HPSE, and SDC-4 are involved in the proangiogenic effects of LMWF, suggesting that the HS metabolism changes linked to LMWF-induced angiogenesis offer the opportunity for new therapeutic strategies of ischemic diseases.
Approximating the partition function of the ferromagnetic Potts model

We provide evidence that it is computationally difficult to approximate the partition function of the ferromagnetic q-state Potts model when q > 2. Specifically, we show that the partition function is hard for the complexity class #RHPi under approximation-preserving reducibility. Thus, it is as hard to approximate the partition function as it is to find approximate solutions to a wide range of counting problems, including that of determining the number of independent sets in a bipartite graph. Our proof exploits the first-order phase transition of the “random cluster” model, which is a probability distribution on graphs that is closely related to the q-state Potts model.
Clonazepam as Agonist Substitution Treatment for Benzodiazepine Dependence: A Case Report

Nowadays, the misuse of benzodiazepines (BZDs) is a cause for a serious concern among pharmacologically inexperienced patients, whether treated or untreated, that could lead to significant complications, including tolerance, dependence, and addiction. We present a case report in which an Italian patient affected by anxiety disorder and treated with BZDs presented a severe case of dependence on BZDs. We treated him according to an agonist substitution approach, switching from the abused BZD to a slow-onset, long-acting, high potency agonist (clonazepam), and looking at the methadone treatment model as paradigm. We decided to use clonazepam for its pharmacokinetic properties. The advantage of choosing a slow-onset, long-lasting BZD for the treatment of our patient was that it led us to a remarkable improvement in the clinical situation, including the cessation of craving, absence of withdrawal symptoms, reduced anxiety, improvements in social functioning, and a better cognition level.
Surface reconstruction using oriented charges

We introduce the notion of oriented charges to compute distance fields from unorganized point clouds. Unlike traditional implicit function methods that usually require normal information, our approach only uses information about the position of the samples. Our approach is adaptive, using an octree to reorganize the input points, thus avoiding difficulties often associated with the use of local distance fields. The resulting representation is simple, efficient and general in the sense that it handles complex models of arbitrary topology, is robust in the presence of noise and fills holes automatically.
Smart Card based Mobile Payment Protocol

New mobile consumers are demanding access to a wider range of applications and services, convenient payment for digital content and physical goods, and integrated financial management services. As mobile devices evolve into ‘smart devices ’ , the primary requirements for realizing the digital contents providing services are to implement the compatibly secure payment protocol on m-commerce environment . Therefore, we propose efficient electronic payment protocol based on the fairness revocation and off -line mobile payment s cheme, which provide secure transactions based on tamper -proof device such as smart card . Additionally, as the applied non-interactive authentication with fair blind signature scheme provides publicly verifiable properties, we can efficiently implement a counter based off-line mobile payment protocol.
Message encoding for spread and orbit codes

Spread codes and orbit codes are special families of constant dimension subspace codes. These codes have been well-studied for their error correction capability and transmission rate, but the question of how to encode and retrieve messages has not been investigated. In this work we show how the message space can be chosen for a given code and how message encoding and retrieval can be done.
The Large Binocular Telescope Panoramic View of the Recent Star Formation Activity in IC 2574

We present deep imaging of the star-forming dwarf galaxy IC 2574 in the M81 group taken with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in order to study in detail the recent star formation history of this galaxy and to constrain the stellar feedback on its H I gas. We identify the star-forming areas in the galaxy by removing a smooth disk component from the optical images. We construct pixel-by-pixel maps of stellar age and stellar mass surface density in these regions by comparing their observed colors with simple stellar populations synthesized with Starburst99. We find that an older burst occurred about 100 Myr ago within the inner 4 kpc and that a younger burst happened in the last 10 Myr mostly at galactocentric radii between 4 and 8 kpc. We analyze the stellar populations residing in the known H I holes of IC 2574. Our results indicate that, even at the remarkable photometric depth of the LBT data, there is no clear one-to-one association between the observed H I holes and the most recent bursts of star formation in IC 2574. The stellar populations formed during the younger burst are usually located at the periphery of the H I holes and are seen to be younger than the holes' dynamical age. The kinetic energy of hole expansion is found to be, on average, 10% of the total stellar energy released by the stellar winds and supernova explosions of the young stellar populations within the holes. With the help of control apertures distributed across the galaxy we estimate that the kinetic energy stored in the H I gas in the form of its local velocity dispersion is about 35% of the total stellar energy.
Cultural Tightness–Looseness and Perceptions of Effective Leadership

Previous research has investigated the relationship between cultural values and leadership. This research expands on this tradition and examines how the strength of social norms—or tightness–looseness—influences perceptions of effective leadership. Data from Gelfand, Raver, et al. were integrated with GLOBE’s leadership research to examine the attributes of leaders seen as leading to effectiveness in tight and loose cultures. Analyses of data across 29 samples show that cultural tightness is positively related to the endorsement of autonomous leadership and negatively related to the endorsement of charismatic and team leadership, even controlling for in-group collectivism, power distance, and future orientation at the societal and organizational level of analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
SINR or SLNR: In Successive User Scheduling in MU-MIMO Broadcast Channel with Finite Rate Feedback

In this paper, an SLNR-based scheduling method is proposed in the MU-MIMO broadcast channel with finite rate feedback. In the proposed scheme, a user's leakage power to others is an important factor to determine whether the user should be selected. The sum rate of the proposed SLNR scheme and the traditional SINR-based scheme are compared with different system parameter settings. Simulation results shows that the SLNR scheme is preferred mainly in the case of larger feedback bits, lower SNR region and smaller number of active users. These observations are useful in practical system design.
Predictors of organizational resilience: a path analysis

This study examines the relationship between organizational resilience and the following predictors: openness, trust, authenticity, and proaction. The predictors were derived from Flach’s (1988), Weick’s (1993), and Malak’s (1998) sources of organizational resilience. The rationale for this study is based on the overwhelming support from the literature that organizations must become resilient if they hope to survive environmental turbulence (see Doe, 1994; Horne, 1997; Lengnick-Hall & Beck, 2009; Kerr, 2016; Livingstone, 2016). To achieve the objectives of the study, data was collected from employees of higher education institutions in the Philippines. Of the 779 instruments distributed, only 267 instruments were used due to incomplete instruments, outliers, normality, and other considerations. A path analysis was used to deduce whether the hypothetical model developed from the literature represents the reality. The results suggest that openness, trust, authenticity, and proaction explain 47% of the variation in organizational resilience. Further, evidence also suggest that proaction has the highest effect on organizational resilience although it was highly influenced by trust. Finally, a predictive model (structural equation model) which was different from the hypothesized model was achieved in terms of model fit and significant relationships. A major contribution of this study is the pinpointing of the substance of organizational resilience—that reservoir of vulnerability that is grown by an organization through trust—rather than defining it by what organizations are able to do because it has resilience—bouncing back from or absorbing adverse consequences. This paper discusses the results of the study, the implications for managers, and the recommendations for further research.
High Aspect Ratio Polymer Micro / NanoStructure Manufacturing using Nanoembossing , Nanomolding and Directed Self-Assembly

This paper proposes three methods to fabricate synthetic gecko foot-hair high aspect ratio polymer micro/nanostructures. In the first method, nano-robotically indented templates are molded with liquid polymers, and the cured polymer is peeled off or etched away. Atomic force microscope and scanning tunneling microscope probe tips are used to emboss/indent flat wax surfaces, and silicone rubber micro/nano-bump structures are demostrated. The second one uses a self-organized polycarbonate nano-pore membrane as the molding template. PDMS is molded into these micro/nano-pores under vacuum, and 1:2 and 1:9 aspect ratio pillar structures with 5 micron and 0.6 micron diameters are manufactured successfully. Finally, a directed self-assembly technique is proposed to grow regularly spaced and oriented micro/nano-pillars. Here, instability of a liquid polymer thin-film under a DC electric field is used to grow nano-pillars, and stretching and shearing of the grown hairs enable high aspect ratio and oriented hair structures. These hair structures will be utilized as novel biomimetic dry adhesives in future miniature space and surgical robot feet.
Understanding HTTP traffic performance in TDMA mesh networks

TDMA based wireless mesh networks have gained prominence as some of the recent standards such as WiMAX, 801.11s have proposed the use of TDMA based MAC protocol for mesh networks. But as of yet there have been no attempts to study the performance of HTTP based web browsing traffic in TDMA mesh networks. HTTP web browsing traffic has different characteristics compared with other types of traffic. In particular, as HTTP traffic consists of large number of small sized file transfers (median file size is 10KB), it can impose high scheduling overhead. As we highlight, HTTP traffic requires that RTT (round trip time) be small and also it requires that large sized flows be allocated higher share of bandwidth. Given these characteristics of HTTP traffic, it is not clear what protocol design for TDMA mesh networks performs best. In this work we have studied the comparison of four different TDMA MAC protocols for HTTP web browsing traffic. Two of these protocols follow distributed scheduling, one centralized and the other naive static fixed schedule approach. Comparison of the different protocols enables us to understand as to how the different scheduling mechanisms used by the different protocols affect the HTTP traffic performance. A particularly crucial aspect that our results point out is that the performance of the two distributed protocols specified by the recent WiMAX and 802.11s standard is poor in comparison with the naive static approach for some commonly arising conditions. This implies that there is need for further improvement of these standard protocols. Specifically we observed that the two distributed protocols perform well under high load and single channel operation. But, in comparison with the static approach, their performance is quite poor in presence of wireless packet loss or co-existing large sized HTTP file downloads. Likewise we observed that none of the protocols perform well under all the dimensions that we have considered implying a need to devise a better protocol that can efficiently support HTTP traffic. We believe that our results lay foundation for further efficient protocol design, for TDMA mesh networks.
General Purpose Computer-Assisted Clustering and Conceptualization The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters

We develop a computer-assisted method for the discovery of insightful conceptualizations, in the form of clusterings (i.e., partitions) of input objects. Each of the numerous fully automated methods of cluster analysis proposed in statistics, computer science, and biology optimize a diﬀerent objective function. Almost all are well deﬁned, but how to determine before the fact which one, if any, will partition a given set of objects in an “insightful” or “useful” way for a given user is unknown and diﬃcult, if not logically impossible. We develop a metric space of partitions from all existing cluster analysis methods applied to a given data set (along with millions of other solutions we add based on combinations of existing clusterings), and enable a user to explore and interact with it, and quickly reveal or prompt useful or insightful conceptualizations. In addition, although uncommon in unsupervised learning problems, we oﬀer and implement evaluation designs that make our computer-assisted approach vulnerable to being proven suboptimal in speciﬁc data types. We demonstrate that our approach facilitates more eﬃcient and insightful discovery of useful information than either expert human coders or many existing fully automated methods. We (will) make available an easy-to-use software package that implements all our suggestions.
Grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations

Abstract Users of clinical practice guidelines and other recommendations need to know how much confidence they can place in the recommendations. Systematic and explicit methods of making judgments can reduce errors and improve communication. We have developed a system for grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations that can be applied across a wide range of interventions and contexts. In this article we present a summary of our approach from the perspective of a guideline user. Judgments about the strength of a recommendation require consideration of the balance between benefits and harms, the quality of the evidence, translation of the evidence into specific circumstances, and the certainty of the baseline risk. It is also important to consider costs (resource utilisation) before making a recommendation. Inconsistencies among systems for grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations reduce their potential to facilitate critical appraisal and improve communication of these judgments. Our system for guiding these complex judgments balances the need for simplicity with the need for full and transparent consideration of all important issues. Clinical guidelines are only as good as the evidence and judgments they are based on. The GRADE approach aims to make it easier for users to assess the judgments behind recommendations
First record of Raoiella indica Hirst (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) in Jordan

ABSTRACT Raoiella indica Hirst (Prostigmata: Tenuipalpidae) is a mite with many hosts and has been reported in many countries. In the Middle East, this mite was reported on date palm in Egypt and Palestine. In 2017, a red mite was found on leaves collected from the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivars “Naboot Saif” and “Fahl Madsarti” growing at the University of Jordan Station, Jordan Valley. Mite specimens were collected and microscopically examined. Cytochrome oxidase I was sequenced to confirm identity and compare to other accessioned Raoiella sequences. Based on morphological and molecular characterization, identity was confirmed to be R. indica. The molecular characterization of the mite showed 99% similarity to accessions that originated from United Arab Emirates and Iran. To our knowledge, this is the first record of red date palm mite in Jordan on date palm trees. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A44D3E74-A69C-488C-8638-1B7EB1177146
Dominating Sets and Neighbor Elimination-Based Broadcasting Algorithms in Wireless Networks

In a multihop wireless network, each node has a transmission radius and is able to send a message to all of its neighbors that are located within the radius. In a broadcasting task, a source node sends the same message to all the nodes in the network. In this paper, we propose to significantly reduce or eliminate the communication overhead of a broadcasting task by applying the concept of localized dominating sets. Their maintenance does not require any communication overhead in addition to maintaining positions of neighboring nodes. Retransmissions by only internal nodes in a dominating set is sufficient for reliable broadcasting. Existing dominating sets are improved by using node degrees instead of their ids as primary keys. We also propose to eliminate neighbors that already received the message and rebroadcast only if the list of neighbors that might need the message is nonempty. A retransmission after negative acknowledgements scheme is also described. The important features of the proposed algorithms are their reliability (reaching all nodes in the absence of message collisions), significant rebroadcast savings, and their localized and parameterless behavior. The reduction in communication overhead for the broadcasting task is measured experimentally. Dominating set based broadcasting, enhanced by a neighbor elimination scheme and highest degree key, provides reliable broadcast with /spl les/53 percent of node retransmissions (on random unit graphs with 100 nodes) for all average degrees d. Critical d is around 4, with <48 percent for /spl les/3, /spl les/40 percent for d/spl ges/10, and /spl les/20 percent for d/spl ges/25. The proposed methods are better than existing ones in all considered aspects: reliability, rebroadcast savings, and maintenance communication overhead. In particular, the cluster structure is inefficient for broadcasting because of considerable communication overhead for maintaining the structure and is also inferior in terms of rebroadcast savings.