Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Remarks on computational emotion recognition from vital information

This paper investigates computational emotion recognition using multi-modal bio-potential signals. Two vital signs, pulse and skin conductance response, are measured to evaluate three emotions: positive emotion(relax and pleasure), negative emotion(stressful and unpleasure), and normal. Psychological experiments using audio contents in order to excite emotions to subjects are undertaken to gather the bio-potential signals. For computational emotion recognition, support vector machine is used to design the emotion recognition system. In experiments of recognizing emotions, a recognition rate of 41.2% is achieved for three emotions by using the features including dynamics information extracted from the bio-potential signals. The results obtained in this study demonstrate that using multimodal bio-potential signals is feasible for computational emotion recognition and that SVM is suited for this task.
Frame synchronization confirmation technique using pilot pattern

A new frame synchronization confirmation technique using a pilot pattern for both uplink and downlink channels is proposed for W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) system. It is shown that by using this technique, we can cancel the side lobe for autocorrelation functions of the frame synchronization words of pilot pattern except at middle shift. All the frame synchronization words of the pilot pattern have the maximum out-of-phase autocorrelation value “4” with two peak values equal in magnitude and opposite in polarity at zero and middle shifts. Due to this side lobe cancellation effect, therefore, the autocorrelation function of the frame synchronization words becomes ideal for the frame synchronization confirmation since double maximum correlation values equal in magnitude and opposite polarity at zero and middle shifts can be achieved. This property can be used to double-check frame synchronization timing and thus, improve the frame synchronization confirmation performance.
Can Malawi's poor afford free tuberculosis services? Patient and household costs associated with a tuberculosis diagnosis in Lilongwe.

OBJECTIVE To assess the relative costs of accessing a TB diagnosis for the poor and for women in urban Lilongwe, Malawi, a setting where public health services are accessible within 6 kilometers and provided free of charge. METHODS Patient and household direct and opportunity costs were assessed from a survey of 179 TB patients, systematically sampled from all public and mission health facilities in Lilongwe. Poverty status was determined from the 1998 Malawi Integrated Household Survey (MIHS). FINDINGS On average, patients spent US$ 13 (MK 996 or 18 days' income) and lost 22 days from work while accessing a TB diagnosis. For non-poor patients, the total costs amounted to 129% of total monthly income, or 184% after food expenditures. For the poor, this cost rose to 248% of monthly income or 574% after food. When a woman or when the poor are sick, the opportunity costs faced by their households are greater. CONCLUSION Patient and household costs of TB diagnosis are prohibitively high even where services are provided free of charge. In scaling up TB services to reach the Millennium Development Goals, there is an urgent need to identify strategies for diagnosing TB that are cost-effective for the poor and their households.
Progesterone from the Cumulus Cells Is the Sperm Chemoattractant Secreted by the Rabbit Oocyte Cumulus Complex

Sperm chemotaxis in mammals have been identified towards several female sources as follicular fluid (FF), oviduct fluid, and conditioned medium from the cumulus oophorus (CU) and the oocyte (O). Though several substances were confirmed as sperm chemoattractant, Progesterone (P) seems to be the best chemoattractant candidate, because: 1) spermatozoa express a cell surface P receptor, 2) capacitated spermatozoa are chemotactically attracted in vitro by gradients of low quantities of P; 3) the CU cells produce and secrete P after ovulation; 4) a gradient of P may be kept stable along the CU; and 5) the most probable site for sperm chemotaxis in vivo could be near and/or inside the CU. The aim of this study was to verify whether P is the sperm chemoattractant secreted by the rabbit oocyte-cumulus complex (OCC) in the rabbit, as a mammalian animal model. By means of videomicroscopy and computer image analysis we observed that only the CU are a stable source of sperm attractants. The CU produce and secrete P since the hormone was localized inside these cells by immunocytochemistry and in the conditioned medium by enzyme immunoassay. In addition, rabbit spermatozoa express a cell surface P receptor detected by western blot and localized over the acrosomal region by immunocytochemistry. To confirm that P is the sperm chemoattractant secreted by the CU, the sperm chemotactic response towards the OCC conditioned medium was inhibited by three different approaches: P from the OCC conditioned medium was removed with an anti-P antibody, the attractant gradient of the OCC conditioned medium was disrupted by a P counter gradient, and the sperm P receptor was blocked with a specific antibody. We concluded that only the CU but not the oocyte secretes P, and the latter chemoattract spermatozoa by means of a cell surface receptor. Our findings may be of interest in assisted reproduction procedures in humans, animals of economic importance and endangered species.
Color Style Transfer Techniques using Hue, Lightness and Saturation Histogram Matching

We present new methods which transfer the color style of a source image into an arbitrary given target image having a different 3D color distribution. The color transfer has a high importance ensuring a wide area of applications from artistic transformation of the color atmosphere of images until different scientific visualizations using special gamut mappings. Our technique use a permissive, or optionally strict, 3D histogram matching, similarly to the sampling of multivariable functions applying a sequential chain of conditional probability density functions. We work by order of hue, hue dependent lightness and from both dependent saturation histograms of source and target images, respectively. We apply different histogram transformations, like smoothing or contrast limitation, in order to avoid some unexpected high gradients and other artifacts. Furthermore, we use dominance suppression optionally, by applying sub-linear functions for the histograms in order to get well balanced color distributions, or an overall appearance reflecting the memory color distribution better. Forward and inverse operations on the corresponding cumulative histograms ensure a continuous mapping of perceptual attributes correlating to limited derivatives. Sampling an appropriate fraction of the pixels and using perceptually accurate and continuous histograms with minimal size as well as other gems make this method robust and fast.
Near-infrared speckle interferometry and radiative transfer modelling of the carbon star LP Andromedae

We present the near-infrared speckle interferometry for LP And in the H and $K^{\prime}$ bands with diffraction-limited resolutions of 56 and 72 mas, new $\it JHKLM$ photometry, and the results of our radiative transfer modelling of this carbon star. The reconstructed visibility reveals a spherically-symmetric envelope surrounding the central star. To determine the physical parameters of the latter and the properties of its dusty envelope, we performed extensive radiative transfer calculations. The well-defined spectral energy distribution of LP And in the entire range from the near-IR to millimeter wavelengths (including the absorption feature visible in the stellar continuum at 3 ${\mu}$m and the shapes of the dust emission bands at 11 and 27 ${\mu}$m), together with our H -band visibility can be reproduced by a spherical dust envelope with parameters that are very similar to those of CW Leo (IRC +10 216), the best studied carbon star. For the newly estimated pulsation period $P = 617 \pm 6$ days and distance $D = 740 \pm 100$ pc, our model of LP And changes its luminosity $L_{\star}$ between 16 200 and 2900 $L_{\odot}$, its effective temperature $T_{\star}$ between 3550 and 2100 K, and its radius $R_{\star}$ between 340 and 410 $R_{\odot}$. The model estimates the star's mass-loss rate $\dot{M} \approx 1.9 \times 10^{-5}$ $M_{\odot}$ yr - 1 , assuming a constant outflow velocity $v = 14$ km s -1 . If the latter also applied to the innermost parts of the dusty envelope, then presently the star would be losing mass at a rate $\dot{M} \approx 6.0 \times 10^{-5}$ $M_{\odot}$ yr -1 . However, we believe that the inner wind velocity must actually be closer to $v \approx 4$ km s -1 instead, as wind acceleration is expected in the dust-formation zone. The dusty envelope of LP And extends from $R_1 \approx 2$ $R_{\star}$ to distances of $R_2 \approx 3$ pc from the star. The total mass of the envelope lost by the central star is $M = 3.2$ $M_{\odot}$ assuming a dust-to-gas mass ratio of $\rho_{\rm d}/\rho$ = 0.0039. The circumstellar optical depth towards the star is $\tau_{V} = 25$ in the visual. The dust model contains small silicon carbide grains, inhomogeneous grains made of a mixture of SiC and incompletely amorphous carbon, and thin mantles made of iron-magnesium sulfides. This dust mixture perfectly fits the infrared continuum and both the 11.3 ${\mu}$m and 27 ${\mu}$m emission bands. We find that our $K^{\prime}$-band visibility could not be fitted by our spherical model, so we discuss possible reasons for this interesting result. More observations are required in order to determine what causes this effect. If slight deviations from spherical geometry in its envelope are the reason, then the object's evolutionary stage would be even more similar to that of CW Leo. It appears that LP And is a highly-evolved intermediate-mass star (initial mass $M^0_{\star}$ ≈ 4 $M_{\odot}$) at the end of its AGB phase.
Cosmological Halos: A Search for the Ionized Intergalactic Medium

Standard big bang nucleosynthesis predicts the average baryon density of the universe to be a few percent of the critical density. Only about one-tenth of the predicted baryons have been seen. A plausible repository for the missing baryons is in a diffuse ionized intergalactic medium (IGM). In an attempt to measure the IGM, we searched for Thomson-scattered halos around strong high-redshift radio sources. Observations of the radio source 1935-692 were made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We assumed a uniform IGM, and isotropic steady emission of 1935-692 for a duration between 107 and 108 yr. A model of the expected halo visibility function was used in χ2 fits to place upper limits on ΩIGM. The upper limits varied depending on the methods used to characterize systematic errors in the data. The results are 2 σ limits of ΩIGM < 0.65. While not yet at the sensitivity level to test primordial nucleosynthesis, improvements in the technique will probably allow this in future studies.
Hedging in the Discussion Sections of English and Malay Educational Research Articles

Academic writers resort to hedging as one of the interpersonal metadiscourse categories needed to present their findings cautiously in the hope that their research contribution can be accepted by the academic community. Such acceptance, to a great extent, depends on how propositions and claims are presented to the academic community. The purpose of the present study was to compare and contrast the hedges used in the Discussion sections of educational research articles in English with those in Malay. To provide additional insights, information was elicited from both English and Malay specialist informants on their perceptions of hedging in research article writing. This study contributes to an understanding on the use of hedges throughout the Discussion sections of the research articles from the two languages and possible contextual and socio-cultural factors which may have influenced their use. The corpus of the present study is made up of the Discussion sections of English and Malay research articles published between 2012 and 2017. The analytical framework of this study is based on Hyland’s (1996) four hedging functions, which are writer-oriented, attribute-oriented, reliability-oriented, and reader-oriented. Our analysis shows that overall, hedges are found in more English than Malay discussions. The greater number of hedges in the English data is in principle expected as English is a remarkably hedging culture. A closer examination reveals that English writers tend to subtly bring the value of the writer’s contribution to the fore, tone down the force of the arguments, and bring forth the tentative nature of the conclusion drawn on the issue examined. The findings provide pedagogical implications in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom.
Potential mRNA Degradation Targets of hsa-miR-200c

Using an anchored oligo(dT) based RT-PCR approach we quantified endogenous expression of ten microRNAs in six cell lines. This identified a miRNA, miR-200c, with variable expression, ranging from undetectable in MDA-MB-231 and HT1080 to highly expressed in MCF7. The variable expression provided a model system to investigate endogenous interactions between miRNAs and their computationally predicted targets. As the expression level of the predicted mRNA targets and miR200c in these lines should have an inverse relationship if cleavage or degradation results from the interaction. To select targets for analysis we used Affymetrix expression data and computational prediction programs. Affymetrix data indicated that ~3500 candidate mRNAs, absent in MCF7 and present in MDA-MB-231 or HT1080. These targets were cross-referenced against ~600 computationally predicted miR-200c targets, identifying twenty potential mRNAs. Expression analysis by qRT-PCR of these targets and an additional ten mRNAs (selected using the prediction program ranking alone) revealed four mRNAs, BIN1, TCF8, RND3 and LHFP with an inverse relationship to miR-200c. Of the remainder, the majority did not appear to be degraded (and may be translational targets) or were undetectable in the cell lines examined. Finally, inhibition of miR-200c using an anti-miRNA 2’-0-Methyl oligonucleotide (AMO) resulted in an increase in expression of one of the targets, the transcription factor TCF8. These results indicate that a single miRNA could directly affect the mRNA levels of an important transcription factor, albeit in a manner specific to cell lines. Further investigation is required to confirm this in vivo and determine any translational effects.
Differential transmission for amplify-and-forward broadband cooperative communications

A distributed differential space-time-frequency (STF) coding scheme is proposed for single-relay assisted cooperative communication networks over frequency-selective fading channels. Using full diversity rotation and Cayley transformation at the source node, our proposed scheme can achieve both spatial and multipath diversity without any instantaneous channel state information at the destination node. Both theoretic analysis and simulation results demonstrate that a diversity gain of L3 + min(L1, L2) can be achieved by the scheme, where L1, L2, and L3 are the channel memory length for the source-to-relay (S rarr R), relay-to-destination (R rarr D), and source-to-destination (S rarr D) links, respectively. This simple transmission scheme needs neither complicated processing at the relay node, nor channel estimation at the destination node. Furthermore, a rate of 1.5 real symbols per channel use can be achieved when the relay node retransmits the information symbols to the destination node.
A New Chu Formula for Q

The Chu fundamental limitation on Q for electrically small antennas is well known and widely used. However, Chu did not include energy stored inside the hypothetical enveloping sphere. Exact calculation of total stored energy by Thal gives a new Q, which should better match well-designed electrically small antennas. The TM- and TE-mode Q formulas are derived, and a simple approximate form for the lowest-order TM mode is presented.
Effects of Fire Severity and Climate on Ring-Width Growth of Giant Sequoia After Fire

Although fire has been recognized for several decades as a significant ecological force in giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)-mixed conifer forests (Hartesveldt 1964, Biswell 1967, Hartesveldt and Harvey 1967, Kilgore and Biswell 1971, Kilgore 1973, Harvey and others 1980), little is known about the growth response of giant sequoia to different types of fire and post-fire climate conditions. As early as 1964, Hartesveldt observed that after two fires (1862 and 1889) in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, ". more than one-half of the cored trees showed an increase in the middle of the 1860’s, and several showed an increase immediately after the fire of 1889. " He attributed this increased ring growth to temporary reduced competition from associated trees that were damaged or killed by the fires, resulting in improved soil moisture conditions for the more fire-resistant sequoias. Harvey and his colleagues (1980) also observed that radial growth increased in some giant sequoias following fire and other manipulation of understory vegetation. Growth releases frequently followed fire scars on the sequoia cross-sections analyzed for a reconstruction of giant sequoia fire regimes (Swetnam and others 1992). The most striking example was a tremendous growth increase in many sequoias following an A.D. 1297 fire in Mountain Home State Forest. This release was probably the result of a high intensity fire that killed many competing trees and increased nutrient, water and light availability for the survivors (Stephenson and others 1991, Swetnam and others 1992). A goal of this study was to determine if fire severity could be quantified in terms of post-fire sequoia tree-ring widths. Quantification of fire severity by the magnitude and duration of post-fire sequoia growth increases may provide an objective basis for estimating past fire severities from observations of sequoia cross-sections collected for developing fire history chronologies. In addition to examining effects of fire severity on sequoia radial growth response, we examined some general relationships between climate, fire, and post-fire sequoia growth. We analyzed the effect of severe foliage damage on post-fire growth in the Partin Burn. For all burns and control sites, we also made categorical observations of sequoia seedling establishment around each adult sampled to investigate the effects of fire severity and post-fire climate conditions on seedling establishment and success.
Approximating the throughput of multiple machines under real-time scheduling

We consider the following fundamental scheduling problem. The input to the problem consists of n jobs and k machines. Each of the jobs is associated with a release time, a deadline, a weight, anda processing time on each of the machines. The goal is to finda nonpreemptive sched ule that maximizes the weight of jobs that meet their respective deadlines. We give constant factor approximation algorithms for four variants of the problem, depending on the type of the machines (identical vs. unrelated) and the weight of the jobs (identical vs. arbitrary). All these variants are known to be NP-hard , andthe two variants involving unrelatedmachines are also MAX-SNP hard . The specific results obtainedare as follows: • For id entical job weights andunrelatedmachines: a greed y 2-approximation algorithm. • For identical job weights and k identical machines: the same greedy algorithm achieves a tight (1+1/k) k (1+1/k)k−1 approximation factor. • For arbitrary job weights anda single machine: an LP formulation achieves a 2-approximation for polynomially bound edintegral input anda 3-approximation for arbitrary input. For unrelatedmachines, the factors are 3 and4, respectively. • For arbitrary job weights and k id entical machines: the LP-basedalgorithm appliedre- peatedly achieves a (1+1/k) k (1+1/k)k−1 approximation factor for polynomially bounded integral input anda (1+1/2k) k (1+1/2k)k−1 approximation factor for arbitrary input. • For arbitrary job weights andunrelatedmachines: a combinatorial (3 + 2 √ 2 ≈ 5.828)- approximation algorithm.
Joint Radio Resource Management and QoS Implications of Software Downloading for SDR Terminals

This paper presents research on advanced spectrum sharing techniques lead in TRUST and focuses on Radio Access Technologies’ (RATs) joint radio resource management (JRRM). This paper provides details on cellular FDD/TDD JRRM and addresses the different sources of traffic (regular asymmetric and download) to be considered in an SDR context. The TRUST research on impact of software downloads on UMTS system resources is introduced and some of the future research topics to be investigated in the TRUST follow-up project SCOUT are presented. I. JOINT RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
An explicit test for the contribution of environmental maternal effects to rapid clinal differentiation in an invasive plant

Population differentiation of alien invasive plants within their non‐native range has received increasingly more attention. Common gardens are typically used to assess the levels of genotypic differentiation among populations. However, in such experiments, environmental maternal effects can influence phenotypic variation among individuals if seed sources are collected from field populations under variable environmental regimes. In the present study, we investigated the causes of an altitudinal cline in an invasive plant. Seeds were collected from Senecio inaequidens (Asteraceae) populations along an altitudinal gradient in southern France. In addition, seeds from the same populations were generated by intra‐population crossings in a climatic chamber. The two seed lots were grown in a common garden in Central Belgium to identify any evidence of environmentally induced maternal effects and/or an altitudinal cline in a suite of life‐history traits. Results failed to detect any environmental maternal effects. However, an altitudinal cline in plant height and above‐ground biomass was found to be independent of the maternal environment.
InP HBT Integrated Circuit Technology for Terahertz Frequencies

We report on the development of an InP DHBT integrated circuit technology for applications at the lower range of the THz frequency band (0.3-3 THz) 0.25um HBTs demonstrate an extrapolated fmax of >800GHz while maintaining a common-emitter breakdown voltage of >4V. The transistors have been integrated a full IC process that includes three-levels of interconnects, backside wafer thinning to 50um with a through-wafer via process, and a backside etch singulation process that allows for the formation of free standing integrated waveguide probes. The technology has been utilized to demonstrate amplifiers, oscillators and dynamic frequency dividers all operating at >300GHz.
Efficient Superimposition Recovering Algorithm

In this article, we address the issue of recovering latent transparent layers from superimposition images. Here, we assume we have the estimated transformations and extracted gradients of latent layers. To rapidly recover high-quality image layers, we propose an Efficient Superimposition Recovering Algorithm (ESRA) by extending the framework of accelerated gradient method. In addition, a key building block (in each iteration) in our proposed method is the proximal operator calculating. Here we propose to employ a dual approach and present our Parallel Algorithm with Constrained Total Variation (PACTV) method. Our recovering method not only reconstructs high-quality layers without color-bias problem, but also theoretically guarantees good convergence performance.