Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PLC-Statecharts: An Approach to Integrate UML-Statecharts in Open-Loop Control Engineering – Aspects on Behavioral Semantics and Model-Checking

This paper presents the core concepts for PLC-statecharts - an adaptation of UML-statecharts -which can be used as a visual programming language for PLCs. They combine the advantages of UML-statecharts with a strict formal basis and can be transparently used in the context of IEC 61131-3 (3rd Edition). The defined formal behavioral semantics sets the basis for an automatic transformation of PLC-statecharts into timed automata which can be analyzed by the model-checker UPPAAL.
Soft decode and forward improves cooperative communications

Mobile receivers can benefit from an increased spatial diversity through cooperation. Two relaying techniques are typically used: either amplify and forward (AF) or decode and forward (DF). This contribution presents a new technique, which combines the main advantages of both AF and DF. This technique amounts to a DF scheme where all operations are performed in a soft-input soft-output fashion. In particular, an encoding technique which uses soft values to incorporate reliability information is proposed. The resulting soft-DF relay can be seen as an analog signal-to-noise ratio enhancer. Simulations show that this soft-DF scheme outperforms both AF and DF
Integrated MEMS structures and CMOS circuits for bioelectronic interface with single cells

We describe a bioMEMS system for confining and electrically interfacing to single cells for long-term studies. The system comprises microvials that can be covered and uncovered by lids actuated by polypyrrole/gold hinges. Within each vial are integrated bio-amplifiers and/or other sensing circuits to form a biolab-on-a-chip. We have developed a process sequence for fabricating lidded microvials with actuated lids on CMOS die. Initial testing of these "cell clinics" with bovine aortic smooth muscle cells yields successful sensing of the extracellular action potentials from bovine aortic smooth muscle cells using a custom VLSI bioamplifier.
Extending a Standards-based IP and Computer Telephony Platform to Support Multi-modal Services

Despite recent advances in Computer Telephony (CT) and IP Telephony (IPT) standards at defining flexible architectures to support new technologies, the current CT paradigm does not adequately support the requirements of advanced spoken dialogue systems. This paper describes an application framework based on CT and IPT standards that defines new architectural components for information access, alerting, and multi-modal input/output integration. This framework permits separation of the application logic from low-level resource management in order to facilitate the design and development of advanced, multi-modal voice-enabled services.
High efficient and real-time realization of Zoom FFT based on FPGA

The paper proposed a novel method for implementing Zoom FFT with field programmable gate array (FPGA) for high performance spectral analysis. A scheme of multistage decimation Zoom FFT was given by using the parallel pipelining processing character of FPGA to reduce the computational complexity of traditional Zoom FFT. Meanwhile, a polyphase filter suitable for high decimation-times was designed, and then the polyphase filter and an efficient cascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filter were applied into every stage of decimation structure. Simulation result indicates that compared with single-stage decimation structure, our method's error of amplitude analysis can be lower than 1dB for 200 of decimation-times, so that maximum Zoom-times and precision can be improved. The method can reduce FPGA resources consuming and achieve high processing speed.
4. Interaction, identity and culture in academic writing: The case of German, British and American academics in the humanities

This chapter aims to illustrate one way in which corpus-linguistic methods and specialised corpora can be combined in work on academic discourse. It reports selected findings from a study of social interaction in research articles written by German, British and US-American humanities academics, based on the 1-million-word SCEGADcorpus.While the main interest of the project was in possible cultural differences in academic discourse, statistical analysis was used to examine the influence also of linguistic background, discipline, author age, status and gender on the construction of identity and the encoding of social relations in academic writing. The findings reveal significant cultural differences, but also demonstrate the influence of variables such as discipline, gender and academic status on author-reader interaction and identity construction in scholarly texts.
Analysis of Rheumatoid Arthritis through Image Processing

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory arthropathy worldwide, but may be less prevalent in Asian populations causing pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in joints. The spectrum of magnetic resonance imaging findings encountered in the musculoskeletal system in this disease but these images often found non-productive due to noise present in the image and creates troublesome situation for analysis point of view. The role of image processing in rheumatoid arthritis lies, not in diagnosis, but in evaluation of the integrity of structures affected by the disease process. Since Magnetic resonance imaging is more sensitive to synovial changes than any radiography tech, and may permit quantification of changes in disease activity, as well as evaluation of the effects of drug therapy, and of complications of the disease and its treatment. So analyzing the Magnetic resonance images through image processing tool of Matlab provides easy going approach for diagnosis of the disease.
Feature Selection in Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Brain Tumor Classification

H-MRS is a technique that uses response of protons under certain magnetic conditions to reveal the biochemical structure of human tissue. An important application is found in brain tumor diagnosis, due to the known complications of physical exploration and as a help to other kind of non invasive methods. It is possible to analize spectral data with ma- chine learning methods to classify tumor classes in an automated fashion. One important characteristic of these data is their high dimensionality. In this work we present a contribution to lighten this situation with an algorithm based on entropic measures of subsets of spectral data. Ex- perimental results show that the approach used has a good classiflcation performance, both in terms of prediction accuracy and number of involved spectral frequencies.
Fuel-Optimal Spacecraft Rendezvous with Hybrid On-Off Continuous and Impulsive Thrust

J = cost function N = number of impulses NLT = number of low-thrust-independent thrusters p = primer-vector magnitude p = primer vector pm = primer-vector absolute maximum r = relative position vector rj = space collocation of the jth impulse tf = final time tint = intermediate time tj = time instant of the jth impulse application tm = midcourse time corresponding to the primer absolute maximum t0 = initial time u = thrust unit vector V = relative velocity vector x, y, z = coordinates in the local vertical, local horizontal coordinate system Vj = jth impulse vector t tj = Dirac’s delta at time tj # = anomaly on the circular orbit r = position adjoint vector V = velocity adjoint vector = control vector magnitude t = state transition matrix for the Clohessy–Wiltshire equations t = convolution integral matrix for the Clohessy– Wiltshire equations due to optimal unbounded control ! LVLH = angular velocity of the local vertical, local horizontal coordinate system
Kainate Receptor Activation Induces Mixed Lineage Kinase-mediated Cellular Signaling Cascades via Post-synaptic Density Protein 95*

Kainate receptor glutamate receptor 6 (GluR6) subunit-deficient and c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3 (JNK3)-null mice share similar phenotypes including resistance to kainite-induced epileptic seizures and neuronal toxicity (Yang, D. D., Kuan, C-Y., Whitmarsh, A. J., Rincon, M., Zheng, T. S., Davis, R. J., Rakis, P., and Flavell, R. (1997) Nature 389, 865–869; Mulle, C. , Seiler, A. , Perez-Otano, I. , Dickinson-Anson, H. , Castillo, P. E. , Bureau, I. , Maron, C. , Gage, F. H. , Mann, J. R. , Bettler, B. , and Heinemmann, S. F. (1998) Nature 392, 601–605). This suggests that JNK activation may be involved in GluR6-mediated excitotoxicity. We provide evidence that post-synaptic density protein (PSD-95) links GluR6 to JNK activation by anchoring mixed lineage kinase (MLK) 2 or MLK3, upstream activators of JNKs, to the receptor complex. Association of MLK2 and MLK3 with PSD-95 in HN33 cells and rat brain preparations is dependent upon the SH3 domain of PSD-95, and expression of GluR6 in HN33 cells activated JNKs and induced neuronal apoptosis. Deletion of the PSD-95-binding site of GluR6 reduced both JNK activation and neuronal toxicity. Co-expression of dominant negative MLK2, MLK3, or mitogen-activated kinase kinase (MKK) 4 and MKK7 also significantly attenuated JNK activation and neuronal toxicity mediated by GluR6, and co-expression of PSD-95 with a deficient Src homology 3 domain also inhibited GluR6-induced JNK activation and neuronal toxicity. Our results suggest that PSD-95 plays a critical role in GluR6-mediated JNK activation and excitotoxicity by anchoring MLK to the receptor complex.
Effect of Modified Short-Term Parent Training Group Therapy among Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

This study aims to investigate the efficacy of modified short-term parent training group therapy among children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) from Taiwanese experience. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria. Their parents were invited to attend modified short-term parent training group therapy. The parents were then asked to complete the Swanson, Nolan and Pelham Rating Scale-Revised ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) subscale (SNAP-IV), child behavior check list (CBCL), and parental symptom check list (SCL-90) before and after modified short term parenting group therapy. Findings showed that inattention, hyperactivity and ODD symptoms of children with ADHD were significantly improved (all p <0.001). Problematic behavior of children (aggression, attention problems, social problems, and externalization) and their parental symptoms (somatization, obsession, global severity, and PST) were also changed after modified short-term parent training group therapy. Therefore, the short-term modified parent training group therapy is effective for children with ADHD and is recommended as the first part of a combined treatment for children with ADHD. The key points of this study are that modified short-term parent training group therapy is effective and worthy to try as the first part of a combined treatment for children with ADHD. Parental stress and symptoms may need to be addressed as part of the treatment for a child with ADHD.
Reducing integrability artefacts for data fusion through colour space manipulation

In data fusion, we have a multichannel image comprising information from different sources, such as colour, infrared or other sensor, and we want to obtain a single channel image capturing all the contrast information available. Here we consider Socolinsky and Wolff's technique that composites the contrast information of n channels into a single gradient field, whose reintegration produces a greyscale image. Unfortunately, the resulting gradient field is non-integrable, it has non-zero curl and so can only be reintegrated approximately (e.g., in a least-squares sense). The approximate reintegration often suffers from unpleasant bending and smearing artefacts. In this paper we show how, by diminishing the saturation of the original image (in the hsv sense), the gradient field inconsistencies should decrease, thus yielding better results after its integration. This technique is remarkably simple, and yet can produce surprising improvements in the integrability error. Moreover, and this is the main point of this paper, a small decrease in saturation is shown to lead to a large improvement in integrability. Thus, by modifying, slightly, the multichannel image (whose contrast we wish to capture) we arrive at a gradient field that is much more integrable. Finally, we will show that when working in the logarithm of the image in order to use a retinex-based integration, the integration error diminishes even more quickly.
The Computational Complexity of Quantified Constraint Satisfaction

The constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) is a framework for modelling search problems. An instance of the CSP consists of a set of variables and a set of constraints on the variables; the question is to decide whether or not there is an assignment to the variables satisfying all of the constraints. The quantified constraint satisfaction problem (QCSP) is a generalization of the CSP in which variables may be both universally and existentially quantified. The general intractability of the CSP and QCSP motivates the search for restricted cases of these problems that are polynomial-time tractable. In this dissertation, we investigate the computational complexity of cases of the QCSP where the types of constraints that may appear are restricted. One of our primary tools is the algebraic approach to studying CSP complexity, which can also be used to study QCSP complexity. We first present a pair of new QCSP tractability results; one of these tractability results is arrived at by developing a sound and complete proof system for QCSPs having a certain form. We then introduce a new concept for proving QCSP tractability results called collapsibility. The key idea behind collapsibility is that for certain cases of the QCSP, deciding an instance can be reduced to deciding an ensemble of instances, all of which have a bounded number of universally quantified variables and are derived from the original instance by “collapsing” together universally quantified variables. Collapsibility provides a uniform proof technique for deriving QCSP tractability results which we use both to give alternative proofs of the initial pair of tractability results, as well as to give further tractability results.
Context-based adaptive arithmetic codin for lossy plus lossless image compressioln

Lossy plus lossless (LPL) image compression technique provides an efficient way for searching an image data base and for transmitting images such as medical images where lossless compression is necessary. This paper presents a new method for the compression of the prediction error in the LPL technique. The new method is based on context modelling and adaptive arithmetic coding. Experiments show that the new method outperforms a previously published method in that it results in a better quality lossy reconstructed image and a smaller total bit rate.
stimating actual irrigation application by remotely ensed evapotranspiration observations

Water managers and policy makers need accurate estimates of real (actual) irrigation applications for effective monitoring of irrigation and efficient irrigation management. However, this information is not readily available at field level for larger irrigation areas. An innovative inverse modeling approach was tested for a field in an irrigation scheme in southern Spain where observed actual evapotranspiration by satellites was used to assess irrigation application amounts. The actual evapotranspiration was used as the basis for an optimization procedure using the physical based SWAP model and the param-
Low-complexity ESPRIT method for direction finding

A low-complexity ESPRIT method for direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is proposed in this paper. Unlike the conventional subspace based methods for DOA estimation, the proposed method only needs the training data of one signal to perform the forward recursions of the multi-stage Wiener filter (MSWF), does not involve the estimate of the covariance matrix or its eigendecomposition. Thus, the proposed method is computationally advantageous. Numerical results are given to illustrate the performance of the proposed method.
Role of nitric oxide and cGMP in the modulation of vascular contraction induced by angiotensin II and Bay K8644 during ischemia/reperfusion

Vascular smooth muscle tone changes under the influence of numerous contracting and relaxing factors. The purpose of the present study was to determine the modulating effect of ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) on contraction triggered by angiotensin II (ANG II) and Bay K8644 as well as to investigate the importance of nitric oxide (NO) and cGMP in these reactions. Experiments were performed on isolated and perfused Wistar rat tail arteries. The contraction triggered by ANG II and Bay K8644 with the use of intracellular (in calcium-free physiological salt solution; FPSS) and extracellular (in physiological salt solution; PSS) pools of calcium ions after I/R and in the presence of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), 8Br-cGMP, an endothelial NO synthase (NOSe) inhibitor (L-NG-nitroarginine methyl ester; L-NAME) or ODQ [an inhibitor of soluble guanylyl cyclase (GC)] was evaluated. ANG II triggered contraction in FPSS and PSS, but Bay K8644 only in PSS. Ischemia reduced and reperfusion intensified the response of the artery to ANG II, but did not change the action of Bay K8644. SNP and 8Br-cGMP reduced the response of the vessels to ANG II and did not change the modulating effect of ischemia, but reduced the intensifying action of reperfusion on contraction caused by the presence of ANG II. SNP lowered the action of Bay K8644 in PSS. In PSS, L-NAME and ODQ intensified the action of ANG II, eliminating the reducing effect of ischemia on the contraction caused by ANG II, but did not influence the intensifying reaction caused by reperfusion. L-NAME and ODQ did not influence the action of Bay K8644. I/R modulated the contraction of arteries triggered by ANG II, but did not influence the response to Bay K8644. The intra- and extracellular pools of calcium ions mediate the action of ANG II, but Bay K8644 stimulated contraction only with participation of calcium ions flowing into the cell. Control of the vascular smooth muscle tone associated with the action of NO and cGMP is subject to modulation under conditions of I/R.
Assessment of reproductive and growth performances of pig breeds in the peri-urban area of Douala (Equatorial Zone)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproductive and growth performances of pig breeds in Douala, Cameroon. The reproductive performance of gilts and multiparous sows (38 per group) from 8 selected farms were monitored and controlled. Thereafter, piglets were controlled from birth to weaning age. The age at first service (AFS), fertility index (FI), fecundity, age at first farrowing (AFF), weight at first farrowing (WtFF) and litter size (LS) of gilts were 179.97 ± 25.40 days; 1.76 ± 0.77; 100 ± 0.00; 350.47 ± 40.58 days; 107.26 ± 31.85 kg and 7.18 ± 1.93 piglets, respectively. In sows, the FI, fecundity, LS and farrowing interval (FarI) were 1.13 ± 0.34; 100 ± 0.00; 9.03 ± 2.14 piglets and 179.63 ± 25.14 days, respectively. FI and LS were better in sows compared to gilts (P = 0.000). The sex ratio was 0.63. Local breed animals reared in semi-modern farms and fed mixed feed showed the lowest WtFF. In piglets, the average birth weight (kg), the average weaning weight (kg), age at weaning (days) and survival rate (%) until weaning were 1.32 ± 0.20, 10.60 ± 1.41, 56.86 ± 8.24 and 48.43, respectively. These results indicated that reproductive performance is strongly influenced by breed, feed and farm type.
Kinesthetic and vestibular information modulate alpha activity during spatial navigation: a mobile EEG study

In everyday life, spatial navigation involving locomotion provides congruent visual, vestibular, and kinesthetic information that need to be integrated. Yet, previous studies on human brain activity during navigation focus on stationary setups, neglecting vestibular and kinesthetic feedback. The aim of our work is to uncover the influence of those sensory modalities on cortical processing. We developed a fully immersive virtual reality setup combined with high-density mobile electroencephalography (EEG). Participants traversed one leg of a triangle, turned on the spot, continued along the second leg, and finally indicated the location of their starting position. Vestibular and kinesthetic information was provided either in combination, as isolated sources of information, or not at all within a 2 × 2 full factorial intra-subjects design. EEG data were processed by clustering independent components, and time-frequency spectrograms were calculated. In parietal, occipital, and temporal clusters, we detected alpha suppression during the turning movement, which is associated with a heightened demand of visuo-attentional processing and closely resembles results reported in previous stationary studies. This decrease is present in all conditions and therefore seems to generalize to more natural settings. Yet, in incongruent conditions, when different sensory modalities did not match, the decrease is significantly stronger. Additionally, in more anterior areas we found that providing only vestibular but no kinesthetic information results in alpha increase. These observations demonstrate that stationary experiments omit important aspects of sensory feedback. Therefore, it is important to develop more natural experimental settings in order to capture a more complete picture of neural correlates of spatial navigation.