Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Q Calculations of LC Circuits and Transmission Lines : A Unified Approach

Q factor calculations of reactive circuits are of interest since the Q factor relates directly to the circuit selectivity: The higher the Q, the better the selectivity and the lower the insertion loss of the filter. For oscillators, higher Q also means that lower phase noise is produced. In the case of antennas, a lower Q is generally preferred, giving a larger SWR bandwidth. This paper attempts to clarify the various methods that can be used to calculate Q factor. I will show how to calculate the Q factor using general methods for simple RLC circuit configurations and will show that the same methods can be used to compute the Q factor of stub resonators and antennas operating outside their resonant frequencies. It allows computing the SWR bandwidth of antennas once the Q factor is known. The calculations for transmission line stubs may be carried out using Mathcad files (described later in the article) with attenuation data provided by freeware programs available on the Web. Simulation results will be presented as well as measured Q values on a length of RG-58 cable.
Direction-dependent level set segmentation of cerebrovascular structures

Exact cerebrovascular segmentations based on high resolution 3D anatomical datasets are required for many clinical applications. A general problem of most vessel segmentation methods is the insufficient delineation of small vessels, which are often represented by rather low intensities and high surface curvatures. This paper describes an improved direction-dependent level set approach for the cerebrovascular segmentation. The proposed method utilizes the direction information of the eigenvectors computed by vesselness filters for adjusting the weights of the internal energy depending on the location. The basic idea of this is to weight the internal energy lower in case the gradient of the level set is comparable to the direction of the eigenvector extracted by the vesselness filter. A quantitative evaluation of the proposed method based on three clinical Time-of-Flight MRA datasets with available manual segmentations using the Tanimoto coefficient showed that a mean improvement compared to the initial segmentation of 0.081 is achieved, while the corresponding level set segmentation without integration of direction information does not lead to satisfying results. In summary, the proposed method enables an improved delineation of small vessels, especially of those represented by low intensities and high surface curvatures.
Concurrent predicates: A debugging technique for every parallel programmer

To reduce the complexity of debugging multithreaded programs, researchers have developed many techniques that automatically detect bugs that arise from shared memory errors. These techniques can identify a wide range of bugs, but it can be challenging for a programmer to reproduce a specific bug that he or she is interested in using such techniques. This is because these techniques were not intended for individual bug reproduction but rather an exploratory search for possible bugs. To address this concern we present concurrent predicates (CPs) and concurrent predicate expressions (CPEs), which allow programmers to single out a specific bug by specifying the schedule and program state that must be satisfied for the bug to be reproduced. We present the recipes, that is, the mechanical processes, we use to reproduce data races, atomicity violations, and deadlocks with CP and CPE. We then show how these recipes apply to the diagnosis and reproduction of bugs from 13 handcrafted bugs, five real-world application bugs from RADBench, and three previously unresolved bugs from TBoost.STM, which now includes the fixes we generated using CP and CPE.
Image Quality Assessment by Saliency Maps

Image Quality Assessment (IQA) is an interesting challenge for image processing applications. The goal of IQA is to replace human judgement of perceived image quality with a machine evaluation. A large number of methods have been proposed to evaluate the quality of an image which may be corrupted by noise, distorted during acquisition, transmission, compression, etc. Many methods, in some cases, do not agree with human judgment because they are not correlated with human visual perception. In the last years the most modern IQA models and metrics considered visual saliency as a fundamental issue. The aim of visual saliency is to produce a saliency map that replicates the human visual system (HVS) behaviour in visual attention process. In this paper we show the relationship between different kind of visual saliency maps and IQA measures. We particularly perform a lot of comparisons between Saliency-Based IQA Measures and traditional Objective IQA Measure. In Saliency scientific literature there are many different approaches for saliency maps, we want to investigate which is best one for IQA metrics.
A tractable approximation of chance constrained stochastic MPC based on affine disturbance feedback

This paper deals with model predictive control of uncertain linear discrete-time systems with polytopic constraints on the input and chance constraints on the states. When having polytopic constraints and bounded disturbances, the robust problem with an open-loop prediction formulation is known to be conservative. Recently, a tractable closed-loop prediction formulation was introduced, which can reduce the conservatism of the robust problem. We show that in the presence of chance constraints and stochastic disturbances, this closed-loop formulation can be used together with a tractable approximation of the chance constraints to further increase the performance while satisfying the chance constraints with the predefined probability.
Role of Human Pulp Fibroblasts in Angiogenesis

After pulp amputation, complete pulp healing requires not only reparative dentin production but also fibroblast proliferation, nerve fiber growth, and neoangiogenesis. This study was designed to investigate the role of pulp fibroblasts in angiogenesis. Human pulp fibroblasts from third molars co-cultured with human umbilical vein endothelial cells induced the organization of endothelial cells and the formation of tubular structures corresponding to capillaries in vivo. The direct contact between both cells was not necessary to induce angiogenesis, and the observed effect was due to soluble factors. This was confirmed with neutralizing antibodies against FGF-2 and VEGF, which decreased the angiogenic effects of these soluble factors. Immunohistochemistry showed that both FGF-2 and VEGF were expressed in human dental pulp fibroblasts, and this expression increased after injury. These results suggest that the pulp fibroblasts secrete angiogenic factors, which are necessary for complete pulp healing, particularly at the pulp injury site.
Reliability of Authentic Assessment in Fourth-Grade Narrative and Descriptive Written Language for Students with and without Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to determine reliability estimates of authentic assessment for fourth-grade narrative and descriptive writing samples for students with and without learning disabilities. Three types of reliability estimates were established: (a) inter-rater, (b) score stability, and (c) alternate-form. The research design involved 40 teachers, trained in holistic scoring by Education Service Centers 10 and 11 in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, who scored 16 writing samples. Approximately 2 weeks later the teachers rescored 8 of the same writing samples. In addition to scoring the writing samples, the teachers also completed a demographic questionnaire. The writing samples, which consisted of eight narrative and eight descriptive writings, were selected based upon teachers' holistic scores and scores from 1993 writing sample of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Based upon these scores, two narrative and descriptive writings of above-average, average, and below-average writings were selected. In addition, two narrative and descriptive writing samples of students with learning disabilities in written language were selected.
Integrating Genomic Data and Topological Metrics to Obtain Reliable Protein-Protein Interactions

Recent high-throughput (HTP) technology has accumulated a large amount of protein-protein interaction (PPI) data. However, these data are laden with high false positive and false negative rate. Here we combine genomic data and topological metrics to eliminate false positive high-throughput PPIs, and utilize other genomic information that is not integrated in the previous stage to justify the outcome. We devise an approach to remove highly probable false positive HTP PPIs from HTP dataset. Our method takes the advantage of two acknowledged facts about PPI: (1) Two interacting proteins often show similar or related genomic features, for instance, similar gene expression profile; (2) The protein interaction network is believed to possess some certain topological properties. First, we calculate a confidence value for each HTP PPI according to gene co-expression, co-essentiality and times observed in different HTP experiments. Then, topological metrics is used to give a topological weight to an interaction. The two weights are summed up to represent initial weight of interactions in raw PPI network. Next, we use IRAP procedure to iteratively remove false positives. To demonstrate the usefulness of our approach, Gene Ontology-biological process annotation information is utilized to evaluate the ultimate refined PPIs.
A Platform for Empirical Research on Information System Evolution

Software-intensive systems are subject to continuous change due to modification of the systems themselves and their environment. Methods for supporting evolution are a competitive edge in software engineering as software is operated over decades. Empirical research is useful to validate the effectiveness of these methods. However, empirical studies on software evolution are rarely comprehensive and hardly replicable. Collaboration in empirical studies may prevent these shortcomings. We analyzed the support for such collaboration and examined existing studies in a literature review. Based on our findings, we designed CoCoMEP‐ a platform for supporting collaboration in empirical research on software evolution by shared knowledge. We report lessons learned from the application of the platform in a large research programme.
Perception of rugged terrain for a walking robot: true confessions and new directions

The Ambler is an autonomous orthogonal walking robot that operates in rugged environments. The mechanism has two stacks and six circulating legs. On top of the Ambler is mounted a laser scanner to obtain 3D data of the local terrain. It is designed for planetary exploration. During the course of walking experiments unexpected shortcomings in the robot's perception system were noted. Unusual perception sensor behavior, random noise sources, and interaction of the perception system with other system components caused both minor errors and large failures in the system. This paper analyzes the sources of the perception system errors, presents solutions to these problems, and proposes a design for a more robust perception system. <<ETX>>
Evaluation of the Ability of Nanostructured PEI-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles to Incorporate Cisplatin during Synthesis

Nanoparticles (NPs) have a high potential for biological applications as they can be used as carriers for the controlled release of bioactive factors. Here we focused on poly(ethylenimine) (PEI)-coated iron oxide hybrid NPs obtained by hydrothermal synthesis in high pressure conditions and evaluated their behavior in culture medium in the presence or absence of cells, as well as their ability to incorporate antitumor drug cisplatin. Our results showed that the hydrothermal conditions used for Fe-PEI NPs synthesis allowed the incorporation of cisplatin, which even increased its anti-tumor effects. Furthermore, the commonly occurring phenomenon of NPs aggregation in culture medium was exploited for further entrapment of other active molecules, such as the fluorescent dye DiI and valinomycin. The molecules bound to NPs during synthesis or during aggregation process were delivered inside various cells after in vitro and in vivo direct contact between cells and NPs and their biological activity was preserved, thus supporting the therapeutic value of Fe-PEI NPs as drug delivery tools.
THE CERVICAL CORD IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

The spinal cords were examined in eighteen cases of multiple sclerosis, with special attention to the cervical enlargement. It was found that (1) lesions in the cervical cord are about twice as common as at lower levels, (2) in this region there is a striking preponderance of fan‐shaped lesions in the lateral columns. It is argued that both these findings are explicable on the theory that mechanical stresses play a part in determining the site of lesions; that such stresses are commonly transmitted to the cord via the denticulate ligaments during flexion of the spine; and that many of the lesions are attributable to vascular leakages due to tension in the denticulate ligaments. It is concluded that in patients with multiple sclerosis neck flexion is dangerous–especially in cases where Lhermitte's sign has occurred.
The UML – MARTE Standardized Profile

Abstract The UML Profile for Modeling and Analysis of Real-Time and Embedded Systems (also called the UML profile for MARTE, or simply, MARTE) adds capabilities to UML for model-driven development of real-time and embedded systems (RTES). It provides support for specification, design, and verification/validation stages. This new profile replaces the existing UML Profile for Schedulability, Performance and Time (formal/03-09-01), which was based on an earlier version of UML (UML 1.x). MARTE defines the foundations for model-based description and analysis of real time and embedded systems. At its core is a set of fundamental concepts which are further refined for modeling and a variety of quantitative analyses. The modeling capabilities range from support for system specification through to detailed design of real-time and embedded systems. For the analysis portion, the intent is not to define new techniques for analyzing real-time and embedded systems, but to support the ones that currently exist as well as potential new ones. Hence, it provides facilities to annotate models with information required to perform specific types of analyses. In particular, MARTE focuses on performance and schedulability analysis. But, it also defines a general analysis framework which can be specialized for other kinds of analysis.
A Race Against Time: Modeling Time Lags in Watershed Response

Land use change and agricultural intensification have increased food production but at the cost of polluting surface and groundwater. Best management practices implemented to improve water quality have met with limited success. Such lack of success is increasingly attributed to legacy nutrient stores in the subsurface that may act as sources after reduction of external inputs. However, current water‐quality models lack a framework to capture these legacy effects. Here we have modified the SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) model to capture the effects of nitrogen (N) legacies on water quality under multiple land‐management scenarios. Our new SWAT‐LAG model includes (1) a modified carbon‐nitrogen cycling module to capture the dynamics of soil N accumulation, and (2) a groundwater travel time distribution module to capture a range of subsurface travel times. Using a 502‐km2 Iowa watershed as a case study, we found that between 1950 and 2016, 25% of the total watershed N surplus (N Deposition + Fertilizer + Manure + N Fixation − Crop N uptake) had accumulated within the root zone, 14% had accumulated in groundwater, while 27% was lost as riverine output, and 34% was denitrified. In future scenarios, a 100% reduction in fertilizer application led to a 79% reduction in stream N load, but the SWAT‐LAG results suggest that it would take 84 years to achieve this reduction, in contrast to the 2 years predicted in the original SWAT model. The framework proposed here constitutes a first step toward modifying a widely used modeling approach to assess the effects of legacy N on the time required to achieve water‐quality goals.
Feature Level Opinion Mining of Educational Student Feedback Data using Sequential Pattern Mining and Association Rule Mining

This research paper combines the data mining with natural language processing to extract the nuggets of knowledge from massive volume of student feedback dataset on faculty performance. The main objective is to compare two renowned association rule mining and sequential pattern mining algorithms namely Apriori and Generalized Sequential Pattern (GSP) mining in the context of extracting frequent features and opinion words. Student feedback data crawled, pre-process and tagged, then convert in tri-model data files. Both algorithms are applied on prepared data through WEKA 3.7. 10 (a machine learning tool) to extract the rules. Mined rules are applied on testing files to extract frequent features and opinion words. Evaluated Results show that GSP is more significant to use for textual data mining than Apriori.
A meta‐analysis of the effects of speakers' accents on interpersonal evaluations

This paper reports a meta-analysis of the empirical literature on the effects of speakers’ accents on interpersonal evaluations. Our review of the published literature uncovered 20 studies that have compared the effects of standard accents (i.e., the accepted accent of the majority population) versus non-standard accents (i.e., accents that are considered foreign or spoken by minorities) on evaluations about the speakers. These 20 studies yielded 116 independent effect sizes on an array of characteristics that were selected by the original researchers. We classified each of the characteristics as belonging to one of three domains that have been traditionally discussed in this area, namely status (e.g., intelligence, social class), solidarity (trustworthiness, in-group–out-group member), and dynamism (level of activity and liveliness). The effect was particularly strong when American Network accented speakers were compared with non–standard-accented speakers. These results underscore prior research showing that speakers’ accents have powerful effects on how others perceive them. These and other results are discussed in the context of the literature along with implications for future research in this area. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Development of a High-Speed Simulator for Sensor Network Protocols Using GPGPU

In this research, we propose a high-speed simulator for rapidly determining protocol performance of a sensor network comprised of many terminals. We have developed this simulator by using GPGPU technology, in which widely used GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are applied to general-purpose computing. This simulator executes at high-speed by using the parallelism that is a structural feature of GPUs, and enables simultaneous execution of simulations with various values of the parameters in the protocol. The result is high-speed simulations using inexpensive hardware which previously could only be processed using a supercomputer.
DNS analysis of a Re = 40 , 000 swirl burner

A premixed turbulent combustion Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) database of a swirl burner is analyzed from three angles: estimation of the three-dimensional flame surface from two-dimensional fields; modeling of subgrid source and flux terms entering the balance equation for the reaction progress variable in Large Eddy Simulation (LES); and modeling of the subgrid-scale scalar variance in LES. The 2.6-billion-cell unstructured mesh DNS features a flow Reynolds number of 40,000 and a turbulent Reynolds number of 1,400. The new model proposed for the subgrid-scale scalar variance is also tested performing LES of the same swirl burner.
Holistic electrical machine optimization for system integration

The power density of electrical machines required for transport applications has become a critical aspect and target of optimization. This paper looks at the development aspects of a multi-domain tool to aid for system-level optimization of electrical machines within next-generation high power-density applications. The electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical aspects are wholly integrated, thus enabling the optimization including the non-active mass. The implementation and overall architecture are described with the aim of deriving conclusions as to which SPM machine topology yields the maximum power to mass ratio.
Heterogeneity or Homogeneity

The confluence of No Child Left Behind and the National Reading Panel report on the five essential components of reading instruction forged a path for struggling adolescent readers that supports a narrow curriculum designed to address gaps in constrained skills. Adolescents from a large school district in the state of Tennessee who failed state assessments in reading (N = 94) were assessed using measures of phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, orthography, vocabulary, and comprehension. Factor and cluster analysis of the assessment data revealed a heterogeneous population of students. Based on three factors (meaning, rate, and word knowledge), four clusters emerged representing varying abilities.
Comparative Analysis of Label-Free and 8-Plex iTRAQ Approach for Quantitative Tissue Proteomic Analysis

High resolution proteomics approaches have been successfully utilized for the comprehensive characterization of the cell proteome. However, in the case of quantitative proteomics an open question still remains, which quantification strategy is best suited for identification of biologically relevant changes, especially in clinical specimens. In this study, a thorough comparison of a label-free approach (intensity-based) and 8-plex iTRAQ was conducted as applied to the analysis of tumor tissue samples from non-muscle invasive and muscle-invasive bladder cancer. For the latter, two acquisition strategies were tested including analysis of unfractionated and fractioned iTRAQ-labeled peptides. To reduce variability, aliquots of the same protein extract were used as starting material, whereas to obtain representative results per method further sample processing and MS analysis were conducted according to routinely applied protocols. Considering only multiple-peptide identifications, LC-MS/MS analysis resulted in the identification of 910, 1092 and 332 proteins by label-free, fractionated and unfractionated iTRAQ, respectively. The label-free strategy provided higher protein sequence coverage compared to both iTRAQ experiments. Even though pre-fraction of the iTRAQ labeled peptides allowed for a higher number of identifications, this was not accompanied by a respective increase in the number of differentially expressed changes detected. Validity of the proteomics output related to protein identification and differential expression was determined by comparison to existing data in the field (Protein Atlas and published data on the disease). All methods predicted changes which to a large extent agreed with published data, with label-free providing a higher number of significant changes than iTRAQ. Conclusively, both label-free and iTRAQ (when combined to peptide fractionation) provide high proteome coverage and apparently valid predictions in terms of differential expression, nevertheless label-free provides higher sequence coverage and ultimately detects a higher number of differentially expressed proteins. The risk for receiving false associations still exists, particularly when analyzing highly heterogeneous biological samples, raising the need for the analysis of higher sample numbers and/or application of adjustment for multiple testing.