Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptual Graphics for Effective Visualization

Current trends in 3D graphics point to a near future when our ability to generate 3D content will far surpass our ability to analyze it meaningfully. These trends have inspired us to improve the comprehensibility of 3D graphics rendering using in sights from human perception of geometry and illumination. In this dissertation, we develop algorithms and systems to seamlessly integrate the low-level human visual system cues with object modeling and lighting for 3D graphics. Artists and illustrators have enhanced the perception of shape with discrepant lighting for centuries. Traditional graphics however assumes a model of consistent lighting. We have developed a lighting design system, that by relaxing the constraint of consistent lighting is able to convey a better depiction of shape. Our system for automatic lighting design, Light Collages, segments the objects into local surface patches and uses careful placement of highlights, shadows, and silhouettes on them to enhance shape perception. We have developed a spherical-harmonics-based formulation to achieve a 20-fold improvement in speed. Geometric processing in graphics has made significant advances over the last decade in defining and using mathematical measures of shape, such as curvature. However, less attention has been paid to the use of perception-inspired metrics for geometric processing. We have brought perception-inspired metrics to bear on the problem of processing and viewing for 3D graphics. We have developed the concept of scale-dependent mesh saliency for graphics. We have also explored how saliency can be used to prioritize operations in applications such as object simplification and to automatically compute desirable viewing parameters for 3D graphics applications. We believe that Perceptual Graphics could lead us in the direction of more effective graphics applications that not only use computational resources wisely, but also lift the burden of unnecessary rendered detail from the human visual system.
The effect of the intensity of lipid‐lowering medications on the LDL cholesterol treatment goals of Asian patients with dyslipidaemia in primary care

Dyslipidaemia is the key risk factor for arthrosclerosis, leading to myocardial infarctions and strokes. Achieving LDL cholesterol (LDL‐C) treatment goals using lipid‐lowering therapy (LLT) mitigates such cardiovascular risks. This study aimed to determine the proportions and factors influencing patients with dyslipidaemia on LLT who achieved their recommended LDL‐C treatment goals.
Sandwich structure electrochemical assay for single stranded DNA detection

A novel DNA sequence biosensor that utilizes enzyme-labeled probes and electrochemical detection via an interdigitated array (IDA) electrode on a microfluidic chip is presented. Sandwich structure DNA sequence recognition is performed by immobilizing a single stranded DNA (ssDNA) on the microchannel surface (primary probe) that is complementary to a portion of the target, followed by hybridization with target ssDNA and a second ssDNA (secondary DNA probe), which is complementary to another region of the target and is conjugated with β-Galactosidase (β-Gal). Surface confined β-Gal is detected by introducing its substrate, 4-aminophenyl-D-galactopyranoside (PAPG), into the system; β-Gal cleaves PAPG into the electrochemical active compound, p-amino phenol (PAP), which is detected by a Au IDA in a microfluidic channel. The signal is amplified by cycling its reduced and oxidized form between the interleaved anode and cathode. On the chips which are integrated in 60µm high channels, the oxidation currents show linear correlation to the immobilized target DNA concentration between 0 and 100nM. Currents collected on chips where 0 and 0.5nM target DNA is immobilized are significantly different. Similarly, on the chips integrated in the 35µm channels where target DNA is not introduced to form the sandwich (negative control), the oxidation current shows non-differentiable results whether PAPG is present or absent in buffer solution. On the contrary, on the chip where 0.1nM target DNA hybridized with probes, the oxidation current is significantly higher when the buffer contains PAPG. As the enzymatic reaction time increases from 15 to 30 seconds, the signal difference between PAPG and buffer solution almost doubled. By reducing the channel height from 60 to 35µm, the total assay time is reduced from 80 minutes to 35 minutes.
AN EXTREMELY LOW GENETIC DIVERGENCE ACROSS THE RANGE OF EUSCORPIUS ITALICUS (SCORPIONES, EUSCORPIIDAE)

Abstract Little or no genetic divergence is detected using mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequence comparisons across the entire geographic range of the scorpion Euscorpius italicus (Herbst 1800) from Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Greece and Turkey. This is consistent with known absence of patterns of allozymes and morphological variation. Euscorpius italicus is found almost exclusively in human habitations. Its sister species, E. naupliensis, exhibits much higher genetic diversity within southern Greece. We suggest that the natural populations of the thermophilic E. italicus underwent a bottleneck during the glaciations, and that its modern range could be a result of dispersal with humans.
Incentive Mechanism for Crowdsourced Mobile Video Offloading

In this work, we propose a time-sensitive incentive-aware mechanism for mobile video offloading by using the idea of crowdsourcing, where video packet holder cooperates with mobile users to deliver video packets to destination. The objective is to maximize video provider and mobile relay users' payoffs. We formulate the interaction among video packet provider and mobile relay users as a two-person cooperative game, where the video packets are treated as commodities. We apply the Nash bargain solution to obtain the optimal cooperation decision and payment. We carry out extensive simulation based on the real-world traces to validate the superiority of our proposed scheme.
Seismic moment release before the May 12, 2008, Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan of southwest China

Whether seismic moment release before great earthquakes exhibits accelerating or quiescence behavior is one of the controversial topics in the study of intermediate‐term earthquake forecast or time‐dependent seismic hazard. The May 12, 2008, Wenchuan earthquake provides a unique opportunity to check whether accelerating moment release (AMR) or quiescence existed before this great earthquake. To systematically analyze the precursory moment release, considering the special characteristics of this great inland thrust event, we took four upgraded approaches using the local earthquake catalogue with cutoff magnitude ML3.0. We propose a BIC criterion as a development of the curvature parameter q to identify the statistically significant acceleration or quiescence behavior as compared with linear increase. We use an ‘eclipse method’ as a development of the ‘interfering event consideration’ to eliminate the interference from the nearby seismically active fault zones. We consider the distribution of m‐coefficient in the (T, R, Mc) space, to explore the variation of moment release behavior with temporal window length T and spatial window radius R centered at the nucleation point, and cutoff magnitude Mc of the catalogue in use. We use not only circular windows but also ‘crack‐like’ windows to investigate the overall behavior of the moment release associated with the Wenchuan earthquake. Through this retrospective case study, it is observed that moment release before the Wenchuan earthquake did show accelerating moment release (AMR) and quiescence behavior for different spatio‐temporal ranges, with robustness to some extent against the changing of parameters, indicating the preparation process of this great earthquake. However, for this earthquake, to constrain the failure time in a forward forecasting mode is shown to be difficult. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Controlled delivery of antisense oligonucleotides: a brief review of current strategies

Antisense therapy has been investigated extensively over the past two decades, either experimentally for gene functional research or clinically as therapeutic agents owing to the conceptual simplicity, ease of design and low cost. The concept of this therapeutic approach is promising because short antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) can be delivered into target cells for specific hybridisation with target mRNA, resulting in the inhibition of the expression of pathogenic genes. However, the efficient delivery of the ASO molecules into target cells remains challenging; this bottleneck together with several other technical hurdles need to be overcome before this approach becomes effective and widely adopted. A variety of vectors such as lipids, polymers, peptides and nanoparticles have been explored. This review outlines the recent advances of the non-viral ASO delivery strategies. Several recent scientific studies, including authors' contributions, have been selected to highlight the technical aspects of ASO delivery.
An exploratory study of physiological correlates of neurodevelopmental delay in infants with sickle cell anaemia

This study aimed to investigate whether infants with sickle cell anaemia (SCA) are at risk of neurodevelopmental delay, and whether any delay is associated with SCA pathology. Twenty‐eight infants (14 SCA; 14 age‐ and ethnic‐similar controls) were assessed longitudinally with the Bayley Infant Neurodevelopmental Screener (BINS) at 3, 9 and 12 months. Transcranial Doppler (TCD) and pulse oximetry (SpO2) measures were recorded longitudinally in SCA infants, and a subgroup of controls. Haemoglobin values were obtained from SCA infants. At each age, SCA infants obtained BINS scores indicative of greater risk of neurodevelopmental delay compared with controls. The number of moderate–high BINS risk scores increased significantly between 3 and 9 months. At 9 months BINS raw scores correlated negatively with TCD velocity and positively with haemoglobin. This exploratory study suggests that SCA infants may be at greater risk of neurodevelopmental delay than previously considered, and may provide the impetus for further research into the very early precursors of cognitive impairment.
ICI cancellation for OFDM communication systems in time-varying multipath fading channels

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, time-varying multipath fading leads to the loss of subcarrier orthogonality and the occurrence of intercarrier interference (ICI). In this study, an efficient ICI suppression with less noise enhancement for multicarrier equalization is presented by using a parallel canceling scheme via frequency-domain equalization techniques, with the assumption that the channel impulse response (CIR) varies linearly during a block period. In order to avoid performance deterioration due to unreliable initial estimations in the parallel cancellation scheme, a cost function with proper weighting factor is introduced to improve the performance of the proposed equalizer. The proposed equalizer consists of a set of prefilters and a set of ICI cancellation filters, with two stages to perform different functions to achieve minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalization. The prefilters compensate for the multiplicative distortion at the first stage, and the ICI cancellation filters remove the effects of ICI by a parallel cancellation scheme at the second stage. Finally, the performance of the proposed equalizer is analyzed and compared with that of other equalizers, indicating significant performance improvement.
DESCUBRIMIENTO DE PATRONES SOCIO- ECONÓMICOS DE POBLACIÓN ESTUDIANTIL DE CARRERAS DE INGENERIA BASADO EN TECNOLOGÍAS DE EXPLOTACIÓN DE INFORMACIÓN

1. Doctorado en Administracion y Politica Publica del Instituto de Investigacion y Formacion en Administracion Publica, y Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. 2. Doctorado en Ciencias Informaticas de la Facultad de Informatica. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. 3. Grupo de Investigacion en Sistemas de Informacion. Departamento de Desarrollo Productivo y Tecnologico. Universidad Nacional de Lanus. http://sistemas.unla. edu.ar/sistemas/gisi/ lcd_ic@yahoo.com. ar, smartins089@gmail.com, rgm1960@yahoo.com
Upscaling Schemes and Relationships for the Gardner and van Genuchten Hydraulic Functions for Heterogeneous Soils

Upscaled soil hydraulic properties are needed for many large‐scale hydrologic applications such as regional and global climate studies and investigations of land–atmosphere interactions. Many larger scale subsurface flow and contaminant transport studies also require upscaled hydraulic property estimates. The objectives of this study were to develop a methodology for upscaling hydraulic property functions using a p‐norm approach, to examine how p‐norm values differ for two commonly used soil hydraulic property models (the Gardner and van Genuchten functions), and to investigate the relative sensitivities of p‐norms and the effective hydraulic parameters to the degree of soil heterogeneity (expressed in terms of variances and auto‐correlation lengths of the hydraulic parameters) and other environmental conditions. The p‐norm approach expresses upscaling schemes such that it reduces their sensitivity to uncertainties (heterogeneities) in site conditions. The upscaling schemes are obtained as the result of two new criteria proposed to upscale soil hydraulic properties in this study—one preserving the ensemble vertical moisture flux across the land–atmosphere boundary, and a second preserving the ensemble soil surface moisture content. The effective soil hydraulic parameters of a heterogeneous soil formation are then derived by conceptualizing the formation as an equivalent homogeneous medium that satisfies the upscaling criteria. Upscaling relationships between the Gardner and van Genuchten models can then also be established for steady‐state vertical flow using the statistical structures of the hydraulic parameters of these two models as estimated from field measurements. The upscaling scheme is demonstrated using hydraulic property data collected at 84 locations across a site in the Mojave Desert. Our results show that the p‐norms generally vary less in magnitude than the effective parameters when the variances of the hydraulic parameters increase. We also show that, in general, p‐norm values are better defined for the van Genuchten model than the Gardner model. Hydraulic parameter auto correlations, as defined by correlation lengths, were found to have little impact in relating the upscaling schemes (p‐norm values) for the two hydraulic property models, but correlation between the hydraulic parameters within the hydraulic property models can significantly affect p‐norm relationships.
Multiplex Immunoassay for Serological Diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis Infection in Cattle

ABSTRACT Efforts to develop a better diagnostic assay for bovine tuberculosis have shown that the sensitivity and specificity of an assay can be improved by the use of two or more antigens. As reported here, we developed a multiplex chemiluminescent immunoassay that can simultaneously detect antibody activity to 25 antigens in a single well in a 96-well plate array format. The chemiluminescent signal is captured with a digital imaging system and analyzed with a macro program that tracks each serum for its pattern of antibody activity for Mycobacterium bovis antigens. The comparison of sera from 522 infected and 1,489 uninfected animals showed that a sensitivity of 93.1% and a specificity of 98.4% can be achieved with a combination of antigens. The assay system is rapid and can be automated for use in a centralized laboratory.
Theme identification in human-human conversations with features from specific speaker type hidden spaces

This paper describes a research on topic identification in a real-world customer service telephone conversations between an agent and a customer. Separate hidden spaces are considered for agents, customers and the combination of them. The purpose is to separate semantic constituents from the speaker types and their possible relations. Probabilities of hidden topic features are then used by separate Gaussian classifiers to compute theme probabilities for each speaker type. A simple strategy, that does not require any additional parameter estimation, is introduced to classify themes with confidence indicators for each theme hypothesis. Experimental results on a real-life application show that the use of features from speaker type specific hidden spaces capture useful semantic contents with significantly superior performance with respect to independent word-based features or a single set of features. Experimental results also show that the proposed strategy makes it possible to perform surveys on collections of conversations by automatically selecting processed samples with high theme identification accuracy.
A novel human osteoblast-derived severe combined immunodeficiency mouse model of bone metastasis.

OBJECT One of the major difficulties of conducting bone metastasis research is the lack of adequate models for studying the bone-tumor microenvironment. The limitations of current in vivo models include the following: non-human tumor or bone, variable reproducibility, limited supply, and an inability to be easily manipulated. The objective of the present study was to develop a uniform and reproducible model of bone/spine metastasis by utilizing bone derived from human osteoblasts grown subcutaneously in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice with subsequent introduction of human carcinoma cell lines. METHODS Human osteoblasts were serially passed in culture and induced to differentiate into mature osteoblasts. They were subsequently loaded on hydroxyapatite-coated collagen sponges and implanted subcutaneously into the SCID mice. After allowing the bone to mature for 8 weeks, tumor cell suspensions were implanted percutaneously into the bone. The bone-tumor complexes were subsequently harvested, decalcified, and prepared for histological examination. CONCLUSIONS The authors have developed a novel, reproducible SCID mouse model of bone/spine metastasis by using bone derived from human osteoblasts and subsequently introduced human tumor lines. They believe this model will be useful for studying the basic biology of bone metastases.
Wireless relays for broadband access [radio communications series]

This article presents the outlook of the overall broadband market and operators' challenges in offering profitable mass market mobile data services. The concept of wireless relaying and its state of the art are then introduced, followed by a comprehensive description of a multihop relay system for WiMAX and related use cases. The article explains the impact of relays on network planning and presents an example of deployment cost analysis in different traffic scenarios and propagation conditions. Performance results show that multihop relaying is one of the most promising technologies that enables cost-effective enhancement of coverage, user throughput, and system capacity, and is especially suitable for the emerging markets and rural areas.
Investigations on the role of the salmon louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Caligidae), as a vector in the transmission of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida.

A bacteria-parasite challenge model was used to study the role of sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Copepoda), as a vector of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida. Three hypotheses were tested: (i) L. salmonis can acquire A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida via water bath exposure; (ii) L. salmonis can acquire the bacteria via parasitizing infected Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar; and (iii) L. salmonis can transmit the bacteria to naïve Atlantic salmon via parasitism. Adult L. salmonis exposed to varying A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida suspensions (10(1) -10(7) cells mL(-1) ) for 1.0, 3.0 or 6.0 h acquired the bacteria externally (12.5-100%) and internally (10.0-100%), with higher prevalences associated with the highest concentrations and exposures. After exposure to 10(7) cells mL(-1) , viable A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida could be isolated from the external carapace of L. salmonis for 120 h. Lepeophtheirus salmonis also acquired the bacteria externally and internally from parasitizing infected fish. Bacterial transmission was observed only when L. salmonis had acquired the pathogen internally via feeding on 'donor fish' and then by parasitizing smaller (<50 g) 'naive' fish. Under specific experimental conditions, L. salmonis can transfer A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida via parasitism; however, its role as a mechanical or biological vector was not defined.
A new chronological framework for prehistoric Southeast Asia, based on a Bayesian model from Ban Non Wat

Abstract The authors offer a new chronological framework for prehistoric Southeast Asia, based mainly on the Bayesian modelling of 75 radiocarbon dates from well-stratified excavations at Ban Non Wat. The results are revolutionary. Neolithic practice now begins in the second millennium and hierarchical state-forming activity is dated to a ‘starburst’ around 1000 BC. The authors reflect on the social implications of the new model – and on the criteria for an ever stronger chronology.
A metric based technique for design flaws detection and correction

During the evolution of object-oriented (OO) systems, the preservation of correct design should be a permanent quest. However, for systems involving a large number of classes and which are subject to frequent modifications, the detection and correction of design flaws may be a complex and resource-consuming task. Automating the detection and correction of design flaws is a good solution to this problem. Various authors have proposed transformations that improve the quality of an OO system while preserving its behavior. In this paper, we propose a technique for automatically detecting situations where a particular transformation can be applied to improve the quality of a system. The detection process is based on analyzing the impact of various transformations on software metrics using quality estimation models.
Object-relational Mapping Revised - A Guideline Review and Consolidation

Object-relational mapping (ORM) is a mechanism to link classes of an object-oriented (OO) programming language to tables of a relational database management system (RDBMS). When designing a mapping for an application’s domain model, different strategies exist to map associations and inheritance relationships to database tables. Each strategy has a different impact on the application’s quality characteristics. Developers need to understand the impact of a mapping strategy to make informed decisions. In the absence of cost models to quantify the impact, guidelines and best practices have been developed to allow differentiated considerations of strategies. However, looking closer at these guidelines, two major flaws become apparent incompleteness
Mid-term load forecasting based on dynamic least squares SVMS

In this study, a dynamic model based on least squares support vector machines is proposed to forecast the daily peak loads of a month. The model function is got from the training data set using least squares support vector machines. In the time series prediction process, new data points are included into training data set and some of the old ones are deleted, so as to track the dynamics of the nonlinear time-varying feature of load demand. The electricity load data from European Network on Intelligent Technologies (EUNITE) network competition are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed dynamic least squares support vector machines. The experimental results reveal that the proposed model outperforms the least squares support vector machines, which outperforms the support vector machine. Consequently, the dynamic least squares support vector machines provides a promising alternative for forecasting mid-term electricity load in power industry.