Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vibrational-Chemical Kinetics in Mars Entry Problems

The paper deals with kinetic theory methods modelling of reacting gas flows near spacecrafts entering the Mars atmosphere. For mixtures containing CO2 molecules, the complete kinetic scheme including all vibrational energy transitions, dissociation, recombination and exchange chemical reactions is proposed. For the prediction of gas dynamic parameters and heat transfer to the surface of a spacecraft, a detailed approach taking into account state-to-state CO2 vibrational and chemical kinetics as well as multi-temperature approaches based on quasi-stationary vibrational distributions are used. A more accurate but complicated and time consuming state-to-state model is applied for the numerical simulation of a one-dimensional flow in a boundary layer near the entering body surface. More simple quasi- stationary three-temperature, two-temperature and one-temperature approaches are used for the numerical study of a 2-D viscous shock layer under entry conditions. The vibrational distributions near the surface are far from the local vibrational and chemical equilibrium and a noticeable difference is found between the values of CO2 vibrational-specific energies at the surface obtained by means of the state-to-state and quasi-stationary approaches. At the same time, for all considered approaches, the kinetic model for vibrational distributions and chemical reactions has a weak influence on the heat transfer to the non-catalytic vehicle surface.
Distributed Ranked Data Dissemination in Social Networks

The amount of content served on social networks can overwhelm users, who must sift through the data for relevant information. To facilitate users, we develop and implement dissemination of ranked data in social networks. Although top-k computation can be performed centrally at the user, the size of the event stream can constitute a significant bottleneck. Our approach distributes the top-k computation on an overlay network to reduce the number of events flowing through. Experiments performed using real Twitter and Facebook datasets with 5K and 30K query subscriptions demonstrate that social workloads exhibit properties that are advantageous for our solution.
Constraints on Quantificational Domains: Generic Plural des-Indefinites in French

The current literature on pluralities is mainly concerned with definite plurals in existential contexts and the implicit assumption is that indefinite plurals are to be analyzed in the same way, as sums of individuals (Link 1983, Landman 2000) in the general case or as groups in more specific cases (see in particular collective readings). We will argue that although plural indefinites can be modeled as sums of individuals in those contexts in which they are either bound by existential closure or indirectly bound by an operator that quantifies over events, they cannot do so when they are directly bound by an adverbial quantifier; in the latter context, plural indefinites can only be represented as groups: binary quantifiers cannot denote a relation between two sets of sums, but only a relation between two sets of groups. This generalization will be shown to follow from an individuability constraint on quantification. Quantification requires individuability and, as argued by Landman (1989a,b) only groups, but not sums, are individuable entities. But one may still wonder whether the generic quantifier can access the members of sums, which are known to be accessible to distributive predication. To put it differently, one should explain why it is not possible to randomly fix a sum and to allow the generic adverb to quantify over its members. We will claim that it is impossible for generic sentences to restrict the generalization to a particular domain. Quantification over (groups of) individuals will be distinguished from quantification over events combined with the indirect binding of a variable supplied by an indefinite (plural). Such indirectly bound plural indefinites can be modeled as sums of individuals. The generic readings of French plural indefinites headed by des ‘some’ will provide us with the core testing ground. The analysis will shed new light on the generic readings of English bare plurals.
Development of a High Speed Computer Vision System for 3D Particle Tracking in Full Scale Rooms

We are currently building a particle tracking system for the measurement of convective heat transfer and pollutant displacement in full scale rooms. The flow is to be seeded with 3 mm-large, neutrally buoyant helium filled soap bubbles. Light is provided by 8 illumination units using florescent light. The seeded flow (air) is recorded by 3 high speed digital video cameras located along three perpendicular directions. The experiment is taking place in a 3.1*3.1*2.5 m3 (W*D*H) test room whose boundary conditions and inner values like temperature, air velocity and solar radiation can be imposed and monitored. As the first step of the research, a specially designed tracking algorithm has been built and tested. The main features of the algorithm are shown. Especially, the procedure for identification of individual particles based on their 3D coordinates calculated by two cameras successively is explained.
Confidence-aware guided image filter

The Guided Image Filter has recently been developed as an edge-preserving smoothing filter. It has proven to be effective in a wide range of applications, including noise reduction, haze removal, image matting, and others. In this paper, we propose an extension of the Guided Image Filter that takes advantage of confidence information associated with the filter input. Sometimes, such confidence information is generated in a preceding estimation stage in the processing pipeline, but is not considered by the classical Guided Image Filter. Taking the example of alpha matting, we show that our confidence aware Guided Image Filter can significantly increase the quality of the filter output with small computational overhead, and under maintenance of its O(N) time complexity.
Antiepileptic and Antioxidant Effect of Brassica nigra on Pentylenetetrazol-Induced Kindling in Mice

Considering the high rate of epilepsy today, with respect to the insufficiency of the available therapies, new strategies and methods are recommended for medical treatment of epileptic patients. Therefore, the present study experimentally investigated the anticonvulsant effect of a herbal medicine candidate brassica nigra, by using kindling method. Sixty male mice were randomly selected and divided into six experimental groups (n = 10) including: 1-control, 2-pentylentetrazole (PTZ)-kindled mice, 3-positive control group received valproate (100 mg/Kg) as anti-convulsant drug, 4-5 and 6 received brassica nigra seed extract in three doses (75, 150 and 300 mg/Kg; IP). All groups except for the control ones were kindled by 11 period injections of PTZ (35 mg/Kg; IP). In the 12th injection, all groups except for the control group were tested for PTZ challenge dose (75 mg/Kg). However, the exhibited phases of seizure (0-6) were observed and noted till 30 min after the PTZ injection. At last, the brains of all the mice were removed and then malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and nitric oxide (NO) levels of the brain tissues were determined. Statistical analysis of the data shows that the seed extract could reduce the intensity, improvement and duration of seizure. In addition, the brassica nigra extract increased the SOD and NO levels and decreased the MDA level in the brain tissues. Attained results show that the extract of Brassica nigra seed can be used in grand mal seizure treatment. Moreover, the antiepileptic effect of this extract is probably caused by its antioxidant properties and acts via enzyme activity mechanism.
Theoretical and Numerical Design of a Wireless Power Transmission Link With GaN-Based Transmitter and Adaptive Receiver

In this paper, we describe a rigorous theoretical approach to the circuit-level nonlinear design of an entire inductive resonant wireless power transfer (IR-WPT) system, including the transmitter and receiver nonlinear subsystems. Starting from a novel analytical characterization of the inductive resonant link, the system efficiency is parametrically computed as a function of a set of circuital parameters, including the power levels to be transferred. These quantities are then used as design goals inside the nonlinear optimization of the transmitter and receiver blocks. By adopting the last generation miniaturized enhanced-mode AlGaN/GaN-power field-effect transistor and fast Schottky diodes, a Class-D amplifier and a full-bridge rectifier followed by a switching dc-dc Buck converter that acts as load impedance transformer are designed in a single optimization process at 6.78 MHz. Thus, the transmitter and the receiver are directly connected by the IR two-port network, and the system is capable to adapt to variable distances between the resonators of the IR-WPT link. The choice of the Class-D topology for the transmitter and the adaptability of the active receiver enable to get rid of inter-stage matching networks, which can severely reduce the overall efficiency, especially in high power transfer environments. With the proposed IR-WPT system, up to 44 W of transferred power and a peak of 73% dc-to-dc efficiency were obtained with an input dc voltage VDC=30 V at a link distance D=5 cm. Numerical and experimental results are discussed, demonstrating the accuracy of the proposed design procedure.
The Longitudinal Use of SaNDVis: Visual Social Network Analytics in the Enterprise

As people continue to author and share increasing amounts of information in social media, the opportunity to leverage such information for relationship discovery tasks increases. In this paper, we describe a set of systems that mine, aggregate, and infer a social graph from social media inside an enterprise, resulting in over 73 million relationships between 450,000 people. We then describe SaNDVis, a novel visual analytics tool that supports people-centric tasks like expertise location, team building, and team coordination in the enterprise. We provide details of a 22-month-long, large-scale deployment to over 2,300 users from which we analyze longitudinal usage patterns, classify types of visual analytics queries and users, and extract dominant use cases from log and interview data. By integrating social position, evidence, and facets into SaNDVis, we demonstrate how users can use a visual analytics tool to reflect on existing relationships as well as build new relationships in an enterprise setting.
Distributed Congestion Control of Scalable Video Streams

The paper addresses the problem of distributed congestion control in networks where several video stream- ing sessions share joint bottleneck channels. Based on the rate-distortion characteristics of the video streams as well as the requirements of heterogeneous streaming clients, the proposed algorithm determines the utility of rate in- crements in terms of overall quality benefits. We build on the utility-based congestion control framework initially proposed by Kelly (1), (2) and extend it such that it could efficiently handle heterogeneous delays in the network as well as the specific requirements of video streams. We then describe an original implementation of the proposed distributed congestion control algorithm using the common RTP/UDP/IP protocol stack for the efficient streaming of scalable video streams. Each video session independently adapts its streaming rate based on receiver feedbacks, which permits extension to large scale system without central coordination. Finally, we provide extensive simulation results that demonstrate the performance of the proposed solution. It is shown to successfully distribute the network resources among the different sessions such that the overall video quality is maximized. Experiments further demonstrate that the proposed scheme fairly cohabits with TCP, which is certainly an important advantage in today's network architectures.
Visual and Ocular Manifestations of Alzheimer’s Disease and Their Use as Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Progression

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia affecting the growing aging population today, with prevalence expected to rise over the next 35 years. Clinically, patients exhibit a progressive decline in cognition, memory, and social functioning due to deposition of amyloid β (Aβ) protein and intracellular hyperphosphorylated tau protein. These pathological hallmarks of AD are measured either through neuroimaging, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, or diagnosed post-mortem. Importantly, neuropathological progression occurs in the eye as well as the brain, and multiple visual changes have been noted in both human and animal models of AD. The eye offers itself as a transparent medium to cerebral pathology and has thus potentiated the development of ocular biomarkers for AD. The use of non-invasive screening, such as retinal imaging and visual testing, may enable earlier diagnosis in the clinical setting, minimizing invasive and expensive investigations. It also potentially improves disease management and quality of life for AD patients, as an earlier diagnosis allows initiation of medication and treatment. In this review, we explore the evidence surrounding ocular changes in AD and consider the biomarkers currently in development for early diagnosis.
A Quantitative Examination of the Relationship between Leadership Style and Employee Job Satisfaction in Registered Nurses in the Pittsburgh MSA Region

Healthcare worker jobs, particularly in the nursing profession, are among the fastest growing occupations in the United States. However, the nursing field is overwhelmed with an aging workforce, low morale, ineffective leadership practices, employee dissatisfaction, and increased worker turnover. Healthcare organizations have witnessed an increase in employee job dissatisfaction amongst nurses, which ultimately has led to increased employment turnover among other negative consequences such as lack of organizational commitment, absenteeism, reduced patient care, and disgruntled employees. This quantitative, nonexperimental, correlational research examined the relationship between perceived Registered Nurse (RN) job satisfaction and leadership styles in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The results of this research supports earlier research and demonstrates a statistically significant positive relationship existing between perceived job satisfaction and leadership style in the Pittsburgh MSA. The results may serve beneficial to healthcare organization leaders for influencing employee leadership development programs, individualized professional coaching, and consulting processes targeted at increasing retention, reducing turnover, and improved patient healthcare.
Emerging standards for wireless mesh technology

Wireless mesh networking is a promising technology for numerous applications which appeals especially to those applications that cannot be directly supported by other wireless technologies. The commercial success of Wi-Fi and the advances in many wireless technologies have in part stimulated the development of wireless mesh networks. The persistent driving force, however, comes from the envisioned advantages of wireless mesh techniques themselves, including extended coverage, robustness, self-configuration, easy maintenance, and low cost. This article presents an overview of this emerging technology, focusing on the technical merits and related standards activities of IEEE and ZigBee that are actively applying the concept of multi-hop mesh techniques in the field of wireless networking technologies, ranging from personal area networks (PANs) to metropolitan area networks (MANs)
Predictors of survival after deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism: a population-based, cohort study.

BACKGROUND Because reported survival after venous thromboembolism (VTE) varies widely, we performed a population-based retrospective cohort study to estimate survival, compare observed with expected survival, and determine predictors of short-term (< or =7 days) and long-term survival (>7 days) after VTE. METHODS We followed the 25-year (1966-1990) inception cohort (n = 2218) of Olmsted County, Minnesota, patients with deep vein thrombosis alone (DVT) or pulmonary embolism with or without deep vein thrombosis (PE+/-DVT) forward in time until death or the last clinical contact. RESULTS During 14 629 person-years of follow-up, 1333 patients died. Seven-day, 30-day, and 1-year VTE survival rates were 74.8% (DVT, 96.2%; PE+/-DVT, 59.1%), 72.0% (DVT, 94.5%; PE+/-DVT, 55.6%), and 63.6% (DVT, 85.4%; PE+/-DVT, 47.7%), respectively. Observed survival after DVT, PE+/-DVT, and overall was significantly worse than expected for Minnesota whites of similar age and sex (P<.001). More than one third of deaths occurred on the date of onset or after VTE that was unrecognized during life. Short-term survival improved during the 25-year study period, while long-term survival was unchanged. After adjusting for comorbid conditions, PE+/-DVT was an independent predictor of reduced survival for up to 3 months after onset compared with DVT alone. Other independent predictors of both short- and long-term survival included age, body mass index, patient location at onset, malignancy, congestive heart failure, neurologic disease, chronic lung disease, recent surgery, and hormone therapy. Additional independent predictors of long-term survival included tobacco smoking, other cardiac disease, and chronic renal disease. CONCLUSIONS Survival after VTE, and especially after PE+/-DVT, is much worse than reported, and significantly less than expected survival. Compared with DVT alone, symptomatic PE+/-DVT is an independent predictor of reduced survival for up to 3 months after onset, implying that treatment for the 2 disorders should be different.
Hysteresis of soil moisture spatial heterogeneity and the “homogenizing” effect of vegetation

By partitioning mass and energy fluxes, soil moisture exerts a fundamental control on basin hydrological response. Using the design characteristics of the Biosphere 2 hillslope experiment, this study investigates aspects of soil moisture spatial and temporal variability in a zero‐order catchment of a semiarid climate. The hydrological response of the domain exhibits a particular structure, which depends on whether topography‐induced subsurface stormflow is triggered. The occurrence of the latter is conditioned by topography, soil depth, and pre‐storm spatial distribution of moisture. As a result, a non‐unique behavior of soil moisture spatial heterogeneity emerges, manifested through a hysteretic dependence of variability metrics on mean water content. Further, it is argued that vegetation dynamics impose a “homogenizing” effect on pre‐storm moisture states, decreasing the likelihood that a rainfall event will result in topographic redistribution of soil water. Consequently, post‐rainfall soil moisture dynamics associated with the effect of topography that could lead to the enhancement of spatial heterogeneity are suppressed; a potential “attractor” of catchment states emerges. The study thus proposes several hypotheses that will be testable within the framework of long‐term hillslope experiments.
Mod- ϕ Convergence

Using Fourier analysis, we study local limit theorems in weak-convergence problems. Among many applications, we discuss random matrix theory, some probabilistic models in number theory, the winding number of complex Brownian motion and the classical situation of the central limit theorem, and a conjecture concerning the distribution of values of the Riemann zeta function on the critical line.
Estimating the dynamic performance of composed services: a probability theory based approach

QoS-aware service composition has been widely addressed. When the optimal execution plan is determined, previous work generally assumes that the QoS attributes of component services are static for simplicity. Due to the ignorance of the dynamic nature of web services, the performance of a composed service is only partially evaluated. On account of the deviation of QoS attributes, execution plans have to be adapted at runtime in an unmanageable manner. Since it is unclear how the QoS attributes will vary, the effort of runtime adaption can hardly be assessed in advance. To solve the aforementioned problems, we provide a probability theory based approach to estimated the dynamic performance of composed services. The main idea is to cover the dynamic nature of web services with random variables. Following predefined aggregating rules, some crucial dynamic aspects of a composed service can be efficiently revealed from those of its component services even before the composed service actually executes, which makes it possible to determine the optimal execution plan in terms of some dynamic performance metrics. We also demonstrate some potential applications based on this better understanding of performance issues provided by our method.
Towards requirements for trust management

Research in the field of Trust Management is blooming producing new Trust Frameworks within short time intervals. However, trust researchers do not develop distributed systems. Most developers are not familiar with security procedures and therefore often introduce other security vulnerabilities during implementation. We wish to provide a solution for system designers and developers for applying Trust Management. As a first step of our work we investigated how our users understand the application of trust and reputation in distributed systems. During focus group workshops we collected a set of initial requirements. We learnt that users are familiar with the benefits gained by Trust Management but had not enough knowledge about its application.
Risk sharing in supplier relations: an agency model for the Italian air-conditioning industry

This study of risk sharing in the Italian high precision air conditioning (AC) industry confirms agency theory predictions that buyers absorb risk to a non‐negligible degree, and that they absorb more risk (a) the greater the supplier's environmental uncertainty, (b) the more risk averse the supplier, and (c) the less severe the supplier's moral hazard. The analyzed buyers accommodate for unforeseen and uncontracted‐for cost fluctuations, which is consistent with relational contract theory. The study clarifies the relationship between risk sharing and the supplier's size, technological capability, financial stability, and cost fluctuation. It also suggests how buyers may adjust their risk‐sharing strategy as suppliers grow, develop technological capabilities, and change financial structure. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Commitment development in software process improvement: critical misconceptions

It has been well-established in the software process improvement (SPI) literature and practice that, without commitment from all organizational levels to SPI, the initiative will most likely fail or the results will not be far-reaching. In this paper, the 'commitment' construct is explored, and three forms of commitment are introduced: affective, continuance and normative commitment. Analysis shows that current models of commitment development lack scientific validity and are based on four misconceptions: (1) the assumption of linearity of the human cognitive process (i.e. commitment in this case), (2) the controllability of this process, (3) the notion of a singular commitment construct, and (4) the sole utility perspective on the commitment phenomenon. Implications of these findings for SPI research and practice are discussed.