Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Applications of Compressed Sensing for SAR Moving-Target Velocity Estimation and Image Compression

Compressed sensing (CS) is a recently introduced concept that enables the recovery of signals sampled below the Nyquist rate. A prerequisite for its application is the sparsity of the concerned signals in a certain basis. The concept has been applied to medical imaging, seismic imaging, optical remote sensing, and, recently, radar. This paper describes two possible applications of CS for synthetic aperture radar (SAR): 1) estimation of moving-target velocities in the case of high and low signal-to-clutter ratios, as well as more than one scatterer in a single pixel making use of clutter cancellation, and 2) online compression of processed SAR images with the help of curvelet sparsity-promoting offline decoding. CS for SAR offers the possibility of using lesser amount of data, as well as a convenient way of knowing motion and position parameters of multiple moving targets. The CS technique is useful for simplification of hardware or reduction of data that are useful in the case of limited onboard data storage capacity. The results are demonstrated by means of numerical experiments using simulated data for moving-target velocity estimation and MiniSAR data for SAR image compression.
School Curriculum as Cultural Commodity in the Construction of Young People’s Post-School Aspirations

This paper reports on initial findings from a project funded by the Queensland Studies Authority and conducted by researchers based at the Queensland University of Technology. The study investigates the effect of curricular pathways on the construction of young people’s identities, in particular how young people talk about post school options. The study involved case studies of 12 schools, including schools located in rural, urban and diverse socio-economic areas. Data for the study were collected by: (1) interviews with key curriculum players in the respective schools and (2) focus groups with students and teachers. In this paper, we will identify some of the emergent issues in the literature as well as present preliminary findings from the focus groups conducted with students in the selected schools. In particular, we will (a) examine the spread of choices that students are presented with and some limitations on these choices, (b) examine the processes that students follow in making their subject choices and their implications for the needed scaffolding offered to them, and finally (c) examine some concerns expressed by students that raise questions about the structure of senior schooling in Queensland.
Preparation and Evaluation of Montelukast Sodium Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are an alternative carrier system used to load the drug for targeting, to improve the bioavailability by increasing its solubility, and protecting the drug from presystemic metabolism. The avoidance of presystemic metabolism is due to the nano-metric size range, so that the liver cannot uptake the drug from the delivery system and is not metabolized by the liver. Montelukast sodium is an anti-asthmatic drug, because of its poor oral bioavailability, presystemic metabolism, and decreased half-life; it was chosen to formulate as the solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) system by hot homogenization followed by an ultrasonication method, to overcome the above. Compritol ATO 888, stearic acid, and glyceryl monostearate were used as a lipid matrix and polyvinyl alcohol as a surfactant. The prepared formulations have been evaluated for entrapment efficiency, drug content, in vitro drug release, particle size analysis, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform-infrared studies (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and stability. Particle size analysis revealed that the SLN prepared from the higher melting point lipid showed a larger particle size and with increased carbon chain length of the fatty acids. Entrapment efficiency (EE) was ranging from 42% to 92%. In vitro release studies showed maximum cumulative drug release was obtained for F 1 (59.1%) containing stearic acid, and the lowest was observed for F 18 (28.1%) containing compritol ATO 888 after 12 h and all the formulations followed first-order release kinetics. FT-IR and DSC studies revealed no interaction between drug and lipids. Studies showed that increase in lipid concentration, increased particle size, EE, and maintained the sustained release of drug. Among all, compritol ATO 888 was chosen as the best lipid for formulating SLN because it had high EE and sustained the drug release.
Vibration Reduction in Slewing of a Very Flexible One-Link Manipulator Using Shaped Reference Inputs

Future trends suggest that manipulators will be required to be light and to carry large payloads and this encourages the study of flexible-link robots. However, after more than three decades of investigation, vibration control of the flexible-link robot is still an unsolved problem. Researchers have made much progress using active and passive controls and with structural modification and new sensors and actuators, but a simple, effective and reliable vibration controller has yet to be found. To reduce vibration, shaping the reference input so that no energy is injected around the flexible modes can be performed in the time domain, by convolution of the input with a sequence of impulses or in the frequency domain, by optimally constructing a new input from suitable basis functions. While many researchers have applied the time-domain method to the flexible-link robot, the frequency-domain method is rarely seen with this type of robot. This paper investigated the results of applying the frequencydomain command shaping method to a flexible one-link robot. The closed-loop system consisted of a feed-forward, computed-torque loop and a feedback PID loop. As vital information for this method, the range of natural frequencies with respect to the robot’s parameters was obtained from an exact model, treating the flexible link as an Euler-Bernoulli’s beam. Using minimum a priori knowledge of the robot, the experimental results showed that the method is effective in reducing the vibration of a slewing flexible-link robot.
SMICE: A platform supports business process modeling and integration

In order to solve the problem that business user do not master the techniques to describe their purposes by IT language while IT developers can not understand the real meaning of their customers', MDA approach provides a standard mechanism that can compensate this gap between different stockholders. MDA approach may use complicate models and contain many tools and rules which is difficult for user to implement. In this article, we propose a platform SMICE based on MDA architecture and automated process. We define the Software development life cycle by using SMICE. And mapping rules and tools are introduced in each MDA level. With SMICE's help, both users and developers can cooperate and communicate better in CIM, PIM, and PSM level. At the end of this paper, we use GEF and XML to setup a SMICE prototype to implement the basic functions about defining the process logic and transferring this logic to some acceptable languages for mature process execute engines.
Voluntary Disclosures and the Firm-Value Effects of Carbon Emissions

Concern about carbon emissions, and hence concern about disclosure of carbon emission levels, has been expressed by various stakeholders, including corporate executives, boards of directors, investors, creditors, standard setters, government regulators, and NGOs. Indeed, some informed observers expect that the relationship between carbon emissions and global climate change will drive a redistribution of value from firms that do not control their carbon emissions successfully to firms that do (GS Sustain 2009). Using hand-collected carbon emissions data for 2006-2008 that S&P 500 firms disclosed voluntarily to the Carbon Disclosure Project, we examine two separate, yet related questions. The first question addresses firmand industrylevel characteristics associated with the choice to disclose carbon emissions. Consistent with economic theory, we predict and find a higher likelihood of carbon emission disclosures by firms that are more environmentally proactive. However, our results do not support our prediction, based on socio-political theories, of a higher likelihood of carbon emission disclosures by firms that are more environmentally damaging. Further, we predict and find that firms are more likely to voluntarily disclose their carbon emissions as the proportion of industry peer firm disclosers increases. To address the second question concerning the relationship between carbon emission levels and firm value, we correct for self-selection bias caused by systematic firmand industrylevel characteristics associated with the decision to disclose such emissions. We predict and find a negative association between carbon emission levels and firm value. On average, for every additional thousand metric tons of carbon emissions for our sample of S&P 500 firms, firm value decreases by $202,000. Results for sensitivity analyses and robustness tests are similar to the main results. JEL Classifications: G14, Q51, M14
Tackling the Reproducibility Problem in Systems Research with Declarative Experiment Speciﬁcations

Validating experimental results in the ﬁeld of computer systems is a challenging task, mainly due to the many changes in software and hardware that computational environments go through. Determining if an experiment is reproducible entails two separate tasks: re-executing the experiment and validating the results. Existing reproducibility efforts have focused on the former, envisioning techniques and infrastructures that make it easier to re-execute an experiment. In this work we focus on the latter by analyzing the validation workﬂow that an experiment re-executioner goes through. We notice that validating results is done on the basis of experiment design and high-level goals, rather than exact quantitative metrics. Based on this insight, we introduce a declarative format for specifying the high-level components of an experiment as well as describing generic, testable conditions that serve as the basis for validation. We present a use case in the area of storage systems to illustrate the usefulness of this approach. We also discuss limitations and potential beneﬁts of using this approach in other areas of experimental systems research.
Automatic fine-grain locking using shape properties

We present a technique for automatically adding fine-grain locking to an abstract data type that is implemented using a dynamic forest -i.e., the data structures may be mutated, even to the point of violating forestness temporarily during the execution of a method of the ADT. Our automatic technique is based on Domination Locking, a novel locking protocol. Domination locking is designed specifically for software concurrency control, and in particular is designed for object-oriented software with destructive pointer updates. Domination locking is a strict generalization of existing locking protocols for dynamically changing graphs. We show our technique can successfully add fine-grain locking to libraries where manually performing locking is extremely challenging. We show that automatic fine-grain locking is more efficient than coarse-grain locking, and obtains similar performance to hand-crafted fine-grain locking.
Mixed-Radix Fast Filter Bank Approach for the Design of Variable Digital Filters With Simultaneously Tunable Bandedge and Fractional Delay

A popular technique to design variable fractional delay (VFD) filters or variable bandedge filters is the polynomial based finite impulse response (FIR) filters, where each filter coefficient is approximated as a polynomial of the variable parameter. However, if the filter is required to have both VFD and variable bandedge, the computational complexity becomes very high, because two-dimensional polynomials have to be used, provided that the same polynomial idea is followed. In this paper, a filter bank approach is proposed for the design of VFD filters. The basic idea of the approach is to split the full band signals into subbands and each subband is, respectively, shifted by a phase, which is determined by the required fractional delay. The overall fractional delay is achieved by combining all subbands. Using this technique, the variable bandedge could be incorporated into the VFD filter with trivial extra computations. Design examples show that the proposed technique achieves high performance with low computational complexity.
Probabilistic Evaluation of Counterfactual Queries

Evaluation of counterfactual queries (e.g., "If A were true, would C have been true? ") is important to fault diagnosis, planning, and determination of liability. We present a formalism that uses probabilistic causal networks to evaluate one's belief that the counterfactual consequent, C, would have been true if the antecedent, A, were true. The antecedent of the query is interpreted as an external action that forces the proposition A to be true, which is consistent with Lewis' Miraculous Analysis. This formalism offers a concrete embodiment of the "closest world" approach which (1) properly reflects common understanding of causal influences, (2) deals with the uncertainties inherent in the world, and (3) is amenable to machine representation.
Study on the Key Technologies of Intelligent Coal Enterprises Integrated Statistical System

According to the actual situation in the integrated statistical work of Coal Enterprise in our country now, we determined using the exploitation method of combining SAD and Object Oriented by analyzing the system's function characteristic, has established the composite structure model which C/S and B/S unify. The system has realized many essential functions such as the technical specification dynamic management, the integrated information intelligence analysis, the report form continual calculation and the printing, the data balancing and so on.
Solvability of the $H^\infty$ algebraic Riccati equation in Banach algebras

Let $R$ be a commutative complex unital semisimple Banach algebra with the involution $\cdot ^\star$. Sufficient conditions are given for the existence of a stabilizing solution to the $H^\infty$ Riccati equation when the matricial data has entries from $R$. Applications to spatially distributed systems are discussed.
Missing Link: Volatility and the Debt Intolerance Paradox

A striking feature of sovereign lending is that many countries with moderate debt-to-income ratios systematically face higher spreads and more stringent borrowing constraints than others with far higher debt ratios. Earlier research has rationalized the phenomenon in terms of sovereign reputation and countries' distinct credit histories. This paper provides theoretical and empirical evidence to show that differences in underlying macroeconomic volatility are key. While volatility increases the need for international borrowing to help smooth domestic consumption, the ability to borrow is constrained by the higher default risk that volatility engenders.
Total Phenolic and Flavonoid Contents of Aqueous Extract of Stinging Nettle and In Vitro Antiproliferative Effect on Hela and BT-474 Cell Lines

Phenolic compounds including flavonoids and phenolic acids are plants secondary metabolites. Due to their ability to act as antioxidant agents, there is a growing interest to use those components in traditional medicine for cancer prevention or treatment. The aim of this study was to measure the amounts of total phenolics and flavonoids as well as anti-proliferative effect of aqueous extract of Stinging nettle on BT-474 and Hela cell lines. The amounts of phenolics content and total flavonoids were determined by folin ciocalteu and aluminium chloride methods, respectively. The free radical scavenging activity was measured by using diphenyl - picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). The reducing power of the extract was measured in the presence of potassium hexacyanoferrate and its antiproliferative activity was assessed on BT-474 and Hela cell lines using MTT assay. Total phenolic content was 322.941± 11.811 mg gallic acid/g extract. Total flavonoid content was 133.916±12.006 mg Catechin/g. The IC50 of DPPH radical was 1.2 mg/ ml and the reducing power was 218.9± 15.582 μg ascorbic acid/ g. Cell viability of BT-474 cells decreased to less than half of the control (no added extract) at the presence of 3 mg/ ml extract while no significant changes were detected for Hela cells at similar conditions. There was no significant difference in the percentage of surviving cells between consecutive days (day 1, 2 and 3) for both BT-474 and Hela cells (P>0.05). Although the relatively high amount of phenolic and flavonoid contents of the aqueous extract make this plant a promising candidate for diseases treatment; however, there is not a direct relationship between the amounts of these antioxidant components and the efficiency in in vitro cancer treatment.
Fire Detection and Fire Characterization Over Africa Using Meteosat SEVIRI

Africa is the single largest continental source of biomass burning emissions and one where emission source strengths are characterized by strong diurnal and seasonal cycles. This paper describes the development of a fire detection and characterization algorithm for generating high temporal resolution African pyrogenic emission data sets using data from the geostationary spinning enhanced visible and infrared imager (SEVIRI). The algorithm builds on a prototype approach tested previously with preoperational SEVIRI data and utilizes both spatial and spectral detection methods whose thresholds adapt contextually within and between imaging slots. Algorithm validation is carried out via comparison to data from ~800 temporally coincident moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) scenes, and performance is significantly improved over the prior algorithm version, particularly in terms of detecting low fire radiative power (FRP) signals. On a per-fire basis, SEVIRI shows a good agreement with MODIS in terms of FRP measurement, with a small (3.7 MW) bias. In comparison to regional-scale total FRP derived from MODIS, SEVIRI underestimates this by, on average, 40% to 50% due to the nondetection of many low-intensity fire pixels (FRP < 50 MW). Frequency-magnitude analysis can be used to adjust fire radiative energy estimates for this effect, and taking this and other adjustments into account, SEVIRI-derived fuel consumption estimates for southern Africa from July to October 2004 are 259-339 Tg, with emission intensity peaking after midday and reducing by more than an order of magnitude each night.
Iodine Atoms: A New Molecular Feature for the Design of Potent Transthyretin Fibrillogenesis Inhibitors

The thyroid hormone and retinol transporter protein known as transthyretin (TTR) is in the origin of one of the 20 or so known amyloid diseases. TTR self assembles as a homotetramer leaving a central hydrophobic channel with two symmetrical binding sites. The aggregation pathway of TTR into amiloid fibrils is not yet well characterized but in vitro binding of thyroid hormones and other small organic molecules to TTR binding channel results in tetramer stabilization which prevents amyloid formation in an extent which is proportional to the binding constant. Up to now, TTR aggregation inhibitors have been designed looking at various structural features of this binding channel others than its ability to host iodine atoms. In the present work, greatly improved inhibitors have been designed and tested by taking into account that thyroid hormones are unique in human biochemistry owing to the presence of multiple iodine atoms in their molecules which are probed to interact with specific halogen binding domains sitting at the TTR binding channel. The new TTR fibrillogenesis inhibitors are based on the diflunisal core structure because diflunisal is a registered salicylate drug with NSAID activity now undergoing clinical trials for TTR amyloid diseases. Biochemical and biophysical evidence confirms that iodine atoms can be an important design feature in the search for candidate drugs for TTR related amyloidosis.
Online three‐dimensional SLAM by registration of large planar surface segments and closed‐form pose‐graph relaxation

A fast pose‐graph relaxation technique is presented for enhancing the consistency of three‐dimensional (3D) maps created by registering large planar surface patches. The surface patches are extracted from point clouds sampled from a 3D range sensor. The plane‐based registration method offers an alternative to the state‐of‐the‐art algorithms and provides advantages in terms of robustness, speed, and storage. One of its features is that it results in an accurate determination of rotation, although a lack of predominant surfaces in certain directions may result in translational uncertainty in those directions. Hence, a loop‐closing and relaxation problem is formulated that gains significant speed by relaxing only the translational errors and utilizes the full‐translation covariance determined during pairwise registration. This leads to a fast 3D simultaneous localization and mapping suited for online operations. The approach is tested in two disaster scenarios that were mapped at the NIST 2008 Response Robot Evaluation Exercise in Disaster City, Texas. The two data sets from a collapsed car park and a flooding disaster consist of 26 and 70 3D scans, respectively. The results of these experiments show that our approach can generate 3D maps without motion estimates by odometry and that it outperforms iterative closest point–based mapping with respect to speed and robustness. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Fast and Robust 3D Feature Extraction Algorithm for Structured Environment Reconstruction

This paper describes an algorithm for generating compact feature-based 3D models of indoor environments with a mobile robot. The emphasis lies on the high performance of the algorithm, its possible incremental use, as well as its wide applicability to a variety of sensors as it does not assume any structure in the raw data at all. It recovers planar surfaces of physical environments based on a set of unorganized points and generates a compact, real-time renderable 3D model.
Board Task Evolution: A Longitudinal Field Study in the UK

Manuscript Type. Empirical. Research Question/Issue. Several studies have investigated the antecedents of board tasks but there are disagreements about the number of tasks, their content and how they are operationalized. Moreover, the question of how board tasks evolve is under‐researched. This study seeks to map the patterns of board tasks over time and the contingent conditions under which they evolve. Research Findings/Insights. By means of a longitudinal observation study of six UK boards, this study shows how board task profiles can be categorized according to (1) the range of tasks boards engage with, (2) the degree and mode of adaptability of board tasks to changing strategic contexts, and (c) the extent to which boards are passive. Theoretical/Academic Implications. Traditional governance theories such as agency and resource‐dependency perspectives provide insights to the content of board tasks, but do not explain how and why these tasks change. Combining traditional conceptualizations of board tasks with a process‐based theoretical lens offers new insights into board tasks and how effectively they are performed. Practitioner/Policy Implications. The results show how boards can better structure their activities to make effective use of scarce meeting time. Activities such as dissemination of information should be curtailed to leave more room for board debate on strategic issues. The study also highlights how board evaluations may benefit from having a “fly‐on‐the‐wall” observer.