Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Se p 20 06 Probing Non-Integer Dimensions

Suppose that the velocity field is inversely proportional to the radial distance, v = Q 2πr . Such a divergenceless field is natural in two dimensions and is generated by a point sink (or source) of strength Q in an incompressible fluid. This flow field has the remarkable property that the convection term can be absorbed into the diffusion operator by an appropriate shift of the spatial dimension. Indeed, the density satisfies
Enabling Flexible Network FPGA Clusters in a Heterogeneous Cloud Data Center

We present a framework for creating network FPGA clusters in a heterogeneous cloud data center. The FPGA clusters are created using a logical kernel description describing how a group of FPGA kernels are to be connected (independent of which FPGA these kernels are on), and an FPGA mapping file. The kernels within a cluster can be replicated with simple directives within this framework. The FPGAs can communicate to any other network device in the data center, including CPUs, GPUs, and IoT devices (such as sensors). This heterogeneous cloud manages these devices with the use of OpenStack. We observe that our infrastructure is limited due to the physical infrastructure such as the 1~Gb Ethernet connection. Our framework however can be ported to other physical infrastructures. We tested our infrastructure with a database acceleration application. This application was replicated six times across three FPGAs within our cluster and we observed a throughput increase of six times as this scaled linearly. Our framework generates the OpenStack calls needed to reserve the compute devices, creates the network connections (and retrieve MAC addresses), generate the bitstreams, programs the devices, and configure the devices with the appropriate MAC addresses, creating a ready-to-use network device that can interact with any other network device in the data center.
Quipper: a scalable quantum programming language

The field of quantum algorithms is vibrant. Still, there is currently a lack of programming languages for describing quantum computation on a practical scale, i.e., not just at the level of toy problems. We address this issue by introducing Quipper, a scalable, expressive, functional, higher-order quantum programming language. Quipper has been used to program a diverse set of non-trivial quantum algorithms, and can generate quantum gate representations using trillions of gates. It is geared towards a model of computation that uses a classical computer to control a quantum device, but is not dependent on any particular model of quantum hardware. Quipper has proven effective and easy to use, and opens the door towards using formal methods to analyze quantum algorithms.
An in-vivo study on the difference between principal and cardiac strains

Regional myocardial deformation is an important parameter for the assessment of regional myocardial function. As such, ultrasound methods have been proposed to estimate myocardial strain non-invasively in one, two or - more recently - in three dimensions. Although strain is most often reported in a local cardiac coordinate system (radial, longitudinal, circumferential), its calculation implies that these directions are known. As this typically requires (manual) segmentation of the myocardium, authors sometimes report on the principal strains instead as they can simply be obtained through diagonalization of the strain tensor. The assumption made is that the normal cardiac strain components are close to the principal strains but this has not explicitly been tested. The aim of this study was therefore to quantify the difference in strain values obtained in both the principal and cardiac coordinate systems and to define the average position of both coordinate systems with respect to each other in an in-vivo setting.
Optically Controlled Metamorphic Antenna

Abstract The suitability of photoconducting semiconductors for switches in metamorphic (reconfigurable) segmented antennas was investigated. Optically activated switches offer the benefit that metallic bias lines, which could affect antenna performance if included on the antenna plane, are not required. Bowtie antennas were designed and modelled; results indicating a broad frequency coverage, formed from switching between narrower contiguous bands, were obtained. First simple evaluation structures incorporating photoconducting semiconductors were designed and fabricated. Optically activated changes in microwave properties (S 11 and S 12 ) were measured. Introduction This paper summarises work from the second year of an EMRS DTC project on metamorphic antennas. Work in the first year was based on an antenna concept comprising a photoconducting layer behind which is a pixellated light source. The pixellated light source is addressable and reconfigurable, creating different patterns of high conductivity on the photoconductor. These define different antenna shapes, to give changeable antenna properties [1]. Work focussed on establishing the attainable performance of photoconducting layers and comparing it against the needs of optically addressed metamorphic antennas. This was undertaken by: (a) fabricating and assessing photoconducting CdS/CdSe layers; (b) defining the performance needed from the photoconductor through electromagnetic modelling. It was concluded that the realisation of a metamorphic antenna, using a low cost photoconductive layer under realistic levels of illumination, would be extremely difficult to achieve. This is because the photoconductivity is low if the large area fabrication techniques (such as thick film deposition) needed for antenna applications are used. A porous morphology limited the maximum conductivity obtainable [1]. Consequently a different approach to implement a metamorphic antenna was investigated in the second year of the project. In this approach small area semiconductors were used as switches between the conducting elements of segmented apertures or antennas (as illustrated in Figure 4). Altering the combination of ON and OFF switch settings creates different antenna shapes with correspondingly different antenna properties. By using small areas of photoconducting semiconductor this later approach offers two advantages over the earlier, large-area, photoconducting layer approach: firstly a monocrystal semiconductor can be used, providing high mobility and conductivity; secondly the total optical power requirement for switching should be considerably reduced. A metamorphic antenna would primarily offer future systems a rapidly and electronically reconfigurable antenna providing: (a) wide frequency coverage
Development of a unified creep-fatigue equation including heat treatment

Background Creep and fatigue damages in metals are known to interact and then lead to aggregated damage. While models exist for fatigue, creep and creep-fatigue, no models cover all 3 load regimes. Also, a heat treatment–related parameter is not well included in most creep-fatigue models. Need There is a need to develop a creep-fatigue equation, which covers the full loading regime from pure fatigue to pure creep, and creep-fatigue. Also needed is inclusion of a heat treatment–related parameter. Approach The unified creep-fatigue equation was started from the Coffin-Manson equation and integrated with the Manson-Haferd parameter. This equation was validated on Inconel 718. Outcomes The method of deriving the coefficients and the formula of the creep function are demonstrated, and the resulting equation shows a good ability to describe the grain-size effect and the fully integrated characteristics. Originality Original contributions of this work are the development of a new formulation to represent creep, fatigue and creep-fatigue in metals. Also the inclusion of grain size—which is a proxy for heat treatment—in the formulation of this equation and in a proposed modified Manson-Haferd parameter.
A Physically-Based Approach to Reflection Separation: From Physical Modeling to Constrained Optimization

We propose a physically-based approach to separate reflection using multiple polarized images with a background scene captured behind glass. The input consists of three polarized images, each captured from the same view point but with a different polarizer angle separated by 45 degrees. The output is the high-quality separation of the reflection and background layers from each of the input images. A main technical challenge for this problem is that the mixing coefficient for the reflection and background layers depends on the angle of incidence and the orientation of the plane of incidence, which are spatially varying over the pixels of an image. Exploiting physical properties of polarization for a double-surfaced glass medium, we propose a multiscale scheme which automatically finds the optimal separation of the reflection and background layers. Through experiments, we demonstrate that our approach can generate superior results to those of previous methods.
Sparse Tensor Factorization with Alternating Least Squares

Tensors are data structures indexed along three or more dimensions. Tensors have found increasing use in domains such as data mining and recommender systems where dimensions can have enormous length and are resultingly very sparse. The canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD) is a popular tensor factorization for discovering latent features and is most commonly found via the method of alternating least squares (CPD-ALS). Factoring large, sparse tensors is a computationally challenging task which can no longer be done in the memory of a typical workstation. State of the art methods for distributed memory systems have focused on distributing the tensor in a one-dimensional (1D) fashion that prohibitively requires the dense matrix factors to be fully replicated on each node. To that effect, we present DMS, a novel distributed CPD-ALS algorithm. DMS uses a 3D decomposition that avoids complete factor replication and communication. DMS has a hybrid MPI+OpenMP implementation that exploits multi-core architectures with a low memory footprint. We theoretically evaluate DMS against leading CPD-ALS methods and experimentally compare them across a variety of datasets. Our 3D decomposition reduces communication volume by 74% on average and is over 35x faster than state of the art MPI code on a tensor with 1.7 billion nonzeros.
Tooth Surface Loss and Associated Risk Factors in Northern Saudi Arabia

Aim. To evaluate tooth surface loss (TSL) severity and associated risk factors in a representative sample of Saudi adults. Materials and Methods. Four hundred TSL patients (200 females and 200 males) participated in this study. Each patient completed a comprehensive questionnaire interview (using a modified Tooth wear Assessment Questionnaire) and then examined for the severity of TSL (using ordinal scale). Results. Seventy-five percent of participants demonstrated attrition, 90% had erosion, 15% had abrasion, and 95% had more than one type of TSL. The most common risk factors were consumption of acidic food/drinks (78%), parafunctional habits (70%), and unilateral chewing (50%). 77% of participants demonstrated grade 2 TSL. Males demonstrated greater TSL severity (P ≤ 0.05). Age, systemic disease, number of remaining teeth, acidic food/drinks, bruxism/parafunction, biting objects, facial pain/tenderness, sour taste, exposure to dust, unilateral chewing, using dental abrasives, and brushing frequency/technique had significant relationship with TSL severity (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions. TSL has a multifactorial aetiology. Parafunction, gastrointestinal problems, and diet were the most common aetiological factors reflecting changes to stressful modern life-styles, eating/drinking habits, and behaviours. Gender didn't influence the aetiology of TSL; however males demonstrated more TSL severity. Patients' age had significant correlation to TSL severity.
An Average-Performance-Oriented Subthreshold Processor Self-Timed by Memory Read Completion

A self-timed subthreshold processor was developed in 65-nm complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor process. This four-stage reduced instruction set computer processor synchronously operates with the memory read completion signal produced in 8.5-kb instruction and 2-kb data memories of subthreshold 10T static random-access memory. Measurement results show that the processor correctly functions from 0.56 to 0.36 V with a self-timed clock and achieves minimum energy per cycle of 3.47 pJ/cycle at 0.46-V supply voltage with 1.76-MHz average frequency. Compared with conventional synchronous operation with guardbanding, the proposed self-timed operation reduces the execution time of SHA-1 by 82% at 0.4-V supply voltage and saves energy by 40% to attain 1-MHz operation.
The Application of Bactericidal Silver Nanoparticles in Wound Treatment

Even with the prevalence of wounds, the medical technology for efficiently managing skin damage is still primitive. The disruption of any of the numerous healing processes can lead to problems in the time-sensitive healing actions of the dermal and epidermal layers. Bacterial infection is one of the major obstacles to proper wound healing as it poses a danger of causing long-term negative effects. Keeping the wound free of bacteria is imperative to the proper and hasty repair of dermal wounds. Silver has been widely used to treat wounds for its bactericidal properties. Although the mechanism of silver's antibacterial action is not fully understood, it exhibits a significant antimicrobial efficacy against a wide spectrum of bacterial species. A number of different approaches to the mechanism are reported and presented in this review. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been reported to exhibit enhanced antibacterial activity due to their increased surface-area-to-volume ratio. AgNPs are capable of various modifications, significantly broadening the therapeutic properties of the material as a result. This review explores the different aspects of silver and silver nanoparticles, and their antibacterial properties, which can be applied in the field of wound treatments.
Hyperexpression of the gene for a Bacillus alpha-amylase in Bacillus subtilis cells: enzymatic properties and crystallization of the recombinant enzyme.

We have constructed a new excretion vector, pHSP64, to develop a hyperexcretion system for Bacillus subtilis [Sumitomo et al., Biosci. Biotech. Biochem. , 59, 2172-2175 (1995)]. The structural gene for a novel liquefying semi-alkaline alpha-amylase from the alkaliphilic Bacillus sp. KSM-1378 was amplified by PCR. It was cloned into a SalI-SmaI site of pHSP64 and the recombinant plasmid obtained was introduced into B. subtilis. The transformed B. subtilis hyperproduced the alpha-amylase activity extracellularly, corresponding to approximately 1.0 g (5 x 10(6) units) per liter of an optimized liquid culture. The recombinant enzyme was purified to homogeneity by a simple purification procedure with very high yield. No significant differences in physiochemical and catalytic properties were observed between the recombinant enzyme and the native enzyme produced by Bacillus sp. KSM-1378. The enzymatic properties of the recombinant enzyme were further examined with respect to the responses to various metal ions. The recombinant enzyme could easily be crystallized at room temperature within one day in a buffered solution of 10% (w/v) ammonium sulfate (pH 6.5).
Modeling and analysis of voltage-dependent photo and dark current characteristics of Bulk Heterojunction organic solar cells

Over the past decade, bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells based on blends of conjugated polymers and fullerene derivatives (e.g., P3HT:PCBM blend) have drawn a huge attention in research due to their high conversion efficiency, solution-based easy fabrication, and abundant availability. Although presently BHJ cells show a reasonable power conversion efficiency (almost 10 %), further efficiency improvements/optimizations seem very likely by better understanding the operating principles through accurate physics-based modeling and optimizations. In this thesis, a physics-based explicit mathematical model for the external voltage-dependent forward dark current in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells is developed by considering Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination and solving the continuity equations for both electrons and holes with proper boundary conditions. An analytical model for the external voltage-dependent photocurrent in BHJ organic solar cells is also proposed by incorporating exponential photon absorption, dissociation efficiency of bound electron-hole pairs (EHPs), carrier trapping, and carrier drift and diffusion in the photon absorption layer. Modified Braun’s model is used to compute the electric field-dependent dissociation efficiency of the bound EHPs. The overall net current is calculated considering the actual solar spectrum. The mathematical models are verifield by comparing the model calculations with various published experimental results. We analyze the effects of the contact properties, blend compositions, charge carrier transport properties (carrier mobility and lifetime), and cell design on the current-voltage characteristics. The power conversion efficiency of BHJ organic solar cells mostly depends on electron transport properties (both the mobility and lifetime) of the acceptor layer. The results of this paper indicate that improvement of charge carrier transport (both mobility and lifetime) and dissociation of bound EHPs in organic blend are critically important to increase the power conversion efficiency of the BHJ solar cells.
Polymorphism of human alpha fucosidase.

A common polymorphism of human alpha fucosidase has been detected by the technique of isoelectric focusing on thin layer acrylamide gel. Family studies have shown that the three common phenotypes Fu 1, Fu 2, and Fu 2-1 represent homozygosity or heterozygosity for two autosomal codominat alleles, Fu1 and Fu2. Frequencies of the Fu1 and Fu2 alleles in the New York populations studied were . 753 and . 247 among whites and . 926 and . 074 among blacks, respectively.
Improving cellular capacity with white space offloading

With growing data demand and the current dearth of spectrum, mobile operators are looking for new frequency bands to satisfy data-hungry users. One promising avenue of expansion is TV white spaces, which are currently available to secondary users as long as they do not interfere with primary (i.e., incumbent) users. In this work, we explore the benefits of offloading cellular traffic onto TV white spaces. We develop an analytical model and efficient algorithms to assign users to the cellular network or white space channels by considering their channel gains, multi-user interference on white space channels, and the cost of switching between different networks. We perform extensive data-driven simulations in two representative urban scenarios based on publicly available datasets. Our results show that white spaces can increase capacity by 16–62%, depending on the environment, but careful network selection is necessary to ensure that maximum capacity gains are realized. Moreover, we show that white spaces provide a significant benefit in serving indoor users where cellular channel conditions are poor. Specifically, our algorithms can offload up to 40% of cellular traffic to white spaces for indoor scenarios.
Adverse childhood events and psychosis in bipolar affective disorder

Background There has been increasing interest in the association between childhood trauma and psychosis. Proposals for potential mechanisms involved include affective dysregulation and cognitive appraisals of threat. Aims To establish if, within bipolar disorder, childhood events show a significant association with psychosis, and in particular with symptoms driven by dysregulation of mood or with a persecutory content. Method Data on lifetime-ever presence of psychotic symptoms were determined by detailed structured interview with case-note review (n = 2019). Childhood events were recorded using a self-report questionnaire and case-note information. Results There was no relationship between childhood events, or childhood abuse, and psychosis per se. Childhood events were not associated with an increased risk of persecutory or other delusions. Significant associations were found between childhood abuse and auditory hallucinations, strongest between sexual abuse and mood congruent or abusive voices. These relationships remain significant even after controlling for lifetime-ever cannabis misuse. Conclusions Within affective disorder, the relationship between childhood events and psychosis appears to be relatively symptom-specific. It is possible that the pathways leading to psychotic symptoms differ, with delusions and non-hallucinatory symptoms being influenced less by childhood or early environmental experience.
A stochastic structural stability theory model of the drift wave–zonal flow system

A remarkable phenomenon in turbulent flows is the spontaneous emergence of coherent large spatial scale zonal jets. In this work a comprehensive theory for the interaction of jets with turbulence, stochastic structural stability theory, is applied to the problem of understanding the formation and maintenance of the zonal jets that are crucial for enhancing plasma confinement in fusion devices.
Dietary supplementation of Digestarom® herbal formulation: effect on apparent digestibility, faecal and caecal microbial counts and live performance of growing rabbits.

The experiment aimed to study the effect of Digestarom® dietary inclusion (herbal formulation containing a mixture of essential oils, herbs, spices and extracts) on apparent digestibility and digestive ecosystem of growing rabbits, as well as the effects of its supplementation before and after weaning on growth performance. At kindling, rabbit does and litters were divided into 2 dietary groups (51 does/group) and fed either a control diet (C) or a diet supplemented with 300 mg Digestarom®/kg diet (D) until weaning, which occurred at 35 d (before weaning supplementation). Each group was further divided into 3 dietary groups: CC received the control diet and DD received the D diet from 5 to 12 wk of age, and DC were fed with D (from 5 to 8 wk of age) and C diets (from 8 to 12 wk of age) (after weaning supplementation; 54 kits/group). An in vivo digestibility trial and a faecal microbial count were carried out on growing rabbits that received only the C or D diets during the trial. The C group showed higher DM intake than D group (215 vs. 196 g/d; P<0.05). The faecal digestibility of ether extract (75.9 vs. 59.8%; P<0.001), cellulose (25.9 vs. 20.6%; P<0.05) and gross energy (51.8 vs. 49.1%; P<0.05) was higher for C than for D group, whereas that of starch (98.9 vs. 98.8%; P<0.001) and the digestible protein to digestible energy ratio (13.9 vs. 13.2 g digestible protein/MJ digestible energy; P<0.01) was the highest for rabbits fed D diet. Stomach and caecal pH, caecal and faecal microbial counts were independent of the dietary treatment. The only exception was the stomach pH in 8 wk-old rabbits, which had the lowest value in C rabbits (P<0.05). The D supplementation before weaning improved feed conversion ratio throughout the growing phase (4.3 vs. 4.4 for D and C, respectively; P<0.05), whereas significant differences in daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and mortality were observed only in the first period after weaning. Based on the results obtained, dietary supplementation with Digestarom® does not seem to confirm the positive results previously reported for growing rabbits.