Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Low-Cost UHF RFID System With OCA Tag for Short-Range Communication

An ultrahigh-frequency RF identification system, consisting of a fully integrated tag and a special reader, has been developed for short-range and harsh size requirement applications. The system is fabricated in the standard 0.18-μm CMOS process. The whole tag chip with an antenna, an analog front end, a baseband, and memory takes up an area of 0.36 mm2, which is smaller than other reported tags with an on-chip antenna (OCA) using the standard CMOS process. A self-defined protocol is proposed to reduce the power consumption and minimize the size of the tag. A specialized system-on-a-chip reader system, consisting of RF transceiver, digital baseband, MCU, and host interface, supports both the self-defined and International Standards Organization 18000-6 C protocols. Its power consumption is about 500 mW, which is much lower than other reported readers considering the transmission power. Measurement results show that the system's reading range is 2 mm with a 20-dBm reader output power. In addition, it has been verified that the data stored in the OCA tag embedded in a pearl can be successfully read out. With an inductive antenna printed on a paper substrate around the OCA tag, the reading range can be extended from several centimeters to meters depending on the shape and size of the inductive antenna.
Robust flash deblurring

Motion blur due to camera shake is an annoying yet common problem in low-light photography. In this paper, we propose a novel method to recover a sharp image from a pair of motion blurred and flash images, consecutively captured using a hand-held camera. We first introduce a robust flash gradient constraint by exploiting the correlation between a sharp image and its corresponding flash image. Then we formulate our flash deblurring as solving a maximum-a-posteriori problem under the flash gradient constraint. We solve the problem by performing kernel estimation and non-blind deconvolution iteratively, leading to an accurate blur kernel and a reconstructed image with fine image details. Experiments on both synthetic and real images show the superiority of our method compared with existing methods.
You want to survive the data deluge: Be careful, Computational Intelligence will not serve you as a rescue boat

We are at the dawn of a new era, where advances in computer power, broadband communication and digital sensor technologies have led to an unprecedented flood of data inundating our surrounding. It is generally believed that means such as Computational Intelligence will help to outlive these tough times. However, these hopes are improperly high. Computational Intelligence is a surprising composition of two mutually exclusive and contradicting constituents that could be coupled only if you disregard and neglect their controversies: "Computational" implies reliance on data processing and "Intelligence" implies reliance on information processing. Only those who are indifferent to data-information discrepancy can believe that such a combination can be viable. We do not believe in miracles, so we will try to share with you our reservations.
Connectome-based Models Predict Separable Components of Attention in Novel Individuals

Although we typically talk about attention as a single process, it comprises multiple independent components. But what are these components, and how are they represented in the functional organization of the brain? To investigate whether long-studied components of attention are reflected in the brain's intrinsic functional organization, here we apply connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) to predict the components of Posner and Petersen's influential model of attention: alerting (preparing and maintaining alertness and vigilance), orienting (directing attention to a stimulus), and executive control (detecting and resolving cognitive conflict) [Posner, M. I. , & Petersen, S. E. The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42, 1990]. Participants performed the Attention Network Task (ANT), which measures these three factors, and rested during fMRI scanning. CPMs tested with leave-one-subject-out cross-validation successfully predicted novel individual's overall ANT accuracy, RT variability, and executive control scores from functional connectivity observed during ANT performance. CPMs also generalized to predict participants' alerting scores from their resting-state functional connectivity alone, demonstrating that connectivity patterns observed in the absence of an explicit task contain a signature of the ability to prepare for an upcoming stimulus. Suggesting that significant variance in ANT performance is also explained by an overall sustained attention factor, the sustained attention CPM, a model defined in prior work to predict sustained attentional abilities, predicted accuracy, RT variability, and executive control from task-based data and predicted RT variability from resting-state data. Our results suggest that, whereas executive control may be closely related to sustained attention, the infrastructure that supports alerting is distinct and can be measured at rest. In the future, CPM may be applied to elucidate additional independent components of attention and relationships between the functional brain networks that predict them.
Correlates of Body Image of Undergraduate Females Attending Andrews University

Problem: Literature on the relationship between ethnic identity and body image has been scarce, focusing almost entirely on the Asian and/or Hispanic population. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence that ethnic identity has on the body image of undergraduate females. Method: In the present study, I explored the extent to which body image is related to ethnicity in a diverse sample of 345 undergraduate females (43.5% Caucasian American, 17.4% African American, 9.3% West Indian/Caribbean, 14.8% Hispanic American, 12.5%, Asian American, & 2.6% Multi-ethnic) from a Seventh-day Adventist university. Possible correlates of body dissatisfaction such as ethnic identity, religious commitment, sociocultural pressure, and internalization of the thinness ideal were also explored. Results: Results of this study indicated that low ratings on Sociocultural Pressure and Internalization of the Thinness Ideal were related to positive body image perceptions. As a whole, undergraduate females in this study presented with a positive body image. Specifically, the women expressed positive feelings about their bodies, had lower preoccupation with their weight, classified their weight as "normal," and were moderately satisfied with all areas of their body. In terms of ethnic identity, the females in this study had low interest and little awareness of their own ethnicity. As seen in previous research, the only significant correlates of body image that emerged in this study were sociocultural pressure and internalization of the thinness ideal. Conclusions: Body image concerns of undergraduate females may not be as prevalent as once thought. Females are displaying greater body satisfaction than in the recent past. Differences in body dissatisfaction among the Seventh-day Adventist sample including various ethnic groups are becoming non-existent. This may be due to the Seventh-day Adventist culture serving as a protective factor against body image dissatisfaction. Another possible explanation is the increased emphasis on social media.
Biosensors - classification, characterization and new trends

Biosensors - classification, characterization and new trends Biosensors represent promising analytical tools applicable in areas such as clinical diagnosis, food industry, environment monitoring and in other fields, where rapid and reliable analyses are needed. Some biosensors were successfully implemented in the commercial sphere, but majority needs to be improved in order to overcome some imperfections. This review covers the basic types, principles, constructions and use of biosensors as well as new trends used for their fabrication.
Push-and-pull switching: window switching based on window overlapping

We propose Push-and-Pull Switching, a window switching technique using window overlapping to implicitly define groups. Push-and-Pull Switching enables switching between groups and restacking the focused window to any position to change its group membership. The technique was evaluated in an experiment which found that Push-and-Pull Switching improves switching performance by more than 50% compared to other switching techniques in different scenarios. A longitudinal user study indicates that participants invoked this switching technique 15% of the time on single monitor displays and that they found it easy to understand and use.
Immunological detection of ECTO‐atpase in chicken and rat tissues: Characterization, distribution, and a cautionary note

We have generated a polyclonal antibody (CKG2) against native chicken gizzard ecto‐ATPase for immunolocalization and immunoprecipitation. Active ecto‐ATPase is immunoprecipitated from solubilized chicken and rat membranes and shown to be localized to the plasma membrane of the chicken smooth muscle cells. This antibody is specific for the ecto‐ATPases, since the more abundant chicken stomach ecto‐apyrase is not recognized in immunoprecipitation, western blot or immunolocalization analyses. The CKG2 antibody cross‐reacts with mammalian (rat) ecto‐ATPase in western blots, with testis being the most abundant source. Interestingly, when the same rat membranes are analyzed by western blot under non‐reducing conditions, the 66 kDa ecto‐ATPase is not recognized, instead a 200 kDa protein is detected, previously postulated to be an oligomer of ecto‐ATPase. However, this 200 kDa cross‐reacting protein is not related to the ecto‐ATPases, but is instead an immunoglobulin binding protein, comprised of 50 kDa subunits.
Synchrony detection and amplification by silicon neurons with STDP synapses

Spike-timing dependent synaptic plasticity (STDP) is a form of plasticity driven by precise spike-timing differences between presynaptic and postsynaptic spikes. Thus, the learning rules underlying STDP are suitable for learning neuronal temporal phenomena such as spike-timing synchrony. It is well known that weight-independent STDP creates unstable learning processes resulting in balanced bimodal weight distributions. In this paper, we present a neuromorphic analog very large scale integration (VLSI) circuit that contains a feedforward network of silicon neurons with STDP synapses. The learning rule implemented can be tuned to have a moderate level of weight dependence. This helps stabilise the learning process and still generates binary weight distributions. From on-chip learning experiments we show that the chip can detect and amplify hierarchical spike-timing synchrony structures embedded in noisy spike trains. The weight distributions of the network emerging from learning are bimodal.
Genetic Control of Water and Nitrate Capture and Their Use Efficiency in Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)

Robustness in lettuce, defined as the ability to produce stable yields across a wide range of environments, may be associated with below-ground traits such as water and nitrate capture. In lettuce, research on the role of root traits in resource acquisition has been rather limited. Exploring genetic variation for such traits and shoot performance in lettuce across environments can contribute to breeding for robustness. A population of 142 lettuce cultivars was evaluated during two seasons (spring and summer) in two different locations under organic cropping conditions, and water and nitrate capture below-ground and accumulation in the shoots were assessed at two sampling dates. Resource capture in each soil layer was measured using a volumetric method based on fresh and dry weight difference in the soil for soil moisture, and using an ion-specific electrode for nitrate. We used these results to carry out an association mapping study based on 1170 single nucleotide polymorphism markers. We demonstrated that our indirect, high-throughput phenotyping methodology was reliable and capable of quantifying genetic variation in resource capture. QTLs for below-ground traits were not detected at early sampling. Significant marker-trait associations were detected across trials for below-ground and shoot traits, in number and position varying with trial, highlighting the importance of the growing environment on the expression of the traits measured. The difficulty of identifying general patterns in the expression of the QTLs for below-ground traits across different environments calls for a more in-depth analysis of the physiological mechanisms at root level allowing sustained shoot growth.
Erythrocyte segmentation for quantification in microscopic images of thin blood smears

Manual analyzing and interpreting of the microscopic images of thin blood smears for diagnosis of the malaria is a tedious and challenging task. This paper aims to develop a computer assisted system for quantiﬁcation of erythrocytes in microscopic images of thin blood smears. The proposed method consists of preprocessing, segmentation, morphological ﬁltering, cell separation and clump cell segmentation. The major issues, required to be addressed to enhance the performance of the system are cell separation (i.e. isolated and clump erythrocytes classiﬁcation) and clump cell segmentation. The geometric features such as cell area, compactness ratio and aspect ratio have been used to deﬁne the feature set. Further, the performance of the system in classifying the isolated and clump erythrocytes is evaluated for the different classiﬁers such as Naive Bayes, k -NN and SVM. Moreover, the clump erythrocytes are segmented using marker controlled watershed with h-minima as internal marker. Based on the experimental results, it may be concluded that the proposed model provides satisfactory results with an accuracy of 98.02% in comparison to the state of art method.
Long duration real-time acoustic monitoring of Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) in Mahakam river in Borneo

Targeting some Irrawaddy dolphin groups that frequently migrate from Lake Semayang to up/down-stream of the river through the tributary and the confluence in the middle-river district of the Mahakam river in Borneo, the long duration real-time acoustic monitoring using a PAM (Passive Acoustic Monitoring) system using arrays of hydrophones at the stationary observatory has been conducted since 2011. After the second monitoring phase was terminated due to lightning damage in October 2013, the recording system was trimmed down to a three-hydrophone array system that can measure the direction of the sound source to monitor the dolphins' migration behavior in a long-term span. To answer the questions such as: How often and when do they migrate from Lake Semayang to up/down-stream of the river through the tributary, the statistical data analysis using the dolphins' direction data recorded from the first and second monitoring phases and uploaded to the database was initially carried out for understanding their diel/daily/monthly/seasonal migration trends. The results confirmed that the statistical analysis using the data acquired by the long duration acoustic monitoring could reveal the answers to the above questions: “how often and when”. Answering the further question: “What is the main factor in their migration changes? ”- is the next step of the study.
AUTOMATED ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURAL MRI DATA

Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Dept. of Neurology, Division of Brain Mapping, 4238 Reed Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1769 Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892-1600 Dept. of Psychology, UCLA College of Letters and Science, and Depts. of Psychiatry and Human Genetics, UCLA School of Medicine, Franz Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563
Embodied models as simulated users: introduction to this special issue on using cognitive models to improve interface design

Abstract Cognitive models provide a means for applying what is known from psychology to the design of interfaces, thereby improving their quality and usability. Existing uses of models include predicting time and errors for users to perform tasks, acting as embedded assistants to help users perform their tasks, and serving as surrogate users. Treating the design of human–computer interfaces as a form of engineering design requires the development and application of user models. A recent trend is for models to be built within the fixed framework of a cognitive architecture, which has been extended by the addition of simulated eyes and hands, enabling the construction of embodied models. Being embodied allows models to interact directly with interfaces. The resulting models can be used to evaluate the interfaces they use, and serve as explanations of users' behavior. The papers in this Special Issue point to a new route for the future, one in which models built within embodied cognitive architectures provide information for the design of better interfaces.
On the Formulation of a Structural Model of the Mobility Table

The note explores the implications of alternative formulations of the Hauser structural model of the mobility table. The structural model of the mobility table proposed by Hauser (a, b; Featherman and Hauser) has been recognized as a fruitful analysis device. This note discusses the formulation of the model, and suggests that a description in terms of odds-ratios may have advantages over the notion of levels or densities. We have no quarrel with the model in itself (though the argument will imply a certain skepticism of the sharp divide Hauser sees between his and traditional models) but our discussion may restrict the kinds of things that should be said about the model. Since addition is, by tradition, more transparent than multiplication we present the arithmetic in logarithms, not raw values, though nothing hangs on this. The structural model then can be written: F=j = m + at + bi + Vk (1) where Fij are fitted values, and the settings of k are determined by the particular values of i and j (and are most conveniently presented in tabular form). For the mobility table considered in Featherman and Hauser (14759) we are given the suggested arrangement of levels in Table 1A, yielding the parameter estimates in Table 1B. The authors treat the grouping of cells by density "levels" as interpretable categorizations. For example, they remark: "it is worth noting that four of the five density levels recognized in the model occur along the main diagonal" (151), and state: "Differences between level parameters may readily be interpreted as differences in logs of frequencies, net of row and column effects . the estimates say that immobility in farm occupations is 3.40 . greater . than the estimated mobility or immobility in cells assigned to Level 5" (156). Consider now the *I am grateful to J. H. Goldthorpe, J. A. Mirrlees, and J. M. Ridge for discussion. The manuscript was submitted in January 1981. I 1981 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/81iO20557-71$01.50
Orthogonal Rank-One Matrix Pursuit for Low Rank Matrix Completion

In this paper, we propose an efficient and scalable low rank matrix completion algorithm. The key idea is to extend the orthogonal matching pursuit method from the vector case to the matrix case. We further propose an economic version of our algorithm by introducing a novel weight updating rule to reduce the time and storage complexity. Both versions are computationally inexpensive for each matrix pursuit iteration and find satisfactory results in a few iterations. Another advantage of our proposed algorithm is that it has only one tunable parameter, which is the rank. It is easy to understand and to use by the user. This becomes especially important in large-scale learning problems. In addition, we rigorously show that both versions achieve a linear convergence rate, which is significantly better than the previous known results. We also empirically compare the proposed algorithms with several state-of-the-art matrix completion algorithms on many real-world datasets, including the large-scale recommendati.
Probing Structures of Distant Extrasolar Planets with Microlensing

Planetary companions to the source stars of a caustic-crossing binary microlensing events can be detected via the deviation from the parent light curves created when the caustic magnifies the starlight reflecting off the atmosphere or surface of the planets. The magnitude of the deviation is δp ~ ϵpρ, where ϵp is the fraction of starlight reflected by the planet and ρp is the angular radius of the planet in units of the angular Einstein ring radius. Because of the extraordinarily high resolution achieved during the caustic crossing, the detailed shapes of these perturbations are sensitive to fine structures on and around the planets. We consider the signatures of rings, satellites, and atmospheric features on caustic-crossing microlensing light curves. We find that, for reasonable assumptions, rings produce deviations of the order of 10%δp, whereas satellites, spots, and zonal bands produce deviations of the order of 1%δp. We consider the detectability of these features using current and future telescopes and find that, with very large apertures (>30 m), ring systems may be detectable, whereas spots, satellites, and zonal bands will generally be difficult to detect. We also present a short discussion of the stability of rings around close-in planets, noting that rings are likely to be lost to Poynting-Robertson drag on a timescale of the order of 105 yr, unless they are composed of large (≫1 cm) particles or are stabilized by satellites.
Playful mobile communication: Services supporting the culture of play

Communication has many functions; from linguistics to social psychology, there is ample evidence that communication fundamentally defines our ways of being, which is the reason changes in communicational practices and technologies are particularly interesting. This article focuses on the recent developments in playful mobile communication, firstly discussing play and playful practices in general, then moving on to contextualise the discussion in terms of contemporary mobile technology. Not just restricted to formal game play (ludus) but also including more improvisational forms of being playful (paidia), mobile play allows us some creative distance from the routine ways of communicating and is consequently more freeform than the more immediately utilitarian communicative acts. Playfulness also has certain distinctive features and it is possible to identify and discuss playfulness as it is expressed in the design of new tools for communication, as well as in the communicative practices and attitudes adopted by the participants. This article provides an introduction to the study of playful communication, and proposes three key evaluation criteria for playfulness. It then proceeds to test these criteria in contemporary playful mobile communication services.