Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Recursion in the Presence of Effects ∗

In the interest of designing a recursive module extension to ML that is as simple and general as possible, we study the important subproblem of how to support recursive definitions of effectful expressions. Effects seem to necessitate a Scheme-style backpatching semantics of recursion, which typically results in a performance penalty since all recursive references must check whether or not the recursive variable has been backpatched yet. We propose a type system that allows such dynamic checks to be safely eliminated in many cases. Our system employs a notion of “names”, which track the uses of multiple recursive variables in the presence of nested recursion. So that our type system may eventually be integrated smoothly into ML’s, reasoning involving names is confined to recursive expressions and does not need to infect existing ML code.
Investigation of Ultra High Strength Steel with 3DTEM and 3D Atom Probe

Ultra High Strength (UHS) Steels are used in critical applications such as landing gear, structural members, springs and engine components. The performance of these alloys in aviation is especially important due to the finer tolerances and lower safety factors of these components. These steels traditionally have necessitated high levels of alloying elements and extremely low levels of impurities to achieve the required level of fracture toughness for advanced applications. Novotny et al. at Carpenter Technology Corporation have developed a new family of martensitic UHS steels which utilize much lower levels of a more complex array of alloying elements than have been previously employed. (Figures 1 and 2) This alloy system possesses comparable strength and fracture toughness to much more highly alloyed steels, while at the same time offering decreased costs [1]. The strengthening mechanisms operating in this new alloy system are not well understood, and an analysis of the segregation of the solute elements and structure of any precipitates formed is desired to further improve this alloy. The behavior of precipitates and solute elements in these steels can be more thoroughly studied by utilizing a combination of TEM and 3D Atom Probe tomography.
Probabilistic Reasoning at Optimum Entropy with the MEcore System

Augmenting probabilities to conditional logic yields an expressive mechanism for representing uncertainty. The principle of optimum entropy allows one to reason in probabilistic logic in an information-theoretic optimal way by completing the given information as unbiasedly as possible. In this paper, we introduce the MEcore system that realises the core functionalities for an intelligent agent reasoning at optimum entropy and that provides powerful mechanisms for belief management operations like revision, update, diagnosis, or hypothetical what-if-analysis.
Long-Lived Plasma Cells and Memory B Cells Produce Pathogenic Anti-GAD65 Autoantibodies in Stiff Person Syndrome

Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare, neurological disorder characterized by sudden cramps and spasms. High titers of enzyme-inhibiting IgG autoantibodies against the 65 kD isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65) are a hallmark of SPS, implicating an autoimmune component in the pathology of the syndrome. Studying the B cell compartment and the anti-GAD65 B cell response in two monozygotic twins suffering from SPS, who were treated with the B cell-depleting monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody rituximab, we found that the humoral autoimmune response in SPS is composed of a rituximab-sensitive part that is rapidly cleared after treatment, and a rituximab-resistant component, which persists and acts as a reservoir for autoantibodies inhibiting GAD65 enzyme activity. Our data show that these potentially pathogenic anti-GAD65 autoantibodies are secreted by long-lived plasma cells, which may either be persistent or develop from rituximab-resistant memory B lymphocytes. Both subsets represent only a fraction of anti-GAD65 autoantibody secreting cells. Therefore, the identification and targeting of this compartment is a key factor for successful treatment planning of SPS and of similar autoimmune diseases.
Implementing a Software-Based 802.11 MAC on a Customized Platform

Wireless network (WLAN) platforms today are based on complex and inflexible hardware solutions to meet performance and deadline constraints for Media Access Control (MAC). Contrary to that, physical layer solutions, such as Software Defined Radio, become more and more flexible and support several competing standards. A flexible MAC counterpart is needed for system solutions that can keep up with the rising variety of WLAN protocols.We revisit the case for programmable MAC implementations looking at recent WLAN standards and show the feasibility of a software-based MAC. Our exploration uses IEEE 802.11a-e as design driver, which makes great demands on Quality-of-Service, security, and throughput. We apply our SystemC framework for efficiently assessing the quality of design points and reveal trade-offs between memory requirements, core performance, application-specific optimizations, and responsiveness of MAC implementations. In the end, two embedded cores at moderate speed (< 200MHz) with lightweight support for message passing using small buffers are sufficient for sustaining worst-case scenarios in software.
Identification and Inference for Econometric Models: Pairwise Difference Estimators for Nonlinear Models

This paper uses insights from the literature on estimation of nonlinear panel data models to construct estimators of a number of semiparametric models with a partially linear index, including the partially linear logit model, the partially linear censored regression model, and the censored regression model with selection. We develop the relevant asymptotic theory for these estimators and we apply the theory to derive the asymptotic distribution of the estimator for the partially linear logit model. We evaluate the finite sample behavior of this estimator using a Monte Carlo study. ∗This research is supported by the National Science Foundation. We are grateful to Michael Jansson, Richard Juster, Ekaterini Kyriazidou, and Thomas Rothenberg for helpful comment on earlier versions. Part of this research was done while Honoré visited the Economics Department at the University of Copenhagen.
SPRESSO: A Secure, Privacy-Respecting Single Sign-On System for the Web

Single sign-on (SSO) systems, such as OpenID and OAuth, allow web sites, so-called relying parties (RPs), to delegate user authentication to identity providers (IdPs), such as Facebook or Google. These systems are very popular, as they provide a convenient means for users to log in at RPs and move much of the burden of user authentication from RPs to IdPs. There is, however, a downside to current systems, as they do not respect users' privacy: IdPs learn at which RP a user logs in. With one exception, namely Mozilla's BrowserID system (a.k.a. Mozilla Persona), current SSO systems were not even designed with user privacy in mind. Unfortunately, recently discovered attacks, which exploit design flaws of BrowserID, show that BrowserID does not provide user privacy either. In this paper, we therefore propose the first privacy-respecting SSO system for the web, called SPRESSO (for Secure Privacy-REspecting Single Sign-On). The system is easy to use, decentralized, and platform independent. It is based solely on standard HTML5 and web features and uses no browser extensions, plug-ins, or other executables. Existing SSO systems and the numerous attacks on such systems illustrate that the design of secure SSO systems is highly non-trivial. We therefore also carry out a formal analysis of SPRESSO based on an expressive model of the web in order to formally prove that SPRESSO enjoys strong authentication and privacy properties.
Long-Term Endurance Exercise in Humans Stimulates Cell Fusion of Myoblasts along with Fusogenic Endogenous Retroviral Genes In Vivo

Myogenesis is defined as growth, differentiation and repair of muscles where cell fusion of myoblasts to multinucleated myofibers is one major characteristic. Other cell fusion events in humans are found with bone resorbing osteoclasts and placental syncytiotrophoblasts. No unifying gene regulation for natural cell fusions has been found. We analyzed skeletal muscle biopsies of competitive cyclists for muscle-specific attributes and expression of human endogenous retrovirus (ERV) envelope genes due to their involvement in cell fusion of osteoclasts and syncytiotrophoblasts. Comparing muscle biopsies from post- with the pre-competitive seasons a significant 2.25-fold increase of myonuclei/mm fiber, a 2.38-fold decrease of fiber area/nucleus and a 3.1-fold decrease of satellite cells (SCs) occurred. We propose that during the pre-competitive season SC proliferation occurred following with increased cell fusion during the competitive season. Expression of twenty-two envelope genes of muscle biopsies demonstrated a significant increase of putative muscle-cell fusogenic genes Syncytin-1 and Syncytin-3, but also for the non-fusogenic erv3. Immunohistochemistry analyses showed that Syncytin-1 mainly localized to the sarcolemma of myofibers positive for myosin heavy-chain isotypes. Cellular receptors SLC1A4 and SLC1A5 of Syncytin-1 showed significant decrease of expression in post-competitive muscles compared with the pre-competitive season, but only SLC1A4 protein expression localized throughout the myofiber. Erv3 protein was strongly expressed throughout the myofiber, whereas envK1-7 localized to SC nuclei and myonuclei. Syncytin-1 transcription factors, PPARγ and RXRα, showed no protein expression in the myofiber, whereas the pCREB-Ser133 activator of Syncytin-1 was enriched to SC nuclei and myonuclei. Syncytin-1, Syncytin-3, SLC1A4 and PAX7 gene regulations along with MyoD1 and myogenin were verified during proliferating or actively-fusing human primary myoblast cell cultures, resembling muscle biopsies of cyclists. Myoblast treatment with anti-Synycytin-1 abrogated cell fusion in vitro. Our findings support functional roles for ERV envelope proteins, especially Syncytin-1, contributing to cell fusion of myotubes.
Amplify-and-Forward Compressed Sensing as a Physical-Layer Secrecy Solution in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we assess the physical-layer secrecy performance of the amplify-and-forward compressed sensing (AF-CS) framework when malicious eavesdropping nodes are listening. In particular, we investigate the robustness of the AF-CS scheme in the presence of a group of coordinated eavesdropping nodes under the assumption that they have corrupted channel state information. In order to fulfil this assumption, we propose a channel estimation technique based on pseudorandom pilots. This technique introduces extra uncertainty only in the channel estimation of the eavesdroppers. Our simulation results evaluate the physical-layer protection as a function of the total number of coordinated eavesdroppers and the level of channel estimation distortion of the eavesdroppers. We demonstrate that a small number of eavesdroppers (small being defined later on) has a zero probability of recovering the intended signal. We also show that a very large number of eavesdropping nodes are required to perfectly recover the signal in comparison with other distributed compressed sensing schemes in the literature.
Active Triangulation in the Outdoors : A Photometric Analysis

Active triangulation is a well established technique for collecting range points. This work performs a photometric analysis of relative irradiance expected at the camera sensor as a result of intended operating conditions and device parameters including laser power. The limiting effects of eye safety compliance, minimum realizable shutter times and pixel bit depth for linear response cameras are considered. Quantitative results are established determining dynamic range requirements on the camera, when exposure control is needed, and when laser return can be expected to produce the brightest pixels in the image.
Indexing Large Trajectory Data Sets With SETI

With the rapid increase in the use of inexpensive, location-aware sensors in a variety of new applications, large amounts of time-sequenced location data will soon be accumulated. Efficient indexing techniques for managing these large volumes of trajectory data sets are urgently needed. The key requirements for a good trajectory indexing technique is that it must support both searches and inserts efficiently. This paper proposes a new indexing mechanism called SETI, a Scalable and Efficient Trajectory Index, that meets these requirements. SETI uses a simple two-level index structure to decouple the indexing of the spatial and the temporal dimensions. This decoupling makes both searches and inserts very efficient. Based on an actual implementation, we demonstrate that SETI clearly outperforms two previously proposed trajectory indexing mechanisms, namely the 3D R-tree and the TB-tree. Unlike previously proposed trajectory indexing structures, SETI is a logical indexing structure that uses existing spatial indexing structures, such as R-trees, without any modifications. Consequently, DBMSs that currently support R-trees can easily implement SETI, making it a both a practical and an efficient choice for indexing trajectory data sets.
A Torque Control Strategy for Torque Ripple Reduction of Brushless DC Motor With Nonideal Back Electromotive Force

This paper proposes a new torque control strategy to reduce torque ripple of brushless dc motor. All possible combinations of terminal voltages are obtained from different switching states of the inverter during normal conduction period and commutation period. Moreover, the expressions of torque variation rates, corresponding to different terminal voltages, are derived to analyze the sign and the magnitude of the torque variation rates. Based on this analysis, two switching tables with main vector (MV) and subsidiary vector (SV) in these two periods are established, respectively. Through the combined effect of MV and SV in each control cycle, the torque ripple caused by both nonideal back electromotive force and current commutation can be reduced effectively. Meanwhile, dynamic performance of torque and switching times are taken into account. Especially in the commutation period, a unified vector selection table is applied over the entire speed range without distinguishing high speed and low speed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified by experimental results.
Control of phytophthora root rot of avocado with phosphorus acid

Phytophthora root rot of avocado and Persea indica caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi was controlled by spraying or drenching with phosphorous acid Dartiallv neutralised with potassium hydroxide, or with phosethyl Al. Phosphoric acid drenches increased phytophthora root rot in avocado, whereas dolomitic limestone, gypsum or diammonium phosphate did not affect disease incidence. A twenty per cent solution of partially neutralised phosphorous acid when injected into the trunks of seven-year-old trees affected by phytophthora root rot permitted rapid recovery of trees over a 12 month period. Injections with phosethyl Al (Experimental formulation 2008), and a ten per cent solution of phosphorous acid, and soil applications of metalaxyl gave slower remission of disease symptoms.
A Directional Extension for Multidimensional Wavelet Transforms

Directional information is an important and unique feature of multidimensional signals. As a result of a separable extension from one-dimensional (1-D) bases, multidimensional wavelet transforms have very limited directionality. Furthermore, different directions are mixed in certain wavelet subbands. In this paper, we propose a simple directional extension for wavelets (DEW) that fixes this subband mixing problem and improves the directionality. The building block of the DEW is a two-channel 2-D filter bank with a checkerboard-shaped frequency partition. The DEW works with both the critically-sampled wavelet transform as well as the undecimated wavelet transform. In the 2-D case, it further divides the three wavelet subbands (i.e. horizontal, vertical, and diagonal) at each scale into six finer directional subbands. The DEW itself is critically-sampled, and hence will not increase the redundancy of the overall transform. Though nonseparable in essence, the proposed DEW has an efficient implementation that only requires 1-D filtering. Meanwhile, the DEW can be easily generalized to higher dimensions. In a nutshell, the proposed directional extension provides an optional tool to efficiently enhance the directionality of multidimensional wavelet transforms. Numerical experiments show that certain wavelet-based image processing applications will benefit from this improved directionality. Index Terms Wavelet transform, directional information, checkerboard filter bank, filter design, multidimensional signal processing, image denoising, feature extraction. Y. Lu is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL 61801 (e-mail: yuelu@uiuc.edu; WWW: http://www.ifp.uiuc.edu/∼yuelu). M. N. Do is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and the Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL 61801 (e-mail: minhdo@uiuc.edu; WWW: http://www.ifp.uiuc.edu/∼minhdo). This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-0237633 (CAREER).
Development of a Fluorescent-Microsphere Immunoassay for Detection of Antibodies Specific to Equine Arteritis Virus and Comparison with the Virus Neutralization Test

ABSTRACT The development and validation of a microsphere immunoassay (MIA) to detect equine antibodies to the major structural proteins of equine arteritis virus (EAV) are described. The assay development process was based on the cloning and expression of genes for full-length individual major structural proteins (GP5 amino acids 1 to 255 [GP51-255], M1-162, and N1-110), as well as partial sequences of these structural proteins (GP51-116, GP575-112, GP555-98, M88-162, and N1-69) that constituted putative antigenic regions. Purified recombinant viral proteins expressed in Escherichia coli were covalently bound to fluorescent polystyrene microspheres and analyzed with the Luminex xMap 100 instrument. Of the eight recombinant proteins, the highest concordance with the virus neutralization test (VNT) results was obtained with the partial GP555-98 protein. The MIA was validated by testing a total of 2,500 equine serum samples previously characterized by the VNT. With the use of an optimal median fluorescence intensity cutoff value of 992, the sensitivity and specificity of the assay were 92.6% and 92.9%, respectively. The GP555-98 MIA and VNT outcomes correlated significantly (r = 0.84; P < 0.0001). Although the GP555-98 MIA is less sensitive than the standard VNT, it has the potential to provide a rapid, convenient, and more economical test for screening equine sera for the presence of antibodies to EAV, with the VNT then being used as a confirmatory assay.
A Clustered Wireless Sensor Network Model Based on Log–Distance Path Loss

Clustered wireless sensor network models typically assume that a clear line-of-sight path separates the transmitter and receiver within a cluster; an accurate assumption for relatively short distances. For longer distances, and in environments that are obstructed, the log-distance path loss model agrees better with measurements. In this paper, communication within a cluster is modeled using the free space propagation model for distances less than a crossover distance, d0, and the log-distance path loss model with loss exponent n > 2 for distances greater than d0. We determine the optimum number of clusters for minimizing the energy expended in the clustered WSN given the network geometry, the number of nodes in the network, the crossover distance d0, and the amount of data compression.
Polarimetric SAR Image Classification Using Radial Basis Function Neural Network

This paper presents a robust radial basis function (RBF) network based classifier for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The proposed feature extraction process utilizes the covariance matrix, the gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) based texture features, and the backscattering power (Span) combined with the H/α/A decomposition, which are projected onto a lower dimensional feature space using principal component analysis. For the classifier training two popular techniques are explored: conventional backpropagation (BP) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). By using both polarimetric covariance matrix and decomposition based pixel values and textural information (contrast, correlation, energy, and homogeneity) in the feature set, classification accuracy is improved. An experimental study is performed using the fully polarimetric San Francisco Bay and Flevoland data sets acquired by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Airborne SAR (AIRSAR) at L-band to evaluate the performance of the proposed classifier. Classification results (in terms of confusion matrix, overall accuracy and classification map) compared with competing state of the art algorithms demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed RBF network classifier.
The time course of the human growth hormone response to a 6 s and a 30 s cycle ergometer sprint

Exercise is a potent stimulus for the release of human growth hormone (hGH), but the time course of the hGH response to sprint exercise has not been studied. The aim of the present study was to determine the time course of the hGH response to a 6 s and a 30 s maximal sprint on a cycle ergometer. Nine males completed two trials, on one occasion performing a single 6 s sprint and on another a single 30 s sprint. They then rested on a couch for 4 h while blood samples were obtained. Three of the participants completed a further control trial involving no exercise. Metabolic responses were greater after the 30 s sprint than after the 6 s sprint. The highest measured mean serum hGH concentrations after the 30 s sprint were more than 450% greater than after the 6 s sprint (18.5 - 3.1 vs 4.0 - 1.5 w g·l -1 , P ≪ 0.05). Serum hGH also remained elevated for 90-120 min after the 30 s sprint compared with ~ 60 min after the 6 s sprint. There was a large inter-individual variation in the hGH response to the 30 s sprint. In the control trial, serum hGH concentrations were not elevated above baseline at any time. It would appear that the duration of a bout of maximal sprint exercise determines the magnitude of the hGH response, although the mechanism for this is still unclear.
An anisotropic BRDF model for fitting and Monte Carlo rendering

In this paper we propose a new physically plausible, anisotropic Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) for fitting and for importance sampling in global illumination rendering. We demonstrate that the new model is better in data fitting than existing BRDF models. We also describe efficient schemes for sampling the proposed anisotropic BRDF model. Furthermore, we test it on a GPU-based real-time rendering algorithm and show that material design can be done with this anisotropic BRDF model effectively. We also show that the new model has effective real-time rendering performance.
ICT and the Development of Techno-Pedagogical Skills among the Algerian University Teachers

The rapid development of the ICT compels us to train both teachers and students in new skills that allow adapting to the new learning situations; tending to become more and more complex. By carrying a survey among 240 Algerian university teachers, we tried to describe the importance given to ICT in education; while emphasizing their impact on the techno-pedagogical skills of the higher education teachers. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015. v5n1p129