Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance of scintillating waveguides for CCD-based X-ray detectors

Scintillating films are usually used to improve the sensitivity of CCD-based X-ray imaging detectors. For an optimal spatial resolution and detection efficiency, a tradeoff has to be made on the film thickness. However, these scintillating layers can also be structured to provide a pixellated screen. In this paper, the study of CsI(Tl)-filled pore arrays is reported. The pores are first etched in silicon, then oxidized and finally filled with CsI(Tl) to form scintillating waveguides. The dependence of the detector sensitivity on pore depth, varied from 40 to 400 /spl mu/m here, follows rather well theoretical predictions. Most of the detectors produced in this work have a detective quantum efficiency of the incoming X-ray photons of about 25%. However, one detector shows that higher efficiency can be achieved approaching almost the theoretical limit set by Poisson statistics of the incoming X-rays. Thus, we conclude that it is possible to fabricate scintillating waveguides with almost ideal performance. Imaging capabilities of the detectors are demonstrated.
Rapid Identification of Bio-Molecules Applied for Detection of Biosecurity Agents Using Rolling Circle Amplification

Detection and identification of pathogens in environmental samples for biosecurity applications are challenging due to the strict requirements on specificity, sensitivity and time. We have developed a concept for quick, specific and sensitive pathogen identification in environmental samples. Target identification is realized by padlock- and proximity probing, and reacted probes are amplified by RCA (rolling-circle amplification). The individual RCA products are labeled by fluorescence and enumerated by an instrument, developed for sensitive and rapid digital analysis. The concept is demonstrated by identification of simili biowarfare agents for bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pantoea agglomerans) and spores (Bacillus atrophaeus) released in field.
Event-Related Potentials, Emotion, and Emotion Regulation: An Integrative Review

Progress in the study of emotion and emotion regulation has increasingly been informed by neuroscientific methods. This article focuses on two components of the event-related potential (ERP)—the P300 and the late positive potential (LPP)—and how they can be used to understand the interaction between the more automatic and controlled processing of emotional stimuli. Research is reviewed exploring: the dynamics of emotional response as indexed at early and late latencies; neurobiological correlates of emotional response; individual and developmental differences; ways in which the LPP can be utilized as a measure of emotion regulation. Future directions for the application of ERP/electroencephalogram (EEG) in achieving a more complete understanding of emotional processing and its regulation are presented.
Correctness of Request Executions in Online Updates of Concurrent Programs

Online update is a technique which reduces the disruption caused during software update by applying a patch to a running process. It is a challenge to update a process while ensuring that it continues to operate correctly during and after the update. Most of the continuously running processes concurrently execute the requests arriving in a stream. Online update should guarantee a correct outcome of the requests which execute during and after an update. In this report we provide a solution for the same. We first define a request execution criteria to ensure the correct outcome of the requests which execute concurrently with an update. The report then describes an online update approach that fulfills this criteria. The approach avoids deadlocks during update by analyzing interthread dependencies and guarantees that the process remains in a consistent state after the update. Thus, the update procedure is guaranteed to terminate and the requests which execute during and after an update are ensured the correct execution. Our literature survey reveals that this is the first solution to update concurrent programs while requests are executing and ensure correctness.
Megavoltage CT in Helical Tomotherapy — Clinical Advantages and Limitations of Special Physical Characteristics

Helical tomotherapy is a form of image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy that introduces the ring gantry concept into radiation oncology. The system is a combination of a therapeutic linear accelerator and a megavoltage CT-scanner. This work describes the clinical experience with megavoltage CT with 456 patients in more than 11000 fractions. It also provides a review of the current literature of the possibilities and limitations of megavoltage CT. Between July 2006 and October 2008 456 patients were treated with helical tomotherapy and a pretreatment megavoltage CT was performed in 98.1% of the 11821 fractions to perform position control and correction. CT image acquisition was done with 3.5 MV x-rays in the helical tomotherapy machine. MVCT was used for dose recalculations to quantify doses distributions in cases of changing geometry, tumor shrinkage or presence of metal implants. Inverse treatment planning for prostate cancer patients with bilateral hip replacements was performed based upon an MVCT. A mean 3D-correction vector of 7.1mm with a considerable variation was detected and immediately corrected. Mean shifts were lateral 0.9mm (sd 5.0mm), mean longitudinal shift 1.0mm (sd 5.1mm) and mean vertical shift 3.2mm (sd 5.2mm). The MVCT enables imaging of anatomical structures in the presence of dental metal or orthopedic implants. Especially in these cases, dose recomputations can increase the precision of dose calculations. Due to a mean 3d correction vector of more than 7mm and a variation of corrections of more than 5mm daily image-guidance is recommended to achieve a precise dose application. The MVCT shows evident advantages in cases with metal implants but has limitations due to a reduced soft tissue contrast. Compared with megavoltage cone-beam-CT the tomotherapy fan beam CT adds less extra dose fore the patient and has a better soft tissue contrast.
Synthesis and study of complexes of tetradentate Schiff base and bridging ligand of thiocyanate with transition metals of Fe , Cr and Co

A group of combinations which have more importance in biological studies, biochemistry and also catalytic applications, are schiff base complexes. They have been considered by the chemists. In this research, Schiff base ligand was provided by means of 2,3-diaminopyridine and salicylaldehyde in absolute ethanol solvent with reflux method. Then the complexes of transition metals Fe, Cr and Co with the supplied ligand to being determind synthesized bridging thiocyanate and using FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The information obtained from cyclic voltammograms of the complexes showed that the electrochemical behavior of the synthesized combinations indicates reversible the state of the complexes. Electrone spectra in the complexes accompanied by axial ligand with due attention to central electron giving ligand feature has decreased or increased transfers intensity which can be confirmed in complex formation. [Ali Javadi Zare and Peyman Ataeinia. Synthesis and study of complexes of tetradentate Schiff base and bridging ligand of thiocyanate with transition metals of Fe, Cr and Co. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):2396-2405]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 356
Structural and functional analyses of the FinP antisense RNA regulatory system of the F conjugative piasmid

The efficiency of conjugation of F‐like plasmids is regulated by the FinOP fertility inhibition system. The transfer (tra) operon is under the direct control of the TraJ transcriptional activator which, in turn, is negatively regulated by FinP, an antisense RNA, and FinO, a 22 kDa protein. Recently, FinO has been shown to extend the chemical stability of FinP in vivo in the absence of traJ mRNA. The in vitro secondary structures of both the FinP and TraJ RNAs were determined by the use of single‐ and double‐strand‐specific nucleases; both RNAs were found to have double stem‐loop structures that are complementary to each other and, therefore, FinP RNA and TraJ RNA have the potential to form a duplex with each other. This was verified by in vitro binding experiments. The reaction was shown to be bimolecular with an apparent rate constant (Kapp) of 5 × 105M−1 s−1, a value that is similar to those found for other natural antisense RNA systems. Preliminary evidence for the in vivo formation of the FinP–TraJ RNA duplex was obtained by primer extension of the traJ mRNA; the presence of both FinO and FinP was required to cause a dramatic reduction in the steady‐state level of traJ mRNA, perhaps as a result of RNase III degradation of the resulting RNA duplex.
Memory enhanced evolutionary algorithms for changing optimization problems

Recently, there has been increased interest in evolutionary computation applied to changing optimization problems. The paper surveys a number of approaches that extend the evolutionary algorithm with implicit or explicit memory, suggests a new benchmark problem and examines under which circumstances a memory may be helpful. From these observations, we derive a new way to explore the benefits of a memory while minimizing its negative side effects.
Fast Reliability Search in Uncertain Graphs

Uncertain, or probabilistic, graphs have been increasingl y used to represent noisy linked data in many emerging application scenarios, and have recently attracted the attention of the databa se research community. A fundamental problem on uncertain graphs is reliability, which deals with the probability of nodes being reachable one from another. Existing literature has exclusively focused on reliability detection, which asks to compute the probability that two given nodes are connected. In this paper we study reliability search on uncertain graphs, which we define as the problem of computing all nodes reachable from a set of query nodes with probability no less than a given threshold. Existing reliability-detection approac hes are not well-suited to efficiently handle the reliability-search p roblem. We propose RQ-tree, a novel index which is based on a hierarchical clustering of the nodes in the graph, and further optimized using a balanced-minimum-cut criterion. Based on RQ-tree, we define a fast filtering-and-verification online query-evaluation s trategy that relies on a maximum-flow-based candidate-generation phase , followed by a verification phase consisting of either a lower-bo unding method or a sampling technique. The first verification method returns no incorrect nodes, thus guaranteeing perfect precis ion, completely avoids sampling, and is more efficient. The second ve rification method ensures instead better recall. Extensive experiments on real-world uncertain graphs show that our methods are very efficient—over state-of-the-art relia bilitydetection methods, we obtain a speed-up up to five orders of ma gnitude; as well as accurate—our techniques achieve precision > 0.95 and recall usually higher than 0.75.
Cladding Layer Impedance Reduction to Improve Microwave Propagation Properties in p-i-n Waveguides

The cladding layer effect on microwave propagation properties of semiconductor p-i-n waveguides is investigated in this letter. Through the optical excitation in quantum wells of p-i-n waveguides, high-speed photocurrent is used to examine the microwave propagation. Two devices of p-i-n waveguides with different cladding layers are fabricated and measured, showing that a higher speed is found in the waveguide of wider cladding width. Verified by the microwave propagation properties, the higher speed is mainly attributed to lower microwave propagation loss due to the lower impedance in the wider cladding layer, suggesting this kind of structure can be applied to high-speed waveguide-based devices
The Albayzin 2008 Language Recognition Evaluation

The Albayzin 2008 Language Recognition Evaluation was held from May to October 2008, and their results presented and discussed among the participating teams at the 5th Biennial Workshop on Speech Technology [1], organized by the Spanish Network on Speech Technologies [2] in November 2008. In this paper, we present (for the first time) a full description of the Albayzin 2008 LRE and analyze and discuss recognition results. The evaluation was designed according to the test procedures, protocols and performance measures used in the NIST 2007 LRE. The KALAKA database [3], consisting of 16 kHz audio signals recorded from TV broadcasts, was created ad-hoc and used for the evaluation. The four official languages spoken in Spain (Basque, Catalan, Galician and Spanish) were taken as target languages, other (unknown) languages being also recorded to allow open-set verification tests. The best system, employing state-of-the-art technology, yielded Cavg = 0, 0552 (around 5% EER) in closed-set verification tests on a set of 30-second segments. This reveals the difficulty of the task, despite using 16 kHz speech signals and having only four target languages. We plan to include also Portuguese and English as target languages for the next Albayzin 2010 LRE.
Effects of ambient noise on speaker intelligibility of words and phrases

The Lombard, or voice reflex, effect results in speech with characteristics different from those of speech that is normally produced. This change of characteristics can be demonstrated as an effective way to combat noise interference during reception. It also demonstrates the advisability of control of the production of speech by the speaker himself, in addition to that offered by equipment, during audiological evaluations.Fifteen naive speakers read words and sentences while noise was being delivered to their headsets. There were five noise conditions. Their speech was recorded, with the noise being kept out of the recording channel, and then limited. Noise was then added to the recording in such a way as to produce a constant speech‐to‐noise ratio. The result was played to 200 American listeners. Results indicate that at a constant speech‐to‐noise ratio of reception speech produced by a talker with masking noise in his cars becomes more intelligible as the masking level rises to a given value. The chang.
Self-stabilizing device drivers

This work presents approaches for designing the input-output device management components of self-stabilizing operating systems. As an example, we demonstrate the nonstability of the ata standard protocol for storage devices. We state the requirements that an operating system and I/O devices should satisfy in order to become self-stabilizing. Then we suggest two solutions to satisfy these requirements. The first uses leases to guarantee progress from the I/O device side. The second assumes stabilization of the I/O device, and uses snapshots to perform consistency checks. A device driver for a PC hard-disk, using the first solution, was implemented. By supplying an infrastructure for practical self-stabilizing systems, robust and dependable systems can be achieved.
PSO based fast K-means algorithm for feature selection from high dimensional medical data set

Features are the most important entity in any data mining and machine learning applications. They are the backbone of any model. Reliability, efficiency and accuracy of the model depends upon the choice of strong and relevant features. However, feature selection is always a time-consuming and challenging task. In this paper, we have proposed an approach where we combine a clustering technique and a stochastic technique to select effective features from the high dimensional breast cancer data set in quick time. In order to select strong and relevant features, we have used an improved version of K-means algorithm called fast K-means algorithm, which is much faster and more accurate than a general means algorithm. The fast K-means algorithm is embedded in Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to produce better results. The results were validated using various classification techniques and were evaluated on various performance evaluation measures. The results obtained were found to be highly supportive in nature. The feature subset generated using PSO based fast K-means algorithm on KDDcup 2008 data set produced an accuracy of 99.39% and its time complexity was found to be O(log(k)).
Seeking the ground state of string theory

Recently, a number of authors have challenged the conventional assumption that the string scale, Planck mass, and unification scale are roughly comparable. It has been suggested that the string scale could be as low as a TeV. The greatest obstacle to developing a string phenomenology is our lack of understanding of the ground state. We explain why the dynamics which determines this state is not likely to be accessible to any systematic approximation. We note that the racetrack scheme, often cited as a counterexample, suffers from similar difficulties. We stress that the weakness of the gauge couplings, the gauge hierarchy, and coupling unification suggest that it may be possible to extract some information in a systematic approximation. We review the ideas of Kahler stabilization, an attempt to reconcile these facts. We consider whether the system is likely to sit at extremes of the moduli space, as in recent proposals for a low string scale. Finally we discuss the idea of Maximally Enhanced Symmetry, a hypothesis which is technically natural, compatible with basic facts about cosmology, and potentially predictive.
Sweet Instigator - Choosing Increases Susceptibility to Affective Product Features

The present research demonstrates that repeated active choice-making increases the susceptibility of consumers to salient affective product features. We show that affective features influence product choice more after a series of active product choices than after a series of compliances with purchase instructions. The combined results of three experiments suggest that repeated choice gradually depletes the mental capacity required for critical evaluation of choice alternatives, while ruling out alternative explanations. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and management of impulse purchasing.
Effects of Severe Hypoxia on Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiation Potential

Background. The interests in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their application in cell therapy have resulted in a better understanding of the basic biology of these cells. Recently hypoxia has been indicated as crucial for complete chondrogenesis. We aimed at analyzing bone marrow MSCs (BM-MSCs) differentiation capacity under normoxic and severe hypoxic culture conditions. Methods. MSCs were characterized by flow cytometry and differentiated towards adipocytes, osteoblasts, and chondrocytes under normoxic or severe hypoxic conditions. The differentiations were confirmed comparing each treated point with a control point made of cells grown in DMEM and fetal bovine serum (FBS). Results. BM-MSCs from the donors displayed only few phenotypical differences in surface antigens expressions. Analyzing marker genes expression levels of the treated cells compared to their control point for each lineage showed a good differentiation in normoxic conditions and the absence of this differentiation capacity in severe hypoxic cultures. Conclusions. In our experimental conditions, severe hypoxia affects the in vitro differentiation potential of BM-MSCs. Adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic differentiations are absent in severe hypoxic conditions. Our work underlines that severe hypoxia slows cell differentiation by means of molecular mechanisms since a decrease in the expression of adipocyte-, osteoblast-, and chondrocyte-specific genes was observed.
A Distributed and Autonomous Guard System Based on Cloud Environments

In recent years, Cloud computing has become increasingly popular. Many companies have replaced traditional hosting to cloud hosting. Cloud providers are responsible for tenant isolation, if a tenant (virtual machine) is infected, other tenants will be affected. Because the virtual network environment is very complex, the traditional intrusion detection systems can only detect attacks from external networks, but can not effectively detect the internal traffic (virtual network). In order to full defend from a threat, we need to redesign the architecture of the intrusion detection system. In this thesis, we propose a flexible distributed architecture for intrusion detection, and uses software-defined networking technology for defensive purposes. In addition, our system collects alerts from different nodes, and analyzes their correlation to generate security rules to achieve the effect of a joint defense. To make the administrator more effective in management purposes, we also provide a web-based management center to reduce the burden on administrators. Finally, we analyze the performance of the proposed system with an original system. The results show that our system adds slightly overhead, and it can effectively block the malicious flow.
The Resolution of ConflictConstructive and Destructive Processes

Conflict is a natural and inevitable part of our personal and social lives. In this volume Morton Deutsch, the distinguished social psychologist, explores the factors that determine whether the outcome of conflict will be fruitful or destructive. He examines conflict at the intrapsychic, interpersonal, and intergroup levels and formulates meaningful cross-level generalizations about the determination of conflict resolution.
Activity Affects Dendritic Shape and Synapse Elimination during Steroid Controlled Dendritic Retraction in Manduca sexta

Insect metamorphosis is a compelling example for dendritic and synaptic remodeling as larval and adult behaviors place distinct demands on the CNS. During the metamorphosis of the moth, Manduca sexta, many larval motoneurons are remodeled to serve a new function in the adult. During late larval life, steroid hormones trigger axonal and dendritic regression as well as larval synapse elimination. These regressive events are accompanied by stereotypical changes in motor behavior during the so-called wandering stages. Both normally occurring changes in dendritic shape and in motor output have previously been analyzed quantitatively for the individually identified motoneuron MN5. This study tested whether activity affected steroid-induced dendritic regression and synapse disassembly in MN5 by means of chronically implanted extracellular electrodes. Stimulating MN5 in vivo in intact, normally developing animals during a developmental period when it usually shows no activity significantly slowed the regression of high-order dendrites. Both physiological and anatomical analysis demonstrated that reduced dendritic regression was accompanied by a significant reduction in larval synapse disassembly. Therefore, steroid-induced alterations of dendritic shape and synaptic connectivity are modified by activity-dependent mechanisms. This interaction might be a common mechanism for rapid adjustments of rigid, inflexible, hormonal programs.