Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal mud to sand ratios in sediment for sea cucumber aquaculture as revealed by carbon stable isotopes

Sediment, which is central as a sink for organic material and nutrient cycling, provides habitat for feeding, resting, and nesting of sea cucumbers in aquaculture systems. We conducted a 2 mo experiment to investigate the optimal sea mud to sand ratios in sediment for sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka, 1867) aquaculture. Sea mud (<0.08 mm) and sand (0.08−0.5 mm) were used to prepare 5 different sediment formulations with different sea mud:sand ratios: 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, 1:0, and 0:1. Sea cucumbers were cultured in 20 fiberglass tanks (50 l) with 5 cm thick sediment spread on the bottom. Results showed that the specific growth rate of sea cucumbers and the contribution of the seaweed Sargassum muticum to food uptake by sea cucumber in the 3:1 ratio group were significantly higher than in the 1:0, 0:1, and 1:3 ratio groups, while no significant differences were observed between the 3:1 and 1:1 ratio groups. Furthermore, the total nitrogen, total organic carbon, and ammonium contents of the 1:1 and 3:1 ratio groups significantly decreased with time. These findings suggest that sea mud:sand ratios of 1:1 and 3:1 are optimal in sediment for A. japonicus aquaculture and effectively promote growth and bio remediation.
An empirical suggestion for collaborative learning in motor imagery-based BCIs

In modern Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), it usually requires the so-called calibration session to adapt a BCI model, e.g., spatial filter and classifier, to a target subject before use, due to high intra- and inter-subject variability in brain signals. From a practical perspective, this is one of the main challenges that should be resolved, thus motivating to use information from other subjects via collaborative learning. In this study, we analyze the effects of utilizing data from other subjects and identify whether generic patterns, which are informative for general BCI, exist by conducting experiments on the BCI Competition IV-IIa dataset. Based on our two experiments of naïve inter-subject BCI and generic pattern-guided inter-subject BCI, we suggest utilizing 1) categorical information of training samples and 2) samples of generic patterns for generalization of a BCI model.
VMwareDecoupling Dynamic Program Analysis from Execution in Virtual Environments

Analyzing the behavior of running programs has a wide variety of compelling applications, from intrusion detection and prevention to bug discovery. Unfortunately, the high runtime overheads imposed by complex analysis techniques makes their deployment impractical in most settings. We present a virtual machine based architecture called Aftersight ameliorates this, providing a flexible and practical way to run heavyweight analyses on production workloads. Aftersight decouples analysis from normal execution by logging nondeterministic VM inputs and replaying them on a separate analysis platform. VM output can be gated on the results of an analysis for intrusion prevention or analysis can run at its own pace for intrusion detection and best effort prevention. Logs can also be stored for later analysis offline for bug finding or forensics, allowing analyses that would otherwise be unusable to be applied ubiquitously. In all cases, multiple analyses can be run in parallel, added on demand, and are guaranteed not to interfere with the running workload. We present our experience implementing Aftersight as part of the VMware virtual machine platform and using it to develop a realtime intrusion detection and prevention system, as well as an an offline system for bug detection, which we used to detect numerous novel and serious bugs in VMware ESX Server, Linux, and Windows applications.
Context-aware recommender systems for implicit data

Recommender systems are software tools and techniques providing suggestions and recommendations for items to be of use to a user. These sug- gestions can help users make better decisions on choosing products or services, such as which film to watch, what music to listen to or which travel insurance to buy. When making suggestions, many recommender systems do not consider contextual information, such as location or time [5]. Recommender systems that make use of contextual information are called context-aware recommender systems. Many context-aware recommender systems can not generate reliable rec- ommendations on sparse data. Besides, in most context-aware recommender systems, the contexts are pre-defined and not personalised. These limitations of existing methods usually lead to inaccurate recommendations. In this thesis, new context-aware recommendation methods are presented. In these methods, personalised contexts are defined based on users’ activity patterns. The underlying associations between contexts are analysed, and similar contexts are combined so that the system can make use of existing data collected in similar contexts. Experimental results from two datasets show that the proposed methods can achieve significantly higher recommendation accuracy than existing context-aware recommendation methods.
2 Strings and Constant 2-Form Fields

We construct Poisson brackets at boundaries of open strings and membranes with constant background fields which are compatible with their boundary conditions. The boundary conditions are treated as primary constraints which give infinitely many secondary constraints. We show explicitly that we need only two (the primary and one of the secondary) constraints to determine Poisson brackets of strings. We apply this to membranes. e-mail: tezuka@physics.s. chiba-u.ac. jp
Infrared vision using uncooled optomechanical camera

An uncooled IR imaging system that is based on thermomechanical sensing of IR radiation in conjunction with a visible optical readout has been developed. The system contains a focal plane array (FPA) consisting of bimaterial cantilever beams made of silicon nitride (SiNx) and gold (Au) in each pixel. Absorption on incident IR radiation in the 8-14 micrometers wavelength range by SiNx in each cantilever beam raises its temperature, resulting in proportional deflection due to mismatch in thermal expansion of the two cantilever materials. The FPA design involved maximizing the thermal resistance between the pixel and its surroundings, maximizing the thermomechanical response within the constraints of the pixel size, optimizing the pixel time response, and maximizing the IR absorption using thin film optics. Microfabrication of stress-balanced bimaterial cantilevers was achieved by varying the silicon concentration along the thickness of the SiNx films in order to balance the residual tensile stress in the Au film and the Cr adhesion layer between Au and SiNx. The optical readout utilized Fourier diffractive optics to simultaneously detect deflections of all cantilevers using a single light source. The results suggest that objects at temperatures as low as 30 degrees C can be imaged with the best noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD) in the range of 2-5 K. It is estimated that further improvements that are currently being pursed can improved NETD below 5 mK.
Pitching Tents in Space-Time: Mesh Generation for Discontinuous Galerkin Method

Space-time discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods provide a solution for a wide variety of numerical problems such as inviscid Burgers equation and elastodynamic analysis. Recent research shows that it is possible to solve a DG system using an element-by-element procedure if the space-time mesh satisfies a cone constraint. This constraint requires that the dihedral angle of each interior mesh face with respect to the space domain is less than or equal to a specified angle function α(). Whenever there is a face that violates the cone constraint, the elements at the face must be coupled in the solution. In this paper we consider the problem of generating a simplicial space-time mesh where the size of each group of elements that need to be coupled is bounded by a constant number k. We present an algorithm for generating such meshes which is valid for any nD×TIME domain (n is a natural number). The k in the algorithm is based on a node degree in an n-dimensional space domain mesh.
Extensional and intensional collectives and the de re/de dicto distinction

Expressions designating collectives, such as "the committee" or "the ships in the port", may be interpreted de re or de dicto, depending on context, according as they pick out collectives defined by their members or collectives defined by some criterion for membership. We call these E(xtensional)-collectives and I(ntensional)-collectives respectively, and in this paper we explore in depth the relationship between these two categories. In particular, we identify important respects in which they differ, regarding the nature of the dependence of the collective on its members, the nature of the parthood relation in which the members stand to the whole, and, from an application perspective, the different methods used for identifying the two forms of collective from large spatio-temporal data-sets.
Ship Adaptive Course Keeping Control With Nonlinear Disturbance Observer

This paper investigates a scheme to reject the unknown bounded time varying external disturbance for a ship course keeping control system. A mathematical model of a steering system is derived considering nonlinear features that could affect the control design process. The feedback linearization approach is adopted to simplify the nonlinear system. The adaptive sliding mode control algorithm and nonlinear disturbance observer method are developed for course keeping maneuvers in vessel steering and for providing robust performance for the environment disturbance and rudder dynamics. Furthermore, the overall stability conditions of the presented controllers are analyzed by Lyapunov’s direct method. Finally, the effectiveness of the controllers is illustrated by the simulation results on a navy vessel with twin rudders.
Microbial characterization of probiotics–Advisory report of the Working Group “8651 Probiotics” of the Belgian Superior Health Council (SHC)

When ingested in sufficient numbers, probiotics are expected to confer one or more proven health benefits on the consumer. Theoretically, the effectiveness of a probiotic food product is the sum of its microbial quality and its functional potential. Whereas the latter may vary much with the body (target) site, delivery mode, human target population, and health benefit envisaged microbial assessment of the probiotic product quality is more straightforward. The range of stakeholders that need to be informed on probiotic quality assessments is extremely broad, including academics, food and biotherapeutic industries, healthcare professionals, competent authorities, consumers, and professional press. In view of the rapidly expanding knowledge on this subject, the Belgian Superior Health Council installed Working Group “8651 Probiotics” to review the state of knowledge regarding the methodologies that make it possible to characterize strains and products with purported probiotic activity. This advisory report covers three main steps in the microbial quality assessment process, i.e. (i) correct species identification and strain-specific typing of bacterial and yeast strains used in probiotic applications, (ii) safety assessment of probiotic strains used for human consumption, and (iii) quality of the final probiotic product in terms of its microbial composition, concentration, stability, authenticity, and labeling.
Supercritical fluid foaming : a novel route to polymeric allografts?

There is a growing need for synthetic bone graft materials, which is particularly apparent for procedures requiring impaction bone grafting (IBG), such as revision hip arthroplasty. Currently allograft bone is used that has limited supply and associated risks of transmission of infectious agents. Porous bioresorbable polymeric scaffolds can be created using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). This thesis investigated the use of these scaffolds for impaction bone grafting procedures. Building on previous research within the literature poly(D,L-lactide) (PDLLA) and poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PDLLGA) scaffolds of high molecular weight (100 kDa) were investigated for this use. Scaffolds were milled using a standard bone mill and impacted to create porous milled chips of bioresorbable scaffolds and impacted for mechanical shear testing and biocompatibilities. The impaction process used forces equivalent to those experienced during IBG. In vitro cell experiments were used to assess the proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on impacted scaffolds to identify the most promising scaffold compositions. These compositions included pure polymer and polymer:HA microparticle composites. Further experiments using animals (murine and ovine) were then used to investigate the in vivo performance of the scaffolds. A critical sized ovine femoral condyle defect established the osteoinductive and osteoconductive potentials of milled scCO2 foamed PDLLA + 10 wt. % hydroxyapatite (HA) microparticle scaffolds in vivo. The scale-up potential of scCO2 foaming of bioresorbable scaffolds was established using a 1 L vessel. Scaffolds scCO2 foamed using either a 60 ml autoclave or a 1 L vessel were characterised using scanning electron microscopy and micro computed tomography. Scaffolds from different batches were characterised and compared to ensure process repeatability was accounted for. The final chapter investigated differences in the osteoblastic differentiation of MSCs on PDLLA and PDLLGA scaffolds observed in experiments at the start of the study. Spincoated and dipcoated flat films of PDLLA, PDLLGA, and PDLLA:PDLLGA (50:50) were used for in vitro cell culture to remove the effect of morphological differences that affected scCO2 foamed scaffold experiments. Additionally, this chapter investigated the effect of the form of HA using HA nanoparticles andHA microparticles in scCO2 foamed PDLLA:HA composites for in vitro studies.
Industrial Sputtering Metallization Technology for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

In this paper first results on the stability and applicability for an inline sputtering pilot system (Applied Materials ATON 500 Ev + Sp) with industrially feasible deposition rates are shown. The system consists of two different process chambers, one for thermal evaporation and a second one for sputter deposition of two different metals. The applicability of the sputtering process for the front side metallization has first been determined in an experimental setup on a non PV dedicated system. Different experiments were performed to evaluate the properties of the sputtered layers. To determine the possible damage of the passivation layer during the sputter deposition, test structures for minority carrier lifetime measurements were prepared. The layer growth of the sputtered metal depends on the temperature of the substrate and the sputtered target material properties as well. To determine the layer growth and the homogeneity, experiments were performed to evaluate the sheet resistance and to identify their relation to an industrial inline metallization process with various deposition rates after transferring the process to the pilot system. Sheet resistance measurements are additionally used to analyze a very important aspect of the metallization process, the silicide formation. Depending on the applied metal for the deposited layer, the time and temperature of the tempering process has to be chosen individually in order to from a suitable silicide layer for subsequent contact formation.
SON conflict diagnosis in heterogeneous networks

In trying to meet the demands of traffic hungry users, mobile network operators are faced with increased CAPital EXpenditures (CAPEX) and OPerational EXpenditures (OPEX). The Self Organizing Network (SON) functions have been introduced by 3GPP as a means to cut down these costs. There are mainly 3 categories of such functions: self-configuration, self-optimization and self-healing. In this paper we focus on the second which represents the SON functions performing a runtime optimization of the network. We center our attention on LTE heterogeneous networks. Having several SON functions in a network may lead to conflicts and potentially to bad network Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Thus a troubleshooting mechanism has to be envisaged. Such a mechanism typically contains 3 steps: fault detection, cause diagnosis and solution deployment. In this paper we tackle the first two and we study the feasibility of using the Naive Bayes Classifier (NBC) in order to build a framework for SON Conflict Diagnosis (SONCD). We provide numeric results proving the feasibility of the framework.
AGF 1 , an AT-Hook Protein , Is Necessary for the Negative Feedback of AtGA 3 ox 1 Encoding GA 3-Oxidase 1 [ W ]

Negative feedback is a fundamental mechanism of organisms to maintain the internal environment within tolerable limits. Gibberellins (GAs) are essential regulators of many aspects of plant development, including seed germination, stem elongation, and flowering. GA biosynthesis is regulated by the feedback mechanism in plants. GA 3-oxidase (GA3ox) catalyzes the final step of the biosynthetic pathway to produce the physiologically active GAs. Here, we found that only the AtGA3ox1 among the AtGA3ox family of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) is under the regulation of GA-negative feedback. We have identified a cis-acting sequence responsible for the GA-negative feedback of AtGA3ox1 using transgenic plants. Furthermore, we have identified an AT-hook protein, AGF1 (for the AT-hook protein of GA feedback regulation), as a DNA-binding protein for the cis-acting sequence of GA-negative feedback. The mutation in the cis-acting sequence abolished both GA-negative feedback and AGF1 binding. In addition, constitutive expression of AGF1 affected GA-negative feedback in Arabidopsis. Our results suggest that AGF1 plays a role in the homeostasis of GAs through binding to the cis-acting sequence of the GA-negative feedback of AtGA3ox1.
Control of Sigma Virus Multiplication by the ref(2)P Gene of Drosophila melanogaster: An in Vivo Study of the PB1 Domain of Ref(2)P

Ref(2)P has been described as one of the Drosophila proteins that interacts with the sigma virus cycle. We generated alleles to identify critical residues involved in the restrictive (inhibiting viral multiplication) or permissive (allowing viral multiplication) character of Ref(2)P. We demonstrate that permissive alleles increase the ability of the sigma virus to infect Drosophila when compared to null alleles and we confirm that restrictive alleles decrease this capacity. Moreover, we have created alleles unfunctional in viral cycling while functional for Ref(2)P fly functions. This type of allele had never been observed before and shows that fly- and virus-related activities of Ref(2)P are separable. The viral status of Ref(2)P variants is determined by the amino-terminal PB1 domain polymorphism. In addition, an isolated PB1 domain mimics virus-related functions even if it is similar to a loss of function toward fly-related activities. The evolutionary tree of the Ref(2)P PB1 domain that we could build on the basis of the natural allele sequences is in agreement with an evolution of PB1 domain due to successive transient selection waves.
A Review and Prospects of Initial Trust in E-Commerce

Trust issues have drawn widespread attention in e- commerce research. Traditional trust theories believe that the level of trust develops over time; and trusts in the initial interactions are normally low in level. However, a certain empirical studies show that by certain means can e-retailers higher the level of initial trust. This paper first reviews the concept and formation mechanisms of initial trust as well as various factors influencing it, and then analyzes the status of research on initial trust and proposes some suggestions on its future development.
A metaobject protocol for C++

This paper presents a metaobject protocol (MOP) for C++. This MOP was designed to bring the power of meta-programming to C++ programmers. It avoids penalties on runtime performance by adopting a new meta-architecture in which the metaobjects control the compilation of programs instead of being active during program execution. This allows the MOP to be used to implement libraries of efficient, transparent language extensions.
A S URVEY OF W IRELESS C OMMUNICATION USING V ISIBLE L IGHT

This paper introduces the concept of visible light communication (VLC). The urgent need of VLC is to overcome the problems faced in RF communication. Unlike existing methods of wireless communication, the visible light portion of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum is used in VLC to transmit information. This is similar to established forms of wireless communication such as Wi-Fi which uses radio frequency (RF) signals to transmit information. In VLC, communication takes place by modulating the intensity of the LED light in such a way that it is undetectable to the human eyes. A photo sensitive detector which demodulates the light signal into electronic form is used as a receiver. This work provides an extensive overview of applications and design challenges for VLC, challenge for indoor communication, uplink channel and at each layer of the communication protocol stack.
Predicate Abstraction

ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Abstract Designing basic protocols, used in networking, security and multiprocessor systems is hard. All of these have to deal with concurrency, that is the actions of multiple agents in parallel. This makes their design error-prone since all possible interactions between the various agents in the system have to be considered. In addition to concurrency, many of these protocols are designed to work with any number of replicated agents. For instance, protocols that set up routing tables in a network are designed to work irrespective of the number of nodes present. Similarly in cache coherence protocols there may be any number of client caches present. Model checking, a method of enumerating and checking all states of a system, can be used to prove properties of concurrent protocols that are finite state. It can also be applied to finite instances of parameterized protocols and makes an excellent tool for finding bugs. However, in the general case, the system is not finite state, and so model checking can not be used to prove correctness. For such systems, interactive theorem proving has been used to prove correctness. Theorem proving is extremely powerful since the entire arsenal of mathematical techniques are at one's disposal. However applying it requires a skilled user. For large examples, it can also be tedious. Here new predicate abstraction techniques are described that allow for easy, and in many cases automatic, verification of safety properties of infinite state systems. A finite set of abstraction predicates defined on the concrete system are used to create a conservative finite state abstraction. The reachable state set of the conservative abstraction, is by definition, a superset of the reachable state set of the original system. The abstract version of the verification condition, a safety property, is model v checked on the abstract system. If successful the verification condition holds in the …