Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sphere-tree construction using dynamic medial axis approximation

Collision handling is very computationally expensive, especially in large scale interactive animations. Hierarchical object representations play an important role in performing efficient collision handling. Many different geometric primitives have been used to construct these representations, which allow areas of interaction to be localised quickly. For time-critical algorithms, such as interruptible collision detection, there are distinct advantages to using hierarchies of spheres, known as sphere-trees. This paper presents a novel algorithm for the construction of sphere-trees. The algorithm presented approximates objects, both convex and non-convex, with a higher degree of fit than existing algorithms. In the lower levels of the representations, there is almost an order of magnitude decrease in the number of spheres required to represent the objects to a given accuracy.
VisIt: An End-User Tool for Visualizing and Analyzing Very Large Data

VisIt is a popular open source tool for visualizing and analyzing big data. It owes its success to its foci of increasing data understanding, large data support, and providing a robust and usable product, as well as its underlying design that fits today's supercomputing landscape. This report, which draws heavily from an earlier publication at the SciDAC Conference in 2011 describes the VisIt project and its accomplishments.
Self-disclosure and new communication technologies

The reported study examined the implications of receiving superficial self-disclosures from a friend. A total of 199 adults reported on communication episodes initiated by a friend during the previous 7 days via five communication technologies and completed measures of liking, relationship satisfaction, and willingness to provide social support to their friend. The results revealed significant interactions between the total volume of self-disclosures received and proportion of superficial disclosures for liking and relationship satisfaction. Among respondents who received a relatively greater volume of self-disclosures, the proportion of superficial disclosures received was inversely associated with relationship satisfaction and liking. Perceived costs mediated the preceding relationships.
Distinct differences in platelet production and function between neonates and adults: implications for platelet transfusion practice

Thrombocytopenia is a common problem among sick neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Among neonates, preterm infants are the subgroup at highest risk for thrombocytopenia and hemorrhage, which is frequently intracranial. Although there is no evidence of a relationship between platelet (PLT) count and occurrence of major hemorrhage, preterm infants are commonly transfused prophylactically when PLT counts fall below an arbitrary limit, and this threshold is usually higher than for older infants or adults. This liberal practice has been influenced by the observation that, in vitro, neonatal PLTs are hyporeactive in response to multiple agonists. However, full‐term infants exhibit normal to increased primary hemostasis due to factors in neonatal blood that enhance the PLT–vessel wall interaction. Additionally, cardiorespiratory problems are considered the main etiologic factors in the development of neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage. In this review, we will discuss the developmental differences that exist in regard to PLT production and function, as well as in primary hemostasis in preterm and term neonates, and the implications of these developmental differences to transfusion medicine. PLT transfusions are not exempt of risk, and a better understanding of the PLT function and the hemostatic profile of premature infants and their changes over time and in response to illness is the starting point to design randomized controlled trials to define optimal use of PLT transfusions in premature neonates. Without these future trials, the marked disparities in PLT transfusion practice in neonates between hospitals and countries will remain over time.
Study of the Influence of the Underflow Diameter on the Separation Process of an Optimized Hydrocyclone for Concentration Purposes

Hydrocyclones are equipment typically used in solid-liquid separation. Such equipment can be used with the purpose of classifying particles or concentrating suspensions. In this context, a new filtering hydrocyclone was conceived through Surface Response and Differential Evolution Algorithm techniques in order to optimize the Euler’s number. Based on this optimized geometry, the aim of the present paper was to verify the influence of the underflow diameter on the overall separation process at 147 kPa on the same optimized hydrocyclone geometry, but without the filtration effect, by performing laboratory experiments and CFD simulations using the commercial software Fluent®. The results showed that the use of the smallest underflow diameter increased up to 44% (v/v) the concentration of the underflow stream, compared to the suspension initially fed, with an Euler’s number of 862. Despite a small decrease (14%) in the total efficiency and an increase from 12.01 to 16.05 of the reduced cut size diameter, compared to the underflow diameter originally used in the optimization procedure, the benefits of recovering liquid by reducing the underflow diameter outweigh these disadvantages.
A novel distributed scheme for building spontaneous social communities over manets

This paper presents a novel distributed scheme for the dynamic construction and management of spontaneous social communities (SSCs) of mobile users in ad hoc networks. A novel model for SSCs that captures their unique dynamic nature, in terms of community structure and interest in different hot-topics over time is first presented. These time-varying interests are represented through a distributively calculated community profile prototype that reflects dominant characteristics of community members. This prototype is then employed to facilitate the identification of new members. Preliminary performance results demonstrate the achieved community stability and content sharing efficiency.
Modeling traceability of concerns in architectural views

Software architecture modeling includes the description of different views that represent the architectural concerns from different stakeholder perspectives. In case of evolution of the software system the related architectural views need to be adapted accordingly. For this it is necessary that the dependency links among the architectural concerns in the architectural views can be easily traced. Unfortunately, despite the ongoing efforts for modeling concerns in architectural views, the traceability of concerns remains a challenging issue in architecture design. We propose the concern traceability metamodel (CTM) that enables traceability of concerns within and across architectural views. The metamodel can be used for modeling the concerns, the architectural elements and the trace links among the elements in architectural views. We have implemented CTM in the tool M-Trace, that uses XML-based representations of the models and XQuery queries to represent tracing information. CTM and M-Trace are illustrated for analyzing the impact of concerns of a Climate Control System case.
Pediatric asthma management within Latino and non-Latino White families.

Pediatric asthma disparities exist with Latino children, especially from Island Puerto Rico (PR), experiencing greater asthma prevalence and morbidity than non-Latino White (NLW) children. Families must balance attention to child asthma with other child and family needs, defined as the "balanced integration of asthma. " This study examined the impact of culturally related factors on the balanced integration of asthma in NLW and Latino families in Rhode Island (RI) and PR, as well as associations between balanced integration and asthma morbidity. Participants included 601 caregivers and their children with asthma (7-16 years) from NLW and Latino backgrounds in RI and PR. Caregivers and children completed interview-administered assessments and a semistructured interview related to family asthma management. Balanced integration of asthma differed significantly by ethnic group/site (p < .001), with Island PR families having the lowest levels of balanced integration. Higher balanced integration was associated with fewer concerns about asthma medications, higher levels of Spanish proficiency in RI Latino families, lower levels of functional limitation, and no emergency department visits in the last year (all ps < .05). Findings suggest that Latino families may experience more difficulty adjusting to child asthma in the context of other child and family demands. Medication beliefs and language proficiency may begin to explain these differences. Our study suggests the importance of continuing to understand how families balance asthma with other aspects of daily life, as culturally appropriate interventions to improve family adjustment to asthma may serve to reduce child asthma morbidity.
Reliability at the Chip Interfaces: Delaminating the Silicon Die from Molding Compound

This book describes a setup that allows to delaminate the Silicon-to-Molding Compound interface for obtaining interfacial fracture parameters: the Mixed Mode Chisel setup (MMC). With this device for the first time the delamination can be initiated and propagated, while preventing the occurrence of random brittle fracture in one or both of the adjacent materials. This is relevant because of the fact that material interface delamination in electronic components forms a major failure problem. The technology trend to densify components results into more and more interfaces with accompanying growing complexity where thermo-mechanical interactions play a crucial role. Rapidly being able to establish the interfacial properties is crucial for the quantitative design process. The present work answers questions on how to delaminate Siliconto-Molding Compound interfaces, how an adequate specimen can be shaped and fabricated, how random fracture can be overcome, what facts are influencing the delamination most, what impact the residual stresses and the viscoelasticity of EMC have, and how the fracture strength compares to that of other interfaces. It describes the setup details, the design choices, the relevant conditions for manufacturing and processing, the choices being made for compression molding and transfer molding and the formation of a starter crack. The delamination experimental procedure and the necessary steps to determine the interface properties are described in detail, including crack length measurements. The results obtained, including the reliability, are discussed. It also describes decisive aspects of interpreting, comparing and applying fracture mechanical results as well as their display. The MMC can be used at elevated temperature and moisture conditions and can be clamped to different loading devices. The Critical Energy Release Rate Gc was found ranging between 50 and 200 J/m2 for a Mode Mix range of 15° at room temperature. The practical Mode Mix values depend on a chosen reference length and a measure of the material mismatch as given in the text. The deviation from a polynomial fit of 2nd order reaches a maximum of 20 %. In the concluding chapter a multi-specimen approach for future delamination measurements and further research on mode mix and reference length choices are being advised.
VHFIM sensorless control of PMSM

The paper deals with combined real-time model of PM synchronous motor for sensorless position control. Real-parametric-and real-time model could be ideal tools for both control and simulation of the PMSM position drive. Unfortunately that idealized model doesn't exist so far. Such a model has to face following serious problems: it must be excited and synchronized by real input including non-linearities of power supply converter (switch voltage drops, dead-times,‥); it should also provide on-line identification of the motor parameters including load changes. Combine real-time model proposed in the paper fulfills most of those requirements: it is supplied by real data from the motor stator voltages, so it is exactly synchronized with real system, and it works with off-line identified motor parameters.
A NEW QUALITY CONTROL SYSTEM FOR DETECTING DEFECTS IN PROTON RANGE MODIFIERS FOR PROTON THERAPY

A NEW QUALITY CONTROL SYSTEM FOR DETECTING DEFECTS IN PROTON RANGE MODIFIERS FOR PROTON THERAPY Brad Kreydick, B.S. Department of Physics Northern Illinois University, 2013 George Coutrakon, Ph.D., Director Proton beam radiotherapy is an increasingly common and accepted form of cancer treatment, which utilizes the novel energy-deposition characteristics of heavy, charged particles to destroy tumor cells. At the CDH Proton Therapy Center in Warrenville, IL, the main beamdelivery technique employs patient-specific beam modifiers to conform the beam to the target area, both perpendicular to the direction of beam travel and along the beam’s axis. These devices are manufactured on-site using specifications generated by treatment planning software, and are subjected to several measurement and identification procedures to verify their integrity before use. A periodic manufacturing defect, not detected by this quality assurance procedure, was discovered by the author, and during the investigation to determine the root cause of the issue and whether the radiologic properties of the defects were relevant in clinical practice, a new quality assurance program was developed. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DE KALB, ILLINOIS
Amorphous Silicon-Carbon Nanostructure Photovoltaic Devices

A novel solar cell architecture made completely from the earth abundant elements silicon and carbon has been developed. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (aSi:H), rather than crystalline silicon, is used as the active material due to its high absorption through a direct band gap of 1.7eV, well matched to the solar spectrum to ensure the possibility of improved cells in this architecture with higher efficiencies. The cells employ a Schottky barrier design wherein the amorphous silicon absorber layer generates electron-hole pairs from incoming photons and holes are preferentially extracted through a metallic material consisting of a carbon nanostructure. Both graphene and buckypaper were used as the metallic component of the Schottky junction to effectively convert incoming light to electricity. Subsequent work focused on graphene-based cells because graphene offers better transparency and conductance compared to buckypaper, making it promising as a top conductor in a solar cell. Reactions of the graphene-aSi:H interface were investigated and strategies developed to minimize reactions that lead to performance degradation. Finally, photon management strategies were executed to significantly enhance the performance of the cells using silver nanoparticles to increase the absorbance of light and extraction of charges in a thin aSi:H film. Solar cells optimized with these improvements show performance enhancements of 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to initially published cells in this architecture.In addition to yielding strategies for improved protection and performance of the solar cells presented in this thesis, investigations presented here into reactions at the graphene-silicon interface should inform further research into applications of graphene.
Analysis of online reviews for evaluating informative reviews

This paper proposes an evaluation method for informative reviews depending on personal values, and shows results of analyzing actual online reviews. Reviews of items are posted by users on many shopping sites. A user who is considering purchasing an item will refer to reviews about it. However, it becomes overloads if there are so many reviews for the item. In particular, there exist reviewers who post reviews of the same contents to multiple items, which force a burden on readers. Proposed method first removes copy&paste reviews, from remaining reviews expressions mentioning evaluative attributes are extracted. Informative reviews are determined based on several criteria, which include reader's personal values. This paper reports the result of analyzing actual online reviews, based on which feasibility and challenges of the proposed method are discussed.
Adaptation of multilingual stacked bottle-neck neural network structure for new language

The neural network based features became an inseparable part of state-of-the-art LVCSR systems. In order to perform well, the network has to be trained on a large amount of in-domain data. With the increasing emphasis on fast development of ASR system on limited resources, there is an effort to alleviate the need of in-domain data. To evaluate the effectiveness of other resources, we have trained the Stacked Bottle-Neck neural networks structure on multilingual data investigating several training strategies while treating the target language as the unseen one. Further, the systems were adapted to the target language by re-training. Finally, we evaluated the effect of adaptation of individual NNs in the Stacked Bottle-Neck structure to find out the optimal adaptation strategy. We have shown that the adaptation can significantly improve system performance over both, the multilingual network and network trained only on target data. The experiments were performed on Babel Year 1 data.
Dietary Potassium Intake and Risk of Stroke in US Men and Women: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study

Background and Purpose— The few prospective studies that have explored the association between dietary intake of potassium and risk of stroke have reported inconsistent findings. This study examines the relationship between dietary potassium intake and the risk of stroke in a representative sample of the US general population. Methods— Study participants included 9805 US men and women who participated in the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study. Dietary potassium and total energy intake were estimated at baseline by using a 24-hour dietary recall. Incidence data for stroke and coronary heart disease were obtained from medical records and death certificates. Results— Over an average of 19 years of follow up, 927 stroke events and 1847 coronary heart disease events were documented. Overall, stroke hazard was significantly different among quartiles of potassium intake (likelihood ratio P =0.03); however, a test of linear trend across quartiles did not reach a customary level of statistical significance (P =0.14). Participants consuming a low potassium diet at baseline (<34.6 mmol potassium per day) experienced a 28% higher hazard of stroke (hazard ratio 1.28, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.47;P <0.001) than other participants, after adjustment for established cardiovascular disease risk factors. Conclusions— These findings suggest that low dietary potassium intake is associated with an increased risk of stroke. However, the possibility that the association is due to residual confounding cannot be entirely ruled out in this observational study.
GLH-1 , the C . elegans P granule protein , is controlled by the JNK KGB-1 and by the COP 9 subunit CSN-5 April

INTRODUCTION Germ granules, key elements in germline development, are found in most animals. These structures are classic germline determinants. In Caenorhabditis elegans, germ granules are known as P granules, non-membranous aggregates of protein and RNA Like Vasa, GLHs are putative DEAD-box RNA helicases, but GLHs differ by the presence of multiple CCHC zinc fingers and all but GLH-3 have N-terminal, glycine-rich repeats. The loss of glh-1 by RNA interference (RNAi) causes sterility in C. elegans when worms are raised at the restrictive temperature of 26°C, whereas combinatorial RNAi of glh-1 and glh-4 causes sterility even at the normally permissive temperature of 20°C (whereas glh-2 and glh-3 have no apparent effects when knocked down by RNAi, nor as deletion mutants) (Kuznicki et al., 2000) (K.L.B., unpublished). glh-1/glh-4(RNAi) results in nematodes with under-proliferated germlines that contain about one-third as many germ cells as wild type, with no functional sperm or oocytes produced (Kuznicki et al., 2000). A yeast two-hybrid screen identified several GLH-interacting proteins (Smith et al., 2002). In this study, we report that two GLH binding partners, KGB-1
Handoff Performance Enhancement for TCP-based Streaming Services in Heterogeneous Networks

The development and enhancement of wireless communication systems such as cellular network and wireless LAN initiate the interests of heterogeneous networks where mobile users can make use of desirable wireless communication system. Furthermore, streaming services in a mobile environment have much attention with the wider bandwidth of wireless networks. Especially, TCP-based streaming service have more attention rather than UDP-based ones, since then can be used via some wide-accepted TCP-based protocols such as HTTP. However, in heterogeneous networks, the throughput of TCP-based communication is drastically degraded by decreasing of TCP congestion window size because of communication interrupt at vertical handoff. Therefore, QoS requirement of applications is not kept until the congestion window size increases enough again. In this paper, we proposed the method to immediately recover the TCP congestion window size by applying IEEE 802.11e EDCA. It can be implemented without extension of the existing TCP. Finally, we show the effectiveness of the proposed method by simulation experiments.
Optimization of Distributed and Collaborative Beamforming in Wireless Sensor Networks

Collaborate beamforming in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a concept of using beamforming technology to establish link in the networks. It can effectively increase the transmission distance and improve the energy efficiency of the networks. Due to random deployment of the sensor nodes in the networks, proper assignment for the sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks is vital to achieve better array pattern synthesis. In this paper, a node selection method based on uniform space linear array synthesis is presented. A virtual line was constructed in the network topology as a reference guide to optimize the selection of nodes to mimic the uniform space linear array. The node selection for collaborate beamforming is further optimized using genetic algorithm. Using the method, simulation results show an improvement of radiation beam pattern.
A rural channel model for satellite navigation applications

The performance of communication and navigation systems for users of land-mobile satellite (LMS) systems in rural environments can be severely degraded by vegetation such as trees, alleys, and forests. In order to compensate for effects like wave scattering and frequent shadowing of the received signal caused by vegetation, the aforementioned objects have to be modeled. In this paper we propose a rural channel model based on volumes filled with point source scatterers and wideband measurements of the radio channel. The proposed model is a geometric-stochastic channel model (GSCM) and hence well-suited for the simulation of communication as well as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) applications.