Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A handwriting recognition system for the classroom

The Xerox Ignite™ Educator Support System (henceforth referred to simply as Ignite™) is a data collection, analysis, and visualization workflow and software solution to assist K-12 educators. To illustrate, suppose a third-grade teacher wants to know how well her class has grasped a lesson on fractions. She would first scan her students' homework and/or exams into the Ignite system via a range of multifunctional input devices. Xerox Ignite™ reads, interprets, and analyzes the students' work in minutes. Then the teacher can select how to view the data by choosing from numerous reports. Examples are; an "at a glance" class summary that shows who needs extra help in what areas and who is ready to move on; a "context" report showing how each skill for each student is progressing over time; a grade-level performance report that helps third-grade teachers share best practices and cluster students into learning groups; and a student feedback report that tells each student what he/she needs to improve upon. Ignite™ intent is also to make it easier for districts to administer, score and evaluate content based on academic goals set for schools and students. The scanning and 'mark lifting' technology embedded into Ignite™ reduces the time needed to correct papers and frees time for the teacher to apply detailed insights to their day-to-day instruction tasks. Critical to this function is the automated reading of student marks, including handwriting, to enable the digitization of student performance at a detailed level. In this paper we present a system level description of the Ignite™ handwriting recognition module and describe the challenges and opportunities presented in an educational environment.
A Simple Coupled Statistical Model for 3D Face Shape Recovery

We focus on the problem of developing coupled statistical models that can be used to recover surface height from brightness images of faces. Our approach consists on using a simple model that assumes that the height eigenmodes are identical to the intensity eigenmodes. We recover the height function directly from the best-fit intensity parameters. As a result the computations involve only a straightforward matrix-vector multiplication. Experiments show that this method generate accurate height surfaces from out-of training intensity images
Dense Spectral Beam Combining with Volume Bragg Gratings in PTR Glass

Abstract : An incoherent combination of laser radiation from multiple sources into a single near-diffraction-limited beam is an important problem of high power laser design. Energy brightness, but not spectral brightness, can be increased using spectral beam combining (SBC). Initially, SBC was proposed on the basis of conventional surface gratings; however, it was found later that volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) are more efficient for high density SBC with narrow separation between channels. Spectral beam combining by means of VBGs is based on the fact that diffraction efficiency at some wavelength offset from Bragg condition is zero. At this shifted wavelength, the second beam passes the grating without diffraction and is combined with a diffracted beam. Recently, a technique for high-efficiency VBG recording in photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass has been developed. While being photosensitive in the UV, PTR glass offers high transmittance in the near-IR and visible parts of spectrum, comparable to commercial optical glasses. Moreover, this glass has excellent mechanical properties and refractive index independent of temperature. These features of PTR glass enable VBGs in PTR glass to withstand high-power laser radiation, making them ideal elements for high-power SBC. Multi-kilowatt-power level for spectrally combined beams can be achieved by increasing spectral density of laser channels, i.e. decreasing spectral separation between them. The goal of this work is to explore high density SBC with PTR VBGs and determine limitations to channel density.
The Iron-Sulfur Cluster-free Hydrogenase (Hmd) Is a Metalloenzyme with a Novel Iron Binding Motif*

The iron-sulfur cluster-free hydrogenase (Hmd) from methanogenic archaea harbors an iron-containing cofactor of yet unknown structure. X-ray absorption spectroscopy of the active, as isolated enzyme from Methanothermobacter marburgensis (mHmd) and of the active, reconstituted enzyme from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (jHmd) revealed the presence of mononuclear iron with two CO, one sulfur and one or two N/O in coordination distance. In jHmd, the single sulfur ligand is most probably provided by Cys176, as deduced from a comparison of the activity and of the x-ray absorption and Mössbauer spectra of the enzyme mutated in any of the three conserved cysteines. In the isolated Hmd cofactor, two CO, one sulfur, and two nitrogen/oxygen atoms coordinate the iron, the sulfur ligand being most probably provided by mercaptoethanol, which is absolutely required for the extraction of the iron-containing cofactor from the holoenzyme and for the stabilization of the extracted cofactor. In active mHmd holoenzyme, the number of iron ligands increased by one when one of the Hmd inhibitors (CO or KCN) were present, indicating that in active Hmd, the iron contains an open coordination site, which is proposed to be the site of H2 interaction.
Fair packet discarding for controlling ABR traffic in ATM networks

The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) Forum has chosen rate-based control as the flow control scheme for the available bit-rate (ABR) service. However, rate-based schemes can achieve congestion control only if all users act in a cooperative manner. Even a limited number of uncooperative users can cause congestion collapse. We propose a mechanism called fair packet discarding to provide incentives to users to participate in network congestion control so that the network can operate in a more efficient manner.
Peer-to-Peer Tuple Space : A Novel Protocol for Coordinated Resource Provisioning

Resource brokering services are the main components that control the way applications are scheduled, managed and allocated in a decentralised, heterogeneous and dynamic Grid computing environment. Existing Grid computing systems such as a resource broker, e-Science application work-flow scheduler operate in tandem but still lack a coordination process that can lead to efficient application schedule across distributed resources. Lack of coordination exacerbates the utilisation of various resources including computing cycles and network bandwidth. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose a mechanism to realise a decentralised coordination process among grid application schedulers. Our dencentralised coordination process is based on a Peer-toPeer (P2P) resource discovery system. Resource discovery system utilises the publish/subscribe model to convey coordination message among the participants. In the proposed scheme, all application schedulers and resource providers facilitate the decentralised coordination process through exchange of resource usage and application requirement information.
Purification and Properties of a Bacteriophage-induced Cell Wall Peptidase from Staphylococcus aureus

A phage-induced cell wall solubilizing enzyme isolated from phage-infected Staphylococcus aureus phage type 80 was purified 588-fold. The pH optimal activity was 6.8 to 7.3, and pH optimal stability, 6.5 to 7.5. It was inhibited by p-hydroxymercuribenzoate, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, and specific rabbit antisera. The cell wall lytic reaction is a peptidase resulting in cleavage of the cell wall peptide at N-terminal alanine, glutamic acid, and glycine. Electron micrographs are shown of cell wall “ghosts” remaining after the enzymatic digestion of cell walls.
Facile pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass at high loadings in room temperature ionic liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as attractive solvents for lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment in the production of biofuels and chemical feedstocks. However, the high cost of ILs is a key deterrent to their practical application. Here, we show that acetate based ILs are effective in dramatically reducing the recalcitrance of corn stover toward enzymatic polysaccharide hydrolysis even at loadings of biomass as high as 50% by weight. Under these conditions, the IL serves more as a pretreatment additive rather than a true solvent. Pretreatment of corn stover with 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidizolium acetate ([Emim] [OAc]) at 125 ± 5°C for 1 h resulted in a dramatic reduction of cellulose crystallinity (up to 52%) and extraction of lignin (up to 44%). Enzymatic hydrolysis of the IL‐treated biomass was performed with a common commercial cellulase/xylanase from Trichoderma reesei and a commercial β‐glucosidase, and resulted in fermentable sugar yields of ∼80% for glucose and ∼50% for xylose at corn stover loadings up to 33% (w/w) and 55% and 34% for glucose and xylose, respectively, at 50% (w/w) biomass loading. Similar results were observed for the IL‐facilitated pretreatment of switchgrass, poplar, and the highly recalcitrant hardwood, maple. At 4.8% (w/w) corn stover, [Emim][OAc] can be readily reused up to 10 times without removal of extracted components, such as lignin, with no effect on subsequent fermentable sugar yields. A significant reduction in the amount of IL combined with facile recycling has the potential to enable ILs to be used in large‐scale biomass pretreatment. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011;108: 2865–2875. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Reasoning about types of action and agent capabilities

We present a logical system for reasoning about types of actions (processes) and about agent capabilities to execute types of actions. The syntax of the system is based on that of Propositional Dynamic Logic (PDL), though the semantics we define is different (interpreting process terms as types, i.e. sets of binary relations). The standard PDL syntax is extended with capabilities statements, as in the KARO framework, atomic process types specified as precondition-effect pairs, written as φ⇒ψ , as well as backwards possibility operators. The resulting system is shown (by filtration) to have a decidable satisfiability problem and a sound and complete Gentzen-style proof system is presented.
Processor array architectures for deep packet classification

This paper presents a systematic technique for expressing a string search algorithm as a regular iterative expression to explore all possible processor arrays for deep packet classification. The computation domain of the algorithm is obtained and three affine scheduling functions are presented. The technique allows some of the algorithm variables to be pipelined while others are broadcast over system-wide buses. Nine possible processor array structures are obtained and analyzed in terms of speed, area, power, and I/O timing requirements. Time complexities are derived analytically and through extensive numerical simulations. The proposed designs exhibit optimum speed and area complexities. The processor arrays are compared with previously derived processor arrays for the string matching problem.
SU(VAR)3-7 Links Heterochromatin and Dosage Compensation in Drosophila

In Drosophila, dosage compensation augments X chromosome-linked transcription in males relative to females. This process is achieved by the Dosage Compensation Complex (DCC), which associates specifically with the male X chromosome. We previously found that the morphology of this chromosome is sensitive to the amounts of the heterochromatin-associated protein SU(VAR)3-7. In this study, we examine the impact of change in levels of SU(VAR)3-7 on dosage compensation. We first demonstrate that the DCC makes the X chromosome a preferential target for heterochromatic markers. In addition, reduced or increased amounts of SU(VAR)3-7 result in redistribution of the DCC proteins MSL1 and MSL2, and of Histone 4 acetylation of lysine 16, indicating that a wild-type dose of SU(VAR)3-7 is required for X-restricted DCC targeting. SU(VAR)3-7 is also involved in the dosage compensated expression of the X-linked white gene. Finally, we show that absence of maternally provided SU(VAR)3-7 renders dosage compensation toxic in males, and that global amounts of heterochromatin affect viability of ectopic MSL2-expressing females. Taken together, these results bring to light a link between heterochromatin and dosage compensation.
Neurotoxicity of Folic Acid

The present review summarises the neurotoxicological effects of folic acid. Some studies in animals have shown that folic acid is neurotoxic and epileptogenic when applied directly to the brain. One poorly controlled and not further reproduced study from 1970 reported neurotoxic symptoms like malaise, sleep disturbances, and mental changes in 14 healthy volunteers who took daily 15 mg of folic acid for one month. Five years later seizures were reported in a patient with poorly controlled epilepsy after high intravenous doses of folic acid. There are no further data that indicate that oral folic acid is directly neurotoxic in humans. Clinical studies, where daily doses of 5 to 15 for up to 3 years were applied, did not shown any evidence of folate associated neurotoxicity. It is outlined that rather a deficiency in folic acid, that induces a decrease in the synthesis of S-adenosyl-homocysteine and accumulation of homocysteine, may lead to neurotoxicological damage.
In Vitro Antioxidant Activity of Chitosan Aqueous Solution: Effect of Salt Form

Purpose: To investigate the effect of salt form on the antioxidant activities of chitosan aqueous solution. Methods: The antioxidant activities of chitosan acetate (CS-acetate), chitosan hydroxybenzotriazole (CS-HOBt), chitosan thiamine pyrophosphate (CS-TPP) and chitosan ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (CS-EDTA) solution were determined employing various established in vitro system such as superoxide and hydroxyl radicals scavenging, metal ion chelating and reducing power. Their chemical structures were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FT-IR). Results: NMR and FT-IR show confirmed formation of chitosan salts. The 50 % inhibition concentration (IC50) of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals was 0.349 – 1.34 and 0.34 – 1.54 mg/mL, respectively. Among the salt forms, CS-acetate (IC50 = 0.349 mg/mL) showed the highest superoxide radical scavenging effect while CS-HOBt (IC50 = 0.34 mg/mL) showed the highest hydroxyl radical scavenging effect. With regard to metal ion chelating activity, CS-EDTA showed the highest chelating activity (approx 100 % at 1 mg/mL) while the others showed 20 % activity at a concentration of 1 mg/mL. The results for reducing power indicate that CS-TPP had the highest reducing power. Conclusion: The results indicate that antioxidant activity varied with the salt form. Thus, CS salts may be used as a source of antioxidants for pharmaceutical applications. Keywords: Chitosan, Antioxidant, Hydroxybenzotriazole, Thiamine pyrophosphate, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid
EM-TCAD solving from 0–100 THz: A new implementation of an electromagnetic solver

This paper deals with reformulating the electromagnetic field equations for a combined EM and TCAD approach in such a way that both extreme high and low frequencies can be solved. The importance of the method is found in eliminating the need for direct solvers which are restricted in application to very large systems. We elaborate on the numerical recipe for finding field solutions using the generic TCAD procedure based on the Newton-Raphson method combined with iterative solvers.
Application Specification Language (ASL) - A Language for Describing Applications in Grid Computing

Grid computing is the computing infrastructure of the next century where unlimited hardware and software resources are delivered to user‟s fingertips. Much of the power delivered by grid computing is realized through application software made readily available to its users. The process of application deployment and deliverance to the end-users though is perplexed with options and requirements not readily available to application deployers. In this paper, we present a new grid language called Application Specification Language (ASL), which allows application developers to describe their individual applications. Application descriptions include general application information, installation requirements, invocation requirements, as well as any additional hints or suggestions that are applicable for the application. We present an ASL schema and provide examples of language use showing how adoption of ASL alleviates some of the deployment and runtime difficulties.
High-Frequency Modeling of On-Chip Coupled Carbon Nanotube Interconnects for Millimeter-Wave Applications

This paper presents a high-frequency equivalent circuit model for on-chip coupled carbon nanotube (CNT) interconnects up to 100 GHz. By simplifying the circuit model, the S-parameters of on-chip coupled interconnects can be acquired and validated by comparing with the full-wave electromagnetic simulations. By virtue of effective complex conductivity, the high-frequency behaviors of coupled CNT interconnects are captured and studied, with the impacts of kinetic inductance treated appropriately.
Mailing Archived Emails as Postcards: Probing the Value of Virtual Collections

People accumulate huge assortments of virtual possessions, but it is not yet clear how systems and system designers can help people make meaning from these large archives. Early research in HCI has suggested that people generally appear to value their virtual things less than their material things, but theory on material possessions does not entirely explain this difference. To investigate if changes to the form and behavior of virtual things may surface valued elements of a virtual archive, we designed a technology probe that selected snippets from old emails and mailed them as physical postcards to participating households. The probe uncovered features of emails that trigger meaningful reflection, and how contextual information can help people engage in reminiscence. Our study revealed insights about how materializing virtual possessions influences factors shaping how people draw on, understand, and value those possessions. We conclude with implication and strategies for aimed at supporting people in having more meaningful interactions and experiences with their virtual possessions.
Enhanced Late Na and Ca Currents as Effective Antiarrhythmic Drug Targets

While recent advances clarified the molecular and cellular modes of action of antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs), their link to suppression of dynamical arrhythmia mechanisms remains only partially understood. The current classifications of AADs (Classes I, III, and IV) rely on blocking peak Na, K and L-type calcium currents (ICa,L), with Class II with dominant beta receptor blocking activity and Class V including drugs with diverse classes of actions. The discovery that the calcium and redox sensor, cardiac Ca/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) enhances both the late Na (INa-L) and the late ICa,L in patients at high risk of VT/VF provided a new and a rational AAD target. Pathological rise of either or both of INa-L and late ICa,L are demonstrated to promote cellular early afterdepolarizations (EADs) and EAD-mediated triggered activity that can initiate VT/VF in remodeled hearts. Selective inhibition of the INa-L without affecting their peak transients with the highly specific prototype drug, GS-967 suppresses these EAD-mediated VT/VFs. As in the case of INa-L, selective inhibition of the late ICa,L without affecting its peak with the prototype drug, roscovitine suppressed oxidative EAD-mediated VT/VF. These findings indicate that specific blockers of the late inward currents without affecting their peaks (gating modifiers), offer a new and effective AAD class action i.e., “Class VI. ” The development of safe drugs with selective Class VI actions provides a rational and effective approach to treat VT/VF particularly in cardiac conditions associated with enhanced CaMKII activity such as heart failure.
A Computational Model for the Stereoscopic Optics of a Head-Mounted Display

For stereoscopic photography or telepresence, orthostereoscopy occurs when the perceived size, shape, and relative position of objects in the three-dimensional scene being viewed match those of the physical objects in front of the camera. In virtual reality, the simulated scene has no physical counterpart, so orthostereoscopy must be defined in this case as constancy, as the head moves around, of the perceived size, shape, and relative positions of the simulated objects. Achieving this constancy requires that the computational model used to generate the graphics matches the physical geometry of the head-mounted display being used. This geometry includes the optics used to image the displays and the placement of the displays with respect to the eyes. The model may fail to match the geometry because model parameters are difficult to measure accurately, or because the model itself is in error. Two common modeling errors are ignoring the distortion caused by the optics and ignoring the variation in interpupillary distance across different users. A computational model for the geometry of a head-mounted display is presented, and the parameters of this model for the VPL EyePhone are calculated.
A Semantic Parser for Neuro-Degenerative Disease Knowledge Discovery

Ever increasing size of the biomedical literature makes tapping into implicit knowledge in scientific literature a necessity for knowledge discovery. In this paper, a semantic parser for recognizing semantic roles and named entities in individual sentences of schizophrenia related scientific abstracts is described. The named entity recognizer, CRFNER, outperforms ABNER in biological named entity recognition and achieves 82.5% micro-averaged F1 on clinical psychology/neuroscience named entities. Support vector machine based semantic role labeling system achieves 75.3% microaveraged F1 for semantic role identification and classification on schizophrenia corpus.
Dead timestamp identification in Stampede

Stampede is a parallel programming system to support computationally demanding applications including interactive vision, speech and multimedia collaboration. The system alleviates concerns such as communication, synchronization, and buffer management in programming such real-time stream-oriented applications. Threads are loosely connected by channels that hold timestamped data items. There are two performance concerns when programming with Stampede. The first is space, namely, ensuring that memory is not wasted on items that are not fully processed. The second is time, namely, ensuring that processing resource is not wasted on a timestamp that is not fully processed. In this paper we introduce a single unifying framework, dead timestamp identification, that addresses both the space and time concerns simultaneously. Dead timestamps on a channel represent garbage. Dead timestamps at a thread represent computations that need not be performed. This framework has been implemented in the Stampede system. Experimental results showing the space advantage of this framework are presented. Using a color-based people tracker application, we show that the space advantage can be significant (up to 40%) compared to the previous garbage collection techniques in Stampede.