Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthetic spatial coherence function for optical tomography and profilometry: influence of the observation condition

We address the basic issue of the observation condition in a synthetic coherence function applied to optical tomography and profilometry, which has not been made clear in previous papers. We present a more general theory for interference fringe formation for spatial coherence control with a synthetic source. The generalized theory predicts the existence of the observation condition that can make the measurement insensitive to the tilt of the object, which will open the new possibility of measuring objects with rough surfaces. We present experimental results that quantitatively verify the validity of the principle and the prediction.
Spectral Measure of Robustness in Complex Networks

We introduce the concept of natural connectivity as a robustness measure of complex networks. The natural connectivity has a clear physical meaning and a simple mathematical formulation. It characterizes the redundancy of alternative paths by quantifying the weighted number of closed walks of all lengths. We show that the natural connectivity can be derived mathematically from the graph spectrum as an average eigenvalue and that it increases strictly monotonically with the addition of edges. We test the natural connectivity and compare it with other robustness measures within a scenario of edge elimination. We demonstrate that the natural connectivity has an acute discrimination which agrees with our intuition.
Supplementary Material for : Active Pictorial Structures

In the following sections, we provide additional material for the paper “Active Pictorial Structures”. Section 1 explains in more detail the differences between the proposed Active Pictorial Structures (APS) and Pictorial Structures (PS). Section 2 presents the proofs about the structure of the precision matrices of the Gaussian Markov Random Filed (GMRF) (Eqs. 10 and 12 of the main paper). Section 3 gives an analysis about the forward Gauss-Newton optimization of APS and shows that the inverse technique with fixed Jacobian and Hessian, which is used in the main paper, is much faster. Finally, Sec. 4 shows additional experimental results and conducts new experiments on different objects (human eyes and cars). An open-source implementation of APS is available within the Menpo Project [1] in http://www.menpo. org/.
Cross‐organization interoperability experiments of weather and climate models with the Earth System Modeling Framework

Typical weather and climate models need a software tool to couple sub‐scale model components. The high‐performance computing requirements and a variety of model interfaces make the development of such a coupling tool very challenging. In this paper, we describe the approach of the Earth System Modeling Framework, in particular its component and coupling mechanism, and present the results of three cross‐organization model interoperability experiments. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A System for Site-Directed Mutagenesis of the Photosynthetic Apparatus in Blastochloris viridis

Abbreviations: light harvesting complex (LHC), reaction centers (RCs), bacteriochlorophyll (BChl), bacteriochlorophyll a (BChl a), bacteriochlorophyll b (BChl b), bacteriopheophytin (BPhe), sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE), para– aminobenzoic acid (PABA) Abstract The high resolution crystal structure of the photosynthetic reaction center from the purple non-sulfur bacterium Blastochloris (formerly Rhodopseudomonas) viridis provides an excellent basis for structure-function studies of biological electron transfer processes. However, the inability to express and isolate mutagenized reaction centers from strains that cannot grow photosynthetically has limited the scope of such studies in this organism. Here we describe the characterization of Blastochloris viridis strain RA3, which is capable of expressing reaction centers under non-photosynthetic growth conditions. Low-aeration growth conditions have been established to produce dark-grown cultures containing a highly induced photosynthetic apparatus. A puf operon deletion strain incapable of photosynthetic growth has been constructed in RA3. This deletion strain can be complemented by the puf operon from B. viridis DSM 133 using a sacB-containing suicide vector, resulting in a hybrid reaction center containing the H subunit of RA3 and the L, M and cytochrome subunits of DSM 133. These hybrid reaction centers have been purified and characterized. Unique restriction sites have been introduced throughout the DSM 133 puf operon to facilitate mutagenesis studies of the reaction center. Use of this strain will allow investigation of bacteriochlorophyll b biosynthesis, mutagenesis of the B. viridis light harvesting complex, and structure-function studies of the B. viridis reaction center.
A simple solution to Lamport's concurrent programming problem with linear wait

A new simple solution to the Lamport's concurrent programming problem is presented. The algorithm uses five distinct values of shared memory per process. The shared values can be stored either in a single variable or in three one-bit Boolean variables assigned to each process. The algorithm exhibits strong fairness property by enforcing the linear wait. It can be made immune to two types of errors typical to VLSI chip based multiprocessor systems: process failures and restarts, and read errors occurring during writes. The algorithm requires a small number of writes to shared memory. At most 4xp- ⌈p/n⌉ writes are needed for p entries to critical section by n competing processes. The algorithm's scheme is similar to that of Morris's solution to the mutual exclusion based on three weak semaphores.
An effective routing reliability model for mobile ad hoc network

Impact of nodes dynamically, randomly, frequently entering and leaving network on unreliable routing connection has been clearly described by a generalized routing reliability model according to measuring parameters of relative performance by studying on two-hop unit model presented in this paper. A new rate expression of node entering/leaving spindle region β has been established by analyzing the two-hop unit model for MANET so as to obtain the closed solution of routing reliability. NS2 based simulation results validate the effectiveness and correctness. Routing reliability model proposed can be used to evaluate the reliability of communication link, and can be adopted to design MANET with given level of reliability.
Nonparametric Bayesian inference for the spectral density function of a random field

A powerful technique for inference concerning spatial dependence in a random field is to use spectral methods based on frequency domain analysis. Here we develop a nonparametric Bayesian approach to statistical inference for the spectral density of a random field. We construct a multi-dimensional Bernstein polynomial prior for the spectral density and devise a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to simulate from the posterior of the spectral density. The posterior sampling enables us to obtain a smoothed estimate of the spectral density as well as credible bands at desired levels. Simulation shows that our proposed method is more robust than a parametric approach. For illustration, we analyse a soil data example. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.
A DEVS-based M&S method for large-scale multi-agent systems

ABMS offers various simulation systems, tools, toolkits and languages for multi-agent system research. However, there is a need for a M&S method for L-systems(large-scale multi-agent systems) research as current ABMS method has some degree of difficulty in dealing with the scale and heterogeneity issues of L-systems. This paper focused on the modelling aspect of the method by combining cognitive modelling, agent organization theory and DEVS-based framework together. First of all, we explained our research initiative by giving the reasons of our research. Further literature review of our choice is also present. Then, we present a design for constructing a DEVS-based system model. We choose PRS as our preferred cognitive architecture, and constructed a DEVS-based simulation framework together with the guidance of agent organization theory. Finally we summarize the benefits of our research compared to other methods.
Planar filter design with fully controllable second passband

New designs of the dual-band filter realized by distributed circuits are studied in this paper. Series and parallel open stubs are used as the resonators to fulfil the dual-band characteristics. Two dual-band inverters are proposed, which can be easily merged with adjacent resonators to reduce the circuit size. All the theoretical analysis and design procedures are discussed in detail and have been successfully verified by experiment results.
MP-FEG: Media Player controlled by Facial Expressions and Gestures

In this paper we represent a new technique to interact with the computer in a non-tangible way. Specifically we have designed a Media Player system controller by Facial Expressions and Gestures (MP-FEG). We detect and track one landmark point on the finger and 18 landmark points on the lips to capture the movement of the finger and the lips of the user. The movement patterns are classified into hand gestures and facial expressions using support vector machine (SVM). We have achieved ~98.65% and ~100% recognition accuracies for hand-gestures and facial expressions respectively. Occurrence of each of these actions (5 hand-gesturs and 3 facial expressions) is associated with a command to control (e.g., to select, play, pause the video) the video player. Perceptional quality analysis by user survey rates the experience of the non-tangible human-computer-interaction facilited by the proposed technique as `good'.
Distributed Ontology Development Environment for Multi-agent Systems

In this paper, we propose a new environment that supports distributed ontology development for multi-agent systems. In our distributed ontology development environment (Donden), users program agents can build ontologies locally which can be associated to each other. Donden consists ontology browser which is provided for each user and ontology server which is provided for a group of users which want to share ontologies. Ontology browser helps user to edit ontology and to make links to other user’s ontology by graphical user interface. Ontology server helps users to synthesize ontologies by computing similarity between concepts of ontologies. We also show another application of distributed ontology development which supports distributed engineering information base.
Evaluation of a Wet Chemistry Method for Isolation of Cyclotron Produced [211At]Astatine

A “wet chemistry” approach for isolation of 211At from an irradiated bismuth target is described. The approach involves five steps: (1) dissolution of bismuth target in conc. HNO3; (2) removal of the HNO3 by distillation; (3) dissolution of residue in 8 M HCl; (4) extraction of 211At from 8 M HCl into DIPE; and (5) extraction of 211At from DIPE into NaOH. Results from 55 “optimized” 211At isolation runs gave recovery yields of approximately 78% after decay and attenuation corrections. An attenuation-corrected average of 26 ± 3 mCi in the target provided isolated (actual) yields of 16 ± 3 mCi of 211At. A sixth step, used for purification of 211At from trace metals, was evaluated in seven runs. In those runs, isolated 211At was distilled under reductive conditions to provide an average 71 ± 8% recovery. RadioHPLC analyses of the isolated 211At solutions, both initial and after distillation, were obtained to examine the 211At species present. The primary species of 211At present was astatide, but astatate and unidentified species were also observed. Studies to determine the effect of bismuth attenuation on 211At were conducted to estimate an attenuation factor (~1.33) for adjustment of 211At readings in the bismuth target.
Protein Kinase C Signaling as a Survival Pathway against CYP2E1-Derived Oxidative Stress and Toxicity in HepG2 Cells

Hepatic induction of CYP2E1 is a major pathway involved in oxidative stress and damage caused by chronic ethanol consumption; CYP2E1 also promotes the activation of a variety of hepatotoxins to reactive intermediates. Phorbol esters activate protein kinase C (PKC), thereby blocking cell differentiation and promoting tumor growth. In this study, we examined the possible role of PKC signaling as a survival pathway against CYP2E1-mediated toxicity using transfected HepG2 hepatoma cells stably overexpressing CYP2E1 (E47 cells). Cells were exposed to arachidonic acid (AA) plus Fe, which has been previously reported to cause a synergistic toxicity in E47 cells by a mechanism dependent on CYP2E1 activity and involving oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. Phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA), but not the inactive analog 4-α-TPA, prevented lipid peroxidation, glutathione depletion, and loss of viability produced by AA + Fe in E47 cells. TPA also protected against the toxicity caused by AA alone, or by iron alone, in the E47 cells. TPA did not lower but instead induced catalytically active CYP2E1 in these cells. The protective effect of TPA on CYP2E1-dependent AA + Fe toxicity seemed to involve a PKC-related survival mechanism, since PKC inhibitors such as Ro 31-8425 (bisindolylmaleimide X hydrochloride) or staurosporine abolished that protection, and activation of PKC by TPA was an early event that occurs prior to the developing toxicity. In conclusion, PKC activation by TPA prevents CYP2E1-derived acute oxidative stress and toxicity in HepG2 cells, and this appears to involve maintenance of the intracellular redox homeostasis via PKC signal transduction.
Emotional speaker verification with linear adaptation

Speaker verification suffers from significant performance degradation on emotional speech. We present an adaptation approach based on maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR) and its feature-space variant, CMLLR. Our preliminary experiments demonstrate that this approach leads to considerable performance improvement, particularly with CMLLR (about 10% relative EER reduction in average). We also find that the performance gain can be significantly increased with a large set of training data for the transform estimation.
Performance comparison of zero-Schottky-barrier single and double walled carbon nanotube transistors

Atomistic quantum simulation is performed to compare the performance of zero-Schottky-barrier single walled (SW) and double walled (DW) carbon nanotube transistors having almost equal magnitude of band gap. The DW nanotube is generated from two semiconducting SW tubes and the SW tube is the outer tube of the DW nanotube. The DW nanotube transistor has better off current, better inverse subthreshold slope, and better on/off current ratio. The SW nanotube transistor has better on current and switching performance. The better switching performance of SW nanotube transistor is the consequence of higher transconductance and on current that results from current saturation in DW nanotube transistor after source-channel flat band condition. The inverse subthreshold slope of DW nanotube transistor is 63.11 mV/dec and that of SW nanotube transistor is 65.26 mV/dec. The on-state transconductance is 21.0963 muS and 1.5023 muS, the intrinsic switching delay is 33.6415 fS and 55.0184 fS, respectively for SW and DW nanotube transistors.
SPARKLES FOR THE VALIDATION OF SIMULATION MODELS FOR COMMUNICATING HYBRID SYSTEMS

Hybrid mobile systems are at the core of nowadays technologies and play a critical part in many challenging applications such as agent-based emergency operations. The design and validation of such systems deserve particular attention and must be approached through appropriate modeling formalisms and properly defined properties. This paper aims at surveying the main issues in the modeling of such systems, emphasizing the key part of abstractions in this process. It then provides a comprehensive framework for validating such systems, exhibiting a set of properties to be checked and the relations with the set of models at the different abstraction levels. Model and simulation validation is then casted into the formal logical model-based diagnosis theory.
The Candida albicans Dse1 Protein Is Essential and Plays a Role in Cell Wall Rigidity, Biofilm Formation, and Virulence

The fungal pathogen Candida albicans is one of the leading causative agents of death in immunocompromised individuals. It harbors an arsenal of cell wall anchored factors that are implicated in virulence such as filamentation inducing factors, adhesins, lipases, proteases, and superoxide dismutases. Dse1 is a cell wall protein involved in cell wall metabolism. The purpose of this study is to characterize the role Dse1 plays in virulence. Dse1 appears to be an essential gene as no homozygous null mutant was possible. The heterozygote mutant exhibited increased susceptibility to calcofluor white, a cell wall disrupting agent, with a subsequent reduction in cell wall chitin content, decreased oxidative stress tolerance, a 30% reduction in biofilm formation, and a delay in adhesion that was mirrored by a reduction in virulence in a mouse model of infection. Dse1 thus appears to be an important protein involved in cell wall integrity and rigidity.
Impact of atopic dermatitis on the quality of life of Saudi children.

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of atopic dermatitis (AD) on the quality of life (QoL) of Saudi infants and children using a validated/culturally adapted Arabic version of the infants` dermatitis quality of life (IDQoL) index, and to investigate the correlation between IDQoL and disease severity. METHODS This study was performed in the Dermatology Clinics and Hospitals affiliated to Qassim University, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia between September 2012 and August 2013. The study was designed to investigate the role of IDQoL in AD patients with different severities. The AD patients (n=630) were evaluated for IDQoL and disease severity using the SCORing of Atopic Dermatitis index. RESULTS The average (+/=standard deviation) of IDQoL score was 12.3+/=5.1 for all studied subjects. The IDQoL scores were significantly different among the 3 studied severity groups, with a highest score in the severe group (p=0.000). A positive correlation was observed between the severity of AD and IDQoL scores (r=0.596, p=0.000). Three items with a negative impact on IDQoL were itching and scratching, the child`s mood, and time to get the child to sleep. All these reached a significantly higher value in the severe group compared with the moderate or mild groups (p=0.000). No significant differences were observed concerning gender or the association with other atopic disorders (p=0.99, and p=0.79). CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that AD manifestations impaired the IDQoL of Saudi patients and were also well correlated with the disease severity score.
Energy efficiency of transmit diversity system in correlated channel

MIMO energy efficiency has attracted a lot of attention recently. In this paper, energy efficiency of two different transmit diversity schemes (transmit antenna selection and transmit beamforming) is analyzed in correlated channel. We derive the relationship between spatial correlation and energy efficiency of two transmit diversity schemes and find that spatial correlation has different effects on them. In order to improve the energy efficiency of the system, we calculate the boundary spatial correlation coefficient based on which transmit diversity schemes can be adopted adaptively. Finally, a simulation is developed to prove our analysis.
Intelligence Information Generation, Dissemination, and Responsiveness in the Performance of Insurance Business in Nigeria

This paper investigates the effect of market orientation practice on the performance of Nigerian insurance business. An empirical survey was conducted among 420 insurers to collect and guage the vital corporate insurance opinions toward meeting the research objectives. The findings of the multifactor design analysis findings suggest that the levels of marketing intelligence dissemination and the response to information generated have a significant impact on the performance of insurance business. Further analyses, using multiple regression equation, reveals that the market intelligence generation, dissemination and, more importantly, responsiveness to information feedback have a direct significant causal effect on insurance business performance. The paper also discusses also the policy implications of these findings.
TIM/WIM: a set of tools to interface modelling in biology

Modelling in biology is a complex task. Many types of information are used by biologists but there is a lack of tools for integrating heterogeneous data in a core interface. TIM (Tools to Input Models) is a tool which allows to put in the same interface data which describe biological objects like enzymes, metabolites, DNA, . and information about biological process modelling like those coming from NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) experiments and used to simulate flux through metabolic networks. TIM is able to manage the widely used database format, PGDB (BioCyc format), and uses a large part of a biological ontology, BioPAX format, to store information about biological processes. To manage all these data, WIM (Web Interface for Modelling) provides a set of web pages. The WIM package generates dynamic html sources using CL-WHO library and integrates an Hunchen-toot web server. At present, the application is used by a biologist group to store data about the carbon metabolism of the tomato fruit. They have released the first version of the TomaCyc database and currently used the WIM interface to create automatically input files for softwares that simulate the activity of their metabolism network.
Collective bargaining and the police

Analyzes the impact of collective bargaining on the supplemental compensation of employees in large police departments across the nation. Suggests that collective bargaining does make a difference in terms of economic benefits; hazardous duty pay, differential shift pay and educational incentive pay are all more likely to be present when the collective bargaining process is available, and merit pay (a more likely management prerogative policy) is less likely to be present. The correlation between collective bargaining and personnel policy varies greatly, however, when controls for fiscal capacity, organizational size, and region are added to the analysis. Geographic region turns out to constitute an important contextual variable deserving primary attention in future analyses of police personnel policies and practices.