Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clustering Spatial Data in the Presence of Obstacles and Crossings : a Density-Based Approach

Clustering spatial data is a well-known problem that has been extensively studied. Grouping similar data in large 2-dimensional spaces to find hidden patterns or meaningful sub-groups has many applications such as satellite imagery, geographic information systems, medical image analysis, marketing, computer visions, etc. Although many methods have been proposed in the literature, very few have considered physical obstacles and bridges linking clusters that may have significant consequences on the effectiveness of the clustering. Taking into account these constraints during the clustering process is costly and the modeling of the constraints is paramount for good performance. In this paper, we investigate the problem of clustering in the presence of constraints such as obstacles and crossings and introduce a new approach to model these constraints. We also propose a strategy to prune the search space and reduce the number of polygons to test during clustering. We devise a density-based clustering algorithm, DBCluC, which takes advantage of our constraint modeling to efficiently cluster data objects while considering all physical constraints. The algorithm can detect clusters of arbitrary shape and is insensitive to noise and the input order. Its running complexity is O (NlogN) where N is the number of data points.
SiliconPV 2015 Base contacts and selective emitters processed by laser doping technique for p-type IBC cSi solar cells

In this work, we describe a novel fabrication process of p-type interdigitated back contact (IBC) silicon solar developed by means of laser doping and laser firing techniques. We use dielectric layers both as dopant sources to create highly-doped regions and as passivating layers. In particular, we use phosphorus-doped silicon carbide stacks (a-SiCx (n)) deposited by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) layer deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Emitters were fabricated with a light thermal phosphorus diffusion in order to reduce bulk and surface emitter recombination losses. Highly doped regions n (emitter) and p (base) were simultaneously created in a point-like structure using a pulsed Nd-YAG 1064 nm laser in the nanosecond regime by laser processing the dielectric layers. The results obtained for a cell, 3x3 cm , are presented. Efficiencies up to 18.1% (Jsc = 39 mA/cm2, Voc = 632 mV, FF = 73.4%) have been achieved in our fabricated IBC cells. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer review by the scientific conference committee of SiliconPV 2015 under responsibility of PSE AG.
Domain Wall Memory-Layout, Circuit and Synergistic Systems

Domain wall memory (DWM) is gaining significant attention for embedded cache application due to low standby power, excellent retention, and ability to store multiple bits per cell. Additionally, it provides fast access time, good endurance, and good retention. However, it suffers from poor write latency, shift latency, shift power, and write power. DWM is sequential in nature and latency of read/write operations depends on the offset of the bit from the read/write head. This paper investigates the circuit design challenges such as bitcell layout, head positioning, utilization factor of the nanowire, shift power, shift latency, and provides solutions to deal with these issues. A synergistic system is proposed by combining circuit techniques such as merged read/write heads (for compact layout), flipped-bitcell and shift gating (for shift power optimization), wordline strapping (for access latency), shift circuit design with two micro-architectural techniques: 1) segmented cache and 2) workload-aware dynamic shift and write current boosting to realize energy-efficient and robust DWM cache. Simulations show 3-33% performance and 1.2-14.4X power consumption improvement for cache segregation and 2.5-31% performance and 1.3-14.9X power enhancement for dynamic current boosting over a wide range of PARSEC benchmarks.
Market Reaction to Securitization Retained Interest Impairments during the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008: Are Implicit Guarantees Worth the Paper They’re Not Written On?

The collapse of the securitization market during the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis resulted from investors’ concern with the value of securitized assets and securities issued by special purpose entities (SPEs). Research has shown that prior to the Crisis, investors valued equity of sponsor-originator banks (S-Os) as if there were an implicit guarantee extended to SPE creditors that would be fully honored. We predict that the Crisis caused investors to value S-O equity as if such guarantees would not be honored. We test this prediction in two ways: by estimating cross-sectional equity valuation models for banks before and during the Financial Crisis, and by testing for changes in various market metrics in response to retained interest writedown events during the Financial Crisis. The valuation tests reveal that whereas prior to the Crisis SPE debt and equity was valued similarly to S-O debt and equity, this relation ceased to hold after the Crisis unfolded. The event study results reveal an increase in trading volume, equity volatility, and spread when retained interest writedowns are announced, which is consistent with the market viewing such events as providing significant, but ambiguous information regarding whether S-Os would honor their implicit guarantees. Additional analyses reveal that investor reaction is concentrated among those S-Os where there is ambiguity as to whether they will honor their implicit guarantees.
Determination of Breakdown Voltages and Instabilities in Electron Beam Ionized Discharges

Abstract : Diffuse electron-beam ionized discharges break down into arc discharges under three different conditions: static (no discharge or E-beam), dynamic (discharge on) and pulsed (inductive) overvoltage at switch-off. Dynamic breakdown voltages are lower than static breakdown voltages but in normal operation the discharge on voltage is kept to a minimum. The maximum load voltage will only be present for a few microseconds or less at switch-off; the hold-off voltage required for this condition is the pulse breakdown voltage. Using an inductive load, pulse breakdown voltages were measured at values much higher than their dynamic breakdown voltages. During conduction, certain high conductivity gases such as methane can exhibit current oscillations caused by the negative slope of their electron drift velocity as function of electric field. These oscillations have been measured electrically and optically. The range where oscillations occur can be avoided in practical applications.
A review on Service-Oriented Software Engineering (SOSE)

Nowadays complex and large-scale systems are developed for solving the problems by integrating the services. SOSE (Service Oriented Software Engineering) is the modern approach of software engineering to deal with these services. For the past 2–3 years' services have increased exponentially, among those which is the best one for the good software development is a challenge. The detailed study of SOSE is observed with respect to the Traditional Software Engineering. SOSE gives the thorough analysis platform for the Quality of Service (QoS), which contributes to cost-efficient software development. In this Quality of service is improved by reusability and scalability of services, which leads to solving many issues, which occur during software engineering maintenance and evolution. The SOSE differs Traditional SE with the consideration of its structure, method of implementation etc. like attributes. This paper gives the crucial and clear idea about the SOSE.
Short-Term Load Forecasting: The Similar Shape Functional Time-Series Predictor

A novel functional time-series methodology for short-term load forecasting is introduced. The prediction is performed by means of a weighted average of past daily load segments, the shape of which is similar to the expected shape of the load segment to be predicted. The past load segments are identified from the available history of the observed load segments by means of their closeness to a so-called reference load segment. The latter is selected in a manner that captures the expected qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the load segment to be predicted. As an illustration, the suggested functional time-series forecasting methodology is applied to historical daily load data in Cyprus. Its performance is compared with some recently proposed alternative methodologies for short-term load forecasting.
On the Evaluation of the 4-D Reaction Integral for the Scalar Potential in Galerkin’s Method of Moments

Despite the great progress made in the evaluation of the 4-D reaction integrals arising in the method of moments applied to the surface integral equation formulations, there are still some aspects that deserve to be explored further. The focus in this paper lies in the evaluation of the 4-D reaction integral for the scalar potential. We demonstrate that, unless this integral is computed to machine precision in the whole impedance matrix, it is imperative to maintain the trianglewise balance in the evaluation of the scalar potential part. A small imbalance, even at very small error, results in a loss of degrees of freedom (DOFs) for the charge distribution, violating the null-space property of the divergence operator and yielding potentially spurious solutions. The effect, although present, may go unnoticed at the conventional frequency regimes, where the usual mesh sizes can be applied. However, it becomes more pronounced as we approach the quasi-static limit, eventually rendering spurious solutions at the frequencies higher than the classical low-frequency breakdown would.
Random-Forest-Based Analysis of URL Paths

One of the key sources of spreading malware are malicious web sites – either tricking user to install malware imitating legitimate software or, in the case of various exploit kits, initiating malware installation even without any user action. The most common technique against such web sites is blacklisting. However, it provides little to no information about new sites never seen before. Therefore, there has been important research into predicting malicious web sites based on their features. This work-inprogress paper presents a light-weight prediction method using solely lexical features of the site URL and classification by random forests. To this end, three possibilities of feature extraction have been elaborated and investigated on real-world data sets with respect to precision and recall. The obtained results indicate that there is nearly never a significant difference betrweeen the considered methods, and that in spite of the limitation to the lexical features of the site URL, they have an impressive performance in terms of area under the precision-recall curve for the path parts of URLs.
FPGA-Based Reliable Video Sensor in NCS

Recently, FPGA-based NCS applications have been widely used. Industrial environments have a lot of electromagnetic interference which may induce transient and permanent faults. As a result, Fault-Tolerant FPGA based NCS applications are required. In this paper, an NCS model composed of a combination of S2A architecture and In-Loop architecture connected to each other through Ethernet switch, is described. The S2A part of the model is an FPGA-based video sensor network which requires protection against transient faults. Several Fault-Tolerant techniques are mentioned in the literature for protection. Two Fault-Tolerant techniques are under study which are Hot Standby and Sift-Out. The fault model used is Single Event Upsets (SEUs). Dynamic Partial Recovery is used. Markov Models are used for reliability calculations. Results show that even though the Sift-Out technique is more reliable than Hot Standby, there may be situations where the difference in reliability cannot justify the extra cost. Keywords— Fault-Tolerant; Networked Control Systems; S2A; In-Loop; FPGAs; Reliability; Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration; Hot Standby; Sift-Out; Markov Model.
Warp: a method for neural network interpretability applied to gene expression profiles

We show a proof of principle for warping, a method to interpret the inner working of neural networks in the context of gene expression analysis. Warping is an efficient way to gain insight to the inner workings of neural nets and make them more interpretable. We demonstrate the ability of warping to recover meaningful information for a given class on a samplespecific individual basis. We found warping works well in both linearly and nonlinearly separable datasets. These encouraging results show that warping has a potential to be the answer to neural networks interpretability in computational biology.
Accurate MM-wave-to-THz power measurements with large-area pyroelectric detectors

We present an improved method for measuring power at ∼100 GHz and above using a large-area (5-mm diam) LiTaO3 pyroelectric detector. The pyroelectric element is packaged in a lid-free TO-5 can, which in turn is mated to one end of a 1/2-inch-diam brass tube whose opposite end is flared for improved coupling efficiency. This “light-pipe”-like arrangement is cross-calibrated against a thermistor-based waveguide Anritsu ML83A power sensor using a 104-GHz Gunn oscillator and precision attenuator. It also stabilizes the pyroelectric element against background (IR) radiation and air currents. The resulting power detector is useful in the ∼10-nW-to-1-uW region where waveguide power sensors do not operate and free-space sensors like Golay cells and pyroelectrics have always been uncalibrated and unstable.
Mechanical Loading of Neurons and Astrocytes with Application to Blast Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract : Investigations of the mechanical properties of cells are essential for linking mechanical deformation and loading to injury mechanisms at the cellular level. This is especially important when studying traumatic brain injury (TBI). Neurons and astrocytes are susceptible to damage mechanisms arising from various loading scenarios ranging from motor vehicle accidents to sports injuries and pressure waves generated by explosions. Obtaining the mechanical properties of cells of the central nervous system (CNS) is a critical step for the development of hierarchical models and multi-scale simulation tools to elucidate how applied macroscopic loading conditions such as pressure waves, translate into cell deformation and damage. Here we present atomic force microscopy (AFM) indentation data and finite element simulation results on the mechanical response of single neurons and astrocytes to dynamic loading at large strains. Specific AFM testing protocols were developed to characterize the mechanical behavior of both cortical neurons and astrocytes over a range of indentation rates spanning three orders of magnitude - i.e. 10, 1, and 0.1 micrometers/s. The response of both cell types showed similar qualitative nonlinear viscoelastic patterns although, quantitatively some differences were noted between the two CNS cell populations. The rheological data were complemented with geometrical measurements of cell body morphology obtained through bright-field and confocal microscopy images. A constitutive model was developed, enabling quantitative comparisons within and between populations of neurons and astrocytes. The proposed model, built upon previous constitutive model developments carried out at the cortical tissue level, was implemented into a three-dimensional finite element framework. The simulated cell responses were successfully calibrated to the experimental measurement under the selected test conditions.
Potencial evocado auditivo de tronco encefálico como auxílio diagnóstico de morte encefálica**** Brainstem auditory evoked potentials as a method to assist the diagnosis of brain death

Background: brainstem auditory evoked potentials in brain death. Aim: to verify the agreement between the response in the auditory brainstem audiometry and the clinical outcome, analyzing the pattern of responses to electric stimulation. Method: a cross-sectional study performed in 30 patients with Glasgow coma score of 3, submitted to the auditory brainstem audiometry and followed up until their clinical outcome: recovery or death. The test was considered positive to brain death when there was no registry of waves or when there was only the registry of wave I; and negative when there were two or more waves, independently of their latencies. Results: Among the patients who presented positive results for brain death (86.66%), all died; the only patient who recovered presented a negative result, indicating a specificity of 100%. Internal consistency of data was also observed, with an intraclass correlation
Algorithms of Optimal Control Methods for Nonlinear Systems with Constraints

The contribution presents defined problems of a control of nonlinear systems, processes with constraints and limitations. Optimality conditions for a control and iterative gradient methods of nonlinear systems optimization have been given. The defined problem with the Lagrangian criterion function is converted to an optimalization problem of the theory of games. In order to solve such a problem, the search for a saddle point of a functional, an algorithm of an iterative method has been designed. There are also presented algorithms designed based on gradient methods (e.g. Generalized Method of Reduced Gradient) using the projection principles to solve mathematical models of the tasks of processes optimal control, where constraining conditions and limitations to state and control variables of the process are fulfilled.
An iterative multipath interference canceller with linear equalization for ultra high data rate DS-UWB system

In ultra high data rate carrier based direct-sequence ultra-wideband (DS-UWB) systems with low spreading factor (SF), severe inter-path interference (IPI) and inter-chip interference (ICI) degrade the performance of conventional Rake-Equalizer receiver due to the poor autocorrelation property of spreading code. Moreover, in scenarios with long channel delay spread, the high computational complexity of decision feedback equalizer (DFE) becomes a heavy burden for system design. In this paper, a selective multipath interference canceller (SMPIC) assisted by linear equalization (LE) is developed for practical receiver design, which achieves a better trade-off between performance and computational complexity than Rake-DFE. In this scheme, the SMPIC is capable of alleviating the strong IPI, ICI and inter-symbol interference (ISI) by cancelling out reconstructed multipath interference in an iterative manner. Then a low complexity LE with small tap number is employed. Monte Carlo simulations show that compared with Rake-DFE, the proposed SMPIC-LE receiver, with much lower computational complexity, can achieve similar or even better performance in different UWB channel models.
Robotic wheelchair for museum visit

Several robotic/intelligent wheelchairs have been proposed. Their main research topics are autonomous functions such as moving toward some goal while avoiding obstacles, and user-friendly interfaces. Although it is desirable for wheelchair users to go out alone, caregivers often accompany them. Thus we must consider reducing caregiverspsila load in addition to autonomous functions and user interfaces. This paper presents the wheelchair that takes appropriate actions depending on the situation. The wheelchair user and the caregiver move together side by side while chatting. When the caregiver stops close to some exhibit, the wheelchair detects the exhibit by its vision system and moves to a position where the user can look at it well. The wheelchair may turn toward the caregiver if the caregiver turns toward the user to talk about the exhibit.
Cryptic dioecy of Symplocos wikstroemiifolia Hayata (Symplocaceae) in Taiwan

Symplocos wikstroemiifolia Hayata is one of the few morphologically androdioecious species in Symplocaceae. Although this species has been proposed as cryptically dioecious, little is known about its patterns of sexual expression in the field. We studied the breeding system and reproductive biology of S.wikstroemiifolia in Taiwan. Field investigations showed that anthers of most morphologically hermaphroditic flowers did not produce pollen grains; thus, this flower type should be considered female. Nearly all flowering individuals produced only male or female flowers. The sex ratios were slightly male-biased, but did not significantly deviate from 1:1, congruent with the proposed cryptic dioecy status. However, two individuals produced flowers that may have been functionally hermaphroditic, suggesting a variation of sexual expression in S. wikstroemiifolia. There were about 12 stamens per male flower but only five staminodes per female flower. No locules and ovules existed in the male flowers, while two locules within the ovary of the female flowers contained four ovules each (two large, two small). Male individuals produced cymes and thyrses, whereas female individuals only produced cymes. Some of these morphological characteristics differed from those previouslydescribed. Anthesis of most male and female flowers began before dawn and lasted for one to two days. Nevertheless, anther dehiscence, which only occurred under dry conditions, was not restricted to a specific timeperiod during the day. The mean natural fruit set was 6.7%, which is relatively low compared to those in other Symplocos or dioecious species. In conclusion, S. wikstroemiifolia exhibited a nearly complete gender dimorphism, but with certain flexibility in sexual expression, and should thus be considered cryptically dioecious.
Cosmology with superluminous supernovae

We predict cosmological constraints for forthcoming surveys using superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) as standardizable candles. Due to their high peak luminosity, these events can be observed to high redshift (z ? 3), opening up new possibilities to probe the Universe in the deceleration epoch. We describe our methodology for creating mock Hubble diagrams for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), the ‘Search Using DECam for Superluminous Supernovae’ (SUDSS) and a sample of SLSNe possible from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), exploring a range of standardization values for SLSNe. We include uncertainties due to gravitational lensing and marginalize over possible uncertainties in the magnitude scale of the observations (e.g. uncertain absolute peak magnitude, calibration errors). We find that the addition of only ? 100 SLSNe from SUDSS to 3800 Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) from DES can improve the constraints on w and ? m by at least 20 per cent (assuming a flat wCDM universe). Moreover, the combination of DES SNe Ia and 10 000 LSST-like SLSNe can measure ? m and w to 2 and 4 per cent, respectively. The real power of SLSNe becomes evident when we consider possible temporal variations in w(a), giving possible uncertainties of only 2, 5 and 14 per cent on ? m, w0 and wa, respectively, from the combination of DES SNe Ia, LSST-like SLSNe and Planck. These errors are competitive with predicted Euclid constraints, indicating a future role for SLSNe for probing the high-redshift Universe.
Optical 3D μ-printing of ferrule-top polymer suspended-mirror devices

We present a novel optical printing technology for rapid fabrication of polymer suspended-mirror devices (SMDs) on the end surface of a ferrule of optical fiber connector. With the own-developed 3D μ-printing technology, three kinds of ferrule-top SMDs have been rapidly fabricated by using SU-8 photoresist. Optical reflection spectra of the fabricated SU-8 SMDs are measured. The application of SMDs as a highly sensitive displacement sensor is experimentally demonstrated.