Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inkus: A Freehand Method of Creating Business Process Models

Business process modeling has become an industry wide practice for business transformation consulting. Tools that support business process modeling are designed for experienced users to draw a process with precision and professional appearance. These tools are not conducive to sketching quick business design ideas. In this paper, we explore a non-intrusive business process sketching tool which allows free hand sketches of process ideas and slowly brings the users to the required common business vocabulary. We also explore adding business values that support process design thinking, along with sketching. Our goal is to help unleash creativity in business designers and enrich the design process with values beyond drawing. This paper presents a design concept and an implemented prototype of such a system.
Accurate Localization of Multiple Sources Using Semidefinite Programming Based on Incomplete Range Matrix

We address the problem of locating multiple sources from the Euclidean distance matrix (EDM), which can be obtained from the received signal strength or time of arrival measurements. In EDM-based localization, EDM is usually corrupted by some inevitable factors, such as non-line-of-sight propagation, hardware failures, and strong interference. Note that EDM is a low-rank matrix but not a positive semidefinitematrix, classical semidefinite programming (SDP)-based algorithms cannot be implemented directly to handle the case. We derive an SDP-based low-rank solution to reconstruct EDM based on the semidefinite embedding lemma. Based on the recovered EDM, unlike some existing conventional non-convex estimators, a semidefinite relaxation method is developed to fix the locations of sources. In particular, we relax the non-convex localization problem into convex one by using square range information. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm performs higher accuracy while increasing slightly computational complexity as compared with the other existing approaches.
The Unimodal (Species Richness-Biomass) Relationship in Microcommunities Emerging from Soil Seed Banks

We propose using plant microcommunities emerging from soil seed banks as experimental systems for studing species richness. We gathered soil from four Oklahoma terrestrial habitats, kept the soil moist in pots in a greenhouse, and allowed plants to germinate and interact under different conditions. Although heterogeneity among samples was minimized, we observed the often-reported unimodal relationship between richness and biomass in several habitats and treatments. ©1997 Oklahoma Academy of Science
Did thirst‐blockers like angiotensin‐converting‐enzyme inhibitors, sartans, serotonine‐re‐uptake‐inhibitors, dopamine agonists/antagonists, or atypical neuroleptics contribute to the exorbitant number of fatalities during the French 2003 heat wave?

With interest we read the study by Michenot et al. about adverse drug reactions (ADR) during the heat wave in summer 2003 in France. Among the most frequent drugs were angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and sartans. The kind of ADR in these patients were frequently metabolic (dehydration and/or electrolyte disorders), general and less frequent urinary and cardiovascular. Regarding these observations, we have the following questions: ACEIs and sartans are prescribed because of different indications like hypertension, heart failure, or prevention of organ damage in diabetes. What was the indication in the included patients? Did they receive only ACEIs or sartans or also other drugs? The pharmacokinetics of ACEIs and sartans differ between substances. It would be interesting to know if the ARDs occurred more with shortor long-acting substances. It is known from animal experiments that the renin-angiotensin-system plays an important role in the perception of thirst, and that inhibition of this system may lead to dehydration. At present it is largely unknown how relevant this effect is in humans. Thus, it would be interesting to know if there is any information whether the patients had suffered from thirst. Generally, thirst sensation is decreased in elderly humans. Whether ACEIs and sartans further decrease thirst sensation in elderly patients is unknown. Since ACEIs and sartans are frequently prescribed drugs it seems worth to study more thoroughly its effect on human thirst regulation. In addition, a number of other thirst blockers could have contributed to the high number of fatalities during the French 2003 heat wave. Among these are selective serotonine-re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), dopamine D1 and D2 agonists and antagonists and atypical neuroleptic drugs, like clozapine or risperidone. SSRIs cause hyponatraemia and inappropriate secretion of the anti-diuretic hormone and reduce polydipsia in rats. There are also data showing that dopamine D1 and D2 agonists and antagonists decrease thirst. A thirst-blocking effect has also been reported in clozapine and risperidone. Since Parkinson disease is frequently associated with depression or psychotic states, it is not unlikely that such patients had received a combination of several thirst blockers. What was the frequency of patients with Parkinson disease, depression, or psychosis among the fatalities? In view of the climate change and its challenges for human health, more knowledge about pharmacologically induced hypodipsia is of practical relevance. Thus, it would be interesting to know how many of those estimated 14 800 deaths during the heat wave received any thirst-blocking drugs, alone or in combination.
Population‐based analysis of left‐ and right‐sided diaphragmatic hernias demonstrates different frequencies of selected additional anomalies

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a common birth defect that can be subdivided into several different types depending on the anatomical structures affected. Several studies have demonstrated that right‐sided CDH (R‐CDH) and left‐sided CDH (L‐CDH) in humans are associated with different clinical presentations and outcomes. We hypothesized that R‐CDH and L‐CDH are phenotypically and pathogenically distinct, and that the frequency of associated anomalies would differ among patients with R‐CDH compared to patients with L‐CDH. Using population‐based data from ongoing studies in the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program (CBDMP), we compared 146 CDH cases, 38 with R‐CDH (26%) and 108 with L‐CDH (74%). The frequencies of atrial septal defect (1/38 R‐CDH and 20/108 L‐CDH cases; P = 0.015), bilateral pulmonary hypoplasia (22/108 L‐CDH cases and 15/38 R‐CDH cases; P = 0.029), abnormal skull or facial shape (17/108 L‐CDH patients and 1/38 R‐CDH cases; P = 0.043), assorted digital anomalies excluding syndactyly, polydactyly or absence of a digit (13/108 L‐CDH patients and 0/38 R‐CDH patients; P = 0.021) and assorted limb anomalies excluding limb reduction defects (18/108 L‐CDH patients and 0.38 R‐CDH patients; P = 0.004) all showed a statistically significant difference in frequency between R‐ and L‐CDH patients. This descriptive epidemiological study using newborn surveillance data represents the largest comparison of right and left‐sided CDH patients so far performed. Several anomalies as listed above were noted to be different in frequency between R‐ and L‐CDH patients, although the interpretation of the significant variability in the frequency of these anomalies is not yet established and the findings require replication. Birth defects monitoring programs can provide the interface for epidemiology and clinical genetics, which in this case, may generate hypotheses to establish the pathogenesis of CDH laterality. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
E-Government in China: A Content Analysis of National and Provincial Web Sites

The Chinese government has actively encouraged and invested in the growth of the Internet to capture the technology's vast commercial potential, while exerting state control. Even before the country was fully connected to the global “network of networks,” China began to implement programs that would facilitate e-government. Despite some valuable examinations of e-government in China, no studies were found that systematically explored the content of both national and provincial Chinese government Web sites. This study fills that gap in the literature by analyzing the content of the opening pages of 177 government Web sites. The study found that broad e-governance, e-knowledge, and e-service functions were implemented at sites of national, costal, and inland government units. Generally, national and costal sites were more sophisticated, but inland sites seemed designed to meet the specific needs of government, citizens, and businesses in inland areas. The coding form and method designed for analyzing these sites holds promise for future researchers and the findings suggest that China may have begun to achieve its goals of facilitating government functions via the Internet.
Independence of Data-Driven and Conceptually Driven Priming

A central tenet of current memory theories is the independence of data-driven and conceptually driven priming. Although these types of repetition priming have different functional properties, it has remained unclear whether they are independent and additive or interact with each other. Therefore, we orthogonally combined these priming types in two experiments requiring occupation judgments for celebrities, represented by their faces or names. In both experiments, the sum of the effects of separate data-driven priming and conceptually driven priming equaled the effect of the combination of these priming types. These findings demonstrate for the first time the independence of data-driven and conceptually driven priming and so confirm a central tenet of current memory theories. This independence may thus be an important element for the development of future overarching memory theories.
Instantaneous Feedback Control for a Fuel-Prioritized Vehicle Cruising System on Highways With a Varying Slope

This paper presents two fuel-prioritized feedback controllers, which are called the estimated minimum principle (EMP) and kinetic energy conversion (KEC), to realize eco-cruising on varying slopes for vehicles with conventional powertrains. The former is derived from the minimum principle with an estimated Hamiltonian, and the latter is designed based on the equivalent conversion between the kinetic-energy change of vehicle body and the fuel consumption of the engine. They are implemented with analytical control laws and rely on current road slope information only without look-ahead prediction. This feature results in a very light computing load, with the average computing time of each step less than one millisecond. Their fuel-saving performances are quantitatively studied and compared with a model predictive control and a constant speed control. As an expansion, the control rule for avoiding rear-end collision is also designed by using a safety-guaranteed car-following model to constrain the high-risk behaviors.
Mitigation of black hole attacks in Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks

Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) has been standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force to efficiently manage the functions of the network layer when providing Internet connectivity for wireless sensor networks. RPL has been designed for constrained devices and networks. Owing to their constrained nature, RPL-based networks can be exposed to a wide variety of security attacks. One of the most serious attacks in RPL is a black hole attack, where a malicious node silently drops all the packets that it is supposed to forward. This paper proposes a mitigation technique against black hole attack with low packet loss and high reliability. The proposed technique consists of a local decision and a global verification process. First, each node observes the communication behavior of its neighboring nodes by overhearing packets transmitted by its neighbors and attempts to identify suspicious nodes based on their behavior. In the second process, if a node identifies a suspicious node, then it verifies whether the suspicious node is a black hole. We demonstrate that the proposed approach increases packet delivery rate significantly and detects black hole attack effectively. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Visualisation Techniques for Using Spatial Augmented Reality in the Design Process of a Car

If spatial augmented reality is used in the design process of a car, then one of the most important issues is that the virtual content is projected with a very high visual quality onto the real object, because based on this projection design decisions are made. Especially, the visualised colours on the real object should not be distinguishable from corresponding real reference colours. In this paper, we introduce a new approach for the augmentation of real objects which is able to match the requirements of a design process. We present a new rendering method with ray tracing which increases the visual quality of the projection images in comparison to existing methods. The desired values of these images have further to be adjusted according to the material, the ambient light and the local orientation of the projector. For this purpose, we develop a physically based computation which exactly determines the corresponding projection intensities for these values by using three‐dimensional lookup tables at every projector pixel. Since not all of the desired values can be represented with an intensity of the projector, an adjustment has to be computed for these values. Therefore, we conduct a user study with design experts who work in the automotive industry and use the results to propose a new adjustment method for such values. Finally, we compare our methods to existing procedures and conclude which ones are suitable for the design process of a car.
Clustering using the Information Bottleneck Method with Annealing

The purpose of this project is to examine the performance of an existing clustering method, Information Bottleneck with Annealing (IBANN), when applied to the task of document clustering. The information bottleneck method (IB) [9] is known as one of the best methods for clustering multi-dimensional data [5] and this variation of IB uses annealing in order to eliminate a preprocessing step normally required of unsupervised clustering algorithms, it is able to find the number of clusters present in the data [8]. This method has previously been shown to produce good results with lower dimensional data, but it has not been used on a very high-dimensional task such as document clustering. It is intended in this project to adjust the existing algorithm to deal with high-dimensional data in order to compare the results with other methods commonly used for unsupervised document clustering, such as k-means, and with some commonly used supervised methods of classification, such as Support Vector Machines. In order to properly compare our results with previous unsupervised work, and to compare with supervised methods, it is necessary to run the algorithm on a commonly used, labeled dataset. Additionally, due to the high-dimensional nature of document clustering, preprocessing of the documents to reduce dimensionality is commonly done before evaluating performance. Therefore, prior to any work being done on the clustering algorithm itself, a dataset needed to be chosen and a preprocessing method developed in a way such that our results are comparable with previous work.
Design and optimization of a radio frequency energy harvesting system for energizing low power devices

This paper proposes a radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting system which enables scavenging energy from an electromagnetic far field. The system consists of a quarter-wave monopole antenna, a matching circuit, an energy conversion module, an energy storage capacitor, a low-power comparator and a DC-to-DC converter. The RF energy harvester operates at a frequency band of 868 MHz and creates a pulsed output voltage of about 1.8 V at an input power of at least -6 dBm. The system can be used to power a wireless low-power sensor node. With this approach, a battery-less sensor network is made possible.
On the Value Function of the M/G/1 FCFS and LCFS Queues

Aalto University, Department of Communications and NetworkingAbstractWe consider a single-server queue with Poisson input operating under FCFS or LCFSdisciplines. The service times of the customers are independent and obey a generaldistribution. The system is subject to costs for holding a customer per unit of time,which can be customer speciﬁc or customer class speciﬁc. We g ive general expressionsfor the corresponding value functions, which have elementary compact forms, similarto the Pollaczek-Khinchine mean value formulae. The resultsgeneralize earlier workwhere similar expressions have been obtained for speciﬁc se rvice time distributions. Theobtained value functions can be readily applied to develop nearly optimal dispatchingpolicies for a broad range of systems with parallel queues, including multi-classscenarios and the cases where service time estimates are available.Keywords: M/G/1; FCFS; LCFS; value function; sojourn time; mean delay2010 Mathematics Subject Classiﬁcation: Primary 60K25Secondary 90C40
Comparison of Measurement Techniques for Linewidth Metrology on Advanced Photomasks

This paper compares electrical, optical, and atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements of critical dimension (CD) made on a chrome on quartz photomask. Test structures suitable for direct, on-mask electrical probing have been measured using the above three techniques. These include cross-bridge linewidth structures and pairs of Kelvin bridge resistors designed to investigate dimensional mismatch. Overall, the results show very good agreement between the electrical measurements and those made with a calibrated CD-AFM system, while the optical metrology system overestimates the measured width. The uncertainty in each of the measurements has been considered, and for the first time an attempt has been made to describe the levels and sources of uncertainty in the electrical measurement of CD on advanced binary photomasks.
The Isoflavone Metabolite Cis-Tetrahydrodaidzein Inhibits ERK-1 Activation and Proliferation in Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Abstract: Phytoestrogens have recently been proposed as alternatives to estrogens for cardiovascular protection; however, the effect of their metabolites on vascular biology is unclear. We studied the effect of a red clover-derived isoflavone metabolite cis-tetrahydrodaidzein (cis-THD) on human vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation. Cis-THD significantly inhibited platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) BB-induced DNA synthesis (10% at 1 nmol/L, 17% at 10, 100 nmol/L; 17β-estradiol: 27% inhibition at 1, 10 nmol/L, 33% at 100 nmol/L). Cis-THD reduced PDGF BB-induced increase in cell numbers. Cis-THD showed high binding affinity to estrogen receptors (ER) by ER competitor assays; its inhibitory effect on DNA synthesis was abolished by the ER antagonist ICI 182780 (100 nmol/L), indicating ER-mediation. Immunoprecipitation assays revealed that cis-THD inhibited PDGF BB-stimulated activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase ERK-1 by 34% at 1 nmol/L, 58% at 10 nmol/L, and 81% at 100 nmol/L, while MAP kinase JNK and p38 activities were unaltered. Thus, the isoflavone metabolite cis-THD inhibits PDGF-induced ERK-1 activation and cell proliferation in human VSMC, suggesting a potential beneficial effect in cardiovascular protection.
Lipopolysaccharide regulation of lipoprotein lipase expression in murine macrophages

The enzyme lipoprotein lipase is expressed in a number of cell types and plays a central role in lipid metabolism. Multiple factors regulate its expression in a tissue-specific manner. In murine macrophages, lipopolysaccharide inhibits lipoprotein lipase enzyme activity. The current work examines this process in the established J774 macrophage line and primary peritoneal macrophages from endotoxin-sensitive (C3HeB/Fej) and endotoxin-resistant (C3H/Hej) murine strains. Lipopolysaccharide inhibition of macrophage lipoprotein lipase occurred at the enzyme and mRNA levels in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Cells from endotoxin-resistant animals maintained their expression of lipoprotein lipase following treatment with lipopolysaccharide. Results of gel retention assays showed that lipopolysaccharide treatment of the J774 macrophages altered the level of nuclear proteins recognizing and binding the lipoprotein lipase promoter DNA. Nuclear extracts from resting J774 cells contained proteins which bound specifically to the octamer motif and to the CAAT box within the lipoprotein lipase promoter. Exposure of the J774 cells to lipopolysaccharide for 16 h increased the level of protein-octamer DNA complexes. Similar responses were obtained in endotoxin-sensitive, but not endotoxin-resistant, primary macrophages following in vitro treatment with lipopolysaccharide. This finding suggests that transcriptional events may contribute to the lipopolysaccharide regulation of macrophage lipoprotein lipase expression.
Differential Effects of Changes in the Length of a Signal/Anchor Domain on Membrane Insertion, Subunit Assembly, and Intracellular Transport of a Type II Integral Membrane Protein (*)

The length requirement for a functional uncleaved signal/anchor (S/A) domain of the paramyxovirus hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) type II glycoprotein was analyzed. HN mutants with progressive NH-terminal S/A deletions or insertions were expressed in HeLa cells, and the membrane targeting, folding, tetramer assembly, and intracellular transport of the proteins were examined. Changing the length of the S/A by two residues resulted in HN mutants that displayed aberrant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane targeting or translocation. This phenotype did not simply reflect upper or lower limitations on the size of a functional S/A, because normal signaling was restored by further alterations involving three or four residues. Likewise, ER-to-Golgi transport of mutants containing deletions of one or two S/A residues was delayed (30% of WT) or blocked, but transport was restored for a mutant with a total of three deleted residues. HN mutants with S/A insertions of three or four Leu residues differed from wild-type HN by having heterogeneous Golgi-specific carbohydrate modifications. Differences in ER-to-Golgi transport of the mutants did not strictly correlate with defects in either native folding of the ectodomain or the assembly of two dimers into a tetramer. Together, these data suggest that efficient entry into and exit from the ER are sensitive to changes in the HN S/A that may reflect alterations to a structural requirement along one side of an α-helix.
Optofluidic Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based Sensors

Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the field of microstructured optofluidic waveguides and especially those created by filling photonic crystal fibers with fluids. This paper presents an overview of sensing properties of optofluidic photonic crystal fiber-based sensors of temperature, pressure, electric/magnetic field, and refractive index that utilize photonic crystal fibers infiltrated with both isotropic and anisotropic liquids.