Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental measurements of light scattering from samples with specified optical properties

We have measured the photon intensity transmitted through cylindrical and slab phantoms of different concentration and size scattering particles. Our continuous wave (CW) measurements show quantitatively that the mean cosine of the scattering angle (g) must be taken into account unless the phantoms have very high scattering coefficient. We have compared the results for phantoms made of titanium dioxide in resin, which is commonly used to simulate tissue despite its low g value (0.56), with those for silica in resin phantoms of high g value (0.95). The comparison has shown different angular scattered intensity, both in form and magnitude, for phantoms that have the same reduced scattering coefficient but different g value. The results show that, in some cases, using the reduced scattering coefficient and absorption alone for comparing phantoms or for reconstruction using inverse methods based, for example, on diffusion theory would lead to incorrect interpretations.
Phase stabilization of mode-locked lasers

We present results on carrier-envelope phase stabilization of mode-locked lasers. The carrier-envelope phase of femtosecond optical pulses becomes important when they are used to probe attosecond physics. We demonstrate that long-term carrier-envelope phase stability is possible to achieve. Using phase-stable lasers it is possible to combine the output of different lasers phase coherently. It is also possible to load them phase coherently into a cavity, yielding the prospect of high-intensity experiments without an amplifier. Finally, we present quantum interference control of injected currents in semiconductors, which provides a solid-state phase detector of the carrier-envelope phase.
The determinants of risk disclosure in the Indonesian non-listed banks

This study aims to explain the extent of risk disclosure of Indonesian non-listed banks' annual reports and to investigate the factors that drive non-listed banks to disclose risk information in their annual reports. This study provides a new method for measuring risk disclosure in the Indonesian context. We measure risk disclosure by the number of Indonesian risk-related keywords divided by total number of sentences in annual reports. The analysis shows that the total number of risk keywords, sentences and risk disclosure in annual reports has an upward trend. Bank size positively affects risk disclosure. This suggests that firm characteristics influence non-listed banks' risk disclosure.
INDOOR SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION FROM RGB-D IMAGES BY INTEGRATING FULLY CONVOLUTIONAL NETWORK WITH HIGHER-ORDER MARKOV RANDOM FIELD

Abstract. Indoor scenes have the characteristics of abundant semantic categories, illumination changes, occlusions and overlaps among objects, which poses great challenges for indoor semantic segmentation. Therefore, we in this paper develop a method based on higher-order Markov random field model for indoor semantic segmentation from RGB-D images. Instead of directly using RGB-D images, we first train and perform RefineNet model only using RGB information for generating the high-level semantic information. Then, the spatial location relationship from depth channel and the spectral information from color channels are integrated as a prior for a marker-controlled watershed algorithm to obtain the robust and accurate visual homogenous regions. Finally, higher-order Markov random field model encodes the short-range context among the adjacent pixels and the long-range context within each visual homogenous region for refining the semantic segmentations. To evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method, experiments were conducted on the public SUN RGB-D dataset. Experimental results indicate that compared with using RGB information alone, the proposed method remarkably improves the semantic segmentation results, especially at object boundaries.
Breathing Life Into Dead-Zones

The terrestrial planet formation regions of protoplanetary disks are generally su ciently cold to be con- sidered non-magnetized and, consequently, dynamically in- active. However, recent investigations of these so-called "Dead-Zones" indicate the pos- sibility that disks with strong mean radial temperature gradients can support instabilities associated with disk-normal gradients of the basic Keplerian shear profile. This pro- cess, known as the Goldreich-Schubert-Fricke (GSF) instability, is the instability of short radial wavelength inertial modes and depends wholly on the presence of vertical gradi- ents of the mean Keplerian (zonal) flow. We report here high resolution fully nonlinear axisymmetric numerical studies of this instability and find a number of features includ- ing how, in the nonlinear saturated state, unstable discs become globally distorted, with strong vertical oscillations occurring at all radii due to local instability. We find that non- axisymmetric numerical experiments are accompanied by significant amounts angular momentum transport ( 0:001). This instability should be operating in the Dead-Zones of protoplanetary disks at radii greater than 10-15 AU in minimum mass solar nebula models.
Catheter-related Thrombosis in Oncologic Patients with Totally Implantable Venous Access Ports in the Forearm

Poster: "ECR 2012 / C-0180 / Catheter-related Thrombosis in Oncologic Patients with Totally Implantable Venous Access Ports in the Forearm" by: "J. P. Goltz1, J. Schmid1, C. O. Ritter1, P. Knodler1, B. Petritsch1, J. Kirchner2, D. Hahn1, R. Kickuth1; 1Wurzburg/DE, 2Hagen/DE"
Echelle spectroscopy of the nuclei of the highly collimated bipolar planetary nebulae M 2-9 and M 1-91

We present echelle spectroscopy of the unresolved nuclei of the bipolar planetary nebulae M 2-9 and M 1-91. The spectrum is dominated by emission lines emitted under a wide range of physical conditions. From the observations we identify the emission lines, derive physical conditions and relative motions of the different ionized species in the circumstellar region of both objects. We propose that the observed forbidden lines arise in the inner part of the extended torus that surrounds each object.
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF EARNING AND EMPLOYMENT: DOES TRADE PROTECTION MATTER?

Empirical studies that directly analyze the effect of trade policies on earnings and employment across countries is notably absent in the international trade literature. Most of the previous work focuses on the effects of trade policy on income distribution and economic growth. This paper differs from the earlier studies in that it directly analyzes the effect of trade policies on earnings in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, and on the unemployment rate. A theoretical model that accounts for cross-sector labor migration and urban unemployment is developed. Reduced form equations derived from the model are analyzed empirically via cross-country regression analysis. Besides trade policy, machine use in the agricultural sector, per capita land holdings, capital investments in the manufacturing sector and the adult literacy rate are the other explanatory variables incorporated in the empirical analysis.
QoSMT: supporting precise performance control for simultaneous multithreading architecture

Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) technology improves CPU throughput, but also causes unpredictable performance fluctuations for co-located workloads. Although recent major SMT processors have adopted some techniques to promote hardware support for quality-of-service (QoS), achieving both precise performance control and high throughput on SMT architectures is still a challenging open problem. In this paper, we perform some comprehensive experiments on real SMT systems and cycle-accurate simulators. From these experiments, we observe that almost all in-core resources may suffer from severe contention as workloads vary. We consider this observation as the fundamental reason leading to the challenging problem above. Thus, we introduce QoSMT, a novel hardware scheme that leverages a closed-loop controlling mechanism to enforce precise performance control for specific targets, e.g. achieving 85%, 90% or 95% of the performance of a workload running alone respectively. We implement a prototype on GEM5 simulator. Experimental results show that the control error is only 1.4%, 0.5% and 3.6%.
Device-Invariant Cellular-Based Indoor Localization System Using Deep Learning

The demand for a ubiquitous and accurate indoor localization service is continuously growing. Cellular-based systems, by definition, have been shown to be a perfect selection to provide a ubiquitous localization service. The main barrier towards achieving this goal is the heterogeneity of the many different types and models of cell phones which result in variations of the measured received signal strength (RSS) even from the same location at the same time. This is particular to fingerprinting-based localization where different types of phones may be used between the system training and tracking times. The performance of the current cellular-based solutions drops significantly. In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based system that leverages cellular measurements from training devices to provide consistent, fine-grained performance across unseen tracking phones with milliwatts of power consumption. The proposed system incorporates different components to extract the device-invariant features and improve the deep model's generalization and robustness, achieving device-transparent operation. Evaluation of the proposed system in a realistic testbed using three different Android phones with different form factors and sensing capability shows that it can achieve a consistent localization accuracy. This is better than the state-of-the-art indoor cellularbased systems by at least 65%. Our experiments show the promise of this method, yielding maximum median error typically within only 0.39 meter of training and testing with the same phone.
Early Seedling Growth of Italian Ryegrass and Smilo as Affected by Nutrition.

The effect of inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers on the seedling vigor of two important but dissimilar grass species, Lolium multiflorum and Oryzopsis miliacea is reported. There was significant reduction in seedling growth at high concentrations of NH,NO, + NH,H,PO, but with NH,NO, alone the high concentrations neither increased nor decreased seedling growth. Nitrogen uptake of seedlings increased as the level of nitrogen increased. Rapid depletion of endosperm starch and low concentrations of total sugars and reducing sugars in seedlings were associated with the high levels of nitrogen fertilization.
3D-printed formwork for bespoke concrete stairs: from computational design to digital fabrication

Non-standard stairs have an important role in architecture, but their complex details and three-dimensionality pose significant fabrication challenges. One of the preferred materials for custom stairs is concrete, which can be cast in complex shapes, the only limitation in this case being the fabrication of the necessary formworks. This paper reviews the opportunities and challenges of using 3D-printed formwork for fabricating custom concrete stairs with complex geometries (Fig. 1). 3D printing can unlock an entirely new vocabulary of shapes for concrete structures, previously unavailable with traditional formwork systems. Only a minimal amount of 3D-printed plastic is required to deliver a very thin, stable shell. With these formworks, complex topologies can be achieved in concrete elements. Such elements can optimize the structural performance or improve functional aspects, as well as introduce a radically different aesthetic.
Simulation of cell-substrate traction force dynamics in response to soluble factors

Finite element (FE) simulations of contractile responses of vascular muscular thin films (vMTFs) and endothelial cells resting on an array of micro-posts under stimulation of soluble factors were conducted in comparison with experimental measurements reported in literature. Two types of constitutive models were employed in the simulations, i.e. smooth muscle cell type and non-smooth muscle cell type. The time histories of the effects of soluble factors were obtained via calibration against experimental measurements of contractile responses of tissues or cells. The numerical results for vMTFs with micropatterned tissues suggest that the radius of curvature of vMTFs under stimulation of soluble factors is sensitive to width of the micropatterned tissue, i.e. the radius of curvature increases as the tissue width decreases. However, as the tissue response is essentially isometric, the time history of the maximum principal stress of the micropatterned tissues is not sensitive to tissue width. Good agreement has been achieved for predictions of the vasoconstrictor endothelin-1 (ET-1) induced contraction stress between the FE numerical simulation and the experiment based approach of Alford, et al. (2011) for the vMTFs with 40, 60, 80 and 100 μm width patterns. This may suggest the contraction stress is weakly sensitive to the tissue width for these patterns. However, for 20 μm width tissue patterning, the numerical simulation result for contraction stress is less than the average value of experimental measurements, which may suggest the thinner and more elongated spindlelike cells within the 20 μm width tissue patterning have higher contractile output. The constitutive model for nonsmooth muscle cells was used to simulate the contractile response of the endothelial cells. The substrate was treated as an effective continuum. For agonists such as Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the deformation of the cell diminishes from edge to centre and the central part of the cell is essentially under isometric state. Numerical studies demonstrated the scenarios that cell polarity can be triggered via manipulation of the effective stiffness and Possion’s ratio of the substrate.
The Study of the Graft Hemodynamics with Different Instant Patency in Coronary Artery Bypassing Grafting

In coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), graft’s poor instant patency may lead to an abnormal hemodynamic environment in anastomosis, which could further cause graft failure after the surgery. This paper investigates the graft hemodynamics with different instant patency, and explores its effect on graft postoperative efficiency. Six CABG 0D/3D coupling multi-scale models which used left internal mammary artery (LIMA) and saphenous vein (SVG) as grafts were constructed. Different types of grafts were examined in the models, including normal grafts, grafts with competitive flow and grafts with anastomotic stenosis. Simulation results indicated that comparing with SVG grafts, there was a greater difference between normal LIMA graft and non-patent LIMA graft. Also, the backflow occurred even in LIMA systolic flow. The wall shear stress (WSS) in the graft of the competitive flow LIMA model had an appreciable decrease comparing with the normal graft. In addition, the WSS in the stenosis region of the anastomotic stenosis LIMA model was much higher than its adjacent regions. In contrast, the WSS distributions in the SVG models were much smoother than in the LIMA models. For oscillatory shear index (OSI), there was little difference between normal LIMA and SVG. But when the graft had competitive flow or anastomotic stenosis, much higher OSI occurred in some regions in LIMA than SVG. There are significant differences in hemodynamics between normal grafts and non-patent grafts both in LIMA and SVG. The hemodynamic environment in a normal LIMA is better than that in a normal SVG. However, in the situation of the two types of non-patent grafts, the hemodynamics of SVG is better than LIMA.
Simple Shapes for Localization and Mapping

About 540 million years ago, an astonishing event occurred that caused evolution to ramp up her production: the Cambrian explosion. It is believed that the evolution of eyes and, subsequently, the knowledge of where one is and what the world looks like, had much to do with it. Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is an attempt to one-up nature using human ingenuity, but despite substantial advances in recent years, current solutions still fall short. For one, the representation of the information has a signi cant e ect on the implementation di culty of the tasks we want to perform. For example, to program an autonomous car, it is not enough to have a point cloud of the immediate surroundings; to plan paths and obey tra c rules, we must know where the road is, where the lanes are, and where other colleagues in the tra c are. Such information can only be acquired by imposing our world knowledge into the algorithms that are, otherwise, oblivious to these concepts. However, the ideal representation for this knowledge is still an open problem. This report considers the problem of augmenting SLAM maps with fabricated objects, such as houses, cars, furniture, rooms or teacups. In particular, we consider how these objects, of which there is a tremendous variety, can be modelled. A good model representation should be expressive, so as to describe many object classes; adaptable, so as to describe unseen variations; scalable, so as to be stored at a low memory cost; and usable, in the operations which we wish to perform: such as detecting and recovering an object from the map, or exploiting the information that an object’s existance provides. Inspired by a procedural scene modelling technique in computer graphics, we investigate the use of continuous signed distance functions to model objects as geometric primitives, transformed and combined with well-known set operations from constructive solid geometry, and deformations, such as scaling, rotation and translation. Unlike their discretized counterpart, which although they have become an important tool in various elds, the continuous distance function is stored as a mathematical expression, formed by computing directly with analytic distance functions. We show through experiments and surveys that this representation has several bene ts: such as being nearly compatible with highly sophisticated CAD tools; being t for modelling many indoor and outdoor objects with a few primitives; requiring orders of magnitude less memory than their discrete counterpart, without compression or loss of precision; and being able to describe an in nite variety of objects through controlling the parameters of the constituent operations and primitives. Being a signed distance function, it also inherits their compelling bene ts: such as de ning, at each point in space, the direction and distance to the nearest surface, and whether this point is inside or outside the surface.
CHALLENGES AND SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NOVICE TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES

Teaching profession requires teachers to be prepared with skills and knowledge to overcome challenges related to subject matter, students, colleagues and personal matters. In order to become an outstanding teacher, one has to undergo formal as well as informal professional development experiences. This study aims to explore the challenges faced by novice teachers and the sources they turned to in order to resolve these challenges. The research participants were three novice teachers who are currently in their first two years of teaching experience. The data were mainly collected using semi-structured interviews with each participant. With the assistance of NVivo software, the data were coded using a thematic analysis approach. The findings indicate that novice teachers not only struggle with their own lack of skills, but are also burdened with students’ negative attitudes and difficulties in the environment in which they work. The main supportive elements found to be helping these teachers in solving their problems are support from senior colleagues and family, and information available on the Internet.
Hydrothermal reactivity of Lu-saturated smectites: Part II. A short-range order study

Abstract The short-range order of a set of Lu-saturated smectites, modified by hydrothermal treatment at 400 °C, which give rise to a new crystalline phase (Lu2Si2O7), has been analyzed. In particular, the modifications undergone by the tetrahedral Si atoms of the lattice and the possible diffusions of O-T layer ions to other structural positions were investigated. Single-pulse, magic-angle-spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS-NMR) measurements from the 1H, 7Li, 27Al, and 29Si nuclei, as well as two-dimensional 1H-27Al cross-polarization MAS-NMR experiments, have been made on both the initial and the hydrothermally treated samples. The results show that (1) the formation of the Lu2Si2O7 takes place from Si atoms surrounded by Al tetrahedra in the samples that contain tetrahedral Al; (2) there is a diffusion of octahedral cations to the interlayer positions during the hydrothermal treatments, compatible with the X-ray diffraction data reported for this reaction; and (3) the octahedral Al migrates to the vacant tetrahedral positions that appear during the formation of the new Lu2Si2O7 phase. A clear relationship between each sample composition and its reactivity is defined.
Fixing HTTPS Misconfigurations at Scale: An Experiment with Security Notifications

HTTPS is vital to protecting the security and privacy of users on the Internet. As the cryptographic algorithms and standards underlying HTTPS evolve to meet emerging threats, website owners are responsible for updating and maintaining their HTTPS configurations. In practice, millions of hosts have misconfigured and insecure configurations. In addition to presenting security and privacy risks, misconfigurations can harm user experience on the web, when browsers show warnings for deprecated and outdated protocols. We investigate whether sending direct notifications to the owners of misconfigured sites can motivate them to fix or improve HTTPS misconfigurations, such as outdated ciphersuites or certificates that will expire soon. We conducted a multivariate randomized controlled experiment testing multiple variations of message content through two different notification channels. We find that security notifications alone have a moderate impact on remediation outcomes, similar to or less than notifications for other types of security vulnerabilities. We discuss how notifications can be used in conjunction with other incentives and outreach campaigns, and identify future directions for improving the security of the HTTPS ecosystem.