Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optical Characteristics and the Linewidth Enhancement Factor Measured from InAs/GaAs Quantum Dot Laser Diodes

We report the optical characteristics and the linewidth enhancement factor (alpha-factor) of InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) laser diodes (LDs) with a 5-mum-wide stripe and 1-mm-long cavity. Continuous wave (CW) operation of the laser yielded a kink-free output power of 160 mW with an external efficiency of 0.35 W/A. The threshold current was 28 mA and the lasing occurred at 1286 nm, solely at the ground state (GS) up to a current of 345 mA, without switching to the excited state (ES). Then, to estimate the alpha-factor of the LDs, we investigated the differential gain and wavelength shift versus the current. The differential gain was 2.37 cm-1/mA at 1286 nm, and the wavelength shift was 0.00046 nm/mA, which resulted in an alpha-factor of 0.057 at 1286 nm. The alpha-factor decreased with increasing wavelength. To the best of our knowledge, this is the lowest value of the alpha-factor that has been reported so far, indicating that our QD-LD has excellent beam quality under high-power operation due to the elimination of the filamentation.
Diving Behavior of Mirounga leonina: A Functional Data Analysis Approach

The diving behavior of southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, is investigated through the analysis of time-depth dive profiles. The originality of this work is to consider dive profiles as continuous curves. For this purpose, a Functional Data Analysis (FDA) approach is proposed for the shape analysis of a collection of dive profiles. Complexity of dive shapes is characterized by a mixture of three main shape variations accounting for about 80% of the entire variability: U or V shape, vertical depth variability during the bottom time, and skewed left or right. Model-based clustering allows the identification of eight dive shape clusters in a quick and automated way. Connection between shape patterns and classical descriptors, as well as the number of prey capture events, is achieved, showing that the clusters are coherent to specific foraging behaviors previously identified in the literature labeled as drift, exploratory and active dives. Finally, FDA is compared to classical methods relying on the computation of discrete dive descriptors. Results show that taking the shape of the dive as a whole is more resilient to corrupted or incomplete sampled data. FDA is, therefore, an efficient tool adapted for processing and comparing dive data with different sampling frequencies and for improving the quality and the accuracy of transmitted data.
Measuring brand health

Most of the companies today are unable to identify how brand health is connected with future revenue expected from customers. Their sole focus for building brand is through continuous advertising, which indirectly creates a brand image. In reality, image building is not the sole purpose of brand health rather the entire business performance is derived out of few specific interrelated measurable elements. Often brand equity has been linked to shareholder value [35] as an intangible, long lasting metric of a company, which hardly affects top-line growth. By contrast, brand health is tangible and is linked to current and future value with consumers. Brand health measures the state of the brand in the minds of both internal and external stakeholders (e.g. prospects, customers, employees, investors, and public influencers). Therefore, effective management & monitoring of brand health can significantly impact and influence organization's profit. With special emphasis upon marketing and business performance measures, brand owners identify which of the attributes act in favor or against adding value to the brand, and identify fundamental forces behind these perceptions. For example, Knowing thoroughly constitutes a brand, drive customers to choose it over rival brands also assists organization in optimal allocation of their resources so as to fulfill brand's potential. Subsequently these decisions can then be related back to top-line financial results to measure other performance metrics. Hence, in order to build and manage brand over time to deliver increased value to both the customer and business, it is fundamental to measure brand health. In this paper, we focus on only few prominent factors as identified from literature and attempt to analyze and determine the overall utility derived from these factors in measuring effectiveness of brand health. The study is based on the responses sought from teachers and staff members of a private university, located in North India. The questionnaire relating to the brand health factors instruments was administered to the sample population and the findings indicate that these factors enhance organizational performance and play a vital role in the growth of an organization.
A mixed-signal multiplexing system for cable-count reduction in ultrasound probes

This paper presents an approach to time-multiplexing multiple receive signals in a miniature ultrasound probe onto a single micro-coaxial cable. The resulting reduction in the number of receive cables alleviates the design of high-element-count endoscope- or catheter-based ultrasound probes. A prototype multiplexing system is presented that employs a custom multiplexing chip that uses current-mode drivers to combine four receive channels, sampled at 25 MHz each, on a single 3-m micro-coaxial cable. On the system-side of the cable, a transimpedance amplifier turns the multiplexed signal back into a voltage, after which it is digitized and equalized to correct for channel-to-channel crosstalk due to non-idealities of the cable. The chip has been implemented in a 0.18 μm CMOS process and consumes less than 1 mW per input channel. Experimental results show that the system can successfully convey 6 MHz Gaussian-shaped pulses applied to the four input channels of the multiplexing chip to the system with a channel-to-channel crosstalk below -31 dB.
Biophysical parameters estimation from remotely sensed images by a multiple criteria active learning method

This paper presents a novel multıple criteria active learning method developed in the framework of ε-insensitive support vector regression (SVR) to estimate biophysical parameters from remotely sensed images. The proposed active learning method chooses the most informative and representative unlabeled samples by jointly evaluating three criteria: i) relevancy, ii) diversity, and iii) density of samples. All three criteria are implemented according to the SVR properties and are applied in two clustering-based successive steps. In the first step, a novel measure to select the most relevant samples that have high probability to be located either outside or on the boundary of the ε-tube of SVR is defined. In the second step, a novel measure to select diverse samples among the relevant patterns from the high density regions in the feature space is defined to better model the SVR learning function. Experiments applied to the estimation of tree stem volume show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Knee angle prediction during stair ascending gait of trans-femoral amputee Neural networks application

For the Trans-femoral (TF) amputee, the biomechanics of stair gait can be analyzed in only the stair descending. The information of stair ascending gait can be evaluated for only the normal side. The study with TF amputee mostly referred to the stair ascending by leading with the normal side rather than the prosthetic side as there was none of prosthesis can be the leading side to climb up the stair so none of TF amputee can make the step over step climbing up the stair. Since there was none of prosthesis can be the leading side to climb up the stair, none of TF amputee can make the step over step climbing up the stair and hence none of the stair ascending gait prediction model has been studied in transfemoral amputee, this study is aiming to figure out the stair gait ascending pattern in transfemoral amputee which imitated by the healthy person. Then, the neural network model is constructed to predict the knee angle during stair ascending, in which purpose to integrate into the controller of the prosthetic knee component to assist the stair ascending gait.
Ovarian and uterine periovulatory Doppler ultrasonography in bitches

Barbosa C.C. , Souza M.B. , Scalercio S.R. R.A. , Silva T.F. P., Domingues S.F. S. & Silva L.D. M. 2013. Ovarian and uterine periovulatory Doppler ultrasonography in bitches. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira 33(9):1144-1150. Laboratório de Reprodução de Carnívoros, Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Campus do Itaperi, Av. Paranjana 1700, Itaperi, Fortaleza, CE 60740-903, Brazil. E-mail: lucia.daniel. machado@hotmail.com This paper aims to describe the uterine and ovarian ultrasonographic characteristics and Doppler velocimetric features of their arteries in bitches during the periovulatory period. Fifteen estrous cycles in 10 animals were evaluated. The ultrasonographic characteristics, resistance indices (RI) and pulsatility indices (PI) of the uterus and ovaries in each animal were recorded 5 days before and after ovulation (D0). The data were statistically analyzed, and the results were expressed as the mean ± standard error of mean (P<0.05). In results the ultrasonographic features of the uterus were the same on all of the cycles and evaluated days. The uterus had an average diameter of 0.85±0.02cm. An increase in the volume of the ovaries and the diameter of the ovarian follicles were measured. Ovaries had a volume of 0.64±0.06cm3, and the follicles cavities had a diameter of 0.46 ± 0.01 cm on the day of ovulation. After ovulation, it was observed that some follicles not collapse in some cycles. Two days prior to ovulation, the uterine blood perfusion decreased. This decrease remained unchanged until ovulation. Following ovulation, we measured a gradual increase in the uterine perfusion and in the ovarian artery. This artery directed blood flow to the ovaries and increased the intra-ovarian perfusion on the day after ovulation. In conclusion, specific features are observed in the uterus and ovarian ultrasound image and Doppler values of their arteries presented on the periovulatory days and when associated allow to estimate more accurately the date of ovulation.
Platelet Rich Plasma in Reconstructive Periodontal Therapy

1.1 Regenerative periodontal therapy The goal of periodontal therapy is to improve periodontal health and thereby to satisfy the patient’s esthetic and functional needs or demands. To achieve this goal, most periodontal treatments aim to reduce probing depths and maintain or improve attachment levels and these parameters are used as surrogates of improved tooth retention. Conventional periodontal therapy includes non-surgical treatment as well as a variety of surgical approaches. In such treatments, histologic analysis revealed that periodontal healing occurs with repair rather than regeneration (Listgarten & Rosenberg, 1979). In repair, long junctional epithelium exists between the treated root surface and alveolar bone (Caton & Greenstein, 1993). However, over the last three decades, the major goal of periodontal therapy has been shifted from repair to reconstruction of periodontal tissues thereby reversing the damage to the periodontium caused by the disease process. “True periodontal regeneration” is the reformation of a functionally oriented periodontal ligament with collagen fibers inserting in both regrown alveolar bone and reformed cementum over a previously diseased root surface. The first evolutionary stage of periodontal regeneration focused on using a variety of bone graft materials. A number of techniques and autogenic, allogenic, xenogenic and alloplastic bone graft materials have been used for regeneration purpose (Brunswold & Mellonig, 1993). Although significant clinical improvements in terms of probing depth reduction, attachment and bone gains were obtained, the results of the histological studies reported that new attachment achieved by bone grafts was usually a result of the formation of long junctional epithelium with slight or no new connective tissue attachment and negligible new cementum formation. Since these techniques have had limited success, more effective regenerative approaches have been suggested that utilize tissue-engineering techniques. The concept of tissue engineering in periodontics began with guided tissue regeneration (GTR), a mechanical approach utilizing nonresorbable or bioabsorbable membranes to regenerate periodontal defects. GTR is a technique in which the placement of an occlusive membrane guides progenitor cells, residing in the periodontal ligament to repopulate the osseous defects in order to form new tooth supporting tissues (Nyman et al., 1982). The evidence, in fact, demonstrated that treatment of twoand threewall intrabony defects with GTR has yielded successful clinical results in numerous studies and could promote
Over-expression of the RieskeFeS protein increases electron transport rates and yield in Arabidopsis

In this study we have generated transgenic Arabidopsis plants over-expressing the Rieske FeS protein (PetC), a component of the cytochrome b6f (cyt b6f) complex. Increasing the levels of this protein, resulted in the concomitant increase in the levels of cyt f (PetA) and cyt b6 (PetB), core proteins of the cyt b6f complex. Interestingly, an increase in the levels of proteins in both the PSI and PSII complexes was also seen in the Rieske FeS ox plants. Although the mechanisms leading to these changes remain to be identified, the transgenic plants presented here provide novel tools to explore this. Importantly, the overexpression of the Rieske FeS protein resulted in a substantial and significant impact on the quantum efficiency of PSI and PSII, electron transport, biomass and seed yield in Arabidopsis plants. These results demonstrate the potential for manipulating electron transport processes to increase crop productivity. One-sentence summary Over-expression of the Rieske FeS protein results in significant increases in the quantum efficiencies or PSI and PSII, increases in Amax and has the potential to increase crop productivity
Optimum linear filter for speech transmission.

A common speech‐communications problem is to maximize speech intelligibility over a noisy channel when the transmitter is peak‐power limited. An optimum linear solution is analytically derived, and consists of a speech‐processing filter in the transmitter. The degree of improvement due to use of the filter is derived for a number of bandwidths and signal‐to‐noise ratios. The filter was experimentally verified by articulation tests as the optimum linear configuration, and was significantly more intelligible than other filters that bounded it. Although the optimum filter depends on the noise spectrum, there is no significant difference between it and a noise‐invariant filter for white or speech‐shaped noise. The use of the filter is equivalent to raising the transmitter power between 1 and 10 dB, depending on the speech bandwidth and the signal‐to‐noise ratio.
Download movement of chlorpyrifos in the soil of an oil palm plantation in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia.

A study on the leaching of chlorpyrifos in an oil palm agro ecosystem was conducted in an oil palm plantation in Sepang, Selangor. The insecticide chlorpyrifos was sprayed using a knapsack sprayer at the recommended and double the recommended dosage. Soil samples were collected at different depths, viz. 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-30 cm, 30-40 cm and 40-50 cm at the following intervals: -1 day (before treatment), 0 day (day of treatment, 6 hr later), 1 day, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days after treatment. Recovery of chlorpyrifos from the soil spiked with chlorpyrifos at 4-50 μg kg-1 ranged from 88%-99% with the coefficients of variation ranging from 2.0% to 7.5%. Chlorpyrifos residue was detected at 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths when applied at the recommended and double the recommended dosages, respectively. The residue was only detected in the soil for up to five and seven days after treatment, respectively, when applied at the recommended and double the recommended dosages.
Spatially Adaptive Bayesian Penalized Regression Splines (P-splines)

In this article we study penalized regression splines (P-splines), which are low-order basis splines with a penalty to avoid undersmoothing. Such P-splines are typically not spatially adaptive, and hence can have trouble when functions are varying rapidly. Our approach is to model the penalty parameter inherent in the P-spline method as a heteroscedastic regression function. We develop a full Bayesian hierarchical structure to do this and use Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques for drawing random samples from the posterior for inference. The advantage of using a Bayesian approach to P-splines is that it allows for simultaneous estimation of the smooth functions and the underlying penalty curve in addition to providing uncertainty intervals of the estimated curve. The Bayesian credible intervals obtained for the estimated curve are shown to have pointwise coverage probabilities close to nominal. The method is extended to additive models with simultaneous spline-based penalty functions for the unknown functions. In simulations, the approach achieves very competitive performance with the current best frequentist P-spline method in terms of frequentist mean squared error and coverage probabilities of the credible intervals, and performs better than some of the other Bayesian methods.
DNA repair gene XRCC1 polymorphisms and susceptibility to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the relationship between genetic polymorphisms of X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) and the susceptibility to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). METHODS Relevant case-control studies were enrolled in the meta-analysis. We applied Rev Man 4.2 software to pool raw data and test studies' heterogeneity and to calculate the incorporated odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). RESULTS Our data showed that the OR for the Gln allele of the Arg399Gln polymorphism, compared with the Arg allele, was 1.35 (95% CI, 1.16-1.57; P<0.0001) for childhood ALL patients. Similarly, the homozygous genotype Gln/Gln and heterozygous genotype Arg/Gln both significantly increased the risk of childhood ALL compared with the wild genotype Arg/Arg (OR =1.58; 95% CI, 1.13-2.21; P=0.008; OR =1.51; 95% CI, 1.21-1.87; P=0.0002). The dominant model of Arg399Gln was associated with childhood ALL risk (OR =1.54; 95% CI, 1.25-1.89; P<0.0001). The ethnic subgroup analysis demonstrated that the Gln allele in all five ethnic groups was prone to be a risk factor for childhood ALL just with different degrees of correlation while Arg194Trp SNP showed a protective or risk factor or irrelevant thing in different races. CONCLUSIONS XRCC1 399 polymorphism may increase the risk of childhood ALL. Different ethnic groups with some gene polymorphism have different disease risks.
Confidence Index Determinants of the Amman Stock Exchange Listed Companies

Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio, a well known assessment method, has constantly remained at the centre of awareness of market analysts and investors ever since the origin of discounted dividend growth model of Gordon and Shapiro (1956). In line with that, this study aims to reveal the variables that explain the variation in P/E ratio, a proxy of the confidence index, by using unbalanced pooled cross-sectional time series Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression model on Amman Stock Exchange listed companies for the period 1999-2013. Financial sector firms’ and non-consistently dividends-paying firms were excluded resulting in 1380 firm-year observation. Results implied that dividend payout ratio, earning growth rate, Tobin’s Q and firm size significantly clarify variations in confidence index of firms listed in ASE, demonstrating that investors’ confidence of investing in ASE is more for small company with higher dividend payout ratio, high earning growth rate and high firm’s market value. This paper is likely to help decision makers to assess variables that can clarify contrast in company’s P/E ratio in order to gain investors’ confidence and thus choose these companies to be a part of their portfolio.
Short-term changes in bone turnover markers and bone mineral density response to parathyroid hormone in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

CONTEXT Treatment of osteoporotic women with PTH increases biochemical markers of bone turnover, increases axial bone mineral density (BMD), and reduces fracture risk. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to determine the relationship between levels of baseline turnover before PTH therapy and short-term changes in turnover during PTH therapy and subsequent changes in areal and volumetric BMD. DESIGN AND SETTING We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled trial at four academic centers. PATIENTS Patients included 238 postmenopausal women with low hip or spine BMD. INTERVENTION Subjects were randomized to sc PTH (1-84), 100 mug/d (119 women), for 1 yr. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Bone turnover markers were measured in fasting blood samples collected before therapy and after 1 and 3 months. Areal and volumetric BMD at the spine and hip were assessed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and quantitative computed tomography (QCT) after 1 yr of therapy. RESULTS Among women treated with PTH alone, the relationships between baseline turnover and 1-yr changes in dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and QCT BMD were inconsistent. Greater 1- and 3-month increases in turnover, particularly the formation marker N-propeptide of type I collagen, were associated with greater increases in areal BMD. When volumetric hip and spine BMD were assessed by QCT, greater short-term increases in turnover were even more positively associated with 1-yr increases in BMD. Each sd increase in the 3-month change of N-propeptide of type I collagen was associated with an a 21% greater increase in QCT spine trabecular BMD. CONCLUSIONS Greater short-term changes in turnover with PTH therapy are associated with greater 1-yr increases in spine and hip BMD among postmenopausal osteoporotic women.
Craniofacial variation of the Chinese macaques explored with Morphologika

In order to analyze, separately and dynamically, the variation in cranial size and shape of Chinese macaques, a new method, Morphologika, was used to illustrate 3D profiles based on the coordinates of 26 landmarks on the skull. Striking image variation between the two sexes was detected on the facial region: males exhibited a larger and more protrusive facial structure. Males also displayed a bigger cranium than females. The two sexes also showed quite different images in skull shape. However, they expressed the same allometric pattern with regard to the relationship between size and shape, which was significantly positively associated with each other along the first axis. The same relationship was negatively displayed along the second axis when the two sexes were analyzed together. However, only the relationship for females reached a significant level when the two sexes were studied separately. This was considered to be related to their differentiation in growth trajectory. This study also tested the concept of size revealed by the second axis of principal components analysis based on traditional morphometric methods on the same taxa. J. Morphol. 256:342–348, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.