Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High speed imaging of solid needle and liquid micro-jet injections

We have used high speed imaging to capture the fast dynamics of two injection methods. The first one and perhaps the oldest known is based on solid needles and used for dermal pigmentation, popularly known as tattooing. The second is a novel needle-free microjet injector based on thermocavitation. Injections in agarose gel skin surrogates were made with both methods and ink formulations having different fluidic properties. Water, a glycerin–water mixture, and commercial inks were used with both injectors to understand better end-point injection. The agarose deformation process due to the solid needle injection helped establish an assessment of penetration potential by using the dimensionless penetration strength quantity. We found that microjet injections are superior than solid injections in terms of energy and volumetric delivery efficiencies per injection for three different liquids. The microjet injector could reduce the environmental impact of used needles and benefit millions of people using needles for medical and cosmetic use.
Greedy Algorithms to Optimize a Sentence Set Near-Uniformly Distributed on Syllable Units and Punctuation Marks

An optimum sentence set that near-uniformly dis-tributed on syllable units and punctuation marks is important to develop a syllable-based automatic speech recognition (ASR). It is usually extracted from a mother set of millions of unique sentences using Modified Least-to-Most (LTM) Greedy algorithm. The Modified LTM Greedy is capable of minimizing the number of syllables but ignores distributing their frequencies. Hence, two schemes are proposed to minimize the number of syllables as well as to distribute their frequencies near-uniformly. Testing on a mother set of 10 million Indonesian sentences shows that both schemes perform better than the Modified LTM Greedy for two syllable units: monosyllables and bisyllables.
On Concavity of the Monopolist's Problem Facing Consumers with Nonlinear Price Preferences

A monopolist wishes to maximize her profits by finding an optimal price policy. After she announces a menu of products and prices, each agent x will choose to buy that product y(x) which maximizes his own utility, if positive. The principal's profits are the sum of the net earnings produced by each product sold. These are determined by the costs of production and the distribution of products sold, which in turn are based on the distribution of anonymous agents and the choices they make in response to the principal's price menu. In this paper, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the convexity or concavity of the principal's (bilevel) optimization problem, assuming each agent's disutility is a strictly increasing but not necessarily affine (i.e., quasilinear) function of the price paid. Concavity, when present, makes the problem more amenable to computational and theoretical analysis; it is key to obtaining uniqueness and stability results for the principal's strategy in particular. Even in the quasilinear case, our analysis goes beyond previous work by addressing convexity as well as concavity, by establishing conditions which are not only sufficient but necessary, and by requiring fewer hypotheses on the agents' preferences. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
On Dynamic Spectrum Allocation in Geo-Location Spectrum Sharing Systems

Spectrum sharing is a key technology to relieve the ever-increasing spectrum demand and realize the full potential of radio spectrum. In this paper, we study spectrum sharing between higher priority users and lower priority users under geo-location based spectrum sharing systems. We consider a dynamic spectrum allocation scheme that allocates spectrum to a higher priority user based on its spectrum need that can be determined by its traffic load. The lower priority users utilize the unallocated spectrum. In addition to studying the performance of higher priority users with this dynamic spectrum allocation scheme, we also investigate the impact of this scheme on spectrum availability and stability of lower priority users. We develop a mathematical model to analyze the performance. The simulation results indicate that spectrum sharing is efficient, and the spectrum is abundant and relatively stable to lower priority users, even when the system is moderately loaded with higher priority users.
The Local Consequences of Federal Mandates : Evidence from the Clean Water Act

This paper asks how local governments finance federal mandates and whether mandated spending brings value to local residents using a change in federal rules on municipal infrastructure following the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). To account for the endogeneity of municipal infrastructure adoption decisions, I leverage the role of river networks in distributing pollutants across cities to predict ex ante compliance with the CWA infrastructure mandate. Cities under the burden of compliance experienced substantial improvements to local ambient water quality as well as a two-fold increase in resident fees. Public spending on non-mandated items did not change, indicating that mandates are unlikely to displace local funding of other goods and services. These simultaneous increases to water quality and local costs resulted in taste-based sorting. However, I find that resident value of mandate compliance depends upon the complementarity of water quality improvements to pre-existing local features, as well as exposure to upstream polluters. These results imply that mandates may reduce inefficiencies to local public goods provision that are valued no less than their cost to local residents. ∗Rhiannon Jerch is a PhD candidate in the Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management at Cornell University. Email: rlj78@cornell.edu; Address: 434 Warren Hall, 137 Reservoir Ave, Ithaca NY 14850. I thank Shanjun Li, Matthew E. Kahn, Nancy Brooks, Michael Lovenheim, and Nick J. Sanders for their guidance and support of this project. I also thank the many useful comments from Stephen Coate, Jorgen Harris, and Cornell’s MARG and SEERE seminar participants; as well as Fernando Ferreira, Mariaflavia Harari, Colin Sullivan, Caitlin Gorback, and the Wharton School BEPP 900 seminar participants. I am indebted to Philadelphia and Ithaca civil engineers Drew Brown and Scott Gibson for several discussions on municipal wastewater treatment operations. Lastly, I wish to thank Ted Czado for providing data and documentation on the EPA’s early Clean Watershed Needs Surveys. This project was supported by the Lincoln Institute’s C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship.
Differential induction of superoxide dismutase in downy mildew-resistant and -susceptible genotypes of pearl millet

Differential induction of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in downy mildew-resistant and -susceptible genotypes of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was observed on inoculation with Sclerospora graminicola. SOD activity was studied in resistant (IP18292) and susceptible (23B) pearl millet seedlings inoculated with S. graminicola. SOD activity increased by 2.3-fold in resistant seedlings upon inoculation. SOD activity was greatest in roots, with a specific activity of 3182 U per mg protein, after inoculation. SOD activity increased in all the resistant genotypes upon inoculation with S. graminicola. Native PAGE analysis showed four isozymes of SOD, three of which (SOD-1, -2 and -4) were Cu/Zn-SOD, whereas isozyme SOD-3 was Mn-SOD. This study also revealed increased intensity of all four isozymes of SOD in the resistant genotype upon inoculation. The involvement of SOD in pearl millet (host)-downy mildew pathogen interaction is discussed.
Simple formulation of structural similarity for halftoning and its application to Visual secret sharing

The secret sharing (SS) scheme is a cryptosystem which encrypts a secret into multiple pieces, called shares, so that only qualified combination of shares can be employed to recover the secret. The visual secret sharing (VSS) scheme is an example of SS schemes whose decryption can be performed by a human without any numerical computations. This paper is an attempt to modify the structural similarity (SSIM) index so that the modified one can measure both the structural and tonal similarities simultaneously and then to employ the modified index to give an optimization-based halftoning suitable for the encryption of VSS schemes.
An empirical study of one of the simplest causal prediction algorithms

We study one of the simplest causal prediction algorithms that uses only conditional independences estimated from purely observational data. A specific pattern of four conditional independence relations amongst a quadruple of random variables already implies that one of these variables causes another one without any confounding. As a consequence, it is possible to predict what would happen under an intervention on that variable without actually performing the intervention. Although the method is asymptotically consistent and works well in settings with only few (latent) variables, we find that its prediction accuracy can be worse than simple (inconsistent) baselines when many (latent) variables are present. Our findings illustrate that violations of strong faithfulness become increasingly likely in the presence of many latent variables, and this can significantly deterioriate the accuracy of constraint-based causal prediction algorithms that assume faithfulness.
Acyclicity and Singleton Cores in Matching Markets

This paper analyzes the role of acyclicity in singleton cores. We show that the absence of simultaneous cycles is a sufficient condition for the existence of singleton cores. Furthermore, acyclicity in the preferences of either side of the market is a minimal condition that guarantees the existence of singleton cores. If firms or workers preferences are acyclical, unique stable matching is obtained through a procedure that resembles a serial dictatorship. Thus, acyclicity generalizes the notion of common preferences. It follows that if the firms or workers preferences are acyclical, unique stable matching is strongly efficient for the other side of the market. JEL Classification Numbers: C71, C78, D71.
Population Change and Mobility: A Case Study of An Arkansas State Economic Area.

THE PHENOMENON Of out-migration in various sections of the country had increased to such an extent by 1960 that approximately one-half of the counties in the nation had recorded a loss in population during the previous ten-year period. The outlook for the 1960's was for a continued out-migration and resulting population loss in most of these areas. The purpose of this study is to analyze that population mobility and change relative to the economy of Arkansas State Economic Area 7 (hereinafter referred to as SEA 7), a twelve-county, predominantly agricultural region in northeastern Arkansas.
Classification of Online Judge Programmers based on Rule Extraction from Self Organizing Feature Map

Computer programming is one of the most important and vital skill in the current generation. In order to encourage and enable programmers to practice and sharpen their skills, there exist many online judge programming platforms. Estimation of these programmers’ strength and progress has been an important research topic in educational data mining in order to provide adaptive educational contents and early prediction of ‘at risk’ learner. In this paper, we trained a Kohonen Self organizing feature map (KSOFM) neural network on programmers’ performance log data of Aizu Online Judge (AOJ) database. Propositional rules and knowledge was extracted from the U-matrix diagram of the trained network which partitioned AOJ programmers into three distinct clusters ie. ‘expert’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘at risk’. The proportional rules performed classification with an accuracy of 94% on a testing set. For validation and comparison, three more predicting models were trained on the same dataset. Among them, feedforward multilayer neural network and decision tree have scored accuracy of 97% and 96% respectively. In contrast, the precision score for support vector machine was about 88%, but it scored the highest recall score of 99% in terms of identifying ‘at risk’ students.
Urological Complaints and Sexual Abuse: A Case Control Study Identifying Multiple Urological Complaints in Relation to Sexual Abuse History

Introduction: The relationship between sexual abuse and urinary tract symptoms has been described for urgency, frequency and nocturia. Aims: To investigate if other urological complaints in females, like urinary tract infections, incontinence, voiding complaints and lower abdominal pain are also correlated with a history of sexual abuse (SA) and to measure the prevalence of sexual abuse in our urological patient population, using a clinical case control study. Methods: 1383 female patients of 18-year-old or older visiting our outpatient urological university clinic were asked to fill out a questionnaire evaluating referral indications and urological complaints. The questionnaire consisted out of two parts. The first part was designed characteristics and medical history. The second part included referral indications, the urological complaints and a possible history of SA. The sample was divided into two groups: those with and those without a history of SA. The Outcome Measures: 1) The comparison of the frequency of voiding complaints, urinary tract infections (UTI’s), lower abdominal pain, hematuria and incontinence in respondents with and without SA; 2) The prevalence of SA in female patients presenting at our university urological outpatient clinic; 3) The number of urological symptoms presented at the time of referral by respondents with a history of SA compared the non-abused. Results: 436/1383 (32%) patients were willing to participate. 304 (70%) questionnaires were properly filled in. The reported prevalence of sexual abuse was 17% (51/304). More than half of the females with a history SA presented with voiding complaints (32/51 p = 0.18), incontinence (31/51 p = 0.10) and urinary tract infections (27/51 p = 0.22). However, comparing the data of respondents without SA we found no significant differences with regards specific complaints. Patients with SA report more symptoms than those without (Armitage’s trend test 0.14 (p = 0.004) for 4 complaints or more). Conclusions: No significant correlation between SA and voiding complaints, incontinence nor lower abdominal pain was found. The prevalence rate of SA in female patients visiting our university urological outpatient clinic was 17%. These abused females mentioned more synchronous complaints as reason for referral at their first visit than the non-abused.
Work-in-Progress: Impact of Graph Partitioning on SNN Placement for a Multi-Core Neuromorphic Architecture

In this paper, we evaluate a partitioning and placement technique for mapping concurrent applications over a globally asynchronous locally synchronous (GALS) multi-core architecture designed for simulating a spiking neural network (SNN) in real-time. We designed a task placement pipeline capable of analysing the network of neurons and producing a placement configuration that enables a reduction of communication between computational nodes. The neuronto-core mapping problem has been formalised as a two phases problem: Partitioning and Placement. The Partitioning phase aims at grouping together the most connected network components, maximising the amount of self-connections within each identified group. For this purpose we used a multilevel k-way graph partitioning strategy capable of generating network-partitions. The Placement phase aims at placing groups of neurons over the chip mesh minimising the communication between computational nodes. For implementing this step, we designed and evaluate the performances of three placement variants. In the results, we point out the importance of using a partitioning algorithm for the SNN graph. We were able to achieve an increase in self-connections of 19% and an improvement of the final overall post-placement synaptic elongation of 29% using the simulated annealing placement technique, compared to 22% obtained without partitioning.
Utilization of molecular methods to relate Red Mark Syndrome affecting Oncorhynchus mykiss to an unculturable Rickettsiales organism.

Red Mark Syndrome (RMS) is an inflammatory skin condition related to the presence of an unculturable Rickettsiales organism that affects farmed rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. This disease is responsible for economic losses for fish farmers in Europe. The aim of this work was to confirm the presence of Rickettsiales organisms in affected fish and to develop a specific and sensitive system that can detect the unculturable Rickettsiales organisms in farmed trout. Trout gathered from affected and unaffected farms were initially submitted to necropsy and following tissue samples were collected from each fish. Specific primers for a nested PCR (RiFCfw and RiFC), and a DNA probe for dot blot assay were designed using the 16S rRNA sequence. The use of the DNA probe to target amplicons as the template increased the sensitivity to 0.5 pg/µl DNA. Fifteen trout were analysed, of which nine showed visible skin lesions. Eight trout out of the nine with skin lesions were positive for the presence of the unculturable Rickettsiales organism DNA sequence. The tests developed can help rainbow trout producers quickly treat fish in order to reduce economic losses. Up to 30% of fish with skin lesions are downgraded and rejected at the market by consumers.
Overview of electric machines for electric and hybrid vehicles

This invited paper gives an overview of various electric machines for application to Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs). First of all, the classification and a brief introduction of EVs and HEVs are presented. Then, viable electric machines that have been applied to EVs and HEVs, including the DC, induction, Switched Reluctance (SR) and Permanent Magnet (PM) brushless types, are reviewed. Consequently, the advanced PM machines that are promising for application to EVs and HEVs are discussed. Finally, the integrated PM machines are introduced, which are essential for future EVs and HEVs.
Photonic crystal defect mode cavity modelling: a phenomenological dimensional reduction approach

A phenomenological dimensional reduction approach (PDRA) for the cavity characteristics in defect mode based photonic crystal (PC) lasers is presented. Based on the fully vectorial three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (3D FDTD) technique, simultaneous enhancement and suppression in spontaneous emission and absorption were obtained in an absorptive photonic crystal slab (PCS) cavity. Effective index perturbation (EIP) was proposed for fast and accurate determination of the effective index and the dominant resonant cavity frequency in a 3D PCS structure, with two-dimensional (2D) FDTD simulation. Further dimensional reduction from 2D to one-dimensional planar cavity enables phenomenological modelling of lasing characteristics via the effective reflectivity calculation and rate equation analysis. Very fast and accurate results have been achieved with this PDRA approach. A high spontaneous emission factor and cavity quality factor Q were obtained in a single defect cavity, which led to over an order reduction in lasing gain threshold. The model offers a fast and accurate tool for the design and modelling of PC defect mode cavity based devices and aids the research in the proposed novel defect mode based devices such as ultra-compact light sources on Si and spectrally resolved PC infrared photodetectors.
Kinematic driven by distances

This paper deals with a new method for controlling kinematically articulated systems. Unlike traditional approaches, we pose the problem in a new distance space. We propose a novel distance-based formalization of kinematic control, and an optimization method for solving a set of classical for motion adaptation and inverse kinematics problems. The originality of the method lies also in the possibility to introduce distance constraints with priorities. The approach is validated by a set of experiments using several classical kinematic operations applied to motion control of articulated figures, and compared to other approaches by means of stability, convergence and performance issues.
Fundamentals of digital particle image velocimetry

The measurement principle of digital particle image velocimetry (PIV) is described in terms of linear system theory. The conditions for PIV correlation analysis as a valid interrogation method are determined. Limitations of the method arise as consequences of the implementation. The theory is applied to investigate the statistical properties of the analysis and to optimize and improve the measurement performance. The theoretical results comply with results from Monte Carlo simulations and test measurements described in the literature. Examples of both correct and incorrect implementations are given.
Alterations in fillet fatty acid profile and flesh quality in gilthead seabream ( Sparus aurata ) fed vegetable oils for a long term period . Recovery of fatty acid profiles by fish oil feeding

To determine the effect of long term feeding of diets with high levels of vegetable oils gilthead seabream juveniles were fed for 7 months with several diets containing vegetable oils at two inclusion levels. Anchovy oil was the only lipid source of FO (fish oil) diet, whereas in diets 60RO, 60LO and 60SO, 60% of fish oil was substituted by rapeseed (RO), linseed (LO) or soybean (SO) oils, respectively, and 80% was substituted by linseed or soybean oils in diets 80LO and 80SO. Afterwards, all fish were fed only a fish oil diet to determine the progressive evolution of fillet fatty acid profiles, since fish muscle fatty acid composition changes by feeding vegetable oils affecting its nutritional value for human health. Results showed that substitution by vegetable oils of up to 60% fish oil in diets for gilthead seabream does not affect growth and feed utilization even after a long feeding period. However, 80% substitution of fish oil significantly reduced growth. Feeding vegetable oils reduced muscle contents of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) to a lower degree than their reduction in the diet, denoting their importance, reduction of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in muscle being more pronounced. Moreover, re-feeding with a FO diet for 60 days effectively recovered muscle DHA and ARA contents, whereas those of EPAwere not recovered even after 90 days. Linoleic acid was strongly retained even after bwash outQ. Fish fillets were very well accepted by the panel of judges. Dietary soybean oil inclusion produced significantly less shiny and less hard fillets, but more juicy and adhesive than FO fillets, with a slight earthy flavour when fish were fed 80SO diet. However linseed oil inclusion only increased shininess when fish were fed 80LO diet. A significantly higher chroma value was obtained for 80LO fish fillets, although it was not noticeable to the human eye. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.