Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design of transmission line filters and matching circuits using genetic algorithms

A method for designing microwave filters and impedance matching circuits using transmission lines is presented. Transmission line filters with shunt‐connected open circuit stubs and continuously varying transmission line matching circuits are described in detail. The proposed method is based on genetic algorithms and can effectively be applied to various filter and matching circuit design problems without increasing theoretical and computational complexity. Design examples are provided, and the proposed method is demonstrated to be effective in designing transmission line filters and matching circuits. Copyright © 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Objective video quality assessment method for freeze distortion based on freeze aggregation

With the development of the broadband network, video communications such as videophone, video distribution, and IPTV services are beginning to become common. In order to provide these services appropriately, we must manage them based on subjective video quality, in addition to designing a network system based on it. Currently, subjective quality assessment is the main method used to quantify video quality. However, it is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, we need an objective quality assessment technology that can estimate video quality from video characteristics effectively. Video degradation can be categorized into two types: spatial and temporal. Objective quality assessment methods for spatial degradation have been studied extensively, but methods for temporal degradation have hardly been examined even though it occurs frequently due to network degradation and has a large impact on subjective quality. In this paper, we propose an objective quality assessment method for temporal degradation. Our approach is to aggregate multiple freeze distortions into an equivalent freeze distortion and then derive the objective video quality from the equivalent freeze distortion. Specifically, our method considers the total length of all freeze distortions in a video sequence as the length of the equivalent single freeze distortion. In addition, we propose a method using the perceptual characteristics of short freeze distortions. We verified that our method can estimate the objective video quality well within the deviation of subjective video quality.
Carlos Gussenhoven and Haike Jacobs (1998). Understanding phonology. London: Arnold. Co-published in New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. xii+286.

Understanding phonology is intended as an introductory textbook in phonology for students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics. The book served as the main text in both an introductory course to phonology for graduate students in linguistics as well as one for undergraduates at Ohio State University. Input from students in these classes regarding aspects of the book contributed to our evaluation in this review. We are particularly grateful to the following students for their helpful comments: Sharonne Albicker, Ryan Ginstrom, Jette Hansen, Sun-Hee Lee, Mary Paster, Shravan Vasishth, Jinyi Wang and Peggy Wong. We would also like to thank Carlos Gussenhoven, Sharon Hargus, Robert Levine and David Odden for valuable comments on a draft version of this review. The goal of the text, as stated, is to provide an introduction to all major topics in phonology, and a comprehensive survey of phonological theory. The book aims to explain the basics of phonology, rather than arguing for a particular theoretical position, thereby giving students a sound understanding of the field.
Ontology driven image search engine

Image collections are most often domain specific. We have developed a system for image retrieval of multimodal microscopy images. That is, the same object of study visualized with a range of microscope techniques and with a range of different resolutions. In microscopy, image content is depending on the preparation method of the object under study as well as the microscope technique. Both are taken into account in the submission phase as metadata whilst at the same time (domain specific) ontologies are employed as controlled vocabularies to annotate the image. From that point onward, image data are interrelated through the relationships derived from annotated concepts in the ontology. By using concepts and relationships of an ontology, complex queries can be built with true semantic content. Image metadata can be used as powerful criteria to query image data which are directly or indirectly related to original data. The results of image retrieval can be represented using a structural graph by exploiting relationships from ontology rather than a listed table. Applying this to retrieve images from the same subject at different levels of resolution opens a new field for the analysis of image content.
SraTailor: GUI software for visualizing high-throughput sequence read archives

Raw high-throughput sequence data are deposited in public databases as SRAs (Sequence Read Archives) and are publically available to every researcher. However, in order to graphically visualize the sequence data of interest, the corresponding SRAs must be downloaded and converted into BigWig format through complicated command-line processing. This task requires users to possess skill with script languages and sequence data processing, a requirement that prevents a wide range of biologists from exploiting SRAs. To address these challenges, we developed SraTailor, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) software package that automatically converts an SRA into a BigWig-formatted file. Simplicity of use is one of the most notable features of SraTailor: entering an accession number of an SRA and clicking the mouse are the only steps required in order to obtain BigWig-formatted files and to graphically visualize the extents of reads at given loci. SraTailor is also able to make peak calls and files of other formats, and the software also accepts various command-line-like options. Therefore, this software makes SRAs fully exploitable by a wide range of biologists. SraTailor is freely available at http://www.dev. med.kyushu-u.ac. jp/sra_tailor/.
Everyday Sounds Revealed: Acoustic communication and environmental recordings

Environmental sounds give information to individuals who have learned to interpret them as members of their acoustic communities. Those living within a soundscape not only receive the acoustic information passively, but also construct their surroundings by their activities. A lot of acoustic information escapes our conscious attention partly for perceptual psychological reasons, partly because of the amount of acoustic information. A method called sound/listening walk has been applied to enhance these everyday meanings connected to sounds and to emphasise the cultural and historical layers related to them. The article introduces earlier research and methodology on the subject, applies the recording of acoustic environments to sound/listening walks and then proposes a preliminary method called recorded listening walk for acoustic communication research and soundscape education. The article draws theoretically on acoustic communication and acoustemology.
UCDL:a language for audio-visual content description

There has been significant progress in the area of content- based still image retrieval systems. However, most of the existing visual information system use static feature analysis models decided by database implementers based on heuristics, and adapting indexing oriented data modeling. In other words, such system fall short in a number of areas including scalability, extensibility and adaptability. In this paper, we will attempt to resolve the problems that surface in content modeling, description and sharing of distributed heterogeneous multimedia information. A language; named UCDL, for heterogeneous multimedia content description is presented to resolve the related problem. The resulting UCDL facilitates a formal modeling method of complex multimedia content, a unified content description scheme, and the exchange of heterogeneous content information. The proposed language has several advantages. For instance, an individual user can easily create audio- vidual descriptions by using a library of automated tools. Users can do automated testing of content description for correctness and completeness before populating the data base and its use. Note that with UCDL, content description becomes implementation independent, thus offering portability across a number of applications from authoring tools to database management systems. Users can have personalized retrieval view through content filtering, and can easily share the heterogenous content descriptions of various information sources.
An implantable telemetry system powered by a capacitor having high capacitance

An implantable telemetry system, using a capacitor having high capacitance instead of the rechargeable batteries, has been designed for chronic unanaesthetized animal studies. This system can simultaneously record the cardiac sympathetic nerve activity and ECG. The power of the system is inductively coupled and transmitted to a 2.5 farad capacitor. The system, which is constructed by ultralow power analog and digital standard integrated circuits, has a transmission range up to 5 m, depending on intervening tissue depth and FM receiver characteristics. With the capacitor charging time of 5 minutes, the system can be driven for 120 minutes.
A Survey of Gesture RecognitionTechniques.

Processing speeds have increased dramatically, bitmapped displays allow graphics to be rendered and updated at increasing rates, and in general computers have advanced to the point where they can assist humans in complex tasks. Yet input technologies seem to cause a bottleneck in performing these tasks: under-utilising the available resources, and restricting the expressiveness of applications use. We use our hands constantly to interact with things: pick them up, move them, transform their shape, or activate them in some way. In the same unconscious way, we gesticulate in communicating fundamental ideas: ''stop'' ''come closer'' ''over there'' ''no'' ''agreed'', and so on. Gestures are thus a natural and intuitive form of both interaction and communication. This report develops the motivations for gestural input and surveys current gesture recognition techniques. A recoginition technique under development at TCD, as part of the GLAD-IN-ART (EP5363) project, is also introduced.
The CASPERS linguistic analysis system

CASPERS (Computer-Automated Speech Perception System) is a user-modifiable facility for translating strings of acoustic Symbols into sentences. Three distinctive aspects of the system's design will be discussed: the dynamic application of acoustic-phonological rules across word boundaries, an acoustic-unit splitting-and merging strategy for treating the dictionary matching problem, and an extensive capability for handling semantic routines within an augmented context-free grammar.
Applying Standard Network Analysis to Hypermedia Systems: Implications for Learning

Hypermedia systems may be considered as networks of interconnected fragments of information. In the literature, several attempts have been made to describe characteristics of nodes, links, and of the overall structure of such systems. However, the utility of these attempts is only limited for educational purposes because most of them are uneconomic in measuring and almost none of them is explicitly concerned with learning. In this article, an analogy between information networks and social networks is established. This analogy is used to illustrate the application of standard network analysis procedures. These procedures are available in widespread PC software (e.g., UCINET) and are used for calculating indices mapping structural aspects of hypermedia systems which are hypothesized to be relevant for learning. It is shown how the graphical representation of a hypothetical hypermedia system can be transformed into a matrix format which functions as the basis for computing standard network indices for nodes, groups of nodes, and entire networks (e.g., among others, centrality, cliques, or path distances). For each index, its potential influence on learning processes or learning outcomes is discussed. Implications of using standard network indices for research and practice in the field of educational or instructional hypermedia systems are outlined.
Adaptive analogue network for real-time estimation of basic waveforms of voltages and currents

A new parallel algorithm for estimation of parameters of sinewave, distorted by DC exponential signal and contaminated by noise, is proposed. The method may be seen as an extension and generalisation of the standard least-squares (L/sub 2/-norm) optimisation approach. The advantage of the developed algorithm is that it is more robust with respect to the modelling error and impulsive (wild) noise than when a standard least-squares criterion is employed. The implementation of the algorithm by a suitable adaptive analogue network is also given. Computer simulation results are presented to confirm the validity and performance of the proposed network. The proposed method seems to be particularly useful for real-time high-speed and low-cost estimation of parameters of sinusoidal signals.
Analysis of energy dissipation in the memory hierarchy of embedded systems: a case study

This paper presents an experimental study of the energy dissipation in the memory hierarchy of an embedded system during the execution of a specific application. Because of its ubiquity in many applications in different fields, we have chosen the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) as a benchmark for our study. The experiments consist of evaluating the energy dissipation of the memory hierarchy of the system, by comparing different software implementations of the DCT. An instruction-level simulator and a cache simulator have been used to perform energy estimation. The experiments show that the fastest (i.e., more hardware- or performance-efficient) implementation is not always the most beneficial from the memory energy stand-point.
Fibroblast uptake of prostate cancer vesicles

Prostate tumours are typically accompanied by anberrantly activated stroma,populated by myofibroblastic cells.These stromal cells support angiogenesis, and tumour growth in preclinical models. The tumour-derived factors responsible for the onset of stromal myofibroblasts remains poorly defined, but the secretion of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFβ1) is strongly implicated in the differentiation of various precursors, such as fibroblasts. Like other epithelial cancers, prostate cancer cells secrete small extracellular vesicles, these carry TGFβ1 on their outer surface, and can deliver to fibroblasts, driving their differentiation into myofibroblasts. Unlike stimulation with soluble TGFβ1, the vesicle generated myofibroblast is analogous to those naturally occurring at the cancer site. The vesicle form of TGFβ1 delivery therefore is TGFβ1 dependent yet the phenotype arising is distinct from that driven by soluble TGFβ1. This observation suggests that vesicles are likely to co-deliver other factors to the fibroblast that collectively generate the in vivo-like myofibroblast differentiation response. Because uptake of acquired vesicles is documented as important in many other biological systems, we hypothesised that vesicle entry into fibroblasts was an important aspect of vesicle-mediated communication, and relevant for the differentiation response. The aim of this project was to define the uptake process of prostate cancer vesicles by fibroblasts, to determine the intracellular fate of the vesicles once internalised, and the importance of cell entry in the complex differentiation process. To achieve this, we developed labelling techniques to fluorescently tag vesicles and used these to monitor vesicle uptake and intracellular trafficking in fibroblasts by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. Prostate cancer vesicles can be flexibly fluorescently labelled with the novel maleimide linked Alexa dyes. Using Alexa labelled vesicles, we found that fibroblast uptake primarily occurs through Clathrin-mediated endocytosis, and we reveal a role for vesicle-cell surface interaction in the uptake process. The vesicles were observed in early endocytic compartments, then transit through maturing endosomes reaching lysosomes within 2 hours of cellular uptake. Vesicle labelling with intraluminal fluorescent dyes revealed the requirement of vesicle v internalisation by fibroblasts to occur prior to luminal cargo delivery to the cell cytosol, and this escape occurs before the vesicles reach lysosomes. Vesicle internalisation by fibroblasts is independent of the TGFβ1 mediated stimulation of the cell and occurs even if fibroblast differentiation is blocked. This study concludes that prostate cancer vesicles can deliver their intraluminal contents to fibroblasts after clathrin dependent vesicle endocytosis, but before reaching the lysosome. Any effect the intraluminal cargo has on the fibroblast phenotype would be independent of the TGFβ1 mediated effects.
Effects of Hand Movement Lag on Discrete Manual Control Tasks in Virtual Environements

Most Virtual Reality applications involve manual manipulation and suffer from lags. Effects of lag in a virtual environment have received much attention. However, effects of target distance and width had not been analyzed in separation. A study has been conducted to investigate the effects of, and interactions among, hand movement related lag, target distance, and target width on manual task performance in a virtual environment. With a constant hand-related lag, hand Movement Time obeys Fitts' law (R2>0.85). Lags of 110 ms or above can significantly increase hand Movement Times and their effects have significant interactions with the effects of target width but not with target distance. This finding indicates that, in the presence of lag, the effects of target distance and width should be analyzed in separation.
CensusPlus: A sampling and prediction approach for the 2000 census of the United States

For a general audience, this paper offers details of a simple proposal for estimation of the population and housing in the year 2000 for the United States. Under CensusPlus, two surveys (mass enumeration and plus sample enumeration) are made of a universe with M blocks. The mass enumeration results in an initial preliminary count for each and every block in the country. The plus sample blocks undergo a second extra high quality count which when compared with the initial count leads to observed resolved counts for the sample blocks. Under a simple model, resolved counts are predicted for the nonsample blocks. Hence an optimal estimator of N, the universe size. is obtained by adding these observed (in sample) and predicted (not in sample) resolved block counts. In fact, this sum turns out to be the classical ratio estimator. This one number census collection is additive and consistent for all levels of geography. In addition, this paper presents sample sizes for the number of blocks required by the plus sample enumeration to support reliable state level estimates of population produced by CensusPlus. In particular and using data from the 1990 Census Files and the 1990 PES Block Data File, it ismore » shown that a nationwide deeply stratified probability sample of 22,120 blocks is needed to ensure that the housing unit population of a given state is estimated with a standard error of 40,000 persons. The 1990 PES Block Data File also provides some early empirical evidence that the model is very likely to hold. « less
A privacy enhanced DNS scheme for the Internet of Things

In the environment of Internet of Things (IoT), smart devices' privacy protection is a significant issue in several security problems. When a static domain name was assigned to a specified IoT terminal smart device, the risk of the existing privacy will be raised. In this article we proposed a privacy protection enhanced DNS scheme for smart devices, which can authenticate the original user's identity, reject illegal access to the smart device. The scheme is compatible with widely used DNS and DNSSEC protocol.
Para-GMRF: parallel algorithm for anomaly detection of hyperspectral image

The hyperspectral imager is capable of collecting hundreds of images corresponding to different wavelength channels for the observed area simultaneously, which make it possible to discriminate man-made objects from natural background. However, the price paid for the wealthy information is the enormous amounts of data, usually hundreds of Gigabytes per day. Turning the huge volume data into useful information and knowledge in real time is critical for geoscientists. In this paper, the proposed parallel Gaussian-Markov random field (Para-GMRF) anomaly detection algorithm is an attempt of applying parallel computing technology to solve the problem. Based on the locality of GMRF algorithm, we partition the 3-D hyperspectral image cube in spatial domain and distribute data blocks to multiple computers for concurrent detection. Meanwhile, to achieve load balance, a work pool scheduler is designed for task assignment. The Para-GMRF algorithm is organized in master-slave architecture, coded in C programming language using message passing interface (MPI) library and tested on a Beowulf cluster. Experimental results show that Para-GMRF algorithm successfully conquers the challenge and can be used in time sensitive areas, such as environmental monitoring and battlefield reconnaissance.
The New Key-Stream Generator Based on the OFB Mode of AES

The key-stream generator is the most important algorithm component of the stream cipher and the security of the stream cipher is based on the property of the key-stream generator. At the present, it is still an important development direction of the stream cipher algorithm that the high performance key-stream generators are constructed with complex block cipher algorithms. This paper puts forward the new type of the key-stream generator based on the AES algorithm. This method is based on the OFB mode of the AES algorithm, combined with the variable-step feedback shift. Then the paper analyses the randomness of the key-stream produced by the new key-stream generator. This new key-stream generator really improves the cryptographic properties of the key stream generator and to enhance the security of stream cipher effectively.
Validating Algorithms and Methods Destined for Information System Design Meant for the Business Environment Using Simulated Companies

The paper presents a validation method of the information systems conceived for the business environment. Unlike the audit of the accounting information systems or of the established testing methods of the software, we suggest that for testing and validation of the information systems, they should be implemented and used through enterprise exercise. Through this, besides the actual check of the software we also evaluate the way in which the software applications adapt to the full running of a processing flow of the information, corresponding to some basic functions of the enterprise. In such way we obtain complete and good quality results, at low costs of the evaluation process.