Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study of lumineers' interfaces by means of optical coherence tomography

OCT has been used to evaluate dental materials, and is employed here to evaluate lumineers for the first time. Lumineers are used as esthetical indirect restoration, and after wearing and aging, several undesirable features such as gaps, bubbles and mismatch can appear in which would only be seen by invasive analysis. The OCT (spectral domain SD-OCT, 930nm central wavelength) was used to evaluate noninvasively the lumineercement-tooth interface. We analyzed 20 specimens of lumineers-teeth that were prepared in bovine teeth and randomly allocated in 4 experimental groups (n=5) with two different cementation techniques and two different types of cementing agent (RelyX U200 and RelyX Veneer, 3M ESPE, with the adhesive recommended by the manufacture). The lumineers were made of lithium disilicate and obtained using a vacuum injection technique. The analysis was performed by using 2D and 3D OCT images, obtained before and after cementing and the thermal cycling process to simulate thermal stress in a oral cavity. Initial measurements showed that the SD-OCT was able to see through the 500μm thick lumineer, as delivered by the fabricant, and internal stress was observed. Failures were found in the cementing process and also after ageing simulation by thermal cycling. The adhesive failures as bubbles, gaps and degradation of the cementation line are the natural precursors of other defects reported by several studies of clinical follow-up (detachments, fractures and cracks). Bubble dimensions ranging from 146 μm to 1427 μm were measured and the OCT was validated as an investigative and precise tool for evaluation of the lumineer-cement-tooth.
Design and fabrication of SU-8 arrayed-waveguide gratings using multimode interference couplers

An SU-8-based arrayed-waveguide gratings (AWG) device with multimode interference couplers (MMI) is designed and fabricated. The demonstrated MMI-AWG device has 4 channels and the channel spacing is 500GHz. The total insertion loss is about 22 dB, which mainly comes from the coupling loss (16dB) between the input/output waveguide and the fibers. The channel crosstalk between adjacent channels is about –12 dB which is close to the simulation result.
Corpus callosum segmentation using deep neural networks with prior information from multi-atlas images

In human brain, Corpus Callosum (CC) is the largest white matter structure, connecting between right and left hemispheres. Structural features such as shape and size of CC in midsagittal plane are of great significance for analyzing various neurological diseases, for example Alzheimer’s disease, autism and epilepsy. For quantitative and qualitative studies of CC in brain MR images, robust segmentation of CC is important. In this paper, we present a novel method for CC segmentation. Our approach is based on deep neural networks and the prior information generated from multi-atlas images. Deep neural networks have recently shown good performance in various image processing field. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have shown outstanding performance for classification and segmentation in medical image fields. We used convolutional neural networks for CC segmentation. Multi-atlas based segmentation model have been widely used in medical image segmentation because atlas has powerful information about the target structure we want to segment, consisting of MR images and corresponding manual segmentation of the target structure. We combined the prior information, such as location and intensity distribution of target structure (i.e. CC), made from multi-atlas images in CNN training process for more improving training. The CNN with prior information showed better segmentation performance than without.
Synthesized view comparison method for no-reference 3D image quality assessment

We develop a no-reference image quality assessment metric to evaluate the quality of synthesized view rendered from the Multi-view Video plus Depth (MVD) format. Our metric is named Synthesized View Comparison (SVC), which is designed for real-time quality monitoring at the receiver side in a 3D-TV system. The metric utilizes the virtual views in the middle which are warped from left and right views by Depth-image-based rendering algorithm (DIBR), and compares the difference between the virtual views rendered from different cameras by Structural SIMilarity (SSIM), a popular 2D full-reference image quality assessment metric. The experimental results indicate that our no-reference quality assessment metric for the synthesized images has competitive prediction performance compared with some classic full-reference image quality assessment metrics.
Automated extraction of urban trees from mobile LiDAR point clouds

This paper presents an automatic algorithm to localize and extract urban trees from mobile LiDAR point clouds. First, in order to reduce the number of points to be processed, the ground points are filtered out from the raw point clouds, and the un-ground points are segmented into supervoxels. Then, a novel localization method is proposed to locate the urban trees accurately. Next, a segmentation method by localization is proposed to achieve objects. Finally, the features of objects are extracted, and the feature vectors are classified by random forests trained on manually labeled objects. The proposed method has been tested on a point cloud dataset. The results prove that our algorithm efficiently extracts the urban trees.
BDNF‐activated Sianal Transduction in Rat Cortical Glial Cells

Cortical glial cells in culture were found to be responsive to the neurotrophin brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), as evidenced by activation of multiple signal transduction processes. BDNF produced an increase in mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinase tyrosine phosphorylation, MAP kinase activity, intracellular calcium concentration and c‐fos expression in the glial cells. Only a subset of the glial cells responded to BDNF, as reflected in single‐cell analysis of calcium transients and c‐fos expression. BDNF had no detectable effect on glial mitotic activity, as measured by DNA synthesis. In parallel studies, nerve growth factor and neurotrophin‐3 had no effect on signalling in these cultures. BDNF has previously been demonstrated to act via trkB receptors with a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain (gp145trkB). Pretreatment of glial cultures with K252a, which at low concentrations specifically inhibits the trk tyrosine kinases, abolished BDNF effects on MAP kinase stimulation, suggesting that BDNF was acting through gp 145trkB. However, subsequent studies showed that gp 145trkB was expressed at extremely low levels in the cultures: gp145trkB mRNA transcripts could only be detected using the reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction, and gp 145trkB protein was not detected by either immunoblotting or immunocytochemistry. On the other hand, the glia expressed significantly higher levels of gp95trkB mRNA and protein, which represent truncated forms of trkB receptors lacking the tyrosine kinase domain. The results of these studies demonstrate that a subset of cultured CNS glia respond to BDNF with the activation of conventional signal transduction processes. The mechanism of BDNF‐initiated signal transduction in glial cells most likely involves a relatively small number of gp 145trkB receptors, but involvement of the more abundant truncated gp95trkB receptors cannot be excluded.
A simple 1×2 plastic optical fiber coupler based vibration sensor

A simple noncontact fiber optic vibration sensor is designed using multimode fiber optic coupler. The sensor works on principle of reflection intensity modulation. A single fiber port of the coupler is used as sensing head. A linear change in light intensity during its displacement from the reflecting surface within 1 mm of linear region shows a high sensitivity of 2.45 mV/μm which is used for the vibration measurement. Experimental results show that the sensor has the capability of measuring vibrations of frequencies up to 1300 Hz with ~1μm resolution of vibration amplitude over a range of 0-1mm. In comparison with dual-fiber and bifurcated-bundle fiber, this sensor eliminates the dark region and front slope which facilitates the easy alignment. The high degrees of sensitivity, economical along with advantages of fiber optic sensors are attractive attributes of the designed sensor that lend support to real time monitoring and embedded applications.
Automatic specular reflections removal for endoscopic images

Endoscopy imaging is utilized to provide a realistic view about the surfaces of organs inside the human body. Owing to the damp internal environment, these surfaces usually have a glossy appearance showing specular reflections. For many computer vision algorithms, the highlights created by specular reflections may become a significant source of error. In this paper, we present a novel method for restoration of the specular reflection regions from a single image. Specular restoration process starts with generating a substitute specular-free image with RPCA method. Then the specular removed image was obtained by taking the binary weighting template of highlight regions as the weighting for merging the original specular image and the substitute image. The modified template was furthermore discussed for the concealment of artificial effects in the edge of specular regions. Experimental results on the removal of the endoscopic image with specular reflections demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method comparing to the existing methods.
Experimental investigation of frequency characteristics of large industrial DC machines with thyristor-based drives

DC machines continue to be widely used in many applications including mining. No comprehensive condition monitoring tools for large industrial DC machines are available on the market. The authors of this paper are involved in a research project supported by industry partners, which primary objective is to develop a DC Motor Duty meter envisaged as a predictive online condition monitoring tool for DC machines used in digging applications. Test facility constructed within this project and instrumentation of the motors were described in the previous year paper. This paper focuses on the analysis of experimental data obtained in steady state at different loading and speed. After initial evaluation of the machine steady state performance, spectral characteristics of the experimentally obtained armature current, armature voltage, flux density under the main pole and flux density in the commutation zone are developed. Frequency components revealed in the spectra are discussed with relation to their cause, role in brush and commutator wear and their importance for the condition monitoring tool development.
Brownian dynamics of the optically trapped spinning microparticles in low pressures

Optical trap has become a powerful tool of biology and physics, since it has some useful functions such as optical rotator, optical spanner and optical binding. We present the translational motions in the transverse plane of a 4. 4μm-diameter vaterite particle which is optically trapped in low pressures utilizing the Monte-Carlo method. We find that the air pressure around the microparticle plays an important part in the determination of dynamics of the trapped particle. According to the energy equipartition theorem, the position fluctuations of the optically trapped particle satisfy Maxwell-Bolzmann distributions. We present the features of particles’ displacements and velocities changing with air pressures in detail, and find that the modulation of the trap stiffness makes a higher position variance. The mechanical quality factor Q larger than 10 induces a high peak of power spectral density. Our research presents a powerful tool towards further discovery of dynamical characteristics of optically trapped Brownian particles in low air pressures.
Printing structural colors via direct laser writing

Most common colors in our world as we see them, for example, in crystals, pigments, metals and salt solutions are the result from light scattering properties of electrons in atoms and molecules. Nevertheless, colors can also result from light interference effects, which are of great importance in the life of organisms. The structural colors of living organisms, e.g., the wings of some birds, insects and butteries, are often more intense and almost angle-independent. Understanding this specific color formation is of great interest for biology and for engineered materials with a broad range of biomimetic real world applications due to forgoing of toxic dyes and pigments. Therefore, the generation of artificial color formation with lithographic methods offers many advantages not available in coated multilayer systems because it avoids multiple complex fabrication steps. In the present work, we report an effortless fabrication method to generate structural coloration based on microand nano-structures using 3d-laser writing technique. The uniform micro- and nano-structures were produced in a thin polymer film with an refractive index of 1.51. The single structures are aligned in an array to create a blue color field. The identification of the influence of the structures on the artificial color formation was performed using scanning electron microscopy. The optical properties of the blue color was analyzed via an angle-resolved spectrometer.
B.SAR: blind SAR data focusing

Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) is a radar imaging technique in which the relative motion of the sensor is used to synthesize a very long antenna and obtain high spatial resolution. The increasing interest of the scientific community to simplify SAR sensors and develop automatic system to quickly obtain a sufficiently good precision image is fostered by the will of developing low-cost/light-weight SAR systems to be carried by drones. Standard SAR raw data processing techniques assume uniform motion of the satellite (or aerial vehicle) and a fixed antenna beam pointing sideway orthogonally to the motion path, assumed rectilinear. In the same hypothesis, a novel blind data focusing technique is presented, able to obtain good quality images of the inspected area, in the presence of a strong point scatterer, without the use of ancillary data information. Despite SAR data processing is a well established imaging technology that has become fundamental in several fields and applications, in this paper a novel approach has been used to exploit coherent illumination, demonstrating the possibility of extracting a large part of the ancillary data information from the raw data itself, to be used in the focusing procedure. Preliminary results – still prone to enhancements – are presented for ERS raw data focusing. The proposed Matlab software is distributed under the Noncommercial – Share Alike 4.0 – International Creative Common license by the authors.
Research on intelligent target recognition technology for integrated reconnaissance/strike UAV

The integrated Reconnaissance/Strike UAV has very important significance for mastering the battlefield initiative and significantly improving the performance of future commanding combat systems. In this paper, staring with the requirements of military actual combat applications for the discovery and identification of battlefield military targets, the current status and development trend of intelligent target recognition technology for the integrated reconnaissance/strike UAV are summarized, as well as the key technical issues are analyzed and preliminary test results are given.
A 3.7GHz 130nm CMOS-SOI class E RF power amplifier

A 23 dBm class E power amplifier (PA) has been designed and simulated at 3.7 GHZ using a 130 nm CMOS-SOI technology. The PA is a single stage, single ended cascode formed by a thin oxide transistor as common source device and a laterally diffused MOS (LDMOS) transistor as common gate. Fully integrated high current inductor is used as part of the class E wave shaping network. At 3.7 GHz, the PA achieves more than 60% PAE and a gain of 17 dB with 6 dBm driving signal.
Parallel microfluidic arrays for SPRi detection

Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging (SPRi) is a label-free technique for the quantitation of binding affinities and concentrations for a wide variety of target molecules. Although SPRi is capable of determining binding constants for multiple ligands in parallel, current commercial instruments are limited to a single analyte stream and a limited number of ligand spots. Measurement of target concentration also requires the serial introduction of different target concentrations; such repeated experiments are conducted manually and are therefore time-intensive. Likewise, the equilibrium determination of concentration for known binding affinity requires long times due to diffusion-limited kinetics to a surface-immobilized ligand. We have developed an integrated microfluidic array using soft lithography techniques for SPRi-based detection and determination of binding affinities for DNA aptamers against human alphathrombin. The device consists of 264 element-addressable chambers isolated by microvalves. The resulting 700 pL volumes surrounding each ligand spot promise to decrease measurement time through reaction rate-limited kinetics. The device also contains a dilution network for simultaneous interrogation of up to six different target concentrations, further speeding detection times. Finally, the element-addressable design of the array allows interrogation of multiple ligands against multiple targets.
Behavior of chemically amplified resist defects in TMAH solution

As semiconductor design rules become increasingly complex, there is growing demand for a reduction in defects in lithography processes, and the process that contributes most to such defects is believed to be the developing process. The control of defects occurring in chemically amplified resist due to changes in the resist structure has been growing in complexity. Today, when the exposure source is about to undergo a transition from KrF (248 nm) to ArF (193 nm), the controlled objects in defect inspection decrease in size, becoming smaller than the particle size that can be handled by inspection machines. For defect control against the background of the increasing miniaturization anticipated in the future, it will be necessary to gain an understanding of the behavior of ultra micro defects contained in developers. This report concerns the consideration of defect behavior in developing fluid resulting from the quantification of defects occurring due to resist dissolution in the developing fluid, and from defect behavioral analysis performed on the developing fluid.
The Swiss NEHAP: why it ended.

While European countries tend to increase the importance given to their national environmental health action plan (NEHAP), Switzerland stopped implementing its NEHAP in 2007. This study investigates the reasons for this surprising decision. The results provide an explanation of a relatively unique case and should inform any person interested in understanding common obstacles in the making and implementation of coordinated environmental health policies and programs. Data used in this study have been obtained from interviews conducted among experts of the Swiss environmental health policies and from survey results provided by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Findings show that financial constraints were only partly responsible for the abandonment of the NEHAP and that many of the shortcomings observed arose from the creation and the functioning of the Environmental and Health Section at the Federal Office of Public Health, which was devoted to the NEHAP. Lack of scientific knowledge and capacity to build intersectoral collaboration, compounded by a limited conception of environmental health, resulted in a lack of political awareness of environmental health issues. In consequence, the study highlights the necessity of a true interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach for environmental health policies. Policy makers should also be concerned with the creation of relevant systems of indicators, since they appear to be fundamental to the success of environmental health policies.
RTX Toxins Recognize a β2 Integrin on the Surface of Human Target Cells*

Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans leukotoxin and Escherichia coliα-hemolysin are RTX toxins that kill human immune cells. We have obtained a monoclonal antibody (295) to a cell surface molecule present on toxin-sensitive HL60 cells that can inhibit cytolysis by both RTX toxins. Utilization of this monoclonal antibody for immunoaffinity purification of detergent-solubilized target cell membranes yielded two polypeptide chains of approximate molecular masses of 100 and 170 kDa. Microsequencing of tryptic peptides from the two proteins showed complete homology with CD11a and CD18, the two subunits of the β2 integrin, lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1). Anti-CD11a and CD18 monoclonal antibodies also inhibited RTX toxin-mediated cytolysis. Direct binding experiments demonstrated the ability of an immobilized RTX to bind LFA-1 heterodimers present in a detergent lysate of human HL60 target cells. Transfection of CD11a and CD18 integrin genes into a cell line (K562) that is not sensitive to either RTX toxin resulted in LFA-1 expressing cells, KL/4, that were sensitive to both toxins. These experiments identify LFA-1 as a cell surface receptor that mediates toxicity of members of this family of pore-forming toxins.
Furniture layout design aided system using subjective reward

Several studies for layout design optimization depend on evaluation indices with necessary passage, spaciousness, etc. It is difficult to obtain a friendly layout by using conventional methods. The layout design-aided model in this study is a residence space, and there are eight types of furniture. All furniture is first allocated to each room by using a genetic algorithm. All allocated furniture’s initial arrangements in each room are then determined by using Q-learning. A user checks the initial layout through virtual reality and evaluates it subjectively. The layout for a specific user is flexibly fixed by applying Q-learning, and a user subjective reward is added. As a result of observer experiments, more than half of the furniture can be arranged in an ideal position for a user, and a satisfactory layout is successfully generated.
Evaluation of RPL for medium voltage power line communication

The advantages of using power line communication (PLC) to make grids more intelligent and provide new applications are obvious: in order to distribute electricity there are power lines to all buildings and facilities, no additional cables have to be deployed and no wireless transmission power or other regulations have to be observed. However, there are currently no large communication networks using medium voltage power line communication. In this paper we evaluate the performance of the IPv6 routing protocol RPL designed for networks with low-power devices and lossy links on PLC links in a medium voltage scenario. For this purpose the embedded OS Contiki networking stack has been extended on the MAC and networking layer. To capture realistic conditions, we implemented a SINR (signal-to-noise+interference-ratio) model of the MV PLC channel for the COOJA network simulator. This enables us to investigate latency, success rate, control traffic for a partly meshed medium voltage grid simulation scenario based on the grid layout of a local utility. Thus we provide a benchmark to evaluate networking protocols for monitoring and control applications for smart grids. Based on the evaluation results, we can identify application scenarios where RPL is suitable as well as some of the systems's constraints and drawbacks.