Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Freeform 3D interactions in everyday environments

Personal computing is continuously moving away from traditional input using mouse and keyboard, as new input technologies emerge. Recently, natural user interfaces (NUI) have led to interactive systems that are inspired by our physical interactions in the real-world, and focus on enabling dexterous freehand input in 2D or 3D. Another recent trend is Augmented Reality (AR), which follows a similar goal to further reduce the gap between the real and the virtual, but predominately focuses on output, by overlaying virtual information onto a tracked real-world 3D scene. Whilst AR and NUI technologies have been developed for both immersive 3D output as well as seamless 3D input, these have mostly been looked at separately. NUI focuses on sensing the user and enabling new forms of input; AR traditionally focuses on capturing the environment around us and enabling new forms of output that are registered to the real world. The output of NUI systems is mainly presented on a 2D display, while the input technologies for AR experiences, such as data gloves and body-worn motion trackers are often uncomfortable and restricting when interacting in the real world. NUI and AR can be seen as very complimentary, and bringing these two fields together can lead to new user experiences that radically change the way we interact with our everyday environments. The aim of this thesis is to enable real-time, low latency, dexterous input and immersive output without heavily instrumenting the user. The main challenge is to retain and to meaningfully combine the positive qualities that are attributed to both NUI and AR systems. I review work in the intersecting research fields of AR and NUI, and explore freehand 3D interactions with varying degrees of expressiveness, directness and mobility in various physical settings. There a number of technical challenges that arise when designing a mixed NUI/AR system, which I will address is this work: What can we capture, and how? How do we represent the real in the virtual? And how do we physically couple input and output? This is achieved by designing new systems, algorithms, and user experiences that explore the combination of AR and NUI.
The Effect of Bifacial AlOx Deposition on PERC Solar Cell Performance

Single-sided atomic layer deposition (ALD) is challenging as often some degree of wrap-around deposition onto the nontarget side occurs. This is particularly challenging for aluminum oxide (AlO<italic><sub>x</sub></italic>) deposition on silicon solar cells, as is required on the rear of passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) solar cells. The effects of unintended ALD-deposited AlO<italic><sub>x</sub></italic> on the front side of PERC solar cells are explored in this work, with a specific focus on the impact on contact resistance. The contact resistance is determined from transmission line measurement structures on samples with up to 10 nm of AlO<italic><sub>x</sub></italic> on top of silicon nitride (SiN<italic><sub>x</sub></italic>). These values are used as input parameters for computer simulations to simulate the effect of varying degrees of wrap-around on <italic>p</italic>-PERC cells. Finally, <italic>p</italic>-type aluminum back surface field solar cells with 3, 5, 7, and 10 nm AlO<italic><sub>x</sub></italic> layers on top of the SiN<italic><sub>x</sub></italic> are fabricated using various firing recipes and screen printing pastes to assess the effect on fabricated devices. It was found that a 3 nm AlO<italic><sub>x</sub></italic> layer can improve the cell performance relative to the uncapped case, whereas 5, 7, and 10 nm resulted in a lower solar cell efficiency due to higher series resistance.
Hypnosis: A Psychodynamic Perspective

The relationship between hypnosis and psychoanalysis has always been complex, and often acrimonious. When Freud abandoned hypnosis as both the foundation of his theory building and his clinical intervention of choice, the two approaches and the theories associated with them have often seemed separated by enormous rifts, theoretical, clinical, and political. Yet throughout their considerable estrangement for over more than a century, each has much to offer to the other. In this contribution, I briefly review efforts by psychoanalysts to conceptualize and understand hypnosis, offer an introduction to the relatively new post-modern intersubjective approach to psychoanalysis, and demonstrates how the relational concepts associated with that perspective can be of significant help in preparing patients for hypnosis, and in crafting interventions geared to the dynamics of the individual patient, which enhance the likelihood of clinical success. Key relational elements are illustrated with clinical vignettes.
Benefits of a self-management program in low-income African-American women with systemic lupus erythematosus: results of a pilot test

Minorities with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are at high risk of poor disease outcomes and may face challenges in effectively self-managing multiple health problems. The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) is an evidence-based intervention that improves the health of people with chronic illnesses. Although the CDSMP is offered by organizations throughout the United States and many countries around the world, it has not been tested among SLE patients. We pilot tested the benefits of the CDSMP in low-income African American patients with SLE. CDSMP workshops were delivered to 49 African American women with SLE who received medical care at a public lupus clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, US. We compared pre-post CDSMP changes (from baseline to 4 months after the start of the intervention) in health status, self-efficacy and self-management behaviors using self-reported measures. Additionally, we assessed health care utilization changes using electronic administrative records in the 6-month periods before and after the intervention. We observed significant improvements post-intervention in the SF-36 physical health component summary (mean change = 2.4, p = 0.032); self-efficacy (mean change = 0.5, p = 0.035); and several self-management behaviors: cognitive symptoms management (mean change = 0.3, p = 0.036); communication with physicians (mean change = 0.4, p = 0.01); and treatment adherence (mean change = 0.4, p = 0.01). The median number of outpatient visits decreased from 3 to 1 (p < .0001). The CDSMP is a promising intervention for low-income African Americans with SLE. It is an inexpensive program with growing availability around the world that should be further evaluated as a resource to improve patient-centered outcomes and decrease health service utilization among SLE patients.
Smear reduction in the interline CCD image sensor

An undesirable smear in a vertical-overflow-drain interline CCD image sensor (VOD IL-CCD) has been analyzed. This smear has been reduced by using a new structure. The main cause of the smear was identified, using an experimental linear CCD image sensor, as light leakage, i.e., oblique incident light effect, concave lens effect, diffraction effect, and waveguide effect, To reduce the light-leakage smear, a new structure is proposed, where the oxide thickness under the aluminum photoshield is as small as 0.2 µm. As a result, the photoshielding performance is improved, and the smear-to-signal ratio for 10-percent vertical height illumination in the new structure VOD IL-CCD obtained is 0.016 percent, or 12 times smaller than that in a conventional structure VOD IL-CCD.
MPRWG-to-DiRWG transition with fitted PCB substrate inset

A design of metal-pipe rectangular waveguide (MpRWG) to dielectric-inserted rectangular waveguide (DiRWG) for 8–12 GHz is proposed. The transition includes an air-filled WR-90 metal waveguide with tapered waveguide dielectric that is fabricated using simple machining and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) process. The transition and dielectric taper, fabricated from PCB substrate is contained within the overall structure of the module to secure the effective transition and reduce radiation loss. Measured results of the transition shows excellent performance with the bandwidth of 33 %, return loss better than 8 dB and insertion loss below 2 dB. This transition and manufactured prototype has huge potential for conceptual and feasability study on low-frequency optical system and millimeter-wave component development.
Reappraisal of Quantitative Gel Zymography for Matrix Metalloproteinases

The determination of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) is relevant in many pathophysiological conditions, especially if associated with extracellular matrix remodeling; however, the results obtained are closely linked to the method used and are not directly comparable. The aim of this study was to perform a reappraisal of quantitative gel zymography technique for MMPs in human plasma, to use for comparison with commercially available ELISA and in those experimental conditions where the MMP active form needs to be revealed.
Two-tier Wireless Mesh Networks dimensioning

With recent development, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) are actually providing inexpensive broadband access and supporting numerous applications, thinks to the use of advanced radio technologies such as multiple radio interfaces and directional antennas. In this paper, we present a new methodology to show that an important aspect of dimensioning WMNs is by considering weighted fairness and the estimated users demand for speci c running applications. Our objective is to satisfy the required demand while ensuring weighted fairness by exploiting the overall links capacity. To achive this objective, we propose the combination of both capacity estimation based on Bianchi's model and multi-path routing scheme. We compare our proposition with single path routing based on the shortest path criteria. The obtained results, in term of end-to-end throughput, show that it performs best.
A simple method of culture of 11.5‐day‐old rat embryos in DMEM/F12 and 20% fetal bovine serum

Post‐implantation mouse and rat embryos are usually cultured in sera obtained from various rodents and from humans. We describe here a simple and inexpensive culture medium – Dulbecco's minimal essential medium/Ham's F12 (DMEM/F12) supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum (FBS) – in which E11.5 rat embryos of the Hebrew University Sabra strain grow for 28 h slightly better than in heat‐inactivated 90% rat serum with 10% distilled water and addition of 1 mg mL−1 glucose. They have good growth and development and a low rate of anomalies, similar to that observed in embryos cultured on rat serum. Their size, total score and olfactory system development is slightly higher than in rat embryos cultured in rat serum. About 7.2% of these embryos exhibit subcutaneous haemorrhages in various areas, but these do not seem to interfere with their growth and development. This method is not appropriate for younger embryos; in E10.5 embryos cultured for 28 h we found increased embryonic death and anomalies.
Potential problems and switching control for visual servoing

This paper proposes a potential switching scheme that enlarges the stable region of feature-based visual servoing. Relay images that interpolate initial and reference image features are generated by using affine transformation. Artificial potentials defined by the relay images are patched around the reference point of the original potential to enlarge the stable region. Simulations with simplified configuration and experiments on a 6 DOF robot show the validity of the proposed control scheme.
One-step bone marrow-derived cell transplantation in talarosteochondral lesions: mid-term results

Abstract Purpose: to verify the capability of scaffold-supported bone marrow-derived cells to be used in the repair of osteochondral lesions of the talus. Methods: using a device to concentrate bone marrow-derived cells, a scaffold (collagen powder or hyaluronic acid membrane) for cell support and platelet gel, a one-step arthroscopic technique was developed for cartilage repair. In a prospective clinical study, we investigated the ability of this technique to repair talar osteochondral lesions in 64 patients. The mean follow-up was 53 months. Clinical results were evaluated using the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) scale score. We also considered the influence of scaffold type, lesion area, previous surgery, and lesion depth. Results: the mean preoperative AOFAS scale score was 65.2 ± 13.9. The clinical results peaked at 24 months, before declining gradually to settle at a score of around 80 at the maximum follow-up of 72 months. Conclusions: the use of bone marrow-derived cells supported by scaffolds to repair osteochondral lesions of the talus resulted in significant clinical improvement, which was maintained over time. Level of Evidence: level IV, therapeutic case series.
Evaluation of body representation in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy: toward the development of a neuropsychological test battery

Clinical observations indicate that many children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) exhibit a lack of use or disregard of the affected upper limb. The aim of the present study was to develop, adapt, and verify the psychometric properties of a neuropsychological battery to assess body perception and representation disturbances in children with HCP. Three groups of children participated in this study, who took part in different phases of the validation process: one group of typically developing children (TD; n = 30; aged 4-6 years) and two groups of HCP children (HCP1: n = 12, aged 5-10 years; HCP2: n = 49, aged 5-13 years). Because no cognitive-neuropsychological model of body representation has been specifically developed for children, the tasks were designed based on a cognitive-neuropsychological model developed for adults. The chosen model comprises three levels of body representation: body schema, body structural description, and body image. The following steps were adopted in developing the instrument: development and choice of the tasks, selection and preparation of stimuli, adequacy and improvement of the instrument, semantic analysis of items, internal consistency, and feasibility and acceptability of application for TD and HCP children. The final set of tasks and items was chosen to balance the levels of difficulty and internal consistency. We concluded that the final battery was adequate and can be used to assess body representation disturbances in children with HCP.
Response characterization of the precision open-ended coaxial probe for dielectric spectroscopy of breast tissue

Large-scale dielectric spectroscopy of healthy and diseased breast tissue in the 0.1 to 20 GHz frequency range is currently underway. Open-ended coaxial probes are used as sensors to record the reflection coefficient of the tissue samples. The measured reflection coefficient is converted to the dielectric properties data through a suitable inverse technique. The collected data will aid in further advances of the microwave technology for early breast cancer detection. Thus, it is crucial to ensure the highest possible accuracy and reliability of the tissue measurements.
Sizes and obesity pattern of South Iranian adolescent females

Background : Sizes (height and weight) and obesity (a scaled weight-by-height index) charts of a representative sample of 1743 healthy adolescent females of Shiraz (Southern Iran) aged 11-17 years are presented. Methods : An adjusted weight-for-height was used to define a possible obesity index. Polynomial modelling was used by applying the HRY (Healy, Rasbash, Yang) nonparametric method to estimate age-related smoothed centiles of sizes and obesity. Results : A ponderal index in the form of weight/height 3 represented obesity better than any other index which is logically related to weight/volume and enjoys biological justification. No more than cubic polynomials were needed to fit height-for-age, weight-for-age, obesity-for-age and weight-for-height smoothly. The 10th, 75th and 97th centiles of height and weight of our subjects lie on the 3rd, median and 90th centiles of the NCHS standard, respectively. Obesity pattern increases with age, giving an appropriate index to study obesity of female adolescents. However, weight-for-height chart independent of age range of subjects may serve as an alternative. Conclusion : It is concluded that the ponderal index is an appropriate index to study obesity of adolescent females, and is a simple one that is biologically plausible. However, other indices such as weight-for-height may be considered as an alternative. A local standard for assessing sizes and obesity of adolescent females is recommended for clinical as well as community health purposes in Iran.
Improving Risk Adjustment for Medicare Capitated Reimbursement Using Nonlinear Models

Objectives. This article compares a linear risk-adjusted model of medical expenditures for Medicare patients with a model that explicitly account for skewness in distribution of expenditures. Methods. A model of expenditures and a model of the square root of expenditures, each expressed as linear combinations of risk adjusters, are estimated using data from the 1992 through 1994 Medicare Current Beneficiary Surveys. Five sets of risk adjusters are considered. Each combination of model and set of risk adjusters is tested for linearity, heteroscedasticity, in-sample fit (R2), forecast performance (forecast bias and forecast mean squared error), and overfitting the data. We analyze forecast performance (1)based on forecasts in same year used for estimation, and (2)based on forecasts in the year following that used for estimation. Results. In the first analysis, the model using a square root transformation of expenditures as the dependent variable and the more parsimonious specification of risk adjusters performs best in terms of forecast squared error and overfitting. The untransformed model performs best in terms of forecast bias in each group based on severity of disability, with the exception of the severely disabled for whom the square root model is best. In the second analysis, the square root model performs better than the untransformed model in terms of forecast squared error, but neither model is statistically distinguishable from zero in terms of bias. Conclusions. Accounting for skewness in expenditures tends to improve precision but not necessarily bias, except among the severely disabled. Adjusting for health status improves risk adjustment.
A Cross-Layer Runtime Framework for Checkpoint-based Soft-Error and Aging Management in SoCs Conference

Transient faults due to single and multiple bit-flips and permanent aging effects due to Bias Temperature Instability (BTI) and Hot Carrier Injection (HCI) gradually reduce chip reliability over time. Unfortunately, the increasingly stringent on-chip dark-silicon power constraints prohibit costly fault resilience solutions. Clearly, a viable approach is needed that can address both transientand aginginduced faults in emerging multicore chips. In this paper, we propose a novel runtime framework (CHARM) to manage the useful chip lifetime, while also addressing transient faults and meeting darksilicon and application performance constraints. Experimental results on a 60-core chip multiprocessor show that CHARM achieves an improvement of up to 2.5× in lifetime, up to 5× in resiliency to softerrors, and up to 6× in number of applications executed over the chip lifetime compared to a state-of-the-art solution.
Source Estimation from Broadband Regional Seismograms

Recently developed source inversion techniques do not take full advantage of the broadband nature of regional seismograms. The reason is that Green's functions generated from flat-layered models are not correct for the complicated propagational phenomena associated with realistic crustal structure. The inversion is usually performed by removing short periods and inverting only selected portions of the records. In this article, we introduce a source estimation technique that allows for better use of the entire broadband record when only imperfect Green's function are available. The procedure desensitizes the timing between the principal crustal arrivals by fitting portions of the Green's functions independently. The preferred source is the orientation that minimizes the average L1 and L2 norms in term of the four parameters, M_0, strike, dip, and rake. The L2 error emphasizes the longer period surface waves while the L1 error weights the shorter period body waves. We obtain estimates of duration by modeling long period and broadband signals. The depth determination can be obtained directly from the surface reflected phases sP_mP or sS_mS or by cycling through the depth-dependent Green's functions. In addition to the source parameters, we obtain “δt” phase alignments shifts that can be used as Green's function corrections for relocating other events or as a guide to deriving new crustal models.
AMD-EC: Anomaly-based Android malware detection using ensemble classifiers

Due to significant increase in the popularity and usage of Android mobile devices, the number of malware targeting such devices has also increased dramatically. To confront with Android malware, several anomaly detection techniques have been proposed that are able to detect zero-day malware, but they often produce many false alarms that make them impractical for real-world use. In this paper, we address this problem by presenting AMD-EC, an entropy-based anomaly detection technique that uses an ensemble classifier consisting of multiple one-class classifiers to detect Android malware. Our work is motivated by the observation that combining multiple classifiers often produces higher overall classification accuracy than any individual classifier. The results of our experiments conducted on a real dataset of Android benign applications and malware samples show that AMD-EC can achieve about 99.73% detection rate, 0.81% false alarm rate, and 99.47% accuracy.
GTP hydrolysis by arf‐1 mediates sorting and concentration of Golgi resident enzymes into functional COP I vesicles

Upon addition of GTPγS to in vitro budding reactions, COP I vesicles form but retain their coat, making them easy to isolate and analyze. We have developed an in vitro budding assay that reconstitutes the formation of COP I‐derived vesicles under conditions where GTP hydrolysis can occur. Once formed, vesicles are uncoated and appear functional as they fuse readily with acceptor membranes. Electron microscopy shows a homogeneous population of uncoated vesicles that contain the medial/trans Golgi enzyme α1,2‐mannosidase II. Biochemical quantitation of vesicles reveals that resident Golgi enzymes are up to 10‐fold more concentrated than in donor membranes, but vesicles formed in the presence of GTPγS show an average density of resident Golgi enzymes similar to that seen in donor membranes. We show that the sorting process is mediated by the small GTPase arf‐1 as addition of a dominant, hydrolysis‐deficient arf‐1 Q71L mutant produced results similar to that of GTPγS. Strikingly, the average density of the anterograde cargo protein, polymeric IgA receptor, in COP I‐derived vesicles was similar to that found in starting membranes and was independent of GTP hydrolysis. We conclude that hydrolysis of GTP bound to arf‐1 promotes selective segregation and concentration of Golgi resident enzymes into COP I vesicles.