Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Silicon-On-Insulator Biosensor using Micro-ring Resonators and Ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder Interferometers

The silicon photonic platform is widely used for optical sensing and communications because its high index contrast allows for smaller devices, and is compatible with CMOS manufacturing techniques. In this thesis we examine theoretically and demonstrate experimentally silicon-on-insulator biochemical sensors based on micro-ring resonators (MRR) and ring assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometers (RAMZI). We determine that the sensitivity of the slot waveguide is enhanced compared to the wire waveguide and examine the effect of coupler design on sensing performance using directional couplers and multi mode interference (MMI) couplers. We find that RAMZI devices offer a similar sensitivity while offering a larger index of refraction measurement range than MRR designs. The slot waveguide is found to increase bulk index sensing sensitivity by up to 2.2 times that of the wire waveguide. Directional coupler based MRR and RAMZI devices are shown to have higher bulk index sensitivities than MMI coupled devices.
Diagnostic CALL tool for Arabic learners

Our proposed work is aimed at teaching non-native Arabic speakers how to improve their pronunciation. This paper reports on a diagnostic tool for helping non-native speakers of Arabic improve their pronunciation, particularly of words involving sounds that are not distinguished in their native languages. The tool involves the implementation of several substantial pieces of software. The first task is to ensure the system we are building can distinguish between the more challenging sounds when they are produced by a native speaker, since without that, it will not be possible to classify learners' attempts at these sounds. To this end, we carried out a number of experiments with the well-known speech recognition Hidden Markov Model Toolkit (HTK), in order to ensure that it can distinguish between confusable sounds, such as the ones that people have difficulty with. Our diagnostic tool provides feedback in three different forms: as an animation of the vocal tract, as a synthesised version of the target utterance, and as a set of written instructions. We have evaluated the tool by placing it in a classroom setting, asking 40 Arabic students to use the different versions of the tool. Each student had a thirty minute session with the tool, working their way through a set of pronunciation exercises at their own pace. Preliminary results from this pilot group show that their pronunciation does improve over the course of the session.
Fairness Consideration of Scheduling for Real-Time Services in 4G Systems

In order to achieve higher resource utilization, the call admission control (CAC) will allow the number of connections into the system more than the system capacity can offer. However, the fairness problem will occur when these connections are real-time services. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a fair scheduling algorithm named contribution-based scheduling algorithm (CSA) for real-time polling service (rtPS) or guarantee bit rate (GBR) in the uplink direction in the forth-generation (4G) systems. In CSA, a mobile subscriber (MS) gains its contribution credit value at the end of each transmission time interval (TTI), which is based on the contribution of MS to the radio resource scheduling. The base station (BS) schedules the bandwidth according to the credit value. Simulation results show that CSA achieves higher fairness in bandwidth allocation while connection drop rate and queuing delay are also guaranteed as compared to the roundrobin (RR) and early deadline first (EDF) mechanisms.
A Semi-Automatic Spatial Feature Extraction Tool for Minimising Errors in GIS Data Capture*

In GIS projects, data capture and maintenance are both capital and labour intensive. Over the past few years, vector data for GIS analysis have been extracted by hours of tedious and manual digitising. This method of digitising is subjective and prone to human errors. The credibility of a GIS analysis is strongly influenced by the quality of data used. The objective of this study was therefore to minimise the errors in GIS vector data capture from raster models. This was achieved by developing a semi-automatic spatial feature extraction tool. The tool is capable of extracting spatial features from orthophotos, scanned maps and high resolution satellite images within a RMSE of 0.001m. The procedures employed include: image classification, edge detection and segmentation of images as well as extraction of spatial features from raster images. Finally, the extracted features were converted to vector or GIS compatible formats such as ESRI shapefiles and other CAD formats. The result is an application capable of creating a ready-to-use vector maps by extracting spatial features from raster models within the shortest possible time. This tool is also useful for map revision and converting hard-copy maps to digital formats.
Endoscopic sphenoid sinus anatomy in View of Transsphenoidal Surgery: Standardized Way-point Cadaver Dissection

Objectives: In the view of continuous evolution in surgical techniques and instrumentation, cadaveric dissection is still the golden key for improving surgical skills and familiarity required for surgery in such critical regions with complicated anatomical details. We present an anatomical cadaveric dissection study to describe endoscopic anatomy of the sphenoid sinus using a waypoint stepwise dissection procedure.Patients and Methods: Cadaveric dissection was conducted progressively in twenty fresh cadavers simulating endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach. Our standardized waypoint procedure was followed in all specimens determining its role as a base for surgical training in such region. Anatomical variations including; level of the sphenoid sinus ostium, sphenoid peumatization, inter-sphenoid septation and intra-sphenoid bony landmarks and measurements were evaluated.Results: The standardized waypoint cadaver dissection procedure in sphenoid sinus region provided an accurate surgical orientation and relationship between anatomical landmarks founding an ideal conception for the safe and efficient surgery. Our measurements showed significant variations related to sphenoid sinus ostium, peumatization and intra-sphenoid bony landmarks.Conclusion: Current study emphasizes the role of specialized waypoint training on cadavers for more detailed knowledge of the anatomy of challenging regions providing surgeon with a convenient surgical experience and familiarity. Although several anatomic variations were recorded in our series, it is considered as a good surgical training expedient for the alterations of anatomical structure in live surgery.
Optimizing the second-order optical nonlinearities of organic molecules: asymmetric cyanines and highly polarized polyenes

We recently reported that there is an optimal combination of donor and acceptor strengths for a given molecular length and bridge structure that maximizes (beta) . For this combination, there is the correct degree of bond length alternation and asymmetry in the molecule. Our recent findings suggest that molecules that can be viewed as asymmetric cyanines with relatively small amounts of bond length alternation are nearly optimal. In this manner, we have identified molecules with nonlinearities many times that of conventional chromophores for a given length. In this paper, we will present a new computational analysis that allows the correlation of bond length alternation with hyperpolarizabilities and will present EFISH data on simple donor-acceptor polyene chromophores.
Higher order and recurrent neural architectures for trading the EUR/USD exchange rate

The motivation for this paper is to investigate the use of alternative novel neural network architectures when applied to the task of forecasting and trading the Euro/Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate. This is done by benchmarking three different neural network designs representing a Higher Order Neural Network (HONN), a Psi Sigma Network and a Recurrent Network (RNN) with three successful architectures, the traditional Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), the Softmax and the Gaussian Mixture (GM) models. More specifically, the trading performance of the six models is investigated in a forecast and trading simulation competition on the EUR/USD time series over a period of 8 years. These results are also benchmarked with more traditional models such as a moving average convergence divergence technical model (MACD), an autoregressive moving average model (ARMA) and a logistic regression model (LOGIT). As it turns out, the MLP, the HONN, the Psi Sigma and the RNN models all do well and outperform the more traditional models in a simple trading simulation exercise. However, when more sophisticated trading strategies using confirmation filters and leverage are applied, the GM network produces remarkable results and outperforms all the other network architectures.
Effect of injectable progesterone on follicular development in lactating beef cows treated with estradiol plus a low-concentration progesterone device

The effect of injectable progesterone was evaluated along with estradiol benzoate (EB) on the fate of the dominant follicle (DF) present in the ovary at the beginning of low progesterone-based TAI protocol. All cattle were given 500 µg cloprostenol im (PGF; Schering-Plough Animal Health for Estrumate, Pointe-Claire, QC, Canada) twice, 11 d apart, and allocated into two groups: Estradiol group (E group, n = 11) and Estradiol-Progesterone group (EP group, n = 11). Ten days after the second PGF (Day 0), all cattle were given an intravaginal progesterone device with half progesterone concentration (Cue-Mate with a single pod containing 0.78 g progesterone). Concurrently, all cattle were given 1.5 mg im of estradiol benzoate in 3 mL of canola oil and PGF im on Day 0 of the protocol in a crossover design, in which each cow received both treatments. Cows in the EP group also received 100 mg im progesterone (Sigma) in 2 mL of canola oil. On Day 8, progesterone devices were removed and all cattle were given PGF im. All statistical analyses were performed with SAS 9.0. The DF present on Day 0 ovulated in 76% (16/21) of cows from E group and 28.6% (6/21) of cows from EP group (P = 0.002). After progesterone device removal, the size of ovulatory follicle did not differ between groups (E group, 15.5 ± 0.43 mm vs EP group, 15.8 ± 0.98 mm; P = 0.82). These follicles ovulated in 81.3 ± 3.1 h in E group and 71.0 ± 6.1 h in EP group (P = 0.13). In conclusion, injectable progesterone reduced the proportion of cows that ovulate the dominant follicle present in the ovary at the beginning of estradiol-progesterone-based protocols. However, no difference was detected on time of ovulation after progesterone device removal between groups.
The Role of Women in the Italian Network of Boards of Directors, 2003-2010

We use an innovative dataset (8 years with 2,057 firms) composed of Italian listed firms to analyze the network of women in boards, and to evaluate their effect on company value and performance. In particular, we use Social Network Analysis to analyze the growth of the female directorship network. We also study the dynamics of change over time, and the different behavior of firms respect the growth of the female directorates. We study the impact of interlocking directorships and female interlocking directorships on equity value and firm performance. Italy is an interesting case for this kind of study, due to the high presence of interlocking directorates. We find that interlocking directorate has a negative impact on equity value and firm performance, which is consistent with economic theory and previous literature findings. Furthermore, female interlocking directorship has no effect on firm value and performance.
Overview of biogas production from different feedstocks

Renewable energy could replace the conventional sources of energy such as fossil fuel and oil, serving as an alternative source of energy. Non-renewable energy sources have been found to pose various environmental problems such as greenhouse gas emissions as they tend to deplete at faster rates. Biological processes such as fermentation and anaerobic digestion for the past decades have given rise to the production of biofuels such as biogas and bioethanol. Biogas production is environmentally friendly and simple to produce although some drawbacks have limited its full exploitation in the past decades such as the physical and chemical treatment techniques required in the process.
Three Dimensional Position Detection Using a Two Dimensional PSD and a Marker Composed of Two Light Sources

In recent years, the three-dimensional (3D) measurement is used in various fields. However, the conventional 3D measurement method has various problems such as complicated pre-set, slow processing and high price. In this study, in order to achieve the 3D measurement with simple preset, high speed processing and low price, we propose the 3D measurement method based on the new principle. It is the 3D position detection using a two-dimensional (2D) Position Sensitive Device (PSD) and a marker composed of two light sources. The major characteristics of the proposed method are as follows: Simple preset High speed detection Low price Not influenced by the reflectance of the object We can convert from the 2D coordinate of the spot lights on the photosensitive area to the 3D coordinate of the marker by the proposed conversion formula. Moreover, the 2D PSD can receive the lights at the same time by using the light sources which is modulated frequency. We performed experiments of four types to verify the measurement accuracy. We compared the experimental result of accuracy standard with the experimental results in the case of setting wide interval of light sources, using the high luminance light sources and controlling the photographing magnification. From four experiments, we show that the proposed method is an effective 3D measurement method and measurement accuracy is largely improved by three proposed solutions
FAMILY CONTEXT: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Communication technologies such as Social Network Sites (SNSs) are increasingly being used within family settings to support and extend the family relationships. Although many previous researchers have highlighted the impact of SNSs in family environment, criteria of SNS adoption and use in family context have received little research attention. This paper highlights selected SNS appropriation process criteria in family, individual and technical perspectives in order to understand why and how the SNS is being used in family context. Using the procedure of Bandara et al. (2011), NVivo 9.0 was employed to conduct content analysis of 284 articles published between the year of 2006 until 2014. As a result, the adoption and use criteria of SNS appropriation process were identified, and has been categorized in family, individual and technical perspectives using the Family Appropriation Process of Social Network Site (FAPSNS) framework. The understanding of the criteria could assist in effective and healthy adoption and use of SNSs among family members. However, this paper is merely focusing on level 2 and level 3 of SNS appropriation process in family, individual and technical perspectives.
Stochastic and copula models for credit derivatives

We prove results relating to the exit time of a stochastic process from a region in N -dimensional space. We compute certain stochastic integrals involving the exit time. Taking a Gaussian copula model for the hitting time behavior, we prove several results on the sensitivity of quantities connected with the hitting times to parameters of the model, as well as the large-N behavior. We discuss the relationship of these results to certain credit derivative instruments. Relevant simulations are presented.
Evaluating usability of screen designs with layout complexity

This paper presents work-in-progress in assessing the usefulness of the layout complexity metric in evaluating the usability of different screen designs. An application "Launcher" was developed in Visual Basic that calculated complexity and collected usability data. Seven subjects provided some evidence that complexity could be of benefit to the screen designer. However, though Launcher proved useful in collecting data, some problems needed to be overcome, namely more concise data collection and a better method for building screens, before more data can be collected.
AN EVALUATION OF SORGHUM BICOLOR (Linn.) MOENCH LEAF SHEATHEXTRACT IN HIGH FAT DIET-INDUCED OBESE RATS

Obesity, resulting from energy imbalance caused by an increased ratio of caloric intake to energy expenditure is a global health problem. This study investigated the effects of Sorghum bicolor leaf extracts (SBE) on blood lipid levels in high fat diet-induced obese rats. Sorghum bicolor leaf was extracted with 70% ethanol using Soxhlet extractor. Male Wistar rats (n=36) divided into six groups: (A) normal control, (B) obese control (High Fat Diet – HFD), (C) HFD+150 mg/kg body weight SBE (first treatment), (D) HFD+300 mg/kg body weight SBE (second treatment), (E) HFD+600 mg/kg body weight SBE (third treatment) and (F) HFD+ 1200 mg/kg body weight SBE (fourth treatment) were used. The SBE was administered orally to the animals daily for 28 days. Body weight was taken weekly and Lee index was calculated alongside. Plasma, erythrocytes and lipoproteins' lipid profiles were determined using spectrophotometric methods. Results from the study revealed that generally, SBE significantly reduced (p<0.05) the levels of cholesterol, phospholipids, triacylglycerol by varying levels, in the various blood compartments of the obese animals. It was observed that SBE caused a significant (p<0.05) decrease in plasma cholesterol level of the fourth treatment group. Also, SBE significantly (p<0.05) reduced the elevated atherogenic and coronary risk indices by 50%. This study suggests that SBE might be useful in the management of obesity and its co-morbid conditions.
Implementing Content Based Video Retrieval Using Speeded-Up Robust Features

In this paper, we propose an implementation of Content-Based Video Retrieval (CBVR) using Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF). Given an image as a query, the application looks through a set of videos and pick the ones contain frame similar to the image query. Our objective is to measure the performance of the algorithm. The performance is measured using three variables: recall, precision, and running time. We used two sets of samples to perform the test: in-frame and not-in-frame. Furthermore, we limit the samples only to contain these 5 categories: body parts, kitchen and eating utensils, fruits, and pets. The test shows the program gives a 57.75% average recall value and 37.5% precision value for not-in-frame test, while the in-frame-test gives 51% and 59% for recall and precision value respectively. Moreover, the running time data shows there is no relation between in-frame/not-in-frame and speed. Running time performance highly depends on the image query and the length of the video.
Best proximity points of contractive mappings on a metric space with a graph and applications

We establish an existence and uniqueness theorem on best proximity point for contractive mappings on a metric space endowed with a graph. As an application of this theorem, we obtain a result on the existence of unique best proximity point for uniformly locally contractive mappings. Moreover, our theorem subsumes and generalizes many recent fixed point and best proximity point results.
Seismic velocity structure and deformation due to the collision of the Louisville Ridge with the Tonga-Kermadec Trench

New marine geophysical data recorded across the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone are used to image deformation and seismic velocity structures of the forearc and Pacific Plate where the Louisville Ridge seamount chain subducts. Due to the obliquity of the Louisville Ridge to the trench and the fast 128 mm yr−1 south–southwest migration of the ridge-trench collision zone, post-, current and pre-seamount subduction deformation can be investigated between 23°S and 28°S. We combine our interpretations from the collision zone with previous results from the post- and pre-collision zones to define the along-arc variation in deformation due to seamount subduction. In the pre-collision zone the lower-trench slope is steep, the mid-trench slope has ∼3-km-thick stratified sediments and gravitational collapse of the trench slope is associated with basal erosion by subducting horst and graben structures on the Pacific Plate. This collapse indicates that tectonic erosion is a normal process affecting this generally sediment starved subduction system. In the collision zone the trench-slope decreases compared to the north and south, and rotation of the forearc is manifest as a steep plate boundary fault and arcward dipping sediment in a 12-km-wide, ∼2-km-deep mid-slope basin. A ∼3 km step increase in depth of the middle and lower crustal isovelocity contours below the basin indicates the extent of crustal deformation on the trench slope. At the leading edge of the overriding plate, upper crustal P-wave velocities are ∼4.0 km s−1 and indicate the trench fill material is of seamount origin. Osbourn Seamount on the outer rise has extensional faulting on its western slope and mass wasting of the seamount provides the low Vp material to the trench. In the post-collision zone to the north, the trench slope is smooth, the trench is deep, and the crystalline crust thins at the leading edge of the overriding plate where Vp is low, ∼5.5 km s−1. These characteristics are attributed to a greater degree of extensional collapse of the forearc in the wake of seamount subduction. The northern end of a seismic gap lies at the transition from the smooth lower-trench slope of the post-collision zone, to the block faulted and elevated lower-trench slope in the collision zone, suggesting a causative link between the collapse of the forearc and seismogenesis. Along the forearc, the transient effects of a north-to-south progression of ridge subduction are preserved in the geomorphology, whereas longer-term effects may be recorded in the ∼80 km offset in trench strike at the collision zone itself.
Thermo-optic tuning of wavelength (de)multiplexers on InP membrane

Citation for published version (APA): Jiao, Y. , Jiang, Y. , & van der Tol, J. J. G. M. (2015). Thermo-optic tuning of wavelength (de)multiplexers on InP membrane. In P. Kockaert, P. Emplit, S-P. Gorza, & S. Massar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th Annual Symposium of the IEEE Photonics Benelux Chapter, 26-27 November 2015, Brussels, Belgium (pp. 31-34). OPERA-photonics, Brussels School of Engineering.
COMPARISON OF SOME CLASSICAL AND META-HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES IN THE ESTIMATION OF THE LOGIT MODEL PARAMETERS.

Ozge Akkus 1 and Emre Demir 2 . 1. Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science,Mugla Sıtkı Kocman University, Turkey. 2. Department of Biostatistics, Faculity of Medicine, Hitit University, Turkey. Manuscript Info Abstract . Manuscript History