Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Highly accurate distance measurement with a frequency comb laser

We introduce a scheme for highly accurate absolute distance measurement based on interferometry with a laser that emits many wavelengths simultaneously. This approach allows for distance determination that is absolute, i.e. without the need to generate an uninterrupted, continuous displacement from an initial start position. As such, it enables for large remote distance ranging, also for targets that are not practically accessible for near proximity measurements or referencing, e.g. due to terrain obstacles. A femtosecond frequency comb laser is a very suitable source for this purpose, because it emits thousands of stable wavelengths simultaneously, providing a wealth of information. As a consequence, the range of non-ambiguity is on the level of tens of centimeters which can easily be measured with an electronic distance meter. This is a significant advantage compared to single wavelength interferometry, which requires a precision linear guidance and uninterrupted beam path. Using the frequency comb as a source, the output of a Michelson interferometer is measured with a high resolution-spectrometer, which is able to spectrally resolve the individual wavelengths on a camera. From the measured interference patterns, acquired with a fast single shot image, a distance is determined. We have compared the measurement results that were obtained with the frequency comb to the measured displacement of a counting laser interferometer for distances up to 50 m. An agreement between both methods on the sub-micrometer level was found (< 10 -8 at 50 m). With the prospect of frequency-comb lasers becoming smaller, cheaper and easier to operate, this measurement scheme opens up the possibility for field applications. These may not only be found in the field of surveying or measurement of large structures, but also in space applications, like distance measurement between satellites.
Unsupervised Feature Selection for Phoneme Sound Classification using Genetic Algorithm

his paper proposes a new method based on Genetic Algorithm for feature selection in phonemes sound classification. Biological studies have shown that human’s ear is sensitive to different resonant frequencies because of ear’s hair cells. Thus, we propose a technique in which genetic algorithm is used to extract audio features similar to human’s ear in order to achieve better classification. In this paper, genetic algorithm is used in order to select appropriate individual’s features in order to classify sound signals accurately. Each individual consists of genes indicating the resonant frequencies inspired from human cochlea hair cells. Then, feature extraction is done by using individual’s information. Moreover, a fitness function by using classification method based on nearest neighbor is used in order to evaluate each individual of population. Furthermore, by using the proposed genetic algorithm, best individual’s features can be found. In order to evaluate this proposed method, a database which consists of 500 samples for each 12 different phoneme classes is created in this paper. The proposed algorithm is compared with an existing typical audio feature selection based on MFCC and the proposed algorithm achieves much better classification accuracy in comparison with MFCC based feature selection method. During generations, the fitness value shows remarkable improvement of sound classification accuracy.
Preschool Education and Primary School Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions about Classroom Management: A Metaphorical Analysis.

The aim of the research was to determine the perceptions of preschool and primary school teachers about classroom management by means of metaphors. The sample which selected by the use of convenience sampling techniques was drawn from preschool and primary school undergraduate students who had taken the “Classroom Management” course in the 2012–2013 academic years. There has a total of 163 participants from two state universities in Turkey. The perceptions were obtained from the question “What does ‘classroom management’ seem to you? ” and from the answers they explained by using the “because” conjunction. The content analysis technique was used to analyse the data. The answers of the participant pre-service teachers were categorized, and suggested that most of those categories were of positive perceptions except that a category included negative perceptions. The findings suggest that at the end of the study, across 10 different categories, preschool pre-service teachers developed 60 metaphors whereas primary school pre-service teacher developed 48 metaphors.
Sparsity and level set regularization for diffuse optical tomography using a transport model in 2 D Kernel Prieto and

In this paper we address an inverse problem for the time-dependent linear transport equation (or radiative transfer equation) in 2D having in mind applications in diffuse optical tomography (DOT). We propose two new reconstruction algorithms which so far have not been applied to such a situation and compare their performances in certain practically relevant situations. The first of these reconstruction algorithms uses a sparsity promoting regularization scheme, whereas the second one uses a simultaneous level set reconstruction scheme for two parameters of the linear transport equation. We will also compare the results of both schemes with a third scheme which is a more traditional L-based Landweber–Kaczmarz scheme. We focus our attention on the DOT application of imaging the human head of a neonate where the simpler diffusion approximation is not well-suited for the inversion due to the presence of a clear layer beneath the skull which is filled with ‘low-scattering’ cerebrospinal fluid. This layer, even if its location and characteristics are known a priori, poses significant difficulties for most reconstruction schemes due to its ‘wave-guiding’ property which reduces sensitivity of the data to the interior regions. A further complication arises due to the necessity to reconstruct simultaneously two different parameters of the linear transport equation, the scattering and the absorption cross-section, from the same data set. A significant ‘cross-talk’ between these two parameters is usually expected. Our numerical experiments indicate that each of the three considered reconstruction schemes do have their merits and perform differently but reasonably well when the clear layer is a priori known. We also Inverse Problems Inverse Problems 33 (2017) 014001 (28pp) doi:10.1088/0266-5611/33/1/014001 Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. 0266-5611/17/014001+28$33.00 © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK 1 demonstrate the behavior of the three algorithms in the particular situation where the clear layer is unknown during the reconstruction.
A framework for connection between Total Quality Management and Innovation Processes

A comprehensive conceptual framework has been proposed in this study to investigate the connection between the total quality management and innovation. In order to clarify the gaps of this study, a wide-range literature have been reviewed in different dimensions of TQM. Initially, this study proposes that the exterior and interior environment will influenced the implementation of TQM approaches. Then, a developed model of TQM performed is then reflected in terms of several outcomes depending to innovation performances.
Discussion on “ Analysis of forensic DNA mixtures with artefacts ” by Cowell , Graversen , Lauritzen and Mortera .

First, we would like to congratulate the authors on a very stimulating paper. We have been provided with a method for modelling many subtleties when dealing with forensic DNA mixtures. Many artefacts and random variability due to data collection and the technology involved are directly taken into account. The inferential procedure is flexible and efficient, and the model is definitely parsimonious. The authors focus mostly on n− 4 stutter. We believe different types of stutter (e.g., n + 4 stutters, where a fake peak appears after the real one) might be incorporated by increasing the number of components in the proposed mixture model. Each additional component involves estimation of one single additional parameter, so the formulation would still be parsimonious. We wish to stimulate the authors in providing additional developments. No human population can be safely assumed to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. We wonder about the implications of this assumption on the estimates obtained under the model. There might for instance be bias for offenders whose mother and father come from different ethnicities. Furthermore, population frequencies should be periodically updated under HW disequilibrium. There also may be uncertainty in attribution of the offender to a target population. We wonder how much the estimated WoE is sensitive to this. If we believe an offender is Caucasian when he/she is not, how much bias can we incur in the WoE? If we are uncertain about the target population, can we perhaps average the WoE associated with different ones? Similarly, there might be isolated sub-populations. In Italy for instance
Performance characteristics of solar drying system for agricultural products

Drying has important influences on agricultural products’ quality and storage. Drying characteristics of different agricultural products vary. Temperature and velocity of drying airflow affect greatly drying quality and drying efficiency of agricultural products. Two types of solar drying systems for different drying temperature requirement were designed and characterized in this paper: solar air drying system with plate air collector and solar parabolic trough concentrating drying system. In solar air drying system with plate air collector, the drying oven has two ventilation modes. With top inlet and bottom outlet ventilation mode, the overall temperature in drying oven is relatively high, however large vertical temperature difference exists in drying oven. With bottom inlet and top outlet ventilation mode, the temperature in drying oven is uniformity, however relatively low. In notoginseng drying experiment, the drying time is shortened to half of that in nature drying. The average thermal efficiency is 66.5%. The solar trough concentrating drying system utilizes a low cost and reliable V-type metal cavity to collect solar irradiation. In the system, the heat conducting oil can be heated to 230°C, and the air flow from heat exchanger reaches above 200°C. The tobacco shred drying experiments verifies that the drying temperature of the system meets the tobacco shred drying requirement. Solar trough concentrating drying system matchts the drying temperature scope of 80°C~200°C.
Synthetic handwritten text generation

Handwritten text recognition requires a large quantity of labelled samples, which are costly to produce. In this project, we explore the possibility of synthetically generating human-like handwritten text, allowing for an effectively infinite amount of labelled samples. We perform text generation through font rendering and apply image processing techniques to give the text more variability and realism. We also perform an evaluation of our system by generating a fully synthetic clone of a real dataset and comparing the effect of using our samples combined with a portion of the real samples to train a handwritten text recognizer. We conclude that our system allows to obtain an accuracy close to the baseline using only a small portion of real samples.
! ! A Project entitled Pre-service Teachers ' Self-efficacy Belief on Classroom Inclusion of Students with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder ( ADHD ) : The Roles of Students ’ Gender and Diagnostic Label

This study surveyed pre-service teachers in Hong Kong to investigate their self-efficacy belief in teaching students with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in an inclusive classroom. One of the four vignettes was randomly presented to the participating pre-service teachers, with gender and ADHD diagnostic label of the vignette characters as the manipulation. After reading the vignette, participants gave responses to questions relating to their self-efficacy belief in teaching the students from the vignette and questions relating to their knowledge of ADHD. Data were collected from 228 pre-service teachers in Hong Kong through online survey. Results illustrated that pre-service teachers' self-efficacy belief in teaching the vignette characters in inclusive classroom was not correlated to the gender and the ADHD diagnostic label of the vignette characters. The ADHD knowledge of pre-service teachers did not predict the self-efficacy belief of pre-service teachers in teaching the vignette
Application of Lattice Boltzmann Method to Fluid Flows in Microgeometries

In the present investigation, Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is used to simulate rarefied gaseous microflows in three microgeometries. These are micro-couette, micro lid-driven cavity and micro-poiseuille flows. The Knudsen number is used to measure the degree of rarefaction in the microflows. First, micro-couette flow is computed with the effects of varying Knudsen number in the slip and threshold of the transition regime and the results compare well with existing results. After having thus established the credibility of the code and the method including boundary conditions, LBM is then used to investigate the micro lid-driven cavity flow with various aspect ratios. Simulation of microflow not only requires an appropriate method, it also requires suitable boundary conditions to provide a well-posed problem and unique solution. In this work, LBM and three slip boundary conditions, namely, diffuse scattering boundary condition, specular reflection and a combination of bounce-back and specular reflection is used to predict the micro lid-driven cavity flow fields. Then the LBM simulation is extended to micro-poiseuille flow. The results are substantiated through comparison with existing results and it is felt that the present methodology is reasonable to be employed in analyzing the flow in micro-systems.
THE NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTS OF ASPECT RATIO AND CROSS-SECTIONAL SHAPRE ON THE WAKE STRUCTURE BEHIND A CANTILEVER

This paper aims to investigate the effects of aspect ratio (AR) and geometry have on the flow dynamics of a free end finite cylinder via numerical simulation. The AR used in this investigation is AR=3, 5, 7 whilst a circular cantilever cylinder and a rectangular flat plate are used as the geometry. The Reynolds number based on cylinder diameter is 20000. k-ω (SST) is used to model the turbulence. End tip effects are seen on free end finite cylinder. By studying the velocity defect flux (Q), tip effects are found to be independent of AR. They are however limited to 2D~3D for circular cantilever cylinder and 3D~4D for rectangular flat plate. Velocity defect is stronger for rectangular flat plate than that of circular cantilever (the range differs from 6.81% to 206.41%) suggesting a stronger vortical activities are present in the wake of rectangular flat plate. It is supported by turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) contours whereby the maximum TKE is approximately 20%~50% higher in rectangular flat plate at each respective AR.
WHEN THEY WERE GOOD THEY WERE VERY GOOD INDEED BUT WHEN THEY WERE BAD THEY WERE HORRID ! BIASING EFFECTS ON RATINGS OF LEADERSHIP

We examined rater heuristic judgment processes, manipulating leader sex, job sextyping, and organizational performance outcomes. Participants rated a target individual's leadership style, personality, and whether organizational outcomes were attributable to the individual. As expected, the female leader was seen less favorably than the male was when organizational outcomes were bad and the context male sex-typed—unexpectedly, she was seen more favorably under good performance outcomes (the male leader was rated in the same way in a feminine context). Independent of other conditions, the female leader was rated as being more neurotic than was the male. Furthermore, leader personality ratings were predictive of leadership style. Finally, participants overblamed out-of-context leaders independent of performance outcomes. Our results provide new understandings regarding situational cue effects on leader ratings, concordant with the “shifting standards” theory.
IMPROVED INCREMENTAL CONDUCTANCE MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING ALGORITHM USING FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM

The hard nonlinearity of the electrical behavior, current-voltage output of a photovoltaic array considered a big issue in the designing of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms, furthermore changing with atmospheric condition temperature and irradiation. So it’s more challenging to control both the time response and the accuracy. The most commonly algorithms discussed and used in practice are incremental conductance (INC) and perturb and observe (P&O), nevertheless failed to overcome the drawback of the trade-off between the elimination of oscillation around MPP in the steady state and quickness tracking, chiefly when sudden sharp environmental change occurs. Thus, this study suggests a revised incremental conductance combined with fuzzy logic controller (FLC), to enhance the efficiency of the conversion system and perfom it for practical operating conditions. The INC uses the step size generated from FLC. The performance of the dynamic response and the accuracy have optimized significantly compared with conventional methods (P&O, INC). Computer simulation has carried out under MATALB/Simulink environment to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.
Development and characterization of experimental models of oligometastatic and polymetastatic progression

Clinical oligometastases are characterized by a limited number of metastases which are a form of stable metastatic dissemination that presents the window for curative treatment. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlining the differences between the stable oligometastases from the widespread polymetastases requires the development of clinically-relevant animal models for mechanistic investigation. In this study, we created from a MDA-MB-435 human tumor, the first mouse xenograft model of oligoand polymetastases. Here, using this novel xenograft model to study two distinct types of metastatic progression, we report detailed characterization of experimental oligoand polymetastases models. The oligometastatic model remained stable after serial rounds of in vivo passage, had limited organ involvement and had less than 5 discrete metastatic foci. In contrast, the polymetastatic progression model showed multiple metastatic foci in the lung, or involved multiple anatomic sites. In summary, the new xenograft models of metastasis that we reported here recapitulated phenotypic features of two clinically relevant human metastasis phenotypes: the oligometastatic and polymetastatic progression. These models should prove useful for mechanistic investigation as well as for evaluating therapeutic targeting of sustained oligometastases to achieve the clinical goal of long-term disease free survival.
BLOCK MATCHING AND 3 D COLLABORATIVE FILTERING ADAPTED TO ADDITIVE SPATIALLY CORRELATED NOISE

Visual quality of images is crucial for image processing. Noise is one of the most destructive factors that reduces a visual quality of original images and efficiency of their subsequent treatment. In addition, noise can be not white and might appear more noticeably in images. Additive spatially correlated noise is considered as one of such cases. To improve a visual quality of corrupted images, some denoising technique has to be applied. BM3D (block matching and 3D filtering) is known to be state-of-the-art for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) removal. In this paper, we present two mechanisms to adapt the BM3D filter to the case of spatially correlated noise. One is employed for block matching and the second one is used in denoising based on discrete cosine transform (DCT). New similarity measures are considered and applied instead of the standard Euclidean distance. It is shown that both adaptation mechanisms contribute to sufficient improvement of visual quality characterized by the standard metric PSNR and the specialized metric PSNRHVS-M. Two levels of spatial correlation for noise modelling are used in our studies.
The Effect of Chytridiomycosis and Bioaugmentation on the Metabolic Rate of Redbacked Salamanders , Plethodon cinereus

The infectious disease chytridiomycosis caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachocytrium dendrobatidis, Bd, contributes to worldwide amphibian decline, but definitive pathogenesis of lethality for the disease is not well understood. Because amphibians respire through their skin (in addition to respiration using lungs), it is speculated that amphibians with chytridiomycosis may show a decrease in metabolic rate, but amphibians bioaugmented with probiotic bacteria may alleviate possible metabolic stress. A species of lungless salamander (Plethodon cinereus) was used in this study to analyze the cutaneous effects of Bd on metabolic rate in vivo. Net weight change, infection load (using a Taqman real time PCR assay), and metabolic data (using an FMS) of salamanders were recorded over the course of a 25 day span. Data demonstrate that salamanders infected with Bd may possess a higher overall metabolic rate, but further research must be conducted to confirm statistical significance. Real time Taqman PCR results suggest that salamanders infected with Bd were able to clear infections in less than two weeks due to rise and subsequent decline in detection of zoospore genomic equivalence despite showing weight loss and other characteristic symptoms of chytridiomycosis. Further research including more intense infection of salamanders, application of techniques to minimize PCR inhibitors, and recording of metabolic data in a refined experimental environment are needed to better understand these phenomena.
SOFT TISSUE WOUND HEALING : ELECTROMAGNETIC CONNECTIONS

There is continued debate as to the potential role of electromagnetic fields (EMF) in their various forms as adjunctive treatments for soft tissue wound healing. In this chapter the most current facts and viewpoints are brought together with the central theme of characterizing electromagnetic connections in soft tissue wound healing. To accomplish this various rationales for such connections are introduced specifically in relationship to wound healing. As further background the major wound healing processes are described with some emphasis on the concept of stalled healing of wounds and possible EMF connections. Thereafter specific major soft tissue wounds such as venous, ischemic, diabetic and pressure ulcers are presented. For each wound type the potential efficacy of EMF therapy is critically examined and discussed. The chapter concludes with a critical examination of possible cellular and functional targets for EMF therapy as they relate to wound healing. These include cells involved in wound healing such as endothelial, keratinocytes, fibroblasts, leukocytes and macrophages and important healing processes such as blood flow augmentation and edema reduction.