Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and implementation of micro-structures with refractive index contrast for optical interconnects and sensing applications

Title Design and implementation of micro-structures with refractive index contrast for optical interconnects and sensing applications Author(s) Khan, Muhammad Umar Publication date 2016 Original citation Khan, M. U. 2016. Design and implementation of micro-structures with refractive index contrast for optical interconnects and sensing applications. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2016, Muhammad Umar Khan. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Hypercoagulability in cirrhosis: causes and consequences 1

Summary. Decreased levels of most coagulation factors and thrombocytopenia are the main haemostatic abnormalities of cirrhosis. As a consequence, this condition was, until recently, considered as the prototype acquired coagulopathy responsible for bleeding. However, recent evidence suggests that it should, rather, be regarded as a condition associated with normal or even increased thrombin generation. The bleeding events that occur in these patients should, therefore, be explained by the superimposed conditions that frequently occur in this setting. Due to elevated levels of factor VIII (procoagulant driver) in combination with decreased protein C (anticoagulant driver), which are typically found in patients with cirrhosis, a procoagulant imbalance, defined as a partial resistance to the in vitro anticoagulant action of thrombomodulin, can be demonstrated. Whether this in vitro hypercoagulability is truly representative of what occurs in vivo remains to be established. However, the hypothesis that it may have clinical consequences is attractive and deserves attention. The possible consequences that we discuss herein include whether (i) cirrhosis is a condition associated with increased risk of venous thromboembolism or portal vein thrombosis; (ii) the hypercoagulability associated with cirrhosis has any other role outside coagulation (i.e. progression of liver fibrosis); and (iii) anticoagulation should be used in cirrhosis. Although apparently provocative, considering anticoagulation as a therapeutic option in patients with cirrhosis is now supported by a rationale of increasing strength. There may be subgroups of patients who benefit from anticoagulation to treat or prevent thrombosis and to slow hepatic fibrosis. Clinical studies are warranted to explore these therapeutic options.
Exposure of K562 cells to anti-receptor monoclonal antibody OKT9 results in rapid redistribution and enhanced degradation of the transferrin receptor

When the human erythroleukemia cell line K562 is treated with OKT9, a monoclonal antibody against the transferrin receptor, effects on receptor dynamics and degradation ensue. The apparent half-life of the receptor is decreased by greater than 50% as a result of OKT9 treatment. The transferrin receptor is also rapidly redistributed in response to OKT9 such that a lower percentage of the cellular receptors are displayed on the cell surface. OKT9 treatment also leads to a decrease in the total number of receptors participating in the transferrin cycle for cellular iron uptake. The reduction in iron uptake that results from the loss of receptors from the cycle leads to enhanced biosynthesis of the receptor. Receptors with bound OKT9 continue to participate in multiple cycles of iron uptake. However, OKT9 treatment appears to result in a relatively small increase per cycle in the departure of receptors from participation in iron uptake to a pathway leading to receptor degradation. Radiolabeled OKT9 is itself degraded by K562 cells and this degradation is inhibitable by leupeptin or chloroquine. In the presence of leupeptin, OKT9 treatment results in the enhanced intracellular accumulation of transferrin. Because the time involved in the transferrin cycle is shorter (12.5 min) than the normal half-life of the receptor (8 h), a small change in recycling efficiency caused by OKT9 treatment could account for the marked decrease in receptor half-life. In this paper the implications of these findings are discussed as they relate to systems in which receptor number is regulated by ligand.
The Effects of Limited Channel Knowledge on Cognitive Radio System Capacity

We examine the impact of limited channel knowledge on the secondary user (SU) in a cognitive radio system. Under a minimum signal-to-interference noise ratio (SINR) constraint for the primary user (PU) receiver, we determine the SU capacity under five channel knowledge scenarios. We derive analytical expressions for the capacity cumulative distribution functions and the probability of SU blocking as a function of allowable interference. We show that imperfect knowledge of the PU-PU link gain by the SU-Tx often prohibits SU transmission or necessitates a high interference level at the PU. We also show that errored knowledge of the PU-PU channel is more beneficial than statistical channel knowledge and that imperfect knowledge of the SU-Tx to PU-Rx link has limited impact on SU capacity.
Slow Late Component in Conditioned Stimulus-Evoked Potentials From the Amygdala After Fear Conditioning in the Rat

Male Wistar rats were subjected to a differential Pavlovian fear conditioning procedure in which one of two tones (6 or 10 kHz) was followed by an electric shock (CS+) and the other was not (CS-). Before and after fear conditioning, we recorded the evoked potentials elicited by CS+ and CS- from electrodes aimed at the lateral nucleus of the amygdala. Before conditioning, a slow, negative component with peak amplitude around 150 ms was present in the evoked potentials. This component was sensitive to habituation. After fear conditioning, both CS+ and CS- elicited the same late component, albeit with a larger amplitude. This enhancement was temporary: decreasing amplitude was observed in the course of CS test presentations under extinction. Prior research revealed a comparable slow component in the amygdala of the cat under similar experimental conditions. The collective results indicate that the large late component in the amygdala is enhanced by fear conditioning, suggesting that such enhancement reflects the anticipation of a biologically significant event.
Ask Me Tomorrow: The NRC and University of Ottawa Question Answering System

Funny how one extra Perl sort function can make a score of 0.52 1 on the question answering task look a lot like 0. This paper describes our brute force approach to the question answering task and how we did achieve some success, despite formatting problems with our answer file. This paper also describes how we conducted automatic evaluations using the NIST judgment file on newly proposed answers.
Synthesis and characterization of low temperature superparamagnetic cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

Cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation route at 80 °C. X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) confirmed cubic inverse spinel structure of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles. The average crystallite size of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles estimated by X-ray line profile fitting was 12±2 nm for high intensity peak (311). The particle size, distribution and surface morphology was estimated using Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with average particle size of 16±2 nm. Raman spectra of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles exhibits phonon modes corresponding to tetrahedral sites (679 cm) and octahedral sites (465 cm) respectively. The saturation magnetization MS for CoFe2O4 sample is found to be 63 and 82 emu/g at 300 K and 10 K respectively. The cubic magnetic anisotropy constant K1 and saturation magnetization MS are obtained by fitting M versus H isotherm to the saturation approach law. By fitting, K1 and MS is 2.16 x10 J∕m and 66 emu/g respectively at 300 K. The cubic magnetic anisotropy constant K1 = 5.49 ×10 J∕m is evaluated at blocking temperature of 144 K. The particle size and L−S coupling is responsible for superparamagnetic behaviour of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles. Fitting of FC curve provides Curie temperature at TC = 823K using modified Bloch’s law for CoFe2O4 nanoparticles. Tunable particle sizes by controlling the magnetic anisotropy and L−S coupling will tailor magnetic properties and usage in bio-medical applications. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press.
Laserkeilaus metsäomaisuuden taloudellisen arvon määrittämisen apuvälineenä

Metsäomaisuuden taloudellisen arvon määrittäminen on haastavaa johtuen metsänkasvatuksen pitkästä aikajänteestä sekä laskelmissa käytettävien lähtötietojen, mallien ja taloudellisten muuttujien epävarmuudesta. Metsäkiinteistöjen arvonmäärityksen käytäntöä ei ole pystytty standardoimaan, koska kaikissa käytössä olevissa menetelmissä on merkittäviä ongelmakohtia. Ennen kaikkea laskennan lähtökohtana käytettävän inventointitiedon tarkkuus ja ajantasaisuus vaikuttavat olennaisesti metsäomaisuuden arvonmäärityksen lopputulokseen. Tässä artikkelissa esitellään, kuinka metsäomaisuuden arvonmäärityksen lähtötietoon liittyvää epävarmuutta on mahdollista huomioida sekä kuinka uutta, laserkeilaukseen perustuvaa metsien inventointimenetelmää voidaan hyödyntää metsäomaisuuden arvonmäärityksessä. Tarkastelun lähtökohtana on Aalto-yliopiston maanmittaustieteiden laitokselle tehty väitöskirja ”Effect of airborne laser scanning accuracy on forest stock and yield estimates” (Holopainen 2011). Väitöskirjassa tutkittiin lentolaserkeilaukseen (airborne laser scanning, ALS) perustuvan metsäninventoinnin epävarmuutta metsätaloudellisen tuottoarvon (net present value, NPV) laskennassa. Inventointiin liittyvää epävarmuutta verrattiin simulointilaskennassa käytettävien kasvuennusteiden ja raakapuun hintakehityksen epävarmuuteen eri korkokannoilla. Lisäksi selvitettiin inventointitiedon tarkkuuden vaikutusta metsäsuunnittelulaskennan hakkuiden ajoitukseen sekä puutavaralajien määrän estimointiin. Kehitetty menetelmä mahdollistaa esimerkiksi luottamusvälien muodostamisen metsätaloudellisille tuottoarvolaskelmille. Lisäksi pystytään vertailemaan eri epävarmuustekijöiden merkityksiä sekä saadaan kuva siitä, minkä epävarmuuden vähentämiseen kannattaisi panostaa.
Colloidal aspects of texture perception

The perception of complex textures in food is strongly related to the way food is processed during eating, and is modulated by other basic characteristics, such as taste and aroma. An understanding at the colloidal level of the basic processes in the mouth is essential in order to link the composition and structure of food products to more complicated texture attributes.
AniThings: animism and heterogeneous multiplicity

This paper explores the metaphor of animism as a methodological framework for interaction design and, in particular, advocates for a form of animism the authors term 'heterogeneous multiplicity. ' Animism can make valuable contributions within ubiquitous computing contexts, where objects with designed behaviors tend to evoke a perception that they have autonomy, intention, personality and an inner life. Furthermore, animism that supports heterogeneous multiplicity offers unique opportunities to stimulate human creativity through embodied engagement with an ecology of things. To demonstrate the concept of heterogeneous multiplicity, the authors present a speculative design project, AniThings, that intertwines multiple animistic collaborators to position activities of digital resource discovery and curation beyond the narrow domain of recommendation engines and personal feeds. The project illustrates an ecology of six tangible, interactive objects that, respectively, draw from a variety of digital resources and inhabit a range of variously positioned stances towards their human collaborators and each other. This diversity of behaviors, resources, and positionality makes AniThings ideal for supporting open-ended ideation and collaborative imagining activities.
A Computational Model for Causal and Diagnostic Reasoning in Inference Systems

This paper introduces a representation of evidential relationships which permits updating of belief in two simultaneous modes: causal (i. e. top-down) and diagnostic (i.e. bottom-up). It extends the hierarchical tree representation by allowing multiple causes to a given manifestation. We develop an updating scheme that obeys the axioms of probability, is computationally efficient, and is compatible with experts reasoning. The belief parameters of each variable are defined and updated by those of its neighbors in such a way that the impact of each new evidence propagates and settles through the network in a single pass.
Composite Likelihood Bayesian Information Criteria for Model Selection in High-Dimensional Data

For high-dimensional data sets with complicated dependency structures, the full likelihood approach often leads to intractable computational complexity. This imposes difficulty on model selection, given that most traditionally used information criteria require evaluation of the full likelihood. We propose a composite likelihood version of the Bayes information criterion (BIC) and establish its consistency property for the selection of the true underlying marginal model. Our proposed BIC is shown to be selection-consistent under some mild regularity conditions, where the number of potential model parameters is allowed to increase to infinity at a certain rate of the sample size. Simulation studies demonstrate the empirical performance of this new BIC, especially for the scenario where the number of parameters increases with sample size. Technical proofs of our theoretical results are provided in the online supplemental materials.
Kernel bandwidth estimation in methods based on probability density function modelling

In kernel density estimation methods, an approximation of the data probability density function is achieved by locating a kernel function at each data location. The smoothness of the functional approximation and the modelling ability are controlled by the kernel bandwidth. In this paper we propose a Bayesian estimation method for finding the kernel bandwidth. The distribution corresponding to the bandwidth is estimated from distributions characterizing the second order statistics estimates calculated from local neighbourhoods. The proposed bandwidth estimation method is applied in three different kernel density estimation based approaches: scale space, mean shift and quantum clustering. The third method is a novel pattern recognition approach using the principles of quantum mechanics.
Calcified cysticercotic lesions and intractable epilepsy: a cross sectional study of 512 patients

Background: Neurocysticercosis is a major cause of epilepsy in developing countries and is endemic in Brazil. To test the hypothesis that the aetiological profile of patients with intractable epilepsy in Brazil includes neurocysticercosis, we conducted a cross sectional study investigating the aetiology of intractable epilepsy. Methods: A total of 512 patients evaluated at the outpatient clinic for intractable epilepsy at the Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine were included in the survey. Medical intractability was determined on the basis of seizure incidence and severity, and response to appropriate epilepsy management. Neuroimaging included brain CT with non-contrasted and contrasted phases and high resolution MRI. Patients were divided into neurocysticercosis and non-neurocysticercosis groups according to previous diagnostic criteria. Results: The most common epileptogenic lesions were mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS; 56.0%), malformations of cortical development (12.1%), and brain tumours (9.9%). Neuroimaging was normal in 8.7% of patients. Calcifications were found in 27% of patients and were significantly more common in patients with MTS than in those without MTS (p<0.001). Isolated neurocysticercosis was found in only eight patients (1.56%). Conclusions: These data suggest that neurocysticercosis is an uncommon cause of intractable epilepsy, even in an endemic region such as Brazil, and that it may only represent a coexistent pathology. However, an analysis of our findings reveals that neurocysticercosis was more common in patients with MTS. This finding could suggest either that there is a cause-effect relationship between MTS and neurocysticercosis, or that MTS and neurocysticercosis co-vary with a missing variable, such as socio-economic status.
Advantages of a non-technical XACML notation in role-based models

As applications requiring access control and the environments in which they operate in become more complex, an acute need for better ways to manage access control rules has arisen. Decentralized access control, for example, requires sophisticated techniques for conflict detection and for managing rules across multiple applications with different rule formats. XACML is an OASIS standard whose interoperability qualities help in solving the latter problem. XACML has its own limitations, however. In particular, although it has the expressive power to specify very complex conditions like those needed in the ABAC (Attribute Based Access Control) model, users tend to avoid using its full power because of its verbosity. In this paper, we show how a non-technical notation we have proposed in our earlier work resolves this difficulty and allows users to work with a very compact and readable form of XACML rules, thus allowing them to take advantage of XACML's full expressive power. This expressive power can be exploited to write policies that are better organized. It can be easier, for example, to write a single possibly complex rule to cover a particular aspect of a policy as opposed to distributing the complexity over several rules with simpler conditions. As a result, policies are smaller, more compact, and easier to understand. Policy development becomes more manageable, allowing users to concentrate on the more central issue of choosing the model (RBAC, ABAC, PBAC or other) that is best suited to a particular application and policy. We show that using the full expressive power to better organize policies has a significant positive impact on PDP performance.
Endothelin Receptor Antagonism Attenuates Cardiomyocyte Apoptosis after Induction of Ischemia in Rats

Objective : Apoptosis has recently been implicated as a process that may contribute to loss of cardiomyocytes and to adverse myocardial remodeling in congestive heart failure (CHF). We investigated to what extent myocardial ischemia and CHF lead to induction of apoptotic gene programs and loss of cardiomyocytes through apoptosis, and subsequently to what extent the beneficial effects of endothelin (ET) receptor antagonism after myocardial infarction (MI) could be attributed to reduction of apoptotic cell loss in the myocardium. Design : Northern blot analysis, analysis of DNA fragmentation, and immunohistochemical analysis were performed after induction of MI in rats. Results : After induction of MI, the mRNA levels of the pro-apoptotic genes FAS, BAX, P53, and CASPASE-1 were significantly increased in the non-ischemic region of the left ventricle (LV) with highest levels of expression in the peri-infarct area. High levels of FAS, BAX, P53, and CASPASE-1 mRNA were also observed in the infarcted region. Concomitantly, numerous TUNEL-positive cells and internucleosomal degradation of DNA were found in tissue from the peri-infarct area and in the infarcted zone, indicating apoptotic cell death. Treatment with bosentan, a mixed ET A /ET B receptor antagonist, during the first 24 h after induction of MI significantly reduced the area of TUNEL-positive myocardium in the ischemic region (64 - 2% of LV circumference in the vehicle group vs 55 - 2% of LV circumference in the bosentan group, p < 0.05). Consistently, bosentan also caused a similar reduction of infarct size. Conclusion : Our data demonstrate activation of pro-apoptotic genes and provide evidence of cardiomyocyte apoptosis in the viable peri-infarct area and in the infarcted region after MI in rats. Intervention with bosentan may attenuate cardiomyocyte cell loss through apoptosis in the area at risk after induction of ischemia.
CBSEAS, a Summarization System – Integration of Opinion Mining Techniques to Summarize Blogs

In this paper, we present a novel approach for automatic summarization. Our system, called CBSEAS, integrates a new method to detect redundancy at its very core, and produce more expressive summaries than previous approaches. Moreover, we show that our system is versatile enough to integrate opinion mining techniques, so that it is capable of producing opinion oriented summaries. The very competitive results obtained during the last Text Evaluation Conference (TAC 2008) show that our approach is efficient.
On the Substrate Thermal Optimization in SiC-Based Backside-Mounted High-Power GaN FETs

This paper presents a discussion on the substrate thermal design of backside-mounted power GaN high-electron mobility transistors. After a review on the thermal properties of the relevant materials and their temperature dependences, design guidelines are proposed on the basis of 3-D thermal simulations; the results presented suggest that in SiC-based devices, substrate thinning does not typically improve the thermal resistance or the dynamic thermal behavior. Contrary to what happens in III-V GaAs- or InP-based discrete or integrated devices, therefore, microstrip design on a thinned substrate (as opposed to coplanar design on a comparatively thick substrate) is generally not thermally superior. This should make possible, from the thermal standpoint, the realization of coplanar multifunctional GaN-based monolithic microwave integrated circuits integrating, e.g., low-noise and power stages and avoiding the use of via holes.
To teach or not to teach?: decision making under uncertainty in ad hoc teams

In typical multiagent teamwork settings, the teammates are either programmed together, or are otherwise provided with standard communication languages and coordination protocols. In contrast, this paper presents an ad hoc team setting in which the teammates are not pre-coordinated, yet still must work together in order to achieve their common goal(s). We represent a specific instance of this scenario, in which a teammate has limited action capabilities and a fixed and known behavior, as a finite-horizon, cooperative k-armed bandit. In addition to motivating and studying this novel ad hoc teamwork scenario, the paper contributes to the k-armed bandits literature by characterizing the conditions under which certain actions are potentially optimal, and by presenting a polynomial dynamic programming algorithm that solves for the optimal action when the arm payoffs come from a discrete distribution.
Incremental Document Clustering for WebPage

Motivated by the beneets in organizing the documents in Web search engines, we consider the problem of automatic Web page classiication. We employ the clustering techniques. Each document is represented by a feature vector. By analyzing the clusters formed by these vectors, we can assign the documents within the same cluster to the same class automatically. Our contributions are the following: (1) We propose a feature extraction mechanism which is more suitable to Web page classiication. (2) We introduce a tree structure called the DC-tree to make the clustering process incremental and less sensitive to the document insertion order. (3) We show with experiments on a set of Internet documents from Yahoo! that the proposed clustering algorithm can classify Web pages eeectively.