Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The 2006 International Arab Conference on Information Technology ( ACIT ' 2006 ) 1 ON-LINE RECOGNITION OF ARABIC HANDWRITTEN CHARACTERS

In this study, a new approach for the recognition of isolated handwritten Arabic characters is presented. The proposed method places a 5x5 grid on the character to extract the features needed for the recognition step. These features are calculated based on grid calculations. Then these features are feed to the decision tree to classify the character into one of the 28 classes. The classification process depends on the value assigned for each feature which lead to one leaf node in the decision tree that represent the Arabic character to be classified. Experimental results showed the robustness of the proposed approach for the recognition of Arabic handwritten isolated characters of a rate about 80.2%. The test was performed on 1120 different characters written be eight users, 40 examples for each of the 28 Arabic characters.
A&bgr;-Degrading Enzymes: Potential for Treatment of Alzheimer Disease

There is increasing evidence that deficient clearance of &bgr;-amyloid (A&bgr;) contributes to its accumulation in late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD). Several A&bgr;-degrading enzymes, including neprilysin (NEP), insulin-degrading enzyme, and endothelin-converting enzyme reduce A&bgr; levels and protect against cognitive impairment in mouse models of AD. The activity of several A&bgr;-degrading enzymes rises with age and increases still further in AD, perhaps as a physiological response to minimize the buildup of A&bgr;. The age- and disease-related changes in expression of more recently recognized A&bgr;-degrading enzymes (e.g. NEP-2 and cathepsin B) remain to be investigated, and there is strong evidence that reduced NEP activity contributes to the development of cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Regardless of the role of A&bgr;-degrading enzymes in the development of AD, experimental data indicate that increasing the activity of these enzymes (NEP in particular) has therapeutic potential in AD, although targeting their delivery to the brain remains a major challenge. The most promising current approaches include the peripheral administration of agents that enhance the activity of A&bgr;-degrading enzymes and the direct intracerebral delivery of NEP by convection-enhanced delivery. In the longer term, genetic approaches to increasing the intracerebral expression of NEP or other A&bgr;-degrading enzymes may offer advantages.
Phasic Firing Time Locked to Cocaine Self-Infusion and Locomotion: Dissociable Firing Patterns of Single Nucleus Accumbens Neurons in the Rat

The activity of single nucleus accumbens (NAcc) neurons of rats was extracellularly recorded during intravenous cocaine self-administration sessions (0.7 mg/kg per infusion, fixed ratio 1). We reported previously that NAcc neurons showed a change, usually a decrease, in firing rate during the first 1 min after the cocaine-reinforced lever press. This postpress change was followed by a progressive reversal of that change, which began within the first 2 min after the press and was not complete until the last 1 min before the next lever press (termed the change + progressive reversal firing pattern). In the present study we documented a regular pattern of locomotion that occurred in parallel with the change + progressive reversal firing pattern. This observation suggested that discharges time locked to locomotion may determine the change + progressive reversal firing pattern. However, 55% of the neurons failed to show firing time locked to locomotion that could have contributed to the change + progressive reversal firing pattern. Moreover, for all neurons, the change + progressive reversal firing pattern was apparent even if the calculation of firing rate excluded all periods of locomotion. The present data showed that the change + progressive reversal firing pattern is not solely attributable to phasic changes in firing time locked to the execution of locomotion. The change + progressive reversal firing pattern closely mirrors changes in drug level and dopamine overflow observed by previous researchers and may thus be a component of the neurophysiological mechanism by which drug level regulates drug-taking behavior during an ongoing self-administration session.
The happiness of European Muslims post-9/11

ABSTRACT We examine the happiness trajectory of Muslims living in European countries following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, using six rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS). We find a decline, and then a subsequent return to average happiness among the general Muslim migrant population relative to others after 9/11. However, a small subgroup of Muslims, young male Muslim immigrants from Middle East, report a persistent low level of subjective well-being. This may be seen as a potential source of a threat on integration of Muslims and hence social cohesion and peace in European countries. Our findings persist after controlling for perceived discrimination, migrant status, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, as well as fixed effects for year and country of residence.
Entangled abstract domains for higher-order programs

Relational abstract domains are a cornerstone of static analysis for first-order programs. We explore challenges in generalizing relational abstract domains to higher-order program analysis. We find two reasonable, orthogonal and complementary interpretations of relational domains in a higher-order setting. The first technique, locally relational abstract domains, are relational abstract domains that travel with the environments found within closures. These abstract domains record invariants discovered within a given scope. The second technique, globally entangled abstract domains, allows relational abstract domains to quantify over the concrete constituents of an abstract resource. This approach enables the discovery of interprocedural, interstructural and intrastructural program invariants. We develop the techniques for a lambda calculus enriched with structs. We structurally abstract the concrete semantics; we develop a logic for both the local and global generalizations; and then we integrate both logics into the abstraction. By restricting the logics, existing relational abstract domains (or their entangled, higher-order generalizations) are recoverable. To demonstrate the applicability of the framework, higher-order variants of both octagon and polyhedral domains are formulated as such restrictions.
Covariant Quantization of Superstrings Without Pure Spinor Constraints

We construct a covariant quantum superstring, extending Berkovits' approach by introdu\-cing new ghosts to relax the pure spinor constraints. The central charge of the underlying Kac-Moody algebra, which would lead to an anomaly in the BRST charge, is treated as a new generator with a new b? c system. We construct a nilpotent BRST current, an anomalous ghost current and an anomaly-free energy-momentum tensor. For open superstrings, we find the correct massless spectrum. In addition, we construct a Lorentz invariant B-field to be used for the computation of the integrated vertex operators and amplitudes. We conclude with some remarks of the outstanding and open problems and further developements.
A CMOS thermal sensor and its applications in temperature adaptive design

With transistor feature size scaling and higher integration density, power density has become a major problem. High power density results in elevated on chip temperature, which has significant impacts on power consumption and circuit reliability. In this work, we have presented a temperature adaptive design technique using a low overhead CMOS temperature sensor. We have shown that, by online monitoring of temperature, circuit power consumption can be adjusted adaptively so as to stabilize the chip temperature and achieve a robust design
Fertility and its Consequence on Family Labour Supply

While a large body of literature focuses on how fertility affects female labour market participation, there are relatively few studies that examine the effect of fertility on male labour market participation. Even if the burden of child care falls mainly on women, an exogenous increase in fertility is likely to change the optimal allocation of time, therefore, the labour supply decision of both female and male in a household. This paper analyses how an exogenous increase in fertility affects labour market participation of men and women in Indonesia – a country that has seen dramatic changes in the labour market over recent decades. The finding is that women reduce their working hours in response to the higher fecundity in both rural and urban areas in Indonesia. On the other hand, the higher fecundity leads to men’s increasing their working hours only in rural areas. The higher degree of specialization in response to fertility in rural areas is driven mainly by the differences in the cost of childcare rather than the characteristics of occupation or household bargaining power.
A Novel Embedded Fingerprints Authentication System Based on Singularity Points

In this paper a novel embedded fingerprints authentication system based on core and delta singularity points detection is proposed. Typical fingerprint recognition systems use core and delta singularity points for classification tasks. On the other hand, the available optical and photoelectric sensors give high quality fingerprint images with well defined core and delta points, if they are present. In the proposed system, fingerprint matching is based on singularity points position, orientation, and relative distance detection. As result, fingerprint matching involves the comparison between few features leading to a very fast system with recognition rates comparable to the standard minutiae based recognition systems. The whole system has been prototyped on the Celoxica RC203E board, equipped with a Xilinx VirtexII FPGA. The prototype has been tested with the FVC databases. Hardware system performance show high recognition rates and low execution time: FAR = 1.2% and FRR=2.6%, while each fingerprint elaboration requires 34.82 ms. Considering both FAR, FRR indexes and the high speed, the proposed system could be used for identification tasks in large fingerprint databases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first authentication system based on singularity points.
The Sampling Pattern Cube : A Framework for Representation and Evaluation of Plenoptic Capturing Systems

Digital cameras have already entered our everyday life. Rapid technological advances have made it easier and cheaper to develop new cameras with unconventional structures. The plenoptic camera is one of the new devices which can capture the light information which is then able to be processed for applications such as focus adjustments. The high level camera properties, such as the spatial or angular resolution are required to evaluate and compare plenoptic cameras. With complex camera structures that introduce trade-offs between various high level camera properties, it is no longer straightforward to describe and extract these properties. Proper models, methods and metrics with the desired level of details are beneficial to describe and evaluate plenoptic camera properties.This thesis attempts to describe and evaluate camera properties using a model based representation of plenoptic capturing systems in favour of a unified language. The SPC model is proposed and it describes which light samples from the scene are captured by the camera system. Light samples in the SPC model carry the ray and focus information of the capturing setup. To demonstrate the capabilities of the introduced model, property extractors for lateral resolution are defined and evaluated. The lateral resolution values obtained from the introduced model are compared with the results from the ray-based model and the ground truth data. The knowledge about how to generate and visualize the proposed model and how to extract the camera properties from the model based representation of the capturing system is collated to form the SPC framework.The main outcomes of the thesis can be summarized in the following points: A model based representation of the light sampling behaviour of the plenoptic capturing system is introduced, which incorporates the focus information as well as the ray information. A framework is developed to generate the SPC model and to extract high level properties of the plenoptic capturing system. Results confirm that the SPC model is capable of describing the light sampling behaviour of the capturing system, and that the SPC framework is capable of extracting high level camera properties with a higher descriptive level as compared to the ray-based model. The results from the proposed model compete with those from the more elaborate wave optics model in the ranges that wave nature of the light is not dominant. The outcome of the thesis can benefit design, evaluation and comparison of the complex capturing systems.
FloodFill Maze Solving with Expected Toll of Penetrating Unknown Walls for Micromouse

The maze solving has gained increasing attention in the field of Micromouse competition and Intelligent Robot. To be more intelligent is a trend of the relevant research. This paper begins with expounding the fundamental working logic and calculating procedure of traditional Floodfill Algorithm. After summarizing the Floodfill's intelligence in the information of known walls and its non-intelligence in the unreasonable assumptions about the unknown walls, this paper introduce a new conception and present a modified algorithm called ET-Floodfill. It is assumed that the unknown walls are penetrable and the penetrating causes extra expense, which is quantified by the expected toll value T. The toll value is an expectation value due to the uncertainty of the existence of unknown walls. With reasonable estimating and adjustment of the toll value, ET-Floodfill has a better performance than traditional Floodfill. Its intelligence reduced the turning times and the steps taken from starting cell to destination cell. Additionally, the computational complexity remains the same with Floodfill. For each step of the cell-exploration process, the worst case time complexity is O(n2).
A Dominant Negative Receptor for Specific Secreted Semaphorins Is Generated by Deleting an Extracellular Domain from Neuropilin-1

Neuropilins have recently been characterized as receptors for secreted semaphorins. Here, we report the generation of a dominant negative form of neuropilin-1 by the deletion of one of its extracellular domains. Expression of this variant in cultured primary sympathetic neurons blocks the paralysis of growth cone motility normally induced by SEMA-3A (collapsin-1, semaphorin III, semaphorin D) and SEMA-3C (collapsin-3, semaphorin E) but not that induced by SEMA-3F (semaphorin IV). A truncated form of neuropilin-1 that is missing its cytoplasmic domain fails to act as a dominant negative receptor component. These results suggest that neuropilin-1 is a necessary component of receptor complexes for some, but not all, secreted semaphorin family members. Overexpression of dominant negative neuropilins should provide a powerful new method of blocking the functions of secreted semaphorins.
Abstracts of the XXIX International Congress of Psychology, July 21- 25, 2008.

Aim of the study is to present six new scales aimed to measure self- and collective efficacy beliefs in three sports: basket, soccer, and athletics. A large group of basket and soccer players, and athletes filled in the new scales measuring seven dimensions of personal efficacy and four dimensions of collective efficacy; questionnaires measuring motivational orientation and team cohesion were also administered. Results demonstrated the good psychometric properties of the scales as well as significant differences due to sex and seniority. Furthermore, athletes’ self-efficacy beliefs positively correlated with achievement motivation, whereas their collective efficacy beliefs were associated with team cohesion.
Dynamic Threshold Cryptosystems ( A New Scheme in Group Oriented Cryptography )

A new concept in group oriented cryptography { the dynamic threshold cryp-tosystem { is presented in the paper. The dynamic system has many advantages over the existing threshold cryptosystems. It is set up by the sender who can not only compose the group of recipients but select the threshold as well. Implementations of the dynamic system based on the ElGamal and the RSA public key cryptosystems are given and their properties are discussed. The proposed solutions are practical and non-interactive. There is no need for trusted dealers or tamper proof modules. The generalization of the concept for an arbitrary access structure concludes the paper.
N=8 Gauged Supergravity Theory and N=6 Superconformal Chern-Simons Matter Theory

By studying the previously known holographic supersymmetric renormalization group flow (Gowdigere–Warner) in four dimensions, we find the mass deformed Chern–Simons matter theory which has supersymmetry by adding the four mass terms among eight adjoint fields. The geometric superpotential from the 11 dimensions is found and provides the M2-brane probe analysis. As second example, we consider known holographic supersymmetric renormalization group flow (Pope–Warner) in four dimensions. The eight mass terms are added and similar geometric superpotential is obtained.
Comparison of motor development of low birth weight (LBW) infants with and without using mechanical ventilation and normal birth weight infants

Background: To determine whether using mechanical ventilation in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) influences motor development of low birth weight (LBW) infants and to compare their motor development with normal birth weight (NBW) infants at the age of 8 to 12 months using Peabody Developmental Motor Scale 2 (PDMS-2). Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on 70 LBW infants in two groups, mechanical ventilation (MV) group, n=35 and without mechanical ventilation (WMV) group, n=35 and 40 healthy NBW infants matched with LBW group for age. Motor quotients were determined using PDMS-2 and compared in all groups using ANOVA statistical method and SPSS version 17. Results: Comparison of the mean developmental motor quotient (DMQ) of both MV and WMV groups showed significant differences with NBW group (p< 0.05). Also, significant difference was found between the gross DMQ of MV group and WMV group (p< 0.05). Moreover, in MV group, both gross and fine motor quotients were considered as below average (16.12%). In WMV group, the gross motor quotient was considered as average (49.51%) and the fine motor quotient was considered as below average (16.12%). Conclusion: It seems that LBW infants have poor fine motor outcomes. The gross motor outcomes, on the other hand, will be significantly more influenced by using mechanical ventilation. In addition, more differences seem to be related to lower birth weight. Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) infants are more prone to developmental difficulties than LBW infants with the history of using mechanical ventilation especially in fine motor development.
Detection of the 67.9 and 78.4 keV Lines Associated with the Radioactive Decay of 44Ti in Cassiopeia A

We report the detection of the 44Sc nuclear decay lines at 67.9 and 78.4 keV associated with the nuclear decay of 44Ti in Cassiopeia A. The line emission was observed by the Phoswich Detection System instrument on board BeppoSAX, which recently observed the supernova remnant for over 500 ks. The detection of the line emission with a flux of (2.1 ± 0.7) × 10-5 photons cm-2 s-1 in each line (90% confidence) is at the 5 σ significance level, if we can assume that the 12-300 keV continuum is adequately represented by a single power law. However, as the nature of the continuum is not clear, we investigate various other possibilities. A more conservative estimate of the line flux is made by assuming that a power-law continuum is at least a good approximation to the continuum emission for a narrower 30-100 keV energy range. With this limitation, the measured line flux is (1.9 ± 0.9) × 10-5 photons cm-2 s-1, with the detection still at the 3.4 σ significance level. We suggest that together with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory/COMPTEL measurement of the 44Ca line at 1157 keV of (3.3 ± 0.6) × 10-5 photons cm-2 s-1, a flux for all three lines of (2.5 ± 1.0) × 10-5 photons cm-2 s-1 for Cas A can be adopted. This implies an initial 44Ti mass of (0.8-2.5) × 10-4 M☉.
A shape theorem for the spread of an infection

In [KSb] we studied the following model for the spread of a rumor or infection: There is a “gas” of so-called A-particles, each of which performs a continuous time simple random walk on Z d , with jump rate DA. We assume that “just before the start” the number of A-particles at x, NA(x, 0−), has a mean μA Poisson distribution and that the NA(x, 0−) ,x ∈ Z d , are independent. In addition, there are B-particles which perform continuous time simple random walks with jump rate DB. We start with a finite number of B-particles in the system at time 0. The positions of these initial B-particles are arbitrary, but they are nonrandom. The B-particles move independently of each other. The only interaction occurs when a B-particle and an A-particle coincide; the latter instantaneously turns into a B-particle. [KSb] gave some basic estimates for the growth of the set � B(t ): ={x ∈ Z d :a B-particle visits x during [0 ,t ]}.
Search and retrieval of plasma wave forms: Structural pattern recognition approach

Databases for fusion experiments are designed to store several million wave forms. Temporal evolution signals show the same patterns under the same plasma conditions and, therefore, pattern recognition techniques can allow identification of similar plasma behaviors. Further developments in this area must be focused on four aspects: large databases, feature extraction, similarity function, and search/retrieval efficiency. This article describes an approach for pattern searching within wave forms. The technique is performed in three stages. Firstly, the signals are filtered. Secondly, signals are encoded according to a discrete set of values (code alphabet). Finally, pattern recognition is carried out via string comparisons. The definition of code alphabets enables the description of wave forms as strings, instead of representing the signals in terms of multidimensional data vectors. An alphabet of just five letters can be enough to describe any signal. In this way, signals can be stored as a sequence of ch.
A kind of PSK space-time receiver based on beam diversity technology

A PSK space-time receiver based on beam diversity technology is proposed. The receiver combined the adaptive beam forming technology based on training sequence with multi-channel equalizer. Channel estimation method is used to obtain the current multi-path structure. Then a set of beams pointing to different incident directions of multi-path signals are formed in order to obtain the SNR gain and decrease ISI. Then space diversity method is used to combine the outputs of these beams, and the diversity gain is finally obtained. Simulation results with a 12-element array show that: in the case of complex multi-path channel structure, JPAM receiver get 3–4dB SNR gain compared to the PSK receiver which only used the adaptive beamforming technology.
Multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models as

This article proposes a bivariate markov switching dynamic conditional correlation model for estimating the optimal hedge ratio between spot and futures contracts. It considers the cointegration between series and allows to capture the leverage e¤ect in return equation. The model is applied using daily data of future and spot prices of Bovespa Index and R$/US$ exchange rate. The results in terms of variance reduction and utility show that the bivariate markov switching model outperforms the strategies based ordinary least squares and error correction models. Key-words: Dynamic Conditional Correlation, Hedge, Markov Regime Switching.