Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vapor-phase synthesis, growth mechanism and thickness-independent elastic modulus of single-crystal tungsten nanobelts

Single-crystal tungsten nanobelts with thicknesses from tens to hundreds of nanometers, widths of several micrometers and lengths of tens of micrometers were synthesized using chemical vapor deposition. Surface energy minimization was believed to have played a crucial role in the growth of the synthesized nanobelts enclosed by the low-energy {110} crystal planes of body-centered-cubic structure. The anisotropic growth of the crystallographically equivalent {110} crystal planes could be attributable to the asymmetric concentration distribution of the tungsten atom vapor around the nanobelts during the growth process. The elastic moduli of the synthesized tungsten nanobelts with thicknesses ranging from 65 to 306 nm were accurately measured using a newly developed thermal vibration method. The measured modulus values of the tungsten nanobelts were thickness-dependent. After eliminating the effect of surface oxidization using a core–shell model, the elastic modulus of tungsten nanobelts became constant, which is close to that of the bulk tungsten value of 410 GPa.
Test data generation and feasible path analysis

This paper describes techniques used by Test Specification and Determination Tool (TSDT), an experimental prototype for analysis and testing of critical applications written in Ada. Two problems dominate structural testing of programs: exponential explosion in the number of execution paths and feasible path determination, A path is feasible if there exists some input that will cause the path to be traversed during execution. We present techniques based on new representations combined with automated theorem proving to deal with these problems, The paper describes how these techniques can be used to determine the feasibility of expressions containing references to Ada arrays. Finally, we present algorithms specific to generating test data under the modified condition decision coverage (MCDC) criterion. While we realize that many of the problems we are attempting to solve are, in general, undecidable, we are encouraged by preliminary results obtained from running TSDT against vendor supplied code. Based on our results, we feel these techniques can be applied to a broad enough section of Ada code to make them cost effective.
Rigidity and persistence for ensuring shape maintenance of multiagent meta formations (ext'd version)

This paper treats the problem of the merging of formations, where the underlying model of a formation is graphical. We first analyze the rigidity and persistence of meta-formations, which are formations obtained by connecting several rigid or persistent formations. Persistence is a generalization to directed graphs of the undirected notion of rigidity. In the context of moving autonomous agent formations, persistence characterizes the efficacy of a directed structure of unilateral distance constraints seeking to preserve a formation shape. We derive then, for agents evolving in a two- or three-dimensional space, the conditions under which a set of persistent formations can be merged into a persistent meta-formation, and give the minimal number of interconnections needed for such a merging. We also give conditions for a meta-formation obtained by merging several persistent formations to be persistent.
Multi-Lingual Sentiment Analysis of Social Data Based on Emotion-Bearing Patterns

Social networking sites have flooded the Internet with posts containing shared opinions, moods, and feelings. This has given rise to a new wave of research to develop algorithms for emotion detection and extraction on social data. As the desire to understand how people feel about certain events/objects across countries or regions grows, the need to analyze social data in different languages grows with it. However, the explosive nature of data generated around the world brings a challenge for sentiment-based information retrieval and analysis. In this paper, we propose a multilingual system with a computationally inexpensive approach to sentiment analysis of social data. The experiments demonstrate that our approach performs an effective multi-lingual sentiment analysis of microblog data with little more than a 100 emotion-bearing patterns.
Senescence occurs with hTERT repression and limited telomere shortening in human oral keratinocytes cultured with feeder cells

We investigated the phenotypic and molecular alterations in normal human oral keratinocytes (NHOK) during in vitro replication in two different culture conditions. The cells were cultured either in chemically defined Keratinocyte Growth Medium (KGM) without feeder layers or in serum‐containing flavin‐adenine dinucleotide (FAD) medium with feeder layers. Primary NHOK underwent 22 ± 3 population doublings (PDs) in KGM and 42 ± 4 PDs in FAD medium, reflecting 52% increase in replication capacity with feeder layers. In both culture conditions, exponentially replicating NHOK demonstrated telomerase activity and expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene. Telomerase activity and hTERT expression were rapidly diminished in senescing NHOK, which exhibited small decrease of telomere length for the remaining limited cellular replications until the complete arrest of cell division. However, telomere length in senescent NHOK was 6.7 ± 0.5 kilobase pairs (kbps), significantly longer than that (5.12 kbps) of senescent human fibroblasts. The onset of senescence was accompanied with marked induction of p16INK4A, and this occurred in both culture systems using either KGM or FAD medium. These results indicate that replicative senescence of NHOK is associated with loss of telomerase activity followed by limited telomere shortening. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Parallel Hardware Architectures for the Cryptographic Tate Pairing

Identity-based cryptography uses pairing functions, which are sophisticated bilinear maps defined on elliptic curves. Computing pairings efficiently in software is presently a relevant research topic. Since such functions are very complex and slow in software, dedicated hardware (HW) implementations are worthy of being studied, but presently only very preliminary research is available. This work affords the problem of designing parallel dedicated HW architectures, i.e., co-processors, for the Tate pairing, in the case of the Duursma-Lee algorithm in characteristic 3. Formal scheduling methodologies are applied to carry out an extensive exploration of the architectural solution space, evaluating the obtained structures by means of different figures of merit such as computation time, circuit area and combinations thereof. Comparisons with the (few) existing proposals are carried out, showing that a large space exists for the efficient parallel HW computation of pairings
SPARTS: Simulator for Power Aware and Real-Time Systems

Real-time systems demand guaranteed and predictable run-time behaviour in order to ensure that no task has missed its deadline. Over the years we are witnessing an ever increasing demand for functionality enhancements in the embedded real-time systems. Along with the functionalities, the design itself grows more complex. Posed constraints, such as energy consumption, time, and space bounds, also require attention and proper handling. Additionally, efficient scheduling algorithms, as proven through analyses and simulations, often impose requirements that have significant run-time cost, specially in the context of multi-core systems. In order to further investigate the behaviour of such systems to quantify and compare these overheads involved, we have developed the SPARTS, a simulator of a generic embedded realtime device. The tasks in the simulator are described by externally visible parameters (e.g. minimum inter-arrival, sporadicity, WCET, BCET, etc.), rather than the code of the tasks. While our current implementation is primarily focused on our immediate needs in the area of power-aware scheduling, it is designed to be extensible to accommodate different task properties, scheduling algorithms and/or hardware models for the application in wide variety of simulations. The source code of the SPARTS is available for download at [1].
Remodeling of Cerebral Arterioles in Chronic Hypertension

Chronic hypertension impairs dilatation of cerebral arterioles. Impairment of dilatation generally has been attributed to hypertrophy of the vessel wall with encroachment on the vascular lumen. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that a reduction in external diameter may contribute to encroachment on the vascular lumen during chronic hypertension. We examined 10–12-month-old, anesthetized Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP). External diameter, stress, and strain of pial arterioles were calculated from measurements of pial arteriolar pressure (servo null), diameter, and crosssectional area of the arteriolar wall. During maximal dilatation produced with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, cross-sectional area of the arteriolar wall was greater in SHRSP than in WKY rats (2,038±57 vs. 1,456±61 μm2, p < 0.05). External, as well as internal, diameter was less in SHRSP than in WKY rats (101+3 and 88±3 /tm in SHRSP vs. 111±3 and 102±3 fim in WKY rats for external and internal diameter, respectively, p < 0.05). Reduction in external diameter accounted for 76% of encroachment on the lumen in SHRSP, and hypertrophy per se accounted for only 24%. Distensibility of deactivated pial arterioles was increased in SHRSP. These findings suggest that reduction in external diameter plays an important role in impairment of maximal dilatation of cerebral arterioles in SHRSP, and reduction in vascular diameter in SHRSP cannot be accounted for by altered distensibility. We propose that, during chronic hypertension, cerebral arterioles undergo structural remodeling that results in a smaller external diameter and encroachment on the vascular lumen. Reduction in external diameter appears to account for most of the impairment of cerebral vasodilatation that occurs in chronic hypertension.
Thermodynamic and Dynamic Responses to Deforestation in the Maritime Continent: A Modeling Study

Tropical deforestation can result in substantial changes in local surface energy and water budgets, and thus in atmospheric stability. These effects may in turn yield changes in precipitation. The Maritime Continent (MC) has undergone severe deforestation during the past few decades but it has received less attention than the deforestation in the Amazon and Congo rain forests. In this study, numerical deforestation experiments are conducted with global (i.e., Community Earth System Model) and regional climate models (i.e., Regional Climate Model version 4.6) to investigate precipitation responses to MC deforestation. The results show that the deforestation in the MC region leads to increases in both surface temperature and local precipitation. Atmospheric moisture budget analysis reveals that the enhanced precipitation is associated more with the dynamic component than with the thermodynamic component of the vertical moisture advection term. Further analyses on the vertical profile of moist static energy indicate that the atmospheric instability over the deforested areas is increased as a result of anomalous moistening at approximately 800–850 hPa and anomalous warming extending from the surface to 750 hPa. This instability favors ascending air motions, which enhance low-level moisture convergence. Moreover, the vertical motion increases associated with the MC deforestation are comparable to those generated by La Niña events. These findings offer not only mechanisms to explain the local climatic responses to MC deforestation but also insights into the possible reasons for disagreements among climate models in simulating the precipitation responses.
Learning to read as the formation of a dynamic system: evidence for dynamic stability in phonological recoding

Two aspects of dynamic systems approaches that are pertinent to developmental models of reading are the emergence of a system with self-organizing characteristics, and its evolution over time to a stable state that is not easily modified or perturbed. The effects of dynamic stability may be seen in the differences obtained in the processing of print by beginner readers taught by different approaches to reading (phonics and text-centered), and more long-term effects on adults, consistent with these differences. However, there is little direct evidence collected over time for the same participants. In this study, lexicalized (implicit) phonological processing, and explicit phonological and letter-sound skills are further examined in a precocious reader whose early development at 3 and 5 years has been extensively described (Cognition, 2000, 2004). At ages 10 and 14 years, comparisons were made with these earlier reports and skilled adult readers, using the same tasks for evidence of changes in reading processes. The results showed that along with an increase of reading accuracy and speed, her pattern of lexicalized phonological responses for reading did not change over time. Neither did her pattern of explicit phonological and letter-sound skills, aspects of which were inferior to her lexicalized phonological processing, and word reading. These results suggest dynamic stability of the word reading system. The early emergence of this system with minimal explicit skill development calls into question developmental reading theories that require such skills for learning to read. Currently, only the Knowledge Sources theory of reading acquisition can account for such findings. Consideration of these aspects of dynamic systems raise theoretical issues that could result in a paradigm shift with regard to best practice and intervention.
On the Throughput Maximization of Spectrum Sharing Cognitive Radio Networks

Spectrum sharing has attracted a lot of attention in cognitive radio recently, as an effective method of alleviating the spectrum scarcity problem, by allowing unlicensed (secondary) users to coexist with licensed (primary) users under the condition of protecting the latter from harmful interference. In this paper, we focus on the throughput maximization of spectrum sharing cognitive radio networks and propose a novel cognitive radio system that significantly improves their achievable throughput. More specifically, we introduce a novel receiver and frame structure for spectrum sharing cognitive radio networks and study the problem of deriving the optimal power allocation strategy that maximizes the ergodic throughput of the proposed cognitive radio system under both average transmit and interference power constraints. Finally, we provide simulation results to demonstrate the improved ergodic throughput achieved by the proposed cognitive radio system compared to conventional spectrum sharing cognitive radio networks.
InfraSee: An Unobtrusive Alertness System for Pedestrian Mobile Phone Users

It is well recognized that walking while using mobile phones will make people more susceptible at various risks. Existing works to improve smartphone users’ safety are mainly limited to detecting incoming vehicles. They are not able to address some more common and equally dangerous accidents such as trips, falling from stairs, platforms, or falling into an open manhole. These hazards are generally caused by a sudden change of ground. In this paper, we propose InfraSee, a system that is able to detect sudden change of ground for pedestrian mobile phone users. InfraSee augments smartphones with a small infrared sensor which measures the distance of the ground surface from the sensor. The temporal variation of distance can provide information about the change of ground surface ahead. InfraSee also leverages the information of smartphone sensors to improve detection accuracy, to reduce energy consumption, and to avoid unnecessary alarms. We have carried out extensive experiments in different scenarios and by different users. The results show that InfraSee is able to reliably detect about 80 percent change of ground surfaces. In addition, InfraSee can reliably identify the awareness of smartphone users and reduce unnecessary alarms.
Effects of a fractional picosecond 1,064 nm laser for the treatment of dermal and mixed type melasma

ABSTRACT Background: Picosecond laser is a novel modality for pigmented skin disorders with extremely short pulse duration. Little is known about the effects of the picosecond laser in melasma. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of fractional picosecond 1,064 nm laser in melasma treatment. Study design: A prospective, randomized, assessor-blinded, intra-individual split face comparative study. Methods: Female subjects with melasma were enrolled and received fractional picosecond 1,064 nm laser plus 4% hydroquinone cream on one randomly assigned side of the face; the results were compared to the use of hydroquinone cream only on the contralateral side. The modified melasma area severity index (mMASI) score, melanin index by Mexameter MX18®, participant satisfaction score by quartile rating scale, and the quality of life by the dermatology life quality index (DLQI) were evaluated over 12 weeks. Results: Thirty female subjects completed the protocol. The mean (± standard deviation, SD) mMASI score at the 12-week visit was significantly reduced in the picosecond laser-treated areas compared to controls (3.52 ± 1.4 and 4.18 ± 2.03 respectively; p = 0.035). No differences were observed in the mean Mexameter melanin index, participant satisfaction score, and DLQI score. The observed adverse effects included transient mild erythema and mild skin desquamation. Conclusion: The addition of fractional picosecond 1,064 nm laser to 4% hydroquinone was effective and significantly better than 4% hydroquinone alone for the treatment of melasma.
Forest Soil Pollution with Heavy Metals (Pb, Zn, Cd, and Cu) in the Area of the “French Mines” on the Medvednica Mountain, Republic of Croatia

There are many various environmentally hazardous substances, but researchers around the world are especially interested in heavy metals. Heavy metals are naturally occurring elements that have a high atomic weight and a density at least 5 times greater than that of water [1]. From a biological point of view, Nieboer and Richardson [2] have classified heavy metals into three groups: (i) elements essential to some organisms (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, and Mo), (ii) elements necessary for growth and development of plants (Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mo, and Ni), and (iii) phytotoxic elements (Cd, Hg, and Pb). World Health Organization (WHO) has classified As, Cd, Hg, and Pb among 10 groups of hazardous chemicals. Those are elements which have toxicological characteristics. Moreover, when their concentrations increase, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Ag, Sb, and especially Cr and Ti are also considered toxic [3]. Since the pollution of soil by heavy metals is one of the possible causes of a decrease in forest ecosystem vitality and degradation of the whole habitat, there is a significant scientific interest in research of the connection of heavy metal concentration values in the environment to their degradation effect [4]. In higher concentrations heavy metals ABStRACt
Performance analysis of spectrum management technique by using cognitive radio

Recently, the shortage of assignable radio spectrums became a serious issue because of the coexistence of many licensed wireless communications systems. Therefore, cognitive radio technology has gained much attention around the world, which may be aware of its environment and makes occupancy of radio spectrums more efficient. In this paper, the frequency band between 3.4 - 4.8 GHz is focused. We consider coexistence environment of primary systems, e.g. 4th generation mobile cellular system (4G), TV broadcasting and cognitive radio system, e.g. ultra wideband (UWB) systems. UWB systems are required to have detect and avoid (DAA) technique which can detect the signals from primary systems and avoid the interference from them. We introduce two important benchmarks. Computer simulations have been performed to confirm these analytical results. In addition, the design issue of cognitive radio systems is discussed based on these numerical results. Moreover, we discuss the detection technique of primary system signals for UWB radio system with DAA and the the performance of the UWB radio system using DAA via computer simulations.
"Boundary of illusion": an experiment of sensory integration with a pseudo-haptic system

Describes a psychophysical experiment designed to study the phenomenon of illusion which occurs with pseudo-haptic feedback, and to identify the moment when this illusion occurs: the "boundary of illusion". The subjects were given the task of deciding which of two virtual springs is the stiffer, these springs being simulated with a PHANToM/sup TM/ force feedback device and displayed on a monoscopic computer screen. The first spring had a realistic behavior, since its visual and haptic displacements were identical. The second spring-the pseudo-haptic one-was stiffer on a haptic basis, but sometimes less stiff on a visual basis. The data collected allowed us to calculate the visual point of subjective equality (PSE) between the two springs, which represents the boundary of the sensory illusion. On average, a high value of PSE turned out to be -24%. This value increased monotonically when the haptic difference between the springs increased. This implies that more visual deformation is necessary to compensate for large haptic differences and qualifies the notion of visual dominance. However, this boundary varies greatly depending on the subjects and their sensory integration strategy. The subjects were sensitive to this illusion to varying degrees. They were divided into different populations-from those who were "haptically oriented" to those who were "visually oriented".
Traffic statistics collection with FleXam

One of the limitations of wildcard rules in Software Defined Networks, such as OpenFlow, is losing visibility. FleXam is a flexible sampling extension for OpenFlow that allows the controller to define which packets should be sampled, what parts of each packet should be selected, and where they should be sent. Here, we present an interactive demo showing how FleXam enables the controller to dynamically adjust sampling rates and change the sampling scheme to optimally keep up with a sampling budget in the context of a traffic statistics collection application.