Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discretization of partial differential equations preserving their physical symmetries

A procedure for obtaining a 'minimal' discretization of a partial differential equation, preserving all of its Lie point symmetries, is presented. 'Minimal' in this case means that the differential equation is replaced by a partial difference scheme involving N difference equations, where N is the number of independent and dependent variables. We restrict ourselves to one scalar function of two independent variables. As examples, invariant discretizations of the heat, Burgers and Korteweg–de Vries equations are presented. Some exact solutions of the discrete schemes are obtained.
ParSPIKE-a parallel DSP-accelerator for dynamic simulation of large spiking neural networks

The fast simulation of large networks of spiking neurons is a major task for the examination of biology inspired vision systems. Networks of this type are labelling features by synchronization of spikes and there is strong demand to simulate those effects in a real world environment. Because of the quite complex calculations for one model neuron the simulation of thousands or millions of these neurons is not efficient on existing hardware platforms. In order to simulate closer to the real time requirement, it is necessary to implement a dedicated hardware. Our aim is a hardware system mainly consisting of standard components which is as flexible as possible concerning the model neuron but as specialized as necessary to meet our performance requirements. Thus we decided to implement a parallel system with Digital Signal Processors (DSP) offering a large on-chip-memory. One main task of this work is the optimization of the simulation algorithm for the neurons distributed to the DSP which means the sequential part of simulation. This optimization benefits from the fact that there is only a very low percentage of simultaneously active neurons in vision networks. For communication between the nodes only spikes are distributed via a spike switching network. Processing of the network topology is realized by two different concepts. One idea is to compute the synapses autonomously on the processing node by representing a regular connection scheme with one connection mask for many neurons. Additional connections requiring adaptability and irregular connection schemes are stored in a shared memory. To avoid a bottleneck a synapse caching is used within each processing node. This paper describes the architecture of a DSP accelerator and shows the advantages with simulation results from a typical large vision network.
Effective Term Based Text Clustering Algorithms

Text clustering methods can be used to group large sets of text documents. Most of the text clustering methods do not address the problems of text clustering such as very high dimensionality of the data and understandability of the clustering descriptions. In this paper, a frequent term based approach of clustering has been introduced; it provides a natural way of reducing a large dimensionality of the document vector space. This approach is based on clustering the low dimensionality frequent term sets and not on clustering high dimensionality vector space. Four algorithms for effective term based text clustering has been presented. An experimental evaluation on classical text documents as well as on web documents demonstrates that the proposed algorithms obtain clustering of comparable quality significantly more efficient than existing text clustering algorithms.
Rate-Distortion Guided Piecewise Planar 3D Scene Representation

This paper proposes a novel 3D piecewise planar reconstruction algorithm, which utilizes the statistical error between a particular frame and its prediction to refine a coarse 3D piecewise planar representation. The algorithm aims utilization of 3D scene geometry to remove the visual redundancy between frame pairs in any predictive coding scheme. This approach associates the rate increase with the quality of representation for determining an efficient description for a given budget. The preliminary experiments on synthetic and real data indicate the validity of the rate-distortion based approach.
Vision and Modeling groupSIDEshow : A Silhouette-based InteractiveDual-screen

In this paper, we present a new multi-screen interactive environment. The system extracts a silhouette of the participant for driving the interaction using a method that overcomes the inherent problems associated with traditional chroma-keying, background subtraction, and rear-light projection methods. We present an approach for generating a robust silhouette of the participant using specialized infrared lighting while not making the underlying technology apparent to those interacting within the system. The design also enables video projection screens to be placed in front of and behind the user without interfering with the silhouette extraction process. The framework itself is a portable system which can act as a re-usable infrastructure for many interactive projects.
Some Rare Earth Elements Analysis by Microwave Plasma Torch Coupled with the Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry

A sensitive mass spectrometric analysis method based on the microwave plasma technique is developed for the fast detection of trace rare earth elements (REEs) in aqueous solution. The plasma was produced from a microwave plasma torch (MPT) under atmospheric pressure and was used as ambient ion source of a linear ion trap mass spectrometer (LTQ). Water samples were directly pneumatically nebulized to flow into the plasma through the central tube of MPT. For some REEs, the generated composite ions were detected in both positive and negative ion modes and further characterized in tandem mass spectrometry. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) was at the level 0.1 ng/mL using MS2 procedure in negative mode. A single REE analysis can be completed within 2~3 minutes with the relative standard deviation ranging between 2.4% and 21.2% (six repeated measurements) for the 5 experimental runs. Moreover, the recovery rates of these REEs are between the range of 97.6%–122.1%. Two real samples have also been analyzed, including well and orange juice. These experimental data demonstrated that this method is a useful tool for the field analysis of REEs in water and can be used as an alternative supplement of ICP-MS.
Evaluation of TNF-α, IL-10 and IL-6 Cytokine Production and Their Correlation with Genotype Variants amongst Tuberculosis Patients and Their Household Contacts

Background Household contacts of diagnostically established tuberculosis (TB) patients are highly susceptible to disease development. It is surmised that cytokines perhaps play a synergistic and a prognostic role in the activation of the otherwise latent infection in these house hold contacts. Evaluation of the cytokines and any of their inherent polymorphisms might provide a useful diagnostic tool in evaluating the immune regulation and the progression of the disease. The cytokines thus released in a paracrine manner in serum may also provide an indirect measure of the cytokine function. Objective The present study was aimed to evaluate the levels of TNF-α, IL-10 & IL-6 cytokines and their correlation with genotype variants amongst tuberculosis patients and their household contacts. Methods The cytokine levels were estimated in serum by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and their polymorphisms were studied by amplification refractory mutation system polymerase chain reaction (ARMs PCR) in active pulmonary tuberculosis patients (APTB = 150), household contacts (HHC = 190), and healthy controls (HC = 150). Results The median values of TNF-α cytokine were significantly high among APTB and HHC compared to HCs (P< 0.0001 and 0.0001). IL-6 levels also were elevated among APTB compared to HHC and HC, and a significant difference was observed between APTB and HHC at P<0.0001; APTB & HC at P< 0.04; HHC & HC at P< 0.01. The IL-10 levels were low in APTB compared to HHC and HCs and no significant difference was observed. TNF-α/IL-10 ratio was significant and indicated Th1 predominance in APTB and HHC. IL-6/IL-10 showed pronounced Th1 expression in APTB and Th2 in HHC and HC. The ROC analysis indicated that both IL-10 and IL-6 can be used to decide the risk of exposed individual to a disease. The results of multivariate analysis indicate that IL-10 (-1082) GA genotype was significantly associated with p<0.028 in APTB. No significant association was observed between genotypes, other serum cytokine levels and clinical characteristics between APTB, HHC and HCs. Conclusion Large sample size with follow-up at different time points may further illuminate the role of IL-10 and IL-6 cytokines as a prognostic marker in house hold contacts.
Price Stability and the ECB'S Monetary Policy Strategy

This paper focuses on the price stability objective within the framework of the single monetary policy strategy. It starts by reviewing what this objective, which is common to all central banks, means. Secondly, this paper will focus exclusively on the anchoring of short- to medium-term inflation expectations (Part 2). Several measures show that this anchoring is effective. Modern New Keynesian theory is an appropriate framework for analysing the impact that this anchoring of expectations has on the determination of the short- to medium-term inflation rate. From this point of view, observed inflation in the euro area seems to be in line with the theory and the ECB's action seems to be very effective. Thirdly, we will focus on the other aspect of monetary stability: the degree of price-level uncertainty and the anchoring of inflation expectations in the medium to long term. Even though this assessment is more difficult than it is in the short to medium term, since we only have a track record covering five years, various indicators from the theoretical analysis paint a fairly reassuring picture of the effectiveness of the device used by the ECB.
COMPETITION AND CONFLICTS AMONG MULTIPLE USERS OF TANK IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

Social interactions among multiple user groups of tank irrigation systems were studied to propose policies for sustainable management of tanks. Crop growers are the major competitors for water besides encroachers, fish and duck farmers. Existence of week property rights remained as the reason for the competition among users that subsequently led to conflicts. Conflicts aroused among user groups during water scarcity conditions and were settled by the community leaders and water users association (WUA). It is suggested that WUA must play major role in promoting the collective actions among user groups to use the tank resources sustainably.
Almost Periodic Mild Solutions to a Class of Fractional Delayed Differential Equations

In this paper, one studies the existence and uniqueness of almost periodic mild solutions to fractional delayed differential equations of the form D_t^\alpha x(t)=Ax(t)+D_t^{\alpha-1} f(t,x_t) where 1 < α < 2, A : D(A) \subset X -- X is a linear densely defined operator of sectional type on a complex Banach space X and f : R \times X -- X is jointly continuous. Let f(t; x) be almost periodic in t \in R uniformly for x. Under some additional assumptions on A and f, the existence and uniqueness of a almost periodic mild solution to above equation is obtained by using the Banach fixed-point principle. The obtaining results extent corresponding results in time delay with respect to almost periodic mild solutions for fractional differential equations.
Analysis of Conversion Losses in Grid Connected Small Wind Turbine Systems

This paper presents a comprehensive conversion loss analysis of the Power Conditioning System (PCS) for a grid connected Permanent Magnet Generator (PMG) and a Wound Rotor Induction Generator (WRIG) based small wind turbine system. The main focus of the loss analysis is the conduction and switching losses in the semiconductor devices and PCS. The analysis reveals that the WRIG based system with a slip variation up to 15% could provide higher effi- ciency than the PMG based system. In particular, a significant improvement is observed at the low wind speed regime in case of the WRIG based system than the PMG based system. Finally, this paper concludes that the WRIG based system could be an optimum alternative system for the small wind turbine industry.
Automated analysis of simulation output data

Appropriate analysis of simulation output is important to the success of a simulation study. Many users, however, do not have the skills required to perform such analyses. One way of overcoming this problem is to provide automated tools for analyzing simulation output. An Excel based automated "analyser" is described that performs an analysis of a single scenario. The analyser links to a commercial simulation software package, SIMUL8, and provides recommendations on warm-up, number of replications and run-length. Various standard procedures are used in the analyser with some adaptations to make them suitable for automation. This research demonstrates the potential of the approach. A requirement for further development is more thorough testing of the analysis procedures, particularly for their robustness and generality in use. Further adaptation of the procedures for automation may also be required.
Relationship between gastric emptying and clinical and biochemical factors in chronic haemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND Gastroparesis is an important side-effect of end-stage renal disease because of its influence on nutritional status. METHODS In this study, 56 equilibrated haemodialysis patients were evaluated by radioisotopic examination for gastric emptying time. These data were correlated to anthropometrical as well as biochemical parameters. RESULTS The half-life time for gastric emptying was 83+/-34 min in the overall population, compared to 50+/-15 min in a normal reference population. Prealbumin, mean fibular nerve-conduction velocity and intra- as well as extracorpuscular folic acid were significantly different between patients with the lowest and highest gastric emptying times. Linear correlation analysis between the half-life for residual radioactivity and the remaining parameters yielded a significant correlation for blood urea nitrogen, serum folic acid, intracorpuscular folic acid, serum vitamin B(12), serum C-reactive protein, serum prealbumin and mean fibular nerve-conduction velocity. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that gastric emptying is significantly delayed in end-stage renal disease patients. The delay is associated with changes in biochemical indicators of nutritional status such as serum albumin and prealbumin.
Anti-Melanoma Peptide Vaccination Systemic Immune Response During Functional Dissociation Between Local and

M. MarincolaFetsch, Andrea Abati, Steven A. Rosenberg and FrancescoRiker, Maria P. Bettinotti, Matthew M. Roden, Patricia Kang-Hun Lee, Monica C. Panelli, Christina J. Kim, Adam I.http://www.jimmunol.org/content/161/8/4183J Immunol€1998; 161:4183-4194; ;Referenceshttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/161/8/4183.full#ref-list-1This article cites 34 articles, 18 of which you can access for free at: Subscriptionshttp://jimmunol.org/subscriptionsInformation about subscribing to The Journal of Immunology is online at: Permissionshttp://www.aai. org/ji/copyright.htmlSubmit copyright permission requests at: Email Alertshttp://jimmunol.org/cgi/alerts/etocReceive free email-alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up at:
Reducing Instruction Issue Overheads in Application-Specific Vector Processors

The traditional approach to IP core design is to use simulations with test vectors. This is not feasible when dealing with complex function cores such as the Image Segmentation case-study algorithm in this paper. An algorithm developer needs to carry out experiments on large real-world data sets, with fast turn-around times, and in real time to facilitate performance tuning and incremental development. Previously we proposed a methodology called Application-Specific Vector Processor (ASVP). The ASVP approach first constructs a programmable architecture customized for a given application, then employs software techniques to develop firmware that implements the algorithm. In our setting we employ an embedded simple scalar CPU (8-bit PicoBlaze 3) to control a floating-point vector processing unit (VPU) by issuing wide (horizontally encoded) instructions to it. In this work we dramatically reduce the overhead of the wide-instruction issue (in one case by 13x) by implementing a new two-level configuration table. The table stores frequently used vector definitions (in Level 1) and vector instructions (in Level 2), pre-loading them quickly into the issue buffer. A configuration in the issue buffer can be further modified before being sent to the processing unit. This ensures the architecture stays general and fully customizable.
Security analysis of an identity-based mix net

One of the most important systems for providing anonymous communication is the Mix nets which should provide correctness and privacy as security requirements against active adversaries. In 2009, Zhong proposed a new mix net scheme which uses identity-based cryptographic techniques and proved that it has “correctness” and “privacy” properties in the semi-honest model. Since the semi-honest model is a very strong assumption for practical application, we show that if a user or the last mix server is corrupted, Zhong scheme does not provide privacy against an active adversary.
Toward a context-aware and automatic evaluation of elderly dependency in smart homes and cities

In this work, we propose a framework for automatic dependency evaluation that can notify the changes of the elderly dependency, hence providing persons with required services in time. In order to validate our approach, we target the French dependent population. Especially, we focus our proposal on the AGGIR dependency model used in the French medical field. Our objective is to provide a flexible architecture and an extensible model linked to opened data that can refer to a wide variety of services (hardware sensors and software; simple or composed services).
Disruption of Activity in the Ventral Premotor But Not the Anterior Intraparietal Area Interferes with On-Line Correction to a Haptic Perturbation during Grasping

Replanning ongoing movements following perturbations requires the accurate and immediate estimation of the motor response based on sensory input. Previous studies have used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in humans to demonstrate the participation of the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) and ventral premotor cortex (PMv) in visually mediated state estimation for grasping. Here, we test the role of parietofrontal circuits in processing the corrective responses to haptic perturbations of the finger during prehension. Subjects reached to grasp an object while having to compensate for a novel and unpredictable haptic perturbation of finger extension. TMS-based transient disruptions to the PMv and aIPS were delivered 0, 50, or 100 ms after the perturbation. TMS to the PMv delivered 50 ms after the perturbation (but not 0 or 100 ms, or in unperturbed trials) led to an overestimation of grasp aperture. No effects on grasp aperture were noted for the aIPS. Our results indicate that the PMv (but not aIPS) is involved in the deployment of the compensatory response in the presence of haptic perturbations during prehension. Our data also identify the time window of neural processing in the PMv when reprogramming occurs to be 50–100 ms following the perturbation onset.
ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION 1 A Nonlinear Model For Harmonic DriveFriction And

| Despite widespread industrial application of harmonic drives, mathematical representation of their dynamics has not been fully addressed. In this paper a systematic way to capture and rationalize the dynamic behavior of the harmonic drive systems is developed. Simple and accurate models for compliance, hys-teresis, and friction are proposed, and the model parameters are estimated using least{squares approximation for linear and non-linear regression models. A statistical measure of variation is deened, by which the reliability of the estimated parameter for diierent operating condition, as well as the accuracy and integrity of the proposed model is quantiied. By these means, it is shown that a linear stiiness model best captures the behavior of the system when combined with a good model for hysteresis. Moreover, the frictional losses of harmonic drive are modelled at both low and high velocities. The model performance is assessed by comparing simulations with the experimental results on two diierent harmonic drives. Finally, the signiicance of individual components of the nonlinear model is assessed by a parameter sensitivity study using simulations.
Calcium currents in bullfrog sympathetic neurons. II. Inactivation

Calcium currents in bullfrog sympathetic neurons inactivate slowly and partially during depolarizations lasting 0.5-1 s. There is also a slower (minutes) inactivation process with a broad voltage dependence. An irreversible loss of current (rundown) is prominent with low concentrations of intracellular Ca2+ buffers, with either Ca2+ or Ba2+ as the charge carrier. The extent and rate of the more rapid inactivation process are maximal near the voltage at which the peak inward current is generated, suggesting that inactivation might be Ca2+ dependent. However, inactivation occurs with either Ca2+ or Ba2+ as the charge carrier, is not prevented by strong buffering of intracellular Ca2+ with 10 mM BAPTA, and varies little as the peak current is changed 10-fold by changing the divalent ion concentration. That is, rapid inactivation is not explained by simple versions of voltage, Ca2+- or current-dependent inactivation models. A model in which ion binding within the channel allows a slower, rate-limiting inactivation process fits some but not all of the observed features of inactivation. A purely voltage-dependent three-state cyclic model fits the data if microscopic inactivation is favored by hyperpolarization.
Using SysML in Systems Design

System of systems involves several secondary systems working together with its creation gathering the knowledge of several distinct disciplines and teams, each one with their own background and methods, leading to a difficult communication between them. SysML, a language originated from UML, enables that communication, without background interference, with the use of a rich notation for systems design. This paper analyzes its use through the experience gained in the design of a chemical system with SysML.
Evaluation of noise suppression and luminance reconstruction in high dynamic range image deghosting methods

Various High Dynamic Range (HDR) deghosting algorithms have been developed to solve the problem of merging dynamic content in multi-exposure HDR imaging. Even though these algorithms may be successful in `ghost' removal, they may fail to reduce noise in the resultant HDR image. As a result, the presence of noise in the generated HDR image degrades the overall image quality. HDR deghosting algorithms should also aim to reconstruct values that are approximately proportional to the luminance of the real scene. In this work we evaluate noise and luminance reconstruction in HDR images generated by five state-of-the-art HDR deghosting algorithms. The observations based on the obtained results are instrumental to guide the development of new HDR deghosting algorithms that will also aim to reduce noise and reconstruct original scene luminance to produce a good quality deghosted HDR image.