Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The perturbative construction of the effective soft‐spin Hamiltonian of the system of magnetized nano‐loops

The effective large‐scale Hamiltonian of a planar system of nano‐loops in a weakly excited flux‐closed magnetized state has been constructed by means of a perturbative technique based on micromagnetic theory. The Hamiltonian is written by means of two classes of collective variables: the continuous soft spins and discrete vorticity charges. Analytical and numerical calculations of the inter‐loop magnetostatic energy are compared for a pair of magnetic nano‐loops. The transformation from small‐scale to collective variables is performed for intra‐loop exchange‐coupling, magnetostatic and Zeeman energy terms. Evidence of correlations of uniform vortex charges in low‐energy configurations is uncovered numerically. The generalization of the perturbative method that deals with more realistic out‐of‐plane excitations is also considered. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Are Retirees Falling Short? Reconciling the Conflicting Evidence

This paper examines conflicting assessments of whether people will have adequate retirement income to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. The studies that it examines use data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the HRS supplement Consumption and Activities Mail Survey (CAMS). Critical components of the analysis are behavioral assumptions about household consumption patterns when children leave home and when households retire. A key limitation is that the behavioral assumptions in the different studies are based on incomplete knowledge of actual household behavior. The paper found that: A simple – assumption-free – calculation of wealth to income by age clearly indicates that households retiring in the future will be less prepared than those in the past. Studies showing that households are saving optimally hinge crucially on assumptions that people are willing to accept declining consumption as they age and that they sharply reduce their consumption when the children leave home. While other studies have found consumption does not decline early in retirement, new analysis suggests that many will be unable to maintain this pace over their full retirement. The policy implications of the findings are: Households are more likely than not to be falling short in their retirement preparedness. Such shortfalls should be taken into consideration as policymakers discuss options for reforming Social Security. To bolster retirement preparedness, policymakers may want to consider ways to encourage more private saving, such as requiring 401(k)s to adopt auto-enrollment and auto-escalation policies and to apply these policies to current workers as well as new hires.
Rapid Evolutionary Dynamics of Structural Disorder as a Potential Driving Force for Biological Divergence in Flaviviruses

Protein structure is commonly regarded to be conserved and to dictate function. Most proteins rely on conformational flexibility to some degree. Are regions that convey conformational flexibility conserved over evolutionary time? Can changes in conformational flexibility alter protein function? Here, the evolutionary dynamics of structurally ordered and disordered (flexible) regions are investigated genome-wide in flaviviruses, revealing that the amount and location of structural disorder fluctuates highly among related proteins. Some regions are prone to shift between structured and flexible states. Increased evolutionary dynamics of structural disorder is observed for some lineages but not in others. Lineage-specific transitions of this kind could alter the conformational ensemble accessible to the same protein in different species, causing a functional change, even if the predominant function remains conserved. Thus, rapid evolutionary dynamics of structural disorder is a potential driving force for phenotypic divergence among flaviviruses.
An approach to LMS adaptive filtering without use of the independence assumption

Without use of the well-known "independence assumption" an exact analysis of the LMS-type tapped-delay line adaptive filter is provided, valid for small adaptation constants. For arbitrarily coloured excitations, the steady-state weight-error correlation matrix satisfies a Lyapounov equation, which under special conditions admits a closed-form solution.
Dietary Intake of the Urban Black Population of Cape Town: The Cardiovascular Risk in Black South Africans (CRIBSA) Study

Introduction: To determine dietary intake of 19 to 64 years old urban Africans in Cape Town in 2009 and examine the changes between 1990 and 2009. Methods: A representative cross-sectional sample (n = 544), stratified by gender and age was randomly selected in 2009 from the same areas sampled in 1990. Socio-demographic data and a 24-h dietary recall were obtained by trained field workers. The associations of dietary data with an asset index and degree of urbanization were assessed. Results: Fat intakes were higher in 19–44-year-old men (32% energy (E)) and women (33.4%E) in 2009 compared with 1990 (men: 25.9%E, women: 27.0%E) while carbohydrate intakes were lower in 2009 (men 53.2%E, women: 55.5%E) than in 1990 (men: 61.3%E; women: 62%E) while sugar intake increased significantly (p < 0.01) in women. There were significant positive correlations between urbanization and total fat (p = 0.016), saturated fat (p = 0.001), monounsaturated fat (p = 0.002) and fat as a %E intake (p = 0.046). Urbanization was inversely associated with intake of carbohydrate %E (p < 0.001). Overall micronutrient intakes improved significantly compared with 1990. It should also be noted that energy and macronutrient intakes were all significant in a linear regression model using mean adequacy ratio (MAR) as a measure of dietary quality in 2009, as was duration of urbanization. Discussion: The higher fat and lower carbohydrate %E intakes in this population demonstrate a transition to a more urbanized diet over last two decades. These dietary changes reflect the nutrition transitions that typically occur as a longer time is spent in urban centers.
An Improved Video Mosaic Block Detection Method Considering the Boundary of Macroblock

This passage proposes a new method to detect mosaic not only using the Y (luminance) component in YUV color space of videos, but also using the U (chrominance) and V component. The mosaic effect is measured by the boundary pixel difference from the neighbor macroblock. Instead of detecting the existence and position of mosaic blocks as traditional methods do, this method focuses on the statistics of the number of suspected mosaic blocks so that the quality of the whole frame affected by mosaic can be assessed. Experimental results show that the new method has good performance on fallout ratio, omission factor and computational complexity.
A dual-mode dynamic model of the human accommodation system

The function of the accommodation system is to provide a clear retinal image of objects in the visual scene. The system was previously thought to be under simple continuous (i.e., single mode of operation) feedback control, but recent research has shown that it is under discontinuous (i.e., two stimulus-dependent modes of operation) feedback control by means of fast and slow processes. A model using MATLAB/SIMULINK was developed to simulate this dual-mode behavior. It consists of fast and slow components in a feedback loop. The fast component responds to step target disparity with an open-loop movement to nearly reach the desired level, and then the slow component uses closed-loop feedback to reduce the residual error to an acceptable small level. For slow ramps, the slow component provides smooth tracking of the stimulus, whereas for fast ramps, the fast component provides accurate staircase-like step responses. Simulation of this model using a variety of stimuli, including pulse, step, ramp, and sinusoid, showed good agreement with experimental results. Thus, this represents the first dynamic model of accommodation that can accurately simulate the complex dual-mode behavior seen experimentally. The biological significance of this model is that it can be used to quantitatively analyze clinical deficits such as amblyopia and accommodative insufficiency.
Conceptualizing Interaction with ERP Systems Using Adaptive Structuration Theory

The new brand of Information Systems (IS) is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and while lots of studies have used functional and networking type IS to operationalize adoption (or system usage) measures, ERP systems have yet to mature in that area. Despite system usage being an important variable in IS research over the last three decades, IS researchers have in the past on many occasions, attempted and failed to capture the complex and iterative processes behind this experience and adoption of new technology. Though suited and common in studies of functional and transactional systems, this article argues that system usage; in its present form, is inadequate to represent the dynamic and iterative processes that occur between the user and more advanced technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Conceptions of system usage have been criticized for a lack of theoretical underpinning, unsystematic approaches towards operationalization of measures, and mixed results about the link between system usage and individual performance. Consequently, the authors suggest Interaction as an all encompassing dimension that extends beyond the previously popular quantitative usage measures and best accounts for the user's experience. This paper's objective is to contribute to knowledge: a new approach towards conceptualizing the Interaction between users and ERP systems for an IS success domain. The authors do this by leveraging Adaptive Structuration theory to introduce dimensions of structures, Interaction and impacts, and a comprehensive set of Interaction measures for operationalization.
Discourse comprehension of synthetic speech delivered at normal and slow presentation rates

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of the quality and speech presentation rate (SPR) of synthetic speech and textual characteristics (length, complexity, genre) on a listener's ability to summarize paragraph-length texts. Forty able-bodied students and staff members were individually tested over a 3-day period, listening to eight texts produced by one of two synthesizers (DECtalk, Echo+) at a normal SPR or with 10-second intervals of silence interspersed between individual words. Using a discourse summarization taxonomy developed for this study, subjects listening to DECtalk speech produced more accurate summaries than did ECHO speech listeners, and synthetic speech presented at a slow rate was summarized more accurately than synthetic speech presented at a normal SPR. Additionally, a significant three-way interaction effect was noted for voice × SPR × text complexity. Echo listeners performed more poorly at normal versus slow SPRs regardless of text complexity level. However, .
Are People Attracted to Others Who Resemble Their Opposite-Sex Parents? An Examination of Mate Preferences and Parental Ethnicity Among Biracial Individuals

It is generally believed that people tend to be attracted to and pair with others who resemble their opposite-sex parents. Studies 1A (n = 1,025) and 1B (n = 3,105) tested this assumption by examining whether biracial adults were more likely to be paired with partners who matched their opposite-sex parent’s ethnicity. Study 2 (n = 516) examined whether biracial adults were more likely to be attracted to targets whose ethnicity matched that of their opposite-sex parent. Although biracial adults were more likely to pair with and be attracted to others who resembled their parents compared to those who did not, the sex of the parent was largely inconsequential. These findings have implications for models of mate preferences, including the traditional perspectives (which assume that the opposite-sex parent has greater influence on adult mating preferences) and ethological models (which assume that the sex of the parent is irrelevant with regard to influence on mating preferences).
New structure for a six-port reflectometer in monolithic microwave integrated-circuit technology

This paper presents a new structure for a six-port reflectometer which due to its simplicity can be implemented very easily in monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology. It uses nonmatched diode detectors with a high input impedance which are placed around a phase shifter in conjunction with a power divider for the reference detector. The circuit has been fabricated using the F20 GaAs process of the GEC-Marconi foundry and operates between 1.3 GHz and 3.0 GHz.
Portable Social Groups

Today’s mobile phones, which have penetrated a significant percentage of the US population sport touch screens, customized applications, Wi-Fi internet access, high definition cameras, and many other advanced ‘fourth generation’ (4G) features – as well as the ability to communicate and make phone calls. The speed at which information can now be shared around the world has removed many communication barriers while overcoming the restriction of distance. Portable social groups are nodes, which are generally made up of individuals or organizations. These nodes are related and specifically interdependent based on characteristics such as values, culture, socio-economic status, friendship, kinship, or disdain. Nodes share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity, but have always been historically bound by geography and proximity. Mobile technology has freed humans from the confines of space and place; allowing individual social groups the ability to become portable. Along with this technology comes the opportunity to strengthen some interpersonal communication bonds while avoiding others. This article looks into the interpersonal gratifications obtained by young adults from mobile phone use. It investigates how a person’s willingness to communicate, or avoid communicating, affects their mobile phone usage patterns. Pioneering scholars and theorist in the field of mobile communications includes: Dr. J. Blumler (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974) at the University of Leeds; Dr. E. Katz (Katz & Guravitch, 1974; Katz & Aakhus, 2002) at the University of Pennsylvania; and Dr. D. McQuail (McQuail, Blumler, & Brown, 1972) at the University of Amsterdam. Among today’s leading experts in the field of mobile communications includes: Dr. S. Ureta (Ureta, 2008) at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Dr. L. Fortunati (Fortunati, 2002) at the University of Udine, Italy; Dr. S. Campbell (Campbell & Russo, 2003) at the University of Michigan, and Dr. T. Russo (Campbell & Russo, 2003) at the University of Kansas.
The Impact of Positive Informal Behaviors on the Effectiveness of Information Systems Departments

Good relationships between information systems (IS) and business employees build shared understanding and cross-domain knowledge, and enhance the level of business-IS alignment in an organization. Most researchers have focused on improving the quality and frequency of communication, and less work has been done on the informal activities IS staff carry out to aid their non-IS colleagues. This limited attention on the behaviors of IS employees restricts our understanding of how positive interaction between IS and non-IS employees can be encouraged and how it affects the effectiveness of an IS department. Drawing on the concept of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), we derive a set of IS-specific OCBs by reviewing the literature and relate them to characteristics of IS departments and IS employees. Our research questions are: a) When are IS professionals more likely to engage in IS-specific OCBs? b) What is the impact of IS-specific OCBs on the effectiveness of the IS department?
Interpolation of spatial temperature profiles by sensor networks

The monitoring of spatial profiles of a physical property such as temperature becomes feasible with the decreasing cost of wireless sensor nodes. But to obtain a temperature value for each point in space, it is necessary to interpolate between the existing sensor positions. Accurate spatial temperature supervision is a crucial precondition for maintaining high quality standards in the transportation of food products. The Kriging method was programmed for the ARM processor of the iMote2 sensor nodes and tested with 14 experimental data sets that were recorded in cold storage rooms and transports in trucks and containers. The error of the interpolation by Kriging was 20% lower than the simpler inverse-distance-weighting used as a reference method.
miR-17, miR-19b, miR-20a, and miR-106a are down-regulated in human aging

Aging is a multifactorial process where deterioration of body functions is driven by stochastic damage while counteracted by distinct genetically encoded repair systems. To better understand the genetic component of aging, many studies have addressed the gene and protein expression profiles of various aging model systems engaging different organisms from yeast to human. The recently identified small non‐coding miRNAs are potent post‐transcriptional regulators that can modify the expression of up to several hundred target genes per single miRNA, similar to transcription factors. Increasing evidence shows that miRNAs contribute to the regulation of most if not all important physiological processes, including aging. However, so far the contribution of miRNAs to age‐related and senescence‐related changes in gene expression remains elusive. To address this question, we have selected four replicative cell aging models including endothelial cells, replicated CD8+ T cells, renal proximal tubular epithelial cells, and skin fibroblasts. Further included were three organismal aging models including foreskin, mesenchymal stem cells, and CD8+ T cell populations from old and young donors. Using locked nucleic acid‐based miRNA microarrays, we identified four commonly regulated miRNAs, miR‐17 down‐regulated in all seven; miR‐19b and miR‐20a, down‐regulated in six models; and miR‐106a down‐regulated in five models. Decrease in these miRNAs correlated with increased transcript levels of some established target genes, especially the cdk inhibitor p21/CDKN1A. These results establish miRNAs as novel markers of cell aging in humans.
A fuzzy reasoning based diagnosis system for X control charts

This paper describes a new diagnosis system, which is based on fuzzy reasoning to monitor the performance of a discrete manufacturing process and to justify the possible causes. The diagnosis system consists chie ̄y of a knowledge bank and a reasoning mechanism. The knowledge bank provides knowledge of the membership functions of unnatural symptoms that are described by Nelson's rules on X control charts and knowledge of cause-symptom relations. We develop an approach called maximal similarity method (MSM) for knowledge acquisition to construct the fuzzy cause-symptom relation matrix. Through the knowledge bank, the diagnosis system can ®rst determine the degrees of an observation ®tting each unnatural symptom. Then, using the fuzzy cause-symptom relation matrix, we can diagnose the causes of process instability. In conclusion we provide a numerical example to illustrate the system.
Requirement of Handover Modeling in the Downlink 3GPP Long Term Evolution System

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the next generation wireless system that uses Break-before-Connect technology in the handover scheme, unlike handover in the Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) that uses Connect-before-Break technology. In the LTE system, handover is one of the important radio resource management schemes that are responsible for mobility of user equipments, load balancing and interference management. This paper provides detailed description on requirements involved for handover procedure in the LTE system and the feasibility to extend the current software simulation tool of the LTE system to support multiple cells for handover. This paper contributes to the identification of the requirements and specifications that are needed for further study of handover procedure in the LTE system.
Answering Table Augmentation Queries from Unstructured Lists on the Web

We present the design of a system for assembling a table from a few example rows by harnessing the huge corpus of information-rich but unstructured lists on the web. We developed a totally unsupervised end to end approach which given the sample query rows --- (a) retrieves HTML lists relevant to the query from a pre-indexed crawl of web lists, (b) segments the list records and maps the segments to the query schema using a statistical model, (c) consolidates the results from multiple lists into a unified merged table, (d) and presents to the user the consolidated records ranked by their estimated membership in the target relation. The key challenges in this task include construction of new rows from very few examples, and an abundance of noisy and irrelevant lists that swamp the consolidation and ranking of rows. We propose modifications to statistical record segmentation models, and present novel consolidation and ranking techniques that can process input tables of arbitrary schema without requiring any human supervision. Experiments with Wikipedia target tables and 16 million unstructured lists show that even with just three sample rows, our system is very effective at recreating Wikipedia tables, with a mean runtime of around 20s.
Proceedings of the FREENIX Track: 2002 USENIX Annual Technical Conference

The Linux kernel is unique in that it supports a wide variety of high-quality filesystems. For server systems, the most commonly used are Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, XFS and JFS. This paper compares the performance of these filesystems using Linux 2.4. 17 and three benchmarks: pgmeter , an open source implementation of the Intel Iometer benchmark; filemark (a version of postmark ); and AIM Benchmark Suite VII . The benchmarks were run on three different systems ranging in size from a contemporary single-user workstation to a 28-processor ccNUMA machine. Although the best-performing filesystem varies depending on the benchmark and system used, some larger trends are evident in the data. On the smaller systems, the best-performing file system is often Ext2, Ext3 or ReiserFS. For the larger systems and higher loads, XFS can provide the best overall performance.