Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Centers of rotation for the upper cervical spine: methodology and preliminary data

During complex loading, bending moments within the cervical spine are frequently calculated at the center of rotation (COR) for a particular joint. The COR location is often inexact as it is described by an anatomical feature whose location is poorly identified using conventional imaging or superficial anatomic landmarks. The most important example is the use of the occipital condyles as the COR and reference landmark for flexion and extension bending moment within the upper cervical spine and in anthropomorphic testing devices (ATDs). Although upper cervical neck moments are calculated about the occipital condyles, the condyles and the COR for the human upper cervical spine have not been quantitatively located, particularly with respect to other known cranial landmarks. In this study, ten upper cervical spine specimens were tested in both flexion and extension at pure moment increments of approximately 0.5 N-m to determine CORs of the upper cervical spine. Using digital images recorded at each moment increment, the location of tracking markers attached to the C1 and C2 vertebrae were determined. These marker locations were used to determine the CORs for O-C2 and O-C1 motion segments using Reuleaux's method (Panjabi et al., 1982). Following the biomechanical testing, cranial landmarks, including the occipital condyles, were identified and digitized in 3D-space using a MicroScribe 3Dx with Immersion Inscribe3 software. Other landmarks digitized included the external auditory meatus, infraorbital foramen, zygion, nasion, foramen magnum, and the Frankfort plane. For each specimen, motion segment COR and head center of gravity (CG) were plotted on a reference digital image and the digitized cranial landmarks were registered and plotted on the same image. Preliminary results showed the CORs of O-C1 for a majority of the specimens were superior to the condyles and the O-C2 CORs were inferior to the condyles in flexion. The CORs of O-C1 were anterior to the CORs of O-C2 in both flexion and extension. This approach allowed qualitative and quantitative comparison between the upper cervical spine COR and commonly referenced cranial landmarks. Injury Biomechanics Research
Bilinear Immersed Finite Elements for Interface Problems

(ABSTRACT) In this dissertation we discuss bilinear immersed finite elements (IFE) for solving interface problems. The related research works can be categorized into three aspects: (1) the construction of the bilinear immersed finite element spaces; (2) numerical methods based on these IFE spaces for solving interface problems; and (3) the corresponding error analysis. All of these together form a solid foundation for the bilinear IFEs. The research on immersed finite elements is motivated by many real world applications, in which a simulation domain is often formed by several materials separated from each other by curves or surfaces while a mesh independent of interface instead of a body-fitting mesh is preferred. The bilinear IFE spaces are nonconforming finite element spaces and the mesh can be independent of interface. The error estimates for the interpolation of a Sobolev function in a bilinear IFE space indicate that this space has the usual approximation capability expected from bilinear polynomials, which is O(h 2) in L 2 norm and O(h) in H 1 norm. Then the immersed spaces are applied in Galerkin, finite volume element (FVE) and discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for solving interface problems. Numerical examples show that these methods based on the bilinear IFE spaces have the same optimal convergence rates as those based on the standard bilinear finite element for solutions with certain smoothness. For the symmetric selective immersed discontinuous Galerkin method based on bilinear IFE, we have established its optimal convergence rate. For the Galerkin method based on bilinear IFE, we have also established its convergence. One of the important advantages of the discontinuous Galerkin method is its flexibility for both p and h mesh refinement. Because IFEs can use a mesh independent of interface, such as a structured mesh, the combination of a DG method and IFEs allows a flexible adaptive mesh independent of interface to be used for solving interface problems. That is, a mesh independent of interface can be refined wherever needed, such as around the interface and the singular source. We also develop an efficient selective immersed discontinuous Galerkin method. It uses the sophisticated discontinuous Galerkin formulation only around the locations needed, but uses the simpler Galerkin formulation everywhere else. This selective formulation leads to an algebraic system with far less unknowns than the immersed DG method without scarifying the accuracy; hence it is far more efficient than the conventional discontinuous Galerkin formulations. Acknowledgments First of all, …
Image filtering algorithm based on digital TV filter coupling with residual error correction

In this paper, we propose a digital TV (total variation) restoration model based on graph theory, motivated by the classical continuous TV restoration model of Rudin,Osher and Fatemi. We investigate its advantages in de-noising and enhancing non-texture images, and also analyze its shortcomings in deal with the texture images. Following the ideas of Yves Meyer in a total variation minimization framework of L. Rudin, S.Os-her and E.Fatemi, we propose a new image filtering algorithm subsuming the digital TV filter and the residual error correction scheme. In our algorithm, we decompose a given image /sub u//sup 0/ into a sum of two parts u + v by two-step method, where in the first step digital TV filter is used to obtain u which is the sketchy approximation of /sup u//sub 0/ , while the texture information in v is extracted by the residual error correction scheme using wavelet and wavelet packet thresholding technique. Experiments show our hybrid algorithm has more abroad application perspective and has better performance than digital TV filtering algorithm on real image.
Selective production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in the plasma-treated water by using a nonthermal high-frequency plasma jet

We present the control of H2O2 and NO2− productions in deionized water by using a high-frequency plasma jet driven by a 60 MHz voltage. In the gas phase, the high-frequency plasma jet has a high O (3P) atom density of 8 × 1014 cm−3, which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the low-frequency plasma jet driven by a 5 kHz voltage. Concerning the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in the liquid phase, with the direct contact of the plasma jet to the liquid surface, the H2O2 concentration is higher than the NO2− concentration. On the other hand, without the observable contact of the high-frequency plasm jet with high plasma density to the liquid surface, the NO2− concentration increases with the flow rate of N2(20%)O2(80%) gas added to the Ar discharge gas and becomes more dominant compared with H2O2 in the plasma-treated water. H2O2 and NO2− could be selectively produced in the plasma-treated water by using a nonthermal high-frequency plasma jet, which is a promising tool for biomedical applications.
A Novel Reduced-Order Protocol for Consensus Control of Linear Multiagent Systems

This paper deals with output-feedback-based state consensus of homogeneous linear multiagent systems. A novel reduced-order dynamic output-feedback protocol is proposed, which does not need the absolute output information of neighboring agents. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the consensus problem under the proposed protocol are derived, and it is shown that the protocol state is convergent if consensus is reached. A design algorithm is then constructed for computing the protocol gains. Furthermore, the protocol specialized for leader–follower consensus is addressed. In addition, the solvability of a truncated version of the proposed protocol without controller interaction is discussed from a low-gain perspective. A numerical example is finally presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol and design method.
On the solutions of partial integrodifferential equations of fractional order

Abstract The main purpose of this paper is to study the existence of solutions for the nonlinear fractional partial integrodifferential equations with Dirichlet boundary condition. Under suitable assumption the results are established by using the Leray-Schauder fixed point theorem and Arzela-Ascoli theorem. An example is provided to illustrate the main result.
A simple proof of the Poincaré inequality for a large class of probability measures

Abstract. We give a simple and direct proof of the existence of a spectral gap under some Lyapunov type condition which is satisfied in particular by log-concave probability measures on R n . The proof is based on arguments introduced in Bakry and al, but for the sake of completeness, all details are provided.
Approximation of the solutions of some variational inequalities

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Wavelet Methods and Inverse Problems

Archaeological investigations are designed to acquire information without damaging the archaeological site. Magnetometry is one of the important techniques for producing a surface grid of readings, which can be used to infer underground features. The inversion of this data, to give a fitted model, is an inverse problem. This type of problem can be ill-posed or ill-conditioned, making the estimation of model parameters less stable or even impossible. More precisely, the relationship between archaeological data and parameters is expressed by a likelihood. It is not possible to use the standard regression estimate obtained through the likelihood, which means that no maximum likelihood estimate exists. Instead, various constraints can be added through a prior distribution with an estimate produced using the posterior distribution. Current approaches incorporate prior information describing smoothness, which is not always appropriate. The biggest challenge is that the reconstruction of an archaeological site as a single layer requires various physical features such as depth and extent to be assumed. By applying a smoothing prior in the analysis of stratigraphy data, however, these features are not easily estimated. Wavelet analysis has proved to be highly efficient at eliciting information from noisy data. Additionally, complicated signals can be explained by interpreting only a small number of wavelet coefficients. It is possible that a modelling approach, which attempts to describe an underlying function in terms of a multi-level wavelet representation will be an improvement on standard techniques. Further, a new method proposed uses an elastic-net based distribution as the prior. Two methods are used to solve the problem, one is based on one-stage estimation and the other is based on two stages. The one-stage considers two approaches a single prior for all wavelet resolution levels and a level-dependent prior, with separate priors at each resolution level. In a simulation study and a real data analysis, all these techniques are compared to several existing methods. It is shown that the methodology using a single prior provides good reconstruction, comparable even to several established wavelet methods that use mixture priors.
Imaging of post-embryonic stage model organisms at high resolution using multi-orientation optoacoustic mesoscopy

Model organisms such as zebrafish play an important role for developmental biologists and experimental geneticists. Still, as they grow into their post-embryonic stage of development it becomes more and more difficult to image them because of high light scattering inside biological tissue. Optoacoustic mesoscopy based on spherically focused, high frequency, ultrasound detectors offers an alternative, where it relies on the focusing capabilities of the ultrasound detectors in generating the image rather than on the focusing of light. Nonetheless, because of the limited numerical aperture the resolution is not isotropic, and many structures, especially elongated ones, such as blood vessels and other organs, are either invisible, or not clearly identifiable on the final image. Herein, based on high frequency ultrasound detectors at 100 MHz and 50 MHz we introduce multi orientation (view) optoacoustic mesoscopy. We collect a rich amount of signals from multiple directions and combine them using a weighted sum in the Fourier domain and a Wiener deconvolution into a single high resolution three-dimensional image. The new system achieves isotropic resolutions on the order of 10 μm in-plane, 40 μm axially, and SNR enhancement of 15 dB compared to the single orientation case. To showcase the system we imaged a juvenile zebrafish ex vivo, which is too large to image using optical microscopic techniques, the reconstructed images show unprecedented performance in terms of SNR, resolution, and clarity of the observed structures. Using the system we see the inner organs of the zebrafish, the pigmentation, and the vessels with unprecedented clarity.
Tunable polarised fluorescence of quantum dot doped nematic liquid crystals

ABSTRACT The concentration, excitation photon wavelength, and polarisation dependent fluorescence of quantum dot (QD)–liquid crystal (LC) mixtures has been studied at room temperature using high-resolution, steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy. The fluorescence of QD–LC mixture increases with increasing QD’s concentration but the spectral red shift of ~10 nm relative to the stock QD–Toluene solution remains independent of concentration. In vertical switching (VS) cells, an external electric field changes the LC alignment direction and enhances the apparent fluorescence intensity. The apparent fluorescence anisotropy compared to that at zero applied electric field monotonically increases up to ~27% at an applied electric field of 0.6 V/µm. These results are consistent with the formation of disc-like assemblages of QDs oriented on planes perpendicular to the director of the nematic liquid crystal (NLC). These findings have important utility in polarisation sensitive photonic devices. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
On the cuts of intuitionistic fuzzy compositions

In some applications the amount of data that must be worked on is quite large, and there needs to be some way of reducing the amount of data an algorithm has to work on. The notion of alpha-cut is very useful in such situations. Intuitionistic fuzzy sets have been defined by Atanassov in 1983 as an extension of fuzzy sets: while fuzzy sets give only a degree of membership, intuitionistic fuzzy sets give both a degree of membership and a degree of non-membership, with the only constraint that their sum must be less than or equal to 1. In a previous paper we have presented an intuitionistic fuzzy version of the triangular compositions of Bandler and Kohout and their improved versions given by De Baets and Kerre. In this paper we discuss the cutworthiness of the intuitionistic fuzzy triangular compositions.
Directional image representations using nonseparable lifting

Sparse representations of visual information are essential for many image processing tasks. Because of the nonstationary geometric structure of natural images, representations derived from one-dimensional tensor products or compact frequency support will be suboptimal. Therefore, there is strong motivation to search for more powerful methods to efficiently represent the geometric structure of visual information. This thesis demonstrates a method to create a directional image representation with compact spatial support which is not limited to a single dimension. Within the lifting framework of perfect reconstruction filter banks, sparse representation requires prediction filters able to adapt to the local structure of the signal. As most images are locally regular except at edges, this adaptation adjusts the support of the prediction filters in order that a larger percentage of the output is predicted from pixels which do not come from both sides of an edge. To allow for the adaptation of filter support, the image must be segmented into blocks of consistent directional bias. To allow sufficient adaptivity while reducing overhead, this segmentation must allow for multiple sizes of blocks dependent on the image data. We solve this problem by extending a classic tree pruning algorithm used in classification for adaptive block-based transforms. Furthermore, as images do not directly include directional information, we propose a weighted estimation method using the techniques of directional statistics to determine the dominant direction of an image block. Within a compression framework, we see that the directional estimation and adaptive segmentation algorithms robustly and accurately determine the dominant direction of variably sized blocks; however, because of limitations caused by the discrete nature of the data and dimensional degeneracy of polynomial interpolation over various point sets, our directional image representation was not able to provide a coding gain over traditional methods.
Numerical Solution of 12 th Order Boundary Value Problems by Using Homotopy Perturbation Method

In this paper, a homotopy-perturbation method (HPM) [1-6, 26-28] is used to solve both linear and nonlinear Nth boundary value problems with two point boundary conditions for ninth-order, tenth-order and twelfth-order. By applying (HPM) on three examples the numerical results are compared with the exact solution, to show effectiveness and accuracy of the method.
The independent contribution of glimpse properties to speech recognition in speech-modulated noise

During fluctuating noise, temporal speech fragments (i.e., glimpses) at sufficient signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) contribute to speech recognition. Different acoustic properties of these glimpses, related to rate and proportion, reflect the temporal distribution of available speech cues. Glimpse metrics may be used to define different aspects of this temporal distribution. However, these measures are often highly correlated, limiting interpretation of how different glimpse properties contribute independently to speech recognition. The present study investigates how the local SNR cutoff (LC) influences the correlation between glimpse metrics and affects related associations with speech recognition. Speech recognition was assessed in the presence of speech-modulated noise that was temporally manipulated through time compression and presented at different SNRs. Optimization analyses identified LCs that yielded glimpse metrics that were most correlated with the perceptual data. Stimulus manipulations of the no.
Estimation of near-interface oxide trap density at SiO2/SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor interfaces by transient capacitance measurements at various temperatures

A method for estimating near-interface oxide trap density in silicon carbide metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors by transient capacitance measurements was investigated. The fitting of the transient capacitance characteristics measured at room and low temperatures to a simple model describing the de-trapping process enables us to characterize the responses of the traps at various distances from the interface. The distribution of the trap locations in the oxide and that of response times were taken into account in this fitting. This method was applied to MOS-capacitor samples to show the significant reduction in interface state density by tuning the thermal oxidation conditions. It was found that the density of the oxide traps, especially in the spatially shallow region within several angstroms from the interface, is sensitive to thermal oxide growth conditions.
Investigating Orbital Debris Events Using Numerical Methods with Full Force Model Orbit Propagation

The authors present several techniques that can be employed to investigate and understand orbital debris events. These methods illustrate that high fidelity debris modeling can be rapidly performed by innovatively applying existing high precision astronautical tools. With this approach numerous variants for break-up models and forensic analysis can be performed and studied. The authors show techniques used to examine and reconstruct the Chinese Fengyun 1C ASAT debris event empirically based on TLE data. The paper gives a method to recreate the equivalent 3-dimensional ∆V vector distributions from statistics using geometric and fuzzy logic clustering techniques. The ∆V distributions are then used to create a representative particle debris cloud model which is propagated using a high precision orbit propagator including the affects of atmospheric drag. The resultant particle ephemerides are used to examine debris cloud evolution.
Coupled TE–TM mode dynamics in a semiconductor laser subject to optical feedback: “the underdog’s triumph” scenario

We investigate experimentally and theoretically the dynamics of polarization modes in a semiconductor laser subject to optical feedback exclusively into its dominant polarization mode. The laser, despite being edge emitting, weakly supports the orthogonally polarized mode even in a solitary configuration, i.e., without optical feedback. When subject to optical feedback, the laser displays transition behavior from correlated to anticorrelated dynamics between the polarization modes as a function of the injection current strength. We construct a theoretical model based on the Lang–Kobayashi rate equations to describe these results. We include coupling between the two polarization modes in the gain medium to reflect persistence of the second mode in both solitary configuration and under external feedback. With this coupling, the model can reproduce the observed experimental results. © 2015 Optical Society of America
The evolution of precipitation and warm conveyor belts during the central southwest Asia wet season

Understanding the nature of precipitation over central southwest Asia, a data-sparse, semi-arid region, is crucial for anticipating future agricultural productivity and the likelihood of hazards such as flooding. However, the month-to-month evolution of daily precipitation characteristics, such as duration and amplitude, have not been extensively considered. Here we compare how daily precipitation and local vertical motion forcing - represented by warm conveyor belts (WCBs) - evolve from November to April over Afghanistan. Given the low amount of in-situ precipitation observations in the area, we first compare 15 several precipitation estimates, indicating that the seasonal evolution of daily precipitation is consistent across estimates that incorporate satellite information. While these datasets agree on the timing of peak precipitation in February and March, total accumulation amounts vary substantially. Still, a common feature is that the majority of precipitation occurs on the few days when accumulation exceeds 4 mm, which are most frequent in February and March. Precipitation intensity, duration, and the associated circulation patterns evolve as winter progresses into spring, with notable differences within the months from January 20 to April. El Niño conditions are generally associated with more heavy precipitation days than La Niña, consistent with past research, with both enhanced WCB frequency and moisture transport from lower latitudes observed during El Niño conditions, except for in January when neither precipitation nor WCB change. As such, our results support prior connections made between ENSO and seasonal-to-interannual circulation changes and extend this connection to one between the slowly-evolving ENSO influence and transient, synoptic-scale vertical motion represented by WCBs.