Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the detection of Lorentzian profiles in a power spectrum: a Bayesian approach using ignorance priors

Aims. Deriving accurate frequencies, amplitudes, and mode lifetimes from stochastically driven pulsation is challenging, more so, if one demands that realistic error estimates be given for all model fitting parameters. As has been shown by other authors, the traditional method of fitting Lorentzian profiles to the power spectrum of time-resolved photometric or spectroscopic data via the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) procedure delivers good approximations for these quantities. We, however, show that a conservative Bayesian approach allows one to treat the detection of modes with minimal assumptions (i.e., about the existence and identity of the modes). Methods. We derive a conservative Bayesian treatment for the probability of Lorentzian profiles being present in a power spectrum and describe an efficient implementation that evaluates the probability density distribution of parameters by using a Markov-chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique. Results. Potentially superior to “best-fit” procedure like MLE, which only provides formal uncertainties, our method samples and approximates the actual probability distributions for all parameters involved. Moreover, it avoids shortcomings that make the MLE treatment susceptible to the built-in assumptions of a model that is fitted to the data. This is especially relevant when analyzing solartype pulsation in stars other than the Sun where the observations are of lower quality and can be over-interpreted. As an example, we
Structural Bregman Distance Functions Learning to Rank with Self-Reinforcement

Learning to rank is an important task for many data mining applications. Essentially, the goal of learning to rank is to learn an appropriate similarity or distance metric to determine the relevance relationships among data points. However, most of the existing approaches for distance metric learning are limited in three aspects. First, they often assume a fixed form of distance metric for the entire input space. Second, the assumed distance functions are often computationally expensive or even intractable to learn for high dimensional data, such as Mahalanobis distance. Third, most of these approaches lack robustness to noisily labeled data, which is pervasive in many real-world applications. In this paper, we study learning to rank as a problem of distance metric learning to address the above three problems. We choose Bregman distance as the target distance function, due to its general functional form as a generalization of a wide class of distance functions, and its capacity of exploiting complicated nonlinear patterns underlying the data. Under the framework of structural SVM, we formulate the problem of learning Bregman distance functions for ranking as a QP problem by a nonparametric approach, and present an effective algorithm. Furthermore, we propose a self-reinforcement scheme that adaptively differentiates each data point in the role of learning to secure the robustness. We emphasize that the proposed method SBLR-S (Structural Bregman distance functions Learning to Rank with Self-reinforcement) is more general than the conventional distance metric learning approaches, and is able to handle high dimensional data as well as noisily labeled data. The experiments of data ranking on real-world datasets show the superiority of this method to the state-of-the-art literature.
Credential-Based Privacy-Preserving Power Request Scheme for Smart Grid Network

A smart grid network adjusts power allocation by collecting information about the power usage of the customers in real-time. Authentication and user privacy preservation are the two major concerns on smart grid security. Authentication schemes that preserve users' privacy from third parties, but not from the power operator, have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a scheme that preserves users' privacy information, including their daily electricity usage pattern from third parties as well as from the power operator. At the same time, the scheme ensures that authentication can be properly done. These two properties are achieved by using anonymous credential under the principle of blind signature. Basically, a customer generates a set of credentials by himself and asks the control center to blindly sign them. When the customer needs to request more power later on, he presents the signed credential to the control center as proof of his identity. Implementation and analysis show that our scheme is feasible in terms of a number of performance measures such as the signing time and the credential collision rate.
Overcoming Object-Relational Impedance Mismatch in GIS Development : a Comparison of Data Abstraction and Serialization Methods used in Web Mapping Application Development

This paper presents two data access strategies that employ different data abstraction and serialization methods applied to a working geodatabase to facilitate development of a web mapping application. The goal of the study was to compare methods used to minimize the effects of object-relational impedance mismatch, a well-known set of issues that result from the integration of relational data and object-oriented programming languages. This study focused specifically on increasing support for schema evolution; a common object-relational impedance issue within GIS systems. The study was conducted using a real-life, transactional geodatabase used to maintain water quality data. The database and test applications were designed to meet real-life functional requirements. The first method employed the use of entity modeling techniques in the application mid-tier to map relational geospatial data from the relational database management system to an object-oriented model in order to facilitate data access, serialization and transport via a web service; the second procedure maintained application logic within the object-relational geodatabase system tables and employed a generic abstraction method for serialization within a web service. The resulting n-tier applications were tested by applying a unit test strategy based on real-life use case scenarios and the results were compared to assess the extensibility, maintainability and richness of the result. The application that leveraged the object-relational model of the geodatabase system was found to provide better support for schema changes to the geodatabase resulting in less maintenance, while the application constructed using entity modeling of relational data resulted in richer UI features but was not able to support schema changes to the geodatabase.
Designing for mobility : Theory matters

Preface T his thesis is part of a Cand.scient degree completed at the Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, from fall 1999 to fall 2001. The content of the thesis has been compiled by doing literature studies and performing a case study. I would like to thank my internal advisor, Steinar Kristoffersen for helping me out in my work on this thesis. I am also ever grateful to Jo Herstad for inspiring me to never give up on my thesis, even though I had serious doubts about it. I would also like to thank the crew working on the ferries in Oslofjorden for letting me observe their work. Finally, I would like to thank my girlfriend Maria and my son Nikolai for always putting up with me even though I at times was frustrated for not getting things the right way when writing this thesis. Abstract I n this thesis I present the field of mobility and why mobile devices are giving system designers new challenges. Mobile devices are frequently being used to communicate and cooperate. I present Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) as a framework for this kind of design. CSCW may be seen as a multitude of different groups of scientists. They are all interested in the same kind of issues, but with radically different theoretical standpoints. Two of the main theoretical schools in CSCW are cognitive science and ethnomethodology. They have different views on how we experience the real world and what decides action. In the view of cognitive science, the human mind ultimately decides which actions are taken. Cognitive science places its emphasis in understanding the relationship between physical attributes of the brain and human activity. An important part of this perspective is creating models of this relationship. Ethnomethodology on the other hand claims that explanation of human action is not possible to find before the actual situation occurs. The reason is that the situation specifics always play a part in deciding the action. This has led to the formulation of the term situated action. The social structures that surround us and which are a vital part of the explanation for action is shared between people through interaction. My hypothesis in this dissertation is that no matter what kind of formal theory one leans on, the result of designing mobile systems are the same. To test this hypothesis I performed a field study of ferries trafficking …
Cell-Mediated Delivery of Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor onto the Chick Chorioallantoic Membrane: Endothelial Fenestration and Angiogenesis

Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) exert their angiogenic activity by interacting with endothelial cells in a distinct manner. In this study, we investigated the morphological features of endothelial cells of the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) microvasculature after stimulation with FGF2 or VEGF. In order to provide a continuous delivery of the growth factor, we utilized a recently developed gelatin sponge/CAM assay in which a limited number of FGF2- or VEGF-transfected cells were adsorbed onto gelatin sponges and applied on the top of the CAM on day 8 of development. Their angiogenic activity was compared to that exerted by a single bolus of the corresponding growth factor. All the angiogenic stimuli induced a comparable vasoproliferative response, as demonstrated by the appearance of similar numbers of immature blood vessels within the sponge on day 12. No angiogenic response was observed in CAMs implanted with the corresponding parental cell lines or vehicle. Electron microscopy demonstrated that VEGF-overexpressing cells modified the phenotype of the endothelium of the blood vessels at the boundary between the implant and the surrounding CAM mesenchyme. The endothelial lining of 30% of these vessels showed segmental attenuations, was frequently interrupted and became fenestrated, mimicking what is observed in tumor vasculature. In contrast, the vessels consisted of continuous endothelium sealed by tight junctions in all the other experimental conditions. These results indicate that FGF2 and VEGF interact with endothelial cells of the CAM in a distinct manner. Both growth factors induce a potent angiogenic response, but only VEGF delivered in a continuous manner by its transfectants can modify the phenotype of the otherwise quiescent endothelium of CAM blood microvessels. The gelatin sponge/CAM assay may constitute a new model to study the mechanisms leading to endothelial fenestration in tumor growth.
Multirobot inspection of industrial machinery

Inspection of aircraft and power generation machinery using a swarm of miniature robots is a promising application both from an intellectual and a commercial perspective. Our research is motivated by a case study concerned with the inspection of a jet turbine engine by a swarm of miniature robots. This article summarizes our efforts that include multirobot path planning, modeling of self-organized robotic systems, and the implementation of proof-of-concept experiments with real miniature robots. Although other research tackles challenges that arise from moving within three-dimensional (3-D) structured environments at the level of the individual robotic node, the emphasis of our work is on explicitly incorporating the potential limitations of the individual robotic platform in terms of sensor and actuator noise into the modeling and design process of collaborative inspection systems. We highlight difficulties and further challenges on the (lengthy) path toward truly autonomous parallel robotic inspection of complex engineered structures.
EFFECTS OF INTERFERENCES IN UHF RFID SYSTEMS

The Radio Frequency Identiflcation (RFID) applications are growing rapidly, especially in the UHF frequency band that is being used in inventory management. Passive UHF tags are preferred for these applications. In this paper, RFID reader-to-reader interference is analyzed. A model to estimate the minimum distance between readers to achieve a desired probability of detection in real multipath environments is derived and compared to the ideal case (AWGN channel). Diversity techniques to combat multipath and interference efiects are proposed and studied.
Hard X-ray properties of blazars

We have considered all blazars observed in the X{ray band and for which the slope of the X{ray spectrum is available. We have collected 421 spectra of 268 blazars, including 12 archival unpublished ASCA spectra of 7 blazars whose analysis is presented here. The X{ray spectra of blazars show trends as a function of their power, conrming that the blazar overall energy distribution can be parameterized on the basis of one parameter only, i.e. the bolometric luminosity. This is conrmed by the relatively new hard (2{10 keV) X{ray data. Our results conrm the idea that in low power objects the X{ray emission mechanism is the synchrotron process, dominating both the soft and the hard X{ray emissions. Low energy peaked BL Lac objects are intermediate, often showing harder spectra in the hard X{ray band, suggesting that the synchrotron process dominates in the soft band, with the inverse Compton process dominating at high energies. The most powerful objects have X{ray spectra that are flat both in the soft and in the hard band, consistent with a dominating inverse Compton component.
A Cryogenic Integrated Noise Calibration and Coupler Module Using a MMIC LNA

A new cryogenic noise calibration source for radio astronomy receivers is presented. Dissipated power is only 4.2 mW, allowing it to be integrated with the cold part of the receiver. Measured long-term stability, sensitivity to bias voltages, and noise power output versus frequency are presented. The measured noise output versus frequency is compared to a warm noise diode injected into a cryogenic K-band receiver and shows the integrated noise module to have less frequency structure, which will result in more accurate astronomical flux calibrations. It is currently in operation on the new seven-element K-band focal plane array receiver on the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.
Domain Walls from M-branes

We discuss the vertical dimensional reduction of M-branes to domain walls in D=7 and D=4, by dimensional reduction on Ricci-flat 4-manifolds and 7-manifolds. In order to interpret the vertically-reduced 5-brane as a domain wall solution of a dimensionally-reduced theory in D=7, it is necessary to generalise the usual Kaluza-Klein ansatz, so that the 3-form potential in D=11 has an additional term that can generate the necessary cosmological term in D=7. We show how this can be done for general 4-manifolds, extending previous results for toroidal compactifications. By contrast, no generalisation of the Kaluza-Klein ansatz is necessary for the compactification of M-theory to a D=4 theory that admits the domain wall solution coming from the membrane in D=11.
Bilateral syringeal coupling during phonation of a songbird

The syrinx of oscine birds (“true songbirds”) is a double vocal organ, and each side has generally been presumed to function independently under separate neural control during phonation. A significant counterexample is demonstrated here in the production of a common vocalization by the black-capped chickadee (Parus atricapillus), in which the 2 acoustic sources of the syrinx interact in a nonlinear fashion. The chickadee produces a sound with multiple frequency components that superficially resemble harmonics. An analysis of vocal production after unilateral and bilateral syringeal denervation shows instead that these frequency components are sum and difference frequencies, or heterodyne frequencies, resulting from cross-modulation between the 2 syringeal sides. A limited form of this bilateral coupling may be achieved after unilateral denervation of either syringeal side but not after bilateral denervation. Unilaterally denervated birds are capable of significant improvement in coupling after 10 d, too short a period for neural regrowth. These results suggest that coupling arises from a passive physical interaction between the 2 syringeal sources which is activated or regulated in some fashion by neural control from either side.
A New JSCC Scheme for Image Transmission over Frequency Selective Fading Channels

In order to improve the error resilient ability and transmission efficiency for image transmission over wireless frequency selective fading channels, a joint source-channel coding ( JSCC) scheme was proposed. In which, MlMO-OFDM and adaptive wavelet pretreatment were combined together. MlMO-OFDM was used to deal with frequency-selective, time dispersive characterize of wireless fading channels; adaptive wavelet pretreatment was adopted to decrease the encoder complexity whilst maintaining the transmission quality to acceptable level. To guarantee the quality of reconstructed image, the wavelet pretreatment block was adopted or removed adaptively according to the variety of channel condition. Here, the channel condition was indicated by the variety of the source packet size allocated to OFDM sub-channels, rather than the feedback information from the receiver as usual. Simulation results show that: the proposed scheme can support robust image transmission with high quality and low complexity in various channel conditions; When the channel condition is good (SNR = 9 dB) the complexity of the encoder decrease to 1/3, but the PSNR of the received image lose less than 3 unit. When channel is worse (SNR<4 dB) the pretreatment block is removed adaptively
Chapter 2 Ontology Management

Ontologies are considered a key technology enabling semantic interoperability and integration of data and processes. We are now entering a phase of knowledge system development, in which ontologies are produced in larger numbers and exhibit greater complexity than before. Ontology management infrastructures are needed for the increasing development of semantic applications especially in the corporate semantic web, which comprises the application of semantic technologies in an enterprise environment. This chapter presents a generic system architecture for an ontology management infrastructure that supports the construction of semantic applications. Such an ontology management infrastructure needs to be generic and flexible in its design, comprehensive in its functionality in order to meet the requirements of a wide spectrum of semantic applications. Key component functionalities of an ontology management system are discussed, including ontology mapping, ontology learning, debugging reasoning with inconsistent ontologies, and (structured and unstructured) query answering. An ontology management system architecture which can flexibly build upon existing datas sources and connect to other applications and which – as such – also forms the basis for a wide range of semantically enabled applications is described.
Adaptation of Piglets Using Different Methods of Stress Prevention

Simple Summary Stressful events play a major negative role in the modern technology of weaned piglets. These events include but are not limited to weaning itself, lack of maternal milk, loss of maternal bonding, mixing of different litters, transportation to growing-finishing farms, and housing conditions. Various additives (phenazepam, aminazine, vitamins E and C, the extract Eleutherococcus senticosus, and ultraviolet irradiation) at different doses and combinations with or without ultraviolet irradiation were used to evaluate their effect on the viability and growth rate of piglets after weaning. Content of lipids in the blood and liver, antioxidant activity (AOA) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) significantly decreased or increased with the use of the additives. Feeding a mixture of additives increased survival rate, average daily gain, and live weight at the end of the experiment. Abstract The purpose of this study was to evaluate the viability and growth rate of piglets after weaning, the content of lipids in the blood and liver, antioxidant activity (AOA) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) when various additives are used in feed. The experiments were performed on two crosses of piglets obtained from Large White breed sows and Landrace breed boars. Twenty to 28 animals were randomly assigned per group. The following additives were tested: the benzodiazepine phenazepam, the neuroleptic aminazine, vitamins E and C, and the extract Eleutherococcus senticosus (Araliaceae). Different doses and combinations of the additives against ultraviolet irradiation were used. The addition of these substances improved the growth rate and viability of piglets. AOA increased under the influence of all factors studied, especially with the addition of extract of Eleutherococcus in feed in combination with aminazine and UV-irradiation (p < 0.01). However, the addition of Eleutherococcus extract and aminazine intensified LPO (p < 0.01), but use of UV irradiation helped to decrease LPO values (p < 0.01). Feeding a mixture of additives per pig per day of 3 mL of Eleutherococcus extract, 80 mg of 25% tocopherol, and 500 mg of ascorbic acid increased survival rate, average daily gain, and live weight at the end of the experiment. Thus, the use of prophylactic antistress and sedative drugs during weaning helps AOA normalize LPO of red blood cells; enhance post weaning growth of the pigs by 4.8% to 24.6% and increases piglet survival rate by 5% to 5.1%.
SystemCoDesigner: Automatic design space exploration and rapid prototyping from behavioral models

SystemCoDesigner is an ESL tool developed at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. SystemCoDesigner offers a fast design space exploration and rapid prototyping of behavioral SystemC models. Together with Forte Design Systems, a fully automated approach was developed by integrating behavioral synthesis into the design flow. Starting from a behavioral SystemC model, hardware accelerators can be generated automatically using Forte Cynthesizer and can be added to the design space. The resulting design space is explored automatically by optimizing several objectives simultaneously using state of the art multi-objective optimization algorithms. As a result, SystemCoDesigner presents optimized hardware/software solutions to the designer who can select any of them for rapid prototyping on an FPGA basis. Thus, SystemCoDesigner bridges the gap from ESL to RTL and increases the confidence in early design decisions.