Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Event locating using deconvolution : Experimental application and analysis

Time reversal techniques are used in ocean acoustics, medical imaging, seismology, and non-destructive evaluation to backpropagate recorded signals to the source of origin. We demonstrate experimentally a technique which improves the temporal focus achieved at the source location by utilizing deconvolution. One experiment consists of propagating a signal from a transducer within a concrete block to a single receiver on the surface, and then applying time reversal or deconvolution to focus the energy back at the source location. Another two experiments are run to study the robust nature of deconvolution by investigating the effect of changing the stabilization constant used in the deconvolution and the impact multiple sources have upon deconvolutions’ focusing abilities. The results show that we are able to generate an improved temporal focus at the source transducer using deconvolution while maintaining the robust nature of time reversal. Additionally, deconvolution’s costs are negligible due to it being a preprocessing step to the recorded data. The technique can be applied for detailed investigation of the source mechanisms (e.g. cracks) but also for monitoring purposes.
Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research Empirical Exchange Rate Models of the Nineties: Are Any Fit to Survive? Empirical Exchange Rate Models of the Nineties: Are Any Fit to Survive?

(a company incorporated with limited liability) All rights reserved. Reproduction for educational and non-commercial purposes is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged. Abstract We reassess exchange rate prediction using a wider set of models that have been proposed in the last decade: interest rate parity, productivity based models, and a composite specification. The performance of these models is compared against two reference specifications-purchasing power parity and the sticky price monetary model. The models are estimated in first-difference and error correction specifications, and model performance evaluated at forecast horizons of 1, 4 and 20 quarters, using the mean squared error, direction of change metrics, and the " consistency " test of Cheung and Chinn (1998). Overall, model/specification/currency combinations that work well in one period do not necessarily work well in another period. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research, its Council of Advisors, or the Board of Directors. gratefully acknowledged. The views contained herein do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or any other organizations the authors are associated with.
Phonotactic Language Recognition Using MLP Features

This paper describes a very efficient Parallel Phone Recognizers followed by Language Modeling (PPRLM) system in terms of both performance and processing speed. The system uses context-independent phone recognizers trained on MLP features concatenated with the conventional PLP and pitch features. MLP features have several interesting properties that make them suitable for speech processing, in particular the temporal context provided to the MLP inputs and the discriminative criterion used to learn the MLP parameters. Results of preliminary experiments conducted on the NIST LRE 2005 for the closed-set task show significant improvements obtained by the proposed system compared with a PPRLM system using context-independent phone models trained on PLP features. Moreover, the proposed system performs as well as a PPRLM system using context-dependent phone models, while running 6 times faster.
A State Machine Language for the Undergraduate Operating Systems Course

Assigning projects in an undergraduate operating systems course that includes a mix of software development students and information technology students, many without a background in assembly language and machine architecture, can be challenging. Assigning low level simulation code or operating system modules can lead to frustration and failure for some students. Also, that approach takes too long to explore more than a few basic algorithms. Assigning paper projects may be uninteresting and can lead to rote memorization. This paper explores the approach of requiring students to write state machines, using a notation based on State Diagrams of the Unified Modeling Language, that implement the core logic of various CPU schedulers, page replacement algorithms, disk scheduling algorithms, and other operating system mechanisms. This approach concentrates student efforts more on analysis and less on low level coding. The paper explores the Python-based compiler technology and runtime system used to implement the state machine simulation framework, along with several example assignments, auxiliary tools for visualization, deficiencies in the current framework, and their remedies.
Binding of human fibronectin to Aspergillus fumigatus conidia

Aspergillus fumigatus conidia exhibited the ability to bind purified human fibronectin, whereas mycelial forms did not bind the ligand, as detected by an indirect immunofluorescence assay with an antifibronectin polyclonal antibody after incubation of the cells with fibronectin. Flow cytometry confirmed that binding of the ligand to conidia was dose dependent and saturable. Pretreatment of the cells with trypsin markedly reduced binding, which suggested a protein nature for the binding sites present at the surface of conidia. Intact conidia were also able to adhere to fibronectin or antifibronectin antibodies, a significant reduction (from 88 to 92%) in the binding of conidia was noticed, thus suggesting that adhesion to the immobilized ligand was specific. Analysis by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western immunoblotting with fibronectin and antifibronectin antibody of whole conidial homogenates and 2-mercaptoethanol extracts from isolated conidial cell walls allowed identification, among the complex array of protein and glycoprotein species present in both cell-free preparations, of two polypeptides with apparent molecular masses of 23 and 30 kDa which specifically interact with fibronectin.
Schlemm’s Canal and Trabecular Meshwork in Eyes with Primary Open Angle Glaucoma: A Comparative Study Using High-Frequency Ultrasound Biomicroscopy

We investigated in vivo changes in Schlemm’s canal and the trabecular meshwork in eyes with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). Relationships between Schlemm’s canal diameter, trabecular meshwork thickness, and intraocular pressure (IOP) were examined. Forty POAG patients and 40 normal individuals underwent 80-MHz Ultrasound Biomicroscopy examinations. The Schlemm’s canal and trabecular meshwork were imaged in superior, inferior, nasal and temporal regions. Normal individuals had an observable Schlemm’s canal in 80.3% of sections, a meridional canal diameter of 233.0±34.5 μm, a coronal diameter of 44.5±12.6 μm and a trabecular meshwork thickness of 103.9±11.1 μm, in POAG patients, Schlemm’s canal was observable in 53.1% of sections, a meridional canal diameter of 195.6±31.3 μm, a coronal diameter of 35.7±8.0 μm, and a trabecular meshwork thickness of 88.3±13.2 μm, which significantly differed from normal (both p <0.001). Coronal canal diameter (r = -0.623, p < 0.001) and trabecular meshwork thickness (r = -0.663, p < 0.001) were negatively correlated with IOP, but meridional canal diameter was not (r = -0.160, p = 0.156). Schlemm’s canal was observable in 50.5% and 56.6% of POAG patients with normal (<21 mmHg) and elevated (>21 mmHg) IOP, respectively (χ = 1.159, p = 0.282). Coronal canal diameter was significantly lower in the elevated IOP group (32.6±4.9 μm) than in the normal IOP group (35.7±8.0 μm, p < 0.001). This was also true of trabecular meshwork thickness (81.9±10.0 μm vs. 97.1±12.0 μm, p < 0.001). In conclusion, eyes with POAG had fewer sections with an observable Schlemm’s canal. Canal diameter and trabecular meshwork thickness were also lower than normal in POAG patients. Schlemm’s canal coronal diameter and trabecular meshwork thickness were negatively correlated with IOP.
A general likelihood function decomposition that is linear in target state

Likelihood function decomposition is a technique to coordinate deployed fields of multiple diverse heterogeneous sensors and for the automated processing of large volumes of multisensor data. It is an innovative new concept that is potentially useful in many of the kinds of nonlinear problems that arise in sensor fields used for detection, classification, and localization. Algorithms derived via the likelihood decompositionmethod are of interest because they have linear computational complexity in many of the parameters in distributed networked sensors — the number targets, the number of measurements, and the number of sensors. This efficiency is complemented with the ease with which the decompositions can be adapted to important application requirements such as land mass avoidance and ID/classification tags. The decomposition method also provides a natural way to exploit the spatial diversity of a sensor field to enable estimation of the aspect dependent targets. Observed information matrices derived from the likelihood decompositions can be exploited to maintain control of the field. The likelihood function decomposition method also simplifies the unconditional data likelihood function, enabling it to be written as an integral that is independent of the dimension of the target state space. This greatly reduces the computational complexity of the clutter rejection problem
Limitations of visual speech recognition

In this paper we investigate the limits of automated lip-reading systems and we consider the improvement that could be gained were additional information from other (non-visible) speech articulators available to the recogniser. Hidden Markov model (HMM) speech recognisers are trained using electromagnetic articulography (EMA) data drawn from the MOCHA-TIMIT data set. Articulatory information is systematically withheld from the recogniser and the performance is tested and compared with that of a typical state of the art lip-reading system. We find that, as expected, the performance of the recogniser degrades as articulatory information is lost, and that a typical lip-reading system achieves a level of performance similar to an EMA-based recogniser that uses information from only the front of the tongue forwards. Our results show that there is significant information in the articulator positions towards the back of the mouth that could be exploited were it available, but even this is insufficient to achieve the same level of performance as can be achieved by an acoustic speech recogniser.
AUTOMATED RE-ALLOCATOR OF REPLICAS OVER MOBILE AD HOC NETWORKS

In a Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET), due to mobility, limited battery power and poor features of nodes, network partitioning and nodes disconnecting occur frequently. To improve data availability, database systems create multiple copies of each data object and allocate them on different nodes. This paper proposes Automated Re-allocator of Replicas Over MANET (ARROM), that addresses these issues. ARROM reduces the average response time of requests between clients and database servers by reallocating replicas frequently. In addition, ARROM increases the average throughput in the network. Our performance study indicates that ARROM improves average response time and average network throughput in MANET as compared to resent existing scheme.
The impact of specular highlights on 3D-2D face recognition

One of the most popular form of biometrics is face recognition. Face recognition techniques typically assume that a face exhibits Lambertian reectance. However, a face often exhibits prominent specularities, especially in outdoor environments. These specular highlights can compromise an identity authentication. In this work, we analyze the impact of such highlights on a 3D-2D face recognition system. First, we investigate three different specularity removal methods as preprocessing steps for face recognition. Then, we explicitly model facial specularities within the face detection system with the Cook-Torrance reflectance model. In our experiments, specularity removal increases the recognition rate on an outdoor face database by about 5% at a false alarm rate of 10-3. The integration of the Cook-Torrance model further improves these results, increasing the verification rate by 19% at a FAR of 10-3.
Remote Telemetry in Rural Areas Using Tv White Spaces -state of the Art

Various technologies for remote telemetry systems in rural areas has been used in the past. The use of television white spaces (TVWS) is promising to reduce the cost and complexity of future remote telemetry systems. In this paper, the most important concepts involving the technology of wireless communications and networking suitable to support remote telemetry in rural areas are briefly reviewed with emphasis on the available hardware platforms for its implementation. The paper also summarizes the main international standards on the use of TVWS and issues related to the coexistence of networks sharing the same frequency bands. The paper concludes with a discussion on the main communication and network requirements of remote telemetry systems for rural areas.
Post‐occlusion brachial artery vasodilatation after ischaemic handgrip exercise is nitric oxide mediated

Flow‐mediated vasodilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery is used as a measure to quantify endothelial dysfunction. However, FMD after occlusion only is small in healthy people over middle age, but can be increased after handgrip exercise. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether postocclusion vasodilatation after handgrip exercise is mediated by nitric oxide (NO). High frequency ultrasound was used to measure brachial artery diameter at rest and after reactive hyperaemia with and without handgrip exercise during NaCl or NG‐monomethyl‐L‐arginine (L‐NMMA) infusion in healthy 60‐year‐old men. Postocclusion vasodilation was significantly larger after handgrip exercise compared with occlusion only (P=0·0078). Postocclusion vasodilatation was significantly lower after ischaemic handgrip exercise during intra‐arterial infusion of L‐NMMA compared with infusion of NaCl (P=0·039). It may be concluded that the increased postocclusion brachial artery vasodilatation observed after ischaemic handgrip exercise is at least partly NO mediated. This modification of the investigation procedure may improve our ability to quantify FMD in subjects with and without vascular disease.
Hippocampal size predicts rapid learning of a cognitive map in humans

The idea that humans use flexible map‐like representations of their environment to guide spatial navigation has a long and controversial history. One reason for this enduring controversy might be that individuals vary considerably in their ability to form and utilize cognitive maps. Here we investigate the behavioral and neuroanatomical signatures of these individual differences. Participants learned an unfamiliar campus environment over a period of three weeks. In their first visit, they learned the position of different buildings along two routes in separate areas of the campus. During the following weeks, they learned these routes for a second and third time, along with two paths that connected both areas of the campus. Behavioral assessments after each learning session indicated that subjects formed a coherent representation of the spatial structure of the entire campus after learning a single connecting path. Volumetric analyses of structural MRI data and voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) indicated that the size of the right posterior hippocampus predicted the ability to use this spatial knowledge to make inferences about the relative positions of different buildings on the campus. An inverse relationship between gray matter volume and performance was observed in the caudate. These results suggest that (i) humans can rapidly acquire cognitive maps of large‐scale environments and (ii) individual differences in hippocampal anatomy may provide the neuroanatomical substrate for individual differences in the ability to learn and flexibly use these cognitive maps. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Efficient OpenMP support and extensions for MPSoCs with explicitly managed memory hierarchy

OpenMP is a de facto standard interface of the shared address space parallel programming model. Recently, there have been many attempts to use it as a programming environment for embedded MultiProcessor Systems-On-Chip (MPSoCs). This is due both to the ease of specifying parallel execution within a sequential code with OpenMP directives, and to the lack of a standard parallel programming method on MPSoCs. However, MPSoC platforms for embedded applications often feature non-uniform, explicitly managed memory hierarchies with no hardware cache coherency as well as heterogeneous cores with heterogeneous run-time systems. In this paper we present an optimized implementation of the compiler and runtime support infrastructure for OpenMP programming for a non-cache-coherent distributed memory MPSoC with explicitly managed scratchpad memories (SPM). The proposed framework features specific extensions to the OpenMP programming model that leverage explicit management of the memory hierarchy. Experimental results on different real-life applications confirm the effectiveness of the optimization in terms of performance improvements.
An active clamp circuit for voltage regulation module (VRM) applications

This paper discusses the design, fabrication, and testing of a CMOS active clamp circuit, The active clamp is a linear voltage regulator, with a voltage deadband to allow for voltage ripple, that is designed to operate in parallel with a switchmode voltage regulator. Its specific function is to sink or source large transient currents to microprocessor loads, thus allowing operation with very small output capacitance. Laboratory tests on a prototype IC exhibit stable behavior with negligible overshoot with only 47 microfarads of output capacitance with loads of about nine amperes. Output impedances of 2-3 m/spl Omega/ are achieved.
Rab 10 associates with primary cilia and the exocyst complex in renal epithelial cells

Babbey CM, Bacallao RL, Dunn KW. Rab10 associates with primary cilia and the exocyst complex in renal epithelial cells. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 299: F495–F506, 2010. First published June 24, 2010; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00198. 2010. —Rab10, a mammalian homolog of the yeast Sec4p protein, has previously been associated with endocytic recycling and biosynthetic membrane transport in cultured epithelia and with Glut4 translocation in adipocytes. Here, we report that Rab10 associates with primary cilia in renal epithelia in culture and in vivo. In addition, we find that Rab10 also colocalizes with exocyst proteins at the base of nascent cilia, and physically interacts with the exocyst complex, as detected with anti-Sec8 antibodies. These data suggest that membrane transport to the primary cilum may be mediated by interactions between Rab10 and an exocyst complex located at the cilium base.
Vision-based Semantic Unscented FastSLAM for mobile robot

This paper proposes a vision-based Semantic Unscented FastSLAM (UFastSLAM) algorithm for mobile robot combing the semantic relationship and the unscented FastSLAM. The landmarks are detected by a binocular vision, and the semantic observation model can be created by transforming the semantic relationships into the semantic metric map. Semantic Unscented FastSLAM can be used to update the localization of the landmarks and robot pose even when the encoders inherits large accummative errors that may not be corrected by the loop closure detection of the vision system Experiments have been carried out to demonstrate that the Semantic Unscented FastSLAM algorithm can achieve much better performance in indoor autonomous survalience than Unscented FastSLAM.
Magnetization switching in multiferroic ceramics by oxygen vacancies

This paper details investigations in two multiferroic materials, Co-doped BaTiO3 (BTO) and pure BiFeO3 (BFO). The Co doping in BTO was to induce a magnetic moment into the ferroelectric BTO crystal while BFO is known to be ferroelectric and magnetic. Co-BTO was synthesized and studied in the bulk ceramic form while BFO was sputter deposited on to Si substrate and studied in the thin film form. The samples were heated in argon and air at specified temperatures and their magnetic properties were assessed. It was found that heating in O-poor, argon induced a significantly higher magnetic moment at saturation while the O-rich atmosphere did not. Subsequent investigations using XANES and XPS seem to indicate that the O-vacancy levels when heated in these atmospheres changed. Repeated heating in the two atmospheres alternatively confirmed the switching of magnetic behaviour indicating that this could be used as material whose saturation magnetization could be manipulated by prior heat treatment. This could also be a material to sense the O-level in a high temperature gaseous environment since it would be registered in its memory as the magnetic saturation moment.
Effect of Sharpening on Hidden-Layer Activation Profiles Figure 2: Activation Profiles with various node-sharpenings

In connectionist networks, newly-learned information destroys previously-learned information unless the network is continually retrained on the old information. This behavior, known as catastrophic forgetting, is unacceptable both for practical purposes and as a model of mind. This paper advances the claim that catastrophic forgetting is a direct consequence of the overlap of the system’s distributed representations and can be reduced by reducing this overlap. A simple algorithm is presented that allows a standard feedforward backpropagation network to develop semi-distributed representations, thereby significantly reducing the problem of catastrophic forgetting.
A Hybrid Computer Interface for Robot Arm Control

Brain-computer interface (BCI) directly translate human thought into machine command. It provides a new and promising method for rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. BCI actuated robotic arm is an effective rehabilitation way for patients with upper limb disability. Based on the study and reference of the existing brain-controlled robot arm, this paper proposed a method of combining electromyography (EMG) and Electroencephalogram (EEG) to control the manipulator. Specifically, we collect EMG signals from the human leg and use the leg movements to quickly and reliably select the joints which are currently activated. The robot arm joints are precisely controlled by movement imagination (MI) brain-computer interfaces. The use of two non-homologous signals, scattered the burden of the brain and therefore reduce the work load. In addition, the program allows two kinds of operations at the same time, so the program is flexible and efficient. Offline experiment was designed to construct the classifier and optimal parameters. In the online experiment, subjects were instructed to control the robot arm to move an object from one location to another. Three subjects participated in the experiment, the accuracy rates of classifiers in the offline experiment were exceeded 95% and they all completed the online control.