Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transmission line method for propagation characteristic of electromagnetic wave in rectangular tunnel

The paper presents the equivalent transmission line equation which is useful to describe the propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves in a tunnel. For the transmission line theory, the mathematical structure of the classical telegrapher equation was preserved, while the coefficients (the per-unit-length parameters) were generalized in order to represent the essential characteristic of the wire structure. At frequencies in the range of 200-4000 MHz transmission takes the form of waveguide propagation in a tunnel, since the wavelengths of the UHF waves are smaller than the tunnel dimensions. So, the tunnel is equivalent to the lossy uniform transmission lines under this condition. In the waveguide structure of the tunnel, the equivalent voltage and current must be introduced, which is called the equivalent transmission line theory. In this paper, the calculation of parameters for many propagation modes in a tunnel is ended to the solution of active equivalent transmission line equation. As examples, the coefficients of equivalent circuit and the attenuation rate for the dominant mode of the vertical polarization electromagnetic wave in the rectangular tunnel are computed. Consistent results with the pattern matching theoretical ones are obtained, and the validity of the presented method is thus verified.
De novo Synthesis of Glial Glutamate and Glutamine in Young Mice Requires Aspartate Provided by the Neuronal Mitochondrial Aspartate-Glutamate Carrier Aralar/AGC1

In brain, the glutamate-glutamine and the glutamate-glutamine-GABA cycles are essential for efficient glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission. The interactions between neurons and astrocytes required for the operation of these cycles have received considerable attention since their discovery (1). In gray matter, glutamate released from glutamatergic neurons is mostly taken up into astrocytes (2, 3) where it is converted into glutamine which is sent back to the neurons for conversion to glutamate. This drain of glutamate released from neurons to astrocytes is compensated for by a flow of glutamine from astrocytes to neurons, thus closing the glutamate-glutamine cycle. In addition to transcellular cycling, the glutamate-glutamine cycle faces losses of components, mainly glutamate, by oxidation, which is balanced by the anaplerotic synthesis of glutamate and glutamine in astrocytes. As shown by Rothman (4) and discussed by Hertz (5), in vivo about 85% of the glutamate cycles in the glutamate-glutamine cycle but 15% is oxidized. Oxidation may take place in astrocytes and neurons, and under basal conditions it does not appear to require glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), a mitochondrial enzyme present mainly in astrocytes, as a brain-specific-disruption of the gene has small effects on brain glutamate levels (6). De novo synthesis of glutamate takes place in astrocytes thanks to pyruvate carboxylase (PC) (7, 8), which is expressed in astrocytes but not in neurons (9–11). This process generates a new molecule of oxaloacetate, which may condense with acetyl-CoA to provide net synthesis of α-ketoglutarate, from which glutamate can be formed by transamination (12). Subsequently, glutamine will be synthesized from glutamate via glutamine synthetase, which is exclusively present in the cytosol of astrocytes (13, 14). However, this general picture of the glutamate-glutamine cycle may be oversimplified, and there may be important variations, at least, during postnatal development. Recent metabolic studies in the neonatal rat brain have shown that the flow of glutamate from neurons to astrocytes is negligible when compared to the adult brain (15), while, paradoxically, the flow of glutamine from astrocytes to neurons is the same or even larger than in adults. This may suggest that astrocytes are slowly supplying glutamine to neurons so as to build up the neuronal pools of glutamate, aspartate, and N-acetylaspartate (NAA), which are lower than in the adult brain (15), and also, that a molecule other than glutamate is being transferred from neurons to astrocytes.
The principles of collective animal behaviour

In recent years, the concept of self-organization has been used to understand collective behaviour of animals. The central tenet of self-organization is that simple repeated interactions between individuals can produce complex adaptive patterns at the level of the group. Inspiration comes from patterns seen in physical systems, such as spiralling chemical waves, which arise without complexity at the level of the individual units of which the system is composed. The suggestion is that biological structures such as termite mounds, ant trail networks and even human crowds can be explained in terms of repeated interactions between the animals and their environment, without invoking individual complexity. Here, I review cases in which the self-organization approach has been successful in explaining collective behaviour of animal groups and societies. Ant pheromone trail networks, aggregation of cockroaches, the applause of opera audiences and the migration of fish schools have all been accurately described in terms of individuals following simple sets of rules. Unlike the simple units composing physical systems, however, animals are themselves complex entities, and other examples of collective behaviour, such as honey bee foraging with its myriad of dance signals and behavioural cues, cannot be fully understood in terms of simple individuals alone. I argue that the key to understanding collective behaviour lies in identifying the principles of the behavioural algorithms followed by individual animals and of how information flows between the animals. These principles, such as positive feedback, response thresholds and individual integrity, are repeatedly observed in very different animal societies. The future of collective behaviour research lies in classifying these principles, establishing the properties they produce at a group level and asking why they have evolved in so many different and distinct natural systems. Ultimately, this research could inform not only our understanding of animal societies, but also the principles by which we organize our own society.
Performance improvement of 802.11 wireless network with TCP ACK agent and auto-zoom backoff algorithm

This paper proposes two schemes to improve the TCP performance over 802.11 WLAN access protocol. In the standard 802.11 and TCP protocols, a TCP data segment is acknowledged twice, once at the MAC layer, and once at the TCP layer. By a simple cross-layer design, a TCP ACK agent is installed at the WLAN AP. When a MAC acknowledgment is received by the AP, the AP generates a TCP ACK on behalf of the WLAN stations. Together with the TCP ACK agent scheme, an auto-zoom backoff algorithm is proposed to further improve the access performance. In the auto-zoom backoff, the contention windows can be progressively reduced to a very low value in case of light or asymmetric traffic, and return to normal quickly when collision occurs. With the TCP ACK agent and auto-zoom backoff, we show that significant improvement in TCP throughput performance can be achieved in typical Internet application scenarios.
CHAPTER 1 Equilibrium Thermodynamic Modeling of Dissipative Macroscopic Systems

The possibility is substantiated to model open and closed systems as well as reversible and irreversible processes on the basis of classic equilibrium thermodynamics statements. The consideration is given to new modifications of the model of extreme intermediate states (MEIS) built originally in the mid-1980s. They include constraints on irreversible macroscopic kinetics presented in a thermodynamic form, i.e., without the time variable. MEIS is compared with models of chemical kinetics and irreversible thermodynamics from two viewpoints: (1) the range and versatility of application areas, and (2) the simplicity and self-descriptiveness of computational experi­ ments. The potential of equilibrium modeling is explained on the examples of analysis of chemical systems and hydraulic circuits.
The Changing Nature of the Role of the University Supervisor and Function of Preservice Teacher Supervision in an Era of Clinically-Rich Practice

ABSTRACT Given the movement to enhanced clinical experiences and school–university collaboration emphasized in the NCATE Blue Ribbon Report, the field of teacher preparation would benefit from an understanding of the research related to preservice teacher (PST) supervision. This article uses qualitative meta-analysis to generate new knowledge about PST supervision using research published from 2001 to 2013. Using a search of three different databases, the findings of 32 studies became the data to address the research question: What are the core PST supervisory tasks and practices that support the developmental nature of PST learning within the clinical context? Through the meta-analysis, the authors identified five tasks and twelve practices of PST supervision. The tasks include (1) targeted assistance, (2) individual support, (3) collaboration and community, (4) curriculum support, and (5) research for innovation. These results indicate that PST supervision and the role of the PST supervisor is changing as the field moves towards strengthening clinical practice.
Medidas fonológicas em crianças com transtorno fonológico Phonological measures in children with phonological disorders

ABSTRACT Purpose: To compare and correlate the performance of children with and without phonological disorders (PD) according to pho-nological awareness (PA) abilities, Percentage of Consonants Correct – Revised (PCC-R) and Speech Inconsistency Index (SII). Methods: Participants were 36 children with ages between 5 and 7 years divided into: Research Group (RG) – 18 children with PD; and CG – 18 typically developing children. The PCC-R was calculated, and the SII and the Phonological Sensitivity Test – Vi-sual mode (PST-V) were applied. The PST-V consists of six tasks: equal and different alliteration (EA and DA, respectively), total alliteration (TA), equal and different rhyme (ER and DR, respectively), and total rhyme (TR). Results were statistically analyzed. Results: Differences were found between groups in all indexes, with better performances of the CG. In this group there were negative correlations between SII and all PA abilities and between SII and PCC-R, except for the ER. There were positive correlations between all PST-V subtests. On the RG, positive correlations were observed between PCC-R and alliteration abilities; no correlations were found between SII and PCC-R nor between SII and PA subtests. There were correlations between PST-V abilities: EA and TA; DA and TA; DA and DR; ER and TR; DR and TR.
The Magnetic Fields of Anomalous X‐ray Pulsars

Anomalous X‐ray Pulsars (AXPs) belong to a class of neutron stars believed to harbor the strongest magnetic fields in the universe, as indicated by their energetic bursts and their rapid spindowns. We have developed a theoretical model that takes into account processes in the atmospheres and magnetospheres of ultramagnetic neutron stars, as well as the effects of their strong gravitational fields on the observable properties. Using this model, we have analyzed the X‐ray spectra of a number of AXPs. We find that in all cases, the X‐ray spectra are described very well with this emission model. The spectroscopically measured magnetic field strengths of these sources are in close agreement with the values inferred from their spindown properties and provide independent evidence for their magnetar nature. The analysis of spectral data using this physical model also sheds light on the long‐term evolution of AXPs.
Kriging Analysis In The Spatial Domain For Dispersion Models

Statistical data analysis on toxicity for air pollution problems is studied for the atmosphere with the various pollutant’s observations. In this paper Kriging techniques are explained for pollutant concentration, also forecast by Kriging methods. Approximate function called as system function is obtained by these techniques. An approach is mentioned for calculating weights for the given data. This model can easily be extended to higher dimensional air pollution data.
Inverse kinematics of gel robots made of electro-active polymer gel

This paper proposes an inverse kinematic model for deformable robots made entirely of electro-active polymer gel. The required method is to control a higher degrees of freedom than numbers of input. We (2000, 2001) have been proposed a kinematic and dynamic model of electro-active polymer system and derived a variety of motions of gel robots by applying spatially varying electric fields. However, inverse kinematic model and the method of applying time alternating electric fields have not been investigated. We challenge the tip control of gel manipulator by applying spatially uniform but time varying electric field. We show the procedure to control the tip position of a gel manipulator by dynamically and slightly changing its whole configuration. Our work is a first step towards the shape control of gel robots.
Microfluidic Cell Culture Chambers with Nanoporous Walls for Chemical Communication

Reconstruction of phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing reveals that so far only a tiny fraction of microbial diversity has been cultured in the laboratory. One major reason behind this "unculturability" is that many microbes function in symbiosis, frequently exchanging metabolites to sustain their own metabolism, while key exchanged metabolites have hardly been identified. To advance the culturability of diverse microbes we propose a method to engineer a microfluidic co-culture platform, the Microfluidic Cell Culture Chambers, which mimics natural conditions for bacterial growth. The key innovation is to physically isolate bacteria while allowing chemical communication through metabolite diffusion. In this work, the device enables both high-throughput screening and real-time observation of bacterial growth. In our method, we use a porous material, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylateco-ethylene dimethacrylate) (HEMA-EDMA), to fabricate a microwell array with 105 individual culture chambers. Pore size of HEMA-EDMA was confirmed by ESEM imaging to be less than 200 nm, adequate for isolating all identified bacteria. We have video-recorded fluorescence labeled Escherichia coli swimming in confined HEMA-EDMA wells and observed that E. coli is unable to travel between culture chambers. Single-strain E. coli is cultured with the device to test biocompatibility of the device. Syntrophic pairs of E. coli were constructed to test the devices' ability to culture inter-dependent species with physical isolation. In future work, culture of quorum sensing strains is suggested to look into inter-species chemical communication in the Microfluidic Cell Culture Chambers. The future device may be applied to recover uncultured microbial species from natural habitat. Thesis Supervisor: Cullen R. Buie Title: Assistant Professor
Second-Hand Smoke Increases Bronchial Hyperreactivity and Eosinophilia in a Murine Model of Allergic Aspergillosis

Involuntary inhalation of tobacco smoke has been shown to aggravate the allergic response. Antibodies to fungal antigens such as Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) cause an allergic lung disease in humans. This study was carried out to determine the effect of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on a murine model of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA). BALB/c mice were exposed to aged and diluted sidestream cigarette smoke to simulate 'second-hand smoke'. The concentration was consistent with that achieved in enclosed public areas or households where multiple people smoke. During exposure, mice were sensitized to Af antigen intranasally. Mice that were sensitized to Af antigen and exposed to ETS developed significantly greater airway hyperreactivity than did mice similarly sensitized to Af but housed in ambient air. The effective concentration of aerosolized acetylcholine needed to double pulmonary flow resistance was significantly lower in Af + ETS mice compared to the Af + AIR mice. Immunological data that supports this exacerbation of airway hyperresponsiveness being mediated by an enhanced type 1 hypersensitivity response include: eosinophilia in peripheral blood and lung sections. All Af sensitized mice produced elevated levels of IL4, IL5 and IL10 but no IFN-γ indicating a polarized Th2 response. Thus, ETS can cause exacerbation of asthma in ABPA as demonstrated by functional airway hyperresponsiveness and elevated levels of blood eosinophilia.
Trustworthy Web Service Security Risk Assessment Research

Web service has been extensively applied in Internet, but it is vulnerable to vicious attacks too. Since it has been far from enough to solve the problems by technology only, security risk assessment, therefore, is demanded to find out the risks confronting web, consequently, for us to take effective measures to reduce and avoid them. Risk analysis is considered as an important process to identify the known and potential vulnerabilities and threats in the web service security. In this thesis, an effective security risk assessment system based on web service was achieved, bringing forward the process and arithmetic of security risk assessment. At last experiments indicated that this assessment has provided users with reliable warranty for the web risk administration.
Optimus: a dynamic rewriting framework for data-parallel execution plans

In distributed data-parallel computing, a user program is compiled into an execution plan graph (EPG), typically a directed acyclic graph. This EPG is the core data structure used by modern distributed execution engines for task distribution, job management, and fault tolerance. Once submitted for execution, the EPG remains largely unchanged at runtime except for some limited modifications. This makes it difficult to employ dynamic optimization techniques that could substantially improve the distributed execution based on runtime information. This paper presents Optimus, a framework for dynamically rewriting an EPG at runtime. Optimus extends dynamic rewrite mechanisms present in systems such as Dryad and CIEL by integrating rewrite policy with a high-level data-parallel language, in this case DryadLINQ. This integration enables optimizations that require knowledge of the semantics of the computation, such as language customizations for domain-specific computations including matrix algebra. We describe the design and implementation of Optimus, outline its interfaces, and detail a number of rewriting techniques that address problems arising in distributed execution including data skew, dynamic data re-partitioning, handling unbounded iterative computations, and protecting important intermediate data for fault tolerance. We evaluate Optimus with real applications and data and show significant performance gains compared to manual optimization or customized systems. We demonstrate the versatility of dynamic EPG rewriting for data-parallel computing, and argue that it is an essential feature of any general-purpose distributed dataflow execution engine.
On image-driven choice of wavelet basis for super resolution

We move closer to deriving an image-driven criteria for the choice of wavelets for single image super resolution (SR). We start with the hypothesis that higher edge densities are better reconstructed by wavelets with higher number of vanishing moments and smaller support size. We examine SR performance of different wavelets on image categories with different amount of details. We use the slope of log power spectral density as a proxy for edge density. The results strengthen our hypothesis. We also interpret the results of two metrics and conclude that SSIM is a better perceptual metric than PSNR because it measures preservation of edge reconstruction. We use a TCEM model for estimating detail coefficients due to its previously reported superior performance.
Towards an efficient partitioning decision process for embedded systems

Development process of advanced embedded industrial automation applications is highly sensitive to an efficient design approach. Widely used approaches in automation industry for design are based on both hardware and software expertise which are not often completely combined in synergic ways. Traditionally design starts too early and gets separated into hardware design and software design at very early stage which negatively impacts the overall application development process due to issues such as mutual flow interruptions and redesigns. In order to minimize or even overcome to the aforementioned issues, this paper presents and discusses a new systematic design approach able of enabling software-independent hardware design as well as hardwareindependent software design to a later stage and able of minimizing the hardware and software mutual dependencies after the separation which collectively improves the overall development process.
Pixel depth approach to deformed CAPTCHA skeleton

CAPTCHA is a standard security technology that presents test to tell computers and humans apart. Nowadays the most widely deployed CAPTCHAs are text-based schemes, which rely on sophisticated distortion of text images aimed at rendering them unrecognizable to the state of the art of pattern recognition methods. Generally, the skeletonization of character is acknowledged as one of the most significant parts in character recognition. The skeleton which keeps the topology information as well as reduces the computational complexity is an excellent and robust structural feature to noise and deformation. In this paper, a depth-based approach is proposed in order to locate the skeleton point. In order to strike the balance between efficiency and robustness against distortion, three fault tolerance techniques have been applied in the extraction process. Then in the amendment stage, we use noise patterns to filter redundant points. Experiments are conducted and positive results are achieved, which shows that the depth-based skeletonization scheme is applicable to the widely used CAPTCHA images, and the skeleton is robust against rotated, distorted or conglutinated characters.
RAC: a remote application calling framework for coordination of mobile apps

Mobile applications (apps) have become part of our everyday life with a constantly increasing market. Of particular interest are apps aiding planning and collaboration among family members, or between co-workers. The architecture of such apps usually involves some Cloud storage medium, through which group members post and retrieve data. Naturally, all participants must have the same app installed in their devices for collaboration to be possible. In this paper we investigate an alternative option instead of app collaboration which is based on remote application calling (RAC). Under the RAC framework, a trusted source is able to invoke application actions at other people's devices, without necessarily owning himself the application it handles. We discuss RAC design and implementation related issues, focusing on Android devices. The usability of our approach is demonstrated through two widely used apps: alarm clock and map.
Leukemoid reaction in pancreatic cancer: a case report and review of the literature.

CONTEXT The presentation of pancreatic cancer with a leukemoid reaction is rare with no prior reports in the English language literature. CASE REPORT We report a case of advanced pancreatic cancer presenting with leukemoid reaction. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor levels were normal while interleukin-6 was elevated. The patient had no evidence of infection. The leukemoid reaction correlated with tumor response. CONCLUSION This is the first case report in the English literature of a leukemoid paraneoplastic syndrome in a patient with pancreatic cancer. A clear correlation between tumor response, serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 levels and leukemoid reaction is documented.