Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal control of heavy haul train on steep downward slope

In this paper, we investigate the optimal control problem of heavy haul train on steep downward slope. Aiming to reduce train's maintenance cost and, most importantly, to ensure operation safety, a multi-stage dynamic programming model is formulated with the minimized in-train forces criteria. To solve the proposed model, this paper introduces a Q-learning algorithm considering operational requirements and the characteristics of air braking. As the size of a standard lookup table increases exponentially, we improve the computational performance and solution quality by maintaining a bounded lookup table. The computational results demonstrate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed model and algorithm.
Speech Act Modeling of Written Asynchronous Conversations with Task-Specific Embeddings and Conditional Structured Models

This paper addresses the problem of speech act recognition in written asynchronous conversations (e.g., fora, emails). We propose a class of conditional structured models defined over arbitrary graph structures to capture the conversational dependencies between sentences. Our models use sentence representations encoded by a long short term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural model. Empirical evaluation shows the effectiveness of our approach over existing ones: (i) LSTMs provide better task-specific representations, and (ii) the global joint model improves over local models.
Preventive effect of resistant starch on activated carbon-induced constipation in mice

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of resistant starch (RS) on activated carbon-induced constipation in ICR mice. ICR mice were fed on diet containing 15% RS of type RS2, RS3 or RS4 for 9 days. Gastrointestinal transit, defecation time and intestinal tissue histopathological sections, as well as motilin (MTL), gastrin (Gas), endothelin (ET), somatostatin (SS), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), substance P (SP) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) levels in serum were used to evaluate the preventive effects of RS on constipation. Bisacodyl, a laxative drug, was used as a positive control. The time to the first black stool defecation for normal, control, bisacodyl-treated (100 mg/kg, oral administration) and RS2-, RS3- and RS4-treated mice was 78, 208, 109, 181, 144 and 173 min, respectively. Following the consumption of RS2, RS3 and RS4 or the oral administration of bisacodyl (100 mg/kg), the gastrointestinal transit was reduced to 37.7, 52.1, 39.3 and 87.3%, respectively, of the transit in normal mice, respectively. Histopathological sections of intestinal tissue also underscored the protective effect of RS3. The serum levels of MTL, Gas, ET, AChE, SP and VIP were significantly increased and the serum levels of SS were reduced in the mice treated with RS compared with those in the untreated control mice (P<0.05). These results demonstrate that RS has preventive effects on mouse constipation and RS3 demonstrated the best functional activity.
T Cell-Associated Antigen through Prolonged T Cell Response to + of the CD8 Direct Presentation Regulates the Magnitude

The magnitude and complexity of Ag-speciﬁc CD8 + T cell responses is determined by intrinsic properties of the immune system and extrinsic factors, such as vaccination. We evaluated mechanisms that regulate the CD8 + T cell response to two distinct determinants derived from the same protein Ag, SV40 T Ag (T Ag), following immunization of C57BL/6 mice with T Ag-transformed cells. The results show that direct presentation of T cell determinants by T Ag-transformed cells regulates the magnitude of the CD8 + T cell response in vivo but not the immunodominance hierarchy. The immunodominance hierarchy was reversed in a dose-dependent manner by addition of excess naive T cells targeting the subdominant determinant. However, T cell competition played only a minor role in limiting T cell accumulation under physiological conditions. We found that the magnitude of the T cell response was regulated by the ability of T Ag-transformed cells to directly present the T Ag determinants. The hierarchy of the CD8 + T cell response was maintained when Ag presentation in vivo was restricted to cross-presentation, but the presence of T Ag-transformed cells capable of direct presentation dramatically enhanced T cell accumulation at the peak of the response. This enhancement was due to a prolonged period of T cell proliferation, resulting in a delay in T cell contraction. Our ﬁndings reveal that direct presentation by nonprofes-sional APCs can dramatically enhance accumulation of CD8 + T cells during the primary response, revealing a potential strategy to enhance vaccination approaches. The Journal of Immunology , 2010, 185: 2763–2772. the in vivo cytotoxicity assay provided an approach for earlier detection of T Ag epitope sp. act. relative to MHC tetramer analysis. These results demonstrate that the kinetics of early detection correspond to the immunodominance hierarchy observed previously at the numeric peak of the response (33), with activity against site IV detected 24 h prior to activity against site I. observed following immunization with full-length T Ag (33). These results indicate that the observed immunodominance of CD8 + T cells responding to site IV versus
Study of SUSY particles properties at the future International Linear Collider with the International Large Detector

Recently, Letters of Intent (LoI) for experiments at the International Linear Collider (ILC) have been submitted. Among the three proposals is the International Large Detector (ILD) concept for which a wide spectrum of studies of SUSY particle properties is presented here. Most of them are benchmark reactions for the ILC and can be used both in physics studies and in work on detector design and optimization, respectively. All studies were performed with a full detector simulation using GEANT4. The importance of this fully detailed simulation is reflected in the results. The presented analyzes have been chosen to be the most challenging for the detector to study its performance and guide the detector development. Additionally the problem of unavoidable beam induced backgrounds at linear colliders is addressed and ways of reducing its impact on physics studies are shown for an example SUSY analysis.
Design of variable-rate irregular LDPC codes with low error floor

In this paper we propose a semi-random technique to design irregular LDPC codes with low error floor. In particular, the suggested technique is related to a popular class of irregular LDPC codes that can be encoded in linear time, and tries to avoid both low-weight codewords and near-codewords, which limit the performance of the belief propagation decoder. Besides, an easy and effective rule to design puncturing patterns for this class of LDPC codes is provided. The effectiveness of the new design criteria is proved by comparison with literature results.
Human Action Recognition With Multiple-Instance Markov Model

Recognizing human actions in complex scenes is a challenging problem due to background clutters, camera motion, occlusions, and illumination variations. Markov models are widely used to model temporal statistical relationships among elementary actions for human action recognition. However, traditional Markov models cannot model long-range temporal relations for complex activities, and the states of elementary actions may be unstable due to unwanted background local features. In this paper, we propose a multiple-instance Markov model for human action recognition to address these issues. Our contributions are twofold. First, a novel representation for elementary actions is proposed to encode the movements of local parts. Based on this representation, our method selects elementary actions with stable states due to our multiple-instance formulation. Second, we build multiple Markov chains, which encode both local and long-range temporal information among elementary actions, to represent each video. Multiple-instance formulation allows our model to capture the most discriminative Markov chain for action representation. We evaluate the proposed model on a variety of data sets. Experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness for human action recognition.
Novel Lycorine Derivatives as Anticancer Agents: Synthesis and In Vitro Biological Evaluation

Lycorine, which is the most abundant alkaloid isolated from the Amaryllidaceae family of plants, reportedly exhibits promising anticancer activities. Herein, a series of novel lycorine derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro inhibitory activities against seven different cancer cell lines, including A549, HCT116, SK-OV-3, NCI-H460, K562, MCF-7 and HL-60. The results indicated that compounds bearing diverse amine substituents at the C-2 position demonstrated good anticancer activities. The selectivity towards different cancer cell lines of the synthesized derivatives is discussed.
Histochemical study of retinal photoreceptors development during pre- and postnatal period and their association with retinal pigment epithelium

Objective(s): The aim of this study was to evaluate distribution and changes of glycoconjugates of retinal photoreceptors during both pre- and postnatal development. Materials and Methods: Tissue sections from days 15 to 20 of Wistar rat embryos and 1 to 12 postnatal days of rat newborns including developing eye were prepared for lectinhistochemistry technique. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled lectins including Vicia villosa (VVA), peanut agglutinin (PNA), Maclura pomifera (MPA) and wheat germ agglutinin (WGA-ІІ) were used. Alcian blue (pH 2.5) was used for counterstaining. Results: Interphotoreceptor matrix (IPM) plays a crucial role in photoreceptors differentiation and acts as a mediator in interactions between photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Specific cell surface glycoconjugates secreted from cone cells could help us to distinguish these cells from rod photoreceptors. Our results for the first time revealed the strong reaction of cone photoreceptors with the cone-specific lectin (PNA) at postnatal day 12 (P12). Postnatal day 12 can be determined as the final differentiation of cone photoreceptors. Conclusion: According to our findings, we suggest that the generation of the eye photoreceptors begins from pre- natal period and their final differentiations will continue to postnatal period. Glycoconjugates including (β-D-Gal [1-3]-D-GalNac) and (β-D-Gal) terminal sugars play a critical role in the pre- and postnatal development and differentiation of retinal photoreceptors.
Applying gene flow science to environmental policy needs: a boundary work perspective

One application of gene flow science is the policy arena. In this article, we describe two examples in which the topic of gene flow has entered into the U.S. national environmental policymaking process: regulation of genetically engineered crops and clarification of the jurisdictional scope of the Clean Water Act. We summarize both current scientific understanding and the legal context within which gene flow science has relevance. We also discuss the process by which scientific knowledge has been synthesized and communicated to decision‐makers in these two contexts utilizing the concept of ‘boundary work’. Boundary organizations, the work they engage in to bridge the worlds of science, policy, and practice, and the boundary objects they produce to translate scientific knowledge existed in both examples. However, the specific activities and attributes of the objects produced varied based on the needs of the decision‐makers. We close with suggestions for how scientists can contribute to or engage in boundary work with policymakers.
Fluid and fuel intake during exercise

The amounts of water, carbohydrate and salt that athletes are advised to ingest during exercise are based upon their effectiveness in attenuating both fatigue as well as illness due to hyperthermia, dehydration or hyperhydration. When possible, fluid should be ingested at rates that most closely match sweating rate. When that is not possible or practical or sufficiently ergogenic, some athletes might tolerate body water losses amounting to 2% of body weight without significant risk to physical well-being or performance when the environment is cold (e.g. 5–10°C) or temperate (e.g. 21–22°C). However, when exercising in a hot environment ( >30°C), dehydration by 2% of body weight impairs absolute power production and predisposes individuals to heat injury. Fluid should not be ingested at rates in excess of sweating rate and thus body water and weight should not increase during exercise. Fatigue can be reduced by adding carbohydrate to the fluids consumed so that 30–60 g of rapidly absorbed carbohydrate are ingested throughout each hour of an athletic event. Furthermore, sodium should be included in fluids consumed during exercise lasting longer than 2 h or by individuals during any event that stimulates heavy sodium loss (more than 3–4 g of sodium). Athletes do not benefit by ingesting glycerol, amino acids or alleged precursors of neurotransmitter. Ingestion of other substances during exercise, with the possible exception of caffeine, is discouraged. Athletes will benefit the most by tailoring their individual needs for water, carbohydrate and salt to the specific challenges of their sport, especially considering the environment's impact on sweating and heat stress.
Head and Eye Movement as Pointing Modalities for Eyewear Computers

While the new generation of eyewear computers have increased expectations of a wearable computer, providing input to these devices is still challenging. Hand-held devices, voice commands, and hand gestures have already been explored to provide input to the wearable devices. In this paper, we examined using head and eye movements to point on a graphical user interface of a wearable computer. The performance of users in head and eye pointing has been compared with mouse pointing as a baseline method. The result of our experiment showed that the eye pointing is significantly faster than head or mouse pointing, however, our participants thought that the head pointing is more accurate and convenient.
3D Reconstruction based on Semantic Information for Architectural Applications

This paper presents the results of a feasibility study concerning the use of semantic information for the simplification of 3D reconstruction for architectural objects using data from in-and outside of a digitised building. The paper gives an overview to actual techniques for the spatial digitisation of buildings and their 3D reconstruction and shows a way to use semantic information for improvements. The approach of this paper is new, because it uses a semantic characteristics for the geometrical correction of spatial models derived from scanned or photogrammetric data.
Stereo Vision System on Programmable Chip (SVSoC) for Small Robot Navigation

In this paper, we present a stereo vision system on programmable chip (SVSoC) for dense depth mapping and obstacle detection at video rate. The system is composed of three miniature CMOS cameras with triangular configuration and one FPGA chip for parallel computing. The system algorithm contains nonlinear iteration based cooperative algorithm for high quality dense depth mapping, ground extraction and obstacle location from dense depth maps. With the connection of DSP for moving control, the system is mounted on small hexapod robot for obstacle avoidance and navigation
Query Expansion Using SNOMED-CT and Weighing Schemes

Abstract : Despite all the advancements that have been made in the field of Information Retrieval there are still so many challenges. These challenges are magnified when the information that is being retrieved is in a specialized domain such as healthcare. In order to tackle these challenges and encourage research in these domains, TREC (Text RETrival Conference) has instituted a Clinical Track in 2014. This paper is the result of participation in 2014 TREC Clinical Track. It entails the approach and the results that were obtained by utilizing Ontology to expand the original topics. Ontology was used in order to improve the quality of the terms present in the queries or topics, so that the queries are better structured, and they can better target documents of interest. The value that each term brings to the result was measured by way of weighing method algorithms in the retrieval system, BM25 and InL2c1. For this research, we have used SNOMED-CT along with UMLS Methathesaurus as our ontology in medical domain to expand the queries.
Radiation Prescreening of SIOS Optical Link

We present radiation data, Total Ionizing Dose, Displacement Damage Dose and proton induced Single Event Effects, on the DAS Photonics SIOS optical link transceiver. These tests have been performed for a radiation prescreening helping for the selection of parts used in the transceiver. A SIOS optical link demonstration board will be flown on ALPHASAT.
NONLINEAR REALIZATIONS OF CHIRAL SYMMETRY.

We explore possible realizations of chiral symmetry, based on isotopic multiplets of fields whose transformation rules involve only isotopic-spin matrices and the pion field. The transformation rules are unique, up to possible redefinitions of the pion field. Chiral-invariant Lagrangians can be constructed by forming isotopic-spin-conserving functions of a covariant pion derivative, plus other fields and their covariant derivatives. The resulting models are essentially equivalent to those that have been derived by treating chirality as an ordinary linear symmetry broken by the vacuum, except that we do not have to commit ourselves as to the grouping of hadrons into chiral multiplets; as a result, the unrenormalized value of gAgV need not be unity. We classify the possible choices of the chiral-symmetry-breaking term in the Lagrangian according to their chiral transformation properties, and give the values of the pion-pion scattering lengths for each choice. If the symmetry-breaking term has the simplest possible transformation properties, then the scattering lengths are those previously derived from current algebra. An alternative method of constructing chiral-invariant Lagrangians, using ρ mesons to form covariant derivatives, is also presented. In this formalism, ρ dominance is automatic, and the current-algebra result from the ρ-meson coupling constant arises from the independent assumption that ρ mesons couple universally to pions and other particles. Including ρ mesons in the Lagrangian has no effect on the π−π scattering lengths, because chiral invariance requires that we also include direct pion self-couplings which cancel the ρ-exchange diagrams for pion energies near threshold.
Analysis of SIGMOD's co-authorship graph

In this paper we investigate the co-authorship graph obtained from all papers published at SIGMOD between 1975 and 2002. We find some interesting facts, for instance, the identity of the authors who, on average, are "closest" to all other authors at a given time. We also show that SIGMOD's co-authorship graph is yet another example of a small world---a graph topology which has received a lot of attention recently. A companion web site for this paper can be found at http://db.cs. ualberta.ca/coauthorship.
Fault detection for networked systems with uncertain time-delay and packet dropout using delta operator

This paper addresses the problem of observer-based fault detection for networked control systems (NCSs) with uncertain time-delays and data packet dropouts. The uncertain time-varying delays and packet dropouts of NCSs are modeled as parameter uncertainties of the NCSs and a stochastic variable satisfying Bernoulli distribution, respectively. Combining with the delta operator theory, a new discrete model is constructed to depict the behavior of the NCSs. Then, based on the established model, an observer-based H∞ fault detection filter is proposed to guarantee the stability of the delta operator system and the sufficient conditions of the H∞ performance for the filtering error system are derived with linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) and Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional technique. The parameters of the filter are solved via LMI toolbox. A simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Woody Biomass for Bioenergy and Biofuels in the United States- A Briefing Paper

Executive Summary Forests are expected to have an important role in climate change mitigation under future climate change policy. Currently, much of the interest in forests centers on the opportunity to sequester carbon as part of a cap and trade policy. In addition to sequestering emitted carbon, forest resources reduce carbon emissions at the source when substituted for the fossil fuels currently used to generate heat, electricity, and transportation fuels. Woody biomass can be used to generate heat or electricity solely or in combination in a combined heat and power plant. Currently, there is significant investment being made to improve the efficiency of bioenergy production from woody biomass and the use of combined heat and power (CHP) plants is a significant component of that effort. One challenge to widespread adoption of CHP plants by the electrical sector in the U.S. is the current general paucity of U.S. centralized heating districts (with some important exceptions such district heating systems in Manhattan, NY and St. Paul, MN). Centralized heating districts have historically been more commonplace in Europe and there CHP plants often have ready access to consumers of hot water and steam. The technology to convert woody biomass to ethanol is established, but no commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plants are currently in operation. As an energy feedstock, woody biomass can be used alone or in combination with other energy sources, such as coal. Current U.S. annual energy consumption is about 100 quadrillion (10 15) BTUs. About 2 percent of the energy consumed annually in the U.S. is generated from wood and wood-derived fuels. Of the renewable energy consumed (including that from hydroelectric dams), 27 percent is generated from wood and wood-derived fuels. The majority of bioenergy produced from woody biomass is consumed by the industrial sector— mostly at pulp and paper mills using heat and/or electricity produced onsite from mill residues. 2 Department of Energy baseline projections indicate that wood and wood derived fuels will account for 9 percent of the energy consumed in 2030. Climate change policies that promote bioenergy production could lead to greater future woody biomass energy consumption. One dry ton of woody biomass can generate about 17.2 million (10 6) BTUs of energy. A number of existing studies report the " available " amounts of woody biomass. The definition of " available " in these studies ranges from reporting all biomass to reporting only biomass available at a …
A simulation model of the locomotion controllers for the

This paper presents a simple yet biologicallygrounded model of the C. elegans neural circuit for forward locomotive control. The model considers a limited subset of the C. elegans nervous system, within a minimal two-dimensional environment. Despite its reductionist approach, this model is sufficiently rich to generate patterns of undulations that are reminiscent of the biological worm’s behaviour and qualitatively similar to patterns which have been shown to generate locomotion in a model of a richer physical environment. Interestingly, and contrary to conventional wisdom about neural circuits for motor control, our results are consistent with the conjecture that the worm may be relying on feedback from the shape of its body to generate undulations that propel it forward or backward.