Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study on Light Porous Unsintered Building Material

A light porous unsintered building material was prepared with red mud, fly ash, silica fume as the main raw materials, mixed with a certain amount of foam and curing agent, by the technology of casting and curing at ambient conditions. The influence of different ratio of red mud to fly ash on compressive strength was studied. The microstructure properties of light porous unsintered building material were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and then the strength mechanism was studied. The results showed that the optimum ratio of red mud to fly ash was 2:1, and for the best sample, its bulk density was 891kg•m-3, 7d and 28d compressive strength were 8.4MPa and 14.7MPa, thermal conductivity coefficient was 0.235W•(m•K)-1, which may have a broad application prospect in the building materials field.
Convex cost functions in blind equalization

Existing blind adaptive equalizers that use nonconvex cost functions and stochastic gradient descent suffer from lack of global convergence to an equalizer setup that removes sufficient ISI when an FIR equalizer is used. The authors impose convexity on the cost function and anchoring of the equalizer away from the all-zero setup. They establish that there exists a globally convergent blind equalization strategy for 1D pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) systems with bounded input data (discrete or continuous) even when the equalizer is truncated. The resulting cost function is a constrained l/sub 1/ norm of the joint impulse response of the channel and the equalizer. The results apply to arbitrary linear channels (provided there are no unit circle zeros) and apply regardless of the initial ISI (that is whether the eye is initially open or closed). They also show a globally convergent stochastic gradient scheme based on an implementable approximation of the l/sub 1/ cost function. >
A Paradox of Progressive Saturation: The Changing Nature of Improvisation over Time in a Systems Development Project

In this paper, we investigate improvisation in a systems development project within the context of safety-critical, rigid quality management standards. This study took place within a technology company in the automotive industry over a 31-month period and focused on the development of an innovative information system for automobiles. Our analysis traced different forms of improvised practice over the course of a systems development project at the company, along with various triggers of improvisation. We found that as the project progressed, the latitude to improvise became saturated by the increasing structural influences on improvisation. Yet, paradoxically, these structural influences provoked developers to improvise in ways that were progressively more innovative by drawing on accumulated knowledge; we call this phenomenon a ‘paradox of progressive saturation’. The study identifies ten forms of improvisation unfolding across different stages of a systems development project. We offer a conceptualization of the paradox of progressive saturation to represent the changing nature of improvisation over time, which contributes to the literature on improvisation in information systems development.
The corneal surface of aquatic vertebrates: microstructures with optical and nutritional function?

The anterior surface of the mammalian cornea plays an important role in maintaining a smooth optical interface and consequently a sharp retinal image. The smooth surface is produced by a tear film, which adheres to a variety of microprojections, which increase the cell surface area, improve the absorbance of oxygen and nutrients and aid in the movement of metabolic products across the outer cell membrane. However, little is known of the structural adaptations and tear film support provided in other vertebrates from different environments. Using field emission scanning electron microscopy; this study examines the density and surface structure of corneal epithelial cells in representative species of the classes Cephalaspidomorphi, Chondrichthyes, Osteichthyes, Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves and Mammalia, including some Marsupialia. Variations in cell density and the structure and occurrence of microholes, microridges, microplicae and microvilli are described with respect to the demands placed upon the cornea in different aquatic environments such as marine and freshwater. A progressive decrease in epithelial cell density occurs from marine (e.g. 29348 cells mm(-2) in the Dover sole Microstomius pacficus) to estuarine or freshwater (e.g. 5999 cells mm(-2) in the black bream Acanthopagrus butcheri) to terrestrial (e.g. 2126 cells mm(-2) in the Australian koala Phascolarctos cinereus) vertebrates, indicating the reduction in osmotic stress across the corneal surface. The microholes found in the Southern Hemisphere lampreys, namely the pouched lamprey (Geotria australis) and the shorthead lamprey (Mordacia mordax) represent openings for the release of mucus, which may protect the cornea from abrasion during their burrowing phase. Characteristic of marine teleosts, fingerprint-like patterns of corneal microridges are a ubiquitous feature, covering many types of sensory epithelia (including the olfactory epithelium and the oral mucosa). Like microplicae and microvilli, microridges stabilize the tear film to maintain a smooth optical surface and increase the surface area of the epithelium, assisting in diffusion and active transport. The clear interspecific differences in corneal surface structure suggest an adaptive plasticity in the composition and stabilization of the corneal tear film in various aquatic environments.
Xeroderma pigmentosum group D haplotype predicts for response, survival, and toxicity after platinum‐based chemotherapy in advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer

The treatment of lung cancer has reached a therapeutic plateau. Several mechanisms of platinum resistance have been described, including the removal of platinum‐DNA adduct by nucleotide excision repair (NER). Polymorphisms within the Xeroderma pigmentosum Group D protein (XPD), a member of the NER pathway, are associated with alterations in enzyme activity and may change sensitivity to platinum‐based chemotherapy. The authors investigated the relation between XPD polymorphisms and treatment response, toxicity, and overall survival in patients who received platinum‐based chemotherapy for advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Detecting Semantic Errors in SQL Queries

We investigate classes of SQL queries which are syntactically correct, but certainly not intended, no matter for which task the query was written. For instance, queries that are contradictory, i.e. always return the empty set, are quite often written in exams of database courses. Current database management systems, e.g. Oracle, execute such queries without any warning. In this paper, we explain serveral classes of such errors, and give algorithms for detecting them. Of course, questions like the satisfiability are in general undecidable, but our algorithm can treat a significant subset of SQL queries. We believe that future database management systems will perform such checks and that the generated warnings will help to develop code with fewer bugs in less time.
Learning-Based Multi-controller Coordination for Self-Optimization

A complex software system may have hundreds of tuning parameters with both itself and its runtime environments. To perform optimally at runtime, a self-adaptive system often needs to employ a series of controllers to tune different parameters. In most cases, these parameters are not independent but interact with each other, thus demanding effective coordination among different controllers. Due to system complexity and the uncertain and changing environments, there are usually no explicit relationships among relevant controlled parameters. In this paper, we propose a learning-based approach to achieve effective coordination among multiple controllers for self-optimization. Based on specific controllers for different controlled parameters, our approach uses an additional coordinator to adaptively switch among different controllers. A learning-based algorithm is adopted to continually evaluate the effectiveness of each controller, providing decision basis for the coordination. The results of our experimental study with a Web-based system show that our approach can significantly improve the effectiveness of self-optimization with coordination among multiple controllers.
A Comparison of the Commonsense and Fixed Point Theories of Nonmonotonicity

The mathematical fixed point theories of nonmonotonic reasoning are examined and compared to a commonsense theory of nonmonotonic reasoning which models our intuitive ability to reason about defaults. It is shown that all of the known problems of the fixed point theories are solved by the commonsense theory. The concepts of this commonsense theory do not involve mathematical fixed points, but instead are explicitly defined in a monotonic modal quantificational logic which captures the modal notion of logical truth.
Differential and Dynamic Localization of Topoisomerases in Bacillus subtilis

ABSTRACT Visualization of topoisomerases in live Bacillus subtilis cells showed that Topo I, Topo IV, and DNA gyrase differentially localize on the nucleoids but are absent at cytosolic spaces surrounding the nucleoids, suggesting that these topoisomerases interact with many regions of the chromosome. While both subunits of Topo IV were uniformly distributed throughout the nucleoids, Topo I and gyrase formed discrete accumulations, or foci, on the nucleoids in a large fraction of the cells, which showed highly dynamic movements. Three-dimensional time lapse microscopy showed that gyrase foci accumulate and dissipate within a 1-min time scale, revealing dynamic assembly and disassembly of subcelluar topoisomerase centers. Gyrase centers frequently colocalized with the central DNA replication machinery, suggesting a major role for gyrase at the replication fork, while Topo I foci were frequently close to or colocalized with the structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) chromosome segregation complex. The findings suggest that different areas of supercoiling exist on the B. subtilis nucleoids, which are highly dynamic, with a high degree of positive supercoiling attracting gyrase to the replication machinery and areas of negative supercoiling at the bipolar SMC condensation centers recruiting Topo I.
Globalization and Income Inequality

This paper discusses the distributive consequences of trade flows in developing countries (DCs). On the theoretical side, we argue that the interplays between international openness and technology adoption may constitute an important mechanism leading to a possible increase of income differentials in the liberalizing DCs, trough skill enhancing trade. We use a dynamic specification to estimate the impact of trade on within-country income inequality in a sample of 70 DCs over the 1980-1999 period. Our results suggest that total aggregate trade flows are weakly related with income inequality. However, once we disaggregate total trade flows according to their areas of origin/destination, we find that trade with high income countries worsen income distribution in DCs, both through imports and exports. This finding provides a preliminary support to the hypothesis that technological differentials between trading partners are important in shaping the distributive effects of trade openness. Moreover, after testing for the differential impact of trade in middle income DCs vs low income ones, we observe that the previous result only holds for middle income countries (MICs). We interpret this evidence by considering the greater potential for technological upgrading in MICs both in terms of their higher “absorptive capacity” and in terms of their superior ability in serving the differentiated and high-quality markets of the developed world.
Network Economics Considerations for Incremental Data Services in Heterogeneous Wireless Wide Area Networks

This paper discusses three current and emerging heterogeneous wireless wide area network architectures, namely, relay-based, direct-access-based, and whitespace-based, architectures that can support incremental wireless data services. For such heterogeneous architectures, the paper suggests a method to estimate the pricing for an incremental wireless data services around an established mean state of utilization of available wireless capacity in a wireless network. A 6-tuple (μ, σ, λ, A, B, K) is defined as the network state, and the cost, revenue, and profit from incremental data services are provided. The modeling is general and is applicable to different operator networks.
Experimental Study on Strain and Damage Inspection of Cementitious Composites In-Filled with Graphene Nanoplatelets

Recent investigations show that graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) are promising nanosized additives to enhance the smartness of cementitious composites. To investigate the strain variation of smart cementitious composites in-filled with GNPs, a cyclic compressive load within elastic regime is employed on a mortar specimen containing 6.4% GNPs (by the amount of cement) when the electrical resistance is being measured. Additionally, the damage of the smart mortar specimen is shown according to the curve of the relationship between resistance and external force. The results show that the strain is linearly proportional with the resistance variation within elastic regime. The gradient of the resistance can show the damage status during loading failure pressure.
Single underwater image restoration by blue-green channels dehazing and red channel correction

Restoring underwater image from a single image is know to be ill-posed, and some assumptions made in previous methods are not suitable for many situations. In this paper, we propose a method based on blue-green channels dehazing and red channel correction for underwater image restoration. Firstly, blue-green channels are recovered via dehazing algorithm based on an extension and modification of Dark Channel Prior algorithm. Then, red channel is corrected following the Gray-World assumption theory. Finally, in order to resolve the problem which some recovered image regions may look too dim or too bright, an adaptive exposure map is built. Qualitative analysis demonstrates that our method significantly improves visibility and contrast, and reduces the effects of light absorption and scattering. For quantitative analysis, our results obtain best values in terms of entropy, local feature points and average gradient, which outperform three existing physical model available methods.
Video encoder optimization for efficient video analysis in resource-limited systems

Performance of real-time video processing applications such as surveillance systems, content-based search, is limited by the complexity of video content analysis in the pixel domain. A low complex alternative is to analyse the video in the compressed domain, where content features already available in the compressed video are directly used in the analysis. However, this is achieved at the expense of output precision and reliability, due to compression-efficiency driven feature selection at the encoder. Therefore, video applications could benefit from enhanced reliability of data embedded in the compressed video. In this paper, we present a scalable optimization model that addresses the accuracy of content features in parallel with the conventional rate-distortion optimization criterion. We analyse and optimize rate-distortion performance of video encoder under content description accuracy constrain, using a motion calibrated synthetic data set containing a range of scene and motion complexity levels. Finally, using a natural video data set, we demonstrate that the proposed optimization framework can be used to enhance compressed feature accuracy without incurring a rate-distortion overhead.
Adaptive integrated vehicle control using active front steering and rear torque vectoring

This work studies the combination of active front steering with rear torque vectoring actuators in an integrated controller to guarantee vehicle stability/trajectory tracking. Adaptive feedback technique has been used to design the controller. The feedback linearization is applied to cancel the nonlinearities in the input-output dynamics, leading to closed-loop dynamics diffeomorphic to a linear system. Parameter adaptation then is used to robustify the exact cancellation of the nonlinear terms. Some first results are here obtained, showing improved tracking performance when important parameters, like mass, inertia or tire stiffness, are affected by relevant estimation errors.
Wireless communication between AGVs (autonomous guided vehicles) and the industrial network CAN (controller area network)

The wireless communications and industrial networks are two powerful technologies for the rapidly growing manufacturing industry. The combination of the above is the key to productivity with the lowest possible cost. The technology of wireless AGVs is mature enough to be widely utilized to industrial automation. In addition, the development of industrial network CAN is able to offer a robust and low cost solution to machinery networking. Fast AGVs, with obstacle avoidance capability, can maneuver themselves among distant manufacturing lines carrying components to each of them. The expensive long and slow conveyor belts are not necessary anymore. Furthermore, the wireless integration of AGVs to the global industrial network makes them programmable from any terminal controller at any time. This feature gives a great flexibility to the whole automation to manufacture different products in the future, without the necessity of new machinery re-allocation and, therefore, lower cost.
Architecture of the Open-source Clinical Research Chart from Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside

The Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2) is one of the sponsored initiatives of the NIH Roadmap National Centers for Biomedical Computing (http://www.bisti.nih.gov/ncbc/). One of the goals of i2b2 is to provide clinical investigators broadly with the software tools necessary to collect and manage project-related clinical research data in the genomics age as a cohesive entity, a software suite to construct and manage the modern clinical research chart. The i2b2 "hive" is a set of software modules called "cells" that have a common messaging protocol that allow them to interact using web services and XML messages. Each cell can be developed by independent investigators to achieve specific analytic goals, and then be integrated into the hive to enhance the functionality available in the i2b2 Hive. We have applied this architecture through several ongoing clinical studies and found it to be of high value. The current version of this software has been released into the public domain and is available at the URL-http://www.i2b2. org.
Detection of viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in retail pasteurized whole milk by two culture methods and PCR.

Cattle with Johne's disease can shed live Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) in their milk, and MAP can survive under simulated commercial pasteurization conditions. In several studies conducted in the United Kingdom and Canada, MAP DNA has been detected in retail pasteurized milk samples; however, in one study in the United Kingdom viable MAP was identified in commercially pasteurized milk. A double-blind study involving two laboratories was undertaken to evaluate retail pasteurized whole milk in the United States. Marshfield Clinic Laboratories used solid culture medium (Herrold's egg yolk agar slants with mycobactin J and amphotericin B, nalidixic acid, and vancomycin), and TREK Diagnostic Systems, Research and Development used liquid culture medium (ESP culture system). Cultures at both laboratories were eonfirmed by PCR. A total of 702 pints of retail whole milk were purchased in three of the top five milk-producing states (233 from California, 234 from Minnesota, and 235 from Wisconsin) over a 12-month period and were tested for the presence of viable MAP. The criteria used for identifying samples as positive for viable MAP were similar to those followed by most laboratories (positive culture with PCR confirmation). The combined data from the two laboratories revealed the presence of viable MAP in 2.8% of the retail whole milk pints tested. Although the number of samples containing viable MAP was similar among states (P > 0.05), there was a seasonal effect on the presence of viable MAP in retail milk (P = 0.05). More MAP-positive samples were identified during the third quarter of the year (July through September). Of the 22 brands of retail milk tested, 12 (55%) yielded at least one sample positive for viable MAP.
JESTKOD database: Dyadic interaction analysis

In the nature of human-to-human communication, gesture and speech co-exist in time with a tight synchrony. We tend to use gestures to complement or to emphasize speech. In this study we present the JESTKOD database, which will be a valuable asset to examine gesture and speech in defining more natural human-computer interaction systems. This JESTKOD database consists of speech and motion capture data recordings of dyadic interactions under friendly and unfriendly interaction scenarios. In this paper we present our multimodal data collection process as well as the early experimental studies on friendly/unfriendly classification of dyadic interactions using body gesture and speech data.
Multiple Export Mechanisms for mRNAs

Nuclear mRNA export plays an important role in gene expression. We describe the mechanisms of mRNA export including the importance of mRNP assembly, docking with the nuclear basket of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), transit through the central channel of the NPC and cytoplasmic release. We describe multiple mechanisms of mRNA export including NXF1 and CRM1 mediated pathways. Selective groups of mRNAs can be preferentially transported in order to respond to cellular stimuli. RNAs can be selected based on the presence of specific cis-acting RNA elements and binding of specific adaptor proteins. The role that dysregulation of this process plays in human disease is also discussed.