Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Joint optimization of polar codes and STBCs

Space-time block codes (STBCs) have been designed and used to achieve the diversity and multiplexing gains in multiple antenna systems. STBCs have been typically designed based on rank and determinant criteria which can provide good performance at high signal-tonoise ratios (SNRs). Later, STBCs are designed based on mutual information to provide good performance at a specific SNR corresponding to the forward error correction (FEC) code rate. However, once the FEC code and STBC are concatenated, to achieve the best performance, STBC should be designed by considering the structure of the FEC code and the corresponding decoder in addition to the code rate. Polar codes are a new class of FEC codes that benefit from a variety of low complexity decoders and simple rate matching. Polar codes can be efficiently designed for a specific channel and STBC. Therefore, by changing the parameters of a specific STBC and optimizing the polar code for each new STBC, the best match between polar codes and STBCs can be found. Throughout this paper, we introduce a simple method for joint optimization of polar codes and STBCs and show that it can substantially improve the performance of the concatenated scheme.
Review Paper: The Shape of Phylogenetic Treespace

Abstract Trees are a canonical structure for representing evolutionary histories. Many popular criteria used to infer optimal trees are computationally hard, and the number of possible tree shapes grows super‐exponentially in the number of taxa. The underlying structure of the spaces of trees yields rich insights that can improve the search for optimal trees, both in accuracy and in running time, and the analysis and visualization of results. We review the past work on analyzing and comparing trees by their shape as well as recent work that incorporates trees with weighted branch lengths.
On neural systems for speech and song in autism.

Sir, Lai et al. (2012) explored the preserved musical abilities in those with autism in association with language disabilities. They reported no differences in structural neural pathways between those with and without autism, and that functional systems that process speech and song were more effectively engaged for song than speech in autism. There is one study that could dampen their hopes of finding specific structural differences that could account for preserving musical abilities while hindering speech. Schwartz et al. (2003) showed that the frequency ratios used as the building blocks of music (i.e. the chromatic scale) are embedded into all human languages. Statistical analysis of thousands of snippets of languages from around the world demonstrated a concentration of frequency ratios that are identical to those in the chromatic scale. Subsets of the chromatic scale form the basis for virtually all of human musical scales found across geography and time. Thus, music and speech are intimately …
Nitrous oxide emissions 1999 to 2009 from a global atmospheric inversion

Abstract. N2O surface fluxes were estimated for 1999 to 2009 using a time-dependent Bayesian inversion technique. Observations were drawn from 5 different networks, incorporating 59 surface sites and a number of ship-based measurement series. To avoid biases in the inverted fluxes, the data were adjusted to a common scale and scale offsets were included in the optimization problem. The fluxes were calculated at the same resolution as the transport model (3.75° longitude × 2.5° latitude) and at monthly time resolution. Over the 11-year period, the global total N2O source varied from 17.5 to 20.1 Tg a−1 N. Tropical and subtropical land regions were found to consistently have the highest N2O emissions, in particular in South Asia (20 ± 3% of global total), South America (13 ± 4%) and Africa (19 ± 3%), while emissions from temperate regions were smaller: Europe (6 ± 1%) and North America (7 ± 2%). A significant multi-annual trend in N2O emissions (0.045 Tg a−2 N) from South Asia was found and confirms inventory estimates of this trend. Considerable interannual variability in the global N2O source was observed (0.8 Tg a−1 N, 1 standard deviation, SD) and was largely driven by variability in tropical and subtropical soil fluxes, in particular in South America (0.3 Tg a−1 N, 1 SD) and Africa (0.3 Tg a−1 N, 1 SD). Notable variability was also found for N2O fluxes in the tropical and southern oceans (0.15 and 0.2 Tg a−1 N, 1 SD, respectively). Interannual variability in the N2O source shows some correlation with the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), where El Nino conditions are associated with lower N2O fluxes from soils and from the ocean and vice versa for La Nina conditions.
Understanding stakeholder preferences for flood adaptation alternatives with natural capital implications

Inland flood risks are defined by a range of environmental and social factors, including land use and floodplain management. Shifting patterns of storm intensity and precipitation, attributed to climate change, are exacerbating flood risk in regions across North America. Strategies for adapting to growing flood risks and climate change must account for a community’s specific vulnerabilities, and its local economic, environmental, and social conditions. Through a stakeholder-engaged methodology, we designed an interactive decision exercise to enable stakeholders to evaluate alternatives for addressing specific community flood vulnerabilities. We used a multicriteria framework to understand what drives stakeholder preferences for flood mitigation and adaptation alternatives, including ecosystem-based projects. Results indicated strong preferences for some ecosystem-based projects that utilize natural capital, generated a useful discussion on the role of individual values in driving decisions and a critique of local environmental and hazard planning procedure, and uncovered support for a river management alternative that had previously been considered socially infeasible. We conclude that a multicriteria decision framework may help ensure that the multiple benefit qualities of natural capital projects are considered by decision makers. Application of a utility function can demonstrate the role of individual decision-maker values in decision outcomes and help illustrate why one alternative may be a better choice than another. Although designing an efficient and accurate multicriteria exercise is quite challenging and often data intensive, we imagine that this method is applicable elsewhere. It may be especially suitable to group decisions that involve varying levels of expertise and competing values, as is often the case in planning for the ecological and human impacts of climate change.
The use of TiAlN coated carbide tool when finish machining hardened stainless steel

The introduction of hard turning has provided an alternative to the conventional processing technology used to manufacture parts made from hardened steels. Shorter product development time along with being more environmentally friendly are among the benefits offered by hard turning, which potentially results in lower manufacturing cost per part. However, common tool materials for hard turning applications are expensive. Due to the continuous developments in cutting tool materials and coating technology, inexpensive coated carbide cutting tools are being investigated to determine the potential of using them for use in extreme conditions as in hard turning. TiAlN coated carbide tool was selected to finish machine hardened steel. Performing hard turning dry at various cutting conditions, that is, cutting speed and feed rate, revealed that satisfactory tool life values and surface finish values that meet the strict range of finish machining were obtained when finish machining hardened steel of 47-48 HRC hardness.
Nucleation behaviour and anomalous eutectic formation in highly undercooled Fe2O3-La2O3 eutectic melts

Employing an aero-acoustic levitator, the Fe2O3-16.5 mol% La2O3 eutectic alloy was levitated, melted, undercooled and then solidified under a containerless condition when a continuous laser beam heating system was incorporated. By revealing the surface and cross-sectional microstructures, copious nucleation is confirmed to take place in the undercooled melts solidified by either an external seeding or spontaneous crystallization. The nucleation behaviour of eutectic alloys is summarized, indicating that copious nucleation may be an intrinsic attribute of a eutectic system with the exact eutectic composition in unconstrained solidification. Considering the complexity level of crystal structures of eutectic oxide phases in the Fe2O3-La2O3 alloy, the linear kinetic constants are approximately estimated and the growth kinetics are discussed. The sluggish growth kinetics of the perovskite-type phase, that is LaFeO3 with a higher complexity level in a unit cell leads to a decoupled growth within a single eutectic colony when the melt is undercooled to exceed the critical undercooling ΔT = 125 K. It is the decoupled growth that results in the formation of anomalous eutectics. The present concept based on the kinetic constant of different phases can also be applicable to account for the growth behaviour of other oxide eutectics when considering the stable and metastable eutectic reactions in different solidification conditions. The nucleation behaviour and growth modes in some oxide eutectic systems have been predicted in the free solidification from an undercooled state.
An Efficient Secret Key Homomorphic Encryption Used in Image Processing Service

Homomorphic encryption can protect user’s privacy when operating on user’s data in cloud computing. But it is not practical for wide using as the data and services types in cloud computing are diverse. Among these data types, digital image is an important personal data for users. There are also many image processing services in cloud computing. To protect user’s privacy in these services, this paper proposed a scheme using homomorphic encryption in image processing. Firstly, a secret key homomorphic encryption (IGHE) was constructed for encrypting image. IGHE can operate on encrypted floating numbers efficiently to adapt to the image processing service. Then, by translating the traditional image processing methods into the operations on encrypted pixels, the encrypted image can be processed homomorphically. That is, service can process the encrypted image directly, and the result after decryption is the same as processing the plain image. To illustrate our scheme, three common image processing instances were given in this paper. The experiments show that our scheme is secure, correct, and efficient enough to be used in practical image processing applications.
New protocol for compound-specific radiocarbon analysis of archaeological bones.

RATIONALE For radiocarbon results to be accurate, samples must be free of contaminating carbon. Sample pre-treatment using a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) approach has been developed at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) as an alternative to conventional methods for dating heavily contaminated bones. This approach isolates hydroxyproline from bone collagen, enabling a purified bone-specific fraction to then be radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). METHODS Using semi-preparative chromatography and non-carbon-based eluents, this technique enables the separation of underivatised amino acids liberated by hydrolysis of extracted bone collagen. A particular focus has been the isolation of hydroxyproline for single-compound AMS dating since this amino acid is one of the main contributors to the total amount of carbon in mammalian collagen. Our previous approach, involving a carbon-free aqueous mobile phase, required a two-step separation using two different chromatographic columns. RESULTS This paper reports significant improvements that have been recently made to the method to enable faster semi-preparative separation of hydroxyproline from bone collagen, making the method more suitable for routine radiocarbon dating of contaminated and/or poorly preserved bone samples by AMS. All steps of the procedure, from the collagen extraction to the correction of the AMS data, are described. CONCLUSIONS The modifications to the hardware and to the method itself have reduced significantly the time required for the preparation of each sample. This makes it easier for other radiocarbon facilities to implement and use this approach as a routine method for preparing contaminated bone samples.
Filtration performance of cigarette filter tip containing electrospun nanofibrous filter

Nanofibrous filters made of electrospun nanofibers are used in different types of filtration. In this study, nanofibrous filters comprising of electrospun filter media between two nonwoven layers were placed in cigarette filter tip and the performance of the new filter was assessed. Electrospinning conditions were varied to achieve ultrafine cellulose acetate nanofibers for this purpose. Nanofibers of different diameters and different layer thickness (based on unit area weight) were used. Tar removal efficiency increased by increasing the unit area weight of filter media. Nanofibrous filter containing nanofibers with a mean diameter of 280 nm increased efficiency from 47.7 to 71.6% for filter tip and efficiency sharply decreased by increasing the diameter of nanofibers. Double layer electrospun filter media showed higher efficiency and lower pressure drop than those of single one with the same unit area weight. Tar removal efficiency increased significantly by using nanofibrous filters, whereas the pressure drop was not affected severely. On the other hand, tar/nicotine ratio reduced.
Developing a POS tagger for Magahi: A Comparative Study

In this paper, we present a comparative study of the four state-of-the-art sequential taggers applied on Magahi data for part-of-speech (POS) annotation . Magahi is one of the smaller Indo-Aryan languages spoken in Eastern state of Bihar in India. It is an extremely resource-poor language and it is the first attempt to develop some kind of Natural Language Processing (NLP) resource for the language. The four taggers that we test are – Support Vector Machines (SVM) based SVMTool, Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based TnT tagger, Maximum Entropy based MxPost tagger and Memory based MBT tagger. All these taggers are trained on a miniscule dataset of around 50,000 words using 33 tags from the BIS-tagset for Indian languages and tested on around 13,000 words. The performance of all these taggers are tested against a frequency-based baseline tagger. While all these taggers perform worse than on the English data, the best performance is given by the Maximum Entropy tagger after tuning of certain parameters. The paper discusses the result of the taggers and the ways in which the performance of the taggers could be improved for Magahi.
Long-term Maintenance of CD4 T Cell Memory Responses to Malaria Antigens in Malian Children Coinfected with Schistosoma haematobium

Polyparasitism is common in the developing world. We have previously demonstrated that schistosomiasis-positive (SP) Malian children, aged 4–8 years, are protected from malaria compared to matched schistosomiasis-negative (SN) children. The effect of concomitant schistosomiasis upon acquisition of T cell memory is unknown. We examined antigen-specific T cell frequencies in 48 Malian children aged 4–14 to a pool of malaria blood stage antigens, and a pool of schistosomal antigens, at a time point during a malaria episode and at a convalescent time point ~6 months later, following cessation of malaria transmission. CD4+ T cell-derived memory responses, defined as one or more significant cytokine (IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, and/or IL-17A) responses, was measured to schistoma antigens in 18/23 SP children at one or both time points, compared to 4/23 SN children (P < 0.0001). At the time of malaria infection, 12/24 SN children and 15/23 SP children (P = 0.29) stimulated with malaria antigens demonstrated memory recall as defined by CD4-derived cytokine production. This compares to 7/23 SN children and 16/23 SP children (P = 0.009) at the convalescent timepoint. 46.2% of cytokine-producing CD4+ T cells expressed a single cytokine after stimulation with malaria antigen during the malaria episode. This fell to 40.9% at follow-up with a compensatory rise of multifunctional cytokine secretion over time, a phenomenon consistent with memory maturation. The majority (53.2–59.5%) of responses derived from CD45RA−CD62L− effector memory T cells with little variation in the phenotype depending upon the time point or the study cohort. We conclude that detectable T cell memory responses can be measured against both malaria and schistosoma antigens and that the presence of Schistosoma haematobium may be associated with long-term maintenance of T memory to malaria.
Heartwood formation and natural durability - a review

This paper reviews recent literature on the formation of heartwood and on the components that affect natural durability. It includes discussion about the function of heartwood in living trees, factors influencing the natural durability of heartwood, the process of heartwood formation, and variations in heartwood quantity and quality. Heartwood formation is a regular occurrence in tree stems, and heartwood may have many different properties from sapwood, including natural decay resistance. A greater understanding of the heartwood formation process could allow control of heartwood production. Recent research involving enzymatic analyses have provided valuable insight into the biochemical processes involved in heartwood formation. Further study of the role natural durability plays in living trees would help to bring together many of the disparate strands of research relating to heartwood.
A surface science investigation of silicon carbide: Oxidation, crystal growth and surface structural analysis

For the semiconductor SiC to fulfill its potential as an electronic material, methods must be developed to produce insulating surface oxide layers in a reproducible fashion. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to investigate the oxidation of single crystal {alpha}-SiC over a wide temperature and O{sub 2} pressure range. The {alpha}-SiC surface becomes graphitic at high temperatures and low O{sub 2} pressures due to Si and SiO sublimation from the surface. Amorphous SiO{sub 2} surface layers from on {alpha}-SiC at elevated O{sub 2} pressures and temperatures. Both the graphitization and oxidation of {alpha}-SiC appears to be enhanced by surface roughness. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is currently the preferred method of producing single crystal SiC, although the method is slow and prone to contamination. We have attempted to produce SiC films at lower temperatures and higher deposition rates using plasma enhanced CVD with CH{sub 3}SiH{sub 3}. Scanning AES, XPS and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were utilized to study the composition and morphology of the deposited Si{sub x}C{sub y}H{sub z} films as a function of substrate temperature, plasma power and ion flux bombardment of the film during deposition. High energy ion bombardmentmore » during deposition was found to increase film density and substrate adhesion while simultaneously reducing hydrogen and oxygen incorporation in the film. Under all deposition conditions the Si{sub x}C{sub y}H{sub z} films were found to be amorphous, with the ion bombarded films showing promise as hard protective coatings. Studies with LEED and AES have shown that {beta}-SiC (100) exhibits multiple surface reconstructions, depending on the surface composition. These surface reconstructions possess substantially different surface reactivities at elevated temperatures, which can complicate the fabrication of metal on SiC junctions. « less
Successful treatment of refractory pure red cell aplasia with bortezomib after allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation in a patient with alpha‐beta subcutaneous panniculitis‐like T cell lymphoma

Dear Sir, Pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) is a possible complication of ABO-mismatched allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). This syndrome is characterised by anaemia, reticulocytopenia and the absence of erythroblasts in a normal appearing bone marrow biopsy. This condition is relatively rare, and has been attributed to the inhibitory effects of persisting recipient isoagglutinins on erythroid precursors as the result of long-lived recipient plasma cells surviving after transplant. It has been treated with mixed results using various approaches, including high-dose erythropoietin (EPO), plasma exchange, steroids, donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), rituximab, and tapering and discontinuation of immunosuppression (Hirokawa et al., 2013). Here, we describe a patient with treatment refractory PRCA following major plus minor ABO mismatched allo-HCT from matched related donor, which eventually responded well to subcutaneous bortezomib administration. A 50-year-old Samoan male with a history of refractory alpha-beta subcutaneous panniculitis-like T cell lymphoma received reduced intensity conditioning with fludarabine 30 mg m−2 for days −6 to −2 and melphalan 140 mg m−2 on day −1, followed by allo-HCT with peripheral blood stem cells from his 8/8 human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sister. Graft vs host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine A plus standard methotrexate on days 1, 3, 6 and 11. The patient’s ABO type was B Rh-positive, while the donor was A Rh-positive. ABO antibody screen at time of transplant was negative. The patient had an uneventful early post-transplant course and showed neutrophil engraftment on day +16 and platelet engraftment on day +12, with total white blood cell (WBC) peripheral blood chimerism on day 30 being of 100% donor origin. Haemoglobin recovery was somewhat sluggish, yet was not unexpected due to existing ABO mismatch. The patient did not require any transfusion in the first month post-transplant, and by day +21, haemoglobin had risen to 9·6 g dL−1. However, he presented on day +33 with an unexpected sudden drop in his haemoglobin down to 6·9 g dl−1. His direct Coombs testing on
An uncontrolled trial of multi‐component care for first‐episode psychosis: Effects on social cognition

Growing evidence suggests that specialized, multi‐component treatment programmes produce improvements in numerous outcomes among individuals with first‐episode psychosis. However, these programmes often lack interventions specifically designed to address deficits in social cognition. This raises questions about the effectiveness of such programmes in addressing deficits in social cognition that accompany psychotic disorders. We investigated the effect of participation in a multi‐component treatment programme on social cognition among 71 individuals with first‐episode psychosis. Participants experienced gains in emotion processing, social knowledge, social perception and theory of mind. However, after controlling for multiple comparisons, these improvements were limited to theory of mind and recognition of social cues in low emotion interactions. Although our findings should be interpreted cautiously, they raise the possibility that individuals participating in multi‐component treatment programmes for first‐episode psychosis without interventions specifically targeting social cognition may still experience gains in social cognition.
Using a Hybrid Approach for Entity Recognition in the Biomedical Domain

This paper presents an approach towards high performance extraction of biomedical entities from the literature, which is built by combining a high recall dictionary-based technique with a high-precision machine learning filtering step. The technique is then evaluated on the CRAFT corpus. We present the performance we obtained, analyze the errors and propose a possible follow-up of this work.