Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing the conductance of a two-electron nanomechanical oscillator

We consider electron transport through a mobile island (i.e., a nanomechanical oscillator) which can accommodate one or two excess electrons and show that, in contrast to immobile islands, the Coulomb blockade peaks, associated with the first and second electrons entering the island, have different functional dependences on the nano-oscillator parameters when the island coupling to its leads is asymmetric. In particular, the conductance for the second electron (i.e., when the island is already charged) is greatly enhanced in comparison to the conductance of the first electron in the presence of an external electric field. We also analyze the temperature dependence of the two conduction peaks and show that these exhibit different functional behaviors.
Flow-induced vibration of a head gimbal assembly under various conditions

The flow-induced vibration of a head gimbal assembly (HGA), known as windage, is an obstacle to achieving higher track densities in hard disk drives (HDDs). We examine the characteristics of windage in this paper with the goal of enabling the development of smaller-windage HGAs. We used a 14.5-mm-length (from swage hole center to dimple) HGA in our study. The windage was measured by a laser Doppler vibrometer in a spin stand under various conditions, such as different slider radius locations (inner diameter, medium diameter, and outer diameter), disk-rotational speeds, Z heights (distance from arm to disk), and temperatures. With respect to the slider radius location, windage was much greater when the slider was on the outer diameter rather than at other positions. When the slider was positioned at a fixed location, the windage was proportional to the square of the disk rotational speed. At high temperatures, the resonant frequencies decreased and their amplitudes increased. For some resonance modes, there was an optimal Z height. These findings will be useful for evaluating HGAs and optimizing HGAs through experimental design.
AUGMENTED CEPSTRAL NORMALIZATION FOR ROBUST SPEECH RECOGNITION

We proposed an augmented cepstral mean normalization algorithm that differentiates noise and speech during normalization, and computes a different mean for each. The new procedure reduced the error rate slightly for the case of sameenvironment testing, and significantly reduced the error rate by 25% when an environmental mismatch exists over the case of standard cepstral mean normalization.
A Combination of Deep Neural Networks for Acoustic modeling of Vietnamese LVCSR

In this work, we propose a deep neural network architecture with the combination of two popular applications of deep neural networks for Vietnamese large vocabulary continuous speech recognition. First, a deep neural network is trained to extract bottleneck features from frames of a combination of Mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) and tonal feature. This network is then applied as a nonlinear discriminative feature-space transformation for hybrid network training where acoustic modeling is performed by denoising auto-encoder pre-training and back-propagation algorithms. The experiments are carried out on the dataset containing speeches on Voice of Vietnam channel (VOV). The results show that the performance of the system using combined deep neural network architecture obtained relative improvements over the best hybrid HMM/DNN system by 4.1% and over baseline system by 51.4%. Adding tonal feature as input feature of the network reached around 18% relative recognition performance.
Named entity recognition for automated test case generation

Testing is the process of evaluating a software or hardware against its requirement specification. It helps to verify and grade a given system. Recent emphasis on Test Driven Development (TDD) has increased the need for testing from the early stages of software development. System test cases can be obtained from a number of user specifications such as functional requirements; UML diagrams and use case specification. This paper focuses on automating the test process from the early stages of requirement elicitation in the development of software. It describes a semi-supervised technique to generate test cases by identifying named entities in the given set of use cases. The named entities along with flow listing of the use cases serves as the source for scenario matrix from which a number of test cases can be obtained for a given scenario. The Named Entity Recognizer (NER) is trained by a set of features extracted from the use cases. The automated generation of entity list was found to increase the efficiency of the overall system.
Evolution of linear volcanic ranges in Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica

The Marie Byrd Land volcanic province consists of a regionally extensive foundation of subhorizontal alkaline basaltic rocks, surmounted by 18 shield volcanoes of predominantly trachytic and other felsic compositions. Eleven of the felsic volcanoes occur in three N-S and E-W oriented chains. In each of these, chronologic data and morphology suggest systematic migrations of felsic activity along linear paths 90–154 km long. Basaltic rocks show no migration patterns, although they are the most abundant and wide-spread rocks in the province. Plate motion is a very unlikely cause for the migrations of felsic activity because of the opposing and orthogonal directions of contemporaneous migration and because geophysical evidence indicates that the Antarctic plate has remained stationary in late Cenozoic time. Fracture propagation is a more likely mechanism, but wedging by forcible injection of magma is difficult to reconcile with an apparent lack of mixing between closely adjacent magma reservoirs. The pronounced space-time patterns of felsic volcanism coupled with the lack of pattern in mafic activity suggest a more complex process. We propose a twostage mechanism in which the rise of mafic magma from the mantle is random in space and time, but passage through the crust has been controlled by a relict system of N-S and E-W fractures that have been systematically reactivated by crustal doming.
Allogenic platelet gel in the treatment of pressure sores: a pilot study

Although platelet gel is considered one of the most popular tools in the treatment of chronic ulcers, current consensus on its use is not unanimous. A prospective randomised trial was carried out at the Plastic Surgery Unit of the ‘Salvatore Maugeri’ Foundation Hospital of Pavia (Italy). The study involved 13 patients affected by spinal cord injury with 16 pressure sores over a period of 20 months. The ulcer was considered the experimental unit of the study irrespective of the number of ulcers per patient. Each consecutive ulcer was randomised to be treated either with allogenic platelet gel or with current best practice approach to chronic wounds dressing protocol. At the end of the treatment 15 ulcers out of 16 improved clinically. No statistically significant difference was demonstrated in volume reduction between the two groups, although a statistically significant difference could be demonstrated in the onset time of granulation tissue proliferation as in the wounds treated with platelet gel the healing process was triggered earlier. Our study suggests that platelet gel is mostly effective within the first 2 weeks of treatment while a prolonged treatment does not provide any significant advantage versus the current best practice approach to chronic wounds protocols.
An Empirical Study of Korean Culture Effects on the Usability of Biometric Symbols

Biometrics is an umbrella term for methods that identify an individual based on physiological and/or behavioral characteristics such as fingerprint, face, iris, retina, vein, palm, voice, gait, signature, etc. The use of biometric systems is increasing worldwide; consequently there is a need for understanding its procedures via common biometric symbols. However, people with different backgrounds, such as native language, culture, customs, life style, education level, and religion, have various perceptions and expectations of any given symbol. We evaluated how Korean culture influences the use of biometric symbols. Our study was performed by interviewing 100 subjects residing in South Korea using 24 symbols which were developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Biometrics Usability group. The results present empirical evidence of potential differences in understanding and expectations of biometric symbols due to Korean culture and user knowledge.
Routing in wireless ad hoc networks

A routing strategy that finds a path to be followed by packets from a source node to a destination node used in traditional wired networks cannot be directly applied in ad hoc wireless networks due to their highly dynamic topology, absence of established infrastructure for centralised administration, bandwidth constrained wireless links, and energy constrained nodes. This paper first presents the issues involved in designing a routing protocol and then the different classifications of routing protocols for ad hoc wireless networks. It then discusses the working of several existing routing protocols with their merit and demerits. This survey helps to decide the weaknesses, strength and applicability of an existing routing protocol in different network scenarios and paves the path to develop an efficient routing protocol to cope up with most of the existing problems related to routing in MANETs.
Overproduction of corticotropin-releasing factor in transgenic mice: a genetic model of anxiogenic behavior

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is released in response to various stressors and regulates adrenocorticotropin secretion and glucocorticoid production. In addition to its endocrine functions, CRF acts as a neuromodulator in extra-hypothalamic systems and has been shown to play a role in behavioral responses to stress. CRF overproduction has been implicated in affective disorders such as depression and anorexia nervosa. A transgenic mouse model of CRF overproduction has been developed in order to examine the endocrine and behavioral effects of chronic CRF excess. CRF transgenic animals exhibit endocrine abnormalities involving the hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis such as elevated plasma levels of ACTH and glucocorticoids. The present series of experiments tested the hypothesis that chronic overproduction of CRF throughout the life-span of these animals may lead to an anxiogenic behavioral state. CRF transgenic mice and normal littermate controls were tested by measuring locomotor activity in a novel environment and through the use of an elevated plus-maze as indices of anxiety. CRF transgenic animals exhibited an increase in anxiogenic behavior, an effect known to occur following central administration of CRF in mice and rats. Injection of the CRF antagonist alpha-helical CRF 9–41 into the lateral cerebral ventricles reversed the anxiogenic state observed in the CRF transgenics. This finding supports the possibility that central CRF overproduction may mediate the anxiogenic behavior exhibited in this animal model. Thus, CRF transgenic mice represent a genetic model of CRF overproduction that provides a valuable tool for investigating the long-term effects of CRF excess and dysregulation in the CNS.
Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system genes and nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy

Purpose Recent literature suggests a genetic component for non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). We examined the association of the insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme gene, of the M235T polymorphism of the angiotensinogen gene, and of the A1166C polymorphism of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor gene with NAION. Methods Forty-seven patients with NAION and 76 controls, age- and gender-matched, were recruited and genotyped for renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) genes. Genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction enzyme analysis. NAION and control groups were compared in regard to the prevalence of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system polymorphisms, and further stratified by age and gender. Results NAION occurrence was not associated with the M235T polymorphism of the angiotensinogen gene and the A1166C polymorphism of the angiotensin II, type 1 receptor gene. Regarding the angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism, our findings suggest that the II genotype could be a risk factor for NAION in younger male patients when compared to all cases and controls (p=0.033, odds ratio=5.71, confidence interval=1.152¨C28.35 and p=0.03, odds ratio=5.33, confidence interval=1.17¨C24.31 respectively). Furthermore I allele was present in all male patients younger than 55 years, making this allele a likely predisposing factor for NAION in young males. Conclusions Since NAION may occur when compromised watershed microcirculation is combined with insufficient autoregulation of systematic circulation, polymorphisms of genes involved in systematic circulation, such as the RAAS genes, may be associated with NAION occurrence. Large-scale, multicentered, controlled prospective studies are needed to further explore the effects of RAAS polymorphisms or other genetic factors on NAION susceptibility.
Identification and characterization of metabolically benign obesity in humans.

BACKGROUND Obesity represents a risk factor for insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and atherosclerosis. In addition, for any given amount of total body fat, an excess of visceral fat or fat accumulation in the liver and skeletal muscle augments the risk. Conversely, even in obesity, a metabolically benign fat distribution phenotype may exist. METHODS In 314 subjects, we measured total body, visceral, and subcutaneous fat with magnetic resonance (MR) tomography and fat in the liver and skeletal muscle with proton MR spectroscopy. Insulin sensitivity was estimated from oral glucose tolerance test results. Subjects were divided into 4 groups: normal weight (body mass index [BMI] [calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], < 25.0), overweight (BMI, 25.0-29.9), obese-insulin sensitive (IS) (BMI, > or = 30.0 and placement in the upper quartile of insulin sensitivity), and obese-insulin resistant (IR) (BMI, > or = 30.0 and placement in the lower 3 quartiles of insulin sensitivity). RESULTS Total body and visceral fat were higher in the overweight and obese groups compared with the normal-weight group (P < .05); however, no differences were observed between the obese groups. In contrast, ectopic fat in skeletal muscle (P < .001) and particularly the liver (4.3% +/- 0.6% vs 9.5% +/- 0.8%) and the intima-media thickness of the common carotid artery (0.54 +/- 0.02 vs 0.59 +/- 0.01 mm) were lower and insulin sensitivity was higher (17.4 +/- 0.9 vs 7.3 +/- 0.3 arbitrary units) in the obese-IS vs the obese-IR group (P < .05). Unexpectedly, the obese-IS group had almost identical insulin sensitivity and the intima-media thickness was not statistically different compared with the normal-weight group (18.2 +/- 0.9 AU and 0.51 +/- 0.02 mm, respectively). CONCLUSIONS A metabolically benign obesity that is not accompanied by insulin resistance and early atherosclerosis exists in humans. Furthermore, ectopic fat in the liver may be more important than visceral fat in the determination of such a beneficial phenotype in obesity.
The Impact of Milk with Xylitol on Dental Caries –A Review

Dental caries is a infectious microbiologic disease of the tooth that results in localized dissolution and destruction of calcified tissues. Its seen in all age groups, few preventive agents have been evaluated to prevent the caries. Xylitol, a polysugar, obtained from birch tree has been shown to reduce dental caries when mixed with food, chewing gums and milk. Dental caries are prevalent in acidic pH where Streptoccocus mutans (MS) ferment and does resulting in demineralization of tooth this acidic pH is created by consumption of carbohydrate foods which results in decreased salivary secretion which in turn result demineralization of tooth, where as Streptococcus mutans cannot ferment xylitol thus it reduces MS by altering their metabolic pathway and enhance remineralization and helps arrest dentinal caries. Reduction in caries rate are greater, when xylitol is used as the sugar substitutes. This review discuss the taste acceptability of xylitol in milk as a step towards measuring the effectiveness for the reduction of dental caries.
Cystoisospora suis – A Model of Mammalian Cystoisosporosis

Cystoisospora suis is a coccidian species that typically affects suckling piglets. Infections occur by oral uptake of oocysts and are characterized by non-hemorrhagic transient diarrhea, resulting in poor weight gain. Apparently, primary immune responses to C. suis cannot readily be mounted by neonates, which contributes to the establishment and rapid development of the parasite, while in older pigs age-resistance prevents disease development. However, the presence of extraintestinal stages, although not unequivocally demonstrated, is suspected to enable parasite persistence together with the induction and maintenance of immune response in older pigs, which in turn may facilitate the transfer of C. suis-specific factors from sow to offspring. It is assumed that neonates are particularly prone to clinical disease because infections with C. suis interfere with the establishment of the gut microbiome. Clostridia have been especially inferred to profit from the altered intestinal environment during parasite infection. New tools, particularly in the area of genomics, might illustrate the interactions between C. suis and its host and pave the way for the development of new control methods not only for porcine cystoisosporosis but also for other mammalian Cystoisospora infections. The first reference genome for C. suis is under way and will be a fertile ground to discover new drugs and vaccines. At the same time, the establishment and refinement of an in vivo model and an in vitro culture system, supporting the complete life cycle of C. suis, will underpin the functional characterization of the parasite and shed light on its biology and control.
From spreadsheets to relational databases and back

This paper presents techniques and tools to transform spreadsheets into relational databases and back. A set of data refinement rules is introduced to map a tabular datatype into a relational database schema. Having expressed the transformation of the two data models as data refinements, we obtain for free the functions that migrate the data. We use well-known relational database techniques to optimize and query the data. Because data refinements define bi-directional transformations we can map such database back to an optimized spreadsheet. We have implemented the data refinement rules and we constructed Haskell-based tools to manipulate, optimize and refactor Excel-like spreadsheets.
Backtracking in Distributed Constraint Networks

The adaptation of software technology to distributed en- vironments will be an important challenge in the next few years. In the scope of constraint reasoning, few works have been published on the adaptation of algorithms searching for a solution in a constraint network to distributed constraint networks. This paper presents a new search procedure for finding a solution in a distributed constraint net- work. Although based on the principle of backtracking to ensure the completeness of search, this procedure allows a high level of asyn- chronism, i.e., simultaneous search on independent parts of the net- work. Furthermore, it fits its behavior to the structure of the con- straint graph in order to minimize message passing and to avoid useless restorations when a dead-end is reached. We also present a generic distributed method for computing any variable ordering heuristic.
Potential of Mass Trapping for Long-Term Pest Management and Eradication of Invasive Species

Abstract Semiochemical-based pest management programs comprise three major approaches that are being used to provide environmentally friendly control methods of insect pests: mass trapping, “lure and kill,” and mating disruption. In this article, we review the potential of mass trapping in long-term pest management as well as in the eradication of invasive species. We discuss similarities and differences between mass trapping and other two main approaches of semiochemical-based pest management programs. We highlight several study cases where mass trapping has been used either in long-term pest management [e.g., codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.); pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders); bark beetles, palm weevils, corn rootworms (Diabrotica spp.); and fruit flies] or in eradication of invasive species [e.g., gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.); and boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman). We list the critical issues that affect the efficacy of mass trapping and compare these with previously published models developed to investigate mass trapping efficacy in pest control. We conclude that mass trapping has good potential to suppress or eradicate low-density, isolated pest populations; however, its full potential in pest management has not been adequately realized and therefore encourages further research and development of this technology.
Short paper: reactive jamming in wireless networks: how realistic is the threat?

In this work, we take on the role of a wireless adversary and investigate one of its most powerful tools---radio frequency jamming. Although different jammer designs are discussed in the literature, reactive jamming, i.e., targeting only packets that are already on the air, is generally recognized as a stepping stone in implementing optimal jamming strategies. The reason is that, while destroying only selected packets, the adversary minimizes its risk of being detected. One might hope for reactive jamming to be too challenging or uneconomical for an attacker to conceive and implement due to its strict real-time requirements. Yet, in this work we disillusion from such hopes as we demonstrate that flexible and reliable software-defined reactive jamming is feasible by designing and implementing a reactive jammer against IEEE 802.15. 4 networks. First, we identify the causes of loss at the physical layer of 802.15. 4 and show how to achieve the best performance for reactive jamming. Then, we apply these insights to our USRP2-based reactive jamming prototype, enabling a classification of transmissions in real-time, and reliable and selective jamming. The prototype achieves a reaction time in the order of microseconds, a high precision (such as targeting individual symbols), and a 97.6% jamming rate in realistic indoor scenarios for a single reactive jammer, and over 99.9% for two concurrent jammers.
Effective discretization of Gabor features for real-time face detection

We describe a real-time face detector based on Gabor features. While Gabor features often lead to improved performance, they are often avoided as they are perceived as being computationally expensive. We address this in two ways. First, we propose an efficient discrete encoding method for the Gabor feature vector. This enables us to use a computationally efficient multi-stage classifier based on boosting and winnowing. Second, we accelerate computationally complex computations using the parallelization provided by graphics processing units (GPUs). With these innovations, the resulting detector runs at 16.8 fps for 640 × 480 images on a PC equipped with an i5 CPU and a GTX 465 graphic card.