Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feature Extractions for Small Sample Size Classification Problem

Much research has shown that the definitions of within-class and between-class scatter matrices and regularization technique are the key components to design a feature extraction for small sample size problems. In this paper, we illustrate the importance of another key component, eigenvalue decomposition method, and a new regularization technique was proposed. In the hyperspectral image experiment, the effects of these three components of feature extraction are explored on ill-posed and poorly posed conditions. The experimental results show that different regularization methods need to cooperate with different eigenvalue decomposition methods to reach the best performance, the proposed regularization method, regularized feature extraction (RFE) outperform others, and the best feature extraction for a small sample size classification problem is RFE with nonparametric weighted scatter matrices
Chemiluminescence of lipid vesicles supplemented with cytochrome c and hydroperoxide.

The increase in light emission of hydroperoxide-supplemented cytochrome c observed on addition of lipid vesicles was related to the degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids of the phospholipids: dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine was without effect, whereas dioleoyl phosphatidylcholine and soya-bean phosphatidylcholine enhanced chemiluminescence 2- and 3-fold respectively. Effects on light-emission were similar to those on O2 uptake. The chemiluminescence of the present system was sensitive to cyanide and to the radical trap 2,5-di-t-butylquinol, indicating a catlytic activity of cytochrome c and the presence of free-radical species respectively. Lipid-vesicle enhanced chemiluminescence showed different kinetic behaviours, apparently depending on unsaturation: three phases are described for soya-bean phosphatidylcholine, whereas only one phase was present in mixtures containing dipalmitoyl and dioleoyl phospholipids. Chemiluminescence of lipid vesicles supplemented with cytochrome c and hydroperoxide showed similar kinetic patterns with H2O2 and primary (ethyl) and tertiary (t-butyl and cumene) hydroperoxides. Participation of singlet molecular oxygen, mainly on the phase III of chemiluminescence, is suggested by the increase of light-emission by 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2. 2]-octane as well as by data from spectral analysis.
Web Based Cross Language Plagiarism Detection

As the Internet help us cross language and cultural border by providing different types of translation tools, cross language plagiarism, also known as translation plagiarism are bound to arise. In this paper, we propose a new approach in detecting cross language plagiarism. In order to limit certain scale of our proposed system, we are consider Bahasa Melayu as an input language of the submitted query document and English as a target language of similar, possibly plagiarised documents. Input documents are translated into English using Google Translate API before undergo pre-processing phase (stemming and removal of stop words). Tokenized documents are sent to the Google AJAX Search API to detect similar documents throughout the World Wide Web. Only top ten sources retrieved by the Google Search API are considered as the candidate of source documents. We integrate the use of Stanford Parser and WordNet to determine the similarity level between the suspected documents with those candidate source documents. After that, a detailed similarity analysis is performed and a report of results is produced.
Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase in Vascular Disease: From Marvel to Menace

Nitric oxide (NO·) is an important protective molecule in the vasculature, and endothelial NO· synthase (eNOS) is responsible for most of the vascular NO· produced. A functional eNOS oxidizes its substrate l-arginine to l-citrulline and NO·. This normal function of eNOS requires dimerization of the enzyme, the presence of the substrate l-arginine, and the essential cofactor (6R)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-l-biopterin (BH4), one of the most potent naturally occurring reducing agents. Cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, or chronic smoking stimulate the production of reactive oxygen species in the vascular wall. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidases represent major sources of this reactive oxygen species and have been found upregulated and activated in animal models of hypertension, diabetes, and sedentary lifestyle and in patients with cardiovascular risk factors. Superoxide (O2·−) reacts avidly with vascular NO· to form peroxynitrite (ONOO−). The cofactor BH4 is highly sensitive to oxidation by ONOO−. Diminished levels of BH4 promote O2·− production by eNOS (referred to as eNOS uncoupling). This transformation of eNOS from a protective enzyme to a contributor to oxidative stress has been observed in several in vitro models, in animal models of cardiovascular diseases, and in patients with cardiovascular risk factors. In many cases, supplementation with BH4 has been shown to correct eNOS dysfunction in animal models and patients. In addition, folic acid and infusions of vitamin C are able to restore eNOS functionality, most probably by enhancing BH4 levels as well.
Enhancing Anaerobic Digestion: The Effect of Carbon Conductive Materials

Anaerobic digestion is a well-known technology which has been extensively studied to improve its performance and yield biogas from substrates. The application of different types of pre-treatments has led to an increase in biogas production but also in global energy demand. However, in recent years the use of carbon conductive materials as supplement for this process has been studied resulting in an interesting way for improving the performance of anaerobic digestion without greatly affecting its energy demand. This review offers an introduction to this interesting approach and covers the different experiences performed on the use of carbon conductive materials proposing it as a feasible alternative for the production of energy from biomass, considering also the integration of anaerobic digestion and thermal valorisation.
Distinguishing spins in decay chains with photons at the Large Hadron Collider

Several models for physics beyond the Standard Model predict new particles with a decay signature including hard photons and missing energy. Two well-motivated examples are supersymmetry with gauge-mediated breaking (GMSB) and the standard model with two universal extra dimensions. Both models lead to decay chains with similar collider signatures, including hard photon emission. The main discriminating feature are the spins of the new particles. In this paper we discuss how information about the spins of the particles can be extracted from lepton-photon or quark-photon invariant mass distributions at the Large Hadron Collider. The characteristic shapes of the distributions are derived analytically and then studied in a realistic Monte-Carlo simulation. We find that for a typical GMSB mass spectrum with particle masses below 1 TeV, already 10 fb−1 integrated luminosity at 14 TeV center-of-mass energy are sufficient to discriminate the two models with high significance.
ZntR is an autoregulatory protein and negatively regulates the chromosomal zinc resistance operon znt of Staphylococcus aureus

A chromosomally encoded znt operon of Staphylococcus aureus consists of two consecutive putative genes designated zntR and zntA. The zntA gene encodes a transmembrane protein that facilitates extrusion of Zn2+ and Co2+, whereas the zntR gene encodes a putative regulatory protein that controls the expression of the znt operon. The zntR gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction, cloned into Escherichia coli for overexpression as His‐tagged ZntR and purified by Ni2+‐affinity column. His‐tag‐free ZntR was purified to near homogeneity after digestion with enterokinase. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) indicated that the ZntR bound to a fragment of DNA corresponding to the chromosomal znt promoter region with an affinity of about 8.0 × 10−12 M. The addition of 25 μM Zn2+ or Co2+ in the binding reaction completely or significantly inhibited association of ZntR with the znt promoter. DNase I footprinting assays identified a ZntR binding site encompassing 49 nucleotides in the znt promoter region that contained repeated TGAA sequences. These sequences have been proposed to be the binding sites for SmtB, a metallorepressor protein from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus, to its corresponding operator/promoter. In vitro transcription assays, using S. aureus RNA polymerase, revealed that ZntR represses transcription from the znt promoter in a concentration‐dependent fashion. The EMSAs, DNase I footprinting and in vitro transcription assays indicate that ZntR is a trans‐acting repressor protein that binds to the znt promoter region and regulates its own transcription together with that of zntA.
Restoration of neural output from a paralyzed patient by a direct brain connection

PATIENTS with severe paralysis of limbs, face and vocal apparatus may be intelligent and aware and yet, tragically, unable to communicate. We describe a communication link for such a ‘locked-in’ patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. We recorded action potentials in her brain over several months by means of an electrode that induces growth of myelinated fibers into its recording tip. She was able to control the neural signals in an on/off fashion. This result is an important step towards providing such patients with direct control of their environment by interfacing with a computer. Additionally, it indicates that restoration of paralyzed muscles may be possible by using the signals to control muscle stimulators.
Application of microprosody models in text to speech synthesis

This paper presents a Markovian model of the sequential dependency of the acoustic correlates of speech, namely the pitch trajectory, formants trajectories, the power trajectory, the expected duration of successive phonetic speech segments and the speaking rate for text to speech synthesis. Using a first-order Markov model, microprosody is modeled within biphone segments. Since there is a substantial degree of overlap between biphones and syllables, the method can be considered as an effective model for microprosody within syllables. The model is used to improve the quality of the output of a text to speech synthesis system.
Hydraulic Properties of Porous Media Saturated with Nanoparticle-Stabilized Air-Water Foam

The foam generated by the mixture of air and water has a much higher viscosity and lower mobility than those of pure water or gas that constitutes the air-water foam. The possibility of using the air-water foam as a flow barrier for the purpose of groundwater and soil remediation is explored in this paper. A nanoparticle-stabilized air-water foam was fabricated by vigorously stirring the nano-fluid in pressurized condition. The foam bubble size distribution was analyzed with a microscope. The viscosities of foams generated with the solutions with several nanoparticle concentrations were measured as a function of time. The breakthrough pressure of foam-saturated microfluidic chips and sand columns were obtained. The hydraulic conductivity of a foam-filled sand column was measured after foam breakthrough. The results show that: (1) bubble coalescence and the Ostwald ripening are believed to be the reason of bubble size distribution change; (2) the viscosity of nanoparticle-stabilized foam and the breakthrough pressures decreased with time once the foam was generated; (3) the hydraulic conductivity of the foam-filled sand column was almost two orders of magnitude lower than that of a water-saturated sand column even after the foam-breakthrough. Based on the results in this study, the nanoparticle-stabilized air-water foam could be injected into contaminated soils to generate vertical barriers for temporary hydraulic conductivity reduction.
A new and easy approach to create BCI models

In this article, new lumped-parameter models of current clamps are proposed and discussed. The models were extracted from measured S parameters of a clamp mounted onto a calibration fixture. The generated bulk current injection (BCI) and current probe simulation models were used in the electromagnetic (EMC) testing of a realistic cable harness according to the ISO 11452-4 standard. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed simulation model were estimated by comparing the simulated results with measured data.
Optimal Bayesian Hashing for Efficient Face Recognition

In practical applications, it is often observed that high-dimensional features can yield good performance, while being more costly in both computation and storage. In this paper, we propose a novel method called Bayesian Hashing to learn an optimal Hamming embedding of high-dimensional features, with a focus on the challenging application of face recognition. In particular, a boosted random FERNs classification model is designed to perform efficient face recognition, in which bit correlations are elaborately approximated with a random permutation technique. Without incurring additional storage cost, multiple random permutations are then employed to train a series of classifiers for achieving better discrimination power. In addition, we introduce a sequential forward floating search (SFFS) algorithm to perform model selection, resulting in further performance improvement. Extensive experimental evaluations and comparative studies clearly demonstrate that the proposed Bayesian Hashing approach outperforms other peer methods in both accuracy and speed. We achieve state-of-the-art results on well-known face recognition benchmarks using compact binary codes with significantly reduced computational overload and storage cost.
Decision problems on unary probabilistic and quantum automata

It is well known that the emptiness problem for binary probabilistic automata and so for quantum automata is undecidable. We present the current status of the emptiness problems for unary probabilistic and quantum automata with connections with Skolem's and positivity problems. We also introduce the concept of linear recurrence automata in order to show the connection naturally. Then, we also give possible generalizations of linear recurrence relations and automata on vectors.
Feasibility study on ambient RF energy harvesting for wireless sensor network

RF energy harvesting holds a promising future for generating a small amount of energy to potentially power on a low power device such as wireless sensor network especially in an urban country like Singapore. Due to path loss and restriction on permissible transmission power; the RF power available to the input of the RF energy harvesting system is relative low. In this work, we present a study of ambient RF energy harvesting. We also explore to determine whether another emerging technology wireless power transfer can be integrated with RF energy harvesting. A measurement of the ambient RF power density on GSM 900 and GSM 1800 bands in Nanyang Polytechnic of Singapore is presented. From our conclusion, the harvested energy is not able to directly power the wireless sensor network; however the harvested energy can be stored in a super-capacitor and over some time it can be used to power on the wireless sensor network. So, is RF energy harvesting ever going to become a practical reality? The answer is a cautious yes.
STN-DBS frequency effects on freezing of gait in advanced Parkinson disease

Background: Severe gait disturbances and freezing episodes (frequently resistant to optimal dopaminergic treatment) often appear in advanced Parkinson disease (PD). Even several years after initiation, high-frequency subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is still very effective for controlling segmental symptoms. However, there are no long-term data on the management of gait disorders and freezing in STN-DBS. Objectives: To compare the effects of various STN-DBS parameters on freezing of gait and to determine whether such effects are more related to stimulation energy (usual voltages vs high voltages at 130 Hz) or frequency (130 Hz vs approximately half this frequency: 60 Hz). Methods: We blindly assessed STN-DBS parameters in 13 PD patients reporting severe gait disorders. We compared the effects on gait of two different voltages (the patient’s usual voltage [median 3 volts] and a high voltage [median 3.7 volts]) and two different frequencies (60 and 130 Hz, while maintaining the same total energy delivered) vs “off-stimulation” conditions. Results: The number of freezing episodes was significantly lower at the 60-Hz “high voltage/equivalent energy” and higher at the 130-Hz/high voltage than for “off stimulation. ” The slight improvement in the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale motor score observed (at 130 Hz) did not achieve statistical significance. Conclusions: Our results prompt consideration of a new strategy for two-stage subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) frequency optimization, with stimulation at 130 Hz and the usual voltage during the initial years of STN-DBS and then at 60 Hz at a high voltage in Parkinson disease patients who develop severe gait disorders.
Decoupling and Performance Enhancement of Hybrid Control for Motion-Copying System

This paper proposes a structure for the decoupling and performance improvement of a hybrid control system. Additionally, the application of this system to a motion-copying system (MCS) is introduced. MCSs are proposed as a means of preserving human-skilled techniques. In the motion-saving phase, a bilateral controller (a type of position/force hybrid control system) is utilized. A decoupling controller is required for bilateral control, for realizing precise force and position reproduction. A conventional hybrid controller for bilateral control systems has been developed, based on a force controller, by using a modal space disturbance observer (DOB). However, deterioration in the system performance during changes in the configuration of the manipulator is observed in force controllers based on workspace DOBs. It is also found that another conventional bilateral controller based on a hybrid matrix generates an interference term in the force control system, if there is a difference between the masses of the master and slave systems. This study shows that an acceleration controller can also realize decoupling control in the modal space. Furthermore, a novel DOB for enhancing the performance of an acceleration controller is proposed. Additionally, it is shown that a saved human motion can be reproduced accurately, while maintaining the high transparency of the bilateral control, by implementing a structure based on a hybrid controller and using the proposed DOB. The validity of the proposal is confirmed through analyses and experiments.
Study of the Effect of Waste Materials on Soil Properties

This research was carried out in order to study the effects that waste materials have on soil properties. As clayey soil has weak physical and mechanical properties, stabilizers are added in the soil to increase its strength . The waste materials were Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and lake water (waste water). The soil index properties was determined by carrying out the physical test and compaction test. A total of 50 samples were prepared which were tested for unconsolidated undrained Triaxial test and pH test to determine its relative mechanical and chemical properties. A shear strength of 17.80 kN/m2 was obtained for the control soil specimen of the mix of 0% of POFA on 7 curing days and the same soil specimen with similar percentage of POFA had a shear strength of 18 kN/m2 on 14 days. Moreover, the soil specimen of 80% of POFA and 30 % of tap water had a shear strength 44 kN/m2 at 14 curing days. On the other hand, the soil specimen at 80% of POFA and 30% of Lake Water displayed a shear strength of 37 kN/m2 on 14 days of curing was noted. The lake water was acidic at a pH of 6 while the tap water was at a neutral pH of 7. The control specimen (0% of POFA) of the mix of soil with tap water displayed a pH of 7 for all the curing days carried out while control soil specimen mixed with lake water displayed a ph of 6. The pH obtained increased in an alkaline way with increasing POFA percentages shear strength increased at a maximum pH of 11 at a soil specimen of 80% of POFA and 30% of Tap water proving POFA to be an alkaline material. It has been concluded that POFA, being a pozzolanic waste material can help in improving the mechanical property of the soil.
Gastroesophageal Reflux in Healthy Subjects Induced by Two Different Species of Chilli (Capsicum annum)

Background: Although the ingestion of chilli has been associated with gastroesophageal reflux (GER) symptoms, there are no studies that have explored the effect of a chronic ingestion of different kinds of chilli with a variable content of capsaicin as a cause of GER. Methods: The effect of chilli on esophageal 24-hour pH monitoring was studied in 12 healthy subjects without GER symptoms before and after of ingestion one of two kinds of chilli. Patients were randomized to ingest 3 g daily of cascabel chilli (Capsicum annum coraciforme containing 880 ppmof capsaicin) or ancho chilli (Capsicum annum grossum containing 488 ppm of capsaicin). Results: After chilli ingestion, the Johnson De Meester Index (JDI) increased significantly [basal: 7 (1–14), after chilli: 13 (2–69), p = 0.0047]. When considering both kinds of chilli separately, the JDI varied, although nonsignificantly, with the ancho chilli [basal: 3 (1–8), after chilli: 10 (2–69), p = 0.11], and significantly with the cascabel chilli [basal: 10 (5–14), after chilli: 18 (2–44), p = 0.028]. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the chronic ingestion of chilli induces GER, and that the magnitude of the induced reflux seems to be related to the kind of chilli.
Computation of D-brane instanton induced superpotential couplings: Majorana masses from string theory

We perform a detailed conformal field theory analysis of D2-brane instanton effects in four-dimensional type IIA string vacua with intersecting D6-branes. In particular, we explicitly compute instanton induced fermion two-point couplings which play the role of perturbatively forbidden Majorana mass terms for right-handed neutrinos or MSSM {mu} terms. These results can readily be extended to higher-dimensional operators. In concrete realizations of such nonperturbative effects, the Euclidean D2-brane has to wrap a rigid, supersymmetric cycle with strong constraints on the zero-mode structure. Their implications for type IIA compactifications on the T{sup 6}/(Z{sub 2}xZ{sub 2}) orientifold with discrete torsion are analyzed. We also construct a local supersymmetric GUT-like model allowing for a class of Euclidean D2-branes whose fermionic zero modes meet all the constraints for generating Majorana masses in the phenomenologically allowed regime. Together with perturbatively realized Dirac masses, these nonperturbative couplings give rise to the seesaw mechanism.
Treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema – Latest Therapeutic Developments

Macular edema is a frequent manifestation of diabetic retinopathy and an important cause of impaired vision in individuals with diabetes (Klein et al., 1984; Moss et al., 1998). The Wisconsin Epidemiologic Study of Diabetic Retinopathy (WESDR), a population-based study in southern Wisconsin, estimated that after 20 years of known diabetes, the prevalence of diabetic macular edema (DME) was approximately 28% in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes (Klein, et al., 1984)