Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel method of constructing measurement matrix for CS-based SAR imaging

Compressed sensing (CS) is a recently developed theory which allows reconstruction of sparse signals with a number of measurements much lower than that required by the Nyquist sampling. The theory has been applied in many areas within synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This paper presents a novel method of constructing measurement matrix for CS-based SAR imaging, which enables the sensing matrix to meet RIP with high probability. Simulated results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which can obtain a high quality radar image with fewer data samples, and the advantage of the proposed method is more obvious especially at high noise levels.
Ethical decision-making in child protection work by health visitors and social workers

This thesis is a qualitative enquiry of the role that interprofessional ethics plays in the decision-making between social workers and health visitors in child protection work. Through two in-depth discursive studies, the way that participants negotiate the complex ethical issues that run through practice is explored. The dynamics of interprofessional working and ways in which professionals construct identities within child protection work are examined. Focusing on language as a medium that both reflects and constructs social realities, the thesis provides an analysis of the professional positions that are adopted firstly in response to a case study and secondly within interviews. The first study, a preliminary investigation, considered the responses of five health visitors and nine social workers to an online case study. Building from this, the second study analysed talk within four semi-structured joint professional interviews with pairs of experienced professionals. The findings indicate that the fixed differences in perspective between the health visitors and the social workers within the study are minimal. As in previous studies, the influence of formal ethical frameworks is also difficult to detect, although there are some implicit frameworks for ethical decision-making that fit with those provided by moral philosophy. The contradictions and tensions within the professional accounts mirror tensions present within policy and guidance. The tendency for social workers and health visitors to emphasise their alignment during the interviews indicates that the performed identities of both groups might be more fluid and context sensitive than is often assumed within the literature about interprofessional practice. Instead professional identities are in flux, coalescing in relation to cases (at the individual level) and in relation to communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). The boundary work that delineates professional roles and identities can be seen as determined within less fixed and more situationally nuanced frameworks.
Improved Model for Wire-Length Estimation in Stochastic Wiring Distribution

This paper presents a pair of improved stochastic wiring distribution model for better estimation of on-chip wire lengths. The proposed models provide 28 - 50% reduction in error when estimating the average on-chip wire length compared to the estimation using the existing models. The impact of Rent's exponent on the average wire length estimation is also investigated to demonstrate limitations of the approximations used in some of the current models. To improve the approximations of the model a new threshold for Rent's constant is recommended. Simulation results demonstrate that proposed models with the new threshold reduce the error of estimation by 38 to 75 percent compared to the previous works.
The effect of dynamic parameter stability on reproductive competence

This paper discusses the significant advance in understanding the effect of dynamic parameter stability on the reproductive competence in which agents were programmed to control their behavior through computer-based artificial life. We measured at the point of generation that the population is self-sufficiency as there are a large number of agents capable of reproducing without any new agents randomly injected from the system. Within this framework, Push programming language was applied as a language for the program that evolves in this system in order to support the ldquoauto-constructive evolutionrdquo.
Predominance of Isolated Systolic Hypertension Among Middle-Aged and Elderly US Hypertensives: Analysis Based on National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III

The purpose of the present study was to examine patterns of systolic and diastolic hypertension by age in the nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III and to determine when treatment and control efforts should be recommended. Percentage distribution of 3 blood pressure subtypes (isolated systolic hypertension, combined systolic/diastolic hypertension, and isolated diastolic hypertension) was categorized for uncontrolled hypertension (untreated and inadequately treated) in 2 age groups (ages <50 and ≥50 years). Overall, isolated systolic hypertension was the most frequent subtype of uncontrolled hypertension (65%). Most subjects with hypertension (74%) were ≥50 years of age, and of this untreated older group, nearly all (94%) were accurately staged by systolic blood pressure alone, in contrast to subjects in the untreated younger group, who were best staged by diastolic blood pressure. Furthermore, most subjects (80%) in the older untreated and the inadequately treated groups had isolated systolic hypertension and required a greater reduction in systolic blood pressure than in the younger groups (-13.3 and -16.5 mm Hg versus -6.8 and -6.1 mm Hg, respectively;P =0.0001) to attain a systolic blood pressure treatment goal of <140 mm Hg. Contrary to previous perceptions, isolated systolic hypertension was the majority subtype of uncontrolled hypertension in subjects of ages 50 to 59 years, comprised 87% frequency for subjects in the sixth decade of life, and required greater reduction in systolic blood pressure in these subjects to reach treatment goal compared with subjects in the younger group. Better awareness of this middle-aged and older high-risk group and more aggressive antihypertensive therapy are necessary to address this treatment gap.
The MultiDark Database: Release of the Bolshoi and MultiDark Cosmological Simulations

We present the online MultiDark Database -- a Virtual Observatory-oriented, relational database for hosting various cosmological simulations. The data is accessible via an SQL (Structured Query Language) query interface, which also allows users to directly pose scientific questions, as shown in a number of examples in this paper. Further examples for the usage of the database are given in its extensive online documentation (www.multidark.org). The database is based on the same technology as the Millennium Database, a fact that will greatly facilitate the usage of both suites of cosmological simulations. The first release of the MultiDark Database hosts two 8.6 billion particle cosmological N-body simulations: the Bolshoi (250/h Mpc simulation box, 1/h kpc resolution) and MultiDark Run1 simulation (MDR1, or BigBolshoi, 1000/h Mpc simulation box, 7/h kpc resolution). The extraction methods for halos/subhalos from the raw simulation data, and how this data is structured in the database are explained in this paper. With the first data release, users get full access to halo/subhalo catalogs, various profiles of the halos at redshifts z=0-15, and raw dark matter data for one time-step of the Bolshoi and four time-steps of the MultiDark simulation. Later releases will also include galaxy mock catalogs and additional merging trees for both simulations as well as new large volume simulations with high resolution. This project is further proof of the viability to store and present complex data using relational database technology. We encourage other simulators to publish their results in a similar manner.
Effects of the selective MPS1 inhibitor MPS1-IN-3 on glioblastoma sensitivity to antimitotic drugs.

BACKGROUND Glioblastomas exhibit a high level of chemotherapeutic resistance, including to the antimitotic agents vincristine and taxol. During the mitotic agent-induced arrest, glioblastoma cells are able to perform damage-control and self-repair to continue proliferation. Monopolar spindle 1 (MPS1/TTK) is a checkpoint kinase and a gatekeeper of the mitotic arrest. METHODS We used glioblastoma cells to determine the expression of MPS1 and to determine the effects of MPS1 inhibition on mitotic errors and cell viability in combination with vincristine and taxol. The effect of MPS1 inhibition was assessed in different orthotopic glioblastoma mouse models (n = 3-7 mice/group). MPS1 expression levels were examined in relation to patient survival. RESULTS Using publicly available gene expression data, we determined that MPS1 overexpression corresponds positively with tumor grade and negatively with patient survival (two-sided t test, P < .001). Patients with high MPS1 expression (n = 203) had a median and mean survival of 487 and 913 days (95% confidence intervals [CI] = 751 to 1075), respectively, and a 2-year survival rate of 35%, whereas patients with intermediate MPS1 expression (n = 140) had a median and mean survival of 858 and 1183 days (95% CI = 1177 to 1189), respectively, and a 2-year survival rate of 56%. We demonstrate that MPS1 inhibition by RNAi results in sensitization to antimitotic agents. We developed a selective small-molecule inhibitor of MPS1, MPS1-IN-3, which caused mitotic aberrancies in glioblastoma cells and, in combination with vincristine, induced mitotic checkpoint override, increased aneuploidy, and augmented cell death. MPS1-IN-3 sensitizes glioblastoma cells to vincristine in orthotopic mouse models (two-sided log-rank test, P < .01), resulting in prolonged survival without toxicity. CONCLUSIONS Our results collectively demonstrate that MPS1, a putative therapeutic target in glioblastoma, can be selectively inhibited by MPS1-IN-3 sensitizing glioblastoma cells to antimitotic drugs.
A Self-Scalable and Auto-Regulated Request Injection Benchmarking Tool for Automatic Saturation Detection

Software applications providers have always been required to perform load testing prior to launching new applications. This crucial test phase is expensive in human and hardware terms, and the solutions generally used would benefit from further development. In particular, designing an appropriate load profile to stress an application is difficult and must be done carefully to avoid skewed testing. In addition, static testing platforms are exceedingly complex to set up. New opportunities to ease load testing solutions are becoming available thanks to cloud computing. This paper describes a Benchmark-as-a-Service platform based on: (i) intelligent generation of traffic to the benched application without inducing thrashing (avoiding predefined load profiles), (ii) a virtualized and self-scalable load injection system. The platform developed was experimented using two use cases based on the reference JEE benchmark RUBiS. This involved detecting bottleneck tiers, and tuning servers to improve performance. This platform was found to reduce the cost of testing by 50 percent compared to more commonly used solutions.
T-ray tomography

We demonstrate tomographic T-ray imaging, using the timing information present in terahertz (THz) pulses in a reflection geometry. THz pulses are reflected from refractive-index discontinuities inside an object, and the time delays of these pulses are used to determine the positions of the discontinuities along the propagation direction. In this fashion a tomographic image can be constructed.
Recovering evolutionary trees under a more realistic model of sequence evolution.

We report a new transformation, the LogDet, that is consistent for sequences with differing nucleotide composition and that have arisen under simple but asymmetric stochastic models of evolution. This transformation is required because existing methods tend to group sequences on the basis of their nucleotide composition, irrespective of their evolutionary history. This effect of differing nucleotide frequencies is illustrated by using a tree-selection criterion on a simple distance measure defined solely on the basis of base composition, independent of the actual sequences. The new LogDet transformation uses determinants of the observed divergence matrices and works because multiplication of determinants (real numbers) is commutative, whereas multiplication of matrices is not,except in special symmetric cases. The use of determinants thus allows more general models of evolution with a symmetric rates of nucleotide change. The transformation is illustrated on a theoretical data set (where existing methods select the wrong tree) and with three biological data sets: chloroplasts, birds/mammals (nuclear), and honeybees ( mitochondrial ) . The LogDet transformation reinforces the logical distinction between transformations on the data and tree-selection criteria. The overall conclusions from this study are that irregular A,C,G,T compositions are an important and possible general cause of patterns that can mislead tree-reconstruction methods, even when high bootstrap values are obtained. Consequently, many published studies may need to be reexamined.
Medical image registration using extremal region based interest points

`Maximally Stable Extremal Regions' (MSER) based interest points are frequently used for medical image registration on account of their robustness to noise, better localization, and good repeatability. However, if the objects in the image do not have sharp boundaries (as is the case with medical images), the number of MSER's detected is low. Also, MSER's are highly sensitive to image blur. This paper proposes new interest points (specifically for medical images) based on `Extremal regions' (ERs) (as against MSERs). The proposed interest points inherit favorable attributes of MSERs in addition to being detected in good numbers and robustness to blur. Our experiments reveal that ER based interest points perform better, especially for medical images. The computational complexity for proposed points is same as `quasi linear' as for MSERs using union find algorithm.
Valuing the Time-Varying Electricity Production of Solar Photovoltaic Cells

Solar PV panels generate electricity only during daylight hours and generate more electricity when the sun is shining more intensely. As a result, in summer-peaking electricity systems, such as California and most of the U.S., power from PVs is produced disproportionately at times when the value of electricity is high. Thus, a valuation of solar PV electricity production that uses only the average wholesale cost of electricity will tend to undervalue the power. Yet, that is what happens by default in many installations because solar PVs are generally located at the end-user's premises and those end-users are often billed on a flat per kilowatt-hour rate that does not reflect time-varying valuation. As a result, the benefits to many owners of solar PV in reduced electricity bills do not reflect the true time-varying valuation of the power the panels produce. I use solar PV production information in conjunction with wholesale price data and simulations to estimate the actual wholesale value of power from solar PVs and the degree of bias that occurs from using a constant price to value electricity generated by solar PVs. I find that in the California locations I analyze, the most credible long-run valuation of solar PV power is 29%-48% greater than results from valuation at a flat-rate tariff, depending on the location of the PV panels. If the end user is billed on a time-of-use tariff (a simple peak/off-peak price system), however, I find that the misvaluation of wholesale power from solar PVs is approximately zero.
Confusion or Competence?: Ballot Initiative Politics and Voting Behavior in the American States

The proliferation of ballot initiatives, referendums and voter-approved constitutional amendments in American states has significantly impacted policy and the conduct of campaigns and elections. My thesis seeks to create a more complete theory of voters’ engagement with these elections than exists in the literature. In particular, I am concerned with the interactions among ballot issues, campaigns, and voters’ preferences. I evaluate competing theories of voting behavior in ballot issue elections and propose modifications. In particular, I focus on developing a theory of how voters acquire and process information about ballot issues in order to make reasoned vote ∗I thank Herb Asher and Paul Beck for serving as mentors and advisors throughout the writing of this senior thesis and throughout my undergraduate studies. Larry Baum, Logan Casey, Skip Lupia, Justin Phillips, Sandy Skovron, and conference participants at University of Sao Paulo and Walsh University offered helpful comments, conversations and suggestions. Steve Slepchick provided helpful information on the 2009 gay marriage election in Maine. I thank John Matsusaka and the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California for access to data on ballot issue elections. Research on this project was supported by a grant from The Ohio State University Honors and Scholars Center.
Neural Correlates of Belief-Laden Reasoning during Premise Processing: An Event-Related Potential Study

In this study, electrophysiological correlates of belief-laden reasoning were investigated. As subjects, trained participants were required to draw a logical conclusion after being exposed to 4 conditional arguments: the inhibitory content of modus tollens (ICMT), facilitatory content of modus tollens (FCMT), inhibitory content of denial of the antecedent (ICDA) and facilitatory content of denial of the antecedent (FCDA). Event-related potentials were employed to record the processing of minor premises. The results show that in comparison with FCMT, a greater negativity in the ICMT developed during both the 400- to 600- and the 800- to 1,600-ms time windows. A greater anterior cingulate cortex activity observed in the 800- to 1,600-ms time window in ICMT could reflect a detection of the conflict between empirical beliefs and logical rules. However, the components elicited by ICDA and FCDA were not significantly different. The results indicate that logical training influenced MT and DA forms of belief-laden reasoning in different ways and different strategies were likely adopted in the inference processes.
Bayesian supervised segmentation of objects in natural images using low-level information

Detection of particular meaningful objects in images is of great importance in many fields, including image retrieval or image quality analysis. In this contribution, eleven frequently observed objects (areas) in natural images are learned and detected. The presented algorithm is based on region merging and Bayesian decision theory. The main goal is not perfect recognition, since for that purpose it is necessary to use higher-level knowledge about the image content. Merging of segments proceeds only up to a reliable point, not to merge different categories. Unique merging criteria combine the values of probabilities attached to the segments for all the most likely categories, color and texture features and information about edges. Results are demonstrated on a few images and discussed.
Temporal floorplanning using the three-dimensional transitive closure subGraph

Improving logic capacity by time-sharing, dynamically reconfigurable Field Gate Programmable Arrays (FPGAs) are employed to handle designs of high complexity and functionality. In this paper, we use a novel graph-based topological floorplan representation, named 3D-subTCG (3-Dimensional Transitive Closure subGraph), to deal with the 3-dimensional (temporal) floorplanning/placement problem, arising from dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs. The 3D-subTCG uses three transitive closure graphs to model the temporal and spatial relations between modules. We derive the feasibility conditions for the precedence constraints induced by the execution of the dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs. Because the geometric relationship is transparent to the 3D-subTCG and its induced operations (i.e., we can directly detect the relationship between any two tasks from the representation), we can easily detect any violation of the temporal precedence constraints on 3D-subTCG. We also derive important properties of the 3D-subTCG to reduce the solution space and shorten the running time for 3D (temporal) foorplanning/placement. Experimental results show that our 3D-subTCG-based algorithm is very effective and efficient.
Chapter 5 Performance Measures Used in Image Information Retrieval

Although during the running of the ImageCLEF tracks there was no explicit co–ordination on the types of evaluation measures employed, the same statistics were often used across ImageCLEF. Therefore, in this chapter, the range of measures used in the evaluation exercise is described. The original research defining a measure, together with their formulations and the relative pros and cons of the measures, are also detailed. Research that both compares the measures and attempts to determine the best is also outlined. Finally, the use of measures in the different tracks and years of ImageCLEF is tabulated. 5.1 Evaluation Measures Used in ImageCLEF At its most general, measurement has been described as the assignment of numerals to things so as to represent facts and conventions about them (Stevens, 1946). ImageCLEF is a collaborative evaluation exercise examining image searching or image analysis systems. In this context, the main purpose of measurement is as a means of comparison between different systems. More specifically, the evaluation acts as a simulation of a potential operational setting into which the systems may be deployed. The measures provide a way of determining which system submitted to a particular track of ImageCLEF would be best in the setting simulated by the test collection. Different measures reflect different priorities in the simulation of the operational setting. For example, in retrieval some evaluation measures stress the importance of locating as many relevant images as possible, while others focus on a small fixed size output. The choice of evaluation measure employed by different ImageCLEF track co–ordinators reflects varying priorities over the years of ImageCLEF. In this chapter, the descriptions of the measures are organized so as to Mark Sanderson University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom e-mail: m.sanderson@sheffield.ac. uk H. Müller et al. (eds.), ImageCLEF, The Information Retrieval Series 32, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-15181-1 5, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 81
Elliptic constructions of hyperkaehler metrics II: The quantum mechanics of a Swann bundle

The generalized Legendre transform method of Lindstrom and Rocek yields hyperkaehler metrics from holomorphic functions. Its main ingredients are sections of ${\cal O}(2j)$ bundles over the twistor space satisfying a reality condition with respect to antipodal conjugation on the hyperkaehler sphere of complex structures. Formally, the structure of the real ${\cal O}(2j)$ sections is identical to that of quantum-mechanical wave functions describing the states of a particle with spin $j$ in the spin coherent representation. We analyze these sections and their SO(3) invariants and illustrate our findings with two Swann bundle constructions.
An Implicit Surface Triangulator based on Exact Surface Curvature

A technique for generating a triangular net from an implicit surface description is presented. This technique can be applied to 2-order differentiable functions describing the surface and is based on finding the principal curvatures at each generated point. It is therefore well adapted to the shape of the surface, taking more samples in the areas with high curvature. The triangular net is competed in a second phase where extra edges are added that connect the vertices already extracted.