Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kernel Maximum Autocorrelation Factor and Minimum Noise Fraction Transformations

This paper introduces kernel versions of maximum autocorrelation factor (MAF) analysis and minimum noise fraction (MNF) analysis. The kernel versions are based upon a dual formulation also termed Q-mode analysis in which the data enter into the analysis via inner products in the Gram matrix only. In the kernel version, the inner products of the original data are replaced by inner products between nonlinear mappings into higher dimensional feature space. Via kernel substitution also known as the kernel trick these inner products between the mappings are in turn replaced by a kernel function and all quantities needed in the analysis are expressed in terms of this kernel function. This means that we need not know the nonlinear mappings explicitly. Kernel principal component analysis (PCA), kernel MAF, and kernel MNF analyses handle nonlinearities by implicitly transforming data into high (even infinite) dimensional feature space via the kernel function and then performing a linear analysis in that space. Three examples show the very successful application of kernel MAF/MNF analysis to: 1) change detection in DLR 3K camera data recorded 0.7 s apart over a busy motorway, 2) change detection in hyperspectral HyMap scanner data covering a small agricultural area, and 3) maize kernel inspection. In the cases shown, the kernel MAF/MNF transformation performs better than its linear counterpart as well as linear and kernel PCA. The leading kernel MAF/MNF variates seem to possess the ability to adapt to even abruptly varying multi and hypervariate backgrounds and focus on extreme observations.
A New Redshift Indicator of Gamma-Ray Bursts to Measure the Cosmos

Using 64 ms count data of long gamma-ray bursts (LBs, T90 > 2.6 s), we analyze the quantity named relative spectral lag (RSL), τ31/FWHM(1) = τrel, 31. We investigate in detail the properties of the RSL for a sample of nine LBs, using the general cross-correlation technique that includes the lag between two different energy bands. We find that the distribution of RSLs is normal and has a mean value of 0.1. Our important discovery is that redshift (z) and peak luminosity (L p) are strongly correlated with the RSL, which can be measured easily and directly, making the RSL a good redshift and peak luminosity indicator. In addition, we find that the redshift and luminosity estimator can also hold for short gamma-ray bursts (SBs, T90 < 2.6 s). With it, we estimate the median of redshift and peak luminosity of SBs to be about z&leP.06 and Lp∼1.68×1048 erg/s, which are in excellent agreement with the results suggested by some previous authors. We thus argue that the sources including SBs and LBs with positive spectral lags might be one united category with the same physical process.
Using C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Data to Monitor Forested Wetland Hydrology in Maryland's Coastal Plain, USA

Hydrology (i.e., inundation and soil moisture) is the most important abiotic factor controlling wetland function and extent, and scientists predict that wetland hydrology can be significantly altered over relatively short timescales due to climate change and anthropogenic impact. Whereas broadscale hydrology is difficult to monitor in forested wetlands with ground-based and optical remote sensing methods, C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems have the potential to improve the capability to monitor forested wetland hydrology. In this study, we examined the use of Environmental Satellite Advanced SAR (C-HH and C-VV) data for monitoring levels of inundation and soil moisture throughout the year in a typical Mid-Atlantic floodplain and some of the main limitations inherent to C-band data (i.e., polarization and plant phenology) in this environment. The relationships between the backscatter coefficient and inundation, soil moisture, tree basal area, tree height, and forest canopy closure were examined. Significant differences in C-HH were found between forested areas of varying hydrology (0%-60% area inundated) throughout the year and in C-VV during the leaf-off season. As expected, C-HH SAR backscatter was better correlated with inundation and soil moisture than was C-VV SAR backscatter, and the correlations between both polarizations of backscatter and hydrology were stronger during the leaf-off season (C-HH leaf-off , leaf-on ; C-VV leaf-off , leaf-on ; all significant at level). Based on our findings, we concluded that the C-HH data are useful for monitoring hydrology beneath forest canopies throughout the year, whereas the C-VV data can be used during the leaf-off season. Our findings support previous studies that concluded that C-band imagery can be used to monitor forested wetland hydrology in large floodplains that are fully inundated. However, this study used detailed in situ measurements and demonstrated that C-band SAR data can also be used to monitor forested wetland hydrology in smaller partially inundated floodplains, which are more common in the Mid-Atlantic.
Americas Conference on Information Systems ( AMCIS ) 1-1-2005 A Vector Based , Content Analytic Methodology for Comparing Negotiated IT Service Level Agreements

Growth in the outsourcing of IT services has led many organizations to enter into negotiated contractual agreements with both internal and external service providers known as information technology service level agreements (IT SLAs). To further empirical research into IT SLAs, we present a methodological approach based on the theory of conceptual spaces that allows the content of these negotiated agreements to be analyzed and compared geometrically using vector representation. The outcome of such an analysis is a set of distance measures by which defensible statements regarding the similarity of IT SLAs can be made. We also discuss how the comparisons provide insights for IT SLA negotiation researchers that go beyond alternate empirical and analytic methods. The implications of these comparisons are discussed with a specific focus on research methods that can foster cumulative empirical investigation of IT SLA negotiation support system requirements.
Growth Position and Chirality Control of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

We propose a novel technique to grow the single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with specific chirality at the desired position using free electron laser (FEL) irradiation during growth and surface treatment. As a result, only the semiconducting SWNTs grew at the area between triangle electrodes, where the ozone treatment was done to be hydrophilic when an alcohol chemical vapor deposition (ACCVD) process was carried out with the 800nm FEL irradiation. Although the number of possible chiral index is 22 in the SWNTs grown without the FEL irradiation, the number is much reduced to be 8 by the FEL.
Notice of RetractionResearch on Reverse Engineering for Plastic Operation

In this paper, analysis is presented aiming at the problem of plastic operation which is usually finished depending on doctor's experience only. Based on it, reverse engineering of freeform surface is studied and applied for plastic operation. The sufferer's freeform surface is measured and reconstructed to digital model. And the surgery result could be emulated beforehand. Breast plastic is chosen as example to test the technical application. The sufferer could consult the surgery operation with doctor by using reverse engineering. And the sufferer's desire could be satisfied and the successful probability of surgery be improved.
Scalable serial-parallel multiplier over GF(2m) by hierarchical pre-reduction and input decomposition

This paper presents a novel serial-parallel architecture for finite field multiplications over GF(2m) defined by irreducible trinomials as field polynomials. By recursive decomposition of one of the operands, and hierarchical pre-reduction of the other, it is possible to feed multiple bits in parallel to the serial-parallel structure. The level of parallelism could be doubled after each level of decomposition of the input operand, when high throughput rate is required. One of the key features of the proposed design is that its clock-period remains invariant with the digit-size. The area-complexity of the proposed design increases linearly with the digit-size, which is unlike some of the existing architectures, where area-complexity increases quadratically with the digit-size. Although the proposed structure involves more area compared with some of the existing architectures, since the clock-period of the proposed design is small, it involves significantly less area-delay complexity than the others.
Validity and clinical utility of the aspartate aminotransferase-alanine aminotransferase ratio in assessing disease severity and prognosis in patients with hepatitis C virus-related chronic liver disease.

BACKGROUND The aspartate aminotransferase-alanine aminotransferase ratio (AST/ALT ratio) has been used to noninvasively assess the severity of disease in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). We previously demonstrated that progressive liver functional impairment is associated with an increase in the AST/ALT ratio. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the reproducibility and transportability of the AST/ALT ratio in a large cohort of patients with different degrees of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related CLD, to confirm the correlation between progressive impairment of liver function and increase in the AST/ALT ratio, to evaluate whether diagnostic accuracy of the ALT/AST ratio can be improved by using it with other biochemical variables, and to assess the 1-year prognostic capability of the AST/ALT ratio in patients with liver cirrhosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS We retrospectively evaluated 252 patients with HCV-related CLD. The AST/ALT ratio was correlated with the degree of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis and with the Child-Pugh score in patients with cirrhosis. All patients had undergone monoethylglycinexylidide (MEGX) testing to evaluate liver function. We assessed the prognostic ability of the AST/ALT ratio in a subset of 63 cirrhotic patients who were followed up for at least 1 year. RESULTS The AST/ALT ratio was more frequently 1 or higher in cirrhotic patients (P<.001). There was a significant correlation between MEGX values and the AST/ALT ratio (r(s) = -0.621, P<. 001). Multivariate stepwise logistic analysis showed that AST/ALT ratio, platelet count (PLT), MEGX values, and prothrombin activity were independently associated with the presence of cirrhosis. Combined assessment of the AST/ALT ratio and/or PLT obtained 97.0% positive predictive value and 97.9% negative predictive value for the diagnosis of cirrhosis. The AST/ALT ratio had 81.3% sensitivity and 55.3% specificity in identifying cirrhotic patients who died within 1-year of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS The AST/ALT ratio is both reproducible and transportable in patients with HCV-related CLD. The AST/ALT ratio is correlated with both histologic stage and clinical evaluation. Progressive liver functional impairment is reflected by an increase in the AST/ALT ratio. Noninvasive evaluation by means of the combined AST/ALT ratio and PLT assessment misclassifies only a few cirrhotic patients. In cirrhotic patients, the AST/ALT ratio provides medium-term prognostic information that is no different from that provided by established prognostic scores.
Acute exacerbation of paranoid psychotic state after long-term abstinence in patients with previous methamphetamine psychosis.

From a population of 111 patients with chronic methamphetamine (MAP) psychosis, who were treated at ten mental hospitals during the past 3 years, 21 patients were selected for study. Sixteen patients who experienced MAP psychosis again used MAP one or more times after long-term abstinence and experienced acute exacerbation of a paranoid psychotic state which was almost identical to the initial psychotic episode. Four of these patients relapsed following a single MAP reuse of an amount less than that initially used, and one relapsed without evidence of MAP reuse. In eight patients, small doses of neuroleptics, e.g., 3 mg per day of haloperidol, prevented the acute provocation of a psychotic state by MPA reuse. Subsequently, three of these relapsed into a psychotic state following MAP reuse without concurrent haloperidol medication. The clinical data were compared with animal experiments which indicate that chronic MAP use can induce a long-term susceptibility to sensitization to MAP. The positive prophylactic effect of small doses of haloperidol on the acute exacerbation may suggest the participation of dopaminergic supersensitivity as a mechanism for the paranoid psychotic state.
Developmentally and spatially regulated expression of HNK-1 carbohydrate antigen on a novel phosphatidylinositol-anchored glycoprotein in rat brain

HNK-1 carbohydrate antigen in an epitope expressed commonly in many cell surface adhesion and recognition molecules in the nervous system. We purified and characterized from rat brain a novel phosphatidylinositol (PI)-anchored 150-kD glycoprotein belonging to the HNK-1 family. The molecule (PI-GP150) was detected by combination of PI- specific phospholipase C treatment of brain membranes and Western blot analysis with mAb HNK-1. HNK-1-positive PI-GP150 was purified from the PI-PLC-released materials with three successive chromatographies (Sephacryl S-300, mAb HNK-1-Sepharose 4B, and Mono Q) and proven to be a novel molecule by immunoblot and structural analyses. Polyclonal antibody was raised against PI-GP150 and used to show that (a) PI-GP150 is expressed on the surface of neuronal cell bodies and their processes in culture, and (b) PI-GP150 appears during embryonic development and is present throughout all postnatal life in all brain regions. However, the expression of the HNK-1 epitope on PI-GP150 is regulated in both developmental stage-specific and region-specific manners. In newborn rats, the HNK-1 epitope is expressed on PI-GP150 throughout the brain. The level of HNK-1 epitope on PI-GP150 decreases after postnatal day 7 in hindbrain and becomes completely absent in adult myelencephalon and metencephalon. In contrast, HNK-1 epitope on PI-GP150 was constitutively expressed in telencephalon. Thus, while the HNK-1 carbohydrate epitope is strongly coupled to PI-GP150, its expression can be regulated independently of that of PI-GP150. The differential expression of the HNK-1 epitope at different rostro-caudal axial levels was observed also in other HNK-1 family molecules in brain membranes. These results suggest that the HNK-1 epitope plays an important role in adding region-specific and developmental stage-specific modifications on the function of the cell surface molecules.
Fairy Tales for Grown Ups 7 th June 2005

1 Abstract Speech synthesizers provide the computer with the possibility to speak. They are developed to produce natural-sounding output. However, the ability of speech synthesizers to mimic human speech is limited in many ways. For example , speech synthesizers don't understand what they say, and as a result, sometimes they do not use the right style or do not emphasize useful information. This paper presents an insight on our attempt to provide a synthesizer with more understanding of its input in a shallow approach. The goals of our project can be summarized as follows: • to achieve a more natural like output of children stories by
Symbol error probability for rectangular M-QAM OFDM transmission over Rayleigh fading channels

By using the pre-averaging method, an exact closed form expression for the symbol error probability (SEP) is derived for arbitrary rectangular M-QAM signaling in OFDM systems over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels. In addition, the channel capacity for the QAM OFDM transmission over Rayleigh fading environment is obtained.
An Argumentation Framework for Concept Learning

Concept learningis an important problem in AI that consists of, given a set of training examples and counter-examples on a particular concept, identifying a model that is coherent with the training examples, i.e that classifies them correctly. The obtained model is intended to be reused for the purpose of classifying new examples. Version space is one of the ormal frameworks developed for that purpose. It takes as input a consistent set of training examples on the concept to learn, a set of possible models, called hypothesisordered by generality, and returns the hypothesis that are coherent with the training examples. The returned set of hypothesis is called version spaceand is described by its lower and upper bounds. This paper provides an argumentation-based framework that captures the results of the version space approach. The basic idea is to construct arguments in favor of/against each hypothesis and training example, to evaluate those arguments and to determine among the conflicting arguments the acceptable ones. We will show that the acceptable arguments characterize the version space as well as its lower and upper bounds. Moreover, we will show that an argumentationbased approach for learning offers an additional advantage by allowing the handling of common problems in classical concept learning. Indeed, it is possible to reason directly with sets of hypothesis rather than one, and to deal with inconsistent sets of training examples. Lastly, the framework translates the problem of classifying examples into a decision one.
Transcriptional Analysis of Multiple Sclerosis Brain Lesions Reveals a Complex Pattern of Cytokine Expression1

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common and severe neurological disorder associated with an autoimmune response directed against myelin components within the CNS. Lymphocyte activation, extravasation, and recruitment, as well as effector function, involves the turning on and off of a number of genes, thus triggering specific transcriptional pathways. The characterization of the transcriptome in MS lesions should provide a better understanding of the mechanisms that generate and sustain the pathogenic immune response in this disease. Here we performed transcriptional profiling of 56 relevant genes in brain specimens from eight MS patients and eight normal controls by kinetic RT-PCR. Results showed a high transcriptional activity for the gene coding for myelin basic protein (MBP); however, it was not differentially expressed in MS samples, suggesting that remyelination is an active process also in the noninflammatory brain. CD4 and HLA-DRα transcripts were dramatically increased in MS as compared with controls. This reveals a robust MHC class II up-regulation and suggests that Ag is being presented locally to activated T cells. Although analysis of cytokine and cytokine receptor genes expression showed predominantly increased levels of several Th1 molecules (TGF-β, RANTES, and macrophage-inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α) in MS samples, some Th2 genes (IL-3, IL-5, and IL-6/IL-6R) were found to be up-regulated as well. Similarly, both proinflammatory type (CCR1, CCR5) and immunomodulatory type (CCR4, CCR8) chemokine receptors were differentially expressed in the MS brain. Overall, our data suggest a complex regulation of the inflammatory response in human autoimmune demyelination.
Influence of filler-rubber interactions on the viscoelastic properties of carbon-black-filled rubber compounds

The specific role of filler–rubber interactions in dynamic properties was investigated. Natural rubber compounds, filled with N330 carbon black, were used, and the filler surface was modified through a gas treatment in the solid phase. The effects of this filler surface treatment on the dynamic properties were systematically studied at equal filler dispersion levels. The dynamic properties were assessed for both uncured and vulcanized compounds, and a number of advanced investigative techniques were used to characterize not only the modification of the carbon particle surface by an oxidative treatment but also the structure of the filled rubber compounds. Particular attention was paid to techniques that gave access to the segmental mobility to explain the benefit observed with modified carbon black. A molecular interpretation, based on NMR measurements, was considered that took into account physicochemical parameters. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 577–588, 2004
Motion Planning for Multi-robot Coordination on Representation Space

Abstract The multi-robot coordination task is investigated in its Representation Space (RS). First, the RS model of the robot system as well as its prescribed task is formulated by clarifying the internal and external constraints affecting task realization. All constraints are depicted as unreachable areas in RS model. Then, whether a task is feasible or not is transformed to check 1) if the final representation denoting task realization of the robot system is reachable; and 2) if there is a connecting trajectory illustrating the process that the start representation varies to the final representation, amidst those unreachable areas denoting system constraints. Performance of different planning algorithms are also evaluated upon the representation space, from which the optimal planning algorithm could thus be recognized. The task of multi-robot formation navigation in a warehouse environment is exemplified to illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme: the formation of the robot system is maintained in motion with collisions avoided. Moreover, by incorporating the task oriented motion planning framework, it is capable of transforming an infeasible task into a feasible one with least adjustments in the system's formation to adapt to inner and/or external constraints during task realization.
Self-Similarity in the Taxonomic Classification of Human Languages

Statistical properties of the taxonomic classification of human languages are studied. It is shown that, at the highest levels of the taxonomic hierarchy, the frequency of taxon members as a function of the number of languages belonging to each member decays as a power law. This feature reveals that a self-similar structure underlies the taxonomy of languages, exactly as observed in the taxonomic classification of biological species. Such an analogy is a clue to the evolutionary foundation of language classification based on long-range comparison.
Investigation on hydrophobicity and pollution status of composite insulators in contaminated areas

The usage of silicone rubber insulators in various contaminated areas has increasesd prominently and still keeps rising. In the case of China, more than 90% of the 800000 composite insulators are operating in heavy or medium pollution environments. As the exposure time in the field is prolonged, the change of hydrophobicity and the build-up of pollution layer directly affect pollution performance of the composite insulator. The paper is based on part of the work of a system investigation aiming at inspection and evaluation on pollution performance and aging of the composite insulator in service. More than 40 composite insulators, all made of HTV silicone rubber, were removed from 110 kV-220 kV HV lines. The service time changes from 1 year to 10 years. Hydrophobicity status and pollution status of these insulators are reviewed in the paper. Data from the field provide important references for the research on aging and pollution property and for the build-up of relevant test methods.
Vaccination et insuffisance rénale chronique Vaccination and chronic kidney disease

Chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) patients and especially hemodialysis patients present an impaired immune system and are thus more exposed to infectious diseases. Therefore, it is important to vaccine these patients in order to prevent infectious diseases. However, because of this impaired immune system, responsiveness to vaccination in CRI patients may be reduced and usual vaccination schedules can be ineffective. The aim of this article is to review the studies on the use of vaccines in CRI patients, in order to determine whether dosage adjustment may be necessary