Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification of Terrain by Implementing the Correlation Coefficient in the Circular Polarization Basis Using X-Band POLSAR Data

Classification of terrain is one of the most important applications of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (POLSAR) image analysis. This paper presents a simple method to classify terrain by the use of the correlation coefficients in the circular polarization basis together with the total power of the scattering matrix in the X-band. The reflection symmetry condition that the co-polarized and the cross-polarized correlations are close to zero for natural distributed scatterers is utilized to extract characteristic parameters of small forests or cluster of trees, and oriented urban building blocks with respect to the direction of the radar illumination. Both of these kinds of scatterers are difficult to identify in high resolution POLSAR images of complex urban areas. The indices employed here are the correlation coefficient, a modified coefficient normalized by the reflection symmetric conditional case, and the total power. It is shown that forest areas and oriented building blocks are easily detected and identified. The terrain classification yielded by these combinations is very accurate as confirmed by photographic ground truth images.
Preliminary drawing test via predictive energy bounding Algorithm for time-delayed bilateral teleoperation

This paper presents a predictive control approach in order to enhance the force tracking transparency which results comfortability in performing drawing task for the haptic bilateral energy-bounding Algorithm (EBA) teleoperation over communication channels in the presence of constant time delays. The proposed scheme (termed as Predictive EBA) combines the EBA with Smith predictor (SP) architecture which predicts the slave site states on the master site to improve force tracking transparency. If the knowledge about the contact location and slave/environment dynamics is well known, significant improvement in magnitude and phase of feedback force can be obtained. In order to show the effectiveness of proposed scheme a preliminary circle drawing task experimentation is attempted comparing the performance of original EBA with the predictive EBA in the presence of constant time delays.
Improving European Gas Infrastructure Regulation: Lessons from Theory and Practice

As an instrument to trigger and speed up new investments in gas infrastructure across the European Union, the European Commission has implemented an exemption regime where new investment projects can apply for an exemption from default third party access regulation and tariff regulation. In this contribution we assess access holiday and transaction cost economics’ literature and derive conditions for applying an exemption regime. We test whether these conditions are applied in practice by analysing the exemption application process of the Netherlands – UK interconnector (BBL). We conclude that current practice could substantially be improved.
Splash: User-friendly Programming Interface for Parallelizing Stochastic Algorithms

Stochastic algorithms are efficient approaches to solving machine learning and optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a general framework called Splash for parallelizing stochastic algorithms on multi-node distributed systems. Splash consists of a programming interface and an execution engine. Using the programming interface, the user develops sequential stochastic algorithms without concerning any detail about distributed computing. The algorithm is then automatically parallelized by a communication-efficient execution engine. We provide theoretical justifications on the optimal rate of convergence for parallelizing stochastic gradient descent. Splash is built on top of Apache Spark. The real-data experiments on logistic regression, collaborative filtering and topic modeling verify that Splash yields order-of-magnitude speedup over single-thread stochastic algorithms and over state-of-the-art implementations on Spark.
On the resolvent and spectral functions of a second order differential operator with a regular singularity

We consider the resolvent of a second order differential operator with a regular singularity, admitting a family of self-adjoint extensions. We find that the asymptotic expansion for the resolvent in the general case presents unusual powers of λ which depend on the singularity. The consequences for the pole structure of the ζ function, and for the small-t asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel, are also discussed.
Exact and Heuristic Graph-Coloring for Energy Efficient Advance Cloud Resource Reservation

This paper presents a new graph-coloring model for advance resource reservation with minimum energy consumption in heterogeneous IaaS cloud data centers. We start with an exact integer linear programming (ILP) formulation which generalizes the graph coloring problem and follow with a fast Energy Efficient Graph Pre-coloring (EEGP) heuristic to address the scalability and to reduce convergence times. The results of performance evaluation and comparisons of EEGP with our exact algorithm and the Haizea advance reservation (AR) algorithm demonstrate the efficiency of EEGP for the energy efficient advance resource reservation problem. Our proposed EEGP heuristic is shown to perform very close to optimal, to scale well with problem size and to achieve convergence times close to the simple and fast AR algorithm that is however suboptimal.
Classifier ensembles using Boosting with Mixed Learner Models (BMLM)

Bagging and Boosting are most famous classifier ensemble methods which have been used in a number of Pattern Classification applications. In this paper, an alternative approach for Classifier Ensembles by using Boosting method has been proposed. Usually boosting is used to boost the performance of a single base classifier. Boosting (BMLM) used to enhance the performance of the base classifier that is trained with the split numerical and categorical features of the same dataset has been carried out in this paper. BMLM is applied to the classification of three UCI (University of California, Irvine) datasets. Diversity between the base learners has also been calculated which holds good on increasing the recognition rates of the classifiers. It is seen that, the results of BMLM have shown up to 3% increase in classification accuracy than that of base classifier and single boosted classifier.
A noise-resistant fuzzy Kohonen clustering network algorithm for color image segmentation

Fuzzy Kohonen clustering network(FKCN) is a kind of self-organizing fuzzy neural network, it shows great superiority in processing the ambiguity and uncertainty of image. But FKCN will encounter some difficulties when used for real noisy color images and medical Sublingual vein color images segmentation. To overcome this defect, an improved FKCN algorithm is presented in this paper, which a new measurement of distance, the biologic lateral-inhibition mechanism and an improved cut-set method are used to reduce the effect of noisy pixels.In the end, the improved algorithm will be used for the segmentation of noisy color image and medical Sublingual vein color image. The experiments show that the improved algorithm can segment both noisy color image and medical Sublingual vein color image more effectively and provide more robust segmentation results.
Carmichael number with three prime factors.

Let $C_3(x)$ be the number of Carmichael numbers $n\le x$ having exactly 3 prime factors. It has been conjectured that $C_3(x)$ is of order $x^{1/3}(\log x)^{-1/3}$ exactly. We prove an upper bound of order $x^{7/20+\varepsilon}$, improving the previous best result due to Balasubramanian and Nagaraj, in which the exponent $7/20$ was replaced by $5/14$. The proof combines various elementary estimates with an argument using Kloosterman fractions, which ultimately relies on a bound for the Ramanujan sum.
Turkish Language Reform in a Language Planning Framework: Its Impact on Language Use of Turkish Cypriot High School Students.

Turkish language reform began as a language simplification effort by literary figures of the late 19th century, gathering momentum in the 1920s and 1930s to become a large-scale planning activity to save Turkish from domination by foreign influences. Change in script was easy due to low literacy rates, but purification of the lexicon, by stylistic simplification and lexical modernization, was always controversial. Reformers followed four strategies for finding authentic Turkish substitutes for foreign borrowings. A recent study in two Cyprus high schools investigated language usage in relation to Turkish language reform efforts and to assess results of some of the language-related educational policies. A total of 213 students from English-medium and Turkish-medium classes were surveyed and tested on their knowledge of reform-based Turkish neologisms taken from daily newspapers, and their written compositions were analyzed for language usage. In addition, teachers and administrators were interviewed about their views on teaching and using the Turkish language. Results suggest that although Turkish language reform reshaped the language, it is now a much reduced effort, little reinforced in policyplementation in general and specifically in Cypriot schools. Further language planning is recommended. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** 1 Turkish Language Reform in a Language Planning Framework: Its Impact on Language Use of Turkish Cypriot High School Students
ENVISAT RA2 : TRACKING PERFORMANCE AND RESOLUTION SELECTION LOGIC

The altimeter on-board EnviSat, RA-2, incorporates many new features, in particular a new ‘model’ free tracker (MFT) and automatic resolution selection logic (RSL) to switch between three bandwidths (320MHz, 80MHz, 20MHz). Autonomous switching between different bandwidths is achieved by an on-board algorithm (RSL), using information from the return echoes. The operation of the algorithm is further controlled by a set of on-board parameters which may be ‘tuned’ in flight to optimise the tracking characteristics. The primary objective of the RA-2 optimisation is to maximise the eventual science return during the mission. Essentially this should provide the highest resolution tracking over a given surface whilst minimising data loss through the instrument, losing track of the surface. The optimisation of these on-board parameters and software required to fulfil the requirements was performed during the EnviSat calibration phase. This paper describes the process of this optimisation, a comparison of the results against specifications, and initial comparison of the RA-2 performance against the ERS altimeters.
A longitudinal study of the relationship between personality traits and the annual rate of volume changes in regional gray matter in healthy adults

To investigate whether personality traits affect the rate of decline of gray matter volume, we analyzed the relationships between personality traits and the annual rate of changes of gray matter volume in 274 healthy community dwelling subjects with a large age range by applying a longitudinal design over 6 years, using brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R) at baseline. Brain MRI data were processed using voxel‐based morphometry with a custom template by applying the DARTEL diffeomorphic registration tool. For each subject, we used NEO‐PI‐R to evaluate the five major personality traits, including neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The results show that the annual rate of change in regional gray matter volume in the right inferior parietal lobule was correlated significantly and negatively with a personality of openness, which is known to be related to intellect, intellectual curiosity, and creativity adjusting for age, gender, and intracranial volume. This result indicates that subjects with a personality trait of less openness have an accelerated loss of gray matter volume in the right inferior parietal lobule, compared with subjects with a personality trait of more openness. Because the right inferior parietal lobule is involved in higher cognitive function such as working memory and creativity, a personality trait of openness is thought to be important for preserving gray matter volume and cognitive function of the right inferior parietal lobule in healthy adults. Hum Brain Mapp 34:3347–3353, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The angular momentum of dark haloes: merger and accretion effects

We present new results on the angular momentum evolution of dark matter haloes. Haloes, from N-body simulations, are classified according to their mass growth histories into two categories: the accretion category contains haloes whose mass has varied continuously and smoothly, while the merger category contains haloes which have undergone sudden and significant mass variations (greater than 1/3 of their initial mass per event). We find that the angular momentum grows in both cases, well into the non-linear regime. For individual haloes we observe strong correlation between the angular momentum variation and the mass variation. The rate of growth of both mass and angular momentum has a characteristic transition time at around z ∼ 1.5-1.8, with an early fast phase followed by a late slow phase. Haloes of the merger catalogue acquire more angular momentum even when the scaling with mass is taken into account. The spin parameter has a different behaviour for the two classes: there is a decrease with time for haloes in the accretion catalogue whereas a small increase is observed for the merger catalogue. When the two catalogues are considered together, no significant variation of the spin parameter distribution with the redshift is obtained. We have also found that the spin parameter neither depends on the halo mass nor on the cosmological model. From our simple model developed for the formation of a disc galaxy similar to the Milky Way, we conclude that our own halo must have captured satellites in order to acquire the required angular momentum and to achieve most of the disc around z ∼ 1.6. The distribution of the angular momentum indicates that at z ∼ 1.6 only 22 per cent of the haloes have angular momentum of magnitude comparable to that of disc galaxies in the mass range 10 10 -5 x 10 11 M ○. , clearly insufficient to explain the present observed abundance of these objects.
Integration of Biological Sources: Exploring the Case of Protein Homology

Data integration is a key issue in the domain of bioin- formatics, which deals with huge amounts of heteroge- neous biological data that grows and changes rapidly. This paper serves as an introduction in the field of bioinformatics and the biological concepts it deals with, and an exploration of the integration problems a bioinformatics scientist faces. We examine ProGMap, an integrated protein homology system used by bioin- formatics scientists at Wageningen University, and several use cases related to protein homology. A key issue we identify is the huge manual effort required to unify source databases into a single resource. Un- certain databases are able to contain several possi- ble worlds, and it has been proposed that they can be used to significantly reduce initial integration efforts. We propose several directions for future work where uncertain databases can be applied to bioinformatics, with the goal of furthering the cause of bioinformatics integration.
A geometric model for fusing IMU into monocular visual localization of 3-D mobile robots

For the localization problem of mobile robots in 3D space, vision-based methods are being extensively investigated in recent years, due to the information richness provided by images. To improve the robustness and continuity, usually more sensors are introduced to assist visual localization in practices. In this paper, we propose a geometric model of fusing IMU data into the visual tracking process to estimate the robot trajectory in 3-D space. The model employs tracking of a certain number of feature points in the environment, and fuses them with sensor data from IMU to perform iterative adaptive estimation of both the robot trajectory and the positions of the selected feature points. The convergence and performance of the proposed method is validated in theoretical proof and simulation test.
PENGARUH KECERDASAN EMOSIONAL DAN KECERDASAN SPIRITUAL TERHADAP KEPEMIMPINAN TRANSFORMASIONAL DILIHAT DARI PERSPEKTIF GENDER

Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji apakah terdapat pengaruh kecerdasan emosional dan spiritual signifikan dan positif terhadap kepemimpinan transformasional pejabat Politeknik Negeri Batam. Penelitian ini juga menguji apakah terdapat perbedaan baik kecerdasan emosional, spiritual, dan kepemimpinan transformasional antara pemimpin laki-laki dan perempuan di Politeknik Negeri Batam. Sampel dari penelitian ini adalah 60 sample. 30 sampel merupakan dosen aktif Jurusan Manajemen Bisnis sebagai representasi jurusan yang dipimpin oleh perempuan, dan 30 sampel lainnya merupakan dosen aktif Jurusan Elektro sebagai representasi jurusan yang dipimpin oleh laki-laki. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat pengaruh kecerdasan emosional dan kecerdasan spiritual secara signifikan dan positif terhadap kepemimpinan transformasional. Tidak ada perbedaan signifikan kecerdasan emosional, kecerdasan spiritual, dan kepemimpinan transformasional antara pemimpin laki-laki dan perempuan.
Ambulatory impedance pneumography device for quantitative monitoring of volumetric parameters in respiratory and cardiac applications

Aims: The estimation of respiratory flow and volume parameters is difficult to perform and uncomfortable for the patient during long-term monitoring outside the clinical environment. It is also hard to perform during sleep due to the usage of a facemask. The impedance pneumography (IP) device allows monitoring of breathing activity, estimates the respiratory rate and provides the quantitative measurements of the static and dynamic respiratory parameters, e.g. tidal volume (TV) or peak expiratory flow (PEF). A miniaturized, Holter-type impedance pneumography device, Pneumonitor, with analog output and intrinsic digital memory, was designed and constructed. The system allows long-term assessment of ventilation by measuring changes in thoracic impedance using the tetrapolar method. Methods: The Artificial Patient module was used to check the stability of the amplitude and frequency of the application current (sinusoidal, 100kHz, 250μA) and to calibrate the measurements obtained by the IP device by finding the transfer function between voltage and impedance. Impedance values obtained by the IP device from patients were compared those from another bioimpedance measuring device in different electrode placement configurations in patients (for cardiac and respiratory applications). The volume-related impedance signal was also compared with the volume signal calculated from pneumotachometry (PNT). These measurements were conducted in a group of 12 young, healthy volunteers (8 male). Results: The comparison of impedance values from the IP device with those from another one bioimpedance measuring showed high agreement in all tested electrode configurations. High values of determination coefficients (R2), describing the fit of the linear regression model relating corresponding IP and PNT signals, varied in the range of 0.934 to 0.997 (average: 0.985). However, the differences between average tidal volume parameters (calculated for each subject) derived from IP and PNT are statistically significant, although negligible (average relative error is 3.2%; 1.9% min., 7% max.). Conclusion: Preliminary results show that our portable IP device provides impedance values related to respiratory activity according to a formula obtained individually for each subject. An impedance pneumography signal describing volumetric parameters could be used in analysis of respiratory and cardiac activities, e.g. might be helpful in asthma monitoring or autonomous nervous system testing.
The protective effects on the brain by pharmacological preconditioning

Based on endogenous protective mechanisms of ischemic preconditioning, pretreatment of some chemical agents was found to be capable of inducing protective effects in brain tissues in recent years. This phenomenon was defined as pharmacological preconditioning. The chemical agents include endotoxin and its analogs, 3-nitropropionic acid, volatile anesthetics, adenosine and its mimetic agents, the openers of ATP- sensitive potassium channels, morphine and desferroxamine, et al. The time course, potency and mechanisms of the protective effects vary among the different chemical agents. New drugs that could induce pharmacologi- cal preconditioning may be useful in protection of the brain in neurosurgery or in prevention of ischemic brain damages.
Functional Domains of ZFP809 Essential for Nuclear Localization and Gene Silencing

Zinc finger protein 809 (ZFP809) is a member of the Kruppel-associated box-containing zinc finger protein (KRAB-ZFP) family, and is highly expressed in mouse immature cells. ZFP809 is known to inhibit the expression of transduced genes driven by Moloney murine leukemia virus (MoMLV)-typed retroviral vectors by binding to the primer binding site (PBS) located downstream of the MLV-long terminal repeat (LTR) of the vectors and recruiting protein complexes that introduce epigenetic silencing marks such as histone modifications and DNA methylation at the MLV-LTR. However, it remains undetermined what domains of ZFP809 among the KRAB domain at N-terminus and the seven zinc fingers are critical for gene silencing. In this study, we assessed subcellular localization, gene silencing ability, and binding ability to the PBS of a series of truncated and mutated ZFP809 proteins. We revealed the essential role of the KRAB A box for all functions assessed, together with the accessory roles of a subset of zinc fingers. Our data also suggest that interaction between KAP1 and the KRAB A box of ZFP809 is critical in KAP1-dependent control of gene silencing for ZFP809 targets.
Designing Fiscal Policy to Address the External Costs of Energy

This paper first reviews the conceptual case for, and appropriate design of, fiscal policies to address major externalities associated with energy use — global warming, local air pollution, and various side effects (e.g., congestion) from motor vehicles. Techniques for (roughly) estimating the magnitude of these externalities, and corrective energy taxes, on a country-by-country basis are then described. The implications for reforming energy taxes, and the potential environmental, health, and fiscal benefits from reform, are then discussed. A theme of the paper is the critical role of finance ministries in administering tax reforms and ensuring efficient use of revenues.