Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of single mode slab and rib waveguide planar evanescent wave transducers

It is well known that a homogeneous sensitivity of a single-layer slab waveguide, for given polarization, is maximized for a certain thickness of a waveguide film. Transition from a slab waveguide, referred to as a parent-slab, to a rib waveguide consist in partial constraint of the waveguide film in the direction parallel to its interfaces and perpendicular to the direction of propagation. Therefore it is appropriate to normalize the rib waveguides homogeneous sensitivity, which depends on the two additional parameters: rib width and height, to the sensitivity of the optimized slab waveguide. The article discuss dependence of rib waveguides normalized, homogeneous sensitivity on a parent slab thickness, rib width and rib height. High aspect ratio rib waveguides, whose rib width is several times longer than the parent slab thickness, are considered. It is shown, using the film mode matching method, that the sensitivity of a rib waveguide can exceed the sensitivity of the optimized slab waveguide and that sensitivity characteristics as a function of rib height may have maximum like it is in the case of a homogeneous sensitivity of the slab waveguide as a function of its thickness. Analysis of a principal electric field component spatial distribution, carried out for the fundamental EH mode, showed that for the optimized rib waveguide, its sidewalls are the place where changes of the ambient refractive index affect the guided mode to greatest extent.
A Streaming Algorithm for Graph Clustering

We introduce a novel algorithm to perform graph clustering in the edge streaming setting. In this model, the graph is presented as a sequence of edges that can be processed strictly once. Our streaming algorithm has an extremely low memory footprint as it stores only three integers per node and does not keep any edge in memory. We provide a theoretical justification of the design of the algorithm based on the modularity function, which is a usual metric to evaluate the quality of a graph partition. We perform experiments on massive real-life graphs ranging from one million to more than one billion edges and we show that this new algorithm runs more than ten times faster than existing algorithms and leads to similar or better detection scores on the largest graphs.
Nanometer CMOS

This book gives a comprehensive overview of all the important issues concerning modern Si MOSFETs. It covers the principles of MOSFET operation, theory, scaling issues, and an in-depth discussion of nanometer MOSFETs. Both classical nanometer MOSFETs as well as non-classical MOSFET concepts, which receive little coverage in textbooks, are treated in detail. The device structures, merits, and drawbacks of MOSFET concepts like strained Si MOSFETs, ultra-thin body SOI MOSFETs, and multiple gate MOSFETs (FinFETs, Tri-gate MOSFETs) are presented. An entire chapter is devoted to the emerging and rapidly growing field of RF MOSFETs/RF CMOS, and the discussion extends to the important future trends in of nanometer CMOS technology and the problems and limits of scaling.
Gain enhancement of microstrip patch antenna with via holes structure

: Microstrip patch antenna (MPA) with loading of shorting pins expressed as a high gain and planar structure. The inductive e ﬀ ect of shorting pin tunes up the resonant frequency leading to increase the electrical size of antenna and, in consequence, its radiation directivity is enhanced. This work proposes a new con ﬁ guration of MPA with loading of via holes to achieve gain enhancement. The ﬁ eld distribution is analyzed to optimize position of via holes. A prototype of proposed MPA is fabricated and shows excellent realized gain of 11.3 dBi that enhance about by 1.3 dB in comparison to the previous work.
SA-UZH: Verb-based Sentiment Analysis

This paper describes the details of our system submitted to the SemEval-2014 shared task about aspect-based sentiment analysis on review texts. We participated in subtask 2 (prediction of the polarity of aspect terms) and 4 (prediction of the polarity of aspect categories). Our approach to determine the sentiment of aspect terms and categories is based on linguistic preprocessing, including a compositional analysis and a verb resource, task-specific feature engineering and supervised machine learning techniques. We used a Logistic Regression classifier to make predictions, which were ranked above-average in the shared task.
Tumor Microenvironment in Treatment of Glioma

Abstract Glioma is one of the most malignant and fatal tumors in adults. Researchers and physicians endeavor to improve clinical efficacy towards it but made little achievement. In recent years, people have made advances in understanding characteristics and functions of tumor microenvironment and its role in different processes of tumor. In this paper, we describe the effects of tumor microenvironment on glioma proliferation, invasion and treatments. By explaining underlying mechanisms and enumerating new therapy strategies employing tumor microenvironment, we aim to provide novel ideas to improve clinical outcomes of glioma.
Funneled Bayesian Optimization for Design, Tuning and Control of Autonomous Systems

In this paper, we tackle several problems that appear in robotics and autonomous systems: algorithm tuning, automatic control, and intelligent design. All those problems share in common that they can be mapped to global optimization problems where evaluations are expensive. Bayesian optimization (BO) has become a fundamental global optimization algorithm in many problems where sample efficiency is of paramount importance. BO uses a probabilistic surrogate model to learn the response function and reduce the number of samples required. Gaussian processes (GPs) have become a standard surrogate model for their flexibility to represent a distribution over functions. In a black-box settings, the common assumption is that the underlying function can be modeled with a stationary GP. In this paper, we present a novel kernel function specially designed for BO, that allows nonstationary behavior of the surrogate model in an adaptive local region. This kernel is able to reconstruct nonstationarity even with the irregular sampling distribution that arises from BO. Furthermore, in our experiments, we found that this new kernel results in an improved local search (exploitation), without penalizing the global search (exploration) in many applications. We provide extensive results in well-known optimization benchmarks, machine learning hyperparameter tuning, reinforcement learning, and control problems, and UAV wing optimization. The results show that the new method is able to outperform the state of the art in BO both in stationary and nonstationary problems.
Error Modelling in Stereo Navigation

In stereo navigation, a mobile robot estimates its position by tracking landmarks with on-board cameras. Previous systems for stereo navigation have suffered from poor accuracy, in part because they relied on scalar models of measurement error in triangulation. This paper shows that using 3-D gaussian distributions to model triangulation error leads to much better performance. The paper describes how to compute the error model from image correspondences, estimate robot motion between frames, and update the global positions of the robot and the landmarks over time. Simulations show that compared to scalar error models the 3-D gaussian reduces the variance in robot position estimates and better distinguishes rotational from translational motion. A short indoor run with real images supported these conclusions and computed the final robot position to within 2% of distance and one degree of orientation. These results illustrate the importance of error modelling in stereo vision for this and other applications. This research was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-81 -K-0503 and by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under contracts DACA 76-35-C-0003 and F33615-84-K-1520. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of ONR, DARPA, or of the U.S. Government
Effect of vitamin D supplementation on orthostatic hypotension: data from the Vitamin D in Isolated Systolic Hypertension randomized controlled trial

Objective: Orthostatic hypotension commonly accompanies supine hypertension, and is associated with low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. We tested whether high-dose intermittent oral vitamin D therapy could ameliorate orthostatic hypotension in older patients with isolated systolic hypertension. Methods: We conducted a subgroup analysis of data from a parallel-group, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Patients aged over 70 years with supine office SBP above 140 mmHg and DBP below 90 mmHg received 100 000 units oral vitamin D3 or matching placebo every 3 months for 1 year. Office supine and standing blood pressure were measured at baseline, and 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, along with arterial stiffness and flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery. Results: Of 159 patients randomized to the main trial, 75 patients with orthostatic hypotension at baseline were included in this analysis. The mean age was 78 (SD 5) years, baseline blood pressure was 162/76 mmHg and the mean baseline orthostatic fall in blood pressure on standing was 32/5 mmHg. After adjustment for baseline age, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, SBP and orthostatic fall, the fall in SBP was less in the vitamin D group at 3 months [treatment effect 6 mmHg, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0 to 12], but repeated-measures analysis showed no significant treatment effect (3 mmHg for systolic fall, 95% CI −1 to 8; 1 mmHg for diastolic fall, 95% CI −1 to 3). Conclusion: Twelve months of intermittent, high-dose oral vitamin D3 did not significantly improve orthostatic hypotension in older patients with isolated systolic hypertension.
Attractor Landscapes and Active Tracking: The Neurodynamics of Embodied Action

Behavior is the product of three intertwining dynamics: of the world, of the body and of internal control structures. Neurodynamics focuses on the dynamics of neural control, while observing interfaces with the world and the body. From this perspective, we present a dynamical analysis of embodied recurrent neural networks evolved to control a cybernetic device that solves a problem in active tracking. For competent action selection, agents must rely on the attractor landscapes of the evolved networks. Insights into how the networks achieve this are given in terms of the network's dynamical substrate, which highlights the role of the network's inherent attractors as they change as a function of the input parameters (sensors). We introduce some terminological extensions to neurodynamics to allow for a more precise formulation of how attractor changes influence behavior generation: in particular, attractor landscapes, which are the space of all attractors accessible through coherent parametrizations of the network (input stimuli), and the meta-transient, which resolves behavior by approaching attractors as they shape-shift. We apply these concepts to the analysis of interesting behaviors of the tracking device, such as temporal contextual dependency, chaotic transitory regimes in moments of ambiguity, and implicit mapping of environmental asymmetricities in the response of the device. Finally, we discuss the relevance of the concepts introduced in terms of autonomy, learning, and modularity.
Significance of excipients to enhance the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs in oral solid dosage forms: A Review

Nowadays most of the drug substances are coming into the innovation pipeline with poor water solubility. Here, the influence of excipients will play a significant role to improve the dissolution of poorly aqueous soluble compounds. The drug substance needs to be dissolved in gastric fluids to get the better absorption and bioavailability of an orally administered drug. Dissolution is the rate-controlling stage for drugs which controls the rate and degree of absorption. Usually, poorly soluble oral administrated drugs show a slower dissolution rate, inconsistent and incomplete absorption which can lead to lower bioavailability. The low aqueous solubility of BCS class II and IV drugs is a major challenge in the drug development and delivery process. Several technologies have been used in an attempt to progress the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drug compounds which include solid dispersions, lipid-based formulations, micronization, solvent evaporation, co-precipitation, ordered mixing, liquid-solid compacts, solvent deposition inclusion complexation, and steam aided granulation. In fact, most of the technologies require excipient as a carrier which plays a significant role in improving the bioavailability using Hypromellose acetate succinate, Cyclodextrin, Povidone, Copovidone, Hydroxypropyl cellulose, Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, Crospovidone, Starch, Dimethylacetamide, Polyethylene glycol, Sodium lauryl sulfate, Polysorbate, Poloxamer. Mesoporous silica and so on. This review deliberates about the excipients significance on bioavailability enhancement of drug products in a single platform along with pragmatically proved applications so that user can able to select the right excipients as per the molecule.
Direct Product Theorems for Communication Complexity via Subdistribution Bounds

A basic question in complexity theory is whether the computational resources required for solving k independent instances of the same problem scale as k times the resources required for one instance. We investigate this question in various models of classical communication complexity. We define a new measure, the subdistribution bound , which is a generalization of the well-studied rectangle or corruption bound in communication complexity. We prove that the one-way version of this bound tightly captures the one-way public-coin randomized communication complexity of any relation. More importantly, we show that the bound satisfies the strong direct product property under product distributions, for both oneand two-way communication. This way we recover and generalize, in one shot, several recent results on the direct product question, including those due to Klauck et al. [KvdW04], Beame et al. [BPSW07], Gavinsky [Gav06], and de Wolf [dW06]. The simplicity and broad applicability of our technique is perhaps an indication of its potential to solve yet more challenging questions regarding the direct product problem. School of Computer Science, and Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W. , Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. Email: rjain@cs.uwaterloo. ca. Research supported in part by ARO/NSA USA. Institut für Informatik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, 60054 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. E-mail: hklauck@gmail.com. Supported by DFG grant KL 1470/1. Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, and Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W. , Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. E-mail: anayak@math.uwaterloo. ca. Research supported in part by NSERC Canada, CIFAR, MITACS, CFI, OIT, and an ERA from the Province of Ontario. A.N. is also Associate Member, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada. Research at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is supported in part by the Government of Canada through NSERC and by the Province of Ontario through MRI. Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity, Report No. 64 (2007)
Determination Approach of Dislocation Density and Crystallite Size Using a Convolutional Multiple Whole Profile Software

Neutron di ﬀ raction pro ﬁ le analysis using the whole pro ﬁ le ﬁ tting method is useful for obtaining microscopic information on metallic materials. To determine an appropriate ﬁ tting approach for obtaining reasonable and non-arbitrary results, we applied di ﬀ raction line pro ﬁ le analyses using the Convolutional Multiple Whole Pro ﬁ le (CMWP) method to di ﬀ raction patterns obtained using the Engineering Materials Di ﬀ ractometer (TAKUMI, BL19) at the Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF) of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The tensile specimens of 780MPa grade bainitic steel were uniaxially stretched until the plastic strain reached a value of 0.05. We performed CMWP analyses on the obtained di ﬀ raction patterns during tensile test with various initial parameters of dislocation density and crystallite size. These parameters were optimized in the ﬁ tting procedures to minimize the weighted sums of squared residuals (WSSRs). Following this approach, we found that unsuitable initial parameter values resulted in unreasonable convergence. Therefore, initial ﬁ tting parameters should be chosen to ensure that the initial pro ﬁ les are as broad as possible. Reasonable results were obtained following this suggestive approach even when the strain anisotropy parameter is set to arbitrary values. [doi:10.2320
Replacing with whole grains and legumes reduces Lp-PLA2 activities in plasma and PBMCs in patients with prediabetes or T2D1

To determine dietary effects on circulating lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity and enzyme activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), 99 patients with impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or newly-diagnosed T2D were randomly assigned to either a control group (usual diet with refined rice) or the whole grain and legume group. Substitution of whole grains and legumes for refined rice was associated with the replacement of 7% of energy from carbohydrates with energy from protein (about 4%) and fat. After 12 weeks, the whole grain and legume group showed a significant decrease in fasting glucose, insulin, homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance, hemoglobin A1c, malondialdehyde, plasma Lp-PLA2 activity, and oxidized LDL (ox-LDL), and an increase in LDL particle size. The changes (Δs) in these variables in the whole grain and legume group were significantly different from those in controls after adjustment for the baseline levels. When all subjects were considered, Δ plasma Lp-PLA2 positively correlated with Δ glucose, Δ PBMC Lp-PLA2, Δ ox-LDL, and Δ urinary 8-epi-prostaglandin F2α after being adjusted for confounding factors. The Δ PBMC Lp-PLA2 correlated positively with Δ glucose and Δ ox-LDL, and negatively with Δ LDL particle size and baseline PBMC Lp-PLA2. The substitution of whole grains and legumes for refined rice resulted in a reduction in Lp-PLA2 activities in plasma and PBMCs partly through improved glycemic control, increased consumption of protein relative to carbohydrate, and reduced lipid peroxides.
Design and proof of concept for multi degree of freedom hydrostatically coupled dielectric elastomer actuators with roto-translational kinematics for object handling

In this article we present an upgraded design of the existing push–pull hydrostatically coupled dielectric elastomer actuator (HC-DEA) for use in the field of soft manipulators. The new design has segmented electrodes, which stand as four independent elements on the active membrane of the actuator. When properly operated, the actuator can generate both out of plane and in-plane motions resulting in a multi-degrees of freedom soft actuator able to exert both normal pushes (like a traditional HC-DEA) and tangential thrusts. This novel design makes the actuator suitable for delicate flat object transportation. In order to use the actuator in soft systems, we experimentally characterized its electromechanical transduction and modeled its contact mechanics. Finally, we show that the proposed actuator can be employed as a modular unit to develop active surfaces for flat object roto-translation.
Magnetic Field Studies in BL Lacertae through Faraday Rotation and a Novel Astrometric Technique

It is thought that dynamically important helical magnetic fields twisted by the differential rotation of the black hole’s accretion disk or ergosphere play an important role in the launching, acceleration, and collimation of active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. We present multi-frequency astrometric and polarimetric Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) images at 15, 22, and 43 GHz, as well as Faraday rotation analyses of the jet in BL Lacertae as part of a sample of AGN jets aimed to probe the magnetic field structure at the innermost scales to test jet formation models. The novel astrometric technique applied allows us to obtain the absolute position at mm wavelengths without any external calibrator.
Stable overexpression of Pregnane X receptor in HepG2 cells increases its potential for bioartificial liver application

To bridge patients with acute liver failure to transplantation or liver regeneration, a bioartificial liver (BAL) is urgently needed. A BAL consists of an extracorporeal bioreactor loaded with a bioactive mass that would preferably be of human origin and display high hepatic functionality, including detoxification. The human hepatoma cell line HepG2 exhibits many hepatic functions, but its detoxification function is low. In this study, we investigated whether stable overexpression of pregnane X receptor (PXR), a master regulator of diverse detoxification functions in the liver [eg, cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) activity], would increase the potential of HepG2 for BAL application. Stable overexpression was achieved by lentiviral expression of the human PXR gene, which yielded cell line cBAL119. In monolayer cultures of cBAL119 cells, PXR transcript levels increased 29‐fold versus HepG2 cells. Upon activation of PXR by rifampicin, the messenger RNA levels of CYP3A4, CYP3A5, and CYP3A7 increased 49‐ to 213‐fold versus HepG2 cells. According to reporter gene assays with different inducers, the highest increase in CYP3A4 promoter activity (131‐fold) was observed upon induction with rifampicin. Inside BALs, the proliferation rates, as measured by the DNA content, were comparable between the 2 cell lines. The rate of testosterone 6β‐hydroxylation, a measure of CYP3A function inside BALs, increased 4‐fold in cBAL119 BALs versus HepG2 BALs. Other functions, such as apolipoprotein A1 synthesis, urea synthesis, glucose consumption, and lactate production, remained unchanged or increased. Thus, stable PXR overexpression markedly increases the potential of HepG2 for BAL application. Liver Transpl 16:1075–1085, 2010. © 2010 AASLD.
Checking the coherence and redundancy of fuzzy knowledge bases

Checking the coherence of a set of rules is an important step in knowledge base validation. Coherence is also needed in the field of fuzzy systems. Indeed, rules are often used regardless of their semantics, and it sometimes leads to sets of rules that make no sense. Avoiding redundancy is also of interest in real-time systems for which the inference engine is time consuming. A knowledge base is potentially inconsistent or incoherent if there exists a piece of input data that respects integrity constraints and that leads to logical inconsistency when added to the knowledge base. We more particularly consider knowledge bases composed of parallel fuzzy rules. Then, coherence means that the projection on the input variables of the conjunctive combination of the possibility distributions representing the fuzzy rules leaves these variables completely unrestricted (i.e., any value for these variables is possible) or, at least, not more restrictive than integrity constraints. Fuzzy rule representations can be implication-based or conjunction-based; we show that only implication-based models may lead to coherence problems. However, unlike conjunction-based models, they allow to design coherence checking processes. Some conditions that a set of parallel rules has to satisfy in order to avoid inconsistency problems are given for certainty or gradual rules. The problem of redundancy, which is also of interest for fuzzy knowledge bases validation, is addressed for these two kinds of rules.