Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wideband Relative Permittivity Characterization of Thin Low Permittivity Textile Materials Based on Ridge Gap Waveguides

Medical applications and wearable antennas need accurate electrical characterization of textile material. Many techniques have been presented before to obtain the dielectric constant of any material and some of these techniques are applied on textile materials. Due to the mechanical characteristics of these materials, such as the small thickness and the flexibility, many presented techniques are not suitable to be deployed. In this paper, the ridge gap waveguide (RGW) structure is used to measure the relative permittivity of textile materials. The RGW is one of the state-of-the-art guiding structures. Its quasi-TEM characteristics simplify the procedure of predicting the unknown permittivity. The second feature of RGW is the small height, which is more suitable for the standard dimensions of the textile material samples. Moreover, the wide bandwidth of the RGW, which is about 2.5:1, enables performing the calculations over the guide operating bandwidth. This property of the RGWs leads to characterize the textile material with a single setup and utilize these results in a wide range of applications. A mathematical algorithm is presented to find the dielectric constant; then, it is applied in the case of many materials to determine the accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The extracted values of the relative permittivity are compared with the expected values, in the case of materials with well-known electrical characteristics, and this step shows very high accuracy with a percentage error less than 2%.
A comprehensive age-phased approach: Girls Incorporated.

A longitudinal study evaluated the effect of Girls Incorporateds comprehensive age-phased model for pregnancy prevention on 343 females at the following sites: Dallas Texas; Memphis Tennessee; Omaha Nebraska; and Wilmington Delaware. The components were Growing Together for 12-to-14-year-old girls and their parents Will Power/Wont Power for 12-to-14-year-old girls Taking Care of Business for 15-to-17-year-old girls and Healthy Bridge for 15-to-17-year-olds. Youth who attended at least 2 program components were 2.7 times less likely to have sexual intercourse during the last 4 weeks without contraception than those who attended just 1 component (8.9% vs. 20.6%; p = .018). Surprisingly none of the program participants were significantly less likely to have sexual intercourse without contraception than nonprogram participants. Nonprogram youth experience a higher percentage of pregnancies than both the 1-component and 2-or-more-component program participants (12.3% vs. 6.8% and 4.8% respectively; p = .062; odds ratio = 2.8). Even though the 50% reduction in pregnancies between the 1-component and 2-or-more-component program participants was not significant it indicated a possible positive program effect. Just 3.6% of the girls who attended only the Will Power/Wont Power became pregnant compared to more than 11% of the girls who attended the other components. Further a relatively small percentage of girls who attended Will Power/Wont Power and another component became pregnant. Thus Will Power/Wont Power was apparently the most effective component. It used role play to practice assertive skills to resist pressure to become sexually active and to avoid risky situations. Will Power/Wont Power also developed a peer network to support particpants decisions to resist peer pressure to become sexually active. Further analysis revealed that neither Will Power/Wont Power nor any other component alone contributed to pregnancy reduction. Thus program components for different age groups with different objectives together affect pregnancy reduction.
Exact Knowledge Hiding through Database Extension

In this paper, we propose a novel, exact border-based approach that provides an optimal solution for the hiding of sensitive frequent itemsets by (i) minimally extending the original database by a synthetically generated database part - the database extension, (ii) formulating the creation of the database extension as a constraint satisfaction problem, (iii) mapping the constraint satisfaction problem to an equivalent binary integer programming problem, (iv) exploiting underutilized synthetic transactions to proportionally increase the support of non-sensitive itemsets, (v) minimally relaxing the constraint satisfaction problem to provide an approximate solution close to the optimal one when an ideal solution does not exist, and (vi) by using a partitioning in the universe of the items to increase the efficiency of the proposed hiding algorithm. Extending the original database for sensitive itemset hiding is proved to provide optimal solutions to an extended set of hiding problems compared to previous approaches and to provide solutions of higher quality. Moreover, the application of binary integer programming enables the simultaneous hiding of the sensitive itemsets and thus allows for the identification of globally optimal solutions.
Differential Effects of IL-17A and TNF-α on Osteoblastic Differentiation of Isolated Synoviocytes and on Bone Explants from Arthritis Patients

Objective TNF-α and IL-17A act on fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) and contribute to cytokine production, inflammation, and tissue destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to compare their effects on osteogenic differentiation of isolated FLS and on whole bone explants from RA and osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Methods Fibroblast-like synoviocytes and bone explants were cultured in the presence or absence of TNF-α and/or IL-17A. Mineralization of extracellular matrix of FLS was measured by alizarin red and alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP). mRNA expression was analyzed by qRT-PCR for Wnt5a, BMP2, and RUNX2, key genes associated with osteogenesis. IL-6 and IL-8 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Bone explant structure was quantified by histomorphometry. Results In isolated OA and RA FLS, the combination of TNF-α and IL-17A induced matrix mineralization, increased ALP activity and expression of the osteogenesis-associated genes Wnt5a, BMP2, and Runx2, indicating an osteogenic differentiation. Wnt5a levels increased with TNF-α alone and in combination with IL-17A. BMP2 expression decreased with IL-17A and TNF-α after 12 h with OA FLS and 24 h with RA FLS. Runx2 expression decreased only with combination of TNF-α and IL-17A in OA FLS and with cytokines alone and combined in RA FLS. IL-6 and IL-8 production increased with IL-17A and/or TNF-α in both FLS and bone samples, especially from RA. Treatment of bone explants with cytokine combination increased ALP in OA but not RA samples. A decrease in bone volume was seen with cytokine combination, especially with RA explants. Conclusion Differences were observed for the effects of IL-17A and TNF-α on osteogenic differentiation. In isolated FLS, increased osteoblastogenesis was observed, contrasting with the inhibitory effect in whole bone, specifically in RA. The net effect of IL-17A and TNF-α appears to depend on the disease state and the presence of other cells.
User analysis in HCI - the historical lessons from individual differences research

Abstract User analysis is a crucial aspect of user-centered systems design, yet Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) has yet to formulate reliable and valid characterizations of users beyond gross distinctions based on task and experience. Individual differences research from mainstream psychology has identified a stable set of characteristics that would appear to offer potential application in the HCI arena. Furthermore, in its evolution over the last 100 years, research on individual differences has faced many of the problems of theoretical status and applicability that are common to HCI. In the present paper, the relationship between work in cognitive and differential psychology and current analyses of users in HCI is examined. It is concluded that HCI could gain significant predictive power if individual differences research was related to the analysis of users in contemporary systems design.
Using Shape and Intensity to Track Non-rigid Objects

The tracking of pedestrians in real{world scenes is complicated by the fact that the human shape is continuously changing as the person walks. Di culties also arise when the pedestrian changes direction, stops, or becomes partially or fully occluded. A method is proposed which attempts to overcome these problems through the use of a exible shape model combined with analysis of intensity information. A exible shape model based on a cubic B-spline is used to extract the changing pro le of the pedestrian. This pro le is then used to mask the original image and extract the texture information. Principal component analysis of the resulting intensities gives signi cant data reduction, allowing the pedestrians to be tracked on the basis of shape and intensity information. Furthermore, this intensity information can be mapped between directions, allowing tracking across changing directions and viewpoints. An advantage of the approach is that both shape and intensity models are built up automatically.
A novel robust speech recognition algorithm based on multi-models and integrated decision method

In this paper, a new robust speech recognition algorithm of multi-models and integrated decision(MMID) is proposed. A parallel MMID(PMMID) algorithm is developed. By using this new algorithm the advantages of different models can be integrated into one system. This algorithm uses different acoustic models at the same time based on DDBHMM (duration distribution based Hidden Markov Model)[2]. These different models include the channel-mismatch-correct(CMC) model, more-alternative-pronunciation model, tone and non-tone models of Chinese Mandarin speech, voice activity detection(VAD) model and state-skip model. The speech recognition accuracy of the multi-model system is better than that of single-model system in the adverse environments. The experimental results show that the error rate of the recognition system is 2.9% and reduced by 81% compared with the baseline system of the single-model.
An Enhanced Infrastructure for Peer-to-Peer Intrusion Detection Systems

Peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are employed as the underlying infrastructure of P2P Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs). However, the improper topology of this type of infrastructure prevents efficient propagation of alerts among IDS peers and hence quick detection. We propose an enhanced logical topology as the infrastructure of P2P IDSs. We demonstrate that using this method reduces the communication latency of P2P IDSs significantly. Therefore, the enhanced infrastructure can be integrated with the existing peer-to-peer IDS architectures to further improve their performance. Our evaluation results show the performance of the existing P2P IDSs can be improved around 70% in large scale environments.
Monitoring ecological health of wetlands and adjacent uplands by combining MODIS vegetation index and wetness index

Based on MODIS data and Mann-Kendall test, our study put forward a method of combining EVI (enhanced vegetation index) and TCWI (Tasseled Cap wetness index) to monitor the ecological health of wetlands and adjacent uplands. In terms of the experimental district in Zoige Basin, a series of the ecological restoration projects implemented in recent years has not yet measurably improved the ecological health in wetlands and adjacent uplands, and the unfavorable affection from overgrazing is still obvious. The above conclusion is identical with several latest research results from other scholars based on both the post-classification change monitoring and landscape structure indices. This proves that our method is reliable; it will have great potential for popularization.
Isolated Neutron Stars: Accretors and Coolers

As many as 109 neutron stars populate the Galaxy, but only ≈103 are directly observed as pulsars or as accreting sources in X‐ray binaries. In principle, also the accretion of the interstellar medium may make isolated neutron stars shine, and their weak luminosity could be detected in soft X‐rays. Recent ROSAT observations have convincingly shown that neutron stars accreting from the interstellar medium are extremely rare, if observed at all, in contrast with earlier theoretical predictions. Until now two possible explanations for their elusiveness have been proposed: their velocity distribution may peak at ∼200–400 km s−1, as inferred from pulsar statistics, and this would severely choke accretion; the magnetic field may decay on timescales ∼108–109 yr, preventing a large fraction of neutron stars from entering the accretor stage. The search for accreting neutron stars has produced up to now a handful of promising candidates. While little doubt is left that these objects are indeed isolated neutron stars, the nature of their emission is still controversial. In particular, accreting objects can be confused with much younger, cooling neutron stars. However, a combination of observations and theoretical modeling may help in discriminating between the two classes.
Temporal Downscaling of Crop Coefficients for Winter Wheat in the North China Plain: A Case Study at the Gucheng Agro-Meteorological Experimental Station

The crop coefficient (Kc) is widely used for operational estimation of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) and crop water requirements. The standard method for obtaining Kc is via a lookup table from FAO-56 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56), which broadly treats Kc as a function of four crop-growing stages. However, the distinctive physiological characteristics of overwintering crops, such as winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), which is extensively planted in the North China Plain (NCP), are not addressed in this method. In this study, we propose a stage-wise method that accounts for Kc variations for winter wheat at each critical phenological stage, thereby estimating Kc at finer temporal scales. Compared with the conventional FAO method, the proposed stage-wise method successfully captures the bimodal pattern in Kc time series for winter wheat, which is shown at both ten-day and phenological time scales. In addition, the accuracies of the proposed stage-wise Kc method and the FAO method were evaluated using micro-meteorological measurements of ETa collected at the Gucheng agrometeorological experimental station in the NCP. Using a leave-one-out strategy, the evaluation revealed that the stage-wise method significantly outperformed the FAO method at both daily and critical phenological time scales, with root-mean-square errors in ETa for the stage-wise method and the FAO method being 0.07 mm·day-1 and 0.16 mm·day-1, respectively, at the daily time scale, and 0.01 mm·day-1 and 0.27 mm·day-1 at the critical phenological time scale. Generally, the FAO method underestimates ETa during the initial stage and overestimates ETa during both the development and mid-season stages. It is shown that the proposed stage-wise method is important for the water-stressed NCP where precision irrigation is highly desirable, especially during the critical phenological stages. Results from this study provide insight into accurate estimation of water requirements for winter wheat at phenological time scales.
Peripartum cardiomyopathy: inflammatory markers as predictors of outcome in 100 prospectively studied patients.

AIMS Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a disorder of unknown aetiology with a course and outcome that is largely unpredictable. We evaluated the prognostic role of multiple inflammatory markers in the plasma of a large cohort of African patients with PPCM. METHODS AND RESULTS The study of 100 patients with newly diagnosed PPCM was single-centred, prospective, and longitudinal. Clinical assessment, echocardiography, and blood analysis were done at baseline and after 6 months of standard therapy. Inflammatory markers were measured at baseline only. Fifteen patients died. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) improved from 26.2+/-8.2 to 42.9+/-13.6% at 6 months (P<0.0001). However, normalization of LVEF (>50%) was only observed in 23%. Baseline levels of C-reactive protein correlated positively with baseline LV end-diastolic (rs=0.33, P=0.0026) and end-systolic (rs=0.35, P=0.0012) diameters and inversely with LVEF (rs=-0.27, P=0.015). Patients who died presented with significantly lower mean EF and higher Fas/Apo-1 plasma values (P<0.05). Fas/Apo-1 and New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA FC) predicted mortality at baseline. CONCLUSION Plasma markers of inflammation were significantly elevated and correlated with increased LV dimensions and lower LVEF at presentation. Baseline Fas/Apo-1 and higher NYHA FC were the only predictors of mortality. Normalization of LVEF was only observed in 23% of this African cohort.
On the Adams-Stolz Deconvolution LES Models

We consider a family of LES models with arbitrarily high consistency error O(δ2N+2) for N = 1, 2, 3. that are based on the van Cittert deconvolution procedure. The family has been proposed and tested for LES with success by Adams and Stolz in a series of papers e.g.[2], [1]. We show that these models have an interesting and quite strong stability property. Using this property we prove an energy equality, existence, uniqueness and regularity of strong solutions and give a rigorous bound on the modeling error ||u − w|| where w is the model’s solution and u the true flow averages.
Fast bootstrapping method for the memory-disk integrated memory system

This research is to design system software modules for main memory-disk integrated system. To utilize many useful features of recent non-volatile memory, a horizontal memory hierarchy should be considered as a new approach. Main objective of this study is to design an optimized bootstrap method for the integrated memory-disk system, along with compatibility with conventional bootloader and operating system. In this memory-disk integrated system, stored files and data are accessed in place reducing duplication between the main memory and storage. Thus, previous booting sequence of loading bootstrap and operating system from secondary storage to main memory should be changed to reflect the architectural change. Our proposed technique provides compatibility with conventional system software and fast booting time by utilizing prominent advantages of the integrated memory-disk system and optimizing booting sequence for this system. To implement this method, we modified BIOS (basic input/output system) to change booting from integrated memory-disk system. We used QEMU machine emulator to simulate the proposed booting method. Our experimental results show that the proposed bootstrap method can reduce the number of instructions to execute by around ten millions, resulting in fast boot performance and keeping the core of the bootloader.
Rapid Actin Transport During Cell Protrusion

Transformed rat fibroblasts expressing two variants of green fluorescent protein, each fused to β-actin, were used to study actin dynamics during cell protrusion. The recently developed FLAP (fluorescence localization after photobleaching) method permits the tracking of one fluorophore after localized photobleaching by using the other as a colocalized reference. Here, by visualizing the ratio of bleached to total molecules, we found that actin was delivered to protruding zones of the leading edge of the cell at speeds that exceeded 5 micrometers per second. Monte Carlo modeling confirmed that this flow cannot be explained by diffusion and may involve active transport.
Conditional Methods in Event-Studies and an Equilibrium Justification for Standard Event-Study Procedures

The literature on conditional event-study methods criticizes standard event-study procedures as being misspecified, if events are voluntary and investors are rational. We argue, however, that standard procedures (i) lead to statistically valid inferences, under conditions described in the paper and (ii) are often superior means of inference, even when event-study data are generated exactly as per a class of rational expectations specifications introduced by the conditional methods literature. Our results provide an equilibrium justification for traditional event-study methods, and we suggest how these simple procedures may be combined with conditional methods, so as to improve statistical power in event-studies.
Designing Hardware/Software Systems for Embedded High-Performance Computing

In this work, we propose an architecture and methodology to design hardware/software systems for high-performance embedded computing on FPGA. The hardware side is based on a many-core architecture whose design is generated automatically given a set of architectural parameters. Both the architecture and the methodology were evaluated running dense matrix multiplication and sparse matrix-vector multiplication on a ZYNQ-7020 FPGA platform. The results show that using a system-level design of the system avoids complex hardware design and still provides good performance results.
A selective histone deacetylase-6 inhibitor improves BDNF trafficking in hippocampal neurons from Mecp2 knockout mice: implications for Rett syndrome

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by loss-of-function mutations in the transcriptional modulator methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2). One of the most prominent gene targets of MeCP2 is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf), a potent modulator of activity-dependent synaptic development, function and plasticity. Dysfunctional BDNF signaling has been demonstrated in several pathophysiological mechanisms of RTT disease progression. To evaluate whether the dynamics of BDNF trafficking is affected by Mecp2 deletion, we analyzed movements of BDNF tagged with yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) in cultured hippocampal neurons by time-lapse fluorescence imaging. We found that both anterograde and retrograde vesicular trafficking of BDNF-YFP are significantly impaired in Mecp2 knockout hippocampal neurons. Selective inhibitors of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) show neuroprotective effects in neurodegenerative diseases and stimulate microtubule-dependent vesicular trafficking of BDNF-containing dense core vesicles. Here, we show that the selective HDAC6 inhibitor Tubastatin-A increased the velocity of BDNF-YFP vesicles in Mecp2 knockout neurons in both directions by increasing α–tubulin acetylation. Tubastatin-A also restored activity-dependent BDNF release from Mecp2 knockout neurons to levels comparable to those shown by wildtype neurons. These findings demonstrate that a selective HDAC6 inhibitor is a potential pharmacological strategy to reverse cellular and synaptic impairments in RTT resulting from impaired BDNF signaling.
A fast detection algorithm for concatenated overlapped code division multiplexing system

A fast decoding algorithm based on parallel detection is proposed for the serial concatenated overlapped code division multiplexing (SC-OVCDM) signals. It shows that maximum likelihood (ML) detection of SC-OVCDM inner decoder can be transformed into two parallel sub-decoders which have low computational complexity. In order to tighten the performance gap between the fast decoding algorithm and the optimum detection one, extrinsic information transfer between two sub-decoders is necessary. Simulations show that the optimum performance can be approached by the proposed algorithm. The loss in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared with the ML inner code detector is within 1.2dB. Moreover, the proposed algorithm's computational complexity cost is only one percent to the optimum algorithm which is exponential of inner OVCDM constraint length.