Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast Global Illumination for Interactive Volume Visualization

Interactive volume visualization is an important part of modern computer graphics. It offers certain advantages such as high speeds when rendering complex data sets like particle simulations or medical 3D images. In addition, many effects are not possible or hard to obtain with classical rasterization. However, it is hard to combine volume visualization with high quality global illumination while maintaining interactive frame rates. In [3] Yubo Zhang et al. present a fast global illumination method for volume data. This paper presents the method of Zhang et al., discusses its advantages and drawbacks and additionally gives an overview to another way of computing global illumination, called Photon Mapping. While not directly comparable to the method presented in [3], Photon Mapping shows that photo realistic illumination is possible while achieving lower render times and better image quality than classical ray tracing.
Useful Products in Theorizing for Information Systems Completed Research Paper

Recent years have seen a growing interest in theory building within the information systems (IS) field and debate is continuing on what constitutes theories in IS. This study extends Weick's recommendation to focus instead on theorizing rather than on the theories themselves as a way of progressing forward. It focuses on the products of theorizing that only approximate theories but are critical to their development including discursive formations, questions, analogies, myths, metaphors, paradigms, concepts, constructs, statements, propositions, models and frameworks. These terms can be found scattered in various treatise on theories but are not sufficiently elaborated in a cohesive manner as products of theorizing. This study defines these terms, describes their characteristics and how they enhance theorizing.
Learning environment for digital electronics

A learning environment for digital electronics is presented, which makes use of the newest information technologies to support all phases of the learning process. Stress is put on the simulation-based software tools that provide interactive learning and allow one to overcome some inherent to the subject difficulties concerning the simultaneous time-dependent presentation in different domains. A structuring mechanism is proposed that facilitates the education software sharing and reuse. Some examples of the practical application of the discussed criteria are shown. Analysis of the impact of using the learning environment to the education results and the trainers role in the process has been performed.
Generation of supercoils in nicked and gapped DNA drives DNA unknotting and postreplicative decatenation

Due to the helical structure of DNA the process of DNA replication is topologically complex. Freshly replicated DNA molecules are catenated with each other and are frequently knotted. For proper functioning of DNA it is necessary to remove all of these entanglements. This is done by DNA topoisomerases that pass DNA segments through each other. However, it has been a riddle how DNA topoisomerases select the sites of their action. In highly crowded DNA in living cells random passages between contacting segments would only increase the extent of entanglement. Using molecular dynamics simulations we observed that in actively supercoiled DNA molecules the entanglements resulting from DNA knotting or catenation spontaneously approach sites of nicks and gaps in the DNA. Type I topoisomerases, that preferentially act at sites of nick and gaps, are thus naturally provided with DNA–DNA juxtapositions where a passage results in an error-free DNA unknotting or DNA decatenation.
Blood-Brain Barrier Breakdown Following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Possible Role in Posttraumatic Epilepsy

Recent animal experiments indicate a critical role for opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the pathogenesis of post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). This study aimed to investigate the frequency, extent, and functional correlates of BBB disruption in epileptic patients following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Thirty-seven TBI patients were included in this study, 19 of whom suffered from PTE. All underwent electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings and brain magnetic resonance imaging (bMRI). bMRIs were evaluated for BBB disruption using novel quantitative techniques. Cortical dysfunction was localized using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA). TBI patients displayed significant EEG slowing compared to controls with no significant differences between PTE and nonepileptic patients. BBB disruption was found in 82.4% of PTE compared to 25% of non-epileptic patients (P = .001) and could be observed even years following the trauma. The volume of cerebral cortex with BBB disruption was significantly larger in PTE patients (P = .001). Slow wave EEG activity was localized to the same region of BBB disruption in 70% of patients and correlated to the volume of BBB disrupted cortex. We finally present a patient suffering from early cortical dysfunction and BBB breakdown with a gradual and parallel resolution of both pathologies. Our findings demonstrate that BBB pathology is frequently found following mild TBI. Lasting BBB breakdown is found with increased frequency and extent in PTE patients. Based on recent animal studies and the colocalization found between the region of disrupted BBB and abnormal EEG activity, we suggest a role for a vascular lesion in the pathogenesis of PTE.
End-to-end communication in unreliable networks

This paper addresses the problem of end-toend communication over a dynamically changing network in which the sender and the receiver are not forever separated. We present several end-to-end communication protocols whose space complexity at each node is independent of either the input length or the network size. Although the time complexity of these protocols is bounded, their communication complexity is either unbounded, or exponential if an acyclic orientation of the network is given. To bound the communication complexity of the protocols, in the absence of an acyclic orientation, we assume either knowledge of the total number of nodes in the network, or that nodes have unique ids. These bounded communication-complexity protocols thus require O(logn) space per incident link at each node. In sum, we dispel the myth ‘Supported by NSF Presidential Young Investigators Award under grant DCR84-51396 SL matching funds from IBM FacuRy Development Award under
Non-parametric Sampling through Texture Synthesis

A non-parametric method for texture synthesis is proposed. The texture synthesis process grows a new image outward from an initial seed, one pixel at a time. A Markov random field model is assumed, and the conditional distribution of a pixel given all its neighbors synthesized so far is estimated by querying the sample image and finding all similar neighborhoods. The degree of randomness is controlled by a single perceptually intuitive parameter. The method aims at preserving as much local structure as possible and produces good results for a wide variety of synthetic and real-world textures.
On using similarity for resolving conflicts at commit in mixed distributed real-time databases

In a distributed real-time database system (DRTDBS), transaction atomicity is ensured by commit protocol. If data conflict occurs between executing and committing transactions, system's performance will be affected. In this paper, based on the deadline driven conflict resolution (DDCR) approach proposed by Lam et al. (1997), we propose an enhancement called the DDCR with similarity (DDCR-S), to resolve the executing-committing conflicts in a DRTDBS with mixed requirements of criticality and consistency transactions. In the DDCR-S, conflicts involving transactions with looser consistency requirement, the notion of similarity is adopted so that a higher degree of concurrency can be achieved and at the same time the consistency requirements of the transactions can still be met. Simulation experiments have been performed and the results have shown that the use of DDCR-S can significantly improve the overall system performance.
Maximum MIMO System Mutual Information with Antenna Selection and Interference

Maximum system mutual information is considered for a group of interfering users employing single user detection and antenna selection of multiple transmit and receive antennas for flat Rayleigh fading channels with independent fading coefficients for each path. In the case considered, the only feedback of channel state information to the transmitter is that required for antenna selection, but channel state information is assumed at the receiver. The focus is on extreme cases with very weak interference or very strong interference. It is shown that the optimum signaling covariance matrix is sometimes different from the standard scaled identity matrix. In fact, this is true even for cases without interference if SNR is sufficiently weak. Further, the scaled identity matrix is actually that covariance matrix that yields worst performance if the interference is sufficiently strong.
Role of a relay in bursty networks with correlated transmissions

We explore the role of a relay in multiuser networks where some physical perturbation shared around the users may generate data traffic for them simultaneously, hence cause their transmission patterns to be correlated. We investigate how the gain from the help of a relay varies with correlations across the users' transmission patterns in a bursty multiple access channel where the users send signals intermittently. As our main results, we show that in most cases a relay can provide a greater degrees-of-freedom (DoF) gain when the users' transmission patterns are more correlated. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the DoF gain can scale with the number of users.
A Taxonomy for Supply Chain Management Literature

This paper presents a scheme for classifying the Supply Chain Management (SCM) literature. SCM is broadly defined to include all classical business functions and theoretic management disciplines which impacted this emerging field. Consequently, its literature is very disjoint and disparate. It transcends several academic disciplines and professions. This paper presents a way to define the field in its entirety and delineate all of its facets in a manner that is parsimonious yet discriminating. Sample articles are classified to illustrate the descriptive power and parsimony of this taxonomy and a number of previously published SCM taxonomies are shown to be special cases thereof.
Cognitive Radio Networks : Generalized Spectral Footprint Minimization

We consider the problem of joint subchannel and power allocation for an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based cognitive radio network. We formulate the downlink resource allocation problem as a generalized spectral-footprint (bandwidth-power product) minimization problem under the interference threshold at the primary users, as well as total power and quality of service constraints. A cognitive base station solves this non-convex mixed-integer programming problem iteratively by dividing it into a subchannel allocation master problem and a power allocation subproblem. The subchannel assignment problem for secondary users is solved by applying a modified Hungarian algorithm while the power allocation subproblem is solved by using Lagrangian technique. Specifically, we propose a low-complexity modified Hungarian algorithm for subchannel allocation which exploits the local information in the cost matrix. To apply the modified Hungarian algorithm, we require to know the exact number of subchannel requirement of each user in every iteration. Hence, we develop an algorithm to update the number of subchannels required by each user in each iteration based on the spectral footprint difference of each user. An asymptotic analysis is carried out for the single secondary user case and a closed-form expression is derived for the optimal number of subchannels which minimizes the spectral footprint. The performance of our generalized spectral-footprint minimization technique is compared with the waterfilling power allocation scheme and a scheme based on brute-force search. Also, several applications of the proposed algorithms are outlined.
Multiple Subtypes of Voltage-Gated Calcium Channel Mediate Transmitter Release from Parasympathetic Neurons in the Mouse Bladder

Multiple subtypes of voltage-gated calcium channels are coupled to transmitter release from central neurons; however, only N-type channels have been shown to play a role in autonomic neurons. The aim of the present study was to investigate potential roles for other channel subtypes in transmitter release from parasympathetic neurons in the mouse bladder using calcium channel toxins alone and in combination. Transmitter release was measured indirectly by recording the contraction of bladder dome strips in response to electrical stimulation of the neurons by single pulses or trains of 20 pulses at 1–50 Hz. ω-Conotoxin-GVIA (GVIA) and ω-conotoxin-MVIIC (MVIIC) inhibited contractions in a concentration-dependent manner, with IC50 values of ∼30 and 200 nm, respectively, at low stimulation frequencies. ω-Agatoxin-IVA (agatoxin) alone did not have any significant effect up to 300 nm. Cumulative addition of the toxins demonstrated that 300 nm agatoxin had a significant effect after N-type channels were blocked with 100 nm GVIA. MVIIC (3 μm) reduced the contraction amplitude further. Testing the toxins on the cholinergic or purinergic component of the contraction separately showed that acetylcholine release depends primarily on N-type channels and, to a lesser extent, on P- and Q-type channels, whereas ATP release involves predominantly P- and Q-type channels. In conclusion, parasympathetic neurons in the mouse bladder, like central neurons, use multiple calcium channel subtypes. Furthermore, the release of the two main transmitters in these neurons has differing dependencies on the calcium channel subtypes.
ANARCI: antigen receptor numbering and receptor classification

Motivation: Antibody amino-acid sequences can be numbered to identify equivalent positions. Such annotations are valuable for antibody sequence comparison, protein structure modelling and engineering. Multiple different numbering schemes exist, they vary in the nomenclature they use to annotate residue positions, their definitions of position equivalence and their popularity within different scientific disciplines. However, currently no publicly available software exists that can apply all the most widely used schemes or for which an executable can be obtained under an open license. Results: ANARCI is a tool to classify and number antibody and T-cell receptor amino-acid variable domain sequences. It can annotate sequences with the five most popular numbering schemes: Kabat, Chothia, Enhanced Chothia, IMGT and AHo. Availability and implementation: ANARCI is available for download under GPLv3 license at opig.stats.ox.ac.uk/webapps/anarci. A web-interface to the program is available at the same address. Contact: deane@stats.ox.ac.uk
Juridical perspectives of interruption of pregnancy with zika virus infection regarding medical, emotional and social consequences

Introduction: The Zika virus was identified in 1947 in Rhesus monkeys in the Republic of Uganda and isolated in humans in 1952 in the same country. Up to 2007 there were few cases of human infection in African and Asian countries. The first outbreak of the Zika virus occurred in Brazil in 2015, becoming a serious public health problem due to the increase in the number of cases of microcephaly in infected pregnant women. Objective: To describe the legal abortion at Zika virus infection during pregnancy regarding medical, emotional and social consequences. perspectives of abortion for the pregnant woman with Zika virus regarding the medical, emotional and social consequences. Methods: This is a documentary study based on documents about abortion and its outcomes in Brazil. Technical norms, textbooks, indexed articles of Scopus and PubMed, documents extracted from international human rights treaties and conventions, and legal documents on the subject were used. It was decided to direct the text based on the experiences of each theme on abortion and its outcomes in Brazil, with a synthesis of the current scenario. Results: Recognizing the exceptional nature of this situation, it is sought to confer an interpretation according to the Constitution and Article 128 of the Criminal Code, based on an analogical application, which seeks to protect the physical and mental health of women infected by the Zika virus. It is possible to qualify the practice of abortion in these circumstances as atypical conduct by the state of necessity, excluding the unlawfulness by comparing with articles 23, I and 24 of the Penal Code. Conclusion: Authorizing the termination of pregnancy after diagnosis of the virus Zika guarantees women the free exercise of their reproductive rights, which is not confused with state imposition of abortion or eugenic practice.
Decentralized Algorithms for Multi-Robot Manipulation via Caging

In this paper we address the problem of transporting objects with multiple mobile robots using the concept of “object closure”. In contrast to other manipulation techniques that are typically derived from form or force closure constraints, object closure requires the less stringent condition that the object be trapped or caged by the robots. Our basic goal in this paper is to develop decentralized control policies for a group of robots to move toward a goal position while maintaining a condition of object closure. We present experimental results that show polygonal mobile robots controlled using visual feedback, transporting a convex polygonal object in an obstacle free environment toward a prescribed goal.
A New Simulation-Based Approach for Multi-Period Portfolio Optimization Problems Guidance

As another alternative approximation method for multi-period dynamic portfolio selection problems, a new model, called the hybrid simulation tree model, has been proposed recently. In that model, the underlying uncertainty is revealed as a simulation tree and, similar to the scenario tree model, different conditional decisions are allowed to be made for different bundles (or groups) of sample paths which exhibit similar performance characteristics. By adopting a fixed-quantity policy, it was formulated as a large-scale linear programming problem, in which the compromise between describing the precision of the underlying uncertainty and making conditional decisions could be well handled within a single framework. Such a model is much more general than the conventional scenario tree model and simulation path model, and is expected to be a promising method with various applications. We extend this approach and combine it with two new ideas: (i) In order to improve the performance, we use the Conditional Value-at-Risk as our risk measure, which is a very important concept in the modern risk management field. (ii) For consideration of preserving the stability of optimal solutions and hedging a shortfall risk, we incorporate two different types of risk chance constraints in our model. Then the problem is formulated as a Second-Order Cone Programming (SOCP) problem, which can be solved efficiently by using some sophisticated mathematical programming software packages. Numerical experiments are also carried out to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model in hedging against risk.
A feedback-based access scheme for cognitive-relaying networks

In this paper, we consider a cognitive relaying network in which the secondary user accesses the channel with a certain access probability that depends on the feedback information sent by the primary destination. In addition, the secondary user is granted relaying capabilities by which it can relay primary traffic that was unsuccessfully transmitted by the primary user. We show that this proposed scheme enhances the performance of the secondary user as well as the primary user, while the QoS requirements of the primary user is unviolated. The secondary user can avoid sure collisions with the primary transmissions exploiting the feedback information from the primary user. Also, due to the fact that relaying the unsuccessfully transmitted primary traffic increases the availability of the channel for its own packets, the secondary throughput is increased and the primary delay is decreased.
Potential Role for HIV-Specific CD38−/HLA-DR+ CD8+ T Cells in Viral Suppression and Cytotoxicity in HIV Controllers

Background HIV controllers (HIC) are rare HIV-1-infected patients who exhibit spontaneous viral control. HIC have high frequency of CD38−/HLA-DR+ HIV-specific CD8+ T cells. Here we examined the role of this subset in HIC status. Materials and Methods We compared CD38−/HLA-DR+ CD8+ T cells with the classical CD38+/HLA-DR+ activated phenotype in terms of 1) their activation status, reflected by CD69, CD25, CD71, CD40 and Ki67 expression, 2) functional parameters: Bcl-2 expression, proliferative capacity, and IFN-γ and IL-2 production, and 3) cytotoxic activity. We also investigated how this particular profile is generated. Results Compared to CD38+/HLA-DR+ cells, CD38−/HLA-DR+ cells exhibited lower expression of several activation markers, better survival capacity (Bcl-2 MFI, 367 [134–462] vs 638 [307–747], P = 0.001), higher frequency of polyfunctional cells (15% [7%–33%] vs 21% [16%–43%], P = 0.0003), greater proliferative capacity (0-fold [0–2] vs 3-fold [2]–[11], P = 0.007), and higher cytotoxicity in vitro (7% [3%–11%] vs 13% [6%–22%], P = 0.02). The CD38−/HLA-DR+ profile was preferentially generated in response to low viral antigen concentrations. Conclusions These data highlight the role of CD38−/HLA-DR+ HIV-specific CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity in HIC status and provide insights into the mechanism by which they are generated. Induction of this protective CD8+ subset may be important for vaccine strategies.
Long range dependence effects and ARCH modelling

Our study supports the hypothesis of global non-stationarity of the return time series. We bring forth both theoretical and empirical evidence that the long range dependence (LRD) type behavior of the sample ACF and the periodogram of absolute return series and the IGARCH effect documented in the econometrics literature could be due to the impact of non-stationarity on statistical instruments and estimation procedures. In particular, contrary to the common-hold belief that the LRD characteristic and the IGARCH phenomena carry meaningful information about the price generating process, these so-called stylized facts could be just artifacts due to structural changes in the data. The effect that the switch to a different regime has on the sample ACF and the periodogram is theoretically explained and empirically documented using time series that were the object of LRD modeling efforts (S&P500, DEM/USD FX) in various publications.
Morphometric Analysis of Mesh Asymmetry.

New techniques of capturing shape geometry for the purpose of studying asymmetry in biological objects bring the need to develop new methods of analyzing such data. In this paper we propose a method of mesh asymmetry analysis and decomposition intended for use in geometric morphometry. In geometric morphometry the individual bilateral asymmetry is captured by aligning a specimen with its mirror image and analyzing the difference. This involves the construction of a dense correspondence mapping between the meshes. We tested our algorithm on real data consisting of a sample of 102 human faces as well as on artificially altered meshes to successfully prove its validity. The resulting algorithm is an important methodological improvement which has a potential to be widely used in a wide variety of morphological studies.