Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coverage and capacity analysis of wireless M2M technologies for smart distribution grid services

This paper provides a performance evaluation of wireless Machine-to-Machine technologies for communication networks enabling Smart Distribution Grid operation. A challenging task raised by different architectural solutions for integrating households into the Smart Grid is given by the last mile connectivity. Nowadays sub-GHz wireless networks deployed for automated meter reading offer a reliable solution due to the lower frequency range and flexible infrastructures for outhouse installations and dedicated meter reading service on a low-bitrate long-term interval. By adding more functionality, like demand side management and distributed energy resources at the households into the Smart Grid, broadband radio service are required to cover the higher demands on data rate, message frequency and quality-of-service. Therefore several additional frequency options are discussed for existing broadband cellular systems, focusing on the integration of outdoor, indoor and basement installation of the Smart Grid devices. Within this work, these frequency options for cellular networks are analyzed for multiple installation scenarios based on ray tracing simulation, reference measurements and analytical channel models and a novel channel model for the prediction of the building penetration loss to basements is derived and presented. In a second step a traffic capacity analysis is performed in order to estimate the system performance parameters of different technologies and to show the influence of actual deployment scenarios for network planning of communication networks for Smart Distribution Grid scenarios.
The Role of dopamine in the Maintenance of Working Memory in prefrontal Cortex Neurons: Input-Driven versus Internally-Driven Networks

How do organisms select and organize relevant sensory input in working memory (WM) in order to deal with constantly changing environmental cues? Once information has been stored in WM, how is it protected from and altered by the continuous stream of sensory input and internally generated planning? The present study proposes a novel role for dopamine (DA) in the maintenance of WM in the prefrontal cortex (Pfc) neurons that begins to address these issues. In particular, DA mediates the alternation of the Pfc network between input-driven and internally-driven states, which in turn drives WM updates and storage. A biologically inspired neural network model of Pfc is formulated to provide a link between the mechanisms of state switching and the biophysical properties of Pfc neurons. This model belongs to the recurrent competitive fields(33) class of dynamical systems which have been extensively mathematically characterized and exhibit the two functional states of interest: input-driven and internally-driven. This hypothesis was tested with two working memory tasks of increasing difficulty: a simple working memory task and a delayed alternation task. The results suggest that optimal WM storage in spite of noise is achieved with a phasic DA input followed by a lower DA sustained activity. Hypo and hyper-dopaminergic activity that alter this ideal pattern lead to increased distractibility from non-relevant pattern and prolonged perseverations on presented patterns, respectively.
Robust Vertex-dependant H∞ Filtering of Stochastic Discrete-time Systems with Delay

Linear, state delayed, discrete-time systems with stochastic uncertainties in their state-space model are considered. The problems of robust vertex-dependant polytopic H∞ filtering is solved, for the stationary case, via an input-output approach by which the system is replaced by a nonretarded system with deterministic normbounded uncertainties. A vertex-dependent solution is obtained by applying a modified version of the Finsler lemma. In this problem, a cost function is defined which is the expected value of the standard H∞ performance index with respect to the uncertain parameters.
Specification of energy-based criterion of elastic limit states for cellular materials

The aim of the paper is to apply the energy-based criterion of limit states in anisotropic elastic solids proposed by Rychlewski [5] for prediction of elastic limit states in cellular materials. The analysis is based on elastic model of a skeleton and an idealized description of topological arrangement of cell structure for cellular materials. The considered unit cells have, respectively, the form of a cube, a cuboid, a simple prism with the base of equilateral triangle, and a simple prism with the base in the form of regular hexagon. The morphology of the skeleton in a particular unit cell modeled by means of the struts joined in a rigid node determines the elastic stiffness and its symmetry: cubic symmetry, orthotropy and transversal symmetry. An analytical formulation of force-displacement relations for the skeleton struts is found by considering the affinity of node displacements in tensile, bending, and shear deformation. The elements of the stiffness matrix for a single cell are expressed as functions of the compliance coefficients for stretching and bending of struts. The analytical formulae for the elastic Kelvin moduli and the critical energy densities as well as the graphical presentation of the results were obtained with application of symbolic operations provided by Mathcad program. The distributions of critical energy density of particular elastic eigen states with respect to the change of the stiffness of the skeleton were studied.
LIA-iSmart at the TREC 2011 Entity Track: Entity List Completion Using Contextual Unsupervised Scores for Candidate Entities Ranking

This paper describes our participation in the Entity List Completion (ELC) task at Entity track 2011. Our approach combined the work done for the Related Entity Finding 2010 task with some new criteria as the proximity or the similarity between a candidate answer with the correct answers given as examples or their cooccurrences.
Evidence for the role of PI3‐kinase‐AKT‐eNOS signalling pathway in secondary inflammatory process after spinal cord compression injury in mice

Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is a dynamic enzyme tightly controlled by co‐ and post‐translational lipid modifications, phosphorylation and regulated by protein–protein interactions. In this study we have pharmacologically modulated the activation of eNOS, at different post‐translational levels, to assess the role of eNOS‐derived NO and regulatory mechanisms in tissue damage associated with spinal cord injury (SCI). SC trauma was induced by the application of vascular clips (force of 24 g) to the dura via a four‐level T5–T8 laminectomy. SCI in mice resulted in severe trauma characterized by oedema, neutrophil infiltration, and production of inflammatory mediators, tissue damage and apoptosis. LY294002, an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase that initiates Akt‐catalysed phosphorylation of eNOS on Ser1179, was administered 1 h before the induction of SCI; 24 h after SCI sections were taken for histological examination and for biochemical studies. In this study we clearly demonstrated that pre‐treatment with LY294002 reversed the increased activation of eNOS and Akt observed following SCI, and developed a severe trauma characterized by oedema, tissue damage and apoptosis (measured by TUNEL staining, Bax, Bcl‐2 and Fas‐L expression). Histological damage also correlated with neutrophil infiltration, assessed as myeloperoxidase activity. Overall these results suggest that activation of the Akt pathway in SC tissue subject to SCI is a protective event, triggered in order to protect the injured tissue through a fine tuning of the endothelial NO pathway.
Capturing multiple illumination conditions using time and color multiplexing

Many vision and graphics problems such as relighting, structured light scanning and photometric stereo, need images of a scene under a number of different illumination conditions. It is typically assumed that the scene is static. To extend such methods to dynamic scenes, dense optical flow can be used to register adjacent frames. This registration becomes inaccurate if the frame rate is too low with respect to the degree of movement in the scenes. We present a general method that extends time multiplexing with color multiplexing in order to better handle dynamic scenes. Our method allows for packing more illumination information into a single frame, thereby reducing the number of required frames over which optical flow must be computed. Moreover, color-multiplexed frames lend themselves better to reliably computing optical flow. We show that our method produces better results compared to time-multiplexing alone. We demonstrate its application to relighting, structured light scanning and photometric stereo in dynamic scenes.
Laboratory scale investigation on maximising utilisation of carbonaceous inerts in stamp charging to improve coke quality and yield

Stamp charging has been established as a versatile technology which not only improves the coke properties that can be obtained from a given coal blend, but also broadens the coal base for cokemaking, permitting the use of inferior coals without impairing the coke quality. To produce high strength coke at least cost, Tata Steel ventured into stamp charging in combination with 40–45% low ash imported coals. Research carried out by R&D, Tata Steel revealed that stamp charging has the potential power to digest even non-softening carbonaceous inerts, if the coal blend is suitably designed. Addition of such inerts would enhance the carbon content in the resultant coke. However, the use of these inerts calls for judicious selection of other components of the coal blend and optimisation of the blend proportion, or otherwise these inerts may have an adverse impact on the coke quality. Addition of such materials would also contribute to higher coke yield, since the volatile matter contents of these materials are very low. A quantum jump in the coke yield can be envisaged only if the addition of these low ash carbonaceous inerts is substantial (>10%). Therefore, it is imperative to design the base stamp charge coal blend so that it has enough fluidity to assimilate these infusible inerts and still produce coke with high coke strength after reaction. The present paper describes the scope of utilising low ash carbonaceous inerts such as fluid coke and anthracite optimally in the stamp charging blend by replacing the present imported semisoft coal with high fluidity imported coals. The laboratory scale experimentation and the results obtained with respect to improvement in coke properties and yield have been described. The results are also supported by the microscopic investigation of the coke samples.
Structured Matrix Recovery via the Generalized Dantzig Selector

In recent years, structured matrix recovery problems have gained considerable attention for its real world applications, such as recommender systems and computer vision. Much of the existing work has focused on matrices with low-rank structure, and limited progress has been made matrices with other types of structure. In this paper we present non-asymptotic analysis for estimation of generally structured matrices via the generalized Dantzig selector under generic sub-Gaussian measurements. We show that the estimation error can always be succinctly expressed in terms of a few geometric measures of suitable sets which only depend on the structure of the underlying true matrix. In addition, we derive the general bounds on these geometric measures for structures characterized by unitarily invariant norms, which is a large family covering most matrix norms of practical interest. Examples are provided to illustrate the utility of our theoretical development.
Polymer physics : applications to molecular association and thermoreversible gelation

Preface 1. Statistical properties of polymer chains 2. Polymer solutions 3. Classical theory of gelation 4. Rubber elasticity 5. Associating polymer solutions 6. Nongelling associating polymers 7. Thermoreversible gelation 8. Structure of polymer networks 9. Rheology of thermoreversible gels 10. Some important thermoreversible gels Index.
Cross-Cultural Variation in Political Leadership Styles

Guided by gaps in the literature with regard to the study of politicians the aim of the research is to explore cross-cultural differences in political leaders’ style. It compares the MLQ (Avolio & Bass, 2004) scores of elected political leaders (N = 140) in Bulgaria and the UK. The statistical exploration of the data relied on multivariate analyses of covariance. The findings of comparisons across the two groups reveal that compared to British political leaders, Bulgarian leaders were more likely to frequently use both transactional and passive/avoidant behaviours. The study tests Bass’s (1997) strong assertion about the universality of transformational leadership. It contributes to the leadership literature by providing directly measured data relating to the behaviours of political leaders. Such information on the characteristics of politicians could allow for more directional hypotheses in subsequent research, exploring the contextual influences within transformational leadership theory. The outcomes might also aid applied fields. Knowledge gained of culturally different leaders could be welcomed by multicultural political and economic unions, wherein understanding and allowances might aid communication.
Coronary Artery Disease and Its Risk Factors Status in Iran: A Review

Background Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of mortality, morbidity, and disability in the world. The high prevalence and morbidity associated with CAD in Iran is one of the most pressing health problems. Methods We have reviewed the status of CAD and prevalence of its traditional and novel risk factors based on the published papers in recent years that may have an impact on the rate of CAD in Iran. Evaluation of current impact of metabolic syndrome in Iran was the other aim of this review, as it contributes to pathogenesis of coronary artery disease. We reviewed all PubMed indexed related studies. Some evidences from national articles which were published by the Ministry Of Health and Medical Education Research Council Certified Medical Journals of Islamic Republic of Iran were also included. Results The prevalence of CAD, coronary risk factors and metabolic syndrome in Iran is higher than Western countries and similar to some Middle East countries. There are limited data with regard to novel coronary risk factors in Iran. Conclusion Primary and secondary prevention of CAD including life style modifications and dietary interventions strongly recommended in Iranian population.
MICRORHEOLOGY OF HIGH-POLYMER SOLUTIONS

A new surface force apparatus is used for investigating the viscoelastic properties of high-polymer solutions or polymer melts confined between two solid surfaces. We describe the experimental setup and discuss how to obtain the rheological behavior of the liquid from the transfer function given by two capacitance displacement transducers. In particular, we point out that for a distance between the surfaces enclosing a thin film below some thousands of Angstroms, the elastic deformation of the solids is no longer negligible. Experiments conducted on a semidilute solution of polybutadiene show the applicability of the device for study of the dynamic properties of thin-film polymers.
Structure and Thermal Stability of Ceria Films Supported on YSZ ( 100 ) and α-Al 2 O 3 ( 0001 )

The morphology and reducibility of vapor-deposited ceria films supported on yttria-stabilized zirconia (100) (YSZ(100)) and α-Al2O3(0001) single crystals were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results of this study show that the gas environment has a significant effect on the structure of the ceria films on both substrates. CeO2 films on α-Al2O3(0001) were found to be stable in a reducing environment at temperatures up to 1000K, but underwent agglomeration and reaction with the support to form CeAlO3 upon annealing at 1273 K in air. Heating CeO2/YSZ(100) in air at 1273 K caused the ceria thin film to agglomerate into bar-shaped features which were re-dispersed by subsequent annealing in vacuum. Interactions at the CeO2-YSZ interface were also found to dramatically enhance the reducibility of ceria films supported on YSZ(100).
Restrictive Left Ventricular Filling Pattern Does Not Result From Increased Left Atrial Pressure Alone

Background— The restrictive filling pattern seen with severe heart failure (HF) may be due to diastolic dysfunction with elevated left ventricular (LV) diastolic pressure or may be merely a manifestation of an overfilled LV as a result of increased left atrial (LA) pressure. We investigated whether the LV restrictive filling pattern is due to elevated LA pressure alone. Methods and Results— We studied conscious dogs instrumented to measure LA pressure, LV pressure, and 3 LV diameters. LV filling dynamics were evaluated in 2 situations with similar elevations of LA pressure: in normal animals after rapid volume loading with dextran 500 mL and in animals with pacing-induced HF with restrictive filling. With HF, there was increased LV chamber stiffness and slow relaxation. Volume loading and HF had similar heart rates (129±19 versus 131±15 bpm) and LA pressure (22.1±5.8 versus 22.6±3.3 mm Hg). The peak early filling rate (E) was increased with both HF and volume loading. However, in HF, the peak mitral annular velocity (E′) was decreased and delayed, and the E deceleration time was shorter. In contrast, with volume loading, E′ was increased and not delayed. Conclusion— The restrictive filling pattern is distinguished from overfilling of a normal ventricle by a reduced and delayed E′ and a shortened E deceleration time that reflect slow relaxation and increased LV stiffness.
ICSI'S 2005 speaker recognition system

This paper describes ICSI's 2005 speaker recognition system, which was one of the top performing systems in the NIST 2005 speaker recognition evaluation. The system is a combination of four sub-systems: 1) a keyword conditional HMM system, 2) an SVM-based lattice phone n-gram system, 3) a sequential nonparametric system, and 4) a traditional cepstral GMM System, developed by SRI. The first three systems are designed to take advantage of higher-level and long-term information. We observe that their performance is significantly improved when there is more training data. In this paper, we describe these sub-systems and present results for each system alone and in combination on the speaker recognition evaluation (SRE) 2005 development and evaluation data sets
FDF-PAGE: a powerful technique revealing previously undetected small RNAs sequestered by complementary transcripts

Small RNAs, between 18nt and 30nt in length, are a diverse class of non-coding RNAs that mediate a range of cellular processes, from gene regulation to pathogen defense. They guide ribonucleoprotein complexes to their target nucleic acids by Watson–Crick base pairing. We report here that current techniques for small RNA detection and library generation are biased by formation of RNA duplexes. To address this problem, we established FDF-PAGE (fully-denaturing formaldehyde polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) to prevent annealing of sRNAs to their complement. By applying FDF-PAGE, we provide evidence that both strands of viral small RNA are present in near equimolar ratios, indicating that the predominant precursor is a long double-stranded RNA. Comparing non-denaturing conditions to FDF-PAGE uncovered extensive sequestration of miRNAs in model organisms and allowed us to identify candidate small RNAs under the control of competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). By revealing the full repertoire of small RNAs, we can begin to create a better understanding of small RNA mediated interactions.
A systematic evaluation of ADHD and comorbid psychopathology in a population-based twin sample.

OBJECTIVE Clinical and population samples demonstrate that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) occurs with other disorders. Comorbid disorder clustering within ADHD subtypes is not well studied. METHOD Latent class analysis (LCA) examined the co-occurrence of DSM-IV ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), and depression symptoms in a population twin sample. The authors fit separate models for ADHD and comorbid disorder symptoms. Twin concordance ratios (monozygotic versus dizygotic) were compared examining genetic influence on class membership. RESULTS LCA of ADHD symptoms resulted in seven classes including inattentive, combined, and hyperactive subtypes in 1,616 subjects. The few ADHD symptoms (53.4%) and severe inattentive (12.3%) classes were most frequent. LCA of ODD, CD, and depression symptoms in 1,587 subjects revealed five classes including ODD (19.4%), depression (14.5%), and two composite classes: ODD/CD (6.9%) and ODD/CD/depression (7.2%). Internalizing and externalizing comorbid disorders were present across all ADHD subtypes. Odds ratios (ORs) for twin concordance indicate genetic influence on severe inattentive (OR = 4.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.52-11.53) and combined (OR = 5.25; 95% CI, 1.32-20.78) ADHD classes and ODD (OR = 1.49; 95% CI, 0.70-3.17), ODD/CD (OR = 3.32; 95% CI, 0.57-19.28), and ODD/CD/depression (OR = 1.20; 95% CI, 0.30-4.77) classes. CONCLUSIONS Internalizing and externalizing disorders did not cluster differentially within ADHD subtypes. LCA may provide a more precise characterization of comorbidity with ADHD.
Robust Image Segmentation with Mixtures of Student's t-Distributions

Gaussian mixture models have been widely used in image segmentation. However, such models are sensitive to outliers. In this paper, we consider a robust model for image segmentation based on mixtures of Student's t-distributions which have heavier tails than Gaussian and thus are not sensitive to outliers. The t-distribution is one of the few heavy tailed probability density functions (pdf) closely related to the Gaussian, that gives tractable maximum likelihood inference via the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. Numerical experiments that demonstrate the properties of the proposed model for image segmentation are presented.
Study on density of state of strained Si1−xGex

The strained Si technology is a research emphasis in the modern microelectronic field. Density of state (DOS) is an important physical parameter in strained Si materials. Based on KP perturbation theory related to stress, the models of DOS effective mass of electron and hole near the bottom of conduction band and the top of valence band were obtained in strained Si1−xGex. Furthermore, quantitative analytical models of DOS of electron and hole near the bottom of conduction band and the top of valence band was established in the trained Si1−xGex grown from (001), (101) and (111) substrates respectively. The models were simulated and analyzed using Matlab software. It was found that their DOS versus energy were parabola curves and have significant influence under the stress. The quantized models obtained can provide valuable references to the understanding on strained Si1−xGex materials and the research on physical properties of devices.
Peculiarities of Structure and Texture of High-Strength Cu-Nb Composites

The evolution of structure of high-strength heavily deformed Cu-Nb composites processed by two different methods (melt-and-deform and bundle-and-deform) is briefly reviewed based on the authors’ (with their coauthors) original studies and the available publications. Specific features of their texture are considered. In particular, it is demonstrated that the ribbon-like Nb filaments possess not only the sharp fiber texture but the limited texture with components characteristic of cold-drawn Nb. The semi-coherent and amorphous state of Cu/Nb interfaces is discussed. The thermal stability of single-core and multi-core wires is considered. The effect of Zr and Ti doping on the structure and mechanical properties is demonstrated.