Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge model: a method to evaluate an individual's knowledge quantitatively

As the quantity of human knowledge increasing rapidly, it is harder and harder to evaluate a knowledge worker's knowledge quantitatively. There are lots of demands for evaluating a knowledge worker's knowledge. For example, accurately finding out a researcher's research concentrations for the last three years; searching for common topics for two scientists with different academic backgrounds; helping a researcher discover his deficiencies on a research field etc. This paper proposes a method named knowledge model to evaluate a knowledge worker's knowledge quantitatively without taking an examination. It records and analyzes an individual's each learning experience, discovering all the involved knowledge points and calculating their shares by analyzing the text learning contents with topic model. It calculates a score for a knowledge point by accumulating the effects of one's all learning experiences about it. A preliminary knowledge evaluating system is developed to testify the practicability of knowledge model.
Electro-optic modulator of polarization for the visible spectrum region

We show an electro optic linear polarizer for the visible spectrum region. The device is made of a CyberdisplayTM liquid crystal display (LCD) manufactured by Kopin Co. and a linear polarizer. The device can rotate from 0 to 70 degrees the linear polarization state of a beam. To control the polarization rotation, we displayed gray levels from 0 to 255 in a PC connected to the LCD. We present the complete characterization of our device and experimental results.
A Novel Method for Melt Flow Control and Inclusion Suppression in Optical Crystal Growth

Optical and laser crystals grown by Czochralski technique from a solute-rich melt usually suffer defects of melt inclusion or bubble core, which severely affects optical, thermal and mechanical properties of the material. The main purpose of this paper is to study the inclusion mechanisms and to minimize such defects. Two types of mechanisms possibly responsible for inclusion defects are presented. In the current investigation, Czochralski grown optical single crystals are examined to recognize the effects of crystal rotation and natural convection on the melt flow pattern and solidification interface shape. It is established that increasing the rotation rate of crystal or reducing natural convection in the melt will cause the solid-liquid interface change from the convex shape to concave and high concentration of the species may be pushed away from the solidification interface. Simulations were performed to establish the relationships between Gr/Re2 and growth interface shape change, and between Gr/Re2 and stagnant point location were established. A disk submerged into the melt was used to reduce natural convection by reducing the melt height. The idea was similar to the submerged baffle or submerged heater used in Bridgeman crystal growth. The effect of submerged baffle on enhancement of crystal rotation effect was demonstrated. Simulation results showed that the melt flow near the solidification interface depended strongly on the baffle location, which was not surprised. The idea of submerged heater was also examined in Czochralski growth. Different from a constant temperature close to the melting temperature used in Bridgman growth, the submerged heater temperature should be selected on a higher temperature between the melting temperature and crucible temperature. The value depended strongly on the ratio between crystal and crucible diameters. It was proved that a constant temperature was not the best choice in Czochralski growth. In fact, an optimized temperature profile could be found in numerical simulations for melt flow control and inclusion suppression.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
New Methodology in Modeling Ceramics

The improvement of ceramic synthesis and processing methodology based on digital image processing and analysis of ceramic samples is in its initial stage. The main reason is that the models are based on poorly obtained data from sample’s digital image processing. The lack of a solid statistical analysis and digital-imaging setup standardization make the method less useful that it should be if set in a sound basis. Therefore the importance of setting a new methodology in digital image processing for data acquisition on ceramic morphology analysis is essential for setting new models for customized ceramic synthesis and processing. The present paper shows results based on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) from Al2O3 ceramics obtained by starch consolidation method. Observation of different sample’s regions allowed a more accurate description of ceramic morphology. Plots of resistance to flexion versus porosity and its correlation with the grain size and shape allowed one to choose the best model for representing ceramic’s morphology. Correlation of starch percentage with sample’s porosity and mechanical resistance allowed the best experimental conditions for customized ceramic’s performance.
Factors That Influence Presence in Educational Virtual Environments

The present article is a part of a project for the measurement of presence in educational virtual environments (VEs), since presence is correlated with higher levels of cognitive performance and emotional development, factors that contribute to knowledge construction. The aim of our study was to investigate the sense of presence of 12-year-old pupils within an educational VE representing an ancient Greek house through a sense of embodiment and the ability to handle task performance, while using various peripheral devices. This is the first report on presence measurement with children, based on the indication that children and adults may apply very unrelated criteria. Our results showed statistically significant differences on the level of tiredness and ease of use in using six different input devices. The combination of the keyboard and mouse and the keyboard on its own were the least tedious and easiest input devices, giving a sense of presence as stated by the pupils. Environmental richness and the high level of interactivity within the VE resulted in a high degree of presence for almost all the pupils. The majority of them felt a sense of presence whilst driving the avatar, indicating that presence is significantly correlated with pupils' degree of association with their virtual bodies. All the pupils felt a sense of presence when wearing the head-mounted display. Our findings are in line with those of other researchers and show evidence of personal, social and environmental presence.
Pold3 is required for genomic stability and telomere integrity in embryonic stem cells and meiosis

Abstract Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and meiosis are featured by relatively higher frequent homologous recombination associated with DNA double strand breaks (DSB) repair. Here, we show that Pold3 plays important roles in DSB repair, telomere maintenance and genomic stability of both ESCs and spermatocytes in mice. By attempting to generate Pold3 deficient mice using CRISPR/Cas9 or transcription activator-like effector nucleases, we show that complete loss of Pold3 (Pold3−/−) resulted in early embryonic lethality at E6.5. Rapid DNA damage response and massive apoptosis occurred in both outgrowths of Pold3-null (Pold3−/−) blastocysts and Pold3 inducible knockout (iKO) ESCs. While Pold3−/− ESCs were not achievable, Pold3 iKO led to increased DNA damage response, telomere loss and chromosome breaks accompanied by extended S phase. Meanwhile, loss of Pold3 resulted in replicative stress, micronucleation and aneuploidy. Also, DNA repair was impaired in Pold3+/− or Pold3 knockdown ESCs. Moreover, Pold3 mediates DNA replication and repair by regulating 53BP1, RIF1, ATR and ATM pathways. Furthermore, spermatocytes of Pold3 haploinsufficient (Pold3+/−) mice with increasing age displayed impaired DSB repair, telomere shortening and loss, and chromosome breaks, like Pold3 iKO ESCs. These data suggest that Pold3 maintains telomere integrity and genomic stability of both ESCs and meiosis by suppressing replicative stress.
Neuronal modulation of auditory attention by informative and uninformative spatial cues

Sounds provide important information about the spatial environment, including the location of approaching objects. Attention to sounds can be directed through automatic or more controlled processes, which have been well studied in the visual modality. However, little is known about the neural underpinnings of attentional control mechanisms for auditory signals. We studied healthy adults who underwent event‐related FMRI while performing a task that manipulated automatic and more controlled auditory orienting by varying the probability that cues correctly predicted target location. Specifically, we examined the effects of uninformative (50% validity ratio) and informative (75% validity ratio) auditory cues on reaction time (RT) and neuronal functioning. The stimulus‐onset asynchrony (SOA) between the cue and the target was either 100 or 800 ms. At the 100 ms SOA, RT was faster for valid than invalid trials for both cue types, and frontoparietal activation was greater for invalid than valid trials. At the 800 ms SOA, RT and functional activation depended on whether cues were informative or uninformative, and whether cues correctly or incorrectly predicted the target location. Contrary to our prediction, activation in a frontoparietal network was greater for uninformative than informative cues across several different comparisons and at both SOAs. This finding contrasts with similar research of visual orienting, and suggests that the auditory modality may be more biased toward automatic shifts of attention following uninformative cues. Hum Brain Mapp 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Initial Test Collection for Ranked Retrieval of SMS Conversations

This paper describes a test collection for evaluating systems that search English SMS (Short Message Service) conversations. The collection is built from about 120,000 text messages. Topic development involved identifying typical types of information needs, then generating topics of each type for which relevant content might be found in the collection. Relevance judgments were then made for groups of messages that were most highly ranked by one or more of several ranked retrieval systems. The resulting TREC style test collection can be used to compare some alternative retrieval system designs.
Omnidirectional static walking of a quadruped robot

In this paper, we propose a successive gait-transition method for a quadruped robot to realize omnidirectional static walking. The gait transition is successively performed among the crawl gaits and the rotation gaits, while the feet hold in common positions before and after gait transition. The gait-transition time is reduced by carefully designing the foot positions of the crawl gait and the rotation gait, while limiting the feet in rectangular reachable motion ranges. Computer simulations and experiments were executed to show the validity and the limitation of the proposed gait-transition method.
In Silico Prediction of Chemical Toxicity for Drug Design Using Machine Learning Methods and Structural Alerts

During drug development, safety is always the most important issue, including a variety of toxicities and adverse drug effects, which should be evaluated in preclinical and clinical trial phases. This review article at first simply introduced the computational methods used in prediction of chemical toxicity for drug design, including machine learning methods and structural alerts. Machine learning methods have been widely applied in qualitative classification and quantitative regression studies, while structural alerts can be regarded as a complementary tool for lead optimization. The emphasis of this article was put on the recent progress of predictive models built for various toxicities. Available databases and web servers were also provided. Though the methods and models are very helpful for drug design, there are still some challenges and limitations to be improved for drug safety assessment in the future.
A programming model and foundation for lineage-based distributed computation

Abstract The most successful systems for “big data” processing have all adopted functional APIs. We present a new programming model, we call function passing, designed to provide a more principled substrate, or middleware, upon which to build data-centric distributed systems like Spark. A key idea is to build up a persistent functional data structure representing transformations on distributed immutable data by passing well-typed serializable functions over the wire and applying them to this distributed data. Thus, the function passing model can be thought of as a persistent functional data structure that is distributed, where transformations performed on distributed data are stored in its nodes rather than the distributed data itself. One advantage of this model is that failure recovery is simplified by design – data can be recovered by replaying function applications atop immutable data loaded from stable storage. Deferred evaluation is also central to our model; by incorporating deferred evaluation into our design only at the point of initiating network communication, the function passing model remains easy to reason about while remaining efficient in time and memory. Moreover, we provide a complete formalization of the programming model in order to study the foundations of lineage-based distributed computation. In particular, we develop a theory of safe, mobile lineages based on a subject reduction theorem for a typed core language. Furthermore, we formalize a progress theorem that guarantees the finite materialization of remote, lineage-based data. Thus, the formal model may serve as a basis for further developments of the theory of data-centric distributed programming, including aspects such as fault tolerance. We provide an open-source implementation of our model in and for the Scala programming language, along with a case study of several example frameworks and end-user programs written atop this model.
A Statistical, Nonparametric Methodology for Document Degradation Model Validation

Printing, photocopying, and scanning processes degrade the image quality of a document. Statistical models of these degradation processes are crucial for document image understanding research. In this paper, we present a statistical methodology that can be used to validate local degradation models. This method is based on a nonparametric, two-sample permutation test. Another standard statistical device, the power function, is then used to choose between algorithm variables such as distance functions. Since the validation and the power function procedures are independent of the model, they can be used to validate any other degradation model. A method for comparing any two models is also described. It uses p-values associated with the estimated models to select the model that is closer to the real world.
DEVELOPMENT OF EQUIPMENT AND TECHNIQUES FOR EVALUATING FATIGUE AND RUTTING CHARACTERISTICS OF ASPHALT CONCRETE MIXES

Fatigue and rutting characteristics are evaluated for a range of asphalt concrete base mixes. A rectangular beam on a rubber subgrade is used in the fatigue test. Tensile strain in the beam is measured by means of a strain gage bonded to the beam. Rutting characteristics are determined using both the Shell creep test and also a repeated load triaxial test. A temperature of 95 degrees F was used which is the mean pavement temperature for rutting a Georgia. The fatigue life of a mix was found to be primarily dependent upon the void and asphalt content of the mix. Fatigue life is inversely proportional to the air voids on a log-log plot with a small change in air voids having a large influence on fatigue life. For a long fatigue life the air void content should be between 2 and 4 or 5%. Going from an asphalt content of 4.5 to 4.75% approximately doubled the fatigue life. Other variables studied included mineral filler, asphalt cement viscosity, aggregate type and gradation, and 50 and 75 blow Marshall mixes. Rutting test indicated that moderate changes in mix variables do not greatly affect rutting.
ROI video coding based on H.263+ with robust skin-color detection technique

The paper proposes an ROI (region of interest) video coding algorithm based on H.263+. The ROIs are automatically selected by a robust skin-color detection which utilizes the Cr and RGB variance instead of the traditional skin color models, such as YCbCr, HSI, etc. The skin color model defined by Cr and RGB variance can choose the skin color region more accurately than other methods. For the video coding system, a region-based video codec based on H.263+ with the option mode of modified quantization is set up. We adjust the distortion weight parameter and variance at the macroblock layer to control the qualities at different regions. Experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the quality at the ROI. Our method is suitable for real time videoconferencing.
Assessing vulnerability and framing adaptive options of two Mediterranean wine growing regions facing climate change: Roussillon (France) and McLaren Vale (Australia)

Une hausse des temperatures et une baisse des precipitations pourraient etre prejudiciables au maintien d’une viticulture de qualite dans les regions de climat mediterraneen. Cet article propose d’etudier l’exposition recente et future de deux regions viticoles mediterraneennes a de tels changements : le Roussillon (France) et McLaren Vale (Australie) ; ainsi que de cerner les elements concourant a augmenter leur vulnerabilite face a ces changements, et en retour les elements qui permettraient d’ameliorer leur capacite d’adaptation. Une etude de donnees de temperature et de precipitations observees (1956-2010) a Perpignan et Adelaide, et simulees (2001-2060) par ARPEGE-RETIC-V4 et CSIRO Mk3.5, a ete completee par soixante-et-un entretiens avec des acteurs-cles de la filiere viti-vinicole dans les deux regions. Les resultats montrent que les producteurs ont du faire face ces dix dernieres annees a une augmentation de la temperature et a une baisse des precipitations, et que cela est, selon les modeles, amene a se repeter d’ici 2060, malgre une grande part d’incertitude. Ces conditions ont des impacts negatifs sur la maturation du raisin, qui ne pourront pas forcement etre geres avec les techniques actuelles. La mise en place de strategies d’adaptation a l’incertitude du climat, couplees a celle des marches, s’appuie sur : un capital financier suffisant, une gestion durable des ressources en eau, et une souplesse de la legislation. Pour cela, la diversification et l’entreprenariat des producteurs sont particulierement importants.
Reflections about the rules of the impeachment and its impacts on democracy : Brazil , United States of America and England in comparative perspective

This article aims to analyze the extent to which the institutional framework relative to the prosecution process and trial for crimes of responsibility facilitated the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. In this regard, the development trajectory of the rules of the impeachment and their impacts on the Executive/Legislative relations in Brazil, the United States of America and England are compared. It is concluded that the combination of a law with a broad and flexible list about crimes of responsibility, a fragmented party system and the absence of a consistent position of the Supreme Federal Court about the issue produce a political-institutional framework that undermines the President of the Republic in front of the Congress and mischaracterizes presidentialism.
Polyurethane/conducting carbon black composites: Structure, electric conductivity, strain recovery behavior, and their relationships

The polyurethane composites with conducting carbon black (CB) were prepared by a solution-precipitation process, which was followed by melt compression molding. The polyurethane used has good shape memory effect. The morphology of CB fillers in polyurethane matrix and the resulting conductivity of the composites were investigated. It has been found that CB fillers exist in the forms of aggregates. The percolation threshold is achieved at the CB concentration of 20 wt %. The presence of CB fillers decreases the degree of crystallinity of polycaprolactone (PCL) soft segments of the polyurethane. However, the composites still have enough soft-segment crystals of polyurethane to fulfil the necessary condition for the shape memory properties. Dynamic mechanical data show that CB is an effective filler for the reinforcement of the polyurethane matrix, but does not deteriorate the stable physical cross-link structure of the polyurethane, which is necessary to store the elastic energy in the service process of the shape memory materials. Addition of CB reinforcement in the polyurethane has influenced the strain recovery properties, especially for those samples with CB concentrations above the percolation threshold. The response temperature of the shape memory effect Tr has not been affected too much. Strain fixation Sf, which expresses the ability of the specimens to fix their strain, has been improved in the presence of the CB fillers. The final recovery rates Rf and strain recovery speeds Vr of the shape memory measurements, however, have decreased evidently. It is expectedly ascribed to the increased bulk viscosity as well as the impeding effect of the inter-connective structure of CB fillers in the polymer matrix. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 75: 68–77, 2000
Lighting grid hierarchy for self-illuminating explosions

Rendering explosions with self-illumination is a challenging problem. Explosions contain animated volumetric light sources immersed in animated smoke that cast volumetric shadows, which play an essential role and are expensive to compute. We propose an efficient solution that redefines this problem as rendering with many animated lights by converting the volumetric lighting data into a large number of point lights. Focusing on temporal coherency to avoid flickering in animations, we introduce lighting grid hierarchy for approximating the volumetric illumination at different resolutions. Using this structure we can efficiently approximate the lighting at any point inside or outside of the explosion volume as a mixture of lighting contributions from all levels of the hierarchy. As a result, we are able to capture high-frequency details of local illumination, as well as the potentially strong impact of distant illumination. Most importantly, this hierarchical structure allows us to efficiently precompute volumetric shadows, which substantially accelerates the lighting computation. Finally, we provide a scalable approach for computing the multiple scattering of light within the smoke volume using our lighting grid hierarchy. Temporal coherency is achieved by relying on continuous formulations at all stages of the lighting approximation. We show that our method is efficient and effective approximating the self-illumination of explosions with visually indistinguishable results, as compared to path tracing. We also show that our method can be applied to other problems involving a large number of (animated) point lights.