Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GPU implementation of fully constrained linear spectral unmixing for remotely sensed hyperspectral data exploitation

Spectral unmixing is an important task for remotely sensed hyperspectral data exploitation. The spectral signatures collected in natural environments are invariably a mixture of the pure signatures of the various materials found within the spatial extent of the ground instantaneous field view of the imaging instrument. Spectral unmixing aims at inferring such pure spectral signatures, called endmembers, and the material fractions, called fractional abundances, at each pixel of the scene. A standard technique for spectral mixture analysis is linear spectral unmixing, which assumes that the collected spectra at the spectrometer can be expressed in the form of a linear combination of endmembers weighted by their corresponding abundances, expected to obey two constraints, i.e. all abundances should be non-negative, and the sum of abundances for a given pixel should be unity. Several techniques have been developed in the literature for unconstrained, partially constrained and fully constrained linear spectral unmixing, which can be computationally expensive (in particular, for complex highdimensional scenes with a high number of endmembers). In this paper, we develop new parallel implementations of unconstrained, partially constrained and fully constrained linear spectral unmixing algorithms. The implementations have been developed in programmable graphics processing units (GPUs), an exciting development in the field of commodity computing that fits very well the requirements of on-board data processing scenarios, in which low-weight and low-power integrated components are mandatory to reduce mission payload. Our experiments, conducted with a hyperspectral scene collected over the World Trade Center area in New York City, indicate that the proposed implementations provide relevant speedups over the corresponding serial versions in latest-generation Tesla C1060 GPU architectures.
Malaria parasite detection in giemsa-stained blood cell images

This research represents a method to detect malaria parasite in blood samples stained with giemsa. In order to increase the accuracy of detecting, at the first step, the red blood cell mask is extracted. It is due to the fact that most of malaria parasites exist in red blood cells. Then, stained elements of blood such as red blood cells, parasites and white blood cells are extracted. At the next step, red blood cell mask is located on the extracted stained elements to separate the possible parasites. Finally, color histogram, granulometry, gradient and flat texture features are extracted and used as classifier inputs. Here, five classifiers were used: support vector machines (SVM), nearest mean (NM), K nearest neighbors (KNN), 1-NN and Fisher. In this research K nearest neighbors classifier had the best accuracy, which was 91%.
Maternal occupational exposure and risk of specific birth defects.

BACKGROUND Gregg identified the teratogenic effect of maternal rubella infection in 1941 and since then there has been a focus on risk factors for birth defects. In nearly 70% of all birth defects, there is still no known risk factor and close to 30% of all pregnancies end in a foetal loss or spontaneous abortion, often because of a defect in the foetus. A large percentage of the workforce consists of women of reproductive age. METHODS A search in MEDLINE for original literature and examination of the association between exposure during pregnancy and the risk of birth defects. RESULTS Five specific birth defects were identified: neural tube defects, cleft lip and cleft palate, congenital heart defects, urinary tract defects and limb defects. The next step was to include studies with information on occupational exposure during pregnancy. CONCLUSION There seems to be growing concern as to whether organic solvents, including glycol ethers, pesticides and heavy metals may play a teratogenic role. There is no convincing evidence linking occupational exposure during pregnancy and birth defects.
Intelligent Control of Vehicle Semi-Active Suspension Systems for improved Ride Comfort and Road Handling

In this paper we propose a neuro-fuzzy (NF) control strategy to enhance desired suspension performance. The proposed method consists of two parts: a fuzzy control strategy to establish an efficient controller to improve ride comfort and road handling (RCH) and an inverse mapping model to estimate the current needed for a semi-active damper. The fuzzy logic rules are extracted based on Skyhook and Groundhook. The inverse mapping model is based on an artificial neural network and incorporated into the fuzzy controller to enhance RCH. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed NF controller, a quarter car model is adopted and numerical analysis is presented. To verify the performance of the NF controller (NFC), comparisons with existing semiactive techniques are made and two sets of results are reported. First, a sinusoidal road input is considered and time domain results are presented. Second, for the same sinusoidal input, frequency response of the developed controllers is obtained. It is shown that the developed NFC enhances RCH considerably and outperforms other existing controllers in terms of both ride comfort and handling
A detour planning algorithm in crowdsourcing systems for multimedia content gathering

Crowdsourcing is a popular paradigm that outsources tasks to general publics. In crowdsourcing systems, requesters submit requests and workers perform selective requests for rewards. We propose a crowdsourcing system for multimedia content gathering, which is a new class of crowdsourcing systems with requests that must be performed at specific locations and time. The workers in our systems gather multimedia content using their smartphones and share the collected content over the Internet. Our system computes a detour path for each worker, who supplies his/her destination with a deadline to the system, and do not mind to take detour paths and perform some requests for profits. More precisely, we develop a detour planning algorithm to produce the optimal detour paths for individual workers. Using extensive trace-driven simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithm: for example, it helps workers to achieve optimal profits (up to ~ 100% improvement compared to baseline solutions) and runs in real-time (< 82 ms). Developing a working prototype on Android OS and addressing other challenging aspects of the considered systems are among our future tasks.
Circularly polarised wideband quadrifilar helix antenna with ultra‐wide beamwidth isoflux pattern for a S‐band satellite ground station

A quadrifilar helix antenna (QHA), with an improved isoflux radiation pattern for S-band satellite ground stations, is designed and fabricated. The performance of the antenna with respect to its beam pattern, axial ratio and efficiency is investigated. To have optimum coverage of a low earth orbit satellite rotating the Earth's surface with one fixed pattern ground station antenna, an ultra-wide beamwidth isoflux pattern covering the complete upper hemisphere is required. The presented QHA antenna not only satisfies the required beam shape but also its pattern stays unchanged within a wide bandwidth. Besides that, an efficient Wilkinson power divider as the antenna's feed is designed to match the input impedance of helices appropriately, resulting in efficiency enhancement to >85%. The measured results, which indicate the performances of the proposed antenna in terms of the reflection coefficient, radiation pattern and axial ratio, are in good agreement with the simulation results within 2 to 2.2 GHz frequency band.
What Can We Say Regarding Shared Parenting Arrangements for Swedish Children?

ABSTRACT Joint physical custody (JPC) refers to children living alternatively and about equally with both parents after a parental separation or divorce. The practice has been debated in relation to child well-being because of the frequent moves imposed on children and the potential stress from living in 2 homes. This study describes the background to the high frequency of Swedish children in JPC and the results from research on Swedish children’s well-being in this living arrangement. Children in JPC report better well-being and mental health than children who live mostly or only with 1 parent. No Swedish studies have found children’s health to be worse in JPC than in sole parental care from child age of 3 years and beyond. The existing literature cannot, however, inform us about the mechanisms behind the findings. The risks of selection effects into living arrangements are plausible. For this purpose, longitudinal studies are warranted.
3D pose estimation with one plane correspondence using kinect and IMU

In indoor spaces, plane features are general geometric primitives that are robust to noise. To estimate the relative displacement and orientation between two consecutive 3D poses, at least three-pair correspondences of planes with different normals are needed at both poses. Otherwise, the estimated state falls into degeneracy, which is usually caused by the narrow field-of-view (FoV) of sensors as well as environmental structures. In the case where there are changes in degeneracy, with the exception of rotation, the state can be resolved using existing methods. To compensate for rotation in degeneracy for one-pair correspondences, the main approach is to project the initial prediction of an inertial measurement unit's (IMU) orientation to the normal of the corresponding plane such that it satisfies the shortest arc length. We also propose an algorithm that detects various degeneracy cases through which a seamless implementation becomes feasible, regardless of the number of plane pairs. We show the usefulness of the proposed method by performing a 3D mapping experiment where several degenerate cases arise due to limited FoV.
Experimental results based on macro-cell channel measurement

The next generation mobile communication systems tend to wideband. We present the experimental results based on the polarimetric MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) channel measurement campaign at 2.53GHz with a bandwidth of 100MHz, performed in Shanghai. Our special interest focuses on the propagation characteristics and channel parameters in terms of path loss, channel impulse response (CIR) and Root-Mean-Square (RMS) delay in the urban rich-scattering environment. The comparison result of the measured path loss at 3.5GHz with the existing models such as SUI (Stanford University Interim), COST-231 and WINNER (Wireless World Initiative New Radio) is also given. Since the city, Shanghai, as one of the metropolitans in the world, has different building height/density and infrastructure construction from the most cities in European countries, the results will provide the first overview to the extraordinary propagation characteristics of 100MHz bandwidth channel in the particular environment like Shanghai.
Relative clause extraction for syntactic simplification

This paper investigates non-destructive simplification, a type of syntactic text simplification which focuses on extracting embedded clauses from structurally complex sentences and rephrasing them without affecting their original meaning. This process reduces the average sentence length and complexity to make text simpler. Although relevant for human readers with low reading skills or language disabilities, the process has direct applications in NLP. In this paper we analyse the extraction of relative clauses through a tagging approach. A dataset covering three genres was manually annotated and used to develop and compare several approaches for automatically detecting appositions and non-restrictive relative clauses. The best results are obtained by a ML model developed using crfsuite, followed by a rule based method.
Antimicrobial Stewardship: A Cross-Sectional Survey Assessing the Perceptions and Practices of Community Pharmacists in Ethiopia

Background. Community pharmacists are key healthcare professionals for antimicrobial stewardship programs owing to their role in dispensing of antimicrobials. The aim of the present study was to assess the perception and practices of community pharmacists towards antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted by selecting pharmacy sites through stratified simple random sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results. Majority of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that AMS program is vital for the improvement of patient care. Almost all of respondents agreed that pharmacists can play a prominent role in AMS and infection prevention (93.2%, median = 5; IQR = 2–5). However, only 26.5% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that AMS should be practiced at community pharmacy level (median = 4, IQR = 1–3) and more than half of community pharmacists (59.9%) often/always dispense antimicrobial without a prescription. Conclusion. The present study revealed positive perceptions and practices of community pharmacists towards antimicrobial stewardship. Yet, some weak areas like integration of AMS program in community pharmacies, the significance of interprofessional involvement, and dispensing of antimicrobials without a valid prescription still need improvement.
Long-Run Inflation Risk and the Postwar Term Premium

Long-term bond yields in the U.S. steadily rose during the 1960s and 1970s and then retreated over the next two decades. This rise and fall is difficult to explain using only changes in long-term inflation expectations and real interest rates; instead, an additional role for changes in the term premium--the risk premium on long-term bonds--appears to be required. We explain the behavior of long-term bond yields with a New Keynesian DSGE model with nominal rigidities, Epstein-Zin-Weil preferences, and long-run inflation risk. We show that this model--unlike many others--is able to generate an empirically plausible level of the term premium without compromising the model's ability to fit key macroeconomic variables. Moreover, by taking into account changes in the Federal Reserve's perceived commitment to a low long-term U.S. inflation rate, the model's predictions for inflation expectations and the term premium are able to explain the behavior of U.S. long-term bond yields in the postwar period.
A Unified Equivalent-Circuit Model for Coplanar Waveguides With Silicon-Substrate Skin-Effect Modeling

In this paper, a novel unified equivalent-circuit model with silicon (Si)-substrate skin-effect modeling is demonstrated to describe the performance of coplanar waveguide (CPW) lines with a wide range of dimensions and substrate resistivities, up to 110 GHz. HFSS is used to simulate the CPWs on 8000-, 15-, and 0.015-Ω·cm resistivity Si substrates. The electric field distributions of the CPWs are analyzed and compared, to demonstrate that the operation mode of the line on the 0.015-Ω·cm resistivity Si substrate is the skin-effect mode and is different compared to the commonly used quasi-TEM mode in high-resistivity substrates. A novel unified equivalent circuit is developed to model all the three operation modes for CPWs (the slow-wave mode, the skin-effect mode, and the dielectric quasiTEM mode). Agilent Momentum is used to compare with the model up to 110 GHz. CPWs with different substrate resistivities and geometries are then fabricated for verification. The results show that this model can be applied to CPWs with various geometries on different resistivity substrates. Since the model is physics based and analytical, it can be easily included with other device models for RF applications.
Non-linearity of large-scale structure formation in the Universe

In the standard picture of cosmological structure formation, the Universe we see today is evolved under the gravitational instability from tiny random fluctuations. In this talk I discuss the onset of non-linearity in the large scale structure formation of the Universe when the linear perturbation theory break downs. Using 1D Zel'dovich Approximation which provides an exact solution for density evolution, I illustrate two effects: mode spawning and mode merging and their connection to mode coupling. Those mode couplings (quadratic, cubic >.etc.) from gravitational clustering are in fact what the polyspectra (bispectrum, trispectrum.etc.) are meant to measure.
Mobile robot path planning in environments cluttered with non-convex obstacles using particle swarm optimization

Generally workspaces of mobile robots are cluttered with obstacles of different sizes and shapes. Majority of the path planning algorithms get stuck in non-convex obstacles pertaining to local minima. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is by comparison simple and readily intelligible yet a very powerful optimization technique which makes it an apt choice for path finding problems in complex environments. This paper presents a particle swarm optimization based path planning algorithm developed for finding a shortest collision-free path for a mobile robot in an environment strewed with non-convex obstacles. The proposed method uses random sampling and finds the optimal path while avoiding non-convex obstacles without exhaustive search. Detailed simulation results show the functionality and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in different scenarios.
A Lower Bound for Boolean Satisfiability on Turing Machines

We establish a lower bound for deciding the satisfiability of the conjunction of any two Boolean formulas from a set called a full representation of Boolean functions of $n$ variables - a set containing a Boolean formula to represent each Boolean function of $n$ variables. The contradiction proof first assumes that there exists a Turing machine with $k$ symbols in its tape alphabet that correctly decides the satisfiability of the conjunction of any two Boolean formulas from such a set by making fewer than $2^nlog_k2$ moves. By using multiple runs of this Turing machine, with one run for each Boolean function of $n$ variables, the proof derives a contradiction by showing that this Turing machine is unable to correctly decide the satisfiability of the conjunction of at least one pair of Boolean formulas from a full representation of $n$-variable Boolean functions if the machine makes fewer than $2^nlog_k2$ moves. This lower bound holds for any full representation of Boolean functions of $n$ variables, even if a full representation consists solely of minimized Boolean formulas derived by a Boolean minimization method. We discuss why the lower bound fails to hold for satisfiability of certain restricted formulas, such as 2CNF satisfiability, XOR-SAT, and HORN-SAT. We also relate the lower bound to 3CNF satisfiability. The lower bound does not depend on sequentiality of access to the tape squares and will hold even if a machine is capable of non-sequential access.
A 76 mW 40-Gb/s SerDes transmitter with 64:1 MUX In 65-nm CMOS technology

This paper introduces a fully-integrated wireline transmitter operating at 40Gb/s. The transmitter incorporates a combiner of 64:1 MUX and 2-tap Feed-Forward-Equalizer (FFE). The transmitter is achieved in 65nm CMOS technology. The simulation results show that the proposed transmitter can work at 40Gb/s with a -11dB RLGC channel. The simulation power consumption is 76 mW under 1.08V supply, and the core area is 0.217 mm2.
Is Within–Individual Variation in Personality Traits Associated with Changes in Health Behaviours? Analysis of Seven Longitudinal Cohort Studies

Personality traits are related to health behaviours, but it is unknown whether changes in personality would lead to changes in health behaviours. We examined whether naturally occurring, within–individual variation in personality traits over time is associated with corresponding changes in smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and body mass index. Data were from seven longitudinal cohort studies with a total sample of 56 786 participants with two or three repeated measurements of the Five Factor Model personality traits assessed over 4 to 19 years. Repeated measurements were used to tease apart between–individual and within–individual associations. In the within–individual analysis, all the personality traits were associated with physical activity, and extraversion was associated with risky alcohol consumption. There were no other within–individual associations. In the between–individual analysis, lower conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and openness to experience, and higher extraversion, were associated with many risky health behaviours. Our findings suggest that health behaviours are related mostly to stable, between–individual differences in personality traits, but changes in adult personality may have only limited association with changes in health behaviours. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology
Truth–-A Platform for Verification of Distributed Systems

Formal Methods are becoming more an more important for the development of hardware and software systems. Verification tools support the employment of Formal Methods. This paper gives an overview of the design and implementation of the verification tool Truth. We define and explain requirements for verification tools. Furthermore, we discuss several semantic models, specification languages and logics and their visualisation from a tool builder’s perspective and show how these requirements were adopted in Truth.
Frequency effects and second language lexical acquisition: Word types, word tokens, and word production

Frequency effects in an L1 and L2 longitudinal corpus were investigated using Zipfian distribution analyses and linear curve estimations. The results demonstrated that the NS lexical input exhibited Zipfian distributions, but that the L2 lexical output did not match the NS Zipfian patterns. Word frequency analyses indicated that NS interlocutors modify their lexicon such that frequency scores decrease as a function of time that L2 learners have studied English. In contrast, the word frequency scores for the L2 output increased as a function of time. Post-hoc analyses indicated that differences in frequency scores between NS input and L2 output were best explained by the repetition of infrequent words, but not frequent words by L2 learners in the early stages of language acquisition. The results question absolute frequency interpretations of lexical acquisition for L2 learners and provide evidence for usage-based approaches for language learning.
Systemically administered collagen‐targeted gold nanoparticles bind to arterial injury following vascular interventions

Surgical and endovascular therapies for severe atherosclerosis often fail due to the development of neointimal hyperplasia and arterial restenosis. Our objective was to synthesize, characterize, and evaluate the targeting specificity and biocompatibility of a novel systemically injected nanoparticle. We hypothesize that surface‐functionalization of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with a collagen‐targeting peptide will be biocompatible and target specifically to vascular injury. 13 nm AuNPs were surface functionalized with a peptide‐molecular fluorophore and targeted to collagen (T‐AuNP) or a scrambled peptide sequence (S‐AuNP). After rat carotid artery balloon injury and systemic injection of T‐AuNP or S‐AuNP, arteries and organs were harvested and assessed for binding specificity and biocompatibility. The T‐AuNP bound with specificity to vascular injury for a minimum of 24 h. No significant inflammation was evident locally at arterial injury or systemically in major organs. The T‐AuNP did not impact endothelial cell viability or induce apoptosis at the site of injury in vivo. No major changes were evident in hepatic or renal blood chemistry profiles. Herein, we synthesized a biocompatible nanoparticle that targets to vascular injury following systemic administration. These studies demonstrate proof‐of‐principle and serve as the foundation for further T‐AuNP optimization to realize systemic, targeted delivery of therapeutics to the sites of vascular injury.