Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The optical frequency comb as a one-way quantum computer

In the one-way model of quantum computing, quantum algorithms are implemented using only measurements on an entangled initial state. Much of the hard work is done upfront when creating this universal resource, known as a cluster state, on which the measurements are made. Here we detail a new proposal for a scalable method of creating cluster states using only a single multimode optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The method generates a continuous-variable cluster state that is universal for quantum computation and encoded in the quadratures of the optical frequency comb of the OPO. This work expands on the presentation in Menicucci, Flammia and Pfister (2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 130501).
Dynamic Solution of Linear Constraints for Test Case Generation

The manual generation of test cases for unit tests is tedious. We have developed the tool Muggl, which generates test cases based on symbolic execution and constraint solving. Solving constraints for this purpose is no trivial task and greatly attributes to the total runtime. Hence, we developed a solver for linear constraints adapted to the special needs of Muggl. It takes into account the particularities of constraint retrieval through symbolic execution. Specifically, it is capable of incremental addition and backtracking of constraints. Moreover, we have developed an approach to avoid rounding errors.
Spectral ageing in the lobes of FR-II radio galaxies: new methods of analysis for broad-band radio data

The broad-bandwidth capabilities of next generation telescopes such as the JVLA mean that the spectrum of any given source varies significantly wi thin the bandwidth of any given observation. Detailed spectral analysis taking this varia tion into account is set to become standard practice when dealing with any new broadband radio observations; it is therefore vital that methods are developed to handle this new type of data. In this paper, we present the Broadband Radio Astronomy ToolS (BRATS) software package and, use it to carry out detailed analysis of JVLA observations of three powerful radio galaxies. We compare two of the most widely used models of spectral ageing, the Kardashev-Pacholczyk and Jaffe-Perola models and also results of the more complex, but potentially more realistic, Tribble model. We find that the Tribble model provides both a good fit to observ ations as well as providing a physically realistic description of the source. We presen t the first high-resolution spectral maps of our sources and find that the best-fitting injection in dices across all models take higher values than has previously been assumed. We present characteristic hot spot advance speeds and make comparison to those derived from dynamical ages, confirming the previously known discrepancy in speed remains present when determined at high spectral resolutions. We show that some previously common assumptions made in determining spectral ages with narrow-band radio telescopes may not always hold and strongly suggest these are accounted for in future investigations.
Flow aligned surfacing of curve networks

We propose a new approach for automatic surfacing of 3D curve networks, a long standing computer graphics problem which has garnered new attention with the emergence of sketch based modeling systems capable of producing such networks. Our approach is motivated by recent studies suggesting that artist-designed curve networks consist of descriptive curves that convey intrinsic shape properties, and are dominated by representative flow lines designed to convey the principal curvature lines on the surface. Studies indicate that viewers complete the intended surface shape by envisioning a surface whose curvature lines smoothly blend these flow-line curves. Following these observations we design a surfacing framework that automatically aligns the curvature lines of the constructed surface with the representative flow lines and smoothly interpolates these representative flow, or curvature directions while minimizing undesired curvature variation. Starting with an initial triangle mesh of the network, we dynamically adapt the mesh to maximize the agreement between the principal curvature direction field on the surface and a smooth flow field suggested by the representative flow-line curves. Our main technical contribution is a framework for curvature-based surface modeling, that facilitates the creation of surfaces with prescribed curvature characteristics. We validate our method via visual inspection, via comparison to artist created and ground truth surfaces, as well as comparison to prior art, and confirm that our results are well aligned with the computed flow fields and with viewer perception of the input networks.
Longitudinal evidence on the association between interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein with the loss of total appendicular skeletal muscle in free-living older men and women

Background: there is no longitudinal evidence about the association between the loss of total appendicular skeletal muscle (TASM) and cytokines. Objective: to investigate whether high levels of the inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) are associated with the loss of TASM in free-living non-sarcopenic older people. Design: five-year prospective cohort study. Subjects: one hundred and fifteen free-living non-sarcopenic older men and women aged 60–84 years at baseline and 5-year follow-up were included. Methods: TASM was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and the relative change in TASM was calculated. The response variable was the loss of TASM defined as the lowest sex-specific 15th percentile of the cohort distribution of percentage of change in TASM. The exposure variables were the baseline serum IL-6 and CRP levels measured by ELISA. 469 Cytokines and loss of TASM in older people
The Impact of Political Violence on Tourism

The hypothesis that political violence deters tourism is mainly based on case study evidence and a few quantitative studies confined to a small sample of countries. Two estimation techniques—a fixed-effects panel estimator with contemporaneous effects only and a dynamic generalized method of moments estimator—are used to test the impact of various forms of political violence on tourism. Both models show strong evidence that human rights violations, conflict, and other politically motivated violent events negatively affect tourist arrivals. In a dynamic model, even if autocratic regimes do not resort to violence, they have lower numbers of tourist arrivals than more democratic regimes. Results also show evidence for intraregional, negative spillover, and cross-regional substitution effects.
Bohmian transmission and reflection dwell times without trajectory sampling

Within the framework of Bohmian mechanics dwell times find a straightforward formulation. The computation of associated probabilities and distributions however needs the explicit knowledge of a relevant sample of trajectories and therefore implies formidable numerical effort. Here, a trajectory free formulation for the average transmission and reflection dwell times within static spatial intervals [a, b] is given for one-dimensional scattering problems. This formulation reduces the computation time to less than 5% of the computation time by means of trajectory sampling.
Attentional Landmark Selection for Visual SLAM

In this paper, we introduce a new method to automatically detect useful landmarks for visual SLAM. A biologically motivated attention system detects regions of interest which "pop-out" automatically due to strong contrasts and the uniqueness of features. This property makes the regions easily redetectable and thus they are useful candidates for visual landmarks. Matching based on scene prediction and feature similarity allows not only short-term tracking of the regions, but also redetection in loop closing situations. The paper demonstrates how regions are determined and how they are matched reliably. Various experimental results on real-world data show that the landmarks are useful with respect to be tracked in consecutive frames and to enable closing loops
Analysis Tool for Honeypot Systems

The increased utilization of the Internet and the larger number of computers connected to it has brought up a significant security problem. Hackers or crackers have attacked computers and need to be detected and neutralized. This study presents a brief description of tools and methods of the honeypot community. A new tool resulting from a shift on the focus of the research allows system administrators to visually identify the alerts and take the necessary actions. This paper presents such a tool, known as HAT for honeypot analysis tool, and experimental results that confirm its effectiveness.
Assessing the Evolution of Quality in Java Libraries

Libraries are increasingly employed in software practice to speed up the development process by reusing available and tested components. Software systems, that are available as libraries, are expected to be well-designed, because they have to adhere to specific principles, in order to accommodate the needs of multiple clients in a robust and stable way. Considering that most software libraries are continuously upgraded, in this paper we investigate the evolution of their quality over time. In particular, we perform a systematic case study to assess whether quality, in terms of three software metrics (CBO, LCOM, WMC), exhibits clear trends during the history of twenty analyzed libraries. The findings indicate that the examined software libraries can be considered as stable software projects in terms of quality, in the sense that in contrast to the general belief about software aging, their quality does not degrade over time.
Decode-and-forward relaying technique in UMTS networks

As fading due to multipath propagation is an important issue in wireless systems, diversity techniques are employed in order to reduce the multipath fading effect. Cooperative communication represents a new class of diversity schemes in which multiple nodes equipped with a single antenna cooperate to generate a virtual multiple-antenna transmission system and thus offer the benefits of spatial diversity. This paper investigates the performance of the well known decode-and-forward cooperative technique on the flat fading indoor channel and also on the pedestrian and vehicular frequency-selective fading channels with decision feedback equalisation, which model the physical layer of UMTS networks in different environments. The performance is evaluated in terms of bit error rate as a function of signal-to-noise ratio with simulation results showing that decode-and-forward relaying provides a remarkable performance improvement over direct transmission.
Chandra X-Ray Observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster. II. Relationship between X-Ray Activity Indicators and Stellar Parameters

Using the results of our first paper on the Chandra HRC observation of the Orion Nebula cluster (ONC), we explore the relation between the coronal activity of its 1 Myr-old pre-main-sequence population and stellar parameters. We find that median X-ray luminosities of low-mass stars (M/M☉ ≲ 3) increase with increasing mass and decreasing stellar age. Brown dwarfs (0.03 ≲ M/M☉ ≲ 0.08) follow the same trend with mass. From M ~ 0.1 to M ~ 0.5 M☉, median LX/Lbol values increase by about half an order of magnitude and then remain constant at ~10-3.5 for the mass range from 0.5 to 3.0 M/M☉. In these same two mass ranges, LX/Lbol remains roughly constant with age, until it drops by more than 2 orders of magnitudes at the epoch when ~2-4 M☉ stars are expected to become fully radiative. We find a dependence of LX and LX/Lbol on circumstellar accretion indicators and suggest three possible hypotheses for its origin. In spite of improved X-ray and rotational data, correlations between activity indicators and rotation remain elusive for these stars, possibly indicating that stars for which rotational periods have been measured have reached some saturation level. Our study of X-ray activity versus stellar mass leads us to propose that the few HRC X-ray sources not associated with any optical/infrared counterpart trace a yet-to-be-discovered stellar population of deeply embedded, relatively massive ONC members.
A non Cartesian FFT approach to image alignment

The estimation of large motions without prior knowledge is an important problem in image registration. In this paper we present the angular difference function (ADF) and demonstrate its applicability to rotation estimation. The ADF of two functions is defined as the integral of their spectral difference along the radial direction. It is efficiently computed using the pseudo-polar Fourier transform, which computes the discrete Fourier transform of an image on a near spherical grid. Unlike other Fourier based registration schemes, the suggested approach does not require any interpolation. Thus, it is more accurate and significantly faster.
Software quality assessment and standards

The development of software product-quality assessment methods is reviewed. Much of the software quality standards work has been performed under the aegis of international organizations such as the IEEE Computer Society and the International Standard Organization/International Electrotechnical Committee Joint Technical Committee No.1 Subcommittee on Software Engineering (ISO JTC1 SC7). An alternative approach that defines a set of requirements for members of a class of software product and certifies those that meet the requirements is described. <<ETX>>
A fundamental metric for continuity of care: modeling and performance evaluation

The concept of continuity in medicine is fundamental and it refers to the delivery of medical care to a patient by a care provider in an uninterrupted and coordinated manner and in accordance with the medical care needs of the patient. This paper models continuity for a representative staff model health maintenance organization (HMO) clinic in suburban Arizona and simulates patient visits that are stochastically generated through utilizing representative numbers of patient visits and care providers. It focuses on individual-based continuity delivered by a primary care provider, i.e., a general practitioner. In the simulation, the visit patterns of patients, their ages, and the length of the interaction episodes are synthesized stochastically. The distributions reflect both the patient visit profile, by age, inherent in the 90000+ patient electronic records collected at the CIGNA HMO clinic at Chandler, AZ, over a three-year period, and the population distribution inherent in the CIGNA records. This paper proposes a new definition of continuity, fundamental continuity of care index (FCCI), and argues that, fundamentally, a primary care provider's depth of understanding of the patient is directly proportional to the total length of interaction between the patient and the primary care provider.
1 THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF FOLK EPISTEMOLOGY

Because reasoning allows us to justify our beliefs and evaluate these justifications it is central to folk epistemology. Following Sperber, and contrary to classical views, it will be argued that reasoning evolved not to complement individual cognition but as an argumentative device. This hypothesis is more consistent with the prevalence of the confirmation and disconfirmation biases. It will be suggested that these biases render the individual use of reasoning hazardous, but that when reasoning is used in its natural, argumentative, context they can represent a smart way to divide labor without loosing epistemic value. Disciplines Cognitive Psychology | Developmental Psychology | Epistemology | Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Philosophy of Mind | Philosophy of Science This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn. edu/goldstone/17
Predictors of blood pressure response in the SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial.

AIMS The SYMPLICITY HTN-3 randomized, blinded, sham-controlled trial confirmed the safety of renal denervation (RDN), but did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint. Prior RDN studies have demonstrated significant and durable reductions in blood pressure. This analysis investigated factors that may help explain these disparate results. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with resistant hypertension were randomized 2 : 1 to RDN (n = 364) or sham (n = 171). The primary endpoint was the difference in office systolic blood pressure (SBP) change at 6 months. A multivariable analysis identified predictors of SBP change. Additional analyses examined the influence of medication changes, results in selected subgroups and procedural factors. Between randomization and the 6-month endpoint, 39% of patients underwent medication changes. Predictors of office SBP reduction at 6 months were baseline office SBP ≥ 180 mmHg, aldosterone antagonist use, and non-use of vasodilators; number of ablations was a predictor in the RDN group. Non-African-American patients receiving RDN had a significantly greater change in office SBP than those receiving sham; -15.2 ± 23.5 vs. -8.6 ± 24.8 mmHg, respectively (P = 0.012). Greater reductions in office and ambulatory SBP, and heart rate were observed with a higher number of ablations and energy delivery in a four-quadrant pattern. CONCLUSIONS Post hoc analyses, although derived from limited patient cohorts, reveal several potential confounding factors that may partially explain the unexpected blood pressure responses in both the sham control and RDN groups. These hypothesis-generating data further inform the design of subsequent research to evaluate the potential role of RDN in the treatment of resistant hypertension. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV IDENTIFIER: NCT01418261.
Natural history and outcome in systemic AA amyloidosis.

BACKGROUND Deposition of amyloid fibrils derived from circulating acute-phase reactant serum amyloid A protein (SAA) causes systemic AA amyloidosis, a serious complication of many chronic inflammatory disorders. Little is known about the natural history of AA amyloidosis or its response to treatment. METHODS We evaluated clinical features, organ function, and survival among 374 patients with AA amyloidosis who were followed for a median of 86 months. The SAA concentration was measured serially, and the amyloid burden was estimated with the use of whole-body serum amyloid P component scintigraphy. Therapy for inflammatory diseases was administered to suppress the production of SAA. RESULTS Median survival after diagnosis was 133 months; renal dysfunction was the predominant disease manifestation. Mortality, amyloid burden, and renal prognosis all significantly correlated with the SAA concentration during follow-up. The risk of death was 17.7 times as high among patients with SAA concentrations in the highest eighth, or octile, (>or=155 mg per liter) as among those with concentrations in the lowest octile (<4 mg per liter); and the risk of death was four times as high in the next-to-lowest octile (4 to 9 mg per liter). The median SAA concentration during follow-up was 6 mg per liter in patients in whom renal function improved and 28 mg per liter in those in whom it deteriorated (P<0.001). Amyloid deposits regressed in 60% of patients who had a median SAA concentration of less than 10 mg per liter, and survival among these patients was superior to survival among those in whom amyloid deposits did not regress (P=0.04). CONCLUSIONS The effects of renal dysfunction dominate the course of AA amyloidosis, which is associated with a relatively favorable outcome in patients with SAA concentrations that remain in the low-normal range (<4 mg per liter).
Hamburger Beiträge Zur Angewandten Mathematik Global Convergence of a Nonsmooth Newton's Method for Control-state Constrained Optimal Control Problems Global Convergence of a Nonsmooth Newton's Method for Control-state Constrained Optimal Control Problems

We investigate a nonsmooth Newton’s method for the numerical solution of optimal control problems subject to mixed control-state constraints. The necessary conditions are stated in terms of a local minimum principle. By use of the Fischer-Burmeister function the local minimum principle is transformed into an equivalent nonlinear and nonsmooth equation in appropriate Banach spaces. This nonlinear and nonsmooth equation is solved by a nonsmooth Newton’s method. We prove the global convergence and the locally quadratic convergence under certain regularity conditions. The globalized method is based on the minimization of the squared residual norm. Numerical examples for the Rayleigh problem conclude the article.
Contour abstraction based on salient points

Contour representation is an important application in image compression, template matching, object detection and recognition. However, it is far from meeting the current requirement due to the expensive computational cost and complex noise in the real-world application. In order to make contour representation more practical, we propose a novel approach of abstracting contours of the objects in an image. In our approach, we firstly find the salient points on the target contour by combining an ellipse model and Chord-to-point distance accumulation techniques. Then, based on the salient points, we adopt the least square method to fit a planar arc representing the target contour. The extensive experiments show that our approach has the lower computation cost, better robustness and more exact approximation to the original target contour. Our work provides more selections for the practical application of contour abstraction.
Randomized Hydrodynamic Load Balancing Approach

Load balancing is performed to achieve the optimal use of the existing computational resources as much as possible whereby none of the resources remains idle while some other resources are being utilized. Balanced load distribution can be achieved by the immigration of the load from the source nodes which have surplus workload to the comparatively lightly loaded destination nodes. Applying load balancing during run time is called dynamic load balancing (DLB). DLB can be realized both in a direct or iterative manner according to the execution node selection. In iterative methods, the final destination node is determined through several iteration steps, while in direct methods it is selected in one step. This paper presents the randomized hydrodynamic load balancing (RHLB) method which is a hybrid method that takes advantage of both direct and iterative methods. Using random load migration as a direct method, RHLB approach intends to solve the problems derived from the exceptional instantaneous load rises, and diffuse the surplus workload to relatively free resources. Besides, using hydrodynamic approach as an iterative method, RHLB aims to consume minimum possible system resources to balance the common workload distributions. The results of the experiments designate that, RHLB outruns other iterative based methods in terms of both balance quality and the total time of the load balancing process.
Discount Voting: Voter Registration Reforms and their Effects

Introduction 1. Motivation and a new theoretical framework 2. The purposeful adoption of election day registration 3. Election day registration by choice and by federal mandate 4. Motor voter by choice and by federal mandate 5. Registration and voting in the post NVRA era 6. Election reform and the composition of the electorate 7. EDR on the ground and prospects for the future Appendices.