Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Processing Element for an Analogue SIMD Vision Chip

This paper describes an analogue processing element (APE) suitable for high-density image sensor/processor array integrated circuits. The design trade- offs between area, power consumption, speed and accuracy are discussed and the architecture of the APE is presented. The design follows a switched-current "analogue microprocessor" approach while the implementation of arithmetic operations is simplified by introducing a register- based current division method. The circuit has been implemented in a 0. 35µm single-poly 3-metal layer CMOS technology. The APE measures below 50µm×50µm, operates with a 1 MHz clock and consumes less than 12µW of power (simulation results).
Aliskiren, a Human Renin Inhibitor, Ameliorates Cardiac and Renal Damage in Double-Transgenic Rats

We tested the hypothesis that the renin inhibitor aliskiren ameliorates organ damage in rats transgenic for human renin and angiotensinogen genes (double transgenic rat [dTGR]). Six-week-old dTGR were matched by albuminuria (2 mg per day) and divided into 5 groups. Untreated dTGR were compared with aliskiren (3 and 0.3 mg/kg per day)-treated and valsartan (Val; 10 and 1 mg/kg per day)-treated rats. Treatment was from week 6 through week 9. At week 6, all groups had elevated systolic blood pressure (BP). Untreated dTGR showed increased BP (202±4 mm Hg), serum creatinine, and albuminuria (34±5.7 mg per day) at week 7. At week 9, both doses of aliskiren lowered BP (115±6 and 139±5 mm Hg) and albuminuria (0.4±0.1 and 1.6±0.6 mg per day) and normalized serum creatinine. Although high-dose Val lowered BP (148±4 mm Hg) and albuminuria (2.1±0.7 mg per day), low-dose Val reduced BP (182±3 mm Hg) and albuminuria (24±3.8 mg per day) to a lesser extent. Mortality was 100% in untreated dTGR and 26% in Val (1 mg/kg per day) treated rats, whereas in all other groups, survival was 100%. dTGR treated with low-dose Val had cardiac hypertrophy (4.4±0.1 mg/g), increased left ventricular (LV) wall thickness, and diastolic dysfunction. LV atrial natriuretic peptide and β-myosin heavy chain mRNA, albuminuria, fibrosis, and cell infiltration were also increased. In contrast, both aliskiren doses and the high-dose Val lowered BP to a similar extent and more effectively than low-dose Val. We conclude that in dTGR, equieffective antihypertensive doses of Val or aliskiren attenuated end-organ damage. Thus, renin inhibition compares favorably to angiotensin receptor blockade in reversing organ damage in dTGR.
Neuropathologic Correlates of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract The advent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revolutionized concepts of the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Magnetic resonance imaging provides the ability to delineate the evolution of the disease process over time; captured static snapshots can then be used in pathologic correlations studies. Certain patterns in the 2- or 3-dimensional MRI sphere correlate very well with similarpatterns of histopathology. A multimodality approach that makes use of numerous MRI techniques can lead to significant insights into the nature of the changes in the CNS. MRI-pathology correlation studies in MS are being performed using newer MRI techniques as they become available. Such correlations and basic histopathologic studies have shown abnormalities in MS far beyond the well-documented changes in the plaque and have brought into question the dogma that MS is an initially inflammatory nondegenerative disease. This review briefly outlines technical considerations in MRI-pathology correlativestudies and describes the past and current status of our ability to correlate focal and diffuse changes on the MRI with neuropathologic findings in MS patients.
New Perspectives in Instructional Design using Semantic Web Technologies: A Systematic Literature Review

espanolEl desarrollo de sistemas basados en la aplicacion de las tecnologias de la web semantica esta creciendo gradualmente, especialmente en el campo del e‑learning. Un aspecto clave en el campo del e‑learning es el diseno instruccional, el cual permite la creacion de cursos en linea. Varios estudios se han realizado sobre el uso de ontologias y otras tecnologias de la web semantica en plataformas de e‑learning abiertas, las cuales indican varias ventajas en terminos de un mejor aprendizaje y una mejor organizacion de las practicas de ensenanza. Sin embargo, hay pocos estudios relacionados con el diseno instruccional utilizando tecnologias de web semantica. Por lo tanto, el objetivo principal de este trabajo es presentar una revision sistematica de literatura de los aportes de investigacion primaria que implican el campo del diseno instruccional combinada con el uso de las tecnologias de la web semantica. De un total de 5035 documentos recopilados, solo 21 de ellos fueron analizados detenidamente. Los resultados sugieren una falta de interes en incluir ciertos aspectos como; el enfoque pedagogico, los estandares, y la compatibilidad con los entornos virtuales de aprendizaje. Se espera en un futuro que ciertos entornos de aprendizaje incorporen ciertas caracteristicas de la web semantica. EnglishSystems development based on the application of semantic web technologies is gradually growing, especially in the field of e learning. A key aspect in the field of e-learning is instructional design, which facilitates the creation of online courses. Several studies have been conducted on the use of ontologies and semantic web technologies in open e-learning platforms, which have obtained several benefits in terms of better learning and better orchestration of instructional practices. Nevertheless, there are notably few reports related to instructional design using semantic web technologies. Thus, the primary objective of this paper is to present a systematic literature review of primary research proposals that involve the field of instructional design combined with the use of semantic web technologies. From a total of 5035 initially gathered papers, 21 of them were related to instructional design and were deeply analyzed. Our results indicate a lack of interest in including certain aspects, such as pedagogical approach, standards, and compatibility with virtual learning environments. It is suggested that the systems should incorporate characteristics of semantic web technologies in virtual learning environments.
Cooperative diversity in downlink of cellular CDMA systems using maximum ratio precoding

Cooperative communication is an efficient technique for improving the performance and coverage of cellular mobile networks. In this paper, we consider signal transmission in downlink of cooperative cellular direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems. In this case, signal is transmitted to the destination mobile terminals via direct links, i.e. links from the base station to users, and also from a cooperative link via the partner mobile terminal to the destination. Our purpose is to shift the spatial processing from the user terminal to the transmitter of the base station. We proposed two different precoding schemes. In the first scheme, we assume that the inter-user channel state information is available at the relay mobile terminals and the base station only has information about the direct links. In the second scheme, we assume that all direct and inter-user channel state information are available at the base station. We derive different linear precoding techniques for two schemes and evaluate their performance by computer simulations. We show that both proposed cooperation schemes improve the performance of the system with respect to the case when no cooperation is used in the system. In addition it will be shown that the proposed schemes can achieve maximum diversity with low complexity requirements at the mobile receivers.
CS 231 M Project Report-Automated Real-Time Face Tracking and Blending

Facial recognition is an important task in a wide variety of industries such as security, marketing, and entertainment. In many security applications, users often need to detect and locate faces in real-time in surveillance footage. Similarly, marketing applications such as smart billboards need to detect when people are facing them in order to serve dynamic content. Additionally, applications often use facial recognition in order to deduce a person’s identity from an image of their face. In the entertainment industry, face-swapping can be a useful tool for Computer-generated imagery (CGI) in television or film. For example, films often want to superimpose an actor’s face onto multiple bodies for purposes of duplication or stunt double consistency (See Figure 1).
Security Enhanced User Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of sensors, gateways and users. Sensors are widely distributed to monitor various conditions, such as temperature, sound, speed and pressure but they have limited computational ability and energy. To reduce the resource use of sensors and enhance the security of WSNs, various user authentication protocols have been proposed. In 2011, Yeh et al. first proposed a user authentication protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for WSNs. However, it turned out that Yeh et al.'s protocol does not provide mutual authentication, perfect forward secrecy, and key agreement between the user and sensor. Later in 2013, Shi et al. proposed a new user authentication protocol that improves both security and efficiency of Yeh et al.'s protocol. However, Shi et al.'s improvement introduces other security weaknesses. In this paper, we show that Shi et al.'s improved protocol is vulnerable to session key attack, stolen smart card attack, and sensor energy exhausting attack. In addition, we propose a new, security-enhanced user authentication protocol using ECC for WSNs.
Energy harvesting dynamic vibration absorber under random vibration

Energy harvesting from structural vibration using piezoelectric material has received much attention in the past few years. The idea is to scavenge energy out of a vibrating host. Coupling energy harvesting with structural vibration control is a challenging task due to conflicting goals. But dynamic vibration absorbers (DVA) used to reduce vibrations in the primary structure has potential for energy harvesting capability. In this mechanism the host structure vibration is reduced by suitably shifting the motion to DVA. Vibration energy in DVA can be harvested. The harvested energy can be used to power low-powered wireless sensor systems. This paper analyses the prospect of using vibration absorbers for possible energy harvesting under random excitation. To achieve this goal, vibration absorber is supplemented with a piezoelectric stack for both vibration confinement and energy harvesting. The primary goal is to control the vibration of the host structure and the secondary goal is to harvest energy out of the dynamic vibration absorber simultaneously. It is shown that with a proper choice of harvester parameters a broadband energy harvesting can be obtained combined with vibration reduction in the primary structure. Analytical studies are carried out considering stationary Gaussian white noise excitation within the frequency band of interest. Finally a single storey building under seismic excitation is considered and numerical results of structural control and energy harvested are shown.
Rate Region Combining in Multiuser MIMO

The concept of "information combing" is extended to multiple access schemes, where the receiver is equipped with multiple receive antennas. In particular, the connection of the respective rate region to that of the scalar MACs, which are present if the receive antennas are treated separately, is derived. This interpretation leads to new, expedient insights and the gains over "scalar combing", i.e., the synergy available in MIMO channels, are quantified from a new point of view. The theoretical results are illustrated by numerical examples
Counterfactual Theories of Causation

1 When I hit the eight ball into the corner pocket, if I hadn't hit the eight ball, it wouldn't have rolled into the corner pocket. Many think that this counterfactual (" if I hadn't hit the eight ball, it wouldn't have rolled into the corner pocket ") captures something essential and fundamental about instances of causation: my hitting the eight ball caused it to roll into the pocket, since if I hadn't hit it, it wouldn't have rolled into the pocket. Counterfactual analyses of causation seek to exploit this insight by constructing analyses of the causal relation (or our concept of it) in terms of counterfactual dependence. The central thought behind a counterfactual analysis of causation is that the relation of counterfactual dependence between E, the eight ball's rolling into the corner pocket and C, my hitting the eight ball somehow captures the fact that there is a causal relation between these events. That is, C causes E because the counterfactual " if not C, then not E " is true. To the extent that this is successful, we have a counterfactual analysis of causation. 2 Counterfactuals are subjunctive conditionals of the form " if it were the case that A, then it would be the case that B. " Counterfactual analyses of causation focus on counterfactuals that tell us what would have been the case if the world had been different. In the main, they focus on counterfactuals concerning temporally successive, suitably distinct events C and E that describe cases where, if C had not occurred, E would not have occurred. Some counterfactual analyses are
Measuring complexity, effectiveness and efficiency in software course projects

This paper discusses results achieved in measuring complexity, effectiveness and efficiency, in a series of related software course projects, spanning a period of seven years. We focus on how the complexity of those projects was measured, and how the success of the students in effectively and efficiently taming that complexity was assessed. This required defining, collecting, validating and analyzing several indicators of size, effort and quality; their rationales, advantages and limitations are discussed. The resulting findings helped to improve the process itself.
North‐south flows at 47 AU: A heliospheric vortex street?

A north-south flow pattern with a recurrence period approximately equal to the solar rotation period was observed by Voyager 2 during 1995 at 47 AU, nearly a solar cycle after the north-south flows were first observed near 21 AU during 1986. The north-south flow deflections observed during 1995 were less regular than those observed in 1986. One finds the same qualitative associations between the north-south flows and bulk speed and temperature that were observed in 1986, but the correlations are weaker at the larger distances and higher latitudes. Thus it appears that the flow observed during 1995 is basically the same kind of flow observed in 1986, but it is much less regular owing to evolutionary effects as the flow moves from 21 AU to 47 AU. The observations are consistent with the several predictions of the vortex street model. They fail to support some predictions of both the interaction region model and the vortex street models. It is possible that both a vortex street and interaction regions are significant near solar minimum between 20 and 50 AU. Further development of the models is needed. The interaction models must be extended to include time variations, and the effects of pickup protons should be included in future models of the north-south flows.
Cone Photoreceptors in Bass Retina Use Two Connexins to Mediate Electrical Coupling

Electrical coupling via gap junctions is a common property of CNS neurons. In retinal photoreceptors, coupling plays important roles in noise filtering, intensity coding, and spatial processing. In many vertebrates, coupling is regulated during the course of light adaptation. To understand the mechanisms of this regulation, we studied photoreceptor gap junction proteins. We found that two connexins were expressed in bass cone photoreceptors. Connexin 35 (Cx35) mRNA was present in many cell types, including photoreceptors and amacrine, bipolar, and a few ganglion cells. Antibodies to Cx35 labeled abundant gap junctions in both the inner and outer plexiform layers. In the outer plexiform layer, numerous plaques colocalized with cone telodendria at crossing contacts and tip-to-tip contacts. Cx34.7 mRNA was found predominantly in the photoreceptor layer, primarily in cones. Cx34.7 immunolabeling was limited to small plaques immediately beneath cone pedicles and did not colocalize with Cx35. Cx34.7 plaques were associated with a dense complex of cone membrane beneath the pedicles, including apparent contacts between telodendria and cone pedicles. Tracer coupling studies of the connexins expressed in HeLa cells showed that coupling through Cx35 gap junctions was reduced by protein kinase A (PKA) activation and enhanced by PKA inhibition through a greater than fivefold activity range. Cx34.7 was too poorly expressed to study. PKA regulation suggests that coupling through Cx35 gap junctions can be controlled dynamically through dopamine receptor pathways during light adaptation. If Cx34.7 forms functional cell-cell channels between cones, it would provide a physically separate pathway for electrical coupling.
Characterization of Zebrafish Green Cone Photoresponse Recorded with Pressure-Polished Patch Pipettes, Yielding Efficient Intracellular Dialysis

The phototransduction enzymatic cascade in cones is less understood than in rods, and the zebrafish is an ideal model with which to investigate vertebrate and human vision. Therefore, here, for the first time, the zebrafish green cone photoresponse is characterized also to obtain a firm basis for evaluating how it is modulated by exogenous molecules. To this aim, a powerful method was developed to obtain long-lasting recordings with low access resistance, employing pressure-polished patch pipettes. This method also enabled fast, efficient delivery of molecules via a perfusion system coupled with pulled quartz or plastic perfusion tubes, inserted very close to the enlarged pipette tip. Sub-saturating flashes elicited responses in different cells with similar rising phase kinetics but with very different recovery kinetics, suggesting the existence of physiologically distinct cones having different Ca2+ dynamics. Theoretical considerations demonstrate that the different recovery kinetics can be modelled by simulating changes in the Ca2+-buffering capacity of the outer segment. Importantly, the Ca2+-buffer action preserves the fast response rising phase, when the Ca2+-dependent negative feedback is activated by the light-induced decline in intracellular Ca2+.
Molecular architecture of Streptococcus pneumoniae surface thioredoxin-fold lipoproteins crucial for extracellular oxidative stress resistance and maintenance of virulence

The respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae has evolved efficient mechanisms to resist oxidative stress conditions and to displace other bacteria in the nasopharynx. Here we characterize at physiological, functional and structural levels two novel surface‐exposed thioredoxin‐family lipoproteins, Etrx1 and Etrx2. The impact of both Etrx proteins and their redox partner methionine sulfoxide reductase SpMsrAB2 on pneumococcal pathogenesis was assessed in mouse virulence studies and phagocytosis assays. The results demonstrate that loss of function of either both Etrx proteins or SpMsrAB2 dramatically attenuated pneumococcal virulence in the acute mouse pneumonia model and that Etrx proteins compensate each other. The deficiency of Etrx proteins or SpMsrAB2 further enhanced bacterial uptake by macrophages, and accelerated pneumococcal killing by H2O2 or free methionine sulfoxides (MetSO). Moreover, the absence of both Etrx redox pathways provokes an accumulation of oxidized SpMsrAB2 in vivo. Taken together our results reveal insights into the role of two extracellular electron pathways required for reduction of SpMsrAB2 and surface‐exposed MetSO. Identification of this system and its target proteins paves the way for the design of novel antimicrobials.
Morphology and Raman spectra of aerodynamically classified soot samples

Abstract. Airborne soot is emitted from combustion processes as aggregates of primary particles. The size of the primary particles and the overall aggregate size control soot transport properties, and prior research shows that these parameters may be related to the soot nanostructure. In this work, a laminar, inverted nonpremixed burner has been used as a source of soot that is almost completely elemental carbon. The inverted burner was connected to an electrical low-pressure impactor, which collected particles on stages according to the aerodynamic diameter, from 0.03 to 10 µm. The morphology was analyzed using a transmission electron microscope followed by image processing to extract projected area and average primary particle size for each aggregate (approximately 1000 aggregates analyzed in total for the nine impactor stages). Carbon nanostructure was analyzed using a Raman spectrometer, and five vibrational bands (D4, D1, D3, G, and D2) were fitted to the spectra to obtain an estimate of the carbon disorder. The average primary particle diameter increases from 15 to 30 nm as the impactor stage aerodynamic diameter increases. The D1, D3, D2, and D4 bands decreased (relative to the G band) with the particle size, suggesting that the larger aggregates have larger graphitic domains.
Optimal Power Allocation for Secrecy Fading Channels Under Spectrum-Sharing Constraints

In the spectrum-sharing technology, a secondary user may utilize the primary user's licensed band as long as its interference to the primary user is below a tolerable value. In this paper, we consider a scenario in which a secondary user is operating in the presence of both a primary user and an eavesdropper. Hence, the secondary user has both interference limitations and security considerations. In such a scenario, we study the secrecy capacity limits of opportunistic spectrum-sharing channels in fading environments and investigate the optimal power allocation for the secondary user under average and peak received power constraints at the primary user with global channel side information (CSI). Also, in the absence of the eavesdropper's CSI, we study optimal power allocation under an average power constraint and propose a suboptimal on/off power control method.
Non-supersymmetric D-brane configurations with Bose-Fermi degenerate open string spectrum

The spectrum of open strings on various non-BPS D-brane configurations in type II string theory on a K3 orbifold is analysed. At a generic point in the corresponding moduli space the spectrum of open strings does not have any degeneracy between bosonic and fermionic states. However, there exist special values for these moduli for which many non-BPS D-brane configurations have an exactly Bose-Fermi degenerate open string spectrum at all mass levels. In this case the closed string exchange interaction between a pair of such D-brane configurations vanishes at all distances.
Inventories and output volatility

Analyzing disaggregate data on inventories and sales from the U.S. manufacturing and trade sector between 1960 and 1997 yields four main findings. First, I find that IS ratios are somewhat lower after 1984: 1 among durable goods manufacturers and durable goods retailers outside the motor vehicle industry. Second, I find that industries which have lowered their IS ratios tend to be those in which the variance of output relative to sale has declined. Third, by decomposing the variance of output into its components, I find that the variance of sales is less important, and the variance of inventory investment is more important, after 1984:1 than in earlier years for the overall manufacturing and trade sector. Finally, the evidence suggests that industries where IS ratios fell are those where inventory investment volatility played a smaller role in output volatility in the later period.