Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The interferometric diameter and internal structure of Sirius A

The interferometric observations of dwarf stars in the solar neighbourhood, combined with Hipparcos parallaxes provide very precise values of their linear diameters. In this paper, we report the direct measurement of the angular diameter of the bright star Sirius A with the VINCI/VLTI instrument. We obtain a uniform disk angular diameter of UD = 5.936 +/- 0.016 mas in the K band and a limb darkened value of LD = 6.039 +/- 0.019 mas. In combination with the Hipparcos parallax of 379.22 +/- 1.58 mas, this translates into a linear diameter of 1.711 +/- 0.013 Dsun. Using the VINCI/VLTI interferometric diameter and the published properties of Sirius A, we derive internal structure models corresponding to ages between 200 and 250 +/- 12 Myr. This range is defined mainly by the hypothesis on the mass of the star, the overshoot and the metallicity.
Detecting faulty and malicious vehicles using rule-based communications data mining

The reliability of most safety applications that are based on vehicular communications, depends in turn on the reliability of data received by each vehicle from its neighbors. Routine messages exchanged in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) include crucial information for safety applications such as direction, position, etc. A vehicle failure and/or a malicious vehicle transmitting false information may affect the data collection scheme and cause a disturbance for safety applications. In such a scenario, (1) the faulty/malicious vehicle should be detected rapidly and (2) routine messages exchange should be updated in consequence. To be able to detect the faulty/malicious vehicle, we developed a mechanism that collects, at a single vehicle, data regarding each neighbour transmission, and extracts the temporal correlation rules between vehicles implicated in transmissions in the neighbourhood. With the mechanism, called VANETs Association Rules Mining (VARM), a mining process will take place during a-priori constant historical period. The associations rules formulated during the mining process will be used to detect a faulty or malicious vehicle, i.e., a vehicle which is not correlated with vehicles in the neighbourhood following these rules. To react after this kind of anomaly detection, an 1:N technique is used as a protection for reestablishing the accuracy of the data collection process between vehicles communicating in the neighbourhood. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the VARM scheme.
A Biologically Inspired Spiking Neural Network for Sound Source Lateralization

In this paper, a binaural sound source lateralization spiking neural network (NN) will be presented which is inspired by most recent neurophysiological studies on the role of certain nuclei in the superior olivary complex (SOC) and the inferior colliculus (IC). The binaural sound source lateralization neural network (BiSoLaNN) is a spiking NN based on neural mechanisms, utilizing complex neural models, and attempting to simulate certain parts of nuclei of the auditory system in detail. The BiSoLaNN utilizes both excitatory and inhibitory ipsilateral and contralateral influences arrayed in only one delay line originating in the contralateral side to achieve a sharp azimuthal localization. It will be shown that the proposed model can be used both for purposes of understanding the mechanisms of an NN of the auditory system and for sound source lateralization tasks in technical applications, e.g., its use with the Darmstadt robotic head (DRH).
Natural Modes of Variability under Anthropogenic Climate Change

We would like to invite the CLIVAR community to submit CLIVAR related papers to CLIVAR Exchanges for the next issue. The deadline for submission is 31st August 2008 Guidelines for the submission of papers for CLIVAR Exchanges can be found CLIVAR is an international research programme dealing with climate variability and predictability on timescales from months to centuries. CLIVAR is a component of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). WCRP is sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization, the International Council for Science and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Background: a probabilistic analysis of the changing probability of seasonal-mean precipitation arising from anthropogenic climate change, based on IPCC AR4 integrations (Weisheimer and Palmer, 2005). Foreground: time series and attractor geometry for the standard Lorenz (1963) model (left hand panels) and for the Lorenz model under " climate change " forcing (right hand panels). Climate change in both simple and complex models is strongly influenced by the natural modes of variability pertaining to these models. See Introduction for more detail. 2 Editorial I was pleased indeed when Tim Palmer suggested the theme for this edition of Exchanges and agreed to write the introduction to it below (and provide the " harlequinesque " figure for the front cover) since the issue of how natural modes of variability will operate under climate change is a key issue for CLIVAR. As well as the papers addressing the main theme of the edition, we also include an article on the REMOL regional climate model, a summary of the CLIVAR Pacific Panel's very successful Workshop on the Western Tropical Pacific: Hatchery for ENSO and Global Teleconnections and a summary, from a CLIVAR perspective, of the discussions at the 29th meeting of the Joint Scientific Committee for WCRP. On a more sombre note, we were sad indeed to hear of the passing of Fritz Scott in Kiel on the 30 April last. Martin Visbeck provides a short tribute to Fritz on page 28 including a summary of Fritz's substantial involvement with WOCE and CLIVAR. In the Project Office, we are looking forward to welcoming a new staff member, Dr. Kate Stansfield, starting on 4 August. Kate is an experienced oceanographer and amongst other tasks will manage CLIVAR's Southern Ocean Panel and aspects of CLIVAR data management and legacy. She also has experience of working in Africa and is keen to become involved with VACS activities. Howard Cattle …
Fuzzy cognitive goal net for interactive storytelling plot design

Interactive storytelling attracts a lot of research interests among the interactive entertainments in recent years. Designing story plot for interactive storytelling is currently one of the most critical problems of interactive storytelling. Some traditional AI planning methods, such as Hierarchical Task Network, Heuristic Searching Method are widely used as the planning tool for the story plot design. This paper proposes a model called Fuzzy Cognitive Goal Net as the story plot planning tool for interactive storytelling, which combines the planning capability of Goal net and reasoning ability of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps. Compared to conventional methods, the proposed model shows a well-established temporal structure for story plot. It delegates the storytelling process to drama manager agent and sub drama manager agents. Dynamic storylines are prepared for the audiences' interactions. Fuzzy Cognitive Maps provide the drama manager agents strong reasoning capability with respect to story context and user interactions, which empowers the storytelling characteristics of context-awareness and user-awareness. An interactive storytelling engine has been built with the proposed model and knowledge base of interactive storytelling scenario. Based on the interactive storytelling engine, a prototype system, namely "illness investigation in Singapore River City", was implemented in the virtual environment, in which the story of illness investigation is presented in the dynamic context by responding to the user interactions and environment variables.
Fairness Control Algorithm Based on IEEE 1588

Based on the IEEE 1588, a Prediction-based Fairness Control (PFC) algorithm is proposed. It improves the real-time performance of star topology industry control Ethernet. The channel load is detected by delay measurement. Data flow is regulated according to the whole channel load. The main functions of this algorithm are as follows: controlled nodes are controlled to guarantee the communications of noncontrolled nodes on the premise of fairness. Because the forecast for network traffic and take reference to the load of devices, the arrival rate of switch is controlled under the available service rate. In addition, flexible parameters configuration is provided to facilitate the migration and expansion.
QoS Enabled Multicast for Structured P2P Networks

In this paper we present a concept for providing QoS to multicast in structured P2P networks. We show on the example of Scribe / Pastry how to enforce QoS aware tree construction in a structured P2P network. We achieve this by modifying the ID assignment method of Pastry based on the QoS requirements of peers. As a result, the multicast tree holds the QoS (bandwidth) requirements on each of its end-to-end paths. We have evaluated the proposed concept by comparing default random Pastry ID assignment with our proposed method. The results of the evaluation show that using our method all end- to-end paths in the multicast tree fullfill the bandwidth QoS requirements, which is usually not the case for default Pastry. I. INTRODUCTION In this paper we present a concept to enable Quality of Service (QoS) for multicast in the structured Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network Pastry (1) and the Application Level Multicast (ALM) infrastructure Scribe (2) running on-top of Pastry. This is achieved by replacing the random ID assignment of Pastry with a QoS requirements aware mechanism. We use this concept to enable QoS for IP Multicast over ALM in the European project called EuQoS (3), which aims to support end-to-end QoS over heterogeneous networks. EuQoS only supports unicast QoS between end-systems on the network level. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: In Section II we motivate the need for QoS enabled multicast Overlay Networks. In the same Section we present the use of such a network to provide QoS enabled IP Multicast services to end-systems in the EuQoS project. In Section III we present the ALM infrastructure Scribe and the P2P routing substrate Pastry. We present our proposal for modifying the Scribe / Pastry ID assignment to enforce the construction of QoS aware multicast trees in Section IV. We evaluate the QoS improve- ments by comparing default Scribe / Pastry ID assignment with our modifications in Section V. An outlook of future considerations and improvements can be found in Section VI. Finally, Section VII concludes this paper.
An Effective Interface between Regular & Special Education: A Synopsis of Issues and Successful Practices. CASE Information Dissemination Packet.

This information packet attempts to identify issues in the interface between special and regular education and to highlight positive examples of regular education/special education cooperative action. A discussion of issues in the regular/special education relationship focuses on role relationships between regular and special education administrators at both the building and central office levels and notes the lack of consensus concerning role changes. The next section presents a rationale for restructuring regular and special education into a more unified educational system and identifies major issues which cluster around categorization, mainstreaming, instructional practices, and funding. Principles of developing an ideal interface between the two systems are identified, focusing on leadership and a shared commitment to education-of students with disabilities. The remainder of the paper examines 10 sets of examplary practices selected from sites nationwide. The practices fall into five areas: (1) identification, (2) referral, (3) instruction/intervention, (4) evaluation, and (5) staff development. Examples are drawn from Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, California, Washington, North Carolina, Maine, and Connecticut. Appendices include the following: a paper by Lee J. Gruenwald and Ruth Loomis titled "Evolving Organizational Structures in Special Education: The Madison Example"; forms for referral; forms for identifying exemplary special education programs; and a summary of Project READ data. (Contains 60 references.) (DB) COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATORS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, INCORPORATED A DIVISION OF THE COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN INFORMATION DISSEMINATION PACKET An Effective Interface Between Regular & Special Education: A Synopsis of Issues and Successful Practices
On the Convergence of Planar Curves Under Smoothing

Curve smoothing has two important applications in computer vision and image processing: 1) the curvature scale-space (CSS) technique for shape analysis, and 2) the Gaussian filter for noise suppression. In this paper, we study how planar curves converge as they are smoothed with increasing scales. First, two types of convergence behavior are clarified. The coined term shrinkage refers to the reduction of arc-length of a smoothed planar curve, which describes the convergence of the curve latitudinally; and another coined term collapse refers to the movement of each point to its limiting position, which describes the convergence of the curve longitudinally. A systematic study on the shrinkage and collapse of three categories of curve models is then presented. The corner models helps to reveal how the local structures of planar curves collapse and what the smoothed curves may converge to. The sawtooth models allows us to gain insights regarding how noise is suppressed from noisy planar curves by the Gaussian filter. Our investigation on the closed curves shows that each curve collapses to a point at its center of mass. However, different curves may yield different limiting shapes at the infinity scale. Finally, based upon the derived results the performance of the CSS technique in corner detection and shape representation is analyzed, and a fast implementation method of the Gaussian filter for noise suppression is proposed.
The Impact of ERP Implementation on Organizational Capabilities and Firm Performance

Purpose – This paper examines whether the implementation of ERP impacts both business strategy and organizational capabilities which in turn enhance firm performance. Specifically, the paper investigates the mediating effect of business strategy and organizational capabilities on the relationship between ERP implementation and firm performance. Design/Methodology/Approach – Using secondary data collected from more than 400 firms, this study tests the relationships among these variables. Findings – ERP implementation has a positive impact when a firm employs a prospector business strategy. A prospector business strategy enhances the firm’s ability to achieve organizational capabilities and enables the firm to achieve higher levels of financial performance. Practical Implications – ERP implementation encourages and supports a prospector strategy. ERP not only supports cost control, but also support new product development and introductions. The prospector firm seeks better information to support decision making, develop new and innovative products that drive revenue growth, and build efficient and effective operations that enhance return on assets. Originality/Value – This paper reports the mediating effect of business strategy and organizational capabilities on the relationship between ERP implementation and firm performance. This study use cybernetic control, resource-based view of firm, and dynamic capabilities theories to develop and integrate this research.
Anomalous production of gaseous 4He at the inside of“DS-cathode”during D2O-electrolysis

Observations were made of the abundant production of gaseous 4He inside a double-structure Pd cathode (“DS-cathode”) which continuously had released excess heat of about 5-10W over 2, 000 hrs in the electrolysis of D2O. These 4He atoms were found from the inner atmosphere within the DS-cathode included the highly deuterated Pd fine powders.
Conditioned Withdrawal Drives Heroin Consumption and Decreases Reward Sensitivity

Aspects of drug withdrawal may become conditioned to previously neutral environmental stimuli via classical conditioning processes. Nevertheless, the significance of conditioned withdrawal effects in motivating drug intake remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the effects of conditioned withdrawal in modulating heroin consumption and brain reward sensitivity in rats. Rats intravenously self-administered heroin (20 μg/infusion) during 0 h (control), 1 h (nondependent), or 23 h (dependent) sessions and had daily intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) thresholds assessed. ICSS thresholds remained stable and unaltered in control rats. In nondependent rats, heroin self-administration induced a transient activation of reward systems, reflected in lowering of ICSS thresholds. In dependent rats, heroin intake escalated across sessions and was associated with a gradual decrease in reward sensitivity, reflected in progressively elevated ICSS thresholds. Thus, as dependence develops, heroin may be consumed not only for its acute reward-facilitating effects, but also to counter persistent deficits in reward sensitivity. In nondependent rats, the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (30 μg/kg) increased heroin consumption and reversed heroin-induced lowering of ICSS thresholds, effects resistant to classical conditioning. In contrast, in dependent rats naloxone (30 μg/kg) increased heroin consumption and also elevated ICSS thresholds above their already elevated baseline levels (i.e., precipitated withdrawal). Most importantly, stimuli repeatedly paired with naloxone-precipitated withdrawal provoked heroin consumption and elevated ICSS thresholds in dependent rats. Thus, conditioned stimuli predicting the onset of heroin withdrawal, and hence the reward deficits coupled with this state, may play a critical role in provoking craving and relapse in human opiate addicts.
Surfactant protein A enhances Mycobacterium avium ingestion but not killing by rat macrophages

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) is a significant cause of opportunistic infection in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Although the major route of entry of MAC is via the gastrointestinal tract, MAC can infect humans through the respiratory tract and eventually encounter alveolar macrophages within the lung. Once in the lung, MAC can potentially interact with surfactant protein A (SP‐A), an important component of the pulmonary innate‐immune response. Previous work on other pulmonary pathogens including Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette‐Guerin (BCG) suggests that SP‐A participates in promoting efficient clearance of these organisms by alveolar macrophages. In the present study, we investigated the role of SP‐A in clearance of MAC by cultured rat macrophages. SP‐A bound to MAC organisms and enhanced the ingestion of the mycobacteria by macrophages. Infection of macrophages with SP‐A‐MAC complexes induced the production of nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor‐α. However, intracellular survival of MAC was not altered by preopsonization with SP‐A. In addition, inhibitors of inducible NO synthase did not alter MAC clearance. These results suggest that SP‐A can bind to and enhance the uptake of MAC by alveolar macrophages, similar to previous findings with BCG and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.However, unlike BCG and other pulmonary pathogens that are cleared effectively in the presence of SP‐A via a NO‐dependent pathway, macrophage‐mediated clearance of MAC is not enhanced by SP‐A.
Spatial and temporal variation in the natal otolith chemistry of a Hawaiian reef fish: prospects for measuring population connectivity

One of the most compelling unanswered questions in marine ecology is the extent to which local populations are connected via larval exchange. Recent work has suggested that variation in the chemistry of otoliths (earstones) of fishes may function as a natural tag, potentially allowing investigators to determine sources of individual larvae and esti- mate larval connectivity. We analyzed the spatial and temporal variation in natal otolith chemistry of a benthic-spawning reef fish from the Hawaiian Islands. We found no consistent chemical variation at the largest scale (>100 km, among is- lands), but found significant variation at moderate scales (sites within islands, tens of kilometres) and small scales (clutches within sites), and chemistry of otoliths was not stable between years. These results imply that we may be able to use otolith chemistry to track larval dispersal only if the scales of dispersal match those of variation in natal otolith chem- istry, and that separate natal otolith collections may be needed to track different cohorts of larvae. Finally, we found that elemental composition of recruit cores often did not match that of natal otoliths, suggesting that additional methodological development is required before we can effectively apply methods in otolith chemistry to the study of larval dispersal. Resume´ : Une des questions les plus intrigantes de l'ecologie marine encore sans reponse est de savoir dans quelle mesure les populations locales sont reliees entre elles par des echanges de larves. Des travaux recents indiquent que les variations dans la chimie des otolithes des poissons peuvent servir d'etiquettes naturelles qui pourraient permettre aux chercheurs d'identifier l'origine de larves individuelles et d'estimer la connectivitelarvaire. Nous analysons la variation spatiale et temporelle de la chimie des otolithes ala naissance d'un poisson de recif areproduction benthique des oles Hawaii. Nous ne trouvons aucune variation chimique uniforme al'echelle la plus grande (> 100 km, entre les o ˆles), mais il y en a une significative aux echelles moyennes (sites au sein des oles, dizaines de km) et petites (regroupements au sein des sites); la chimie des otolithes n'est pas stable d'une anneeal'autre. Ces resultats ont comme consequence qu'il sera possible d'uti- liser la chimie des otolithes pour retracer la dispersion des larves, seulement si l'echelle de cette dispersion correspond a ` celle de la variation de la chimie des otolithes a la naissance; de plus, des collections differentes d'otolithes ala naissance seront peut-etre necessaires pour suivre differentes cohortes de larves. Enfin, nous trouvons que la composition en ele ´- ments des noyaux des recrues ne correspondent souvent pas acelle des otolithes ala naissance; cela laisse croire qu'il fau- dra une evolution supplementaire de la methodologie avant qu'on puisse efficacement utiliser les methodes de chimie des otolithes pour etudier la dispersion des larves. (Traduit par la Redaction)
COMBINING BLIND SOURCE SEPARATION AND EMPIRICAL MODE DECOMPOSITION APPLIED TO SOURCE SEPARATION FROM SINGLE CHANNEL BIOMEDICAL SIGNALS

Nowadays, Blind Source Separation (BSS) techniques are very common and useful in signal processing. In the field of multichannel recording, there are many techniques of BSS that work accurately, but in the single channel measurement, only a few methods are existed. One of the much popular algorithms of BSS is Independent Component Analysis (ICA). This technique is applied to separate the independent component from multi channel measurements. In this paper, we proposed two new algorithm that called Automated EE-ICA and EE-ICA with post processing, these methods are based on combination the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and ICA in a new manner and for separating the sources from single channel measurement then we will investigated accuracy of our methods in source separation in biomedical