Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of short-term conditioning and long-term ageing on permanent deformation characteristics of asphalt mixtures

Quantification of the effect of short-term conditioning and long-term ageing on the permanent deformation properties of asphalt mixtures is important for a reasonable estimation of rutting in the field. As the asphalt industry continues to develop more sophisticated mixtures, measuring the effect of short-term conditioning and long-term ageing on performance becomes even more critical. Significantly, more pavement are being built with reclaimed asphalt pavement, shingles, and warm mix asphalts, which may age very differently from mixtures with virgin asphalt. The use of warm mix asphalt in particular is rapidly increasing, which tend to soften the mixture in the early life of the pavement and impose a complex challenge for determining appropriate laboratory and field conditioning. For these reasons, it is critical that more precise determination of the effect of ageing on permanent deformation properties of asphalt mixtures to be made. This study proposes a new methodology that could be used in conjunction with the design of conventional asphalt mixtures and any new asphalt technology. Using incremental repeated load permanent deformation (iRLPD) test, which is the basis of the new methodology, the effect of short-term conditioning and long-term ageing on the permanent deformation properties of asphalt specimens can be evaluated. The minimum strain rate (MSR) property from the iRLPD test, measured before and after the ageing process, will show the rate of ageing and rate of change in the mixtures’ rutting performance. In this study, six mixtures were tested according to the iRLPD procedure and the ageing effect on permanent deformation properties of the mixtures was quantified. It is shown that different asphalt mixtures age in very different ways and this will significantly affect their short-term and long-term rutting performances. In addition, it was found that there exist a significant interdependence between short-term conditioning and long-term ageing of asphalt mixtures. Thus, adequate short-term conditioning is important for acceptable long-term rutting performance. The MSR master curve from the iRLPD test provided the necessary information for estimating rutting, considering the effect of temperature, tyre pressure, and ageing. In this respect, rut depths of the six mixtures were estimated using the hourly pavement temperatures for a 20-year period.
The Practical Value of Field Experiments

In many situations, the capabilities of firms are better suited to conducting and analyzing field experiments than to analyzing sophisticated demand models. However, the practical value of using field experiments to optimize marketing decisions remains relatively unstudied. We investigate category pricing decisions that require estimating a large matrix of cross-product demand elasticities and ask: how many experiments are required as the number of products in the category grows? Our main result demonstrates that if the categories have a favorable structure then we can learn faster and reduce the number of experiments that are required: the number of experiments required may grow just logarithmically with the number of products. These findings potentially have important implications for the application of field experiments. Firms may be able to obtain meaningful estimates using a practically feasible number of experiments, even in categories with a large number of products. We also provide a relatively simple mechanism that firms can use to evaluate whether a category has a structure that makes it feasible to use field experiments to set prices. We illustrate how to accomplish this using either a sample of historical data or a pilot set of experiments. We also discuss how to evaluate whether field experiments can help optimize other marketing decisions, such as selecting which products to advertise or promote.
Two Algorithms for the Detection and Tracking of Moving Vehicle Targets in Aerial Infrared Image Sequences

In this paper, by analyzing the characteristics of infrared moving targets, a Symmetric Frame Differencing Target Detection algorithm based on local clustering segmentation is proposed. In consideration of the high real-time performance and accuracy of traditional symmetric differencing, this novel algorithm uses local grayscale clustering to accomplish target detection after carrying out symmetric frame differencing to locate the regions of change. In addition, the mean shift tracking algorithm is also improved to solve the problem of missed targets caused by error convergence. As a result, a kernel-based mean shift target tracking algorithm based on detection updates is also proposed. This tracking algorithm makes use of the interaction between detection and tracking to correct the tracking errors in real time and to realize robust target tracking in complex scenes. In addition, the validity, robustness and stability of the proposed algorithms are all verified by experiments on mid-infrared aerial sequences with vehicles as targets.
Simulation methodology for analysis of substrate noise impact on analog/RF circuits including interconnect resistance

The paper reports a novel simulation methodology for the analysis and prediction of substrate noise impact on analog/RF circuits taking into account the role of the parasitic resistance of the on-chip interconnect in the impact mechanism. This methodology allows investigation of the role of the separate devices (also parasitic devices) in the analog/RF circuit in the overall impact. In this way, it is revealed which devices have to be taken care of (shielding, topology change) to protect the circuit against substrate noise. The developed methodology is used to analyze the impact of substrate noise on a 3 GHz LC-tank voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) designed in a high-ohmic 0.18 /spl mu/m 1 PM6 CMOS technology. For this VCO (in the investigated frequency range from DC to 15 MHz) impact is mainly caused by resistive coupling of noise from the substrate to the non-ideal on-chip ground interconnect, resulting in analog ground bounce and frequency modulation. Hence, the presented test-case reveals the important role of the on-chip interconnect in the phenomenon of substrate noise impact.
Endothelial Trophic Support of Neuronal Production and Recruitment from the Adult Mammalian Subependyma

Vascular endothelial cells are among the first cells that ventricular zone neuroblasts encounter during early development. The ventricular zone cells promote angiogenesis by the invading vasculature, with the release of endothelial mitogens. Yet the feedback support of young neurons by endothelial cells (ECs) has not hitherto been explored. We therefore asked whether ECs might participate in neuronal recruitment, by providing neurotrophic support to newly generated neurons. We used the neurogenic subependymal zone (SZ) of the adult rat forebrain as a model system, because of its well-characterized and relatively homogeneous population of neuronal precursor cells. We found that explants of the adult rat SZ raised on ECs generated more neurons, which survived longer, than explants raised on astrocytes, fibroblasts, or laminin. This endothelial trophic effect was humoral, in that it was also noted in SZ explants raised in noncontiguous coculture with ECs grown on porous inserts. RT-PCR for neurotrophin family members revealed that cultures of both human brain- and umbilical cord-derived ECs produced brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA, but no detectable NGF, NT-3, or NT-4 mRNA. ELISA revealed that BDNF protein was secreted by ECs into the medium at >1 ng/ml. The neurotrophic effect of ECs could be replaced by added BDNF, and was blocked by addition of 5 microg/ml trkB-Fc to endothelial-SZ cocultures. Thus, endothelial cells can act as sources of secreted BDNF, through which the capillary microvasculature may act to support neuronal recruitment and survival in the CNS.
Formation and decomposition of C4F7 type calcium ferrites in superfluxed magnetite based pellets during oxidation and reduction

In the current work the reactions of magnetite based pellets with large additions of calcite (3%CaO) during reduction have been investigated. This made it possible to use both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to detect reaction phases that normally occur in very small amounts. The main binding phase in the pellets after oxidation was (CaO,MgO,FeO)4(Fe2O3)7, whereas the one commonly reported in the literature is (CaO)(Fe2O3)2. During reduction at 500–700°C severe cracking occurred in these pellets, especially in the calcium ferrite phase. However, the decomposition of this phase began at 600°C, and therefore it is believed that the reason for the cracks is low strength of the phase itself, rather than weakness induced by reduction of the phase. Upon reduction of magnetite into wüstite at 800°C, the calcium began dissolving in the wüstite, and at 900°C porous calciowüstite had formed in the entire sample, except for some remaining magnetite left in the pellet cores.
Robust control of UAVs using H∞ control paradigm

In recent past, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has been progressively regnant and significant in several applications related to civil as well as military purposes. Due to their numerous benefits, the control and dynamic modeling of UAVs are becoming the attractive field of research. Considering all these facts, this paper has present the conventional inner-outer loop strategy with some proposed modifications and a robust controller is designed for the inner control loop. Due to uncertain nature of aircraft, Robust H∞ Loop Shaping Design Procedure (LSDP) is used to synthesis the controller. The designed inner loop controller is applied to the system and the simulation results indicate the good performance and robustness margins of the designed controller against the parameter uncertainties.
A polylog(n)-competitive algorithm for metrical task systems

We present a randomized on-line algorithm for the Metrical Task System problem that achieves a competitive ratio of O(log6 n) for arbitrary metric spaces, against an oblivious adversary. This is the first algorithm to achieve a sublinear competitive ratio for all metric spaces. Our algorit hm uses a recent result of Bartal [Bar96] that an arbitrary metr ic space can be probabilistically approximated by a set of metric spaces called “ k-hierarchical well-separated trees” ( kHST’s). Indeed, the main technical result of this paper is an O(log2 n)-competitive algorithm for (log2 n)-HST spaces. This, combined with the result of [Bar96], yields the genera l bound. Note that for thek-server problem on metric spaces of k + c points our result implies a competitive ratio of O(c6 log6 k).
A hologram based tele-existence platform for emotional exchange among a group of users in both real and virtual environments

We have proposed and implemented a hologram based tele-existence platform to provide user experience of emotional exchange among a group of participants in both real and virtual environments. The system provides not only immersive live scene to a user wearing VR HMD at a remote place, but also share and exchange emotional expressions with other users at other place by using a 360° camera and cloud server combined with a holographic technique. In the experiments, 6-different basic emotional expressions of user wearing VR HMD were transmitted, and replayed on the hologram display at the place where the group of participants were watching broadcasting of a sport through large screen TV.
Locality mutual clustering for document retrieval

Document retrieval is aimed at searching relevant documents in response to answer user query. To do this task, algorithms of document clustering play an important role. These algorithms are often based on frequency computation of key-phrases in both query and document, and focus on locality. It is dealt with this paper an algorithm based on locality mutual clustering is proposed to cluster documents and to find relevance documents in answer to user query. This proposed algorithm has been used for searching scientific papers in our institutions.
Nonlinear optical properties of TeO_2-based glasses: Li(Na and K)_2O–TeO_2 binary glasses

The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities, χ^(3), of the x Li(Na and K)_2O · (100 − x )TeO_2 binary glasses have been measured by the third harmonic generation (THG) method. It is found that the χ^(3) of each series of glasses decreases with increasing alkali oxide content. The largest χ^(3) values obtained are about 1.3 × 10^−12 esu for a 7. 5Li_2O · 92. 5TeO_2 glass, being about 45 times larger than that of fused silica glass for the present series samples. For the purpose of investigating the relationship between the χ^(3) and the optical parameters, such as linear refractive index, polarizability per unit volume which is represented by the term ( n _ω^2 – 1)/( n _ω^2 + 2), dispersion energy ( E _ d ) which is related to the Abbé number, and excitation energy ( E _0) which is closely related to the optical band gap ( E _ g ), we derived the equations that relate the χ^(3) to optical parameters on the basis of Lines’ model. Finally, it was experimentally confirmed that the χ^(3) value of alkali oxide-TeO_2 glasses is proportional to the term ( n _ω^2 + 2)^3 ( n _ω^2 – 1) · E _ d / E _0^2
A Tractable Fully Bayesian Method for the Stochastic Block Model

The stochastic block model (SBM) is a generative model revealing macroscopic structures in graphs. Bayesian methods are used for (i) cluster assignment inference and (ii) model selection for the number of clusters. In this paper, we study the behavior of Bayesian inference in the SBM in the large sample limit. Combining variational approximation and Laplace's method, a consistent criterion of the fully marginalized log-likelihood is established. Based on that, we derive a tractable algorithm that solves tasks (i) and (ii) concurrently, obviating the need for an outer loop to check all model candidates. Our empirical and theoretical results demonstrate that our method is scalable in computation, accurate in approximation, and concise in model selection.
Leaf classification based on shape and edge feature with k-NN classifier

In this paper a new approach is proposed to classify leafs in efficient and effective manner. In this approach, the features are extracted from edges of the leaf images and it is used two kinds of features which are edge based and shape based features for leaf classification. When the present method is tested on Flavia dataset, it gives the average classification accuracy rate of 94.37%. The Flavia dataset contains 32 kinds of plant leaves. The experimental result shows that the method gives better performance results compared with existing methods.
Dcache Warn: an I-fetch policy to increase SMT efficiency

Summary form only given. Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) processors increase performance by executing instructions from multiple threads simultaneously. These threads share the processor's resources, but also compete for them. In this environment, a thread missing in the L2 cache may allocate a large number of resources for a long time, causing other threads to run much slower than they could. To prevent this problem we should know in advance if a thread is going to miss in the L2 cache. L1 misses are a clear indicator of a possible L2 miss. However, to stall a thread on every L1 miss is too severe, because not all L1 misses lead to an L2 miss, and this would cause an unnecessary stall and resource under-use. Also, to wait until an L2 miss is declared and squash the thread to free up the allocated resources is too expensive in terms of complexity and reexecuted instructions. We propose a novel fetch policy, which we call DWarn. DWarn uses L1 misses as indicators of L2 misses, giving higher priority to threads with no outstanding L1 misses. DWarn acts on L1 misses, before L2 misses happen in a controlled manner to reduce resource under-use and to avoid harming a thread when L1 misses do not lead to L2 misses. Our results show that DWarn outperforms previously proposed policies, in both throughput and fairness, while requiring fewer resources and avoiding instruction reexecution.
Silicon quantum dots in SiOx dielectrics as energy selective contacts in hot carrier solar cells

Thin films of c-Si QDs embedded in a-SiOx dielectric matrix was achieved at a low temperature ∼400°C, from one step process by reactive rf magnetron co-sputtering of c-Si wafer and pure SiO2 targets, in the (H2+Ar)- plasma. Formation of a double-barrier structure has been primarily identified from the SAX data and exclusively confirmed from the resonant tunneling current appearing in the J-E characteristic curve peaks, determined by the discrete energy levels of c-Si QDs, at which it could be used as energy selective contacts in hot carrier solar cells.
Keeping up with a warming world; assessing the rate of adaptation to climate change

The pivotal question in the debate on the ecological effects of climate change is whether species will be able to adapt fast enough to keep up with their changing environment. If we establish the maximal rate of adaptation, this will set an upper limit to the rate at which temperatures can increase without loss of biodiversity. The rate of adaptation will primarily be set by the rate of microevolution since (i) phenotypic plasticity alone is not sufficient as reaction norms will no longer be adaptive and hence microevolution on the reaction norm is needed, (ii) learning will be favourable to the individual but cannot be passed on to the next generations, (iii) maternal effects may play a role but, as with other forms of phenotypic plasticity, the response of offspring to the maternal cues will no longer be adaptive in a changing environment, and (iv) adaptation via immigration of individuals with genotypes adapted to warmer environments also involves microevolution as these genotypes are better adapted in terms of temperature, but not in terms of, for instance, photoperiod. Long-term studies on wild populations with individually known animals play an essential role in detecting and understanding the temporal trends in life-history traits, and to estimate the heritability of, and selection pressures on, life-history traits. However, additional measurements on other trophic levels and on the mechanisms underlying phenotypic plasticity are needed to predict the rate of microevolution, especially under changing conditions. Using this knowledge on heritability of, and selection on, life-history traits, in combination with climate scenarios, we will be able to predict the rate of adaptation for different climate scenarios. The final step is to use ecoevolutionary dynamical models to make the link to population viability and from there to biodiversity loss for those scenarios where the rate of adaptation is insufficient.
Aging and Neuropathy: Implications for Geriatric Anesthesia

Aging is associated with significant neuropathies, both peripheral and autonomic. Morbidity and mortality are closely associated with both forms of neuropathy, with important implications for the elderly surgical population. Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are characterized by autonomic failure. Imbalances between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems lead to a variety of neurological, metabolic, cardiovascular, inflammatory, and psychiatric diseases. For the foreseeable future, anesthesiologists will care for increasing numbers of elderly diabetic and nondiabetic patients with autonomic dysfunction. Preoperative assessment and risk stratification for the geriatric patient must consider the widespread implications of autonomic dysfunction.
Serotonergic interhemispheric asymmetry: gender difference in the orbital cortex

The asymmetry of tritiated imipramine (IMI) binding sites (which are associated with serotonergic mechanisms) were investigated in the orbital frontal cortex in 6 women and men who died of natural causes, and who did not have a history of mental disorders. There was significant interhemispheric asymmetry in both sexes, higher Bmax on the right side compared with the left. The Bmax values of IMI binding in the right orbital cortex in women were significantly higher than in men. Our preliminary findings – gender difference of serotonergic mechanisms in some area of the human brain ‐ are in accordance with the observed gender differences in a variety of serotonin‐regulated behaviors (sexual behavior, aggression and impulse control), and serotonergic mental disorders (eating disorders, suicidal behavior, anxiety disorders and depression).
In-Band Synchronization for Distributed SDN Control Planes

Control planes of forthcoming Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) will be distributed: to ensure availability and fault-tolerance, to improve load-balancing, and to reduce overheads, modules of the control plane should be physically distributed. However, in order to guarantee consistency of network operation, actions performed on the data plane by different controllers may need to be synchronized, which is a nontrivial task. In this paper, we propose a synchronization framework for control planes based on atomic transactions, implemented in-band, on the data-plane switches. We argue that this in-band approach is attractive as it keeps the failure scope local and does not require additional out-of-band coordination mechanisms. It allows us to realize fundamental consensus primitives in the presence of controller failures, and we discuss their applications for consistent policy composition and fault-tolerant control-planes. Interestingly, by using part of the data plane configuration space as a shared memory and leveraging the match-action paradigm, we can implement our synchronization framework in today's standard OpenFlow protocol, and we report on our proof-of-concept implementation.
Two Can Keep A Secret: A Distributed Architecture for Secure Database Services

Recent trends towards database outsourcing, as well as concerns and laws governing data privacy, have led to great interest in enabling secure database services. Previous approaches to enabling such a service have been based on data encryption, causing a large overhead in query processing. We propose a new, distributed architecture that allows an organization to outsource its data management to {\em two} untrusted servers while preserving data privacy. We show how the presence of two servers enables efficient partitioning of data so that the contents at any one server are guaranteed not to breach data privacy. We show how to optimize and execute queries in this architecture, and discuss new challenges that emerge in designing the database schema.
Research on nano-thermocompression bonding process using nanoporous copper as bonding layer

Low temperature bonding technology has been a research hotspot in recent years due to its success of avoiding impurities interdiffusion, minimizing thermal stresses between heterogeneous materials, minimizing voids and other defects, and reducing the cost. In this work, a novel low temperature thermocompression bonding technology using nanoporous Cu (NPC) was proposed and the influences of different bonding temperatures, pressures and durations upon the bonding qualities were studied. The possible mechanisms of nano-thermocompression bonding were discussed and analyzed. Bonding under the pressure of 0.5MPa for 120min at 250°C resulted in excellent bonding qualities without any interface and voids in the bonded sample examined by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning acoustic microscope (SAM), which shows much potential of this approach in microelectronics manufacturing, 3D packaging and integration of multi-function devices and provides another new way of fabricating direct bonding copper (DBC) ceramic substrate.