Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GERRIT H . VAN BRUGGEN , GARY L . LILIEN , and MANISH KACKER

Organizational research frequently involves seeking judgmental response data from informants within organizations. This article discusses why using rnultiple informants improves the quality of response data and thereby the validity of research findings. The authors show that when there are multiple informants who disagree, responses aggregated with confidenceor competence-based weights outpertorm those with response data-based weights, which in turn provide significant gains in estimation accuracy over simply averaging informant reports. The proposed methods are effective, inexpensive, and easy to use in organizational marketing research.
Effects of MgADP on length dependence of tension generation in skinned rat cardiac muscle.

The effect of MgADP on the sarcomere length (SL) dependence of tension generation was investigated using skinned rat ventricular trabeculae. Increasing SL from 1.9 to 2.3 microm decreased the muscle width by approximately 11% and shifted the midpoint of the pCa-tension relationship (pCa(50)) leftward by about 0.2 pCa units. MgADP (0.1, 1, and 5 mmol/L) augmented maximal and submaximal Ca(2+)-activated tension and concomitantly diminished the SL-dependent shift of pCa(50) in a concentration-dependent manner. In contrast, pimobendan, a Ca(2+) sensitizer, which promotes Ca(2+) binding to troponin C (TnC), exhibited no effect on the SL-dependent shift of pCa(50), suggesting that TnC does not participate in the modulation of SL-dependent tension generation by MgADP. At a SL of 1. 9 microm, osmotic compression, produced by 5% wt/vol dextran (molecular weight approximately 464 000), reduced the muscle width by approximately 13% and shifted pCa(50) leftward to a similar degree as that observed when increasing SL to 2.3 microm. This favors the idea that a decrease in the interfilament lattice spacing is the primary mechanism for SL-dependent tension generation. MgADP (5 mmol/L) markedly attenuated the dextran-induced shift of pCa(50), and the degree of attenuation was similar to that observed in a study of varying SL. The actomyosin-ADP complex (AM.ADP) induced by exogenous MgADP has been reported to cooperatively promote myosin attachment to the thin filament. We hereby conclude that the increase in the number of force-generating crossbridges on a decrease in the lattice spacing is masked by the cooperative effect of AM.ADP, resulting in depressed SL-dependent tension generation.
A DC-Link Voltage Self-Balance Method for a Diode-Clamped Modular Multilevel Converter With Minimum Number of Voltage Sensors

Voltage balance issue of dc-link capacitors is very important for applications of a cascade multilevel converter or a modular multilevel converter. In this paper, a novel diode-clamped modular multilevel converter (DCM2C) topology is proposed and a power feedback control method is developed. With the developed control strategy, the proposed diode-clamped circuit becomes a controllable closed loop which enables the capacitor voltages to be clamped by low power rating clamping diodes. The proposed topology and control strategy has quicker response and requires much fewer voltage sensors than the normally used traditional method; therefore, the system performance improvement and cost reduction are expected. Based on the proposed DCM2C, a novel N +1-level cascade multilevel topology is proposed for a cascade active power filter (CS-APF). The simulation and experimental results from the CS-APF have demonstrated and verified the effectiveness of the proposed novel topology and control method.
Semi-Supervised Classification with Universum

The Universum data, defined as a collection of ”nonexamples” that do not belong to any class of interest, have been shown to encode some prior knowledge by representing meaningful concepts in the same domain as the problem at hand. In this paper, we address a novel semi-supervised classification problem, called semi-supervised Universum, that can simultaneously utilize the labeled data, unlabeled data and the Universum data to improve the classification performance. We propose a graph based method to make use of the Universum data to help depict the prior information for possible classifiers. Like conventional graph based semi-supervised methods, the graph regularization is also utilized to favor the consistency between the labels. Furthermore, since the proposed method is a graph based one, it can be easily extended to the multiclass case. The empirical experiments on the USPS and MNIST datasets are presented to show that the proposed method can obtain superior performances over conventional supervised and semi-supervised methods.
Virtual input queued packet switches with non-uniform arrivals and bursty service

This paper presents a performance analysis of output queued packet switch architectures employing virtual input queueing (VIQ), whereby arrival rates are nonuniformly distributed between the sources and the service intervals are bursty. In particular, we study the case of a two-state Markov-modulated service discipline, reflecting on several pragmatic scenarios such as noisy packet radio networks. We show that by exploiting an extended Markov-modulated service process and the Geo/GI/1 queueing model, closed-form expressions for the mean queueing latencies can be obtained. The methodology established in this paper can be extended to derive additional performance metrics and expected behavior of more complex packet switching architectures.
A novel nonsense mutation in CRYGC is associated with autosomal dominant congenital nuclear cataracts and microcornea

Purpose To report the identification of a novel nonsense mutation in CRYGC in a Chinese family with autosomal dominant congenital nuclear cataracts and microcornea. Methods We investigated a four-generation Chinese family with six members affected with nuclear cataracts and microcornea. The family resides in a relatively isolated region of northern China. Genomic DNA was isolated from blood leucocytes, genotyping was performed using more than 100 microsatellite markers for the known cataract candidate gene loci, and LOD scores were calculated using the LINKAGE programs. Mutations were detected by DNA sequence analysis of the candidate genes. Results Evidence for linkage was detected at marker D2S325 (LOD score [Z]=2.29, recombination fraction [θ]=0.0), which closely flanks the γ-crystallin gene cluster (CRYGA-CRYGD) on chromosome 2q32.3-q35. Direct sequencing of the candidate CRYGA-CRYGD gene cluster revealed a c.470G>A transversion in exon 3 of CRYGC, which cosegregated with cataracts in the family and was not observed in 100 normal controls. This single nucleotide change was predicted to introduce a translation stop codon at tryptophan 157 (W157X). Conclusions The present study has identified a novel nonsense mutation in CRYGC associated with autosomal dominant cataracts and microcornea in a Chinese family. Our finding expands the spectrum of CRYGC mutations associated with congenital cataract and confirms the role of γ-crystallin in the pathogenesis of congenital nuclear cataracts.
Ieee Transactions on Image Processing 1 Context-dependent Logo Matching and Recognition

—We contribute through this work to the design of a novel variational framework able to match and recognize multiple instances of multiple reference logos in image archives. Reference logos as well as test images, are seen as constellations of local features (interest points, regions, etc.) and matched by minimizing an energy function mixing (i) a fidelity term that measures the quality of feature matching (ii) a neighborhood criterion which captures feature co-occurrence/geometry and (iii) a regularization term that controls the smoothness of the matching solution. We also introduce a detection/recognition procedure and we study its theoretical consistency. Finally, we show the validity of our method through extensive experiments on the challenging MICC-Logos dataset overtaking, by 20%, baseline as well as state-of-the-art matching/recognition procedures.
Single-View's 3D Explanation Based on Prior Knowledge and Constraint Satisfaction

In this paper, we estimate the geometric characteristics, such as the relation of edges and the angle characteristics between edges, from single view. And we also use the prior knowledge about objects, such as the feature of edges and the geometry construction of objects, to construct the variable constraint based on the projection rules. In this paper, we transfer the problem of interpretation of 3D objects from single view into a non-linear optimization problem. After local constraints merge into overall constraint, the posture of object can be estimated quickly. Then we can calculate geometry characteristics of the objects for invariant recognition.
Surgical Navigation Technology Based on Augmented Reality and Integrated 3D Intraoperative Imaging

Study Design. A cadaveric laboratory study. Objective. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and accuracy of thoracic pedicle screw placement using augmented reality surgical navigation (ARSN). Summary of Background Data. Recent advances in spinal navigation have shown improved accuracy in lumbosacral pedicle screw placement but limited benefits in the thoracic spine. 3D intraoperative imaging and instrument navigation may allow improved accuracy in pedicle screw placement, without the use of x-ray fluoroscopy, and thus opens the route to image-guided minimally invasive therapy in the thoracic spine. Methods. ARSN encompasses a surgical table, a motorized flat detector C-arm with intraoperative 2D/3D capabilities, integrated optical cameras for augmented reality navigation, and noninvasive patient motion tracking. Two neurosurgeons placed 94 pedicle screws in the thoracic spine of four cadavers using ARSN on one side of the spine (47 screws) and free-hand technique on the contralateral side. X-ray fluoroscopy was not used for either technique. Four independent reviewers assessed the postoperative scans, using the Gertzbein grading. Morphometric measurements of the pedicles axial and sagittal widths and angles, as well as the vertebrae axial and sagittal rotations were performed to identify risk factors for breaches. Results. ARSN was feasible and superior to free-hand technique with respect to overall accuracy (85% vs. 64%, P < 0.05), specifically significant increases of perfectly placed screws (51% vs. 30%, P < 0.05) and reductions in breaches beyond 4 mm (2% vs. 25%, P < 0.05). All morphometric dimensions, except for vertebral body axial rotation, were risk factors for larger breaches when performed with the free-hand method. Conclusion. ARSN without fluoroscopy was feasible and demonstrated higher accuracy than free-hand technique for thoracic pedicle screw placement. Level of Evidence: N/A
ON THE BRIGHTENING PROPAGATION OF POST-FLARE LOOPS OBSERVED BY TRACE

Examining flare data observed by Transition Region and Coronal Explorer satellite from 1998 May to 2006 December, we choose 190 (151 M-class and 39 X-class) flare events which display post-flare loops (PFLs), observed by 171 Å and 195 Å wavelengths. One-hundred twenty-four of the 190 events exhibit flare ribbons (FRs), observed by 1600 Å images. We investigate the propagation of the brightening of these PFLs along the neutral lines and the separation of the FRs perpendicular to the neutral lines. Observations indicate that the footpoints of the initial brightening PFLs are always associated with the change of the photospheric magnetic fields. In most of the cases, the length of the FRs ranges from 20 Mm to 170 Mm. The propagating duration of the brightening is from 10 to 60 minutes, and from 10 to 70 minutes for the separating duration of the FRs. The velocities of the propagation and the separation range from 3 to 39 km s−1 and 3 to 15 km s−1, respectively. Both the propagating velocities and the separating velocities are associated with the flare strength and the length of the FRs. It appears that the propagation and the separation are dynamically coupled; the greater the propagating velocity, the faster the separation. Furthermore, a greater propagating velocity corresponds to a greater deceleration (or acceleration). These PFLs display three types of propagating patterns. In type I propagation, which includes about half of all the events, the brightening begins at the middle part of a set of PFLs, and propagates bidirectionally toward both of its ends. For type II, including 30% of all events, the brightening first appears at one end of a set of PFLs, then propagates to the other end. The remaining events belong to type III propagation, which display the initial brightening taking place at two (or more than two) positions on two (or more than two) sets of PFLs, then propagating bidirectionally along the neutral line. These three types of propagating patterns can be explained by a three-dimensional magnetic reconnection model.
Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Protects against Ischemia-Induced Injury in the Cerebral Cortex

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a recently described and cloned member of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β superfamily, has been shown to have marked trophic activity on several populations of central neurons. Survival-promoting and injury protectant activity in vitro and in vivo, using several paradigms, has been demonstrated for ventral mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons and spinal cord motoneurons. In view of a proposed commonality of mechanisms, involving intracellular free radical generation, depolarization-induced Ca2+ influx, and mitochondrial respiratory enzyme injury, between such GDNF-responsive paradigms and those of ischemia-induced injury, we tested the effects of GDNF on the extent of neural degeneration induced by transient middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion. We now report that intracerebroventricular and intraparenchymal administration of GDNF potently protects the cerebral hemispheres from damage induced by MCA occlusion. In addition, the increase in nitric oxide that accompanies MCA occlusion and subsequent reperfusion is blocked almost completely by GDNF. Thus, this protein may play an important role in the treatment of cerebrovascular occlusive disease.
Effective Potential for the Second Virial Coefficient at Feshbach Resonance

In a recent paper entitled “High temperature expansion applied to fermions near Feshbach resonance”, (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 160404 (2004)), Ho and Mueller have demonstrated a remarkable similarity between its high and low temerature properties at resonance. The quantum second virial coefficient plays a crucial role in their analysis, and has a universal value at resonance. In this paper, we explore the connection between the quantum and classical second virial coefficients, and show that near a Feshbach resonance an exact mapping from the quantum to classical form is possible. This gives rise to a scale-independent inverse square effective potential for the classical virial coefficient. It is suggested that this may be tested by measuringthe isothermal compressibility of the gas on the repulsive side of the resonance.
Belief in Supernatural Agents in the Face of Death

Four studies examined whether awareness of mortality intensifies belief in supernatural agents among North Americans. In Studies 1 and 2, mortality salience led to more religiosity, stronger belief in God, and in divine intervention. In Studies 3 and 4, mortality salience increased supernatural agent beliefs even when supernatural agency was presented in a culturally alien context (divine Buddha in Study 3, Shamanic spirits in Study 4). The latter effects occurred primarily among the religiously affiliated, who were predominantly Christian. Implications for the role of supernatural agent beliefs in assuaging mortality concerns are discussed.
Creation of Partial FPGA Configurations at Run-Time

This paper describes and evaluates a method to generate partial FPGA configurations at run-time. The proposed technique is aimed at adaptive embedded systems that employ run-time reconfiguration to achieve high flexibility and performance. The approach is based on the availability of a library of partial bit streams for a set of basic components. New partial configurations for circuits defined by net lists of basic components are created by merging together a default bit stream of the target area, the relocated configurations of the components, and the configurations of the switch matrices used for building the connections between the components. An implementation targeting the Virtex-II Pro platform FPGA is described. It runs on the embedded 300MHz Power PC CPU present in the FPGA. The proof-of-concept implementation was used to create partial configurations at run-time for 20 circuits with up to 21 components and 288 connections. The complete configuration creation process took between 7s and 97s.
Business Intelligence in Blogs: Understanding Consumer Interactions and Communities

The increasing popularity of Web 2.0 has led to exponential growth of user-generated content in both volume and significance. One important type of user-generated content is the blog. Blogs encompass useful information (e.g., insightful product reviews and information-rich consumer communities) that could potentially be a gold mine for business intelligence, bringing great opportunities for both academic research and business applications. However, performing business intelligence on blogs is quite challenging because of the vast amount of information and the lack of commonly adopted methodology for effectively collecting and analyzing such information. In this paper, we propose a framework for gathering business intelligence from blogs by automatically collecting and analyzing blog contents and bloggers' interaction networks. Through a system developed using the framework, we conducted two case studies with one case focusing on a consumer product and the other on a company. Our case studies demonstrate how to use the framework and appropriate techniques to effectively collect, extract, and analyze blogs related to the topics of interest, reveal novel patterns in the blogger interactions and communities, and answer important business intelligence questions in the domains. The framework is sufficiently generic and can be applied to any topics of interest, organizations, and products. Future academic research and business applications related to the topics examined in the two cases can also be built using the findings of this study.
The optimal solution prediction for genetic and distribution building algorithms with binary representation

Genetic and distribution building algorithms with binary representation are analyzed. A property of convergence to the optimal solution is discussed. A novel convergence prediction method is proposed and investigated. The method is based on analysis of gene value probabilities distribution dynamics, thus it can predict gene values of the optimal solution to which the algorithm converges. The results of investigations for the optimal prediction algorithm performance are presented.
Development of Plant Growth Promoting Microbial Consortium Based on Interaction Studies to Reduce Wilt Incidence in Cajanus cajan L. Var. Manak

The present study was undertaken to develop a plant growth promoting microbial consortium on the basis of interaction studies to reduce the fusarium wilt in Cajanus cajan. All strains were exposed to interact under in vitro conditions. Three strains viz. Pseudomonas fluorescens LPK2, Sinorhizobium fredii KCC5 and Azotobacter chroococcum AZK2 did not inhibit each other. In vitro dual culture studies on the interaction of one strain to another, revealed no mutual growth inhibition among S. fredii KCC5, P. fluorescens and A. chroococcum AZK2. Spectrophotometric studies also showed that the individual growth of these strains was not affected in combined cultures, where strains were cultured together. The optical density values of S. fredii KCC5, P. fluorescens LPK2 and A. chroococcum AZK2 were observed in present studies were at par with their treatments when incorporated into the broth and vice versa. A complete inhibition of the conidial and chlamydospores germination Fusarium udum was observed by the culture filtrates of S. fredii KCC5 and P. fluorescens LPK2. The culture filtrates of S. fredii KCC5 and P. fluorescens LPK2 inhibited conidial germination significantly (P>0.01). The inhibition of germ tube was more pronounced than that of conidial germination. A highly significant effect (P>0.01) of the non-volatile metabolites was noted against the conidial germination and germ tube growth of the test pathogen. A corresponding amount of culture supernatant from F. udum grown in potato dextrose broth initiated a significant chemotactic response of S. fredii KCC5, P. fluorescens and A. chroococcum AZK2 cells within 6 h. In biocontrol pot assay, it was observed that the bacterial combinations resulted in enhanced disease suppression in comparison to individual strain. In biocontrol assay, the values of applied treatments from T2 to T6 were not significantly different from each other but the percentage of healthy plants were significantly (P>0.05) higher than control with pathogen. These three strains led to protocooperation as evidenced by synergism, aggressive colonization of roots and enhanced growth suggesting potential biocontrol active microbial consortium against wilt incidence in Cajanus cajan.
Analysis of Computer Infection Risk Factors Based on Customer Network Usage

Epidemiology, the science that studies the cause and propagation of diseases, provides us with the concepts and methods to analyze the potential risk factors to which ADSL customers' PCs are exposed, with respect to their usage of network applications. This paper details the analysis of the traffic of a large set of real ADSL customers in the corenet work. We build a profile of network usage for each customer and we detect malicious ones. Based on these data we study the impact of some characteristics in ADSL customer profiles on their likeliness to generate malicious traffic. We find two application types that are risk factors and we also bring evidence that the type of operating system impacts greatly the odds of being infected. Based on these results we build a profile of customers more likely to be infected.
Multi-class composite n-gram language model using multiple word clusters and word successions

In this paper, a new language model, the Multi-Class Composite N-gram, is proposed to avoid a data sparseness problem in small amount of training data. The Multi-Class Composite Ngram maintains an accurate word prediction capability and reliability for sparse data with a compact model size based on multiple word clusters, so-called Multi-Classes. In the Multi-Class, the statistical connectivity at each position of the N-grams is regarded as word attributes, and one word cluster each is created to represent positional attributes. Furthermore, by introducing higher order word N-grams through the grouping of frequent word successions, Multi-Class N-grams are extended to Multi-Class Composite N-grams. In experiments, the MultiClass Composite N-grams result in 9.5% lower perplexity and a 16% lower word error rate in speech recognition with a 40% smaller parameter size than conventional word 3-grams.