Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of pulmonary infection pathogens in neurological intensive care unit

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria in inpatients with pulmonary infection in the neurological intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: A total of 947 sputum specimens of 428 inpatients from May 2007 to May 2008 in the NICU were enrolled in the study, and bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests were analyzed using a VITEK 2 system. Results: A total of 400 positive bacterial strains were separated from 947 sputum specimens, with Gram-negative bacteria accounting for 69.0% of the total strains collected. The most common strain of Gram-negative bacteria was Klebsiella pneumoniae (20.5%). Gram-positive bacteria accounted for 10.0% of the total strains, with the most common strain being Staphylococcus aureus (2.5%). Fungal species accounted for 21.0% of the total strains, and the most common strain collected was Candida albicans (12.25%). Imipenem was the most effective antibiotic against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The drug resistance rate of Gram-positive bacteria to penicillin G was 100%, and the Gram-positive bacteria were 100% sensitive to teicoplanin, vancomycin, and linezolid. Conclusions: Gram-negative bacterial infections account for the majority of pulmonary infections in the NICU, with fungal infections being the second most common infection type observed. In addition, fungal infections seem to be related to mortality in the NICU.
Exact renormalization group: a new method for blocking the action

We consider the exact renormalization group for a non-canonical scalar field theory in which the field is coupled to the external source in a special nonlinear way. The Wilsonian action and the average effective action are then simply related by a Legendre transformation up to a trivial quadratic form. An exact mapping between canonical and non-canonical theories is obtained as well as the relations between their flows. An application to the theory of liquids is sketched.
Broadband Electromagnetic Absorbers Using Carbon Nanostructure-Based Composites

In this paper, we present the design of nanostructured multilayer absorbers, carried out with the aid of a genetic algorithm (GA). Waveguide measurements are performed to recover the dielectric properties of micrographite single-walled carbon nanotube, micrographite walled carbon nanotube, carbon nanofiber, and fullerene-based composite materials. Conductive fillers are uniformly dispersed in an epoxy resin at different weight percentages (1, 3, 5 wt.%). The electromagnetic (EM) analysis is performed embedding the forward/backward propagation matrix formalism in an in-house GA, thus able to carry out optimization upon oblique incidence over a finite angular range. Developed code minimizes both the reflection and the transmission coefficients under the thickness minimization constraint. Comparison between micrographite and nanopowders absorbers is presented and discussed, when a broadband quasi-perfect absorber is achieved among the X-band combining the two filler families, i.e., exhibiting a loss factor greater than 90% in most of the band, for a thickness of about 1 cm. It is demonstrated that the nanofillers with higher aspect ratio mainly contribute to the EM absorption. Findings are of interest in both radar-absorbing material and shielding structures.
H infinity Analysis Revisited

This paper proposes a direct, and simple approach to the H infinity norm calculation in more general settings. In contrast to the method based on the Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov lemma, our approach does not require a controllability assumption, and returns a sinusoidal input that achieves the H infinity norm of the system including its frequency. In addition, using a semidefinite programming duality, we present a new proof of the Kalman- Yakubovich-Popov lemma, and make a connection between strong duality and controllability. Finally, we generalize our approach towards the generalized Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov lemma, which considers input signals within a finite spectrum.
A New Criterion of the Stochastic System Simplification Based on Kalman Filter

In researching the problems of stochastic system, we usually use the linearization method, the approximate decoupling method, and the truncated method etc. to simplify the system model. The traditional criterion is the ratio of the simplification part and the initial model. If the ratio is small enough or the model errors can be regarded as noise, we think the simplification method is reasonable. The shortage of the criterion is that it hasn't a very definite value or bound, and it can't combine the performance of the whole system. Therefore we propose a new criterion which calculates the errors and error covariance matrix of the state between the initial system and the simplified system based on Kalman filter. The new criterion judges the trace of the matrix and its convergence property. Because it uses the state equation and the measurement equation of the stochastic system, it is more suitable for the whole system performance.
An Indian Coin Recognition System Using Artificial Neural Networks

Coins are an integral part of our life. Coins are used everywhere as in banks, grocery stores, supremarkets, buses, trains etc. So, there is an obvious need of coins to be automatically recognized and sorted by computers. The machines should be able to recognize coins properly as the further transactions would depend upon the accuracy of recognition. The coin recognition systems must be robust in the manner as they should be able to recognize coin images efficiently even if noise is present. Indian coin recognition system recognizes the Indian coins of denomination `1, `2, `5 and `10 with rotation invariance and classify them according to their worth. Performance of Indian coin recognition system is evaluated under noisy as well as noise free environment. Scanned images of Indian coins have used as input. After preprocessing, features are extracted from images using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and neural networks are used for classification. Median and wiener noise filters are used for image enhancement when gaussian and salt-and-pepper noise is present, respectively. The performance of neural netwrok is evaluated on the basis of mean square error, time taken and number of epochs to train the network. KeywordsArtificial Intelligence, Image Processing, Artificial Neural Networks.
SCATTERING FROM FINITE PERIODIC SURFACES: A COMPARISON BETWEEN INTEGRAL EQUATION AND RAY TECHNIQUES

The electromagnetic scattering from a large planar strip composed of parallel free-standing dense metallic strips is addressed. The scattered field is evaluated by resorting to a couple of different methods: an asymptotic technique, namely the Uniform Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (UTD), and a numerical method (the Method of Moments, MoM). The results of a numerical investigation are presented with the aim of demonstrating the effectiveness and the accuracy of the ray technique. Specific attention is also devoted to the phenomenon of surface wave excitation.
Preparation and application of a novel environmentally friendly organic seed coating for rice

BACKGROUND: Traditional rice seed coating techniques involve the use of chemical pesticides, which can damage the seed in the process and cause possible physical and environmental damage. Increasing knowledge and concern about the traditional applications have brought new attention to the industry and the search for a novel coating agent that is effective, safe and environmentally friendly. A new type of organic rice seed coating agent was developed using liquid-based polymeric adhesives. By using chitosan as the main raw material, modified with sodium hydroxide and polymerised with plant growth regulators and other additives, the novel seed coating agent is a safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative. RESULTS: The novel seed coating agent significantly enhanced sprout growth over traditional agents. We found it has obvious biological advantages: it stimulates the seedling growth of rice, advances the growth of root, improves root activity and increases the crop yield in the germination test and field trial. Compared with the traditional rice seed coating agent, the crop yield of seeds coated by the novel seed coating agent was increased by 5%, and at 25% less cost. The fungal inhibition test of the novel seed coating agent and acute toxicity test on fish showed that it has an obvious fungal inhibitory effect and a higher safety index during usage and disposal. CONCLUSION: This result suggests that treating seeds with the novel seed coating agent has significant agricultural implications through the enhanced seed vigour as reflected in growth. It is efficient and effective, resulting in better seed and crop protection. The novel seed coating agent demonstrates unique characteristics with great economic and environmental benefits. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
The Stellar Kinematic Fields of NGC 3379

We have measured the stellar kinematic profiles of NGC 3379 along four position angles, using absorption lines in spectra obtained with the Multiple Mirror Telescope. We derive a far more detailed description of the kinematic fields through the main body of the galaxy than could be obtained from previous work. Our data extend 90″ from the center, at essentially seeing-limited resolution out to 17″. The derived mean velocities and dispersions have total errors (internal and systematic) better than ±10 km s-1, and frequently better than 5 km s-1, out to 55″. We find very weak (3 km s-1) rotation on the minor axis interior to 12″ and no detectable rotation above 6 km s-1 from 12″ to 50″ or above 16 km s-1 out to 90″ (95% confidence limits). However, a Fourier reconstruction of the mean velocity field from all four sampled PAs does indicate a ∼5° twist of the kinematic major axis, in the direction opposite to the known isophotal twist. The h3 and h4 parameters are found to be generally small over the entire observed region. The azimuthally averaged dispersion profile joins smoothly at large radii with the velocity dispersions of planetary nebulae. Unexpectedly, we find sharp bends in the major axis rotation curve, also visible (though less pronounced) on the diagonal position angles. The outermost bend closely coincides in position with other sharp kinematic features: an abrupt flattening of the dispersion profile, and local peaks in h3 and h4. All of these features are in a photometrically interesting region in which the surface brightness profile departs significantly from an r1/4 law. Features such as these are not generally known in elliptical galaxies owing to a lack of data at comparable resolution. Very similar behavior, however, is seen the kinematics of the edge-on S0 galaxy NGC 3115. We discuss the suggestion that NGC 3379 could be a misclassified S0 galaxy; preliminary results from dynamical modeling indicate that it may be a flattened, weakly triaxial system seen in an orientation that makes it appear round.
Tracking cortical entrainment in neural activity: auditory processes in human temporal cortex

A primary objective for cognitive neuroscience is to identify how features of the sensory environment are encoded in neural activity. Current auditory models of loudness perception can be used to make detailed predictions about the neural activity of the cortex as an individual listens to speech. We used two such models (loudness-sones and loudness-phons), varying in their psychophysiological realism, to predict the instantaneous loudness contours produced by 480 isolated words. These two sets of 480 contours were used to search for electrophysiological evidence of loudness processing in whole-brain recordings of electro- and magneto-encephalographic (EMEG) activity, recorded while subjects listened to the words. The technique identified a bilateral sequence of loudness processes, predicted by the more realistic loudness-sones model, that begin in auditory cortex at ~80 ms and subsequently reappear, tracking progressively down the superior temporal sulcus (STS) at lags from 230 to 330 ms. The technique was then extended to search for regions sensitive to the fundamental frequency (F0) of the voiced parts of the speech. It identified a bilateral F0 process in auditory cortex at a lag of ~90 ms, which was not followed by activity in STS. The results suggest that loudness information is being used to guide the analysis of the speech stream as it proceeds beyond auditory cortex down STS toward the temporal pole.
Effects of Mulching and Nitrogen on Soil Nitrate-N Distribution, Leaching and Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Maize (Zea mays L.)

Mulching and nitrogen are critical drivers of crop production for smallholders of the Loess Plateau in China. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mulching and nitrogen fertilizer on the soil water content, soil nitrate-N content and vertical distribution in maize root-zone. The experiment was conducted over two consecutive years and used randomly assigned field plots with three replicates. The six treatments consisted of no fertilizer without plastic film (CK), plastic film mulching with no basal fertilizer and no top dressing (MN0), basal fertilizer with no top dressing and no mulching (BN1), plastic film mulching and basal fertilizer with no top dressing (MN1), basal fertilizer and top dressing with no mulching (BN2) and plastic film mulching with basal fertilizer and top dressing (MN2). In the top soil layers, the soil water content was a little high in the plastic film mulching than that without mulching. The mean soil water content from 0 to 40 cm without mulching were 3.35% lower than those measured in the corresponding mulching treatments in 31 days after sowing in 2012. The mulching treatment increased the soil nitrate-N content was observed in the 0–40-cm soil layers. The results indicate that high contents of soil nitrate-N were mainly distributed at 0–20-cm at 31 days after sowing in 2012, and the soil nitrate-N concentration in the MN2 treatment was 1.58 times higher than that did not receive fertilizer. The MN2 treatment greatly increased the soil nitrate-N content in the upper layer of soil (0–40-cm), and the mean soil nitrate-N content was increased nearly 50 mg kg−1 at 105 days after sowing compared with CK treatment in 2012. The soil nitrate-N leaching amount in MN1 treatment was 28.61% and 39.14% lower than BN1 treatment, and the mulch effect attained to 42.55% and 65.27% in MN2 lower than BN2 in both years. The yield increased with an increase in the basal fertilizer, top dressing and plastic film mulching, and the grain yield increase ranged from 31.41% to 83.61% in two consecutive years. The MN1 and MN2 treatment is recommended because it increased the grain yield and improved the fertilizer use efficiency, compared with the no-mulching treatment.
Analysis of Zero-Padded Optimal Transceivers

This paper analyzes both the mean-square error (MSE) and the mutual information in block-based transceivers that employ zero-padding. We consider both linear transceivers and decision-feedback equalizers (DFE) that minimize the MSE of symbols. These systems may enjoy the zero-forcing property or not, and may use unitary precoder or not. We demonstrate mathematically that the MSE/mutual information related to these transceivers are: (i) monotone increasing/decreasing functions of the number of transmitted symbols per block; (ii) monotone decreasing/increasing functions of the number of redundant data used in the equalization process of a block; and (iii) increased/decreased whenever non-minimum phase channels are utilized, instead of their minimum phase counterparts, assuming that one does not use the whole received data block to estimate the transmitted signal. As consequence of the former results, we also prove that, for both DFE and minimum error-probability systems, the average error-probability of symbols maintains the same monotonic behavior as the average MSE of symbols. The theoretical results do not include pure minimum MSE-based systems.
TR-CIS-2006-02 03 / 20 / 2006 Department of Computer and Information Science

Practical applications that employ entropy coding for large alphabets often partition the alphabet set into two or more layers and encode each symbol by using some suitable prefix coding for each layer. In this paper, we formulate the problem of finding an alphabet partitioning for the design of a two-layer semi-adaptive code as an optimization problem, and give a solution based on dynamic programming. However, the complexity of the dynamic programming approach can be quite prohibitive for a long sequence and a very large alphabet size. Hence, we also give a simple greedy heuristic algorithm whose running time is linear in the length of the input sequence, irrespective of the underlying alphabet size. Although our dynamic programming and greedy algorithms do not provide a globally optimal solution for the alphabet partitioning problem, experimental results demonstrate that superior prefix coding schemes for large A preliminary version of this paper appeared in Proc. IEEE Data Compression Conference (DCC ’03), pp. 372-381, March 2003. dchen@cis.poly.edu. Research supported by NSF Grant CCF-0118915. yjc@poly.edu. Research supported in part by NSF Grant CCF-0118915, NSF CAREER Grant CCF-0093373, and NSF Grant CCF-0541255. memon@poly.edu. Research supported in part by NSF Grant CCF-0118915 and NSF Grant CCF-0208678. xwu@poly.edu. Research supported in part by NSF Grant CCF-0208678.
Food security in an Asian transitional economy : the Cambodian experience

i Glossary . iii Acknowledgements . v Chapter One—Introduction . 1 1) Economic Trends . 2 2) Food Security and Poverty . 4 3) Organisation of the Study . 7 Chapter Two—Conceptual Framework and Methodological Notes . 9 1) The Conceptual Framework . 9 2) Methodological Approach . 11 3) An Approach to the Socio-Economic Stratification of Households . 13 Chapter Three—The Status of Food Security . 15 1) Rice and Food Consumption . 15 2) The Extent of Poverty . 21 3) Conclusion . 24 Chapter Four—The Structure of Income . 25 1) Levels and Sources . 25 2) Seasonal Fluctuations . 27 3) Income Composition and Distribution . 27 4) Discussion . 28 Chapter Five—The Distribution of Assets . 29 1) Asset Ownership . 29 Chapter Six—Rice Production, Prices and Marketed Surplus . 33 1) Participation and Productivity . 33 2) Marketed Surplus . 34 Chapter Seven—Market Participation . 39 1) The Land Market . 39 2) The Market for Animals . 40 3) The Tenancy Market . 40 4) The Labour Market . 41 5) The Credit Market . 45 6) Informal Credit—A Disaggregated View . 47 7) Conclusion . 50 Chapter Eight—Crises, Adjustments and Responses . 51 1) The Structure of Crises . 52 2) Responses to Crises . 56 Chapter Nine—Conclusion . 59 1) Review of Findings . 59 2) Policy Implications . 61 Appendix One—Note on Socio-Economic Classification of Households . 65 Appendix Two—Basic Characteristics of the Study Villages . 67 Appendix Three—Additional Data on Food Security . 71 Appendix Four—Additional Data on Income Distribution . 75 Appendix Five—Additional Data on Asset Distribution . 79 Appendix Six—Additional Data on Market Participation . 81 Bibliography . 85 This working paper is one of three related papers stemming from a two-year study on food security in rural Cambodia conducted by the Cambodia Development Resource Institute and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. The other two papers are Vincent Tickner, ‘Food Security in Cambodia: A Preliminary Assessment’ (Geneva: UNRISD, October 1996) Discussion Paper 80, and John P. McAndrew, ‘Interdependence in Household Livelihood Strategies in Two Cambodian Villages’ (Phnom Penh: CDRI, December 1998) Working Paper 7. The CDRI/UNRISD food security project was supported by a grant from DANIDA.
Increasing Web accessibility through an assisted color specification interface for colorblind people

Nowadays web accessibility refers mainly to users with severe disabilities, neglecting colorblind people, i.e., people lacking a chromatic dimension at receptor level. As a consequence, a wrong usage of colors in a web site, in terms of red or green, together with blue or yellow, may result in a loss of information. Color models and color selection strategies proposed so far fail to accurately address such issues. This article describes a module of the VisAwis (VISual Accessibility for Web Interfaces) project that, following a compromise between usability and accessibility, allow color blind people to select distinguishable colors taking into account their specific missing receptor.
Mutate large, but inherit small ! On the analysis of rescaled mutations in (1, λ)-ES with noisy fitness data

The paper presents the asymptotical analysis of a technique for improving the convergence of evolution strategies (ES) on noisy fitness data. This technique that may be called Mutate large, but inherit small, is discussed in light of the EPP (evolutionary progress principle). The derivation of the progress rate formula is sketched, its predictions are compared with experiments, and its limitations are shown. The dynamical behavior of the ES is investigated. It will be shown that standard self-adaptation has considerable problems to drive the ES in its optimum working regime. Remedies are provided to improve the self-adaptation.
Effect of mobile phone radiation on pentylenetetrazole-induced seizure threshold in mice

Objective(s): Scientific interest in potential mobile phone impact on human brain and performance has significantly increased in recent years. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of mobile phone radiation on seizure threshold in mice. Materials and methods: BALB/c male mice were randomly divided into three groups: control, acute, and chronic mobile phone radiation for 30, 60, and 90 min with frequency 900 to 950 MHz and pulse of 217 Hz. The chronic group received 30 days of radiation, while the acute group received only once. The intravenous infusion of pentylenetetrazole (5 mg/ml) was used to induce seizure signs. Results: Although acute mobile radiation did not change seizure threshold, chronic radiation decreased the clonic and tonic seizure thresholds significantly. Conclusion: Our data suggests that the continued and prolonged contact with the mobile phone radiation might increase the risk of seizure attacks and should be limited.
Secure data access control for multi-authority Quantum based cloud storage

An efficient way of ensuring security in cloud is to give secure data access control among untrusted cloud server. Hence to improve the security, a new system could be introduced such as Quantum Security Scheme which invokes Quantum gates for encryption purpose. Quantum cryptography has been rapidly developing these days due to its efficient service which is provided by means of key generation and key distribution. Quantum Ciphertext-Policy Attribute Based Encryption (QCP-ABE) is a promising technique for data access control on encrypted data. This scheme also achieves mutual authentication among those authorities involving in the system and it also achieves both forward and backward security.
A Survey of Algorithms for Convex Multicommodity Flow Problems

Routing problems appear frequently when dealing with the operation of communication or transportation networks. Among them, the message routing problem plays a determinant role in the optimization of network performance. Much of the motivation for this work comes from this problem which is shown to belong to the class of nonlinear convex multicommodity flow problems. This paper emphasizes the message routing problem in data networks, but it includes a broader literature overview of convex multicommodity flow problems. We present and discuss the main solution techniques proposed for solving this class of large-scale convex optimization problems. We conduct some numerical experiments on the message routing problem with four different techniques.