Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LQG-Based Real-Time Scheduling and Control Codesign

Having multiple control tasks concurrently running on a single computing platform increases the processor utilization but degrades the control performance due to delay and jitter in the loops. In scheduling and control codesign, the objective is to optimize the combined performance of all the controllers, subject to a schedulability constraint. The codesign procedure consists of selecting task parameters, e.g., periods and priorities, as well as designing the controllers so that the schedulinginduced delay and jitter are taken into account. In the thesis, four linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) codesign methods are proposed: stochastic, periodic, harmonic, and robust LQG codesign. In stochastic LQG codesign, the delay distributions are calculated at design-time. Then LQG controllers are designed assuming these delay distributions. The obtained task periods generally give rise to infinite hyperperiods. This can be avoided by perturbing the periods slightly in order to obtain a finite hyperperiod, yielding a periodic delay pattern for the control loops. The periodicity is then accounted for by using periodic LQG control design, resulting in a periodic sequence of feedback gains for each controller. In harmonic LQG codesign, again the task periods are perturbed, but this time to make the periods harmonic. The scheduling-induced delays will be constant and standard LQG design can be applied. Finally, a robust LQG codesign method is presented. The design is based on convex optimization and guarantees system robustness in the presence of delay and jitter. A new rule of thumb for initial sampling period assignment is proposed. We propose a jitter-aware priority and period assignment codesign method to optimize the overall system performance. A large evaluation of the proposed four codesign methods is performed using the Jitterbug toolbox. All of the four methods lead to improved control performance compared to earlier work. The harmonic scheduling and control codesign shows the largest overall improvements.
DNA Repair, Cancer and Cancer Therapy

The success of an organism to survive from one generation to the next is largely dependent upon the fidelity of replication of its genetic material, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Unfortunately, DNA in living cell is labile and subject to many chemical alterations, and these alterations, if not corrected, can to lead to diseases such as cancer (Fig. 1) (Pallis & Karamouzis, 2010). All eukaryotic cells have evolved a multifaceted response to counteract the potentially deleterious effects of DNA damage (Fig. 2). Upon sensing DNA damage, cell cycle checkpoints are activated to arrest cell cycle progression to allow time for repair before the damage is passed on to the next generation of cells. Depending on the type of damage, other cellular mechanisms such as transcriptional program activation, DNA repair pathways, and apoptosis can also be induced. All of these processes are coordinated so the genetic material is faithfully maintained, duplicated, and segregated within the cell. Important goals of cancer research are to determine the molecular mechanisms that are involved in the formation of genetic changes in human genes as a consequence of DNA mutations and to explain how cancer cells withstand and counteract DNA damage by the use of different defense mechanisms ranging from free radical scavengers to sophisticated DNA repair mechanisms.
Elnes study of carbon K-edge spectra of plasma deposited carbon films

Electron energy loss spectroscopy was used to investigate the bonding of plasma deposited carbon films. The experimental conditions include the use of a specific collection angle for which the shape of the spectra is free of the orientation dependency usually encountered in graphite due to its anisotropic structure. The first quantification process of the energy loss near-edge structure was performed by a standard fit of the collected spectrum, corrected for background and multiple scattering, with three Gaussian functions followed by a comparison with the graphite spectrum obtained under equivalent experimental conditions. In a second approach a fitting model directly incorporating the background subtraction and multiple scattering removal was applied. The final numerical results are interpreted in view of the deposition conditions of the films and the actual fitting procedure with the related choice of parameters.
Application of kernel ridge regression to network levelling via Mathematica

A new method based on support vector regression (SVR) has been developed for network levelling. Employing zero insensitive margin and first order polynomial kernel, the general form of SVR has been reduced to a kernel ridge regressor, which is a linear function approximator. Then this function approximation problem can be transformed into an adjustment problem, simply using proper recasting of the variables. Only one part of the measured values (training equations) is considered in the adjustment, the other part of them (test equations) is used to compute the risk of the data generalization. Then the quality of the estimation can be measured by computing the performance index of the levelling, a value which is a trade off between adjustment quality (residual of the test equations) and the adjustment risk (the ratio of the residual of the test equations and that of the training equations). This performance index can be optimized with the regularization term of the ridge regressor. The algorithm was implemented in Mathematica 5.1 and demonstrated by numerical example.
Detection of resistance genes and evaluation of water quality at zoo lakes in Brazil

The investigation of the presence of antibiotic-resistance genes in aquatic environments is important to identify possible reservoirs of resistant microorganisms that could be a threat to human and animal health. The aims of this study were to analyze the presence of genes conferring resistance to antimicrobials in the aquatic environment and to assess the quality of water in zoo lakes. Results showed a pattern of genes conferring resistance to multiple antibiotics and turbidity, which was expected to be due to the presence of contaminants. The most frequent genes were sul I and sul II (sulfonamides), which were present in all the lakes, followed by genes encoding β-lactamases such as blaPSE I (77.8%) and ampC (66.7%). However, tet(K), tet(M), and ermC genes were not detected. There was a positive correlation between the number of Enterobacteriaceae and resistance genes. In conclusion, the source of contamination of all lakes was probably the neighboring urban sewage or wastewater that increased the frequency of the total coliforms and resistance genes, which in turn posed a threat to the conservation of the animal life inhabiting the zoo.
Appropriate Threshold Level of Inflation for Economic Growth: Evidence from the Three Founding EAC Countries

This paper empirically estimated threshold level of inflation, which is conducive for economic growth in the three founding EAC countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda using panel data set for the period 1970 to 2013. The non-linear quadratic model was used to estimate the threshold level or the turning point beyond which inflation exerts a negative impact on economic growth. To examine the inflation-growth relationship other moderating variables were included in the model. It was found that credit to GDP ratio, degree of openness of the economy and foreign direct investment flows to EAC member states have significant and positive impact on growth. In determining threshold level of inflation for the three EAC member states, regression results of the random effect model establish that the average rate of inflation beyond 8.46 percent has negative and significant impact on economic growth. For individual countries, findings from the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR), which treats each country separately, indicate that the optimal levels of inflation for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are 6.77 percent, 8.80 percent and 8.41 percent, respectively, beyond which inflation starts exerting cost on economic growth. The implication for monetary policy is that policy makers in the EAC member countries need to continue putting effort in achieving and maintaining single-digit level of inflation to support economic growth.
Democratization and Child Mortality Can democratic reform improve the situation for the children of the current generation

The Millennium Development Goals call for a two-thirds reduction in under-five mortality rate. Can democratic reforms contribute to this goal? The focus of previous studies has mainly been on verifying the existence of a relationship between democracy and child mortality and not on the dynamics of the relationship. This paper addresses this question by empirically testing the dynamic effects of important changes in the level of democrac y on the percentage change in child mortality using a distributed lag model. The findings are that during the 5 to 25 years following a democratic transition child mortality decreases significantly. Following this decrease, child mortality stabilizes at a new, lower level. Disaggregating democratic transitions into different subcomponents the finding is that the single most important aspect for child mortality is the competitiveness of execut ive recruitment. The results on the effects of an autocratic experience mirror those of a democratic transition, child mortality increases for a number of years but the results are not as stable as for positive democratic changes .
Performance in a Pitch Memory Task by Visually Handicapped Children and Youths

The present work discusses results concerning sound perception obtained in a pitch memorization experiment for blind and visually impaired subjects (children and teenagers). Listeners were divided into two age groups: 7–13 year olds and 14–18 year olds. The study tested 20 individuals (8 congenitally blind and 12 visually impaired) and 20 sighted persons comprising reference groups. The duration of the experiments was as short as possible due to the fact that our listeners were children. To date, no study has described results of such experiment for blind/visually handicapped children and teenagers. In the pitch memory experiment blind teenagers outperformed blind children and both age groups of visually impaired subjects in two out of three tested cases. These results may have implications for the development of auditory training in orientation and mobility of young visually handicapped people.
Lagoon Sediment Dynamics: A Coupled Model to Study a Medium-Term Silting of Tidal Channels

The silting of tidal channels is a natural process that affects several shallow lagoons and makes it difficult to navigate, requiring regular maintenance interventions. This phenomenon is the result of the complex non-linear interaction between tidal currents and wave motion. In this work, the morphodynamic evolution of the Marano and Grado lagoon is investigated by means of a two-dimensional horizontal (2DH) morphological-hydrodynamic and a spectral coupled model. An innovative procedure to reproduce the overall bathymetric changes in the medium term and, in particular, the volumes deposited inside channels, is presented. An average year with a sequence of winds and tides acting over that time was reconstructed, carrying out cross correlation techniques and spectral analyses of measured data. The predicted morphological evolution matches the annual dredged volumes in the lagoon critical branches and shows the distribution of erosion and deposition of cohesive sediments according to spatially variable values of critical shear stress.
Terrestrial climate variability and seasonality changes in the Mediterranean region between 15 000 and 4000 years BP deduced from marine pollen records

Abstract. Pollen-based climate reconstructions were performed on two high-resolution pollen marines cores from the Alboran and Aegean Seas in order to unravel the climatic variability in the coastal settings of the Mediterranean region between 15 000 and 4000 years BP (the Lateglacial, and early to mid-Holocene). The quantitative climate reconstructions for the Alboran and Aegean Sea records focus mainly on the reconstruction of the seasonality changes (temperatures and precipitation), a crucial parameter in the Mediterranean region. This study is based on a multi-method approach comprising 3 methods: the Modern Analogues Technique (MAT), the recent Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling/Generalized Additive Model method (NMDS/GAM) and Partial Least Squares regression (PLS). The climate signal inferred from this comparative approach confirms that cold and dry conditions prevailed in the Mediterranean region during the Oldest and Younger Dryas periods, while temperate conditions prevailed during the Bolling/Allerod and the Holocene. Our records suggest a West/East gradient of decreasing precipitation across the Mediterranean region during the cooler Late-glacial and early Holocene periods, similar to present-day conditions. Winter precipitation was highest during warm intervals and lowest during cooling phases. Several short-lived cool intervals (i.e. Older Dryas, another oscillation after this one (GI-1c2), Gerzensee/Preboreal Oscillations, 8.2 ka event, Bond events) connected to the North Atlantic climate system are documented in the Alboran and Aegean Sea records indicating that the climate oscillations associated with the successive steps of the deglaciation in the North Atlantic area occurred in both the western and eastern Mediterranean regions. This observation confirms the presence of strong climatic linkages between the North Atlantic and Mediterranean regions.
A ug 2 01 8 The Entropy Anomaly and the Linear Irreversible Thermodynamics

The irreversible currents and entropy production rate of a dilute colloidal suspension are calculated using linear irreversible thermodynamics and the linear response theory. The “anomalous” or “hidden” entropy that has been the subject of recent discussion in the context of stochastic thermodynamics is fully accounted for in these classical frameworks. We show that the two distinct formulations lead to identical results as long as the local equilibrium assumption, or equivalently the linear response theory, is valid.
Revising the flaming model: examining personality traits as predictors of flaming motives in online forums

This study has revised the first flaming model developed by Alonzo and Aiken (2004) and tried to analyze flaming in online forums using the revised model. The revised flaming model, based on the Uses and Gratifications theory and McGuire’s motivation theory, implies that personality traits predict flaming in online forums. In the model, three personality traits (Disinhibition, Worrying and Assertiveness) are linked with six flaming motives (Pass time, Entertainment, Escape, Relaxation, Status-enhancement and Anonymity) and analyzed through several hierarchical regression analyses. It was concluded that the current flaming model was not suitable for analyzing flaming in online forums. All hypotheses were rejected, suggesting that personality traits do not predict flaming in online forums. However, due to the low means of the flaming motives it is arguable whether this conclusion is right. Most of the respondents involved in the sample size did not flame which makes it difficult to analyze the flaming model. Besides the personality traits, several control variables also were analyzed for the flaming model. Based on the results, the control variables Age and Spending time on a forum showed a significant effect on several flaming motives. Age was significant with Pass time and Entertainment. Spending time on a forum showed a significant effect with Pass time, Escape and Relaxation. Although significant, both control variables were negatively associated with a negative beta coefficient, leading to the conclusion that younger people and people who spent less time on the forum, would flame more in online forums. In sum, the current flaming model has failed to show any significance; thus modifications are needed for future research.
Determinants that Influencing the Adoption of E-HRM: An Empirical Study on Bangladesh

Nowadays, information systems (ISs) have tremendous impact on processes and practices of human resource management (HRM). Realizing the effectiveness and efficiency of ISs, now, human resource (HR) managers are reliant on electronic human resource management (E-HRM) – an information system to accomplish HR activities. This system is implemented to reduce the administrative burden for HR professional thus they can deliver better services to firm’s stakeholders (e.g., employees, managers). If the E-HRM is not adopted properly, management of human resource in an organization cannot work smoothly. This paper aims at exploring the determinants that influence the adaptation decision for E-HRM among firms in Bangladesh. This study developed research framework based on the theoretical foundation and previous literature in order to better investigate the relationship between individual, organizational, technological, and environmental determinants, and E-HRM adoption. A total number of 331 respondents were considered from forty six large scale private sector organizations in Bangladesh using stratified random sampling. Employees of the organizations responded a close-ended questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale. Here, data was analyzed by statistical tools, for example, descriptive statistics, and factor analysis. They study found top level management support, employee’s individual attributes, system complexity, IT infrastructure, and industry pressure as the most influential determinants that influencing the adoption decision for E-HRM. Limitations and policy implications are discussed at the end of this paper. The scope of future studies is also addressed.
Design and Implementation of Fingerprint Identification System Based on KNN Neural Network

Fingerprint identification and recognition are considered popular technique in many security and law enforcement applications. The aim of this paper is to present a proposed authentication system based on fingerprint as biometric type, which is capable of recognizing persons with high level of confidence and minimum error rate. The designed system is implemented using Matlab 2015b and tested on a set of fingerprint images gathered from 90 different persons with 8 samples for each using Futronic’s FS80 USB2.0 Fingerprint Scanner and the ftrScanApiEx.exe program. An efficient image enhancement algorithm is used to improve the clarity (contrast) of the ridge structures in a fingerprint. After that core point and candidate core points are extracted for each Fingerprint image and feature vector have been extracted for each point using filterbank_based algorithm. Also, for the matching two neural networks: the KNN neural network. In addition, the matching results of the two matching methods were calculated and compared in other papers using some performance evaluation factors. A threshold has been proposed and used to provide the rejection for the fingerprint images that does not belong to the database and the experimental results show that the KNN technique have a recognition rate equal to 93.9683% in a threshold equal to 70%.
Dust processing in elliptical galaxies

We reconsider the origin and processing of dust in elliptical galaxies. We theoretically formulate the evolution of grain size distribution, taking into account dust supply from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and dust destruction by sputtering in the hot interstellar medium (ISM), whose temperature evolution is treated by including two cooling paths: gas emission and dust emission (i.e. gas cooling and dust cooling). With our new full treatment of grain size distribution, we confirm that dust destruction by sputtering is too efficient to explain the observed dust abundance even if AGB stars continue to supply dust grains, and that, except for the case where the initial dust-to-gas ratio in the hot gas is as high as ∼0.01, dust cooling is negligible compared with gas cooling. However, we show that, contrary to previous expectations, cooling does not help to protect the dust; rather, the sputtering efficiency is raised by the gas compression as a result of cooling. We additionally consider grain growth after the gas cools down. Dust growth by the accretion of gas-phase metals in the cold medium increase the dust-to-gas ratio up to ∼10 −3 if this process lasts 10/(nH/10 3 cm −3 ) Myr, where nH is the number density of hydrogen nuclei. We show that the accretion of gas-phase metals is a viable mechanism of increasing the dust abundance in elliptical galaxies to a level consistent with observations, and that the steepness of observed extinction curves is better explained with grain growth by accretion.
Spurious Modes Reduction in a Patch Antenna Using an EBG-Based Microstrip Transmission Line Filter

In this paper, a novel dual planar electromagnetic bandgap (DP-EBG) microstrip structure is investigated to suppress the spurious radiation of the patch antenna. It is demonstrated that the proposed structure achieves a ultra-wide stopband and excellent passband performance within a compact circuit area. Utilizing such special features, two units of the DP-EBG structure are employed in the feed line of patch antenna with the aim of suppressing harmonics and other spurious modes. The calculated and experimental results all verify that the application of this DP-EBG structure not only drastically diminishes spurious radiations of 2nd » 6th harmonics in a broad frequency band, but also overcomes some shortages of other EBG microstrip antennas introduced in previous research such as large back radiation or beam squint. Besides that, by adjusting the separation between the DP-EBG structure constructed in the feed line and the patch's bottom edge in a moderate distance, the procedure for designing the EBG patch antenna working on a certain frequency with the goal of reducing spurious radiation is simplifled.
Spontaneous nucleation and dynamics of kink defects in zigzag arrays of trapped ions

The spontaneous nucleation and dynamics of topological kink defects have been studied in trapped arrays of 41-43 Yb ions. The number of kinks formed as a function of quench rate across the linear-zigzag transition is measured in the under-damped regime of the inhomogeneous Kibble-Zurek theory. The experimental results agree well with molecular dynamics simulations, which show how losses mask the intrinsic nucleation rate. Simulations indicate that doubling the ion number and optimization of laser cooling can help reduce the effect of losses. A range of kink dynamics is observed including configural change, motion and lifetime, and behavioral sensitivity to ion number.