Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microwave scattering from ice crystals: how much parameters can differ from equal volume spheres

Abstract. The scattering properties of ice crystals at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths are fundamental for their measurement with radars or radiometers as well as for many other applications in remote sensing. Only the scattering properties of homogeneous spheres can be computed in a mathematically exact way using the Mie theory. Therefore, for many approaches ice crystals and other frozen hydrometeors are approximated by ice spheres that have the same volume as the crystal or hydrometeor – so called equal volume spheres. However, many frozen hydrometeors are non-spherical. They exist in a huge variety of shapes and exhibit different mixtures of ice, water and air. Therefore it is desirable to accurately compute scattering from non-spherical particles in order to clearly understand the effect the shape of a hydrometeor has on its scattering pattern. In this study, single scattering parameters like scattering cross section (Csca) and absorption cross section (Cabs) were calculated for six pristine ice crystals by means of the Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA). The calculations were carried out for frequencies from 1 GHz to 300 GHz – leading to size parameters of up to 4. The study calculates the scattering parameters for randomly oriented ice crystals and investigates to what extent the exact scattering parameters can differ from an approximation by equal volume spheres.
Single photons from vacuum

E. Sánchez-Burillo,1 L. Martín-Moreno,2 J. J. García-Ripoll,3 and D. Zueco2, 4 Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragon and Departamento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada, CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain Instituto de Fisica Fundamental, IFF-CSIC, Calle Serrano 113b, Madrid E-28006 Fundacion ARAID, Paseo Maria Agustin 36, E-50004 Zaragoza, Spain (Dated: October 26, 2018)
Mirrors and Shadows: The Digital Aestheticisation of Oneself

Digital cameras have made self-portraits increasingly common, and frequently we post our self-portraits online. This paper compares online photographic self-portraiture with self-representations in weblogs and the creation of visual avatars. Contemporary projects and quotidian practice is connected to the history of self-writing and self-portraiture, as well as to psychoanalytic theories of how we use our own mirror images to come to an understanding of our selves. The paper concludes that our contemporary fascination with reflections and shadows is an expression of our newfound subjectivity as individuals able to represent ourselves rather than simply succumb to the generalisations of mass media.
beneficial effects Of ethyl-pyruvate On diabetic nephrOpathy : an experimental and ultrastructural study

1Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Dicle, DiyarbakIr, Turkey 2Department of Internal Diseases Division of Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Dicle, DiyarbakIr, Turkey 3Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Dicle, DiyarbakIr, Turkey 4Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cukurova, Adana, Turkey 5Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Dicle, DiyarbakIr, Turkey
Reversible light-stimulated activation and deactivation of .alpha.-chymotrypsin by its immobilization in photoisomerizable copolymers

The enzyme α-chymotrypsin was immobilized in acrylamide copolymers which contain photoisomerizable components. The resulting enzyme-copolymer assemblies reveal photoswitchable «on-off» biocatalytic activities. Three kinds of acrylamide copolymers cross-linked with 4-(methacryloylamino)azobenzene (polymer 1) 1-[β-(methacryloxy)-ethyl]-3,3-dimethyl-6-nitrospiro[indoline-2,2'-[2H-1]benzopyran] (polymer 2), and bis [4-(dimethylamino)phenyl] (4-vinylphenyl)methyl leucohydroxide (polymer 3) were used to immobilize the enzyme. The enzyme reveals bioactivity (position «on») in the copolymer isomer states 1b, 2b, and 3b, respectively, while its activity is blocked (position «off») in copolymers 1a, 2a, and 3a, respectively
An adaptive parameterization for efficient material acquisition and rendering

One of the key ingredients of any physically based rendering system is a detailed specification characterizing the interaction of light and matter of all materials present in a scene, typically via the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF). Despite their utility, access to real-world BRDF datasets remains limited: this is because measurements involve scanning a four-dimensional domain at sufficient resolution, a tedious and often infeasibly time-consuming process. We propose a new parameterization that automatically adapts to the behavior of a material, warping the underlying 4D domain so that most of the volume maps to regions where the BRDF takes on non-negligible values, while irrelevant regions are strongly compressed. This adaptation only requires a brief 1D or 2D measurement of the material's retro-reflective properties. Our parameterization is unified in the sense that it combines several steps that previously required intermediate data conversions: the same mapping can simultaneously be used for BRDF acquisition, storage, and it supports efficient Monte Carlo sample generation. We observe that the above desiderata are satisfied by a core operation present in modern rendering systems, which maps uniform variates to direction samples that are proportional to an analytic BRDF. Based on this insight, we define our adaptive parameterization as an invertible, retro-reflectively driven mapping between the parametric and directional domains. We are able to create noise-free renderings of existing BRDF datasets after conversion into our representation with the added benefit that the warped data is significantly more compact, requiring 16KiB and 544KiB per spectral channel for isotropic and anisotropic specimens, respectively. Finally, we show how to modify an existing gonio-photometer to provide the needed retro-reflection measurements. Acquisition then proceeds within a 4D space that is warped by our parameterization. We demonstrate the efficacy of this scheme by acquiring the first set of spectral BRDFs of surfaces exhibiting arbitrary roughness, including anisotropy.
The ecological importance of Kalmia latifolia and Rhododendron maximum in the deciduous forest of the southern Appalachians

Carl D. Monk Douglas T. McGinty '. and Frank P. Day, Jr. Botany Department and Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 MONK, C. D. , D. T. McGiNTY AND F. P. DAY, JR. (Univ. Georgia, Athens, GA 30602). Ecological importance of Kalmia latifolia and Rhododendron maximum in the deciduous forest of the southern Appalachians. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 112:187-193 1985. —Mountain laurel and rosebay rhododendron comprise an important evergreen component in the deciduous forests of the southern Appalachians. These evergreen, sclerophyllous shrubs are widely distributed over the landscape with Kalmia associated with drier, more exposed sites and Rhododendron associated with more mesic sites. Dense stands of these two species may interfere with tree establishment and may contribute as much as 32 per cent to the total standing crop of leaf biomass in some forests. Even though nutrient concentrations of their leaves are generally lower than that of deciduous trees, leaf longevity permits significant storage of nutrients. Resorption of N, P and K. prior to leaf fall is an important nutrient flux.
Speech enhancement and recognition for reverberant speech: overview of the NTT REVERB challenge system

Recently, automatic speech recognition (ASR) technologies are being deployed more and more in actual products. However, current applications still require the use of closetalking microphones to achieve reasonable speech recognition performance. To further expand the usage of ASR, there is a need to make systems work reliably in hands-free situations. In such scenarios, speech captured at a distant microphone is degraded by noise and reverberation. The problem of noise robustness has attracted much attention and has been evaluated through several benchmarks [1], [2], [3], [4]. In contrast, robustness to reverberation has remained a challenging problem [5] and no evaluation benchmark was available until recently. The REVERB challenge 2014 [6], [7] was organized to resolve this situation by proposing a common reverberant speech database to evaluate recent progress in the field of reverberant speech enhancement and recognition. In this paper, we briefly review the system we proposed for reverberant speech recognition that combines linear
Graphical User Interface for Adaptive Human-Robot Interaction Design in Educational Activities Creation

Robots and interactive devices are being successfully applied in education to increase the students cognitive experience and, consequently, their learning rate. However, there is a lack of social robots with adaptive skills that can be easily programmed. In this paper, a Graphical User Interface to create, perform and evaluate educational activities with autonomous robots is presented. The interface runs in a system that provides adaptation and personalization through open source techniques for autonomous analysis and recognition of speech, focus deviation and facial emotion. During the activity execution, the adaptive algorithm detects student’s body signals and verbal responses to adapt the addressed content to harder or easier questions. After creating and running an activity, all sessions’ evaluation and information can be accessed for visual analysis, as well as students’ preferences throughout the interaction.
Issues Affecting Omanization of the Hotel Sector

The Government of the Sultanate of Oman focuses on two main areas: To diversify the country’s economy away from its reliance on oil, and to focus on the Omanization plan which aims not only to ensure jobs for citizens but also to reduce dependence on expatriates in search of self-dependence in human resources. The economic benefits generated by tourism have encouraged the Government of the Sultanate of Oman to consider it as a sector of strategic importance. Tourism development has been given special attention by the Sultanate of Oman’s government aspiring that the industry would assist in executing the Omanization plan, create direct job opportunities as well as to boost the economy. The study tried to unveil the issues that affect Omanization of the hotel sector. The following issues were found to have a serious impact on Omanization of the sector: Turnover and retention, continuity and job security, working conditions, education and training, skills gaps and shortage, social attitudes (socio-cultural issues), and image of hospitality career. Based on the study, recommendations and courses of actions were offered to the Government, Industry, and Educational institutions.
Intercalation Characteristics of 1,1′-Diethyl-2,2′-Cyanine and other Cationic Dyes in Synthetic Saponite: Orientation in the Interlayer

The basal spacings of complexes of saponite with five cationic dyes, 1,1′-diethyl-2,2′-cyanine, crystal violet, methylene blue, 1,1′-diethyl-2,2′-carbocyanine, and 1,1′-diethyl-2,2′-dicarbocyanine, varied with degree of saturation of each dye. At low loading of dye to saponite, each cationic dye showed nearly the same absorption spectrum in the UV-visible region as that of its dilute aqueous solution, whereas the spectrum changed distinctly at high loading. With increasing degree of dye loading, the absorption band shifted to longer wavelength for 1,1′-diethyl-2,2′-cyanine (J band) and to shorter wavelength for the others (D, H bands). On the basis of the basal spacing of each respective dye-clay complex, the orientation of the intercalated dye molecules is proposed as follows: the major plane of the cationic dye lies horizontal to the 2:1 layer surface at low loading. With increasing loading, the dye molecules interact with adjacent dye molecules and orient vertically to the 2:1 layer at high loading near the cation-exchange capacity.
Regulated Power Gating Technique for PVT Variation-Tolerant SRAM in Data Retention Mode

Power gating technique is one of the most popular leakage power reduction solutions in sub-micrometer SRAM design in data retention mode. As technology scales down more, the stored data has suffered from process, voltage, temperature (PVT) variations more seriously in guaranteeing a reliable data without data loss. In this paper, PVT variation aware noise mitigation circuit is proposed to keep SRAM supply voltage stable to vulnerable noise during retention mode. Regulated power gating technique proved the ability of variation tolerant SRAM compared to the Conventional Diode Clamp Power Gating and the Dual Diode Clamp Power Gating which have often used to save SRAM power consumption in retention mode. The regulated power gating technique shows SRAM cell bias fluctuation is very little change, just 12.4 mV compared to 351.1 mV and 379.4mV in two other schemes. Simulation results are analyzed in impact of voltage, temperature and process variation as well as process corners in 45nm Predictive Transistor Model. Leakage power consumption is also considered in this comparison. The overhead area of the regulator is not considerable compared to the SRAM area.
Maximal Frequent Subgraph Mining

The area of graph mining deals with mining frequent subgraph patterns, graph classification, graph clustering, graph partitioning, graph indexing and so on. In this thesis, we focus only on the area of frequent subgraph mining and more precisely on maximal frequent subgraph mining. The exponential number of possible subgraphs makes the problem of frequent subgraph mining a challenge. The set of maximal frequent subgraphs is much smaller to that of the set of frequent subgraphs, providing ample scope for pruning. MARGIN is a maximal subgraph mining algorithm that moves among promising nodes of the search space along the “border” of the infrequent and frequent subgraphs. This drastically reduces the number of candidate patterns in the search space. Experimental results validate the efficiency and the utility of the technique proposed. MARGIN-d is the extension of the MARGIN algorithm which can be applied to finding disconnected maximal frequent subgraphs. A theoretical comparison with Apriori like algorithms and analysis are presented in this thesis. Further, sometimes frequent subgraph mining problems can find simpler solutions outside the area of frequent subgraph mining by applying itemset mining to graphs of unique edge labels. This can reduce the computational cost drastically. A solution to finding maximal frequent subgraphs for graphs with unique edge labels using itemset mining is presented in the thesis.
Clicking Behaviour with Computer Textual Glosses and Vocabulary Knowledge

Framed within the interaction approach (Mackey, 2012) in second language acquisition, this study investigates if learner-computer interactions can facilitate vocabulary development. Chapelle (2003) considers human-computer interactions as one form of interaction besides the well-documented conversational interaction and the interactions that take place inside the language learner’s mind. Specifically, the study looks at students’ interactions with a computer-aided textual gloss and if the use of such glosses are able to aid the students in their vocabulary development. The purpose of the study is to explore and describe how English as a second language learners use a computer-aided vocabulary gloss in an online reading text to develop their vocabulary knowledge. To track the vocabulary development of the students, tests measuring vocabulary knowledge were designed to evaluate the students’ recognition and productive vocabulary knowledge. Using descriptive statistics together with ANOVA, and correlation measures to analyse data, it was revealed that there were no significant differences in the students’ clicking behaviour and their proficiency levels. Furthermore, it was found out that with more clicks on the glosses, students were able to maintain their vocabulary knowledge after three weeks. The findings seem to auger well for using computer textual glosses for vocabulary development in a second language context.
Speech perception and vocal expression of emotion

Two experiments using identical stimuli were run to determine whether the vocal expression of emotion affects the speed with which listeners can identify emotion words. Sentences were spoken in an emotional tone of voice (Happy, Disgusted, or Petrified), or in a Neutral tone of voice. Participants made speeded lexical decisions about the word or pseudoword in sentence-final position. Critical stimuli were emotion words that were either semantically congruent or incongruent with the tone of voice of the sentence. Experiment 1, with randomised presentation of tone of voice, showed no effect of congruence or incongruence. Experiment 2, with blocked presentation of tone of voice, did show such effects: Reaction times for congruent trials were faster than those for baseline trials and incongruent trials. Results are discussed in terms of expectation (e.g., Kitayama, 1990, 1991, 1996) and emotional connotation, and implications for models of word recognition are considered.
Scientific opinion on the evaluation of substances as acceptable previous cargoes for edible fats and oils

Abstract Shipping of edible fats and oils into Europe is permitted in bulk tanks, provided that the previous cargo is included in a positive list. The European Commission requested EFSA to evaluate the acceptability as previous cargoes for fats and oils the substances calcium lignosulphonate, methyl acetate, ethyl tert‐butyl ether (ETBE) and ammonium sulphate. The evaluation was based on the same criteria as those used for the evaluation of the substances currently on the list in the Annex to Commission Directive 96/3/EC as acceptable previous cargoes for edible fats and oils. Methyl acetate and ETBE meet the criteria for acceptability as previous cargoes. Due to uncertainties, mainly with regard to the composition and toxicity of the low molecular mass fraction, and the fact that the toxicological database is limited to the 40–65 grade and does not cover all grades of calcium lignosulphonate shipped as previous cargoes, the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM Panel) concluded that calcium lignosulphonate does not meet the criteria for acceptability as a previous cargo. Only food‐grade ammonium sulphate meets the criteria for acceptability as a previous cargo due to uncertainties about impurities in other (non‐food) grades.
Mean Structure of the North Atlantic Subtropical Permanent Pycnocline from In Situ Observations

AbstractA new objective algorithm for the characterization of the permanent pycnocline (OAC-P) in subtropical gyres is proposed. OAC-P is based on a pragmatic analysis of vertical density gradient features to identify the permanent pycnocline: OAC-P identifies the permanent pycnocline as the stratified layer found below surface mode waters. OAC-P provides the permanent pycnocline depth, unequivocally associated with a local maximum in the stratification, and top and bottom thicknesses, associated with upward and downward decreases in stratification, respectively. OAC-P uses half Gaussian curves as asymmetric nonlinear analytical models of the stratification peak. It is the first time that an algorithm is proposed to characterize objectively the permanent pycnocline for a region where handling the stronger stratification peak of the seasonal pycnocline is complex. A guideline for how to implement the OAC-P is given, with application to the North Atlantic Ocean Argo data as an example. OAC-P provides a deta.
Cross Layer Design Approach for Efficient Data Delivery Based on IEEE 802.11P in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETS) for City Scenarios

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have been one of the promising technology that has a great interest attention from many researchers over the world. Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) communications environment as a part of ITS opens the way for a wide range of applications such as safety applications, mobility and connectivity for both driver and passengers to exploit the transport systems in a smoothly, efficiently and safer way. Several challenging tasks facing adopting VANET functionality for ITS such as modelling of wireless transmission and routing issues. These research issues have become more critical due to the high mobility of vehicles nodes (transmitters and receivers) and unexpected network topology due to the high speed of nodes. In fact, modelling radio propagation channel in VANET environment which considers as one of a stringent communications environment is a challenging task. The selection of a suitable transmission model plays a key role in the routing decisions for VANET. Different propagation models allow calculating the Received Signal Strength (RSS) based on key environmental properties such as the distance between transmitter vehicle and a receiver vehicle, the gain and antenna height of transmitter and a receiver vehicles. Hence, it is useful to calculate RSS and SNR values for a specific propagation model and then these values can be used later for routing decision in order to find the best path with high SNR. This paper evaluates the performance of different transmission models (freespace, two-ray and log-normal) in terms of Receive Signal Strength (RSS). In addition, the performance of such wireless transmission models for vehicular communication in terms of PDR, throughput and delay is evaluated by applying the proposed cross layer routing approach based on IEEE 802.11p. By using MATLAB, the obtained results confirm the best packet delivery ratio for our proposed approach, where it indicates poor quality of DSSS PHY with high number vehicles. The minimum delay achieved when traffic density is decreased.
Icons++: An Interface that Enables Quick File Operations Using Icons

In graphical user interfaces, when users want to operate on a file, they usually double-click the file icon to launch the associated application and open the file. Several file operations are available in the context menu by right-clicking, such as printing and deleting. However, if the user wants to perform some simple operations, such as copying the file contents, opening the file by an application and then selecting a menu, can be cumbersome. Furthermore, operations in the context menu are limited. Thus, in this paper we present Icons++, a user interface which allows users to perform the file operations they want in a quick way by using icons. Through the use of Icons++, users can take a quick look at the file contents, and at the same time they can perform often-used file operations with only one click, without opening the file by a relevant application. In this paper we present our design of Icons++ and the user studies we performed in order to evaluate it. Studies' results show that using Icons++ is 53% faster than using an application to execute the same task, and our interface is preferred by participants. Keywords— icon interface; preview; file operation; file manager.