This article presents and discusses the available studies on utilization of waste wood (WW) resou... more This article presents and discusses the available studies on utilization of waste wood (WW) resource for wood-based panel production. The cited literature indicated that the majority of WW research was from Europe and conducted mainly on recycled material from particleboard. In addition, particleboard was presented as the first option of wood-based panel product manufactured from waste wood. There was a lack of research on the recycling of plywood. Physical and chemical contaminants fluctuated strongly between low- and high-quality recycled wood mixes depending on their origins. Findings from studies also noticed that wood-based panels (e.g., particleboard) could be produced from 100% WW. However, the physical and mechanical properties of wood-based panel drop with the high proportion of WW content due to the decrease in slenderness ratio and increase in contaminants. Moreover, formaldehyde emission content of particleboard and Oriented Strand Board (OSB) manufactured from WW partic...
2003 International Conference on Multimedia and Expo. ICME '03. Proceedings (Cat. No.03TH8698)
This paper presents a single FPGA implementation of a realtime sound localization system using tw... more This paper presents a single FPGA implementation of a realtime sound localization system using two microphones. The implementation, utilizing a cross-correlation technique based on a modified version of the phase transform, successfully localizes sound sources in noisy environments with as low an SNR as 10dB. Using the same algorithm and similar hardware architecture, it is shown that up to 5 parallel systems (using 10 microphones), all real-time, can be implemented on a single FPGA while only utilizing an estimated 77mW-108mW per microphone.
Laryngeal sensory dysfunction (LSD) encompasses disorders of the vagal sensory pathways. Common m... more Laryngeal sensory dysfunction (LSD) encompasses disorders of the vagal sensory pathways. Common manifestations include chronic refractory cough (CRC) and abnormal throat sensation (ATS). This study examined clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of LSD using a novel approach of laryngeal supraglottic Onabotulinum toxin Type A injection (BTX). This was a retrospective review of clinical data and treatment outcomes of supraglottic BTX in patients with LSD. Between November 2019 and May 2021, 14 patients underwent 25 injection cycles of supraglottic BTX for treatment of symptoms related to LSD, including ATS and CRC. Primary outcome measures included the Newcastle Laryngeal Hypersensitivity Questionnaire (LHQ), Cough Severity Index (CSI), Reflux Symptom Index (RSI), and Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) at baseline and within three months of treatment. Pre- and post-treatment data were compared using a linear mixed model. After supraglottic BTX, LHQ scores improved by 2.6. RSI ...
A theoretical framework, under the first-principles calculations, is developed to fully explore t... more A theoretical framework, under the first-principles calculations, is developed to fully explore the dramatic changes of essential properties due to silicon-atom chemical modifications on monolayer graphenes. For the Si-chemisorption and Si-substituted graphenes, the guest-atom-diversified geometric structures, the Si-and C-dominated energy bands, the charge transfers, the spatial charge densities, and the van Hove singularities in the atom-and orbital-projected density of states are investigated thoroughly by delicate evaluations and analyses. Such fundamental properties are sufficient to determine the critical physical and chemical pictures, in which the accurate multiorbital hybridizations are very useful in comprehending the diverse phenomena, e.g., the 1
The fifth generation mobile networks (5G) envisions to interconnect massive numbers of devices wi... more The fifth generation mobile networks (5G) envisions to interconnect massive numbers of devices with a wide range of characteristics and demands for 2020 and beyond. With more radio-frequency (RF) bands to support multiple frequency transmission, separate antennas and RF chips may be required for widely separated frequency bands. The development of cognitive radio systems in which a wireless transceiver automatically adapts its communication parameters to network and user demands, is therefore crucial to the successful roll-out of the 5G. This paper introduces an innovative CR system that performs spectrum sensing for joint energy harvesting and channel access. A prototype testbed is employed to detect and convert RF signals from different bands to a DC voltage for powering a sensor board that communicates over another channel to an access point. The system's objective is to use the harvested energy for concurrent data transmission. We model the selection of channels to maximize this objective as a Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) problem. Depending on the type of the MAB problem, three spectrum sensing strategies are developed for joint energy harvesting and channel access. The first one, applicable for stochastic MAB, conceptualizes some formulations of the exploration/exploitation balancing technique of the available frequency bands. The second strategy is an opportunistic sensing framework for Markovian MAB when the state of the underlying Markov process is partially observed. The third strategy is based on the Gittins index allocation framework for fully observed Markovian MAB. The simulation results show that lower regrets can be obtained with more information on the underlying Markov process of the MAB.
Applied and environmental microbiology, Jan 24, 2018
Acetylation is a broadly conserved mechanism of covalently modifying the proteome to precisely co... more Acetylation is a broadly conserved mechanism of covalently modifying the proteome to precisely control protein activity. In bacteria, central metabolic enzymes and regulatory proteins, including those involved in virulence, can be targeted for acetylation. In this study, we directly link a putative acetylation system to metabolite-dependent virulence in the pathogen We demonstrate that the and genes, which encode homologs of a deacetylase and acetyltransferase respectively, modulate metabolism of acetate, a bacterially-derived short chain fatty acid with important physiological roles in a diversity of host organisms. In a model arthropod host for infection, the pathogen consumes acetate within the gastrointestinal tract, which contributes to fly mortality. We show that deletion of impairs growth on acetate minimal medium, delays consumption of acetate from rich medium, and reduces virulence of towards These impacts can be reversed by complementing or by introducing a deletion of int...
This paper argues for the contemporary significance of the ‘Critique of Violence’ by proposing a ... more This paper argues for the contemporary significance of the ‘Critique of Violence’ by proposing a Benjaminian reading of two important analyses of the relationship between history, politics and the Rights of Man: Hegel’s account of the French Revolution and the concept of dissensus proposed by Jacques Rancière. For both Hegel and Rancière, the gap between right and reality – between the ideal of equality, for example, and the existence of concrete inequality – does not warrant a rejection of the Rights of Man. Rather, the gap is a constitutive condition of law and political rights. From the perspective of Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence’, however, these analyses serve to perpetuate a bourgeois legality, one that both Hegel and Rancière acknowledge can never be realized due to the constitutive discrepancy between right and reality. In preserving the promise of legal equality, these analyses preclude the possibility of a suspension or ‘absolution’ from law. This suspension of law is a...
We derived radial velocity by correlating target spectra against artificially broadened template ... more We derived radial velocity by correlating target spectra against artificially broadened template spectra of slowly rotating standard stars of similar spectral type. Part of the spectrum of T Tauri star T20 in Cha I is shown above in black. The spectrum of Gl 382, a slow rotator, with artificial rotational broadening is fitted and overlaid in red. The original spectrum of Gl 382 is shown below that in blue.
We prove new fast learning rates for the one-vs-all multiclass plug-in classifiers trained either... more We prove new fast learning rates for the one-vs-all multiclass plug-in classifiers trained either from exponentially strongly mixing data or from data generated by a converging drifting distribution. These are two typical scenarios where training data are not iid. The learning rates are obtained under a multiclass version of Tsybakov's margin assumption, a type of low-noise assumption, and do not depend on the number of classes. Our results are general and include a previous result for binary-class plug-in classifiers with iid data as a special case. In contrast to previous works for least squares SVMs under the binary-class setting, our results retain the optimal learning rate in the iid case.
This paper investigates software agents testing, and in particular how to automate test generatio... more This paper investigates software agents testing, and in particular how to automate test generation. We propose a novel approach, which takes advantage of agent interaction ontologies that define content semantic of agent interactions to: (i) generate test inputs; (ii) guide the exploration of the input space during generation; and, (iii) verify messages exchanged among agents with respect to the defined interaction ontology. We integrated the proposed approach into a testing framework, called eCAT , which can generate and evolve test cases automatically, and run them continuously.
The agent-oriented software engineering methodology Tropos offers a structured development proces... more The agent-oriented software engineering methodology Tropos offers a structured development process and supporting tools for developing complex, distributed systems. The objective of this paper is twofold: first, to illustrate the use of Tropos to develop a Multi-Agent System, performing basic analysis and design activities, code generation and testing, with the support of a set of tools; second, to enable the comparison with other, tool-supported, agent-oriented software engineering methodologies through a description of the main steps of these activities and of excerpts of the resulting artefacts, with reference to a common case study, namely, the Conference Management System case study. 1 UML activity and sequence diagrams may be used as well for detail design in Tropos.
We present a new short-period brown dwarf (BD) candidate around the star TYC 1240-00945-1. This c... more We present a new short-period brown dwarf (BD) candidate around the star TYC 1240-00945-1. This candidate was discovered in the first year of the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanets Large-area Survey (MARVELS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III, and we designate the BD as MARVELS-1b. MARVELS uses the technique of dispersed fixed-delay interferometery to simultaneously obtain radial velocity (RV) measurements for 60 objects per field using a single, custom-built instrument that is fiber fed from the SDSS 2.5 m telescope. From our 20 RV measurements spread over a ∼370 day time baseline, we derive a Keplerian orbital fit with semi-amplitude K = 2.533 ± 0.025 km s −1 , period P = 5.8953 ± 0.0004 days, and eccentricity consistent with circular. Independent follow-up RV data confirm the orbit. Adopting a mass of 1.37 ± 0.11 M for the slightly evolved F9 host star, we infer that the companion has a minimum mass of 28.0 ± 1.5 M Jup , a semimajor axis 0.071 ± 0.002 AU assuming an edge-on orbit, and is probably tidally synchronized. We find no evidence for coherent intrinsic variability of the host star at the period of the companion at levels greater than a few millimagnitudes. The companion has an a priori transit probability of ∼14%. Although we find no evidence for transits, we cannot definitively rule them out for companion radii 1 R Jup .
Goal-oriented requirements engineering methodologies have been investigated for more than a decad... more Goal-oriented requirements engineering methodologies have been investigated for more than a decade, aiming at better supporting requirements engineering. They help elicit users' requirements, deal with stakeholders' goals and strategic dependencies among them. Moreover, they allow representing alternative solutions so that stakeholders and developers can negotiate and choose the one that meets their business demands. Some methodologies offer specification-based formal verification, allowing software developers to correct errors at the beginning of the development process. However, a structured testing process for goaloriented methodologies that complements formal verification is still missing. In this report, we introduce a novel methodology for goal-oriented software testing. It specifies a testing model that complements the goaloriented methodology Tropos and strengthens the mutual relationship between goal analysis and testing. Furthermore, it provides a systematic way of deriving test cases from goal analysis. To support the proposed methodology, a testing framework was integrated into an existing tool (TAOM4E) that supports Tropos.
Avalanche diodes have been fabricated on 4H-SiC substrate. These diodes show an abrupt avalanche ... more Avalanche diodes have been fabricated on 4H-SiC substrate. These diodes show an abrupt avalanche voltage of about 59 V which corresponds to the calculated theoretical one using our previously determined impact ionization coefficients. This avalanche voltage increases by as small as 3.7 mV/K over the investigated temperature range (150K-420K).
2009 First Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems, 2009
Machine learning is the field that is dedicated to the design and development of algorithms and t... more Machine learning is the field that is dedicated to the design and development of algorithms and techniques that allow computers to "learn". Two common types of learning that are often mentioned are supervised learning and unsupervised learning. One often understands that in supervised learning, the system is given the desired output, and it is required to produce the correct output for the given input, while in unsupervised learning the system is given only the input and the objective is to find the natural structure inherent in the input data. We, however, suggest that even with unsupervised learning, the information inside the input, the structure of the input, and the sequence that the input is given to the system actually make the learning "supervised" in some way. Therefore, we recommend that in order to make the machine learn, even in a "supervised" manner, we should use an "unsupervised learning" model together with an appropriate way of presenting the input. We propose in this paper a simple plasticity neural network model
We report the discovery of a low-mass companion orbiting the metal-rich, main sequence F star TYC... more We report the discovery of a low-mass companion orbiting the metal-rich, main sequence F star TYC 2949-00557-1 during the MARVELS (Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey) Pilot Project. The host star has an effective temperature T eff = 6135 ± 40 K, logg = 4.4 ± 0.1 and [Fe/H]=0.32 ± 0.01, indicating a mass of M = 1.25±0.09 M ⊙ and R = 1.15±0.15 R ⊙. The companion has an orbital period of 5.69449 ± 0.00023 days and straddles the hydrogen burning limit with a minimum mass
We analyze the variability in accretion-related emission lines for 40 Classical T Tauri stars to ... more We analyze the variability in accretion-related emission lines for 40 Classical T Tauri stars to probe the extent of accretion variations in young stellar objects. Our analysis is based on multi-epoch highresolution spectra for young stars in Taurus-Auriga and Chamaeleon I. For all stars, we obtain typically four spectra, covering timescales from hours to months. As proxies for the accretion rate, we use the Hα 10% width and the Ca II-λ8662 line flux. We find that while the two quantities are correlated, their variability amplitude is not. Converted to accretion rates, the Ca II fluxes indicate typical accretion rate changes of 0.35 dex, with 32% exceeding 0.5 dex, while Hα 10% width suggests changes of 0.65 dex, with 66% exceeding 0.5 dex. We conclude that Ca II fluxes are a more robust quantitative indicator of accretion than Hα 10% width, and that intrinsic accretion rate changes typically do not exceed 0.5 dex on timescales of days to months. The maximum extent of the variability is reached after a few days, suggesting that rotation is the dominant cause of variability. We see a decline of the inferred accretion rates towards later spectral types, reflecting theṀ vs. M relationship. There is a gap between accretors and non-accretors, pointing to a rapid shutdown of accretion. We conclude that the ∼ 2 orders of magnitude scatter in theṀ vs. M relationship is dominated by object-to-object scatter instead of intrinsic source variability.
We present a comprehensive study of rotation, disk and accretion signatures for 144 T Tauri stars... more We present a comprehensive study of rotation, disk and accretion signatures for 144 T Tauri stars in the young (∼ 2 Myr old) Chamaeleon I and Taurus-Auriga star forming regions based on multi-epoch high-resolution optical spectra from the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope supplemented by mid-infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope. In contrast to previous studies in the Orion Nebula Cluster and NGC 2264, we do not see a clear signature of disk braking in Tau-Aur and Cha I. We find that both accretors and non-accretors have similar distributions of v sin i. This result could be due to different initial conditions, insufficient time for disk braking, or a significant age spread within the regions. The rotational velocities in both regions show a clear mass dependence, with F-K stars rotating on average about twice as fast as M stars, consistent with results reported for other clusters of similar age. Similarly, we find the upper envelope of the observed values of specific angular momentum j varies as M 0.5 for our sample which spans a mass range of ∼ 0.16 M ⊙ to ∼ 3 M ⊙. This power law complements previous studies in Orion which estimated j ∝ M 0.25 for 2 Myr stars in the same mass regime, and a sharp decline in j with decreasing mass for older stars (∼ 10 Myr) with M < 2 M ⊙. Furthermore, the overall specific angular momentum of this ∼ 10 Myr population is five times lower than that of non-accretors in our sample, and implies a stellar braking mechanism other than disk braking could be at work. For a subsample of 67 objects with mid-infrared photometry, we examine the connection between accretion signatures and dusty disks: in the vast majority of cases (63/67), the two properties correlate well, which suggests that the timescale of gas accretion is similar to the lifetime of inner disks.
We present a comprehensive study of disks around 81 young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the ... more We present a comprehensive study of disks around 81 young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the nearby ∼2 Myr-old Chamaeleon I star-forming region. We use mid-infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope, supplemented by findings from ground-based high-resolution optical spectroscopy and adaptive optics imaging. We derive disk fractions of 52% ± 6% and 58 +6 −7 % based on 8 µm and 24 µm colour excesses, respectively, consistent with those reported for other clusters of similar age. Within the uncertainties, the disk frequency in our sample of K3-M8 objects in Cha I does not depend on stellar mass. Diskless and disk-bearing objects have similar spatial distributions. There are no obvious transition disks in our sample, implying a rapid timescale for the inner disk clearing process; however, we find two objects with weak excess at 3-8 µm and substantial excess at 24 µm, which may indicate grain growth and dust settling in the inner disk. For a sub-sample of 35 objects with high-resolution spectra, we investigate the connection between accretion signatures and dusty disks: in the vast majority of cases (29/35) the two are well correlated, suggesting that, on average, the timescale for gas dissipation is similar to that for clearing the inner dust disk. The exceptions are six objects for which dust disks appear to persist even though accretion has ceased or dropped below measurable levels. Adaptive
Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of ... more Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS Data Release 8 (DR8), which was made public in January 2011 and includes SDSS-I and SDSS-II images and spectra reprocessed with the latest pipelines and calibrations produced for the SDSS-III investigations. This paper presents an overview of the four surveys that comprise SDSS-III. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lyα forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the baryon acoustic oscillation feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z < 0.7 and at z ≈ 2.5. SEGUE-2, an already completed SDSS-III survey that is the continuation of the SDSS-II Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE),
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