Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Dimensioning of Ad Hoc Sensor Networks

In this paper, we address the problem of dimensioning wireless sensors networks in order to guarantee an expected connectivity. This means finding the minimum number of sensors to guarantee an expected mean connectivity on a given area. We propose an equation which approximates the number of sensors to be dropped in that area in order to achieve a given expected connectivity K. Our equation is generic, and works with any statisical distibution function f(x, y) of the position of nodes on the sensed area. The equation is validated both theoretically and by simulation. In particular, we prove an upper bound for the error introduced by the approximation which is independent of the type of distribution f(x, y). We also simulate the dropping of sensors in a unitary square area with uniform and Gaussian distribution functions and compare the results with the dimensioning suggested by our equation. For a given K, we find that the dimensioning equation produced networks with a mean connectivity in the order of K in 97% of cases.
A Dynamic Biased Random Sampling Scheme for Scalable and Reliable Grid Networks

The growth in computer and networking technologies over the past decades produced new type of collaborative computing environment called Grid Network. Grid is a parallel and distributed computing network system that possesses the ability to achieve a higher throughput computing by taking advantage of many computing resources available in the network. Therefore, to achieve a scalable and reliable Grid network system, the load needs to be efficiently distributed among the resources accessible on the network. In this paper, we present a distributed and scalable load balancing framework for Grid networks using biased random sampling. The generated network system is self-organized and depends only on local information for load distribution and resource discovery. We demonstrate that introducing a geographic awareness factor in the random walk sampling can reduce the effects of communication latency in the Grid network environment. Simulation results show that the generated network system provides an effective, scalable, and reliable load balancing scheme for the distributed resources available on Grid networks.
Soluble (Pro)Renin Receptor and Blood Pressure During Pregnancy: A Prospective Cohort Study

The renin–angiotensin system is believed to influence blood pressure (BP) during pregnancy, but the associations between BP during pregnancy and the soluble form of the (pro)renin receptor (s[P]RR), a new component of the tissue renin–angiotensin system, remain undetermined. In this prospective cohort study of 437 pregnant women with normal BP (systolic <140 mm Hg and diastolic <90 mm Hg) during early pregnancy (<16 weeks of gestation) regression analysis was performed to examine the associations between plasma s(P)RR concentrations and BP in 3 gestational stages (20–24, 28–32, and 36–40 weeks of gestation) and logistic regression analysis to evaluate the incidence of preeclampsia. Plasma s(P)RR concentrations at early, middle (16–28 weeks), and late pregnancy (>28 weeks) and at delivery averaged 29.7 ± 10.0, 31.3 ± 12.0, 39.2 ± 8.9, and 40.4 ± 10.2 ng/mL (mean±SD), respectively. A 1-ng/mL increase in plasma s(P)RR concentration in early pregnancy predicted systolic/diastolic BP elevation in the later 3 gestational stages: 0.11 (95% CI, 0.014–0.20)/0.093 (0.027–0.16) mm Hg for 20 to 24 weeks, 0.11 (0.029–0.19)/0.088 (0.027–0.15) mm Hg for 28 to 32 weeks, and 0.16 (0.058–0.26)/0.12 (0.043–0.19]) mm Hg for 36 to 40 weeks, respectively. Plasma s(P)RR concentrations in middle and late pregnancy were not associated with BP. Adjusted models revealed that women with plasma s(P)RR concentrations above the 75th percentile at delivery had a significantly increased risk of preeclampsia (odds ratio, 22.5 [95% CI, 1.8–279.9]). In conclusion, high circulating levels of s(P)RR at early pregnancy predicted a subsequent elevation in BP, and high concentrations at delivery were significantly associated with preeclampsia.
Willingness to Pay for Rainfall Based Insurance by Smallholder Farmers in Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia: The Case of Dugda and Mieso Woredas

Current climate variability is already imposing significant challenge to Ethiopia. Therefore, farmers have faced income variability in almost every production season. Problems associated with dependence on rain fed agriculture are common in Ethiopia. Smallholder farmers' vulnerability from such income variability is also common. Over the years, a range of risk management strategies have been used to reduce, or to assist farmers to absorb, some of these risks. Since insurance is potentially an important instrument to transfer part of the risk, this study try to describe the nature of weather related risks faced by smallholder farmers, assess small holder farmers willingness to pay for the rainfall risk insurance and examine factors that affect the maximum farmers are willing to pay for the rainfall risk insurance. The data was collected from 161 sample households from the two woredas of the study area using closed ended value elicitation format followed by open ended follow up questions. The study uses Logit model to estimate the mean willingness to pay in the close ended format in addition with Tobit model to examine factors that affecting small holder farmer willingness to pay as well as intensity of payment. The mean willingness to pay values are found to be 129.98 and 183.41 birr per hectare for the open and close ended formats respectively. The total willingness to pay for the study area was found to be birr 5,740,244 per year. The tobit model shows six potential explanatory variables affect the willingness to pay value. Income of household and ownership of radio have positive and significant effect on the value of willingness to pay, whereas off-farm income, age of household head, number of livestock owning and availability of public and private gifts have negative and significant effect on willingness to pay value. If the rainfall risk insurance premium is affordable and households have enough information about the service they are willing to pay for the service. Eventually policy makers need to be aware that socio-economic and institutional characteristics of households influence the willingness to pay for rainfall risk insurance services.
Ju n 20 07 PSPACE Bounds for Rank-1 Modal Logics

For lack of general algorithmic methods that apply to wide classes of logics, establishing a complexity bound for a given modal logic is often a laborious task. The present work is a step towards a general theory of the complexity of modal logics. Our main result is that all rank-1 logics enjoy a shallow model property and thus are, under mild assumptions on the format of their axiomatisation, in PSPACE . This leads to a unified derivation of tight PSPACE -bounds for a number of logics including K, KD, coalition logic, graded modal logic, majority logic, and probabilistic modal logic. Our generic algorithm moreover finds tableau proofs that witness pleasant prooftheoretic properties including a weak subformula property. This generality is made possible by a coalgebraic semantics, which conveniently abstracts from the details of a given model class and thus allows covering a broad range of logics in a uniform way.
The Effect of Social, Individual, and Materialism Factors on the Purchase of Purchasing Luxury Mixed Bags and Consumer Attitudes as a Mediation Variable (Behavior Study in Career Women in Denpasar)

Social factors include normative vulnerability and information on social influences. Social influence reflects the judgment of others on individual consumer behavior. Purchasing decisions are also influenced by personal factors such as age and stages of the life cycle, work, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and self-concept of the buyer. Materialism is the consumer belief that valuing worldly assets is very important. Attitude is an expression of someone's feelings that reflects their joy or dislike of an object. Buying intention can be defined as the intention of someone to buy a certain brand that they have chosen for themselves after evaluating. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social factors, individual factors and materialism on purchase intentions and consumer attitudes as mediating variables. The sampling technique used is proportional random sampling. The sample in this study was 95 buyers and then the determination of the sample was determined by proportional random sampling in 5 predetermined stores. The data analyst method used is SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) based on component or variance, namely PLS (Partial Least Square). The results of the study stated that social factor variables, individual factors, and materialism had a positive and significant effect on purchase intention. And individual factors and materialism have a positive and significant effect on consumer attitudes, while social factors have a positive but not significant effect on consumer attitudes.
The Contribution of Parenting to Ethnic and Racial Gaps in School Readiness

The authors describe various parenting behaviors, such as nurturance, discipline, teaching, and language use, and explain how researchers measure them. They note racial and ethnic variations in several behaviors. Most striking are differences in language use. Black and Hispanic mothers talk less with their young children than do white mothers and are less likely to read to them daily. They also note some differences in harshness. When researchers measuring school readiness gaps control for parenting differences, the racial and ethnic gaps narrow by 25-50 percent. And it is possible to alter parenting behavior to improve readiness. The authors examine programs that serve poor families—and thus disproportionately serve minority families—and find that home- and center-based programs with a parenting component improve parental nurturance and discipline. Programs that target families with children with behavior problems improve parents' skills in dealing with such children. And certain family literacy programs improve parents' skills in talking with their children. Several interventions have significantly reduced gaps in the parenting behavior of black and white mothers. Not all improvements in parenting translate to improved school readiness. Home-based programs affect the mother but do not appear to affect the child, at least in the short term. But center-based programs with a parenting component enhance both parenting and school readiness. And some family literacy programs also improve readiness. Because these successful interventions serve a greater share of minority than nonminority families and have more positive effects for blacks than for whites, they offer promise for closing the ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness.
T-cell recognition and cytokine profile induced by melanocyte epitopes in patients with HLA-DRB1*0405-positive and -negative Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada uveitis.

PURPOSE Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (VKH), an autoimmune disease targeted against melanocytes, is associated with HLA-DRB1*0405. This study was undertaken to analyze T-cell recognition and the cytokine expression profile induced by melanocyte epitopes in HLA-DRB1*0405-positive and -negative patients with VKH uveitis. METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) proliferation and Th1 (IFN-gamma) and Th2 (IL-4 and IL-5) cytokine production were analyzed in HLA-DRB1*0405-positive (n = 12) and -negative (n = 22) patients with VKH and HLA-DRB1*0405-positive (n = 9) and -negative (n = 8) control subjects in response to human melanoma cell line lysate (HMCLL) and 28 synthetic peptides derived from the human melanocyte differentiation proteins TYR, TRP1, TRP2, and Pmel17. The peptides were selected using the TEPITOPE algorithm, based on their predicted binding to HLA-DRB1*0405 and to the non-disease-related HLA-DRB1*15. RESULTS HMCLL was recognized exclusively by the patients' PBMC (44%) but not by those of the control subjects (P < 0.01). PBMC from patients with VKH recognized an increased breadth of melanocyte-derived peptides at lower peptide concentrations than in the control subjects (68% vs. 25%; P < 0.01, at 1 microM) and did not produce the Th2 cytokine IL-4 in response to disease-specific peptides (0% vs. 50%, P < 0.001). Five peptides were exclusively recognized in patients bearing HLA-DRB1*0405. Furthermore, HLA-DRB1*0405-bearing patients, but not those with HLA-DRB1*15, recognized an increased breadth of melanocyte epitopes in comparison to HLA-matched control subjects (60% vs. 28%; P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that patients with VKH are sensitized to melanocyte epitopes and display a peptide-specific Th1 cytokine response. In addition, the data indicate that patients bearing HLA-DRB1*0405 recognize a broader melanocyte-derived peptide repertoire, reinforcing the importance of this allele in susceptibility to the development of VKH disease.
Heterogeneity and feedback in an agent-based market model

We propose an agent-based model of a single-asset financial market, described in terms of a small number of parameters, which generates price returns with statistical properties similar to the stylized facts observed in financial time series. Our agent-based model generically leads to the absence of autocorrelation in returns, self-sustaining excess volatility, mean-reverting volatility, volatility clustering and endogenous bursts of market activity non-attributable to external noise. The parsimonious structure of the model allows the identification of feedback and heterogeneity as the key mechanisms leading to these effects.
Energy Balanced Data Gathering in WSNs with Grid Topologies

Data gathering in a wireless sensor network works in a way that a sink collects data from a large number of sensor nodes. Traditionally, the hop-by-hop transmission is used in this many-to-one communication. In this communication pattern, the closer a sensor node is to the sink, the sooner its energy is exhausted. The nodes close to the sink need to route data packets for farther nodes and thus the unbalanced energy consumption results in a short network lifetime. In this paper we discuss the problem of balancing energy consumption of the WSN with grid topology and propose a randomized data gathering scheme. In our scheme, direct transmission is tradeoff by hop-by-hop transmission so as to protect the sensor nodes with higher load burden from early exhaustion. The network lifetime is thus prolonged.
Effect of blood pressure lowering and antihypertensive drug class on progression of hypertensive kidney disease: results from the AASK trial.

CONTEXT Hypertension is a leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States, with no known treatment to prevent progressive declines leading to ESRD. OBJECTIVE To compare the effects of 2 levels of blood pressure (BP) control and 3 antihypertensive drug classes on glomerular filtration rate (GFR) decline in hypertension. DESIGN Randomized 3 x 2 factorial trial with enrollment from February 1995 to September 1998. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A total of 1094 African Americans aged 18 to 70 years with hypertensive renal disease (GFR, 20-65 mL/min per 1.73 m(2)) were recruited from 21 clinical centers throughout the United States and followed up for 3 to 6.4 years. INTERVENTIONS Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 mean arterial pressure goals, 102 to 107 mm Hg (usual; n = 554) or 92 mm Hg or less (lower; n = 540), and to initial treatment with either a beta-blocker (metoprolol 50-200 mg/d; n = 441), an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ramipril 2.5-10 mg/d; n = 436) or a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, (amlodipine 5-10 mg/d; n = 217). Open-label agents were added to achieve the assigned BP goals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Rate of change in GFR (GFR slope); clinical composite outcome of reduction in GFR by 50% or more (or > or =25 mL/min per 1.73 m2) from baseline, ESRD, or death. Three primary treatment comparisons were specified: lower vs usual BP goal; ramipril vs metoprolol; and amlodipine vs metoprolol. RESULTS Achieved BP averaged (SD) 128/78 (12/8) mm Hg in the lower BP group and 141/85 (12/7) mm Hg in the usual BP group. The mean (SE) GFR slope from baseline through 4 years did not differ significantly between the lower BP group (-2.21 [0.17] mL/min per 1.73 m2 per year) and the usual BP group (-1.95 [0.17] mL/min per 1.73 m2 per year; P =.24), and the lower BP goal did not significantly reduce the rate of the clinical composite outcome (risk reduction for lower BP group = 2%; 95% confidence interval [CI], -22% to 21%; P =.85). None of the drug group comparisons showed consistent significant differences in the GFR slope. However, compared with the metoprolol and amlodipine groups, the ramipril group manifested risk reductions in the clinical composite outcome of 22% (95% CI, 1%-38%; P =.04) and 38% (95% CI, 14%-56%; P =.004), respectively. There was no significant difference in the clinical composite outcome between the amlodipine and metoprolol groups. CONCLUSIONS No additional benefit of slowing progression of hypertensive nephrosclerosis was observed with the lower BP goal. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors appear to be more effective than beta-blockers or dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers in slowing GFR decline.
The heritage character and service quality in urban defensive structures renovated as hotels

ABSTRACT This work seeks to demonstrate the importance of the interests of lodging service users in non-hotel resources, directly or indirectly, linked to hotels. For this, Spanish hotels located in defensive structures belonging to the Paradores chain have been selected. The conceptual framework starts from the evaluative models of the quality of service modified to this study. Then, a Big Data tool has been developed that allows for the analysis of 3372 visitor comments about subjects including the facilities, the staff, and service management. To these, other attributes not strictly linked to the classic hotel service have been added, such as the cultural heritage resources, the surrounding environment, and value-added activities already implemented. With this work, it is hoped to highlight the importance of taking advantage of these resources efficiently, especially in shaping excellent tourist services that connect respectful cultural tourism and the environment for a clear urban influence and that simultaneously takes advantage of the all the possibilities of new technologies.
Smoothing parameter selection in two frameworks for penalized splines

There are two popular smoothing parameter selection methods for spline smoothing. First, smoothing parameters can be estimated by minimizing criteria that approximate the average mean‐squared error of the regression function estimator. Second, the maximum likelihood paradigm can be employed, under the assumption that the regression function is a realization of some stochastic process. The asymptotic properties of both smoothing parameter estimators for penalized splines are studied and compared. A simulation study and a real data example illustrate the theoretical findings.
A new structure of a switching flux synchronous polyphased machine with hybrid excitation

The aim of this paper is to present the structure of a new flux switching synchronous machine with hybrid excitation. This machine uses the flux switching principle where all the active parts are located on the stator. The rotor is only a salient passive rotor and can be robust and made with a low cost technology. This new machine can be supplied with electricity by means of a traditional three phase voltage converter or can be associated with a diode rectifier. The hybrid excitation is an association of permanent magnets and a wound exciter.
Pre-natal and post-natal growth trajectories and childhood cognitive ability and mental health.

BACKGROUND Most studies of the associations between pre-natal or post-natal growth and cognitive ability have been based on children with pathologically slow growth measured between two time points only, rather than children with normal growth trajectories estimated from multiple measures of growth. METHODS We investigated the associations of pre-natal and post-natal trajectories in both weight and length/height through the first 5 years of life with cognitive ability and mental health at 6.5 years of age among healthy children. Our study is based on 11 899 children who were born healthy at ≥37 completed weeks with birth weight ≥2500 g and had up to 13 measures of weight and length/height from birth to age 5 years and cognitive ability and behaviour measured at 6.5 years. Using a linear spline random-effects model with 2 knots at 3 and 12 months, we estimated growth trajectories for each child from birth to age 5 years in weight and length/height in four periods: gestational age-specific birth weight and length (pre-natal 'growth'), early infancy (0-3 months), late infancy (3-12 months) and early childhood (1-5 years). We used generalized estimating equations to estimate mean differences in IQ and mental health according to pre-natal and post-natal growth trajectory. IQ was measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence, and mental health was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS A 1 standard deviation (SD) in birth weight was positively associated with cognitive ability (0.82 IQ points, 95% CI: 0.54-1.10) after adjusting for confounders. For post-natal weight gain trajectories, a 1 SD faster weight gain was associated with an increase of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.42-1.11) IQ points for early infancy, 0.30 (95% CI: 0.02-0.58) points for late infancy, and 0.40 (95% CI: 0.04-0.76) for early childhood after adjusting for confounders and for earlier growth. For length/height trajectories, the magnitudes of increase in cognitive ability were similar to each other (~0.6 points) across the four periods. Pre-natal and infancy growth, but not early childhood growth, were associated with reduced externalising behaviours. CONCLUSIONS Although the effect sizes are small and residual confounding cannot be excluded, our results suggest that among healthy children, faster growth from the pre-natal period through age 5 years is positively associated with cognitive ability, whereas faster growth in the pre-natal period and infancy is positively associated with mental health at early school age.
Patterns of Black Excellence

T history of the advancement of black Americans is almost a laboratory study of human achievement, for it extends back to slavery and was accomplished in the face of the strongest opposition confronting any American racial or ethnic group. Yet this mass advancement is little discussed and seldom researched, except for lionizing some individuals or compiling a record of political milestones. But the story of how millions of people developed from the depths of slavery-acquired work skills, personal discipline, human ideals, and the whole complex of knowledge and values required for achievement in a modem society-is a largely untold story. A glance at the mass of human misery around the world shows that such development is by no means an automatic process. Yet how it was accomplished remains a matter of little concern-in contrast to the unflagging interest in social pathology. One small, but important, part of the advancement of black Americans has been educational achievement. Here, as in other areas, the pathology is well known and extensively documented, while the healthy or outstanding functioning is almost totally unknown and unstudied. Yet educational excellence has been achieved by black Americans. _ Current speculative discussions of the "pre-