Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PSO-based multiuser detectors for high-order modulation DS/CDMA systems under spatial and multipath diversities

In this paper, the uplink direct-sequence code-division multiple access DS-CDMA multiuser detection MuD problem is studied from a heuristic perspective. The heuristic particle swarm optimisation PSO approach is due to the NP-complexity of the MuD optimisation problem. The challenge is to solve the associated hard complexity problem in a polynomial time. A complete parameter optimisation procedure for PSO applied to the MuD problem is carried out herein under different system configurations, such as high-order modulation and diversity exploitation. The PSO-MuD performance is analysed through Monte Carlo simulation MCS method. MCS results show that, after convergence, the performance achieved by the PSO-MuD is much better than that shown by the conventional detector, and somewhat closer to that given by the single-user bound. The flat Rayleigh channel is initially considered, but the results are further extended to the space-time wireless channels.
The effects of computer usage on elementary students' attitudes, motivation and achievement in mathematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent and ways in which the use of classroom computer technology in grades one, four and six impacted students' attitudes, motivation, attendance and achievement. Four control and experimental classes from the Madison School District in Phoenix, Arizona were studied and the research spanned the Spring semester of 1994. The data used came from achievement posttest only data, an attitude and motivation survey given in a pretest-posttest format, attendance data and classroom observations performed at the beginning of the study, at the midpoint and at the end. The observations consisted of monitoring student-to-student interactions, student-to-teacher interactions, student time on task and behavior problems. It was found that the sixth grade experimental students' achievement in mathematics, as measured by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills mathematics subsections of computation, concepts and problem solving, was significantly higher than that of the control group. In addition, student-to-student interactions that were on task in nature increased more for the experimental than the control groups at all grade levels. There were no significant findings related to attendance or attitudes and motivation. Finally, it is important to note that the changes in interactions of the students and the teachers did not begin to appear until after the first six weeks of the study.
Asymmetry of Hotel Ratings on TripAdvisor: Evidence from Single- Versus Dual-Valence Reviews

ABSTRACT Hotel ratings given by reviewers on travel-related social media sites are generally perceived as symmetric. Using the perspective of positive–negative asymmetry, we challenge this perception by comparing the prevalence of single- and dual-valence reviews associated with opposite hotel ratings. Drawing on the findings of a content analysis of 500 reviews of a hotel on TripAdvisor, followed by three-way log-linear analyses, we found that dual- (vs. single-) valence reviews appear more frequently in extremely negative (“terrible”) than extremely positive ratings (“excellent”), but less frequently in moderately negative (“poor”) than moderately positive ratings (“very good”). In addition, men posted more dual-valence reviews than women when the rating was “terrible. ” The findings, which add to the positive–negative asymmetry literature, imply that users should not review an equal number of positive and negative reviews prior to their booking decisions, and that hoteliers should motivate more of their male guests to write online reviews.
Multi-modal, multi-resource methods for placing Flickr videos on the map

We present three approaches for placing videos in Flickr on the world map. The toponym extraction and geo lookup approach makes use of external resources to identify toponyms in the metadata and associate them with geo-coordinates. The metadata-based region model approach uses a k-nearest-neighbour classifier trained over geographical regions. Videos are represented using their metadata in a text space with reduced dimensionality. The visual region model approach uses a support vector machine also trained over geographical regions. Videos are represented using low-level feature vectors from multiple key frames. Voting methods are used to form a single decision for each video. We compare the approaches experimentally, highlighting the importance of using appropriate metadata features and suitable regions as the basis of the region model. The best performance is achieved by the geo-lookup approach used with fallback to the visual region model when the video metadata contains no toponym.
Diabetes Prevalence in Sweden at Present and Projections for Year 2050

Background Data on the future diabetes burden in Scandinavia is limited. Our aim was to project the future burden of diabetes in Sweden by modelling data on incidence, prevalence, mortality, and demographic factors. Method To project the future burden of diabetes we used information on the prevalence of diabetes from the national drug prescription registry (adults ≥20 years), previously published data on relative mortality in people with diabetes, and population demographics and projections from Statistics Sweden. Alternative scenarios were created based on different assumptions regarding the future incidence of diabetes. Results Between 2007 and 2013 the prevalence of diabetes rose from 5.8 to 6.8% in Sweden but incidence remained constant at 4.4 per 1000 (2013). With constant incidence and continued improvement in relative survival, prevalence will increase to 10.4% by year 2050 and the number of afflicted individuals will increase to 940 000. Of this rise, 30% is accounted for by changes in the age structure of the population and 14% by improved relative survival in people with diabetes. A hypothesized 1% annual rise in incidence will result in a prevalence of 12.6% and 1 136 000 cases. Even with decreasing incidence at 1% per year, prevalence of diabetes will continue to increase. Conclusion We can expect diabetes prevalence to rise substantially in Sweden over the next 35 years as a result of demographic changes and improved survival among people with diabetes. A dramatic reduction in incidence is required to prevent this development.
A taxonomy for requirements engineering and software test alignment

Requirements Engineering and Software Testing are mature areas and have seen a lot of research. Nevertheless, their interactions have been sparsely explored beyond the concept of traceability. To fill this gap, we propose a definition of requirements engineering and software test (REST) alignment, a taxonomy that characterizes the methods linking the respective areas, and a process to assess alignment. The taxonomy can support researchers to identify new opportunities for investigation, as well as practitioners to compare alignment methods and evaluate alignment, or lack thereof. We constructed the REST taxonomy by analyzing alignment methods published in literature, iteratively validating the emerging dimensions. The resulting concept of an information dyad characterizes the exchange of information required for any alignment to take place. We demonstrate use of the taxonomy by applying it on five in-depth cases and illustrate angles of analysis on a set of thirteen alignment methods. In addition, we developed an assessment framework (REST-bench), applied it in an industrial assessment, and showed that it, with a low effort, can identify opportunities to improve REST alignment. Although we expect that the taxonomy can be further refined, we believe that the information dyad is a valid and useful construct to understand alignment.
Effects of Addition of Mannitol Crystals on the Porosity and Dissolution Rates of a Calcium Phosphate Cement

The bone defect repair functions of calcium phosphate cement (CPC) are related to its osteoconductivity and its gradual replacement by new bone. Adding mannitol to CPC may enhance its bone repair potential by increasing CPCs macroporosity and dissolution rate. The objective of the study was to assess microporosity and macroporosity and dissolution rates for CPC mixed with mannitol. Three groups of CPC discs were prepared by combining an equimolar mixture of tetracalcium phosphate and anhydrous dicalcium phosphate with (0 %, 10 %, or 50 %) mass fraction (hereafter expressed as mass %) of mannitol. Macroporosity and microporosity of the samples were calculated from volume and mass measurements of the discs. Discs were then placed in a pH 3.0 demineralizing solution simulating acidified physiological solution, and dissolution rates were measured by a previously described constant-composition titration method. Pure CPC exhibited no macropores and microporosity (mean ± s.d.; n = 5) of (46.8 ± 0.8) % volume fraction (hereafter expressed as vol %). Adding 10 mass % mannitol resulted in 15.6 ± 3.9 vol % macroporosity and 39.4 ± 1.8 vol % microporosity, and adding 50 mass % mannitol produced 54.7 ± 0.8 vol % macroporosity and 21.1 ± 0.4 vol % microporosity. The dissolution rates (mean ± s.d.; n = 5) of CPC with (0, 10, and 50) mass % mannitol incorporation were (30.6 ± 3.4, 44.8 ± 10.2, and 54.7 ± 3.6, respectively) μg · cm−2 · min−1, or (0.018 ± 0.002, 0.032 ± 0.007, and 0.072 ± 0.005, respectively) μL · cm−2 · min−1. Adding either 10 mass % or 50 mass % mannitol into CPC significantly (p < 0.05) increased CPC dissolution rates. Adding mannitol readily increased macroporosity and dissolution rate of CPC, which may enhance the capacity of CPC to be osteoconductive.
Sources of nitrous oxide emitted from European forest soils

Abstract. Forest ecosystems may provide strong sources of nitrous oxide (N2O), which is important for atmospheric chemical and radiative properties. Nonetheless, our understanding of controls on forest N2O emissions is insufficient to narrow current flux estimates, which still are associated with great uncertainties. In this study, we have investigated the quantitative and qualitative relationships between N-cycling and N2O production in European forests in order to evaluate the importance of nitrification and denitrification for N2O production. Soil samples were collected in 11 different sites characterized by variable climatic regimes and forest types. Soil N-cycling and associated production of N2O was assessed following application of 15N-labeled nitrogen. The N2O emission varied significantly among the different forest soils, and was inversely correlated to the soil C:N ratio. The N2O emissions were significantly higher from the deciduous soils (13 ng N2O-N cm-3 d-1) than from the coniferous soils (4 ng N2O-N cm-3 d-1). Nitrate (NO3-) was the dominant substrate for N2O with an average contribution of 62% and exceeding 50% at least once for all sites. The average contribution of ammonium (NH4+) to N2O averaged 34%. The N2O emissions were correlated with gross nitrification activities, and as for N2O, gross nitrification was also higher in deciduous soils (3.4 µg N cm-3 d-1) than in coniferous soils (1.1 µg N cm-3 d-1). The ratio between N2O production and gross nitrification averaged 0.67% (deciduous) and 0.44% (coniferous). Our study suggests that changes in forest composition in response to land use activities and global change may have implications for regional budgets of greenhouse gases. From the study it also became clear that N2O emissions were driven by the nitrification activity, although the N2O was produced per se mainly from denitrification. Increased nitrification in response to accelerated N inputs predicted for forest ecosystems in Europe may thus lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions from forest ecosystems.
Sneutrino NLSP Scenarios in the NUHM with Gravitino Dark Matter

We analyze scenarios in which some flavour of sneutrino is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), assuming that the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and provides the cold dark matter. Such scenarios do not arise in the constrained supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM) with universal gaugino and scalar masses input at the GUT scale. However, models with non-universal Higgs masses (NUHM) do allow scenarios with a sneutrino NLSP, which are quite generic. We illustrate how such scenarios may arise, analyze the possible metastable sneutrino lifetime, and explore the theoretical, phenomenological, experimental and cosmological constraints on such scenarios. We also discuss the collider signatures of such scenarios, how they may be distinguished from neutralino LSP scenarios, and how different flavours of sneutrino NLSP may be distinguished.
Public Regulation of Private Security: A Statutory Analysis of State Regulation of Security Guards

Security guards outnumber police by almost 3 to 1, and this discrepancy has been growing steadily since the latter part of the 20th century. Security guards perform many of the same functions as police officers and may even carry weapons, but to what extent do states regulate the private security industry? This article compares the change in state regulation of private security, in particular the requirements for hiring security guards. The provisions of the states as of 1982, 1998, and 2015 are compared and evaluated. We are interested in determining what threshold requirements the states have seen fit to establish for employment in the security industry, and whether these threshold requirements provide adequate protection for the public.
Gaussian Bounds for Noise Correlation of Functions and Tight Analysis of Long Codes

We derive tight bounds on the expected value of products of low influence functions defined on correlated probability spaces. The proofs are based on extending Fourier theory to an arbitrary number of correlated probability spaces, on a generalization of an invariance principle recently obtained with O'Donnell and Oleszkiewicz for multilinear polynomials with low influences and bounded degree and on properties of multi-dimensional Gaussian distributions. Let (X<sub>i</sub> <sup>j</sup> : 1 les i les k,1 les j les n) be a matrix of random variables whose columns X<sup>1</sup>,. , X<sup>n</sup> are independent and identically distributed and such that any two rows X<sub>i</sub>, X<sub>j</sub> for 1 les inej les k are independent. Assume further that the values that row X<sub>i</sub> takes with non-zero probability are the same no matter how one conditions on the remaining rows X<sub>1</sub>,. , X<sub>i-1</sub>X<sub>i+1</sub>,. , X<sub>k</sub>. Our results show that given k functions f<sub>1</sub>,. , f<sub>k</sub> taking values in [0,1] it holds that |E[Pi<sub>i=1</sub> <sup>k</sup> f<sub>i</sub> (X<sub>i</sub>)] - Pi<sub>i=1</sub> <sup>k</sup> E[ fi (X<sub>i</sub>)]| < epsi if all influences of the functions f<sub>i</sub> are smaller than tau(epsi, k) which is independent of n. In words: low influence functions of pairwise independent rows behave like independent random variables. The general statement of our result applies when the rows are not pairwise independent and when (some) of the variables do not have low influences for (some) functions. The results obtained here allow analyzing hyper-graph long-code tests. A number of applications in hardness of approximation assuming the Unique Games Conjecture were obtained using the results derived here in subsequent work by Raghavendra and jointly by Austrin and the author. Our results imply new results on voting schemes in social choice and in additive number theory. In particular we show that among all low influence functions, Majority is asymptotically the most predictable and is (almost) optimal in the context of Condorcet voting.
Costs and benefits of satellite-based tools for irrigation management

This paper presents the results of a collaborative work with farmers and a cost-benefit analysis of geospatial technologies applied to irrigation water management in the semi-arid agricultural area in Lower Austria. We use Earth observation (EO) data to estimate crop evapotranspiration (ET) and webGIS technologies to deliver maps and irrigation advice to farmers. The study reports the technical and qualitative evaluation performed during a demonstration phase in 2013 and provides an outlook to future developments. The calculation of the benefits is based on a comparison of the irrigation volumes estimated from satellite vs. the irrigation supplied by the farmers. In most cases, the amount of water supplied was equal to the maximum amount of water required by crops. At the same time high variability was observed for the different irrigation units and crop types. Our data clearly indicates that economic benefits could be achieved by reducing irrigation volumes, especially for water-intensive crops. Regarding the qualitative evaluation, most of the farmers expressed a very positive interest in the provided information. In particular, information related to crop ET was appreciated as this helps to make better informed decisions on irrigation. The majority of farmers (54%) also expressed a general willingness to pay, either directly or via cost sharing, for such a service. Based on different cost scenarios, we calculated the cost of the service. Considering 20,000 ha regularly irrigated land, the advisory service would cost between 2.5 and 4.3 €/ha per year depending on the type of satellite data used. For comparison, irrigation costs range between 400 and 1000 €/ha per year for a typical irrigation volume of 2,000 cubic meters per ha. With a correct irrigation application, more than 10% of the water and energy could be saved in water-intensive crops, which is equivalent to an economic benefit of 40-100 €/ha per year.
Dissociable Systems for Gain- and Loss-Related Value Predictions and Errors of Prediction in the Human Brain

Midbrain dopaminergic neurons projecting to the ventral striatum code for reward magnitude and probability during reward anticipation and then indicate the difference between actual and predicted outcome. It has been questioned whether such a common system for the prediction and evaluation of reward exists in humans. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a guessing task in two large cohorts, we are able to confirm ventral striatal responses coding both reward probability and magnitude during anticipation, permitting the local computation of expected value (EV). However, the ventral striatum only represented the gain-related part of EV (EV+). At reward delivery, the same area shows a reward probability and magnitude-dependent prediction error signal, best modeled as the difference between actual outcome and EV+. In contrast, loss-related expected value (EV−) and the associated prediction error was represented in the amygdala. Thus, the ventral striatum and the amygdala distinctively process the value of a prediction and subsequently compute a prediction error for gains and losses, respectively. Therefore, a homeostatic balance of both systems might be important for generating adequate expectations under uncertainty. Prevalence of either part might render expectations more positive or negative, which could contribute to the pathophysiology of mood disorders like major depression.
Single-Image RGB Photometric Stereo with Spatially-Varying Albedo

We present a single-shot system to recover surface geometry of objects with spatially-varying albedos, from images captured under a calibrated RGB photometric stereo setup-with three light directions multiplexed across different color channels in the observed RGB image. Since the problem is ill-posed point-wise, we assume that the albedo map can be modeled as piece-wise constant with a restricted number of distinct albedo values. We show that under ideal conditions, the shape of a non-degenerate local constant albedo surface patch can theoretically be recovered exactly. Moreover, we present a practical and efficient algorithm that uses this model to robustly recover shape from real images. Our method first reasons about shape locally in a dense set of patches in the observed image, producing shape distributions for every patch. These local distributions are then combined to produce a single consistent surface normal map. We demonstrate the efficacy of the approach through experiments on both synthetic renderings as well as real captured images.
Quiet Sun Magnetic Fields from Simultaneous Inversions of Visible and Infrared Spectropolarimetric Observations

We study the quiet Sun magnetic fields using spectropolarimetric observations of the infrared and visible Fe I lines at 6301.5, 6302.5, 15648, and 15653 Å. Magnetic field strengths and filling factors are inferred by the simultaneous fit of the observed Stokes profiles under the MISMA hypothesis. The observations cover an intranetwork region at the solar disk center. We analyze 2280 Stokes profiles whose polarization signals are above noise in the two spectral ranges, which correspond to 40% of the field of view. Most of these profiles can be reproduced only with a model atmosphere including three magnetic components with very different field strengths, which indicates the coexistence of kG and sub-kG fields in our 1. ″5 resolution elements. We measure an unsigned magnetic flux density of 9.6 G considering the full field of view. Half of the pixels present magnetic fields with mixed polarities in the resolution element. The fraction of mixed polarities increases as the polarization weakens. We compute the probability density function of finding each magnetic field strength. It has a significant contribution of kG field strengths, which concentrates most of the observed magnetic flux and energy. This kG contribution has a preferred magnetic polarity, while the polarity of the weak fields is balanced.
Why and what did we throw out?: Probing on Reflection through the Food Waste Diary

Issues of consumer food waste in industrialised countries are becoming an increasing concern and this is paralleled by a growing interest in HCI to support more sustainable consumption practices. In this paper we report on a mobile food waste diary application that was made available on app stores, with the aim of enabling motivated people to reflect on their moments of food waste and to explore rationales. Through analysis of the entries submitted by users of the diary application, we identify instances of reflection located on different levels. The intention of supporting reflection was visible in instances of submitted diary entries where deeper in- sights about the relationships between food waste, previous experiences, habits, knowledge, occurrences and intentions to change were offered.
Learning and transfer as dynamical paradigms for behavioral change

Our window into the topic of learning is bimanual coordination to a visually-specified phase relationship. Previous research reveals that only a few phasing patterns are produced stably, which are mapped onto attractors of the system's intrinsic dynamics. Specific task constraints introduce behavioral information into the dynamics, attracting the system's behavior toward a required pattern. Learning is the process by which environmental behavioral information which defines the visuomotor pattern to be learned becomes memorized. Once learning is achieved, the memorized pattern constitutes an attractor of the behavioral pattern dynamics. The rational of the present experiments is to periodically probe the phase diagram (the set of all phasing relations) while a particular phasing pattern is practised