Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Experimental Study of Jamming IEEE 802 . 15 . 4 compliant Sensor Networks

Interference in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and its effect on network performance is a topic of active research interest. In this paper we present an experimental study of jamming a sensor network by introducing interference. Two methods for introducing interference were explored: a) continuous tone emission and b) concurrent packet transmission. Metrics such as the PRR and RSSI values at the nodes has been utilized to study the effectiveness of jamming. Experimentations were performed using the TelosB motes equipped with 802.15. 4 compliant CC2420 radio, under the TinyOS-2.x software platform. In our experiments, we measured the jamming efficiency under different conditions such as changing channels, power levels, distance and topology. We thus identified the favorable conditions where jamming occurs effectively. We have also proposed an energy-efficient algorithm for betterment of the naïve jamming method we followed experimentation. KeywordsInterference; Link Quality; RSSI; PRR; CC2420.
Formative evaluation of synchronous CMC systems for a learner-centered online course

This research used formative evaluation methods to examine a number of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems for online learning. CMC systems provide an ideal venue for both knowledge construction and community building. The principles of learner-centeredness, constructivism, and sociocultural theories provided the bases for the design of synchronous activities such as student-moderated seminars in this study. Several synchronous online activities were introduced and evaluated. Based on the results of observers logs, ratings on social presence, communication effectiveness, and communication interface, 10 desirable features of synchronous CMC systems were recommended.
Essential role of PU.1 in maintenance of mixed lineage leukemia-associated leukemic stem cells

Acute myeloid leukemia is a clonal malignant disorder derived from a small number of leukemic stem cells (LSCs). Rearrangements of the mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene are found in acute myeloid leukemia associated with poor prognosis. The upregulation of Hox genes is critical for LSC induction and maintenance, but is unlikely to support malignancy and the high LSC frequency observed in MLL leukemias. The present study shows that MLL fusion proteins interact with the transcription factor PU.1 to activate the transcription of CSF‐1R, which is critical for LSC activity. Acute myeloid leukemia is cured by either deletion of PU.1 or ablation of cells expressing CSF‐1R. Kinase inhibitors specific for CSF‐1R prolong survival time. These findings indicate that PU.1‐mediated upregulation of CSF‐1R is a critical effector of MLL leukemogenesis.
Cerebral Small Vessel Disease and Renal Function: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The small vessel disease (SVD) that appears in the brain may be part of a multisystem disorder affecting other vascular beds such as the kidney and retina. Because renal failure is associated with both stroke and white matter hyperintensities we hypothesised that small vessel (lacunar) stroke would be more strongly associated with renal failure than cortical stroke. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to establish first if lacunar stroke was associated with the renal function, and second, if cerebral small vessel disease seen on the MRI of patients without stroke was more common in patients with renal failure. Methods: We searched Medline and EMBASE for studies in adults with cerebral SVD (lacunar stroke or white matter hyper intensities (WMH) on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)), in which renal function was assessed (estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) or proteinuria). We extracted data on SVD diagnosis, renal function, demographics and comorbidities. We performed two meta-analyses: first, we calculated the odds of renal impairment in lacunar (small vessel) ischaemic stroke compared to other ischaemic stroke subtypes (non-small vessel disease); and second, we calculated the odds of renal impairment in non-stroke individuals with WMH on MRI compared to individuals without WMH. We then performed a sensitivity analysis by excluding studies with certain characteristics and repeating the meta-analysis calculation. Results: After screening 11,001 potentially suitable titles, we included 37 papers reporting 32 studies of 20,379 subjects: 15 of stroke patients and 17 of SVD features in non-stroke patients. To diagnose lacunar stroke, 13/15 of the studies used risk factor-based classification (none used diffusion-weighted MRI). 394/1,119 (35%) of patients with lacunar stroke had renal impairment compared with 1,443/4,217 (34%) of patients with non-lacunar stroke, OR 0.88, (95% CI 0.6-1.30). In individuals without stroke the presence of SVD was associated with an increased risk of renal impairment (whether proteinuria or reduced eGFR) OR 2.33 (95% CI 1.80-3.01), when compared to those without SVD. After adjustment for age and hypertension, 15/21 studies still reported a significant association between renal impairment and SVD. Conclusion: We found no specific association between renal impairment and lacunar stroke, but we did find that in individuals who had not had a stroke, having more SVD features on imaging was associated with a worse renal function, which remained significant after controlling for hypertension. However, this finding does not exclude a powerful co-associate effect of age or vascular risk factor exposure. Future research should subtype lacunar stroke sensitively and control for major risk factors.
ICT and disabled and elderly people in different cultures

The current study discovers how disabled people and elderly people use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in different cultures and how they thought about it. Earlier literature lists several studies about ICT, disabled and elderly people, and little information about two countries Vietnam and Finland. The ICT usage of disabled and elderly people in these two countries may be different. Therefore, the current study offers significant findings how elderly people use ICT. The research approach was qualitative method. Twenty elderly respondents (ten Finnish and ten Vietnamese) were interviewed, and after that, the empirical material was analyzed. The findings also revealed that the earlier knowledge from previous studies were still valid. For example, the older people used less ICT than their younger counterparts, and they also had more problems while using it. In addition, the findings also presented the benefits of ICT to elderly people. The interviews highlighted what elderly people thought about ICT and what they wanted to have in the future. The reason might be that they wanted to have a better life in the future. The cultural differences between two countries were also given in the findings. The Vietnamese respondents were afraid of recording during the interviews while some Finnish people did allow recording. The technological gaps are quite large. In Vietnam, the elderly people had less access to ICT, so their usage was limited in comparison with the Finnish respondents. However, the Finnish elderly were more dependent on technology, because they used ICT quite often as additional aids in their everyday life. Moreover, from the findings, the designers and manufacturers of ICT can create suitable devices and services for elderly.
Value and Size Puzzles: A Commented Survey

Stocks with low market price relatively to the accounting fundamentals of the issuing company (value stocks) have higher expected returns than those with high market price (growth stocks) for the same level of systematic risk. The same holds for the stocks of small companies, compared to relatively big ones. These empirical findings, known respectively as the value puzzle and the size puzzle, have been among the central topics of the asset pricing literature since the early 1990s. We review the theoretical and empirical literature on the value and size premia over the last two decades, comparing and commenting on the competing explanations of the asset pricing puzzles. Though the risk-based explanations seem to dominate, at least in the volume of recent academic publications, the final word is still to be said since numerous shortcomings of the empirical tests used to support them raise doubts in their validity. We suggest several directions of further research, motivated by our analysis.
Support Vector Regression for Censored Data (SVRc): A Novel Tool for Survival Analysis

A crucial challenge in predictive modeling for survival analysis is managing censored observations in the data. The Cox proportional hazards model is the standard tool for the analysis of continuous censored survival data. We propose a novel machine learning algorithm, support vector regression for censored data (SVRc) for improved analysis of medical survival data. SVRc leverages the high-dimensional capabilities of traditional SVR while adapting it for use with censored data through a modified asymmetric loss/penalty function which allows censored (left and right censored) data to be processed. We applied the new algorithm to predict the recurrence and disease progression of prostate cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer. Compared with the traditional Cox model, SVRc achieves significant improvement in overall accuracy as well as in the ability to identify high-risk and low-risk patient populations.
CLUSTERING GENE EXPRESSION DATA USING AN EFFECTIVE DISSIMILARITY MEASURE 1

This paper presents two clustering methods: the first one uses a density-based approach (DGC) and the second one uses a frequent itemset mining approach (FINN). DGC uses regulation information as well as order preserving ranking for identifying relevant clusters in gene expression data. FINN exploits the frequent itemsets and uses a nearest neighbour approach for clustering gene sets. Both the methods use a novel dissimilarity measure discussed in the paper. The clustering methods were experimented in light of reallife datasets and the methods have been established to perform satisfactorily. The methods were also compared with some wellknown clustering algorithms and found to perform well in terms of homogeneity, silhouette and the z-score cluster validity measure.
An Empirical Study on the Impact of Working Capital Management on Profitability: Evidence from Indian Sugar Industry

Every organization, whether profit oriented or not, depending upon its size and nature of business needs, requires Working Capital (WC). Efficient WC Management is an integral component of the overall corporate strategy to create shareholders’ value. Sugar Industry in India occupies an important place in the Indian Economy, providing employment to nearly 7.5 million people, directly or indirectly, across the country, besides making the base for over 50 million people for their livelihood from growing and supplying sugarcane, which also contributes annually around Rs.50 billion by way of excise duty, cess, VAT, entry tax and octroi. The present study is aimed at analyzing the relationship between the Working Capital Management and the Profitability of Sugar Industry in India. It is proved that there is a significant positive coefficient with CR, INV and ROI at 5% level. Also there is a significant negative coefficient with QR, WCTR and ROI at 5% level. DTR has highly significant negative coefficientat1%level with ROI. CTR has insignificant positive coefficient with profitability. The overall regression model fit is represented by R2, which is above 50% (0.51).
FORECASTING USING SIMPLE EXPONENTIAL SMOOTHING METHOD

In the paper a relatively simple yet powerful and versatile technique for forecasting time series data ‐ simple exponential smoothing is described. The simple exponential smoothing (SES) is a short-range forecasting method that assumes a reasonably stable mean in the data with no trend (consistent growth or decline). It is one of the most popular forecasting methods that uses weighted moving average of past data as the basis for a forecast. The procedure gives heaviest weight to more recent observations and smaller weight to observations in the more distant past. The accuracy of the SES method strongly depends on the optimal value of the smoothing constant a. To determine the optimal a value in the paper was used a traditional optimalization method based on the lowest mean absolute error (MAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean square error (RMSE).
Rationality of secondary classes

We prove the Bloch conjecture : $ c_2(E) \in H^4_\cald (X,\bbz(2))$ is torsion for holomorphic rank two vector bundles $E$ with an integrable connection over a complex projective variety $X$. We prove also the rationality of the Chern-Simons invariant of compact arithmetic hyperbolic three-manifolds. We give a sharp higher-dimensional Milnor inequality for the volume regulator of all representations to $PSO(1,n)$ of fundamental groups of compact $n$-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds, announced in our earlier paper.
Robust mobile robotic formation control using Internet-like protocols

This work presents an internet-like protocol (ILP) to coordinate the formation of n second-order agents in a two dimensional (2D) space. The trajectories are specified trough via points and a desired formation at each point. A basis for the proof of convergence is given using Lyapunov second method. Simulink is used to verify the response of the agents for a variety of desired trajectories. The proposed algorithms are robust in the sense that they can accommodate changes in the formation of the agents and more importantly, changes in the number of agents as some of them drop of or join the formation.
Sexual Dimorphism of Body Size Is Controlled by Dosage of the X-Chromosomal Gene Myc and by the Sex-Determining Gene tra in Drosophila

Drosophila females are larger than males. In this article, we describe how X-chromosome dosage drives sexual dimorphism of body size. Drosophila females are larger than males. In this article, we describe how X-chromosome dosage drives sexual dimorphism of body size through two means: first, through unbalanced expression of a key X-linked growth-regulating gene, and second, through female-specific activation of the sex-determination pathway. X-chromosome dosage determines phenotypic sex by regulating the genes of the sex-determining pathway. In the presence of two sets of X-chromosome signal elements (XSEs), Sex-lethal (Sxl) is activated in female (XX) but not male (XY) animals. Sxl activates transformer (tra), a gene that encodes a splicing factor essential for female-specific development. It has previously been shown that null mutations in the tra gene result in only a partial reduction of body size of XX animals, which shows that other factors must contribute to size determination. We tested whether X dosage directly affects animal size by analyzing males with duplications of X-chromosomal segments. Upon tiling across the X chromosome, we found four duplications that increase male size by >9%. Within these, we identified several genes that promote growth as a result of duplication. Only one of these, Myc, was found not to be dosage compensated. Together, our results indicate that both Myc dosage and tra expression play crucial roles in determining sex-specific size in Drosophila larvae and adult tissue. Since Myc also acts as an XSE that contributes to tra activation in early development, a double dose of Myc in females serves at least twice in development to promote sexual size dimorphism.
Asynchronous gameplay in pervasive multiplayer mobile games

One of the interesting features in pervasive multiplayer games is that gaming can be blended into other daily activities. However, the players' current context creates challenges for this parallel activity and therefore, the game design should enable the players to participate in the game whenever it is suitable for them. In this paper, we present initial results from a study which explored one game design solution for this challenge, namely asynchronous gameplay. We wanted to find out how asynchronous gameplay was used and what the players' attitudes were towards this new playing style. The results indicate that the players received asynchronous gameplay positively and that asynchronous gameplay does not diminish the player's opportunities for winning the game.
Longitudinal follow-up of bone mineral density in children with nephrotic syndrome and the role of calcium and vitamin D supplements.

BACKGROUND We previously have demonstrated that children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS) are at risk of metabolic bone disease (MBD). In this study, we report the longitudinal follow-up of these children and the role of calcium and vitamin D supplements. METHODS We prospectively studied 100 consecutive children with INS. They were treated with prednisone. All were subjected to a baseline clinical, biochemical and radiological evaluation. They were initiated on calcium (500 mg/day) and vitamin D3 (200 IU/day) supplements, followed by a repeat assessment. The primary outcome measure was the Deltaz score (difference between the initial and final z scores) on dual energy X-linked absorptiometry (DEXA). A univariate and multivariate analysis using stepwise linear regression was performed for factors predictive of an improved Deltaz score. RESULTS Of the 88 children that completed the study, the majority (n = 54) had improved bone mineral density (BMD) at the spine, and another 25 children had stable BMD on calcium and vitamin D3 supplements. The mean spinal BMD values were significantly better on follow-up (0.607+/-0.013 g/cm2) as compared with baseline values (0.561+/-0.010 g/cm2) (P<0.0001). The interval between initial and follow-up assessment was 1.5+/-0.07 years. Children who were on these supplements (n = 73) had a significantly improved z score as compared with those who did not receive them (n = 15) (P = 0.008). On multivariate analysis, the factors predictive of an improved z score were: younger age (P<0.0001), calcium and vitamin D3 supplement (P<0.0001), greater dietary calcium intake (P = 0.022) and lower interval steroid dose (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Children with greater steroid doses were likely to have low BMD on follow-up. Calcium and vitamin D supplements may help in improving BMD in children with INS.
Retirement Responses to a Generous Pension Reform: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Eastern Europe

The retirement decision is under researched in developing and emerging countries, despite the topic's close relation to many development issues such as poverty reduction and social security, and despite the fact that population ageing will increasingly challenge the developing world. This paper uses a natural experiment from Ukraine to estimate the causal effect of a threefold increase in the legal minimum pension on labor supply and retirement behaviour at older ages. Applying difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity methods on two independent nationally representative data sets, the paper estimates a pure income effect that caused additional retirement of 30 to 47 percent. Additional evidence suggests that retirement incentives are stronger at the lower tail of the educational distribution and that the strict Labor Code curbed responses at the intensive labor supply margin. Although the substantial pension increase provided strong disincentives to work and put a heavy fiscal burden on Ukraine, it significantly reduced the propensity of falling into poverty for those in retirement.
Sorting of synaptophysin into special vesicles in nonneuroendocrine epithelial cells

Synaptophysin is a major transmembrane glycoprotein of a type of small vesicle with an electron-translucent content (SET vesicles), including the approximately 50-nm presynaptic vesicles in neuronal cells, and of similar, somewhat larger (< or = approximately 90 nm) vesicles (SLMV) in neuroendocrine (NE) cells. When certain epithelial non-NE cells, such as human hepatocellular carcinoma PLC cells, were cDNA transfected to synthesize synaptophysin, the new molecules appeared in specific SET vesicles. As this was in contrast to other reports that only NE cells were able to sort synaptophysin away from other plasma membrane proteins into presynaptic- or SLMV-type vesicles, we have further characterized the vesicles containing synaptophysin in transfected PLC cells. Using fractionation and immunoisolation techniques, we have separated different kinds of vesicles, and we have identified a distinct type of synaptophysin-rich, small (30-90-nm) vesicle that contains little, if any, protein of the constitutive secretory pathway marker hepatitis B surface antigen, of the fluid phase endocytosis marker HRP, and of the plasma membrane recycling endosomal marker transferrin receptor. In addition, we have found variously sized vesicles that contained both synaptophysin and transferrin receptor. A corresponding result was also obtained by direct visualization, using double-label immunofluorescence microscopy for the endocytotic markers and synaptophysin in confocal laser scan microscopy and in double- immunogold label electron microscopy. We conclude that diverse non-NE cells of epithelial nature are able to enrich the "foreign" molecule synaptophysin in a category of SET vesicles that are morphologically indistinguishable from SLMV of NE cells, including one type of vesicle in which synaptophysin is sorted away from endosomal marker proteins. Possible mechanisms of this sorting are discussed.
Image registration using log-polar mappings for recovery of large-scale similarity and projective transformations

This paper describes a novel technique to recover large similarity transformations (rotation/scale/translation) and moderate perspective deformations among image pairs. We introduce a hybrid algorithm that features log-polar mappings and nonlinear least squares optimization. The use of log-polar techniques in the spatial domain is introduced as a preprocessing module to recover large scale changes (e.g., at least four-fold) and arbitrary rotations. Although log-polar techniques are used in the Fourier-Mellin transform to accommodate rotation and scale in the frequency domain, its use in registering images subjected to very large scale changes has not yet been exploited in the spatial domain. In this paper, we demonstrate the superior performance of the log-polar transform in featureless image registration in the spatial domain. We achieve subpixel accuracy through the use of nonlinear least squares optimization. The registration process yields the eight parameters of the perspective transformation that best aligns the two input images. Extensive testing was performed on uncalibrated real images and an array of 10,000 image pairs with known transformations derived from the Corel Stock Photo Library of royalty-free photographic images.
Decoupled Time Stepping Methods for Fluid-Fluid Interaction

A model of two incompressible Newtonian fluids coupled across a common interface is studied. The nonlinearity of the coupling condition exacerbates the problem of decoupling the fluid calculations in each subdomain, a natural parallelization strategy employed in current climate models. A specialized partitioned time stepping method is studied which decouples the discrete fluid equations without sacrificing stability and maintaining convergence. This is accomplished through explicit updating of the size of the jump in tangential velocities across the fluid-fluid interface by a geometric averaging of this data over the previous two time levels. A full numerical analysis is presented and computational tests are performed demonstrating the robustness of this method.