Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increasing Effective Radiated Power in Wireless Sensor Networks with Channel Coding Techniques

In this paper we analyzed classical forward error correction (FEC) algorithms implemented in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We adopted FEC algorithms in sensor network nodes and evaluated performance and cost related to their covered area. Experimental results show how FEC adoption increases bit error tolerance in additive white Gaussian noise channels while rising computational costs in an acceptable fashion; coding gains reach values higher than 1 dB with a time latency that is negligible when compared with WSN data rates.
Three Essays on Strategic Risk Taking

THREE ESSAYS ON STRATEGIC RISK TAKING Krista Burrill Lewellyn Old Dominion University Director: Dr. William Q. Judge The three essays that comprise this dissertation collectively explore strategic risk taking. The dissertation is underpinned by the notion that corporate executives take strategic risks not randomly, but based on the expectation that outcomes are more likely to be positive rather than negative. Each essay examines how and why decision makers come to vary in their cognitive evaluation of the acceptability of strategic risk taking. Essay 1 draws from the approach/inhibition theory of power, to explore how power not only provides the means for CEOs to exert their risk preferences, but actually affects what the risk preferences are. Power is theorized to influence CEO cognitions, such that there is a prevailing focus on the upsides of strategic risk taking and a tendency to underestimate the downsides, increasing the proclivity to engage in such actions. Focusing on upsides as opposed to downsides is also evoked in explaining why stock options induce risk taking, thus the possibility that there are interaction (complementary or substitutive) effects with CEO power is also explored in a sample of firms listed in the S&P 1500 from 20032007. Essay 2 uses the behavioral agency model, to examine how the risk bearing attributes of specific CEO compensation elements affect the decision to engage in cross-border acquisitions. This subsequently increases the proclivity to engage in cross-border acquisitions. Moderating effects of managerial discretion are also evaluated. The
Telling stories : a process of identification for six neophyte teacher educators

This study engaged new teacher educator participants in narrative story telling which facilitated a process of ‘identification’ that was supportive of their identity transformation. The study considers the process of identity transformation as these experienced teachers move into their new roles as teacher educators. The narrative method was sensitive to a poststructuralist view of identity. Six neophyte teacher educators shared their Professional Life Histories for this study. This adapted life history method included the use of prospective as well as retrospective reflection. Follow up discussions provided an opportunity for reflection on the Professional Life History process. These narrative events were analysed using an interpretive approach based on grounded theory. Three viewing frames, consisting of explorations in relation to identity and identification, types of reflection and narrative storytelling, were applied. The narrative events revealed evidence of identity transformation for the participants but found that identity as a teacher educator was in process and only partially formed at the point of telling their stories suggesting that their identity was still in transition despite having spent some time in the role, and for some of them undergoing a yearlong preparation for the role. This study reveals how engaging in narrative story telling provided an opportunity for participants to activate a process of ‘identification’ which was supportive of identity transformation. Analysis of the forms of reflection evidenced in the narrative events suggested that critical self-reflection was involved in identification. Furthermore, the follow up discussions evidenced the emergence of ‘premise reflection’ (Mezirow, 1991) suggesting that ‘reflecting on reflection’ further enhanced self-knowing and identity transformation. A model of the interaction between two dimensions, that of subjective/objective and structure/agency, was developed proposing that within narrative story telling an individual might gain a more objective and agentive understanding of their professional identity and self.
Demand-Perception and Self-Motivation as Opponent Processes

This article attempts to move beyond the contradictions regarding the motivational effects of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy beliefs are viewed as the conscious reflection of an implicit process of self-motivation that occurs as a response to the perception of increased demands. A positive rate of change in self-efficacy beliefs, rather than a steady state of self-efficacy, indicates self-motivation and is associated with positive motivational consequences. It is argued that the oscillating interplay of demand-perception and self-motivation is linked to the dynamics of positive and negative affect. The theoretical model can account for the conflicting findings that exist with regard to the motivational consequences of self-efficacy and opens an agenda for future research.
An infinite Ramsey theorem and some Banach-space dichotomies

A problem of Banach asks whether every infinite-dimensional Banach space which is isomorphic to all its infinite-dimensional subspaces must be isomorphic to a separable Hilbert space. In this paper we prove a result of a Ramsey-theoretic nature which implies an interesting dichotomy for subspaces of Banach spaces. Combined with a result of Komorowski and TomczakJaegermann, this gives a positive answer to BanachXs problem. We then generalize the Ramsey-theoretic result and deduce a further dichotomy for Banach spaces with an unconditional basis.
Increased PD-1 Expression and Altered T Cell Repertoire Diversity Predict Mortality in Patients with Septic Shock: A Preliminary Study

Sepsis causes impairment of innate and adaptive immunity by multiple mechanisms, including depletion of immune effector cells and T cell exhaustion. Although lymphocyte dysfunction is associated with increased mortality and potential reactivation of latent viral infection in patients with septic shock, the relation between viral reactivation and lymphocyte dysfunction is obscure. The objectives of this study were 1) to determine the relation of lymphocyte dysfunction to viral reactivation and mortality, and 2) to evaluate recovery of lymphocyte function during septic shock, including T cell receptor (TCR) diversity and the expression of programmed death 1 (PD-1). In 18 patients with septic shock and latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, serial blood samples were obtained on days 1, 3, and 7 after the onset of shock, and immune cell subsets and receptor expression were characterized by flow cytometry. TCR diversity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells was analyzed by Multi-N-plex PCR, and CMV DNA was quantified using a real-time PCR kit. A decrease of TCR diversity and monocyte HLA-DR expression were observed in the early stage of septic shock, while CD4+ T cells displayed an increase of PD-1 expression. Significant lymphopenia persisted for at least 7 days following the onset of septic shock. Normalization of TCR diversity and PD-1 expression was observed by day 7, except in patients who died. CMV reactivation was detected in 3 of the 18 patients during the first week of their ICU stay and all 3 patients died. These changes are consistent with the early stage of immune cell exhaustion and indicate the importance of normal lymphocyte function for recovery from septic shock. Ongoing lymphocyte dysfunction is associated with CMV reactivation and dissemination, as well as with unfavorable outcomes.
Update on pediatric cancer predisposition syndromes

Hereditary cancer syndromes in children and adolescents are becoming more recognized in the field of pediatric hematology/oncology. A recent workshop held at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) 2012 Annual Meeting included several interactive sessions related to specific familial cancer syndromes, genetic testing and screening, and ethical issues in caring for families with inherited cancer risk. This review highlights the workshop presentations, including a brief background about pediatric cancer predisposition syndromes and the importance of learning about them for the practicing pediatric hematologists/oncologists. This is followed by a brief summary of the newly described cancer predisposition syndromes including Rhabdoid Tumor Predisposition Syndrome, Hereditary Paragangliomas and Pheochromocytoma Syndrome, and Familial Pleuropulmonaryblastoma Tumor Predisposition (DICER1) Syndrome. The next section covers genetic testing and screening for pediatric cancer predisposition syndromes. Ethical issues are also discussed including preimplantation genetic diagnosis or testing (PGD/PGT), suspicious lesions found on tumor screening, and incidental mutations discovered by whole genome sequencing. Finally, the perspective of a family with Li‐Fraumeni Syndrome is shared. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2013;60:1247–1252. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
External Sources of Information for Innovation Development: A Comprehensive Analysis of the European and Spanish Evidence

The ever-greater complexity and dynamism that innovation entails have forced firms to complement their internal knowledge basis cooperating with different stakeholders. Between several existing alternatives, the cooperation with customers is one of the most important sources of innovative ideas. Thus, the current paper attempts to explore different sources of information that European and Spanish firms use to innovate and it highlights the importance of customer cooperation. This analysis is completed with an empirical study of cooperation influence on innovation activity intensity. The data refers to twenty Spanish productive sectors and four types of cooperation (cooperation with customers, suppliers, universities and experts/consultants). In conclusion the paper shows that collaboration with customers significantly increases the firm's innovation intensity and consequently, this variable can be used as a reliable indicator of the effort that the firm is devoting to innovation activities.
Interdecadal Change of the Structure of the ENSO Mode and Its Impact on the ENSO Frequency

In the late 1970s, the ENSO cycle exhibited frequency change. The oscillation period increased from 2‐4 yr (high frequency) during 1962‐75 to 4‐6 yr (low frequency) during 1980‐93. Observations suggest that this frequency change was accompanied by a significant change in the structure of the coupled ENSO mode. In comparison with the high-frequency regime, the structure of the coupled mode in the low-frequency regime shows three distinctive features during the warm phase of ENSO: the eastward shift of the westerly anomalies, the meridional expansion of the westerly anomalies, and the weaker intensity of the easterly anomalies in the eastern Pacific. To test the robustness of the relationship between the oscillation period and the structure of the coupled mode, the authors designed empirical atmospheric models based on observations and coupled them with the ocean model of Zebiak and Cane. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the ENSO period is sensitive to changes in the wind anomaly pattern in a way much like the observed ENSO frequency‐structure relation. The increase of the ENSO period after 1980 is mainly due to the eastward shift of the zonal wind stress with respect to the SST anomalies. Physical explanations of the dependence of ENSO frequency on the structure of the coupled mode are provided by diagnosing the relative contributions of the thermocline feedback and zonal advection feedback on ENSO evolution.
Self-Actualization and the Tragedy of Beauty

A tragedy of beauty has occurred in Western culture and perhaps worldwide: The importance of beauty for a flourishing and self-actualizing life is largely going unnoticed by both the general public and by psychologists. Philosophers, sacred scriptures, and a range of empirical findings point to the centrality of engaging with beauty for a meaningful life and suggest engagement with beauty as a means of pursuing self-actualization. However, not only American culture but humanistic psychologists have severely undervalued the fulfillment of aesthetic needs and a life engaged by beauty. We examined the relationship between the Engagement with Beauty Scale and the Short Index of Self-Actualization (N = 252). Very small, nonsignificant correlations were found between the Short Index of Self-Actualization and engagement with natural beauty, engagement with artistic beauty, and engagement with moral beauty. This indicates that persons high in self-actualization have no more interest in beauty than those low in self-actualization; this implies that those in our sample do not take the importance of beauty into account as they make choices to grow as a person. We conclude that American culture has been infected by a tragedy of beauty, which is a serious impediment toward fully self-actualizing, and to moving toward self-transcendence.
Information and College Access: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

High school students from disadvantaged high schools in Toronto were invited to take two surveys, about three weeks apart. Half of the students taking the first survey were also shown a 3 minute video about the benefits of post secondary education (PSE) and invited to try out a financial-aid calculator. Most students' perceived returns to PSE were high, even among those not expecting to continue. Those exposed to the video, especially those initially unsure about their own educational attainment, reported significantly higher expected returns, lower concerns about costs, and expressed greater likelihood of PSE attainment.
An efficient implementation of on-board cloud detection on a reconfigurable computer

Abstract : The presence of cloud contamination can hinder the use of satellite data, and this requires a cloud detection process to mask out cloudy pixels from further processing. The trend for remote sensing satellite missions has always been towards smaller size, lower cost, more flexibility, and higher computational power. Reconfigurable Computers (RCs) combine the flexibility of traditional microprocessors with the power of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Therefore, RCs are a promising candidate for on-board preprocessing. This paper presents the design and implementation of an RC-based real-time cloud detection system. We investigate the potential of using RCs for on-board preprocessing by prototyping the Landsat 7 ETM+ ACCA algorithm on one of the state-of-the art reconfigurable platforms, SRC-6E. Although a reasonable amount of investigations of the ACCA cloud detection algorithm using FPGAs has been reported in the literature, very few details/results were provided and/or limited contributions were accomplished. Our work has been proven to provide higher performance and higher detection accuracy.
Autologous somatic cell nuclear transfer in pigs using recipient oocytes and donor cells from the same animal

The objective of the present study was to examine the feasibility of the production of autologous porcine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) blastocysts using oocytes and donor cells from slaughtered ovaries. Therefore, we attempted to optimize autologous SCNT by examining the effects of electrical fusion conditions and donor cell type on cell fusion and the development of SCNT embryos. Four types of donor cells were used: 1) denuded cumulus cells (DCCs) collected from in vitro-matured (IVM) oocytes; 2) cumulus cells collected from oocytes after 22 h of IVM and cultured for 18 h (CCCs); 3) follicular cells obtained from follicular contents and cultured for 40 h (CFCs); and 4) adult skin fibroblasts. The DCCs showed a significantly (p < 0.01) lower rate of fusion than the CCCs when two pulses of 170 V/mm DC were applied for 50 µsec (19 ± 2% vs. 77 ± 3%). The rate of DCC fusion with oocytes was increased by the application of two DC pulses of 190 V/mm for 30 µsec, although this was still lower than the rate of fusion in the CCCs (33 ± 1% vs. 80 ± 2%). The rates of cleavage (57 ± 5%) and blastocyst formation (1 ± 1%) in the DCC-derived embryos did not differ from those (55 ± 6% and 3 ± 1%, respectively) in the CCC-derived SCNT embryos. Autologous SCNT embryos derived from CFCs (5 ± 2%) showed higher levels of blastocyst formation (p < 0.01) than CCC-derived autologous SCNT embryos (1 ± 0%). In conclusion, the results of the present study show that culturing cumulus and follicular cells before SCNT enhances cell fusion with oocytes and that CFCs are superior to CCCs in the production of higher numbers of autologous SCNT blastocysts.
Stereo correspondence using multi-label QPBO method

Stereo correspondence has been one of the most intense areas of research in computer vision. Graph-based energy minimization has proven to be a powerful framework for incorporating global constraints with local matching costs. In this work, dense stereo correspondence is cast as multilabel energy minimization problem, which is then solved using MQPBO method [1]. We believe the ability of MQPBO to compute the approximate solution with all labels at once has the potential to avoid local optima that may occur in iterative methods. Furthermore, by using QPBO-based technique, the class of energy functions that can be minimized is not limited to being submodular thus our approach is independent of matching costs and smoothness priors. We have tested our postulate with different combinations of cost functions and our experiment has shown encouraging results in various settings.
On the storage requirement in the out-of-core multifrontal method for sparse factorization

Two techniques are introduced to reduce the working storage requirement for the recent multifrontal method of Duff and Reid used in the sparse out-of-core factorization of symmetric matrices. For a given core size, the reduction in working storage allows some large problems to be solved without having to use auxiliary storage for the working arrays. Even if the working arrays exceed the core size, it will reduce the amount of input-output traffic necessary to manipulate the working vectors. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate significant storage reduction on practical problems using the proposed techniques.
Sunburn related to UV radiation exposure, age, sex, occupation, and sun bed use based on time-stamped personal dosimetry and sun behavior diaries.

OBJECTIVE To assess when sunburn occurs and who experiences sunburn by personal UV dosimetry and diaries. DESIGN Open prospective observational study. SETTING University hospital. PARTICIPANTS A convenience sample of 340 Danish volunteers: children, adolescents, indoor workers, sun worshippers, golfers, and gardeners (age range, 4-68 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Subjects recorded sunburn and sun-exposure behavior in diaries and carried personal, electronic, wristwatch UV radiation (UVR) dosimeters that measured time-stamped UVR doses continuously for a median of 119 days covering 346 sun-years (1 sun-year equals 1 subject participating during 1 summer half-year). RESULTS A typical sunburn day was a day off work (91%; odds ratio, 4.1) with risk behavior (sunbathing/exposing shoulders) (79%; odds ratio, 15.9) in May, June, or July (90%) for 6.4 exposure hours (interquartile range, 5-7.7 hours), of which 2.8 hours fell between noon and 3 pm. Subjects had a median of 1 sunburn per sun-year; adolescents, sun worshippers, and indoor workers had more than children, golfers, and gardeners (P<.05). Sunburn peaked at age 20 years, and female subjects had more sunburns than male subjects (P<.01). Skin type IV had fewer sunburns than types I through III (P<.01). Sunburned persons had more risk-behavior days and lower skin type (P<.01) than nonsunburned persons. The median UVR doses received were significantly higher on sunburn days than on nonsunburn days with risk behavior (P<.01). There was a significant correlation between sunburn size and severity; sunburn and sunscreen use; and sunburn and sun-bed use (P<.01 for all 3 comparisons). CONCLUSIONS Sunburn was highly correlated with risk behavior. Reduction of risk-behavior days and/or exposure hours around noon can reduce sunburn. Sunburn was not found during breaks on normal full-time indoor work or school days.
AN ARCHITECTURE FOR THE INTEROPERABILITY BETWEEN RIGHTS EXPRESSION LANGUAGES BASED ON XACML

None of the current initiatives to provide interoperability between Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems, such as CORAL [3] or Marlin [13], provide a global solution to enable different devices to render content governed by different DRM systems. Interoperability applies to different aspects of DRM, such as languages for rights expression, digital objects declaration and protection information declaration. We focus on the interoperability between Rights Expressions Languages (RELs). In this area, we have already done some work, including the definition of profiles for the MPEG-21 REL [14] standard. Based on those profiles for specific domains (such as the mobile or broadcasting ones), a couple of approaches have been developed for interoperability between licenses in different RELs, such as the use of extensible style sheets transformations or the use of high level modelling schemas. In order not to be restricted to specific profiles, this paper presents a solution based on the use of a XACML system based architecture to achieve interoperability between RELs. We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed solution showing that the main elements of rights expressions can be expressed in XACML policies without loss of information. Furthermore, instead of translating between different RELs through an intermediate one, we directly map to XACML and perform the authorisation with it. In this way, we do not lose any information conveyed in the input REL.
Pixel-level image fusion: the case of image sequences

In pixel-level image sequence fusion, a composite image sequence has to be built of several spatially registered input image sequences. One of the primary goals in image sequence fusion is the temporal stability and consistency of the fused image sequence. To fulfill the preceding desiderata, we propose a novel approach based on a shift invariant extension of the 2D discrete wavelet transform, which yields an overcomplete and thus shift invariant multiresolution signal representation. The advantage of the shift invariant fusion method is the improved temporal stability and consistency of the fused sequence, compared to other multiresolution fusion methods. To evaluate temporal stability and consistency of the fused sequence we introduce a quality measure based on the mutual information between the inter-frame-differences (IFD) of the input sequences and the fused image sequence. If the mutual information is high, the information in the IFD of the fused sequence is low with respect to the information present in the IFDs of the input sequences, indicating a stable and consistent fused image sequence. We evaluate the performance of several multiresolution fusion schemes on a real word image sequence pair and show that the shift invariant fusion method outperforms the other multiresolution fusion methods with respect to temporal stability and consistency.