Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Joint distributed synchronization and positioning in UWB ad hoc networks using TOA

In this paper, we describe a global distributed solution that enables the simultaneous performance of time synchronization and positioning in ultra-wideband (UWB) ad hoc networks. On the one hand, the proposed synchronization scheme basically relies on cooperative two-way-ranging/time-of-arrival transactions and a diffusion algorithm that ensures the convergence of clock parameters to average reference values in each node. Although the described solution is generic at first sight, its sensitivity to time-of-arrival accuracy imposes the choice of an impulse-radio ultra-wideband physical layer in the very context. On the other hand, a distributed algorithm coupled with this synchronization scheme mitigates the impact of non-line-of-sight ranging errors on positioning accuracy without any additional protocol hook. More particularly, the realistic UWB ranging error models we use take into account UWB channel effects, as well as detection noises and relative clock drifts. Then, it is demonstrated that a cooperative and distributed maximization of the log-likelihood of range estimates can reduce the uncertainty on estimated positions in comparison with classical distributed weighted least squares approaches. Finally, the proposed distributed maximum log-likelihood algorithm proves to preserve a reasonable level of complexity in each node by approximating asynchronously the positive gradient direction of the log-likelihood function. For both distributed synchronization and positioning algorithms, simulation results are provided to illustrate the relevance of such a solution.
EFI-20004 D-Branes as Unstable Lumps in Bosonic Open String Field Theory

We construct Dp-branes in bosonic string theory as unstable lumps in a truncated string field theory of open strings on a D25-brane. We find that the lowest level truncation gives good quantitative agreement with the predicted D-brane tension and low-lying spectrum of the D-brane for sufficiently large p and study the effect of the next level corrections for p = 24. We show that a U(1) gauge field zero mode on the D-brane arises through a mechanism reminiscent of the Randall-Sundrum mechanism for gravity.
HMM-based speech synthesis of live sports commentaries: integration of a two-layer prosody annotation

This paper proposes the integration of a two-layer prosody annotation specific to live sports commentaries into HMMbased speech synthesis. Local labels are assigned to all syllables and refer to accentual phenomena. Global labels categorize sequences of words into five distinct speaking styles, defined in terms of valence and arousal. Two stages of the synthesis process are analyzed. First, the integration of global labels (i.e. speaking styles) is carried out either using speaker-dependent training or adaptation methods. Secondly, a comprehensive study allows evaluating the effects achieved by each prosody annotation layer on the generated speech. The evaluation process is based on three subjective criteria: intelligibility, expressivity and segmental quality. Our experiments indicate that: (i) for the integration of global labels, adaptation techniques outperform speaking style-dependent models both in terms of intelligibility and segmental quality; (ii) the integration of local labels results in an enhanced expressivity, while it provides slightly higher intelligibility and segmental quality performance; (iii) combining the two levels of annotation (local and global) leads to the best results. It is indeed shown that it obtains better levels of expressivity and intelligibility.
Heart Rate Variability and Length of Survival in Hospice Cancer Patients

We examined the association between heart rate variability (HRV) and survival duration to evaluate the usefulness of HRV as a prognostic factor for hospice cancer patients. In terminally ill cancer patients who visited the Hospice clinic, we checked demographic data, Karnofsky performance scale (KPS), HRV, dyspnea, anorexia, as well as fasting blood glucose and total cholesterol. After following up their duration of survival, we examined meaningful prognostic factors for predicting life expectancy through the survival analysis. A total of 68 patients were included in final analysis. As KPS was lower, or when combined with dyspnea or anorexia, the survival duration was much shorter. HRV parameters except heart rate were all impaired in most patients. In particular, the group with mean heart rate of 100 or more beats per minute and the group with standard deviations of normal-to-normal R-R intervals (SDNN) of 21.3 ms (75 percentile) or less showed significantly shorter survival duration. The final multivariate analysis adjusting for age, gender, fasting blood glucose, and total cholesterol showed that KPS, dyspnea, anorexia, and SDNN were significant prognostic factors in survival duration. For the first time, we report that SDNN is a prognostic factor in terminal cancer patients.
The default mode network and social understanding of others: what do brain connectivity studies tell us

The Default Mode Network (DMN) has been found to be involved in various domains of cognitive and social processing. The present article will review brain connectivity results related to the DMN in the fields of social understanding of others: emotion perception, empathy, theory of mind, and morality. Most of the reviewed studies focused on healthy subjects with no neurological and psychiatric disease, but some studies on patients with autism and psychopathy will also be discussed. Common results show that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) plays a key role in the social understanding of others, and the subregions of the MPFC contribute differently to this function according to their roles in different subsystems of the DMN. At the bottom, the ventral MPFC in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) subsystem and its connections with emotion regions are mainly associated with emotion engagement during social interactions. Above, the anterior MPFC (aMPFC) in the cortical midline structures (CMS) and its connections with posterior and anterior cingulate cortex contribute mostly to making self-other distinctions. At the top, the dorsal MPFC (dMPFC) in the dMPFC subsystem and its connection with the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) are primarily related to the understanding of other's mental states. As behaviors become more complex, the related regions in frontal cortex are located higher. This reflects the transfer of information processing from automatic to cognitive processes with the increase of the complexity of social interaction. Besides the MPFC and TPJ, the connectivities of posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) also show some changes during tasks from the four social fields. These results indicate that the DMN is indispensable in the social understanding of others.
Stress Testing Credit Risk: Is the Czech Republic Different from Germany?

This study deals with credit risk modelling and stress testing within the context of a Merton-type one-factor model. We analyse the corporate and household sectors of the Czech Republic and Germany to find determining variables of credit risk in both countries. We find that a set of similar variables explains corporate credit risk in both countries despite substantial differences in the default rate pattern. This does not apply to households, where further research seems to be necessary. Next, we establish a framework for the stress testing of credit risk. We use a country specific stress scenario that shocks macroeconomic variables with medium severity. The test results in credit risk increasing by more than 100% in the Czech Republic and by roughly 40% in Germany. The two outcomes are not fully comparable since the shocks are calibrated according to the historical development of the time series considered and the size of the shocks for the Czech Republic was driven by the transformation period.
Keskusteluaiheita – Discussion Papers Inter-firm Collaboration and Electronic Business: Effects on Profitability in Finland***

This paper studies the joint effects of inter-firm collaboration and electronic business on firm profitability primarily in Finnish manufacturing. It is found that deeper forms of inter-firm collaboration boost financial performance but that high e-business intensity might even strain profitability. Firms that simultaneously have high inter-firm collaboration and e-business intensities as well as use electronic networks for conducting their collaboration are also more profitable. Based on this, two conclusions are drawn. First, suitable e-business practices facilitate inter-firm collaboration. Once in place, inter-firm collaboration tends to be immensely more productive with supporting electronic means. Second, e-business investment has to be accompanied with complementing organizational innovations, in this case a new form of external (and also internal, although not observed directly in the data used) organization of the firm, i.e., inter-firm collaboration.
Understanding change for effective school improvement initiatives:critical elements of school reform.

With the historical political and social changes, which ultimately affect education, it is easy to see why teachers sometimes balk at new initiatives and perceived new best practices. For change to occur it is important to understand how perception of critical elements of change impact student academic growth. It is also important to have a clearer picture of the level of implementation of critical elements of change. It is evident there are statistically significant relationships between successful school change predictors and the criterion variables, belief that the rationale of the change initiative is important, continued support of the change initiative, success of professional development embedded in the change process, and strong lines of communication at all levels. The strongest relationships exist between consistent planning for a district-wide change initiative and the predictor variables: resources are based on the instructional priorities of the initiative, staff strengths are matched with staff responsibilities, resources are used to determine annual priorities for staff learning, teachers work together, sharing what they learn to help others learn more, and free flow of information to staff is evident.
A New Discrete Analytic Signal for Reducing Aliasing in the Discrete Wigner-Ville Distribution

It is not possible to generate an alias-free discrete Wigner-Ville distribution (DWVD) from a discrete analytic signal. This is because the discrete analytic signal must satisfy two mutually exclusive constraints. We present, in this paper, a new discrete analytic signal that improves on the commonly used discrete analytic signal's approximation of these two constraints. Our analysis shows that - relative to the commonly used signal - the proposed signal reduces aliasing in the DWVD by approximately 50%. Furthermore, the proposed signal has a simple implementation and satisfies two important properties, namely, that its real component is equal to the original real signal and that its real and imaginary components are orthogonal.
Integrating Agents, Ontologies, and Semantic Web Services for Collaboration on the Semantic Web

In fact, the vision of the Semantic Web proclaims seamless support for automated collaboration over the Web. Collaboration is concerned with cooperative interaction of individuals for achieving complex objectives; appropriate technologies for automated collaboration support on the Semantic Web need to reflect the nature of collaboration on the one hand, and, on the other, to comply with several technical requirements arising for Semantic Web technology. This paper presents an approach for combing agent technology, ontologies, and Semantic Web Services into a coherent, integrated technology for automated collaboration support on
Mechanism of growth arrest of chemically transformed cells in culture.

Abstract The mechanism of growth arrest was studied in two mouse embryo-derived cell lines and two transformed clones obtained through 3-methylcholanthrene transformation of both of the parent nontransformed lines. The two transformed lines were AKR-MCA derived from the nontransformed AKR-2B cell line and the C3H/MCA-58 derived from the C3H/10T½ cell line. Both transformed clones reach a saturation density approximately 2-fold that of their respective nontransformed parent lines. The chemically transformed cells were found to reach low base-line levels of [ 3 H]thymidine incorporation better if allowed to remain in high serum (10%) than in low serum (0.5%) while the nontransformed cells growth arrested better in low serum. Changing to fresh medium with 10% serum caused the quiescent nontransformed and transformed cells to undergo a wave of DNA synthesis, as determined by [ 3 H]thymidine incorporation, suggesting that the transformed cells, like the nontransformed cells, were growth arrested in the G 0 /G 1 phase of the cell cycle. The time interval between the stimulation to proliferate and the onset of DNA synthesis was considerably shorter in the transformed cells than in the nontransformed cells. The quiescent transformed cells were not stimulated to undergo DNA synthesis by the addition of serum, epidermal growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, or the tumor promoter, 12- O -tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. They were stimulated by the addition of fresh medium containing no serum. The nontransformed cells growth arrested in the presence of 10% serum were stimulated to undergo a round of DNA synthesis by serum, epidermal growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, 12- O -tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. They were not stimulated by medium without serum. The data indicate that the chemically transformed cells growth arrest in G 1 by a different mechanism than do the nontransformed cells. The nontransformed cells growth arrest due to depletion of essential serum growth factors, whereas the chemically transformed cells appear to growth arrest due to depletion of multiple amino acids and glucose present in the chemically defined medium.
Markov chains for sampling matchings

Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms are often used to sample combinatorial structures such as matchings and independent sets in graphs. A Markov chain is defined whose state space includes the desired sample space, and which has an appropriate stationary distribution. By simulating the chain for a sufficiently large number of steps, we can sample from a distribution arbitrarily close to the stationary distribution. The number of steps required to do this is known as the mixing time of the Markov chain. In this thesis, we consider a number of Markov chains for samplingmatchings, both in general and more restricted classes of graphs, and also for sampling independent sets in claw-free graphs. We apply techniques for showing rapid mixing based on two main approaches: coupling and conductance. We consider chains using single-site moves, and also chains using large block moves. Perfect matchings of bipartite graphs are of particular interest in our community. We investigate the mixing time of a Markov chain for sampling perfect matchings in a restricted class of bipartite graphs, and show that its mixing time is exponential in some instances. For a further restricted class of graphs, however, we can show subexponential mixing time. One of the techniques for showing rapid mixing is coupling. The bound on the mixing time depends on a contraction ratio β. Ideally, β < 1, but in the case β = 1 it is still possible to obtain a bound on the mixing time, provided there is a sufficiently large probability of contraction for all pairs of states. We develop a lemma which obtains better bounds on the mixing time in this case than existing theorems, in the case where β = 1 and the probability of a change in distance is proportional to the distance between the two states. We apply this lemma to the Dyer-Greenhill chain for sampling independent sets, and to a Markov chain for sampling 2∆-colourings.
Molecular-dynamics calculation of the thermal conductivity of vitreous silica

We use extensive classical molecular-dynamics simulations to calculate the thermal conductivity of a model silica glass. Apart from the potential parameters, this is done with no other adjustable quantity and the standard equations of heat transport are used directly in the simulation box. The calculations have been done between 10 and 1000 K and the results are in good agreement with the experimental data at temperatures above 20 K. The plateau observed around 10 K can be accounted for by correcting our results taking into account finite-size effects in a phenomenological way.
Flow Experience in Information Systems Research: Revisiting its Conceptualization, Conditions, and Effects

Despite strong interest in Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory to understand user behavior in information systems, existing literature shows significant inconsistencies on the conceptualization, conditions, and effect mechanisms of the flow construct. Reviewing extant literature in IS on the concept of flow, this paper discusses the most common theoretical and methodological shortcomings, drawing on current considerations of flow research in motivational psychology. We argue that widely proposed assumptions of IS flow research, such as the inclusion of intrinsic motivation and the exclusion of fluency to measure flow, the flow condition of balanced skills and demands, and the proposed direct effect of flow on continuance intention, should be revisited to fully account for the construct’s nature. Reconceptualizing and validating the flow construct for IS flow research, we show that flow does not substantially depend on balanced demands and skills and that the effect of flow on continuance intention is mediated by enjoyment.
Viscoat Assisted Inverted Internal Limiting Membrane Flap Technique for Large Macular Holes Associated with High Myopia

Purpose. To investigate the surgical outcomes of Viscoat® assisted inverted internal limiting membrane (ILM) flap technique for large macular holes (MHs) associated with high myopia. Design. Prospective, interventional case series. Methods. Fifteen eyes of 15 patients with high myopia underwent vitrectomy and Viscoat assisted inverted ILM flap technique to treat MH without RD. Patients were followed up over 6 months. The main outcome measures were MH closure evaluated by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and best-corrected visual acuities (BCVAs). Result. MH closure was observed in all eyes (100%) following the initial surgery. Type 1 closure was observed in 13 eyes (86.7%); type 2 closure was observed in the remaining 2 eyes (13.3%). Compared to the preoperative baseline, the mean BCVA (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution) improved significantly at 3 months and 6 months after surgery (P = 0.025, 0.019, resp.). The final BCVA improved in 10 eyes (66.7%), remained unchanged in 3 eyes (20.0%), and worsened in 2 eyes (13.3%). Conclusion. Vitrectomy combined with Viscoat assisted inverted ILM flap technique is an effective treatment for large MHs in highly myopic eyes. It may increase the success rate of the initial surgery and enhance the anatomical and functional outcomes.
The effect of Ku on telomere replication time is mediated by telomere length but is independent of histone tail acetylation

Ku controls telomere replication timing. We test the mechanism and find that Ku does not bind telomere-proximal origins directly or alter their histone acetylation state. Instead, Ku's effect on replication timing is mediated through telomere length and requires the TG1-3 repeat-counting component Rif1.
Patterns of hospitalisation before and following initiation of haemodialysis: a 5 year single centre study

Background The utilisation of healthcare resources by prevalent haemodialysis patients has been robustly evaluated with regard to the provision of outpatient haemodialysis; however, the impact of hospitalisation among such patients is poorly defined. Minimal information is available in the UK to estimate the health and economic burden associated with the inpatient management of prevalent haemodialysis patients. The aim of this study was to assess the pattern of hospitalisation among a cohort of haemodialysis patients, before and following their initiation of haemodialysis. In addition the study sought to assess the impact of their admissions on bed occupancy in a large tertiary referral hospital in a single region in the UK. Methods All admission episodes were reviewed and those receiving dialysis with the Belfast City Hospital Programme were identified over a 5 year period from January 2001 to December 2005. This tertiary referral centre provides dialysis services for a population of approximately 700 000 and additional specialist renal services for the remainder of Northern Ireland. The frequency and duration of hospitalisation, and contribution to bed day occupancy of haemodialysis patients, was determined and compared to other common conditions which are known to be associated with high bed occupancy. In addition, the pattern and timing of admissions in dialysis patients in relation to their dialysis initiation date was assessed. Results Over the 5 year study period, 798 haemodialysis patients were admitted a total of 2882 times. These accounted for 2.5% of all admissions episodes; the median number of admissions for these patients was 3 (2–5) which compared with 1 (1–2) for non-dialysis patients. The majority of first hospitalisations (54%) were within 100 days before or after commencement of maintenance dialysis therapy. In all clinical specialties the median length of stay for haemodialysis patients was significantly longer than for patients not on haemodialysis (p=0.004). In multivariate analysis with adjustment for age, gender, and other clinically relevant diagnostic codes, maintenance haemodialysis patients stayed on average 3.75 times longer than other patient groups (ratio of geometric means 3.75, IQR 3.46–4.06). Conclusions Maintenance haemodialysis therapy is an important risk factor for prolonged hospitalisation regardless of the primary reason for admission. Such patients require admission more frequently than the general hospital population, particularly within 100 days before and after initiation of their first dialysis treatment.
Evaluating the Response of Children with Autism to a Robot

Since 1998, the Aurora project has been investigating the use of a robotic platform as a tool for therapy use with children with autism. A key issue in this project is the evaluation of the interactions, which are not constricted and involve the child moving freely. Additionally, the response of the children is an important factor which must emerge from the robot trial sessions and the evaluation methodology, in order to guide further development work.
Factors Influencing the Consumers' Willingness to Buy in E-Commerce

This paper focuses on the factors that influence the consumers' willingness to buy from an e-commerce vendor. We develop 4 structural equation models (SEM) integrated these factors to test our hypotheses. The result shows that perceived reputation, perceived risk and ease of use are positively associated with the level of consumers' willingness to buy, however, perceived size, perceived system assurance, and perceived privacy information protection are insignificantly related with the level of consumers' willingness to buy. In addition, perceived system assurance modulates the relationship between ease of use and willingness to buy.