Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Link State Based Annulus Localization Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Most of the state-of-the-art localization systems assume an idealistic radio propagation model that is far from the reality, and will lead to lower localization accuracy in real wireless sensor networks. In this paper we describe a coarse-grained link state based annulus (LSBA) localization algorithm that takes into account the anisotropic feature of real radio propagation to improve the localization accuracy and adapts to deployment irregularity as well. We compare LSBA with four typical coarse-grained localization algorithms: centroid, APIT, DV-HOP and amorphous in simulated realistic settings, and experimental results show that LSBA achieves the best tradeoff between localization accuracy and convergence speed in networks with moderate number of anchors. Based on our observation, we also make an improvement suggestion on DV-HOP and Amorphous to redefine the concept of neighboring nodes to reflect the radio irregularity, and simulation results show that both improved algorithms see increased localization accuracy.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Many Faces of Constructivism

Across the broad fields of educational theory and research, constructivism has become something akin to a secular religion. In her book Evolution as a Religion (1985), Mary Midgley wrote that the theory of evolution "is not just an inert piece of theoretical science. It is, and cannot help being, also a powerful folk-tale about human origins. Any such narrative must have symbolic force" (1985, p. 1). She might well have written the same about constructivism, which is, whatever else it may be, a "powerful folktale" about the origins of human knowledge. As in all living religions, constructivism has many sects-each of which harbors some distrust of its rivals. This descent into
Hypoxia activates IKK–NF-κB and the immune response in Drosophila melanogaster

Hypoxia, or low oxygen availability, is an important physiological and pathological stimulus for multicellular organisms. Molecularly, hypoxia activates a transcriptional programme directed at restoration of oxygen homoeostasis and cellular survival. In mammalian cells, hypoxia not only activates the HIF (hypoxia-inducible factor) family, but also additional transcription factors such as NF-κB (nuclear factor κB). Here we show that hypoxia activates the IKK–NF-κB [IκB (inhibitor of nuclear factor κB)–NF-κB] pathway and the immune response in Drosophila melanogaster. We show that NF-κB activation is required for organism survival in hypoxia. Finally, we identify a role for the tumour suppressor Cyld, as a negative regulator of NF-κB in response to hypoxia in Drosophila. The results indicate that hypoxia activation of the IKK–NF-κB pathway and the immune response is an important and evolutionary conserved response.
On the Determination of General Scientific Models With Application to Asset Pricing

We consider a consumption-based asset pricing model that uses habit persistence to overcome the known statistical inadequacies of the classical consumption-based asset pricing model. We find that the habit model fits reasonably well and agrees with results reported in the literature if conditional heteroskedasticity is suppressed but that it does not fit nor do results agree if conditional heteroskedasticity, well known to be present in financial market data, is allowed to manifest itself. We also find that it is the preference parameters of the model that are most affected by the presence or absence of conditional heteroskedasticity, especially the risk aversion parameter. The habit model exhibits four characteristics that are often present in models developed from scientific considerations: (1) a likelihood is not available; (2) prior information is available; (3) a portion of the prior information is expressed in terms of functionals of the model that cannot be converted into an analytic prior on model parameters; (4) the model can be simulated. The underpinning of our approach is that, in addition, (5) a parametric statistical model for the data, determined without reference to the scientific model, is known. In general one can expect to be able to determine a model that satisfies (5) because very richly parameterized statistical models are easily accommodated. We develop a computationally intensive, generally applicable, Bayesian strategy for estimation and inference for scientific models that meet this description together with methods for assessing model adequacy. An important adjunct to the method is that a map from the parameters of the scientific model to functionals of the scientific and statistical models becomes available. This map is a powerful tool for understanding the properties of the scientific model.
The Effects of Teacher Coaching in the LINCing Routine on the Vocabulary Knowledge of Secondary Students with Disabilities

The Effects of Teacher Coaching in the LINCing Routine on the Vocabulary Knowledge of Secondary Students with Disabilities Dana W. Cho Old Dominion University, 2018 Dissertation Chair: Dr. Silvana Watson A pretest-posttest time series design controlling for teacher coaching was used to evaluate the effects of the LINCing Routine to support secondary students with disabilities while increasing students’ vocabulary knowledge. Two special education teachers and 26 secondary students with disabilities participated in this study. Student performance was investigated in terms of increased accurate use of the LINCing Routine and overall improvement of vocabulary knowledge while controlling for teacher coaching. The dependent variable increased and remained stable throughout intervention. Pretest and posttest results were also favorable. Students reported average social validity while teachers reported high social validity for the intervention. The results suggested that secondary students with disabilities can be trained to use the routine to support their understanding of vocabulary words and increase their academic vocabulary knowledge.
New Conclusions Regarding Comparison of Sevelamer and Calcium-Based Phosphate Binders in Coronary-Artery Calcification for Dialysis Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background Sevelamer hydrochloride is used widely, but its impact upon cardiovascular calcification, cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality and hospitalization is not known. Outcomes Primary outcome was cardiovascular calcification (coronary artery calcification scores (CACS) and aortic calcification scores (ACS)). Secondary outcomes were serum characteristics, hospitalization, cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality. Risk ratio (RR), mean differences and standard mean difference with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled using random- or fixed-effects models. Results We identified 31 studies (on 23 randomized controlled trials with 4395 participants). An analysis pooling showed a significant decrease in serum levels of phosphate with calcium-based phosphate binders (CBPBs) by 0.17 mg/dL [mean difference (MD), 95% CI, 0.03, 0.31] than sevelamer. A significant difference in the change of CACS by –102.66 [MD: 95% CI, –159.51, –45.80] and ACS by –1008.73 [MD, 95% CI, –1664.75, –352.72] between sevelamer and CBPBs was observed. Prevalence of hypercalcemia (serum levels of calcium >10.2–10.5 mg/dL and >11.0 mg/dL) was significantly smaller for sevelamer (RR = 0.44, 95% CI, 0.33, 0.58; RR = 0.24, 95% CI, 0.14, 0.40). No significant difference was found in hospitalization, all-cause mortality or cardiovascular mortality. Conclusions This meta-analysis suggests that sevelamer benefits dialysis patients in terms of CACS, ACS and hypercalcemia.
The Effect of Family Life Cycle and Financial Management Practices on Household Saving Patterns

Using the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances, this study investigates how family life-cycle stages and financial management practices affect household saving. First findings are that household income and householders education, race and ethnicity have significant effects on saving. Second, regarding the effect of the family life-cycle stages, younger married couples without children, middle pre-retired households without dependent children, and older households without dependent children are more likely to save than other similar households in the life-cycle stage of younger single households. Third, households with longer financial planning horizons, saving goals for retirement, purchase of durable goods and emergency goods, and low credit card debt are more likely to save. Based on the results, implications for financial management education and public policy are suggested.
Does the Time From Biopsy to Radical Prostatectomy Affect Gleason Score Upgrading in Patients With Clinical T1c Prostate Cancer?

Purpose It is debated whether treatment delay worsens oncologic results in localized prostate cancer (PCa). Few studies have focused on the role of a delay between the time of biopsy and the time of surgery. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effect of the time period between biopsy and surgery on Gleason score upgrading (GSU). Materials and Methods A total of 290 patients who underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy in Ankara Training and Research Hospital were included in the study. The biopsy Gleason score, age, total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) value, prostate volumes, and PSA density (PSAD) were analyzed in all patients. The patients were divided into two groups: patients with GSU (group 1) and patients without GSU (group 2). Variables having a p-value of ≤0.05 in the univariate analysis were selected and then evaluated by use of multivariate logistic regression models. Results were considered significant at p<0.05. Results GSU occurred in 121 of 290 patients (41.7%). The mean age of the patients was 66.0±7.2 years in group 1 and 65.05±5.60 years in group 2 (p=0.18). The mean PSA values of groups 1 and 2 were 8.6±4.1 and 8.8±4.3 ng/dL, respectively. The mean prostate volumes of groups 1 and 2 were 43.8±14.1 and 59.5±29.8 mL, respectively. The PSAD of group 1 was significantly higher than that of group 2 (0.20 vs. 0.17, p=0.003). The mean time to surgery was shorter in group 2 (group 1, 52.2±22.6 days; group 2, 45.3±15.5 days; p=0.004). According to the logistic regression, time from biopsy to surgery is important in the prediction of GSU. Conclusions We suggest that the time period between biopsy and surgery is a significant factor that affects GSU in patients with clinically localized PCa.
Heterogeneous visual languages-integrating visual and textual programming

After more than a decade of research, visual languages have still not become everyday programming tools. In the short term, an integration of visual languages with well-established (textual) programming languages may be more likely to meet the actual requirements of practical software development than the highly ambitious goal of creating purely visual languages. In such an integration, each paradigm can support the other where it is superior. Particularly attractive is the use of visual expressions for the description of domain-specific data structures in combination with textual notations for abstract control structures. In addition to a basic framework for heterogeneous languages, we outline the design of a development system that allows rapid prototyping of implementations of heterogeneous languages. Examples are presented from the domains of logical, functional and procedural languages.
Influence of freshwater input on the skill of decadal forecast of sea ice in the Southern Ocean

Recent studies have investigated the potential link between the freshwater input derived from the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet and the observed recent increase in sea ice extent in the Southern Ocean. In this study, we assess the impact of an additional freshwater flux on the trend in sea ice extent and concentration in simulations with data assimilation, spanning the period 1850–2009, as well as in retrospective forecasts (hindcasts) initialised in 1980. In the simulations with data assimilation, the inclusion of an additional freshwater flux that follows an autoregressive process improves the reconstruction of the trend in ice extent and concentration between 1980 and 2009. This is linked to a better efficiency of the data assimilation procedure but can also be due to a better representation of the freshwater cycle in the Southern Ocean. The results of the hindcast simulations show that an adequate initial state, reconstructed thanks to the data assimilation procedure including an additional freshwater flux, can lead to an increase in the sea ice extent spanning several decades that is in agreement with satellite observations. In our hindcast simulations, an increase in sea ice extent is obtained even in the absence of any major change in the freshwater input over the last decades. Therefore, while the additional freshwater flux appears to play a key role in the reconstruction of the evolution of the sea ice in the simulation with data assimilation, it does not seem to be required in the hindcast simulations. The present work thus provides encouraging results for sea ice predictions in the Southern Ocean, as in our simulation the positive trend in ice extent over the last 30 years is largely determined by the state of the system in the late 1970s.
Theory of earthquake recurrence times

[1] The statistics of recurrence times in broad areas have been reported to obey universal scaling laws, both for single homogeneous regions and when averaged over multiple regions. These unified scaling laws are characterized by intermediate power law asymptotics. On the other hand, Molchan (2005) has presented a mathematical proof that if such a universal law exists, it is necessarily an exponential, in obvious contradiction with the data. First, we generalize Molchan's argument to show that an approximate unified law can be found which is compatible with the empirical observations when incorporating the impact of the Omori-Utsu law of earthquake triggering. We then develop the theory of the statistics of interevent times in the framework of the Epidemic-Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS) model of triggered seismicity and show that the empirical observations can be fully explained. Our theoretical expression well fits the empirical statistics over the whole range of recurrence times, accounting for different regimes by using only the physics of triggering quantified by the Omori-Utsu law. The description of the statistics of recurrence times over multiple regions requires an additional subtle statistical derivation that maps the fractal geometry of earthquake epicenters onto the distribution of the average seismic rates in multiple regions. This yields a prediction in excellent agreement with the empirical data for reasonable values of the fractal dimension d ≈ 1.8, the average clustering ratio n ≈ 0.9, and the productivity exponent α ≈ 0.9 times the b value of the Gutenberg-Richter law.
Effects of intravenous diltiazem in a rat model of experimental coronary thrombotic microembolism

The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of evaluating the therapeutic effects of intravenous diltiazem in a newly established rat model of coronary thrombotic micro-embolism (CME). CME was induced by injecting 0.199 ml saline containing 5 mg of automicrothrombotic particulates (∼10 μm) into the aorta of Sprague Dawley rats. The injection was carried out over 10 sec using a tuberculin syringe with a 28-gauge needle. The CME model rats were randomly divided into untreated (CME, n=38) and diltiazem-treated (CME+DIL, n=38) groups. Diltiazem (1 mg/ml, 50 μg/min/kg) was intravenously injected using an infusion pump through the tail vein for 175 min, 5 min following the injection of the automicrothrombotic particulates. Hemodynamic measurements, echocardiography and pathohistological examinations were performed at various time-points (3 h, 24 h and 7 and 28 days) postoperatively. Arteriolar thrombosis, multifocal myocardial necrosis, inflammatory cell infiltration with markedly increased myocardial tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression, reduced left ventricular (LV) systolic function and increased plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF), endothelin-1 (ET-1) and serum c-troponin I (c-TnI) levels (indicating vascular endothelial injury and myocardial necrosis) were observed in the CME model rats. These pathological responses in CME rats were partly attenuated by intravenous diltiazem treatment. The present CME model is suitable for evaluating the therapeutic effects of intravenous diltiazem; intravenous diltiazem treatment significantly improved cardiac function through alleviating inflammatory responses and microvascular thrombotic injury in this rat model of CME.
The Radio Quiescence of Active Galaxies with High Accretion Rates

We present 6 cm Very Large Array observations of the Greene & Ho sample of 19 low-mass active galaxies with high accretion rates. This is one of the only studies of a uniform sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies with such high sensitivity and resolution. Although we detect only one source, the entire sample is very radio quiet down to strong limits. GH 10 was found to have a radio power of 8.5 × 1021 W Hz-1 and a ratio R ≡ f6 cm/f4400 Å of 2.8. The 3 σ upper limits for the remaining nondetections correspond to radio powers from 3 × 1020 to 8 × 1021 W Hz-1 and 0.47 < R < 9.9. Stacking all nondetections yields an even stronger upper limit of R ≤ 0.27. An assessment of existing observations in the literature confirms our finding that NLS1s are consistently radio-quiet, with a radio-loud fraction of 0%-6%, which is significantly lower than the 10%-20% observed in the general quasar population. By analogy with stellar mass black holes, we argue that AGNs undergo a state transition at Lbol/LEdd ≈ 0.01. Below this value a radiatively inefficient accretion flow effectively drives an outflow, which disappears when the flow turns into an optically thick, geometrically thin disk, or a radiation pressure-dominated slim disk at still higher Lbol/LEdd.
Type-Specific Differences in Chloride-Regulatory Mechanisms and GABAA Receptor-Mediated Inhibition in Rat Substantia Nigra

Alexandra Gulácsi,1,2* Christian R. Lee,3* Attila Sı́k,1,4 Tero Viitanen,5 Kai Kaila,5 James M. Tepper,3 and Tamás F. Freund1 1Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, H-1083 Hungary, 2Department of Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, 3Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey 07102, 4Centre de Recherche Université Laval Robert-Giffard, Quebec City, Quebec G1J 2G3 Canada, and 5Department of Biosciences, Division of Animal Physiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland
One-year clinical outcomes in invasive treatment strategies for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock in elderly patients

Objective To investigate the clinical outcomes of an invasive strategy for elderly (aged ≥ 75 years) patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS). Methods Data on 366 of 409 elderly CS patients from a total of 6,132 acute STEMI cases enrolled in the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry between January 2008 and June 2011, were collected and analyzed. In-hospital deaths and the 1-month and 1-year survival rates free from major adverse cardiac events (MACE; defined as all cause death, myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularization) were reported for the patients who had undergone invasive (n = 310) and conservative (n = 56) treatment strategies. Results The baseline clinical characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. There were fewer in-hospital deaths in the invasive treatment strategy group (23.5% vs. 46.4%, P < 0.001). In addition, the 1-year MACE-free survival rate after invasive treatment was significantly lower compared with the conservative treatment (51% vs. 66%, P = 0.001). Conclusions In elderly patients with acute STEMI complicated by CS, the outcomes of invasive strategy are similar to those in younger patients at the 1-year follow-up.
Comparative study between N-body and Fokker–Planck simulations for rotating star clusters – I. Equal-mass system

We have carried out N-body simulations for rotating star clusters with equal mass and compared the results with Fokker-Planck models. These two different approaches are found to produce fairly similar results, although there are some differences with regard to the detailed aspects. We confirmed the acceleration of the core collapse of a cluster due to an initial non-zero angular momentum and found a similar evolutionary trend in the central density and velocity dispersion in both simulations. The degree of acceleration depends on the initial angular momentum. Angular momentum is being lost from the cluster due to the evaporation of stars with a large angular momentum on a relaxation time scale.
Effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Body Awareness in Patients with Chronic Pain and Comorbid Depression

Body awareness has been proposed as one of the major mechanisms of mindfulness interventions, and it has been shown that chronic pain and depression are associated with decreased levels of body awareness. We investigated the effect of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on body awareness in patients with chronic pain and comorbid active depression compared to treatment as usual (TAU; N = 31). Body awareness was measured by a subset of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) scales deemed most relevant for the population. These included: Noticing, Not-Distracting, Attention Regulation, Emotional Awareness, and Self-Regulation. In addition, pain catastrophizing was measured by the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS). These scales had adequate to high internal consistency in the current sample. Depression severity was measured by the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology—Clinician rated (QIDS-C16). Increases in the MBCT group were significantly greater than in the TAU group on the “Self-Regulation” and “Not Distracting” scales. Furthermore, the positive effect of MBCT on depression severity was mediated by “Not Distracting. ” These findings provide preliminary evidence that a mindfulness-based intervention may increase facets of body awareness as assessed with the MAIA in a population of pain patients with depression. Furthermore, they are consistent with a long hypothesized mechanism for mindfulness and emphasize the clinical relevance of body awareness.
Contactless Measurements of Resistivity of Semiconductor Wafers Employing Single-Post and Split-Post Dielectric-Resonator Techniques

Complementary single- and split-post dielectric- resonator techniques were used for contactless absolute resistivity measurements of semiconductor wafers and for onwafer resistivity mapping in the range of 10-5 to 105 Omega ldr cm. Uncertainties of the resistivity measurements employing both techniques are in the range of 2%-4%. Permittivities of high-resistivity semiconductors were measured with uncertainties of approximately 0.5%. Several Silicon, GaAs, and SiC wafers were tested at room and at elevating temperatures, showing excellent repeatability of measurements.