Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online The Open University ’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Service Selection Based on Non-functional Properties Conference Item

Service-oriented Architecture supports software to be composed from services dynamically. Selecting and composing appropriate services according to business process, policies and non-functional constraints is an essential challenge. This paper proposes a method for automatic selection of the most relevant service for composition based on non-functional properties and the user’s context. In doing this we also propose a method of obtaining and evaluating non-functional aspects.
Body weight at birth and at age three and respiratory illness in preschool children.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of current body weight and body mass index (BMI) at age three and birth weight in developing chronic respiratory illness in childhood and identify possible interaction underlying its mechanism. METHODS The study was carried out with 422 children who were enrolled in a hospital-based birth cohort. Birth related anthropometric data were collected at birth. At age 3 years, the presence of respiratory symptoms was evaluated by using the Korean version of core questionnaire for wheezing and asthma from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). Physical examination was carried out to measure the child's weight and height. RESULTS Children in the lowest birth weight tertile (aOR = 3.97, 95% CI = 0.94-16.68) or highest BMI tertile (aOR = 3.68, 95% CI = 1.24-10.95) at three years of age were at an increased risk of chronic respiratory illness. Children who were initially in the lowest birth weight tertile but now belong in the highest weight tertile had higher risk of chronic respiratory illness compared to those who had remained in the middle tertile (OR=16.35, 95% CI=1.66-160.57). CONCLUSIONS Children with lower birth weight or higher BMI were at an increased risk of chronic respiratory illness. In addition, children who were initially in the lowest birth weight tertile but are now in the highest weight tertile had higher risk of chronic respiratory illness compared to those who remained in the middle tertile.
Interacting with Soli: Exploring Fine-Grained Dynamic Gesture Recognition in the Radio-Frequency Spectrum

This paper proposes a novel machine learning architecture, specifically designed for radio-frequency based gesture recognition. We focus on high-frequency (60]GHz), short-range radar based sensing, in particular Google's Soli sensor. The signal has unique properties such as resolving motion at a very fine level and allowing for segmentation in range and velocity spaces rather than image space. This enables recognition of new types of inputs but poses significant difficulties for the design of input recognition algorithms. The proposed algorithm is capable of detecting a rich set of dynamic gestures and can resolve small motions of fingers in fine detail. Our technique is based on an end-to-end trained combination of deep convolutional and recurrent neural networks. The algorithm achieves high recognition rates (avg 87%) on a challenging set of 11 dynamic gestures and generalizes well across 10 users. The proposed model runs on commodity hardware at 140 Hz (CPU only).
An Empirical Study of Multi-Point Constructive Search for Constraint Satisfaction

Multi-Point Constructive Search (MPCS) is a constructive search technique which borrows the idea from local search of being guided by multiple view-points. MPCS consists of a series of resource-limited backtracking searches: each starting from an empty solution or guided by one of a set of high quality, “elite” solutions encountered earlier in the search. This paper focuses on MPCS as applied to constraint satisfaction problems where elite solution quality is measured by the number of assigned variables in a partial solution. We systematically study different parameter settings including the size of the elite set, the probability of using an elite solution for guidance, and the use of chronological backtracking or limited discrepancy search. Experiments are performed on three constraint satisfaction problems: quasigroup-with-holes, magic squares, and multi-dimensional knapsack problems. Our results indicate that MPCS signiﬁcantly out-performs both randomized restart and standard backtracking search on quasigroup-with-holes, performs about the same as randomized restart on the other problems, and is much worse than chronological on the multi-dimensional knapsack problems. The observed differences on two such similar problems (quasigroup-with-holes and magic square) suggests that these problems are a good testbed for future work to understand the reasons underlying the performance of MPCS.
Presenting a Framework to Analyze Local Climate Policy and Action in Small and Medium-Sized Cities

Academic attention to local climate policy usually focuses on large-sized cities. Given the climate challenges ahead this seems unjustified. Small and medium-sized cities (SMCs) deserve scholarly attention as well. The main question is: What factors influence climate change policy and local climate actions in SMCs? In this article we present an analytical framework to analyze climate change policy and local climate actions of SMCs. The framework addresses different aspects: policy-input, -throughput, -output, -outcome, characteristics of the local environment, local action arenas, influence by higher government levels, and interaction with climate change issue networks. The framework is used to analyze and compare four case studies of SMCs in the Dutch region of Twente (two urban and two rural municipalities, and addresses both adaptation and mitigation). Results show that both ‘localist’, ‘multi-level’ and issue network membership factors influence local climate policy action. Governance modes discerned concern mostly ‘governing by authority’ and ‘self-governing’. When reflecting on the role of SMCs in climate action the study revealed the importance of local capacity building schemes issued by provincial government, inter-municipal network collaboration, and the potential for local governments to mobilize and organize citizen action.
Design Principles for the Conceptualization of Games for Health Behavior Change

This paper presents a list of principles that could be used to conceptualize games for behavior change. These principles are derived from lessons learned after teaching two design-centered courses around Gaming and Narrative Technologies for Health Behavior Change. Course sessions were designed to create many rapid prototypes based on specific topics from behavior change theory coupled with iterative human-centered and games design techniques. The design task was composed of two broad goals: 1) designing efficacious technologies, with an emphasis on short-term behavior change and 2) using metaphors, dramatic arcs and game dynamics as vehicles for increased engagement and long-term sustained change. Some example prototypes resulting from this design approach are presented. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. CHI’13, April 27 – May 2, 2013, Paris, France. Copyright 2012 ACM 978-1-4503-1952-2. $10.00. Pablo Paredes Berkeley Institute of Design
Kirchhoff method application in microwave radiometry of rough sea surface

The use of hydrological (surface wind and sea wave slope) dependencies for calculation of microwave characteristics of the ldquoocean-atmosphererdquo system by Kirchhoff method is discussed here. As an important example, we review results of our experiment on bistatic sensing of the sea surface. In this experiment Sun is a powerful natural source of noise microwave radiation for the sea surface sensing. For the receiving of solar radiation in the region of quasi-specular scattering three two-polarization radiometers (0.8, 2.25 and 6.0 cm) were used. The results of joint hydrological and radiometric experiments are reported.
THE GALAXY POPULATION OF LOW-REDSHIFT ABELL CLUSTERS

We present a study of the luminosity and color properties of galaxies selected from a sample of 57 low-redshift Abell clusters. We utilize the non-parametric dwarf-to-giant ratio (DGR) and the blue galaxy fraction (fb) to investigate the clustercentric radial-dependent changes in the cluster galaxy population. Composite cluster samples are combined by scaling the counting radius by r200 to minimize radius selection bias. The separation of galaxies into a red and blue population was achieved by selecting galaxies relative to the cluster color–magnitude relation. The DGR of the red and blue galaxies is found to be independent of cluster richness (Bgc), although the DGR is larger for the blue population at all measured radii. A decrease in the DGR for the red and red+blue galaxies is detected in the cluster core region, while the blue galaxy DGR is nearly independent of radius. The fb is found not to correlate with Bgc; however, a steady decline toward the inner-cluster region is observed for the giant galaxies. The dwarf galaxy fb is approximately constant with clustercentric radius except for the inner-cluster core region where fb decreases. The clustercentric radial dependence of the DGR and the galaxy blue fraction indicates that it is unlikely that a simple scenario based on either pure disruption or pure fading/reddening can describe the evolution of infalling dwarf galaxies; both outcomes are produced by the cluster environment.
Differential Expression and Function of Stamp Family Proteins in Adipocyte Differentiation

Six transmembrane protein of prostate (Stamp) proteins play an important role in prostate cancer cell growth. Recently, we found that Stamp2 has a critical role in the integration of inflammatory and metabolic signals in adipose tissue where it is highly expressed and regulated by nutritional and metabolic cues. In this study, we show that all Stamp family members are differentially regulated during adipogenesis: whereas Stamp1 expression is significantly decreased upon differentiation, Stamp2 expression is increased. In contrast, Stamp3 expression is modestly changed in adipocytes compared to preadipocytes, and has a biphasic expression pattern during the course of differentiation. Suppression of Stamp1 or Stamp2 expression both led to inhibition of 3T3-L1 differentiation in concert with diminished expression of the key regulators of adipogenesis - CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (C/ebpα) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (Pparγ). Upon Stamp1 knockdown, mitotic clonal expansion was also inhibited. In contrast, Stamp2 knockdown did not affect mitotic clonal expansion, but resulted in a marked decrease in superoxide production that is known to affect adipogenesis. These results suggest that Stamp1 and Stamp2 play critical roles in adipogenesis, but through different mechanisms.
Selective Uncoupling of P120ctn from E-Cadherin Disrupts Strong Adhesion

p120ctn is a catenin whose direct binding to the juxtamembrane domain of classical cadherins suggests a role in regulating cell–cell adhesion. The juxtamembrane domain has been implicated in a variety of roles including cadherin clustering, cell motility, and neuronal outgrowth, raising the possibility that p120 mediates these activities. We have generated minimal mutations in this region that uncouple the E-cadherin–p120 interaction, but do not affect interactions with other catenins. By stable transfection into E-cadherin–deficient cell lines, we show that cadherins are both necessary and sufficient for recruitment of p120 to junctions. Detergent-free subcellular fractionation studies indicated that, in contrast to previous reports, the stoichiometry of the interaction is extremely high. Unlike α- and β-catenins, p120 was metabolically stable in cadherin-deficient cells, and was present at high levels in the cytoplasm. Analysis of cells expressing E-cadherin mutant constructs indicated that p120 is required for the E-cadherin–mediated transition from weak to strong adhesion. In aggregation assays, cells expressing p120-uncoupled E-cadherin formed only weak cell aggregates, which immediately dispersed into single cells upon pipetting. As an apparent consequence, the actin cytoskeleton failed to insert properly into peripheral E-cadherin plaques, resulting in the inability to form a continuous circumferential ring around cell colonies. Our data suggest that p120 directly or indirectly regulates the E-cadherin–mediated transition to tight cell–cell adhesion, possibly blocking subsequent events necessary for reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and compaction.
Exposure to physical and sexual violence and adverse health behaviours in African children: results from the Global School-based Student Health Survey.

OBJECTIVE To examine associations between exposure to physical violence (PV) or sexual violence (SV) and adverse health behaviours among a sample of children in five African countries. METHODS In a cross-sectional analysis of data from Namibia, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe - countries that participated in the Global School-based Student Health Survey in 2003 or 2004 - we compared the relative frequency of several adverse health behaviours among children (primarily students 13-15 years of age) who did and who did not report exposure to PV or SV. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) for such behaviours and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) after adjusting for age and sex. FINDINGS Exposure to PV during the 12 months preceding the survey was reported by 27-50% (average: 42%) of the children studied in the five countries, and lifetime exposure to SV was reported by 9-33% (average: 23%). Moderate to strong associations were observed between exposure to PV or SV and measures of mental health, suicidal ideation, current cigarette use, current alcohol use, lifetime drug use, multiple sex partners and a history of sexually transmitted infection (P < 0.05 for all associations). For example, the odds of being a current cigarette smoker were higher in children involved in one fight (OR: 2.20; 95% CI: 1.77-2.75), 2-5 fights (OR: 3.43; 95% CI: 2.54-4.63), or 6 fights or more (OR: 5.95; 95% CI: 4.37-8.11) (P for trend < 0.001) during the 12 months preceding the survey than in children unexposed to PV. CONCLUSION Childhood exposure to PV and SV is common among African children in some countries and is associated with multiple adverse health behaviours. In developing countries, increased awareness of the frequency of exposure to violence among children and its potential health consequences may lead to heightened attention to the need for health promotion and preventive programmes that address the problem.
The acyclic edge chromatic number of a random d‐regular graph is d + 1

We prove the theorem from the title: the acyclic edge chromatic number of a random d‐regular graph is asymptotically almost surely equal to d + 1. This improves a result of Alon, Sudakov, and Zaks and presents further support for a conjecture that Δ(G) + 2 is the bound for the acyclic edge chromatic number of any graph G. It also represents an analog of a result of Robinson and the second author on edge chromatic number. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 49: 69–74, 2005
AOM: AN EFFICIENT APPROACH TO RESTORE ACTOR-ACTOR CONNECTIVITY IN WIRELESS SENSOR AND ACTOR NETWORKS

Wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs) consist of powerful actors and resource constraint sensors that are linked together in wireless networks. They mostly rely on actors to make proper decisions and perform desired coordination to achieve the goals of the entire network. They are usually deployed in critical applications and actor-actor network connectivity is thus vital to their effective utilization. Since WSAN applications are mostly deployed in harsh environments, actor nodes may fail and so partition their network. We propose a comparatively more efficient distributed approach, nicknamed AOM, to restore actor-actor connectivity upon the failure of any actor. We identify critical actors by combining the result of determining critical actors using the Stojmenovich’s method with the connectivity dominating set (CDS) of the network. This hybrid method of detecting critical actors helps in detecting critical nodes and candidate replacement actors more precisely while minimizing the total number of required messages for network restoration. The failure handling of actors is done in a proactive manner. Our proposed method minimizes both the restoration time of network and the total number of actor movements. When a failed actor is a critical node, actors in its neighborhood are relocated in a coordinated way to reconnect the actor network. The superiority of our approach compared to other works is shown by simulative experiments measuring two important parameters to WSANS, namely, the total number of transmitted messages and the total number of actor movements during actor-actor network reconnection process.
Beyond Physical Connections: Tree Models in Human Pose Estimation

Simple tree models for articulated objects prevails in the last decade. However, it is also believed that these simple tree models are not capable of capturing large variations in many scenarios, such as human pose estimation. This paper attempts to address three questions: 1) are simple tree models sufficient? more specifically, 2) how to use tree models effectively in human pose estimation? and 3) how shall we use combined parts together with single parts efficiently? Assuming we have a set of single parts and combined parts, and the goal is to estimate a joint distribution of their locations. We surprisingly find that no latent variables are introduced in the Leeds Sport Dataset (LSP) during learning latent trees for deformable model, which aims at approximating the joint distributions of body part locations using minimal tree structure. This suggests one can straightforwardly use a mixed representation of single and combined parts to approximate their joint distribution in a simple tree model. As such, one only needs to build Visual Categories of the combined parts, and then perform inference on the learned latent tree. Our method outperformed the state of the art on the LSP, both in the scenarios when the training images are from the same dataset and from the PARSE dataset. Experiments on animal images from the VOC challenge further support our findings.
From Three-Dimensional Electrophysiology to the Cable Model: an Asymptotic Study

Cellular electrophysiology is often modeled using the cable equations. The cable model can only be used when ionic concentration effects and three dimensional geometry effects are negligible. The Poisson model, in which the electrostatic potential satisfies the Poisson equation and the ionic concentrations satisfy the drift-diffusion equation, is a system of equations that can incorporate such effects. The Poisson model is unfortunately prohibitively expensive for numerical computation because of the presence of thin space charge layers at internal membrane boundaries. As a computationally efficient and biophysically natural alternative, we introduce the electroneutral model in which the Poisson equation is replaced by the electroneutrality condition and the presence of the space charge layer is incorporated in boundary conditions at the membrane interfaces. We use matched asymptotics and numerical computations to show that the electroneutral model provides an excellent approximation to the Poisson model. Further asymptotic calculations illuminate the relationship of the electroneutral or Poisson models with the cable model, and reveal the presence of a hierarchy of electrophysiology models.
DMT MIMO IC Rate Maximization in DSL With Combined Signal and Spectrum Coordination

Theoretical research has demonstrated that the achievable gains in data rate with dynamic spectrum management, i.e., signal coordination or spectrum coordination, are substantial for digital subscriber line (DSL) networks. Work on these two fronts has progressed steadily and, more often than not, independently. In this paper, we combine the two types of coordination for a mixed DSL scenario, in which some of the infrastructure required for full two-sided signal coordination is available, but not all. This scenario, which is referred to as the discrete multitone multiple-input, multiple-output interference channel (DMT MIMO IC), consists of multiple interfering users, each operating a distinct subset of DSL lines as a MIMO system. Coordination is done both on the signal level (with per user MIMO techniques) and on the spectrum level (with multi-user power allocation). We propose two algorithms for the DMT MIMO IC weighted rate maximization problem. In the first algorithm, we profit from recent work showing the close relation between the weighted rate sum maximization problem and the weighted MMSE minimization problem. We show that with a simple extension, we can adapt the previous work to the scenario of interest. In the second algorithm, the signal and spectrum coordination parts are solved separately. For the signal coordination part, we obtain multiple independent single tone MIMO IC's, which allows us to leverage on the previous work on the topic. For the spectrum coordination part, one of the interesting results of our analysis is a generalization of the distributed spectrum balancing (DSB) power allocation formula for the DMT MIMO IC scenario. Simulation results demonstrate that both algorithms obtain significant gains when compared to pure spectrum coordination algorithms.
Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

Shared services have gained significance as an organizational arrangement, in particular for support functions, to reduce costs, increase quality and create new capabilities. The Information Systems (IS) function is amenable to sharing arrangements and information systems can enable sharing in other functional areas. However, despite being a promising area for IS research, literature on shared services in the IS discipline is scarce and scattered. There is still little consensus on what shared services is. Moreover, a thorough understanding of why shared services are adopted, who are involved, and how things are shared is lacking. In this article, we set out to progress IS research on shared services by establishing a common ground for future research and proposing a research agenda to shape the field based on an analysis of the IS literature. We present a holistic and inclusive definition, discuss the primacy of economic-strategic objectives so far, and introduce conceptual frameworks for stakeholders and the notion of sharing. We also provide an overview of the theories and research methods applied. We propose a research agenda that addresses fundamental issues related to objectives, stakeholders, and the notion of sharing to lay the foundation for taking IS research on shared services forward.