Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On space-time coding in the presence of spatio-temporal correlation

In this paper, we consider the problem of space-time coding over Rician channels in the presence of spatio-temporal correlation. We derive an upper bound on the pairwise word error probability (PWEP) of space-time codes and use it as a basis for a unified approach to analysis and design of space-time codes over any flat, Rician or Rayleigh, block-fading channel. Based on the statistical properties of a Rician channel, the high-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) behavior of the bound is either exponential or rational. In the former case, design criteria for space-time codes are based on a Euclidean-distance-like measure. However, in the latter case, design criteria are based on a rank criterion together with a coding gain criterion. The analysis of the bound shows that the performance of rank-deficient codes can be highly degraded in the presence of spatio-temporal correlation, but the performance degradation is not severe for full-rank codes. These codes exhibit robustness against the channel correlation profile. Specifically, for channels with a nonsingular covariance matrix, the asymptotic performance of a full-rank code is proportional to its performance in the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) case. In the case that the only constraint on the codewords is a maximum energy constraint, we show that the set of rank-deficient codes forms a proper algebraic subset of measure zero in the affine space of space-time codes. Thus, any randomly selected code is full rank with probability one. Hence, in this case, the main challenge in space-time coding is not maximizing diversity but optimizing coding gain. However, optimizing the coding gain is computationally hard and there exists no satisfactory algorithm to solve this problem in general. On the other hand, when we constrain codewords to be from a finite alphabet or to satisfy particular algebraic structures, e.g., group codes, lattice codes, or coset codes, the problem might be tractable, but rank-deficient codes might be highly probable at high spectral efficiency.
Breaking the (n Log 2 N) Barrier for Sorting with Faults

In this paper, we study the problem of constructing a sorting circuit, network, or PRAM algorithm that is tolerant to faults. For the most part, we focus on fault patterns that are random, i.e., where the result of each comparison is independently faulty with probability upper-bounded by some constant. All previous fault-tolerant sorting circuits, networks, and parallel algorithms require (log 2 n) depth and/or (n log 2 n) comparisons to sort n items. In this paper, we construct: a passive-fault-tolerant sorting circuit with O(n log n log log n) comparators, thereby answering a question posed by Yao and Yao in 1985, a reversal-fault-tolerant sorting network with O(n log log 2 3 n) comparators, thereby answering a question posed by Assaf and Upfal in 1990, and a deterministic O(log n)-step O(n)-processor EREW PRAM fault-tolerant sorting algorithm, thereby answering a question posed by Feige, Peleg, Raghavan, and Upfal in 1990. The results are based on a new analysis of the AKS circuit, which uses a much weaker notion of expansion that can be preserved in the presence of faults. Previously, the AKS circuit was not believed to be fault-tolerant because the expansion properties that were believed to be crucial for the performance of the circuit are destroyed by random faults. Extensions of our results for worst-case faults are also presented.
Alternate patterns of doublet microtubule sliding in ATP-disintegrated macrocilia of the ctenophore Beroe

We have used the unique properties of macrocilia from the lips of the ctenophore Beroe to test whether the ciliary beat cycle is caused by sequential activation of doublet sliding on opposite sides of the axoneme (Satir, P., 1982, Soc. Exp. Biol. Symp., 35: 179-201; Sugino, K., and Y. Naitoh, 1982, Nature (Lond.), 295: 609-611; Wais-Steider, J., and P. Satir, 1979, J. Supramol. Struct. , 11:339-347). Macrocilia contain several hundred axonemes linked into rows by lamellae between doublets 3 and 8. These connections provide morphological markers for numbering the doublet microtubules in thin sections. Demembranated, detached macrocilia undergo ATP-induced sliding disintegration by extrusion of thick fragments and finer fibers from the proximal end. Disintegration can easily be followed with low-magnification brightfield or phase-contrast optics. Sliding occurs with or without added elastase, and is reversibly inhibited by vanadate. Thin sections through 16 ATP-disintegrated macrocilia showed two mutually exclusive patterns of doublet extrusion with equal frequency. Doublets 9, 1, and 2 or doublets 5, 6, and 7 were usually extruded, but not both groups. We conclude that both subsets of doublets slide by their own active arms, and that the two extrusion patterns represent alternate activation and inactivation of doublet sliding on opposite halves of the axoneme. These findings provide the first direct experimental support for a switching mechanism regulating microtubule sliding in cilia.
The Study of the Development of Dependent Possessive Pronouns in 2.5-4 Year-Old Typically Normal Persian-Speaking Children

Background : Pronoun error is one of the most common errors in many speech and language disorders. Therefore, knowing about the development procedure of dependent possessive pronouns (as a subgroup of pronouns), leads to build an accurate profile for evaluation and treatment of many disorders. The goal of the present study was to examine the development of dependent possessive pronouns in 2.5-4 years old Persian-speaking children. Methods: In this cross sectional descriptive-analytic study, 177 typically normal Persian speaking children in age range of 2.5-4 years old (94 girls and 83 boys) who were selected by stratified sampling method from 10 kindergartens of Kerman were examined. There were 3 age groups (2.5-3, 3-3.5 and 3.5-4 years old). The instrument used in this study was a researcher-made task consistent of 18 questions about some parts of body to examine the development of dependent possessive pronouns. For descriptive report central tendencies and indices of dispersion were used and for statistics relations Spearman’s correlation test, Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Cochran’s test were used. Results: The order of correct use of dependent possessive pronouns was from singular to plural and the order of person was 3rd person, 1st person and then 2nd person. There was a correlation between age and correct use of dependent possessive pronouns (P 0.05), but children’s performance in 3 age groups were different (P<0.05) and correct use of 6 types of dependent possessive pronouns were significantly different (P<0.05). Conclusion : The correct use of dependent possessive pronouns increased with age, and by the age of 4, the children mastered in more than 90% of dependent possessive pronouns.
Boron Nutrition of Avocados

Boron is an essential micronutrient for normal plant growth, but is deficient in many soils that support avocado cultivation. In avocado, deficiency symptoms include yellowing and deformation of leaves, thickening of nodal regions on branch es, loss of geotropism, reduced root growth, branch and trunk lesions, reduced pollen viability, and deformed and smaller fruit. Avocado trees are particularly recalcitrant in respect to correcting deficiency problems and tolerate much higher soil levels of boron than other fruit trees such as citrus, macadamia and mangoes. Some foliar uptake of boron has been demonstrated, but when deficiency symptoms are present in trees, soil applications of boron fertilizers are the most effective method of correcting the problem. Supplemental foliar sprays during flowering have been shown to increase fruit set. Leaf boron concentrations of 40-60 mg/kg in mature summer flush leaves prior to inflorescence development are considered optimal for normal growth and development. Caution is required when using soil applications of boron fertilizers, especially on sandy soils, as toxicity can be induced. Observation of symptoms and monitoring of leaf concentrations are the most useful tools for managing this nutrient.
Pattern classification and scene analysis

Provides a unified, comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of both statistical and descriptive methods for pattern recognition. The topics treated include Bayesian decision theory, supervised and unsupervised learning, nonparametric techniques, discriminant analysis, clustering, preprosessing of pictorial data, spatial filtering, shape description techniques, perspective transformations, projective invariants, linguistic procedures, and artificial intelligence techniques for scene analysis.
Children's materialism in urban ond rural china

Abstract: This study examined Chinese urban and rural children's endorsement of materialistic values, and investigated the influences of media exposure, cognitive development and demographics on this orientation. Altogether, 569 questionnaires were collected (254 from an urban area and 315 from a rural area) from children aged from 6 to 14. The results showed that children in mainland China held lukewarm attitudes to materialistic values and that urban children were more materialistic than rural children. Of all forms of media exposure, video game engagement was the most significant predictor of materialism. The influences of children's understanding of advertising, cognitive development and gender were also explored.
The demography of range boundaries versus range cores in eastern US tree species

Regional species–climate correlations are well documented, but little is known about the ecological processes responsible for generating these patterns. Using the data from over 690 000 individual trees I estimated five demographic rates—canopy growth, understorey growth, canopy lifespan, understorey lifespan and per capita reproduction—for 19 common eastern US tree species, within the core and the northern and southern boundaries, of the species range. Most species showed statistically significant boundary versus core differences in most rates at both boundary types. Differences in canopy and understorey growth were relatively small in magnitude but consistent among species, being lower at the northern (average −17%) and higher at the southern (average +12%) boundaries. Differences in lifespan were larger in magnitude but highly variable among species, except for a marked trend for reduced canopy lifespan at the northern boundary (average −49%). Differences in per capita reproduction were large and statistically significant for some species, but highly variable among species. The rate estimates were combined to calculate two performance indices: R0 (a measure of lifetime fitness in the absence of competition) was consistently lower at the northern boundary (average −86%) whereas Z* (a measure of competitive ability in closed forest) showed no sign of a consistent boundary–core difference at either boundary.
An evolutionary algorithm of contracting search space based on partial ordering relation for constrained optimization problems

A new evolutionary algorithm, which can contract search space based on the partial ordering relation and is designed to solve nonlinear programming (NLP), is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the partial ordering relation is used for evaluating an individual, which ensures that individual competition is more impartial. Secondly, by taking advantage of incomplete evolution, which provides good individuals in short time, we can locate regions of optimal solutions and contract the search space and thus reduce the search space and increase the convergence rate. Thirdly, we prove that the algorithm can find optimal solutions. Finally, the algorithm can be easily parallelized. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our techniques are superior to other methods in terms of solution quality and robustness.
Effects of perceptual training on second language vowel perception and production

ABSTRACT This study investigates whether audiovisual training leads to greater improvement in perception and production than auditory training. The participants (n = 60) were American English native speakers enrolled in intermediate French courses. They received audiovisual training, audio-only training, or no training, and were tested at pretest and posttest on their perception and production of French nasal vowels. The results suggest that both training groups improved significantly from the pretest to the posttest, but that the differences between the audiovisual and audio-only groups were not statistically significant. However, the production of the audiovisual training group improved significantly more than the production of the audio-only training group did, suggesting that seeing facial gestures leads to greater improvement in pronunciation.
Heart rate variability and its relationship with central and general obesity in obese normotensive adolescents

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the relationship between the heart rate variability parameters and the indicators of central and general obesity in obese normotensive adolescents. Methods: Seventy-four 13 to 18 year-old obese normotensive adolescents participated in this study. The indicators analyzed for central and general obesity were waist circumference and body mass index, respectively. Heart rate variability was obtained by heart rate monitoring. For this, the adolescents remained in a supine position for 7 minutes with controlled breathing. Parameters were obtained in time domain (standard deviation of all the RR intervals, root mean square of successive differences between the normal adjacent RR intervals and the percentage of adjacent intervals with more than 50ms) and frequency domain variables (low and high frequency bands and the sympathovagal balance). Results: After adjustments for gender, age, and cardiorespiratory fitness, a negative correlation between the waist circumference and the root mean square of successive differences between the normal adjacent RR intervals (ß=-1.51; standard error=0.56; p<0.05) and the percentage of adjacent intervals with more than 50 ms (ß=-0.96; standard error=0.34; p<0.05) were observed, while the body mass index showed no significant correlation with any heart rate variability parameter (p>0.05). Conclusion: Central obesity is a better discriminator than general obesity of autonomic cardiac dysfunction in obese normotensive adolescents
Social marketing for the environment: A comparative analysis of theory and practice

Dr. Mark Meisner (SUNY-ESF) Paola Sanchez Difficulties in achieving long-term environmental behavior changes have led to the application of a great variety of approaches. One of the most recent ones is social marketing. The use of this approach has witnessed mixed results, but the noticeable increase in its application for environmental problem solving calls for an assessment of its development. This study presents an analysis of such development in both the theory and the practice. Literature Analysis 62 academic articles with an explicit focus on social marketing and its application to environmental issues were analyzed. Publication trends were identified and a content analysis was conducted. Coding categories include the conceptual frame of the article (theoretical, case study, review, test of variables), the area of focus (energy, transportation, recycling, etc), and type of journal (social science, science, marketing).
Collaborative In-Network Processing for Target Tracking

This paper presents a class of signal processing techniques for collaborative signal processing in ad hoc sensor networks, focusing on a vehicle tracking application. In particular, we study two types of commonly used sensors—acoustic-amplitude sensors for target distance estimation and direction-of-arrival sensors for bearing estimation—and investigate how networks of such sensors can collaborate to extract useful information with minimal resource usage. The information-driven sensor collaboration has several advantages: tracking is distributed, and the network is energy-efficient, activated only on a when-needed basis. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach to target tracking using both simulation and field data.
The RPC calculus

Several recent language designs have offered a unified language for programming a distributed system, with explicit notation of locations; we call these "location-aware" languages. These languages provide constructs allowing the programmer to control the location (the choice of host, for example) where a piece of code should run, which can be useful for security or performance reasons. On the other hand, a central mantra of WWW system engineering prescribes that web servers should be "stateless": that no "session state" should be maintained on behalf of individual clients---that is, no state that pertains to the particular point of the interaction at which a client program resides. Many implementations of location-aware languages are not at home on the web: they hold some kind of client-specific state on the server. We show how to implement a symmetrical location-aware language on top of a stateless server.
Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for depression:Effectiveness and patient experiences

Background: Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) is a promising approach to the prevention and reduction of depressive symptoms among adolescents. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of disseminating a self-directed internet-based mental health intervention (MoodGYM) in senior high schools. It also sought to investigate possible effects of tailored and weekly e-mail reminders on initial uptake and adherence to the intervention. Method: A baseline survey was conducted in four senior high schools in two Norwegian municipalities (n = 1337). 52.8% (707/1337) of the students consented to further participation in the trial and were randomly allocated to one of three MoodGYM intervention groups (tailored weekly e-mail reminder (n = 175), standardized weekly e-mail reminder (n = 176 ) or no e-mail reminder (n = 175)) or a waitlist control group (n = 180). We tested for effects of the intervention on depression and self-esteem using multivariate analysis of variance, effects of tailored e-mail and self-reported current need of help on initial uptake of the intervention using logistic regression and the effect of weekly e-mails on adherence using ordinal regression. Results: There was substantial non-participation from the intervention, with only 8.5% (45/527) participants logging on to MoodGYM, and few proceeding beyond the first part of the programme. No significant effect on depression or self-esteem was found among the sample as a whole or among participants with elevated depression scores at baseline. Having a higher average grade in senior high school predicted initial uptake of the intervention, but tailored e-mail and self-reported current need of help did not. Weekly e-mail prompts did not predict adherence. The main reasons for non-use reported were lack of time/forgetting about it and doubt about the usefulness of the program. Conclusion: Overall, disseminating a self-directed internet-based intervention to a school population proved difficult despite steps taken to reduce barriers in terms of tailoring feedback and dispatching weekly e-mail reminders. Providing mental health interventions within the school environment is likely to ensure better uptake among senior high school students, but there is a need to effectively communicate that such programmes can be helpful. Trial registration: The trial was registered retrospectively as ACTRN12612001106820.
EVOLUTION THROUGH THE SEARCH FOR NOVELTY

I present a new approach to evolutionary search called novelty search, wherein only behavioral novelty is rewarded, thereby abstracting evolution as a search for novel forms. This new approach contrasts with the traditional approach of rewarding progress towards the objective through an objective function. Although they are designed to light a path to the objective, objective functions can instead deceive search into converging to dead ends called local optima. As a significant problem in evolutionary computation, deception has inspired many techniques designed to mitigate it. However, nearly all such methods are still ultimately susceptible to deceptive local optima because they still measure progress with respect to the objective, which this dissertation will show is often a broken compass. Furthermore, although novelty search completely abandons the objective, it counterintuitively often outperforms methods that search directly for the objective in deceptive tasks and can induce evolutionary dynamics closer in spirit to natural evolution. The main contributions are to (1) introduce novelty search, an example of an effective search method that is not guided by actively measuring or encouraging objective progress; (2) validate novelty search by applying it to biped locomotion; (3) demonstrate novelty search’s benefits for evolvability (i.e. the ability of an organism to further evolve) in a variety of domains; (4) introduce an extension of novelty search called minimal criteria novelty search that brings a new abstraction of natural evolution to evolutionary computation (i.e. evolution as a search for many ways of
Determinants of mortality and multiorgan dysfunction in cardiac surgery patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation.

OBJECTIVES To identify characteristics associated with mortality and the development of multiorgan dysfunction in patients who had undergone cardiac surgery and required prolonged mechanical ventilation, ie, > 48 h. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. SETTING Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, an academic tertiary care center. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS A total of 107 consecutive patients undergoing cardiac surgery and requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. INTERVENTIONS Prospective patients surveillance and data collection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES ICU mortality and multiorgan dysfunction. RESULTS Among 472 consecutive patients admitted to the cardiac surgery ICU following surgery, 107 (22.7%) required prolonged mechanical ventilation. Twenty-one of these patients (19.6%) died during their hospitalization. In a logistic-regression analysis, the development of an organ system failure index (OSFI) of 3 or greater was the only characteristic independently associated with ICU mortality (p < 0.001). The occurrence of an antibiotic-resistant infection (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 6.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.5 to 14.6 p = 0.006), an aortic cross-clamp time equal to or greater than 1.25 h (AOR = 3.9, CI = 2.3 to 6.8, p = 0.016), the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia (AOR = 3.6, CI = 2.4 to 5.3, p < 0.001), and an APACHE III score equal to or greater than 30 (AOR = 3.1, CI = 1.8 to 5.3, p = 0.036) were independently associated with the development of an OSFI of 3 or greater. CONCLUSIONS These data confirm that acquired multiorgan dysfunction is the best predictor of mortality in patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation following cardiac surgery. Additionally, they identify potential determinants of multiorgan dysfunction and suggest possible interventions for its reduction in this patient population.