Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated Placement and Routing of Relay Nodes for Fault-Tolerant Hierarchical Sensor Networks

Two-tiered sensor networks have gained popularity in recent years, due to their ability to facilitate load-balanced data gathering, fault-tolerance as well as increased network connectivity and coverage. Using higher-powered relay nodes as cluster heads can lead to further improvements in network performance. It is important to determine an appropriate placement scheme for such relay nodes, in order to achieve specified coverage and connectivity requirements with as few relay nodes as possible. A significant amount of work has been done in this area in recent years. However, existing placement strategies typically do not consider energy dissipation due to routing and are not capable of optimizing the routing scheme and placement concurrently. In this paper, we propose an integrated integer linear program (ILP) formulation that determines the minimum number of relay nodes, along with their locations and a suitable communication strategy such that i) all sensor nodes are able to connect to at least ks relay nodes, ii) the upper tier relay node network is at least Kr-connected and iii) the network has a guaranteed lifetime. We also present an intersection based scheme for creating the initial set of potential relay node positions, which are used by our ILP, and evaluate its performance under different conditions. Experimental results on networks with hundreds of sensor nodes show that our approach leads to significant improvements over existing energy-unaware placement schemes.
Biologic Imaging of Head and Neck Cancer: The Present and the Future

SUMMARY: While anatomic imaging (CT and MR imaging) of HNC is focused on diagnosing and/or characterizing the disease, defining its local extent, and evaluating distant spread, accurate assessment of the biologic status of the cancer (cellularity, growth rate, response to nonsurgical chemoradiation therapy, and so forth) can be invaluable for prognostication, planning therapy, and follow-up of lesions after therapy. The combination of anatomic and biologic imaging techniques can thus provide a more comprehensive evaluation of the patient. The purpose of this work was to review the present and future clinical applications of advanced biologic imaging techniques in HNC evaluation and management. As part of the biologic imaging array, we discuss MR spectroscopy, diffusion and perfusion MR imaging, CTP, and FDG-PET scanning and conclude with exciting developments that hold promise in assessment of tumor hypoxia and neoangiogenesis.
Revisiting Uncovered Interest Rate Parity: Switching between Uip and the Random Walk

In this paper, we examine in which periods uncovered interest rate parity was likely to hold. Empirical research has shown mixed evidence on UIP. The main finding is that it doesn’t hold, although some researchers were not able to reject UIP in periods with large interest differentials or high volatility. In this paper, we introduce a switching regime framework in which we assume that the exchange rate can switch between a UIP regime and a random walk regime. Our empirical results provide evidence that exchange rate movements were consistent with UIP over some periods, but not all. Consistent with the existing literature we also show that in periods with large interest differentials or increased exchange rate volatility, the exchange rate is more likely to follow UIP.
A methodology for calibrating microscopic simulation for modeling traffic flow under incidents

Incidents cause significant delays and their impacts on traffic flow need to be modeled to evaluate and mitigate them. The objective of this paper is to provide a methodology for modeling incidents in microscopic traffic simulation environment. Queue lengths and shockwave propagation speeds resulting from incidents obtained from analytical kinematic wave theory (Lighthill - Witham - Richard or LWR) were used to calibrate incident model in microscopic traffic simulation (VISSIM). A two lane freeway along the HRBT corridor was taken as a test bed. Fundamental diagram corresponding to the corridor was developed using Van-Aerde traffic mode and was used as an input to LWR. Queue length as a result of incidents blocking only one lane and both lanes were analyzed. Reduction in capacity, as suggested in HCM, was considered in the process of incident model calibration. The results suggest that a well calibrated incident model in VISSIM is capable of reproducing the queue lengths and shockwaves obtained from LWR and thus can be used for understanding the impact of incidents on freeways and testing alternative traffic management strategies, e.g., minimize delay or emissions.
Visual detection of spatial contrast patterns: evaluation of five simple models.

The ModelFest Phase One dataset is a collection of luminance contrast thresholds for 43 two-dimensional monochromatic spatial patterns confined to an area of approximately two by two degrees. These data were collected by a collaboration among twelve laboratories, and were designed to provide a common database for calibration and testing of spatial vision models. Here I report fits of the ModelFest data with five models: Peak Contrast, Contrast Energy, Generalized Energy, a Gabor Channels model, and a Discrete Cosine Transform model. The Gabor Channels model provides the best fit, though the other, simpler models, with the exception of Peak Contrast, provide remarkably good fits as well. Though there are clear individual differences, regularities in the data suggest the possibility of constructing a standard observer for spatial vision.
Fuz Regulates Craniofacial Development through Tissue Specific Responses to Signaling Factors

The planar cell polarity effector gene Fuz regulates ciliogenesis and Fuz loss of function studies reveal an array of embryonic phenotypes. However, cilia defects can affect many signaling pathways and, in humans, cilia defects underlie several craniofacial anomalies. To address this, we analyzed the craniofacial phenotype and signaling responses of the Fuz−/− mice. We demonstrate a unique role for Fuz in regulating both Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt/β-catenin signaling during craniofacial development. Fuz expression first appears in the dorsal tissues and later in ventral tissues and craniofacial regions during embryonic development coincident with cilia development. The Fuz−/− mice exhibit severe craniofacial deformities including anophthalmia, agenesis of the tongue and incisors, a hypoplastic mandible, cleft palate, ossification/skeletal defects and hyperplastic malformed Meckel's cartilage. Hh signaling is down-regulated in the Fuz null mice, while canonical Wnt signaling is up-regulated revealing the antagonistic relationship of these two pathways. Meckel's cartilage is expanded in the Fuz−/− mice due to increased cell proliferation associated with the up-regulation of Wnt canonical target genes and decreased non-canonical pathway genes. Interestingly, cilia development was decreased in the mandible mesenchyme of Fuz null mice, suggesting that cilia may antagonize Wnt signaling in this tissue. Furthermore, expression of Fuz decreased expression of Wnt pathway genes as well as a Wnt-dependent reporter. Finally, chromatin IP experiments demonstrate that β-catenin/TCF-binding directly regulates Fuz expression. These data demonstrate a new model for coordination of Hh and Wnt signaling and reveal a Fuz-dependent negative feedback loop controlling Wnt/β-catenin signaling.
Price Competition and Product Differentiation when Goods have Network Effects

Abstract The objective of our approach is to develop a model that captures horizontal product differentiation under environmental awareness with price competition whereby environmentally friendly products are costlier to produce. As an example, we refer to automobile producers offering cars with a gasoline-powered engine and one with a natural gas-powered engine. The network of petrol stations provides the complementary good. We use a two-stage game in prices and characteristics to analyse the market structure. In order to find out whether a private decision on the type of engine coincides with a socially optimal product differentiation, we determine the position of the two types of engine by a welfaremaximizing authority.
Computational Modeling of Distinct Neocortical Oscillations Driven by Cell-Type Selective Optogenetic Drive: Separable Resonant Circuits Controlled by Low-Threshold Spiking and Fast-Spiking Interneurons

Selective optogenetic drive of fast-spiking (FS) interneurons (INs) leads to enhanced local field potential (LFP) power across the traditional “gamma” frequency band (20–80 Hz; Cardin et al., 2009). In contrast, drive to regular-spiking (RS) pyramidal cells enhances power at lower frequencies, with a peak at 8 Hz. The first result is consistent with previous computational studies emphasizing the role of FS and the time constant of GABAA synaptic inhibition in gamma rhythmicity. However, the same theoretical models do not typically predict low-frequency LFP enhancement with RS drive. To develop hypotheses as to how the same network can support these contrasting behaviors, we constructed a biophysically principled network model of primary somatosensory neocortex containing FS, RS, and low-threshold spiking (LTS) INs. Cells were modeled with detailed cell anatomy and physiology, multiple dendritic compartments, and included active somatic and dendritic ionic currents. Consistent with prior studies, the model demonstrated gamma resonance during FS drive, dependent on the time constant of GABAA inhibition induced by synchronous FS activity. Lower-frequency enhancement during RS drive was replicated only on inclusion of an inhibitory LTS population, whose activation was critically dependent on RS synchrony and evoked longer-lasting inhibition. Our results predict that differential recruitment of FS and LTS inhibitory populations is essential to the observed cortical dynamics and may provide a means for amplifying the natural expression of distinct oscillations in normal cortical processing.
Turkish Prospective Teachers' Perceptions Regarding the Use of Computer Games with Educational Features

Teachers’ perceptions are critical to the success or failure of integrating computer games with educational features into classrooms. Consequently, it is essential to gather information about concerns they might have in regard to using these games in the classroom. This study was conducted to investigate the perceptions and future plans of a group of prospective computer teachers in Turkey. One-hundred sixteen students, from four different universities’ Computer Education and Instructional Technology (CEIT) departments, participated in this study. The results of the study reveal that the prospective computer teachers who participated have positive perceptions regarding the use of computer games with educational features in education. Moreover, most of the participants plan to use such games in their future professions, according to their responses. However, some of the participants have doubts, especially concerning the issues of classroom management and the educational effectiveness of computer games currently on the market.
Efficient Prediction of DNA-Binding Proteins Using Machine Learning

DNA-binding proteins are a class of proteins which have a specific or general affinity to DNA and include three important components: transcription factors; nucleases, and histones. DNA-binding proteins also perform important roles in many types of cellular activities. In this paper we describe machine learning systems for the prediction of DNA- binding proteins where a Support Vector Machine and a Cascade Correlation Neural Network are optimized and then compared to determine the learning algorithm that achieves the best prediction performance. The information used for classification is derived from characteristics that include overall charge, patch size and amino acids composition. In total 121 DNA- binding proteins and 238 non-binding proteins are used to build and evaluate the system. For SVM using the ANOVA Kernel with Jack-knife evaluation, an accuracy of 86.7% has been achieved with 91.1% for sensitivity and 85.3% for specificity. For CCNN optimized over the entire dataset with Jack knife evaluation we report an accuracy of 75.4%, while the values of specificity and sensitivity achieved were 72.3% and 82.6%, respectively.
Protein Malnutrition Impairs the Immune Response and Influences the Severity of Infection in a Hamster Model of Chronic Visceral Leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis remains one of the world's most devastating neglected tropical diseases. It mainly affects developing countries, where it often co-exists with chronic malnutrition, one of the main risk factors for developing the disease. Few studies have been published, however, on the relationship between leishmaniasis progression and malnutrition. The present paper reports the influence of protein malnutrition on the immune response and visceral disease development in adult hamsters infected with Leishmania infantum fed either standard or low protein diets. The low protein diet induced severe malnutrition in these animals, and upon infection with L. infantum 33% had severe visceral leishmaniasis compared to only 8% of animals fed the standard diet. The infected, malnourished animals showed notable leukocyte depletion, mild specific antibody responses, impairment of lymphoproliferation, presence of parasites in blood (16.67% of the hamsters) and significant increase of the splenic parasite burden. Animals fed standard diet suffered agranulocytosis and monocytopenia, but showed stronger specific immune responses and had lower parasite loads than their malnourished counterparts. The present results show that protein malnutrition promotes visceral leishmaniasis and provide clues regarding the mechanisms underlying the impairment of the immune system.
Comparative Mental Health Policy: From Institutional to Community Care

Introduction PART ONE: THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES Postwar Mental Health Policy PART TWO: THE ANALYSIS OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES Introduction Orthodox Accounts of the Policy Shift Radical Accounts of the Policy Shift Problems and Issues within Existing Accounts Specialization, Accessibility and Variation Themes in the Analysis of Postwar Mental Health Policy PART THREE: PROBLEMS AND ISSUES Introduction Problems and Issues in Community Care Service Development Issues Conclusion Which Way Forward? Mental Health Services for the New Millennium
What Actually Wins Soccer Matches: Prediction of the2011-2012 Premier League for Fun and Profit

Sports analytics is a fascinating problem area in which to apply statistical learning techniques. This thesis brings new data to bear on the problem of predicting the outcome of a soccer match. We use frequency counts of in-game events, sourced from the Manchester City Analytics program, to predict the 380 matches of the 2011-2012 Premier League season. We generate prediction models with multinomial regression and rigorously test them with betting simulations. An extensive review of prior efforts is presented, as well as a novel theoretically optimal betting strategy. We measure performance different feature sets and betting strategies. Accuracy and simulated profit far exceeding those of all earlier efforts are achieved.
Interictal Spikes Precede Ictal Discharges in an Organotypic Hippocampal Slice Culture Model of Epileptogenesis

Summary: In organotypic hippocampal slice cultures, principal neurons form aberrant excitatory connections with other principal cells in response to slicing induced deafferentation, similar to mechanisms underlying epileptogenesis in posttraumatic epilepsy. To investigate the consequences of this synaptogenesis, the authors recorded field-potential activity from area CA3 during perfusion with the complete growth medium used during incubation. At 7 days in vitro, slice cultures only displayed multiunit activity. At 14 days in vitro, the majority displayed population bursts reminiscent of interictal-like spikes, but sustained synchronous activity was rare. Band-pass filtering of interictal discharges revealed fast ripple-like complexes, similar to in vivo recordings. Spontaneous ictal-like activity became progressively more prevalent with age: at 21 days in vitro, 50% of organotypic hippocampal slice cultures displayed long-lasting, ictal-like discharges that could be suppressed by phenytoin, whereas interictal activity was not suppressed. The fraction of cultures displaying ictal events continually increased with incubation time. Quantification of population spike activity throughout epileptogenesis using automatic detection and clustering algorithms confirmed the appearance of interictal-like activity before ictal-like discharges and also revealed high-frequency pathologic multiunit activity in slice cultures at 14 to 17 days in vitro. These experiments indicate that interictal-like spikes precede the appearance of ictal-like activity in a reduced in vitro preparation. Epileptiform activity in cultures resembled in vivo epilepsy, including sensitivity to anticonvulsants and steadily increasing seizure incidence over time, although seizure frequency and rate of epileptogenesis were higher in vitro. Organotypic hippocampal slice cultures comprise a useful model system for investigating mechanisms of epileptogenesis as well as developing antiepileptic and antiepileptogenic drugs.
Methanol maser associated outflows : detection statistics and properties

We have selected the positions of 54 6.7 GHz methanol masers from the Methanol Multibeam Survey catalogue, covering a range of longitudes between 20Â° and 34Â° of the Galactic plane. These positions were mapped in the J = 3-2 transition of both the 13CO and C18O lines. A total of 58 13COemission peaks are found in the vicinity of thesemaser positions.We search for outflows around all 13CO peaks, and find evidence for high-velocity gas in all cases, spatially resolving the red and blue outflow lobes in 55 cases. Of these sources, 44 have resolved kinematic distances, and are closely associated with the 6.7 GHz masers, a subset referred to as Methanol Maser Associated Outflows (MMAOs). We calculate the masses of the clumps associated with each peak using 870 I¼m continuum emission from the ATLASGAL survey. A strong correlation is seen between the clump mass and both outflow mass and mechanical force, lending support to models in which accretion is strongly linked to outflow. We find that the scaling law between outflow activity and clump masses observed for low-mass objects, is also followed by the MMAOs in this study, indicating a commonality in the formation processes of low-mass and high-mass stars. Â© 2014 The Authors.
Growth, Democracy, and Civil War

Are civil wars partly caused by low economic growth? And do democratic institutions attenuate the impact of low growth on the likelihood of civil war? Our approach to answering these questions exploits that international commodity prices have a significant effect on income growth in Sub-Saharan African countries. We show that lower income growth makes civil war more likely in non-democracies. This effect is significantly weaker in democracies. So much so, that we do not find a link between growth and civil war in countries with democratic institutions. Our results therefore point to an interaction between economic and institutional causes of civil war.
Do inflation targeting central banks behave asymmetrically? Evidence from Australia and New Zealand

This paper tests the standard quadratic approximation to central bank preferences on data from Australia and New Zealand, two of the earliest explicit inflation targeting countries. The standard linear-quadratic monetary policy model assumes central bank preferences over key macroeconomic variables, such as inflation and output, can be usefully approximated by a quadratic function. This approximation implies that a deviation from a target is considered to be equally costly irrespective of whether the deviation is positive or negative. Combined with a linear model of the economy, quadratic preferences are useful because they yield a first order condition that implies a linear interest rate reaction function. This paper relaxes the assumption of quadratic preferences by allowing central banks to regard the costs associated with positive and negative output gaps differently. Our models also test for the possibility that positive and negative deviations of inflation from target to be treated differently. During the inflation targeting period in both countries, evidence suggests that we cannot reject quadratic preferences over inflation deviations (from target). We cannot reject that New Zealand's preferences regarding deviations of output from trend are quadratic, but Australia's behaviour does not appear to be consistent with quadratic preferences. Instead, the preferences of the Reserve Bank of Australia appear to be more accurately modelled with an asymmetric loss such that the Reserve Bank of Australia views negative output gaps as more costly than positive output gaps.
Financial Factors and the International Transmission Mechanism

The aim of this paper is to investigate theoretically how financial factors affect the international transmission mechanism. We build a two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with sticky prices and financial frictions. To add to the literature we extend the model to include two types of credit spread shocks that are micro-founded; a mean preserving shock to the dispersion of firms idiosyncratic productivity (risk shock) and a shock to financial agents net worth (financial wealth shock). We find that the source of the shock to the credit spread matters; credit spread shocks of equivalent size, but driven by different innovations, have different consequences for output and inflation in the home and foreign economy. In general risk shocks generate more realistic spillovers to activity than a financial wealth shock.