Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time-geographic density estimation for home range analysis

This research presents time-geographic density estimation (TGDE) as a new technique of animal home range analysis in geographic information science (GIS). TGDE combines methodologies of time geography and statistical density estimation to produce a continuous probability distribution of an object's spatial position over time. Once TGDE is applied to animal tracking data to create a density surface, home ranges and core areas can be delineated using specified contours of relative intensity (e.g., 95% or 50%). This article explores the use of TGDE for home range analysis using three data sets: a fixed-interval simulated data set and two variable-interval satellite tracks for a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) corresponding to internesting and post-migration foraging periods. These applications are used to illustrate the influence of several parameters, including sample size, temporal sampling scheme, selected distance-weighted geoellipse function, and specified maximum velocity, on home range estimates. The results demonstrate how TGDE produces reasonable home range estimates even given irregular tracking data with wide temporal gaps. The advantages of TGDE as compared with traditional methods of home range estimation such as kernel density estimation are as follows: (1) intensities are not assigned to locations where the animal could not have been located given space and time constraints; (2) the density surface represents the actual uncertainty about an animal's spatial position during unsampled time periods; (3) the amount of smoothing applied is objectively specified based on the animal's movement velocity rather than arbitrarily chosen; and (4) uneven sampling intervals are easily accommodated since the density estimates are calculated based on the elapsed time between observed locations. In summary, TGDE is a useful method of home range estimation and shows promise for numerous applications to moving objects in GIS.
A fair resource allocation protocol for multimedia wireless networks

Wireless networks are expected to support real-time interactive multimedia traffic and must be able, therefore, to provide their users with Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantees. Although the QoS provisioning problem arises in wireline networks as well, mobility of hosts and scarcity of bandwidth makes QoS provisioning a challenging task in wireless networks. It has been noticed that multimedia applications can tolerate and gracefully adapt to transient fluctuations in the QoS that they receive from the network. The additional flexibility afforded by the ability of multimedia applications to tolerate and adapt to transient changes in QoS can be exploited by protocol designers to significantly improve the overall performance of wireless systems. This paper presents a fair resource allocation protocol for multimedia wireless networks that uses a combination of bandwidth reservation and bandwidth borrowing to provide network users with QoS in terms of guaranteed bandwidth, call blocking and call dropping probabilities. Our view of fairness was inspired by the well-known maxmin fairness allocation protocol for wireline networks. Simulation results are presented that compare our protocol to similar schemes.
Liver Transplantation Using Donation After Cardiac Death Donors: Long‐Term Follow‐Up from a Single Center

There is a lack of universally accepted clinical parameters to guide the utilization of donation after cardiac death (DCD) donor livers and it is unclear as to which patients would benefit most from these organs. We reviewed our experience in 141 patients who underwent liver transplantation using DCD allografts from 1993 to 2007. Patient outcomes were analyzed in comparison to a matched cohort of 282 patients who received livers from donation after brain death (DBD) donors. Patient survival was similar, but 1‐, 5‐ and 10‐year graft survival was significantly lower in DCD (69%, 56%, 44%) versus DBD (82%, 73%, 63%) subjects (p < 0.0001). Primary nonfunction and biliary complications were more common in DCD patients, accounting for 67% of early graft failures. A donor warm ischemia time >20 min, cold ischemia time >8 h and donor age >60 were associated with poorer DCD outcomes. There was a lack of survival benefit in DCD livers utilized in patients with model for end‐stage liver disease (MELD) ≤30 or those not on organ‐perfusion support, as graft survival was significantly lower compared to DBD patients. However, DCD and DBD subjects transplanted with MELD >30 or on organ‐perfusion support had similar graft survival, suggesting a potentially greater benefit of DCD livers in critically ill patients.
Use of Gas-Liquid Chromatography to Determine the End Products of Growth of Lactic Acid Bacteria

A simple gas-liquid chromatographic procedure for analyzing ethanol, acetic acid, acetoin, and racemic and meso-2,3-butylene glycol in broth media is described. Overnight broth cultures were filtered or centrifuged, and the filtrate or supernatant was treated with formic acid to aid separation of volatile fatty acids. Samples were then directly analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography on a 20% Tween 80-Chromosorb W-AW column and propionic acid as an internal standard. A complete analysis took ca. 8 min. The method can be used to distinguish homofermentative from heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria based on the level of ethanol produced and citrate-utilizing from non-citrate-utilizing lactic acid bacteria based on the levels of acetic acid produced. The method also has potential in distinguishing other bacterial fermentations. Of the 13 species of lactic acid bacteria tested, Streptococcus lactis subsp. diacetylactis was the major producer of 2,3-butylene glycol (total range, 0.3 to 3.5 mM), and, except for strain DRC1, both the racemic and meso isomers were produced in approximately equal amounts.
Cystic Fibrosis in Korean Children: A Case Report Identified by a Quantitative Pilocarpine Iontophoresis Sweat Test and Genetic Analysis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait, and the mutations in cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene contributes to the CF syndrome. Although CF is common in Caucasians, it is known to be rare in Asians. Recently, we experienced two cases of CF in Korean children. The patients were girls with chronic productive cough since early infancy. Chest computed tomography showed the diffuse bronchiectasis in both lungs, and their diagnosis was confirmed by the repeated analysis of a quantitative pilocarpine iontophoresis test (QPIT). The sweat chloride concentrations of the first patient were 108.1 mM/L and 96.7 mM/L. The genetic analysis revealed that she was the compound heterozygote of Q1291X and IVS8 T5-M470V. In the second case, the sweat chloride concentrations were 95.0 mM/L and 77.5 mM/L. Although we performed a comprehensive search for the coding regions and exon-intron splicing junctions of CFTR gene, no obvious disease-related mutations were detected in the second case. To our knowledge, this is the first report of CF in Korean children identified by a QPIT and genetic analysis. The possibility of CF should be suspected in those patients with chronic respiratory symptoms even in Korea.
The evolution of software pricing: from box licenses to application service provider models

Software is the intellectual capital output of the codified knowledge of a programming team. The development cost is high, but the variable cost of sale is substantially lower (negligible) than for hard goods. Unfortunately, there does not exist a valid or reliable measure to value software. The trend has been to align pricing to the activities that buyers realize value from. However, new architectures change the nature of where value is realized and how service becomes part of the equation. There does not exist a perfect generic pricing model. Vendors must understand the value they provide to their customers and create a price structure that aligns pricing with value realization, but more importantly facilitates their business objectives of the product (and service).
Linux apps-usage-driven power dissipation-aware scheduler

In modern symmetrical chip multiprocessor (CMP) architecture, problems in cache coherence, context switch overheads and serialized code bottleneck are major causes of excessive computing power dissipation in the application of simultaneous multithreading (SMT) technique. This research models and manages above-mentioned problems based on user application usage patterns identified in a mobile computing platform. A novel scheduler has been developed to realize power management schemes based on the Linux kernel (version. 3.0.1) and deployed in Android 4.0 ICS. The scheduler monitors multiple system performance metrics and predicts power dissipation based on the historical user application usage values as well as the content of the scheduler run queue. The length of the time slices and the variables of process control blocks are adjusted to optimize power dissipation according to the prediction. The proposed scheduler module has achieved a power dissipation reduction of 13 to 24% in a GEM5 simulated environment.
1-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)piperazine-1,4-diium tetrachloridocobalt(II) monohydrate

The asymmetric unit of the title inorganic–organic hybrid compound, (C10H16N2O)[CoCl4]·H2O, consists of a tetrahedral [CoCl4]2− anion, together with a [C10H18N2O]2+ cation and a water molecule. Crystal cohesion is achieved through N—H⋯Cl, O—H⋯Cl and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds between organic cations, inorganic anions and the water molecules, building up a three-dimensional network.
A DEFENSIVE MECHANISM CROSS LAYER ARCHITECTURE FOR MANETS TO IDENTIFY AND CORRECT MISBEHAVIOUR IN ROUTING

The emerging mobile technology has brought revolutionized changes in the computer era. One such technology of networking is Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETS), where the mobility and infrastructure less of the nodes takes predominant roles. These features make MANETS more vulnerable to attacks. As the research continues several aspects can be explored in this area. At the very first it can be the problem of how to make the cross layer detection of attacks more efficient and work well. Since every layer in the network deals with different type of attacks, a possible viewpoint to those attack scenarios can be presented so that it can be extended in the later part. It becomes necessary to figure out the security solution architecture if there are different detection results generated by different layers. Secondly, there should be a measure of the network metrics to show increased performance. The paper presents such a defensive mechanism cross layered architecture which strives to identify and correct misbehaviour in MANETS especially with respect to routing layer. The evaluation of the proposed solution is also given with results obtained to show the performance of the network.
Maximizing Ventricular Function With Multimodal Cell-Based Gene Therapy

Background—Angiogenesis is enhanced after transplantation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-expressing cells into a myocardial scar. Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) may induce hypertrophy and inhibit apoptosis. We evaluated the effect of cell-based IGF-I and VEGF multigene therapy on left ventricular (LV) function, cell survival, and apoptosis after bone marrow cell (BMC) transplantation. Methods and Results—Female Lewis rats underwent left anterior descending ligation 3 weeks before transplantation with male donor BMC, BMC transfected with VEGF (BMC+VEGF), IGF-I (BMC+IGF-I), VEGF and IGF-I (BMC+VEGF+IGF-I), or medium without cells (control) (n=4 per group×5 groups×4 time points). Three days and 1, 2, and 4 weeks after transplantation, VEGF and IGF-I expression was quantitated by real-time polymerase chain reaction, cell survival by polymerase chain reaction for sry2, apoptosis by TUNEL staining, LV function by echocardiography and myosin heavy chain, and light chain and troponin I by Western blot. One week after transplantation, IGF-I expression in the scar and border zone was greatest in BMC+IGF-I and BMC+VEGF+IGF-I rats (P<0.05). VEGF expression in the scar and border zone was greatest in BMC+VEGF and BMC+VEGF+IGF-I hearts (P<0.05). Transplanted cell survival was lowest in BMC, intermediate in BMC+VEGF and BMC+IGF-I, and greatest in BMC+VEGF+IGF-I (P<0.05). Apoptotic indices were significantly reduced in BMC+VEGF+IGF-I, BMC+VEGF, and BMC+IGF-I (P<0.05). Two and 4 weeks after transplantation, LV ejection fraction was lowest in control, intermediate in BMC, BMC+VEGF, and BMC+IGF-I, and greatest in BMC+VEGF+IGF-I (P<0.05). Conclusions—Transplantation of VEGF- and IGF-I-expressing BMC reduced apoptosis, maximized transplanted cell survival, and enhanced LV function. Multimodal cell-based gene therapy may maximize the benefits of cell transplantation.
Physiologically-Motivated Feature Extraction Methods for Speaker Recognition

PHYSIOLOGICALLY-MOTIVATED FEATURE EXTRACTION METHODS FOR SPEAKER RECOGNITION Jianglin Wang, B.S., M.S. Marquette University, 2013 Speaker recognition has received a great deal of attention from the speech community, and significant gains in robustness and accuracy have been obtained over the past decade. However, the features used for identification are still primarily representations of overall spectral characteristics, and thus the models are primarily phonetic in nature, differentiating speakers based on overall pronunciation patterns. This creates difficulties in terms of the amount of enrollment data and complexity of the models required to cover the phonetic space, especially in tasks such as identification where enrollment and testing data may not have similar phonetic coverage. This dissertation introduces new features based on vocal source characteristics intended to capture physiological information related to the laryngeal excitation energy of a speaker. These features, including RPCC, GLFCC and TPCC, represent the unique characteristics of speech production not represented in current state-of-the-art speaker identification systems. The proposed features are evaluated through three experimental paradigms including cross-lingual speaker identification, cross song-type avian speaker identification and mono-lingual speaker identification. The experimental results show that the proposed features provide information about speaker characteristics that is significantly different in nature from the phonetically-focused information present in traditional spectral features. The incorporation of the proposed glottal source features offers significant overall improvement to the robustness and accuracy of speaker identification tasks.
All sources are nearly successively refinable

Given an achievable quadruple (R/sub 1/, R/sub 2/, D/sub 1/, D/sub 2/) for successive refinement with D/sub 2/<D/sub 1/, the rate loss at step i is defined as L/sub i/=R/sub i/-R(D/sub i/). It is shown that for a memoryless source and for MSE, an achievable quadruple can be found such that L/sub i//spl les/1/2 bit. Moreover, an achievable quadruple can be found with L/sub 2/ arbitrarily small and L/sub 1//spl les/1/2 bit if D/sub 2/ is small enough. If an information-efficient description at D/sub 1/ is required (i.e. L/sub 1/=0), then there exists an achievable quadruple with L/sub 2//spl les/1 bit. The results are independent of both the source and the particular D/sub 1/, D/sub 2/ requirements and extend to any difference distortion measure. The techniques employed parallel Zamir's bounding of the rate loss in the Wyner-Ziv problem.
Youth sexuality : the sexual awareness, lifestyles and related-health service needs of young, single factory workers in Thailand

A study was made of the sex behavior of 15-24 year old single factory workers in Thailand in order to uncover the policy and programmatic implications of this behavior and to recommend appropriate policy objectives and programmatic directions. Data were gathered through 18 focus group discussion (September 1992-January 1993) a structured survey (October 1993-February 1994) of 2033 workers in 103 factories and 25 in-depth interviews (October-December 1994). The first chapter of this report discusses the study rationale objectives and conceptual framework. Chapter 2 describes the study methodology and chapter 3 contains an analysis of the focus group discussions which involved such topics as differences between the home/rural and factory/urban social environment courtship sexual orientation and arousal attitudes towards premarital sex actual sexual experience and the consequences of sexual activity. The fourth chapter provides a sociodemographic profile of the survey respondents which includes type and location of the factories social aspects of the labor migration social and demographic characteristics emotional relationships and leisure activities. Chapter 5 provides details on the sexual lifestyles of the survey respondents in terms of sexual orientation relationships experience commercial sexual contact and condom use. Chapter 6 identifies the sexual health needs of the survey respondents based on their knowledge of sexual health their response to unwanted pregnancy their experience with abortion and the attitudes of factory managers about the reproductive health needs of the young workers. The seventh chapter presents case studies derived from the in-depth interviews of sexually active workers and the concluding chapter contains nine policy and eight programmatic recommendations to enhance the sexual health of these workers.
Neuroanatomical correlates of aesthetic preference for paintings

A study was conducted to determine the neuroanatomical correlates of aesthetic preference for paintings using fMRI. Subjects were shown representational and abstract paintings in different formats (original, altered, filtered), and instructed to rate them on aesthetic preference. Our primary results demonstrated that activation in right caudate nucleus decreased in response to decreasing preference, and that activation in bilateral occipital gyri, left cingulate sulcus, and bilateral fusiform gyri increased in response to increasing preference. We conclude that the differential patterns of activation observed in the aforementioned structures in response to aesthetic preference are specific examples of their roles in evaluating reward-based stimuli that vary in emotional valence.
Muscle strength, gait, and balance in 20 patients with hip osteoarthritis followed for 2 years after THA

Background Patients with hip osteoarthritis (OA) have muscular weakness, impaired balance, and limp. Deficits in the different limb muscles and their recovery courses are largely unknown, however. We hypothesized that there is persisting muscular weakness in lower limb muscles and an impaired balance and gait 2 years after THA. Patients and methods 20 elderly patients with unilateral OA were assessed before, and 6 and 24 months after surgery for maximal voluntary isometric strength of hip and knee muscles and by gait analysis, postural stability, and clinical scores (HHS, SF-36, EuroQoL). Results Hip muscles showed a remaining 6% weakness compared to the contralateral healthy limb 2 years after THA. Preoperatively and 6 months postoperatively, that deficit was 18% and 12%, respectively. Knee extensors fully recovered a preoperative 27% deficit after 2 years. Gait analysis demonstrated a shorter single stance phase for the OA limb compared to healthy limb preoperatively, that had already recovered at the 6-month follow-up. Balance of two-foot standing showed improvement in both sagittal and lateral sway after operation. All clinical scores improved. Interpretation Muscle strength data demonstrated a slow but full recovery of muscles acting about the knee, but there was still a deficit in hip muscle strength 2 years after THA. Gait and balance recovered after the operation. To accelerate improvement in muscular strength after THA, postoperative training should probably be more intense and target hip abductors.
A Simple Wide-Range Noise Thermometer With DC SQUID Readout for Operation Down to 10 mK

The design and performance of a compact and easy-to-build thermometer for the temperature range of 10 mK-4.2 K, which is wide enough to cover the entire temperature range of a typical dilution refrigerator, are described here. A commercial low-Tc dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is used to measure the thermal current noise of a resistor, i.e., an insulated copper wire, that scales linearly with the temperature, as expected from the Nyquist formula. Although, in principle, this thermometer is a primary thermometer, its performance was evaluated as a secondary thermometer. The relative precision of the temperature, which is independent of the temperature, was estimated at 0.4% in a measuring time of 130 s, in good agreement with the expectations. The accuracy evaluated from the comparison with other calibrated thermometers (i.e., superconducting reference point (SRP), cerium magnesium nitrate, and germanium) on different temperature ranges is better than 2% between 10 mK and 4.2 K. If only the SRP thermometer is considered for the comparison in the temperature range of 20-207 mK, the accuracy improves to 1%. The calibrations performed with a single fixed point have a typical accuracy value of about 1%.
Fine-Scale Local Adaptation of Weevil Mouthpart Length and Camellia Pericarp Thickness: Altitudinal Gradient of a Putative Arms Race

Abstract Although coevolutionary theory predicts that evolutionary interactions between species are spatially hierarchical, few studies have examined coevolutionary processes at multiple spatial scales. In an antagonistic system involving a plant, the Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica), and its obligate seed predator, the camellia weevil (Curculio camelliae), I elucidated the local adaptation of a camellia defensive armament (pericarp thickness) and a weevil offensive armament (rostrum length) within Yakushima Island (ca. 30 km in diameter), compared to a larger-scale variation in those traits throughout Japan reported in previous studies. Results showed that camellia pericarp thickness and weevil rostrum length vary remarkably within several kilometers on this island. In addition, geographic variation in each camellia and weevil armament was best explained by the armament size of the sympatric participant than by abiotic environmental heterogeneity. However, I also found that camellia pericarp thickness significantly decreased in cool-temperate (i.e., highland) areas, suggesting the contributions of climate on the spatial structuring of the weevil–camellia interaction. Interestingly, relatively thin pericarps occurred not only in the highlands but also in some low-altitude areas, indicating that other factors such as nonrandom or asymmetric gene flow play important roles in the metapopulation processes of interspecific interactions at small spatial scales.