Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coupled 802.11 Flows in Urban Channels: Model and Experimental Evaluation

Contending flows in multi-hop 802.11 wireless networks compete with two fundamental asymmetries: (i) channel asymmetry, in which one flow has a stronger signal, potentially yielding physical layer capture, and (ii) topological asymmetry, in which one flow has increased channel state information, potentially yielding an advantage in winning access to the channel. Prior work has considered these asymmetries independently with a highly simplified view of the other. However, in this work, we perform thousands of measurements on coupled flows in urban environments and build a simple, yet accurate model that jointly considers information and channel asymmetries. We show that if these two asymmetries are not considered jointly, throughput predictions of even two coupled flows are vastly distorted from reality when traffic characteristics are only slightly altered (e.g., changes to modulation rate, packet size, or access mechanism). These performance modes are sensitive not only to small changes in system properties, but also small-scale link fluctuations that are common in an urban mesh network. We analyze all possible capture relationships for two-flow sub-topologies and show that capture of the reverse traffic can allow a previously starving flow to compete fairly. Finally, we show how to extend and apply the model in domains such as modulation rate adaptation and understanding the interaction of control and data traffic.
Speech through ears and eyes: interfacing the senses with the supramodal brain

The comprehension of auditory-visual (AV) speech integration has greatly benefited from recent advances in neurosciences and multisensory research. AV speech integration raises numerous questions relevant to the computational rules needed for binding information (within and across sensory modalities), the representational format in which speech information is encoded in the brain (e.g., auditory vs. articulatory), or how AV speech ultimately interfaces with the linguistic system. The following non-exhaustive review provides a set of empirical findings and theoretical questions that have fed the original proposal for predictive coding in AV speech processing. More recently, predictive coding has pervaded many fields of inquiries and positively reinforced the need to refine the notion of internal models in the brain together with their implications for the interpretation of neural activity recorded with various neuroimaging techniques. However, it is argued here that the strength of predictive coding frameworks reside in the specificity of the generative internal models not in their generality; specifically, internal models come with a set of rules applied on particular representational formats themselves depending on the levels and the network structure at which predictive operations occur. As such, predictive coding in AV speech owes to specify the level(s) and the kinds of internal predictions that are necessary to account for the perceptual benefits or illusions observed in the field. Among those specifications, the actual content of a prediction comes first and foremost, followed by the representational granularity of that prediction in time. This review specifically presents a focused discussion on these issues.
Muscle fiber characteristics in patients with peripheral arterial disease.

PURPOSE There have been conflicting reports of muscle fiber type changes in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The purpose of this study was to examine the myosin heavy chain (MHC) expression as well as histochemical changes in the gastrocnemius muscle in patients with symptomatic PAD. METHODS Needle biopsy specimens were obtained from the medial gastrocnemius of 14 subjects with PAD (mean age (+/- SD), 69.7 +/- 4.8 yr) and eight activity-matched control subjects (mean age, 65.1 +/- 6.6 yr). Ankle-brachial index was assessed using Doppler ultrasound to determine the hemodynamic status of the patients, and maximal walking performance was determined during a graded treadmill test. Expression of MHC isoforms was determined by SDS-PAGE. RESULTS The proportion of MHC I was significantly smaller in PAD than in the controls (45.6 +/- 9.1% vs 58.8 +/- 15.0%). The proportion of MHC IIx was also larger in the subjects with PAD compared with the controls (22.9 +/- 9.1% vs 16.0 +/- 11.3%). In addition, there was a significant decrease in the cross-sectional area of the type I and type IIA fibers in the subjects with PAD as well as enhanced capillary density. CONCLUSIONS This study showed a significant modification in the expression of MHC isoforms and muscle fiber type in the gastrocnemius in patients with symptomatic PAD. These results suggest that muscle ischemia resulting from PAD is an important factor in causing the adaptations in the contractile apparatus of the muscle.
Personal development in counselling psychology training : a critical investigation of the views and experiences of trainers and trainees

It has been suggested that, despite its increased centrality in the training of counsellors and counselling psychologists, personal development remains a poorly articulated area that suffers from a surprising scarcity of literature. The present study set out to investigate these claims and to begin to address this imbalance. A critical analysis of the literature identified four key areas: 1) the definition of personal development, 2) the facilitation of personal development, 3) the assessment of personal development and 4)the selection of trainees, in which complex but important questions remained. A mixed qualitative-quantitative methodology was used to investigate the views and experiences of UK counselling psychology trainers and trainees in relation to these key areas. Themes from a grounded theory analysis of 8 in-depth interviews enabled the articulation of a model of personal development and informed the development of a quantitative questionnaire survey instrument that was used to test and expand the interview findings. Eighty-eight respondents, comprising trainers and trainees from four training institutions, participated in the survey. Findings supported viewing personal development during training as a complex, broad and holistic concept and process that is affected by a diversity of personal and professional experiences, rather than as something that can be equated with the experience of personal therapy. Overall, views varied considerably amongst participants, and a significant difference was observed between the ways that trainers and trainees defined personal development. Many respondents reported feeling dissatisfied with course provisions; thinking that personal development was not adequately defined or integrated in training; that courses were too academic and not sufficiently experiential; and believing that improvements should be made to the way in which personal development is assessed during training and at selection. Differences in views and experiences were explained in terms of divergent conceptualisations of personal development and a variety of philosophical tensions. Implications for counselling psychology training were discussed, the methodology of the project evaluated and suggestions for further research proposed.
An Efficient Certificateless Encryption Scheme in the Standard Model

We propose an efficient Certificateless Public Key Encryption (CL-PKE) scheme which is provably secure against chosen ciphertext attacks without random oracles. Our scheme is more computationally efficient than the existing schemes and provides the shortest public key length compared to other existing CL-PKEs with random oracles. We also propose a practical Self-Generated-Certificate Encryption (SGC-PKE) scheme based on our CL-PKE scheme. One of merits of such cryptographic systems is that it can be applied to countermeasure ``Denial-of-Decryption (DoD) Attacks" that is inherent in CL-PKE.
Locating the Dergah in civil society: the Alevi youth's counter public and civility

The fundamental objective of this thesis is to question the legitimacy of the prevalent assumptions of civil society with regard to who should constitute civil society and how the the experiences of the underprivileged are to be addressed through a scrutiny of micro social processes of power at the community level in a particular space. It is thus through an in-depth-analysis of informal youth activism within a politics of place- its dynamics, complexities, interactions, contestations, and normative orientations- that I have endeavored to show a possibility of context-specific patterns of civil society. The thesis is particularly concerned with unveiling some of the dynamics shaping the forms of public communication within the emergent autonomous space of the Alevi youth in the Şahkulu Sultan Dergahi via the modalities of counter public. It is the argument of this thesis that the Şahkulu youth has successfully constructed a counter public within the Dergah to formulate their oppositional interpretations of Alevi identity and their grievances with regard to the unjust participatory privileges enjoyed by the people in power position while simultaneously constructing itself as an embryonic counter public vis-a-vis the general Alevi counter public. It has also built such a capacity of civility that epitomizes how-to-coexist with differences in a culturally diverse society as such.
Online discussion, politicized identity, and collective action

Although online discussions may stimulate political participation, little is known about how computer-mediated communication among members of political groups contributes to develop their politicized identity, thus indirectly stimulating collective action. Two studies involving activists from two web-based social movements investigated how online discussions moderate the effects of collective efficacy, group-based anger, and moral obligation on politicized identity. Self-reported frequency of online discussions and activists’ perceptions of two content-related characteristics of online discussions both interacted with collective efficacy and moral obligation beliefs in predicting politicized identity. Politicized identity mediated the effects of these interactions on collective action intention. We discuss how specific characteristics of online political discussions may contribute to politicize group identity via group-level and individual-level paths.
Epidemiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder across the lifespan

Purpose of review Prevalence estimates of the attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the rate of persistence of symptoms across the lifespan are heterogeneous, raising questions about the validity of the diagnosis. This review aims to discuss potential reasons for variability in ADHD prevalence estimates and rates of symptom persistence, as well as to present ADHD prevalence rates during the lifespan. Recent findings The best available estimates of ADHD prevalence are around 5.29% for children and adolescents and 4.4% in adulthood. Estimates of ADHD prevalence and rate of symptom persistence over time seem to be highly affected by methodological characteristics of the studies. Summary The review of ADHD epidemiology highlights the need for standardizing study methodologies to make findings comparable. Even so, epidemiological cross-national data seem to support the validity of ADHD.
Engineering of Framework-Specific Modeling Languages

Framework-specific modeling languages (FSMLs) help developers build applications based on object-oriented frameworks. FSMLs model abstractions and rules of application programming interfaces (APIs) exposed by frameworks and can express models of how applications use APIs. Such models aid developers in understanding, creating, and evolving application code. We present four exemplar FSMLs and a method for engineering new FSMLs. The method was created postmortem by generalizing the experience of building the exemplars and by specializing existing approaches to domain analysis, software development, and quality evaluation of models and languages. The method is driven by the use cases that the FSML under development should support and the evaluation of the constructed FSML is guided by two existing quality frameworks. The method description provides concrete examples for the engineering steps, outcomes, and challenges. It also provides strategies for making engineering decisions. Our work offers a concrete example of software language engineering and its benefits. FSMLs capture existing domain knowledge in language form and support application code understanding through reverse engineering, application code creation through forward engineering, and application code evolution through round-trip engineering.
Segment deletion in spontaneous speech: a corpus study using mixed effects models with crossed random effects

We studied the frequencies of phone and syllable deletions in spontaneous Dutch, and the extent to which such deletions are influenced by the various linguistic and sociolinguistic factors represented in the transcriptions, word segmentations and metadata of the Spoken Dutch Corpus. In addition to providing insight into the frequencies of phone and syllable deletions and the factors influencing them, our study illustrates the new opportunities for analysing rich and therefore complex corpus data offered by a recently developed statistical modelling technique: the possibility to model the effects of random factors as crossed instead of nested with generalised linear mixed effects models. We observed average phone and syllable deletion rates of 7.57% and 5.46% respectively. 20.32% of the words had at least one phone missing, and 6.89% of the words had at least one syllable deleted. The mixed effects models for phone and syllable deletion had several effects in common, which implies that both types of deletion are to a large extent influenced by the same factors. The strongest factors across both models were lexical stress, word duration and the segmental context of the syllable onset of the following word.
Intimate violence and substance (ab)use - the correlative relationship

This paper examines the prevalence of any correlative relationship between intimate violence and substance abuse. At the outset the authors consider the abuser and the use of dependence-producing substances in relation to the abusive conduct. Based on a conspectus of the research, the conclusion is that whilst substance use may be one of the traits demonstrated by a large percentage of abusers, many prohibited substances used are, in fact, less of a root cause of violent interactions than a facilitator and a rationalisation for them. Establishing any general correlative link between intimate violence and drug use is made even more difficult by the fact that the different prohibited substances yield differing psychological effects. Substance use by victims of violence often begins as a crutch to assist them out of their circumstances of shame and powerlessness. In many instances, the coping skills are characterised by the use of licit drugs like anti-depressants and tranquilisers. However, depending on the continuing environment, licit drugs can (and often are) abused with the patient resorting to more than the prescribed dosage. In summary, one cannot deny the correlation between alcohol and drug use and the degeneration of the lives of the many women who are victims of abuse. To provide a palliative for the latter, means dealing with the former. In this regard there are various options, including leaving the abusive environment, divorce and damages, a protection order, and applying the provisions of Act 41 of 1971. Each of these possibilities is considered and dismissed. Finally, the paper contrasts the prohibitionist model of drug rehabilitation with the proposal for a programme of harm reduction. In supporting the latter approach, the authors are persuaded by the argument that harm reduction legitimises treatment goals other than abstinence, which is both difficult to achieve and not in accordance with the immediate intention or want of the patient.
A disease-associated G5703A mutation in human mitochondrial DNA causes a conformational change and a marked decrease in steady-state levels of mitochondrial tRNA(Asn)

We introduced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from a patient with a mitochondrial myopathy into established mtDNA-less human osteosarcoma cells. The resulting transmitochondrial cybrid lines, containing either exclusively wild-type or mutated (G5703A transition in the tRNA[Asn] gene) mtDNA, were characterized and analyzed for oxidative phosphorylation function and steady-state levels of different RNA species. Functional studies showed that the G5703A mutation severely impairs oxidative phosphorylation function and mitochondrial protein synthesis. We detected a marked reduction in tRNA(Asn) steady-state levels which was not associated with an accumulation of intermediate transcripts containing tRNA(Asn) sequences or decreased transcription. Native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the residual tRNA(Asn) fraction in mutant cybrids had an altered conformation, suggesting that the mutation destabilized the tRNA(Asn) secondary or tertiary structure. Our results suggest that the G5703 mutation causes a conformational change in the tRNA(Asn) which may impair aminoacylation. This alteration leads to a severe reduction in the functional tRNA(Asn) pool by increasing its in vivo degradation by mitochondrial RNases.
A structural equation model of the determinants of malnutrition among children in rural Kelantan, Malaysia.

INTRODUCTION Many studies had shown that poor growth in children is associated with malnutrition. The underlying factors are diverse, multisectoral and interrelated, ranging from biological to social, cultural and economically related. Because the highest levels of under-nutrition worldwide are found in South Asia, it is essential that policymakers in the region understand the underlying determinants, in order to design effective public health intervention programs. This is especially so if public resources are limited. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine causal relationships among the biological, behavioural and environmental factors related to malnutrition in children aged 5 years and under. METHOD The instrument used in this study was based on a previously described conceptual framework for malnutrition in children, and tested for its psycometric component, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. As well as the use of a questionnaire, anthropometric and dietary data were collected from 295 children aged 5 years and below, randomly selected from clinics in Tumpat, Kelantan. The proposed model was tested and modified using structural equation modelling (AMOS software: ADC, Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS The modified model fitted the data adequately. The results demonstrated that an environmental construct (with factors that included total household income beta = 0.68, p <0.01; total expenditure beta = 0.67, p <0.01; number of rooms in the house beta = 0.46, p <0.01; and socioeconomic status beta = 0.71, p <0.01) had a significant effect on malnutrition. Neither the biological nor behavioural constructs had significant effects. CONCLUSION These findings provide useful insights into the importance of focusing on environmental factors as the main target when designing intervention programs. This information will be useful for the prioritization of preventive programs when resources are limited, especially in a rural setting. Future studies should focus on the issues of the ability of the households to meet their basic needs, inequality in the population, and the effectiveness of intervention at both micro and macro levels. This study focused on a rural community, therefore the results can only be generalized to areas with similar characteristics.
Epidemiological analysis of a large enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O111 outbreak in Japan associated with haemolytic uraemic syndrome and acute encephalopathy

SUMMARY A large outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O111 and O157 occurred in Japan in April 2011. We conducted an unmatched case-control study and trace-back investigation to determine the source of EHEC O111 infection and risk factors for severe complications. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was performed to help define cases. A total of 86 individuals met the case definition. Of these, 40% experienced haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), 24% acute encephalopathy, and 6% died. Illness was significantly associated with eating the raw beef dish yukhoe (odds ratio 19·64, 95% confidence interval 7·03–54·83), the likely food vehicle. EHEC O111 and its closely related stx-negative variants were found in the beef. HUS occurred most frequently in individuals aged 5–9 years, and this age group was significantly associated with acute encephalopathy. The prevalence of HUS and acute encephalopathy was higher than in previous non-O157-related outbreaks, indicating a high risk of severe complications.
A 58-ppm/°C 40-nW BGR at Supply From 0.5 V for Energy Harvesting IoT Devices

This brief presents a 40-nW 0.5-V supply voltage and 0.24-V output reference for an energy harvester. The emitter–base voltage of a PNP transistor is divided by the presented switch capacitor circuit to obtain the low output reference. The resistorless proportional-to-absolute-temperature circuit and the low-voltage high-power-supply-rejection-ratio current source are used to improve the accuracy and line regulation performance of the reference. The proposed bandgap reference is implemented in a 0.18-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu\text{m}$</tex-math></inline-formula> standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor process and has a total area of 0.058 mm<sup>2</sup>. Test results show that the minimum supply voltage is 0.5 V due to the clock bootstrap and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times\text{VDD}$</tex-math></inline-formula> doubler. The line regulation is about 1.1 mV/V in the supply voltage range of 0.5–0.9 V. With 3-bit trimming, the temperature coefficient of 58 ppm/°C in the range of −25 °C–85 °C and the accuracy of 0.9% <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(3\delta)$</tex-math></inline-formula> can be achieved.
THROUGH-THE-WALL DETECTION OF STATIONARY HUMAN TARGETS USING DOPPLER RADAR

In homeland security and law enforcement situations, it is often required to remotely detect human targets obscured by walls and barriers. In particular, we are speciflcally interested in scenarios that involve a human whose torso is stationary. We propose a technique to detect and characterize activity associated with a stationary human in through-the-wall scenarios using a Doppler radar system. The presence of stationary humans is identifled by detecting Doppler signatures resulting from breathing, and movement of the human arm and wrist. The irregular, transient, non-uniform, and non-stationary nature of human activity presents a number of challenges in extracting and classifying Doppler signatures from the signal. These are addressed using bio-mechanical human arm movement models and the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) algorithm for Doppler feature extraction. Experimental results demonstrate the efiectiveness of our approach to extract Doppler signatures corresponding to human activity through walls using a 750-MHz Doppler radar system.