Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decentralized state-feedback stabilization and robust control of uncertain large-scale systems with integrally constrained interconnections

This paper is concerned with a problem of stabilization and robust control design for interconnected uncertain systems. The new class of uncertain large-scale systems is considered in which interconnections between subsystems as well as uncertainties in each subsystem are described by integral quadratic constraints. The problem is to design a set of local (decentralized) controllers which stabilize the overall system and guarantee robust disturbance attenuation in the presence of the uncertainty in interconnections between subsystems as well as in each subsystem. The paper presents necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such a controller. The proposed design is based on recent absolute stabilization and minimax optimal control results and employs solutions of a set of game-type Riccati algebraic equations arising in H/sub /spl infin// control.
Cooperative diversity for performance enhancement of vehicular ad hoc networks

This project was a step forward in introducing suitable cooperative diversity transmission techniques for vehicle to vehicle communications. The contributions are intended to aid in the successful implementation of future vehicular safety and autonomous controlling systems. Several protocols were introduced for vehicles to communicate effectively without losing connectivity. This study investigated novel protocols in terms of diversity-multiplexing trade-off and outage for a range of potential vehicular safety and infotainment applications.
Intention and reactivity.

The evolution of the human brain, including the ability to make intentional actions, has resulted in our motor system being activated via either our own intentions or external stimuli. It is important that a balance is maintained between these internal and external drives. This thesis investigates the relationship between these two systems. Evidence supporting a distinction between them is considered and hypotheses are examined, specifically: are they independent, unitary, facilitatory, inhibitory, or is there a switching mechanism? Intentional action is studied using (i) objective paradigms: the generation of intentional actions and how this interacts with stimulus-driven actions, and (ii) subjective paradigms: the perceived time of stimuli and actions. A novel experimental paradigm investigated the relationship between the putative internallygenerated and externally-triggered motor systems. The “truncation” paradigm involves subjects preparing an intentional action, which is interrupted by a randomly occurring stimulus requiring a response. Truncation, therefore, involves a balance between intention and reactivity. Seven experiments produced a reliable difference (averaging 51 ms) in reaction time between simple RT and truncated reaction time (TRT). This difference was termed the RT cost o f intention. The neural basis of the process responsible for this RT cost was investigated using two physiological techniques (pupil dilation and electroencephalography) in two separate experiments. Alternative causes of the RT cost, such as delayed stimulus processing in truncation, were examined and rejected. The conclusions are that (i) the RT cost of intention is due to switch costs between the hypothetical internally-generated and externally-triggered motor systems; (ii) these two systems are not normally simultaneously active; and (iii) at a subjective level, people are aware of the response delay incurred by the switch process.
Generating Productive Learning Issues in PBL Tutorials: An Exercise to Help Tutors Help Students

Abstract The development of productive, manageable, appropriate learning issues is central to students’ achievement of content objectives in problem-based learning. Students’ reflection on their learning issues is also an important part of the development of their self-directed learning skills. The use of an exercise to support tutors in helping students develop and apply criteria for productive learning issues is described and analyzed. According to feedback from tutors, the forty five minute preparatory workshop for tutors, followed by a 15 to 20 minute “miniworkshop” with students in their tutorials was a successful format for achieving the objectives of the exercise in a first year problem-based learning course. By integrating the activity into the tutorial process, the student participation rate was much higher than previous, stand-alone workshops for students on educational process. Several modifications to the exercise and proposals for related future research are offered.
IT in Post-Graduate Teacher Training.

The IT capabilities expected of all students training to be teachers are now laid down in government guidelines but time on one year postgraduate courses is limited. It is therefore important to be aware of the IT skills that students bring with them to help develop the courses on offer. A questionnaire survey of nearly 400 PGCE primary and secondary students was completed for a 1989/90 cohort. This study set out to find what prior IT experience students brought with them, and what they perceived as their IT training needs. Two thirds of these students were found to have little experience of using computers either at home, school, college or work, and there was a very low level of experience of some of the more high priority National Curriculum software packages (e.g. electronic communications, modelling software, control software). Most students gave high training priority to learning how computers can be used in teaching. These results are discussed in relation to other surveys of IT in teacher education, and the implications for PGCE course development.
Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

F or every medical condition there is a moment in time when it was first recognised. The conditions exist before their discovery, of course, but their recognition often leads to further discoveries and new controversy. Few conditions have caused such polarisation of views or such scepticism as fetal alcohol syndrome. [][1] Janet Golden Harvard University Press, £16.95/€24/$25.95, pp 240 ISBN 0 674 01485 5 Rating: ! [Graphic][2] ! [Graphic][3] ! [Graphic][4] ! [Graphic][5] www.hup. harvard.edu/catalog/GOLMES.html As a history professor Janet Golden doesn't try to give … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [3]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif [4]: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif [5]: /embed/inline-graphic-4.gif
Polarization‐independent modulation for projection displays using small‐period LC polarization gratings

Abstract— Progress in the use of liquid‐crystal polarization grating (LCPG) to modulate unpolarized (and polarized) light with a grating period as small as 6.3 μm is reported. Similar to LCPGs formed at larger periods (11 μm) reported previously, polarization‐independent switching, predominantly three diffraction orders, maximum contrast ratios of ∼100:1 for unpolarized broadband light, very low scattering, and diffraction efficiencies >98% continue to be observed. The smaller period led to an expected lower threshold voltage, even though the thickness was greater. Because the smaller grating period enables a brighter result from a Schlieren projection scheme for a microdisplay using the LCPG light valve, the inherent tradeoffs involved with both material and design parameters are discussed, and prospects for a polarization‐independent projection display are commented upon.
Prevalence of human papillomaviruses in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in Lithuania and Belarus

Overall, head and neck sqamous cell carcinoma accounts for more than 550,000 cases annually worldwide. It is well known that human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main risk factor for cervical cancer development. As the incidence and the mortality of cervical cancer are closely related to the HPV prevalence, we hypothesized that there is the same association between HPV prevalence and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore we performed the study aiming to compare the level of HPV infection and HPV type distribution between two groups of Lithuanian and Belarusian patients with head and neck sqamous cell carcinoma. One hundred ninety head and neck sqamous cell carcinoma patients were included in the study, 75 from Lithuania and 115 from Belarus. PCR was used for HPV detection and typing. The distribution of HPV infection among head and neck sqamous cell carcinoma patients was similar in the Lithuanian (20.0%) and Belarusian (18.3%) patient groups, however differences were found in the distribution of HPV types. J. Med. Virol. 86:531–535, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Automatic Check Digits Recognition for Arabic Using Multi-Scale Features, HMM and SVM Classifiers

We propose in this work two Automatic Arabic (Indian) digits recognition systems using a real-life dataset of 3000 bank checks. The systems extracts features from training-set images of 7390 isolated digits (0-9). These features are multi-scale in which they capture narrow, intermediate, and large-scale qualities of the image. The gradient features correspond to the narrow scale, the structural features correspond to the intermediate scale, and the concavity features correspond to the large-scale. These features are employed by two different statistical classifiers; Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). The two independent recognition systems utilize the proficient CENPARMI Arabic bank check database for training and testing. In order to select the optimal parameters for feature extraction and for the HMM classifier, the CENPARMI training dataset is divided into training and verification subsets. After adapting the two systems’ parameters, they are tested on unobserved 3035 digit images. The average recognition rates for the HMM and SVM systems are 97.86% and 99.04%, respectively. The presented systems provides state-of-the-art recognition results on the CENPARMI database, as they reported a higher recognition rates when compared to twelve previously published systems, especially for the SVM system. After analyzing the classification errors, the authors conclude that some of these errors are inevitable as they are most probably attributed to errors in labeling the original database, distinct writing styles of certain digits, and genuine faults.
The Developing Mental Lexicon of Children With Specific Language Impairment

This is the author’s accepted manuscript. Copyright 2011 in The Handbook of psycholinguistic & cognitive processes: Perspectives in communication disorders by Holly L. Storkel. Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, a division of Informa plc. This material is strictly for personal use only. For any other use, the user must contact Taylor & Francis directly at this address: permissions.mailbox@taylorandfrancis.com. Printing, photocopying, sharing via any means is a violation of copyright.
TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY - LOGICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL?

Chemistry is regarded as a difficult subject for students. The difficulties may lie in human learning as well as in the intrinsic nature of the subject. Concepts form from our senses by noticing common factors and regularities and by establishing examples and non-examples. This direct concept formation is possible in recognising, for instance, metals or flammable substances, but quite impossible for concepts like ‘element’ or ‘compound’, bonding types, internal crystal structures and family groupings such as alcohols, ketones or carbohydrates. The psychology for the formation of most of chemical concepts is quite different from that of the ‘normal’ world. We have the added complication of operating on and interrelating three levels of thought: the macro and tangible, the sub micro atomic and molecular, and the representational use of symbols and mathematics. It is psychological folly to introduce learners to ideas at all three levels simultaneously. Herein lies the origins of many misconceptions. The trained chemist can keep these three in balance, but not the learner. This paper explores the possibilities, for the curriculum, of a psychological approach in terms of curricular order, the gradual development of concepts, the function of laboratory work and the place of quantitative ideas. Chemical education research has advanced enough to offer pointers to the teacher, the administrator and the publisher of how our subject may be more effectively shared with our students. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur. : 2000, 1, 9- 15]
[Quality of life in obese patients and change after bariatric surgery medium and long term].

INTRODUCTION Morbid obesity has grown enormously in recent decades, representing a serious public health problem. It is characterized by the accumulation of body fat and the presence of diseases associated with it, which affects the physical, psychological and social level. It has been considered bariatric ciguría as the most effective treatment for weight loss, getting the welfare of the obese person in the above-described drawings. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact on the quality of life of obese people before and after bariatric surgery be tapped using the technique of laparoscopic gastrectomy (GVL) in a follow short, medium and long term. METHOD The study population are all people with morbid obesity and are candidates for surgery, presenting at Torrecárdenas Bariatric Surgery Hospital (Almería). The design is a descriptive, longitudinal study, prospective. RESULTS After evaluation of the obese patients a year, two years and five years after surgery, there has been decrease in weight, therefore decrease in BMI and the degree of obesity, improvement or disappearance of comorbidities and increased CV variables. DISCUSSION The GVL gets reduce excess weight and therefore BMI and the degree of obesity, as well as the number of obesity-associated diseases, thus increasing the CV.
Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 19th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD). The annual ACM SIGKDD conference is the premier international forum for data mining, knowledge discovery and big data. It brings together researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, and government to share their ideas, research results and experiences. KDD-2013 features plenary presentations, paper presentations, poster sessions, workshops, tutorials, exhibits, demonstrations, and the KDD Cup competition. Today, you hear a lot about big data, data science and data intensive computing. The core of this work is extracting knowledge and useful information from data, which for science leads to beautiful insights, and for applications leads to actions, alerts and decisions. The KDD community has always been at the center of this activity and it is clear from this conference that it will continue to drive this broader field of big data. This year there were 726 submissions to the KDD Research Track, and 125 papers were accepted. There were 136 submissions to the KDD Industry and Government Track, and 34 papers were accepted. KDD also has a history of inviting talks that are of broad interest to the KDD community. This year we chose to have 4 plenary talks. A program committee also selected 8 talks to present at the Industry Practice Exposition. A strength of the KDD conference is the number of workshops and tutorials that are co-located with it. This year there were 10 full-day workshops, 5 half-day workshops, and 6 tutorials. We thank all sponsors, who are a very important part of the conference, and the members of the Organizing Committee and our other colleagues who volunteered their time during the past year to make this conference a success. Special thanks goes to the Research Track Co-Chairs and the Industry and Government Track Co-Chairs. Also special thanks are due to the Local Arrangements Chair, the Treasurer, the Proceedings Co-Chairs, and the KDD Cup Committee. We are grateful to the several program committees that provided the advice necessary to put together a quality program - the Research Track Program Committee, the Research Track Senior Program Committee, the Industry and Government Track Program Committee, the Industry Practice Expo Program Committee, the Workshop Program Committee, the Tutorial Program Committee, and the Demo Program Committee. We know that you will find this year's exhibits and demonstrations exciting and remind you that some of the most interesting discussions can be found there. Please join us for KDD-2013 to gain new knowledge and to exchange exciting new research results, leading practices, and high impact applications in big data, knowledge discovery and data mining. We hope that you will find this program interesting and thought-provoking and that the conference will provide you with a valuable opportunity to share ideas with other researchers and practitioners from institutions around the world.
A Multiple-F0 Estimation Approach Based on Gaussian Spectral Modelling for Polyphonic Music Transcription

Abstract This paper proposes a multiple-F0 estimation algorithm for automatic polyphonic music transcription. The proposed algorithm operates at frame level, searching for the set of fundamental frequencies that minimizes a spectral distance measure at each audio frame. The spectral distance measure is defined under the assumption that a polyphonic sound can be modelled by a weighted sum of Gaussian spectral models. Due to the fact that in polyphonic music signals the spectral content at the current audio frame depends to a large extent on the immediately previous ones, the defined spectral distance measure takes into account not only information from the current audio frame but also from some previous ones. An additional performance improvement is achieved by using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) at the end of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is tested using real-world polyphonic music recordings taken from the RWC music database. Accuracy rates are reported when our algorithm is performed under different conditions. Classification of the total error into the three categories of errors (substitutions, misses and false alarms) is also reported. Comparison with five recent state-of-the art transcription systems is finally shown.
[Prevalence of cardiovascular disease in uraemia and relevance of cardiovascular risk factors].

AIM To evaluate the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its association with cardiovascular risk factors, as well as their control in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients under maintenance hemodialysis (HD). PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 265 patients with ESRD on maintenance HD from a University Hospital and 4 dialysis units were included in this multicenter and cross-sectional study that analyzed the prevalence of CVD and the possible association with classic and new cardiovascular risk factors. Usual biochemical and haemathological parameters were analyzed, as well as plasma levels of homocysteine, troponin-I, BNP, lipoprotein(a), C reactive protein, IL-6, fibrinogen, asymmetrical dimethylarginine (ADMA), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), malondialdehyde, adiponectin, osteoprotegerin, and fetuin. In a subset of patients an echocardiography and carotid artery Doppler echography were also performed. RESULTS The prevalence of CVD was 52.8%. Factors positively associated with prevalent CVD were age, BMI, left ventricular hypertrophy, hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes mellitus, dialysis vintage, Charlson s comorbility index, levels of fibrinogen, osteoprotegerin, BNP and CRP, as well as carotid intima-media thickness, left ventricular mass and pulse pressure. Factors negatively associated with prevalent CVD were: previous renal transplant, ejection fraction or levels of LDL-c and phosphorous. In the multivariate analysis dyslipidemia, left ventricular hypertrophy, age and LDL-c (negatively) were associated with CVD. CONCLUSIONS In HD patients the prevalence of CVD is high and is associated with the presence of cardiovascular risk factors and subclinical CVD.
The Past and the Future of Scientific and Technical Writing

Excerpts from Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society, published in 1667, are used to explore the parallels existing between the rise of modern scientific and technical writing and the rise of seventeenth century science. The author of this paper shows how the English teachers of today, like the scholastic critics of the past, are too often isolated from the realities of communication. He quotes Thomas Sprat to emphasize that communication techniques should not be studied at a distance. The practice of scientific and technical writing must be brought closer to the university. Doing consulting work is one possibility; another is conducting communication research for business and industry. Additional specialized courses should be introduced for students specializing in the professions. English majors planning to work full time in communication should have internships provided. Sprat recognized that a bridge must exist between science and the humanities. This applies as well to the present condition.
Traumatic quadriplegia: follow-up study of self-care skills.

: In this study to assess the extent of use of the self-care skills learned during rehabilitation and of the orthotic devices provided to support function once community living was resumed, 35 persons with traumatic cervical cord injury were tested in the home environment 1 to 4 years after discharge from the hospital. Of this group, 20 had a functional spinal cord level of C6 or C7 and 15 of C4 or C5. The results indicated that the level of self-care achieved during rehabilitation was maintained by the majority of persons at follow-up. The areas most sensitive to change were toileting and bathing, desk skills, grooming, transfers and upper and lower extremity dressing for those with C6 or C7 functional spinal cord levels, and grooming, written communication and desk skills for those with C4 or C5 levels. The majority continued to use at least some of the prescribed upper extremity orthotics and assistive devices. Neither hand surgery nor equipment use was clearly related to functional status. The ratchet hand splint was well accepted by the C4-5 group. Changes in performance are discussed in terms of a restructuring of personal priorities, the availability of interpersonal support, and architectural and attitudinal barriers within the community.
GPU Based Evaluation and LOD Rendering of NURBS Surfaces

AbstractThis paper proposes a new GPU method for the evaluation and LOD (Level of Detail) rendering of NURBS surfaces. Compared with the existing evaluation method of basis function, the approach simplifies the process by just one-pass and saves the graphics memory with only one texture array. The wavelet based LOD rendering method also saves the time to re-evaluate and re-transfer the data for rendering.