Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical Studies for Reliable Home Area Wireless Sensor Networks

OF THE THESIS Empirical Studies for Reliable Home Area Wireless Sensor Networks by Mo Sha Master of Science in Computer Science Washington University in St. Louis, 2011 Research Advisor: Professor Chenyang Lu Abstract: Home Area Networks (HANs) consisting of wireless sensors have emerged as the enabling technology for important applications such as smart energy and assisted living. A key challenge faced by HANs is maintaining reliable operation in real-world residential environments. In this thesis research, empirical studies on the spectrum usage in the 2.4 GHz band as well as 802.15. 4 wireless channels are performed in diversified real residential environments. Based on the insights drawn from empirical studies, network design guideline and practical solution for Home Area Sensor Network are provided. Home Area Networks (HANs) consisting of wireless sensors have emerged as the enabling technology for important applications such as smart energy and assisted living. A key challenge faced by HANs is maintaining reliable operation in real-world residential environments. In this thesis research, empirical studies on the spectrum usage in the 2.4 GHz band as well as 802.15. 4 wireless channels are performed in diversified real residential environments. Based on the insights drawn from empirical studies, network design guideline and practical solution for Home Area Sensor Network are provided.
Valley Ouachita Mountains Ozark Highlands Central Till Plains-Oak Hickory Interior Low Plateau-Transition Hills Interior Low Plateau-Shawnee Hills Interior Low Plateau-Highland Rim Interior Low Plateau-Bluegrass West Glaciated

Editor: Simon Scheiter Abstract Aim: Population dynamics and disturbances have often been simplified or ignored when predicting regional‐scale tree species distributions in response to climate change in current climate‐distribution models (e.g., niche and biophysical process models). We determined the relative importance of population dynamics, tree harvest, climate change, and their interaction in affecting tree species distribution changes. Location: Central Hardwood Forest Region of the United States. Major taxa studied: Tree species. Methods: We used a forest dynamic model, LANDIS PRO that accounted for population dynamics, tree harvest, and climate change to predict tree species’ distributions at 270 m resolution from 2000 to 2300. We quantified the relative importance of these factors using a repeated measures analysis of variance. We further investigated the effects of each factor on changes in species distributions by summarizing extinction and colonization rates. Results: On average, population dynamics was the most important factor affecting tree species distribution changes. Tree harvest was more important than climate change by 2100 whereas climate change was more important than harvest by 2300. By end of the 21 century, most tree species expanded their distributions irrespective of any climate or harvest scenario. By 2300, most northern, some southern, and most widely distributed species contracted their distributions while most southern species, some widely distributed species, and few northern species expanded their distributions under warmer climates with tree harvest. Harvest accelerated or ameliorated the contractions and expansions for species that were negatively or positively affected by climate change. Main conclusions: Our results suggest that population dynamics and tree harvest can be more important than climate change and thus should be explicitly included when predicting future tree species’ distributions. Understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive tree species distributions will enable better predictions of tree species distributions under climate change.
Tilburg University Bonus Schemes and Trading Activity

Little is known about how different bonus schemes a ffect traders’ propensity to trade and which bonus schemes improve traders’ performance. We stud y he effects of linear versus threshold (convex) bonus schemes on traders’ behavior. Trader s pu chase and sell shares in an experimental stock market on the basis of fundamental and techni cal information (evolution of the market index, past share price evolution, realized earnings, and analysts’ earnings forecasts). We find that traders trade more intensively (the number of transactions augments) under the threshold than under the linear bonus scheme. When market conditions are suc h that a higher profitability can be more easily reached, trading frequency only increases little un der a threshold scheme, but the size of trades is significantly larger than in the case of market con ditions with lower profitability. Furthermore, trad ing intensity significantly decreases when bonus thresh olds are reached but only after building in a safet y margin. Under the threshold scheme, the traders’ pe rformance is lower (even when there are no transaction costs) than under the linear bonus sche me as a consequence of poorer market timing. This is especially the case when earning money by tradin g is relatively difficult (under low profitability conditions). Nevertheless, under low profitability conditions, traders seem to collect more informatio n about the relationships between share price and mar ket returns, earnings, and earnings forecasts, appl y more effort to understand those relationships, and finally show better performance. JEL Classification: G11, J33
1 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CHANGES IN ANNUAL FREQUENCY OF HEAVY PRECIPITATION IN JAPAN AND ENSO

Climate changes in global scale such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and global warming have significant impacts on local and regional hydrological regimes, which affect ecological, social and economical system. A key parameter in basin water managements is the characteristic of local precipitation, and an accurate estimate of the climate-change impacts on the heavy precipitation is needed to prevent flood disasters in the future. Climate changes due to global warming and ENSO impacts have been investigated mainly using global circulation and regional climate models (IPCC, 2001; IDAG, 2005). Some of their outputs are useful for mean local climate: the annual, seasonal precipitation, and typhoon track in monsoon Asia changes due to ENSO (Ropelewski and Halpert, 1987; Yonetani, 1992; Yumoto and Matsuura, 2003). However, the global models cannot capture the short-term and basin-scale precipitation accurately. This study presents temporal, regional and statistical changes in the observed precipitation in Japan for a period from 1961 to 2002. We discuss relationships between ENSO, which is one of the global climate changes, and the local characteristics of annual precipitation, May-Oct. precipitation, and annual frequency of heavy precipitation events.
ELASTO-PLASTIC MICROPLANE MODEL FOR FIBER REINFORCED CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES

Quasi-brittle materials like concrete or rocks, typically present localized failure modes due to cracking processes which start from internal material defects, e.g. micro-cracks or non-homogeneous weak zones, and develop in brittle mode throughout the material. In this work both plain concrete and Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composite (FRCC) are analyzed and modeled by means a novel microplane plasticity formulation. The continuum (smeared-crack) formulation, based on non-linear microplane theory combined with the well-known “Mixture Theory” is considered for describing the fiber effects on the failure behavior of FRCC. The interaction between cementitious matrix and steel fibers is simulated in terms of crack-bridging effect and dowel action, as similarly treated in a discontinuous model previously formulated by the authors. After describing the constitutive model, this work focuses on the numerical analysis on plain concrete and FRCC failure behavior, with particular emphasis on the fracture resistance, post-peak strength and the mechanical response related to the microplane formulation. The capabilities of the proposed model to capture the significant enhancement in the post-cracking behavior of FRCC with different fiber contents and types is finally evaluated by considering some experimental data available in scientific literature. Mecánica Computacional Vol XXXI, págs. 1487-1503 (artículo completo) Alberto Cardona, Paul H. Kohan, Ricardo D. Quinteros, Mario A. Storti (Eds.) Salta, Argentina, 13-16 Noviembre 2012 Copyright © 2012 Asociación Argentina de Mecánica Computacional http://www.amcaonline. org.ar
Fault Diagnosis of Space Camera CCD Imaging Subsidiary System Based on Fault Tree Analysis

To improve the efficiency of CCD imaging subsidiary system fault diagnosis,the fault tree analysis is adopted to analyse its fault mode,which provides an effective way to find faults in complex system.The importance of FTA is described,the quantitative analysis method of FTA is introduced in detail.Taking CCD imaging subsidiary system of space camera as the research object,on the basis of the forming of fault tree,the establishing of the mean event fault tree and the obtaining of the mean event fault probability,the element hiberarchy fault orientation on CCD imaging subsidiary system of space camera is realized.The analytic results show that using the fault tree guides designer to know clearly the relation and level of components faults in system intuitively,the maintaining efficiency and dependability of system can be improved.
Characterization and comparison of toxin-producing isolates of Dinophysis acuminate from New England and Canada 1

Following the identification of the first toxic isolate of Dinophysis acuminata from the northwestern Atlantic, we conducted detailed investigations into the morphology, phylogeny, physiology, and toxigenicity of three isolates from three sites within the northeastern U.S./Canada region: Eel Pond and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and the Bay of Fundy. Another isolate, collected from the Gulf of Mexico, was grown under the same light, temperature, and prey conditions for comparison. Despite observed phenotypic heterogeneity, morphometrics and molecular evidence classified the three northwestern Atlantic isolates as Dinophysis acuminata Editorial Responsibility: S. Lin (Associate Editor) HHS Public Access Author manuscript J Phycol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 May 12. Published in final edited form as: J Phycol. 2015 February ; 51(1): 66–81. doi:10.1111/jpy.12251. A uhor M anscript
Style-shifting as a function of multiple factors : A corpus based study

According to Labov (1966, 1972), the selection of a given style is primarily dependent on the amount of attention the speaker pays to what he is saying. In more formal styles he tends to be more aware of the way he speaks, and in less formal styles he does not concentrate on his linguistic performance. An alternative explanation of style-shifting was proposed by Giles (1973), who suggests that the speaker attunes his speech toward his addressee. The major aim of the present paper is to evaluate these two approaches in a single experiment. In order to fulfil this task the distribution of formal and informal variants of three selected variables have been investigated in the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). This corpus allows the testing of the variants according to specific transcript attributes, making it particularly suitable for the task. The results of the experiment indicate that the choice of a speaker’s style depends on both of the factors suggested in the two theories and, as proposed in some recent publications, the process may be affected simultaneously by many other aspects of the speech event.
Association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms and haplotype of insulin-like growth factor I and risk of osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a systemic metabolic disease. Osteoporosis is caused by multiple factors, including environmental and genetic factors. Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) is reported to be a critical regulator for bone cell function. We investigated the association of IGF-I (rs35767, rs2288377 and rs5742612) polymorphisms with the risk of osteoporosis, and the gene-environmental interaction in the risk of this disease. A total of 320 patients with osteoporosis and 320 controls were selected into this study. The genotyping of IGF-I (rs35767, rs2288377 and rs5742612) was carried out in a 384-well plate format on the sequenom MassARRAY platform. We observed that the AA genotype of rs2288377 was associated with an elevated risk of osteoporosis compared with the TT genotype (OR=3.56, 95% CI=2.04-6.21). IGF-I rs2288377 and rs5742612 showed linkage disequilibrium (D=0.605; r2=0.032). The T-A-T (rs35767-rs2288377-rs5742612) showed an increased risk of osteoporosis (OR=2.17, 95% CI=1.01-4.69). In conclusion, our study suggests that the IGF-I rs2288377 polymorphism and T-A-T haplotype are associated with risk of osteoporosis.
Response of Cardiovascular Function Determinations to Physical Activity in Polluted Air

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of physical activity on cardiovascular function in polluted air. In this study ten healthy male university students within the age range of 21.12±1.80 were randomly selected. They have taken physical activity tests including (Bruce treadmill test,EKG, blood pressure, heart rate, and percent of oxygen saturation in fresh air (PSI=70) and polluted air (PSI=135). For data analysis, we applied dependent t-test. The findings of this study showed that physical activity in unhealthy polluted air did not affect ST segment. Unhealthy polluted air had significant effect on arterial oxygen saturation in both resting (sig=0.004) and training (sig=0.049) positions. Air pollution did not affect heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure in resting position; however, in training position, its effect was significant on heart rate (sig=0.009) and systolic (sig=0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (sig=0.005). It seems that physical activity in polluted air significantly affects cardiovascular function in young healthy men.
e-Proceeding of the 5th Global Summit on Education 2017

The purpose of this study is to examined early childhood preservice teachers’ problem-solving skills through socioscientific inquiry approach. The study involved the researcher working independently on in-class research project with students in solving the problems related to socio-scientific issues (SSI) in early childhood education. SSI represents important social issues and problems which are conceptually related to science in social dimension. The study involved 28 third-year university students in early childhood education program. Inquiry-based problem solving strategies has been used to guide the students in their research on SSI. Data were collected through classroom observation, individual interviews, survey and students’ written reports. Findings show that socioscientific inquiry approach can enhanced preservice teachers’ articulation of ideas, closing the gap between theory and practical, and provide structured way to problem-solving. When students are engaged in the learning process, they experience a sense of agency and responsibility for their learning. Students can evaluate and reflect on their own learning when they have been part of the learning process and play an active role in the planning and identification of main learning objectives. Questioning and searching for answers are extremely important parts of inquiry learning and through this process, the students described that knowledge can be generated meaningfully. This study promotes innovations in teaching and learning and reorganization of the course that encourage student engagement and as a new strategy in fostering students’ socio-scientific reasoning through inquiry learning. Field of Research: Socio-scientific issue, inquiry-based learning, early childhood education, health education. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preparing teachers for medical education using ICT: Achievements and challenges of an educational intervention in a National University in Perú.

Maritza PLACENCIA MEDINA CITBM, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) Lima, Perú. Rosa PANDO ÁLVAREZ Instituto de Investigaciones Clínicas, UNMSM Lima, Perú. Victor MECHAN MENDEZ Senior Professor of Hematology, UNMSM Lima, Perú. Margot Rosario QUINTANA SALINAS Instituto Centro de Bioquímica y Nutrición, UNMSM Lima, Perú. Javier SILVA.VALENCIA TeleSalud Unit, UNMSM, Master of “Informática Biomédica en Salud Global”, UPCH Lima, Perú. Jorge Raúl CARREÑO ESCOBEDO Systems and Information Engineer, UNMSM Lima, Perú. Hubert James MENDOZA ROJAS Specialist in Surgery, UNMSM Lima, Perú. Yanelli Karen ASCACIVAR PLACENCIA Economist, External colaborator Lima, Perú.
A Follow-Up Study of a Prosocial Intervention for Juveniles who Sexually Offend

Aim/Background: The study describes the assessment of a prosocial intervention in a residential setting for juveniles with sexual offenses, using a variant of Aggression Replacement Training (ART), seeking to replicate the results of a previous study. Material/Methods: The current study used a 30-session ART type intervention with 14 youth using a pre-post-test design. Changes in psychological factors were assessed rather than long-term recidivism. The study also examined factors contributing to therapeutic change and whether these are consistent with theories regarding why ART interventions are effective. Multiple assessment methods with multiple informants were used, including standardized measures, and also a qualitative focus group using study subjects to compare against quantitative results. Results: The study supported the hypothesis that ART was significant in promoting therapeutic change in subjects across all instruments used in the study, and consistent with current theories regarding ART and changes in prosocial reasoning skills. The qualitative focus group results were consistent with the positive quantitative results of the study. The study also replicated results from the previous research which used the same intervention and used some of the same outcome measures. Conclusions: The ART model used was cost effective, easy to implement, and had good patient satisfaction.
PROFESSIONAL MORAL COURAGE TO COMBAT ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN THE WORKPLACE

“Ethics” has been considered one of the most important and desired professional competence amongst the Workforce. The organizations prefer employees who have courage to deal with ethical issues. But unfortunately, the scams and scandals across the Globe is the loud evidence of lack of Professional moral courage (PMC) amongst employees. The lack of PMC causes moral distress due to value-conflict, impacting the employee’s efficiency. The current paper intends to analyze the validity of the Professional Moral Courage scale in the Indian context and to identify the Professional Moral Courage of the Indian professionals and also the impact of Individual’s Personality, age, gender and the type of organization on Professional Moral Courage. The findings reveal that the personality has impact on professional moral courage and hence to enhance it, the interventions to modify personality aspects like ‘openness’ is the key. The study is the first research on ‘Professional Moral courage’ in Indian context.
LAGRANGIAN SIMULATION OF BIMOLECULAR REACTIONS

A fully Lagrangian approach is developed to model bimolecular reactions undergoing Fickian diffusion. The basis of the Lagrangian algorithm is the interaction radius R, which controls the probability that nearby particles of different species react. For a closed system filled with reactants, R is derived analytically using an agent-based approach for reversible bimolecular reactions. The simulated reactive particle dynamics are checked against the kinetics for both diffusioncontrolled reactions and thermodynamic well-mixed reactions. In addition, for the case of sharp contact between reactants, an empirical formula is proposed to approximate R, by considering the distribution and availability of reactants. The resultant Lagrangian solver is then validated against bimolecular reactions observed in the laboratory.
Cyber Security Challenges: Designing Efficient Intrusion Detection Systems and Antivirus Tools

Several information security techniques are available today to protect information and systems against unauthorized use, duplication, alteration, destruction and virus attacks. Intrusion detection a key component of information security (protect, detect and react) and network defense, provides information on successful and unsuccessful attempts to compromise information assurance (availability, integrity, and confidentiality). Intruders can broadly be categorized into two types: external intruders, who are unauthorized users of information, and systems they attack, and internal intruders, who have permission to access information and systems with a few restrictions. In this chapter we first present the state-of-the-art of the evolution of intrusion detection technology and address a few intrusion detection techniques and IDS implementations. An overview of computer attack taxonomy and computer attack demystification along with a few detection signatures is presented. Special emphasis is also given to the current IDS limitations. Further we describe few obfuscation techniques applied to recent viruses that were used to thwart commercial grade antivirus tools.
The relationship between maternal lifestyle and children’s body mass index: A cross-sectional study in Abadan, Iran

Background & aim: The nutritional status of children is assessed by height, weight and body mass index (BMI). Several factors affecting the child's BMI. Parents act as models for children regarding the consumption of food and nutrition, and their nutrition practices and lifestyle affect a child's diet and weight indirectly. This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the association between maternal lifestyle and child's body mass index in Abadan, Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 500 children within the age range of 3-6 years were selected with their mothers from nine health centers in Abadan, Iran. Data were collected using socio-demographic and lifestyle questionnaire through interviewing with mothers as well as measuring children's height and weight. The BMI of mothers was also measured in this study. Data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis, the Chi-square, and logistic regression tests. Results: The results showed no significant relationship between the total score of mother's lifestyle and children's BMI. However, some aspects of mothers' lifestyle including physical health, weight and nutrition management, as well as disease prevention and mental health of the mothers had significant relationship with children’s BMI (P<0.05). Also a significant relationship was seen between mothers' lifestyle with children’s appetite and mothers' socioeconomic status. The prevalence of underweight, overweight, and obese children were 15.2%, 6.8 %, and 5.8 %, respectively. Conclusion: Although there was no significant relationship between the total score of the mothers' lifestyle and the children's BMI, a significant relationship was observed between some lifestyle dimensions and the children’s BMI. The results of this study confirm the leading role of the mothers' lifestyle in children's growth and health.