Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MSE and BER Analysis of OFDM in Rician Channel

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is one of the latest wireless communication technologies, which aids transmission with the high data rate, reliability, and spectral efficiency. Our study involved simulation of an OFDM system using 32-QAM symbol mapping, over a Rician channel model. A comparative analysis involving three different detection techniques: maximum likelihood, minimum mean square error, and zero-forcing in terms of MSE and BER are carried out. The analysis shows that amongst the detection techniques, Minimum Mean Square Error yields the lowest values of MSE and BER, for SNR ranging from 0 to 30 dB.
Deep learning-based channel estimation and tracking for millimeter-wave vehicular communications

The application of millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies is a potential technology for satisfying the continuously increasing need for handling data traffic in highly advanced wireless communications. A substantial challenge presented in mmWave communications is the high path loss. mmWave systems adopt beamforming techniques to overcome this issue. These require robust channel estimation and tracking algorithm for maintenance of an adequate quality of service. In this study, we propose a deep learning-based channel estimation and tracking algorithm for vehicular mmWave communications. More specifically, a deep neural network is leveraged to learn the mapping function between the received omni-beam patterns and mmWave channel with negligible overhead. Following the channel estimation, long short-term memory is leveraged to track the channel. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm estimates and tracks the mmWave channel efficiently with negligible training overhead.
Chinese Implicit Sentiment Analysis Based on Hierarchical Knowledge Enhancement and Multi-Pooling

Sentiment analysis is one of the significant application fields of natural language processing. Researchers divide the sentiment into explicit sentiment and implicit sentiment according to whether the expression contains sentiment words or not. Most of the existing research focuses on explicit sentiment tasks. However, implicit sentiment analysis is difficult to study because of its implicit tendency to express sentiment and the problem of “weak features” and “multi-confounding weak features”. We develop a novel model based on “Hierarchical Knowledge Enhancement and Multi-pooling”(HKEM), which fully integrates the knowledge information of different levels in the text through hierarchical knowledge enhancement to alleviate the “weak feature” problem. At the same time, the multi-pooling method is used to extract and analyze multiple features, and the “multi-confounding weak features” are modeled. In this paper, comparative experiments have been conducted on the SMP-ECISA2019 dataset, and the results show that the accuracy of this model is comparable to that of the current best model, and the F1 score is 5.9% higher than that of the best model, indicating that the model proposed in this paper can accurately analyze Chinese implicit sentiment and achieve the state-of-the-art in the comprehensive performance evaluation, which proves the effectiveness and superiority of the model in this paper.
Does mass rearing of field collected Trichogramma brassicae wasps influence acceptance of European corn borer eggs?

The purpose of our study was to identify a trait that changes quickly during Trichogramma mass rearing, and that could therefore be used to monitor stock deterioration. Quality deterioration in mass reared Trichogramma wasps was evaluated by examining host acceptance behaviour of Trichogramma brassicae Bezdenko (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) on the target host Ostrinia nubilalis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). We compared three replicate lines (designated ‘E’) reared in the laboratory on the factitious host Ephestia kuehniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) for 27 generations, a line ‘O’ reared in the laboratory on O. nubilalis for 24 generations, and a line ‘F’ reared in the laboratory on O. nubilalis for only two generations. All lines were initiated from field collections of O. nubilalis egg masses. We also evaluated natal host effects by rearing each line on E. kuehniella as well as on O. nubilalis for the last generation prior to testing. The percentage of wasps accepting the O. nubilalis egg mass was significantly higher for the E lines (69.6%) than for the F line (46.5%), while wasps of the O line showed intermediate (57.4%) acceptance. Thus, wasps laboratory reared on E. kuehniella performed better than wasps which had recently been collected in the field. Wasps of the O line showed extended probing behaviour compared to the other lines. Lines did not differ in the duration from the first host contact to the beginning of the drilling, probing or trembling behaviour. Natal host (E. kuehniella or O. nubilalis) did not affect acceptance of the target host O. nubilalis. Even though there is some evidence of adaptation to laboratory rearing conditions, we found no indication for quality deterioration in terms of acceptance behaviour of the target host O. nubilalis when T. brassicae was mass reared on the factitious host E. kuehniella.
Phytomyza omlandi spec. nov.—The First Species of Agromyzidae (Diptera: Schizophora) Reared from the Family Gelsemiaceae (Asteridae)

Abstract. A new species of leafmining fly in the genus Phytomyza Fallen (Diptera: Agromyzidae) is reared from Gelsemium Juss, representing the first known instance of an agromyzid feeding on a host plant in Gelsemiaceae (Asteridae). The host plant, likely G. sempervirens (L.) (the “evening trumpetflower”), but possibly also G. rankinii Small, is a perennial vining species native to the southeastern United States. All examined specimens of this leafminer were reared from leaves collected in North Carolina from January to April in 1996 and 1997. The morphology and life history of the new species, Phytomyza omlandi Scheffer and Lonsdale, are discussed; photographs and illustrations are provided for external structures, the male genitalia and the leafmine. Morphological and molecular data support a close phylogenetic relationship between this species and the holly leafmining P. ilicis Curtis complex, although exact relationships are still uncertain and studies are ongoing.
Ella4Life virtual assistant - user centered design strategy - evaluation following labolatory tests

In the paper, we summarize the evaluation of Anne4Care system after laboratory tests. A group of end users, seniors over 55 years of age, rated a virtual assistant by completing a questionnaire. The objectives of the pilot evaluations are mainly to assess the feasibility, usability, acceptance and functionality of the system and the ability of the potential target user to use the system and receive valuable information from it to help them address the complex needs of elderly people. The results of the assessment will be taken into account during further product development.
The Diet of the Introduced Rodents Mus-Musculus L and Rattus-Rattus L on Sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island

The diets of Mus musculus and Rattus rattus on Macquarie I . were investigated by analysis of stomach contents collected monthly for 12 months. The diet of the house mouse was found to be mainly invertebrate matter but that of the ship rat was mainly plant material. Seasonal variations were found in both diets but were greater in that of the ship rat than that of the house mouse.
FPGA Implementation of Visual Speech Recognition System based on NVGRAM-WNN

Visual identification is an exciting field because it reflects the primary form of understanding of objects used by humans. At the beginning of artificial intelligent technology, multiple experiments were suggested by the researcher to develop a computer image recogniser similar to human recognition. One such application is in the speech recognition system in a noisy environment, where the visual cue representing the movement of the lips contains some essential information added to the audio signal, as well as how the person merges audio-visual stimuli to identify output words. A little, but unresolved, part of this problem is the classification of utterance using only the visual signals without the speaker’s acoustic signal being available. Taking into account a collection of frames from a recorded video for a person speaking a word; a robust image processing technique is adopted to isolate the region of the lips; then extracting correct geometric characteristics that reflect the variation of the mouth shape during the speech. The observed features are utilised by the identification stage to identify the spoken word. This paper aims to solve this problem by introducing a new segmentation technique to isolate the area of the lips together with a collection of visual shape features centred on the boundary of the extracted lips that can read the lips with significant results. Weightless neural network classifier is proposed to enhance the utterance identification with hardware implementation based on FPGA. Furthermore, A specialised laboratory is designed to collect the utterance of twenty-six English letters from thirty speakers who are adopted in this paper.
Reward/Punishment‐Based Decision Making in Rodents

Deficits in decision making are at the heart of many psychiatric diseases, such as substance abuse disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Consequently, rodent models of decision making are germane to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying adaptive choice behavior and how such mechanisms can become compromised in pathological conditions. A critical factor that must be integrated with reward value to ensure optimal decision making is the occurrence of consequences, which can differ based on probability (risk of punishment) and temporal contiguity (delayed punishment). This article will focus on two models of decision making that involve explicit punishment, both of which recapitulate different aspects of consequences during human decision making. We will discuss each behavioral protocol, the parameters to consider when designing an experiment, and finally how such animal models can be utilized in studies of psychiatric disease. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
An Assessment of Blockchain Consensus Protocols for the Internet of Things

In a few short years the Internet of Things has become an intrinsic part of everyday life, with connected devices included in products created for homes, cars and even medical equipment. But its rapid growth has created several security problems, with respect to the transmission and storage of vast amounts of customers data, across an insecure heterogeneous collection of networks.The Internet of Things is therefore creating a unique set of risk and problems that will affect most households. From breaches in confidentiality, which could allow users to be snooped on, through to failures in integrity, which could lead to consumer data being compromised; devices are presenting many security challenges to which consumers are ill equipped to protect themselves from.Moreover, when this is coupled with the heterogeneous nature of the industry, and the interoperable and scalability problems it becomes apparent that the Internet of Things has created an increased attack surface from which security vulnerabilities may be easily exploited.However, it has been conjectured that blockchain may provide a solution to the Internet of Things security and scalability problems. Because of blockchain’s immutability, integrity and scalability, it is possible that its architecture could be used for the storage and transfer of Internet of Things data.Within this paper a cross section of blockchain consensus protocols have been assessed against a requirement framework, to establish each consensus protocols strengths and weaknesses with respect to their potential implementation in an Internet of Things blockchain environment.
Critical Illness Secondary to Synthetic Cannabinoid Ingestion

Key Points Question What are the clinical manifestations of synthetic cannabinoid intoxication, and are they life threatening? Findings This case series of 30 adult patients describes the acute neurologic and cardiopulmonary complications of synthetic cannabinoid intoxication, including severe toxic encephalopathy, acute respiratory failure, and death. Meaning These findings suggest that synthetic cannabinoids are a continued public health threat, with potential for morbidity and mortality from acute intoxication.
The β3-adrenergic agonist (BRL35135A) acutely increases oxygen consumption and plasma intermediate metabolites in sheep

There is evidence that an atypical adrenoreceptor subtype is involved in mediating some of the physiological effects of catecholamines, particularly in some adipose tissue sites. Therefore, three experiments were conducted to determine the metabolic and energetic responses to oral administration of the purported β3-agonist BRL35135A in ruminant lambs. The post-prandial increase in O2 consumption (0.109 versus 0.139 L/min) and CO2 production (0.102 versus 0.127 L/min) at 30 min after feeding was greater (P < 0.05) in the lambs receiving 5 mg of the BRL35135A. Treatment × time interactions over the period between –50 and 220 min indicate significant increases in plasma non-esterified fatty acids (P < 0.001), glucose (P < 0.001) and lactate (P = 0.024) in lambs consuming a single oral dose of 5 mg BRL35135A. In a subsequent experiment there were similar interactions over the period between –120 and 1440 min for non-esterified fatty acids (P < 0.001), glucose (P < 0.001) and lactate (P < 0.001) in lambs consuming a lower oral dose of 1 mg BRL35135A. The effects of BRL35135A on plasma non-esterified fatty acids (P = 0.95), glucose (P = 0.84) and lactate (P = 0.68) were not modified by the β1- and β2-adrenergic antagonist alprenolol suggesting that the effects were mediated via β3-adrenergic receptor subtypes. In conclusion, these experiments indicate that BRL35135A is acutely active in sheep when given with feed, as indicated by increases in respiratory gas exchange and plasma metabolite concentrations.
Ultrasound-assisted extraction of collagen from clown featherback (Chitala ornata) skin: Yield and molecular characteristics.

BACKGROUND Clown featherback (Chitala ornata) skin, a by-product from filleting process line, could serve as a good aquatic collagenous source. Nevertheless, the typical collagen extraction method, that was a time-consuming process provided relatively low yield. The ultrasound had been reported as alternative technique on enhancing of the extraction efficiency of several compounds but the harsh condition of ultrasound could affect their physicochemical and molecular characteristics. Thus, the application of ultrasonication under appropriate condition could be a promising means to improve the extraction efficiency of collagen from Clown featherback skin. RESULTS Ultrasonication with different amplitudes (20-80%) and times (10-30 min) were implemented during extraction. Ultrasound-assisted process (UAP) could increase the yield of collagen (P ˂ 0.05), while UAP could also cause the collagen purity decrease evaluated by hydroxyproline content. There was no change on the solubility of resulting collagens dramatically. UAP induced protein degradation, particularly with increasing amplitude and time, where slight changes in pI value of collagen were observed. UAP had no adverse effect on molecular structure, where triple helical structure was still retained, when 80% amplitude for 10 min (UAP-80/10-C) was employed. Amino acid composition of UAP-80/10-C reconfirmed the unique characteristic of collagen with imino acid containing. CONCLUSION UAP with appropriate condition could be used to improve the extraction yield with minimal effects on molecular integrity of resulting collagen. In addition, fish skin waste from cutting process line, particularly Clown featherback skin, could be maximized exploited as a value-added product, fish skin collagen. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Plasma levels of IL-1β and IL-37 in patients with severe haemophilia

Objective Haemophilia A and B are disorders caused by the lack of clotting factors VIII and IX, respectively. Repeated bleeding into the same joint leads to haemophilic arthropathy (HA). Interleukin (IL)-1β is responsible for the pro-inflammatory response and IL-37 is induced by IL-1β stimuli to have an anti-inflammatory response and prevent uncontrolled inflammation and tissue damage. Our objective was to investigate plasma levels of IL-1β and IL-37 in patients with severe haemophilia with different severities of HA. Methods Peripheral blood samples were collected from 14 patients with severe haemophilia A and 6 with severe haemophilia B, and 18 healthy individuals. Plasma levels of IL-1β and IL-37 were detected by immunoassay, and severity of HA was evaluated using the Pettersson scoring system. Plasma levels of IL-1β and IL-37 were analysed in patients with severe haemophilia grouped by Pettersson score and in healthy individuals. Results Plasma levels of IL-1β and IL-37 were significantly higher in patients with severe haemophilia compared with healthy individuals and significantly lower in those with moderate to severe HA than in those with no or mild HA. Conclusions Plasma levels of IL-1β and IL-37 may be useful to track HA progression in patients with severe haemophilia.
Comparison of detection probability associated with burrowing owl survey methods

Populations of western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) appear to have declined in many portions of their range. A standardized survey and monitoring program is not available to quantify changes in abundance or distribution. Before a standardized survey method is selected for long-term, continent-wide burrowing owl monitoring, potential survey protocols should be rigorously tested. We evaluated 3 potential burrowing owl survey methods: line transect, roadside point-count, and driving surveys. We also examined the effectiveness of using call-broadcasts on point-count surveys to increase detection probability. We conducted 3 replicate borrowing owl surveys (either point-count or driving surveys) along 1,350 km of roads (114 survey routes) in eastern Wyoming, USA, between June and August 2000. Detection probability varied among observers for both point-count and driving surveys. Detection probability was higher on point-count, surveys (x = 64.3%) compared to driving surveys (x = 37.5%), and point-count surveys sampled a larger effective area away from the road. Walking line-transect surveys proved ineffective and inefficient for monitoring burrowing owls at large (statewide) scales. Nest-site detection probability was 47% during driving detection trials and 79% during point-count detection trials. We detected over twice as manly owls per unit distance on our point-count routes (0.038 owls/km) compared to our driving routes (0.016 owls/km), but detected more owls per unit time on our driving routes (0.339 owls/hr vs. 0.229 owls/hr on point-count routes). We detected 22% more owls using call-broadcast even though all of our detections on pointcount surveys were visual rather that aural. Estimates of breeding density were fairly similar based on our driving and point-count surveys (0.110 and 0.074 nest sites/km 2 , respectively). Standardized point-counts using call-broadcast along roadsides offer the best approach for monitoring population trends of burrowing owls at large (statewide) spatial scales. Based on our results, we developed a standardized survey protocol for monitoring burrowing owls at large spatial scales. Implementation of these monitoring protocols would provide more precise estimates of population trends of burrowing owls in North America.
Evolution of β-Cell Dysfunction in the Male Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rat

The molecular basis for the β-cell dysfunction that characterizes non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is unknown. The Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) male rat is a rodent model of NIDDM with a predictable progression from the prediabetic to the diabetic state. We are using this model to study β-cell function during the development of diabetes with the goal of identifying genes that play a key role in regulating insulin secretion and, thus, may be potential targets for therapeutic intervention aimed at preserving or improving β-cell function. As a first step, we have characterized morphology, insulin secretion, and pattern of gene expression in islets from prediabetic and diabetic ZDF rats. The development of diabetes was associated with changes in islet morphology, and the islets of diabetic animals were markedly hypertrophic with multiple irregular projections into the surrounding exocrine pancreas. In addition, there were multiple defects in the normal pattern of insulin secretion. The islets of prediabetic ZDF rats secreted significantly more insulin at each glucose concentration tested and showed a leftward shift in the dose-response curve relating glucose concentration and insulin secretion. Islets of prediabetic animals also demonstrated defects in the normal oscillatory pattern of insulin secretion, indicating the presence of impairment of the normal feedback control between glucose and insulin secretion. The islets from diabetic animals showed further impairment in the ability to respond to a glucose stimulus. Changes in gene expression were also evident in islets from prediabetic and diabetic ZDF rats compared with age-matched control animals. In prediabetic animals, there was no change in insulin mRNA levels. However, there was a significant 30–70% reduction in the levels of a large number of other islet mRNAs including glucokinase, mitochondrial glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, voltage-dependent Ca2+ and K+ channels, Ca2+-ATPase, and transcription factor Islet-1 mRNAs. In addition, there was a 40–50% increase in the levels of glucose-6-phosphatase and 12-lipoxygenase mRNAs. There were further changes in gene expression in the islets from diabetic ZDF rats, including a decrease in insulin mRNA levels that was associated with reduced islet insulin levels. Our results indicate that multiple defects in β-cell function can be detected in islets of prediabetic animals well before the development of hyperglycemia and suggest that changes in the normal pattern of gene expression contribute to the development of β-cell dysfunction.