Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A LoRa wireless mesh networking module for campus-scale monitoring: demo abstract

LoRa, an emerging wireless technology, is examined for long range communication performance in a large area. Although LoRa shows good performance for long-distance transmission in the countryside, its radio signals can be attenuated and interfered with by buildings, trees and other signal sources. In urban areas, our observation shows that LoRa requires a dense deployment of LoRa gateways to ensure that indoor LoRa devices can transfer data back to remote servers. Mesh networking is a solution for increasing the communication range and packet delivery ratio without the need to install additional LoRa gateways. This study presents our design of a LoRa mesh-networking module for IoT applications (e.g.,collecting data from multiple, widely distributed sensors on a university campus). We deployed 19 LoRa mesh-networking devices distributed in an 800m by 600m area on campus to serve as a gateway and to collect data at one-minute intervals. The results show our LoRa mesh networking module achieved a 88.49% packet delivery ratio (PDR), while the LoRaWAN in star-network topology was only 58.7% under the same conditions.
A characterization of online browsing behavior

In this paper, we undertake a large-scale study of online user behavior based on search and toolbar logs. We propose a new CCS taxonomy of pageviews consisting of Content (news, portals, games, verticals, multimedia), Communication (email, social networking, forums, blogs, chat), and Search (Web search, item search, multimedia search). We show that roughly half of all pageviews online are content, one-third are communications, and the remaining one-sixth are search. We then give further breakdowns to characterize the pageviews within each high-level category. We then study the extent to which pages of certain types are revisited by the same user over time, and the mechanisms by which users move from page to page, within and across hosts, and within and across page types. We consider robust schemes for assigning responsibility for a pageview to ancestors along the chain of referrals. We show that mail, news, and social networking pageviews are insular in nature, appearing primarily in homogeneous sessions of one type. Search pageviews, on the other hand, appear on the path to a disproportionate number of pageviews, but cannot be viewed as the principal mechanism by which those pageviews were reached. Finally, we study the burstiness of pageviews associated with a URL, and show that by and large, online browsing behavior is not significantly affected by "breaking" material with non-uniform visit frequency.
Exotic no more : anthropology on the front lines

Since its founding in the nineteenth century, social anthropology has been seen as the study of exotic peoples in faraway places. But today more and more anthropologists are dedicating themselves not just to observing but to understanding and helping solve social problems wherever they occur - in international aid organizations, British TV studios, American hospitals, or racist enclaves in Eastern Europe, for example. In Exotic No More, an initiative of the Royal Anthropological Institute, some of today's most respected anthropologists demonstrate, in clear, unpretentious prose, the tremendous contributions that anthropology can make to contemporary society. They cover issues ranging from fundamentalism to forced migration, child labor to crack dealing, human rights to hunger, ethnicity to environmentalism, intellectual property rights to international capitalisms. But Exotic No More is more than a litany of gloom and doom; the essays also explore topics usually associated with leisure or "high" culture, including the media, visual arts, tourism, and music. The authors use specific examples from their fieldwork to illustrate their discussions, and 62 photographs enliven the text. Throughout the book, the contributors highlight anthropology's commitment to taking people seriously on their own terms, paying close attention to what they are saying and doing, and trying to understand how they see the world and why. Sometimes this bottom-up perspective makes the strange familiar, but it can also make the familiar strange, exposing the cultural basis of seemingly "natural" behaviors and challenging us to rethink some of our most cherished ideas - about gender, "free" markets, "race," and "refugees," among many others.
Toward Front Tracking Based on Conservation in Two Space Dimensions

A two-dimensional front tracking method based on conservation for scalar conservation law and for the Euler system of gas dynamics is being developed. In the method, discontinuities are tracked by enforcing the conservation properties of the PDEs. Unlike the traditional front tracking methods, for which the conservation is only a property that may or may not be preserved, in this front tracking method the conservation is the mechanism by which the tracking is performed. The method is also extended to treat the reflection wall boundary in the Euler system. As an attempt to treat the interactions of discontinuities by enforcing the conservation properties without solving two-dimensional Riemann problems, three special cases of treatment of discontinuity interactions in scalar conservation law and in the Euler system of gas dynamics are studied. Finally, numerical experiments are implemented in both scalar and system cases to show the efficiency of the method.
CATARACT SURGERY AND SILICONE OIL REMOVAL: VISUAL OUTCOME AND COMPLICATIONS IN A COMBINED VS. TWO STEP SURGICAL APPROACH

Purpose To compare visual outcome and complications of two surgical strategies for patients who needed cataract surgery and silicone oil removal. Methods A prospective, nonrandomized study was performed to compare two groups of patients who had cataract surgery and silicone oil removal from April 1998 to January 2002. From April 1998 to November 1999, patients had two surgical sessions with cataract surgery before silicone oil removal (Group 1), and from December 1999 to January 2002, patients underwent combined cataract surgery and silicone oil removal in a single session (Group 2). Results Thirty-five patients were included in each group. The postoperative visual acuity improved by at least two lines of Snellen in 13 patients (37.1%) in Group 1 and 15 (42.8%) patients in Group 2 (P = 0.63). The mean visual improvement was 0.12 lines and 0.13 lines in groups 1 and 2 (P = 0.62). Complications in groups 1 and 2 included transient intraocular pressure rise (25.7% versus 28.5%), retinal detachment (14.2% versus 11.4%), fibrin reaction (5.7% in both groups), and persistent intraocular pressure rise (2.8% in both groups). Conclusion The visual outcome and complication rates were similar in both groups. Combined surgery offers the advantages of a single surgical event and a faster visual rehabilitation. We therefore suggest a surgical approach with combined cataract surgery and silicone oil removal in selected patients with a stable retinal situation.
Helicobacter pylori infection in rheumatoid arthritis: effect of drugs on prevalence and correlation with gastroduodenal lesions.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of Helicobacter pylori infection on clinical features in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) under medication with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. METHODS One hundred and eighty-four patients with RA were tested for the presence of H. pylori infection. Clinical features and gastroduodenal lesions were compared between H. pylori-positive and -negative patients. RESULTS One hundred and thirteen patients were positive and 71 patients were negative for H. pylori. The age, severity of RA, prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms and gastroduodenal lesions and the class of gastroprotective drugs were not different between the two groups. Reflux oesophagitis was less frequent and sulphasalazine was less frequently administered in the H. pylori-positive group. CONCLUSIONS The severity of RA, prevalence of gastroduodenal lesions other than reflux oesophagitis and the application of gastroprotective drugs do not seem to depend upon H. pylori infection in RA patients. Sulphasalazine may be protective against H. pylori infection.
Technology Acceptance Model and Determinants of Technology Rejection

Technology Acceptance Model TAM is an important tool to understand the dynamics of acceptance of Information Systems in an organization. The model posits that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are key factors in the adoption. This study extends TAM for investigating the user rejection of technology by reversing the two key factors into perceived difficulty of use and perceived uselessness. The study was conducted by surveying the customers of an e-banking application in Turkey who disuse the system. The results reveal important hints for the organization that wants to get an insight into the causes of the system disuse.
SciHadoop: Array-based query processing in Hadoop

Hadoop has become the de facto platform for large-scale data analysis in commercial applications, and increasingly so in scientific applications. However, Hadoop's byte stream data model causes inefficiencies when used to process scientific data that is commonly stored in highly-structured, array-based binary file formats resulting in limited scalability of Hadoop applications in science. We introduce Sci- Hadoop, a Hadoop plugin allowing scientists to specify logical queries over array-based data models. Sci-Hadoop executes queries as map/reduce programs defined over the logical data model. We describe the implementation of a Sci-Hadoop prototype for NetCDF data sets and quantify the performance of five separate optimizations that address the following goals for several representative aggregate queries: reduce total data transfers, reduce remote reads, and reduce unnecessary reads. Two optimizations allow holistic aggregate queries to be evaluated opportunistically during the map phase; two additional optimizations intelligently partition input data to increase read locality, and one optimization avoids block scans by examining the data dependencies of an executing query to prune input partitions. Experiments involving a holistic function show run-time improvements of up to 8x, with drastic reductions of IO, both locally and over the network.
Quantifying Laryngopharyngeal Reflux in Singers: Perceptual and Objective Findings

This study examines the relationship between laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) symptoms and oropharyngeal pH levels in singers. We hypothesized that reported symptoms would correlate with objective measures of pH levels from the oropharynx, including the number and total duration of reflux episodes. Twenty professional/semiprofessional singers completed the Reflux Symptom Index (RSI) and underwent oropharyngeal pH monitoring. Mild, moderate, or severe pH exposure was recorded during oropharyngeal pH monitoring. Correlations were performed to examine potential relationships between reflux symptoms and duration of LPR episodes. Symptom severity did not correlate with pH levels; however, we found a number of covariances of interest. Large sample sizes are necessary to determine if true correlations exist. Our results suggest that singers may exhibit enhanced sensitivity to LPR and may therefore manifest symptoms, even in response to subtle changes in pH. This study emphasizes the importance of sensitive and objective measures of reflux severity as well as consideration of the cumulative time of reflux exposure in addition to the number of reflux episodes.
Effects of experimental negative affect manipulations on ad libitum smoking: a meta-analysis.

AIMS To quantify the effect of negative affect (NA), when manipulated experimentally, upon smoking as measured within laboratory paradigms. Quantitative meta-analyses tested the effects of NA versus neutral conditions on (1) latency to smoke and (2) number of puffs taken. METHODS Twelve experimental studies tested the influence of NA induction, relative to a neutral control condition (n = 1190; range = 24-235). Those providing relevant data contributed to separate random-effects meta-analyses to examine the effects of NA on two primary smoking measures: (1) latency to smoke (nine studies) and (2) number of puffs taken during ad libitum smoking (11 studies). Hedge's g was calculated for all studies through the use of post-NA cue responses relative to post-neutral cue responses. This effect size estimate is similar to Cohen's d, but corrects for small sample size bias. RESULTS NA reliably decreased latency to smoke (g = -0.14; CI = -0.23 to -0.04; P = 0.007) and increased number of puffs taken (g = 0.14; CI = 0.02 to 0.25; P = 0.02). There was considerable variability across studies for both outcomes (I(2) = 51 and 65% for latency and consumption, respectively). Potential publication bias was indicated for both outcomes, and adjusted effect sizes were smaller and no longer statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS In experimental laboratory studies of smokers, negative affect appears to reduce latency to smoking and increase number of puffs taken, but this could be due to publication bias.
Sound synthesis and evaluation of interactive footsteps for virtual reality applications

A system to synthesize in real-time the sound of footsteps on different materials is presented. The system is based on microphones which allow the user to interact with his own footwear. This solution distinguishes our system from previous efforts that require specific shoes enhanced with sensors. The microphones detect real footsteps sounds from users, from which the ground reaction force (GRF) is estimated. Such GRF is used to control a sound synthesis engine based on physical models. Evaluations of the system in terms of sound validity and fidelity of interaction are described.
Perturbation of cell adhesion and microvilli formation by antisense oligonucleotides to ERM family members

To examine the functions of ERM family members (ezrin, radixin, and moesin), mouse epithelial cells (MTD-1A cells) and thymoma cells (L5178Y), which coexpress all of them, were cultured in the presence of antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotides (PONs) complementary to ERM sequences. Immunoblotting revealed that the antisense PONs selectively suppressed the expression of each member. Immunofluorescence microscopy of these ezrin, radixin, or moesin "single-suppressed" MTD-1A cells revealed that the ERM family members are colocalized at cell-cell adhesion sites, microvilli, and cleavage furrows, where actin filaments are densely associated with plasma membranes. The ezrin/radixin/moesin antisense PONs mixture induced the destruction of both cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, as well as the disappearance of microvilli. Ezrin or radixin antisense PONs individually affected the initial step of the formation of both cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, but did not affect the microvilli structures. In sharp contrast, moesin antisense PONs did not singly affect cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, whereas it partly affected the microvilli structures. These data indicate that ezrin and radixin can be functionally substituted, that moesin has some synergetic functional interaction with ezrin and radixin, and that these ERM family members are involved in cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, as well as microvilli formation.
Current and speed sensor FDIR for a DFIM grid connected variable speed pumped storage system

This paper proposes Fault Detection, Isolation and Reconfiguration (FDIR) techniques to realize the connection of a DFIM pumped storage system with the grid in the presence of current and speed sensor failures. For the detection method authors use the parity space approach either for current sensor failure or the rotation speed one. The proposed reconfiguration techniques exploit stator flux estimation using existing stator current and voltage measurements. All studied system (DFIM pumped storage and grid) with proposed FDIR strategy is simulated using PSIM software. Next, simulations and experimental results are given to validate the synchronization phase in healthy conditions and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed detection method to isolate the faulty sensor and to guarantee the satisfactory behavior of this system.
Apocrypha of Standard Scattering Theory SST and Quantum mechanics of the de Broglie wave packet

A b s t r a c t It is shown that the standard scattering theory SST does not correspond to the principles of standard quantum mechanics SQM. The more consistent theory is formulated. Some new results are obtained. Reeection and transmission of the de Broglie wave packet by thin layers of matter is considered.
Infinite Dimensional Word Embeddings

We describe a method for learning word embeddings with stochastic dimensionality. Our Infinite Skip-Gram (iSG) model specifies an energy-based joint distribution over a word vector, a context vector, and their dimensionality. By employing the same techniques used to make the Infinite Restricted Boltzmann Machine (Cote & Larochelle, 2015) tractable, we define vector dimensionality over a countably infinite domain, allowing vectors to grow as needed during training. After training, we find that the distribution over embedding dimensionality for a given word is highly interpretable and leads to an elegant probabilistic mechanism for word sense induction. We show qualitatively and quantitatively that the iSG produces parameter-efficient representations that are robust to language's inherent ambiguity.
Globetp: template-based database replication for scalable web applications

Generic database replication algorithms do not scale linearly in throughput as all update, deletion and insertion (UDI) queries must be applied to every database replica. The throughput is therefore limited to the point where the number of UDI queries alone is sufficient to overload one server. In such scenarios, partial replication of a database can help, as UDI queries are executed only by a subset of all servers. In this paper we propose GlobeTP, a system that employs partial replication to improve database throughput. GlobeTP exploits the fact that a Web application's query workload is composed of a small set of read and write templates. Using knowledge of these templates and their respective execution costs, GlobeTP provides database table placements that produce significant improvements in database throughput. We demonstrate the efficiency of this technique using two different industry standard benchmarks. In our experiments, GlobeTP increases the throughput by 57% to 150% compared to full replication, while using identical hardware configuration. Furthermore, adding a single query cache improves the throughput by another 30% to 60%.
DC/AC Compact Modeling of TFETs for Circuit Simulation of Logic Cells Based on an Analytical Physics-Based Framework

This paper presents a DC/AC compact model for double-gate (DG) tunnel field-effect transistors (TFET) which is based on a unified analytical modeling framework. The closed-form model shows a good agreement with both, TCAD simulations and measurements on test structures. A Verilog-A implementation allows for a quick performance evaluation of the DC performance of logic cells. Results of a complementary TFET inverter are in good agreement to measurements. Simulations of an 8T SRAM cell clearly show the critical influence of the ambipolar behavior and leakage current on the performance. The fundamental analytical modeling framework provides deeper physical insight while considering additional effects as trap-assisted tunneling (TAT), junction profile steepness and hetero structures.
Mapping Internet Sensors with Probe Response Attacks

Internet sensor networks, including honeypots and log analysis centers such as the SANS Internet Storm Center, are used as a tool to detect malicious Internet traffic. For maximum effectiveness, such networks publish public reports without disclosing sensor locations, so that the Internet community can take steps to counteract the malicious traffic. Maintaining sensor anonymity is critical because if the set of sensors is known, a malicious attacker could avoid the sensors entirely or could overwhelm the sensors with errant data. Motivated by the growing use of Internet sensors as a tool to monitor Internet traffic, we show that networks that publicly report statistics are vulnerable to intelligent probing to determine the location of sensors. In particular, we develop a new "probe response" attack technique with a number of optimizations for locating the sensors in currently deployed Internet sensor networks and illustrate the technique for a specific case study that shows how the attack would locate the sensors of the SANS Internet Storm Center using the published data from those sensors. Simulation results show that the attack can determine the identity of the sensors in this and other sensor networks in less than a week, even under a limited adversarial model. We detail critical vulnerabilities in several current anonymization schemes and demonstrate that we can quickly and efficiently discover the sensors even in the presence of sophisticated anonymity preserving methods such as prefix-preserving permutations or Bloom filters. Finally, we consider the characteristics of an Internet sensor which make it vulnerable to probe response attacks and discuss potential countermeasures.
Articulatory modeling based on semi-polar coordinates and guided PCA technique

Research on 2-dimensional static articulatory modeling has been performed by using the semi-polar system and the guided PCA analysis of lateral X-ray images of vocal tract. The density of the grid lines in the semi-polar system has been increased to have a better descriptive precision. New parameters have been introduced to describe the movements of tongue apex. An extra feature, the tongue root, has been extracted as one of the elementary factors in order to improve the precision of tongue model. New methods still remain to be developed for describing the movements of tongue apex. Index Terms: articulatory modeling, semi-polar coordinate system, guided PCA
Device-to-device communications and small cells: enabling spectrum reuse for dense networks

In the evolution of communication networks, there has always been a need to increase the capacity to cope with the continuous growing demand for data transmission. However, with the arrival of the Internet-of-Things and the commoditization of broadband access through smartphones, tablets, smart-watches, and all types of connecting devices, future networks must be capable of providing higher bandwidth and Quality of Experience, as wellas operating in dense networks with a massive number of simultaneous connections. This high number of connections will be very heterogeneous, spanning from highly-demanding data rate applications to low-complexity and high energy-efficient Machine-to-Machine communications. In such a dense and complex scenario, a more flexible use of spectrum resources is deemed to be the way to meet the growing requirements for data transmission. In particular, this article focuses on Device-to-Device communications and small cell deployments as emerging facilitators of such a demanding and heterogeneous scenario. The pros and cons of both complementary strategies are identified from both a technical and a business point of view, and main standardization activities are discussed. The aim of this article is to identify and describe open challenges and to inspire new areas for research that make viable the next generation of dense networks.