Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneous traffic performance comparison for 6LoWPAN enabled low-power transceivers

We study the suitability of IPv6/6LowPan protocols under heterogeneous traffic loads in environmental sensor networks: microclimate nodes generating periodic but low-bandwidth data, while multimedia nodes generating high-bandwidth data streams on demand, for example. We further study the performance tradeoffs we can achieve by varying the radio frequency or data rate of radio transceivers in both indoor and outdoor environments. We use one legacy and two new IEEE 802.15. 4 compliant transceivers, in the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands. We show that, surprisingly, the 2.4 GHz radio outperforms the 900 MHz radio outdoors in terms of the maximum range, but performs worse indoors at higher data rates. We show, however, that irrespective of the radio band used, the Berkeley low-power IP network stack supports high-bandwidth data transmissions (up to 120 kbps), while handling heterogeneous traffic well --- at 99.9% reliability.
The pseudo-marginal approach for efficient Monte Carlo computations

We introduce a powerful and flexible MCMC algorithm for stochastic simulation. The method builds on a pseudo-marginal method originally introduced in [Genetics 164 (2003) 1139--1160], showing how algorithms which are approximations to an idealized marginal algorithm, can share the same marginal stationary distribution as the idealized method. Theoretical results are given describing the convergence properties of the proposed method, and simple numerical examples are given to illustrate the promising empirical characteristics of the technique. Interesting comparisons with a more obvious, but inexact, Monte Carlo approximation to the marginal algorithm, are also given.
Development of a PCR assay to detect mycoplasma contamination in cord blood hematopoietic stem cells

Background and Objectives Contamination of cell lines and biological products is one of the major problems of cell culture techniques. Rapid detection of mycoplasma contamination in cell culture is an important part of quality control standards in related laboratories. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of PCR in detection of myroplasma as contaminants in cell cultures and other biological products. Method PCR assays were optimized for 16 S rRNA target gene. Also the utilized PCR method was evaluated in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Finally, a simple DNA extraction and PCR analysis of 164 cell culture of adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells were performed. Results A 715 bp product was amplified and subsequently was confirmed by sequencing. The technique could detect 10 copies of the target DNA. No cross-reactivity with genomic DNA of other microorganisms was observed. Conclusions The PCR technique in this study was based on 16S rRNA gene. It was highly sensitive and specific since it was able to detected Mycoplasma contamination in cell cultures
Obstacle-navigation strategy of a wire-suspend robot for power transmission lines

This paper presents an obstacle navigation strategy for a wire-suspend robot for power transmission lines based on a novel movement mechanism. The kinematics of the mobile robot and the process of obstacle navigation control are analyzed in detail. A realtime expert system with hybrid architecture C language integrated production system (CLIPS) is described as the mobile robot control system. The realtime expert system is developed by CLIPS and C language, so it has powerful logical reasoning ability and data processing ability. And the expert system can instruct the mobile robot to navigate obstacles autonomously on overhead ground wires. A realtime process and a conflict elimination algorithm realize the realtime ability of the control system. The robot task plan has two modes: layered plan and direct control. The robot can study online or offline, and when it encounter the same obstacles, it can navigate them quickly
Collaborative End-to-end Enforcement of Fine-grained Information Sharing Policies in Distributed Systems

Executive Summary Reliable and timely sharing of information across a community of collaborating principals is an integral part of Microsoft's vision of the " new world of work " [30]. Examples of Microsoft's investment in this vision abound. For one, Sharepoint specifically aims to share information assets across teams, departments, and organizations while maintaining IT control. Tools like One Note allow information from disparate software applications to be conveniently aggregated in a form that can be shared across a community of users. Longer-range initiatives like HealthVault target the sharing of patient medical records across a wide array of organizations, ranging from hospitals and insurance provides to employers and the patients themselves. Microsoft's partnership with consortiums like the Trans-global Secure Collaboration Program aim to build a platform for multinational secure information sharing between government and industry. Despite its prevalence, widespread information sharing is, clearly, a two-edged sword. While ready access to relevant information can make a collaboration more effective, uncontrolled sharing of digital assets raises many security concerns, e.g., the unintended dissemination of HealthVault records can compromise a patient's privacy. This paper describes work currently underway that has as its goal the formal verification of security properties for distributed information-sharing applications. Our work applies to the setting where principals have incentives (such as legal contracts) to abide by the security policies placed by data custodians. In this setting, we wish to make it possible for principals to collaborate with each other (e.g., by sharing security-critical software) and enforce a system-wide security policy with a high-degree of assurance. We aim to address a number of concerns. As a first measure, we control information sharing by protecting resources by a formally specified claims-based access-control policy. Going further, we also address the specification and enforcement of usage-control policies so that a custodian of a resource can retain some control over how a resource is used after access has been granted, e.g., to prevent further dissemination of data. In order to promote as much information sharing as possible without compromising security, policies are applicable at a fine granularity, e.g., it will be possible to apply security controls to small fragments of documents rather than only to entire documents. As the number of data sources grows, keeping track of data dependences becomes important—both for enforcing security policies as well as assisting users with making sense of complex data sets. We aim to provide principled ways of …
Fault tolerance with real-time Java

After having drawn up a state of the art on the theoretical feasibility of a system of periodic tasks scheduled by a preemptive algorithm at fixed priorities, we show in this article that temporal faults can occur all the same within a theoretically feasible system, that these faults can lead to a failure of the system and that we can use the data calculated during control of admission to install detectors of faults and to define a factor of tolerance. We show then the results obtained on a system of periodic tasks coded with Java real-time and carried out with the virtual machine jRate. These results show that the installation of the detectors and the tolerance to the faults makes an improvement of the behavior of the system in the presence of faults
A Scheduling Algorithm for Synchronization Task in Embedded Multicore Systems ⋆

Synchronization of task usually happens in real-time embedded systems. But it is not easy to achieve a good performance for the synchronization tasks, especially on multicore processor. After analysis of the task characteristics on homogeneous multicore processor, we proposed a Longest Synchronization-Point Time (LSPT) task scheduling algorithm to obtain the good real-time performance and the minimum completing execution time of synchronization tasks. In the LSPT, we selected the most suitable task to run on the kernel based-on priority and execution time of synchronization point of tasks, to make the group of synchronization tasks to get the minimum completion time. In the last, we test the realtime performance of LSPT, the experimental results demonstrate the LSPT algorithm can achieve good efficiency for parallel synchronization tasks on multicore processor.
An Algorithm for Circle Curve Fitting Based on the Constrained Least Square Model Represented by Mosaic Observation Points

In the application of engineering technology, a certain number of disturbed observation points with errors are often used to fit a plane circle. Considering the distribution characteristics of these points, two kinds of models are presented in this paper: an unconstrained non-linear least square model and a non-linear least square model constrained by the mosaic center coordinates for the plane circle fitting. The lsqnonlin function for nonlinear least square algorithm is applied to work out the unconstrained least square model. The searching method is adopted to figure out the constrained model by analyzing the symmetry of simulated data, determining the initial value for searching and simplifying the solving process. By contrasting the two fitting results, it is obvious that the constrained least square model can successfully simplify the computation with higher accuracy. Furthermore, this algorithm can also be used for the computation of spherical centers and radii in the threedimensional space.
Understanding Effects of Personalized vs. Aggregate Ratings on User Preferences

Prior research has shown that online recommendations have significant influence on consumers’ preference ratings and their economic behavior. However, research has not examined the anchoring effects of aggregate user ratings, which are also commonly displayed in online retail settings. This research compares and contrasts the anchoring biases introduced by aggregate ratings on consumers’ preferences ratings to those produced by personalized recommendations. Through multiple laboratory experiments, we show that the user preferences can be affected (i.e., distorted) by the displayed average online user ratings in a similar manner as has been shown with personalized recommendations. We further compare the magnitude of anchoring biases by personalized recommendations and aggregate ratings. Our results show that when shown separately, aggregate ratings and personalized recommendations create similar effects on user preferences. When shown together, there is no cumulative increase in the effect, and personalized recommendations tend to dominate the effect on user preferences. We also test these effects using an alternative top-N presentation format. Our results here suggest that top-N lists may be an effective presentation solution that maintains key information provided by recommendations while reducing or eliminating decision biases.
Meta-Modeling Cloud Computing Architecture in Distance Learning

Cloud Computing Architecture in distance learning has grown exponentially in the recent past. Distance Learning itself has been accommodated as an innovative technology in the IT infrastructure. It has had numerous inventions that have always offered substantial merits and benefits to major activities that human beings undertake. Due to increased demand for educational computing, usage of digital devices like Computer Based Tutorials, mobile devices and web technologies, learning administrators and practitioners in many academic setting are able to access and deliver education services electronically. Consequently this has been made easier with the availability of cloud computing as a technology. This technology has to be adopted and put to effective use by these institutions so as to reap the benefits of cloud computing in relation to distance learning. Distance learning is a vital source of dissemination of knowledge and therefore this paper explores and presents the opportunities, insights derived from cloud computing architecture in Distance learning. We also examine how the learners, administrators, practitioners and institutions will benefit from cloud computing services in disseminating knowledge and indispensable skills. Throughout the assessment, there is a clear illustration of cloud Computing framework ,Cloud based Architecture, how a Software can be used as a service, how a platform can be used as a service and how Distance learning can be of great benefit to the society if the opportunities provided by cloud computing can be adopted and implemented. This includes passing across the relevant educational materials, sharing and warehousing of these materials and data and increasing quick access by deploying cloud computing as an IT infrastructure.
An Active Contour Method Based on Wavelet for Texture Boundaries

In this paper, we present an active contour method able to capture texture boundaries. To that end, an external potential term based on wavelet coefficients is defined. The proposed approach only deals with boundaries to be able to detect particular patterns which are identifiable only through a texture border. Such patterns, which cannot be treated like traditional objects, appear in many natural images (meteorology, biology or medical imaging). Their presence often inform, about a particular phenomena in the observed scene and the detection of such structures is hence of primary interest. The different bands of wavelet coefficients enable to characterize the desired texture, They also correctly deal with the delicate situations of transparency or partial occlusions.
Overexpression and role of the ATPase and putative DNA helicase RuvB‐like 2 in human hepatocellular carcinoma

Using a proteomic analysis of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we identified the overexpression in 4 tumors of RuvB‐like 2 (RUVBL2), an ATPase and putative DNA helicase known to interact with β‐catenin and cellular v‐myc myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (c‐myc). RUVBL2 expression was further analyzed in tumors with quantitative reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis and immunohistochemistry; in addition, RUVBL2 expression in a HuH7 cell line was silenced by small interfering RNA or increased with a lentiviral vector. RUVBL2 messenger RNA overexpression was confirmed in 72 of 96 HCC cases, and it was associated with poorly differentiated tumors (P = 0.02) and a poor prognosis (P = 0.02) but not with β‐catenin mutations or c‐myc levels. Although RUVBL2 was strictly nuclear in normal hepatocytes, tumoral hepatocytes exhibited additional cytoplasmic staining. There was no mutation in the coding sequence of RUVBL2 in 10 sequenced cases. Silencing RUVBL2 in HuH7 HCC cells reduced cell growth (P < 0.001) and increased apoptosis, as shown by DNA fragmentation (P < 0.001) and caspase 3 activity (P < 0.005). This was associated with an increased expression of several proapoptotic genes and with an increased conformational activation of Bak‐1 and Bax. On the other hand, HuH7 cells with an overexpression of RUVBL2 grew better in soft agar (P < 0.03), had increased resistance to C2 ceramide–induced apoptosis (P < 0.001), and gave rise to significantly larger tumors when injected into immunodeficient Rag2/γc mice (P = 0.016). Conclusion: RUVBL2 is overexpressed in a large majority of HCCs. RUVBL2 overexpression enhances tumorigenicity, and RUVBL2 is required for tumor cell viability. These results argue for a major role of RUVBL2 in liver carcinogenesis. (HEPATOLOGY 2007.)
Effects of Snail Density on Growth, Reproduction and Survival of Biomphalaria alexandrina Exposed to Schistosoma mansoni

The effects of snail density on Biomphalaria alexandrina parasitized with Schistosoma mansoni were investigated. Laboratory experiments were used to quantify the impact of high density on snail growth, fecundity, and survival. Density-dependent birth rates of snails were determined to inform mathematical models, which, until now, have assumed a linear relationship between density and fecundity. The experiments show that the rate of egg-laying followed a negative exponential distribution with increasing density and this was significantly affected by exposure to parasitic infection. High density also affected the weight of snails and survival to a greater degree than exposure to parasitic infection. Although snail growth rates were initially constrained by high density, they retained the potential for growth suggesting a reversible density-dependent mechanism. These experimental data can be used to parameterise models and confirm that snail populations are regulated by nonlinear density-dependent mechanisms.
Toward Automated Discovery in the Biological Sciences

Knowledge discovery programs in the biological sciences require flexibility in the use of symbolic data and semantic information. Because of the volume of nonnumeric, as well as numeric, data, the programs must be able to explore a large space of possibly interesting relationships to discover those that are novel and interesting. Thus, the framework for the discovery program must facilitate proposing and selecting the next task to perform and performing the selected tasks. The framework we describe, called the agenda- and justification-based framework, has several properties that are desirable in semiautonomous discovery systems: It provides a mechanism for estimating the plausibility of tasks, it uses heuristics to propose and perform tasks, and it facilitates the encoding of general discovery strategies and the use of background knowledge. We have implemented the framework and our heuristics in a prototype program, HAMB, and have evaluated them in the domain of protein crystallization. Our results demonstrate that both reasons given for performing tasks and estimates of the interestingness of the concepts and hypotheses examined by HAMS contribute to its performance and that the program can discover novel, interesting relationships in biological data.
Species Identification in Citizen Science: Effects of Interface Design and Image Difficulty on User Performance and Workload

Species identification is an important scientific activity for ecological monitoring and digital technology has enabled citizen science projects to recruit volunteers for collecting and processing species information. Experts can easily identify species due to their formal knowledge and experience but volunteers require identification tools, which can help them to filter out the relevant species. Filtering of species is an important design element for such tools and we have identified two relevant techniques i.e. feature selection and decision tree for this purpose. We prototyped interfaces based on these techniques and conducted a user study where participants performed species identification tasks.
Outcomes of Chronic Hemodialysis Patients in the Intensive Care Unit

Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) experience higher rates of hospitalisation, cardiovascular events, and all-cause mortality and are more likely to require admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) than patients with normal renal function. Sepsis and cardiovascular diseases are the most common reasons for ICU admission. ICU mortality rates in patients requiring chronic hemodialysis are significantly higher than for patients without ESRD; however, dialysis patients have a better ICU outcome than those with acute kidney injury (AKI) requiring renal replacement therapy suggesting that factors other than loss of renal function contribute to their prognosis. Current evidence suggests, the longer-term outcomes after discharge from ICU may be favourable and that long-term dependence on dialysis should not prejudice against prompt referral or admission to ICU.
Intellectual disability and attachment theory among adults: An early systematic review

ABSTRACT Background: The aim of this systematic review was to identify and critically appraise empirical research regarding attachment theory among adults with an intellectual disability. Method: A systematic search was carried out in Psycinfo and CINHAL databases. Only five studies met selection criteria. Results: Three main findings were identified: (1) there is a scarcity of empirical research regarding attachment concepts among adults with ID, related to a lack of established measures among this population; (2) there is some evidence that insecure attachment among adults with ID is associated with adverse early life experiences and current mental health difficulties; and (3) there is conflicting evidence that attachment behaviours may present as challenging to supporters. Conclusions: Further research seeking valid and reliable measures is needed with greater numbers of participants with diverse levels of ID.
A fast hardware/software co-verification method for systern-on-a-chip by using a C/C++ simulator and FPGA emulator with shared register communication

This paper describes a new hardware/software co-verification method for System-On-a-Chip, based on the integration of a C/C++ simulator and an inexpensive FPGA emulator. Communication between the simulator and emulator occurs via a flexible interface based on shared communication registers. This method enables easy debugging, rich portability, and high verification speed, at a low cost. We describe the application of this environment to the verification of three different complex commercial SoCs, supporting concurrent hardware and embedded software development. In these projects, our verification methodology was used to perform complete system verification at 0.2-1.1 MHz, while supporting full graphical interface functions such as "waveform" or "signal dump" viewers, and debugging functions such as "step" or "break".
Interactive on-line trajectories for semi-automation: Case study of a forwarder crane

Working with forestry cranes is not easy due to their complex mechanical structure, non-linear behavior of the hydraulic actuation system, and non-intuitive joint-based control; however, with automation, the level of manipulation difficulty can be reduced. This is potentially useful for the operators since they are prone to be more productive if semi-automation functions are introduced to a certain level. In this paper, a semi-automation function for the base joint actuator of a forestry forwarder crane is proposed. The semi-automation function is based on a design of an interactive on-line trajectory generation algorithm with variable final time that acts as a reference signal to a closed-loop position controller. Moreover, the advantage of this scheme is that the operators are kept in the loop by directly being in charge of controlling the final time for the on-line trajectory generation algorithm. Experiments with a downsized industry-standard forwarder crane verify the applicability and advantage of the proposed scheme.
Stopping Out versus Dropping Out: The Role of Educational Resilience in Explaining On-Time Completion of High School

Many students who experience extended school absences or dropout episodes reengage with school and complete a diploma or alternative credential within 4 years of beginning ninth grade. However, these students have not been extensively studied, and the factors that affect reengagement decisions are not well understood. Using an educational resilience framework and the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, we investigate the factors that predict returning to high school after a dropout episode as well as specific types of return pathways. We find factors related to academic effort, including attendance and ninth-grade GPA, to be the most strongly associated with returning to school after dropout episodes. We find that students who expect to finish school tend to do so, even after a dropout episode. Other aspects of educational resilience, including personal attributes and environmental factors, did not contribute to explaining dropouts’ return to school.