Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing large-scale transient data in IoT systems

The rise of Internet of Things (IoT) has brought about the need to manage the voluminous amount of data that flows through IoT systems. In order to achieve scalability, distributed cloud technology is used for designing and implementing large-scale IoT systems. Current work on managing data in such systems has mostly focused on persistent data, i.e., data that is stored even after the system has finished its execution. However, very little work has focused on how to manage the transient (non-persistent) data that is streamed through the system and which does not outlive the system execution. This transient data is crucial since it is typically processed to generate summarized insights during system execution, and some of it may need to be stored after system execution as per users needs. Currently this data is either purged after analysis or is fully stored for historical purposes. To that end, in this position paper, we present our thoughts on managing transient data in IoT systems. By managing, we mean the process of generating useful value from this data for users. We therefore provide a precise definition of how data can be characterized as transient. We then use this definition to suggest approaches for facilitating placement and processing of this data closer to related data and/or sources of computation for improving execution efficiency. We also show how these approaches can be made dynamic, so as to accommodate users' changing needs in real-time.
Product variety in Australian snacks and drinks: how can the consumer make a healthy choice?

Abstract Objective To estimate the proportion of ‘healthy’ snack food and beverage choices available to an Australian consumer. Design A survey of product Nutrition Information Panels (NIP) and product labels on snack foods and beverages offered for sale. Data on nutrient content were compared with criteria from different nutrient profile systems to estimate the proportion of items conforming to a ‘healthy’ choice. Setting A large supermarket in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Results A consumer could choose from 1070 different snack foods and 863 different drinks. Flavour variety was more common in snacks (maximum thirteen per product) while variation in container size was more common for drinks (up to ten per product). Recommended serving size for snacks varied greatly (18–100 g) while the serving size for drinks frequently did not correspond to the size of the container. Depending on the nutrient profile system selected, only 9–22 % of snack foods presented for sale could be deemed ‘nutritious’ by multiple criteria. Similarly, only 14–27 % of beverages met ‘healthy’ criteria. Conclusions As one factor to help reduce the obesogenic environment, the supply balance needs to be shifted in favour of ‘healthier’ snack foods and beverages, e.g. by reformulation of many products by the food industry and their presentation in smaller, standardised portion-size packaging.
Automatically Finding Matches Between Social Media Posts and News Articles

Social networks can often be considered the main stage of news, so detecting newsworthy information in this media is a relevant subject of study. Labeling automatically messages shared in social networks is an area of study that can be used directly to detect newsworthy information or to serve as training data for other projects. The solution presented in this work is to use the news as the base knowledge for the classification of messages. The results of this application were promising, with an accuracy of over 90% in detecting news related messages in our datasets.
SlW-based patch antenna with improved performance

A Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) based patch antenna with improved performance in terms of impedance bandwidth, radiation efficiency, gain, reduced cross-polarization level and harmonic suppression is proposed in this paper. In addition to the SIW technique, the reason of this improved performance is the use of a modified proximity microstrip feed line consisting of a stepped transformer followed by a pair of λg/4 microstrip-line resonators. The designed antenna has a gain of 8.90 dBi, impedance bandwidth of 34.3% and radiation efficiency of 87.13% at 7.14GHz that are much higher compared to values reported in the literature for single layer patch antennas.
Field Enhancement in a Grounded Dielectric Slab by Using a Single Superstrate Layer

The addition of a dielectric layer on a slab configuration is frequently utilized in various electromagnetic devices in order to give them certain desired operational characteristics. In this work, we consider a grounded dielectric film-slab, which is externally excited by a normally-incident Gaussian beam. On top of the film-slab, we use an additional suitably selected single isotropic superstrate layer in order to increase the field concentration inside the slab and hence achieve optimal power transfer from the external source to the internal region. We define a quantity of interest, called “enhancement factor,” expressing the increase of the field concentration in the film-slab when the superstrate is present compared to the case that it is absent. It is shown that large enhancement factor values may be achieved by choosing properly the permittivity, the permeability, and the thickness of the superstrate. In particular, it is demonstrated that the field in the film-slab is significantly enhanced when the slab is composed by an ϵ-near-zero (ENZ) or low-index metamaterial.
A Method for Determining the Moment of Touching a Card Using Wrist-worn Sensor in Competitive Karuta

: Competitive karuta is an o ﬃ cial Japanese card game and is described as “martial art on the tatami. ” Recently, competitive karuta has attracted a great deal of attention among young people. One of characteristic rules of competitive karuta is that there is no referee; therefore players must judge themselves even if the di ﬃ cult situation arises. Consequently, the players sometimes get into an argument over their judgement, which disrupts the other matches in the room because all the matches proceed in parallel. In this paper, we propose a system that judges the player who took a card ﬁrst in a competitive karuta match. Our system measures motion data when players take a card by using a wrist-worn accelerometer and gyroscope, and estimates the times when the players touched the card. From the evaluation experiments, 69.2% of rounds were estimated without error and 99.0% of rounds were estimated within 20-ms error. When our system was introduced on the close game, the accuracy of deciding the player taking a card was 75%.
Characterization of the 3-D cellular structure of mango (Mangifera indica L. cv. Carabao) during chilling injury development using X-ray computed microtomography

The microstructure of mango fruit was investigated during chilling and ripening. Results showed an early onset of chilling injury which appeared on fruits stored after 7 days of storage at 4°C. Chilling injury incidence increased significantly with storage time in which all fruits were affected after 28 days of storage at 4°C. Mangoes stored at chilling temperature exhibit less yellow and a greener mesocarp compared to non-chill injured mangoes when ripened. Tissues were analysed with X-ray micro-CT. Image segmentation of the tissue and pore space was optimized using Otsu’s algorithm. Representative elementary volume analysis showed that 0.242 mm 3 can be regarded as the elementary volume for determining properties of the porous tissue. Microstructural changes during ripening favours a shift from interconnected large pore to isolated small pores. Chilling injury on the other hand reveals loss of structural integrity, cell collapse and formation of cavity.
Fabrication and characterization of open cell porous regular interconnected metallic structure with solid core

Metallic parts having open cell porous regular interconnected metallic structure of predetermined unit cell are being fabricated using metal powder–based rapid prototyping machines. These machines are capital intensive. All porous structures including open cell porous regular interconnected metallic structure have less density, so they lack in strength problems as compared to the solid structure. The strength of open cell porous regular interconnected metallic structure can be enhanced by providing solid inner core. In this study, a cost-effective technique has been developed to fabricate open cell porous regular interconnected metallic structure with solid core using ceramic powder–based three-dimensional printing machine and pressureless sintering. In this work, two approaches of fabrication were developed. In the first approach, only spherical metal powder was used, while in the second approach, a solid metallic rod along with spherical metal powder was utilized. Interconnected porosity and sinter density of the fabricated specimens were measured using Archimedes’ principle. The characterization was done using microstructure analysis, energy dispersive analysis, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. Mechanical properties of developed structures were determined using tensile, compressive and impact tests.
Development of cross-linked alginate spheres by ionotropic gelation technique for controlled release of naproxen orally

Controlled release naproxen spheres were prepared in a cross-linked alginate matrix using ionotropic gelation technique. A suspension of naproxen in 1%, 2%, or 3% w/v sodium alginate solution was added drop wise into 2% w/v calcium chloride solution and the resulting spheres were evaluated for their morphology, physical characteristics, rate of swelling, and micromeritics. Increase in concentration of sodium alginate marginally increased particle size of the spheres. The arithmetic-number mean diameter of naproxen-loaded spheres ranged from 1.09 mm for 1% alginate spheres to 1.31 mm for 3% alginate spheres. The encapsulation efficiency increased linearly with increasing alginate concentration (R 2 = 0.9996) due to formation of denser spheres. The rate of swelling of the spheres over a 1 h period was about 50% in deionized water and more than 2000% in phosphate buffer solution. The release of naproxen from the spheres studied in phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.4) followed zero-order release kinetics (after the initial burst effect) between 30 and 90 min for 1% and 2% alginate spheres, and between 30 and 120 min for 3% alginate spheres, exhibiting correlation coefficient values ranging from 0.9929 to 0.9999. The rate of release of naproxen decreased with increasing concentration of sodium alginate due to slow penetration of dissolution fluid in the spheres. The results suggest that alginate spheres can potentially deliver naproxen at zero-order controlled release following oral administration.
Serum Chemerin Concentrations Associate with Beta-Cell Function, but Not with Insulin Resistance in Individuals with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)

The novel adipokine chemerin has been related to insulin-resistant states such as obesity and non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, its association with insulin resistance and beta cell function remains controversial. The main objective was to examine whether serum chemerin levels associate with insulin sensitivity and beta cell function independently of body mass index (BMI), by studying consecutive outpatients of the hepatology clinics of a European university hospital. Individuals (n=196) with NAFLD were stratified into persons with normal glucose tolerance (NGT; n=110), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT; n=51) and type 2 diabetes (T2D; n=35) and the association between serum chemerin and measures of insulin sensitivity and beta cell function as assessed during fasting and during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was measured. Our results showed that serum chemerin positively associated with BMI (P=0.0007) and C peptide during OGTT (P<0.004), but not with circulating glucose, insulin, lipids or liver enzymes (all P>0.18). No BMI independent relationships of chemerin with fasting and OGTT derived measures of insulin sensitivity were found (P>0.5). Chemerin associated positively with fasting beta cell function as well as the OGTT derived insulinogenic index IGI_cp and the adaptation index after adjustment for age, sex and BMI (P=0.002-0.007), and inversely with the insulin/C peptide ratio (P=0.007). Serum chemerin neither related to the insulinogenic index IGI_ins nor the disposition index. In conclusion, circulating chemerin is likely linked to enhanced beta cell function but not to insulin sensitivity in patients with NAFLD.
Stabilizing a linear system using phone calls

We consider the problem of stabilizing an undisturbed, scalar, linear system over a “timing” channel, namely a channel where information is communicated through the timestamps of the transmitted symbols. Each transmitted symbol is received at the controller subject to some to random delay. The sensor can encode messages in the holding times between successive transmissions and the controller must decode them from the inter-reception times of successive symbols. This set-up is analogous to a telephone system where a transmitter signals a phone call to the receiver through a “ring” and, after a random time required to establish the connection, is aware of the “ring” being received. We show that for the state to converge to zero in probability, the timing capacity of the channel should be at least as large as the entropy rate of the system. In the case the symbol delays are exponentially distributed, we show a tight sufficient condition using a decoding strategy that successively refines the estimate of the decoded message every time a new symbol is received. These results extend our previous work on estimation over the timing channel to stabilization.
An efficient spectral leakage filtering for IEEE 802.11af in TV white space

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has been widely adopted for modern wireless standards and become a key enabling technology for cognitive radios. However, one of its main drawbacks is significant spectral leakage due to the accumulation of multiple siwc-shaped subcarriers. In this paper, we present a novel pulse shaping scheme for efficient spectral leakage suppression in OFDM based physical layer of IEEE 802.11af standard. With conventional pulse shaping filters such as a raised-cosine filter, vestigial symmetry can be used to reduce spectral leakage very effectively. However, these pulse shaping filters require long guard interval, i.e., cyclic prefix in an OFDM system, to avoid inter-symbol interference (ESI), resulting in a loss of spectral efficiency. The proposed pulse shaping method based on asymmetric pulse shaping achieves better spectral leakage suppression and decreases ISI caused by filtering as compared to conventional pulse shaping filters.
Light-weight visual place recognition using convolutional neural network for mobile robots

Place recognition is one of the essential components for mobile robot navigation. In this work, we present a light-weight convolutional neural network (CNN) approach for visual place recognition. Our proposed approach specifically targets embedded systems. To reduce the computational complexity in the network, we design a fully convolutional network architecture with fewer layers and filters. The proposed network directly learns a vector space where its distance corresponds to place similarity by metric learning. For effective training, we adopt triplet embedding with image dataset captured at various viewpoints. Such approach allows the network to embed scenes directly without any further training process on robots. The experimental results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms conventional algorithms including other CNN-based approaches in terms of accuracy and computational time.
Adaptive method for MRI enhancement using squared eigenfunctions of the Schrödinger operator

Recently, a Magnetic Resonance image denoising method, based on squared eigenfunctions of the Schrödinger operator, has been presented. However, its performance depends on the choice of a filtering parameter called h. We propose an adaptive selection of the filtering parameter by a grid segmentation of the noisy input image. The latter will follow an appropriate distribution along the different sub-images allowing the adaptation of its value to the spatial variation of noise and responded efficiently to the denoising objectives. Numerical tests using a synthetic dataset from BrainWeb and real MR images show the effectiveness of the proposed approach compared to the standard case with one fixed parameter.
Critical Success Factors in Virtual-Reality Based Marketing Ecosystems

Virtual Reality (VR) offers new opportunities to marketers. Considering the fact that the primary role of marketing is to engrave a product or service to potential users and that VR arouses emotional responses and can influence the behavior of users, the applicability of VR to marketing cannot be underestimated. Accordingly, in this paper, we explore Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of VR in marketing ecosystems. Moreover, by adopting the means-end chain model, this paper focuses on the conditions that lead to a successful VR marketing campaign rather than any barriers associated with it. Results highlight the presence of 17 success factors for VR-based marketing campaign and provide insights to stakeholders who are considering whether or not to utilize VR technology in marketing their service or product.
Co_Hijacking Monitor: Collaborative Detecting and Locating Mechanism for HTTP Spectral Hijacking

With the rapid growth of mobile internet, mobile application, like website navigation, searching, e-Shopping and app download, etc. are all popular in worldwide. Meanwhile, it become more and more popular that traditional HTTP protocol, which is also applying in not only web browsing but also communication between mobile application clients and servers. Besides, it has made HTTP Hijacking profitable. Furthermore, it has brought a lot of troubles for users, network operators and ISP. We analyze the principle of HTTP spectral Hijacking and present a mechanism of collaboratively detecting and locating called Co HijackingMonitor. Experimental result shows that, Co HijackingMonitor can solve the hijacking problem effectively.
Investigation of phase noise and jitter in CMOS sampling clock generation circuits for time-domain breast cancer detection system

Impulse radio ultrawideband (IR-UWB) technologies have been applied for time-domain breast cancer imaging systems. A Gaussian monocycle pulse (GMP) train with 200 ps pulse width is generated and the received GMP is converted from analog to digital by an equivalent time sampling circuit. A fluctuation of the sampling timing such as a jitter causes a degradation of reconstructed images. In this paper, the influence of jitter on confocal imaging is investigated. It is found that the SNR is improved by reducing the jitter. A low-jitter 102.4GS/s sampling clock generator in 65nm CMOS technology is proposed. This circuit achieved 1.98 ps jitter by 1.2V voltage supply and 0.90ps jitter by 1.45V voltage supply.
Oxidized Laser‐Induced Graphene for Efficient Oxygen Electrocatalysis

An efficient metal‐free catalyst is presented for oxygen evolution and reduction based on oxidized laser‐induced graphene (LIG‐O). The oxidation of LIG by O2 plasma to form LIG‐O boosts its performance in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), exhibiting a low onset potential of 260 mV with a low Tafel slope of 49 mV dec−1, as well as an increased activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. Additionally, LIG‐O shows unexpectedly high activity in catalyzing Li2O2 decomposition in Li‐O2 batteries. The overpotential upon charging is decreased from 1.01 V in LIG to 0.63 V in LIG‐O. The oxygen‐containing groups make essential contributions, not only by providing the active sites, but also by facilitating the adsorption of OER intermediates and lowering the activation energy.
Critical factors in the design of growth factor releasing scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering

Background: Trauma or degenerative diseases of the joints are common clinical problems resulting in high morbidity. Although various orthopedic treatments have been developed and evaluated, the low repair capacities of articular cartilage renders functional results unsatisfactory in the long term. Over the last decade, a different approach (tissue engineering) has emerged that aims not only to repair impaired cartilage, but also to fully regenerate it, by combining cells, biomaterials mimicking extracellular matrix (scaffolds) and regulatory signals. The latter is of high importance as growth factors have the potency to induce, support or enhance the growth and differentiation of various cell types towards the chondrogenic lineage. Therefore, the controlled release of different growth factors from scaffolds appears to have great potential to orchestrate tissue repair effectively. Objective: This review aims to highlight considerations and limitations of the design, materials and processing methods available to create scaffolds, in relation to the suitability to incorporate and release growth factors in a safe and defined manner. Furthermore, the current state of the art of signalling molecules release from scaffolds and the impact on cartilage regeneration in vitro and in vivo is reported and critically discussed. Methods: The strict aspects of biomaterials, scaffolds and growth factor release from scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering applications are considered. Conclusion: Engineering defined scaffolds that deliver growth factors in a controlled way is a task seldom attained. If growth factor delivery appears to be beneficial overall, the optimal delivery conditions for cartilage reconstruction should be more thoroughly investigated.
Wireless Vital Signal Tracking for Drivers Using Micro-Doppler Seatback Radar

This study presents wireless vital signal tracking results of multi-carrier micro-Doppler radar installed in driver's seatback, which can be used to develop new e-healthcare services of smart cars in the future. The multi-carrier micro-Doppler radar utilize multiple frequencies to measure driver's vital signal in order to overcome the measurement deterioration by unwanted radar and radar movement. The method is briefly described in this paper. To evaluate the performance of the method for the driver's vital signal tracking, we installed the radar into driver's seatback in an automobile. In some scenarios, driver's heartbeat and respiration rate are measured in the automobile. We present the experiment setup and results for four volunteers' measurement data. The results show that the heartbeat rate tracking performance of the driver's seatback radar is better than the respiration tracking.
An Efficient Content-Based Image Enhancement in the Compressed Domain Using Retinex Theory

The object of this paper is to present a simple and efficient algorithm for dynamic range compression and contrast enhancement of digital images under the noisy environment in the compressed domain. First, an image is separated into illumination and reflectance components. Next, the illumination component is manipulated adaptively for image dynamics by using a new content measure. Then, the reflectance component based on the measure of the spectral contents of the image is manipulated for image contrast. The spectral content measure is computed from the energy distribution across different spectral bands in a discrete cosine transform (DCT) block. The proposed approach also introduces a simple scheme for estimating and reducing noise information directly in the DCT domain. The main advantage of the proposed algorithm enhances the details in the dark and the bright areas with low computations without boosting noise information and affecting the compressibility of the original image since it performs on the images in the compressed domain. In order to evaluate the proposed scheme, several base-line approaches are described and compared using enhancement quality measures