Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tsukuba Meeting: Largest Attendance Ever

This section will review those books whose content and level re ect the general editorial policy of Technometrics. Publishers should send books for review to Eric R. Ziegel, BP Naperville Complex, Mail Code C-7, 150 West Warrenville Road, Naperville, IL 60563-8460 (ziegeler@bp.com). The opinions expressed in this section are those of the reviewers. These opinions do not represent positions of the reviewer’s organization and may not re ect those of the editors or the sponsoring societies. Listed prices re ect information provided by the publisher and may not be current. The book purchase programs of the American Society for Quality can provide some of these books at reduced prices for members. For information, contact the American Society for Quality, 1-800-248-1946.
Neural Connectivity in Epilepsy as Measured by Granger Causality

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by repeated seizures or excessive electrical discharges in a group of brain cells. Prevalence rates include about 50 million people worldwide and 10% of all people have at least one seizure at one time in their lives. Connectivity models of epilepsy serve to provide a deeper understanding of the processes that control and regulate seizure activity. These models have received initial support and have included measures of EEG, MEG, and MRI connectivity. Preliminary findings have shown regions of increased connectivity in the immediate regions surrounding the seizure foci and associated low connectivity in nearby regions and pathways. There is also early evidence to suggest that these patterns change during ictal events and that these changes may even by related to the occurrence or triggering of seizure events. We present data showing how Granger causality can be used with EEG data to measure connectivity across brain regions involved in ictal events and their resolution. We have provided two case examples as a demonstration of how to obtain and interpret such data. EEG data of ictal events are processed, converted to independent components and their dipole localizations, and these are used to measure causality and connectivity between these locations. Both examples have shown hypercoupling near the seizure foci and low causality across nearby and associated neuronal pathways. This technique also allows us to track how these measures change over time and during the ictal and post-ictal periods. Areas for further research into this technique, its application to epilepsy, and the formation of more effective therapeutic interventions are recommended.
Embedding CTL ∗ in an Extension to Interval Temporal Logic (ITL)

In this paper we present an embedding of the most common branching time logics (CTL/CTL∗) in an extension of interval temporal logic (ITL). The significance of this result is threefold: first the theoretical aspect is, that branching time and linear time are not so much different. A more practical aspect is that the intuitive interactive proof method of symbolic execution of ITL can be used for branching time logics as well. The opposite direction is interesting as well, for a subset of finite state systems, interactive verification of ITL formulas can be translated into a model checking problem. The proof presented in this paper has been done with the interactive theorem prover KIV. So this contribution can also be seen as a case study on reasoning about temporal logics in an interactive verification environment.
Contribution To The Short Measurement Method For Determining The Thermal Characteristics Of Existing Buildings: Total Heat Transmission Coefficient Estimation Based On Double Measurement

Abstract This article presents the way to determine the total heat transmission coefficient of a building based on double brief measurement and its practical application. It makes use of short measurement of heat consumption in a building and is based on the energy balance. In the proposed procedure the modified external temperature was used instead of the external air temperature. The modified external temperature takes into account the operation of solar radiation and wind on the building and the effect of resistance and heat capacity of the elements of the building envelope. The obtained results were verified by comparing the average monthly heat demand for heating calculated based on the determined total heat transmission coefficient and measured value. The presented way of total heat transmission coefficient determination in the event of a careful choice of measurement days and the experience of the user in estimating the number of air changes (especially in natural ventilated buildings) can be an independent method for determining HTr based on short measurements. The procedure shown in this publication is also the element of current development of the method performed by the authors which leads towards a larger number of measurement days.
Stretchable Polymer Semiconductors for Plastic Electronics

Conjugated polymers have evolved significantly in the past decade and have proven to be more than poorly conducting plastics. Instead, improved understanding has resulted in respectable charge‐carrier mobilities and power‐conversion efficiencies achieved by various donor‐acceptor‐type semiconducting polymers. However, their advantages in mechanical flexibility and deformability seem to have conflicting molecular design requirements from those for high charge‐carrier transporting properties. It is therefore a challenge to enhance the mechanical compliance of semiconducting polymers suitable for stretchable device applications. This progress report starts with a brief introduction to fracture mechanics and mechanical characterization techniques for thin polymer films, in order to consider the limitations and rationalization of current definition and parameters for stretchability. It then surveys different strategies that can be applied to improve the mechanical robustness and stretchability of polymer semiconductors, in particular focusing on molecular design aspects such as molecular weight and regioregularity, structural modifications in the polymer backbone and side chain, and postpolymerization modifications including blending and cross‐linking. Finally, directions for future development of next‐generation stretchable conjugated polymers are indicated.
Low-Complexity Soft Detection of QAM Demapper for a MIMO System

MIMO systems exploit multipath propagation to improve throughput and performance of digital communication systems. However, at the receiver side, the computation of Euclidean distances requires prohibitive computational complexity particularly when combined with a high-order constellation. Conventionally, it is necessary to calculate all the Euclidean distances to find the maximum likelihood solution. In this letter, we propose a novel approach based on the principle of conditioned detection combined with lattice-reduction techniques to estimate the closest point to the received symbol without the computation of all the Euclidean distances. Thanks to this approach, a reduction up to 95% of the required number of multiplications is achieved without any degradation in terms of performance by comparison with a conventional BP technique.
Dynamic configuration of application-specific implicit instructions for embedded pipelined processors

In this paper, we propose the dynamic configuration of application specific implicit instructions for pipelined processors to better exploit the available parallelism at instruction level. Given the target application, the compiler selects a set of candidate instructions to be implicitly executed - i.e. their execution is controlled through a data-driven model, which avoids explicit instruction fetch. Consequently, the clock cycles usually required for the explicit issues are saved, thus improving the performance and reducing the code size. The compiler generates the reconfiguration operations to properly setup the data-path. The processor pipeline has been optimized to support the parallel execution of implicitly issued instructions, requiring a limited hardware overhead. The proposed technique has a negligible impact on the processor ISA - only reconfiguration instructions are added - which also benefits the compiler development times, since the optimization can be almost seamlessly added to an existing compilation tool-chain. The proposed approach has been applied to DSP and multimedia kernel loops, comparing its performance with those of two different baseline architectures: a scalar MIPS processor and a 4-issue VLIW processor of the LX family provided by STMicroelectronics [5]. Experimental results show a speedup ranging from 10 to 35%, and an average code size reduction of 19%.
The Football Association Medical Research Programme: an audit of injuries in professional football—analysis of preseason injuries

Objectives: To conduct a detailed analysis of preseason football injuries sustained in English professional football over two competitive seasons. Methods: Club medical staff at 91 professional football clubs annotated player injuries. A specific injury audit questionnaire was used together with a weekly form that documented each club’s current injury status. Results: 17% (1025) of the total number of injuries over the two seasons were sustained during the preseason, the mean number of days absent per injury was 22.3 days. Younger age groups (17–25 yrs) were more likely to sustain a preseason injury than more experienced players (26–35+) (p<0.01). There were relatively more “slight” and “minor” injuries (as defined in the methodology), overuse, and tendon related injuries sustained during preseason compared to the in season (p<0.01). The thigh (23%), knee (17%), and ankle (17%) were the most common locations for injuries during the preseason, there was a relatively greater number of lower leg injuries (15%) during the preseason (p<0.05). Achilles tendonitis was most prevalent in the preseason, with 33% of all Achilles related injuries sustained during this period (p<0.01). Muscle strains were the most common injury during preseason (37%). Rectus femoris muscle strains were observed twice as frequently during the preseason relative to the in season (p<0.01). Ligament sprains were the second most common injury during preseason (19%). Non-contact mechanisms were the cause of significantly more injuries during the preseason (p<0.01), with relatively more preseason injuries sustained while running or shooting (p<0.01). For 70% of the injuries reported during the preseason, the ground condition was described as dry. Conclusions: Players are at a greater risk of slight and minor injuries, overuse injuries, lower leg injuries (especially the Achilles tendon) and rectus femoris strains during the preseason period. Prevention of preseason injury is important to ensure availability of players for the commencement of the season and to decrease the risk of injury later in the season, we recommend the implementation of a risk management policy for this purpose. Areas requiring further investigation include methods of prevention for the common preseason injuries that have been identified, a detailed analysis of preseason and closed season training programmes, and a smaller study involving exposure data.
A Tabu Search Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Soft Time Windows

This paper describes a tabu search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows. In this problem, lateness at customer locations is allowed although a penalty is incurred and added to the objective value. By adding large penalty values, the vehicle routing problem with hard time windows can be addressed as well. In the tabu search, a neighborhood of the current solution is created through an exchange procedure that swaps sequences of consecutive customers (or segments) between two routes. The tabu search also exploits an adaptive memory that contains the routes of the best previously visited solutions. New starting points for the tabu search are produced through a combination of routes taken from different solutions found in this memory. Many best-known solutions are reported on classical test problems.
PEC: A privacy-preserving emergency call scheme for mobile healthcare social networks

In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving emergency call scheme, called PEC, enabling patients in life-threatening emergencies to fast and accurately transmit emergency data to the nearby helpers via mobile healthcare social networks (MHSNs). Once an emergency happens, the personal digital assistant (PDA) of the patient runs the PEC to collect the emergency data including emergency location, patient health record, as well as patient physiological condition. The PEC then generates an emergency call with the emergency data inside and epidemically disseminates it to every user in the patient's neighborhood. If a physician happens to be nearby, the PEC ensures the time used to notify the physician of the emergency is the shortest. We show via theoretical analysis that the PEC is able to provide fine-grained access control on the emergency data, where the access policy is set by patients themselves. More- over, the PEC can withstand multiple types of attacks, such as identity theft attack, forgery attack, and collusion attack. We also de- vise an effective revocation mechanism to make the revocable PEC (rPEC) resistant to inside attacks. In addition, we demonstrate via simulation that the PEC can significantly reduce the response time of emergency care in MHSNs.
Fear-avoidance behavior and anticipation of pain in patients with chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled study.

OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN In a randomized controlled study, we investigated whether pain anticipation and fear-avoidance beliefs will lead to behavioral avoidance. PATIENTS Fifty patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) performed a simple leg-flexion task. Before the test, members of a control group were informed that the movement would not result in any increase of pain, whereas experimental group participants were told that a slight increase of pain could occur. OUTCOME MEASURES All patients completed the Fear-Avoidance-Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) and the Pain Disability Index (PDI). As dependent variables, different behavioral performance parameters were registered by a computerized protocol: number of flexion movements, mean range of motion, and mean work ratio. Furthermore, patients were asked about their pain intensity as well as their fear (at the moment) and finally were asked to judge the unpleasantness of the experiment (using visual analogue scales for each of the three variables). RESULTS Inducing pain anticipation (by instruction) led to significantly lower levels of behavioral performance as well as increased pain intensity and fear during the test. Behavioral performance was significantly correlated with fear-avoidance beliefs. CONCLUSIONS Results confirm that pain anticipation and fear-avoidance beliefs significantly influence the behavior of patients with low back pain in that they motivate avoidance behavior. Therapists must be aware of the powerful effects of cognitive processes, which can give rise to fear of pain and, consequently, avoidance behavior.
Team Beats Collusion

This paper analyzes optimal contracts in a linear hidden-action model with normally distributed returns possessing two moments that are governed jointly by two agents, who can observe each others' effort levels and draft enforceable side-contracts on chosen effort levels and realized returns. After showing that standard constraints, resulting in incentive-contracts, may fail to ensure implementability, we examine (centralized) collusion-proof contracts and (decentralized) team-contracts. We prove that optimal team-contracts provide the highest implementable returns to the principal. In other words, the principal may restrict attention to outsourcing/decentralization without any loss of generality. Moreover, situations in which incentive-contracts are collusion-proof, thus implementable, are fully characterized.
Exploring Software Measures to Assess Program Comprehension

Software measures are often used to assess program comprehension, although their applicability is discussed controversially. Often, their application is based on plausibility arguments, which, however, is not sufficient to decide whether software measures are good predictors for program comprehension. Our goal is to evaluate whether and how software measures and program comprehension correlate. To this end, we carefully designed an experiment. We used four different measures that are often used to judge the quality of source code: complexity, lines of code, concern attributes, and concern operations. We measured how subjects understood two comparable software systems that differ in their implementation, such that one implementation promised considerable benefits in terms of better software measures. We did not observe a difference in program comprehension of our subjects as the software measures suggested it. To explore how software measures and program comprehension could correlate, we used several variants of computing the software measures. This brought them closer to our observed result, however, not as close as to confirm a relationship between software measures and program comprehension. Having failed to establish a relationship, we present our findings as an open issue to the community and initiate a discussion on the role of software measures as comprehensibility predictors.
Comparison of physical activity estimates using International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and accelerometry in fibromyalgia patients: The Al-Andalus study

Abstract The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) has been widely used to assess physical activity in healthy populations. The present study compared physical activity assessed by the long, self-administrated version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire with physical activity assessed by accelerometry in patients with fibromyalgia. A total of 99 (five men) participants with fibromyalgia completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and wore an accelerometer for nine consecutive days. We analysed the correlations of physical activity expressed as min · day−1 of light, moderate, vigorous, and moderate to vigorous (MVPA) intensity, as well as time spent sitting, by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and accelerometry by Spearman correlations. Bland and Altman plots were performed to verify the agreements between both instruments. The results showed weak yet significant correlations (Rs = 0.15–0.39, all P < 0.05) in all physical activity intensities between the two instruments, except for sedentary time. The highest correlations were observed for physical activity at home or in garden (Rs = 0.297, P < 0.01). The results suggest that the long self-administrated International Physical Activity Questionnaire is a questionable instrument to assess physical activity in patients with fibromyalgia. Therefore, physical activity measurement in fibromyalgia patients should not be limited solely to self-reported measures.
Evidence-Based, Non-Pharmacological Treatment Guideline for Depression in Korea

Although pharmacological treatment constitutes the main therapeutic approach for depression, non-pharmacological treatments (self-care or psychotherapeutic approach) are usually regarded as more essential therapeutic approaches in clinical practice. However, there have been few clinical practice guidelines concerning self-care or psychotherapy in the management of depression. This study introduces the 'Evidence-Based, Non-Pharmacological Treatment Guideline for Depression in Korea. ' For the first time, a guideline was developed for non-pharmacological treatments for Korean adults with mild-to-moderate depression. The guideline development process consisted of establishing several key questions related to non-pharmacologic treatments of depression, searching the literature for studies which answer these questions, assessing the evidence level of each selected study, drawing up draft recommendation, and peer review. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network grading system was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. As a result of this process, the guideline recommends exercise therapy, bibliotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy, short-term psychodynamic supportive psychotherapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy as the non-pharmacological treatments for adult patients with mild-to-moderate depression in Korea. Hence, it is necessary to develop specific methodologies for several non-pharmacological treatment for Korean adults with depression.
Fabrication of anatomically correct head phantoms Based on processing of CT images with MATLAB and rapid prototyping

This article describes the processing of computed tomography (CT) images with MATLAB for the fabrication of anatomically correct head phantoms. Such phantoms are applied for the verification of systems for image-guided interventions. For this purpose, a CT-image set of a patient's head has been read into MATLAB and the skin part (soft tissue between head and bone surface) and some bone parts were segmented separately. A number of positioning and connection elements were generated in both skin and bone parts for later assembly of the phantom. Finally, the segmented skin and bone parts have been converted into Stereolithography format (STL) for printing with a 3D printer. The complete process was successfully tested with a patient individual CT data set. Moreover, the accuracy of the added positioning and connection elements was measured. The preliminary results show that this MATLAB-based module is suitable for processing of CT image data for the fabrication of realistic anatomical phantoms.
Practical Schedulability Analysis for Generalized Sporadic Tasks in Distributed Real-Time Systems

Existing off-line schedulability analysis for real-time systems can only handle periodic or sporadic tasks with known minimum inter-arrival times. Modeling sporadic tasks with fixed minimum inter-arrival times is a poor approximation for systems in which tasks arrive in bursts, but have longer intervals between the bursts. In such cases, schedulability analysis based on the existing sporadic task model is pessimistic and seriously overestimates the task's time demand. In this paper, we propose a generalized sporadic task model that characterizes arrival times more precisely than the traditional sporadic task model, and we develop a corresponding schedulability analysis that computes tighter bounds on worst-case response times. Experimental results show that when arrival time jitter increases, the new analysis more effectively guarantees schedulability of sporadic tasks.
Learning new word pronunciations from spoken examples

A lexicon containing explicit mappings between words and pronunciations is an integral part of most automatic speech recognizers (ASRs). While many ASR components can be trained or adapted using data, the lexicon is one of the few that typically remains static until experts make manual changes. This work takes a step towards alleviating the need for manual intervention by integrating a popular grapheme-to-phoneme conversion technique with acoustic examples to automatically learn highquality baseform pronunciations for unknown words. We explore two models in a Bayesian framework, and discuss their individual advantages and shortcomings. We show that both are able to generate better-than-expert pronunciations with respect to word error rate on an isolated word recognition task. Index Terms: grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, pronunciation models, lexical representation