Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance of Incremental DF Cooperative Networks with the Nth Best-Relay over Identical Rayleigh Fading Channels

Cooperative diversity networks have recently been proposed as a promising technology to improve performance over fading channels. In this paper, we consider an incremental decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative diversity network which employs the Nth best relay when the best relay is unavailable due to issues such as scheduling or load balancing. The end-to-end performance of this cooperative network is analyzed over independent and identical Rayleigh fading channels. Closed form expressions for the bit error rate and channel capacity are derived, and results are presented to illustrate the performance of the network when the Nth best relay is employed.
Bank Risk Dynamics and Distance to Default

We adapt structural models of default risk to take into account the special nature of bank assets. The usual assumption of lognormally distributed asset values is not appropriate for banks. Typical bank assets are risky debt claims with concave payoffs. Because of the payoff nonlinearity, bank asset volatility rises following negative shocks to borrower asset values. As a result, standard structural models with constant asset volatility can severely understate banks’ default risk in good times when asset values are high. Additionally, bank equity return volatility is much more sensitive to negative shocks to asset values than in standard structural models.
Enhancing Innovation Capacity in SMEs Through Early Network Relationships

Networks can offer SMEs a number of advantages, especially in terms of providing greater opportunities for knowledge activities that support innovation, but there is little in the literature to suggest how firms develop their innovation capacity through network participation. In this paper, we present an in-depth longitudinal case study of a small entrepreneurial firm within the mobile-commerce industry. A principal finding from the study is that network relationships formed during the earliest stages of the firm's life cycle played a critical role in developing the SME's capacity for sustained innovation. Further, the study contributes to network theory by calling into question the weak and strong tie dichotomy, as relationships critical to the SME's innovation capacity possessed characteristics of both types of ties. The paper also contributes to managerial practice by emphasizing the importance of establishing strong relationships in the earliest stages of network formation.
Grammatical Framework Web Service

We present a web service for natural language parsing, prediction, generation, and translation using grammars in Portable Grammar Format (PGF), the target format of the Grammatical Framework (GF) grammar compiler. The web service implementation is open source, works with any PGF grammar, and with any web server that supports FastCGI. The service exposes a simple interface which makes it possible to use it for interactive natural language web applications. We describe the functionality and interface of the web service, and demonstrate several applications built on top of it.
Prolonged Walking with a Wearable System Providing Intelligent Auditory Input in People with Parkinson’s Disease

Rhythmic auditory cueing is a well-accepted tool for gait rehabilitation in Parkinson’s disease (PD), which can now be applied in a performance-adapted fashion due to technological advance. This study investigated the immediate differences on gait during a prolonged, 30 min, walk with performance-adapted (intelligent) auditory cueing and verbal feedback provided by a wearable sensor-based system as alternatives for traditional cueing. Additionally, potential effects on self-perceived fatigue were assessed. Twenty-eight people with PD and 13 age-matched healthy elderly (HE) performed four 30 min walks with a wearable cue and feedback system. In randomized order, participants received: (1) continuous auditory cueing; (2) intelligent cueing (10 metronome beats triggered by a deviating walking rhythm); (3) intelligent feedback (verbal instructions triggered by a deviating walking rhythm); and (4) no external input. Fatigue was self-scored at rest and after walking during each session. The results showed that while HE were able to maintain cadence for 30 min during all conditions, cadence in PD significantly declined without input. With continuous cueing and intelligent feedback people with PD were able to maintain cadence (p = 0.04), although they were more physically fatigued than HE. Furthermore, cadence deviated significantly more in people with PD than in HE without input and particularly with intelligent feedback (both: p = 0.04). In PD, continuous and intelligent cueing induced significantly less deviations of cadence (p = 0.006). Altogether, this suggests that intelligent cueing is a suitable alternative for the continuous mode during prolonged walking in PD, as it induced similar effects on gait without generating levels of fatigue beyond that of HE.
Application Of Vts To Environment Compensation With Noise Statistics

Recently, the vector Taylor series (VTS) approach was proposed as an eecient method for robust speech recognition under various environmental conditions. The VTS approach makes an approximation to the speech contamination procedure by a linearized model and estimates the parameter values using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. In this paper, we apply the VTS approach to environment compensation with assumed noise statistics. In addition, we present a Bayesian adaptation technique with which we can incorporate the a priori knowledge about the noise statistics to the parameter estimation procedure.
Techniques for power management at the logic level

Power dissipation has recently emerged as one the most critical design constraints. A wide range of techniques has already been proposed for the optimization of logic circuits for low power. Power management methods are among the most effective techniques for power reduction. These methods detect periods of time during which parts of the circuit are not doing useful work and shut them down by either turning off the power supply or the clock signal. In this paper, some of the most representative logic-level power management techniques that have recently been proposed are reviewed. Each method uses a different approach to identify the input conditions for which the circuit (or part of) can be disabled. These techniques are put into perspective and recent results are discussed.
Understanding microRNA-mediated gene regulatory networks through mathematical modelling

The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) has added a new player to the regulation of gene expression. With the increasing number of molecular species involved in gene regulatory networks, it is hard to obtain an intuitive understanding of network dynamics. Mathematical modelling can help dissecting the role of miRNAs in gene regulatory networks, and we shall here review the most recent developments that utilise different mathematical modelling approaches to provide quantitative insights into the function of miRNAs in the regulation of gene expression. Key miRNA regulation features that have been elucidated via modelling include: (i) the role of miRNA-mediated feedback and feedforward loops in fine-tuning of gene expression; (ii) the miRNA–target interaction properties determining the effectiveness of miRNA-mediated gene repression; and (iii) the competition for shared miRNAs leading to the cross-regulation of genes. However, there is still lack of mechanistic understanding of many other properties of miRNA regulation like unconventional miRNA–target interactions, miRNA regulation at different sub-cellular locations and functional miRNA variant, which will need future modelling efforts to deal with. This review provides an overview of recent developments and challenges in this field.
Protein Quantity and Quality at Levels above the RDA Improves Adult Weight Loss

Evidence is accumulating that diets with reduced carbohydrates and increased levels of high quality protein are effective for weight loss. These diets appear to provide a metabolic advantage during restricted energy intake that targets increased loss of body fat while reducing loss of lean tissue and stabilizing regulations of blood glucose. We have proposed that the branched-chain amino acid leucine is a key to the metabolic advantage of a higher protein diet because of its unique roles in regulation of muscle protein synthesis, insulin signaling and glucose re-cycling via alanine. These metabolic actions of leucine require plasma and intracellular concentrations to increase above minimum levels maintained by current dietary guidelines and dietary practices in the U.S. Initial findings support use of dietary at levels above 1.5 g/kg · d during weight loss. Further, our research suggests that increased use of high quality protein at breakfast maybe important for the metabolic advantage of a higher protein diet.
Harmonic and power balance tools for tapping-mode atomic force microscope

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is a powerful tool for investigating surfaces at atomic scales. Harmonic balance and power balance techniques are introduced to analyze the tapping-mode dynamics of the atomic force microscope. The harmonic balance perspective explains observations hitherto unexplained in the AFM literature. A nonconservative model for the cantilever–sample interaction is developed. The energy dissipation in the sample is studied and the resulting power balance equations combined with the harmonic balance equations are used to estimate the model parameters. Experimental results confirm that the harmonic and power balance tools can be used effectively to predict the behavior of the tapping cantilever.
Repeatable battery for the assessment of neuropsychological status as a screening test in schizophrenia, II: convergent/discriminant validity and diagnostic group comparisons.

OBJECTIVE In a companion article in this issue of the Journal, the authors presented data suggesting that the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) is sensitive to the types of impairments observed in schizophrenia, correlates highly with standard measures of intelligence and memory, and is related to employment status in a group of patients with schizophrenia drawn from a tertiary care research center. The objectives of the current study were 1) to determine if evidence of the convergent validity of the RBANS could be replicated in a diagnostically heterogeneous sample drawn from a public mental health system, 2) to examine the relationship of the RBANS to a broad neuropsychological battery, and 3) to compare the performance of patients with schizophrenia and patients with bipolar disorder on a neuropsychological battery and the RBANS. METHOD The RBANS and a standard neuropsychological battery, including the WAIS-III and Wechsler Memory Scale, 3rd ed. (WMS-III), were given to 150 patients drawn from a larger study of vocational rehabilitation. RESULTS Correlations of RBANS total scores with WAIS-III and WMS-III variables were highly similar across study groups. The RBANS correlated highly with a composite z score derived from 22 standard measures of IQ, memory, language, motor, attention, and executive function. Principal component analyses of the neuropsychological battery resulted in a six-factor solution: the RBANS correlated most highly with a general ability factor and had limited correlations with measures of motor performance, vigilance, and executive function. Patients with schizophrenia demonstrated greater deficits on the neuropsychological battery and the RBANS than patients with bipolar disorder. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that the RBANS is a useful screening instrument for assessing the severity of cognitive impairment in psychiatric populations.
Motion planning using first-order synergies

This paper proposes a novel motion planning approach that exploits the concept of synergies (correlations) between degrees of freedom, extending it to the velocity space and calling them first-order synergies. An automatic partition method is defined to optimally divide the configuration space into cells where first-order synergies are significantly different. Using this partition, an algorithm that tends to grow a tree by extending the branches in the directions determined by the the first-order synergies of the cell where the leaf to be grown lies is introduced and called FOS-RRT. This allows the natural expansion of the tree along the directions determined by the data used to define the synergies. 2D examples illustrate the performance of the proposed approach, which is particularly attractive for potential applications in human-like robots using human synergies.
Comparative Demography of Skates: Life-History Correlates of Productivity and Implications for Management

Age-structured demographic models were constructed based on empirical estimates of longevity and maturity for five deepwater Bering Sea skates to investigate how observed differences in life history parameters affect population growth rates. Monte Carlo simulations were used to incorporate parameter uncertainty. Estimated population growth rates ranged from 1.045 to 1.129 yr−1 and were lower than those reported for other Alaskan skates and most chondrichthyans. Population growth rates of these and other high-latitude skates increased with relative reproductive lifespan, but displayed no significant relationship with body size or depth distribution, suggesting that assemblage shifts may be difficult to predict for data-poor taxa. Elasticity analyses indicated that juvenile and adult survival had greater per-unit effects on population growth rates than did egg-case survival or fecundity. Population growth rate was affected more by uncertainty in age at maturity than maximum age. The results of this study indicate that if skates are deemed to be a management concern, gear modifications or depth-specific effort controls may be effective.
Thermal Transient Characterization of Packaged Thin Film Microcoolers

A network identification by deconvolution (NID) method is applied to the thermal transient response of packaged and unpackaged microcoolers. A thin film resistor on top of the device is used as the heat source and the temperature sensor. The package and the bonding thermal resistances can be easily identified by comparing structure functions. High-speed coplanar probes are used to achieve a short time resolution of roughly 100ns in the transient temperature response. This is used to separate the thermal properties of the thin film from the substrate. The obtained thermal resistances of the buffer layer and Silicon substrate are consistent with the theoretical calculations. In order to estimate the superlattice thermal resistance and separate it from the thin SiNx layer deposited underneath the thin film resistive sensor, an order of magnitude faster thermal transient response is needed.
Efficacy of inhaled iloprost in the management of pulmonary hypertension after cardiopulmonary bypass in infants undergoing congenital heart surgery. A case series of 31 patients

Introduction Reactive pulmonary hypertension is frequent in children with high pulmonary flow and pressure. Inhaled iloprost and nitric oxide are the only substances approved as selective pulmonary vasodilators, but data about the effectiveness and safety of inhaled iloprost during cardiac surgery in infants and children are limited. Methods We retrospectively analysed the effects of inhaled iloprost after cardiopulmonary bypass weaning on the ratio of mean pulmonary artery to mean arterial pressure. The effectiveness of the inhalation set up was tested in an in vitro study. Results Thirty-one patients received inhaled iloprost during surgery. The clinically used inhalation set up for inhaled iloprost delivered 20% to 30% (500 to 750 ng * kg-1) of the nebulizer dose and caused a decrease in the ratio of mean pulmonary artery to mean arterial pressure from 0.6±0.2 to 0.4±0.1 and 0.4±0.1 (30 and 60 minutes after)p <0.05. In eleven (35%) patients norepinephrine infusion was started. Conclusion Our data suggest that a single dose of inhaled iloprost significantly decreases the ratio of mean pulmonary artery to mean arterial pressure for at least 60 min. Vasopressor support may be indicated to avoid systemic hypotension. The filled dose in the nebulizer should be high enough to compensate for the high depletion rate of the pediatric inhalation system. However, our study allows no final decision about beneficial or detrimental effects of the off label use of inhaled iloprost to reduce pulmonary artery pressure during congenital heart surgery.
An iRODS-based distributed and federated data repository for a Multi-CMF Network for Experimentation

A Network for Experimentation (NfExp) is, typically, a large (regional, national or international) and specialized testbed (GENI, PlanetLab, FIBRE, other) developed in order to support the experimentation of new protocols, services and applications mostly in the context of Future Internet (FI). In effect, a Network for Experimentation allows an experimenter to configure instantiate, run and collect measurements of distributed experiments on top of a testbed managed by a Control and Monitoring Framework (CMF). Recent Network for Experimentation deployments are Multi-CMF testbeds in which various existing CMFs are integrated in order to achieve a larger set of supported applications and services. This paper describes a distributed and federated storage solution for monitoring data in a Multi-CMF scenario (FIBRE testbed). The solution adopts a distributed iRODS-based monitoring data storage scheme, supporting data distribution and federation across islands (institutions) implementing the testbed. A distributed and transparent data storage facility among multiple native database systems was implemented supporting real-time and persistent monitoring data storage. It allows federated seamless monitoring data storage/retrieval for FIBRE data integration.
A new adaptive watermarking attack in wavelet domain

In this paper, we proposed a categorization for most of the existing watermarking algorithms that work in wavelet domain. Then an adaptive watermarking attack for digital images that is based on the proposed categorization is presented. This attack determines the flat regions, edges and textures of the watermarked image and based on known features of each region the proposed attack tries to destroy the watermark information by manipulating the wavelet coefficients of each region separately such that the least visual distortion will be imposed on the attacked image. We have tested the proposed method to attack two recent and robust watermarking methods and the results sound impressive. The average PSNR of the watermarked image after applying the proposed attack is more than 31dB and the average NC for extracted watermark is lowers than 0.4, so the watermark is not detectable. The proposed method does not consider any knowledge about the underlying watermarking algorithm.
Examining sport commitment and intentions to participate in intramural sports : application of the Sport Commitment Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour in a campus recreational sport setting

Fifty-six percent of Canadians, 20 years of age and older, are inactive (Canadian Community Health Survey, 200012001). Research has indicated that one of the most dramatic declines in population physical activity occurs between adolescence and young adulthood (Melina, 2001; Stephens, Jacobs, & White, 1985), a time when individuals this age are entering or attending college or university. Colleges and universities have generally been seen as environments where physical activity and sport can be promoted and accommodated as a result of the available resources and facilities (Archer, Probert, & Gagne, 1987; Suminski, Petosa, Utter, & Zhang, 2002). Intramural sports, one of the most common campus recreational sports options available for post-secondary students, enable students to participate in activities that are suited for different levels of ability and interest (Lewis, Jones, Lamke, & Dunn, 1998). While intramural sports can positively affect the physical activity levels and sport participation rates of post-secondary students, their true value lies in their ability to encourage sport participation after school ends and during the post-school lives of graduates (Forrester, Ross, Geary, & Hall, 2007). This study used the Sport Commitment Model (Scanlan et aI., 1993a) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) with post secondary intramural volleyball participants in an effort to examine students' commitment to intramural sport and 1 intentions to participate in intramural sports. More specifically, the research objectives of this study were to: (1.) test the Sport Commitment Model with a sample of postsecondary intramural sport participants(2.) determine the utility of the sixth construct, social support, in explaining the sport commitment of post-secondary intramural sport participants; (3.) determine if there are any significant differences in the six constructs of
A Novel Approach to Geocaching Event Prognosis Using Spatiotemporal Data

In this paper we present the case study on application of data mining techniques like clustering, regression and scoring with heuristic measures for the largest social event prognosis based on spatiotemporal data. The aim of this analysis is to propose the methodology that bases on archival records and is capable to predict the place where the largest social event will take place and who will be a host (organizer) of it. For this goal we utilize the part of geocaching community data. The dataset we used is consisted of 755 events that happened from 2010-01-30 to 2015-09-05 in Poland organized by 282 distinct users. Basing on archival data of past four years we were capable to indicate not only the region in which the biggest event took place but also its host and its place within range of 700 meters. Our new algorithm and its application to geocaching events data is main novelty of this paper.
High-dimensional indexing technologies for large scale content-based image retrieval: a review

The boom of Internet and multimedia technology leads to the explosion of multimedia information, especially image, which has created an urgent need of quickly retrieving similar and interested images from huge image collections. The content-based high-dimensional indexing mechanism holds the key to achieving this goal by efficiently organizing the content of images and storing them in computer memory. In the past decades, many important developments in high-dimensional image indexing technologies have occurred to cope with the ‘curse of dimensionality’. The high-dimensional indexing mechanisms can mainly be divided into three categories: tree-based index, hashing-based index, and visual words based inverted index. In this paper we review the technologies with respect to these three categories of mechanisms, and make several recommendations for future research issues.
Fifteen Minutes of Fame: The Place of Blogs in the Life Cycle of Viral Political Information

This study addresses dynamics of viral information in the blogosphere, and is interested in empirically understanding how blogs play a role in the virality process. More specifically, we develop a new methodology that creates a map of the „life cycle‟ of blogs posting links to viral information. Our dataset focuses on the linking practices of blogs to the most significant viral videos of the 2008 US presidential election. To do so, we gathered data on all blogs (n=9,765) and their posts (n=13,173) linking to 65 of the top US presidential election videos that became viral on the Internet during the period between March 2007 and June 2009. Among other things, our findings illuminate the importance of different types of blogs: elite, top-political, top-general and tail blogs. We also found that while elite and top-general blogs create political information, they drive and sustain the viral process, whereas top-political and tail blogs act as followers in the process.