Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulation of IPTV caching strategies

IPTV, where television is distributed over the Internet Protocol in a single operator network, has become popular and widespread. Many telecom and broadband companies have become TV providers and distribute TV channels using multicast over their backbone networks. IPTV also means an evolution to time-shifted television where viewers now often can choose to watch the programs at any time. However, distributing individual TV streams to each viewer requires a lot of bandwidth and is a big challenge for TV operators. In this paper we present an empirical IPTV workload model, simulate IPTV distribution with time-shift, and show that local caching can limit the bandwidth requirements significantly.
An Exploratory Study of Human Performance in Image Geolocation Tasks

Identifying the precise location where a photo was taken is an important task in domains ranging from journalism to counter-terrorism. Yet, geolocation of arbitrary images is difficult for computer vision techniques and time-consuming for expert analysts. Understanding how humans perform geolocation can suggest rich opportunities for improvement, but little is known about their processes. This paper presents an exploratory study of image geolocation tasks performed by novice and expert humans on a diverse image dataset we developed. Our findings include a model of sensemaking strategies, a taxonomy of image clues, and key challenges and design ideas for image sensemaking and crowdsourcing.
Method of radiation pattern optimization in multibeam antenna arrays

In this paper an efficient numerical optimization method is proposed. The method is intended for radiation pattern optimization of multibeam antenna arrays which cannot be synthesized using an analytical approach. The method is based on minimizing an error function calculated as a difference between the radiation pattern under optimization and the desired radiation pattern. The method allows for taking into account the radiation pattern of a single radiating element, constrains resulting form chosen feeding network and also allows for controlling of the grating lobe level. The presented results confirm usefulness of the method which can be an alternative to the tedious tuning technique.
A preliminary study on semi-automatic construction of Vietnamese ontology

Ontology is an effective formal representation of knowledge used commonly in artificial intelligence, semantic web, software engineering and information retrieval. Typically, ontologies are constructed by domain experts using domain knowledge and domain documents. However, manual acquisition of ontologies from domain documents consumes high costs. We present a support system for Vietnamese ontology construction using pattern-based mechanisms of discovering Vietnamese concepts and conceptual relations from Vietnamese text documents. As there are very few existing taxonomies constructed in Vietnamese, we use non-taxonomy based approach. The combination of association rule mining and lexical pattern based learning was used as our major method of concept extraction and conceptual relation detection. From the experiments, we show that this is a feasible solution.
The Growth and Disruption of a “Free Space”: Examining a Suburban Do It Yourself (DIY) Punk Scene

This article builds on the literature on “free spaces. ” The authors address several under examined aspects of this concept through an exploration of the Long Island Do It Yourself (DIY) punk scene. The DIY scene can be understood as a prefigurative space where particular values were espoused and celebrated. The authors analyze how participants understood the free space as well as the specific values that came along with identifying themselves as scene members. When these ideals clashed with a different conception of what the punk scene was all about, the “freeness” of the space came into question. This article examines the debate that occurred when the free space was thoroughly disrupted because of the intention of a popular band in the scene to sign a record contract. The authors conclude that although the infrastructure of spaces in the punk scene was strong, this did not preempt the development of an ideological schism.
Change in Classroom Relations: An Attempt that Signals Some Difficulties

This article describes attempts to change classroom relations and the obstacles encountered in the search for new learning possibilities for bothstudents and faculty. In a graduate course with three different groups of students, the author used insights from critical theory to change the hierarchical division of labor and classroom incentives and to ask students to bring their life into the learning process. One roadblock to reform is the preservation of identities: Students remain consumers while teachers continue to manage knowledge production. When they prefer to comply with certain social roles rather than challenge them, education is little more than a certification process.
Immunocytochemical study of the dorsal and median raphe nuclei in patients with Alzheimer’s disease prospectively assessed for behavioural changes

The dorsal and median raphe nuclei were examined with immunocytochemistry to display the 5‐HT neurones in 16 cases of post‐mortem‐proven Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 12 age and sex‐matched controls. The AD cases had been prospectively assessed during life for expression of behavioural changes as well as for cognitive decline. A significant (P < 0.001) 41% reduction in density of dorsal raphe neurones was found along with a significant (P < 0.02) 29% reduction in density of median raphe neurones in AD. There were significantly more neurofibrillary tangles in both dorsal and median raphe nuclei in AD than in controls (P < 0.001). There was no correlation between reduction in neurone density in these nuclei and behavioural change, cognitive decline, neurofibrillary tangle counts in these nuclei or plaque and tangle pathology in frontal and temporal cortex. It was concluded from these findings that the raphe nuclei are significantly affected by the pathology of AD and that plasticity in the 5‐HT system is the probable reason for the lack of correlation of reduced 5‐HT neurone density and clinical disease parameters.
Selective Regulation of Maize Plasma Membrane Aquaporin Trafficking and Activity by the SNARE SYP121[W]

The water permeability of the cell plasma membrane is regulated by the presence of active aquaporins. This work demonstrates that the syntaxin SNARE SYP121 acts as a selective modulator of the maize aquaporin (PIP2;5) plasma membrane delivery and activity through physical interaction. Plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs) are aquaporins facilitating the diffusion of water through the cell membrane. We previously showed that the traffic of the maize (Zea mays) PIP2;5 to the plasma membrane is dependent on the endoplasmic reticulum diacidic export motif. Here, we report that the post-Golgi traffic and water channel activity of PIP2;5 are regulated by the SNARE (for soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor protein attachment protein receptor) SYP121, a plasma membrane resident syntaxin involved in vesicle traffic, signaling, and regulation of K+ channels. We demonstrate that the expression of the dominant-negative SYP121-Sp2 fragment in maize mesophyll protoplasts or epidermal cells leads to a decrease in the delivery of PIP2;5 to the plasma membrane. Protoplast and oocyte swelling assays showed that PIP2;5 water channel activity is negatively affected by SYP121-Sp2. A combination of in vitro (copurification assays) and in vivo (bimolecular fluorescence complementation, Förster resonance energy transfer, and yeast split-ubiquitin) approaches allowed us to demonstrate that SYP121 and PIP2;5 physically interact. Together with previous data demonstrating the role of SYP121 in regulating K+ channel trafficking and activity, these results suggest that SYP121 SNARE contributes to the regulation of the cell osmotic homeostasis.
Coding of Focused Plenoptic Contents by Displacement Intra Prediction

A light field is commonly described by a two-plane representation with four dimensions. Refocused 3D contents can be rendered from light field images. A method for capturing these images is using cameras with microlens arrays. A dense sampling of the light field results in large amounts of redundant data. Therefore, an efficient compression is vital for a practical use of these data. In this paper, we propose a displacement intra prediction scheme with a maximum of two hypotheses for the compression of plenoptic contents from focused plenoptic cameras. The proposed scheme is further implemented into High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). The work is aiming at efficiently coding plenoptic captured contents without knowing underlying camera geometries. In addition, the theoretical analysis of the displacement intra prediction for plenoptic images is explained; the relationship between the compressed captured images and their rendered quality is also analyzed. Evaluation results show that plenoptic contents can be efficiently compressed by the proposed scheme. Bit rate reduction up to 60% over HEVC is obtained for plenoptic images, and more than 30% is achieved for the tested video sequences.
A Cellular Automata Model for Wireless Sensor Networks

Modeling for wireless sensor networks is very challenging because the modeling needs to adapt network dynamics and find out multiple optimizing paths from the microscopic point of view. In this paper, we propose a cellular automata model that focuses on dynamic network topology, multipath data transmission mechanism and energy overhead. Each node in a network is represented by a cell, and any permutations and combinations that represent any links between two cells constitute the cellular space. A wireless sensor network is modeled by related cell states and cell evolution rule. A cell transmission model is derived for multipath transmission of information. All these aim to ensure network reliability with the minimum resource requirements. Presented analytical work is proved validly by simulations. KeywordsCellular Automata; Microscopic mode; Modeling; Wireless Sensor Networks.
Survivor identity and post-traumatic growth after participating in challenge-based peer-support programmes.

OBJECTIVES The social construction of breast cancer (BC) survivor identity has produced a powerful image of woman as survivor. Group membership through peer-support programmes can provide positive role models, shape survivor identity and promote post-traumatic growth (PTG). The main objective of this study was to conduct a qualitative investigation based on a phenomenological framework in order to understand the lived experience of BC survivors participating in a peer-support programme based on a challenge event. DESIGN This is a qualitative semi-structured and written narrative study. Interviews were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis and the written narratives via thematic analysis. METHOD Interviews were conducted with 27 participants who were new to the peer-support event for women diagnosed with BC, and 10 participants who had taken part in multiple events provided written narratives of their experience. Interviews and surveys were completed pre- and post-event. RESULTS Important elements of the peer-support environment included a safe network of other survivors, which provided understanding and acceptance. Overcoming challenges during the event and the opportunity to bond with positive role models affirmed a strong survivor identity and promoted PTG. For some participants, a shift in identity was evident with a newfound positive identification with the term BC survivor. CONCLUSIONS Peer-support programmes based on challenge events have the potential to extend the type of supportive care that is available for women diagnosed with BC by providing an alternative to the traditional support group format.
Fast Serializable Multi-Version Concurrency Control for Main-Memory Database Systems

Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) is a widely employed concurrency control mechanism, as it allows for execution modes where readers never block writers. However, most systems implement only snapshot isolation (SI) instead of full serializability. Adding serializability guarantees to existing SI implementations tends to be prohibitively expensive. We present a novel MVCC implementation for main-memory database systems that has very little overhead compared to serial execution with single-version concurrency control, even when maintaining serializability guarantees. Updating data in-place and storing versions as before-image deltas in undo buffers not only allows us to retain the high scan performance of single-version systems but also forms the basis of our cheap and fine-grained serializability validation mechanism. The novel idea is based on an adaptation of precision locking and verifies that the (extensional) writes of recently committed transactions do not intersect with the (intensional) read predicate space of a committing transaction. We experimentally show that our MVCC model allows very fast processing of transactions with point accesses as well as read-heavy transactions and that there is little need to prefer SI over full serializability any longer.
Isolation of cDNA clones encoding the 80-kd subunit protein of the human autoantigen Ku (p70/p80) by antisera raised against ciliary processes of human eye donors.

PURPOSE To isolate and characterize human nonpigmented ocular ciliary epithelial cDNA clones by screening a cDNA library constructed from the established human nonpigmented ciliary epithelial cell line (ODM-2) with sera raised against ciliary processes of human eye donors (cadavers). METHODS An ODM-2 cDNA expression library in lambda Uni-ZAP-XR vector was screened with sera of mouse anti-human ciliary processes. The cDNA inserts from plaque-purified clones were sequenced by the dideoxy-chain termination method with T3 and T7 polymerase. Sera were assayed by Western blot analysis and indirect immunofluorescence and were then compared with sera, enriched in anti-Ku antibodies, collected from patients with scleroderma polymyositis overlap syndrome. RESULTS Immunoscreening of 2.5 x 10(5) independent clones with sera induced experimentally in total tissue homogenates of human ciliary processes led to the isolation of four cDNA-positive clones. Three clones, designated A1, D1, and D3 and containing inserts measuring 1.4 kb to 1.8 kb, were found to be identical in DNA sequence analysis to that of the 80-kd subunit protein of the human autoantigen Ku (p70/p80). The fourth clone, designated D2, failed to show any significantly similarity with previously known genes. Cell extracts from human ciliary processes and ODM-2 cells were analyzed by immunoblotting with anti-human ciliary process sera. The pattern of proteins immunodetected was compared with the profile of proteins immunodetected with human anti-Ku sera from a patient with scleroderma polymyositis overlap syndrome. These results demonstrated that sera from anti-human ciliary processes recognize a variety of antigens in ODM-2 cells and are strikingly rich in antibodies to the 80-kd subunit protein of Ku (p70/p80). Furthermore, indirect immunofluorescence analysis supported the observation that anti-human ciliary processes sera labeled nuclear antigens in a human ciliary epithelium cell line and cross species in bovine ciliary epithelial cell, thus demonstrating the nuclear localization of Ku antigen. The mRNA in the human eye was found to be widely expressed in all tested ocular tissues and in ODM-2 cells. CONCLUSIONS The ocular ciliary epithelium induces a species-specific immune response in xenogenic animals. In particular, the human ciliary epithelium elicits a strong immune recognition of the 80-kd subunit protein of the human autoantigen Ku (p70/p80) in ODM-2 cells.
Turbo Codes-Based Image Transmission for Channels With Multiple Types of Distortion

Product codes are generally used for progressive image transmission when random errors and packet loss (or burst errors) co-exist. However, the optimal rate allocation considering both component codes gives rise to high-optimization complexity. In addition, the decoding performance may be degraded quickly when the channel varies beyond the design point. In this paper, we propose a new unequal error protection (UEP) scheme for progressive image transmission by using rate-compatible punctured Turbo codes (CAPTOR) and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes only. By sophisticatedly interleaving each coded frame, the packet loss can be converted into randomly punctured bits in a Turbo code. Therefore, error control in noisy channels with different types of errors is equivalent to dealing with random bit errors only, with reduced turbo code rates. A genetic algorithm-based method is presented to further reduce the optimization complexity. This proposed method not only gives a better performance than product codes in given channel conditions but is also more robust to the channel variation. Finally, to break down the error floor of turbo decoding, we further extend the above RCPT/CRC protection to a product code scheme by adding a Reed-Solomon (RS) code across the frames. The associated rate allocation is discussed and further improvement is demonstrated.
Joint estimation of sparse multivariate regression and conditional graphical models

Multivariate regression model is a natural generalization of the classical univari- ate regression model for ? tting multiple responses. In this paper, we propose a high- dimensional multivariate conditional regression model for constructing sparse estimates of the multivariate regression coe? cient matrix that accounts for the dependency struc- ture among the multiple responses. The proposed method decomposes the multivariate regression problem into a series of penalized conditional log-likelihood of each response conditioned on the covariates and other responses. It allows simultaneous estimation of the sparse regression coe? cient matrix and the sparse inverse covariance matrix. The asymptotic selection consistency and normality are established for the diverging dimension of the covariates and number of responses. The e? ectiveness of the pro- posed method is also demonstrated in a variety of simulated examples as well as an application to the Glioblastoma multiforme cancer data.
On the Validity of the “Importance Minus Performance” Construct—A Genuine Contribution of the Tourism Literature or a Mishap?

ABSTRACT Measuring service quality in a reliable and valid manner is crucial. Accordingly, this study explores whether the tourism-oriented Importance-Performance construct is a theoretically sound measure of service quality. The conceptual analysis is followed by an empirical test of the construct's prediction capability within the realm of service quality/satisfaction framework in the tourism context of a large festival. Both the conceptual and empirical results clearly indicate that the validity of the Importance-Performance construct should be strongly doubted, and that tourism and hospitality managers as well as researchers would be better off avoiding the use of the Importance-Performance construct.
THE IMPACT OF VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC EXPECTATIONS ON CHILDREN’S PERCEPTIONS OF HELPFULESS, KNOWLEDGEABILITY AND INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR

When seeking information, children expect informants to provide information that is congruent with their knowledge and to use conventional labels. Violations of these linguistic expectations influence their behaviour and perceptions, as they are less likely to seek information from informants with a history of inaccuracy or of violation of conversational form (Eskritt et al., 2008; Koenig & Harris, 2005) and perceive unreliable informants as “silly” (Brosseau-Liard & Birch, 2010). I explored whether violations of linguistic expectations influence children‟s perceptions of knowledgeability and helpfulness and whether these characteristics predict children‟s information seeking. Forty 5-year-olds observed a farmer and a car mechanic label objects for a foreign child. The objects were associated with one of the two informants, rendering one as the expert, and the other as the non-expert. The informants labelled the familiarization objects by stating either the object‟s color or its super ordinate category. During test trials, children selected one of the two informants to label novel objects that were either related or unrelated to either one‟s domain of expertise (i.e. novel animals, tools or odd objects). Finally, children rated informant‟s knowledge of the familiarization objects and their willingness to help the foreign child. Results show that children perceive an informant who provided the super ordinate category as more helpful and somewhat more knowledgeable than one who provides the colour. When labelling objects related to the informants‟ domain of expertise, children rely on expertise to seek information. For unrelated novel objects, a trend suggests that perceptions of the expert‟s knowledge influence decision making. These results provide new factors underlying children‟s information seeking.
Association between the Number of Injuries Sustained and 12-Month Disability Outcomes: Evidence from the Injury-VIBES Study

Objective To determine associations between the number of injuries sustained and three measures of disability 12-months post-injury for hospitalised patients. Methods Data from 27,840 adult (18+ years) participants, hospitalised for injury, were extracted for analysis from the Validating and Improving injury Burden Estimates (Injury-VIBES) Study. Modified Poisson and linear regression analyses were used to estimate relative risks and mean differences, respectively, for a range of outcomes (Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, GOS-E; EQ-5D and 12-item Short Form health survey physical and mental component summary scores, PCS-12 and MCS-12) according to the number of injuries sustained, adjusted for age, sex and contributing study. Findings More than half (54%) of patients had an injury to more than one ICD-10 body region and 62% had sustained more than one Global Burden of Disease injury type. The adjusted relative risk of a poor functional recovery (GOS-E<7) and of reporting problems on each of the items of the EQ-5D increased by 5–10% for each additional injury type, or body region, injured. Adjusted mean PCS-12 and MCS-12 scores worsened with each additional injury type, or body region, injured by 1.3–1.5 points and 0.5 points, respectively. Conclusions Consistent and strong relationships exist between the number of injury types and body regions injured and 12-month functional and health status outcomes. Existing composite measures of anatomical injury severity such as the NISS or ISS, which use up to three diagnoses only, may be insufficient for characterising or accounting for multiple injuries in disability studies. Future studies should consider the impact of multiple injuries to avoid under-estimation of injury burden.
IMAGE PROCESSING BASED LANGUAGE CONVERTER FOR DEAF AND DUMB

This application helps the deaf and dumb person to communicate with the rest of the world using sign language. Suitable existing methods are integrated in this application. Computer recognition of sign language is an important research problem for enabling communication with hearing impaired people. The Computer based intelligent system will enable deaf & dumb people significantly to communicate with all other people using their natural hand gestures.