Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
400-G Single Carrier 500-km Transmission With an InP Dual Polarization IQ Modulator

In this letter, we demonstrate experimentally 400-G transmission over 500 km using an InP-based dual-polarization IQ modulator on a single wavelength. The results show that a 56-Gbaud polarization division multiplexed (PDM)-16-quadratic-amplitude modulation (QAM) modulated signal can be transmitted over 500 km at a bit error rate (BER) below the hard decision forward error correcting threshold of 3.8 ×10-3. A 43-Gbaud PDM-64-QAM modulated signal can be transmitted over 320 km with a BER below the soft decision forward error correcting threshold of 2×10-2.
UNIVERSALITY IN SANDPILES

We perform extensive numerical simulations of different versions of the sandpile model. We find that previous claims about universality classes are unfounded, since the method previously employed to analyze the data suffered from a systematic bias. We identify the correct scaling behavior and provide evidences suggesting that sandpiles with stochastic and deterministic toppling rules belong to the same universality class. @S1063-651X~99! 50701-0#
Nurturing young student mathematicians

Developing mathematical talent in our students should be of primary consideration in education today as nations respond to the challenges of economic crises and ever-changing technological advances. This paper describes two U.S. federally funded curriculum projects, Project M3, Mentoring Mathematical Minds, and Project M2, Mentoring Young Mathematicians for students ages 5 through 12. These projects foster in-depth understanding of advanced mathematical concepts by challenging and motivating students to solve and discuss high-level problems in a fashion similar to practicing mathematicians. The curricula have undergone national field tests with proven research results showing significant achievement gains for students studying the curricula over a comparison group of like-ability students. This paper outlines the philosophy behind each program and its connection to the literature and best practices in the fields of gifted education and mathematics education. Next, specific instructional strategies integral to both curricula are outlined. These strategies help teachers establish a community of learners that promotes rich discussions as a platform for posing and solving interesting problems, constructing viable arguments, and defending as well as critiquing solutions. Finally, strategies to help young student mathematicians develop clear and logical written justifications for their mathematical reasoning and share their creative insights are described.
Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction

This paper reports the results of a two-year project designed to reorganize basal reading instruction to stress fluent reading and automatic word recognition. The reorganized reading program had three components: a redesigned basal reading lesson that included repeated reading and partner reading, a choice reading period during the day, and a home reading program. Over two years of program implementation, students made significantly greater than expected growth in reading achievement in all 14 classes. All but two children who entered second grade reading at a primer level or higher (and half of those who did not) were reading at grade level or higher by the end of the year. Growth in fluency and accuracy appeared to be consistent over the whole year. Students' and teachers' attitudes toward the program were positive. In evaluating individual components, we found that self-selected partnerings seemed to work best and that children chose partners primarily out of friendship. Children tended to choose books that were at or slightly below their instructional level. In addition, children seemed to benefit instructionally from more difficult materials than generally assumed, with the greater amount of scaffolding provided in this program.
O stars with weak winds: the Galactic case

We study the stellar and wind properties of a sample of Galactic O dwarfs to track the conditions under which weak winds (i.e mass loss rates lower than � 10 −8 M⊙ yr −1 ) appear. The sample is composed of low and high luminosity dwarfs including Vz stars and stars known to display qualitatively weak winds. Atmosphere models including non-LTE treatment, spherical expansion and line blanketing are computed with the code CMFGEN (Hillier & Miller 1998). Both UV and Hlines are used to derive wind properties while optical H and He lines give the stellar parameters. We find that the stars of our sample are usually 1 to 4 Myr old. Mass loss rates of all stars are found to be lower than expected from the hydrodynamical predictions of Vink et al. (2001). For stars with log L L⊙ > 5.2, the reduction is by less than a factor 5 and is mainly due to the inclusion of clumping in the models. For stars with log L L⊙ < 5.2 the reduction can be as high as a factor 100. The inclusion of X-ray emission (possibly due to magnetic mechanisms) in models with low density is crucial to derive accurate mass loss rates from UV lines, while it is found to be unimportant for high density winds. The modified wind momentum - luminosity relation shows a significant change of slope around this transition luminosity. Terminal velocities of low luminosity stars are also found to be low. Both mass loss rates and terminal velocities of low L stars are consistent with a reduced line force parameter �. However, the physical reason for such a reduction is still not clear although the finding of weak winds in Galactic stars excludes the role of a reduced metallicity. There may be a link between an early evolutionary state and a weak wind, but this has to be confirmed by further studies of Vz stars. X-rays, through the change in the ionisation structure they imply, may be at the origin of a reduction of the radiative acceleration, leading to lower mass loss rates. A better understanding of the origin of X-rays is of crucial importance for the study of the physics of weak winds
Developing reflective practice in student teachers: collaboration and critical partnerships

This paper considers ways in which trainee teachers can be helped to develop their ability to engage in reflection on their practice. The context for the research is a Block School Experience developed by tutors in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Sunderland. An exploration of the nature of reflective practice shows that a common element is the need for individuals to be aware of, and able to monitor, their own thinking, understanding and knowledge about teaching and to be aware of the different kinds of knowledge upon which they can draw to help develop their practice. Social interaction as a means of developing abilities in this area is considered important. In order to help students identify their own understanding of their practice and to engage in reflection on this, a placement in which they work in close collaboration with a critical partner from their peer group and members of school staff was introduced to their programme. The aim of the collaboration is to enable deeper thinking about practice in an atmosphere of supportive and constructive but honest feedback. The placement also included structured tasks to give focus to the reflection carried out. On completion of the placement, a sample of students and the teachers with whom they had worked completed questionnaires in which they were asked to respond to questions about the collaborative nature of the placement, the role of the tasks and the nature of the partnerships(s) which developed. Analysis of the responses showed that the design of the placement had encouraged students to consider a range of aspects of their practice and that the partnership with peers and experienced colleagues had enabled them to gain more understanding of their teaching. Some reservations about the collaborative nature of the placement were also expressed; students were concerned about difficulties in establishing a working relationship with their partner, whilst teachers were concerned about equity within the critical partnership. Insufficient data relating to the students’ use of theoretical knowledge in reflection means that no claims can be made in respect to the influence of such knowledge on their practice. The authors suggest that this is an area in which further research would be valuable in light of the increased role given to use of research by initial teacher training students in DFES/QCA (2002) Qualifying to teach. Professional standards for qualified teacher status and requirements for initial teacher training.
A Vision-Based Wayfinding System for Visually Impaired People Using Situation Awareness and Activity-Based Instructions

A significant challenge faced by visually impaired people is ‘wayfinding’, which is the ability to find one’s way to a destination in an unfamiliar environment. This study develops a novel wayfinding system for smartphones that can automatically recognize the situation and scene objects in real time. Through analyzing streaming images, the proposed system first classifies the current situation of a user in terms of their location. Next, based on the current situation, only the necessary context objects are found and interpreted using computer vision techniques. It estimates the motions of the user with two inertial sensors and records the trajectories of the user toward the destination, which are also used as a guide for the return route after reaching the destination. To efficiently convey the recognized results using an auditory interface, activity-based instructions are generated that guide the user in a series of movements along a route. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed system, experiments were conducted in several indoor environments: the sit in which the situation awareness accuracy was 90% and the object detection false alarm rate was 0.016. In addition, our field test results demonstrate that users can locate their paths with an accuracy of 97%.
Tracking mobile nodes using RF Doppler shifts

In this paper, we address the problem of tracking cooperative mobile nodes in wireless sensor networks. Aiming at a resource efficient solution, we advocate the use of sensors that maintain their location information and rely on the tracking service only when their locations change. In the proposed approach, the tracked node transmits a signal and infrastructure nodes measure the Doppler shifts of the transmitted signal. We show that Mica2 motes can measure RF Doppler shifts with 0.2 Hz accuracy corresponding to a 0.14 m/s error in relative speed estimates using radio inter-ferometric technique. The tracking problem is modeled as a non-linear optimization problem and an extended Kalman filter is used to solve it accurately assuming Gaussian measurement errors. However, this approach may fail if the tracked node changes its speed or direction. We propose to update the Kalman filter state by performing constrained least-squares optimization when a maneuver is detected. The combined approach achieves almost a 50% accuracy improvement over the Kalman filter alone when the mobile node changes its direction and speed frequently. We describe our proof-of-concept implementation of the tracking service and evaluate its performance experimentally and in simulation.
Emotional intelligence, conflict management styles, and innovation performance: An empirical study of Chinese employees

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationship among emotional intelligence (EI), conflict management styles (CMSs) and innovation performance, and test the mediating effects of various types of CMSs. Innovation is playing a more and more critical role in the survival and development of companies. EI is assumed to be an antecedent of employees’ innovation performance. Conflict is an inevitable phenomenon in organizations, and different CMSs have different impacts on individual performance. Design/methodology/approach – Research data were obtained from 159 employees in the construction industry in China. SPSS 19.0 was used to test and verify the hypotheses concerning the relationship among EI, CMSs and innovation performance. The authors also conducted a 500-times bootstrapping to verify the mediating roles of different CMSs. Findings – Results indicate that EI is positively and significantly associated with integrating, compromising and dominating styles, as well as innovation performance in th.
A Comparative Study of Different Optimization Algorithms for Molecular Docking

Motivation: Computer modeling of protein-ligand interactions is one of the most important phases in a drug design process. The core part of this modeling is a resolution of a global unconstrained optimization problem. This paper presents a comparative computational experiments aimed at studying the efficiency of the different optimization methods applied to the docking problem. We present experimental results for different optimization algorithms and draw conclusions about their efficiency.
ISLE: intelligent scalable logistics environment

This paper presents the proposed architecture for ISLE, an intelligent Scalable Logistics Environment. ISLE incorporates three different solution techniques: simulation, AI and OR in a massively parallel environment. ISLE is based on data parallelism. ISLE supports an incremental technique for scheduling. It can represent illegal schedules, e.g., schedules whose tasks require an over commitment of resources, or whose task schedules do not meet temporal constraints. ISLE uses of both local and global optimization strategies.
Efficient measurement planning for remote gas sensing with mobile robots

The problem of gas detection is relevant to many real-world applications, such as leak detection in industrial settings and surveillance. In this paper we address the problem of gas detection in large areas with a mobile robotic platform equipped with a remote gas sensor. We propose a novel method based on convex relaxation for quickly finding an exploration plan that guarantees a complete coverage of the environment. Our method proves to be highly efficient in terms of computational requirements and to provide nearly-optimal solutions. We validate our approach both in simulation and in real environments, thus demonstrating its applicability to real-world problems.
Oops! Resolving social dilemmas in frontotemporal dementia

Objectives: Our social cognition model posits that social knowledge and executive resources guide interpersonal decision making. We investigated this model by examining the resolution of standardised social dilemmas in patients with a social and executive disorder (SOC/EXEC) caused by frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Methods: Patients with SOC/EXEC (n = 12) and those with progressive aphasia (APH, n = 14) completed measures requiring resolution of social dilemmas (Guilford’s Cartoon Predictions Test), social cognition (theory of mind false belief vignettes and a behavioural rating measure of empathy) and executive measures of cognitive flexibility (Visual Verbal Test). Regression analysis related judgments of social dilemmas to cortical volume using voxel based morphometry of high resolution structural MRI. Results: Patients with SOC/EXEC were impaired in judgments of social dilemmas as well as theory of mind, self-awareness of empathy and cognitive flexibility. Patients with APH were much less impaired in the social and cognitive measures. There were strong correlations among social dilemma, theory of mind and mental flexibility measures in patients with SOC/EXEC, and stepwise regression showed that mental flexibility was most predictive of social dilemma judgments. Social dilemma impairments in the SOC/EXEC sample correlated with cortical atrophy in the orbital frontal, superior temporal, visual association and posterior cingulate regions of the right hemisphere. Conclusions: Deficits in patients with SOC/EXEC in resolving social dilemmas are related to depleted executive resources and social knowledge that appear to arise from disease that interrupts a right frontal–temporal neural network crucial for mediating social cognition.
Comparison between Batteries and Fuel Cells for Photovoltaic System Backup

Batteries and fuel cells contain a great potential to back up severe photovoltaic power fluctuations under inclement weather conditions. In this paper comparison between batteries and fuel cells is carried out in detail only for their PV power backup options, so their common attributes and different attributes is discussed. Then, the common and different attributes are compared; accordingly, the fuel cell is selected as the backup of Photovoltaic system. Finally, environmental evaluation of the selected hybrid plant was made in terms of plant's land requirement and lifetime 2 CO emissions, and then compared with that of the conventional fossil- fuel power generating forms.
The Cellular Source and Target of IL-21 in K/BxN Autoimmune Arthritis

IL-21 is a pluripotent cytokine that regulates B cell and plasma cell differentiation and is thought be an autocrine factor for follicular helper T cell (TFH) and Th17 differentiation. Although IL-21 has been implicated in autoimmune diseases, its relevant cellular source and target cells have not been well characterized. We investigated this issue in the K/BxN mouse model of autoimmune arthritis. Adoptive transfer of KRN-transgenic CD4+ T cells into appropriate hosts drives germinal center (GC) formation and autoantibody production against glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, leading to joint inflammation and destruction. By comparing transfer of T or B cells deficient in IL-21 or IL-21R, we were able to dissect the contribution of each cell type. T cells deficient in IL-21 did not induce GC formation or autoantibody production, but they went through normal TFH differentiation. However, T cells lacking IL-21R induced Ab titers, GC B cell frequency, and arthritis development similar to wild-type T cells, suggesting that IL-21 is not required for TFH differentiation and function. IL-21 acts on B cells, because IL-21R expression on B cells was required to induce disease. In contrast, Th17 cells, a T cell subset that also produces IL-21 and can provide help to B cells, are not required for the GC response and arthritis. These data have implications in developing effective therapies for rheumatoid arthritis and other Ab-mediated autoimmune diseases.
Lysine methyltransferase SMYD 2 promotes cyst growth in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is driven by mutations in PKD1 and PKD2 genes. Recent work suggests that epigenetic modulation of gene expression and protein function may play a role in ADPKD pathogenesis. In this study, we identified SMYD2, a SET and MYND domain protein with lysine methyltransferase activity, as a regulator of renal cyst growth. SMYD2 was upregulated in renal epithelial cells and tissues from Pkd1-knockout mice as well as in ADPKD patients. SMYD2 deficiency delayed renal cyst growth in postnatal kidneys from Pkd1 mutant mice. Pkd1 and Smyd2 double-knockout mice lived longer than Pkd1-knockout mice. Targeting SMYD2 with its specific inhibitor, AZ505, delayed cyst growth in both earlyand later-stage Pkd1 conditional knockout mouse models. SMYD2 carried out its function via methylation and activation of STAT3 and the p65 subunit of NF-kB, leading to increased cystic renal epithelial cell proliferation and survival. We further identified two positive feedback loops that integrate epigenetic regulation and renal inflammation in cyst development: SMYD2/IL-6/STAT3/SMYD2 and SMYD2/TNF-a/NF-kB/SMYD2. These pathways provide mechanisms by which SMYD2 might be induced by cyst fluid IL-6 and TNF-a in ADPKD kidneys. The SMYD2 transcriptional target gene Ptpn13 also linked SMYD2 to other PKD-associated signaling pathways, including ERK, mTOR, and Akt signaling, via PTPN13-mediated phosphorylation. Research Article Genetics Nephrology
Depicting dynamics using principles of visual art and narrations

In visual art, a single static image frequently represents much more than projected 3D scenery. Artists include subtle visual elements outlining movements, indicating past or future events, sketching ongoing activities, or guiding the observer's attention. Artists have found ways to visualize physical as well as nonphysical dynamics of scenes using graphics techniques. In a sense, we can consider these smart depictions - a form of expressive, visual content adopting the styles of visual art and abstraction techniques. These depictions can serve, for example, as pictograms and signs that advise and assist people. They're also present in comic books and storyboards that effectively present dynamics and narrate sequential processes. Taking smart depictions a step further, we created a system that automatically generates smart, compelling images of 3D scenes that depict dynamics following traditional design principles of visual art, visual narrations, and graphic design, such as those found in comic books and storyboards. These media offer a rich vocabulary of visual art deployed as techniques to facilitate visual communication of a wealth of activities and events in static images. In particular, we can symbolize in a single, static image past, ongoing, and future activities as well as events taking place in 3D scenes. Additionally, we can take into account nonvisual information.
Audio visual speech recognition based on multi-stream DBN models with Articulatory Features

We present a multi-stream Dynamic Bayesian Network model with Articulatory Features (AF_AV_DBN) for audio visual speech recognition. Conditional probability distributions of the nodes are defined considering the asynchronies between the articulatory features (AFs). Speech recognition experiments are carried out on an audio visual connected digit database. Results show that comparing with the state synchronous DBN model (SS_DBN) and state asynchronous DBN model (SA_DBN), when the asynchrony constraint between the AFs is appropriately set, the AF_AV_DBN model gets the highest recognition rates, with average recognition rate improved to 89.38% from 87.02% of SS_DBN and 88.32% of SA_DBN. Moreover, the audio visual multi-stream AF_AV_DBN model greatly improves the robustness of the audio only AF_A_DBN model, for example, under the noise of −10dB, the recognition rate is improved from 20.75% to 76.24%.
Channel assignment in mobile networks based on geometric prediction and random coloring

The channel assignment problem in mobile networks can be modeled as a temporal graph coloring problem where a temporal graph represents a sequence of graphlets generated over a regular interval of time. The cost of coloring a graphlet is defined as a function of number of colors used in the current graphlet and the number of color changes from the previous graphlet. A differential coloring technique is proposed which first finds the minimum number of vertices that requires recoloring and then recolor them. A prediction based and a random coloring based approaches are proposed to reduce the cost. In prediction based approach, we predict a graph which is a supergraph of the graph representing the union of current and next k graphlets and then color it. Whereas, in random coloring we color the graphlets individually. We have shown that both approaches perform better than an existing SNAP algorithm.