Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fusion techniques for multi-hop relay wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks have gained considerable interest in the research community during the last decade. In this paper, we target the lower layers in the protocol stack of wireless sensor networks, for the aim of providing a reliable backbone for multimedia applications where error propagation and relatively high error rates are a major concern. Decoding and fusion techniques are developed and evaluated for multi-hop relay wireless sensor networks incorporating the “Amplify and Forward” and “Decode and Forward” relaying protocols, based on turbo codes. Simulation results show a significant gain in bit error rate performance when the different streams are fused at the relays or clustering nodes, compared to the case where these streams are blended at the final fusion center. Results also show that in situations where transmission conditions do not allow for a good exploitation of multi-stream diversity at the fusion center, the “Amplify and Forward” protocol outperforms “Decode and Forward” in terms of improved BER performance and reduced relay complexity, at the expense of a linear increase in transmission rate.
Multiphysics Analysis of Thermoelastic Damping Effects on RF MEMS Components

Modeling and simulation of Thermoelastic Damping (TED) is an important issue in the development of RF MEMS components. TED is a critical loss mechanism in numerous high Q microstructures and induced by the irreversible heat dissipation during the coupling of heat transfer and strain rate in an oscillating system. The magnitude of the energy loss depends on the vibrational frequency and the thermal relaxation time constant of the structure. The energy dissipation mechanism highly affects the Q factor. In this paper, the effects of TED on simple fixed-fixed type beam resonators and thin film resonators are analyzed. The effects of material properties and geometry on the Q factor is analyzed in the case of simple fixed-fixed beam resonators. Depending on the resonance frequency of different structures, different Q are obtained. In the case of thin film resonators a new geometry is developed to improve Q factor by reducing TED effects. By attaching folded springs to the existing MEMS structures, the effect of temperature on eigen frequency and Q factor can be reduced to a certain extent. The folded springs relieve axial stress because it is free to expand or contract in the axial direction and sensitivity to stress is thus reduced. The different eigen mode frequencies are also reduced which accounts for the improvement in Q factor for the folded structure. Modeling and simulation of TED effect on various resonators are done by using COMSOL Multiphysics software. KeywordsThermoelastic damping, Eigen frequency analysis, Simple fixed-fixed beam resonators, Thin film resonators.
Nonparametric Bayesian Multiple Comparisons for Dependence Parameter in Bivariate Exponential Populations

A nonparametric Bayesian multiple comparisons problem (MCP) for dependence parameters in I bivariate exponential populations is studied. A simple method for pairwise comparisons of these parameters is also suggested. The methodology by Gopalan and Berry (1998) is extended using Dirichlet process priors, applied in the form of baseline prior and likelihood combination to provide the comparisons. Computation of the posterior probabilities of all possible hypotheses are carried out through a Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Gibbs sampling, due to the intractability of analytic evaluation. The process of MCP for the dependent parameters of bivariate exponential populations is illustrated with a numerical example.
Multiple Constraint Satisfaction by Belief Propagation: An Example Using Sudoku

The popular Sudoku puzzle bears structural resemblance to the problem of decoding linear error correction codes: solution is over a discrete set, and several constraints apply. We express the constraint satisfaction using a Tanner graph. The belief propagation algorithm is applied to this graph. Unlike conventional computer-based solvers, which rely on humanly specified tricks for solution, belief propagation is generally applicable, and requires no human insight to solve a problem. The presence of short cycles in the graph creates biases so that not every puzzle is solved by this method. However, all puzzles are at least partly solved by this method. The Sudoku application thus demonstrates the potential effectiveness of BP algorithms on a general class of constraint satisfaction problems
El modelo del valor, las normas y las creencias hacia el medio ambiente en la predicción de la conducta ecológica

The model of the value, norms and beliefs regarding the environment, considered by Stern and collaborators, proposes that environmental behaviour may be explained from the values, general beliefs about the environment, the level of awareness, the undertaking of responsibility and personal or moral norms; the model regards the latter as the direct determinant of behaviour. The purpose of this study was to verify the model’s predictive capacity on glass recycling behaviour, and whether the predicted relationship between the variables was confirmed. In order to do so, a sample of 275 university students was selected, who answered a questionnaire assessing all the model’s variables. Thirty days later, the frequency with which they had behaved in an environment-friendly manner was measured. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis indicated that, although personal norms explained the behaviour’s highest percentage of variance, the biospheric values improved the model’s predictive capacity. Furthermore, the results we obtained from carrying out a path analysis highlighted the existence of an alternative model with a higher level of adjustment to explain glass recycling behaviour.
An ellipsoid-based perspective projection correction for wide-angle images

Wide-angle images have been wisely used in many areas since they can provide much larger field-of-view (FOV) of a scene. But distortions in these images disturb users' perception and many research works have been investigated to tackle this problem. Up to now, several correction methods have been developed, such as the perspective, Mercator and stereographic projections. However, these methods tend to bend straight lines or distort the shapes of objects, and [Zorin and Barr 1995] pointed out that no global projection can preserve both straight lines and the shapes of objects. Recently, [Carroll et al. 2009] proposed a content-preserving approach to map wide-angle photographs onto image plane by computing a spatially-varying projection. Unfortunately, it required the users to draw about 20 lines on average as an initial step.
Assessing Genetic Diversity and Population Differentiation of Colored Calla Lily (Zantedeschia Hybrid) for an Efficient Breeding Program

Plastome-genome incompatibility (PGI) is prevalent in several plants including the Zantedeschia species, a worldwide commercial flower crop native to South Africa. Generally, hybrids suffering from PGI appear less vigorous and more susceptible than normal plants. Previous reports revealed that the PGI level in interspecific hybrids is correlated with the relatedness of the parental species in the genus Zantedeschia. To provide a basis for utilizing and improving resources in breeding programs, a total of 117 accessions of colored calla lily (Zantedeschia hybrid), collected from New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United States, were genotyped using 31 transferable expressed sequence tags-simple sequence repeats (EST-SSR) markers from the white calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica). A moderately high level of genetic diversity was observed, with 111 alleles in total, an observed/expected heterozygosity (Ho/He) of 0.453/0.478, and polymorphism information content (PIC) of 0.26. Genetic distance and STRUCTURE-based analysis further clustered all accessions into four subgroups (G-Ia, G-Ib, G-IIa and G-IIb), which mostly consisted of Zantedeschia pentlandii, Zantedeschia elliotiana, Zantedeschia albomaculata and Zantedeschia rehmannii, respectively. Significant genetic differentiation was observed between all inferred subgroup pairs, with the Fst ranging from 0.142 to 0.281. Finally, the accessions assigned into G-IIb (Z. rehmannii) were recommended as top priority parents in efficient Zantedeschia breeding program designs.
Prevalence of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus in Healthy Population, Livestock and Ticks in Kosovo

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an acute, tick borne disease often associated with hemorrhagic presentations and high case fatality rate. Kosovo is a highly endemic area for CCHF, with a significant case fatality rate. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of CCHF in Kosovo. We tested 1105 serum samples from healthy population in both endemic and non-endemic areas in the country. Our results revealed a seroprevalence of 4.0% (range 0–9.3%) which is comparable to the seroprevalence in other countries. We show that seroprevalence is correlated to the disease incidence in each studied municipality. We also tested 401 animal sera (353 cow, 30 sheep, 10 goat and 8 chicken) in four endemic municipalities in Kosovo. We detected specific antibodies in all animals except in chicken. Seroprevalence in cows is comparable to other endemic areas and correlates to the seroprevalence in humans. No CCHF RNA could be detected in 105 tick samples obtained in 2012 and 2013. Sequencing of CCHFV positive ticks from 2001 revealed that the virus is most closely related to viral strains that were detected in CCHF patients from Kosovo. Results suggest that mild CCHF cases are most probably underdiagnosed and consequently that the burden of disease is higher than reported. Our study provides key information for CCHF surveillance and raises awareness for possible imported cases in CCHF non-endemic countries.
Constructing the Cool Wall: A Tool to Explore Teen Meanings of Cool

This paper describes the development and exploration of a tool designed to assist in investigating 'cool' as it applies to the design of interactive products for teenagers. The method involved the derivation of theoretical understandings of cool from literature that resulted in identification of seven core categories for cool, which were mapped to a hierarchy. The hierarchy includes having of cool things, the doing of cool activities and the being of cool. This paper focuses on a tool, the Cool Wall, developed to explore one specific facet of the hierarchy; exploring shared understanding of having cool things. The paper describes the development and construction of the tool, using a heavily participatory approach, and the results and analysis of three studies. The first study was carried out over 2 days in a school in the UK. The results of the study both provide clear insights into cool things and enable a refined understanding of cool in this context. Two additional studies are then used to identify potential shortcomings in the Cool Wall methodology. In the second study participants were able to populate a paper cool wall with anything they chose, this revealed two potential new categories of images and that the current set of images covered the majority of key themes. In the third study teenagers interpretations of the meaning of the images included in the Cool Wall were explored, this showed that the majority of meanings were as expected and a small number of unexpected interpretations provided some valuable insights.
Granular problem solving and software engineering

Granulation is an important component of granular computing (GrC) as a problem solving paradigm. Specification and regulation of granulation are necessary in helping researchers and practitioners apply GrC into different applications. At present, there is insufficient investigation of this topic. This paper defines concepts and mechanisms of problem solving, investigates the fundamental principles and processes of granulation, and demonstrates that the development of software engineering methodologies follows the basic idea of GrC: granulation. With the guide of granulation, this paper also proposes a new method of granulation by rolification (the act or the result of designing roles), i.e., roles and agents. The major contribution is establishing the foundations of granular problem solving and clarifying the relationships between granular problem solving and software engineering.
Ubiquitin-dependent Proteasomal Degradation of Human Liver Cytochrome P450 2E1

Human liver CYP2E1 is a monotopic, endoplasmic reticulum-anchored cytochrome P450 responsible for the biotransformation of clinically relevant drugs, low molecular weight xenobiotics, carcinogens, and endogenous ketones. CYP2E1 substrate complexation converts it into a stable slow-turnover species degraded largely via autophagic lysosomal degradation. Substrate decomplexation/withdrawal results in a fast turnover CYP2E1 species, putatively generated through its futile oxidative cycling, that incurs endoplasmic reticulum-associated ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal degradation (UPD). CYP2E1 thus exhibits biphasic turnover in the mammalian liver. We now show upon heterologous expression of human CYP2E1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that its autophagic lysosomal degradation and UPD pathways are evolutionarily conserved, even though its potential for futile catalytic cycling is low due to its sluggish catalytic activity in yeast. This suggested that other factors (i.e. post-translational modifications or “degrons”) contribute to its UPD. Indeed, in cultured human hepatocytes, CYP2E1 is detectably ubiquitinated, and this is enhanced on its mechanism-based inactivation. Studies in Ubc7p and Ubc5p genetically deficient yeast strains versus corresponding isogenic wild types identified these ubiquitin-conjugating E2 enzymes as relevant to CYP2E1 UPD. Consistent with this, in vitro functional reconstitution analyses revealed that mammalian UBC7/gp78 and UbcH5a/CHIP E2-E3 ubiquitin ligases were capable of ubiquitinating CYP2E1, a process enhanced by protein kinase (PK) A and/or PKC inclusion. Inhibition of PKA or PKC blocked intracellular CYP2E1 ubiquitination and turnover. Here, through mass spectrometric analyses, we identify some CYP2E1 phosphorylation/ubiquitination sites in spatially associated clusters. We propose that these CYP2E1 phosphorylation clusters may serve to engage each E2-E3 ubiquitination complex in vitro and intracellularly.
Analysis of average packet acquisition time on wireless butterfly-typed network coding scheme

In this paper, the wireless butterfly-typed network coding scheme is considered. The average packet acquisition time of the wireless network coding scheme is evaluated by theoretical analysis. The effect of the wireless network coding scheme is shown by comparing with the system without network coding scheme. Consequently, it is shown that the wireless network coding scheme is superior to the system without network coding scheme in the reliable channel environment. However, when the distance between nodes becomes longer, the network coding scheme has no effect on shortening of average packet acquisition time.
Cognitive and Adaptive Skill Profile Differences in Children With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder With and Without Comorbid Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) often present with comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which can complicate diagnosis and treatment planning. This study investigated the cognitive and adaptive profiles of 81 children with ADHD/FASD and 147 children with ADHD. Multivariate analysis of variance and follow-up discriminant analysis indicated that the two groups had similar profiles on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, although the children with comorbid ADHD/FASD demonstrated significantly more impairment in verbal ability, perceptual reasoning, working memory, processing speed, and overall adaptive skills. The results suggested that when compared with children with ADHD alone, children with ADHD/FASD exhibit significantly more impaired cognitive processing and adaptive skill deficits that are essential for school success and healthy social, behavioral, and emotional functioning. Research evaluating the profiles of these groups is likely to facilitate earlier and more accurate diagnosis and intervention.
On the Race for More Stretchable and Tough Hydrogels

Hydrogels are tridimensional networks that are able to retain important amounts of water. These soft materials can be obtained through self-assembling processes involving either hydrophilic molecules or polymers, allowing the formation of the corresponding covalently and physically cross-linked networks. Although the applicability of hydrogels in biomedicine has been exponentially growing due to their biocompatibility and different responses to stimuli, these materials have exhibited the particular feature of poor mechanical strength, and consequently, are brittle materials with low deformation. Due to this reason, a race has started to obtain more stretchable and tough hydrogels through different approaches. Within this context, this review article describes the most representative strategies and examples involving synthetic polymers with potential for biomedical applications.
Adaptation à la mobilité dans les réseaux ad hoc. (Adaptation to mobility in ad hoc networks)

Les etudes protocolaires sur les reseaux multi-sauts mobiles proposent d’ameliorer la performance du reseau en liant le comportement des protocoles a sa dynamique d’evolution. Le protocole s’adapte a l’etat du reseau grâce a un ensemble de metriques. Ainsi pour les protocoles de routage il s’agit de trouver des chemins tout en considerant l’etat energetique des nœuds, la bande passante des liens, la qualite de service, ou encore la dynamique de la topologie qui est liee a la qualite des liens sans fil et a la mobilite des elements du reseau. Le travail presente traite de l’adaptation a la mobilite dans les protocoles de routage et s’interesse aux metriques de mobilite. Dans une premiere etape nous analysons le processus d’adaptation en en degageant les caracteristiques, les contraintes et l’interet, et etudions qualitativement les metriques de mobilite. Nous examinons differents travaux de recherche ayant pour objet la mobilite et ses metriques dont nous proposons une taxinomie originale. Nous mettons en evidence l’interet des metriques obtenues par mesure locale et de voisinage. Dans une deuxieme etape, nous evaluons par simulation les metriques. L’objectif est de determiner une "meilleure" metrique de mobilite, c'est-a-dire celle qui apportera le plus de gain de performance a une adaptation protocolaire. Le postulat est que plus la metrique influe sur les performances d'un protocole, plus il est interessant que le protocole adapte son comportement en fonction de sa valeur. L’analyse de correlation entre performances et metriques, sur plusieurs protocoles de routage, ne permet pas de mettre en avant une meilleure metrique qui soit independante du contexte, a savoir de la densite ou du modele de mobilite. Nous montrons neanmoins l’interet de la metrique duree de liaison. Finalement, nous developpons deux applications a partir des metriques selectionnees par l’analyse. Ce sont la densite, exprimee par le nombre de voisins, ainsi que la mobilite, exprimee par la duree de liaison pour la premiere application, et par le nombre d’erreurs de route pour la seconde application. La premiere application met en place un choix adaptatif des elements MPR (Multi-Point Relay) dans le protocole de routage Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR), la deuxieme developpe une election adaptative des chefs de clusters et un changement de mode adaptatif (avec ou sans structure) pour le protocole Cluster Source Routing (CSR). Pour les deux applications plusieurs strategies d’adaptations sont considerees ; le meilleur resultat est obtenu dans les deux cas par la strategie d'adaptation a la mobilite en plus de la densite. Ce travail se prolonge par l’etude de validation des resultats en rapport au modele de mobilite. Nous en deduisons une methode pour appliquer, selon les conditions de mobilite et de densite, des adaptations.
QBOT: An educational mobile robot controlled in MATLAB Simulink environment

This paper describes Quanser's Mobile Robot Control Framework (QMRCF) for an educational robot called Qbot. The QMRCF accelerates the development of mobile robot control algorithms and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing using model-based design techniques of MATLAB Simulink. This paper also validates the performance of QMRCF using several experiments in various research fields of mobile robotics, e.g., teleoperation, navigation, and obstacle avoidance.
A Class of Neuro-computational Models to Verify Mood Variation in Dialectal Assamese Speech

Mood content in spoken word recognition is an important element in formulation of a decision support system (DSS). Many times it becomes integral components of human computer interaction (HCI) systems based on speech recognition with language orientation. In this paper, we propose a mood verification system of speakers of Assamese language with dialectal components. Five features namely Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC), Linear Predictive coding (LPC), Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and a composite set comprising of all the four features mentioned above have been used with Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Feed forward Time Delay Neural Network (FFTDNN) to evaluate their performance in recognizing mood variations in dialectal Assamese. The system has been tested under several different background noise conditions by considering the recognition rates and computation time.
Workload-aware clustering of xml peers

Peer-to-peer (p2p) systems are attracting increasing attention as an eﬃcient means of sharing data among large, diverse and dynamic sets of users. Clustering in p2p systems aims at improving query processing performance by reducing communication costs, through placing similar data at neighboring peers. In this paper, we present a distributed procedure for p2p clustering in a system where peers share collections of XML documents. Peer clustering is based on the use of rules that associate the existence of path patterns in a peer’s data to its likelihood of belonging to a given cluster. The patterns that form the rules are selected both from the content of the peers and the query workload of the sys-tem according to their popularity. Furthermore, we describe how these rules adapt to reﬂect changes in the content of the peers and the local query workload of each cluster.