Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel lower bound on the ergodic rate density of random ad-hoc networks

Most works on random wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs) addressed an outage rate model. This model typically results in a complicated analysis, and closed form expressions were obtained only for few specific scenarios. In this work we address the ergodic rate density of an ALOHA WANET. We introduce an accurate and useful lower bound which can be easily used to analyze the impact of the channel model and various system parameters on the performance of ALOHA WANETs. The bound's efficiency and simplicity is demonstrated over three typical applications of ALOHA WANETs: Static channel, Rayleigh fading channel and a network with directional antennas. We also discuss the applicability of the ergodic rate model and various schemes that can achieve this rate.
Definition, research scope and challenges of creative computing

The worldwide revolution of information technology triggers numerous computing in creative ways that changes and improves human life dramatically, e.g., Google search engine, Facebook. Although the term, “Creative Computing” is used and practiced widely, there is still no well accepted and `scientific' definition for Creative Computing. We report our attempt to develop the definition, research scope and challenges for Creative Computing in order to develop Creative Computing more efficiently and effectively to serve the world. And further research will also be speculated.
Semantically Reconnecting Fragmented Information through User Activity Monitoring

Today information items on user’s workstations are usually stored in separate collections depending on their format. This results in a disconnect between information systems and user needs leading to high lookup times during task related information retrieval. This paper presents an approach to reduce document based information fragmentation by semantically reconnecting electronic documents to each other without imposing additional training or tagging workload on the user. To this end the actions knowledge workers perform on their desktop are transparently monitored to analyze the user’s interaction with his computer system. These action metadata are further clustered by superordinate activities performed by the user. Finally documents attached to window instances within the identified activity clusters are semantically to each other related reducing the fragmentation of their contained information. This allows a subsequent associative information discovery navigating from one document instance to other related document instances. A prototypical implementation and evaluation in a small scale testing setup indicates the validity of the approach.
An adaptive distributed algorithm for sequential circuit test generation

We describe the parallelization of sequential circuit test generation on an Ethernet-connected network of SUN workstations. We use the observations of the previous work to execute the program in two phased. All processors simultaneously ran the test generation program, Gentest. In the first phase, the fault list is equally divided among processors, each of which derives tests for targets from its list. A time limit is used to abandon the search for a test for hard to detect faults. Any test found is immediately used to simulate all faults, including those assigned to other processors. Due to the sequential nature of the circuit test vectors are not shared, but the fault simulation data are shared among processors. This phase terminates when only hard to detect faults are left. In the second phase, each remaining fault is simultaneously targeted by all processors, which now have different initial states of the circuit. The first processor to find the test interrupts all others, at which point all processors simultaneously target the next remaining fault. The results show that with this dual strategy, the speedup can be made to increase almost linearly, or sometimes superlinearly, with the number of processors.
Enzyme-Controlled Intracellular Self-Assembly of 18F Nanoparticles for Enhanced MicroPET Imaging of Tumor

Herein, we report the development of a new “smart” radioactive probe (i.e., 1) which can undergo furin-controlled condensation and self-assembly of radioactive nanoparticles (i.e., 1-NPs) in tumor cells and its application for enhanced microPET imaging of tumors in nude mice co-injected with its cold analog (i.e., 1-Cold). Furin-controlled condensation of 1-Cold and self-assembly of its nanoparticles (i.e., 1-Cold-NPs) in vitro were validated and characterized with HPLC, mass spectra, SEM, and TEM analyses. Cell uptake studies showed that both 1 and 1-Cold have good cell permeability. TEM images of 1-Cold-treated MDA-MB-468 cells directly uncovered that the intracellular 1-Cold-NPs were at/near the location of furin (i.e., Golgi bodies). MTT results indicated that 50 µM 1-Cold did not impose cytotoxicity to MDA-MB-468 cells up to 12 hours. MicroPET imaging of MDA-MB-468 tumor-bearing mice indicated that mice co-injected with 1 and 1-Cold showed higher uptake and longer attenuation of the radioactivity in tumors than those mice only injected with same dosage of 1. Tumor uptake ratios of 1 between these two groups of mice reached the maximum of 8.2 folds at 240 min post injection. Biodistribution study indicated that the uptake ratios of 1 in kidneys between these two groups continuously increased and reached 81.9 folds at 240 min post injection, suggesting the formation of radioactive NPs (i.e., 1-NPs) in MDA-MB-468 tumors of mice co-injected with 1 and 1-Cold. And the nanoparticles were slowly digested and secreted from the tumors, accumulating in the kidneys. Our ''smart'' probe (i.e., 1), together with the strategy of co-injection, might help researchers trace the biomarkers of interest within a longer time window.
A New Grey Relational Fusion Algorithm Based on Approximate Antropy ?

The theory instrument of grey relational analysis is grey relational grade between the sequences. The grey relational grade is a measure of the degree of association between two factors, or between two systems. It describes the relative changes among the various factors in the development process of the system. In turn, we can calculate the grey relational grade, compare and judge the grey relational grade, and then judge the degree of association between the compared factors. This paper based on the traditional gray relational decision fusion algorithm, proposed a new gray relational decision fusion algorithm based on the approximate entropy. The simulation shows that recognition rate improved significantly compared with the original gray relational decision fusion algorithm.
The multiscale structure of non-differentiable image manifolds

In this paper, we study families of images generated by varying a parameter that controls the appearance of the object/scene in each image. Each image is viewed as a point in high-dimensional space; the family of images forms a low-dimensional submanifold that we call an image appearance manifold (IAM). We conduct a detailed study of some representative IAMs generated by translations/rotations of simple objects in the plane and by rotations of objects in 3-D space. Our central, somewhat surprising, finding is that IAMs generated by images with sharp edges are nowhere differentiable. Moreover, IAMs have an inherent multiscale structure in that approximate tangent planes fitted to ε-neighborhoods continually twist off into new dimensions as the scale parameter ε varies. We explore and explain this phenomenon. An additional, more exotic kind of local non-differentiability happens at some exceptional parameter points where occlusions cause image edges to disappear. These non-differentiabilities help to understand some key phenomena in image processing. They imply that Newton's method will not work in general for image registration, but that a multiscale Newton's method will work. Such a multiscale Newton's method is similar to existing coarse-to-fine differential estimation algorithms for image registration; the manifold perspective offers a well-founded theoretical motivation for the multiscale approach and allows quantitative study of convergence and approximation. The manifold viewpoint is also generalizable to other image understanding problems.
Graphical representation of abstract learning scenarios: the UML4LD experimentation

This communication concerns the presentation of an experimental research work about the graphical representation of abstract learning scenarios. We also on purpose propose some reflexion elements about the stakes of models transformation in order to generate domain-specific representation of abstract scenarios. Our experiment concerns the automatic generation of a UML activity diagram from an IMS-LD learning scenario.
TEAMS, TEAMWORK, AND AUTOMATION IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

Many recent initiatives involving social psychology applications in the aviation world have redoubled the interest in the concept of teams and teamwork. The importance of teamwork in airline cockpits, hailed as cockpit (or crew-) resource management (CRM), has been recognized for a relatively long time. It is also widely agreed that extensive and effective interaction among participants in the National Airspace System (NAS), pilots, air traffic controllers, and airline operations personnel, is tantamount to the daily successes of the nation’s air transportation industry. Team aspects in air traffic control (ATC) are, however, much more convoluted than intra-cockpit teams or top-level teamwork between NAS elements. The ATC system involves a complicated network of facilities, technology, and personnel, which all must interact synergistically, often under time pressure, to ensure safe, efficient, and orderly flow of air traffic. It is perhaps due to this complexity that there has been a significant deficiency in research activity relating to teamwork in ATC. Yet, inadequate coordination between controllers has been considered a causal factor in a substantial proportion of low to moderate severity operational errors. Furthermore, automation tools developed for controllers are primarily focused on supporting the individual controller, while many, if not all of ATC functions are a team effort. In this paper we review the literature relevant to the team concept in the ATC domain, identify and characterize the different teams controllers belong to either simultaneously (e.g., intra-and inter-facility teams) or in different operational environments, and catalog the results from research literature as they pertain to the aforementioned teams in ATC and their specific characteristics. Our principal focus is on concepts such as taskload, work-load, and situation awareness. Within this framework, we also map recent automation applications to ATC teams, hence highlighting their impact on the team dimension of human factors in ATC.
Securing physical-layer communications for cognitive radio networks

This article investigates the physical-layer security of CR networks, which are vulnerable to various newly arising attacks targeting the weaknesses of CR communications and networking. We first review a range of physical-layer attacks in CR networks, including primary user emulation, sensing falsification, intelligence compromise, jamming, and eavesdropping attacks. Then we focus on the physical-layer security of CR networks against eavesdropping and examine the secrecy performance of cognitive communications in terms of secrecy outage probability. We further consider the use of relays for improving CR security against eavesdropping and propose an opportunistic relaying scheme, where a relay node that makes CR communications most resistant to eavesdropping is chosen to participate in assisting the transmission from a cognitive source to its destination. It is illustrated that the physical- layer secrecy of CR communications relying on opportunistic relaying can be significantly improved by increasing the number of relays, showing the security benefit of exploiting relay nodes. Finally, we present some open challenges in the field of relay-assisted physical-layer security for CR networks.
Scene analysis under closed world assumption

The success of model based object recognition in a closed world depends on the correct choice of parametric primitive shapes or correct choice of a set of basic features. The later could be the result of machine learning. In this paper a choice of parametric primitive shapes is made and a recognition procedure including a set of developed algorithms is presented. The procedure is in essence a divide and conquer paradigm. The scene is divided into a two sets: (a) set of flat surfaces, and (b) set of objects. The point clouds corresponding to individual objects are extracted. Each extracted cluster is further analyzed into: (a) candidate parametric object, (b) undetermined object parts such as handles, and (c) noise due to sensory and registration errors that represent high frequency signal to be filtered out. This procedure is in the same time an autonomous learning paradigm that enables to memorize the recognized objects and uses this information to answer future questions about the scene. The experimental part is introduced to verify the proposed procedure.
Factors Militating against the Delivery of Compassionate Care: A Malawian Perspective

Background/Objectives: Malawi is one of the countries in the world with the worst maternal mortality rate. In view of this, women are encouraged to deliver at a health facility assisted by a skilled birth attendant. However, this initiative can only be effective when health care workers manifest a professional demeanor which conveys care and compassion to patients/clients. The objective of the study was to foster the development of compassionate care among nurses/midwives working in selected maternal and child health care clinical settings. Methods: The study employed an action research (AR) approach. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with nurse/midwives from the selected health facilities. Purposive sampling was utilized to obtain the sample of participants to the eight FGDs and thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The data collected from nurses/midwives clearly indicate that it is not possible to effectively render compassionate care under the present work conditions. The study reveals the following factors which hinder the delivery of compassionate care: severe nursing shortages, gross lack of essential supplies and equipment, negative attitudes of nurses/midwives and unsupportive leadership which demotivates nurses/midwives. Conclusion: The study reveals problems which hinder the delivery of compassionate care, and there is need to address these problems. This will enhance the effectiveness of hospital delivery by a skilled birth attendant as a safe motherhood initiative aimed at lowering the high maternal mortality rate.
Planning and Plan-execution for Human-Robot Cooperative Task achievement

Human Robot cooperation brings several challenges to autonomous robotics such as adoption of a pro-active behavior, situation analysis and goal generation, intention explanation and adaptation and choice of a correct behavior toward the human. In this paper, we describe a decisional architecture for human robot interaction which addresses some of these challenges. The description will be centered on a planner called HATP (Human Aware Task Planner) and its capacity to synthesize plans for human robot teamwork that respect social conventions and that favour acceptable collaborative behaviors. We provide an overall description of HATP and its integration in a complete implemented architecture. We also illustrate the performance of our system on a daily life scenario achieved by a robot in interaction with a human partner in a realistic setup.
The Impact of Using Edmodo as a Blended Learning Medium on Promoting Saudi EFL Female Secondary School Students’ English Grammar

This study aimed to investigate the impact of using Edmodo as a blended learning medium on promoting Saudi female EFL students’ grammar. The study also explored students’ attitudes towards using Edmodo grammar activities in the EFL classroom. The sample of the study consisted of 44 EFL female students from the Eleventh grade. The participants were divided in two groups: 22 participants in control group and 22 participants in experimental group. Besides, the data of the study were collected via two research instruments: grammar pre-post-test, and a five-point Likert scale questionnaire. These instruments were validated by ten EFL university professors. Moreover, the reliability of the test and the questionnaire was achieved by calculating Cronbach Alpha formula. In addition, the findings of the study revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the achievement of the experimental group and the control group on the post grammar test which indicated the effectiveness of utilizing Edmodo in teaching grammar to EFL students. Furthermore, the results of the study showed that students had positive attitudes towards using Edmodo grammar activities. Besides, students preferred using Edmodo grammar activities because of immediate feedback, saving time and effort, easy
Minimum description length understanding of infrared scenes

Our pattern theoretic approach to automatic target recognition for infrared scenes combines structured and unstructured representations: rigid, 3-D faceted models for known targets of interest and flexible, simply connected shapes to accommodate the unknown 'clutterers' that the algorithm may encounter. The radiant intensities of both kinds of targets form nuisance variables which are incorporated into the parameter space. Statistical inference proceeds by simulating hypothesized scenes and comparing them to the collected data via a likelihood function. For a given target pose, we derive closed-form expressions for estimates of the thermodynamic variables via a weighted least-squares approximation. Since the number of objects in the scene, both rigid and flexible, is unknown and must be estimated, the parameter space is a union of subspaces of varying dimension. Without constraints on the model order, scene descriptions may become too complex. We apply Rissanen's minimum description length (MDL) principle, which offers a mathematical foundation for balancing the brevity of descriptions against their fidelity to the data. For continuous parameters, the description length involves the log-determinant of the empirical Fisher information matrix. The relationship of Rissanen's MDL to Schwartz's application of Laplace's method of integration and to the Cramer-Rao bound are discussed. Examples of likelihood surfaces and associated complexity penalties are given for synthetic tank data. In these experiments, the minimum description length approach correctly deduces the number of thermodynamic parameters.
Factors Associated with Ever Being HIV-Tested in Zimbabwe: An Extended Analysis of the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (2010–2011)

Introduction Zimbabwe has a high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) burden. It is therefore important to scale up HIV-testing and counseling (HTC) as a gateway to HIV prevention, treatment and care. Objective To determine factors associated with being HIV-tested among adult men and women in Zimbabwe. Methods Secondary analysis was done using data from 7,313 women and 6,584 men who completed interviewer-administered questionnaires and provided blood specimens for HIV testing during the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) 2010–11. Factors associated with ever being HIV-tested were determined using multivariate logistic regression. Results HIV-testing was higher among women compared to men (61% versus 39%). HIV-infected respondents were more likely to be tested compared to those who were HIV-negative for both men [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.53; 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.27–1.84)] and women [AOR = 1.42; 95% CI (1.20–1.69)]. However, only 55% and 74% of these HIV-infected men and women respectively had ever been tested. Among women, visiting antenatal care (ANC) [AOR = 5.48, 95% CI (4.08–7.36)] was the most significant predictor of being tested whilst a novel finding for men was higher odds of testing among those reporting a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the past 12 months [AOR = 1.86, 95%CI (1.26–2.74)]. Among men, the odds of ever being tested increased with age ≥20 years, particularly those 45–49 years [AOR = 4.21; 95% CI (2.74–6.48)] whilst for women testing was highest among those aged 25–29 years [AOR = 2.01; 95% CI (1.63–2.48)]. Other significant factors for both sexes were increasing education level, higher wealth status and currently/formerly being in union. Conclusions There remains a high proportion of undiagnosed HIV-infected persons and hence there is a need for innovative strategies aimed at increasing HIV-testing, particularly for men and in lower-income and lower-educated populations. Promotion of STI services can be an important gateway for testing more men whilst ANC still remains an important option for HIV-testing among pregnant women.
THE GROWTH OF BUSINESS FIRMS: FACTS AND THEORY

We refer to the framework developed by Ijiri and Simon (1977) and to the notion of independent submarkets (Sutton 1998) to provide a simple candidate explanation for the shape of the firm growth distribution based on a model of proportional growth at the level of both the introduction of new products by firms and their size dynamics. We exploit the features of a unique longitudinal data set which covers the entire distribution of products and firms in the worldwide pharmaceutical industry to test the model at different levels of aggregation as well as at different time lags. Econometric investigations show that the model's predictions are in good agreement with empirical evidence. (JEL: L11, L65) (c) 2007 by the European Economic Association.