Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indoor Positioning Based on FM Signals and Wi-Fi Signals

With increasing user demands on Location-based Services (LBS) and Social Networking Services (SNS), indoor positioning has become more crucial. Because of the general failure of GPS indoors, non-GNSS navigation technologies are essential for such areas. Utilizing signals of opportunity is a promising alternative navigation method providing adequate geo-location. Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) have been used for localisation indoors. In this study, however, a new positioning system is proposed based on another signal of opportunity: broadcast FM. This analogue audio signal has some advantages for indoor positioning purposes over Wi-Fi signals, such as the ability to be received both indoors and outdoors, dense coverage, availability, low-cost and low-power hardware, and high received signal power. In this paper, along with comparing FM and Wi-Fi positioning systems, we increase position accuracy by fusing both methods. The indoor localisation system suggested here utilises the fingerprinting technique based on FM received signal strength. The fingerprinting implementation involves two stages, the training stage and the positioning stage. The matching algorithms used in the fingerprinting method in this work are Nearest Neighbour (NN), K-Nearest Neighbours (KWNN), and the K-Weighted Nearest Neighbours (KWNN). The proposed localisation was tested experimentally. The mean distance error (MDE) is about 3m when the
Characterization of an Animal Model of Postmenopausal Hypertension in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Abstract—Blood pressure (BP) increases in postmenopausal women. The mechanisms responsible are unknown. The present study was performed to characterize a model of postmenopausal hypertension in the rat and to determine the role that oxidative stress may play in mediating the postmenopausal hypertension. Spontaneously hypertensive rats were ovariectomized (ovx) or left intact (PMR) at 8 months and were aged to 18 months. These animals were compared with young females (YF; 4 or 8 months of age) and old males (18 months) for some measurements. Estradiol levels were decreased in PMR rats to levels not different from YF rats in proestrous or from old males. BP increased progressively with age in PMR rats but not in ovx or male rats, such that the gender difference in hypertension disappeared by 18 months. Glomerular filtration rate was lower in ovx and PMR rats than in YF rats. Renal plasma flow and renal vascular resistance were similar between YF and ovx rats, but lower and higher, respectively, in PMR rats. Serum testosterone increased by 60% in ovx rats and 400% in PMR rats compared with YF rats. Plasma renin activity also increased in PMR rats but not in ovx rats. Chronic treatment (for 8 months beginning at 8 months of age) of PMR rats with vitamins E and C, but not tempol, resulted in a significant reduction in BP and excretion of F2-isoprostanes. In contrast, tempol, but not vitamins E and C, reduced BP in old males. These data suggest that the PMR rats, but not ovx rats, may be a suitable model for the study of postmenopausal hypertension, and that oxidative stress plays a role in the increased BP.
Mobile robot navigation using neural networks and nonmetrical environmental models

A reasoning and control architecture for vision-guided navigation that makes a robot more humanlike is presented. This system, called NEURO-NAV, discards the more traditional geometrical representation of the environment, and instead uses a semantically richer nonmetrical representation in which a hallway is modeled by the order of appearance of various landmarks and by adjacency relationships. With such a representation, it becomes possible for the robot to respond to commands such as, 'follow the corridor and turn right at the second T junction'. This capability is achieved by an ensemble of neural networks whose activation and deactivation are controlled by a rule-based supervisory controller. The individual neural networks in the ensemble are trained to interpret visual information and perform primitive navigational tasks such as hallway following and landmark detection. <<ETX>>
Structure of composites A1+x(A′xB1–x)O3 related to the 2H hexagonal perovskite: relation between composition and modulation

An idealized structural model is proposed for materials closely related to the 2H hexagonal perovskite and with general formula A3n + 3mA′nB3m + nO9m + 6n {or A1 + x(A′xB1 – x)O3, x = [0, 1/2]}. The structures of all these compounds, considered as commensurate or incommensurate modulated composites, can be described in a first approximation by a unique structure in the superspace formalism with occupational Crenel functions and sawtooth displacive modulations along the trigonal axis. The structural modulation has only two variable parameters: the modulation wave vector or misfit parameter, which is fixed by the compound composition, and the height difference between the octahedra and triangular prisms of O6 present in the trigonal [A′,B]O3 columns of the structure. Just by varying these parameters, the basic structural features of any compound with arbitrary composition parameter x are reproduced, including the two limiting cases ABO3 (2H perovskite) and A3A′BO6. For instance, the sequence of octahedra and prisms along the [A′,B]O3 columns can be considered a generalized Fibonacci chain and its dependence on composition follows a Farey tree rule which comes out directly from the model. A comparison with available experimental data, and in particular with some fully determined structures, demonstrates the soundness of the proposed scheme as a reference for such structures and the best starting point for their refinement. The model, although developed within the superspace formalism, is closely related to the polytype layer picture in direct space. The present structural analysis constitutes a new example of the efficiency of the 4-dimensional superspace formalism for describing in a unified form the structures of so-called ‘composition flexible’ systems.
A neural evolutionary approach to financial modeling

This paper presents an approach to the joint optimization of neural network structure and weights which can take advantage of backpropagation as a specialized decoder. The approach has been applied to a financial problem, whereby a factor model capturing the mutual relationships among several financial instruments is sought for. A sample application of such a model to statistical arbitrage is also presented.
Thermal-Aware Scheduling for Peak Temperature Reduction with Stochastic Workloads

In this paper we proposed a thermal-aware scheduling algorithm for peak temperature reduction with stochastic workloads. The proposed approach consists of two steps. The first step constructs a job sequence based on the mean of the execution time of each job; and the constructed job sequence interleaves the execution of hot jobs and cool jobs. The hot job pushes up the chip temperature while the cool one cools down the chip. Accordingly the chip reduces the peak temperature. The second step exploits the job slack to cancel out the adverse thermal impact due to the uncertainty of the job execution time. The slacks are allocated among the hot jobs. Hot jobs whose execution time deviates more above the average execution time will get more slack, vice versa. Experimental results show that the proposed approach effectively avoids the thermal emergency for the applications with stochastic workloads by achieving the peak temperature reduction of 4.7C on average.
Effective Real-Time Computing on Linux Tommaso Cucinotta

In this paper we present an architecture design for supporting real time computing on Linux. This architecture focuses on improving the usability of real time capabilities for applications by providing a unified Application Programming Interface. Applications can therefore use it without having to know exactly what the underlying scheduling algorithm is. Still, the real-time computing capabilities of the platform may be exploited to the maximum extent. The main aim of the paper is to gather feedback from the community about the design and directions for development.
Neurophysiological Changes in Deformity Correction of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis With Intraoperative Skull-Femoral Traction

Study Design. Retrospective review of 36 consecutive patients undergoing coronal plane deformity correction with intraoperative skull-femoral traction between 2005 and 2008 with motor evoked potential (MEP)/somatosensory evoked potential monitoring. Objective. To determine the prevalence and significance of neurophysiological changes with intraoperative skull-femoral traction in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Summary of Background Data. Intraoperative skeletal traction can be associated with spinal cord stretching and ischemia with resultant electrophysiological changes. The prevalence and risks of such changes and their clinical significance is unknown. Methods. Thirty-seven procedures involving 36 patients (27 females and 9 males) with a mean age of 14.8 (12–18) years were divided into two groups on the basis of the presence (group 1, n = 18 procedures) or absence (group 2, n = 19) of significant MEP changes with surgery. They were compared with patients undergoing correction without traction (group 3). Results. Significant differences among the groups were observed in mean preoperative Cobb angle (86° vs. 70° vs. 59°), mean intraoperative posttraction Cobb angle (50.0° vs. 34.6°), traction index (0.41 vs. 0.50), flexibility index (0.14 vs. 0.27 vs. 0.25), and presence of primary lumbar curves (0% vs. 32% vs. 14%). Initial onset of MEP amplitude loss (group 1) occurred at a mean of 94 (1–257) minutes from the onset of surgery, was bilateral in 13 procedures, and improved at a mean of 5.5 (1–29) minutes after decreasing or removing the traction. At closure, complete bilateral recovery to baseline was observed in 10 procedures, recovery to >50% baseline in five, and recovery to <50% baseline in three procedures. There were no neurologic deficits in this series. Conclusion. Intraoperative traction is associated with frequent changes in MEP monitoring. The thoracic location of the major curve, increasing Cobb angle, and rigidity of major curve are significant risk factors for changes in MEP with traction. The presence of any MEP recordings irrespective of its amplitude at closure was associated with normal neurological function. Somatosensory evoked potential monitoring did not correlate with the traction induced MEP amplitude changes.
Validation of OSLD and a treatment planning system for surface dose determination in IMRT treatments.

PURPOSE To evaluate the accuracy of skin dose determination for composite multibeam 3D conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments using optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters (OSLDs) and Eclipse treatment planning system. METHODS Surface doses measured by OSLDs in the buildup region for open field 6 MV beams, either perpendicular or oblique to the surface, were evaluated by comparing against dose measured by Markus Parallel Plate (PP) chamber, surface diodes, and calculated by Monte Carlo simulations. The accuracy of percent depth dose (PDD) calculation in the buildup region from the authors' Eclipse system (Version 10), which was precisely commissioned in the buildup region and was used with 1 mm calculation grid, was also evaluated by comparing to PP chamber measurements and Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, an anthropomorphic pelvic phantom was CT scanned with OSLDs in place at three locations. A planning target volume (PTV) was defined that extended close to the surface. Both an 8 beam 3DCRT and IMRT plan were generated in Eclipse. OSLDs were placed at the CT scanned reference locations to measure the skin doses and were compared to diode measurements and Eclipse calculations. Efforts were made to ensure that the dose comparison was done at the effective measurement points of each detector and corresponding locations in CT images. RESULTS The depth of the effective measurement point is 0.8 mm for OSLD when used in the buildup region in a 6 MV beam and is 0.7 mm for the authors' surface diode. OSLDs and Eclipse system both agree well with Monte Carlo and/or Markus PP ion chamber and/or diode in buildup regions in 6 MV beams with normal or oblique incidence and across different field sizes. For the multiple beam 3DCRT plan and IMRT plans, the differences between OSLDs and Eclipse calculations on the surface of the anthropomorphic phantom were within 3% and distance-to-agreement less than 0.3 mm. CONCLUSIONS The authors' experiment showed that OSLD is an accurate dosimeter for skin dose measurements in complex 3DCRT or IMRT plans. It also showed that an Eclipse system with accurate commissioning of the data in the buildup region and 1 mm calculation grid can calculate surface doses with high accuracy and has a potential to replace in vivo measurements.
Silicon nanopillar-forest based microfluidic surface-enhanced Raman scattering devices

We report a novel microfluidic surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) device, which is achieved by bonding a polydimethylsiloxane cap with a microchannel structure onto an SERS-active substrate composed of noble-metal covered silicon nanopillar forests. The silicon nanopillar forests are fabricated by using nanomaterial dots, which are introduced in oxygen-plasma bombardment of photoresist, as etching masks. Analytes are uniformly distributed in the nanopillar forests by flowing through the microchannels, and thus higher measurement repeatability is obtained compared with regular open SERS-active substrates. Moreover, the enhancement factor (EF) of the devices can be self-calibrated by utilizing the flat metal areas beside the forests as references. Accordingly, such SERS devices have an EF on the order of 5.2×105. Meanwhile, the devices can reduce the measurement time from several hours to about 10 minutes.
3D express crystallization of Foturan glass at CO2 laser annealing on defects produced by picosecond laser

Laser-induced crystallization in the volume of plates of Foturan™ photosensitive glass (PG) at heat treatment under the CO2-laser radiation on previously produced microdefects is considered. Processes of a crystal phase nucleation and growth during exposure of PG plate by CO2-laser are investigated. Comparison of heat treatment conditions of PG plate under furnace heating and when exposed to irradiation of CO2-laser is made.
Melothria domingensis (Cucurbitaceae), an endangered Caribbean endemic, is a Cayaponia

Abstract The Neotropical genus Melothria (Benincaseae, Cucurbitaceae) is a small group of yellow- or white-flowered climbers with small to medium-sized fruits. In 1899, Alfred Cogniaux described a species from montane rainforest in Haiti as Melothria domingensis, presumably based on the overall similarity in habit, leaf shape, and fruit morphology of his incomplete herbarium material to other Central American Melothria species. Melothria domingensis is still rare in European and American herbaria and the species has never been studied in detail. We here present molecular and morphological analyses, which show that the species is misplaced in Melothria and instead belongs in the distantly related tribe Cucurbiteae in the genus Cayaponia. We illustrate the species, provide the formal transfer and an extended description, and discuss the phylogenetic, biogeographic and ecological implications, including the finding that most likely bee- and not bat-pollination is ancestral in Cayaponia.
Antigenic structure of soluble herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoprotein D correlates with inhibition of HSV infection

Soluble forms of herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoprotein D (gD) block viral penetration. Likewise, most HSV strains are sensitive to gD-mediated interference by cells expressing gD. The mechanism of both forms of gD-mediated inhibition is thought to be at the receptor level. We analyzed the ability of different forms of soluble, truncated gD (gDt) to inhibit infection by different strains of HSV-1 and HSV-2. Strains that were resistant to gD-mediated interference were also resistant to inhibition by gDt, thereby suggesting a link between these two phenomena. Virion gD was the major viral determinant for resistance to inhibition by gDt. An insertion-deletion mutant, gD-1(delta 290-299t), had an enhanced inhibitory activity against most strains tested. The structure and function of gDt proteins derived from the inhibition-resistant viruses rid1 and ANG were analyzed. gD-1(ridlt) and gD-1(ANGt) had a potent inhibitory effect on plaque formation by wild-type strains of HSV but, surprisingly, little or no effect on their parental strains. As measured by quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with a diverse panel of monoclonal antibodies, the antigenic structures of gD-1(rid1t) and gD-1(ANGt) were divergent from that of the wild type yet were similar to each other and to that of gD-1 (delta 290-299t). Thus, three different forms of gD have common antigenic changes that correlate with enhanced inhibitory activity against HSV. We conclude that inhibition of HSV infectivity by soluble gD is influenced by the antigenic conformation of the blocking gDt as well as the form of gD in the target virus.
An Empirical Method for Estimating the Degree of Crystallinity of Native Cellulose Using the X-Ray Diffractometer

An empirical method for determining the crystallinity of native cellulose was studied with an x-ray diffractometer using the focusing and transmission techniques. The influence of fluctuations in the primary radiation and in the counting and recording processes have been determined. The intensity of the 002 interference and the amor phous scatter at 2θ = 18° was measured. The percent crystalline material in the total cellulose was expressed by an x-ray "crystallinity index. " This was done for cotton cellulose decrystallized with aqueous solutions containing from 70% to nominally 100% ethylamine. The x-ray "crystallinity index" was correlated with acid hydrolysis crys tallinity, moisture regain, density, leveling-off degree of polymerization values, and infrared absorbance values for each sample. The results indicate that the crystallinity index is a time-saving empirical measure of relative crystallinity. The precision of the crystallinity index in terms of the several crystallinity criteria is given. Based on over 40 samples for which acid hydrolysis crystallinity values were available, the standard error was 6.5%.
Explorations in Evolutionary Robotics

We discuss the methodological foundations for our work on the development of cognitive architectures, or control systems, for situated autonomous agents. Our focus is the problems of developing sensorimotor control systems for mobile robots, but we also discuss the applicability of our approach to the study of biological systems. We argue that, for agents required to exhibit sophisticated interactions with their environments, complex sensorimotor processing is necessary, and the design, by hand, of control systems capable of such processing is likely to become prohibitively difficult as complexity increases. We propose an automatic design process involving artificial evolution, wherein the basic building blocks used for evolving cognitive architectures are noise-tolerant dynamical neural networks. These networks may be recurrent and should operate in real time. The evolution should be incremental, using an extended and modified version of a genetic algorithm. Practical constraints suggest that initial architecture evaluations should be done largely in simulation. To support our claims and proposals, we summarize results from some preliminary simulation experiments in which visually guided robots are evolved to operate in simple environments. Significantly, our results demonstrate that robust visually guided control systems evolve from evaluation functions that do not explicitly require monitoring visual input. We outline the difficulties involved in continuing with simulations and conclude by describing specialized visuorobotic equipment, designed to eliminate the need for simulated sensors and actuators.
Casing corrosion in the South Belridge field

To determine the causes and extent of casing corrosion in the South Belridge field, casing from two wells was recovered. This casing was subjected to detailed examination and comparison with casing inspection logs, casing caliper logs, cement bond logs, and formation logs. Two causes of corrosion were found. In the upper approximate 200 ft, external corrosion was caused by oxygen corrosion enhanced by chlorides and sulfates in the soil. Below 200 ft. corrosion was caused by carbon dioxide-containing formation water. Supporting evidence is given and includes scale analyses, sidewall core analyses, and soil analyses. Proposed corrosion control measures are discussed.
A prospective study in children with a severe form of atopic dermatitis: clinical outcome in relation to cytokine gene polymorphisms.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The course of atopic dermatitis (AD) in childhood is characterized by typical changes in phenotype, including a shift from skin involvement to respiratory allergy usually around the third year of age. We thus designed a prospective study to monitor the outcome of severe AD and to investigate the association between cytokine gene polymorphisms and clinical manifestations. METHODS Clinical and laboratory follow-up of 94 patients with severe AD and 103 healthy controls was performed using routine methodology. Allele, genotype, and haplotype frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms of 13 selected cytokine/receptor genes were analyzed using PCR with sequence-specific primers. RESULTS In our study, genotypes of 7 polymorphisms--LL-4 -1098G/T and -590C/T, IL-6 -174C/G and nt565A/G, and IL-10 -1082A/G, -819C/T, and -592A/C were significantly associated with atopic AD (P < .05). A significant association was also found for TNF-alpha AA and IL-4 GC haplotypes and AD. We confirm the progressive clinical improvement of AD together with a decrease in the severity index SCORAD (SCORing atopic dermatitis) during childhood (P < .05). We found significant differences between IL-4Ralpha +1902 A/G and positivity of tree pollen-specific IgE (P < .05) in the AD group. Moreover, a weak association was also found between IL-10 -819C/T and IL-10 -590A/C and the appearance of allergic rhinitis (P < 0.1). CONCLUSIONS We confirmed a clinical shift in allergic phenotype in the first 3 years of life, and showed an association between IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10 polymorphisms and AD. Our data indicate that IL-4alpha and IL-10 polymorphisms may be considered predictive factors of respiratory allergy in children with AD.
Thymic carcinoma in children: A report from the Polish pediatric rare tumors study

Invasive thymomas and thymic carcinomas are rare tumors jointly accounting between 0.2% and 1.5% of malignancies in adults. They are usually at an advanced stage when diagnosed and have both high recurrence and poor survival rates. In this report, the aim is to explore our experience in the treatment of thymic carcinomas in Polish children.
Research on Clustering Technology Based on Co-occurrence Word Model for Tibetan Microblog

In order to solve the two key problems of the short text classification, very sparse features and strong context dependency, this paper proposed clustering technology based on Co-Occurrence Word Model for Tibetan microblog. The Tibetan news corpus (standard long text) as the experimental training corpus, using LDA model to construct the co-occurrence word network which related to one theme. According to the co-occurrence network relationship to determine the attribution of Tibetan microblog short text, so as to solve the problem of short text lack of semantic correlation and data sparseness, finally, we using K-means++ clustering algorithm to cluster. By comparing the results of three clustering methods, experimental results show that this method has obvious effect on the microblog Tibetan text clustering, and accuracy reached 88.06%.