Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wi-Fi Crowdsourced Fingerprinting Dataset for Indoor Positioning

Benchmark open-source Wi-Fi fingerprinting datasets for indoor positioning studies are still hard to find in the current literature and existing public repositories. This is unlike other research fields, such as the image processing field, where benchmark test images such as the Lenna image or Face Recognition Technology (FERET) databases exist, or the machine learning field, where huge datasets are available for example at the University of California Irvine (UCI) Machine Learning Repository. It is the purpose of this paper to present a new openly available Wi-Fi fingerprint dataset, comprised of 4648 fingerprints collected with 21 devices in a university building in Tampere, Finland, and to present some benchmark indoor positioning results using these data. The datasets and the benchmarking software are distributed under the open-source MIT license and can be found on the EU Zenodo repository.
The central MHC gene, BAT1, may encode a protein that down‐regulates cytokine production

BAT1 belongs to the DEAD‐box family of RNA‐binding proteins and is encoded in the central MHC. To determine whether it affects immune responses and hence diseases influenced by MHC haplotypes, U937, THP1 and Jurkat cells were stably transfected with anti‐sense DNA corresponding to exons 2–5 of BAT1 using a retroviral vector.
A Survey on Cloud Storage

Cloud storage is a new concept come into being simultaneously with cloud computing, and can be divided into public cloud storage, private cloud storage and hybrid cloud storage. This article gives a quick introduction to cloud storage. It covers the key technologies in Cloud Computing and Cloud Storage. Google GFS massive data storage system and the popular open source Hadoop HDFS were detailed introduced to analyze the principle of Cloud Storage technology. As an important technology area and research direction, cloud storage is becoming a hot research for both academia and industry session. The future valuable research works were summarized at the end.
Design of a Portable Gesture-Controlled Information Display

Stopping by at somebody’s office can be frustrating if the required person is absent. To offer visitors additional information in this case, we built a gesture controlled public display. We applied a user-centered design approach and as first step evaluated basic parameters, such as desired tracking area and preferred gestures. We incorporated these results in a standalone working prototype and achieved natural, intuitive gestures with a recognition rate above 80%. Author
Approaches for resolving the dilemma between model structure refinement and parameter calibration in agent-based simulations

Agent-based simulations form a valuable tool for learning about real world societies and global behaviors of systems emerging from microscopic relationships. Calibration of model parameters for detailed agent-based models is a big problem for standard calibration techniques, due to the large parameter search spaces, long simulation run times, uncertainties in the structural model design and different observation levels upon which the model needs to be calibrated. In this paper we propose several methods to improve the calibration process of agent-based simulations.
Towards Tool Support for the Configuration of Non-Functional Properties in SPLs

The configuration of NFPs (non-functional properties) is a crucial problem in the development of software-intensive systems. Most of the approaches currently available tackle this problem during software design. However, at this stage, NFPs cannot be properly predicted. As a solution for this problem we present the new extensions of the Feedback approach which aims at improving the configuration of NFPs in SPLs. We introduce our set of tools that are used to support the approach and show how to use them by applying it to the well-known SPL (The Graph Product Line) that was suggested as a platform for evaluating SPL technologies.
Muscle Strength and Range of Motion in Adolescent Pitchers with Throwing-Related Pain

Background A high prevalence of throwing-related shoulder and elbow pain has been documented in adolescent baseball pitchers. Hypothesis Pitchers with a history of throwing-related pain will have weakened dominant-arm posterior shoulder musculature and greater dominant-arm glenohumeral total range of motion (ROM) loss compared with pitchers without throwing-related pain. Study Design Controlled laboratory study. Methods Twenty-three adolescent pitchers (age 15.7 ±1.4 years) were tested. Twelve pitchers had throwing-related pain in the prior season and were currently symptom-free, while the remaining 11 pitchers had no such history of pain. Internal and external rotation ROM and muscle strength (lower trapezius, middle trapezius, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, supraspinatus, internal rotators, external rotators) were measured bilaterally. Dominant versus nondominant differences in ROM and strength were compared between pitchers with and without throwing-related pain. Results As a whole, the group of 23 pitchers had a loss of internal rotation ROM (13° ± 10°, P < .001) and gain in external rotation ROM (11° ± 10°, P < .001) on the dominant versus nondominant arm, with no effect on total ROM (2° ± 7° loss, P = .14). There was no difference in bilateral comparison of total ROM between pitchers with and without throwing-related pain. Dominant versus nondominant muscle strength was lower (P < .05) for the pain group versus nonpain group for the middle trapezius (7% ± 19% vs 22% ± 12%) and supraspinatus (−4% ± 27% vs 14% ± 14%) and higher (P < .05) for the internal rotators (19% ± 14% vs 6%±12%). Conclusion Throwing-related pain in this population may be due to the inability of weakened posterior shoulder musculature to tolerate stress imparted on it by adaptively strengthened propulsive muscles. Clinical Relevance Selective posterior shoulder strengthening may be indicated in rehabilitative and injury prevention programs for adolescent pitchers.
Fc and C3bi receptors and the differentiation antigen BH2-Ag are randomly distributed in the plasma membrane of locomoting neutrophils

Reports from several laboratories suggest that neutrophils arrested during locomotion preferentially bind immune complexes at the front of the cell. Such asymmetry of binding has been interpreted as indicating an active modulation of phagocytic receptors to the anterior of the cell. To investigate this further, we have used digital analysis of fluorescence images to determine the binding patterns of mAbs directed against the Fc receptors, the receptors for the C3bi fragment of C3, and a neutrophil-specific antigen. We found that all three proteins are distributed nearly identically along the length of migrating neutrophils, and their distribution very closely parallels the anterior to posterior distribution of the plasma membrane. The use of mAbs offered an important advantage in that the binding of antireceptor antibodies, unlike the binding of ligands, should be independent of potential changes in the affinity of the receptors. We conclude that the anterior distribution of the phagocytic receptors in the plasma membrane of locomoting neutrophils parallels the overall increase in membrane area at the front of a migrating cell and that specific translocation of phagocytic receptors does not occur.
Semi-supervised Collaborative Ranking with Push at Top

Existing collaborative ranking based recommender systems tend to perform best when there is enough observed ratings for each user and the observation is made completely at random. Under this setting recommender systems can properly suggest a list of recommendations according to the user interests. However, when the observed ratings are extremely sparse (e.g. in the case of cold-start users where no rating data is available), and are not sampled uniformly at random, existing ranking methods fail to effectively leverage side information to transduct the knowledge from existing ratings to unobserved ones. We propose a semi-supervised collaborative ranking model, dubbed \texttt{S$^2$COR}, to improve the quality of cold-start recommendation. \texttt{S$^2$COR} mitigates the sparsity issue by leveraging side information about both observed and missing ratings by collaboratively learning the ranking model. This enables it to deal with the case of missing data not at random, but to also effectively incorporate the available side information in transduction. We experimentally evaluated our proposed algorithm on a number of challenging real-world datasets and compared against state-of-the-art models for cold-start recommendation. We report significantly higher quality recommendations with our algorithm compared to the state-of-the-art.
Ship-borne measurements of erythemal UV irradiance and ozone content in various climate zones

Ship-borne measurements of spectral as well as biologically effective UV irradiance have been performed on the German research vessel Polarstern during the Atlantic transect from Bremerhaven, Germany (53.5° N, 8.5° E), to Cape Town, South Africa (33.6° S, 18.3° E), from 13 10 to 17 11 2005. Such measurements are required to study UV effects on marine organisms. They are also necessary to validate satellite-derived surface UV irradiance. Cloud free radiative transfer calculations support the investigation of this latitudinal dependence. Input parameters, such as total ozone column and aerosol optical depth have been measured on board as well. Using these measured parameters, the modelled cloudless noontime UVA irradiance (320–400 nm) shows the expected dependence on varying minimum solar zenith angles (SZA) at different latitudes. The modelled cloudless noontime UVB irradiance (290–320 nm) does not show this clear dependence on SZA due to the strong influence of ozone absorption in this spectral range. The maximum daily dose of erythemal irradiance of 5420 J m^−1 was observed on 14 11 2005, when the ship was in the tropical Atlantic south of the equator. The expected UV maximum should have been observed with the sun in the zenith during local noon (11 11). Stratiform clouds reduced the dose to 3835 J m^−1. In comparison, the daily erythemal doses in the mid-latitudinal Bay of Biscay only reached values between 410 and 980 J m^−1 depending on cloud conditions. The deviation in daily erythemal dose derived from different instruments is around 5%. The feasibility to perform ship-borne measurements of spectral UV irradiance is demonstrated.
Efficacy of current and novel electromyographic normalization methods for lower limb high-speed muscle actions

Abstract The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of electromyography (EMG) normalization methods for a high-speed 20-m sprint. Comparisons were based on intra-individual reliability and magnitude of normalized EMG signals from three repeat sessions separated by 1 day (between days) and 1 week (between weeks) from the initial test. Surface EMGs were recorded (n=16) from the medial and lateral gastrocnemius and soleus during the normalization methods (isometric: maximum/sub-maximum/body weight; isotonic: maximum/sub-maximum/body weight; isokinetic: 1.05 rad · s–1, 1.31 rad · s–1, 1.83 rad · s–1; squat jump). The EMG data from the 20-m sprint were normalized using each method and using the within-sprint peak EMG (sprint peak). Intra-individual reliability of the EMG was assessed using typical error of measurement as a percentage of intra-individual coefficient of variance (TEMCV%). Sprint peak normalization improved intra-individual reliability of EMG (soleus: <4.91CV%; medial gastrocnemius: <6.2CV%; lateral gastrocnemius: <7.1CV%) compared with un-normalized EMG (soleus: <13.3CV%; medial gastrocnemius: <16.5CV%; lateral gastrocnemius: <16.3CV%) both between days and between weeks. Squat jump normalization improved the soleus (<11.2CV%) and medial gastrocnemius (<15.7CV%) reliability between days and weeks and provided a representative measure of triceps surae muscle activation. The intra-individual reliability of the medial gastrocnemius EMG data was improved both between days and weeks when using isotonic normalization. Isometric and isokinetic normalization showed no improvement in intra-individual reliability either between days or weeks for any muscle. The method of normalization influenced the between-stride muscle interaction during the 20-m sprint. The results of this study suggest that peak normalization can be used to normalize high-speed muscle actions, while normalizing EMG to a squat jump may provide an alternative method to represent relative muscle activation.
Say it to my face: examining the effects of socially encountered misinformation

Objectives. Errors in eyewitness accounts can occur when a witness comes into contact with post-event ‘misinformation’. A common way to encounter misinformation is through face-to-face interaction, in particular, via conversation with other individuals who also witnessed the crime. The current research compares this kind of misinformation with the non-social post-event narrative method typically employed in laboratory studies. Method. Young (17–33 years) and older (58–80 years) adults viewed a simulated crime event on video and were later exposed to four items of misinformation about it. The misinformation items were either introduced as part of a discussion about the event with a confederate or were embedded within a written narrative about the event that participants were asked to read. A questionnaire containing 20 items about the event was given to participants before and after the experimental manipulation. Results. Participants were less accurate than controls on questionnaire items after encountering misinformation. More importantly, misinformation encountered socially was significantly more misleading than misinformation from a non-social source. This was true for both young and older adults. Conclusion. Misinformation encountered socially produced more errors than misinformation from a non-social source. This finding has implications both for applied (forensic) and theoretical understanding of eyewitness memory.
Can an online tool support contemporary independent music teaching and learning?

The body of research examining deliberate practice and self-regulation in musical instruction has grown extensively over the past several decades, while at the same time many practices in the independent music studio remain unchanged and/or under-researched. Compelling evidence indicates that students with high levels of self-regulation experience deep fulfilment as musicians. But in order to develop these self-regulatory behaviours, students need guidance as they learn to set goals and monitor, and reflect on, their progress. The research reported here describes how a web-based electronic portfolio, called iSCORE, served to enhance the experiences of students and teachers and to help students become more self-regulated. The results demonstrated that the tool supported learning by helping students articulate their goals more clearly and by making it easier to receive guidance from their teachers between lessons.
Non-Linear Approaches for the Classification of Facial Expressions at Varying Degrees of Intensity

The research discussed in this paper documents a comparative analysis of two nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques for the classification of facial expressions at varying degrees of intensity. These nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques are Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA) and Locally Linear Embedding (LLE). The approaches presented in this paper employ psychological tools, computer vision techniques and machine learning algorithms. In this paper we concentrate on comparing the performance of these two techniques when combined with Support Vector Machines (SVMs) at the task of classifying facial expressions across the full expression intensity range from near-neutral to extreme facial expression. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis is employed as a means of comprehensively comparing the results of these techniques.
Symbolic Model Checking by Automata Based Set Representation

Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) are normally used in symbolic state space traversal to implicitly store and manipulate sets. As small BDDs can represent very large sets, it is possible to verify huge state spaces with this methodology. However, it is also well-known that certain systems do not have a compact (polynomial sized) BDD representation. Therefore, we propose a new technique for symbolic model checking where sets are represented with automata instead of BDDs. Except for the more succinct data structure, there are no major changes in the classical algorithms used in symbolic model checking. Using our approach, it is even possible to verify systems with an infinite or parameterized state space.
Targeting the cancer stroma with a fibroblast activation protein-activated promelittin protoxin

Fibroblast-Activation Protein-α (FAP) is a membrane-bound serine protease that is expressed on the surface of reactive stromal fibroblasts present within the majority of human epithelial tumors but is not expressed by normal tissues. FAP is a postprolyl peptidase that differs from other dipeptidyl prolyl peptidases such as diprolylpeptidase 4 in that it also has gelatinase and collagenase endopeptidase activity. Therefore, FAP represents a potential pan-tumor target whose enzymatic activity can be exploited for the intratumoral activation of prodrugs and protoxins. To evaluate FAP as a tumor-specific target, putative FAP-selective peptide protoxins were constructed through modification of the prodomain of melittin, a 26 amino acid amphipathic cytolytic peptide that is the main toxic component in the venom of the common European honeybee Apis milefera. Melittin is synthesized as promelittin, containing a 22 amino acid NH2-terminal prodomain rich in the amino acids proline and alanine. In this study, peptides containing truncated melittin prodomain sequences were tested on erythrocytes to determine the optimal prodomain length for inhibiting cytolytic activity. Once optimized, modified promelittin peptides were generated in which previously identified FAP substrate sequences were introduced into the prodomain. Peptide protoxins were identified that were efficiently activated by FAP and selectively toxic to FAP-expressing cell lines with an IC50 value in the low micromolar range that is similar to melittin. Intratumoral injection of an FAP-activated protoxin produced significant lysis and growth inhibition of human breast and prostate cancer xenografts with minimal toxicity to the host animal. [Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(5):1378–86]
Supplementary Information for “ Parameter Scaling for Epidemic Size in a Spatial Epidemic Model with Mobile Individuals ”

1. Variability of the final epidemic size near the epidemic threshold To characterize the sample-to-sample variability near the epidemic threshold, we computed the susceptibility measure defined as χ = N(〈r∞ 2〉 − 〈r∞〉 ) 〈r∞〉 ⁄ and the variance measure defined as Δ = √〈r∞〉 − 〈r∞〉/〈r∞〉, where N is the system size, r∞ represents the final epidemic size, and the brackets indicate the sample average over the 100 trials.
Revolution 2.0 in Egypt: Pushing for Change, Foreign Influences on a Popular Revolt

This article presents a case study of a movement for democratic change in Egypt. In particular, it reviews the uses of social media that helped to facilitate the revolution that led to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's regime in February 2011. It looks at the movement in Egypt and the uses of social media from the perspective of public diplomacy, particularly in the context of U.S. efforts to drive public opinion in the Middle East. It reviews how the groups and individuals considered instrumental in the events that led to Mubarak's resignation are connected to the actors in U.S. “democracy promotion. ” The article further discusses how social media, by dint of its characteristics, conveniently lends itself to democracy promotion. It highlights the risks involved in an instrumental approach to democracy promotion that treats the tools of social media as means to effect immediate policy gains country by country.
A semi-informative aware approach using topic model for medical search

We propose a semi-informative aware approach using the topic model on query expansion problem in the biomedicine domain. the demographics and disease information is applied to semi-structure the topic model as the “known” label, compared to the traditional latent topics in topic modelling. Then, we suggest to select three terms from the top ranked documents to expand the query, based on the assumption in the pseudo relevance feedback method that the top ranked results in the first retrieval around are relevant. After that, we conduct the experiments on the TREC medical records data sets with extensive analysis and discussions. Numerically, we achieve the improvements of 7.41% on MAP, 9.29% on Bpref and 5.60% on P@10 respectively over the strong baselines.
Subjective Ordinal Labels : Implications for Hypothesis Testing and Machine Learned Prediction Models

In practice, due to the cost of labeling or tagging, subjecti v data is often used without adjustments for label uncertainty. This pr oblem falls into the gap between textbook applications of machine learn ing techniques and research level methodology. A variety of approac hes have been discussed in detail throughout the statistical resear ch literature but more effort could be made to motivate this problem for the pra ctitioner. This paper lays out basic mathematical arguments and remedi s for the analyzing and modeling subjective ordinal response data in the presence of label uncertainty.
3D localization of passive UHF RFID transponders using direction of arrival and distance estimation techniques

The present publication describes a localization concept to determine the 3D Position of passive UHF-RFID transponders. The importance of accurate location information significantly increases with Industry 4.0 in mind. Various applications in production and logistics require the exact location for monitoring the processes and thereby increasing the quality and reliability. The presented system consists of an 8 channel superheterodyne receiver with a connected 2D L-shaped patch antenna array controlled by a standards-compliant UHF reader. The recorded backscattered signal from the transponder gets evaluated by 2D versions of Bartlett Beamforming and MUSIC algorithm using a calculated 2D array manifold. For distance estimation the phase of the backscattered transponder signal gets evaluated for different reader transmission frequencies in the UHF band by applying a modified MUSIC algorithm. By measuring the distance, azimuth and elevation angle a monostatic 3D localization of the passive transponder is possible. For validation the localization concept is examined under ideal conditions in an anechoic chamber and in an industrial environment to show the overall performance.
Real-Time Terrain Modeling Using CPU-GPU Coupled Computation

Motivated by the importance of having real-time feedback in sketch-based modeling tools, we propose a framework for terrain edition capable of generating and displaying complex and high-resolution terrains. Our system is efficient and fast enough to allow the user to see the terrain morphing at the same time the drawing edition occurs. We have two types of editing interactions: the user can draw strokes creating elevations and crevices, and previous strokes can be interactively moved to different regions of the terrain. One interesting feature of our tool is that terrain primitives can be interactively manipulated similarly to primitives in vector-graphics tools. We achieve real-time performance in both modeling and rendering using a hybrid CPU -- GPU coupled solution. We maintain a coarse version of the terrain geometry in the CPU by using a quad tree, while a fine version is produced in the GPU using tessellation shaders.