Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bottleneck detection in UMTS via TCP passive monitoring: a real case

In this work we address the problem of inferring the presence of a bottleneck from passive measurement in the UMTS core network. The study is based on one month of packet traces collected in the core network of mobilkom austria AG & Co KG, the leading mobile telecommunications provider in Austria, EU. During the measurement period a bottleneck link in the UMTS core network was revealed and removed, therefore the traces enable the accurate analysis and comparison of the traffic behavior in the two network conditions. The proposed approach exploits statistics of estimated TCP performance parameters (e.g. RTT, re-transmissions) in order to build a set of bottleneck indicators. We show that such statistics are volatile due to the presence of few top users, but this effect can be counteracted with a simple filtering method. Results show that the frequency of re-transmission events is a powerful indicator for the specific type of bottleneck under study, and it can be used to provide early warning about future occurrences of similar events. This application is particularly important for operational UMTS networks nowadays, since the traffic volumes and composition is still under evolution.
Power-aware slack distribution for hierarchical VLSI design

Hierarchical design plays an important role in microprocessor and ASIC domains where design complexity limits design productivity and tool capacity. Slack distribution, which assigns arrival times and required arrival times at hierarchical boundaries, is a key component in resolving timing issues. In this paper, we present a new slack distribution methodology targeting power minimization. The approach is formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem, which can be solved very efficiently. Experiments with example designs show that up to 14% power can be saved with the proposed methodology.
Wound infection by Prototheca wickerhamii, a saprophytic alga pathogenic for man

Biopsy of a wound infection of the palmar fascia in a young diabetic woman revealed characteristic periodic acid-Schiff-positive Prototheca species cells with a rosette configuration and internal septation. Prototheca wickerhamii was cultured repeatedly from the wound drainage and the biopsy tissue. Several diagnostic features distinguishing Prototheca species, saprophytic algae, from yeasts are: the formation of endospores by mitosis; greater variation in cell size (2 to 15 mum); the presence of cytoplasmic granules, particularly in old cultures; and the absence of budding forms and pseudomycelia. The organism was resistant to 5-fluorocytosine and the minimal inhibitory concentration of amphotericin B was 12.5 mug/ml. With the exception of the tetracycline group, all other 16 antibacterial agents tested appeared completely ineffective in vitro. A synergism between amphotericin B and tetracycline was clearly demonstrated by the use of the checkerboard method. Infection by Prototheca species may be more common than presently realized due to the common expedient of identifying yeast-like isolates as "yeast--not Candida albicans. "
Non-standard work arrangements in the public sector the case of South Africa

This study is one of a series of country studies commissioned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on non-standard work arrangements in the public sector. Its aim is to understand, firstly, the implications of this trend for the decent work objectives and, secondly, to identify appropriate policy responses. In doing so, we have also endeavoured to identify the gender dimension of non-standard work arrangements, and obtain data that is disaggregated by sex. As understood here, non-standard work (or non-standard employment, as we prefer to term it) takes two different forms. Firstly, it refers to the increased utilisation of part-time and temporary workers, which we will refer to here as casualization, to distinguish it from the second form. The second form refers to the utilisation of contractors or intermediaries to employ the workers required, in this instance, to provide services to government. We refer to this as externalization (Theron and Godfrey, 2000). In the case of externalisation, the workers providing the service in question are generally employed on a temporary basis (typically the term for which the contractor or intermediary is engaged). Less usually, they may also be employed on a part-time basis. Accordingly, casualization and externalisation overlap. However the implications for decent work objectives are more likely to be negative in the case of externalisation than casualization, particularly where lesser skilled workers are involved. We elaborate on the reasons for this below. Since this study is supposed to be based on the existing literature and statistics regarding non-standard work arrangements, rather than original research, it is necessary to point out at the outset that there is a dearth of literature on the subject. There is also a dearth of meaningful statistical data. This is because of the difficulties of measuring non-standard employment, which we believe are not unique to South Africa.
An Embedded Adaptive Controller Design for MIMO System

Being an important wireless communication technique, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system can effectively increase channel throughput by spatial multiplexing. However, the performance of a MIMO system can be further improved through adaptive modulation and intelligence antenna techniques. The affiliation of a controller can save power and diminish mechanical consumption with a guaranteed bit error rate (BER). The experimental performance of the MIMO system with a new adaptive controller has demonstrated a bounded BER can be acquired in a large range of channel SNR fluctuation.
Sequential activation of NKT cells and NK cells provides effective innate immunotherapy of cancer

The CD1d reactive glycolipid, α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer), potently activates T cell receptor-α type I invariant NKT cells that secondarily stimulate the proliferation and activation of other leukocytes, including NK cells. Here we report a rational approach to improving the antitumor activity of α-GalCer by using delayed interleukin (IL)-21 treatment to mature the α-GalCer–expanded pool of NK cells into highly cytotoxic effector cells. In a series of experimental and spontaneous metastases models in mice, we demonstrate far superior antitumor activity of the α-GalCer/IL-21 combination above either agent alone. Superior antitumor activity was critically dependent upon the increased perforin-mediated cytolytic activity of NK cells. Transfer of α-GalCer–pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) followed by systemic IL-21 caused an even more significant reduction in established (day 8) metastatic burden and prolonged survival. In addition, this combination prevented chemical carcinogenesis more effectively. Combinations of IL-21 with other NK cell–activating cytokines, such as IL-2 and IL-12, were much less effective in the same experimental metastases models, and these cytokines did not substitute effectively for IL-21 in combination with α-GalCer. Overall, the data suggest that NK cell antitumor function can be enhanced greatly by strategies that are designed to expand and differentiate NK cells via DC activation of NKT cells.
Representative sets for multisets

The notion of a $q$-representative set for a family of subsets has recently proven to be very useful in the design of parameterized and exact algorithms. We generalize this notion to families of $\mathit{multisets}$. We also give an efficient way to find a representative set for a family of multisets. As an application we give a deterministic algorithm for minimal weight r-SIMPLE k-PATH running in time $O^*(r^{O(k/r)})$ for $1<r\leq k$. This extends a result of Abasi et. al [ABGH14] that gave a \emph{randomized} algorithm of similar running time for the non-weighted case. We derive other algorithms for problems that can be viewed as augmenting a parameterized problem with a `relaxation' parameter. A corollary of our construction is an improved explicit construction of $\mathit{lopsided\; universal\; sets}$ [FLS14] for a certain range of parameters.
Perceptions of risk among college smokers: Relationships to smoking status

Introduction: Previous research has suggested that college smokers and nonsmokers have differing perceptions of smoking risk. However, this research has not compared subgroups of college smokers, including never smokers, experimenters, “deniers” (i.e., students who smoke but do not identify as smokers), and self-identified smokers. To better understand perceived risk among these subgroups, the goals of the following study were to examine perceptions of risk within a sample of deniers, and determine whether perceived risk predicts intention to smoke. Method: Data were from a larger online survey assessing smoking behavior among 1904 students at a large Northeastern university. Participants answered questions about their perceptions of risk associated with various smoking behaviors and their expectations about their future smoking behavior. Results: Consistent with previous research, smokers and nonsmokers differed in their perception of short-term smoking risk. Deniers were only half as likely as self-identified smokers to believe a weekend smoker should be considered a “regular smoker,” and most students did not believe that their smoking would increase over the next 4 years. Deniers were less likely than self-identified smokers to believe they would smoke in the next 30 days. Discussion: These findings suggest that deniers represent an additional subgroup of college smokers who discount the risks of smoking. Furthermore, consideration of smoking subgroup may be warranted when delivering anti-tobacco messages designed to target risk perceptions.
Wealth-driven competition in a speculative financial market: examples with maximizing agents

This paper demonstrates how both the quantitative and qualitative results of a general, analytically tractable asset-pricing model in which heterogeneous agents behave consistently with a constant relative risk-aversion assumption can be applied to the special case of optimizing behaviour. The analysis of the asymptotic properties of the market is performed using a geometric approach that allows the visualization of all possible equilibria by means of a simple one-dimensional Equilibrium Market Curve. The case of linear (particularly, mean–variance) investment functions is thoroughly analysed. This analysis highlights the features that are specific to linear investment functions. As a consequence, some previous contributions of the agent-based literature are generalized.
Creativity is People

On the one hand industrial and business managements pay lip‐service to creativity, but on the other hand they show scant recognition of the characteristics of creative people. And yet it is on scientists and engineers of a special kind, as well as many other creative people, that the future depends – technologically, socially, culturally and spiritually. In this article, Professor Stein presents valuable data for the selection and management of creative scientists, engineers and supporting personnel. The central point he makes is that to do its job right, management needs to do far more to acknowledge the role it must itself play in the creative process. This article is a condensed and modified version of a paper presented by Dr Stein at the 1985 annual conference of the Personnel Association of Ontario, on 28 February 1985, held in Toronto, Canada. We acknowledge permission of the Association to publish.
Binaural cues estimates based on Interaural Matching Filter for sound source localization

Robot audition is a natural and convenient way for robot to interact with outside. Binaural sound source localization for robot audition plays an important role in human-robot interaction, speech capturing, enhancement and communication, etc. For the issue, interaural time difference (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) are two essential binaural (interaural) cues, yet they are still difficult to extract in complex environments. In this context, this paper proposes a new scenario to simultaneously estimate the ITD and ILD based on Interaural Matching Filter (IMF). The IMF is an optimal filter in view of eliminating the disparity of binaural signals so that it implies some information of binaural cues. Firstly, the IMF is decomposed into a minimum phase component and an all-pass component by homomorphic filtering. Subsequently, ITD is evaluated from the phase response of all-pass component, and ILD is yielded by the amplitude response of minimum phase component. Experiments verify the effectiveness of our method to preserve binaural cues, and it is robust for sound localization.
Recognition of hand action using body-conducted sounds

Several methods of recognizing hand actions by examining the vibrations conducted through the body from muscular activity (we call them “body-conducted sounds” in this paper) were proposed in previous works. However, they did not consider the transfer characteristic of body-conducted sounds. In this paper, we propose a method for hand action recognition that extracts the main frequency elements of body-conducted sounds using the Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficient (MFCC) and divides the hidden states of Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) based on the MFCC. The results of experiments show that our method makes it possible to correctly recognize 95% of hand actions on average.
Fast and effective task scheduling in heterogeneous systems

Recently (Proc. ACM Int. Conf. on Supercomput., 1999), we presented two very low-cost approaches to compile-time list scheduling where the tasks' priorities are computed statically or dynamically. For homogeneous systems, these two algorithms, called FCP (Fast Critical Path) and FLB (Fast Load Balancing), respectively, have been shown to yield a performance equivalent to other much more costly algorithms, such as MCP and ETF (Earliest Task First). In this paper, we present modified versions of FCP and FLB targeted at heterogeneous systems. We show that the modified versions yield a good overall performance, which is generally comparable to algorithms specifically designed for heterogeneous systems, such as HEFT (Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time) or ERT (which are versions of MCP and ETF, respectively, using the task's completion time as the task priority). There are a few cases, mainly for irregular problems and large processor speed variance, where FCP's and FLB's performances drop to 32% and 63%, respectively. Considering the good overall performance and their very low cost, however, FCP and FLB are interesting options for scheduling very large problems on heterogeneous systems.
Identification of Heterosis-Associated Stable QTLs for Ear-Weight-Related Traits in an Elite Maize Hybrid Zhengdan 958 by Design III

Heterosis plays a decisive role in maize production worldwide, but its genetic basis remains unclear. In this study, we explored heterosis for ear-weight (EW)-related traits using a North Carolina Experiment III design (Design III) population derived from the elite maize hybrid Zhengdan 958. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis was conducted based on phenotypic data collected from five environments using a high-density linkage map that consisted of 905 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). A total of 38 environmentally stable QTLs were detected, and the numbers for the Z1 and Z2 populations were 18 and 20, respectively. All environmentally stable QTLs for Z2 were characterized by the overdominance effect (OD), which indicated that overdominance was one of the most important contributors to the heterosis of EW-related traits. Consistent with the significant positive correlations between EW-related traits, 9 genomic regions with overlapped QTLs for different traits were found and were located on chromosomes 1 (1), 3 (2), 4 (3), 7 (1), 8 (1), and 9 (1). Compared to previous reports, we found that the genomic regions for heterosis were not always congruent between different hybrids, which suggested that the combination of heterotic loci in different hybrids was genotype-dependent. Collectively, these data provided further evidence that the potential utilization of QTLs for heterosis may be feasible by pyramiding if we treat the QTLs as inherited units.
Impact of Spatial and Verbal Short-Term Memory Load on Auditory Spatial Attention Gradients

Short-term memory load can impair attentional control, but prior work shows that the extent of the effect ranges from being very general to very specific. One factor for the mixed results may be reliance on point estimates of memory load effects on attention. Here we used auditory attention gradients as an analog measure to map-out the impact of short-term memory load over space. Verbal or spatial information was maintained during an auditory spatial attention task and compared to no-load. Stimuli were presented from five virtual locations in the frontal azimuth plane, and subjects focused on the midline. Reaction times progressively increased for lateral stimuli, indicating an attention gradient. Spatial load further slowed responses at lateral locations, particularly in the left hemispace, but had little effect at midline. Verbal memory load had no (Experiment 1), or a minimal (Experiment 2) influence on reaction times. Spatial and verbal load increased switch costs between memory encoding and attention tasks relative to the no load condition. The findings show that short-term memory influences the distribution of auditory attention over space; and that the specific pattern depends on the type of information in short-term memory.
Human neuropsin gene in depression.

BACKGROUND Neuropsin (NP, kallikrein 8, KLK8) - a kallikrein gene-related (KLK) endoprotease - plays a key role in neuroplasticity processes, since intracellular signal cascades and regulation of gene expression are engaged in long-term synaptic plasticity. The main aim of this paper is to compare expression of the human neuropsin gene on the mRNA level in a group of patients diagnosed with depression and in a group of healthy subjects who have never been treated psychiatrically. SUBJECTS AND METHODS 291 people, aged 18-67, were qualified to participate in the experiment: major recurrent depression group (MRD) and the control group (CG). Designations were carried out for the human NP gene (hNP). RESULTS For hNP gene expression at the mRNA level was higher in patients with depression than in the CG (p<0.005). A Spearman's rank correlation analysis did not reveal any statistically significant relationship between the intensity of the disease measured using the HDRS scale and expression on the mRNA level for the hNP gene. Expression for the hNP gene in the entire group analysed increased with age of the examined individuals (p<0.005). CONCLUSION Expression of the hNP gene on the mRNA level, evaluated based on peripheral blood, is significantly higher in the patients with MRD than in the healthy subjects.
Evolutionary Analyses Suggest a Function of MxB Immunity Proteins Beyond Lentivirus Restriction

Viruses impose diverse and dynamic challenges on host defenses. Diversifying selection of codons and gene copy number variation are two hallmarks of genetic innovation in antiviral genes engaged in host-virus genetic conflicts. The myxovirus resistance (Mx) genes encode interferon-inducible GTPases that constitute a major arm of the cell-autonomous defense against viral infection. Unlike the broad antiviral activity of MxA, primate MxB was recently shown to specifically inhibit lentiviruses including HIV-1. We carried out detailed evolutionary analyses to investigate whether genetic conflict with lentiviruses has shaped MxB evolution in primates. We found strong evidence for diversifying selection in the MxB N-terminal tail, which contains molecular determinants of MxB anti-lentivirus specificity. However, we found no overlap between previously-mapped residues that dictate lentiviral restriction and those that have evolved under diversifying selection. Instead, our findings are consistent with MxB having a long-standing and important role in the interferon response to viral infection against a broader range of pathogens than is currently appreciated. Despite its critical role in host innate immunity, we also uncovered multiple functional losses of MxB during mammalian evolution, either by pseudogenization or by gene conversion from MxA genes. Thus, although the majority of mammalian genomes encode two Mx genes, this apparent stasis masks the dramatic effects that recombination and diversifying selection have played in shaping the evolutionary history of Mx genes. Discrepancies between our study and previous publications highlight the need to account for recombination in analyses of positive selection, as well as the importance of using sequence datasets with appropriate depth of divergence. Our study also illustrates that evolutionary analyses of antiviral gene families are critical towards understanding molecular principles that govern host-virus interactions and species-specific susceptibility to viral infection.
One Bit Feedback Based Diagonal Precoding for Non-Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes

Quantized feedback about the channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter improves the error performance of MIMO systems. In literature, most of the work is done to improve the error performance of the orthogonal space time block codes (OSTBCs) using feedback of CSI from the receiver to the transmitter. In this letter, we study the performance of non-orthogonal space-time block codes (NOSTBCs) in a 2 × 1 multiple-input single-output system with diagonal weighting scheme; this scheme utilizes quantized one bit feedback with no delay from the receiver in a quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel. The considered NOSTBCs are Golden code and Silver code. Error-tolerant diagonal weighting parameter which improves the pair wise error probability (PEP) of the receiver is derived. The PEP performance of the considered set-up is studied for the complex-valued constellation like quadrature amplitude modulation. Simulation results indicate that similar to OSTBCs, the error performance of the NOSTBCs also improves with the proposed diagonal precoding scheme.
The RWTH Machine Translation System for WMT 2009

RWTH participated in the shared translation task of the Fourth Workshop of Statistical Machine Translation (WMT 2009) with the German-English, French-English and Spanish-English pair in each translation direction. The submissions were generated using a phrase-based and a hierarchical statistical machine translation systems with appropriate morpho-syntactic enhancements. pos-based reorderings of the source language for the phrase-based systems and splitting of German compounds for both systems were applied. For some tasks, a system combination was used to generate a final hypothesis. An additional English hypothesis was produced by combining all three final systems for translation into English.
Coexistence of 3G Repeaters with LTE Base Stations

Repeaters have been an attractive solution for mobile operators to upgrade their wireless networks at low cost and to extend network coverage effectively. Since the first LTE commercial deployment in 2009, many mobile operators have launched LTE networks by upgrading their 3G and legacy networks. Because all 3G frequency bands are shared with the frequency bands for LTE deployment and 3G mobile operators have an enormous number of repeaters, reusing 3G repeaters in LTE networks is definitely a practical and cost-efficient solution. However, 3G repeaters usually do not support spatial multiplexing with multiple antennas, and thus it is difficult to reuse them directly in LTE networks. In order to support spatial multiplexing of LTE, the role of 3G repeaters should be replaced with small LTE base stations or MIMO-capable repeaters. In this paper, a repeater network is proposed to reuse 3G repeaters in LTE deployment while still supporting multilayer transmission of LTE. Interestingly, the proposed network has a higher cluster throughput than an LTE network with MIMO-capable repeaters.