Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
OFDM Narrowband Interference Estimation Using Cyclic Prefix Based Algorithm

OFDM systems experience BER degradation in the presence of narrowband interference (NBI). We propose a novel NBI cancellation algorithm for a wideband OFDM receiver. Modelling the NBI as a single-tone sinusoid, subspace-based (SB) methods can be used to estimate it. However, direct application of SB methods to the received signal yields poor results except when the system is operating at very low SIR. Our algorithm exploits the redundancy inherent in the cyclic prefix of the OFDM system to remove the information bearing component of the received signal prior to the estimation of NBI by using SB methods. We estimate the NBI by applying SB methods to the resulting signal. Simulation results show a significant improvement in performance with the proposed scheme.
The substrate object model and architecture

Operating system kernels are difficult to build, hard to change and a problem to adapt to new hardware. This is particularly true when the operating system tries to simulate a general-purpose multiprocessor on a cluster of workstations. The substrate architecture presented here uses lessons from language design to facilitate the evolution of existing operating systems. A reflective object model that clearly separates instances, interfaces and implementations is the basis of this architecture. The object-model implementation allows flexible and dynamic composition of interfaces and implementations. The language environment and object model is used to create substrates, building block components of a multiprocessor environment. <<ETX>>
A kalman filter with a perceptual post-filter to enhance speech degraded by colored noise

A method for colored noise speech enhancement based on a Kalman filter combined with a post-filter using masking properties of human auditory systems was presented. Time domain forward masking effects and frequency domain simultaneous masking properties were considered in the post-filter. A colored noise v(n), used as the noise source, was obtained by running a white noise signal through an AR filter. It was found that the new method has the best performance for any input noisy speech signal-to-noise ratio value.
Portable skin analyzer based on smartphone

In this paper, a facial skin condition estimation function was developed on a smartphone. Skin image was captured by the image module of smartphone. An algorithm based on gradient operators was used to quantify the facial skin conditions by providing results as an index. Linear regression was applied to model the relationship between the index of skin conditions and the age of thirty subjects who ranged from 22 to 61. The result shows that the proposed skin age estimation function is able to measure one's skin age and has the potential to become a convenient skin inspection tool in cosmetic industry.
Quantitative trait loci: a meta-analysis.

This article presents a method to combine QTL results from different independent analyses. This method provides a modified Akaike criterion that can be used to decide how many QTL are actually represented by the QTL detected in different experiments. This criterion is computed to choose between models with one, two, three, etc., QTL. Simulations are carried out to investigate the quality of the model obtained with this method in various situations. It appears that the method allows the length of the confidence interval of QTL location to be consistently reduced when there are only very few "actual" QTL locations. An application of the method is given using data from the maize database available online at http://www. agron.missouri. edu/.
Management of COPD, equal treatment across age, gender, and social situation? A register study

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive chronic disease where treatment decisions should be based on disease severity and also should be equally distributed across age, gender, and social situation. The aim of this study was to determine to what extent patients with COPD are offered evidence-based interventions and how the interventions are distributed across demographic and clinical factors in the sample. Baseline registrations of demographic, disease-related, and management-related variables of 7,810 patients in the Swedish National Airway Register are presented. One-third of the patients were current smokers. Patient-reported dyspnea and health-related quality of life were more deteriorated in elderly patients and patients living alone. Only 34% of currently smoking patients participated in the smoking cessation programs, and 22% of all patients were enrolled in any patient education program, with women taking part in them more than men. Less than 20% of the patients had any contact with physiotherapists or dieticians, with women having more contact than men. Men had more comorbidities than women, except for depression and osteoporosis. Women were more often given pharmacological treatments. With increasing severity of dyspnea, participation in patient education programs was more common. Dietician contact was more common in those with lower body mass index and more severe COPD stage. Both dietician contact and physiotherapist contact increased with deteriorated health-related quality of life, dyspnea, and increased exacerbation frequency. The present study showed that COPD management is mostly equally distributed across demographic characteristics. Only a minority of the patients in the present study had interdisciplinary team contacts. Thus, this data shows that the practical implementation of structured guidelines for treatment of COPD varies, to some extent, with regard to age and gender. Also, disease characteristics influence guideline implementation for each individual patient. Quality registers have the strength to follow-up on compliance with guidelines and show whether an intervention needs to be adapted prior to implementation in health care practice.
A test data compression scheme based on position information coding

Under the condition of Built-off Self-test (BOST), a novel test data compression scheme based on position information coding is presented, which is targeting test data and test power consumption. The proposed scheme gets the next test stimuli by reversing some bits of the responses corresponding to the previous test vectors. During the process of bit flip, test power problem should be taken into account; both the shift power and capture power during the test should be limited in the scope of security. For shift power, need to modify the scan chain by adding blocking logic; and the capture power reduction through the test cube filling based on the response. Experimental results justify the efficacy of the proposed method in attaining test-data compression; the average compression ratio is 73.63% on the premise of capture power consumption reduced by 20%.
Automatic detection of the pulmonary nodules from CT images

This paper presents a complete approach for automatic detection and classification of pulmonary nodules through applying several techniques on chest CT images. The proposed approach starts by multi segmentation techniques followed by nodule extraction and then classification of the extracted features. The first step of is the preprocessing by converting the pixel values into Hounsfield units, and then applying a region growing technique to isolate the human body from other items. After that, the lung segmentation process takes place, which initially starts by thresholding the image followed by Hessian method for vascular tree segmentation. The application of multi segmentation methods allowed the precise extraction of the nodule features, which facilitate the classification. After this stage, several classifiers with their combination had been applied to perform the classification of malignant nodule and benign. The combination of these classifiers are used to evaluate and then enhance the classification accuracy of malignant nodule and benign. CT study of 200 patients, each with 150 to 500 images, is used to evaluate the proposed technique. The results are promising and achieved 98% classification accuracy.
ECG beat classification method for ECG printout with Principle Components Analysis and Support Vector Machines

ECG is an electric signal which is generated from human heart. It is used for investigate some of abnormal heart function. For this paper the shape of ECG is used to classify ECG beat in four types such as normal beat (N), left bundle branch block beat (L), right bundle branch block beat (R) and ventricular premature beat (V). To extract the shape of ECG, the discrete wavelet transform with level 3 of Daubechies 1 is used after digital filter was applied to remove noise from ECG signal. After that PCA(Principle Components Analysis) and SVM (Support Vector Machines) are adapted to create model of classifier for using with paper based ECG printout. The ECG image from ECG printout is processed by some image processing techniques such as red grid removing, noise rejection, image thinning and time-series ECG extraction to obtain the time-series ECG signal before classification. Based on MIT-BIH arrhythmia database which using for SVM training and evaluation, the performance of this classifier is 99.6367% with LIBSVM.
Elevated Plasma P-Selectin Autoantibodies in Primary Sjögren Syndrome Patients with Thrombocytopenia

Background Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is one of the most common chronic systemic autoimmune diseases, and thrombocytopenia is one of the hematological manifestations of pSS. When platelet and endothelial cells are activated, P-selectin is expressed on the cell surface. This study aimed to investigate the role of P-selectin autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of thrombocytopenia in pSS. Material/Methods P-selectin autoantibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 38 pSS patients without thrombocytopenia and 32 pSS patients with thrombocytopenia, 32 idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) patients, and 35 healthy controls. Results The plasma P-selectin autoantibodies (A490) in ITP patients and pSS patients with/without thrombocytopenia were significantly higher than those in healthy controls, but there were no significant differences between ITP patients and pSS patients with thrombocytopenia. The positive rate of P-selectin autoantibodies in pSS patients with thrombocytopenia was significantly higher than that in ITP patients. The platelet count was lower in P-selectin autoantibodies-positive patients, while among pSS patients with thrombocytopenia, the platelet count was lower in P-selectin autoantibodies-positive patients than in P-selectin autoantibodies-negative patients. In ITP patients and pSS patients with thrombocytopenia, the platelet count was lower in P-selectin autoantibodies-positive patients. Conclusions Elevated plasma P-selectin autoantibodies may play a role in the pathogenesis of thrombocytopenia in pSS patients.
Metabolic cost of osmoregulation in a hypertonic environment in the invasive African clawed frog Xenopus laevis

ABSTRACT Studies of aquatic invertebrates reveal that salinity affects feeding and growth rates, reproduction, survival, and diversity. Little is known, however, about how salinity impacts the energy budget of vertebrates and amphibians in particular. The few studies focused on this topic in vertebrates suggest that the ingestion of salts and the resulting osmoregulatory activity is energetically expensive. We analyzed the effect of saline acclimation on standard metabolic rates (SMR) and the activities of metabolic enzymes of internal organs and osmoregulatory variables (plasma osmolality and urea plasma level) in females of Xenopus laevis by means of acclimating individuals to an isosmotic (235 mOsm NaCl; ISO group) and hyper-osmotic (340 mOsm NaCl; HYP group) environment for 40 days. After acclimation, we found that total and mass-specific SMR was approximately 80% higher in the HYP group than those found in the ISO group. These changes were accompanied by higher citrate synthase activities in liver and heart in the HYP group than in the ISO group. Furthermore, we found a significant and positive correlation between metabolic rates and plasma urea, and citrate synthase activity in liver and heart. These results support the notion that the cost of osmoregulation is probably common in most animal species and suggest the existence of a functional association between metabolic rates and the adjustments in osmoregulatory physiology, such as blood distribution and urea synthesis. Summary: A significant increase in energy expenditure of Xenopus laevis exposed to hyperosmotic conditions is associated with urea concentration and a long-term effect of increasing the metabolic enzyme activities of liver and heart.
RNA interference and Register Machines (extended abstract)

RNA interference (RNAi) is a mechanism whereby small RNAs (siRNAs) directly control gene expression without assistance from proteins. This mechanism consists of interactions between RNAs and small RNAs both of which may be single or double stranded. The target of the mechanism is mRNA to be degraded or aberrated, while the initiator is double stranded RNA (dsRNA) to be cleaved into siRNAs. Observing the digital nature of RNAi, we represent RNAi as a Minsky register machine such that (i) The two registers hold single and double stranded RNAs respectively, and (ii) Machine's instructions are interpreted by interactions of enzyme (Dicer), siRNA (with RISC com- plex) and polymerization (RdRp) to the appropriate registers. Interpreting RNAi as a computational structure, we can investigate the computational meaning of RNAi, especially its complexity. Initially, the machine is configured as a Chemical Ground Form (CGF), which generates incorrect jumps. To remedy this problem, the system is remodeled as recursive RNAi, in which siRNA targets not only mRNA but also the machine instructional analogues of Dicer and RISC. Finally, probabilistic termination is investigated in the recursive RNAi system.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Peak Torque Differences between Vegetarian and Omnivore Endurance Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Study

In spite of well-documented health benefits of vegetarian diets, less is known regarding the effects of these diets on athletic performance. In this cross-sectional study, we compared elite vegetarian and omnivore adult endurance athletes for maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) and strength. Twenty-seven vegetarian (VEG) and 43 omnivore (OMN) athletes were evaluated using VO2 max testing on the treadmill, and strength assessment using a dynamometer to determine peak torque for leg extensions. Dietary data were assessed using detailed seven-day food logs. Although total protein intake was lower among vegetarians in comparison to omnivores, protein intake as a function of body mass did not differ by group (1.2 ± 0.3 and 1.4 ± 0.5 g/kg body mass for VEG and OMN respectively, p = 0.220). VO2 max differed for females by diet group (53.0 ± 6.9 and 47.1 ± 8.6 mL/kg/min for VEG and OMN respectively, p < 0.05) but not for males (62.6 ± 15.4 and 55.7 ± 8.4 mL/kg/min respectively). Peak torque did not differ significantly between diet groups. Results from this study indicate that vegetarian endurance athletes’ cardiorespiratory fitness was greater than that for their omnivorous counterparts, but that peak torque did not differ between diet groups. These data suggest that vegetarian diets do not compromise performance outcomes and may facilitate aerobic capacity in athletes.
Architecture-Level Exploration of Alternative Interconnection Schemes Targeting 3D FPGAs: A Software-Supported Methodology

In current reconfigurable architectures, the interconnection structures increasingly contribute more to the delay and power consumption. The demand for increased clock frequencies and logic density (smaller area footprint) makes the problem even more important. Three-dimensional (3D) architectures are able to alleviate this problem by accommodating a number of functional layers, each of which might be fabricated in different technology. However, the benefits of such integration technology have not been sufficiently explored yet. In this paper, we propose a software-supported methodology for exploring and evaluating alternative interconnection schemes for 3D FPGAs. In order to support the proposed methodology, three new CAD tools were developed (part of the 3D MEANDER Design Framework). During our exploration, we study the impact of vertical interconnection between functional layers in a number of design parameters. More specifically, the average gains in operation frequency, power consumption, and wirelength are 35%, 32%, and 13%, respectively, compared to existing 2D FPGAs with identical logic resources. Also, we achieve higher utilization ratio for the vertical interconnections compared to existing approaches by 8% for designing 3D FPGAs, leading to cheaper and more reliable devices.
Convergence and Consistency of Recursive Boosting

We study the convergence and consistency of boosting algorithms for classification. The standard method, as the sample size increases say from m to m+1, is to re-initialize the boosting algorithm with an arbitrary prediction rule. In contrast to this "batch" approach, we propose a boosting procedure that is recursive in the sense that for sample size m+1, the algorithm is re-started with the composite classifier that was obtained for sample size m at a specific point, the linking point. We adopt the regularization technique of early stopping, which consists in stopping the procedure based on the 1-norm of the composite classifier. We prove that such recursive boosting methods achieve consistency provided certain stopping and linking points criteria are met. We show that these conditions can be satisfied for widely used loss functions
Identification of Enhanced Fuzzy Models with Multidimensional Fuzzy Membership Functions

Identification of enhanced data-driven fuzzy models with multidimensional fuzzy membership functions is considered. The enhancement of fuzzy modeling is important since it can be used for modeling nonlinear, uncertain, and complex systems. For this aim a number of proposals appear in the literature. In these works some of the general concerns are local models, global models or the combination of both. The common approach in these works is the use of decomposed fuzzy membership functions from the multidimensional membership functions counterpart. However, because of such decomposition, inevitably a decomposition error creeps in the model development process thereby degrading the model performance. To avoid this error, it is desirable to work with multidimensional membership functions directly, to determine the final fuzzy model outcome. The motivation of this research is due to fuzzy modeling of architectural design data for the development of intelligent design processes where the data are multidimensional and highly nonlinear. From this starting point, this research deals with multidimensional membership functions to form a fuzzy model where the membership functions are modeled by radial basis functions (RBF) network. Comparisons are made with the results presented in the literature and the enhanced fuzzy modeling of this approach is demonstrated
Adaptive GPS Duty Cycling

As the quantity and quality of sensors in smartphones increase, smartphones are emerging as promising platforms with lots of potential applications. Sensors allow applications that run on the phone to identify the context of the user, and adjust settings or perform operations accordingly. However, the applicability of most of these context-aware systems is challenged by the limited amount of energy that the phone battery can provide compared to the energy requirements of sensors. Our project tries to tackle this issue by focusing on the GPS as an example of an energy-intensive sensor. First, we propose a probabilistic method to predict the time when the GPS should be triggered ON, based on weekly offline analysis of the GPS traces of the user. Next, we propose a method to decide when to take the next GPS sample, based on the user’s current activity and historical GPS traces. Informally speaking, the GPS is sampled more frequently when the user is currently changing his location in a non-uniform manner. If the motion of the user is relatively uniform (e.g., the user is moving in a straight line), the GPS is sampled less frequently. We evaluate our heuristics on GPS traces that were recorded in different cities. Moreover, for the purpose of evaluating our heuristics on a real-world application, we develop FriendFavorites, an application that runs on Android phones and detects the favorite places of the user to share them with friends. We show that our heuristics result in longer battery life compared to static duty cycling, while maintaining good localization accuracy. 1. BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK Existing literature that attempts to reduce the energy consumption of location-based services on smartphones can be categorized under one of the following two categories, namely substitution and optimization.
Improved Upper and Lower Time Bounds for Parallel Random Access Machines Without Simultaneous Writes

The time required by a variant of the PRAM (a parallel machine model which consists of sequential processors which communicate by reading and writing into a common shared memory) to compute a certain class of functions called critical functions (which include the Boolean OR of n bits) is studied. Simultaneous reads from individual cells of the shared memory are permitted, but simultaneous writes are not. It is shown that any PRAM which computes a critical function must take at least $0.5\log n - O(1)$ steps, and that there exists a critical function which can be computed in $0.57\log n - O(1)$ steps. These bounds represent an improvement in the constant factor over those previously known.
RiceGAAS: an automated annotation system and database for rice genome sequence

An extensive effort of the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) has resulted in rapid accumulation of genome sequence, and >137 Mb has already been made available to the public domain as of August 2001. This requires a high-throughput annotation scheme to extract biologically useful and timely information from the sequence data on a regular basis. A new automated annotation system and database called Rice Genome Automated Annotation System (RiceGAAS) has been developed to execute a reliable and up-to-date analysis of the genome sequence as well as to store and retrieve the results of annotation. The system has the following functional features: (i) collection of rice genome sequences from GenBank; (ii) execution of gene prediction and homology search programs; (iii) integration of results from various analyses and automatic interpretation of coding regions; (iv) re-execution of analysis, integration and automatic interpretation with the latest entries in reference databases; (v) integrated visualization of the stored data using web-based graphical view. RiceGAAS also has a data submission mechanism that allows public users to perform fully automated annotation of their own sequences. The system can be accessed at http://RiceGAAS.dna. affrc.go. jp/.