Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new hybrid TOA/RSS location tracking algorithm for wireless sensor network

This paper presents a new TOA/RSS hybrid location tracking algorithm for a partial synchronized wireless sensor network, which use: (1) both TOA and RSS measurements to give better tracking accuracy, and (2) particle filter to deal with the nonlinear system model, which can approximate the optimal Bayesian estimate. Numerical simulations show that the new algorithm has better performance and robustness with relatively low-cost network.
Fluorescent Probes for Nucleic Acid Visualization in Fixed and Live Cells

This review analyses the literature concerning non-fluorescent and fluorescent probes for nucleic acid imaging in fixed and living cells from the point of view of their suitability for imaging intracellular native RNA and DNA. Attention is mainly paid to fluorescent probes for fluorescence microscopy imaging. Requirements for the target-binding part and the fluorophore making up the probe are formulated. In the case of native double-stranded DNA, structure-specific and sequence-specific probes are discussed. Among the latest, three classes of dsDNA-targeting molecules are described: (i) sequence-specific peptides and proteins; (ii) triplex-forming oligonucleotides and (iii) polyamide oligo(N-methylpyrrole/N-methylimidazole) minor groove binders. Polyamides seem to be the most promising targeting agents for fluorescent probe design, however, some technical problems remain to be solved, such as the relatively low sequence specificity and the high background fluorescence inside the cells. Several examples of fluorescent probe applications for DNA imaging in fixed and living cells are cited. In the case of intracellular RNA, only modified oligonucleotides can provide such sequence-specific imaging. Several approaches for designing fluorescent probes are considered: linear fluorescent probes based on modified oligonucleotide analogs, molecular beacons, binary fluorescent probes and template-directed reactions with fluorescence probe formation, FRET donor-acceptor pairs, pyrene excimers, aptamers and others. The suitability of all these methods for living cell applications is discussed.
THE ADVENT OF SEMANTIC WEB IN TOURISM INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The tourism industry depends on complex value creation chains involving a large number of participants that change frequently and rapidly. In addition, the products of tourism industry are complex and they will perish if they are not sold in time. For these reasons, the ideal tourism information systems require a lot of flexibility of underlying systems. Moreover, they comprise accurate access to any tourism service that provide, and they are usable by corporate and private customers alike. The management and interoperation of semantically diverse tourism information systems are facilitated by Semantic Web technology that provides methods and standards, which allow accurate access to information as well as flexibility to comply with needs of tourism information system users and administrators. This paper considers state-of-the art issues (ontologies, semantic modelling and querying, semantic portals and semantic-based e-markets) concerning the exploitation of the semantic web technologies and applications in tourism information systems.
Microstimulation in visual area MT: effects on direction discrimination performance

Physiological and behavioral evidence suggests that the activity of direction selective neurons in visual cortex underlies the perception of moving visual stimuli. We tested this hypothesis by measuring the effects of cortical microstimulation on perceptual judgements of motion direction. To accomplish this, rhesus monkeys were trained to discriminate the direction of motion in a near-threshold, stochastic motion display. For each experiment, we positioned a microelectrode in the middle of a cluster of neurons that shared a common preferred direction of motion. The psychophysical task was then adjusted so that the visual display was presented directly over the neurons' receptive field. The monkeys were required to discriminate between motion shown either in the direction preferred by the neurons or in the opposite direction. On half the trials of an experiment, we applied electrical microstimulation while monkeys viewed the motion display. We hypothesized that enhancing the neurons' discharge rate would introduce a directionally specific signal into the cortex and thereby influence the monkeys' choices on the discrimination task. We compared the monkeys' performance on “stimulated” and “nonstimulated” trials in 139 experiments; all trials within an experiment were presented in random order. Statistically significant effects of microstimulation were obtained in 89 experiments. In 86 of the 89 experiments with significant effects (97%), the monkeys indicated that motion was in the neurons' preferred direction more frequently on stimulated trials than on nonstimulated trials. The data demonstrate a functional link between the activity of direction selective neurons and perceptual judgements of motion direction.
Multistage index assignments for M-description coding

We consider the problem of generalized multiple description coding of image data, in which an image is encoded into M descriptions sent over M unreliable channels, and any description subset is useful in reconstructing an approximation of the original image. In a two-description scalar quantizer, a quantizer index is simply mapped by an injective mapping, defined by an assignment matrix, on a pair of indices. We propose a novel M-description coding method based on index assignment matrices for scalar quantizers. Instead of using a straightforward M-description generalization with hypercubes, we propose to encode a quantizer index in a multistage fashion, each stage doubling the number of descriptions. This method provides a much higher flexibility, allowing for instance different redundancy allocations for different loss profiles and simple repacketization.
Adaptive frame size control based on resource allocation for Machine-to-Machine services in LTE wireless networks

As Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services get their widely application, its own characteristic was observed and discussed. Some of the characteristics such as small data communication and the huge amount of devices are different from the traditional Human-to-Human (H2H) Services, whose radio resource allocation mechanism is designed for tens of users and large amount of data. To solve this problems for the existing LTE wireless networks, an adaptive frame size control strategy is proposed in this paper. After a M2M device receives the resources from the eNodeB, it compares the resources with the data in the transmit buffer to see if the resources can be able to fill with some copies of the data. Using the Send Multiple Copies of Data Scheme (SMCDS), the utilization of the resources allocated is improved. Simulation results show that with this strategy, system throughput and transmission success rate both increase.
Towards Defeasible Mappings for Tractable Description Logics ( Technical Report )

We present a novel approach to denote mappings between EL-based ontologies which are defeasible in the sense that such a mapping only applies to individuals if this does not cause an inconsistency. This provides the advantage of handling exceptions automatically and thereby avoiding logical inconsistencies that may be caused due to the traditional type of mappings. We consider the case where mappings from many possibly heterogeneous ontologies are one-way links towards an overarching ontology. Questions can then be asked in terms of the concepts in the overarching ontology. We provide the formal semantics for the defeasible mappings and show that reasoning under such a setting is decidable even when the defeasible axioms apply to unknowns. Furthermore, we show that this semantics actually is strongly related to the idea of answer sets for logic programs.
Relations Between the Behavioral Approach System (BAS) and Self-Reported Life History Traits

The behavioral approach system (BAS) has been shown to be important in everyday life. However, its putative evolutionary origins have not been extensively studied. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between BAS processes and life history strategies, or lifestyles, within life history theory. The BAS scales were assessed by the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire (RST-PQ) and Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ-20), while lifestyles were measured by the Mini-K. Data from 457 participants (173 males) were analyzed by structural equation modelling, followed by set correlation to examine personality and Mini-K relationships. The structural model showed that RST-PQ Reward Interest, Goal-Drive Persistence and Reward Reactivity correlated with a slow lifestyle, while RST-PQ Impulsivity and (SPSRQ) Sensitivity to Reward (SR) did not correlate with the Mini-K. However, set correlation analysis revealed that SR correlated negatively with the Mini-K subscale Experience in romantic relationship and highlighted the importance of Insight, planning, and control in explaining the role of the BAS within slow lifestyle strategy. The findings are discussed in terms of possible evolutionary origins of the BAS.
Exemplar-based Assignment of Large Missing Audio Parts using String Matching on Tonal Features

We propose a new approach for assigning audio data in large missing audio parts (from 1 to 16 seconds). Inspired by image inpainting approaches, the proposed method uses the repetitive aspect of music pieces on musical features to recover missing segments via an exemplar-based reconstruction. Tonal features combined with a string matching technique allows locating repeated segments accurately. The evaluation consists in performing on both musician and nonmusician subjects listening tests of randomly reconstruct ed audio excerpts, and experiments highlight good results in assigning musically relevant parts. The contribution of th is paper is twofold: bringing musical features to solve a signal processing problem in the case of large missing audio parts, and successfully applying exemplar-based techniques on musical signals while keeping a musical consistency on audio pieces.
A cache-splitting scheme for DNS recursive server

Domain Name System (DNS) cache poisoning is a kind of computer hacking attack, whereby data are introduced into a DNS name server's cache database, causing the name server to return an incorrect IP address, diverting traffic to another computer (often controlled by the attacker). In this paper, a novel scheme is proposed in order to make the recursive server more intelligent to handle the cache poisoning attacks. The cache-splitting is adopted in the proposed scheme, in which the credible cache is used to maintain the trustful answers while the incredible cache is used to temporarily maintain the suspicious responses. After the possible attack disappears, the recursive server will resolute the names contained in the incredible cache once again and cache the new answers into the credible cache as usual. The analyzing results show that the recursive serer can handle the responses according to the actual conditions and make use of the caching to optimize the DNS resolutions at the same time.
Multinational Firms’ Heterogeneity in Tax Responsiveness: The Role of Transfer Pricing

In this paper we show that the ability of multinational firms to manipulate transfer prices affects the tax sensitivity of foreign direct investment (FDI). We offer a model of international capital allocation where firms are heterogeneous in their ability to manipulate transfer prices. Perhaps paradoxically, we show that the ability to shift profits can make parent companies' investment more sensitive to host-country tax rates, as long as investors expect fiscal authorities to use price and profit detection methods. We then offer a comprehensive empirical study to test our predictions in the case of Japanese FDI. We exploit the finding that the unobservable ability to manipulate transfer prices is correlated with whole ownership of affiliates and R&D expenditure. Based on country, parent firm and sector characteristics, we estimate an investment equation on a sample of 3614 Japanese affiliates in 49 emerging countries. We obtain a greater semi-elasticity of investment to the statutory tax rate in affiliates that are wholly owned and that have R&D intensive parents. We interpret these results as indirect evidence that abusive transfer pricing is one of the determinants of FDI activity.
Scan Matching for Graph SLAM in Indoor Dynamic Scenarios

SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) plays an essential and important role for mobile robotic autonomous navigation. SLAM in dynamic environ- ments with moving objects is a challenging problem. We focus on scan matching for Graph-SLAM in indoor dynamic scenarios. Scan matching algorithm is pro- posed and implemented, which consists of the follow- ing phases: first, conditioned Hough Transform based segmentation is performed to extract and group line features; second, occupancy-analysis based moving ob- jects detection is done to detect and discard the seg- ments corresponding to the moving objects; third, lin- ear regression based line feature matching is executed to estimate the roto-translation parameters. Simulations to estimate roto-translation and the entire trajectory of the robot effectively verified the robustness of this al- gorithm in a dynamic scenario. The proposed algorithm is based on the line features of the indoor environment. It is robust to disturbances from moving objects in the dynamic scenario, and is especially suitable for the case when large rotational displacement is present.
Autocrine Function of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 as a Determinant of Diet- and Sex-Specific Differences in Visceral Adiposity

Mechanisms for sex- and depot-specific fat formation are unclear. We investigated the role of retinoic acid (RA) production by aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (Aldh1a1, -a2, and -a3), the major RA-producing enzymes, on sex-specific fat depot formation. Female Aldh1a1−/− mice, but not males, were resistant to high-fat (HF) diet–induced visceral adipose formation, whereas subcutaneous fat was reduced similarly in both groups. Sexual dimorphism in visceral fat (VF) was attributable to elevated adipose triglyceride lipase (Atgl) protein expression localized in clusters of multilocular uncoupling protein 1 (Ucp1)-positive cells in female Aldh1a1−/− mice compared with males. Estrogen decreased Aldh1a3 expression, limiting conversion of retinaldehyde (Rald) to RA. Rald effectively induced Atgl levels via nongenomic mechanisms, demonstrating indirect regulation by estrogen. Experiments in transgenic mice expressing an RA receptor response element (RARE-lacZ) revealed HF diet–induced RARE activation in VF of females but not males. In humans, stromal cells isolated from VF of obese subjects also expressed higher levels of Aldh1 enzymes compared with lean subjects. Our data suggest that an HF diet mediates VF formation through a sex-specific autocrine Aldh1 switch, in which Rald-mediated lipolysis in Ucp1-positive visceral adipocytes is replaced by RA-mediated lipid accumulation. Our data suggest that Aldh1 is a potential target for sex-specific antiobesity therapy.
MIMO channel capacity spatial distribution in a microcell environment

In this paper the spatial distribution of the channel capacity of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wireless systems within a microcell scenario is studied. Based on the capacity location dependency, made clear by realistic simulation results, a segmentation of the cell area into high and low capacity regions is proposed. The Base Station (BS) and Mobile Stations (MSs) inter-antenna spacing impact on these regions is also investigated. The results suggest the most efficient ways to enlarge the high capacity region, providing a framework to optimize the design and deployment of MIMO systems.
The Role and Contribution of Academic Researchers in Congressional Hearings: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This study uses critical discourse analysis to explain how legislators determine the role and contributions of academic researchers in Congressional legislative hearings. The discursive practices that legislators use serve to construct the social identity of academic witnesses, characterize witnesses’ qualifications, solicit information from witnesses, frame comments from witnesses, and amplify and mitigate witness testimony. The findings make visible the ways that legislators use the power of their positions to depict academic witnesses as both experts who offer independent knowledge and experts who validate or confirm a legislator’s preferences and priorities. The results have implications for academics who seek to improve connections between research and policy, and academics who seek to further advance the production of knowledge of federal policymaking processes.
Chapter 10 A Biomimetic Adaptive Algorithm and Micropower Circuit Architecture for Implantable Neural Decoders

Algorithmically and energetically efficient computational architectures that operate in real time are essential for clinically useful neural prosthetic devices. Such architectures decode raw neural data to obtain direct motor control signals for external devices. They can also perform data compression and vastly reduce the bandwidth and consequently power expended in wireless transmission of raw data from implantable brain–machine interfaces. We describe a biomimetic algorithm and micropower analog circuit architecture for decoding neural cell ensemble signals. The decoding algorithm implements a continuous-time artificial neural network, using a bank of adaptive linear filters with kernels that emulate synaptic dynamics. The filters transform neural signal inputs into control-parameter outputs, and can be tuned automatically in an on-line learning process. We demonstrate that the algorithm is suitable for decoding both local field potentials and mean spike rates. We also provide experimental validation of our system, decoding discrete reaching decisions from neuronal activity in the macaque parietal cortex, and decoding continuous head direction trajectories from cell ensemble activity in the rat thalamus. We further describe a method of mapping the algorithm to a highly parallel circuit architecture capable of continuous learning and real-time operation. Circuit simulations of a subthreshold analog CMOS instantiation of the architecture reveal that its performance is comparable to the predicted performance of our decoding algorithm for a system decoding three control parameters from 100 neural input channels at microwatt levels of power consumption. While the algorithm and decoding architecture are suitable for analog or digital implementation, we indicate how a micropower analog system trades some algorithmic programmability for reductions in power and area consumption that could facilitate implantation of a
Thrice Out of Africa: Ancient and Recent Expansions of the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

We characterized Apis mellifera in both native and introduced ranges using 1136 single-nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped in 341 individuals. Our results indicate that A. mellifera originated in Africa and expanded into Eurasia at least twice, resulting in populations in eastern and western Europe that are geographically close but genetically distant. A third expansion in the New World has involved the near-replacement of previously introduced “European” honey bees by descendants of more recently introduced A. m. scutellata (“African” or “killer” bees). Our analyses of spatial transects and temporal series in the New World revealed differential replacement of alleles derived from eastern versus western Europe, with admixture evident in all individuals.
Analytical Method Development and Validation of Caffeine in Tablet Dosage Form by using UV- Spectroscopy

INTRODUCTION Caffeine is a central nervous system and metabolic stimulant, and is used both recreationally and medically to reduce physical fatigue and to restore alertness when drowsiness occurs [1-3]. It produces increased wakefulness, faster and clearer flow of thought, increased focus, and better general body coordination. According to literature survey, it revealed that caffeine was quantitatively assayed in Tea, coffee and food beverages using liquid chromatography, UV-Visible spectroscopy How-ever no UV-Spectrophotometry method was proposed for the estimation of caffeine by using of water as a solvent in Tablet dosage forms [4-7]. In the present study to develop a simple, accurate and precise UV spectroscopic method for estimation of caffeine in tablet dosage form. The validation carried out as per ICH guidelines [8-10].
Finding critical backbone structures with genetic algorithms

This paper introduces the concept of a critical backbone as a minimal set of variable or part of the solution necessary to be within the basin of attraction of the global optimum. The concept is illustrated with a new class of test problems Backbone in which the critical backbone structure is completely transparent. The performance of a number of standard heuristic search methods is measure for this problem. It is shown that a hybrid genetic algorithm that incorporates a descent algorithm solves this problem extremely efficiently. Although no rigorous analysis is given the problem is sufficiently transparent that this result is easy to understand. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the emergence of a critical backbone may be the salient feature in a phase transition from typically easy to typically hard problems.
Improving on Recall Errors for Coreference Resolution

We present a pairwise learning method that aims to improve on recall errors for noun phrase coreference resolution. We first show the weakness of a widelyused state-of-the-art coreference resolution system – Stanford’s rule-based sieve system on grouping proper names and common nouns. We then design a featurebased classifier and an embedding-based ranker that are tailored to model mention reference relations for proper names and common nouns. Experiments show that a combination of these two learning models allows for better recall performance while maintaining precision, and it provides promising improvement over the Stanford’s sieve system on the CoNLL 2011 data set.
The Relationship between Grade 9 Teacher’s and Learner’s Perceptions and Attitudes with Their Mathematics Achievement

The study investigated the relationship between South African Grade 9 teachers’ and learners’ perceptions and attitudes with their mathematics achievement. The study used a secondary analysis of the TIMSS 2015 mathematics data, guided by the conceptual framework model of Scheerens (2000). The quantitative data collected through teachers’ and learners’ responses to the questionnaire included teachers’ and learners’ attitudes and perceptions on mathematics achievement. Multi-level modelling was done using HLM software. The study revealed that learners that like learning mathematics and value mathematics outperform those who don’t like it and who don’t value it. It was also found that leaners that are confident in mathematics outperformed those who are not confident. An interesting finding was that teacher job satisfaction has no influence on the mathematics achievement of their learners. Another curious finding was that the level of learner engagement in the mathematics lesson also had no influence on their performance.