Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Error Probability Analysis and Applications of Amplitude-Coherent Detection in Flat Rayleigh Fading Channels

This paper presents the detector design and symbol error rate (SER) analysis of M-ary amplitude shift keying over multipath fading channels using amplitude-coherent detection (ACD). The optimum detector is derived using the maximum likelihood criterion, and then it is used to derive two efficient low-complexity suboptimal detectors. The probability distribution function of the decision variables and the SER of the two suboptimal detectors are expressed using simple closed-form analytical formulas when single receiving antenna is used. The SER with receiver diversity is obtained using Monte Carlo simulation. The obtained analytical and simulation results reveal that ACD can provide reliable SER as compared with noncoherent detection. Moreover, we present an efficient blind channel estimation algorithm using ACD and hybrid modulation frame structures.
Design and Analysis of Robust Minimax LQG Controller for an Experimental Beam Considering Spill-Over Effect

In this brief the design and analysis of an optimal robust minimax linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control of vibration of a flexible beam is studied. The analysis is performed by transforming the minimax LQG control design problem to its equivalent mixed sensitivity design problem. The first six modes of the beam in the frequency range of 0-700 Hz are selected for control purpose. Among these modes, three modes in the frequency range of 100-400 Hz are used for control, while the other three modes are left as the uncertainty of modeling. Both the model and the uncertainty are measured based on experimental data. The nominal model is identified from frequency response data and the uncertainty is presented by frequency weighted multiplicative modeling method. For the augmented plant consisting of the nominal model and its accompanied uncertainty, a minimax LQG controller is designed. Analysis and tradeoff between robust stability and robust performance is shown by selecting two different choices of uncertainty modeling. Simulation results used to show how the uncertainty weights can be tuned so that the proposed robust controller increase the damping of the system in its resonance frequencies and maintain the robust stability of the feedback system at the same time.
Shape Memory Alloy (SMA)-Based Pattern-Reconfigurable Antenna

This letter presents a realization method of reconfigurable antenna systems based on smart materials. The reconfigurability is obtained by utilizing shape memory alloy directors. This realization method offers a longer lifetime and lower energy consumption than conventional approaches such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or p-i-n diodes. As a proof-of-concept, a compact reconfigurable antenna for the 2.6-GHz Long Term Evolution (LTE) band was designed. The designed antenna is a quasi-Yagi antenna with its directors made from shape memory alloy. This antenna is made to be installed in a standard car-roof antenna housing. A prototype of the antenna presented here has been fabricated and measured.
Characterization and symbiotic importance of acidic extracellular polysaccharides of Rhizobium sp. strain GRH2 isolated from acacia nodules

Rhizobium sp. wild-type strain GRH2 was originally isolated from root nodules of the leguminous tree Acacia cyanophylla and has a broad host range which includes herbaceous legumes, e.g., Trifolium spp. We examined the extracellular exopolysaccharides (EPSs) produced by strain GRH2 and found three independent glycosidic structures: a high-molecular-weight acidic heteropolysaccharide which is very similar to the acidic EPS produced by Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii ANU843, a low-molecular-weight native heterooligosaccharide resembling a dimer of the repeat unit of the high-molecular-weight EPS, and low-molecular-weight neutral beta (1,2)-glucans. A Tn5 insertion mutant derivative of GRH2 (exo-57) that fails to form acidic heteropolysaccharides was obtained. This Exo- mutant formed nitrogen-fixing nodules on Acacia plants but infected a smaller proportion of cells in the central zone of the nodules than did wild-type GRH2. In addition, the exo-57 mutant failed to nodulate several herbaceous legume hosts that are nodulated by wild-type strain GRH2.
Covariance selection for nonchordal graphs via chordal embedding

We describe algorithms for maximum likelihood estimation of Gaussian graphical models with conditional independence constraints. This problem is also known as covariance selection, and it can be expressed as an unconstrained convex optimization problem with a closed-form solution if the underlying graph is chordal. The focus of the paper is on iterative algorithms for covariance selection with nonchordal graphs. We first derive efficient methods for evaluating the gradient and Hessian of the log-likelihood function when the underlying graph is chordal. The algorithms are formulated as simple recursions on a clique tree associated with the graph. We also show that the gradient and Hessian mappings are easily inverted when the underlying graph is chordal. We then exploit these results to obtain efficient implementations of Newton's method and the conjugate gradient method for large nonchordal graphs, by embedding the graph in a chordal graph.
A POLYTOPIC SYSTEM APPROACH FOR GAIN SCHEDULED CONTROL OF A DIESEL ENGINE

Abstract This paper develops a gain scheduled controller to move a diesel engine through a driving profile represented as a set of 6 operating points in the state space of a 7 th order nonlinear state model. The calculations for the control design are based on a 3 rd order(reduced) model of the Diesel engine on which state space are projected the 6 operating points. About each operating point, we generate a 3 rd order nonlinear error models of the Diesel engine. Using the error model for each operating point, a linear feedback control is computed as a solution to a set of LMIs. The solution of each system of LMIs produces a norm bounded controller guaranteeing that x i − 1 d → x i d where x i d is the ith desired operating point in the 3-dimensional state space. The LMIs incorporate a term which requires that x i − 1 d be in the region of attraction of x i d . The gain scheduled controller performance is evaluated on the 7 th order model.
Stability-improved higher order delta-sigma modulator for Hi-Fi docking audio system

In this paper, stability improved higher order deltasigma modulator (DSM) with an additional noise transfer function (NTF) for stability compensation is proposed. The 7th order single-loop 1-bit DSM was designed and it achieves signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 119 dB over 44.1kHz and 0.9 of maximum input level.
Stability of central bank preferences, macroeconomic shocks, and efficiency of the monetary policy: empirical evidence for Canada

Following the approach suggested by Favero and Rovelli (2002), I estimate a three-equations system for different sub-samples for Canada. The results indicate that the preferences of the monetary authority have changed between the different regimes. In particular, the parameter associated to the implicit target of inflation has been reduced significantly. The macroeconomic conditions from the side of the aggregate demand have been more favourable than those related to the aggregate supply. The SD of the monetary rule suggests that it has been conducted successfully in the last regime.
Staged event-driven architecture as a micro-architecture of distributed and pluginable crawling platform

There are many crawling systems available on the market but they are rather close systems dedicated for performing particular kind and class of tasks with predefined set of scope, strategy etc. In real life however there are meaningful groups of users (e.g. marketing, criminal or governmental analysts) requiring not just a yet another crawling system dedicated for performing predefined tasks. They need rather easy-to-use, user friendly all-in-one studio for not only executing and running internet robots and crawlers, but also for (graphical) (re)defining and (re)composing crawlers according to dynamically changing requirements and use-cases. To realize the above-mentioned idea, Cassiopeia framework has been designed and developed. One has to remember, however, that enormous size and unimaginable structural complexity of WWW network are the reasons that, from a technical and architectural point of view, developing effective internet robots – and the more so developing a framework supporting graphical robots’ composition – becomes a really challenging task. The crucial aspect in the context of crawling efficiency and scalability is concurrency model applied. There are two the most typical concurrency management models i.e. classical concurrency based on the pool of threads and processes and event-driven concurrency. None of them are ideal approaches. That is why, research on alternative models is still conducted to propose efficient and convenient architecture for concurrent and distributed applications. One of promising models is staged event-driven architecture mixing to some extent both of above mentioned classical approaches and providing some additional benefits such as splitting application into separate stages connected by events queues – what is interesting taking requirements about crawler (re)composition into account. The goal of this paper is to present the idea and the PoC implementation of Cassiopeia framework, with the special attention paid to its crucial architectural element i.e. design, implementation and applying of staged event-driven architecture being a micro-architecture of Cassiopeia’s agents i.e. its key computational and processing units
The Evidence-Base for Neurofeedback as a Reimbursable Healthcare Service to Treat Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

a Ed Pigott, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and Director of Neurotherapy Services at Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches. He is also in private practice at The Center for Brain Training in Jupiter, FL. b Lindsay De Biase, Ph.D. is a neuroscientist and post-doctoral fellow. C Eugenia Bodenhamer-Davis, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Director, Neurotherapy Program, University of North Texas and a Board member of the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance. D Richard E. Davis, M.S. is a Licensed Professional Counselor in private practice in Denton, TX, specializing in neurofeedback and Quantitative EEG. He is also a Past President of the International Society of Neurofeedback and Research.
Prevalence of below-criterion Reliable Digit Span scores in a clinical sample of older adults.

OBJECTIVE The Reliable Digit Span (RDS) is a well-validated embedded indicator of performance validity. An RDS score of ≤7 is commonly referenced as indicative of invalid performance; however, few studies have examined the classification accuracy of the RDS among individuals suspected for dementia. The current study evaluated performance of the RDS in a clinical sample of 934 non-litigating individuals presenting to an outpatient memory disorders clinic for assessment of dementia. METHOD The RDS was calculated for each participant in the context of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment completed as part of routine clinical care. Score distributions were examined to establish the base rate of below criterion performance for RDS cutoffs of ≤7, ≤6, and ≤5. One-way ANOVA was used to compare performance on a cognitive screening measure and informant reports of functional independence of those falling below and above cutoffs. RESULTS A cutoff score of ≤7 resulted in a high prevalence of below-criterion performance (29.7%), though an RDS of ≤6 was associated with fewer below-criterion scores (12.8%) and prevalence of an RDS of ≤5 was infrequent (4.3%). Those scoring below cutoffs performed worse on cognitive measures compared with those falling above cutoffs. CONCLUSIONS Using the RDS as a measure of performance validity among individuals presenting with a possibility of dementia increases the risk of misinterpreting genuine cognitive impairment as invalid performance when higher cutoffs are used; lower cutoffs may be useful when interpreted in conjunction with other measures of performance validity.
Transcriptional Regulation of Cyclin A 2 by RASSF 1 A through the Enhanced Binding of p 120 E 4 F to the Cyclin A 2 Promoter

Recent advances in the study of RASSF1A , the candidate tumor suppressor gene, indicate a possible role of RASSF1A in cell cycle regulation; however, very little is known regarding molecular mechanisms underlying this control. Using small interfering RNA to knockdown endogenous RASSF1A in the breast tumor cell line HB2 and in the cervical cancer cell line HeLa, we identify that a key player in cell cycle progression, cyclin A2, is concomitantly increased at both protein and mRNA levels. In A549 clones stably expressing RASSF1A, cyclin A2 levels were diminished compared with vector control. A known transcriptional regulator of cyclin A2, p120 (a repressor of cyclin A2), has been shown previously by our group to interact with RASSF1A. We show that levels of p120 are not affected by RASSF1A small interfering RNA in HB2 and HeLa cells. However, electrophoretic mobility shift assays indicate that knockdown of endogenous RASSF1A in HB2 and HeLa cells leads to a reduction in the binding capacity of p120 to the cyclin A2 promoter, whereas in the A549 clone stably expressing RASSF1A the binding capacity is increased. These data are further corroborated in vitro by the luciferase assay and in vivo by chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments. Together, these data identify the cyclin A2 gene as a cellular target for RASSF1A through p120 and for the first time suggest a transcriptional mechanism for RASSF1A-dependent cell cycle regulation. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(7): 2690-7)
Meta‐analysis of time‐to‐event outcomes from randomized trials using restricted mean survival time: application to individual participant data

Meta‐analysis of time‐to‐event outcomes using the hazard ratio as a treatment effect measure has an underlying assumption that hazards are proportional. The between‐arm difference in the restricted mean survival time is a measure that avoids this assumption and allows the treatment effect to vary with time. We describe and evaluate meta‐analysis based on the restricted mean survival time for dealing with non‐proportional hazards and present a diagnostic method for the overall proportional hazards assumption. The methods are illustrated with the application to two individual participant meta‐analyses in cancer. The examples were chosen because they differ in disease severity and the patterns of follow‐up, in order to understand the potential impacts on the hazards and the overall effect estimates. We further investigate the estimation methods for restricted mean survival time by a simulation study. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A study about the reconstruction of remote, low resolution mobile captured text images for OCR

With the burst of low-cost and versatile mobile phones, people have more choices to digitize papers simply by capturing the text images of interest and put them through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems. However, the task is much more challenging when it comes to the issue of recognition of camera-based text images taken at remote distances. Those images, which often come up in small font and low resolution texts, results in poor readability in OCR. This paper presents a preliminary study on the human eye's perception of English document images, taken by mobile phone at various distances. In addition, a text enhancement technique using the combination of power-law transformation and morphological bottom hat filtering, following by morphological reconstruction and interpolation is also addressed. The results achieve an improved performance in OCR recognition rate.
Media monitoring system for latvian radio and TV broadcasts

Media monitoring allows to capture media exposure of people, organizations and other important topics. This paper presents a media monitoring system for Latvian radio and television broadcasts. This system uses an automatic speech recognition (ASR) module to convert audio and video files to text and to extract keywords of interest. The system has been developed in close cooperation with Latvian information agency LETA.
Models of liquid mixtures: Structure, dynamics, and properties

Abstract Models of the structure and properties of liquid mixtures are outlined. The main focus is on quasichemical models for the modeling of supramolecular ordering in mixtures, self-organized by H-bonds, leading to a unified description of their physicochemical properties. Models of polyvariable supramolecular species are discussed with respect to structure and composition of the mixtures, taking into account the cooperativity of H-bonding, and leading to a description of electric (dipole moment) and optic (polarizability) properties. We analyze the interrelations of thermodynamic functions (Gibbs energy, enthalpy, entropy), dielectric (permittivity) and optical properties (refractive index and its fluctuation derivatives, defining Rayleigh light scattering) of nonideal mixtures as well as the microscopic characteristics of the aggregates. Methods are developed in order to obtain both integral and differential parameters of aggregation. Models for the description of supramolecular reorganization, intramolecular transitions, and energy transfer during molecular thermal motion as well as fluctuation and relaxation phenomena are considered. Applications both to liquids and mixtures are outlined. The supramolecular assemblies in liquids with long-range molecular correlations are established. Macroscopic manifestations of the supramolecular organization in the properties of liquids are characterized.
Demonstration of Sub-Millimeter Wave Fundamental Oscillators Using 35-nm InP HEMT Technology

In this letter, 254-, 314-, and 346-GHz fundamental oscillators are demonstrated. These are the highest frequency oscillators using three-terminal devices reported to date. The performance is enabled through a 35-nm InP HEMT process with maximum frequency of oscillation (fmax) of 600GHz. These first-pass designs use coplanar waveguide (CPW) technology and include on-chip resonator and output matching. The maximum available gain (MAG) of these devices has been measured to be ~9.6dB at 200GHz
Conflict of interest in the debate over calcium-channel antagonists.

BACKGROUND Physicians' financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry are controversial because such relationships may pose a conflict of interest. It is unknown to what extent industry support of medical education and research influences the opinions and behavior of clinicians and researchers. The recent debate over the safety of calcium-channel antagonists provided an opportunity to examine the effect of financial conflicts of interest. METHODS We searched the English-language medical literature published from March 1995 through September 1996 for articles examining the controversy about the safety of calcium-channel antagonists. Articles were reviewed and classified as being supportive, neutral, or critical with respect to the use of calcium-channel antagonists. The authors of the articles were asked about their financial relationships with both manufacturers of calcium-channel antagonists and manufacturers of competing products (i.e., beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors, diuretics, and nitrates). We examined the authors' published positions on the safety of calcium-channel antagonists according to their financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies. RESULTS Authors who supported the use of calcium-channel antagonists were significantly more likely than neutral or critical authors to have financial relationships with manufacturers of calcium-channel antagonists (96 percent, vs. 60 percent and 37 percent, respectively; P<0.001). Supportive authors were also more likely than neutral or critical authors to have financial relationships with any pharmaceutical manufacturer, irrespective of the product (100 percent, vs. 67 percent and 43 percent, respectively; P< 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate a strong association between authors' published positions on the safety of calcium-channel antagonists and their financial relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers. The medical profession needs to develop a more effective policy on conflict of interest. We support complete disclosure of relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers for clinicians and researchers who write articles examining pharmaceutical products.
Spiroplasma membrane lipids

Membranes of six spiroplasma strains belonging to different Spiroplasma species and subgroups were isolated by a combination of osmotic lysis and sonication in the presence of EDTA to block endogenous phospholipase activity. Analysis of membrane lipids showed that in addition to free and esterified cholesterol the spiroplasmas incorporated exogenous phospholipids from the growth medium. Sphingomyelin was preferentially incorporated from phosphatidylcholine-sphingomyelin vesicles or from the serum used to supplement the growth medium. Palmitate was incorporated better than oleate into membrane lipids synthesized by the organisms during growth. The major phospholipid synthesized by the spiroplasmas was phosphatidylglycerol. The positional distribution of the fatty acids in phosphatidylglycerol of Spiroplasma floricola resembled that found in Mycoplasma species, in which the saturated fatty acids prefer position 2 in the glycerol backbone and not position 1 as found in Acholeplasma species and elsewhere in nature. Electron paramagnetic resonance analysis of spin-labeled fatty acids incorporated into S. floricola membranes exhibited homogeneous single-component spectra without immobilized regions. The S. floricola membranes were more rigid than those of Acholeplasma laidlawii and less rigid than those of Mycoplasma gallisepticum.
The OSI reference model

The early successes of computer networks in the mid-1970's made it apparent that to utilize the full potential of computer networks, international standards would be required. In 1977, the International Standards Organization (ISO) initiated work on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) to address these requirements. This paper briefly describes the OSI Reference Model. The OSI Reference Model is the highest level of abstraction in the OSI scheme. The paper first describes the basic building blocks used to construct the network model. Then the particular seven-layer model used by OSI is briefly described, followed by a discussion of outstanding issues and future extensions for the model.
Refactoring-aware code review

Code review, where developers manually inspect one another's code changes, improves software quality and transfers knowledge in a team. Unfortunately, tools that support code review treat behavior-preserving changes, or refactorings, and behavior-altering changes, or non-refactorings, the same way, so developers have to spend effort differentiating between the two before they can evaluate the impact of a change set. In this paper, we describe a formative study of 35 developers that motivates the need for separating refactorings from non-refactorings during code review. Then, we present a refactoring-aware code review tool, called ReviewFactor, that differentiates between refactoring and non-refactoring, and allows developers to focus on one of them at a time. Finally, a case study of two open source projects suggests that ReviewFactor detects refactorings in 39% of the commits, and identifies 4.6% of the total lines of code change as refactorings. Our results also show that the precision and recall of ReviewFactor's refactoring detection algorithm are 92.5% and 94.2%, respectively.