Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reducing Duplicate Packets in Unicast VANET Communications

In vehicular networks, the packet losses in the path between source and destination occur due to packet collisions, fast movement and a limited communication range of vehicles. Reliability mechanisms at different layers are used to mitigate the impact of this issue. In this work, we explain how the loss of ACK frames at MAC layer in conjunction with the recovery procedure of VANET routing protocols lead to an unexpected generation of duplicate packets. Also, we propose a duplicate packet filtering at routing layer to prevent the propagation of unnecessary packet copies and therefore increasing the available bandwidth. To evaluate the behavior of our proposal to minimize the duplicate packets in against not to use any filter, we use MMMR routing protocol, a geographical routing protocol for VANETs and carried out simulations with different vehicle densities in a urban scenario. Our results show that our approach is effective reducing the load of the network in terms of routing operations, idle time, the total number of frames transmitted and end-to-end delay. These improvements are related to a minimum degradation of the packet delivery ratio.
Behavior model based component search: an initial assessment

We focus on the problem of searching components based on semantic queries on their provided interface. Although semantics-based search has long been advocated as a key enabler in the context of component-based software development and, more recently, service-oriented computing, no practical and scalable approach has been proposed yet. This paper presents a promising model-based search technique for interface behaviors based on operational specifications, called behavioral equivalence models (Bems). Semantic queries are expressed equationally, following an algebraic specification style. The search engine tries to match specifications against queries. This can be done quite efficiently by encoding Bems into relational models and queries into relational logic formulae, whose satisfiability is checked with the SAT-based constraint solver KodKod. We can report on an initial very promising assessment of the proposed technique, which has been applied to searching components in Java libraries providing container functionalities.
Extraction and Modeling of Process Variations for Robust Nanoscale Design

Statistical analysis and optimization is critical for robust nanoscale circuit design. To accurately perform such analysis, primary process variation sources must be identified and their distributions must be well characterized. We present a rigorous method to extract process variations from in-situ IV measurements. Transistor statistics are collected from a test chip fabricated in a 65nm SOI process. We decompose the variations of gate length (L), threshold voltage (Vth) and other three parameters primarily from the leakage and linear current. Both L and Vth variations are normally distributed, with negligible spatial correlation. By including variations in the model file, we can accurately predict drive current in all process corners. The new extraction method supports statistical design with sufficient model fidelity.
Multiscale Entropy Analysis of Surface Electromyographic Signals from the Urethral Sphincter as a Prognostic Indicator for Surgical Candidates with Primary Bladder Neck Obstruction

To explore information hidden in the electromyographic (EMG) signals of the urethral sphincter that may be of prognostic significance for patients with primary bladder neck obstruction (PBNO), 41 patients with voiding difficulty were divided into four groups: 1) patients with primary bladder neck obstruction (PBNO) with successful (Group 1, n = 14) and 2) unsuccessful (Group 2, n = 8) surgical outcomes, 3) patients with detrusor overactivity (Group 3, n = 7), and 4) patients with detrusor-external sphincter dyssynergia (Group 4, n = 12). All patients underwent baseline urodynamic studies (preoperative for Group 1 and Group 2) for comparison. The results demonstrated that, despite no significant difference in urodynamic parameters between Group 1 and Group 2, the large-scale multiscale entropy (MSE) of preoperative EMG (i.e., MSELS(EMG)) of Group 1 was significantly higher than that of Group 2 without notable difference between Group 1 and Group 3 (i.e., patients with normal sphincter function). Moreover, the MSELS(EMG) and small-scale MSE of preoperative EMG (i.e., MSESS(EMG)) of Group 2 were notably higher than those of Group 4 (i.e., patients with abnormal sphincter function), while both MSELS(EMG) and MSESS(EMG) of Group 3 were notably higher than those of Group 2. In conclusion, using MSE analysis for assessing preoperative urethral sphincter EMG signals successfully distinguished between PBNO patients with subsequent successful surgery from those with surgical failure possibly due to subtle functional impairment of the urethral sphincter that cannot be detected by routine urodynamic studies. The results, therefore, highlight the potential clinical significance of this analytical tool in guiding urologists regarding their choice of medical versus surgical treatment for this patient population.
Extended Distance-based Phylogenetic Analyses Applied to 3D Homo Fossil Skull Evolution

This article shows how 3D geometric morphometric data can be analyzed using newly developed distance-based evolutionary tree inference methods, with extensions to planar graphs. Application of these methods to 3D representations of the skullcap (calvaria) of 13 diverse skulls in the genus Homo, ranging from Homo erectus (ergaster) at about 1.6 mya, all the way forward to modern humans, yields a remarkably clear phylogenetic tree. Various evolutionary hypotheses are tested. Results of these tests include rejection of the monophyly of Homo heidelbergensis, the Multi-Regional hypothesis, and the hypothesis that the unusual 12,000 year old (12kya) Iwo Eleru skull represents a modern human. Rather, by quantitative phylogenetic analyses the latter is seen to be an old (200-400kya) lineage that probably represents a novel African species, Homo iwoelerueensis. It diverged after the lineage leading to Neanderthals, and may have been driven to extinction in the last 10kya by modern humans, Homo sapiens, another African species of Homo that appeared about 100kya. Another enigmatic skull, Qafzeh 6 from the Middle East about 90kya, appears to be a hybrid of two thirds near, but not, anatomically modern human and one third of an archaic lineage diverging close to classic European Neanderthals. Overall, the tree clearly implies an accelerating rate of skullcap shape change, and by extension, change of the underlying brain, over the last 400kya in Africa. This acceleration may have extended right up to the origin of modern humans. Methods of distance-based evolutionary tree inference are refined and extended, with particular attention to diagnosing the model and achieving a better fit. This includes power transformations of the input data which favor root Procrustes distances.
Strategies for fostering Knowledge Management Programs in Public Organizations

Knowledge Management (KM) is an approach to achieving strategic objectives by visualizing, sharing, and using intangible resources of an organization and its stakeholders. There are many studies that analyze specific factors for the successful implementation of KM programs, and the evaluation of such factors is considered a strategic tool for Public Organizations (POs) for efficiently directing the implementation of a KM program. Nevertheless, there are cultural problems such as weak trust, bad collaboration; technological problems as KM systems difficult to use, nor interconnected or interoperable; and strategic problems as political changes, not inter-administration continuity or lack of political willingness. In this research we provide an overview of the key factors for facilitating the implementation of KM programs. To this end, we conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of success factors to create a KM program for POs. Analyzing the twenty related studies we summarize benefits and quality attributes of KM. Moreover, we obtained from an ongoing project evaluation results of the KM factors ranked cultural, technological and strategic. The results show that the Mexican POs have strategic and technological issues such as: a misalignment between knowledge management and organizational goals, it seems that POs are barely reusing their knowledge to execute their daily activities or to take decisions, and is not possible to know who and how a knowledge asset has been used. Finally, according to the gaps and difficulties of the SLR, we provide strategies to successfully implement KM programs in Mexico.
Relationship between

This study examines the relationships between internal-external locus of control and sociotropy-autonomy constructs. Within psychology Locus of Control is considered as an important aspect of personality referring to an individual's generalized perceptions of the outcome of an event is under the person's control (internal locus of control) or beyond a personal control (external locus of control). As an another personality dimension, Sociotropy-Autonomy Sociotropy is characterized by being dependant on others and by concern about pleasing others, Autonomy refers to individuality, independence, as well as lack of concern with pleasing others. To collect data, Turkish adaptations of Locus of Control Scale and SociotropyAutonomy Scale were adminestered to 180 college students. Statistical Analysis indicated that external locus of control was positively related to sociotropy orientation r=. 508 (p<0.01) and internal locus of control was negatively related to autonomy orientation r=-. 371 (p<0.01). Further significant correlations among the sub-factors of each scale also documented.
Agent dynamic cooperation based information retrieval

We propose a dynamic cooperation model for different agents' message exchanging. Besides, we propose a new algorithm, which makes it easy to transform a traditional Boolean logical query statement into a matrix. This method allows a document might be retrieved in a clear Boolean view even it matches the query partially. On the base of them, we implement an agent-based selective information retrieval. Parallel crawlers make the prototype scalability and network-load reduction. The focused crawler makes it easy to find as many relevant pages and as few irrelevant pages as possible. Through experiments, we show the results.
A fully integrated 0.5-7 Hz CMOS bandpass amplifier

In this paper, the design methodology of a fully integrated g/sub m/-C, 0.5-7 Hz band-pass amplifier is presented. The amplifier is designed to be employed in signal conditioning of a piezoelectric accelerometer, which is part of an implantable biomedical device. Transconductances of the OTAs range from 30 pS to 100 nS. Such low values of transconductances, which are required owing to the large time-constants involved, were obtained with the aid of a current division technique. Measurement results for OTA structures and part of the filter fabricated in a standard 0.8 /spl mu/m technology are presented.
Segmentation of 3D points from range camera data using scanlines

This paper focuses on the segmentation of 3D points from range camera data. Range cameras can capture 3D information of a scene by sending out infrared light and then measuring the reflections. A segmentation algorithm for the detection of planar surfaces is presented which is robust against erroneous data from the range cameras. It uses a grid of horizontal and vertical scanlines as intermediate primitives for the final planar region segmentation. By using the scanlines, the task of planar segmentation can be separated into two tasks which are less complex: line segmentation and line combination. The usage of higher primitives improves the segmentation time compared to the direct operation on the 3D point data. The algorithm is described in detail and evaluated on a test scene.
Plasmodium falciparum infection rates for some Anopheles spp. from Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

Presence of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP) was detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a sample of Anopheles gambiae s.s. , A. melas and A. pharoensis collected in Guinea-Bissau during October and November 2009. The percentage of P. falciparum infected samples (10.2% overall; confidence interval (CI): 7.45-13.6%) was comparable to earlier studies from other sites in Guinea-Bissau (9.6-12.4%). The majority of the specimens collected were identified as A. gambiae which had an individual infection rate of 12.6 % (CI: 8.88-17.6) across collection sites. A small number of specimens of A. coluzzii, A. coluzzii x A. gambiae hybrids, A. melas and A. pharoensis were collected and had infection rates of 4.3% (CI:0.98-12.4), 4.1% (CI:0.35-14.5), 11.1% (CI:1.86-34.1) and 33.3% (CI:9.25-70.4) respectively. Despite being present in low numbers in indoor collections, the exophilic feeding behaviors of A. melas (N=18) and A. pharoensis (N=6) and high infection rates observed in this survey suggest falciparum-malaria transmission potential outside of the protection of bed nets.
Specifying Component Invariants with OCL

The “Object Constraint Language” (OCL) offers a formal notation for constraining model elements in UML diagrams. OCL consists of a navigational expression language which, for instance, can be used to state invariants and preand post-conditions in class diagrams. We discuss some problems in ensuring non-local, navigating OCL class invariants, as for bidirectional associations, in programming language implementations of UML diagrams, like in Java. As a remedy, we propose a component-based system specification method for using OCL constraints, distinguishing between global component invariants and local class invariants.
Improving degrees of freedom of wireless channels using superdirectivity

In this paper, we show the spatial degrees of freedom (DoF) in free space can be improved by using superdirectivity and such a gain is theoretically unlimited regardless of the physical size of the transmit and receive antenna arrays. Our conclusion is based on calculating the exact power consumption in the presence of mutual coupling and on calculating the exact spatial correlation of the noise field using the fluctuation dissipation theorem. As a result, high current excitation and high signal-to-noise ratio are available at the transmitter and the receiver, respectively. They were not believed to be possible in many previous works that did not consider such exact behaviors. We also analyze the effect of scattering in the near field region and discuss some solutions for many practical problems arising in implementing superdirectivity.
UBILIBRARY: CONTEXT-AWARE LIBRARY SERVICE ON A PUBLIC DISPLAY

This thesis introduces UbiLibrary, a new context-aware library service developed fork the Oulu City Library. The service content is aggregated from existing library databases and online services, refined with semantic and context information, and provided to library customers on a large public display that can be coupled with personal mobile phones. The requirements for the service are elicited by reviewing related literature, conducting a user study of the library’s customers, interviewing the library staff, and analyzing the library’s current digital services. The design and implementation of the service is done according to the agile software development model in close collaboration with the library staff. The resulting functional prototype provides library customers with a range of applications from book recommendations to information on the library’s services and events. The heart of the service is the metadata engine that maintains a database on the library’s holdings, events and services. The metadata engine semantically enriches the information on the works in the OUTI database by crawling supplementary metadata from various online services such as KirjaSampo, GoodReads and LibraryThing. The database is dynamically browsed with a novel tag cloud based interface that also adapts book recommendations according to the age category and gender of the user as estimated by computer vision. An administration interface is provided to the library staff for maintaining the service. The service is deployed in a real world setting on the UBI-hotspot located at the lobby of the Oulu City library. The service is assessed with a task-based user evaluation with 20 library customers, by feedback from eight professional librarians and by collecting statistics of real world usage over a period of 24 days. Overall, the service is found easy to use and presents a valuable addition to the library’s existing digital services.
Interdecadal variations of meridional winds in the South China Sea and their relationship with summer climate in China.

Abstract Analysis of the NCEP and 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data and the Xisha Island station observation indicates that the low-level meridional wind (LLMW) over the South China Sea (SCS) experienced an interdecadal variation since the late 1970s. The LLMW change is associated with the reduction of tropospheric temperature in midlatitude East Asia. A mechanism is put forward to explain the triggering and maintenance of the tropospheric cooling. The enhanced convective heating over the southern South China Sea results in a meridional vertical overturning circulation, with anomalous descending motion appearing over continental East Asia. The anomalous descending motion reduces the local humidity through both anomalous low-level divergence and dry vertical advection. The decrease of the local tropospheric humidity leads to the enhanced outgoing longwave radiation into space and thus cold temperature anomalies. The decrease of the temperature and thickness leads to anomalous low (high) pressure and co.
A Cloud-Based Offloading Service for Computation-Intensive Mobile Applications

Mobile devices, which are inherently of limited computing capabilities, face a growing demand to support increasingly complex applications. Computation offloading addresses this issue by enabling mobile devices to offload computations to a remote server. Advancing on previous work, this paper presents a cloud-based offloading service, which models an optimization problem with the objective of minimizing the operation cost of the service provider while achieving the agreed quality of service (QoS) for subscribers. The problem is shown to be NP-hard. We propose a pseudo-polynomial-time optimal algorithm for the offline scenario, as well as an efficient online algorithm that has a provable QoS guarantee and allows practical implementations. To evaluate our algorithms, we synthesize remotable tasks and conduct extensive simulations based on real mobile user traces and application workload patterns. Our results demonstrate that our online algorithm could achieve comparable performance to the optimal offline algorithm, in terms of both the required cloud cost and the provided user benefit.
A general method for sensitive identification detection in the terrorist video

With the continuous development of image recognition(IR) technology, it has been widely applied to the different fields. In this paper, we present a general method for sensitive identification detection(logo detection and masked men recognition) in the terrorist video under the cluttered scenes. We firstly created a specific image dataset which contains 5000 logo images of various terrorist groups and 5000 head images of masked men that are taken from different surroundings with different angle and intensity of illumination. Then, a Haar-like wavelet representation and a novel gradient histogram(HOG-like) feature are used to capture the structural similarities between the target images. Furthermore, two classifiers are created to detect the logo image and the head of masked men. Finally, the faces of masked men are recognized by using a method based on local pixel difference(LPD). Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
A Potential Novel Spontaneous Preterm Birth Gene, AR, Identified by Linkage and Association Analysis of X Chromosomal Markers

Preterm birth is the major cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity. In many cases, it has severe life-long consequences for the health and neurological development of the newborn child. More than 50% of all preterm births are spontaneous, and currently there is no effective prevention. Several studies suggest that genetic factors play a role in spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB). However, its genetic background is insufficiently characterized. The aim of the present study was to perform a linkage analysis of X chromosomal markers in SPTB in large northern Finnish families with recurrent SPTBs. We found a significant linkage signal (HLOD = 3.72) on chromosome locus Xq13.1 when the studied phenotype was being born preterm. There were no significant linkage signals when the studied phenotype was giving preterm deliveries. Two functional candidate genes, those encoding the androgen receptor (AR) and the interleukin-2 receptor gamma subunit (IL2RG), located near this locus were analyzed as candidates for SPTB in subsequent case-control association analyses. Nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within these genes and an AR exon-1 CAG repeat, which was previously demonstrated to be functionally significant, were analyzed in mothers with preterm delivery (n = 272) and their offspring (n = 269), and in mothers with exclusively term deliveries (n = 201) and their offspring (n = 199), all originating from northern Finland. A replication study population consisting of individuals born preterm (n = 111) and term (n = 197) from southern Finland was also analyzed. Long AR CAG repeats (≥26) were overrepresented and short repeats (≤19) underrepresented in individuals born preterm compared to those born at term. Thus, our linkage and association results emphasize the role of the fetal genome in genetic predisposition to SPTB and implicate AR as a potential novel fetal susceptibility gene for SPTB.