Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application Specific Analysis of MAC Layer Protocols Used in Wireless Sensor Networks

WIRELESS sensor networks (WSNs) are becoming progressively more attractive for a variety of application areas,including industrial automation, Industrial control and monitoring, security, Asset tracking and supply chain management, intelligent agriculture and environmental sensing, Health monitoring, weather analysis, and variety of military scenarios.WSN designers are trying to extend network lifetimes while meeting application-specific throughput and latency requirements. Our crucial aim in this research work is to study the Media access control protocols along with their pros and cons for wireless sensor network specific applications prospective in mind.
A result forwarding mechanism for asynchronous pipelined systems

Modern, fast microprocessors are deeply pipelined to enhance their performance. Thus they cannot afford to wait for each instruction to complete before starting the next. When inter-instruction dependencies are encountered it is essential that data are forwarded from their point of production to where they are needed as rapidly as possible. This has been a problem in asynchronous processors because of the lack of synchronisation between the units producing and consuming the data. This paper presents a solution to this problem. The mechanism described allows the depth of speculative execution to be increased, improving memory efficiency by hiding the load latency yet still allowing precise exceptions.
Effect of direct-to-consumer genomewide profiling to assess disease risk.

BACKGROUND The use of direct-to-consumer genomewide profiling to assess disease risk is controversial, and little is known about the effect of this technology on consumers. We examined the psychological, behavioral, and clinical effects of risk scanning with the Navigenics Health Compass, a commercially available test of uncertain clinical validity and utility. METHODS We recruited subjects from health and technology companies who elected to purchase the Health Compass at a discounted rate. Subjects reported any changes in symptoms of anxiety, intake of dietary fat, and exercise behavior at a mean (±SD) of 5.6±2.4 months after testing, as compared with baseline, along with any test-related distress and the use of health-screening tests. RESULTS From a cohort of 3639 enrolled subjects, 2037 completed follow-up. Primary analyses showed no significant differences between baseline and follow-up in anxiety symptoms (P=0.80), dietary fat intake (P=0.89), or exercise behavior (P=0.61). Secondary analyses revealed that test-related distress was positively correlated with the average estimated lifetime risk among all the assessed conditions (β=0.117, P<0.001). However, 90.3% of subjects who completed follow-up had scores indicating no test-related distress. There was no significant increase in the rate of use of screening tests associated with genomewide profiling, most of which are not considered appropriate for screening asymptomatic persons in any case. CONCLUSIONS In a selected sample of subjects who completed follow-up after undergoing consumer genomewide testing, such testing did not result in any measurable short-term changes in psychological health, diet or exercise behavior, or use of screening tests. Potential effects of this type of genetic testing on the population at large are not known. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and Scripps Health.).
Contextual Factors Influencing Recommendations for Service Provision by Guardian ad litem and Court-Appointed Special Advocates

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of county-level variables on services offered to children who have guardian ad litem/court-appointed special advocate (GAL/CASA) representation. An email survey was sent to GALs and CASAs inviting them to participate in the study. A total of 473 GALs/CASAs completed the survey, with 437 meeting criteria for the study. Our sample represents 33 of 92 Indiana counties. We found the number and types of services ordered were strongly influenced by county contextual characteristics. Families served by a GAL/CASA in urban counties with more poverty received more services. In contrast, families with a GAL/CASA residing in counties with a greater percentage of minorities generated fewer services. Future research should focus on why environmental conditions influence GAL/CASA recommendations for services. Lastly, the relationship between the GAL/CASA race and the race of the families they serve should be explored.
Modified derivative superposition method for linearizing FET low-noise amplifiers

Intermodulation distortion in field-effect transistors (FETs) at RF frequencies is analyzed using the Volterra-series analysis. The degrading effect of the circuit reactances on the maximum IIP3 in the conventional derivative-superposition (DS) method is explained. The noise performance of this method is also analyzed and the effect of the subthreshold biasing of one of the FETs on the noise figure (NF) is shown. A modified DS method is proposed to increase the maximum IIP3 at RF. It was used in a 0.25-mum Si CMOS low-noise amplifier (LNA) designed for cellular code-division multiple-access receivers. The LNA achieved +22-dBm IIP3 with 15.5-dB gain, 1.65-dB NF, and 9.3 mA@2.6-V power consumption
Saline instillation before tracheal suctioning decreases the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia*

Objectives:To compare the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) with or without isotonic saline instillation before tracheal suctioning. As a secondary objective, we compared the incidence of endotracheal tube occlusion and atelectasis. Design:Randomized clinical trial. Setting and Patients:The study was conducted in a medical surgical intensive care unit of an oncologic hospital. We selected consecutive patients needing mechanical ventilation for >72 hrs. Patients were allocated into two groups: a saline group that received instillation of 8 mL of saline before tracheal suctioning and a control group which did not. VAP was diagnosed based on clinical suspicion and confirmed by bronchoalveolar lavage quantitative culture. The incidence of atelectasis on daily chest radiography and endotracheal tube occlusions were recorded. The sample size was calculated to a power of 80% and a type I error probability of 5%. Measurements and Main Results:One hundred thirty patients were assigned to the saline group and 132 to the control group. The baseline demographic variables were similar between groups. The rate of clinically suspected VAP was similar in both groups. The incidence of microbiological proven VAP was significantly lower in the saline group (23.5% × 10.8%; p = 0.008) (incidence density/1.000 days of ventilation 21.22 × 9.62; p < 0.01). Using the Kaplan-Meier curve analysis, the proportion of patients remaining without VAP was higher in the saline group (p = 0.02, log-rank test). The relative risk reduction of VAP in the saline instillation group was 54% (95% confidence interval, 18%–74%) and the number needed to treat was eight (95% confidence interval, 5–27). The incidence of atelectases and endotracheal tube occlusion were similar between groups. Conclusions:Instillation of isotonic saline before tracheal suctioning decreases the incidence of microbiological proven VAP.
Markov Chain-Based Routing Algorithm in Delay-Tolerant Networks

Delay-tolerant networking (DTN) is a type of wireless network architecture that works to determine an approach to address the technical issues in rugged environments, in which routing paths are unstable, and continuous network connectivity may not be available. This paper proposes MCR, a routing algorithm based on the Markov chain and uses the node's past interactions with others to determine the potential routing. The process consists of a finite number of states with the order 1 or 2 and O(n) space complexity instead of O(n2) for Maxprop. The experimental results show that MCR outperforms Maxprop and Prophet, especially in resource-limited scenarios.
Juno: Reconfigurable Middleware for Heterogeneous Content Networking

Multimedia Content distribution is playing an increasingly prominent role in the Internet today, with a proliferation of diverse services and delivery mechanisms. Due to this increasing heterogeneity the management of next generation content networks is becoming increasingly complex. This paper presents Juno, a configurable component-based middleware designed to address the divergent nature of modern content networking. In Juno, functionality is separated into pluggable components that can be dynamically attached, detached and deployed, allowing the middleware to be specialised and adapted for different applications and environments. To demonstrate how functionality from (existing) content distribution networks can be realised through the middleware, an application operating over BitTorrent and Pastry has been developed using Juno. Through this, Juno is evaluated by looking at functional, non-functional and performance aspects of the framework.
Conflicts in Everyday Life: The Influence of Competing Goals on Domestic Energy Conservation

A common approach for understanding people’s domestic energy behavior is to study the influence of deterministic factors, such as attitudes, norms and knowledge, on behavior. However, few studies have succeeded in fully explaining people’s behavior based on these factors alone. To further the understanding of people’s everyday energy use, a goal-oriented approach based on activity theory has been applied to discuss energy conservation from a multiple goal perspective based on the findings from an interview study with 42 informants. The findings show that the informants used energy to fulfill goals linked to basic needs or desires related to their well-being. Even though the majority of informants had an explicit goal to reduce their energy consumption, many experienced conflicts with other competing goals, which often made energy conservation undesirable or challenging. The findings suggest that actions to reduce energy use will most often not be prioritized if they cannot be integrated into people’s daily life without jeopardizing their possibilities to achieve their primary goals and satisfy their everyday needs. It is thus vital to consider people’s everyday life and the many conflicts they experience when aiming to understand why people do, or do not, prioritize energy conservation during everyday activities.
Autonomous Learning Framework Based on Online Hybrid Classifier for Multi-view Object Detection in Video

In this paper, our proposed framework takes a remarkably different direction to resolve multi-view detection problem in a bottom-up fashion. Firstly, a state of the art scene-specific objector is obtained from a fully autonomous learning process triggered by marking several bounding boxes around the object in the first video frame via a mouse, where the human labeled training data or a generic detector are not needed. Secondly, this learning process is conveniently replicated many times in different surveillance scenes and result in a particular detector under various camera viewpoints. Thus, the proposed framework can be employed in multi-view object detection application with unsupervised manner. Obviously, the initial scene-specific detector, initialed by several bounding boxes, exhibits poor detection performance and difficult to improve by traditional online learning algorithm. Consequently, in our self-learning process, we propose to partition detection responses space by online hybrid classifiers and assign each partition individual classifier that achieves the high classification accuracy progressively. A novel online gradual learning algorithm is proposed to train the hybrid classifiers automatically and focus online learning on the hard samples, the most informative samples lying around the decision boundary. The output is a hybrid classifier based scene-specific detector which achieves decent performance under different viewing angles. Experimental results on several video datasets show that our approach achieves comparable performance to robust supervised methods and outperforms the state of the art online learning methods in varying imaging conditions.
Sex chromosome composition revealed in Characidium fishes (Characiformes: Crenuchidae) by molecular cytogenetic methods

The W chromosome of the fishes Characidium cf. fasciatum, Characidium sp. and Characidium cf. gomesi is heterochromatic, as is usually seen in most Characidium species. Samples of W-chromatin were collected by mechanical microdissection and amplified by DOP-PCR (degenerate oligonucleotide-primed polymerase chain reaction), to be used as painting probes (DCg and CgW) and for sequence analysis. FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) with DCg probe painted the whole W chromosome, the pericentromeric region of Z chromosomes and the terminal region of B chromosomes. DOP-PCR-generated fragments were cloned, sequenced and tested by in situ hybridization, but only CgW4 produced positive hybridization signals. Clone sequence analysis recovered seven distinct sequences, of which six did not reveal any similarity to other known sequences in the GenBank or GIRI databases. Only CgW9 clone sequence was recognized as probably derived from a Helitron-transposon similar to that found in the genome of the zebrafish Danio rerio. Our results show that the composition of Characidium’s W chromosome does seem rich in repetitive sequences as well as other W chromosomes found in several species with a ZW sex-determining mechanism.
Lexical navigation: visually prompted query expansion and refinement

We have designed a document search and retrieval system, termed Lesical Navigation, which provides an interface allowing a user to expand or refine a query based on the actual content of the collection. In this work we have designed a client-server system written in Java to allow users to issue queries, have additional terms suggested to them, explore lexical relationships, and view documents based on keywords they contain. Lexical nehvorks containing domain-specific vocabularies and relationships are automatically extracted from the collection and play an important role in this navigation process. The Lexical Navigation methodology constitutes a powerful set of tools for searching large text collections.
What can we learn about the female condom online? An analysis of visual representations of the female condom on the Internet

ABSTRACT This study used social functional semiotics and the concept of gender display to examine visual representations of the female condom on Google Images. A content analysis of 195 web images identified that almost half of the images were about the appearance theme of the female condom followed by the how-to-use theme. A majority of visuals did not have captions. Humans were present in 64.1% of the images, with a majority of visuals depicting dismembered female body parts rather than a whole person. These and other findings are discussed in regards to theoretical and health message design implications.
Reefs and coral carpets in the northern Red Sea as models for organism-environment feedback in coral communities and its reflection in growth fabrics

Abstract Coral framework construction and resultant growth fabrics in response to environmental factors were studied in the northern Red Sea, and the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba. The dependence of growth fabric types on sea-floor topography, oceanography and the ecology of constituent coral species was investigated. Five types of coral frameworks and their growth fabrics were differentiated: Acropora reef framework (platestone to mixstone facies); Porites reef framework (domestone facies); Porites carpet (columnar pillarstone facies); faviid carpet (mixstone facies); Stylophora carpet (thin pillarstone facies). Two non-framework community types were found: Stylophora-Acropora community and soft coral communities. Reef frameworks and resultant growth fabrics show a clear ecological zonation along depth and hydrodynamic exposure gradients. Coral carpets build a framework lacking a distinct internal zonation since they only grow in areas without pronounced gradients. In the northern Red Sea they show a gradual change with depth from Porites (pillarstone) to faviid (mixstone) dominance. The initiation of frameworks was governed by bottom topography (reefs on steep slopes and highs, coral carpets in flat areas). According to environmental conditions, different coral communities produce different framework and growth fabric types. In step with framework growth the environment is modified. The modified environment in turn modifies the coral communities. Thus an environment-organism-environment feedback loop exists.
Assessment of Genetic Diversity among Barley Cultivars and Breeding Lines Adapted to the US Pacific Northwest, and Its Implications in Breeding Barley for Imidazolinone-Resistance

Extensive application of imidazolinone (IMI) herbicides had a significant impact on barley productivity contributing to a continuous decline in its acreage over the last two decades. A possible solution to this problem is to transfer IMI-resistance from a recently characterized mutation in the ‘Bob’ barley AHAS (acetohydroxy acid synthase) gene to other food, feed and malting barley cultivars. We focused our efforts on transferring IMI-resistance to barley varieties adapted to the US Pacific Northwest (PNW), since it comprises ∼23% (335,000 ha) of the US agricultural land under barley production. To effectively breed for IMI-resistance, we studied the genetic diversity among 13 two-rowed spring barley cultivars/breeding-lines from the PNW using 61 microsatellite markers, and selected six barley genotypes that showed medium to high genetic dissimilarity with the ‘Bob’ AHAS mutant. The six selected genotypes were used to make 29–53 crosses with the AHAS mutant and a range of 358–471 F1 seeds were obtained. To make informed selection for the recovery of the recipient parent genome, the genetic location of the AHAS gene was determined and its genetic nature assessed. Large F2 populations ranging in size from 2158–2846 individuals were evaluated for herbicide resistance and seedling vigor. Based on the results, F3 lines from the six most vigorous F2 genotypes per cross combination were evaluated for their genetic background. A range of 20%–90% recovery of the recipient parent genome for the carrier chromosome was observed. An effort was made to determine the critical dose of herbicide to distinguish between heterozygotes and homozygotes for the mutant allele. Results suggested that the mutant can survive up to the 10× field recommended dose of herbicide, and the 8× and 10× herbicide doses can distinguish between the two AHAS mutant genotypes. Finally, implications of this research in sustaining barley productivity in the PNW are discussed.
Effects of Self-Management Support on Structure, Process, and Outcomes Among Vulnerable Patients With Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Despite the importance of self-management support (SMS), few studies have compared SMS interventions, involved diverse populations, or entailed implementation in safety net settings. We examined the effects of two SMS strategies across outcomes corresponding to the Chronic Care Model. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 339 outpatients with poorly controlled diabetes from county-run clinics were enrolled in a three-arm trial. Participants, more than half of whom spoke limited English, were uninsured, and/or had less than a high school education, were randomly assigned to usual care, interactive weekly automated telephone self-management support with nurse follow-up (ATSM), or monthly group medical visits with physician and health educator facilitation (GMV). We measured 1-year changes in structure (Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care [PACIC]), communication processes (Interpersonal Processes of Care [IPC]), and outcomes (behavioral, functional, and metabolic). RESULTS Compared with the usual care group, the ATSM and GMV groups showed improvements in PACIC, with effect sizes of 0.48 and 0.50, respectively (P < 0.01). Only the ATSM group showed improvements in IPC (effect sizes 0.40 vs. usual care and 0.25 vs. GMV, P < 0.05). Both SMS arms showed improvements in self-management behavior versus the usual care arm (P < 0.05), with gains being greater for the ATSM group than for the GMV group (effect size 0.27, P = 0.02). The ATSM group had fewer bed days per month than the usual care group (−1.7 days, P = 0.05) and the GMV group (−2.3 days, P < 0.01) and less interference with daily activities than the usual care group (odds ratio 0.37, P = 0.02). We observed no differences in A1C change. CONCLUSIONS Patient-centered SMS improves certain aspects of diabetes care and positively influences self-management behavior. ATSM seems to be a more effective communication vehicle than GMV in improving behavior and quality of life.
Weakly supervised methods for learning actions and objects

Modern Computer Vision systems learn visual concepts through examples (i.e. images) which have been manually annotated by humans. While this paradigm allowed the field to tremendously progress in the last decade, it has now become one of its major bottlenecks. Teaching a new visual concept requires an expensive human annotation effort, limiting systems to scale to thousands of visual concepts from the few dozens that work today. The exponential growth of visual data available on the net represents an invaluable resource for visual learning algorithms and calls for new methods able to exploit this information to learn visual concepts without the need of major human annotation effort. As a first contribution, we introduce an approach for learning human actions as interac- tions between persons and objects in realistic images. By exploiting the spatial structure of human-object interactions, we are able to learn action models automatically from a set of still images annotated only with the action label (weakly-supervised). Extensive experimental evaluation demonstrates that our weakly-supervised approach achieves the same performance of popular fully-supervised methods despite using substantially less supervision. In the second part of this thesis we extend this reasoning to human-object interactions in realistic video and feature length movies. Popular methods represent actions with low- level features such as image gradients or optical flow. In our approach instead, interactions are modeled as the trajectory of the object wrt to the person position, providing a rich and natural description of actions. Our interaction descriptor is an informative cue on its own and is complimentary to traditional low-level features. Finally, in the third part we propose an approach for learning object detectors from real- world web videos (i.e. YouTube). As opposed to the standard paradigm of learning from still images annotated with bounding-boxes, we propose a technique to learn from videos known only to contain objects of a target class. We demonstrate that learning detec- tors from video alone already delivers good performance requiring much less supervision compared to training from images annotated with bounding boxes. We additionally show that training from a combination of weakly annotated videos and fully annotated still images improves over training from still images alone.