Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Closed-Form Performance Analysis of Dual Polarization Based MIMO System in Shadowed-Rician Fading LMS Channels

In this paper, the problem of dual polarization based MIMO Processing in Shadowed-Rician (SR) fading land mobile satellite (LMS) channels is studied. It is shown in literature that polarization is used as a interference rejection method; and, most of the existing analytical results are not in closed-form. In this paper, we derive the closed-form expressions of the moment generating (MGF) function of the received signal-to-noise ratio of the MRC based receiver in SR fading LMS channels. Then we provide closed-form expressions of the symbol error rate (SER) by using MGF approach. The analytical diversity order and capacity of the considered scheme is also derived. It is shown by by derived closed-form capacity expression that the capacity of the considered dual polarization based scheme is improved; and it is found very useful in practical satellite communication systems. Index Terms: Land mobile satellite (LMS) channel, M-ary phase shift keying (M -PSK), Polarization, M -ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M -QAM), Shadowed-Rician fading.
The Market Model of Interest Rate Dynamics

A class of term structure models with volatility of lognormal type is analyzed in the general HJM framework. The corresponding market forward rates do not explode, and are positive and mean reverting. Pricing of caps and floors is consistent with the Black formulas used in the market. Swaptions are priced with closed formulas that reduce (with an extra assumption) to exactly the Black swaption formulas when yield and volatility are flat. A two–factor version of the model is calibrated to the U.K. market price of caps and swaptions and to the historically estimated correlation between the forward rates.
EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE EVIDENCE FOR ALIGNMENT OF THE BLACK HOLE IN THE CENTER OF THE MILKY WAY WITH THE INNER STELLAR DISK

Observations of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way with the Event Horizon Telescope at 1.3 mm have revealed a size of the emitting region that is smaller than the size of the black-hole shadow. This can be reconciled with the spectral properties of the source, if the accretion flow is seen at a relatively high inclination (50°–60°). Such an inclination makes the angular momentum of the flow, and perhaps of the black hole, nearly aligned with the angular momenta of the orbits of stars that lie within ≃ 3″ from the black hole. We discuss the implications of such an alignment for the properties of the black hole and of its accretion flow. We argue that future Event Horizon Telescope observations will not only refine the inclination of Sgr A* but also measure precisely its orientation on the plane of the sky.
GMLinAir : Enabling Efficient and Power-conserving Wireless GML Communication and Visualization

Geography Markup Language (GML), a language model designed as an interoperable format, is used to store and express geographical features. With the development of wireless capabilities, more and more applications are designed for users to acquire geographic information over the wireless channel, especially in a geosensor network. However, due to the large portion of tags in a GML document, it is usually too large for a wireless device with only limited memory, storage and computation capability to handle. This paper presents GMLinAir, a technique to transmit and visualize GML documents in a wireless environment considering power consumption, link quality, and memory occupancy. GMLinAir includes two components: TagIndex, an ordered indexing approach that replaces a tag with its index to reduce a GML document size, and FzGMLView, a fuzzy logic rule based controller allowing a wireless client with limited resources to adapt the application of compression/decompression techniques or TagIndex to the different conditions in wireless link quality, power consumption, and memory occupancy. When comparing its performance with compact GML (cGML), TagIndex outperforms cGML by 50% to 153% based on test results presented in this paper. Additionally, models for performance of energy consumption and virtual visualization speed are proposed for analysis of optimization and tradeoff between GML visualization speed over a wireless channel and power consumption. Memory occupancy is also taken into account because of the large sizes of GML documents.
Effective project management education is essential for the development of a profession at the crossroads

This paper asserts that there is a lack of a conceptual framework for the development of effective project management education. Formal education has been almost totally lacking for project management, which has ‘emerged’ as a profession from the hard disciplines of engineering and construction where management of large and complex undertakings necessitated high-level skills and competencies. Today, project management education is migrating to the postgraduate business schools where its application in softer environments for implementation of business strategy, technology programs, marketing campaigns and organisational restructuring requires students to learn an even wider range of skills and behaviours. Practitioners have formed professional bodies and taken the initiative in producing bodies of knowledge and competency standards for professional practice. Accreditation by such bodies often does not value tertiary qualifications highly and focuses primarily on the demonstration of a narrow range of vocational competencies, and this places their approach at odds with the commonly held view of what constitutes a profession. As universities increasingly embrace project management education, there is a lack of a theoretical framework and empirical research into what constitutes effective education for project management and development of competent practitioners, and university-based educators and industry are at odds regarding the direction of education and accreditation. To support the assertion, this paper provides an overview of the exploratory qualitative stage of doctoral research, and includes a review of existing literature on project management education, an analysis of semi-structured interviews with representatives of major stakeholders, and an outline of future stages of the research.
Ulla: a program for calculating environment-specific amino acid substitution tables

Summary: Amino acid residues are under various kinds of local environmental restraints, which influence substitution patterns. Ulla,1 a program for calculating environment-specific substitution tables, reads protein sequence alignments and local environment annotations. The program produces a substitution table for every possible combination of environment features. Sparse data is handled using an entropy-based smoothing procedure to estimate robust substitution probabilities. Availability: The Ruby source code is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License along with additional documentation from http://www-cryst.bioc. cam.ac. uk/ulla. Contact: semin@cryst.bioc. cam.ac. uk Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The self-enrichment of galactic halo globular clusters The mass-metallicity relation

We discuss the existence of a mass-metallicity relation among galactic halo globular clusters. The lack of any luminosity-metallicity correlation in globular cluster systems has been used as an argument against self-enrichment models of cluster formation. We show that such a relation is statistically present among the galactic Old Halo globulars. This observational correlation implies that the least massive old clusters are the most metal-rich. This is in contradiction with the idea that, if globular clusters were self-enriched systems, the most metal-rich clusters would also be the most massive ones. We further show that this anti-correlation is as predicted by self-enrichment models.
Algorithm for Sequence Image Automatic Mosaic Based on SIFT Feature

Constraining by cameras’ view-angles of the outdoor monitoring systems, the panoramic digital images fail to be obtained directly from photographing. A method is proposed on the basis of the scale invariance feature transform (i.e. SIFT) algorithm to stitch images captured by the turning video cameras together to form panoramic images. Based on the SIFT features and the retrofitted KD-Tree structure, the BBF searching strategy is employed to match feature points. Then in a post-processing pass, the Ransac algorithm is adopted to remove the mismatching feature points. Photos captured by a surveillance camera are taken as the input to test the proposed method. According to the test, the whole processing time of stitch is reduced while the fidelity of resulting stitched panoramic images is ensured.
The methods and outcomes of cultural adaptations of psychological treatments for depressive disorders: a systematic review

Background Cultural adaptations of evidence-based psychological treatments (PTs) are important to enhance their universal applicability. The aim of this study was to review systematically the literature on adaptations of PTs for depressive disorders for ethnic minorities in Western countries and for any population in non-Western countries to describe the process, extent and nature of the adaptations and the effectiveness of the adapted treatments. Method Controlled trials were identified using database searches, key informants, previous reviews and reference lists. Data on the process and details of the adaptations were analyzed using qualitative methods and meta-analysis was used to assess treatment effectiveness. Results Twenty studies were included in this review, of which 16 were included in the meta-analysis. The process of adaptation was reported in two-thirds of the studies. Most adaptations were found in the dimensions of language, context and therapist delivering the treatment. The meta-analysis revealed a statistically significant benefit in favor of the adapted treatment [standardized mean difference (SMD) −0.72, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.94 to −0.49]. Conclusions Cultural adaptations of PTs follow a systematic procedure and lead primarily to adaptations in the implementation of the treatments rather than their content. Such PTs are effective in the treatment of depressive disorders in populations other than those for whom they were originally developed.
Properties of discontinuous and nova‐amplified mass transfer in cataclysmic variables

We investigate the effects of discontinuous mass loss in recurrent outburst events on the long-term evolution of cataclysmic variables (CVs). Similarly we consider the effects of frictional angular momentum loss (FAML), i.e. interaction of the expanding nova envelope with the secondary. The Bondi–Hoyle accretion model is used to parametrize FAML in terms of the expansion velocity vexp of the nova envelope at the location of the secondary; we find that small vexp causes strong FAML. Numerical calculations of CV evolution over a wide range of parameters demonstrate the equivalence of a discontinuous sequence of nova cycles and the corresponding mean evolution (replacing envelope ejection by a continuous wind), even close to the mass-transfer instability. A formal stability analysis of discontinuous mass transfer confirms this, independent of details of the FAML model. FAML is a consequential angular momentum loss that amplifies the mass-transfer rate driven by systemic angular momentum losses such as magnetic braking. We show that for a given vexp and white dwarf mass the amplification increases with secondary mass and is significant only close to the largest secondary mass consistent with mass-transfer stability. The amplification factor is independent of the envelope mass ejected during the outburst, whereas the mass-transfer amplitude induced by individual nova outbursts is proportional to it. In sequences calculated with nova model parameters taken from Prialnik &38; Kovetz, FAML amplification is negligible, but the outburst amplitude in systems below the period gap with a white dwarf mass ≃ 0.6 M⊙ is larger than a factor of 10. The mass-transfer rate in such systems is smaller than 10−11 M⊙ yr−1 for ≃ 0.5 Myr (≃ 10 per cent of the nova cycle) after the outburst. This offers an explanation for intrinsically unusually faint CVs below the period gap.
Design of an IR-UWB Indoor Localization System Based on a Novel RTT Ranging Estimator

This article presents an indoor localization system based on Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband. A novel peak detection technique is proposed to be used for Round-Trip-Time ranging. Additionally, the accuracy and complexity of different positioning algorithms are studied. The effect of different configurations of the fixed and mobile transceivers on the accuracy is also analyzed. Simulations have been performed using realistic multipath channel models and the parameters of the IEEE 802.15. 4a standard. These simulations show that the proposed localization system is able to achieve enough accuracy for an ambient assisted living application in any of the analyzed configurations.
A Latent Class Analysis of Factors Associated with Levels of Aggression among Low-Income African American Youth in Chicago

Abstract African American youth are often stereotyped as being more aggressive than and experience more severe negative social sanctions relative to their European American peers. This cross-sectional study assessed self-reported levels of aggression among a sample of 538 low-income African American youth in Chicago, and employed latent class analysis to determine groups of aggression. Major study findings showed low, middle high aggression group. The largest number of youth fell within the low aggression group. Social factors (e.g., low student-teacher connectedness, high risky peer norms, neighborhood violence, and family conflict) were associated with inclusion in the high aggression group. Intrapersonal factors (e.g., depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder) were associated with inclusion in the middle aggression group. Future longitudinal research should examine what factors are associated with movement across aggression groups and capitalize upon knowledge gained in the current study to develop interventions.
Solving the η-problem in hybrid inflation with Heisenberg symmetry and stabilized modulus

We propose a class of models in which the η-problem of supersymmetric hybrid inflation is resolved using a Heisenberg symmetry, where the associated modulus field is stabilized and made heavy with the help of the large vacuum energy during inflation without any fine-tuning. The proposed class of models is well motivated both from string theory considerations, since it includes the commonly encountered case of no-scale supergravity Kahler potential, and from the perspective of particle physics since a natural candidate for the inflaton in this class of models is the right-handed sneutrino which is massless during the inflationary epoch, and subsequently acquires a large mass at the end of inflation. We study a specific example motivated by sneutrino hybrid inflation with no-scale supergravity in some detail, and show that the spectral index may lie within the latest WMAP range, while the tensor-to-scalar ratio is very small.
TO NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE PHONETIC STIMULI

Yliopistopaino Helsinki 2004 " Basic scientific ideas, theories, and explanations are always provisional and always subject to change. " I would also like to thank my dear family and friends who have supported and encouraged me through all these years that I have been working on my dissertation. I am grateful to you all! The studies that comprise this thesis were financially supported by the Center for ABSTRACT Mismatch negativity, MMN, an auditory event-related response to any discriminable change in an ongoing sound stream, as well as its magnetic counterpart MMNm, and the MMN paradigm as such, have been shown to be extremely useful in studies of speech perception in humans. However, certain aspects related to brain plasticity, language specificity, and robustness of brain responses evoked by changes in speech stimuli remained uncovered so far. The aim of the research reported here was to study MMN and other components of event-related potential (ERP) (or evoked magnetic field (EMF)) that could be recorded in the same paradigm, and associated with the preattentive auditory discrimination of native and non-native phonemes. Two different methodologies were used: electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG). First, EEG recordings were made in order to investigate children's brain responses to phonemes of a second language as a function of their exposure to it in terms of time. The MMN results showed that the memory representations of the foreign phoneme system developed remarkably quickly. Finnish children (aged 3-6 years) who were exposed to French developed the ability to discriminate French phonemes in just a couple of months as indexed by an amplitude increase of the MMN concurrently with a latency decrease. The learning process was also reflected by changes in the P3a and in the late difference negativity (LDN) response. The functional behaviour of the MMN-P3a-LDN complex during learning was further assessed in detail. It was hypothesized that the functional role of LDN could be similar to that of reorienting negativity (RON), an adult's brain response indicating the reorienting of attention back to the main task following distraction. The correlation analysis performed on the amplitudes of the MMN, P3a, and LDN components provided indirect evidence in favour of this view. Second, MEG was used to study MMNm in response to abstract phoneme representations. MMN and MMNm index the ability of the central auditory system to automatically extract the invariant, i.e. phonetically relevant, information for vowel recognition from acoustically continuously changing …
Performance Investigation of Wireless Sensor Network for Long Distance Overhead Power Lines; Mica2 Motes, a Case Study

In the recent past, wireless sensor technology has undergone advancements in its autonomous data collecting aspects, and has become an area worth investigating in relation to structural monitoring applications. This paper describes an analysis of the performance of a linear aligned wireless sensor network, an application that could be used in remote monitoring long distance overhead transmission lines.
Risk in Revenue Management and Dynamic Pricing

We present a new model for optimal dynamic pricing of perishable services or products that incorporates a simple risk measure permitting control of the probability that total revenues fall below a minimum acceptable level. The formulation assumes that sales must occur within a finite time period, that there is a finite---possibly large---set of available prices, and that demand follows a price-dependent, nonhomogeneous Poisson process. This model is particularly appropriate for applications in which attainment of a revenue target is an important consideration for managers; for example, in event management, in seasonal clearance of high-value items, or for business subunits operating under performance targets. We formulate the model as a continuous-time optimal control problem, obtain optimality conditions, explore structural properties of the solution, and report numerical results on problems of realistic size.
ECG biometric recognition: Permanence analysis of QRS signals for 24 hours continuous authentication

Recent studies regard the use of ECG signals for biometric recognition exploiting the possibility of these signals to be frequently recorded for long time periods without any explicit actions performed by the users during the acquisitions. This aspect makes ECG signals particularly suitable for continuous authentication applications. In this context, researches have proved that the QRS complex is the most stable component of the ECG signal. In this paper, we perform a preliminary study on the persistency of QRS signals for continuous authentication systems. A recognition method based on multiple leads is proposed, and used to evaluate the persistency of the QRS complex in 24 hours Holter signals. This time interval can be considered as adequate for many possible applications in continuous authentication scenarios. The analysis is performed on a significantly large public Holter dataset and aims to search accurate matching and enrollment strategies for continuous authentication systems. At the best our knowledge, the results presented in this paper are based on the biggest set of ECG signals used to design continuous authentication applications in the literature. Results suggest that the QRS complex is stable only for a relatively small time period, and the performance of the proposed recognition method starts decreasing after two hours.
A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION

This paper is based on the premise that sustainable development depends on managing development as a business through the application of strategic management principles (and not by means of philanthropy, social responsibility or any other traditional non-profit making approach). Likewise, a strategic approach to development communication could form the foundation for successful sustainable development actions in the same way that strategically practised corporate communication is considered a key to excellence in business organisations. In support of the above argument, this research identified and conceptually analysed the assumptions of major approaches in the domains of development management, development communication, strategic management and corporate communication with a view to identify relevant assumptions for a strategic approach to development management and development communication. By using grounded theory as a qualitative research methodology, this paper suggests meta-theoretical frameworks for both strategic development management and for strategic development communication.
Sexual dysfunction among older adults: prevalence and risk factors from a nationally representative U.S. probability sample of men and women 57-85 years of age.

INTRODUCTION Despite increasing demand for clinical interventions into sexual problems in an aging population, epidemiological data on the subject are scarce. AIMS To examine the prevalence of sexual problems across different sociodemographic groups, and risk factors for these problems in multiple domains of life. METHODS Statistical analysis of data from the 2005-2006 National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative U.S. probability sample of 1,550 women and 1,455 men aged 57-85 at the time of interview. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Likelihood of experiencing sexual dysfunction in the preceding 12 months. RESULTS Sexual problems among the elderly are not an inevitable consequence of aging, but instead are responses to the presence of stressors in multiple life domains. This impact may partly be gender differentiated, with older women's sexual health more sensitive to their physical health than is true for men. The mechanism linking life stress with sexual problems is likely to be poor mental health and relationship dissatisfaction. The NSHAP results demonstrate the consistent impact of poor mental health on women's reports of sexual problems and the less consistent association with men's problems. CONCLUSIONS The results point to a need for physicians who are treating older adults experiencing sexual problems to take into account not simply their physical health, but also their psychosocial health and satisfaction with their intimate relationship.