Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the accuracy of simulation models for localization schemes

Localization plays a substantial role in the future Internet, especially within the context of the Internet of Things (IoT). Increased dependence on devices and sensed data presses for more efficient and accurate localization schemes. In the IoT environment the area covered is large making it impossible to localize all devices and Sensor Nodes (SNs) using single-hop localization techniques. A solution to this problem is to use a multi-hop localization technique to estimate devices' positions. Simulating localization techniques for wireless sensor networks is required in order to reduce cost and study the difference between localization techniques easily especially if the simulated environment is large. Thus a realistic model is required to simulate the localization process as accurately as possible. Many multi-hop localization techniques use Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) to estimate the distance between SNs. Our interest in this work is to enhance the validation of these schemes prior to deployment. Specifically, we propose the use of a more realistic model for generating RSSI values. The model is based on practical measurements and is validated through extensive simulation.
Planning based guided reconstruction of corner cases in architectural validation

Validation of modern microprocessors is a time consuming as well as complex process where constraint-based random test inputs are used to sensitize and monitor whether the hardware execution logic exhibits the desired micro-architectural event sequences. Such testing methods often lead to bug scenarios revealed as simulation traces which serve as the basis for patching the RTL code in order to fix a possible bug. However, the bug fix can be local in nature in the sense that the bug may possibly manifest itself in an alternate execution trace. The present work leverages AI planning to develop techniques for automatic construction of test programs for sensitizing deep architectural bugs by reproducing a bug scenario as different possible sequences of micro-architectural events given that the scenario was initially observed as one such sequence in a simulation trace. Automated generation of such test programs 1) help to evaluate the robustness of a given bug fix or alternatively 2) identify the root cause of the bug so that a proper fix can be carefully planned.
Scalable topology-based flow entry management in data center

Compared with current distributed networks, Software defined networking is an innovative technology to manage networks by a centralized controller with global visibility. OpenFlow is one kind of SDN protocols. It provides flow-level controllability of network traffic to simplify the management of the administrators of data center. Flow control rules used by OpenFlow in switch flow table are called flow entries. Modern commodity switches use TCAM to implement flow table because of its high matching speed. However, the general TCAM size of switch only accommodates up to thousands of flow entries due to its high cost-to-density ratio and high power consumption. It indicates that the maximal number of flow that can be controlled is restricted to the TCAM size of switch. That leads to several scalability issues, especially in a data center. In this paper, we propose a topology based flow entry management (TFEM) technique, which is a scalable and memory-efficient solution by exploiting the hierarchical topology characteristic to aggregate the uses of flow entries for most of the small flows in a data center. With the proposed downlink and uplink separated flow tables structure, our results show that TFEM can reduce the average number of flow entries by 50%~78% for fat-tree topology against the traditional SDN without any switch hardware modification.
Distinct Splice Variants of Dynamin-related Protein 1 Differentially Utilize Mitochondrial Fission Factor as an Effector of Cooperative GTPase Activity*

Multiple isoforms of the mitochondrial fission GTPase dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) arise from the alternative splicing of its single gene-encoded pre-mRNA transcript. Among these, the longer Drp1 isoforms, expressed selectively in neurons, bear unique polypeptide sequences within their GTPase and variable domains, known as the A-insert and the B-insert, respectively. Their functions remain unresolved. A comparison of the various biochemical and biophysical properties of the neuronally expressed isoforms with that of the ubiquitously expressed, and shortest, Drp1 isoform (Drp1-short) has revealed the effect of these inserts on Drp1 function. Utilizing various biochemical, biophysical, and cellular approaches, we find that the A- and B-inserts distinctly alter the oligomerization propensity of Drp1 in solution as well as the preferred curvature of helical Drp1 self-assembly on membranes. Consequently, these sequences also suppress Drp1 cooperative GTPase activity. Mitochondrial fission factor (Mff), a tail-anchored membrane protein of the mitochondrial outer membrane that recruits Drp1 to sites of ensuing fission, differentially stimulates the disparate Drp1 isoforms and alleviates the autoinhibitory effect imposed by these sequences on Drp1 function. Moreover, the differential stimulatory effects of Mff on Drp1 isoforms are dependent on the mitochondrial lipid, cardiolipin (CL). Although Mff stimulation of the intrinsically cooperative Drp1-short isoform is relatively modest, CL-independent, and even counter-productive at high CL concentrations, Mff stimulation of the much less cooperative longest Drp1 isoform (Drp1-long) is robust and occurs synergistically with increasing CL content. Thus, membrane-anchored Mff differentially regulates various Drp1 isoforms by functioning as an allosteric effector of cooperative GTPase activity.
What determines good recovery in patients with the most severe strokes? The Copenhagen Stroke Study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Even patients with the most severe strokes sometimes experience a remarkably good recovery. We evaluated possible predictors of a good outcome to search for new therapeutic strategies. METHODS We included the 223 patients (19%) with the most severe strokes (Scandinavian Stroke Scale score <15 points) from the 1197 unselected patients in the Copenhagen Stroke Study. Of these, 139 (62%) died in the hospital and were excluded. The 26 survivors (31%) with a good functional outcome (Barthel Index >/=50 points) were compared with the 58 survivors (69%) with a poor functional outcome (Barthel Index <50 points). The predictive value of the following factors was examined in a multivariate logistic regression model: age; sex; a spouse; work; home care before stroke; initial stroke severity; blood pressure, blood glucose, and body temperature on admission; stroke subtype; neurological impairment 1 week after onset; diabetes; hypertension; atrial fibrillation; ischemic heart disease; previous stroke; and other disabling disease. RESULTS Decreasing age (odds ratio [OR], 0.50 per 10-year decrease; 95% CI, 0.25 to 0.99; P=0.04), a spouse (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.1 to 8. 8; P=0.03), decreasing body temperature on admission (OR, 1.8 per 1 degrees C decrease; 95% CI, 1.1 to 3.1; P=0.01), and neurological recovery after 1 week (OR, 3.2 per 10-point increase in Scandinavian Stroke Scale score; 95% CI, 1.1 to 7.8; P=0.01) were all independent predictors of good functional outcome. CONCLUSIONS Patients with the most severe strokes who achieve a good functional outcome are generally characterized by younger age, the presence of a spouse at home, and early neurological recovery. Body temperature was a strong predictor of good functional outcome and the only potentially modifiable factor. We suggest that a randomized controlled trial be undertaken to evaluate whether active reduction of body temperature can improve the generally poor prognosis of patients with the most severe strokes.
Cognitive Spectrum Sharing With Two-Way Relaying Systems

Dynamic spectrum-sharing protocols are gaining attention due to the need for improved spectrum utilization. We propose a spectrum-sharing protocol with two-way relaying systems, where two licensed primary users A and B communicate with each other with the assistance of an unlicensed secondary transceiver C, which acts as a relay. The secondary transceiver C gains spectrum sharing by using a decode-and-forward (DF) relay protocol and superposing the secondary transmission on network-coded primary signals. We analytically derive the outage probabilities for both the primary and secondary systems under the proposed cognitive two-way relaying (CTR) protocol. Our results show that a spectrum-sharing region exists such that, as long as C is located within this region, there will be a power-allocation threshold above which the proposed CTR protocol is able to provide a better (or an equal) outage performance for the primary system and, at the same time, achieve secondary spectrum sharing.
Computer Reconstruction of Plant Growth and Chlorophyll Fluorescence Emission in Three Spatial Dimensions

Plant leaves grow and change their orientation as well their emission of chlorophyll fluorescence in time. All these dynamic plant properties can be semi-automatically monitored by a 3D imaging system that generates plant models by the method of coded light illumination, fluorescence imaging and computer 3D reconstruction. Here, we describe the essentials of the method, as well as the system hardware. We show that the technique can reconstruct, with a high fidelity, the leaf size, the leaf angle and the plant height. The method fails with wilted plants when leaves overlap obscuring their true area. This effect, naturally, also interferes when the method is applied to measure plant growth under water stress. The method is, however, very potent in capturing the plant dynamics under mild stress and without stress. The 3D reconstruction is also highly effective in correcting geometrical factors that distort measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence emission of naturally positioned plant leaves.
Development of a Mini-Freeze Dryer for Material-Sparing Laboratory Processing with Representative Product Temperature History

The goal of the work described in this publication was to evaluate a new, small, material-sparing freeze dryer, denoted as the “mini-freeze dryer or mini-FD”, capable of reproducing the product temperature history of larger freeze dryers, thereby facilitating scale-up. The mini-FD wall temperatures can be controlled to mimic loading procedures and dryer process characteristics of larger dryers. The mini-FD is equipped with a tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) water vapor mass flow monitor and with other advanced process analytical technology (PAT) sensors. Drying experiments were performed to demonstrate scalability to larger freeze dryers, including the determination of vial heat transfer coefficients, Kv. Product temperature histories during Kv runs were evaluated and compared with those obtained with a commercial laboratory-scale freeze dryer (LyoStar II) for sucrose and mannitol product formulations. When the mini-FD wall temperature was set at the LyoStar II band temperature (− 20°C) to mimic lab dryer edge vials, edge vial drying in the mini-FD possessed an average Kv within 5% of those obtained during drying in the LyoStar II. When the wall temperature of the mini-FD was set equal to the central vial product temperature, edge vials behaved as center vials, possessing a Kv value within 5% of those measured in the LyoStar II. During both Kv runs and complete product freeze drying runs, the temperature-time profiles for the average edge vials and central vial in the mini-FD agreed well with the average edge and average central vials of the LyoStar II.
The Impact of Distribution on Object-Oriented. . .

Object-oriented computing is now an established technology for software development. However, a number of challenges must be met before the topic can claim to be fully mature. One of the most demanding challenges is posed by the move from single workstation environments to the more general case of a distributed system. There is now considerable interest in the distributed systems community in object-oriented techniques; it is recognised that the features of object-oriented computing are highly appropriate for developing complex distributed applications. This paper considers the importance of object-oriented techniques to distributed system designers and discusses the repercussions of such a move to distributed environments. The impact of distribution on object-oriented computing is examined in depth. This analysis raises a number of important issues such as the need for a broader view of object-oriented computing and the requirement for exible approaches to invocation. Problems relating to persistence and distribution transparency are also discussed. The importance of underlying system support for distributed objectoriented computing is stressed and a case study of the Chorus/ COOL environment presented. The paper concludes by assessing the state of the art in distributed object-oriented computing. It is argued that further research is required before the advantages of the object-oriented approach to software development can be realised in a distributed environment. Published in the IEE/BCS Software Engineering Journal special issue on Object oriented systems, March 1992, Vol. 7, Number 2.
Compositional Approach to Verification of Distributed Sstems Protocols

Distributed systems protocols exhibit complex behavior due to concurrent and asynchronous computation in a decentralized environment. Verification of such protocols is known as notoriously difficult. Model checking is one of the techniques that have been successfully applied in verification of real life protocols. However, model checking suffers from a state explosion problem when dealing with fairly complex systems. In this paper we present technique that exploit modular structure of protocols called compositional reasoning. This technique is demonstrated on the verification of the Bluetooth L2CAP (Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol) specification.
Model Driven Management of Complex Systems: Implementing the Macroscope's Vision

Several years ago, first generation model driven engineering (MDE) tools focused on generating code from high-level platform-independent abstract descriptions. Since then, the target scope of MDE has much broadened and now addresses for example testing, verification, measurement, tool interoperability, software evolution, and many more hard issues in software engineering. In this paper we study the applicability of MDE to another difficult problem: the management of complex systems. We show how the basic properties of MDE may be of significant help in this context and we characterize and extend MDE by the concept of a "megamodel" i.e. a model which elements may themselves be models. We sketch the basic characteristics of a tool for handling megamodels and we apply it to the example of the Eclipse.org ecosystem, chosen here as a representative illustration of a complex system. The paper finally discusses how the proposed original approach and tools may impact the construction and maintenance of computer based complex systems.
Improving Blood Pressure Control in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus and High Cardiovascular Risk

Patients with diabetes mellitus and symptomatic coronary artery disease are also likely to be hypertensive and, overall, are at very high cardiovascular (CV) risk. This paper reports the findings of a posthoc analysis of the 1113 patients with diabetes mellitus in the ACTION trial: ACTION itself showed that outcomes in patients with stable angina and hypertension were significantly improved when a long-acting calcium channel blocking drug (nifedipine GITS) was added to their treatment regimens. This further analysis of the ACTION database in those patients with diabetes has identified a number of practical therapeutic issues which are still relevant because of potential outcome benefits, particularly in relation to BP control. For example, despite background CV treatment and, specifically, despite the widespread use of ACE Inhibitor drugs, the addition of nifedipine GITS was associated with significant benefits: improvement in BP control by an average of 6/3 mmHg and significant improvements in outcome. In summary, this retrospective analysis has identified that the addition of nifedipine GITS resulted in improved BP control and significant outcome benefits in patients with diabetes who were at high CV risk. There is evidence to suggest that these findings are of direct relevance to current therapeutic practice.
Water mass oscillations in a generic surge chamber

Numericki modeli zasad se najcesce koriste u svrhu prognoziranja oscilacija vodnih masa u sustavu akumulacija – dovodni tunel – vodna komora. Pritom, neovisno o usvojenoj metodi diskretizacije vladajucih jednadžbi, najcesce se susrece da su ti modeli razvijeni pod pretpostavkom da je vodna komora okarakterizirana kružnim i konstantnim poprecnim presjekom. Da bi se zaobisla ta ogranicavajuca pretpostavka, predložen je numericki algoritam kojim se mogu analizirati oscilacije razine vode u vodnoj komori opcenitog oblika.
Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha Induced Protein 3 Interacting Protein 1 Gene Polymorphisms and Pustular Psoriasis in Chinese Han Population

Background:Psoriasis is a common immune-mediated inflammatory dermatosis. Generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) is the severe and rare type of psoriasis. The association between tumor necrosis factor-alpha induced protein 3 interacting protein 1 (TNIP1) gene and psoriasis was confirmed in people with multiple ethnicities. This study was to investigate the association between TNIP1 gene polymorphisms and pustular psoriasis in Chinese Han population. Methods:Seventy-three patients with GPP, 67 patients with palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP), and 476 healthy controls were collected from Chinese Han population. Six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TNIP1 gene, namely rs3805435, rs3792798, rs3792797, rs869976, rs17728338, and rs999011 were genotyped by using polymerase chain reaction-ligase detection reaction. Statistical analyses were performed using the PLINK 1.07 package. Allele frequencies and genotyping frequencies for six SNPs were compared by using Chi-square test, odd ratio (OR) (including 95% confidence interval) were calculated. The haplotype analysis was conducted by Haploview software. Results:The frequencies of alleles of five SNPs were significantly different between the GPP group and the control group (P ⩽ 7.22 × 10−3), especially in the GPP patients without psoriasis vulgaris (PsV). In the haplotype analysis, the most significantly different haplotype was H4: ACGAAC, with 13.1% frequency in the GPP group but only 3.4% in the control group (OR = 4.16, P = 4.459 × 10−7). However, no significant difference in the allele frequencies was found between the PPP group and control group for each of the six SNPs (P > 0.05). Conclusions:Polymorphisms in TNIP1 are associated with GPP in Chinese Han population. However, no association with PPP was found. These findings suggest that TNIP1 might be a susceptibility gene for GPP.
Mechanisms of aortic valve incompetence in aging: a finite element model.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY The effect of aging on aortic valve and root function was examined using a three-dimensional finite element model of the aortic root and valve. METHODS Three models representing normal (< 35 years), middle (35-55 years) and older (> 55 years) age groups, were created by assigning tissue thickness and stiffness that increased with age (using ANSYS software). Diastolic pressure was applied; stresses and strains were then evaluated for the valve and root, and percent leaflet coaptation was calculated. RESULTS Leaflet stresses were increased with aging, whereas leaflet strain and coaptation were decreased with aging. Specifically, leaflet stresses were increased by 6-14% in the middle-age model, and by 2-11% in the older-age model, as compared with normal in specified leaflet regions. Conversely, leaflet strains were decreased by 27-41% and 42-50% in the middle-age and older-age models, respectively. This reduced strain resulted in markedly decreased coaptation (9% and 30% reduction for middle- and older-age models). In the root, stress remained fairly constant with age, but strain in the root was progressively reduced with age (11% and 35% reduction for the middle and older-age models, respectively). CONCLUSIONS In these models, increased stiffness and thickness due to aging reduces leaflet deformation and restricts coaptation. Clinically, valvular regurgitation may result due to leaflet thickening and stiffening with normal aging. Our model can now be utilized to evaluate the root-valve relationship in the presence of bioprosthetic valves or root replacements.
Bi-Gaussian score equalization in an audio-visual SVM-based person verification system

In multimodal fusion systems a normalization of the features or the scores is needed before the fusion process. In this work, in addition to the conventional methods, histogram equalization, which was recently introduced by the authors in multimodal systems, and Bi-Gaussian equalization, which takes into account the separate statistics of the genuine and impostor scores, and is introduced in this paper, are applied upon the scores in a multimodal SVM-based person verification system composed by prosodic, speech spectrum, and face information. Bi-Gaussian equalization has obtained the best results and outperform in more than a 23.25% the results obtained by Min-Max normalization.
Kinetic schemes on staggered grids for barotropic Euler models: entropy-stability analysis

We introduce, in the one-dimensional framework, a new scheme of finite volume type for barotropic Euler equations. The numerical unknowns, namely densities and velocities, are defined on staggered grids. The numerical fluxes are defined by using the framework of kinetic schemes. We can consider general (convex) pressure laws. We justify that the density remains non negative and the total physical entropy does not increase, under suitable stability conditions. Performances of the scheme are illustrated through a set of numerical experiments.