Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An adaptive maximum-likelihood receiver for colored noise and interference

A receiver that adapts to the second-order statistics of the disturbance (interference or noise) is presented. By adapting to the statistics of the disturbance, this receiver produces the maximum-likelihood (ML) estimate of the transmitted sequence for any type of disturbance, in contrast to a conventional receiver that only produces the ML estimate when the discrete-time disturbance is white. This disturbance signal could result from (1) cochannel interference, (2) adjacent-channel interference or (3) thermal noise. The proposed receiver consists of a Nyquist analog receive filter and an adaptive maximum-likelihood sequence estimator for colored noise. We show that the samples of the output of this analog receive filter, at one sample per symbol, are sufficient statistics for finding the most likely transmitted sequence regardless of the type of disturbance present at the input to the receiver. An important feature of this adaptive receiver is that the analog part of the this receiver is fixed, i.e. adaption to the statistics of the disturbance is accomplished by processing in the digital domain only (at one sample per symbol). Using the EGPRS air interface as an example, we show that this adaptive receiver performs substantially better than a conventional non-adaptive receiver: (1) cochannel dominated case: 4.0 dB of gain, (2) adjacent-channel dominated case: 3.5 dB of gain, (3) thermal-noise dominated case: 1.2 dB of gain.
Flexible Multi-Group Single-Carrier Modulation: Optimal Subcarrier Grouping and Rate Maximization

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and single-carrier frequency domain equalization (SC-FDE) are two commonly adopted modulation schemes for frequency-selective channels. Compared to SC-FDE, OFDM generally achieves higher data rate, but at the cost of higher transmit signal peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) that leads to lower power amplifier efficiency. This paper proposes a new modulation scheme, called flexible multi-group single-carrier (FMG-SC), which encapsulates both OFDM and SC-FDE as special cases, thus achieving more flexible rate-PAPR trade-offs between them. Specifically, a set of frequency subcarriers are flexibly divided into orthogonal groups based on their channel gains, and SC-FDE is applied over each of the groups to send different data streams in parallel. We aim to maximize the achievable sum-rate of all groups by optimizing the subcarrier-group mapping. We propose two low-complexity subcarrier grouping methods and show via simulation that they perform very close to the optimal grouping by exhaustive search. Simulation results also show the effectiveness of the proposed FMG-SC modulation scheme with optimized subcarrier grouping in improving the rate-PAPR trade-off over conventional OFDM and SC-FDE.
Does Advertising Spending Influence Media Coverage of the Advertiser?

Recent studies have shown that consumers' product choices are significantly influenced by media coverage and recommendations in various media outlets. Unlike advertising, consumers perceive these sources as neutral and more credible because they usually presume that editorial content and product coverage in newspapers and magazines are independent and free from advertisers' influence. In this article, the authors show how advertising activities of firms may influence media coverage to the firms' advantage. They analyze a recent (2002–2003) large data set comprising 291 fashion companies based in Italy and their advertising and product coverage data published in newspapers and magazines of 123 publishers from Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Controlling for firm heterogeneity, endogeneity, and the simultaneity of advertising and coverage, the authors find that, overall, (1) there is evidence of a strong positive influence of advertising on coverage, (2) publishers that depend more on a specific industry for their advertising revenues are prone to a higher degree of influence from their corporate advertisers than others, (3) peer pressures from competing publishers affect coverage decisions, (4) larger and more innovative companies are at an advantage for obtaining coverage for their products, and (5) the effects of corporate advertising influence exist in both Europe and the United States. These findings raise concerns about the independence of editorial content and coverage of magazines.
Application of Trace-Based Subjective Logic to User Preferences Modeling

A good way to help users make decisions in an interactive application consists in suggesting choices in accordance with their preferences. This decision problem faces challenging tasks, mainly in choosing a good solution that satisfies users and reaches the defined goal. Classical decision methods take into account the goal, but not all the obtained decisions can satisfy users’ preferences. The originality of our explorative research is to associate Subjective Logic (SL) to system’s traces (historical information) in order to model the user preferences that improve the decision process. Following JOsang, SL provides a suitable framework for modeling and formally describing users’ preferences. We propose to connect data collected in past executions, called traces, to the user intuition in order to support subjective reasoning. Based on this result, we can choose a reasonable decision according to users’ preferences. A Tamagotchi system will be presented to validate our result.
Charge-pump PLL with SC-loop filter for low frequency reference signal

A charge-pump phase-locked loop with a switched capacitor loop filter and kilohertz order reference with 0.35 mum high-voltage CMOS process is presented. The PLL is designed for a reference frequency range from 3 kHz to 10 kHz in temperature range from -40degC to +85degC and with 2.5 to 3.6 V supply. Simulations showed that the current consumption of the PLL is 7.3 muA with the 4 kHz reference frequency and 3.0 V nominal supply. Derivation of the equivalent resistance and the linear model of the PLL with both an RC- and SC-type loop filter is presented and compared between each other. It is shown that significant area improvement can be achieved with the SC-filter.
Influence of vertical coupling on the lasing operation of quantum-dash laser

The authors numerically investigated the consequence of vertical coupling among multi-stack InAs quantum dash (Qdash) laser structure on the lasing bandwidth. The developed model is based on multi-population carrier-photon rate equation and incorporates inhomogeneous broadening due to dash size or composition fluctuation, homogeneous broadening of optical gain, and the multi-longitudinal photon modes. In addition, the effect of Qdash layers emitting at different wavelength, and the carrier coupling (tunneling) between adjacent stacks, are also accounted for. The results predict a direct relation between the lasing bandwidth and the barrier thickness and hence enhanced lasing bandwidth could be achieved by decoupling the Qdash layers (large barrier thickness). Moreover, the model further affirms the non-equilibrium distribution of carriers among Qdash layers in a multi-stack laser structure.
The Frequency Distribution of English Syntagms

People use language principally as a means of communication, each language community determining the scope of the particular language it uses. Within the language, various sets and subsets may exist depending upon regional and social differences. Most studies of such subsets have been concerned with lexical variations. In this paper, a methodology is outlined by which the frequency usage of syntactic structures can be measured for subsets of a language, and for a language as a whole. In order to establish homogeneity features within a subset, reliance is made on calculations of chisquare on batches of sentences within the subset. Before considering whether or not a more sensitive test should be applied to detect significant differences within and among subsets of a language, it seemed advisable to determine the frequency distribution of syntagms throughout particular genres. An extension of the methodology to accomplish this objective is described and the results for one type of syntactic structure within one genre are tabulated. These results indicate that the frequency distribution of syntagms within these limitations approximates to a Poisson distribution.
Idiopathic Weight Reduction in Mice Deficient in the High-Mobility-Group Transcription Factor Sox8

ABSTRACT Sox8, Sox9, and Sox10 constitute subgroup E within the Sox family of transcription factors. Many Sox proteins are essential regulators of development. Sox9, for instance, is required for chondrogenesis and male sex determination; Sox10 plays key roles in neural crest development and peripheral gliogenesis. The function of Sox8 has not been studied so far. Here, we generated mice deficient in this third member of subgroup E. In analogy to the case for the related Sox9 and Sox10, we expected severe developmental defects in these mice. Despite strong expression of Sox8 in many tissues, including neural crest, nervous system, muscle, cartilage, adrenal gland, kidney, and testis, homozygous mice developed normally in utero, were born at Mendelian frequencies, and were viable. A substantial reduction in weight was observed in these mice; however, this reduction was not attributable to significant structural deficits in any of the Sox8-expressing tissues. Because of frequent coexpression with either Sox9 or Sox10, the mild phenotype of Sox8-deficient mice might at least in part be due to functional redundancy between group E Sox proteins.
Effect of sustained virological response to interferon therapy for hepatitis C to the hepatectomy for primary hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Interferon (IFN) therapy improves the prognosis of the patients with HCV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the effects of IFN therapy for hepatectomy (Hx) for primary HCC have not been established. Several published reports investigating the effects of IFN therapy on survival and tumor recurrence after curative resection of HCC have been inconclusive. METHODOLOGY Subjects included 470 patients who underwent Hx for HCV related primary HCC. One hundred and fifty nine patients received IFN therapy past or postoperatively of the first Hx. Seventy-four of those patients attained a sustained viral response (SVR group). The other 396 patients, including 85 were no responders (NR) and 311 patients who had not received IFN therapy (non-IFN) were classified as the control group. RESULTS Overall survival (SVR group vs. control group: 5-yr, 93.2 vs. 61.9%; p<0.0001) and disease-free survival (SVR group vs. control group: 5-yr, 56.0 vs. 27.4%; p<0.0001) rates were significantly different. By multivariate analysis, NR/non-IFN was the independent risk factor for overall survival (p=0.0002) and disease-free survival (p=0.0053) after Hx. CONCLUSIONS SVR achieved past or postoperatively to the Hx of HCV-related HCC significantly inhibits recurrence and consequently improves patient survival after Hx for HCC.
Incremental EM for Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis on Human Action Recognition

Human action recognition is a significant task in automatic understanding systems for video surveillance. Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) model has been used to learn and recognize human actions in videos. Specifically, PLSA employs the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm for parameter estimation during the training. The EM algorithm is an iterative estimation scheme that is guaranteed to find a local maximum of the likelihood function. However its convergence usually takes a large number of iterations. For action recognition with large amount of training data, this would result in long training time. This paper presents an incremental version of EM to speed up the training of PLSA without sacrificing performance accuracy. The proposed algorithm is tested on two challenging human action datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm converges with fewer number of full passes compared with the batch EM algorithm. And the trained PLSA models achieve comparable or better recognition accuracies than those using batch EM training.
Cellular properties of the fermented microalgae Pavlova lutheri and its isolated active peptide in osteoblastic differentiation of MG‑63 cells.

Fermented microalgae Pavlova lutheri (P. lutheri), the product of Hansenula polymorpha fermentation, exhibited an increase in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in MG‑63 osteoblastic cells when compared to that of non‑fermented P. lutheri. Fractionation of the fermented P. lutheri resulted in identification of the active peptide [peptide of P. lutheri fermentation (PPLF)] with the sequence of EPQWFL. PPLF significantly increased ALP release from MG‑63 cells and mineralization in a dose‑dependent manner. In addition, the intracellular levels of ALP and osteocalcin (OCN) proteins were augmented by PPLF treatment. To identify the molecular mechanism underlying the effect of PPLF on osteoblastic differentiation, the phosphorylation levels of the mitogen‑activated protein kinases, p38, extracellular signal‑regulated kinases 1/2 and Jun, and nuclear factor (NF)‑κB were determined following PPLF treatment and the differences in expression were analyzed using p38 and NF‑κB selective inhibitors. These results concluded that PPLF from fermented P. lutheri induced osteoblastic differentiation by increasing ALP and OCN release in MG‑63 cells via the p38/p65 signaling pathway, indicating that PPLF supplement may be effective for therapeutic application in the field of bone health.
Discovering factors influencing examiner agreement for periodontal measures.

OBJECTIVES Calibration studies are routinely performed to establish examiner reliability in clinical periodontal research. In these studies, each periodontal site is assessed in duplicate, enabling point and interval estimation of agreement measures. We show how these data can be used additionally to discover subgroups among the periodontal sites according to degree of agreement with true periodontal status and to identify factors associated with examiner bias. METHODS A Bayesian hierarchical model is developed that, for all examiners, links the examiner's recorded measurement with the site's true periodontal status, allowing for site-specific examiner effects on the recorded measurement. These site-specific examiner effects are modeled as arising from a Dirichlet process mixture, which yields a small number (relative to the number of sites) of distinct effects for each examiner. Hence, sites that share the same examiner effect form a subgroup for which that examiner exhibits consistent bias relative to truth. We fit this model to data from a pilot calibration study for probed pocket depth measurements and use the results to explore examiner-specific groupings of sites according to degree of agreement with true pocket depth. The discovered group assignments were then associated with characteristics of the site. RESULTS The Bayesian hierarchical modeling revealed that periodontal sites were grouped according to bias into three, two, and two subgroups, respectively, for each of the three study examiners. The magnitude of the bias was associated with tooth position and true depth of the pocket. CONCLUSIONS Our Bayesian hierarchical model enhances the utility of data obtained from calibration studies for periodontal pocket depth by facilitating discovery of subgroups of sites according to examiner bias. The results indicate that targeting specific tooth locations and pocket depths during examiner training, uniquely for each examiner, may reduce bias in periodontal pocket depth measurements, thereby enhancing the quality of oral epidemiologic research.
A comparison of dapsone with 13‐cis retinoic acid in the treatment of nodular cystic acne

Forty male patients with nodular/cystic acne were randomly allocated to receive either 100mg dapsone daily, or 40 mg 13‐cis retinoic acid, daily for a period of 16 weeks. The following parameters were assessed during Treatment and for a follow‐up period of 20 weeks: lesion counts (pustules, nodules and cysts), photographic evaluation, patient visual analogue scale, sebum excretion rate and skin surface microflora. Seventeen patients from each group completed the study. Only marginal clinical benefit was observed with dapsone, which produced no significant effect either on sebum excretion rate, or on skin surface microflora. By contrast, patients on 13‐cis retinoic acid showed significant reductions in sebum excretion rate and skin surface microflora, which were maximal at 16 weeks (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively), and significant improvements in all clinical parameters which were maintained at follow‐up 5 months later. We conclude that dapsone is clearly inferior to 13‐cis retinoic acid in the treatment of nodular cystic acne.
The Effects of Distributed Group Support and Process Structuring on Software Requirements Development Teams: Results on Creativity and Quality

Previous research has indicated that the creative task of deciding upon the initial specifications for a software system can benefit from a structured process to guide group interaction in face-to-face meetings, and can benefit from computer support. This 2×2 experiment is the first to look at the joint effects of a distributed asynchronous computer conferencing mode of communication (CC, as compared with face-to-face), and a structured process, on software design outcomes. Subjects were teams of graduate students in computer science and business, who designed an automated post office as a course assignment. The quality of solution produced by the CC groups was judged to be marginally higher, while CC groups were rated as considerably more creative. There were no main effects for the structured/unstructured factor, or any significant interactions.
Consumer Demand for Diet Quality: Evidence from the Healthy Eating Index

Few studies have been performed to use the detailed healthy eating index (HEI) to estimate consumer demand for diet quality. In this article, we apply household production theory to systematically estimate consumer demand for diet quality using the HEI developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The results show that consumers have insufficient consumption of food containing dark green and orange vegetables, legumes and whole grains. Age and education have a significant impact on consumer demand for diet quality, but income does not. The own-price elasticities of demand for diet quality are inelastic. Simulation of tax scenarios indicates that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverage may be more efficient than a tax on fats, oils and salad dressing in improving consumer diet quality. This information is critical for policies and programs that are designed to improve healthy food choices, thereby reducing the social cost of public health.
Photon-initiated production of a dilepton final state at the LHC: Cross section versus forward-backward asymmetry studies

We explore the effects of Photon Induced (PI) production of a dilepton final state in the Large Hadron Collider environment. Using QED Parton Distribution Function (PDF) sets we can treat the photons as real partons inside the protons and compare their yield directly to that of the Drell-Yan (DY) process. In particular, we concentrate on an error analysis of the two mechanisms. In order to do so, we use the NNPDF set, which comes with a set of replicas to estimate the systematic PDF error. On the one hand, we find that the PI contribution becomes dominant over DY above a dilepton invariant mass of 3 TeV. On the other hand, the PI predictions are affected by a large error coming from the QED PDFs, well above the one affecting the DY mode. We assess the impact of these uncertainties in the context of resonant and non-resonant searches for a neutral massive vector boson (Z') through the differential cross section and Forward-Backward Asymmetry (AFB) observables as a function of the dilepton invariant mass. While the former is subject to the aforementioned significant residual errors the latter shows the systematic error cancellation expected (recall that AFB is a ratio of cross sections) even in presence of PI contributions, so that the recently emphasized key role played by AFB as a valid tool for both Z' discovery and interpretation in both resonant and non-resonant mode is further consolidated.
Insulators recruit histone methyltransferase dMes4 to regulate chromatin of flanking genes

Chromosomal domains in Drosophila are marked by the insulator‐binding proteins (IBPs) dCTCF/Beaf32 and cofactors that participate in regulating long‐range interactions. Chromosomal borders are further enriched in specific histone modifications, yet the role of histone modifiers and nucleosome dynamics in this context remains largely unknown. Here, we show that IBP depletion impairs nucleosome dynamics specifically at the promoters and coding sequence of genes flanked by IBP binding sites. Biochemical purification identifies the H3K36 histone methyltransferase NSD/dMes‐4 as a novel IBP cofactor, which specifically co‐regulates the chromatin accessibility of hundreds of genes flanked by dCTCF/Beaf32. NSD/dMes‐4 presets chromatin before the recruitment of transcriptional activators including DREF that triggers Set2/Hypb‐dependent H3K36 trimethylation, nucleosome positioning, and RNA splicing. Our results unveil a model for how IBPs regulate nucleosome dynamics and gene expression through NSD/dMes‐4, which may regulate H3K27me3 spreading. Our data uncover how IBPs dynamically regulate chromatin organization depending on distinct cofactors.
Implementing hierarchical trick play for HTTP video streaming

This paper introduces a hierarchical trick play mechanism for video streaming. Trick level concept is introduced to support multiple trick rates, reduce delay when switching from high to low rate and minimize network bandwidth usage. Dedicated trick play streams on server side are created to improve user experience and reduces client processing requirement. It is efficient and easy to implementation.