Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Perspective on Mobility Support

As the number of mobile users proliferates, there is an ever increasing demand for Internet mobility support to meet the applications’ need. Although years of research on IP mobility support has produced a rich literature of solutions, few of them are widely adopted. Concerns regarding the existing solutions range from inexible communication models to weak security measures. Furthermore, these solutions are based on the assumption that a mobile node is always connected to the infrastructure, and its movement only results in dierent connecting points. In reality, however, mobility often leads to intermittent connectivity (e.g., vehicles on the road) or opportunistic ad hoc connectivity among a set of mobile nodes. In this paper, we align mobility support with the data-centric nature of applications in Named Data Networking (NDN) architecture and provide a new perspective on mobility support that addresses the weakness in the existing IP mobility solutions as well as utilizes lessons learned.
Towards improving interface modularity in legacy Java software through automated refactoring

The skeletal implementation pattern is a software design pattern consisting of defining an abstract class that provides a partial interface implementation. However, since Java allows only single class inheritance, if implementers decide to extend a skeletal implementation, they will not be allowed to extend any other class. Also, discovering the skeletal implementation may require a global analysis. Java 8 enhanced interfaces alleviate these problems by allowing interfaces to contain (default) method implementations, which implementers inherit. Java classes are then free to extend a different class, and a separate abstract class is no longer needed; developers considering implementing an interface need only examine the interface itself. We argue that both these benefits improve software modularity, and discuss our ongoing work in developing an automated refactoring tool that would assist developers in taking advantage of the enhanced interface feature for their legacy Java software.
Recognising Behaviours of Multiple People with Hierarchical Probabilistic Model and Statistical Data Association

Recognising behaviours of multiple people, especially high-level behaviours, is an important task in surveillance systems. When the reliable assignment of people to the set of observations is unavailable, this task becomes complicated. To solve this task, we present an approach, in which the hierarchical hidden Markov model (HHMM) is used for modeling the behaviour of each person and the joint probabilistic data association filters (JPDAF) is applied for data association. The main contributions of this paper lie in the integration of multiple HHMMs for recognising high-level behaviours of multiple people and the construction of the Rao-Blackwellised particle filters (RBPF) for approximate inference. Preliminary experimental results in a real environment show the robustness of our integrated method in behaviour recognition and its advantage over the use of Kalman filter in tracking people.
Risk of hypospadias in relation to maternal occupational exposure to potential endocrine disrupting chemicals

Background: Reported rises in the prevalence of hypospadias and other abnormalities of the male reproductive system may be a result of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. Aims: To analyse the relation between risk of hypospadias and maternal occupation, particularly with regard to exposure to potential endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Methods: Data (1980–96) from the National Congenital Anomaly System (NCAS) were used to analyse the proportion of all congenital anomaly cases (n = 35 962) which were notified with hypospadias (n = 3471) by occupational codes (348 individual job titles) and by categories of exposure to potential EDCs from a job exposure matrix. Results: Five individual occupations (of 348) showed nominally statistically significant excesses, none of which had possible or probable exposure to potential EDCs. Odds ratios for “possible” or “probable” compared to “unlikely” exposure to potential EDCs did not show statistically significant increases in any of the EDC categories after adjustment for social class of the mother and father, nor was there evidence of an upward trend in risk with likelihood of exposure. In the 1992–96 time period odds ratios were increased for hairdressers (the largest group exposed to potential EDCs) and for probable exposure to phthalates (of which hairdressers form the largest group) before social class adjustment. Conclusions: There was little evidence for a relation between risk of hypospadias and maternal occupation or occupational exposure to potential EDCs, but as the exposure classification was necessarily crude, these findings should be interpreted with caution.
QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF THE WING COLOR PATTERN IN THE BUCKEYE BUTTERFLY (PRECIS COENIA AND PRECIS EVARETE): EVIDENCE AGAINST THE CONSTANCY OF G

Models for the evolution of continuously varying traits use heritabilities, genetic correlations, and the G‐matrix to quantify the genetic variation upon which selection acts. Given estimates of these parameters, it is possible to predict the long‐term effects of selection, infer past selective forces responsible for observed differences between populations or species, and distinguish the effects of drift from selection. Application of these methods, however, requires the unproven assumption that the G‐matrix remains constant from one generation to the next. This study examines the assumption of constancy for the wing pattern characteristics of two sibling species of butterflies, Precis coenia and P. evarete (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Quantitative genetic parameters were estimated from parent‐offspring regression. Two approaches were taken to test the null hypothesis of equality between species. First, pairwise tests between corresponding elements of G and between heritabilities and genetic correlations for the two species were constructed. Second, a modification of Bartlett's modified likelihood‐ratio test was used to test for equality between the G‐matrices. The matrix test failed to detect any between species differences. In contrast, pairwise comparision revealed significant differences. Thus, it appears that constancy cannot be assumed at the species level in quantitative genetic studies. In particular, the assumption of constancy was violated for the trait with the greatest difference in mean phenotype.
Cognitive performance in aphasia due to stroke: a systematic review

Abstract Introduction: Aphasia persists in about one third of the patients with left hemisphere stroke, yet it is not known if it enhances the risk of dementia, beyond what results from any focal brain lesion. This lack of knowledge is mostly related to the difficulty of cognitive evaluation in people with aphasia. The development of tools aiming to assess cognitive functioning in people with aphasia could overcome this limitation. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the frequency and the profile of cognitive impairment in stroke patients with aphasia, to assemble existing non-verbal instruments to be used in patients with language disorders. Methods: We conducted a systematic review, through Web of Science, Medline and PsycINFO electronic databases, of articles published between January 1995 and October 31, 2015 related to aphasia due to stroke and non-verbal neurobehavioral tests. Results: The electronic search identified 2487 citations. After screening 38 were included in this review. Additionally 53 articles were selected among the references of analyzed publications of which nine were included producing a total of 47 articles. The cognitive tests more frequently used in persons with aphasia are the Figures Memory Tests, Visual Memory Span, Progressive Matrices, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and some measures of the Test of Everyday Attention, covering a reasonable range of cognitive domains. The majority of studies across cognitive domains reported lower scores for patients with aphasia compared with controls. No specific difficulties were reported regarding tests applicability. Conclusion: There are several tools available to assess cognitive functions in aphasia. Although there is some variability, patients with aphasia tend to present lower scores than those with left hemisphere stroke without aphasia or healthy subjects. A consensus tool should be developed to screen or evaluate cognition and dementia in individuals with language impairment.
The three‐dimensional distribution of clouds around Southern Hemisphere extratropical cyclones

The organization and, for the first time, the three‐dimensional structure of clouds associated with the Southern Hemisphere cyclones are studied using active observations from the CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites. First, a composite cyclone is constructed from more than 800 individual cases in the years 2007 and 2008 using the cyclone centre as the composite reference point. It is shown that the three‐dimensional cloud distribution around the composite cyclone agrees well with conceptual models of extratropical cyclones. Composite mean fields of sea level pressure, vertical motion, potential temperature and relative humidity are superposed on the three‐dimensional cloud structure to better define the relationship between the clouds and dynamical properties of extratropical cyclones. The methodology used here reveals the relationship between dynamical and cloud processes in three dimensions around cyclones and provides the foundation for in‐depth evaluations of the ability of climate models to simulate the cloud and dynamical structures of Southern Hemisphere extratropical cyclones.
Medical staff's decision-making process in the nursing home.

BACKGROUND This paper describes the medical decision-making process at the time of status change events in the nursing home. METHODS Six male physicians and 3 female nurse practitioners completed questionnaires that described the medical decision-making process for 70 residents of a large nonprofit nursing home. RESULTS Hospitalization was the most frequently cited treatment considered and chosen; family members were involved in 39% of decisions, and nurses were involved in 34%. The most important considerations in making a decision were reported to be the resident's quality of life, the relative effectiveness of the treatment options, and the family's wishes. The levels of importance ascribed to the considerations were related to the physician's identity, specific resident characteristics (such as estimated life expectancy), and communication between the physician and resident (such as sharing knowledge of family wishes). CONCLUSIONS The decision at the time of a status change event involves multiple conditions, multiple considerations, and multiple treatment options, and tends to result in either an active route, such as hospitalization, or a passive one, such as comfort care. The impact of the individual physician and the physician-resident relationship on this process deserves further investigation.
A low-complexity detection method based on iteration for massive MIMO systems

For uplink multi-user massive MIMO systems with hundreds of antennas at the base station (BS), minimum mean square error (MMSE) signal detection method is near-optimal due to the asymptotically orthogonal channel, but it involves matrix inversion with high complexity. In this paper, a low-complexity signal detection method in an iterative way is proposed to avoid the complicated matrix inversion. The convergence proof and complexity analysis of the proposed method are provided in detail. The analysis shows that the proposed method can effectively reduce the complexity by one order of magnitude. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms recently proposed Neumann series approximation method. Near-optimal performance of the MMSE method can be achieved with only a small number of iterations.
Surface brightness fluctuation distances for nearby dwarf elliptical galaxies

We obtained deepB andR-band CCD images for the dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies DDO 44, UGC 4998, KK98 77, DDO 71, DDO 113, and UGC 7356 at the Nordic Optical Telescope. Employing Fourier analysis technique we measure stellar R-band surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs) and magnitudes in 29 dierent elds of the galaxies. Independent tip of the red giant branch distances for DDO 44, KK98 77, DDO 71 are used to convert their set of apparent into absolute SBF magnitudes. The results are combined with the corresponding local (B R) colours and compared with the (B R) MR relation for mainly old, metal-poor stellar populations as predicted by Worthey's population synthesis models using Padova isochrones. While the colour dependency of the theoretical relation is conrmed by the empirical data, we nd a systematic zero point oset between observations and theory in the sense that models are too faint by 0:13 (0:02) mag. Based on these ndings we establish a new semiempirical calibration of the SBF method as distance indicator for dE galaxies with an estimated uncertainty of10%. Taking rst advantage of the improved calibration, we determine SBF distances for the other three early-type dwarfs UGC 4998, DDO 113, and UGC 7356. Although found in the M 81 group region, previous velocity measurements suggested UGC 4998 is a background galaxy. This picture is conrmed by our SBF distance of 10: 5( 0:9) Mpc. We can further identify DDO 113 as a faint stellar system at the near side of the Canes Venatici I (CVn I) cloud at a distance of 3: 1( 0:3) Mpc. The second CVn I member in our sample, UGC 7356, lies at 6: 7( 0:6) Mpc and spatially close to NGC 4258 (M 106). We derive BR surface brightness proles and colour gradients for all dwarfs and determine photometric and S ersic parameters. Finally, we discuss two non-stellar objects in DDO 71 and UGC 7356 which may resemble globular clusters.
Rose oil inhalation protects against formaldehyde‐induced testicular damage in rats

In this experimental study, harmful effects of formaldehyde (FA) inhalation on sperm concentration, sperm quality, serum testosterone levels and the rat testes were investigated. In addition, the possible protective effects of rose oil against to these harmful effects were evaluated. For this purpose, 21 albino‐Wistar rats were used. The rats in Group I were used as control group. When the rats of Group II were exposed FA (10 ppm/1 h) for 35 days, the rats of Group III inhalated rose oil (1 ml/1 h) after FA. The epididymal tissues were taken for sperm analysing and the testes were removed for histological examination. In addition, testosterone levels were determined from the blood samples. Although the testosterone levels, the epididymal sperm concentration, and the progressive sperm motility significantly decreased, the abnormal sperm rate significantly increased in the Group II when compared to Group I. In the Group III, these damages were seen less. When the rats in the Group II compared with the control group, there were serious histological damages. In the Group III, it was determined that the histological changes were less than group II. It can be expressed that serious damages occurred via formaldehyde exposure in male reproductive system and that the rose oil had protective effects against these damages.
An Intelligent & Incremental Approach to kNN using R-trees DJ

Quickly executing k-Nearest-Neighbor (kNN) and range queries in spatial database applications requires an informative and efficient index structure that can effectively reduce the search space. In cases where the query does not define the search range, it is important to create one that does not over or under search the data. Spatial database applications, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), typically use R-tree variants to index geographical data and a box-model for defining ranges. However, Rtree indexes do not contain any information on common classifications that objects belonging to minimum bounding boxes may share, and the box-model inherently searches more space than is necessary. In this paper we propose an extension to R-tree implementations that uses object classifications to reduce the search space of kNN queries. We also propose an incremental approach to solving kNN queries in undefined search ranges that is based on incrementally increasing concentric circles rather than the box-model. There is also a (Euclidean) distance function associated with a spatial area classification that defines how the circles should increase. We show, through mathematical proof, that the time and space complexities of our method is comparable to that of existing R-trees. We also discuss why our method is intuitively better than previous methods.
Could UML and Contract tackle heterogeneity?

Embedded systems integrate more and more heterogeneous subsystems. This situation leads to consider on the one hand heterogeneity owing to different formalisms and on the other hand heterogeneity created by platforms in charge of realizing the system. To deal with formalism heterogeneity some modeling frameworks handle different formalisms or project them onto a pivot. Nevertheless these solutions are often not sufficient. This paper presents ongoing works on a development process using Unified Modeling Language (UML) enhanced by a contract approach borrowed from the Interface Automata modeling. The objectives are twofold: (a) provide coherent views of a component along its refinements, (b) specify their interactions.
Enforcing Multi-user Access Policies to Encrypted Cloud Databases

Cloud computing has the advantage that it offers companies (virtually) unlimited data storage at attractive costs. However, it also introduces new challenges for protecting the confidentiality of the data, and the access to the data. Sensitive data like medical records, business or governmental data cannot be stored unencrypted on the cloud. Moreover, they can be of interest to many users and different policies could apply to each. Companies need new mechanisms to query the encrypted data without revealing anything to the cloud server, and to enforce access policies to the data. Current security schemes do not allow complex encrypted queries over encrypted data in a multi-user setting. Instead, they are limited to keyword searches. Moreover, current solutions assume that all users have the same access rights to the data. This demo shows the implementation of a scheme that allows making SQL-like queries on encrypted databases in a multi-user setting, while at the same time allowing the database owner to assign different access rights to users.
The Bartonella quintana Extracytoplasmic Function Sigma Factor RpoE Has a Role in Bacterial Adaptation to the Arthropod Vector Environment

ABSTRACT Bartonella quintana is a vector-borne bacterial pathogen that causes fatal disease in humans. During the infectious cycle, B. quintana transitions from the hemin-restricted human bloodstream to the hemin-rich body louse vector. Because extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors often regulate adaptation to environmental changes, we hypothesized that a previously unstudied B. quintana ECF sigma factor, RpoE, is involved in the transition from the human host to the body louse vector. The genomic context of B. quintana rpoE identified it as a member of the ECF15 family of sigma factors found only in alphaproteobacteria. ECF15 sigma factors are believed to be the master regulators of the general stress response in alphaproteobacteria. In this study, we examined the B. quintana RpoE response to two stressors that are encountered in the body louse vector environment, a decreased temperature and an increased hemin concentration. We determined that the expression of rpoE is significantly upregulated at the body louse (28°C) versus the human host (37°C) temperature. rpoE expression also was upregulated when B. quintana was exposed to high hemin concentrations. In vitro and in vivo analyses demonstrated that RpoE function is regulated by a mechanism involving the anti-sigma factor NepR and the response regulator PhyR. The ΔrpoE ΔnepR mutant strain of B. quintana established that RpoE-mediated transcription is important in mediating the tolerance of B. quintana to high hemin concentrations. We present the first analysis of an ECF15 sigma factor in a vector-borne human pathogen and conclude that RpoE has a role in the adaptation of B. quintana to the hemin-rich arthropod vector environment.
eHealth service support in IPv6 vehicular networks

Recent vehicular networking activities include public vehicle to vehicle/infrastructure (V2X) large scale deployment, machine-to-machine (M2M) integration scenarios and more automotive applications. eHealth is about the use of the Internet to disseminate health related information, and is one of the promising Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Combining vehicular networking and eHealth to record and transmit a patient's vital signs is a special telemedicine application that helps hospital resident health professionals to optimally prepare the patient's admittance. From the automotive perspective, this is a typical Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication scenario. This proposal provides an IPv6 vehicular platform which integrates eHealth devices and allows sending captured health-related data to a Personal Health Record (PHR) application server in the IPv6 Internet. The collected data is viewed remotely by a doctor and supports a diagnostic decision. This paper introduces the integration of vehicular and eHealth testbeds, describes related work and presents a lightweight auto-configuration method based on a DHCPv6 extension to provide IPv6 connectivity for resource constrained devices.
Human primary motor cortex is both activated and stabilized during observation of other person's phasic motor actions

When your favourite athlete flops over the high-jump bar, you may twist your body in front of the TV screen. Such automatic motor facilitation, ‘mirroring’ or even overt imitation is not always appropriate. Here, we show, by monitoring motor-cortex brain rhythms with magnetoencephalography (MEG) in healthy adults, that viewing intermittent hand actions of another person, in addition to activation, phasically stabilizes the viewer's primary motor cortex, with the maximum of half a second after the onset of the seen movement. Such a stabilization was evident as enhanced cortex–muscle coherence at 16–20 Hz, despite signs of almost simultaneous suppression of rolandic rhythms of approximately 7 and 15 Hz as a sign of activation of the sensorimotor cortex. These findings suggest that inhibition suppresses motor output during viewing another person's actions, thereby withholding unintentional imitation.
ACO and GA metaheuristics for anomaly detection

Computer networks have become an essential technology to society, providing information and services to its users. Due to its importance, network management is necessary to maintain communication reability and security. Thus, in order to assist network administrators achieve these properties, we propose a Digital Signature of Network Segment using Flows Analysis (DSNSF), which uses the network behavior of previous weeks to predict the network traffic of a given day. For this purpose, we have developed an algorithm derived from Genetic Algorithm (GA) able to construct the DSNSF. Also, this approach is compared with a Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) modification used to the same objective. Both methods are bio-inspired models and are widely applied to optimization problems. We compare the resulting digital signature with the real traffic and use Correlation Coefficient and Normalized Square Mean Error to evaluate the performance of the algorithms.