Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Indoor Test Methodology for Solar-Powered Wireless Sensor Networks

Repeatable and accurate tests are important when designing hardware and algorithms for solar-powered wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Since no two days are exactly alike with regard to energy harvesting, tests must be carried out indoors. Solar simulators are traditionally used in replicating the effects of sunlight indoors; however, solar simulators are expensive, have lighting elements that have short lifetimes, and are usually not designed to carry out the types of tests that hardware and algorithm designers require. As a result, hardware and algorithm designers use tests that are inaccurate and not repeatable (both for others and also for the designers themselves). In this article, we propose an indoor test methodology that does not rely on solar simulators. The test methodology has its basis in astronomy and photovoltaic cell design. We present a generic design for a test apparatus that can be used in carrying out the test methodology. We also present a specific design that we use in implementing an actual test apparatus. We test the efficacy of our test apparatus and, to demonstrate the usefulness of the test methodology, perform experiments akin to those required in projects involving solar-powered WSNs. Results of the said tests and experiments demonstrate that the test methodology is an invaluable tool for hardware and algorithm designers working with solar-powered WSNs.
Violence, gender and the price of beer in England and Wales

This paper examines the influence of the real price of beer on violence-related injuries split by gender across the economic regions in England and Wales. It was concluded that alcohol prices and injury sustained in violence is causally related in both males and females. Injury of females is causally related to poverty but injury of males. However, nationwide sports events were associated only with male assault injury. Violence-related harm was significantly and independently linked to other socio-economic and demographic factors. Our results suggest that the real price of alcohol (using beer as an example) has a part to play in controlling the consumption of alcohol and the incidence of violent injury.
Collective Kernel Construction in Noisy Environment

Kernels are similarity functions, and play important roles in machine learning. Traditional kernels are built directly from the feature vectors of data instances xi, xj . However, data could be noisy, and there are missing values or corrupted values in feature vectors. In this paper, we propose a new approach to build kernel Collective Kernel, especially from noisy data. We also derive an efficient algorithm to solve the L1-norm based optimization. Extensive experiments on face data, hand written characters and image scene datasets show improved performance for clustering and semi-supervised classification tasks on our collective kernel comparing with the traditional gaussian kernel.
How to measure sustained psychic transformations in long-term treatments of chronically depressed patients: Symptomatic and structural changes in the LAC Depression Study of the outcome of cognitive-behavioural and psychoanalytic long-term treatments*

ABSTRACT Worldwide, the pressure on psychoanalysis to prove the results of its treatments according to the criteria of so-called evidence-based medicine has increased. While a large number of studies on the results of psychoanalytic short-term therapies are now available, such studies are still largely lacking on psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic long-term therapies. In a large multicentre study, the results of psychoanalytical and cognitive-behavioural longterm therapies in chronically depressed patients were compared, Both psychotherapies led to statistically highly significant changes in depressive symptoms three years after the start of the treatments However, the focus of psychoanalytic treatments is not exclusively on reducing psychopathological symptoms, but on changes in the inner world of the patients that are reminiscent of the goal of psychoanalyses that Freud has characterized as developing “the ability to love, work and enjoy life. ” In the German-speaking community, such transformations are called “structural changes. ” This article reports results on such structural changes achieved with the help of a sophisticated measuring instrument, the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD). These so-called structural changes are compared with symptomatic changes. Three years after the start of the treatments, significantly more patients in psychoanalytical treatments show such structural changes than patients in cognitive-behavioural treatments.
The Anti-Packets Can Increase the Achievable Throughput of a Wireless Multi-Hop Network

This paper considers relaying techniques that increase the achievable throughput in multi-hop wireless networks by taking advantage of the bi-directional traffic flow. Such a relaying technique is termed relaying with Bi-directional Amplification of Throughput (BAT-relaying). The BAT-relaying is utilizing the concept of anti-packets, defined for bi-directional traffic flows. The relay node combines the anti-packets that are destined for different nodes and broadcasts the combined packet. Two BAT-relaying techniques have been proposed previously, Decode-and-Forward (DF) BAT-relaying and Amplify-and-Forward (AF) BAT-relaying. While in DF the relay node combines the packets by an XOR operation, AF BAT-relaying utilizes the inherent packet combining provided by the multiple access channel. In an errorless channel, AF has always higher achievable throughput than DF, but in noisy channels the noise amplification can severely degrade the performance of AF. In this paper we introduce a new scheme for BAT-relaying, termed Denoise-And-Forward (DNF) BAT-Relaying. The DNF BAT-relaying also makes use of the combining provided by the multiple access channel, but it removes the noise from the combined anti-packets before broadcasting to the destinations. While in the noiseless channel DNF and AF offer the same throughput performance which is superior to DF BAT-relaying, in large regions of the lower SNR values DNF BAT-relaying has the best throughput performance of all three schemes. Due to the unconventional nature of the BAT-relaying schemes, there are many open issues for further investigation. The design of a practical DNF scheme concerns several protocol layers, including modulation and coding.
Non-occupational lead exposure and hypertension in Pakistani adults

Hypertension is one of the most prevalent diseases in the developed and developing countries. Based on the long historical association and the provocative findings of blood pressure effects at low level of lead exposure a study was carried out to determine if an association existed between low blood lead concentration and hypertension. In this study the effects of low-level exposure to lead on blood pressure were examined among 244 adults using atomic absorption spectrometer. For quality assurance purpose certified reference materials i.e., Animal blood A-13, Bovine liver 1577 and cotton cellulose V-9 from IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and NIST (National Institute of Standard Technology) were analyzed under identical experimental conditions. The mean age of hypertensive adults was 52 years (range 43∼66). The mean values of systolic and diastolic blood pressure were (209±11.7) (range 170∼250) and (117±2.9) (range 105}140) mmHg respectively. Blood lead concentration ranged from 78∼201 μg/L with a mean of 139 μg/L and 165∼497 μg/L with a mean of 255 μg/L in normal and hypertensive adults respectively. Increase in systolic blood pressure was significantly predictive with increase in blood lead levels. Body mass index (BMI) and lipid profile including total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride correlated with blood pressure.
A View Management Method for Mobile Mixed Reality Systems

This paper describes a view management method for annotations on mobile mixed reality systems. In recent years, mobile devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs, have rapidly gained popularity. Thus, MR systems using mo- bile devices are expected to be a rich field. However, the mobile devices' components (screen and application executable memory) are very small compared to those of notebook computers. Also, the processor does not have enough computational power. Thus, it is difficult for such devices to apply existing view management techniques. We propose a view management method that consists of seven sub-functions. Each sub-function is implemented by a simple algorithm, while a system developer assembles required sub-functions into a customized view manage- ment component. We implemented some applications based on the proposed method and discussed the effectiveness of the view management algorithm.
Analysis and FPGA implementation of fast Ordering Detection Algorithm for V-BLAST system

This paper firstly presents a fast ordering V-BLAST detection algorithm based on QR decomposition which is implemented in hardware platform of 4G TDD MIMO- OFDM wireless transmission demonstration system developed by our research team. This algorithm avoids the iteration for pseudo inverse in traditional Golden ZF-SIC by a new sorting scheme and achieves the same performance as traditional Golden ZF-SIC at lower complexity. An effective and resource-saving FPGA architecture for this algorithm is proposed including logic implementation, pipeline design and fixed point programming. A novel method of LUT division design —“multi-LUTs” strategy is proposed to increase the performance of LUT divider which also consumes less resource and increases processing speed comparing with IP core integrated in Xilinx FPGA. At last simulation is presented to validate the design and statistics on resource utilization of such a scheme in Virtex-5 XC5VSX95T FPGA of Xilinx Company is given while the scheme is verified on 4G TDD system hardware platform which achieves steady and high throughput (1 gbps peak rate) in real-time system.
Post-bit: embodied video contents on tiny stickies

Post-Bit is a small e-paper device modeled after paper Post-Its®1. We explored and designed interfaces to handle multi-media contents with paper-like manipulations using this e-paper device. The functions of each Post-Bit combined the affordance of physical tiny sticky memos and digital handling of information. At this stage of the design, we have prototyped two features of the interface: connecting computer-based workspaces and physical workspaces (using a function called Drop-Beyond-Drag), and tangible and tactile operation of multi-media contents. In this paper, we present the integrated design and functionality of the Post-Bit system's main components as shown in the video scenario.
Collaborative communication control based on sensor data management in WSN

This paper presents a novel approach for dynamic controlling of the communication process within cluster-based wireless sensor networks (WSN). The research concentrates on the environmental parameters supervision with WSN inside a container. In order to maintain the requisite environmental sensing quality with as low energy consumption as possible, the participants of WSN make distributed decisions about their own communication intensity according to the surrounding environmental conditions. For this purpose, the cluster head (CH) and cluster member (CM) apply a collaborative decision-making approach to control the transmission activity of each CM. The CH turns the spatially redundant CMs off by observing the relationship between sensor data from all CMs. The CMs apply dynamic sensing rate approach to reduce the temporally redundant sensor data as well as to reactive itself from sleep mode. The simulation results show that the collaborative approach performs high sensing quality in spite of drastic reduction of communication activities.
Fractal Strings and Multifractal Zeta Functions Contact

We define a one-parameter family of zeta functions, called multifractal zeta functions, for a Borel measure on the unit interval and a sequence of scales that tend to zero. The construction of this family is based on that of the continuous large deviation spectra in multifractal analysis. For a measure which is singular with respect to the Lebesgue measure, the parameter value α = 1 recovers the geometric zeta function of the complement of the support of the measure. Other parameter values yield geometric and topological information of fractal strings which is not obtained in the theory of geometric zeta functions of fractal strings. Contact: John A. Rock UCR Mathematics 900 Big Springs Drive Riverside, CA 92521 (951) 827-3113 Date: April 7, 2009. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary: 11M41, 28A12, 28A80. Secondary: 28A75, 28A78, 28C15.
Competitive and Segmented Informal Labor Markets

It has been recently argued that the informal sector of the labor market in a developing economy shows a dual structure with one part of it being competitive to the formal sector and another part being the result of market segmentation. To test this hypothesis we formulate an econometric model which allows for a heterogeneous informal sector with unobserved individual affiliation and which takes into account selection bias induced by the employment decision of individuals. Our test results for the urban labor market in Cote d'Ivoire indeed show existence of both competitive and segmented employment in the informal sector.
Power supply partitioning for placement of built-in current sensors for IDDQ testing

Power Supply Partitioning for Placement of Built-In Current Sensors for IDDQ Testing. (December 2003) Abhijit Prasad, B.E. , Regional Engineering College, Trichy, India Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Duncan Moore Henry Walker IDDQ testing has been a very useful test screen for CMOS circuits. However, with each technology node the background leakage of chips is rapidly increasing. As a result it is becoming more difficult to distinguish between faulty and fault-free chips using IDDQ testing. Power supply partitioning has been proposed to increase test resolution by partitioning the power supply network, such that each partition has a relatively small defectfree IDDQ level. However, at present no practical partitioning strategy is available. The contribution of this thesis is to present a practical power supply partitioning strategy. We formulate various versions of the power supply partitioning problem that are likely to be of interest depending the constraints of the chip design. Solutions to all the variants of the problem are presented. The basic idea behind all solutions is to abstract the power topology of the chip as a flow network. We then use flow techniques to find the min-cut of the transformed network to get solutions to our various problem formulations. Experimental results for benchmark circuits verify the feasibility of our solution methodology. The problem formulations will give complete flexibility to a test engineer to decide which factors cannot be compromised (e.g. area of BICS, test quality, etc) for a particular design and accordingly choose the appropriate problem formulation. The application of this work will be the first step in the placement of Built-In Current Sensors for IDDQ testing.
Remotely Sensed Images Registration Based on Wavelet Transform Using Affine Invariant Moment

This paper presents an accurate and automatic feature-based method for registration of remotely sensed images.The proposed method uses the redundant wavelet transform to obtain feature points. Firstly, modulus maximum of wavelet coefficients of reference and sensed images are detected based on multi-scale multiplication, respectively. Then, affine invariant moments are calculated using a circular neighborhood area centered on the detected modulus maximum point. After that, corresponding feature points are detected by minimum distance rule with the threshold in the Euclidean space of the invariants. Finally, the transformation parameters are obtained by least square method. Also,the center spline function is used as interpolation function when wrapping the sensed image to reference image. Experiment applying our proposed method on Landsat TM remotely sensed images prove our proposed method effective.
Single gaze gestures

This paper examines gaze gestures and their applicability as a generic selection method for gaze-only controlled interfaces. The method explored here is the Single Gaze Gesture (SGG), i.e. gestures consisting of a single point-to-point eye movement. Horizontal and vertical, long and short SGGs were evaluated on two eye tracking devices (Tobii/QuickGlance (QG)). The main findings show that there is a significant difference in selection times between long and short SGGs, between vertical and horizontal selections, as well as between the different tracking systems.
Literature-based knowledge discovery in climate science

Climate change caused by anthropogenic activity is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Researchers are striving to understand the effects of global warming on the ecological systems of the oceans, and how these ecological systems influence the global climate, a line of research that is crucial in order to counteract or adapt to the effects of global warming. A major challenge that researchers in this area are facing, is the huge amount of potentially relevant literature, as insights from widely different fields such as biology, chemistry, climatology and oceanography can prove crucial in understanding the effects of global warming on the oceans. To alleviate some of the work load from researchers, information extraction tools can be used to extract relevant information from the scientific literature automatically, and discovery support tools can be developed to assist researchers in their efforts. This master thesis conducts fundamental research into the development of discovery support tools for oceanographic climate science, focusing primarily on the information extraction component.
Improved voltage regulation strategies by PV inverters in LV rural networks

The growth of world energy demand and the environmental concerns lead to an increase of renewable energy production over the last decade. The increased number of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems gave rise to problems concerning the stability and safety of the utility grid, as well as power quality issues. Lately, PV generators are required, according to the new German Grid Code (GC), to contribute to the grid stability and to provide grid classical functions during normal and abnormal operation. The purpose of this article is to investigate and optimize the standard voltage regulation methods for low voltage (LV) grid-connected PV systems. Reactive power supply strategy proposed by the German GC Q(U) is investigated and simulated performing load flow analysis on a European residential network benchmark. In order to improve the reactive power transfer in the system, an optimized algorithm of voltage regulation is designed with the aim of minimizing the losses in the system for a better integration of PV power generation into the grid.
Identification and Functional Analysis of Variant Haplotypes in the 5′-Flanking Region of Protein Phosphatase 2A-Bδ Gene

Serine-threonine protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is a trimeric holoenzyme that plays an integral role in the regulation of cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis. The substrate specificity and (sub)cellular localization of the PP2A holoenzymes are highly regulated by interaction with a family of regulatory B subunits (PP2A-Bs). The regulatory subunit PP2A-B/PR55δ (PP2A-Bδ) is involving in the dephosphorylation of PP2A substrates and is crucial for controlling entry into and exit from mitosis. The molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of expression of PP2A-Bδ gene (PPP2R2D) remain largely unknown. To explore genetic variations in the 5′-flanking region of PPP2R2D gene as well as their frequent haplotypes in the Han Chinese population and determine whether such variations have an impact on transcriptional activity, DNA samples were collected from 70 healthy Chinese donors and sequenced for identifying genetic variants in the 5′-flanking region of PPP2R2D. Four genetic variants were identified in the 1836 bp 5′-flanking region of PPP2R2D. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns and haplotype profiles were constructed for the genetic variants. Using serially truncated human PPP2R2D promoter luciferase constructs, we found that a 601 bp (−540 nt to +61 nt) fragment constitutes the core promoter region. The subcloning of individual 5′-flanking fragment revealed the existence of three haplotypes in the distal promoter of PPP2R2D. The luciferase reporter assay showed that different haplotypes exhibited distinct promoter activities. The EMSA revealed that the −462 G>A variant influences DNA-protein interactions involving the nuclear factor 1 (NF1). In vitro reporter gene assay indicated that cotransfection of NF1/B expression plasmid could positively regulate the activity of PPP2R2D proximal promoter. Introduction of exogenous NF1/B expression plasmid further confirmed that the NF1 involves in the regulation of PPP2R2D gene expression. Our findings suggest that functional genetic variants and their haplotypes in the 5′-flanking region of PPP2R2D are critical for transcriptional regulation of PP2A-Bδ.
A Link-Based Cluster Ensemble Approach for Categorical Data Clustering

Although attempts have been made to solve the problem of clustering categorical data via cluster ensembles, with the results being competitive to conventional algorithms, it is observed that these techniques unfortunately generate a final data partition based on incomplete information. The underlying ensemble-information matrix presents only cluster-data point relations, with many entries being left unknown. The paper presents an analysis that suggests this problem degrades the quality of the clustering result, and it presents a new link-based approach, which improves the conventional matrix by discovering unknown entries through similarity between clusters in an ensemble. In particular, an efficient link-based algorithm is proposed for the underlying similarity assessment. Afterward, to obtain the final clustering result, a graph partitioning technique is applied to a weighted bipartite graph that is formulated from the refined matrix. Experimental results on multiple real data sets suggest that the proposed link-based method almost always outperforms both conventional clustering algorithms for categorical data and well-known cluster ensemble techniques.
Improvement of Oral Bioavailability of Curcumin upon Microencapsulation with Methacrylic Copolymers

Curcumin (diferuloymethane; CUR) is a yellow pigment used in traditional medicine throughout history for its anti-inflammatory activity. In the last years, the scientific research has demonstrated that CUR effects are related to the modulation of crucial molecular targets, related to several pathologies including cancer, arthritis, diabetes, Crohn’s disease. In this paper, two formulations of microencapsulated CUR obtained by coevaporation with polymethacrylate polymers (Eudragit® Retard) were investigated in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo, and results were compared by laser confocal microscopy analysis. The permeation of microencapsulated CUR through CaCo-2 monolayers was evaluated in vitro. The mucoadhesion and bioadhesion of the CUR-loaded microparticles were evaluated in vitro, using E12 and CaCo-2 human intestinal cells, and ex vivo, by means of excised rat intestinal mucosa. After oral administration to rats, microencapsulated CUR showed a sevenfold increase of bioavailability in respect to the neat drug, with a concomitant reduction of the Tmax and a five-fold plasma concentration peak increase.