Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combination of Wearable Multi-Biosensor Platform and Resonance Frequency Training for Stress Management of the Unemployed Population

Currently considerable research is being directed toward developing methodologies for controlling emotion or releasing stress. An applied branch of the basic field of psychophysiology, known as biofeedback, has been developed to fulfill clinical and non-clinical needs related to such control. Wearable medical devices have permitted unobtrusive monitoring of vital signs and emerging biofeedback services in a pervasive manner. With the global recession, unemployment has become one of the most serious social problems; therefore, the combination of biofeedback techniques with wearable technology for stress management of unemployed population is undoubtedly meaningful. This article describes a wearable biofeedback system based on combining integrated multi-biosensor platform with resonance frequency training (RFT) biofeedback strategy for stress management of unemployed population. Compared to commercial system, in situ experiments with multiple subjects indicated that our biofeedback system was discreet, easy to wear, and capable of offering ambulatory RFT biofeedback.Moreover, the comparative studies on the altered autonomic nervous system (ANS) modulation before and after three week RFT biofeedback training was performed in unemployed population with the aid of our wearable biofeedback system. The achieved results suggested that RFT biofeedback in combination with wearable technology was capable of significantly increasingoverall HRV, which indicated by decreasing sympathetic activities, increasing parasympathetic activities, and increasing ANS synchronization. After 3-week RFT-based respiration training, the ANS's regulating function and coping ability of unemployed population have doubled, and tended toward a dynamic balance.
Modeling Controller Tasks for Safety Analysis

As control systems become more complex, the use of automated control has increased. At the same time, the role of the human operator has changed from primary system controller to supervisor or monitor. Safe design of the human computer interaction becomes more difficult. In this paper, we present a visual task modeling language that can be used by system designers to model human-computer interactions. The visual models can be translated into SpecTRM-RL, a blackbox specification language for modeling the automated portion of the control system. The SpecTRM-RL suite of analysis tools allow the designer to perform formal and informal safety analyses on the task model in isolation or integrated with the rest of the modeled system.
Energy Scalability of On-Chip Interconnection Networks in Multicore Architectures

On-chip interconnection networks (OCNs) such as point-to-point networks and buses form the communication backbone in systems-on-a-chip, multicore processors, and tiled processors. OCNs can consume significant portions of a chip’s energy budget, so analyzing their energy consumption early in the design cycle becomes important for architectural design decisions. Although numerous studies have examined OCN implementation and performance, few have examined energy. This paper develops an analytical framework for energy estimation in OCNs and presents results based on both analytical models of communication patterns and real network traces from applications running on a tiled multicore processor. Our analytical framework supports arbitrary OCN topologies under arbitrary communication patterns while accounting for wire length, switch energy, and network contention. It is the first to incorporate the effects of communication locality and network contention, and use real traces extensively. This paper compares the energy of point-to-point networks against buses under varying degrees of communication locality. The results indicate that, for 16 or more processors, a one-dimensional and a two-dimensional point-to-point network provide 66% and 82% energy savings, respectively, over a bus assuming that processors communicate with equal likelihood. The energy savings increase for patterns which exhibit locality. For the two-dimensional point-to-point OCN of the Raw tiled microprocessor, contention contributes a maximum of just 23% of the OCN energy, using estimated values for channel, switch control logic, and switch queue buffer energy of 34.5pJ , 17pJ , and 12pJ , respectively. Our results show that the energy-delay product per message decreases with increasing processor message injection rate.
Neighbourhood deprivation and incidence of coronary heart disease: a multilevel study of 2.6 million women and men in Sweden

Study objective: To examine whether neighbourhood deprivation predicts incidence rates of coronary heart disease, beyond age and individual income. Design: Follow up study from 31 December 1995 to 31 December 1999. Women and men were analysed separately with respect to incidence rates of coronary heart disease. Multilevel logistic regression was used in the analysis with individual level characteristics (age, individual income) at the first level and level of neighbourhood deprivation at the second level. Neighbourhood deprivation was measured at small area market statistics level by the use of Care Need Index. Setting: Sweden. Participants: All women and men aged 40–64 in the Swedish population, in total 2.6 million people. Main results: There was a strong relation between level of neighbourhood deprivation and incidence rates of coronary heart disease for both women and men. In the full model, which took account of individual income, the risk of developing coronary heart disease was 87% higher for women and 42% higher for men in the most deprived neighbourhoods than in the most affluent neighbourhoods. For both women and men the variance at neighbourhood level was over twice the standard error, indicating significant differences in coronary heart disease risk between neighbourhoods. Conclusions: High levels of neighbourhood deprivation independently predict coronary heart disease for both women and men. Both individual and neighbourhood level approaches are important in health care policies.
Formation aux usages des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication en Éducation : impact sur l’attitude de l’enseignant

According to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Davis (1989) , the attitude is one of the factors of acceptance technology’s use. We present the results of a survey carried out on two samples of teachers at the university in Algeria having respectively followed two different trainings on the pedagogical use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). The results show that the components of the training device can act positively on this attitude.
Performance Analysis of the Microsoft Kinect Sensor for 2D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) Techniques

This paper presents a performance analysis of two open-source, laser scanner-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques (i.e., Gmapping and Hector SLAM) using a Microsoft Kinect to replace the laser sensor. Furthermore, the paper proposes a new system integration approach whereby a Linux virtual machine is used to run the open source SLAM algorithms. The experiments were conducted in two different environments; a small room with no features and a typical office corridor with desks and chairs. Using the data logged from real-time experiments, each SLAM technique was simulated and tested with different parameter settings. The results show that the system is able to achieve real time SLAM operation. The system implementation offers a simple and reliable way to compare the performance of Windows-based SLAM algorithm with the algorithms typically implemented in a Robot Operating System (ROS). The results also indicate that certain modifications to the default laser scanner-based parameters are able to improve the map accuracy. However, the limited field of view and range of Kinect's depth sensor often causes the map to be inaccurate, especially in featureless areas, therefore the Kinect sensor is not a direct replacement for a laser scanner, but rather offers a feasible alternative for 2D SLAM tasks.
An Iterative Nonlinear Gaussianization Algorithm for Image Simulation and Synthesis

We propose an Iterative Nonlinear Gaussianization Algorithm (INGA) which seeks a nonlinear map from a set of dependent random variables to independent Gaussian random variables. A direct motivation of INGA is to extend principal component analysis (PCA), which transforms a set of correlated random variables into uncorrelated (independent up to second order) random variables, and Independent Component Analysis (ICA), which linearly transforms random variables into variates that are \as independent as possible. " A modi ed INGA is then proposed to nonlinearly transform ICA coe cients into statistically independent components. To quantify the performance of each algorithm: PCA, ICA, INGA, and modi ed INGA, we study the Edgeworth Kullback-Leibler Distance (EKLD) which serves to measure the \distance" between two distributions in multi-dimensions. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the superior performance of INGA (and its modi ed version) in situations where PCA and ICA poorly simulate the images of interest.
Aptitude Versus Merit : What Matters in Persistence ?

Recently the electorate in some states has voted to eliminate the use of racial preferences in college admissions. However, many voters still favor fair and just means for promoting ethnic diversity in higher education. In light of these new conditions, researchers are interested in finding alternative measures of merit that can be used in the admissions process. One approach to admissions that holds promise is to construct a “merit index” by subtracting the average test score for the individual’s high school from their individual score. When this method is used in admissions in addition to the SAT (or other admissions tests), then it is easier to screen a diverse applicant pool. This paper assesses the effects of the merit index on persistence in the first year of college. We compare the predictive capacity of the SAT and the merit index using a set of sequential logistic regressions. We found that the merit index predicts first-year college persistence about as well as the SAT.
An Improved Seed Point Detection Algorithm for Centerline Tracing in Coronary Angiograms

This paper presents a new method to detect initial seed points for automatic tracing of the vessel center lines in coronary angiograms. Vessel tracing algorithms are known to be fast and efficient among several feature extraction methods. However, most of them suffer from incomplete results due to inappropriate trade-off between the completeness of seed point detection and computational efficiency. Imposing strict validation rules decreases the number of background traces, but results in more false negatives and more computation time. We show that using the geometrical properties of gradient vectors calculated at vessel boundary points as a validation criterion, improves the performance of the seed point detection algorithm. The results illustrate that the proposed method improves upon the prior method in both performance and computation time.
Adaption of NNS classification to domain of category values

The paper discusses the classical Shepard and Kriging interpolation methods and provides an extension for the category-valued functions. A special weighted combination operator is proposed which can be used in the adapted Shepard interpolation for objects in general metric spaces. This method provides better approximation for the cases where the set of neighboring concepts is heterogeneous and dense enough.
Interactive coverage region and system design simulation for wireless communication systems in multifloored indoor environments: SMT Plus

This paper presents an approach to modeling indoor wireless communication systems using statistical path loss prediction calculations. The statistical calculations work with an indoor building database to accurately predict path loss and interference (C/I) values with much less computational complexity than brute force ray tracing methods. This paper describes the algorithms and illustrates typical coverage contours provided by the resulting indoor planning tool called SMT Plus/sup TM/. This paper also describes techniques under development to incorporate measurements in order to further improve the accuracy of the statistical models, as well as several future directions for SMT Plus.
Exploiting underlying structure for detailed reconstruction of an internet-scale event

Network "telescopes" that record packets sent to unused blocks of Internet address space have emerged as an important tool for observing Internet-scale events such as the spread of worms and the backscatter from flooding attacks that use spoofed source addresses. Current telescope analyses produce detailed tabulations of packet rates, victim population, and evolution over time. While such cataloging is a crucial first step in studying the telescope observations, incorporating an understanding of the underlying processes generating the observations allows us to construct detailed inferences about the broader "universe" in which the Internet-scale activity occurs, greatly enriching and deepening the analysis in the process. In this work we apply such an analysis to the propagation of the Witty worm, a malicious and well-engineered worm that when released in March 2004 infected more than 12,000 hosts world-wide in 75 minutes. We show that by carefully exploiting the structure of the worm, especially its pseudo-random number generation, from limited and imperfect telescope data we can with high fidelity: extract the individual rate at which each infectee injected packets into the network prior to loss; correct distortions in the telescope data due to the worm's volume overwhelming the monitor; reveal the worm's inability to fully reach all of its potential victims; determine the number of disks attached to each infected machine; compute when each infectee was last booted, to sub-second accuracy; explore the "who infected whom" infection tree; uncover that the worm specifically targeted hosts at a US military base; and pinpoint Patient Zero, the initial point of infection, i.e., the IP address of the system the attacker used to unleash Witty.
Scheduling for Instruction Level Parallel Processors

Nearly all personal computer and workstation processors, and virtually all high-performance embedded processor cores, now embody instruction level parallel (ILP) processing in the form of superscalar or very long instruction word (VLIW) architectures. ILP processors put much more of a burden on compilers; without “heroic” compiling techniques, most such processors fall far short of their performance goals. Those techniques are largely found in the high-level optimization phase and in the code generation phase; they are also collectively called instruction scheduling. This paper reviews the state of the art in code generation for ILP parallel processors. Modern ILP code generation methods move code across basic block boundaries. These methods grew out of techniques for generating horizontal microcode, so we introduce the problem by describing its history. Most modern approaches can be categorized by the shape of the scheduling “region. ” Some of these regions are loops, and for those techniques known broadly as “Software Pipelining” are used. Software Pipelining techniques are only considered here when there are issues relevant to the region-based techniques presented. The selection of a type of region to use in this process is one of the most controversial questions in code generation; the paper surveys the best known alternatives. The paper then considers two questions: First, given a type of region, how does one pick specific regions of that type in the intermediate code. In conjunction with region selection, we consider region enlargement techniques such as unrolling and branch target expansion. The second question, how does one construct a schedule once regions have been selected, occupies the next section of the paper. Finally, schedule construction using recent, innovative resource modeling based on finite-state automata is then reexamined. The paper includes an extensive bibliography.
A Survey of Various Workflow Scheduling Algorithms in Cloud Environment

Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and the central servers to maintain data and resources. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use the applications without installing and access their personal files at any computer with the help of internet. The users request for available services according to their desired Quality of Service, and they are charged on a pay-per-use basis. One of the most challenging problems in Cloud computing is the workflow scheduling the problem of satisfying the Quality of Service of the users as well as minimizing the cost of workflows executions. Workflow scheduling is one of the major issue in cloud computing environment. This paper surveyed different types of scheduling algorithms and compare their various parameters. Existing workflow algorithms does not consider the execution time. Therefore there is a need to implement a new scheduling algorithm that can minimize the execution time in cloud environment.
Users, Queries and Documents: A Unified Representation for Web Mining

The collective feedback of the users of an Information Retrieval system has been proved to be useful in many tasks. A popular approach in the literature is to process the logs stored by Internet Service Providers (ISP), Intranet proxies or Web search engines to extract a query-document bi-partite graph. In this paper, we propose to use a richer data structure which is able to preserve most of the information available in the logs including query refinements, page visits and search activity. In particular, we represent the query refinements as separate transitions between the corresponding query nodes in the graph and we augment the graph by associating one node to each single user. Users are linked to the queries which they have issued and to the documents they have visited. The resulting data structure is a complete representation of the collective search activity performed by the users of a search engine or of an Intranet. The experimental results show that this more powerful representation can be successfully used to improve the quality of query clustering and to discover query suggestions.
Designing inclusive communication and participating processes: Interim findings from the trial of a participatory evaluation process involving diverse rural communities and organisations

This paper discusses some problematic issues that were raised in the trial of a participatory planning and evaluation process involving diverse participants, organisations, and communities, and the use of diverse communication and interaction strategies. The LEARNERS process (Learning, Evaluation, Action & Reflection for New technologies, Empowerment & Rural Sustainability) is being trialled as part of an innovative three-year research project that is using participatory action research, participatory evaluation, and feminist research methodologies. This project is being conducted by a Queensland University of Technology research team in collaboration with people in two Queensland rural communities (Tara and Stanthorpe Shires), and five government and industry partners.
Hopf–Cyclic Homology and Relative Cyclic Homology of Hopf–Galois Extensions

Let H be a Hopf algebra and let Ms (H) be the category of all left H‐modules and right H‐comodules satisfying appropriate compatibility relations. An object in Ms (H) will be called a stable anti‐Yetter–Drinfeld module (over H) or a SAYD module, for short. To each M ∈ Ms (H) we associate, in a functorial way, a cyclic object Z* (H, M). We show that our construction can be used to compute the cyclic homology of the underlying algebra structure of H and the relative cyclic homology of H‐Galois extensions.
Low Voltage Polymer Transistors

The combination of polymer semiconducting 'inks' and relatively high resolution printing processes promises to make integrated printed circuits commercially viable. These circuits can be flexible and capital costs of production are very low. One of the key challenges to implementation of this technology is that most transistors made using polymer semiconductors have high operating voltages, which is not ideal for low power, low cost, battery compatible technology. We report on an organic metal semiconductor field effect transistor which operates at 3.5 V. In the initial implementation of this transistor poly(3-hexylthiophene) is the semiconductor, with an aluminium layer used as the gate electrode. The on/off current ratio of this device is only 24.6, but simulations suggest that an improvement of up to three orders of magnitude is possible. The fabrication process requires one less step than other organic transistors. It also uses the gate to encapsulate the transistor, limiting exposure oxygen and moisture, which are known to degrade their performance.
On delayless subband adaptive filtering by subband/fullband transforms

Delayless subband adaptive digital filters (ADFs) have been proposed to avoid the drawbacks of the conventional subband ADF, which are transmission delay associated with the filterbank and degradation of the performance due to aliasing effects. In the delayless subband ADF, the tap-weight vectors are computed in subbands and then they are transformed into the tap-weight vector in fullband by a certain transform. In this letter, a general formulation for the delayless subband ADF is proposed, and some requirements on the fullband/subband transform are investigated.
Functional behaviour analysis guided interventions might improve transfer-related behaviour in dementia care dyads: a single case study

Abstract Background: Impaired mobility in people with severe dementia is well known. Physical therapists play a key role in guiding professional caregivers on how to handle mobility and transfer-related problems; however, it is unknown how to handle the complexity of dementia-related impaired endurance, joint dysfunction, balance, and gait dysfunction and at the same time, take into consideration the person's decreased cognition, communication deficits, and behaviour problems. Aims and methods: The aim was to explore the effectiveness and efficiency of functional behaviour analysis (FBA) guided interventions of dyadic transfer-related behaviour in dementia care dyads. An experimental single-case research design was used. Two care dyads participated. Different methods of assessment were performed to gather the dyadic transfer-related behavioural problems. Transfers were recorded by video uptakes and to generate a hypothesis about dyadic transfer-related behavioural problems, the Dyadic Interaction in Dementia Transfer Assessment Scale (DIDTAS) was used. Results: The problematic transfer-related behaviour in care dyad 1 changed positively, as reflected by a decrease in discomfort verbally expressed by the person with dementia. A trend towards increased cooperation was observed among caregivers assisting in the transfer situation. In care dyad 2, a trend towards increased caregiver self-efficacy (SE) was observed between the baseline and completed intervention phases. The decreased resistiveness to care (RTC) exhibited by the person with dementia paralleled the increase in caregiver SE. Conclusion: Considering the findings of this explorative study, physical therapists could consider the development of tailored interventions guided by an FBA for complex dyadic transfer-related behavioural problems in dementia care dyads.