Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-Complexity and High-Flexibility Design of a Wavelength-Selective Switch Using Raman Amplifiers and Directional Couplers

A low-complexity and high-flexibility design for a wavelength-selective optical switch using waveguide-type Raman amplifiers and directional couplers is proposed. This switch can be used as a core device in large-scale WDM packet routing networks. By relaxing some constraints in existing research, our design provides the following characteristics: (i) lower complexity, because fewer units of Raman amplifiers and directional couplers are needed; (ii) higher flexibility of power gain, because a wide range of configurable power gain for both unswitched and switched wavelengths is provided, so that equal power gain or equal power level output for all WDM wavelengths may be obtained. In addition to theoretical analysis, we provide a set of concise guidelines to control the configurable power gain under practical consideration.
A particle swarm optimization based classifier for liver disorders classification

A hybrid model is developed by integrating a case-based reasoning approach and a particle swarm optimization model for medical data classification. The data sets from UCI Machine Learning Repository; Liver Disorders Data Set is employed for benchmark test. Initially a case-based reasoning method is applied to preprocess the data set thus a weight vector for each feature is derived. A particle swarm optimization model is then applied to construct a decision-making system based on the selected features and diseases identified. The PSO algorithm starts by partitioning the data set into a relatively large number of clusters to reduce the effects of initial conditions and then reducing the number of clusters into two. The average for liver disorders of CBRPSO is 78.18%. The proposed case-based particle swarm optimization model is able to produce more accurate and comprehensible results for medical experts in medical diagnosis‥
A Multiphase Switched Capacitor Power Amplifier

This paper presents an all-digital multiphase switched capacitor power amplifier (MP-SCPA) implemented in a 130-nm CMOS. Quadrature architectures suffer reduced output power and efficiency owing to the combination of out-of-phase signals. The MP architecture reduces the phase difference between the basis vectors that are combined, and hence the output power and efficiency are greatly improved. Sixteen clocks with identical adjacent phase separations are produced by a phase generator with each phase’s relative amplitude weighted on the top plate of a capacitor array and combined on a common bottom plate, resulting in linear amplification. The MP-SCPA delivers a peak output power <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm{ out}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 26 dBm with a peak system efficiency (SE) of 24.9%. When amplifying a long-term evolution signal at 1.85 GHz, the average <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm{ out}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and the SE are 20.9 dBm and 15.2%, respectively, with an Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR) < −30 dBc and error vector magnitude of 3.5% rms using a 2-D digital predistortion.
Explicating Factors explaining Self-Disclosure in the Usage of Micro-blog

The current study aims to examine what determinants have influences on voluntary self-disclosure in the usage of micro-blogging. Even though the usages of micro-blogging have increased at an exponential rate in South Korea, it has been not well understood the process in which people voluntarily disclose their self-information. In this regard, we tried to examine self-disclosure process on micro-blogging based on Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). For this purpose, attitudes towards self-disclosure, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were set as the antecedents to self-disclosure behavior. The influences of factors including privacy concern, playfulness, informational motivation for social participation, and relational motivation on the attitude were also investigated. The results of an online survey revealed that attitude toward self-disclosure, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control anticipated the self-disclosure behavior at a statistically significant level. The attitude was not influenced by privacy concern, informational and relational motivation, but by playfulness. The implications of these results are also discussed.
Carotenoid composition and carotenogenic gene expression during Ipomoea petal development

Japanese morning glory (Ipomoea nil) is a representative plant lacking a yellow-flowered cultivar, although a few wild Ipomoea species contain carotenoids in their petals such as Ipomoea sp. (yellow petals) and I. obscura (pale-yellow petals). In the present study, carotenoid composition and the expression patterns of carotenogenic genes during petal development were compared among I. nil, I. obscura, and Ipomoea sp. to identify the factors regulating carotenoid accumulation in Ipomoea plant petals. In the early stage, the carotenoid composition in petals of all the Ipomoea plants tested was the same as in the leaves mainly showing lutein, violaxanthin, and β-carotene (chloroplast-type carotenoids). However, in fully opened flowers, chloroplast-type carotenoids were entirely absent in I. nil, whereas they were present in trace amounts in the free form in I. obscura. At the late stage of petal development in Ipomoea sp. , the majority of carotenoids were β-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, and β-carotene (chromoplast-type carotenoids). In addition, most of them were present in the esterified form. Carotenogenic gene expression was notably lower in I. nil than in Ipomoea sp. In particular, β-ring hydroxylase (CHYB) was considerably suppressed in petals of both I. nil and I. obscura. The CHYB expression was found to be significantly high in the petals of Ipomoea sp. during the synthesis of chromoplast-type carotenoids. The expression levels of carotenoid cleavage genes (CCD1 and CCD4) were not correlated with the amount of carotenoids in petals. These results suggest that both I. obscura and I. nil lack the ability to synthesize chromoplast-type carotenoids because of the transcriptional down-regulation of carotenogenic genes. CHYB, an enzyme that catalyses the addition of a hydroxyl residue required for esterification, was found to be a key enzyme for the accumulation of chromoplast-type carotenoids in petals.
Therapeutic Touch: The Art of Improvisation

Abstract: This paper is a comparison of the art and practice of Therapeutic Touch with the art and practice of music through improvisation. It is also an exploration of one person's growth from initial learning to a point in lime where expertise is recognized. Students of Therapeutic Touch are often puzzled by their ability to be effective from the first day yet they have difficulty articulating exactly what it is that they are doing in words that peers, family or friends might understand. The simplicity of energy exchange and the uniqueness of its process can be overwhelming. It is the author's belief that only when the student is able to integrate the new learning of Therapeutic Touch with previous life experience does expertise in the practice of Therapeutic Touch evolve.
Recognition of Unique Carboxyl-Terminal Motifs by Distinct PDZ Domains

The oriented peptide library technique was used to investigate the peptide-binding specificities of nine PDZ domains. Each PDZ domain selected peptides with hydrophobic residues at the carboxyl terminus. Individual PDZ domains selected unique optimal motifs defined primarily by the carboxyl terminal three to seven residues of the peptides. One family of PDZ domains, including those of the Discs Large protein, selected peptides with the consensus motif Glu-(Ser/Thr)-Xxx-(Val/Ile) (where Xxx represents any amino acid) at the carboxyl terminus. In contrast, another family of PDZ domains, including those of LIN-2, p55, and Tiam-1, selected peptides with hydrophobic or aromatic side chains at the carboxyl terminal three residues. On the basis of crystal structures of the PSD-95-3 PDZ domain, the specificities observed with the peptide library can be rationalized.
Memory and visual search in naturalistic 2D and 3D environments

The role of memory in guiding attention allocation in daily behaviors is not well understood. In experiments with two-dimensional (2D) images, there is mixed evidence about the importance of memory. Because the stimulus context in laboratory experiments and daily behaviors differs extensively, we investigated the role of memory in visual search, in both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) environments. A 3D immersive virtual apartment composed of two rooms was created, and a parallel 2D visual search experiment composed of snapshots from the 3D environment was developed. Eye movements were tracked in both experiments. Repeated searches for geometric objects were performed to assess the role of spatial memory. Subsequently, subjects searched for realistic context objects to test for incidental learning. Our results show that subjects learned the room-target associations in 3D but less so in 2D. Gaze was increasingly restricted to relevant regions of the room with experience in both settings. Search for local contextual objects, however, was not facilitated by early experience. Incidental fixations to context objects do not necessarily benefit search performance. Together, these results demonstrate that memory for global aspects of the environment guides search by restricting allocation of attention to likely regions, whereas task relevance determines what is learned from the active search experience. Behaviors in 2D and 3D environments are comparable, although there is greater use of memory in 3D.
The Stigma of Wasta: The Effect of Wasta on Perceived Competence and Morality

Wasta is an Arabic word that means the use of social connections to obtain benefits that otherwise would not be provided. Wasta plays a very important role in securing of employment in Arab countries. This paper attempts to study the attribution effects of wasta on perceptions of competence and morality. The main hypotheses is that those that use wasta to obtain employment will be perceived as incompetent and immoral irrespective of their true competence and morality. Data gathered from an Egyptian sample supports the hypotheses. Thus, we conclude that wasta may tarnish the image or stigmatize its user.
Model Transformations as a Strategy to Automate Model-Based Testing - A Tool and Industrial Case Studies, Version 1.0

In recent years, Model-Based Testing (MBT) has attracted an increasingly wide interest from industry and academia. The beneficial use of MBT, however, requires tools that not only automate the testing process, but that also rely in an extensible and configurable architecture that make them adaptable to various contexts of application. Though a number of tools have been developed to support MBT, this technical report introduces a new approach for designing and developing MBT tools that is based on model transformation technology. We report on the experimental development of a novel MBT tool, TRansformation-based tool for Uml-baSed Testing (TRUST), which software architecture and implementation strategy supports configurable and extensible features such as input models, test models, coverage criteria, test data generation strategies, and test script languages. Based on two industrial case studies, we demonstrate the configurability and extensibility of TRUST. We also investigate the challenges and likely cost savings when compared to manual test generation.
CarStream: An Industrial System of Big Data Processing for Internet-of-Vehicles

As the Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV) technology becomes an increasingly important trend for future transportation, designing large-scale IoV systems has become a critical task that aims to process big data uploaded by fleet vehicles and to provide data-driven services. The IoV data, especially high-frequency vehicle statuses (e.g., location, engine parameters), are characterized as large volume with a low density of value and low data quality. Such characteristics pose challenges for developing real-time applications based on such data. In this paper, we address the challenges in designing a scalable IoV system by describing CarStream, an industrial system of big data processing for chauffeured car services. Connected with over 30,000 vehicles, CarStream collects and processes multiple types of driving data including vehicle status, driver activity, and passenger-trip information. Multiple services are provided based on the collected data. CarStream has been deployed and maintained for three years in industrial usage, collecting over 40 terabytes of driving data. This paper shares our experiences on designing CarStream based on large-scale driving-data streams, and the lessons learned from the process of addressing the challenges in designing and maintaining CarStream.
Quantized average consensus via dynamic coding/decoding schemes

In the average consensus a set of linear systems has to be driven to the same final state which corresponds to the average of their initial states. This contribution presents a consensus strategy in which the systems can exchange information among themselves according to a fixed connected digital communication network. Beside the decentralized computational aspects induced by the choice of the communication network, we here have also to face the quantization effects due to the digital links. We here present and discuss two different encoding/decoding strategies with theoretical and simulation results on their performance.
Coordinated SINR balancing methods for multi-cell downlink systems

In this paper, we consider coordinated beamforming techniques where multiple base stations jointly design a transmission strategy by sharing channel state information. Particularly, we tackle the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) balancing problem to maximize the worst-user rate for multi-cell downlink systems. To solve this problem, both symmetric complex (SC) and asymmetric complex (AC) signaling methods are investigated. First, we present the SINR balancing algorithm with the SC signaling. Due to residual interference, the worst-user rate in the SC signaling is saturated at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To alleviate this issue, we also propose the SINR balancing technique based on the AC signaling which combines both interference alignment and power control methods. Simulation results confirm that the AC signaling outperforms the SC signaling scheme over all SNR range.
3D Multi-Spectrum Sensor System with Face Recognition

This paper presents a novel three-dimensional (3D) multi-spectrum sensor system, which combines a 3D depth sensor and multiple optical sensors for different wavelengths. Various image sensors, such as visible, infrared (IR) and 3D sensors, have been introduced into the commercial market. Since each sensor has its own advantages under various environmental conditions, the performance of an application depends highly on selecting the correct sensor or combination of sensors. In this paper, a sensor system, which we will refer to as a 3D multi-spectrum sensor system, which comprises three types of sensors, visible, thermal-IR and time-of-flight (ToF), is proposed. Since the proposed system integrates information from each sensor into one calibrated framework, the optimal sensor combination for an application can be easily selected, taking into account all combinations of sensors information. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system, a face recognition system with light and pose variation is designed. With the proposed sensor system, the optimal sensor combination, which provides new effectively fused features for a face recognition system, is obtained.
Beyond model visualization for multi-dimensional data: high-dimension and complex non numeric data

We greatly appreciate the opportunity to read and discuss the paper “Visualizing statistical models: removing the blindfold” [42]. The article manages to close the gap between statistics and visualization by combining advanced methods from both fields to visualize statistical models and methods. The article provides a very nice overview of visualization tools for statistical models, which can be used to 1) understand the model itself (i.e., what the model says about the data), 2) assess its relevance (i.e., if the model is accurate to describe the data, if the model has been well trained.) and 3) evaluate the variability of a family of models, use this information to select a model within a family, evaluate its robustness and combine several models in a relevant manner.
Twine’s revolution: Democratization, depoliticization, and the queering of game design

This paper considers the Twine application’s “revolution” in order to assess the consequences and challenges of the democratization of game design for those often marginalized from the mainstream digital games industry. Through a review of Twine as a tool, Twine games and design practices, and the community that has formed around Twine production, I examine the challenges Twine makes to the hegemonic context of digital game production. Through their subversion of assumed norms in game design and distribution, Twine game-makers provide queer alternatives to traditional digital game culture. At the same time, they face a number of significant challenges, including the delegitimization and depoliticization of their work, the co-optation of their labour, and the risks entailed living within alternative, anti-capitalist economies. I conclude with a discussion of the tenuous role of queerness in game design and the responsibilities of games scholars in discussions of gaming on the periphery.
Inhibition of Trophoblast-Induced Spiral Artery Remodeling Reduces Placental Perfusion in Rat Pregnancy

Rats harboring the human angiotensinogen and human renin genes develop preeclamptic features in pregnancy. The preeclamptic rats exhibit a deeper trophoblast invasion associated with a reduced resistance index by uterine Doppler. Doxycycline inhibits matrix metalloproteinase activity. We tested the hypothesis that matrix metalloproteinase inhibition reduces trophoblast invasion with subsequent changes in placental perfusion. Preeclamptic and pregnant control Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with doxycycline (30 mg/kg of body weight orally) from gestational day 12 until day 18. Placental perfusion was assessed using a micromarker contrast agent. The animals were euthanized on day 18 of pregnancy; biometric data were acquired, and trophoblast invasion was analyzed. Doxycycline resulted in intrauterine growth retardation and lighter placentas in both groups. Maternal body weight was not affected. As shown earlier, preeclamptic rats exhibited a deeper endovascular trophoblast invasion. However, doxycycline treatment reduced trophoblast invasion in the preeclamptic rats. The physiological spiral artery remodeling, as assessed by the deposition of fibrinoid and &agr;-actin in the spiral artery contour, was significantly reduced by doxycycline. The vascularity index, as assessed by perfusion measurement of the placenta, was reduced after doxycycline treatment in preeclamptic rats. Thus, matrix metalloproteinase inhibition with doxycycline leads to reduced trophoblast invasion and associated reduced placental perfusion. These studies are the first to show that reducing trophoblast-induced vascular remodeling decreases subsequent placental perfusion. Our model allows the study of dysregulated trophoblast invasion and vascular remodeling in vivo to gain important insights into preeclampsia-related mechanisms.
Concepts and techniques in software watermarking and obfuscation

With the rapid development of the internet, copying a digital document is so easy and economically affordable that digital piracy is rampant. As a result, software protection has become a vital issue in current computer industry and a hot research topic. Software watermarking and obfuscation are techniques to protect software from unauthorized access, modification, and tampering. While software watermarking tries to insert a secret message called software watermark into the software program as evidence of ownership, software obfuscation translates software into a semanticallyequivalent one that is hard for attackers to analyze. In this thesis, firstly, we present a survey of software watermarking and obfuscation. Then we formalize two important concepts in software watermarking: extraction and recognition and we use a concrete software watermarking algorithm to illustrate issues in these two concepts. We develop a technique called the homomorphic functions through residue numbers to obfuscate variables and data structures in software programs. Lastly, we explore the complexity issues in software watermarking and obfuscation.
Performance Analysis of XBee ZB Module Based Wireless Sensor Networks

— In this paper, performance analysis of ZigBee networks based on XBee ZB modules have been evaluated in terms of following performance metrics: received signal strength (RSSI), network throughput, packet delay, mesh routing recovery time and energy consumption in an indoor environment. Two main groups of network scenarios have been evaluated: (i) direct transmissions between the coordinator and the remote nodes, and (ii) transmissions with routers which relay the packet between the coordinator and the remote nodes. The wireless sensor node hardware designed for this experimentation consists of ZigBee (XBee S2 with 2mW wire antenna) wireless communication module from Digi International. X-CTU software is utilized for configuring and testing the ZigBee module of each sensor node. After configuration, the entire network is simulated in real time using Docklight V2.0 software. The results of this study are useful for building Wireless Home Area Network (WHAN) using the ZigBee where there are reflections due to indoor objects and also for scenarios where communication between nodes require multi-hop transmissions.
Energy Demands for Maintenance, Growth, Pregnancy, and Lactation of Female Pacific Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens)

Decreases in sea ice have altered habitat use and activity patterns of female Pacific walruses Odobenus rosmarus divergens and could affect their energetic demands, reproductive success, and population status. However, a lack of physiological data from walruses has hampered efforts to develop the bioenergetics models required for fully understanding potential population-level impacts. We analyzed long-term longitudinal data sets of caloric consumption and body mass from nine female Pacific walruses housed at six aquaria using a hierarchical Bayesian approach to quantify relative energetic demands for maintenance, growth, pregnancy, and lactation. By examining body mass fluctuations in response to food consumption, the model explicitly uncoupled caloric demand from caloric intake. This is important for pinnipeds because they sequester and deplete large quantities of lipids throughout their lifetimes. Model outputs were scaled to account for activity levels typical of free-ranging Pacific walruses, averaging 83% of the time active in water and 17% of the time hauled-out resting. Estimated caloric requirements ranged from 26,900 kcal d−1 for 2-yr-olds to 93,370 kcal d−1 for simultaneously lactating and pregnant walruses. Daily consumption requirements were higher for pregnancy than lactation, reflecting energetic demands of increasing body size and lipid deposition during pregnancy. Although walruses forage during lactation, fat sequestered during pregnancy sustained 27% of caloric requirements during the first month of lactation, suggesting that walruses use a mixed strategy of capital and income breeding. Ultimately, this model will aid in our understanding of the energetic and population consequences of sea ice loss.