Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On binary decomposition based privacy-preserving aggregation schemes in real-time monitoring systems

Real-time monitoring systems can introduce numerous benefits to the participants in terms of performing data mining and analysis. Nonetheless, due to the correlations in time-series data, it is hard to achieve an effective privacy and utility tradeoff through a normal differential privacy mechanism. To address this issue, we propose novel multi-dimensional decomposition based schemes, which can greatly improve the utility in differential privacy. After extending the developed scheme, we then develop a binary decomposition scheme for time-series aggregation in real-time monitoring systems. Through both extensive theoretical analysis and experiments, our data shows that our proposed schemes can effectively improve usability while achieving the same level of differential privacy than existing schemes.
Reality vs emulation: running real mobility traces on a mobile wireless testbed

Laboratory-based mobile wireless testbeds such as MeshTest and the CMU Wireless Emulator are powerful platforms that allow users to perform controlled, repeatable, mobile wireless experiments in the lab. Unfortunately such systems can only accommodate 10-15 nodes in an experiment. We have designed and built a scalable wireless testbed that uses software virtualization and live migration to facilitate experiments involving intermittently connected networks with many multiples of the number of physical nodes available on such a testbed. In this paper, we share our experience with using real traces from the DieselNet/DOME project on our testbed. While this trace provide GPS coordinates for where the contact occurs, we needed to deduce the overall mobility from using GPS logs for individual buses. Replicating the bus mobility on our testbed we recreate contact events and compare those to DOME traces. We also survey other traces we can use on VMT and evaluate how challenging they would be to run on the system.
Lumped-element impedance-transforming uniplanar transitions and their antenna applications

Novel impedance-transforming coplanar waveguide (CPW)-to-coplanar stripline transitions and CPW-to-slotline transitions are proposed, using planar lumped elements to realize the L-section impedance-matching network in the transition structures. Simple equivalent-circuit models based on closed-form expressions are also established, from which various lumped-element impedance-transforming transitions are investigated. Examples for using the proposed transitions in the design of antenna feeding structures are also demonstrated, and successful size reduction has been achieved.
Influence of road safety on taxi organisational economic stability: a need for proactive change

Relatively little research has endeavoured to examine the self-reported driving behaviours and attitude of work-related drivers, especially taxi drivers. In addition, little research could be found that examines the influence of professional driver behaviours and the subsequent potential effect on organisational economic prosperity, liveability and sustainability. As a result, the current study aimed to: 1. examine a group of professional fleet drivers’ attitudes and behaviours regarding road safety issues via two measurement tools; and 2. explore the relationship between driver behaviour and potential countermeasures aimed at improving road safety, including crash and offence involvement, and therefore, the economic prosperity, liveability and sustainability of the organisation. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E217541.
A/B Testing at SweetIM: The Importance of Proper Statistical Analysis

A/B tests are an important aspect of modern applications, particularly on the internet, as they allow businesses to optimize their user or customer experience to maximize usage and ultimately profits. In this paper we review Sweet IM A/B testing system, with focus on statistical aspects and methodology. We describe all parameters of the Sweet IM A/B test environment including randomization mechanism, data collection and analysis. We also provide some interesting examples and case studies from real A/B tests that took place at Sweet IM. Analyses of count data like number of searches or content sent per user are the most significant performance indicators for the majority of Sweet IM tests. Accuracy of such analyses is a key-success factor and can increase the ROI of the tests dramatically. We expand the popular method of the analyses of counts based on Poisson distribution and show its inappropriateness when dealing with over dispersed Poisson. We propose to use Negative Binomial distribution as appropriate solution for over dispersion in search and content count data. We show that the conclusions from analyses of specific A/A and A/B tests run in this application with NB differ from those with an incorrect Poisson assumption.
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor genetic polymorphism (rs6265) is protective against chemotherapy-associated cognitive impairment in patients with early-stage breast cancer

Background Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophin that regulates neuronal function and development, is implicated in several neurodegenerative conditions. Preliminary data suggest that a reduction of BDNF concentrations may lead to postchemotherapy cognitive impairment. We hypothesized that a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs6265) of the BDNF gene may predispose patients to cognitive impairment. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of BDNF gene polymorphism on chemotherapy-associated cognitive impairment. Methods Overall, 145 patients receiving chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer (mean age: 50.8 ± 8.8 y; 82.1% Chinese) were recruited. Patients' cognitive functions were assessed longitudinally using the validated Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Cognitive Function (v.3) and an objective computerized tool, Headminder. Genotyping was performed using Sanger sequencing. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and cognition after adjusting for ethnicity and clinically important covariates. Results Of the 145 patients, 54 (37%) reported cognitive impairment postchemotherapy. The Met/Met genotype was associated with statistically significant lower odds of developing cognitive impairment (odds ratio [OR] = 0.26; 95% CI: 0.08–0.92; P = .036). The Met carriers were less likely to experience impairment in the domains of verbal fluency (OR = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.12–0.90; P = .031) and multitasking ability (OR = 0.37; 95% CI: 0.15–0.91; P = .030) compared with the Val/Val homozygote. No associations were observed between Headminder and the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism. Conclusions This is the first study to provide evidence that carriers of the BDNF Met allele are protected against chemotherapy-associated cognitive impairment. Further studies are required to validate the findings.
Diffusion MRI in multiple sclerosis

Diffusion imaging is a quantitative, MR-based technique potentially useful for the study of multiple sclerosis (MS), due to its increased pathologic specificity over conventional MRI and its ability to assess in vivo the presence of tissue damage occurring outside T2-visible lesions, i.e., in the so-called normal-appearing white and gray matter. The present review aims at critically summarizing the state-of-the-art and providing a background for the planning of future diffusion studies of MS. Several pieces of evidence suggest that diffusion-weighted and diffusion tensor MRI are sensitive to MS damage and able to detect its evolution over relatively short periods of time. Although a significant relationship between diffusion-weighted MRI findings and MS clinical disability was not found in the earliest studies, with improved diffusion imaging technology correlations between diffusion abnormalities and MS clinical aspects are now emerging. However, the best acquisition and postprocessing strategies for MS studies remain a matter of debate and the contribution of newer and more sophisticated techniques to diffusion tensor MRI investigations in MS needs to be further evaluated. Although changes in diffusion MRI indices reflect a net loss of structural organization, at present we can only speculate on their possible pathologic substrates in the MS brain. Postmortem studies correlating diffusion findings with histopathology of patients with MS are, therefore, also warranted.
A dead-time minimized inverter by using complementary topology and its experimental evaluation of harmonics reduction

This paper proposes a “complementary inverter”, which consists of p-channel and n-channel MOSFETs in a leg. This configuration can minimize dead time; therefore, harmonics generated by the dead time can be eliminated, without any compensation controls. Possible leg configurations and appropriate gate driver are discussed. Model for estimating dead time is shown and was confirmed by experiments with a half-bridge inverter. The minimum dead time of 130 ns was achieved in a fabricated prototype. The advantage of the minimum dead-time operation by the complementary topology was verified by applying to a 400 W grid-tied inverter with 100 kHz switching frequency and a reduced impedance of the grid connecting inductor to 1.5% of the nominal, and 2.3% current THD (total harmonic distortion) was achieved.
When social work students meet workers with mental-health lived-experience: a case study

ABSTRACT Mental Health Workers with Lived Experience of mental illness (MHWLE) are a growing workforce in countries veering to recovery orientation in mental health services. MHWLE entrance into the workforce challenges conventional role-definitions and practices in mental health services. This case study portrays issues raised by social work students following a workshop with MHWLE as part of their graduate-level training. A workshop with MHWLE was designed for 24 social work graduate students during a mental health seminar. Following the workshop, a focus group was held. The students’ thoughts and experiences during the workshop were collected and analyzed. Thematic analysis of the topics raised by the students included three main categories: (i) Experience of confusion about MHWLE role, (ii) Controversies regarding MHWLE disclosure of lived experience, and (iii) Concerns about boundary setting by MHWLE. Connecting MHWLE with social work students in academic settings can help better prepare social workers for the encounter with peer services in the mental health field, and support harmonization of this new yet rapidly growing workforce in mental health. In addition, the students had an opportunity to self-reflect and explore their own views and experiences regarding fundamental aspects of professional identity and their own practices in general.
Strata: A Software Dynamic Translation Infrastructure

Software dynamic translation is the alteration of a running program to achieve a specific objective. For example, a dynamic optimizer uses software dynamic translation to modify a running program with the objective of making the program run faster. In addition to its demonstrated utility in dynamic optimizers, software dynamic translation also shows promise for producing applications that are adaptable, secure, and robust. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of an extensible, retargetable infrastructure to facilitate research in applications of software dynamic translation technology. The infrastructure, called Strata, provides the software dynamic translator implementor with a virtual machine model that can be extended to implement specific software dynamic translation functionality. To illustrate the use of Strata to build client applications, the paper describes the Strata implementation of a two dynamic safety checkers and a dynamic instruction scheduler.
"Coming into my own as a teacher": English teachers' experiences in their first year of teaching

“COMING INTO MY OWN AS A TEACHER”: ENGLISH TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES IN THEIR FIRST YEAR OF TEACHING MAY 2004 JENNIFER SUSAN COOK, B.A., AMERICAN UNIVERSITY M ED., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST ED.D. , UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Irving Seidman Although the wealth of research on beginning teachers indicates that teachers’ transitions from preservice to inservice are often fraught with complexity, the prevalent “sink-or-swim” approach to their entries into teaching does not usually recognize the developmental complexities of each individual teacher’s experience. The developmental blindness that some educational stakeholders have developed in regard to beginning teachers is, in fact, vastly different from the way our society views “newness” or “beginnings” in other venues and forms. If stakeholders in education were to take new teachers seriously as learners, we would not expect the same from them as from veteran teachers, and we would, as a matter of regular practice, provide new teachers with adequate support that is rooted in the legitimate learning and developmental demands of each beginning teacher. Using a phenomenological framework and an in-depth interviewing methodology, I interviewed ten (10) first-year English teachers in order to illuminate the nature of the experience of the first year of teaching English. I explored what it is about the nature of the first-year of teaching that has made it such an infamously trying time emotionally, intellectually, and socially.
Calcium Elevation in Astrocytes Causes an NMDA Receptor-Dependent Increase in the Frequency of Miniature Synaptic Currents in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons

Astrocytes exhibit a form of excitability and communication on the basis of intracellular Ca2+ variations (Cornell-Bell et al., 1990; Charles et al., 1991) that can be initiated by neuronal activity (Dani et al., 1992; Porter and McCarthy, 1996). A Ca2+ elevation in astrocytes induces the release of glutamate (Parpura et al., 1994; Pasti et al., 1997; Araque et al., 1998; Bezzi et al., 1998), which evokes a slow inward current in neurons and modulates action potential-evoked synaptic transmission between cultured hippocampal cells (Araque et al., 1998), suggesting that astrocytes and neurons may function as a network with bidirectional communication. Here we show that a Ca2+ elevation in astrocytes increases the frequency of excitatory as well as inhibitory miniature postsynaptic currents (mPSCs), without modifying their amplitudes. Thapsigargin incubation, microinjection of the Ca2+ chelator BAPTA, and photolysis of the Ca2+ cage NP-EGTA demonstrate that a Ca2+ elevation in astrocytes is both necessary and sufficient to modulate spontaneous transmitter release. This Ca2+-dependent release of glutamate from astrocytes enhances mPSC frequency by acting on NMDA glutamate receptors, because it is antagonized by d-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (AP5) or extracellular Mg2+. These NMDA receptors are located extrasynaptically, because blockage specifically of synaptic NMDA receptors by synaptic activation in the presence of the open channel blocker MK-801 did not impair the AP5-sensitive astrocyte-induced increase of mPSC frequency. Therefore, astrocytes modulate spontaneous excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission by increasing the probability of transmitter release via the activation of NMDA receptors.
Political Instability, Inflation Tax and Asset Substitution in Burundi

The paper shows that civil war in Burundi in the 1990s has provoked an unprecedented decline in government revenue. Both foreign aid transfers and revenue from domestic sources dried up, inducing the government to rely more on inflation tax. Using quarterly data covering the period from 1980:1 to 2002:4 to measure the sensitivity of money demand to inflation we find that the long-run semi-elasticity of inflation to real money in circulation trebled between the pre-war to the war period. The remarkable increase of the semi-elasticity reflects what is known in the literature as “flight from domestic currency,” whereby domestic currency is substituted for less liquid assets. By shedding light on the behavior of the demand for real money amidst persistent political and economic instability, this paper illustrates the limits of inflation tax as a dependable source of government revenue.
The Role of Spirituality in Christian School Leadership: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study examined the spiritual experiences of Christian school leaders. A purposeful, nominated sample of 12 Christian school leaders was selected. In-depth, open-ended interviews were conducted, audio taped, and then transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was based on Rudestam and Newton (2001) and Creswell’s (1998) method of researcher description. Findings indicated participants believe that spiritual leadership is an active, personal process for each individual; that spiritual leaders see the importance of relationships with others, exhibit personal growth, provide for needs and opportunities, and make personal and spiritual growth conducive in the school community; and that Christian school leaders make every effort to establish and maintain a school that is both spiritually and academically excellent. The Role of Spirituality 3 The Role of Spirituality in Christian School Leadership: A Qualitative Study
2014 Korean Liver Cancer Study Group-National Cancer Center Korea Practice Guideline for the Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The guideline for the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was first developed in 2003 and revised in 2009 by the Korean Liver Cancer Study Group and the National Cancer Center, Korea. Since then, many studies on HCC have been carried out in Korea and other countries. In particular, a substantial body of knowledge has been accumulated on diagnosis, staging, and treatment specific to Asian characteristics, especially Koreans, prompting the proposal of new strategies. Accordingly, the new guideline presented herein was developed on the basis of recent evidence and expert opinions. The primary targets of this guideline are patients with suspicious or newly diagnosed HCC. This guideline provides recommendations for the initial treatment of patients with newly diagnosed HCC.
Impact of mobility model on packet transmission in vehicular ad hoc network based on IR-UWB

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (VANET) has recently become an attractive area of research in the wireless networking. The mobility model is considered one of the most critical issues in a simulation of VANET, which can create realistic moving behavior of each vehicle in the network. Thus, the mobility model play a vital role in determining the performance of VANET system. This paper will tackle five types of mobility models, proposed in the recent research literature, based on the Impulse Radio Ultra wide-Band (IR-UWB) technology to enable communication between vehicles and evaluate their impact on packet delivery carried out in OMNeT++ simulator.
Developmental learning of integrating visual attention shifts and bimanual object grasping and manipulation tasks

In order to achieve visual-guided object manipulation tasks via learning by example, the current neuro-robotics study considers integration of two essential mechanisms of visual attention and arm/hand movement and their adaptive coordination. The present study proposes a new dynamic neural network model in which visual attention and motor behavior are associated with task specific manners by learning with self-organizing functional hierarchy required for the cognitive tasks. The top-down visual attention provides a goal-directed shift sequence in a visual scan path and it can guide a generation of a motor plan for hand movement during action by reinforcement and inhibition learning. The proposed model can automatically generate the corresponding goal-directed actions with regards to the current sensory states including visual stimuli and body postures. The experiments show that developmental learning from basic actions to combinational ones can achieve certain generalizations in learning by which some novel behaviors without prior learning can be successfully generated.
Evaluating Dedicated and Shared Storage Policies in Robot-Based Compact Storage and Retrieval Systems

Robot-based compact storage and retrieval systems (RCSRS) have seen many implementations over the last few years. In such a system, the inventory items are stored in bins, organized in a grid. In each cell of the grid, a certain number of bins are stored on top of each other. Robots with transport and lifting capabilities move on the grid roof to transport bins between manual workstations and storage stacks. We estimate performance and evaluate storage policies of RCSRS, considering both dedicated and shared storage policies coupled with random and zoned storage stacks. Semi-open queueing networks (SOQNs) are built to estimate the system performance, which can handle both immediate and delayed reshuffling processes. We approximate the models by reduced SOQNs with two load-dependent service nodes and use the Matrix-Geometric Method (MGM) to solve them. Both simulations and a real case are used to validate the analytical models. Assuming a given number of stored products, our models can be used to optimize not only the length to width ratio of the system, but also the stack height, depending on the storage strategy used. For a given inventory and optimal system configuration, we demonstrate that the dedicated storage policy outperforms the shared storage policy in terms of dual command throughput time. However, from a cost perspective, with a maximum dual command throughput time as a constraint, we show that shared storage substantially outperforms dedicated storage. The annualized costs of dedicated storage are up to twice as large as those of shared storage, due to the larger number of storage positions required by dedicated storage and the relatively lower filling degree of storage stacks.
Optimising the braking performance via nonlinear analysis and bifurcation theory

This paper shows how the properties of a recently proposed nonlinear output feedback controller for active braking control systems can be exploited to optimise the braking performance. The control algorithm, in fact, allows to detect in which region of the friction curve the system is operating. Thus, via nonlinear analysis and bifurcation theory, we show that the closed-loop system exhibits a supercritical Hopf bifurcation. Based on this, we propose a way to estimate the current road conditions and to adapt the set-point in order to optimise the braking performance. A bifurcation diagram is also worked out to study the closed-loop dynamics modifications due to possible actuator faults or degradations.
Low power design flow with static and statistical timing analysis

Low power design is a critical issue for the consumer electronics especially for the handhold devices. This paper employs an algorithm that searches the critical path of the logical circuit. Then, by embedding with the level converter into the original logic circuit, the proposed design can supply the lower supply voltage to circuits which are not resided on the critical path. Hence, the overall power consumption can be reduced. This paper uses the static and statistical approaches to perform the timing analysis. It can search the path sensitivity which equals to the probability of a critical path in the logic circuit. Finally, the logic gate with the proposed cell can replace the standard cell through cell-based design approach. The simulated power consumption on the ISCAS 85 benchmark circuits shows that the proposed design can reduce an average of 39% power reduction with an average of 18% delay overhead. Hence, the overall power delay product still outperform the original cell design over 25%.