Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Spectrum Sensing Reliability on the Capacity of Multiuser Uplink Cognitive Radio Systems

In this paper, we investigate the performance of opportunistic scheduling in uplink cognitive radio (CR) systems by taking into account the CR users' spectrum sensing reliability. In uplink CR systems, each secondary transmitter (CR user) has a spectrum sensing responsibility to protect the primary system, and the secondary receiver (base station) schedules the transmission opportunities for the CR users. We propose novel optimal and suboptimal scheduling schemes by simultaneously taking into account the spectrum sensing reliability and the data channel quality. Analytical performance results for the proposed suboptimal scheduling schemes show that the spectrum sensing reliability should be considered for scheduling to maximize the capacity of the secondary system. Moreover, we also analyze the achievable multiuser diversity (MUD) gain of one of the proposed suboptimal scheduling schemes, which is based on the linear combination of the sensing channel and the data channel qualities. We show that the MUD gain of uplink CR systems grows significantly slower than that of conventional multiuser systems, particularly if the quality of the sensing channel is poor. Analytical and simulation results confirm that the proposed optimal and suboptimal scheduling schemes taking into account the spectrum sensing reliability and the data channel quality yield significant performance gains compared with conventional opportunistic scheduling.
3D head tracking using non-linear optimization

Accurate and reliable tracking of the 3D position of human heads is a continuing research problem in computer vision. This paper addresses the spe-ciﬁc problem of model-based tracking with a generic deformable 3D head model. Following the work of Vetter and Blanz, a collection of head models is obtained from a 3D scanner, registered and parameterized to give a generic head model which is linearly parameterized by a small number of parameters. This is the 3D analogue of Cootes and Taylor’s active appearance models. We cast tracking as a parameter estimation problem, and note that many existing solutions to the problem—such as C ONDENSATION and Kalman ﬁltering—are analogous to nonlinear optimization strategies in numerical analysis. We show how careful analysis of the error function, parameterization of the model pose parameters, and choice of optimizer allows us to robustly track 3D head pose in digital video camera footage of quickly moving heads.
Reasons why teaching professionals continue or resume university study in the Wallonia–Brussels Federation: knowledge for its own sake? Economics? Altruism?

ABSTRACT Preparing candidates for the rigours of the teaching profession represents a major challenge for educational systems, begging the question of whether the opportunity for professional educators to further their own university education represents, to them, a way of developing their teaching skills (intrinsic motivation), a means of earning a higher salary (extrinsic motivation), or a means of increasing their usefulness to society through their involvement in education (altruistic motivation). This study aims at answering this question with regard to higher education institutions in the Wallonia–Brussels Federation in French-speaking Belgium, and, specifically, in the case of the University of Mons. That question is particularly relevant in this specific environment given that though continued university study is not compulsory for teachers, earning an additional degree does entitle those professionals to a higher salary. This study shows that while the decision to resume university study can be in response to a number of different factors, the deciding factors are more often extrinsic than intrinsic or altruistic.
VacoNet: Variable and connected architecture for data center networks

Todays data centers may contain tens of thousands of computers with progressively more specialized and expensive equipments. Thus, the research community has proposed various interconnect topologies e.g FatTree, Dcell and Bcube. However, these architectures are too complex and very expensive to construct and they suffer from high average path length (APL) and latency. Motivated by these challenges, we propose a new data center architecture called VacoNet that combines the advantages of existing architectures while avoiding their limitations. VacoNet is a reliable, high-performance, and cost effective data center topology that can improve the network performance in terms of average path length and network latency. In addition, VacoNet can reach even 50% in infrastructure cost reduction and the power consumption will be decreased with more than 50000 watt compared to all the previous architectures. Both theoretical analysis and simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the overall performance of the proposed architecture.
Potential therapeutic role of histatin derivative P-113d in experimental rat models of Pseudomonas aeruginosa sepsis.

BACKGROUND Morbidity and mortality from Pseudomonas aeruginosa sepsis remain high despite the availability of antibiotics to which the microorganism is sensitive. METHODS The in vitro activity of histatin derivative P-113d was investigated against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In addition, its in vivo efficacy was studied in 3 rat models of infection: intraperitoneal injection of 1 mg of P. aeruginosa 10 lipopolysachharide, intraperitoneal injection of 2 x 10(10) cfu of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853, and intra-abdominal sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture. Rats received isotonic sodium chloride solution parenterally (control groups), 1 mg of P-113d/kg of body weight, 1 mg of polymyxin B/kg of body weight, or 20 mg of imipenem/kg of body weight. Main outcomes measured were abdominal exudate and plasma bacterial growth, plasma concentrations of endotoxin and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- alpha, and lethality. RESULTS The in vivo studies showed that all compounds reduced lethality, when compared with results for the control group. Overall, P-113d exhibited a slightly lower antimicrobial activity than did imipenem, even though P-113d achieved a substantial decrease in plasma concentrations of endotoxin and TNF- alpha, compared with the imipenem. No statistically significant differences for antimicrobial and antiendotoxin activities were noted between P-113d and polymyxin B. DISCUSSION These results provide evidence for double antiendotoxin and antimicrobial activity for P-113d and point to its potential use for the treatment of severe infections.
Sexual Adjustment and Body Image Scale (SABIS): A New Measure for Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self‐report measure of body image and sexual adjustment in breast cancer patients: the Sexual Adjustment and Body Image Scale (SABIS). Three hundred and fifty three women diagnosed with primary breast cancer that had completed initial surgical treatment completed the SABIS and five measures of psychological, psychosocial, and sexual functioning. Psychometric properties of the SABIS were examined and it was found to be a reliable and valid means of assessing body image and sexuality in breast cancer patients following surgery.
Proapoptotic Activity and Chemosensitizing Effect of the Novel Akt Inhibitor (2S)-1-(1H-Indol-3-yl)-3-[5-(3-methyl-2H-indazol-5-yl)pyridin-3-yl]oxypropan2-amine (A443654) in T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Constitutively activated AKT kinase is a common feature of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Here, we report that the novel AKT inhibitor (2S)-1-(1H-indol-3-yl)-3-[5-(3-methyl-2H-indazol-5-yl)pyridin-3-yl]oxypropan2-amine (A443654) leads to rapid cell death of T-ALL lines and patient samples. Treatment of CEM, Jurkat, and MOLT-4 cells with nanomolar doses of the inhibitor led to AKT phosphorylation accompanied by dephosphorylation and activation of the downstream target, glycogen synthase kinase-3β. Effects were time- and dose-dependent, resulting in apoptotic cell death. Treatment of Jurkat cells with A443654 resulted in activation of caspase-2, -3, -6, -8, and -9. Apoptotic cell death was mostly dependent on caspase-2 activation, as demonstrated by preincubation with a selective pharmacological inhibitor. It is remarkable that A443654 was highly effective against the drug-resistant cell line CEM-VBL100, which expresses 170-kDa P-glycoprotein. Moreover, A443654 synergized with the DNA-damaging agent etoposide in both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cell lines when coadministered [combination index (CI) = 0.39] or when pretreated with etoposide followed by A443654 (CI = 0.689). The efficacy of A443654 was confirmed using blasts from six patients with T-ALL, all of whom displayed low levels of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) and constitutive phosphorylation of Akt on Ser473. At 1 μM, the inhibitor was able to induce apoptotic cell death of T-ALL blast cells, as indicated by flow cytometric analysis of samples immunostained for active (cleaved) caspase-3. Because activated AKT is seen in a large percentage of patients with T-ALL, A443654, either alone or in combination with existing drugs, may be a useful therapy for primary and drug-resistant T-ALL.
Digital watermarking using homogeneity in image

A new technique of digital watermarking for gray-level images is reported in this paper. Digital watermarking/hiding has emerged as a new area of research in connection to intellectual property (IP) protection of images. The redundancy in image representation can be exploited successfully to hide some characteristic information in images, without noticeable distortion. Hidden information after extraction, can be used to protect copyright. This article deals with a block-based technique for inserting a copyright mark (invisible logo) into a gray-level image. The robustness of the proposed method has been tested against non-destructive attacks like mean and median filtering.
Random Subspace Supervised Descent Method for Regression Problems in Computer Vision

Supervised Descent Method (SDM) has shown good performance in solving non-linear least squares problems in computer vision, giving state of the art results for the problem of face alignment. However, when SDM learns the generic descent maps, it is very difficult to avoid over-fitting due to the high dimensionality of the input features. In this paper we propose a Random Subspace SDM (RSSDM) that maintains the high accuracy on the training data and improves the generalization accuracy. Instead of using all the features for descent learning at each iteration, we randomly select sub-sets of the features and learn an ensemble of descent maps in the corresponding subspaces, one in each subspace. Then, we average the ensemble of descents to calculate the update of the iteration. We test the proposed methods on two representative regression problems, namely, 3D pose estimation and face alignment and show that RSSDM consistently outperforms SDM in both tasks in terms of accuracy (e.g., RSSDM is able to localize 4% more landmarks at error level of 0.1 on the challenging iBug dataset). RSSDM also holds several useful generalization properties: 1) it is more effective when the number of training samples is small-with 3 Monte-Carlo permutations RSSDM can achieve similar performance to SDM with 9 Monte-Carlo permutations; 2) it is less sensitive to the changes of the strength of the regularization-when the regularization parameter is changed to 10 times larger, the mean error increases 9.0% for SDM vs. 3.4% for RSSDM.
The Transmembrane Helix of the Escherichia coli Division Protein FtsI Localizes to the Septal Ring

ABSTRACT FtsI (also called PBP3) of Escherichia coli is a transpeptidase required for synthesis of peptidoglycan in the division septum and is one of about a dozen division proteins that localize to the septal ring. FtsI comprises a short amino-terminal cytoplasmic domain, a single transmembrane helix (TMH), and a large periplasmic domain that encodes the catalytic (transpeptidase) activity. We show here that a 26-amino-acid fragment of FtsI is sufficient to direct green fluorescent protein to the septal ring in cells depleted of wild-type FtsI. This fragment extends from W22 to V47 and corresponds to the TMH. This is a remarkable finding because it is usual for a TMH to target a protein to a site more specific than the membrane. Alanine-scanning mutagenesis of the TMH identified several residues important for septal localization. These residues cluster on one side of an alpha-helix, which we propose interacts directly with another division protein to recruit FtsI to the septal ring.
Why Act for the Public Good? Four Answers

A conceptual analysis is offered that differentiates four motives for acting for the public good: egoism, collectivism, altruism, and principlism. Differentiation is based on identification of a unique ultimate goal for each motive. For egoism, the ultimate goal is self-benefit; for collectivism, it is to increase group welfare; for altruism, to increase one or more other individuals' welfare; for principlism, to uphold one or more moral principles. Advocates claim that these last three motives cannot be reduced to egoism. Evidence for this claim is limited, however, especially for collectivism and principlism. It is hoped that the conceptual distinctions proposed will permit broader, more precise empirical study of nonegoistic motives for acting for the public good.
Evolution of neural networks using weight mapping

The application of genetic programming to the evolution of neural networks has been hindered by the inadequacy of parse trees to represent oriented graphs, and by the lack of a good mechanism for encoding the weights. In this work, a hybrid method is introduced, where genetic programming evolves a mapping function to adapt the weights, whereas a genetic algorithm-based approach evolves the architecture. Results on the application of the new method to the evolution of feedforward and recurrent neural networks are reported.
Explaining African Economic Performance

Africa has had slow growth and a massive exodus of capital. In many respects it has been the most capital-hostile region. We review and interpret the aggregate-level and microeconomic literatures to identify the key explanations for this performance. There is a reasonable correspondence of the two sets of evidence, pointing to four factors as being important. These are a lack of openness to international trade; a high-risk environment; a low level of social capital; and poor infrastructure. These problems are to a substantial extent attributable to government behavior, and the paper includes a review of the political economy literature addressing that behavior.
Storing Verbal Information in Working Memory

Recent reexaminations of the storage of verbal information in working memory have distinguished two mechanisms of maintenance. While a language-based mechanism of rehearsal was long considered the specific means of maintaining verbal information in the short term, another attention-based mechanism of refreshing has been more recently described. New evidence has established that these two mechanisms are affected by different constraints inherent to their respective language-based and attentional natures, have different impacts on recall performance, and are sustained by distinct brain networks. Moreover, adults can use either one or the other mechanism based on strategic choice or instructions. This dissociation presents some similarities with a dichotomy put forward in the ’70s between mechanisms permitting short-term versus long-term maintenance, but many questions remain about the functioning of these mechanisms and their interplay.
Stochastic modeling of device-to-device communications for intelligent transportation systems

Device-to-Device (D2D) communications enable cellular devices in physical proximity to communicate directly over the air instead of through the BSs, which can be applied in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to efficiently support the communications between vehicles. However, the resource control functions need to adapt to the unique characteristics of vehicular environments and meet the high reliability and low latency requirements of road safety applications. In this paper, we discuss the performance evaluation and dynamic optimization of D2D communications for ITS based on stochastic models, where the complex mobility behavior of vehicles and stochastic nature of traffic arrivals are captured. We focus on two typical scenarios, i.e., safety applications and vehicular cloudlet, and outline the research directions and present the challenges and major issues that need to be addressed.
PREDICTION OF DISTANT EDUCATIONAL GOALS BY GOALS IN OTHER DOMAINS AND PERCEIVED CONTEXTUAL OPPORTUNITIES

Lifelong learning is linked to successful economic participation . At the same time, individual activities are framed by contextual opportunities for education and occupation. This study explored personal and contextual factors predicting choice of education as a distant goal among emerging adults. Research participants were 120 emerging adults aged from 20 to 30 living in Riga (62% of females). The p articipants evaluated to what extent their near and distant goals associate with different life domains and reported perceived opportunities for fulfillment of these goal s provided by their living place. Distant goals in the educational domain were positively predicted by current educational, distant occupational, and self-related goals , and negatively predicted by higher perceived opportunities provided by their living place. The last finding indicates an association of a perceived lack of opportunities in the local context with a need for planning the further education.
Acceptability of solar disinfection of drinking water treatment in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Abstract This research examines the acceptability of solar disinfection of drinking water (SODIS) in a village in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, using constructs from the Health Belief Model as a framework to identify local understandings of water, sanitation and health issues. There has been no published research on the acceptability of SODIS in household testing in Nepal. Understanding the context of water and water purity in Nepalese villages is essential to identify culturally appropriate interventions to improve the quality of drinking water and health. Forty households from the village census list were randomly selected and the senior woman in each household was asked to participate. Baseline data on water sources and behaviors were collected in March 2002, followed by training in SODIS. Follow-up data were collected in June and July 2002. Only 9% of households routinely adopted SODIS. Participants mentioned the benefit of treating water to reduce stomach ailments, but this did not outweigh the perceived barriers of heavy domestic and agricultural workloads, other cultural barriers, uncertainty about the necessity of treating the water, and lack of knowledge that untreated drinking water causes diarrhea. Strategies for developing safe water systems must include public health education about water-borne diseases, source water protection, and a motivational component to achieve implementation and sustained use. In addition, other options for disinfecting water should be provided, given the women's work constraints and low level of formal education.
Anti-aging therapy through fitness enhancement

Physical exercise is proposed as a highly effective means of treating and preventing the main causes of morbidity and mortality – most of which are associated with aging – in industrialized countries. Low physical fitness is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and all-causes morbidity and mortality; indeed, it is even a predictor of these problems. When properly measured, the assessment of physical fitness can be a highly valuable indicator of health and life expectancy and, therefore, should be performed routinely in the clinical setting. Individually adapted training programs could be prescribed based on fitness assessment results and an adequate knowledge of patient lifestyle and daily physical activity. Such training programs would allow people to develop their maximum physical potential, improve their physical and mental health, and attenuate the negative consequences of aging.
Experience and appreciation

A young child has keen senses, but his world is not thereby more filled with sensory values than that of an adult. To enjoy the physical environment fully the mere capacity to experience stimuli is not enough; it must be complemented by appreciation, which is an intellectual activity. A young child's experiences of nature are often more intense than those of an adult. Among the reasons for this are synesthesia and the child's ability to isolate experience from its distracting social, theoretical, and practical contexts. However, the isolation also causes impoverishment. Remembrance, which broadens the context, is an important component of appreciation. In remembered pleasure the adult is far richer than the child.
Indiscriminate Discrimination: A Correspondence Test for Ethnic Homophily in the Chicago Labor Market

Numerous field experiments have demonstrated the existence of discrimination in labor markets against specific minority groups. This paper uses a correspondence test to determine whether this discrimination is due to prejudice against specific groups, or a general preference for the majority group. Three groups of identical fabricated resumes are sent to help-wanted advertisements in Chicago newspapers: one with Anglo-Saxon names, one with African-American names, and one with fictitious foreign names whose ethnic origin is unidentifiable to most Americans. Resumes with Anglo-Saxon names generate nearly one third more call-backs than identical resumes with non Anglo-Saxon ones, either African-American or Foreign. We take this as evidence that discriminatory behavior is part of a larger pattern of unequal treatment of any member of non-majority groups, ethnic homophily.
TCP fast open

Today's web services are dominated by TCP flows so short that they terminate a few round trips after handshaking; this handshake is a significant source of latency for such flows. In this paper we describe the design, implementation, and deployment of the TCP Fast Open protocol, a new mechanism that enables data exchange during TCP's initial handshake. In doing so, TCP Fast Open decreases application network latency by one full round-trip time, decreasing the delay experienced by such short TCP transfers. We address the security issues inherent in allowing data exchange during the three-way handshake, which we mitigate using a security token that verifies IP address ownership. We detail other fall-back defense mechanisms and address issues we faced with middleboxes, backwards compatibility for existing network stacks, and incremental deployment. Based on traffic analysis and network emulation, we show that TCP Fast Open would decrease HTTP transaction network latency by 15% and whole-page load time over 10% on average, and in some cases up to 40%.
Etude de validation d'une version francophone du « Q-Sort » d'attachement de Waters et Deane

Ce texte relate l'etude de validation d'une adaptation francophone du Q-Sort d'attachement de Waters et Deane (cette adaptation est presentee dans ce meme numero). Le Q-Sort rempli par les parents ne parait pas tenir ses promesses de methode alternative a la Situation etrange pour evaluer la qualite de la relation d'attachement. Cependant, lors- qu 'il est rempli par un observateur exterieur, il semble mieux refleter la categorisation des comportements dans la Situation etrange. Au travers du Q-Sort, les parents semblent decrire davantage le temperament de l'enfant que la qualite de la relation d'attachement.