Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
QoS-Policy based Routing in Public Heterogeneous Broadband Networks

As telecom providers introduce new and more sophisticated services the necessity of a global, unified view of the network infrastructure becomes demanding. Today, heterogeneous backbone networks are interconnected in order to provide global connectivity. Due to technological impairments the cost of network operation, the maintenance complexity and the overuse of resources are extremely high under the goal of supporting the diverting customer QoS requirements. In order for a network to guarantee customers’ QoS requirements, it should be able to reserve resources and exercise network control functionality at different time-scales. In connection-oriented networks, the transfer of information between two end-users is accomplished by network functions that select and allocate network resources along an acceptable path. Routing is a call-level network control mechanism through which a path is derived for establishing communication between a source and a destination in a network. In this paper we propose a QoS-Policy based routing management architecture appropriate for heterogeneous, multi-domain, multi-technology networks. This architecture is appropriate for inter-network communication between Public Network Operators (PNOs) each of which might support several sub-networks of different technologies. Every autonomous network provider supports a QoS Manager able to manage local network resources and able to interact with the QoS Managers of neighbouring network providers for information exchange and maintenance. The key idea behind the QoS Manager is that it is able to take routing decisions with the sole objective to increase resource utilisation for the network under its supervision while at the same time cooperate with its peers in order to guarantee the end-to-end QoS requirements of the customer requests. According to the customer traffic characteristics and QoS requirements, the QoS Manager is able to find a route to support the connection, that optimises users’ and networks’ profits while satisfying their requirements.
Mining for Personal Profiles

An important problem for data mining is the characterization of individual behaviors. This behavior is typically represented by numerical and categorical time-series data. In some instances this time-series may terminate in a specific event of interest. In others it represents a continuing activity on the part of the 'individual'. This presentation discusses techniques for profiling individual transaction-based behavior, presenting one example for a terminating timeseries, and discussing preliminary work on a second continuing time-series of interactions.
Reversible data embedding into images using wavelet techniques and sorting

The proliferation of digital information in our society has enticed a lot of research into data-embedding techniques that add information to digital content, like images, audio, and video. In this paper, we investigate high-capacity lossless data-embedding methods that allow one to embed large amounts of data into digital images (or video) in such a way that the original image can be reconstructed from the watermarked image. We present two new techniques: one based on least significant bit prediction and Sweldens' lifting scheme and another that is an improvement of Tian's technique of difference expansion. The new techniques are then compared with various existing embedding methods by looking at capacity-distortion behavior and capacity control.
Paging for multi-core shared caches

Paging for multi-core processors extends the classical paging problem to a setting in which several processes simultaneously share the cache. Recently, Hassidim proposed a model for multi-core paging [25], studying cache eviction policies for multi-cores under the traditional competitive analysis metric and showing that LRU is not competitive against an offline policy that has the power to arbitrarily delay request sequences to its advantage. While Hassidim brought attention to this problem, an effective and realistic model with accompanying competitive caching algorithms remains to be introduced. In this paper we propose a more conventional model in which requests must be served as they arrive. We study the problem of minimizing the number of faults, deriving bounds on the competitive ratios of natural strategies to manage the cache. We show that traditional online paging algorithms are not competitive in our model. We then study the offline paging problem and show that the problem of deciding if a request can be served such that at a given time each sequence has faulted at most a given number of times is NP-complete and that its optimization version is APX-hard (for an unbounded number of sequences). We show as well that although offline algorithms can benefit from properly aligning future requests by means of faults, an algorithm that does so by forcing faults on pages that it has in its cache has no advantage over an honest algorithm that evicts pages only when faults occur. Lastly, we describe offline algorithms for the decision problem and for minimizing the total number of faults that run in polynomial time in the length of the sequences.
Improving health outcomes for young people with long term conditions: The role of digital communication in current and future patient–clinician communication for NHS providers of specialist clinical services for young people – LYNC study protocol

Background Young people living with long term conditions are vulnerable to health service disengagement. This endangers their long term health. Studies report requests for digital forms of communication – email, text, social media – with their health care team. Digital clinical communication is troublesome for the UK NHS. Aim In this article we aim to present the research protocol for evaluating the impacts and outcomes of digital clinical communications for young people living with long term conditions and provide critical analysis of their use, monitoring and evaluation by NHS providers (LYNC study: Long term conditions, Young people, Networked Communications). Methods The research involves: (a) patient and public involvement activities with 16–24 year olds with and without long term health conditions; (b) six literature reviews; (c) case studies – the main empirical part of the study – and (d) synthesis and a consensus meeting. Case studies use a mixed methods design. Interviews and non-participant observation of practitioners and patients communicating in up to 20 specialist clinical settings will be combined with data, aggregated at the case level (non-identifiable patient data) on a range of clinical outcomes meaningful within the case and across cases. We will describe the use of digital clinical communication from the perspective of patients, clinical staff, support staff and managers, interviewing up to 15 young people and 15 staff per case study. Outcome data includes emergency admissions, A&E attendance and DNA (did not attend) rates. Case studies will be analysed to understand impacts of digital clinical communication on patient health outcomes, health care costs and consumption, ethics and patient safety.
Improving Customer Decisions using Product Reviews - CROM - Car Review Opinion Miner

Online shopping is a very goal-oriented activity. Consumers have a set of preferences for a product or service that is used as criteria for assessment of the available alternatives. However, crucial information about products is often available as text reviews. Finding a product with specific features is extremely timeconsuming using the typical search functionality found in existing shopping sites. In this work we propose a method for the seamless integration of unstructured information from product reviews with structured product descriptions using opinion mining. We demonstrate our method through shopping for a used car based on 148240 car reviews. Evaluation results using a user study and simulations show that the technique enables customers to assess more product characteristics and potentially make better decisions.
Gravitational flexion by elliptical dark matter haloes

We present equations for the gravitational lensing flexion expected for an elliptical lens mass distribution. These can be reduced to one-dimensional finite integrals, thus saving significant computing time over a full two-dimensional calculation. We estimate constraints on galaxy halo ellipticities for a range of potential future surveys, finding that the constraints from the two different types of flexion are comparable and are up to two orders of magnitude tighter than those from shear. Flexion therefore appears to be a very promising potential tool for constraining the shapes of galaxy haloes from future surveys.
On the optimal thresholds in remote state estimation with communication costs

In this paper, we consider a remote sensing system that consists of a sensor and an estimator. A sensor observes a first order Markov source and must communicate it to a remote estimator. Communication is noiseless but expensive. At each time, based on the history of its observations and decisions, the sensor chooses whether to transmit or not. If the sensor does not transmit, then the estimator must estimate the Markov process using its past observations. It was shown by Lipsa and Martins, 2011 and by Nayyar et al, 2013 that the optimal strategy has the following structure. The optimal estimation strategy is Kalman-like and the optimal communication strategy is to communicate when the estimation error is greater than a threshold. We derive closed form expressions for infinite horizon discounted cost version of the problem. Our solution approach is inspired by the idea of calibration used in multi-armed bandits. We identify the value of the communication cost for which one is indifferent between two consecutive threshold based strategies. Using these values, we characterize the optimal thresholds as a function of the communication cost. Lastly, we present an example of birth-death Markov chain to illustrate our results.
Optimized degree distributions for binary and non-binary LDPC codes in Flash memory

This paper uses extrinsic-information-transfer (EXIT)-function analysis employing the reciprocal channel approximation (RCA) to obtain optimal LDPC code degree distributions for initial hard decoding (one-bit quantization of the channel output) and for decoding with the soft information provided by additional reads in both SLC (two-level cell) and MLC (four-level-cell) Flash memory. These results indicate that design for hard decoding can provide irregular degree distributions that have good thresholds across the range of possible decoding precisions. These results also quantify the potential benefit of irregular LDPC codes as compared to regular LDPC codes in the flash setting and compare the RCA-EXIT thresholds of word-line voltages optimized for maximum mutual information (MMI) and word-line voltages that explicitly minimize the RCA-EXIT threshold of a specific LDPC degree distribution. Along the way, this paper illustrates that the MMI optimization of word-line voltages for five reads is a quasi-convex problem for the Gaussian model of SLC Flash. The paper also uses RCA-based EXIT analysis to show that for the same spectral efficiency of 0.9 bits per cell, rate-0.45 non-binary LDPC codes on MLC Flash systems provide thresholds more than 0.5 dB better than rate-0.9 binary LDPC codes on SLC Flash with the same number of reads (i.e. three reads that would provide hard decisions for MLC and limited soft information for SLC). The MLC approach has a potential threshold improvement of more than 1.5 dB over the SLC approach when both systems have access to the full soft information.
Limited Network Bandwidth and its Utilization byLatency Hiding Techniques in Large-scale Shared Memory SystemsSunil

This paper addresses the use of two latency hiding techniques, prefetching and weak consistency, for large-scale shared memory multiprocessors with compiler-controlled cache coherence management and the interaction of latency hiding techniques and network bandwidth. The performance eeect of latency hiding is evaluated and compared varying the network channel bandwidth. The interaction of reads, writes, and prefetches given a limited bandwidth is studied, and an approach to better network bandwidth utilization by limiting the number of outstanding requests in each node is investigated. Increasing network (channel) bandwidth helps both prefetching and non-prefetching systems, with the initial 2x increase in bandwidth giving the most improvement. The use of prefetching can deliver a much larger improvement than increasing network bandwidth for a 128 processor system for some benchmarks, even with the minimal bandwidth. Controlling bandwidth utilization is shown to be important when prefetch and write request rates are high.
Modified Isochronous Coordination Function for Enhancement of VoIP Call Capacity over IEEE 802.11 WLAN

VoIP over IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) is growing very fast and is providing a cost effective alternative for voice communications. WLANs were initially set up to handle bursty nonreal time type of data traffic. Therefore, the wireless access protocols initially defined are not suitable for voice traffic. Subsequently, updates in the standard have been made to provision for QoS requirements of data, especially the real time traffic of the type voice and video. Despite these updates, however, transmitting voice traffic over WLAN does not utilize the available bandwidth (BW) efficiently, and the number of simultaneous calls supported in practice is significantly lower than what the BW figures would suggest. Several modifications have been proposed to improve the call capacity, and recently isochronous coordination function (ICF) was introduced to mitigate the problem of low call capacity. In this paper, we propose a modified ICF which further improves the performance in terms of the call capacity. The proposed scheme uses multiplexing and multicasting in the downlink to substantially increase the call capacity.
Physiological exposure to melatonin supersensitizes the cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate-dependent signal transduction cascade in Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing the human mt1 melatonin receptor.

Here, we report the effects of short exposure to melatonin on the human mt1 (h mt1) melatonin receptor-mediated signaling in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, and the consequences of an exposure that resembles the physiological pattern of melatonin release on cAMP-mediated signal transduction. Short exposure (10 min) of h mt1 melatonin receptors to melatonin (400 pm) inhibited forskolin-stimulated cAMP formation, cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity, and phosphorylation of the cAMP response element-binding protein. However, treatment of mt1-CHO cells with melatonin in a manner that closely mimics the in vivo activation of melatonin receptors (i.e. 400 pm melatonin for 8 h to mimic darkness) resulted in a supersensitization of the cAMP-dependent signal transduction cascade during the period of withdrawal (i.e. 16 h without melatonin to mimic the light cycle of a diurnal photoperiod). During the period of withdrawal, forskolin induced a time-dependent (1–16 h) increase in cAMP formation (∼200% of control.
Bridging the Gap between Tableau and Consequence-Based Reasoning

We present a non-deterministic consequence-based procedure for the description logic ALCHI. Just like the similar style (deterministic) procedures for EL and Horn-SHIQ, our procedure explicitly derives subsumptions between concepts, but due to non-deterministic rules, not all of these subsumptions are consequences of the ontology. Instead, the consequences are only those subsumptions that can be derived regardless of the choices made in the application of the rules. This is similar to tableau-based procedures, for which an ontology is inconsistent if every expansion of the tableau eventually results in a clash. We report on a preliminary experimental evaluation of the procedure using a version of SNOMED CT with disjunctions, which demonstrates some promising potential.
Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs) for Underwater Imaging Applications

A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer structure for use in underwater imaging is designed, fabricated and tested in this paper. In this structure, a silicon dioxide insulation layer is inserted between the top electrodes and the vibration membrane to prevent ohmic contact. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristic curve shows that the transducer offers suitable levels of hysteresis and repeatability performance. The −6 dB center frequency is 540 kHz and the transducer has a bandwidth of 840 kHz for a relative bandwidth of 155%. Underwater pressure of 143.43 Pa is achieved 1 m away from the capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer under 20 Vpp excitation. Two-dimensional underwater ultrasonic imaging, which is able to prove that a rectangular object is present underwater, is achieved. The results presented here indicate that our work will be highly beneficial for the establishment of an underwater ultrasonic imaging system.
Bug Localization Based on Code Change Histories and Bug Reports

A bug report is mainly used to find a fault location in software maintenance. It contains several fields such as summary, description, status and version. The description field includes detail scenario and stack traces if exceptional messages are presented. Recently researchers have proposed several approaches for automatic bug localization by using information retrieval and data mining. We propose BLIA, a statically integrated analysis approach of IR-based bug localization by utilizing texts and stack traces in bug reports, structured information of source files, and source code change histories. We performed experiments on three open source projects, namely AspectJ, SWT and ZXing. Compared with prior tools, our experiment results showed that BLIA outperforms the existing tools in terms of mean average precision. Our approach on average improved the metric of BugLocator, BLUiR, BRTracer and AmaLgam by 34%, 23%, 17% and 8%, respectively.
Using Response Functions to Measure Strategy Strength

Extensive-form games are a powerful tool for representing complex multi-agent interactions. Nash equilibrium strategies are commonly used as a solution concept for extensive-form games, but many games are too large for the computation of Nash equilibria to be tractable. In these large games, exploitability has traditionally been used to measure deviation from Nash equilibrium, and thus strategies are aimed to achieve minimal exploitability. However, while exploitability measures a strategy's worst-case performance, it fails to capture how likely that worst-case is to be observed in practice. In fact, empirical evidence has shown that a less exploitable strategy can perform worse than a more exploitable strategy in one-on-one play against a variety of opponents. In this work, we propose a class of response functions that can be used to measure the strength of a strategy. We prove that standard no-regret algorithms can be used to learn optimal strategies for a scenario where the opponent uses one of these response functions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique in Leduc Hold'em against opponents that use the UCT Monte Carlo tree search algorithm.
A cyber-enabled stabilizing controller for resilient smart grid systems

A parametric controller is proposed for the frequency and phase stabilization after the occurrence of a disturbance in the power grid. The proposed controller is based on the feedback linearization control theory. To drive the frequency of the system generators to stability, the controller relies on receiving timely phasor measurement unit (PMU) readings about the power grid to employ fast-acting flywheels that are situated near the synchronous generators in order to balance a swing equation model of the synchronous generators. The advantages of the proposed controller are that it is tunable and integrates well with existing governor controls in contrast to other forms of PMU-based control. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed controller when applied to the New England power system. Further, a comparison is drawn between the controller and recently-proposed nonlinear controllers for transient stability.
BeanFS : A Distributed File System for a Large Number of Immutable Files

The amount of immutable files, such as images, video clips, audio files, and e-mail messages, is expected to grow significantly, as users actively generate, distribute, share, and re-use digital contents. In this paper, we present BeanFS, a distributed file system for a large number of immutable files. A key features of BeanFS include (1) the volume-based replication scheme to alleviate the metadata management overhead of the central metadata server, (2) a lightweight consistency maintenance protocol tailored to the simple access patterns of immutable files, and (3) volume synchronization and re-replication mechanisms which provide high availability against transient and permanent failures. BeanFS has been evaluated using a microbenchmark and a synthetic workload which reflects the characteristics of the real-world e-mail service system. Our measurement results indicate that the performance of BeanFS is scalable as the number of servers increases. In addition, volume synchronization and re-replication are quite effective in enhancing the availability of BeanFS.
Tumour Necrosis Factor-α Regulates Human Eosinophil Apoptosis via Ligation of TNF-Receptor 1 and Balance between NF-κB and AP-1

Eosinophils play a central role in asthma. The present study was performed to investigate the effect of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) on longevity of isolated human eosinophils. In contrast to Fas, TNF-α inhibited eosinophil apoptosis as evidenced by a combination of flow cytometry, DNA fragmentation assay and morphological analyses. The effect of TNF-α on eosinophil apoptosis was reversed by a TNF-α neutralising antibody. The anti-apoptotic effect of TNF-α was not due to autocrine release of known survival-prolonging cytokines interleukins 3 and 5 or granulocyte-macrophage-colony-stimulating factor as their neutralisation did not affect the effect of TNF-α. The anti-apoptotic signal was mediated mainly by the TNF-receptor 1. TNF-α induced phosphorylation and degradation of IκB and an increase in NF-κB DNA-binding activity. The survival-prolonging effect of TNF-α was reversed by inhibitors of NF-κB pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate and gliotoxin and by an inhibitor of IκB kinase, BMS-345541. TNF-α induced also an increase in AP-1 DNA-binding activity and the antiapoptotic effect of TNF-α was potentiated by inhibitors of AP-1, SR 11302 and tanshinone IIA and by an inhibitor of c-jun-N-terminal kinase, SP600125, which is an upstream kinase activating AP-1. Our results thus suggest that TNF-α delays human eosinophil apoptosis via TNF-receptor 1 and the resulting changes in longevity depend on yin-yang balance between activation of NF-κB and AP-1.
Exploring fusion in a spontaneous speech retrieval task

In this paper we present two novel model fusion techniques. We fuse together results from several Information Retrieval models or variations of the models. We test them on a collection of spontaneous speech transcripts. We also fuse results obtained with different documents representations (automatic transcripts or manual data). Our first fusion model is training the weighs based on the training data, but in an efficient and novel way. The second fusion model works for results with high variation, such as results obtained from automatic vs. manual document representations.