Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parallel Processing over Spatial-Temporal Datasets from Geo, Bio, Climate and Social Science Communities: A Research Roadmap

This vision paper reviews the current state-ofart and lays out emerging research challenges in parallel processing of spatial-temporal large datasets relevant to a variety of scientific communities. The spatio-temporal data, whether captured through remote sensors (global earth observations), ground and ocean sensors (e.g., soil moisture sensors, buoys), social media and hand-held, traffic-related sensors and cameras, medical imaging (e.g., MRI), or large scale simulations (e.g., climate) have always been “big. ” A common thread among all these big collections of datasets is that they are spatial and temporal. Processing and analyzing these datasets requires high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructures. Various agencies, scientific communities and increasingly the society at large rely on spatial data management, analysis, and spatial data mining to gain insights and produce actionable plans. Therefore, an ecosystem of integrated and reliable software infrastructure is required for spatialtemporal big data management and analysis that will serve as crucial tools for solving a wide set of research problems from different scientific and engineering areas and to empower users with next-generation tools. This vision requires a multidisciplinary effort to significantly advance domain research and have a broad impact on the society. The areas of research discussed in this paper include (i) spatial data mining, (ii) data analytics over remote sensing data, (iii) processing medical images, (iv) spatial econometrics analyses, (v) Map-Reducebased systems for spatial computation and visualization, (vi) CyberGIS systems, and (vii) foundational parallel algorithms and data structures for polygonal datasets, and why HPC infrastructures, including harnessing graphics accelerators, are needed for time-critical applications.
An Embedded Markov Chain Modeling Method for Movement-Based Location Update Scheme

In this paper, an embedded Markov chain model is proposed to analyze the signaling cost of the Movement-Based Location Update (MBLU) scheme under which a Location Update (LU) occurs whenever the number of cells crossed reaches a threshold, called movement threshold. Compared with existing literature, this paper has the following advantages. 1) This paper proposes an embedded Markov chain model in which the cell residence time follows Hyper-Erlang distribution. 2) This paper considers the Location Area (LA) architecture. 3) This paper emphasize the dependency between the cell and LA residence times using a fluid flow model. Close-form expressions for the signaling cost produced by LU and paging operations are derived, and their accuracy is validated by simulation. Based on the derived analytical expressions, we conduct numerical studies to investigate the impact of diverse parameters on the signaling cost. Index Terms—Embedded markov chain, hyper-erlang distribution, Location Management (LM), Movement-Based Location Update (MBLU).
A basic study of landing system for multicopters using Raspberry Pi

A large number of studies on small flying robots have been carried out. Flying robots need to land on specific heliports, thus necessitating the search for specific heliports. This paper reports a method for searching a heliport, in which data from an onboard camera and an ultrasonic sensor are processed using an onboard Raspberry Pi unit.
Marketing the Self, Buying an other: Dating in a Post Modern, Consumer Society

This paper provides a content analysis of 1094 dating advertisements. It seeks, in part, to test results of previous research emanating mainly from the disciplines of psychology and sociobiology, which shows that men offer financial and occupational attributes and seek physical attractiveness in partners whereas women offer physical attractiveness and seek resource and status attributes, consistent with traditional `sex-role' stereotypes and mating selection strategies. Locating analyses in the context of a postmodern, consumer society, it shows that lifestyle choices have superseded resources as primary identity markers for men, that women market their `masculine' attributes and seek `feminine' men; and that the body is central to identity for both men and women. It concludes therefore that traditional gendered stereotypes may now be changing as men and women deal with a context of a novel set of social conditions.
Two cases in high reliability organizing : A hermeneutic reconceptualization

In view of the primacy of organizational reliability, an exploration of what contextual and structural organization dimensions contribute to high reliability is a pertinent research issue. This dissertation attempts to answer this question in case of the incident management process of the IT department of a financial institution and of a nuclear power plant. By means of constructs stemming from research in so-called High Reliability Organizations (HRO) and SenseMaking, and by taking a hermeneutic research approach, building on quantitative as well as qualitative techniques, existing HRO literature is reconceptualized. It is this reconceptualization that allows for a confirmation of the assumption that not only the nuclear power plant – as an archetypical HRO – but also the financial institution – as a mainstream organization – are bearing genuine HRO hallmarks. However, the answer to what constitutes high reliability is less univocal. As a general observation, a high score on HRO constructs does not necessarily contribute to high reliability. Hence the conclusion that the poison makes the dose. On the other hand, starting from the reconceptualized framework, newly introduced HRO constructs like Team Orientation, Threat Flexibility and Efficiency do univocally influence high reliability. Therefore – notwithstanding the absence of an ideal reliability cocktail – there are strong indications that a reconceptualized HRO theory has the potential of offering valuable advice regarding organizing for high reliability.
Cognitive Maps and Urban Form

Abstract This article presents research confirming the generalizability of previous research on urban form and memory for buildings. Additional structural characteristics, including landscaping and unique architectual style, enhance memory for buildings above and beyond the original features developed by Appleyard. It is also shown that elderly residents use some of the same physical features as younger adults to remember buildings but rely more heavily on historical cues and ease of pedestrian access as salient building characteristics. Finally, memory for the location of structures as a function of physical and sociocultural features is examined for the first time in the literature. Different structural features influence location memory than influence verbal memory for buildings.
Hardware design and optimal ADC resolution for uplink massive MIMO systems

This work focuses on the hardware design for the efficient operation of Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. A closed-form uplink achievable data rate expression is derived considering imperfect channel state information (CSI) and hardware impairments. We formulate an optimization problem to maximize the sum data rate subject to a constraint on the total power consumption. A general power consumption model accounting for the level of hardware impairments is utilized. The optimization variables are the number of base station (BS) antennas and the level of impairments per BS antenna. The resolution of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is a primary source of such impairments. The results show the trade-off between the number of BS antennas and the level of hardware impairments, which is important for practical hardware design. Moreover, the maximum power consumption can be tuned to achieve maximum energy efficiency (EE). Numerical results suggest that the optimal level of hardware impairments yields ADCs of 4 to 5 quantization bits.
Framework and Results for the Spanish SENSEVAL

In this paper we describe the structure, organisation and results of the SENSEVAL exercise for Spanish. We present several design decisions we taked for the exercise, we describe the creation of the gold-standard data and finally, we present the results of the evaluation. Twelve systems from five different universities were evaluated. Final scores ranged from 0.56 to 0.65.
Psychological well-being among three age groups of older Americans living in the community

Psychological Well-being among Three Age Groups of Older Americans Living in the Community Rumiko Kakishima Akashi This research explores factors associated with psychological well-being (happiness, depressive symptomatology, and anxiety) among three groups of older adults living in the community: the soon-to-be-old (ages 50-64), the young-old (ages 65-74), and the old-old (ages 75 and over). The study is framed within the conceptual framework of the stress and coping model and informed by socio-emotional selectivity theory, the life course perspective, and critical theory. Using a national U.S. sample of adults over age 50 (the Aging, Status, and Sense of Control data), this construct allows for analysis of respondents’ subjective factors for promoting or maintaining their psychological well-being. Data analysis explores age group differences on psychological well-being outcomes among the three age groups. Major findings demonstrate that average levels of psychological well-being vary only slightly by age cohort with age group having no significant unique effect on explaining any dimension of happiness, depressive symptomatology, or anxiety. Factors associated with these outcomes vary among age groups with only two common predictors for two outcomes. The most powerful predictors for all age groups are the 1995 psychological well-being covariates; other predictors are distinct by age group. The results show that factors associated with psychological well-being fall in multiple areas suggesting a need for multi-component interventions unique to each age group to maintain and promote psychological well-being among older adults. Findings endorse the positive aspect of aging demonstrating that individuals can maintain and promote positive psychological well-being in later life. Insights into policy, program, and social work practice to promote well-being among the rapidly growing and aging segment of the American population are discussed. Study limitations and implications for future research are presented.
Perceptions of Friendship Quality and Observed Behaviors with Friends: How do Sociometrically Rejected, Average, and Popular Girls Differ?

This study examined associations between sociometric status and friendship quality using observational and questionnaire data from 139 fourth-grade girls and their friends. Multivariate analyses of covariance (controlling for ethnicity and socioeconomic status) showed that rejected girls and their friends did not differ in their reported friendship quality compared to average or popular girls. However, coded behavioral observations revealed that compared to other girls, rejected girls displayed more negative affect, bossiness, and deviance but less positive gossip, negative gossip, prosocial behavior, and social competence. Furthermore, as a dyad, compared to other girls, rejected girls and their friends exhibited less behavioral maturity and poorer conflict resolution skills. These results are important in advancing understanding of ways in which rejected girls may perpetuate their problems in peer contexts. [End Page 694]
A Novel Watermarking of Images Based on Wavelet Based Contourlet Transform Energized by Biometrics

The progress and the substantial procreation of web technologies have created an environment in which some crucial issues for digital media have become very easy. The phenomenon has led to an increasing need for developing some standard solutions to prevent these issues. One of the technical solutions is to provide law enforcement and copyright protection for digital media which can be achieved practically by Digital Watermarking. The proposed method contains following phases (i) Pre-processing of biometric image, (ii) Obtaining keys from the biometrics of the owner/user and Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) is used as the scaleand rotation-invariant detector for biometric images, (iii) Wavelet-Based Contourlet Transform (WBCT) is applied on the host image, (iv) Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is enforced over the watermark image, (v) Embedding of the host image with the Watermark Image and (vi) Watermark Extraction and Attack Analysis. The implemented proposed system SURF provides execution time of 98% over SIFT. The comparative analysis confirms the efficiency and robustness of the proposed system. Key-Words: Digital Watermarking, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF), Pre-processing, robustness.
Asymptotic Performance of BI-GFDE and Unconditional MMSE-SIC Receivers for Large MIMO Systems

This paper studies the asymptotic performance of signal detection for large random multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Two iterative receivers are considered: unconditional MMSE receiver with soft interference cancellation (U-MMSE-SIC) and block-iterative generalized decision feedback equalizer (BI-GDFE). We prove that for the limiting case, the output SINRs at each iteration for both receivers converge in probability to their respective deterministic limits. We also show that for U-MMSE-SIC, the limiting SINR is determined by the statistics of the soft estimates; while for BI-GDFE, the limit is determined by the statistical reliability of the hard decisions. Numerical results have shown that the U-MMSE-SIC receiver has faster convergence than the BI-GDFE receiver with the price of higher computational complexity in each iteration due to the use of soft interference cancellation.
Early Life Hormetic Treatments Decrease Irradiation-Induced Oxidative Damage, Increase Longevity, and Enhance Sexual Performance during Old Age in the Caribbean Fruit Fly

Early life events can have dramatic consequences on performance later in life. Exposure to stressors at a young age affects development, the rate of aging, risk of disease, and overall lifespan. In spite of this, mild stress exposure early in life can have beneficial effects on performance later in life. These positive effects of mild stress are referred to as physiological conditioning hormesis. In our current study we used anoxia conditioning hormesis as a pretreatment to reduce oxidative stress and improve organismal performance, lifespan, and healthspan of Caribbean fruit flies. We used gamma irradiation to induce mild oxidative damage in a low-dose experiment, and massive oxidative damage in a separate high-dose experiment, in pharate adult fruit flies just prior to adult emergence. Irradiation-induced oxidative stress leads to reduced adult emergence, flight ability, mating performance, and lifespan. We used a hormetic approach, one hour of exposure to anoxia plus irradiation in anoxia, to lower post-irradiation oxidative damage. We have previously shown that this anoxic-conditioning treatment elevates total antioxidant capacity and lowers post-irradiation oxidative damage to lipids and proteins. In this study, conditioned flies had lower mortality rates and longer lifespan compared to those irradiated without hormetic conditioning. As a metric of healthspan, we tracked mating both at a young age (10 d) and old age (30 d). We found that anoxia-conditioned male flies were more competitive at young ages when compared to unconditioned irradiation stressed male flies, and that the positive effects of anoxic conditioning hormesis on mating success were even more pronounced in older males. Our data shows that physiological conditioning hormesis at a young age, not only improves immediate metrics of organismal performance (emergence, flight, mating), but the beneficial effects also carry into old age by reducing late life oxidative damage and improving lifespan and healthspan.
The role of joint attention in social communication and play among infants

Joint attention enables infants to communicate with adults as well as with each other, sharing what is in their minds. Yet, communicative competence and joint attention between infant peers have received little attention in the literature. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how infants under the age of two within a childcare setting communicate with each other through joint attention and social understanding during daily interactions. Findings indicated that infants utilized various communicative means, intentional pointing, and joint attention in order to share their experience with each other, develop social understanding, and enjoy social joint play. This study also suggests that conflicts between infants can be a fundamental vehicle for developing social understanding and joint play activity.
A novel anatomical structure segmentation method of CT head images

In this paper, a method is developed for anatomical structures segmentation based on CT head images. The segmented structure can be used for image-guided surgery navigations. In our method, intensity rescaling, region growing, fuzzy c-means and mathematical morphology are combined and used systematically. Due to the low contrast of the CT images, intensity rescaling is applied to the images to enhance the contrast. Region growing is used to extract the intracranial area from the enhanced images. Then, fuzzy c-means is adopted to segment the intracranial images of brain matter and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Mathematical morphology is used to correct the pre-calculated images and obtain accurate brain matter and CSF segmentations. The experiments show that the algorithm can obtain good brain matter and CSF segmentations from CT head images.
Multiple aspects and correlates of body figure ratings: A replication and extension of Fallon and Rozin (1985)

College females, using a set of nine figure drawings reflecting very thin to very heavy figures, rated their current figure (based on how they thought they looked versus how they felt), ideal figure, how they appeared to others, and the figure they deemed most attractive to men. A subsample of the 123 subjects also completed measures of body satisfaction, depression, eating disturbance, teasing, and noted the age of menarche. The results replicated and extended the findings of Fallon and Rozin (1985), who found that ideal figures were smaller than ratings of current size. Additionally, there was a significant difference between the two protocols for current size, indicating that subjects rated their size as larger when asked to rate based on affective instructions. Figure ratings based on cognitive/rational instructions did not differ from those based on how they conceptualized others' views of their bodies. Significant correlations were observed among figure ratings, body satisfaction, eating disturbance, depression, and teasing. The need to focus on etiological mechanisms of disturbed body image and eating behavior is addressed, and the role of teasing as a possible precipitant is examined.
Challenging the Need for Gratitude

For those who are able-bodied, gratitude may well comprise a comfortable and unproblematic response to kindness, but for disabled people it can signify an unbearable state of perpetual obligation. A recent study which took a grounded theory approach to the exploration of the feelings of loss experienced by people living in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom in response to becoming ‘disabled’ demonstrated that the prime distinguishing feature between those who were ultimately able to reconcile their need for support and those who continued to feel diminished by it was signified by the presence or absence of formal care arrangements. People who had access to paid personal assistants, whether through community-based services or the marketplace, tended to feel more comfortable and in control of their lives, while those who relied on the goodwill of others commonly experienced a great deal of shame and frustration in relation to their ongoing needs. It is argued here that those whose identities suffered from the experience of unrelenting reliance on informal care have effectively been disabled by their lack of access to the kinds of services which have the potential to remove the tendency to feel, and be constrained by, shame and irrevocable gratitude.
Comparative study of 99mTc-ECD and99mTc-HMPAO for peri-ictal SPECT: qualitative and quantitative analysis

OBJECTIVES Most studies that clinically validated peri-ictal SPECT in intractable partial epilepsy had used technetium-99m-hexamethylpropylene amine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO or 99mTc-exametazime) as the radiopharmaceutical. Because of some theoretical advantages, technetium-99m-ethyl cysteinate diethylester (99mTc-ECD or99mTc-bicisate) is increasingly being used instead. This study compares unstabilised 99mTc-HMPAO and99mTc-ECD in the performance of peri-ictal SPECT in partial epilepsy. METHODS The injection timing and localisation rates in 49 consecutive patients with partial epilepsy who had peri-ictal injections with unstabilised99mTc-HMPAO were compared with 49 consecutive patients who had peri-ictal injections with 99mTc-ECD. Quantitative cortical/subcortical and cortical/extracerebral uptake ratios were also compared. Subtraction SPECT coregistered to MRI (SISCOM) was performed in patients whose interictal SPECTS were available. RESULTS In the99mTc-ECD patients, the latency from seizure commencement to injection was shorter (median 34 v 80 seconds, p<0.0001) and there was a lower rate of postictal injections (16.3% v 57.1%, p<0.0001). The cortical/extracerebral and cortical/subcortical uptake ratios were greater in the 99mTc-ECD images (median 5.0v 3.6, and 2.5 v2.2 respectively; both p<0.005), but the relative peri-ictal increase in uptake in the cortical focus did not differ significantly (median 37.0% v 37.0%; p>0.05). Blinded review of the SISCOM images were localising in a higher proportion of the99mTc-ECD patients (40/45 (88.9%)v 25/37 (67.6%), p<0.05), and had a better concordance with EEG, MRI, and with the discharge diagnosis. CONCLUSION 99mTc-ECD compares favourably with unstabilised 99mTc-HMPAO as a radiopharmaceutical for peri-ictal SPECT studies. Its use results in earlier injections and less frequent postictal injections than unstabilised 99mTc-HMPAO, thereby enhancing the sensitivity and the specificity of peri-ictal SPECT for the localisation of intractable partial epilepsy.