Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semi-Blind Joint Channel Estimation and Data Detection for Space-Time Shift Keying Systems

A low-complexity semi-blind joint channel estimation and data detection scheme is proposed for space-time shift keying (STSK) based multiple-input multiple-output systems. The minimum number of STSK training blocks, which is related to the number of transmitter antennas, is first utilized to provide a rough initial least square channel estimate (LSCE). Then low-complexity single-stream maximum likelihood (ML) data detection is carried out based on the initial LSCE and the detected data are employed to refine the decision-directed LSCE. It is demonstrated that a few iterations are sufficient to approach the optimal ML detection performance obtained with the perfect channel state information.
Qiliqiangxin Affects L Type Ca2+ Current in the Normal and Hypertrophied Rat Heart

Qiliqiangxin capsule is newly developed Chinese patent drug and proved to be effective and safe for the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure. We compared the effects of different dose Qiliqiangxin on L type Ca2+ current (I Ca-L) between normal and hypertrophied myocytes. A total of 40 healthy Sprague—Dawley rats were used in the study. The rats were randomly divided into two groups (control group and hypertrophy group). Cardiac hypertrophy was induced by pressure overload produced by partial ligation of the abdominal aorta. The control group was the sham-operated group. After 1 month, cardiac ventricular myocytes were isolated from the hearts of rats. Ventricular myocytes were exposed to 10 and 50 μmol/L Qiliqiangxin, and whole cell patch-clamp technique was used to study the effects of Qiliqiangxin on I Ca-L. The current densities of I Ca-L were similar in control group (−12.70 ± 0.53 pA/pF, n = 12) and in hypertrophy group (−12.39 ± 0.62 pA/pF, n = 10). They were not statistically significant. 10 and 50 μmol/L Qiliqiangxin can decrease I Ca-L peak current 48.6%±16.8% and 59.0%±4.4% in control group. However, the peak current was only reduced 16.73%±8.03% by 50 μmol/L Qiliqiangxin in hypertrophied myocytes. The inhibited action of Qiliqiangxin on I Ca-L of hypertrophy group was lower than in control group. Qiliqiangxin affected L-type Ca2+ channel and blocked I Ca-L, as well as affected cardiac function finally. Qiliqiangxin has diphasic action that is either class IV antiarrhythmic agent or the agent of effect cardiac function.
Creativity and the Experts

This article explores the role of expertise in public debate on creative industries policy in the United Kingdom. The first section gives an overview of the emergence of expertise in government and the rise of think tanks, locating this within a wider sociology of the intellectuals. It discusses the development of New Labour expertise in response to that of Thatcherite Conservatism in the battle to dominate public policy agendas. The second section illustrates the growth of the New Labour “policy generation” and the emergence of a cohort of experts in the fields of media, communications, and culture and discusses routes taken by them into government. The final section, based on interviews, discusses the power plays behind New Labour policy making in the creative industries field. It considers the impact of ministerial changes on the policy process, illustrates how interdepartmental rivalries introduce complexity and demonstrates how civil service expertise may be mobilised to neutralise that of outside experts. The conclusion addresses the implications of this analysis.
A Computational Model Incorporating Neural Stem Cell Dynamics Reproduces Glioma Incidence across the Lifespan in the Human Population

Glioma is the most common form of primary brain tumor. Demographically, the risk of occurrence increases until old age. Here we present a novel computational model to reproduce the probability of glioma incidence across the lifespan. Previous mathematical models explaining glioma incidence are framed in a rather abstract way, and do not directly relate to empirical findings. To decrease this gap between theory and experimental observations, we incorporate recent data on cellular and molecular factors underlying gliomagenesis. Since evidence implicates the adult neural stem cell as the likely cell-of-origin of glioma, we have incorporated empirically-determined estimates of neural stem cell number, cell division rate, mutation rate and oncogenic potential into our model. We demonstrate that our model yields results which match actual demographic data in the human population. In particular, this model accounts for the observed peak incidence of glioma at approximately 80 years of age, without the need to assert differential susceptibility throughout the population. Overall, our model supports the hypothesis that glioma is caused by randomly-occurring oncogenic mutations within the neural stem cell population. Based on this model, we assess the influence of the (experimentally indicated) decrease in the number of neural stem cells and increase of cell division rate during aging. Our model provides multiple testable predictions, and suggests that different temporal sequences of oncogenic mutations can lead to tumorigenesis. Finally, we conclude that four or five oncogenic mutations are sufficient for the formation of glioma.
Java Therapy : Web-Based Robotic Rehabilit ation

Brain injury as a result of stroke and trauma is a leading cause of disabilit y in the U.S. Unfortunately, littl e technology is currently available for individuals with brain injury to practice and monitor therapy on their own at home. This paper describes an inexpensive robotic telerehabilit ation system for arm and hand therapy following brain injury. “Java Therapy” is a Web site with a library of evaluation and therapy activities. The activities can be performed with a commercial force feedback joystick, and the joystick can physically assist or resist in movement as the user performs therapy. The system also provides quantitative feedback of movement performance, allowing users and their caregivers to assess rehabilit ation progress via the Web.
Density‐based Outlier Rejection in Monte Carlo Rendering

The problem of noise in Monte‐Carlo rendering arising from estimator variance is well‐known and well‐studied. In this work, we concentrate on identifying individual light paths as outliers that lead to significant spikes of noise and represent a challenge for existing filtering methods. Most noise‐reduction methods, such as importance sampling and stratification, attempt to generate samples that are expected a priori to have lower variance, but do not take into account actual sample values. While these methods are essential to decrease overall noise, we show that filtering samples a posteriori allows for greater reduction of spiked noise. In particular, given evaluated sample values, outliers can be identified and removed. Conforming with conventions in statistics, we emphasize that the term “outlier” should not be taken as synonymous with “incorrect”, but as referring to samples that distort the empirically‐observed distribution of energy relative to the true underlying distribution. By expressing a path distribution in joint image and color space, we show how outliers can be characterized by their density across the set of all nearby paths in this space. We show that removing these outliers leads to significant improvements in rendering quality.
An empirical weight update approach for nonlinear active noise control

Nonlinear effects, such as saturation and distortion of microphones and loudspeakers, are often experienced in complex Active Noise Control (ANC) problem settings. A nonlinear control filter must be employed to adequately address these issues, together with an ad hoc adaptive algorithm to tune its parameters. The nonlinear ANC (NANC) problem is particularly involved if the secondary path is nonlinear, since in that case the controller weight update mechanism of Least Mean Squares (LMS)-type algorithms must account for the secondary path gradient with computationally heavy recursions. A simpler and computationally less demanding approach is here proposed that avoids the use of the error gradient and relies on direct cost function evaluations. The proposed method can also tackle the model structure selection problem, which is crucial to reduce the on-line computational effort. Some simulations are reported to show the effectiveness of the algorithm.
Maladaptive Personality Traits Increase Subjectively During the Course of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

Abstract We assessed both current maladaptive personality traits (MPTs) and, retrospectively, premorbid MPTs in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs). This was to examine whether the patients had the impression that their personality had changed and which traits were affected. We also wanted to determine whether the perceived changes could be explained by SSD psychopathology. MPTs were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, diagnoses, axis II disorders, screening questionnaire and interview, integrating questions on subjective estimation of premorbid MPTs in moderately ill SSD patients. Forty-five patients were included. Premorbid MPTs were remembered as significantly less pronounced than current MPTs for the whole spectrum of personality traits (p < 0.001). Antisocial traits had worsened significantly less (p < 0.001), and borderline and obsessive-compulsive traits had worsened significantly more (both p < 0.01) than the mean increase. Associations between MPT increase and SSD psychopathology were significant for schizotypal, avoidant, and depressive traits. According to the patients’ retrospective assessment, MPTs increased through onset and course of SSDs. Memory bias, depressed mood, and SSD symptoms alone could not sufficiently explain these differences. Subjective MPT increase may play a role for the patients’ concept of illness, quality of life, and adherence to therapeutic interventions. It should be addressed in SSD treatment.
Quality Analysis of Distribution Architectures for Synchronous Groupware

This paper identifies a set of distribution architectures for the development of synchronous groupware and provides an analysis of their quality attributes. The architectures and their quality attributes provide insight on how to structure the implementation of synchronous groupware applications, providing developers with precise guidance on the trade-offs between various implementation techniques. In contrast to many proposed architectures for groupware, these architectures have been synthesized through analysis of successful groupware systems whose properties are well-understood
ReFit: A Fit test maintenance plug-in for the Eclipse refactoring plug-in

The Fit framework is a widely established tool for automated acceptance test-driven development (ATDD). Fit stores the test specification separate from the test fixture code in an easily human readable and editable tabular form in HTML format. Additional tools like the FitPro plugin or FitN esse support the writing of test specifications and test fixtures from within the Eclipse IDE or the Web. With the increasing popularity of agile test-driven software development, maintenance of the evolving and growing test base has become an important issue. However, there has been no support yet for automated refactoring of Fit test cases. In a recent research project, we developed the Eclipse plugin ReFit for automated refactoring of Fit test cases. Fit test refactoring can occur due to changing requirements or changing Java code, which in either case means a cross-language refactoring to keep test specification and test fixture in sync. In this paper the concept for the development of the ReFit Eclipse Plugin is described, which significantly reduces the effort for Fit test maintenance and makes refactoring less error prone. Besides a tight integration into the existing Eclipse refactoring plugin, major goals of the plugin were to make it easy extensible for additional refactorings, new fixture types and further test specification file formats. Challenges faced when adding new and modifying existing Eclipse refactoring behavior are described and are due to the strong dependency on the Eclipse JDK and LTK features, and the solutions developed are presented.
EM training of finite-state transducers and its application to pronunciation modeling

Recently, nite-state transducers (FSTs) have been shown to be useful for a number of applications in speech and language processing. FST operations such as composition, determinization, and minimization make manipulating FSTs very simple. In this paper, we present a method to learn weights for arbitrary FSTs using the EM algorithm. We show that this FST EM algorithm is able to learn pronunciation weights that improve the word error rate for a spontaneous speech recognition task.
Generalized extremal optimization: an attractive alternative for test data generation

Software testing is an important activity of the software development process, and its automation (specially of test data generation) has been a burgeoning interest of many researchers [1]. It has recently been shown that evolutionary algorithms, such as the Genetic Algorithms (GAs), are valuable tools for test data generation. This work assesses the performance of a recently proposed evolutionary algorithm, the Generalized Extremal Optimization (GEO) [2], on test data generation for programs that have paths with loops. GEO’s main advantage in comparison to other stochastic algorithms is that it has only one free parameter to adjust, which eases the process to set it to give its best performance in a given application. Test data generation consists of generating inputs for the SUT in order to evaluate its internal (white-box testing) or external (black-box testing) behavior. Typically, path testing consists of two steps: (i) select a finite set of paths to be exercised; (ii) generate test data to execute the set of paths. For the first step a criterion is necessary, since testing all execution paths in a program is generally impossible due to the existence of infeasible paths and loops. Here our concern is on step (ii): given a set of paths, how do you generate test data to exercise them?
Expression of laminin alpha1, alpha2, alpha4, and alpha5 chains, fibronectin, and tenascin-C in skeletal muscle of dystrophic 129ReJ dy/dy mice.

The dy/dy mouse is an animal model for human merosin-negative congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD), which has been reported to have reduced or no expression of the basement membrane protein laminin alpha2. We here investigate various myogenic and nonmyogenic tissues of mature dy/dy and control 129ReJ mice histologically and for laminin alpha2 expression. In addition, expression patterns of laminin alpha1, alpha2, alpha4, and alpha5 chains, the interstitial proteins fibronectin and tenascin-C, and the adhesion molecules VCAM-1, ICAM-1, and alpha4 integrin were characterized in skeletal muscle of 1- and 7-day and mature (>6 weeks old) dy/dy and control 129ReJ mice. The laminin alpha2 chain remained detectable in myogenic tissues of dy/dy mice by immunofluorescence using two different monoclonal antibodies and by Northern blot analysis. However, laminin alpha2 expression was significantly reduced or not detectable in nonmyogenic tissues of dy/dy mice, including skin, lung, kidney, brain, thymus, and eye. Focal lesions were observed in mature skeletal muscle only, characterized by necrotic tissue, isolated VCAM-1- and ICAM-1-positive cells indicative of inflammatory processes, and regenerating muscle fibers surrounded by intense tenascin-C and fibronectin expression. In contrast to studies on human CMD muscle, laminin alpha1 was not detectable in either dy/dy or control skeletal muscle using immunofluorescence or Northern blot analysis. Immunofluorescence localized laminin alpha4 to basement membranes of blood vessels, the endoneurium of the intramuscular nerves, and the neuromuscular junction in skeletal muscle of 1- and 7-day-old dy/dy and control mice. In mature muscle, laminin alpha4 expression shifted to the perineurium of intramuscular nerves in both dy/dy and control mice. Furthermore, strong upregulation of laminin alpha4 in the basement membranes of blood vessels, the perineurium of intramuscular nerves, and of isolated regenerating muscle fibers in the dy/dy mice was apparent. Investigation of 1-day-old animals revealed expression of laminin alpha5 in skeletal muscle fiber basement membranes of dy/dy but not control animals. This difference between dy/dy and control animals was no longer apparent at 7 days after birth, indicating a temporary shift in expression pattern of laminin alpha5 in dy/dy animals. Analysis of the extracellular matrix components of 1- and 7-day-old dy/dy and control skeletal muscle revealed an early onset of the dystrophy, even before histopathological features of the disease were evident. Our data confirm the absence of laminin alpha1 chain in myogenic tissues of both dy/dy and control mice and suggest compensation for reduced laminin alpha2 in dy/dy skeletal muscle by laminin alpha4 and, in early development, also laminin alpha5. These results have significant ramifications in the diagnosis of human merosin-negative CMD.
Affiliative and prosocial motives and emotions in mental health

This paper argues that studies of mental health and wellbeing can be contextualized within an evolutionary approach that highlights the coregulating processes of emotions and motives. In particular, it suggests that, although many mental health symptoms are commonly linked to threat processing, attention also needs to be directed to the major regulators of threat processing, ie, prosocial and affiliative interactions with self and others. Given that human sociality has been a central driver for a whole range of human adaptations, a better understanding of the effects of prosocial interactions on health is required, and should be integrated into psychiatric formulations and interventions. Insight into the coregulating processes of motives and emotions, especially prosocial ones, offers improved ways of understanding mental health difficulties and their prevention and relief.
Adaptive Removal and Revival of Underheated Thermoelectric Generation Modules

The output power of thermoelectric generation systems (TEGSs) is significantly susceptible to the dynamically varying temperature profile of the heat sources, owing to the electrical mismatch of the interconnected thermoelectric modules (TEMs) constituting a TEGS. This paper proposes a new control concept to tackle such mismatch power losses by adaptively removing the severely underheated TEMs from the TEGS, as well as reviving them if their thermal condition becomes suitable for generating operation again. The proposed control method is realized by LabVIEW; particularly, the cosimulation between the LabVIEW program and a TEGS model based on MultiSim SPICE is used to interact with the real-time sensor feedback and the performance predictions of various TEGS configurations in an online manner and a hierarchical structure. Output characteristics validate the effectiveness of the proposed control method, where significant improvement on the power track is successfully demonstrated by comparisons with the conventional maximum-power point tracking.
Coordinating distributed ViewPoints: the Anatomy of a Consistency Check

Support for concurrent engineering must address the "multiple perspectives problem"—many actors, many representation schemes, diverse domain knowledge, and differing development strategies, all in the context of distributed asynchronous development Central to this problem is the issue of managing consistency between the various elements of an emerging design In this paper we argue that striving to maintain complete consistency at all points in the development process is unnecessary, and an approach based on tolerance and management of inconsistency can be adopted instead. We present a scenario which highlights a number of important issues raised by this approach, and we describe how these issues are addressed in our framework of distributed ViewPoints The approach allows an engineering team to develop independent ViewPoints, and to establish relationships between them incrementally The framework provides mechanisms for expressing consistency relationships, checking that individual relationships hold, and resolving inconsistencies if necessary
Precise Sensor Orientation of High-Resolution Satellite Imagery With the Strip Constraint

To achieve precise sensor orientation of high- resolution satellite imagery (HRSI), ground control points (GCPs) or height models are necessary to remove biases in orientation parameters. However, measuring GCPs is costly, laborious, and time consuming. We cannot even acquire well-defined GCPs in some areas. In this paper, a strip constraint model is established according to the geometric invariance that the biases of image points remain the same in dividing a strip image into standard images. Based on the rational function model and the strip constraint model, a feasible sensor orientation approach for HRSI with the strip constraint is presented. Through the use of the strip constraint, the bias compensation parameters of each standard image in the strip can be solved simultaneously with sparse GCPs. This approach remains effective even when the intermediate standard images in the strip are unavailable. Experimental results of the three ZiYuan-3 data sets show that two GCPs in the first image and two GCPs in the last image are sufficient for the sensor orientation of all the standard images in the strip. An orientation accuracy that is better than 1.1 pixels can be achieved in each standard image. Moreover, the inconsistent errors of tie points between adjacent standard images can also be reduced to less than 0.1 pixel. This result can guarantee that the generated complete digital orthophoto map of the whole strip is geometrically seamless.
A Proposal to Support the Valuable Design Method by Redefining Empathetic Design

Empathetic design is considered as a user-centered design approach that pays attention to the user's feelings toward a product (1)(2). But the design process and design factors are not clearly. This paper analyzed the customer needs, emotion and empathy in psychology, restudied the definition and design process of 3E design(emotional design, empathic design and empathetic design) as well; then proposed the design's keywords and new process of empathetic design for making it to be used widely.
The TatC component of the twin‐arginine protein translocase functions as an obligate oligomer

The Tat protein export system translocates folded proteins across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane and the plant thylakoid membrane. The Tat system in Escherichia coli is composed of TatA, TatB and TatC proteins. TatB and TatC form an oligomeric, multivalent receptor complex that binds Tat substrates, while multiple protomers of TatA assemble at substrate‐bound TatBC receptors to facilitate substrate transport. We have addressed whether oligomerisation of TatC is an absolute requirement for operation of the Tat pathway by screening for dominant negative alleles of tatC that inactivate Tat function in the presence of wild‐type tatC. Single substitutions that confer dominant negative TatC activity were localised to the periplasmic cap region. The variant TatC proteins retained the ability to interact with TatB and with a Tat substrate but were unable to support the in vivo assembly of TatA complexes. Blue‐native PAGE analysis showed that the variant TatC proteins produced smaller TatBC complexes than the wild‐type TatC protein. The substitutions did not alter disulphide crosslinking to neighbouring TatC molecules from positions in the periplasmic cap but abolished a substrate‐induced disulphide crosslink in transmembrane helix 5 of TatC. Our findings show that TatC functions as an obligate oligomer.