Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrating virtual and augmented realities in an outdoor application

This paper explores interconnecting outdoor AR systems with a VR system to achieve collaboration in both domains simultaneously. We envisage multiple mobile users of wearable AR systems interacting with a stationary VR facility via a wireless network. An application in simulated combat training is described, where the AR users are soldiers with wearable computers, and the VR system is located at a command and control centre. For soldiers, AR provides enhanced information about the battlefield environment, which may include the positions and attributes of simulated entities for the purpose of training outdoors at low cost. At the same time a complete picture of the battlefield, including real and simulated troops and vehicles, is available via the VR system. As soldiers move about, their GPS and digital compass hardware provide the remote VR user and other AR users with the means to track their position in real-time. We describe a working system based on our modular Tinmith-II wearable computer, which interacts with a combat simulator to create a synthetic battle environment for safe training and monitoring.
Optimal Debt and Profitability in the Tradeoff Theory

I develop a dynamic model of leverage with tax deductible interest and an endogenous cost of default. The interest rate includes a premium to compensate lenders for expected losses in default. A borrowing constraint is generated by lenders' unwillingness to lend an amount that would trigger immediate default. When the borrowing constraint is not binding, the tradeâ€ off theory of debt holds: optimal debt equates the marginal interest tax shield and the marginal expected cost of default. Contrary to conventional interpretation, but consistent with empirical findings, increases in current or future profitability reduce the optimal leverage ratio when the tradeâ€ off theory holds.
Antibiotic prescribing on admission to patients with pneumonia and prior outpatient antibiotic treatment: a cohort study on clinical outcome

Objective Most pneumonia treatment guidelines recommend that prior outpatient antibiotic treatment should be considered when planning inpatient antibiotic regimen. Our purpose was to study in patients admitted for community-acquired pneumonia the mode of continuing antibiotic treatment at the outpatient to inpatient transition and the subsequent clinical course. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Dutch PHARMO Record Linkage System. Participants 7323 patients aged >18 years and hospitalised with pneumonia in the Netherlands between 2004 and 2010. Main study parameter We identified all prescribed antibiotics prior to, during and after hospitalisation. In case of prior outpatient treatment, the continuation of antibiotic treatment on admission was categorised as: no atypical coverage > no atypical coverage; atypical coverage > atypical coverage; no atypical coverage > atypical coverage; and atypical coverage > no atypical coverage. Main outcome measures Length of hospital stay, in-hospital mortality and readmission within 30 days. Results Twenty-two per cent of the patients had received prior outpatient treatment, of which 408 (25%) patients were switched on admission to antibiotics with atypical coverage. There were no differences in length of hospital stay, in-hospital mortality or readmission rate between the four categories of patients with prior outpatient treatment. The adjusted HR for adding atypical coverage versus no atypical coverage was 0.91 (95% CI 0.55 to 1.51) for time to discharge. For in-hospital mortality and readmission within 30 days, the adjusted ORs were 1.09 (95% CI 0.85 to 1.34) and 0.59 (95% CI 0.30 to 1.18), respectively. Conclusions This study found no association between mode of continuing antibiotic treatment at the outpatient to inpatient transition and relevant clinical outcomes. In particular, adding atypical coverage in patients without prior atypical coverage did not influence the outcome.
Selective optimization of the Rev-binding element of HIV-1.

RNA molecules that can bind to the Rev protein of HIV-1 have been isolated from random sequence nucleic acid pools based on a minimal Rev-binding element (RBE) found within the Rev Responsive Element (RRE). While the selected sequences are related to the wild-type element, they also contain substitutions that allow them to bind Rev up to 10-fold better in vitro. A hypothesized homopurine pairing at G48:G71 is generally replaced by A48:A71; the occasional selection of C48:A71 suggests that R71 may be in a syn conformation. These data support the structural model for the RBE originally proposed by Bartel et al. (1). Additional interactions with the Rev protein are promoted by the sequence CUC . UYGAG, found in one class of high-affinity aptamers, but absent from the wild-type element. Within each class of aptamers different residues and substructures covary with one another to generate optimal Rev-binding surfaces. The interdependencies of different nucleotide substitutions suggest structural models for both the wild-type RBE and the selected high-affinity aptamers.
Traffic analysis at short time-scales: an empirical case study from a 3G cellular network

The availability of synchronized packet-level traces captured at different links allows the extraction of one-way delays for the network section in between. Delay statistics can be used as quality indicators to validate the health of the network and to detect global performance drifts and/or localized problems. Since packet delays depend not only on the network status but also on the arriving traffic rate, the delay analysis must be coupled with the analysis of the traffic patterns at short time scales. In this work we report on the traffic and delay patterns observed at short timescales in a 3G cellular mobile network. We show that the aggregate traffic rate exhibits large impulses and investigate on their causes. Specifically, we find that high- rate sequential scanners represent a common source of traffic impulses, and identify the potential consequences of such traffic onto the underlying network. This case-study demonstrates that the microscopic analysis of delay and traffic patterns at short time-scales can contribute effectively to the task of troubleshooting IP networks. This is particularly important in the context of 3G cellular networks given their complexity and relatively recent deployment.
Network anomaly detection for protecting web services from the application layer bandwidth flooding attack

Web servers are generally situated in an efficient server center where these servers associate with the outside Web straightforwardly through spines. In the interim, the application layer Bandwidth flooding attack (ALBFA) assaults are basic dangers to the Web, especially to those business web servers. As of now, there are a few strategies intended to deal with the ALBFA assaults, however the greater part of them can't be utilized as a part of substantial spines. In this paper, we propound another technique namely BFADM to identify ALBFA assaults. Our work separates itself from past techniques by considering ALBFA assault discovery in overwhelming spine movement. Moreover, the recognition of ALBFA assaults is effortlessly deceived by streak swarm activity. Keeping in mind the end goal to beat this issue, our propounded technique develops a Constant Recurrence Vector and genuine opportune describes the movement as an arrangement of models. By looking at the entropy of ALBFA assaults and blaze swarms, these models can be utilized to perceive the genuine ALBFA assaults. We coordinate the above discovery standards into a modularized resistance design, which comprises of a head-end sensor, an identification module and an activity channel. With a quick ALBFA discovery speed, the channel is equipped for letting the true blue demands through however the assault movement is ceased.
Performance-optimized indexes for inequality searches on encrypted data in practice

For information systems in which the server must operate on encrypted data (which may be necessary because the service provider cannot be trusted) solutions need to be found that enable fast searches on that data. In this paper we present an approach for encrypted database indexes that enable fast inequality, i.e., range searches, such that also prefix searches on lexicographically ordered but encrypted data are possible. Unlike common techniques that address this issue as well, like hardware-based solutions or order-preserving encryption schemes, our indexes do not require specialized, expensive hardware and use only well-accredited software components; they also do not reveal any information about the encrypted data besides their order. Moreover, when implementing the indexing approach in a commercial software product, multiple application-centric optimization opportunities of the index's performance did emerge, which are also presented in this paper. They include basic performance-increasing measures, pipelined index scans and updates and caching strategies. We further present performance test results proving that our indexing approach shows good performance on substantial amounts of data.
Transcriptional targeting for ovarian cancer gene therapy.

Ovarian carcinoma is a leading cause of cancer death in women. Though advances in conventional therapies have been achieved, long-term survival rates for most patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer are still low. Therefore, novel molecular therapeutic strategies such as gene therapy are being intensively pursued. Such approaches are based on the enormous progress that has been achieved in the elucidation of the molecular foundations of ovarian cancer. In this regard transcriptional control elements (promoters) of genes frequently upregulated or specifically expressed in tumors can be applied in a heterologous context to drive expression of therapeutic genes in targeted gene therapy strategies. This review discusses transcriptional targeting strategies in ovarian cancer gene therapy and gives an overview of tumor-specific promoters (TSPs) that have been applied for this purpose.
NMO-IgG: A Specific Biomarker for Neuromyelitis Optica

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease that principally targets the optic nerves and spinal cord and often leads to severe disability and occasionally life threatening respiratory failure. Although its clinical manifestations overlap with those of multiple sclerosis (MS), in established cases these two conditions can be distinguished on the basis of clinical, radiological, and routine spinal fluid studies. The diagnosis in early cases or limited forms of NMO is difficult. We recently discovered a unique IgG autoantibody (NMO-IgG) that is highly specific to patients with NMO and thus a valuable diagnostic aid. Its antigen, aquaporin-4 (AQP4), is the central nervous system’s predominant water channel protein. This antibody has not yet been proven to be pathogenic, but several facts suggest that it might be, including the similarity of the immunohistochemical pattern of NMO-(AQP4) IgG binding to mouse CNS tissues to the pattern of immune complex deposition in autopsied patients’ spinal cord tissue. The spectrum of diseases identified by NMO-IgG is broader than has previously been recognized clinically and includes incomplete forms of NMO, such as recurrent transverse myelitis without optic neuritis and recurrent optic neuritis without myelitis.
Clinical and Pharmacodynamic Evaluation of Metronomic Cyclophosphamide, Celecoxib, and Dexamethasone in Advanced Hormone-refractory Prostate Cancer

Purpose: The aims of the present study were to evaluate the clinical activity and the pharmacodynamic profile of the novel schedule of a single i.v. standard dose of cyclophosphamide (CTX) immediately followed by an oral metronomic CTX regimen with celecoxib (CXB) and dexamethasone (DEX) in advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer patients. Experimental Design: Twenty-eight patients (68% docetaxel-resistant) received 500 mg/m2 CTX i.v. bolus on day 1 and, from day 2, 50 mg/day CTX p.o. plus 200 mg/twice a day CXB p.o. and 1 mg/day DEX p.o. until disease progression. Plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and thrombospondin-1 were detected by ELISA, and real-time reverse transcription-PCR of VEGF and thrombospondin-1 gene expression on peripheral blood mononuclear cell and of VE-cadherin (VE-C) in blood samples was done. Results: A confirmed prostate-specific antigen decrease of ≥50% from baseline was observed in 9 of 28 patients (32%). Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 3 months (95% confidence interval, 2.2-4.2 months) and 21 months (95% confidence interval, 12.4-29.4 months), respectively. Toxicity was mild and no grade 3 to 4 toxicities occurred. A significant relationship was found between plasma VEGF and prostate-specific antigen values (r = 0.4223; P < 0.001). VEGF levels significantly increased in nonresponders, whereas the responder patients maintained significantly lower levels of VE-C gene expression after the beginning of the treatment if compared with nonresponder ones. Conclusion: Metronomic CTX plus CXB and DEX showed favorable toxicity and activity profile in patients. VE-C gene expression and VEGF levels represent potentially useful pharmacodynamic markers for the clinical response.
Vertical Motion of the Basin and Range , Western United States , from 10 Years of Campaign GPS

An analysis of 10 years of campaign Global Positioning System (GPS) data collected in periodic surveys of the Basin and Range shows that vertical velocity measurement is less precise than horizontal measurements by approximately a factor of 3, and less precise than velocities from continuous GPS sites by a factor of 3-4. To obtain this level of precision, a method for conservatively quantifying uncertainties that takes into account the misfit of velocity data to a constant strain rate model is employed. This method results in a reduction of uncertainties by approximately a factor of 2. Uncertainties in position and velocity, for campaign and continuous sites are compared to results from other groups. Most of the vertical velocities in the Basin and Range are not resolvably different than zero, to 95% confidence. However, collecting sites into sub-networks of 10 sites indicates a marginally significant ~2 mm/yr of vertical motion between 114 ̊ west longitude (up) compared 119 ̊ west longitude (down). The greatest east/west tilting rates are 58.8±14.6 nanoradians per year eastward and 52.4±15.9 nanoradians per year westward on the flanks of an area of relative uplift near 114 ̊ west longitude.
Scalable Performance-Energy Trade-off Exploration of Embedded Real-Time Systems on Multiprocessor Platforms

Conventional task scheduling on real-time systems with multiple processors is notorious for its computational intractability. This problem becomes even harder when designers also have to consider other constraints such as energy consumptions. Such a multi-objective trade-off exploration is a crucial step to generating cost-efficient real-time embedded systems. Although previous task schedulers have attempted to provide fast heuristics for design space exploration, they cannot handle large systems efficiently. As today's embedded systems become increasingly larger, we need a scalable scheduler to handle this complexity. This paper presents a hierarchical scheduler that combines the graph partition and the task interleaving to tackle the tradeoff exploration problem in a scalable way. Our scheduler can employ the existing flattened scheduler and significantly accelerate the design space explorations for large tasks. The speed-up of up to 2 orders of magnitude has been obtained for large task models compared to the conventional flattened scheduler
Tactile interaction with a humanoid robot for children with autism: A case study analysis involving user requirements and results of an initial implementation

The work presented in this paper is part of our investigation in the ROBOSKIN project. The project aims to develop and demonstrate a range of new robot capabilities based on the tactile feedback provided by a robotic skin. One of the project's objectives is to improve human-robot interaction capabilities in the application domain of robot-assisted play. This paper presents design challenges in augmenting a humanoid robot with tactile sensors specifically for interaction with children with autism. It reports on a preliminary study that includes requirements analysis based on a case study evaluation of interactions of children with autism with the child-sized, minimally expressive robot KASPAR. This is followed by the implementation of initial sensory capabilities on the robot that were then used in experimental investigations of tactile interaction with children with autism.
Testing for racial discrimination in the labour market

Racial discrimination in selection for job interview was measured directly by the experimental technique of "corresponding testing. " Carefully-matched pairs of written job applications were sent in response to advertised vacancies in Victoria--a state of Australia. One letter was from an applicant with an Anglo-Celtic name and the other was from an applicant with a Greek or Vietnamese name. Statistically significant discrimination was found against both Vietnamese-named and Greek-named applicants. There was no relationship between the incidence of discrimination and the competitive structure of the employer's product market.
The exosystems around HD 169830 and HD 12661: are they dynamical twins?

The new 2-planetary system around HD 169830 has been announced during the XIX-th IAP Colloquium ”Extrasolar Planets: Today & Tomorrow” (Paris, June 30 - July 4, 2003) by the Geneva Extrasolar Planet Search team. We study the orbital dynamics of this system in the framework of the N-body problem. The analysis of its orbital stability is performed using the long-term integrations and the fast indicators, the Mean Exponential Growth factor of Nearby Orbits and the Frequency Map Analysis. The HD 169830 appears to be located in a wide stable region of the phase space. The ratio of the mean motions of the planets HD 169830 b and c is between low-order mean motion resonances, 9:1 and 10:1. The long-term integration of the coplanar configurations, conducted over 1 Gyr, reveals that the eccentricities of the companions vary with a large amplitude ≃ 0.4 −0.5 but there is no sign of instability. The orbital parameters of the planets resemble those of another 2-planetary system, around HD 12661. Both of them can be classified as hierarchical planetary systems. We investigate whether these two exosystems are dynamically similar. Such similarities may be important for finding out if the formation and subsequent orbital evolution of exoplanetary systems obey common rules.
Advances in Image Processing for Detection of Plant Disease

— These paper deals with how the plant disease can be identified. Nowadays an identification of disease on the plants or leaves is difficult. The damage that takes place in a plants or leaves which leads to the complete fall down of crops that yields annually. Providing pesticides are not always proved efficient because it may be a toxic content. In other to overcome this type of issues we have to use image processing techniques along with the SVM classifier and the algorithm named as K-means clustering algorithm.
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics on the Formation of Radiation Fogs under Heavily Polluted Conditions

We have studied the effect of gaseous pollutants on fog droplet growth in heavily polluted air using a model that describes time-dependent sulfate production in the liquid phase and thermodynamical equilibrium between the droplets and the gas phase. Our research indicates that the oxidation of SO 2 to sulfate has a significant effect on fog droplet growth especially when hygroscopic trace gases, for example HNO 3 and NH 3 are present. The increased sulfate production by dissolution of hygroscopic gases results from increased pH (caused by absorption of ammonia) and from the increased size of the fog/smog droplets. Our results indicate that unactivated fogs may become optically very thick when the droplet concentrations are on the order of several thousand per cubic centimeter of air.
Multiplicity fluctuations in relativistic nuclear collisions: statistical model versus experimental data

Multiplicity distributions of hadrons produced in central nucleus-nucleus collisions are studied within the hadron-resonance gas model in the large volume limit. In the canonical ensemble conservation of three charges (baryon number, electric charge and strangeness) is enforced. In addition, in the micro-canonical ensemble, energy conservation is included. An analytical method is used to account for resonance decays. Multiplicity distributions and scaled variances for negatively charged hadrons are presented along the chemical freeze-out line of central Pb+Pb (Au+Au) collisions from SIS to LHC energies. Predictions obtained within different statistical ensembles are compared with preliminary NA49 experimental results on central Pb+Pb collisions in the SPS energy range. The measured fluctuations are significantly narrower than a Poisson reference distribution, and clearly favor expectations for the micro-canonical ensemble.
Non-Metric Locality-Sensitive Hashing

Non-metric distances are often more reasonable compared with metric ones in terms of consistency with human perceptions. However, existing locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithms can only support data which are gauged with metrics. In this paper we propose a novel locality-sensitive hashing algorithm targeting such non-metric data. Data in original feature space are embedded into an implicit reproducing kernel Krein space and then hashed to obtain binary bits. Here we utilize the norm-keeping property of p-stable functions to ensure that two data's collision probability reflects their non-metric distance in original feature space. We investigate various concrete examples to validate the proposed algorithm. Extensive empirical evaluations well illustrate its effectiveness in terms of accuracy and retrieval speedup.
"But I Said Something Now": Using Border Pedagogies to Sow Seeds of Activism in Youth Empowerment Programs.

In this article, two teacher educator researchers engage in a duologue to explore the pedagogical and poetic openings experienced during two individual youth empowerment school-based research projects—one a middle school poetry project, the other a highschool mentoring project. The projects engage minoritized youth with undergraduate students in colleges of education utilizing a methodology grounded in a theory of physical and metaphorical borderlands and border pedagogy for agentive participation. We assert that intentional formation of border spaces of participation and care within the silencing spaces of school serves as a foundation from which youth may build capacity for future actions for social activism and change.
Estimation and Inference for Spatial Models with Heterogeneous Coefficients: An Application to U.S. House Prices

This paper considers the estimation and inference of spatial panel data models with heterogeneous spatial lag coefficients, with and without weakly exogenous regressors, and subject to heteroskedastic errors. A quasi maximum likelihood (QML) estimation procedure is developed and the conditions for identification of the spatial coefficients are derived. The QML estimators of individual spatial coefficients, as well as their mean group estimators, are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. Small sample properties of the proposed estimators are investigated by Monte Carlo simulations and results are in line with the paper's key theoretical findings even for panels with moderate time dimensions and irrespective of the number of cross section units. A detailed empirical application to U.S. house price changes during the 1975-2014 period shows a significant degree of heterogeneity in spatio-temporal dynamics over the 338 Metropolitan Statistical Areas considered.