Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EM based channel estimation in an Amplify-and-Forward relaying network

Cooperative communication offers a way to obtain spatial diversity in a wireless network without increasing hardware demands. The different cooperation protocols proposed in the literature [1] are often studied under the assumption that all channel state information is available at the destination. In a practical scenario, channel estimates need to be derived from the broadcasted signals. In this paper, we study the Amplify-and-Forward protocol and use the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to obtain the channel estimates in an iterative way. Our results show that the performance of the system that knows the channels can be approached at the cost of an increased computational complexity. In case a small constellation is used, a low complexity approximation is proposed with a similar performance.
SpecSyn: an environment supporting the specify-explore-refine paradigm for hardware/software system design

System-level design issues are gaining increasing attention, as behavioral synthesis tools and methodologies mature. We present the SpecSyn system-level design environment, which supports the new specify-explore-refine (SER) design paradigm. This three-step approach to design includes precise specification of system functionality, rapid exploration of numerous system-level design options, and refinement of the specification into one reflecting the chosen option. A system-level design option consists of an allocation of system components, such as standard and custom processors, memories, and buses, and a partitioning of functionality among those components. After refinement, the functionality assigned to each component can then he synthesized to hardware or compiled to software. We describe the issues and approaches for each part of the SpecSyn environment. The new paradigm and environment are expected to lead to a more than ten times reduction in design time, and our experiments support this expectation.
Craniofacial reconstruction based on MLS deformation

Craniofacial reconstruction aims at estimating the facial outlook associated to an unknown specimen. Craniofacial reconstruction is generally based on the statistical tissue thickness on anthropometric landmarks. However, the features points alone are not enough for realistic reconstruction. So, in our paper, we take advantage of a reference facial model, through measuring the differences between the target facial feature points and the reference facial feature points, a novel craniofacial reconstruction algorithm based on moving least squares deformation is presented. The 3D skull mesh model is obtained with Marching Cube Algorithm, which extract the iso-surfaces from a complete head CT slices datum. The holes detected in the 3D skull model can be repaired with different methods after the holes are clarified. Then, the craniofacial is reconstructed using MLS deformation with the constraint of a reference facial model. The experimental results show that the methods can produce more desirable results than others'.
Film through the Human Visual System : Finding Patterns and Limits

Over time, filmmakers have changed the way they realize the structure of their films. Film structures have progressively developed to cater to patterns present in human attentional systems. Shot structure over time has exhibited a closer adherence to a 1/f pattern, a naturally occurring distribution that displays self-similarity over multiple scales. Visual activity, an index of motion and movement occurring in relation to the camera, has steadily increased over time; recent movies have made use of visual activity and its ability to test the limits of the human visual system.
Improved non-parametric sparse recovery with data matched penalties

This contribution studies the problem of learning sparse, nonparametric models from observations drawn from an arbitrary, unknown distribution. This specific problem leads us to an algorithm extending techniques for Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL), functional ANOVA models and the Component Selection and Smoothing Operator (COSSO). The key element is to use a data-dependent regularization scheme adapting to the specific distribution underlying the data. We then present empirical evidence supporting the proposed learning algorithm.
SVM-Based Spectrum Mobility Prediction Scheme in Mobile Cognitive Radio Networks

Spectrum mobility as an essential issue has not been fully investigated in mobile cognitive radio networks (CRNs). In this paper, a novel support vector machine based spectrum mobility prediction (SVM-SMP) scheme is presented considering time-varying and space-varying characteristics simultaneously in mobile CRNs. The mobility of cognitive users (CUs) and the working activities of primary users (PUs) are analyzed in theory. And a joint feature vector extraction (JFVE) method is proposed based on the theoretical analysis. Then spectrum mobility prediction is executed through the classification of SVM with a fast convergence speed. Numerical results validate that SVM-SMP gains better short-time prediction accuracy rate and miss prediction rate performance than the two algorithms just depending on the location and speed information. Additionally, a rational parameter design can remedy the prediction performance degradation caused by high speed SUs with strong randomness movements.
Bearings-only tracking analysis via information geometry

In this paper, the problem of bearings-only tracking with a single sensor is studied via the theory of information geometry, where Fisher information matrix plays the role of Riemannian metric. Under a given tracking scenario, the Fisher information distance between two targets is approximately calculated over the window of surveillance region and is compared to the corresponding Kullback Leibler divergence. It is demonstrated that both “distances” provide a contour map that describes the information difference between the location of a target and a specified point. Furthermore, an analytical result for the optimal heading of a given constant speed sensor is derived based on the the properties of statistical manifolds.
Low-density parity-check coded modulation using multiple signal maps and symbol decoding

This paper introduces a multiple signal mapped LDPC-BICM that enhances performance by combining coding and modulation similar to trellis coded modulations. Furthermore, a symbol decoding of LDPC-BICM is introduced, which directly uses the symbol metric. With the symbol decoding, an LDPC-BICM system can take the advantage of non-Gray constellation mappings. Simulation results are presented to show that the mixed non-Gray and Gray mapped LDPC-BICM with symbol decoding outperforms the conventional single Gray mapped LDPC-BICM with bit decoding by at least 0.2 dB.
An Efficient Approach to Higher Dimensional Data Clustering

Conventional clustering algorithms are not so efficient on higher dimensional data due to the problem of dimensionality curse. To address this issue searching for clusters in appropriate subspaces is performed. But searching all possible subspaces is exhaustive. In this paper we propose an efficient approach to effectively find the relevant subspaces in high dimensional data and apply clustering in those subspaces. Experiments are conducted on real and synthetic data sets and compared with other approaches and our approach is able to return good clustering results.
Effect of DPP-4 inhibitor sitagliptin against ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in hyperlipidemic animals

Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors such as sitagliptin are a class of oral anti-diabetic drugs with secondary pleiotropic effects on metabolic and cardiovascular parameters. This study aimed to determine the possible cardioprotective effects of sitagliptin on ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in animals kept on high-fat diet. Male Wistar rats were fed with high-fat diet (HF) for 12 weeks, to induce hyperlipidemia. During the last two weeks of the feeding period, animals were orally treated with different doses of sitagliptin (Sitg: 25, 50, 100, and 150 mg/kg/day), or saline as a control. Heart tissues were then isolated and subjected to two different I/R-injury protocols for infarct size (IS) measurement and biochemical analysis. To test the role of NOS enzyme, NOS inhibitor (L-NAME) was injected intraperitoneally for IS evaluation. As an effective dose, Sitg (50 mg) exhibited a significant impact on IS. NOS activity increased significantly in the Sitg (50 mg) treated groups; however this protective effect was abolished in the presence of L-NAME. The protective effect of Sitg that was mediated by TRP channels in our previous study on normolipidemic animals was abrogated in animals fed with high-fat diet.
Differential Privacy in Practice

We briefly review the problem of statistical disclosure control under differential privacy model, which entails a formal and ad omnia privacy guarantee separating the utility of the database and the risk due to individual participation. It has born fruitful results over the past ten years, both in theoretical connections to other fields and in practical applications to real-life datasets. Promises of differential privacy help to relieve concerns of privacy loss, which hinder the release of community-valuable data. This paper covers main ideas behind differential privacy, its interactive versus non-interactive settings, perturbation mechanisms, and typical applications found in recent research.
To what extent does the large temporal variability in Irish precipitation mask underlying trends

A pertinent question about precipitation trends is how to distinguish a climate change signal from natural variability. This is particularly important for Ireland where, in addition to the high spatial variability, precipitation also has a high level of temporal variability. Future precipitation projections for Ireland are highly uncertain due to conflicting results from climate models. Due to this, using an observation-derived dataset we determined the magnitude of the changes in the spatially-averaged precipitation over Ireland that need to occur, and the length of the record that needs to be available, to separate an externally forced anthropogenic change from changes due to natural variability. We used a 71-year (1942-2012) 1km gridded dataset, derived from precipitation observations over Ireland, to generate a de-trended dataset of annual average precipitation for the country. Using this data, we then created artificial time series of annual precipitation of varying length in terms of years. These datasets had the same underlying natural variability as the original dataset but in addition to this we applied predefined external forcings. We then used statistical testing to determine the minimum length of the time series of annual precipitation and the magnitude of the external forcing required to separate the external trend from the natural variability with statistical confidence. We examined trends in annual, Boreal summer and Boreal winter precipitation using the Mann-Kendall test. For example, in the case of annual precipitation we found that an increase of at least 20% over a period of 30 years (for a monotonically increasing external forcing of 20%) was the minimum needed for the result to be statistically significant at the p<0.1 level. The number of years required to statistically decouple external from natural forcings increases by a factor of 3 or 4 when the external forcing is applied non-montonically, and also when the results are considered by season
Urban agricultural land use and characterization of mosquito larval habitats in a medium-sized town of Côte d'Ivoire

ABSTRACT Urban agriculture is common across Africa and contributes to the livelihoods of urban dwellers. Some crop systems create suitable mosquito breeding sites and thus might affect malaria transmission. The purpose of this study was to identify, map, and characterize potential mosquito breeding sites in agricultural land use zones in a medium-sized town of western Côte d'Ivoire and to assess risk factors for productive Anopheles breeding sites. Two surveys were carried out; one toward the end of the rainy season and the second one during the dry season. In all identified potential mosquito breeding sites, two experienced entomologists searched for the presence of Anopheles larvae and pupae with a standardized technique. Totals of 369 and 589 sites were found in the rainy and dry seasons, respectively, mainly in vegetable gardens and irrigated rice fields. Anopheles larvae were present in 50.7% and 42.4% of the sites investigated during the rainy and dry seasons, respectively. Typical Anopheles larval habitats were characterized by the presence of algae, the absence of floating vegetation, and the co-occurrence of Culex larvae. The highest Anopheles larval productivity was observed in rice paddies, agricultural trenches between vegetable patches, and irrigation wells. An indirect link could be established between the occurrence of productive Anopheles breeding sites and agricultural land use through specific man-made habitats, in particular agricultural trenches, irrigation wells, and rice paddies. Our findings have important bearings for the epidemiology and control of urban malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
Loss of Apelin Exacerbates Myocardial Infarction Adverse Remodeling and Ischemia‐reperfusion Injury: Therapeutic Potential of Synthetic Apelin Analogues

Background Coronary artery disease leading to myocardial ischemia is the most common cause of heart failure. Apelin (APLN), the endogenous peptide ligand of the APJ receptor, has emerged as a novel regulator of the cardiovascular system. Methods and Results Here we show a critical role of APLN in myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemia‐reperfusion (IR) injury in patients and animal models. Myocardial APLN levels were reduced in patients with ischemic heart failure. Loss of APLN increased MI‐related mortality, infarct size, and inflammation with drastic reductions in prosurvival pathways resulting in greater systolic dysfunction and heart failure. APLN deficiency decreased vascular sprouting, impaired sprouting of human endothelial progenitor cells, and compromised in vivo myocardial angiogenesis. Lack of APLN enhanced susceptibility to ischemic injury and compromised functional recovery following ex vivo and in vivo IR injury. We designed and synthesized two novel APLN analogues resistant to angiotensin converting enzyme 2 cleavage and identified one analogue, which mimicked the function of APLN, to be markedly protective against ex vivo and in vivo myocardial IR injury linked to greater activation of survival pathways and promotion of angiogenesis. Conclusions APLN is a critical regulator of the myocardial response to infarction and ischemia and pharmacologically targeting this pathway is feasible and represents a new class of potential therapeutic agents.
Innovation managériale… ou pas ? Design d'une méthodologie d'analyse critique des objets de management

Depuis plus d’une decennie maintenant, la thematique de l’innovation manageriale est l’objet d’une attention croissante. La litterature a identifie les enjeux associes a chaque phase du cycle de vie des objets de management innovant (emergence, adoption, diffusion, etc.), les antecedents de l’innovation manageriale ou encore les liens entre differentes variables de la performance et l’innovation en management. Une revue de la litterature aide a identifier les deux dimensions sur lesquelles il est possible de qualifier les ruptures constitutives d’une innovation manageriale. L’une, fondee sur le caractere relatif de l’innovation manageriale (relatif au contexte organisationnel), conduit a localiser l’innovation manageriale au cœur de l’organisation qu’elle sert. L’autre, fondee sur le caractere absolu de l’innovation manageriale (par rapport a l’etat de l’art), conduit a sortir l’innovation de son contexte organisationnel et a en observer les singularites conceptuelles. Detecter, analyser, qualifier l’innovation manageriale requiert des methodologies de reperages et de caracterisation critique de ces objets. Celles-ci n’ont, a notre connaissance, jamais ete identifiees ou discutees. Ces methodes devraient servir a etablir la nature innovante de l’objet de management presume innovant. La presente contribution propose une approche methodologique pour qualifier et caracteriser la nature des innovations manageriales. Elle s’appuie sur une distinction des ruptures contextuelle et conceptuelle mises en evidence par la revue de litterature sur les innovations manageriales. La methodologie proposee, supportee par une representation ensembliste des caracteristiques des objets de management presumes innovants, conduit a identifier des « zones de singularite » : zone de singularite contextuelle, zone de singularite conceptuelle, ou zone de singularite radicale. Par ailleurs, la methodologie propose de decaler l’analyse d’un objet de management en changeant de filtre lie a son domaine d’usage pour faire apparaitre des zones de singularite derivees. Deux cas ont ete utilises pour tester la valeur de cette proposition methodologique et des concepts qui l’accompagnent : le cas du management sans objectifs mis en place dans une mutuelle d’assurance francaise (que nous nommerons MA) et celui des Cafes Numeriques concus et mobilises chez Orange, groupe de telecommunications francais.
THE EFFECT OF RAPAMYCIN ON KIDNEY FUNCTION IN THE SPRAGUE‐DAWLEY RAT

The effects of rapamycin (RAPA) on kidney function and histology were investigated in the Sprague-Dawley rat and compared with cyclosporine. Drugs were administered orally in a Cremophor-ethanol formulation for 14 days in two separate studies. RAPA, at 1 mg/kg, had no effect either functionally or histologically on the kidney. At 10 mg/kg, RAPA depressed the gain in body weight by 20% in the rat but had only minor functional disturbances on urine output, plasma creatinine, and creatinine clearance in the kidney. It did not induce any histomorphologic abnormalities. CsA, at 25 mg/kg, produced functional alterations in the kidney including elevated plasma creatinine and depressed clearance of creatinine as well as depressed body weight gain (17%). Histologically, CsA induced proximal tubule damage. These results demonstrate that RAPA (10 mg/kg) does not produce nephrotoxicity in the Sprague-Dawley rat at doses three times higher than its effective immunosuppressive doses established in the rat.
Exploration and virtual camera control in virtual three dimensional environments

This paper evaluates three distinct metaphors for exploration and virtual camera control in virtual environments using a six degree of freedom input device. The metaphors are "eyeball in hand", "scene in hand", and "flying vehicle control". These metaphors have been implemented and evaluated using an IRIS workstation and a Polhemus 3Space. The system has the capability to record the motion path followed during an exploration session and this can be recorded and played back to create a movie. Evaluation is through intensive structured interview sessions wherein subjects are required to complete a number of tasks involving three different "toy" environments. None of the metaphors is judged the best in all situations, rather the different metaphors each have advantages and disadvantages depending on the particular task. For example, "scene in hand" is judged to be good for manipulating closed objects, but is not good for moving through an interior; whereas "flying vehicle control" is judged the best for navigating through the interior, but is poor for moving around a closed object.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Tractography in Epilepsy Surgery Candidates

In selected patients with medically refractory epilepsy, surgical treatment can render the patients seizure free or significantly reduce seizure frequency. Temporal lobe resection (TLR) for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most commonly performed epilepsy surgery procedure. A visual field defect (VFD) due to injury to the optic radiation (OR) may occur after TLR. DTI-based tractography (TG) can be used to visualize white matter tracts such as the OR non-invasively. DTI evaluates the structural integrity of brain tissue by measuring water diffusion and provides information on the directionality and magnitude of diffusion motion and can be used to assess the effects of seizures on the brain parenchyma. First, we evaluated the frequency of VFD after TLR in patients with TLE and investigated if the extent of lateral TLR correlated with the frequency of VFD in 50 patients. We found that quadrantanopia due to injury to the OR occurred in 50% of patients and that there was no association between the extent of lateral resection and VFD. The second aim was to use TG to assess the anatomical location of the OR and the interindividual variability in the anterior extent of the OR. The OR was assessed in seven normal controls and two patients with previous TLR. TG could depict the OR in all cases and demonstrated a considerable variability in the anterior extent of the OR. The mean distance from the temporal pole to the anterior edge of Meyer s loop was 44 mm bilaterally (range 34-51 mm). TG demonstrated a disruption of the tract depicting Meyer s loop in one patient with quadrantanopia. Next, we used DTI to study the effects of seizures on the diffusion properties in temporal lobe and cingulate gyrus white matter in eight children with TLE. We found bilateral changes in the diffusion properties which may reflect effects of frequent seizures on the white matter. The presence of bilateral alterations in diffusivity precluded seizure lateralization. Finally, we used DTI and TG to quantitatively assess the structural integrity of white matter tracts adjacent to low-grade brain tumors causing seizures in 11 children. We found preserved structural integrity of the white matter as indicated by preserved DTI indices of the white matter adjacent to the tumor and also displacement of the white matter tracts adjacent to the tumor in 10/11 children. TG provides a non-invasive means of evaluating the major white matter tracts which is important for presurgical planning to improve and individualize the preoperative risk analysis and prevent neurological deficits. However, limitations of the technique must be considered before it is used routinely and prospective studies using TG to assess the OR in TLE patients before TLR are needed to determine its clinical value. DTI may contribute to the multimodal evaluation in medically refractory epilepsy with information on the effects of focal seizures on the brain. However, longitudinal studies are needed to clarify these effects in more detail and to decide if this information may be useful to guide selection of epilepsy surgery candidates.
Optimal Replica Placement under TTL-Based Consistency

Geographically replicating popular objects in the Internet speeds up content distribution at the cost of keeping the replicas consistent and up-to-date. The overall effectiveness of replication can be measured by the total communication cost consisting of client accesses and consistency management, both of which depend on the locations of the replicas. This paper investigates the problem of placing replicas under the widely used TTL-based consistency scheme. A polynomial-time algorithm is proposed to compute the optimal placement of a given number of replicas in a network. The new replica placement scheme is compared, using real Internet topologies and Web traces, against two existing approaches which do not consider consistency management or assume invalidation-based consistency scheme. The factors affecting their performance are identified and discussed