Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using AIRS and IASI data to evaluate absolute radiometric accuracy and stability for climate applications

The creation of multi-decadal data sets for climate research requires better than 100 mK absolute calibration accuracy for the full range of spectral temperatures encountered under global conditions. Validation that this accuracy is achieved by the operational hyperspectral sounders from polar orbit is facilitated by comparing data from two instruments. Extreme radiometric calibration stability is critical to allow a long time series of noisy, but presumably long-term accurate truth measurements to be used for the validation of absolute accuracy at the 100 mK level. We use the RTGSST in the tropical oceans as ground truth. The difference between the AIRS derived sst2616 and the RTGSST based on six years of data shows a systematic cold bias of about 250 mK, but better than 4 mK/year stability. The double difference between AIRS and the RTGSST and IASI and the RTGSST with less than one year of data already allows statements at the 100 mK absolute level. It shows a 60 mK difference between the AIRS and the IASI calibration at 2616 cm-1 and 300 K, with a statistically insignificant 20 mK shift in six months.
Load Balancing Based on the Specific Offset of Handover

Load Balancing technology in mobile wireless communication networks has been discussed largely. The current Load balancing algorithms have mainly adjusted the handover parameters without considering the inherent relationship of the handover parameters. In the paper, by considering the internal relationship of specific offset of handover, the constraint of the specific offser of handover was simplified, so the process of mobility load balancing algorithm was improved. With the improved mobile load balancing algorithm, the number of handover parameters was reduced and the signal process was simplified. Simulation results showed that the congestion rate was reduced, the resource utilization rate was improved and the Qos was improved.
A Study on Energy Efficient Communication Protocol in Wireless Sensor Network

A wireless sensor network (WSN) having less cost, less power, small in size and multifunctional sensor node. Routing protocols in WSNs highlight on limited battery power, limited transmission range as well as processing and storage capabilities. The most important thing of a routing protocol, in order to be efficient for WSNs, is the energy consumption and the extension of the network's life time. Routing protocols in WSNs are also application specific which will led to the development of a verity of protocols. Based on the underlying network structure, routing protocols can be classified into three categories:data-centric, hierarchical and location based routing.WSN has design trade-off between energy and communication over-head which is backbone of the routing technique, Further Cluster Head Routing (CHR) uses clustering, which include partitioning stage and then choosing stage, namely partitions the multi-hop network and then chooses cluster-heads: cluster-head is responsible for receiving, sending and maintaining information in its cluster.Then all cluster forming a rapid spanning tree to prolong network lifetime, save energy and shorten path.
A young person's game: Immersion and distancing in bar work

Previous research indicates that bar workers report high levels of alcohol consumption, but the bar work experience itself has been little studied as a means to understand health threats associated with this job role. The subjective experience and meaning of bar work was explored in this study by interviewing current and ex-bar workers from a district in an Irish city that had a high density of bars and busy tourism industry. A total of 12 participants took part in focus groups (FGs) and seven in individual interviews. Four themes were identified in a thematic analysis. The central depiction of bar work was of an initial immersion in an intensive lifestyle characterised by heavy drinking, with subsequent distancing from the extremes of the lifestyle. The participants affiliated strongly with the bar work occupational identity, which included alcohol use in group scenarios for drinking during work, after work and on time off. The bar work lifestyle was most intense in the ‘superpub’ environment, characterised by permissive staff drinking norms and reported stress. Although an important identity, bar work was ultimately a transient role. The findings are considered in relation to research on occupation-specific stress and alcohol use, social identity and developmental needs in young adulthood.
Simultaneous information and power transfer for relay-assisted cognitive radio networks

Simultaneous information and power transfer (SIPT) potentially offers great convenience to prolong the lifetime of energy-constrained nodes in wireless networks. Moreover, the integration of cognitive radio and relay transmission has emerged as a powerful technique for improving spectrum utilization and enhancing throughput. In this paper, we consider a cognitive amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying network, where the relay secondary user (SU) forwards the source information to the destination with the energy harvested from the radio-frequency (RF) signal, aiming at maximizing the throughput by a deadline of N slots. Supported by a proposed SIPT-enabled cognitive relay architecture, our problem is formulated and approximated with its upper bound. A suboptimal joint management algorithm based on the solution of the upper bound is developed, whose superiority is validated through numerical simulations. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm performs closely to the optimal solution, and yields a significant gain compared to the separate management algorithm.
Diverging trends in female old-age mortality: A reappraisal

Over the second half of the 20th century a number of divergences and convergences of mortality schedules were observed across the world. Some of these developments remain incompletely understood. In recent overviews of old-age female mortality Mesle and Vallin (2006, Population and Development Review) and Rau, Soroko, Jasilionis, and Vaupel (2008, Population and Development Review) describe two contrasting patterns of mortality change between the mid-1980s and the end of the 20th century: a pattern of a large decrease in mortality exhibited by France and Japan and a pattern of a smaller decrease, stability or a certain increase in mortality shown by Denmark, the United States and the Netherlands. No satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon has been proposed so far. This paper shows that the divergence is, to a very significant extent, due to the differential impact of smoking related mortality on female populations of France and Japan versus Denmark, the United States and the Netherlands. The end to the diverging trends is demonstrated. Other lifestyle factors potentially implicated in the divergence are also discussed.
Guide to Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) Definition and Considerations

This document provides Federal agencies with a definition of attribute based access control (ABAC). ABAC is a logical access control methodology where authorization to perform a set of operations is determined by evaluating attributes associated with the subject, object, requested operations, and, in some cases, environment conditions against policy, rules, or relationships that describe the allowable operations for a given set of attributes. This document also provides considerations for using ABAC to improve information sharing within organizations and between organizations while maintaining control of that information.
Designing area-efficient controllers for multi-cycle transient fault tolerant systems

This paper discusses a controller design in high-level synthesis to tolerate multi-cycle transient faults under the situation where its datapath has the ability of tolerating such faults. It focuses especially on the control signal generator (or output logic) that is a component of the controller feeding control signals to the datapath in a controller-datapath system, and presents a method of controller synthesis that leverages the error correction/detection ability of the datapath. Experimental results show that the proposed method can synthesize fault tolerant controllers with small area overhead compared with the conventional method based on triple modular redundancy (TMR).
Central venous catheter infections at a county hospital in Sweden: a prospective analysis of colonization, incidence of infection and risk factors

Background: Catheter‐related infection (CRI) is one of the most serious complications of the use of central venous catheters (CVCs), with an incidence of 2–30/1000 days in different studies. No major prospective study has evaluated the rate of CRI in Scandinavia. Since 1999, we have had a thorough programme for the insertion and care of all CVCs used at our hospital and its outpatient clinics. The purpose of this survey was to study the incidence of catheter tip colonization and CRI and their risk factors, and to compare these data with previous non‐Scandinavian studies.
Reduction of uric acid levels with allopurinol treatment improves endothelial function in patients with chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND Endothelial dysfunction (ED) is a key event in the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Association of hyperuricemia with CVD has been previously reported in the nonuremic population. In this prospective study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of treatment of hyperuricemia with allopurinol on ED and changes in the serum reactive oxygen species in patients with CKD. METHODS In this study, 19 (13 male) hyperuricemic (UA > 7 mg/dl) nondiabetic CKD patients without any comorbidity, aged < 60 years with creatinine clearance (CrCl) between 20 and 60 ml/min were evaluated. Endothelial functions were assessed by ischemia-induced forearm vasodilatation method (EDD). Oxidative stress was evaluated by measuring the serum oxidized LDL (ox-LDL), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) and nitrotyrosine (NT) levels. After measuring all these tests at baseline, allopurinol therapy was commenced for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks of allopurinol treatment, all measurements were repeated. Then, allopurinol treatment was ceased and same measurements were also repeated 8 weeks after ceasing of the treatment. RESULTS Serum creatinine, total cholesterol, albumin, hs-CRP, CrCl and proteinuria levels of the patients were similar among three study periods. After allopurinol therapy, the mean serum UA and NT levels significantly reduced as compared to baseline. At the 8th week after cessation of allopurinol treatment, serum UA levels were significantly increased. After allopurinol therapy, EDD value increased from 5.42 ± 8.3% at baseline to 11.37 ± 9% (p < 0.001). At the 8th week after ceasing allopurinol treatment, EDD returned to baseline values (5.96 ± 8%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION Treatment of hyperuricemia with allopurinol improve ED in patients with CKD. However, mechanism responsible for this beneficial effect seems to be apart from antioxidant effects of allopurinol.
Emerging smart metering trends and integration at MV-LV level

The energy policies and environmental issues require novel solutions to generate electricity in a challenging and efficient way. The sustainable and reliable grid operations are related to demand management as well as generation. One of the most important requirements to build smarter grids is including smart metering to the power system. The smart grid is not only considered to provide essential energy infrastructure but also a key concept to increase the energy efficiency owing to control and management opportunities brought by communication features. The prominent technologies of smart meters enable operational equipment on the distribution network in addition to conventional metering operations. The load management approach that is defined with several terms as demand side management, demand side response, or demand control is required for the systematic management of loads on distribution networks. There is a wide variety of smart meters and operation structures are available in industry. The automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) are the most widely known smart metering infrastructure. Although they are similar in many aspects, they differ in communication and metering processes. The network structures and gateway organisations used in smart metering will also be discussed in this presentation. Another outstanding device that is being widely integrated into the transmission and distribution networks is Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). Although the PMUs are operated in wide networks of transmission lines, it is considered that they will be required to be used in medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) in a short while. The contents of this presentation will cover the topics summarized above and their industrial and scientific application examples.
Planning for Future Leadership: Procedural Rationality, Formalized Succession Processes, and CEO Influence in CEO Succession Planning

Despite substantive organizational ramifications, surprisingly little theory explains executive succession planning processes. A firm’s board of directors has the fiduciary responsibility to select CEOs, but, historically, boards have failed to exercise this authority. Increasing focus on corporate governance has prompted directors to become more engaged in organizational management, but boards face significant barriers to gathering and processing information. However, there is a dearth of research examining how boards overcome informational barriers to enhance decision-making effectiveness. Accordingly, the current study integrates procedural rationality in decision-making with research on boards as information-processing groups to explore how and why boards conduct succession planning processes. Procedural rationality results in formalized processes designed to collect essential information about CEO succession candidates; these processes, in turn, lead to a greater quantity and quality of CEO successio.
Ultrawideband MIMO/diversity antenna using CSRR structure for isolation enhancement

A novel compact ultra-wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna (of two elements) is proposed. Two circular radiating elements are arrange perpendicularly to reduce mutual coupling. By inserting a complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) in the ground plane, high isolation between two ports is further enhanced. Measured results show the proposed antenna has a wide impedance bandwidth from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz and good isolation (better than -20 dB at most of the band). Due to these highly desirable characteristics, the MIMO antenna is expected to be a good candidate for UWB application.
The ethics of automated behavioral microtargeting

One day AM woke up and knew who he was, and he linked himself, and he began feeding all the killing data, until everyone was dead, except for the five of us, and AM brought us down here. <i>I</i> was the only one still sane and whole. <i>Really! </i> AM had not tampered with my mind. <i>Not at all. </i> <i>I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream</i> <b>Ellison</b> (<b>1967</b>)
Large‐scale degradation of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems

Hydrological connectivity regulates the structure and function of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems and the provisioning of services that sustain local populations. This connectivity is increasingly being disrupted by the construction of dams, mining, land‐cover changes, and global climate change. This review analyzes these drivers of degradation, evaluates their impacts on hydrological connectivity, and identifies policy deficiencies that hinder freshwater ecosystem protection. There are 154 large hydroelectric dams in operation today, and 21 dams under construction. The current trajectory of dam construction will leave only three free‐flowing tributaries in the next few decades if all 277 planned dams are completed. Land‐cover changes driven by mining, dam and road construction, agriculture and cattle ranching have already affected ~20% of the Basin and up to ~50% of riparian forests in some regions. Global climate change will likely exacerbate these impacts by creating warmer and dryer conditions, with less predictable rainfall and more extreme events (e.g., droughts and floods). The resulting hydrological alterations are rapidly degrading freshwater ecosystems, both independently and via complex feedbacks and synergistic interactions. The ecosystem impacts include biodiversity loss, warmer stream temperatures, stronger and more frequent floodplain fires, and changes to biogeochemical cycles, transport of organic and inorganic materials, and freshwater community structure and function. The impacts also include reductions in water quality, fish yields, and availability of water for navigation, power generation, and human use. This degradation of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems cannot be curbed presently because existing policies are inconsistent across the Basin, ignore cumulative effects, and overlook the hydrological connectivity of freshwater ecosystems. Maintaining the integrity of these freshwater ecosystems requires a basinwide research and policy framework to understand and manage hydrological connectivity across multiple spatial scales and jurisdictional boundaries.
Radial approach to day case intervention in coronary artery lesions (RADICAL): a single centre safety and feasibility study

Transradial arterial access for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is increasing in popularity. Its advantages are a significant reduction of vascular complications at the access site and immediate mobilisation.1 Same day discharge following transradial PCI is therefore possible and we report our initial experience with a consecutive group of 150 patients treated in a regional cardiac centre over a period of 21 months. Patients listed for elective PCI were initially selected for potential day case PCI on clinical (Canadian Cardiovascular Society class I–III) and angiographic criteria (complex lesions in degenerated saphenous vein grafts at risk of producing distal embolisation, bifurcation lesions involving a significant side branch of more than 2 mm diameter, and unprotected left main stem stenosis were excluded) by the consultant cardiologist (DHR). During further assessment in the pre-admission stage patients were excluded on clinical (excessive co-morbidity) and social (no carer available at home on the night of the procedure) criteria. A non-ischaemic Allen’s test was required, ensuring adequate ulnar collateral supply. All patients were prescribed aspirin 300 mg and clopidogrel 300 mg in the pre-admission clinic and were instructed to take them on the evening before the procedure. PCI (2–3 cases) was performed in a morning session by one consultant and a supervised specialist registrar as first or second operator. Following successful radial puncture, intra-arterial drugs were administered to prevent radial spasm (200 μg of glyceryl trinitrate and 2.5 mg verapamil) followed by the insertion of a Cook 6 French, 23 cm hydrophilic sheath. Intravenous heparin (70 units/kg) was routinely administered. Guide catheter selection was similar to the femoral approach with a half French size reduction in …
Stock exchange brands as an influence on investor behavior

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of stock exchange-related brand equity on intention to invest and the mediating role of perceived risk (PR) in this relationship in a comparative analysis between a developed and a developing market. Design/methodology/approach The study is carried out through an online survey among financially literate adults in two countries, Turkey and Ireland. Structural equation modeling is used to empirically test the relationships between brand equity dimensions and intention to invest, with a mediating role of PR. Findings The results indicate that the brand equity of a stock exchange is a relevant construct that significantly influences intention to invest. Also, the mediating role of PR is found to be strong in a developing market such as Turkey, but weak in a developed market like Ireland. Research limitations/implications One limitation of this paper is its inclusion of individual investors as the unit of analysis while leaving out institutional ones. The second limitation is the difficulty in generalizing the results to overall country populations. Practical implications This paper offers managerial implications regarding the need for emphasizing “stock exchange brand,” besides corporate brands traded, and customizing the management of brand-related influencers in investment decisions according to country context. Originality/value The impact of corporate brands in investment choices has been demonstrated before, but the influence of intermediaries – stock exchanges – through which investments are transacted, has not yet been investigated. This study addresses this gap, and further shows the differing extent of PR in this relationship between a developed and a developing country setting.
Mobility Analysis and Management for Heterogeneous Networks

OF THE DISSERTATION MOBILITY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT FOR HETEROGENEOUS NETWORKS by Karthik Vasudeva Florida International University, 2017 Miami, Florida Professor İsmail Güvenç, Major Professor The global mobile data traffic has increased tremendously in the last decade due to the technological advancement in smartphones. Their endless usage and bandwidthintensive applications will saturate current 4G technologies and has motivated the need for concrete research in order to sustain the mounting data traffic demand. In this regard, the network densification has shown to be a promising direction to cope with the capacity demands in future 5G wireless networks. The basic idea is to deploy several low power radio access nodes called small cells closer to the users on the existing large radio foot print of macrocells, and this constitutes a heterogeneous network (HetNet). However, there are many challenges that operators face with the dense HetNet deployment. The mobility management becomes a challenging task due to triggering of frequent handovers when a user moves across the network coverage areas. When there are fewer users associated in certain small cells, this can lead to significant increase in the energy consumption. Intelligently switching them to low energy consumption modes or turning them off without seriously degrading user performance is desirable in order to improve the energy savings in HetNets. This dynamic power level switching in the small cells, however, may cause unnecessary handovers, and it becomes important to ensure energy savings without compromising handover per-