Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduced-complexity decoding of low density parity check codes for generalized partial response channels

The performance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes serially concatenated with generalized partial response channels is investigated. Various soft-input/soft-output detection schemes suitable for use in iterative detection/decoding systems are described. A low-complexity near-optimal detection algorithm that incorporates soft-input reliability information and generates soft-output reliability information is presented. A reduced-complexity algorithm for decoding LDPC codes is described. Simulation results on the performance of high-rate LDPC codes on generalized PR channels at various recording densities are presented. These results indicate that a judicious selection of the inner detector target polynomial and the choice of a good LDPC code are important in optimizing the performance of the overall recording system. Furthermore, the results also show that iterative detection/decoding schemes using LDPC codes can outperform hard-decision decoding of Reed-Solomon codes by over 2 dB at a sector error rate of 10/sup -3/.
A Simple Model for the Pacific Cold Tongue and ENSO *

A conceptual model is constructed based upon the Bjerknes hypothesis of tropical atmosphere–ocean interaction. It is shown that strong feedbacks among the trade winds, equatorial zonal sea surface temperature contrast, and upper-ocean heat content occur in the tropical Pacific basin. Coupled atmosphere–ocean dynamics produce both the strong Pacific cold-tongue climate state and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. The cold-tongue climate state is unstable and gives rise to the self-sustained ENSO, which can be understood as an equatorial ocean recharge oscillator. The small basin size and the influence of a wind system resulting from heating sources of its adjacent landmasses are responsible for a weak and stable Atlantic cold-tongue state that cannot support ENSO-like interannual variability. The presence of westerly wind associated with the Walker circulation ascending at the western Pacific warm pool disables the dynamical coupling processes in the equatorial Indian Ocean. As a result, the equatorial Indian Ocean maintains a stable warm climate state. The conceptual coupled model reproduces the basic features of the climate states of the tropical Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean basins and the dominant interannual climate variability of the tropical climate system.
Oligomerization and phosphorylation of the Ire1p kinase during intracellular signaling from the endoplasmic reticulum to the nucleus.

The transmembrane kinase Ire1p is required for activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR), the increase in transcription of genes encoding endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident proteins that occurs in response to the accumulation of unfolded proteins in the ER. Ire1p spans the ER membrane (or the nuclear membrane with which the ER is continuous), with its kinase domain localized in the cytoplasm or in the nucleus. Consistent with this arrangement, it has been proposed that Ire1p senses the accumulation of unfolded proteins in the ER and transmits the signal across the membrane toward the transcription machinery, possibly by phosphorylating downstream components of the UPR pathway. Molecular genetic and biochemical studies described here suggest that, as in the case of growth factor receptors of higher eukaryotic cells, Ire1p oligomerizes in response to the accumulation of unfolded proteins in the ER and is phosphorylated in trans by other Ire1p molecules as a result of oligomerization. In addition to its kinase domain, a C‐terminal tail domain of Ire1p is required for induction of the UPR. The role of the tail is probably to bind other proteins that transmit the unfolded protein signal to the nucleus.
Tuberculosis Management by Private Practitioners in Mumbai, India: Has Anything Changed in Two Decades?

Setting Mumbai, India. A study conducted in Mumbai two decades ago revealed the extent of inappropriate tuberculosis (TB) management practices of private practitioners. Over the years, India's national TB programme has made significant progress in TB control. Efforts to engage private practitioners have also been made with several successful documented public-private mix initiatives in place. Objective To study prescribing practices of private practitioners in the treatment of tuberculosis, two decades after a similar study conducted in the same geographical area revealed dismal results. Methods Survey questionnaire administered to practicing general practitioners attending a continuing medical education programme. Results The participating practitioners had never been approached or oriented by the local TB programme. Only 6 of the 106 respondents wrote a prescription with a correct drug regimen. 106 doctors prescribed 63 different drug regimens. There was tendency to over treat with more drugs for longer durations. Only 3 of the 106 respondents could write an appropriate prescription for treatment of multidrug-resistant TB. Conclusions With a vast majority of private practitioners unable to provide a correct prescription for treating TB and not approached by the national TB programme, little seems to have changed over the years. Strategies to control TB through public sector health services will have little impact if inappropriate management of TB patients in private clinics continues unabated. Large scale implementation of public-private mix approaches should be a top priority for the programme. Ignoring the private sector could worsen the epidemic of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of TB.
An analysis of socio-cultural congruence and its impact on diverse student cohorts in an engineering context

Increasing numbers of ‘non-traditional’ students are enrolling in engineering. They include students from low socio economic status backgrounds or a rural upbringing, those who are mature age or first in their family to attend university, and those studying part-time and from a distance. They have varying levels of academic preparation and study skills, often coupled with significant additional personal and work commitments and pressures to be balanced with their studies. It is often assumed that if students have the ability, motivation and determination then they should be able to succeed at university regardless of their demographic backgrounds. However emerging data suggest that students must also master the academic culture; the norms, discourses and tacit expectations of academia. Academic success at university depends on the student understanding these unspoken requirements and being able to respond to them appropriately. Unlike most traditional students, many non-traditional students do not have the socio-cultural background to navigate their way through their studies adequately, and so they struggle. This social-constructivist research investigated the experiences of successful non-traditional engineering students. The dual aim of this research was to identify dispositions that enable these students to understand quickly and respond appropriately to academic culture in order to succeed in their studies and to identify institutional contexts which enable these dispositions to be successfully leveraged for academic success. A conceptual framework developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, using his concepts of habitus, field and capital, was applied within a case study methodology. A series of interviews triangulated with observations and survey data was employed in the investigation of the localised case. Nationally published qualitative and quantitative data were also collected and analysed in order to situate the case in the context of higher education is Australia. The resulting qualitative data was subjected to a thematic analysis using the constant comparative method and descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of the quantitative data. Improving our understanding of the key issues that influence positive and negative outcomes at university will inform the development of appropriate systems, programs and pedagogies to support more diverse, non-traditional student cohorts. The research concluded that consistent, high quality teaching and student support embedded throughout the curriculum of an engineering program is essential to optimising student academic performance. An institutional culture that is supportive of learning and teaching by disciplinary experts who have a student focus is essential to the implementation of effective student support strategies within the curriculum.
Connectivity based cognitive wireless network for disaster information network

Wireless LANs are very useful as disaster information networks because of their mobility, portability and easy installation. However, in the actual disaster case, electric power line is also damaged and those wireless LANs cannot be functioned. In this paper, we introduce a power saving cognitive wireless LANs for disaster use with combination of solar panel, wind turbine and battery, so that, the autonomous wireless network can be established and provide normal network functionality even through the other wired electric power and network are seriously damaged. Furthermore, by combining with multiple LANs with different transmission characteristics and selectively switching those, suitable communication environment can be provided even though the communication environment has been changed. Using combination of fixed and mobile cognitive networks, a large disaster communication network is organized. In this paper, we designed a wireless mobile network with currently available different wireless LANs and constructed a prototype system to evaluate the functional and performance.
Making standard ML a practical database programming language

Integrating a database query language into a programming language is becoming increasingly important in recently emerging high-level cloud computing and other applications, where efficient and sophisticated data manipulation is required during computation. This paper reports on seamless integration of SQL into SML# - an extension of Standard ML. In the integrated language, the type system always infers a principal type for any type consistent SQL expression. This makes SQL queries first-class citizens, which can be freely combined with any other language constructs definable in Standard ML. For a program involving SQL queries, the compiler separates SQL queries and delegates their evaluation to a database server, e.g. PostgreSQL or MySQL in the currently implemented version. The type system of our language is largely based on Machiavelli, which demonstrates that ML with record polymorphism can represent type structure of SQL. In order to develop a practical language, however, a number of technical challenges have to be overcome, including static enforcement of server connection consistency, proper treatment of overloaded SQL primitives, query compilation, and runtime connection management. This paper describes the necessary extensions to the type system and compilation, and reports on the details of its implementation.
Analysis and Design of a Novel Low-Loss Hollow Substrate Integrated Waveguide

In this paper, a novel hollow substrate integrated waveguide (HSIW) is presented for realizing low-loss millimeter-wave (mm-wave) transmission lines embedded in multi-chip modules. A new analysis method for the HSIW is proposed by treating it as a combination of a two-dielectric loaded rectangular waveguide (RWG) and standard substrate integrated waveguide, where an effective dielectric constant, εe, is introduced. An HSIW prototype in the Ka-band is fabricated using a progressive-lamination low-temperature co-fired ceramic technique. The measured results agree well with theoretical calculations and simulations. An average of 0.009-dB/mm loss is achieved in Ka-band, which is comparable to an air-filled RWG. This shows that the technique has great potential for further development to realize highly integrated mm-wave modules.
The Mediating Role of Artefacts in Deductive Reasoning

We present the results of an experiment designed to investigate the mediating role of artefacts in syllogistic reasoning. The aim of the experiment is to compare a new form of representation of the premises, designed according to the Models Theory, with two “classical” representations (Euler circles and Propositions). The results provide preliminary empirical evidence for both hypothesis of the experiment: ∞ the representation designed according to the principles of mental Models Theory supports the activity of subjects performing a syllogistic reasoning task better than the two “classical” representations; ∞ subjects’ performance depends also on the specific syllogism to be solved. Each form of representation offers specific constraints and affordances for the production of the mental models that need to be manipulated to produce an answer.
Face recognition using locality sparsity preserving projections

In this paper, we present a new and effective dimensionality reduction method called locality sparsity preserving projections (LSPP). Locality preserving projections (LPP) and sparsity preserving projections (SPP) only focus on an aspect of local structure and sparse reconstructive information of the dataset, respectively. The proposed method integrates the sparse reconstructive information and local structure of data. The projection of LSPP is sought such that the sparse reconstructive weights and local preserving weights can be best preserved and integrated. Extensive experiments on ORL, Yale, Yale B, AR and CMU PIE face databases show the effectiveness of the proposed LSPP.
A DRM System for Home Network Based on RBAC and License Chain

The purpose of DRM (Digital Rights Management) is to prevent from the illegal copy and distribution of digital contents. DRM technology could be used in home network, but in many situations, different users need different access rights to DRM contents in home network. The paper presented a DRM system for home network based on RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) and license chain. A DRM functional architecture for home network was shown, then the partition of roles and permissions for home network was made based on RBAC. Moreover, the working process of the system was put forward, and the system analysis was made. Finally, a conclusion was drawn and the future work was addressed.
Charities’ perceptions of open access to medical research: A situational analysis

This poster outlines the methodology and preliminary results of a study exploring medical charities’ perceptions of open access to scholarly research. It is part of a wider project investigating the use of OA research in different non-academic contexts, and it is based on analysis of eight semistructured interviews conducted with staff members in medical charities. Interviews were analyzed using Situational Analysis, a form of constructivist grounded theory developed by Adele Clarke. Preliminary results are presented, including the expertise and insider knowledge which medical charity staff use to get access to paywalled research, the values and risks (to different social groups) perceived in making research open access, and the different discursive constructions of the ‘non-academic’ user who wishes to access research. The study contributes to a small, but growing body of research exploring the potential value of open access outside academia.
A Pilot Study: The relationship of hope and anxiety in graduate-level counseling students anticipating taking a tests and measurements course.

The ability of comprehend test-based assessments implies careful training and the question arises ofthe dynamics of the tests and measurements course which are required for masters level counselingstudents. Research has focused thoroughly on education and training in psychological assessmentsaddressing issues such as how students ought to be trained in the area (Childs & Eyde, 1990),however little investigation has been done on how students perceive the tests and measurementscourse. While studies have shed light on the fact that often students themselves tend to question theadequacy of their training (Dempster, 1990; Hilsenroth & Handler, 1995), there is still lack in researchregarding the disposition of students prior to training.
Channel selection and seizure detection using a statistical approach

This paper proposes a novel patient-specific approach to channel selection and seizure detection based on estimating the histograms of multi-channel scalp electroencephalography (sEEG) signals. It consists of two main phases: training and testing. In the training phase, the signal is segmented into non-overlapping 10-second segments, with five histograms estimated for each segment. These histograms have multiple bins that are studied individually as random variables. Based on the histograms of these random variables for different signal activities and on predefined detection and false alarm probability thresholds, bin(s) are selected form certain channel distributions for seizure detection. In selecting the training hours, a leave-one-out cross-validation strategy is adopted. In the testing phase, those channel(s)-histogram(s)-bin(s) are used to classify each segment as ictal or non-ictal. This sequence is filtered with a moving average filter and compared to a patient-specific detection threshold. This method was evaluated using 309.9 h of sEEG including 26 seizures of five patients. It achieved an average sensitivity of 97.14% and an average specificity of 98.58%.
Visualization of Molecules with Positional Uncertainty

Designing new and better chemotherapeutic compounds requires an understanding of the mechanism by which the drugs exert their biological effects. This involves consideration of the geometry of the active site, determination of the geometry of the drug, and analysis of the fit between them. This problem of drug-substrate fit, often called the docking problem, can be greatly influenced by uncertainty in the position of drug side chains. Traditional molecular graphics techniques fail to capture the distribution of likely atom positions. This paper describes a range of techniques for showing atom positions as probability distributions that more completely describe parameters which determine fit.
Sex differences in the corpus callosum of the living human being

The sexual dimorphism of the corpus callosum has remained controversial since the original report by de Lacoste-Utamsing and Holloway in 1982, for several reasons: (1) measurements have been performed in a variety of ways in different laboratories, in part because published reports frequently do not describe the methodology in detail; (2) despite known age-related changes during both childhood and adulthood, no investigators have explicitly age-matched subjects; and (3) the size and shape of corpora callosa vary considerably among individuals, requiring large sample sizes to demonstrate significant sex differences. Therefore, we have examined magnetic resonance images for 24 age-matched children and 122 age-matched adults for possible sex differences in the corpus callosum. While we observed a dramatic sex difference in the shape of the corpus callosum, there was no conclusive evidence of sexual dimorphism in the area of the corpus callosum or its subdivisions. Utilizing several criteria, there were significant sex differences in shape: subjective evaluation indicated that the posterior region of the corpus callosum, the splenium, was more bulbous shaped in females as a group and in women, and more tubular-shaped in males as a group and in men; mathematical evaluation confirmed this observation in that the maximum width of the splenium was significantly greater in women than in men, and that the percentage by which the average width of the splenium was greater than that of the adjacent corpus callosum was significantly greater in females than in males. However, sex differences in bulbosity did not reach significance in children (aged 2–16 yr). In contrast, among the area measurements of the corpus callosum and 22 subdivisions, only 1 exhibited a significant sex difference, which would be expected by chance. The area of the corpora callosa increased significantly with age in children and decreased significantly with age in adults. In adults, the midsagittal surface area of the cerebral cortex decreased significantly with age in women but not in men. These anatomical sex differences could, in part, underlie gender-related differences in behavior and neuropsychological function.
The Effects of Alcohol Use on Defiant Behavior among High School Students

Some controversy over the effects of alcohol use on societal outcomes (including educational achievement) has been noted in economics. While some issues have been addressed, important questions regarding human capital persist. This article explores whether drinking leads, in causal ways, to greater levels of unruly behaviors by high school students, and the possibility that any correlation between drinking and these behaviors might reflect unobservable factors? An instrumental variable model is estimated to investigate the impact of drinking on student actions such as gun carrying and fighting. Results indicate that alcohol use increases the incidence of these behaviors and effects remain stable across instrument specifications. JEL Classifications: I12, I18, I21
Planning and Scheduling in Hybrid Domains Using Answer Set Programming

In this paper we present an Action Language-Answer Set Programming based approach to solving planning and scheduling problems in hybrid domains - domains that exhibit both discrete and continuous behavior. We use action language H to represent the domain and then translate the resulting theory into an A-Prolog program. In this way, we reduce the problem of finding solutions to planning and scheduling problems to computing answer sets of A-Prolog programs. We cite a planning and scheduling example from the literature and show how to model it in H. We show how to translate the resulting H theory into an equivalent A-Prolog program. We compute the answer sets of the resulting program using a hybrid solver called EZCSP which loosely integrates a constraint solver with an answer set solver. The solver allows us reason about constraints over reals and compute solutions to complex planning and scheduling problems. Results have shown that our approach can be applied to any planning and scheduling problem in hybrid domains.
An analytical method for approximate performance evaluation of binary linear block codes

An analytical method for approximate performance evaluation of binary linear block codes using an additive white Gaussian noise channel model with binary phase-shift keying modulation is presented. We focus on the probability density function of the bit log-likelihood ratio (LLR), which is expressed in terms of the Gram-Charlier series expansion. This expansion requires knowledge of the statistical moments of the bit LLR. We introduce an analytical method for calculating these moments. This is based on some recursive calculations involving certain weight enumerating functions of the code. It is proved that the approximation can be as accurate as desired, if we use enough terms in the Gram-Charlier series expansion. Numerical results are provided for some examples, which demonstrate close agreement with simulation results.