Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MLSD Bounds for Clipped OFDM Systems Over Frequency-Selective Quasi-Static Fading Channels

We derive very tight closed-form lower bounds of symbol/bit error probability for maximum-likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) on clipped OFDM channels with frequency- selective quasi-static Rayleigh fading. Contrary to common knowledge, we show that as a result of both clipping and channel frequency-selectivity, clipping at the transmitter leads to achievable frequency-diversity and performance gain over unclipped systems with MLSD. We derive closed-form expressions of the diversity and the performance gain over the no-clipping case, as well as the optimal clipping ratio for a given system. We consider both Nyquist-rate and oversampled OFDM systems with rectangular QAM signaling.
Trends in adolescent research for the new millennium

This article highlights several promising trends in research on adolescence and discusses the likely future course of several recent developments in adolescent research. Current trends include a focus on the transition to young adulthood, the increasing examination of the context and co-occurrence of adolescent problems, and emphasis on the resilience of adolescents in high-risk circumstances. There is a strong need for more research on the cognitive and neurocognitive gains and changes of adolescence and on positive psychosocial behaviours and outcomes for youth. We are just beginning to understand within-group differences in adolescent development, including the life experiences of minority youth, adolescents with disabilities, and homosexual adolescents. The impact of social context and social change on adolescents is also receiving more attention. Methodological approaches likely to be seen more in the future include the use of pattern-centred analyses to complement traditional variable-centred approaches and a greater appreciation for qualitative data analysis as a route to gaining insights into adolescent development. Finally, university-community partnerships are promoted as a way to solve the problems of youth and improve the probability of their healthy futures.
Contextual Interference: A Response Planning Account

In two of the three experiments that are reported subjects were trained in either a blocked or a random practice schedule and allowed to self-select the amount of time they used to plan an upcoming movement. According to the reconstruction hypothesis (Lee & Magill, 1985) random practice participants engage greater movement planning processes (i.e. action plan re-construction) during acquisition than do their blocked practice counterparts. It was predicted that such reconstructive activity would be manifest as greater study time being used by random practice subjects as they readied themselves for an imminent response. Data from Experiments 1 and 2 supported this study time prediction while also revealing the typical retention benefit associated with random practice. Interestingly, the acquisition benefit often apparent with blocked practice was not evident when the random practice participants were given sufficient time to plan the upcoming response. These conclusions were supported by data from Experiment 3 that involved a direct manipulation of the amount of study time afforded random and blocked practice participants. Taken together, these data are consistent with the suggestion from the reconstruction hypothesis that more time is necessary for intratrial planning processes during random practice formats. Furthermore, acquisition differences that are commonly observed between high and low contextual interference practice conditions may, at least in part, be associated with the completion of the extra planning processes entertained by random practice participants as the movement is being executed.
Neural correlates of interindividual differences in the subjective experience of pain

Some individuals claim that they are very sensitive to pain, whereas others say that they tolerate pain well. Yet, it is difficult to determine whether such subjective reports reflect true interindividual experiential differences. Using psychophysical ratings to define pain sensitivity and functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess brain activity, we found that highly sensitive individuals exhibited more frequent and more robust pain-induced activation of the primary somatosensory cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex than did insensitive individuals. By identifying objective neural correlates of subjective differences, these findings validate the utility of introspection and subjective reporting as a means of communicating a first-person experience.
Big Data Quality: A Roadmap for Open Data

Open Data (OD) is one of the most discussed issue of Big Data which raised the joint interest of public institutions, citizens and private companies since 2009. However, the massive amount of freely available data has not yet brought the expected effects: as of today, there is no application that has fully exploited the potential provided by large and distributed information sources in a non-trivial way, nor any service has substantially changed for the better the lives of people. The era of a new generation applications based on OD is far to come. In this context, we observe that OD quality is one of the major threats to achieving the goals of the OD movement. The starting point of this case study is the quality of the OD released by the five Constitutional offices of Italy. Our exploratory case study aims to assess the quality of such releases and the real implementations of OD. The outcome suggests the need of a drastic improvement in OD quality. Finally we highlight some key quality principles for OD, and propose a roadmap for further research.
Type Ia supernovae and remnant neutron stars

On the basis of the current observational evidence, we put forward the case that the merger of two CO white dwarfs produces both a Type Ia supernova explosion and a stellar remnant, the latter in the form of a magnetar. The estimated occurrence rates raise the possibility that many, if not most, SNe Ia might result from white dwarf mergers.
Neural Mechanisms of Antinociceptive Effects of

Background: The neural mechanisms underlying the modulation of pain perception by hypnosis remain obscure. In this study, we used positron emission tomography in 11 healthy volunteers to identify the brain areas in which hypnosis modulates cerebral responses to a noxious stimulus. Methods: The protocol used a factorial design with two factors: state (hypnotic state, resting state, mental imagery) and stimulation (warm non-noxious vs. hot noxious stimuli applied to right thenar eminence). Two cerebral blood flow scans were obtained with the 15 O-water technique during each condition. After each scan, the subject was asked to rate pain sensation and unpleasantness. Statistical parametric mapping was used to determine the main effects of noxious stimulation and hypnotic state as well as state-by-stimulation interactions (i.e., brain areas that would be more or less activated in hypnosis than in control conditions, under noxious stimulation). Results: Hypnosis decreased both pain sensation and the unpleasantness of noxious stimuli. Noxious stimulation caused an increase in regional cerebral blood flow in the thalamic nuclei and anterior cingulate and insular cortices. The hypnotic state induced a significant activation of a right-sided extrastriate area and the anterior cingulate cortex. The interaction analysis showed that the activity in the anterior (mid-)cingulate cortex was related to pain perception and unpleasantness differently in the hypnotic state than in control situations. Conclusions: Both intensity and unpleasantness of the noxious stimuli are reduced during the hypnotic state. In addition,
Blood pressure and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in a Dutch population: the Nijmegen cohort study.

BACKGROUND The objective was to determine the influence of systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure on the development of coronary heart disease over an 18-year period in a Dutch general practice population. METHODS The Nijmegen Cohort Study is a prospective cohort study with an 18-year follow-up. In 1977 systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and other cardiovascular risk factors were measured in 7,092 Caucasians, men and women. The screening took place in six general practices, participating in a university registration network. Cardiovascular disease and all mortality was registrated during the 1977-1995 period. A Cox proportional hazard model was performed separately for men and women with the first onset of a coronary heart disease as the outcome variable. Age, smoking, serum cholesterol, blood pressure, and socioeconomic class were included as independent variables. RESULTS During the 18-year follow-up period, 205 men and 63 women suffered a nonfatal myocardial infarction. During this time, 205 deaths were identified, of which 54 were cardiovascular. Of all deaths, 139 were noncardiovascular, of which 10% were due to accident or suicide, while in 12 participants the cause of death was uncertain. The analysis indicated that both the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure were independently associated with the likelihood for developing coronary heart disease, as were the other risk factors. For coronary heart disease, the significant risk ratios for the systolic blood pressure were 1.6 for men and 2.1 for women. For the diastolic blood pressure a risk ratio was found of 1.4 for men and 2.0 for women. CONCLUSION A significant relation between blood pressure and coronary heart disease was demonstrated. As mean blood pressures, cholesterol levels, smoking habits, and socioeconomic class in this cohort did not differ from other figures in The Netherlands, extrapolation of the results to the Dutch population is possible.
ACTION OF X-RAYS ON MAMMALIAN CELLS

Survival curves of normal human cells from a variety of tissues exposed to varying doses of x-irradiation have been constructed, which permit definition of the intrinsic radiation sensitivity of the reproductive power of each cell type. The mean lethal dose of x-irradiation for all the cells employed, including those from normal and cancerous organs, those exhibiting diploid and polyploid chromosome number; those from embryonic and adult tissues, including recently isolated cells and cultures which had been maintained in vitro for many years, and cells exhibiting either epithelioid or fibroblastic morphology, was found to be contained between the limits of 50 to 150 r. Other similarities in the pattern of radiation effects, such as giant formation and abortive colonial growth, in these cells and that of the HeLa S3, previously studied, confirm the hypothesis that the pattern of reaction to x-irradiation previously elucidated, is representatative, at least in over-all outline, for a large variety of human cells. While the radiation survival curves of various human cells are similar in the gross, small but important characterizing differences have been found. All epithelioid cells so far studied are approximately 2-hit, and more radioresistant than the fibroblast-like cells whose survival data correspond to a mean lethal dose of around 60 r, and which so far can be fitted by either 1-hit or 2-hit curves. The earlier prediction that the major radiobiologic damage to mammalian cells is lodged in the genetic apparatus was confirmed by the demonstration of high frequency of mutants among the survivors of doses of 500 to 900 r. All the data on the x-radiosensitivity of these cells can be explained on the basis of a defect resulting from primary damage localized in one or more chromosomes. These considerations afford a convincing explanation of several aspects of the mammalian radiation syndrome.
What Parents Tell Us About Paraeducators

This study examined parent perceptions of the paraeducator's role. Observations of paraeducators and students with disabilities were conducted in inclusive classrooms. Some paraeducators worked as general classroom assistants, while others worked one-on-one with students with special needs. Each parent of a child with special needs was shown graphs reflecting the percentage of time their child's paraeducator was observed in various roles and interacting with students and adults. Parents were interviewed about their knowledge and perceptions of the paraeducator working in their child's classroom. Results indicated parents were pleased with their children's paraeducators. However, parents offered several recommendations for improving the use of paraeducators, including the need for more training and better communication between parents and school personnel. Responses of parents suggest paraeducators are perceived as “teachers” and should be professionally valued and present at Individualized Education Program meetings and parent conferences. Implications are discussed.
A novel theory to explain species diversity in landscapes: positive frequency dependence and habitat suitability

Theories to explain the diversity of species have required that individual species occupy unique niches and/or vary in their response to environmental factors. Positive interactions within a species, although common in communities, have not been thought to maintain species diversity because in non–spatial models the more abundant species always outcompetes the rarer species. Here, we show, using a stochastic spatial model, that positive intraspecific interactions such as those caused by positive frequency dependence and/or priority effects, can maintain species diversity if interactions between individuals are primarily local and the habitat contains areas that cannot be colonized by any species, such as boulders or other physical obstructions. When intraspecific interactions are primarily neutral, species diversity will eventually erode to a single species. When the landscape is homogeneous (i.e. does not contain areas that cannot be colonized by any species), the presence of strong intraspecific interactions will not maintain diversity.
Informative censoring in piecewise exponentialsurvival models

There are often reasons to suppose that there is dependence between the time to event and time to censoring, or informative censoring, for survival data, particularly when considering medical data. This is because the decision to treat or not is often made according to prognosis, usually with the most ill patients being prioritised. Due to identifiability issues, sensitivity analyses are often used to assess whether non-informative censoring can lead to misleading results. In this paper, a sensitivity analysis method for piecewise exponential survival models is presented. This method assesses the sensitivity of the results of standard survival models to small amounts of dependence between the time to failure and time to censoring variables. It uses the same assumption about the dependence between the time to failure and time to censoring as previous sensitivity analyses for both standard parametric survival models and the Cox model. However, the method presented in this paper allows the use of more flexible models for the marginal distributions whilst remaining computationally simple. A simulation study is used to assess the accuracy of the sensitivity analysis method and identify the situations in which it is suitable to use this method. The study found that the sensitivity analysis performs well in many situations, but not when the data has a high proportion of censoring.
Expression Profiles of SnoN in Normal and Cancerous Human Tissues Support Its Tumor Suppressor Role in Human Cancer

SnoN is a negative regulator of TGF-β signaling and also an activator of the tumor suppressor p53 in response to cellular stress. Its role in human cancer is complex and controversial with both pro-oncogenic and anti-oncogenic activities reported. To clarify its role in human cancer and provide clinical relevance to its signaling activities, we examined SnoN expression in normal and cancerous human esophageal, ovarian, pancreatic and breast tissues. In normal tissues, SnoN is expressed in both the epithelium and the surrounding stroma at a moderate level and is predominantly cytoplasmic. SnoN levels in all tumor epithelia examined are lower than or similar to that in the matched normal samples, consistent with its anti-tumorigenic activity in epithelial cells. In contrast, SnoN expression in the stroma is highly upregulated in the infiltrating inflammatory cells in high-grade esophageal and ovarian tumor samples, suggesting that SnoN may potentially promote malignant progression through modulating the tumor microenvironment in these tumor types. The overall levels of SnoN expression in these cancer tissues do not correlate with the p53 status. However, in human cancer cell lines with amplification of the snoN gene, a strong correlation between increased SnoN copy number and inactivation of p53 was detected, suggesting that the tumor suppressor SnoN-p53 pathway must be inactivated, either through downregulation of SnoN or inactivation of p53, in order to allow cancer cell to proliferate and survive. These data strongly suggest that SnoN can function as a tumor suppressor at early stages of tumorigenesis in human cancer tissues.
Concurrent Schedules: Effects of Reinforcement Rate and Changeover Delay on Time Allocation in a Three-Alternative Procedure

Pigeons were exposed to a continuous choice procedure where three alternatives alternated in a fixed, recycling order (ABCABC, etc.). Responses were reinforced according to independent variable-interval schedules. For three birds, the reinforcement rate for responses on alternative C was varied. For three other birds, the duration of the changeover delay after the changeover to C was varied. For both groups, the reinforcement rates and changeover delay durations associated with A and B were constant throughout the experiment. The time proportion at A relative to B increased as a function of the reinforcement rate for responses on C and decreased as a function of the duration of the changeover delay during C. The results show that the proportion of time spent at a variable-interval alternative of a continuous choice procedure is not completely determined by the reinforcement rates provided by the alternatives. The results support the assumption that time allocation is governed by delayed reinforcement of changeover behaviour.
Different Mechanisms Generate Maintained Activity in ON and OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells

Neuronal discharge is driven by either synaptic input or cell-autonomous intrinsic pacemaker activity. It is commonly assumed that the resting spike activity of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the output cells of the retina, is driven synaptically, because retinal photoreceptors and second-order cells tonically release neurotransmitter. Here we show that ON and OFF RGCs generate maintained activity through different mechanisms: ON cells depend on tonic excitatory input to drive resting activity, whereas OFF cells continue to fire in the absence of synaptic input. In addition to spontaneous activity, OFF cells exhibit other properties of pacemaker neurons, including subthreshold oscillations, burst firing, and rebound excitation. Thus, variable weighting of synaptic mechanisms and intrinsic properties underlies differences in the generation of maintained activity in these parallel retinal pathways.
STATUS OF UVSOR-II AND LIGHT SOURCE DEVELOPMENTS

UVSOR-II, a 750 MeV synchrotron light source of 53 m circumference, is now routinely operated with low emittance of 27 nm-rad and with four undulators, two variably polarized ones. The full energy injection was succeeded soon after upgrading the injector and the beam transport line. We have operated the machine routinely with fullenergy injection in the user’s run since July, 2007. We are going to start top-up injection hopefully in this year. A resonator type free electron laser is successfully operational in very wide range, from visible to deep UV, with high average power exceeding 1 W. Recently, the wavelength has reached 200 nm. Intense coherent terahertz radiation was successfully produced by the laser-electron in teraction. Coherent harmonic generation was also demonstrated by using the same laser system.
The Use of Physical Restraint in Norwegian Adult Psychiatric Hospitals

Background. The use of coercion within the psychiatric services is problematic and raises a range of ethical, legal, and clinical questions. “Physical restraint” is an emergency procedure used in psychiatric hospitals to control patients that pose an imminent physical danger. We wished to review the literature published in scientific peer-reviewed journals describing studies on the use of physical restraint in Norway, in order to identify the current state of knowledge and directions for future research. Design. The databases PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Embase were searched for studies relating to physical restraint (including holding) in Norwegian psychiatric hospitals, supplemented with hand searches. Results. 28 studies were included. Most of the studies were on rates of restraint, but there were also some studies on perceptions of patients and staff, case studies, and ethnographic studies. There was only one intervention study. There are differences in use between wards and institutions, which in part may be explained by differences in patient populations. Staff appear to be less negative to the use of restraint than patients. Conclusions. The studies that were identified were primarily concerned with rates of use and with patients' and staff's perspectives. More interventional studies are needed to move the field forward.
A fast analysis of vibrations of crystal plates for resonator design applications

Mindlin plate equations are the foundation of quartz crystal resonator analysis. In this paper, we implement the well-known Mindlin first-order equations in a Femlab environment, and find that useful solutions can be quickly obtained to examine the mode shapes that are important in the design of quartz crystal resonators. Such solutions are hard to obtain with the traditional finite element method, thus offering a rare opportunity to use the complete solutions for product design, improvement, and optimization. We showed the applications of these equations to a simple AT-cut quartz crystal strip resonator model.
A multiobjective simulated annealing based fuzzy-clustering technique with symmetry for pixel classification in remote sensing imagery

An important approach for landcover classification in remote sensing images is by clustering the pixels in the spectral domain into several fuzzy partitions. In this article the problem of fuzzy clustering is posed as one of searching for some suitable number of cluster centers so that some measures of validity of the obtained partitions should be optimized. In this paper a recently developed multiobjective simulated annealing based technique, AMOSA (archived multiobjective simulated annealing technique), is used to perform clustering, taking two validity measures as two objective functions. Here two fuzzy cluster validity functions namely, well-known XB-index and newly developed FSym-index are optimized simultaneously to automatically evolve the appropriate number of clusters present in an image. Thus the proposed algorithm provides a set of final non-dominated solutions, which the user can judge relatively and pick up the most promising one according to the domain requirement. The effectiveness of this proposed clustering technique in comparison with the existing fuzzy C-means clustering is shown for automatically classifying two remote sensing satellite images of the parts of the cities of Kolkata and Mumbai.