Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interference Mitigation Through Power Control in High Density 802.11 WLANs

The low cost and the ease of deployment of WiFi devices, as well as the need to support high bandwidth applications over 802.11 WLANs has led to the emergence of high density 802.11 networks in urban areas and enterprises. High density wireless networks, by design, face significant challenges due to increased interference resulting from the close proximity of co-channel cells. We demonstrate that power control can be used to mitigate interference in such an environment. It is well-known that variable transmit powers result in asymmetric links in the network, and can potentially lead to throughput starvation of some nodes. We first show that in order to perform starvation-free power control in 802.11 networks, a cross-layer approach is required, whereby the transmit powers and the carrier sensing parameter of the MAC layer of the nodes should be jointly tuned. We then propose a framework that determines optimum settings for these parameters with the objective of maximizing the network-wide throughput for elastic traffic. Within this framework, we devise a distributed power control algorithm that uses a Gibbs sampler. OPNET simulations and experiments over a proof of concept testbed demonstrate that in a dense network the proposed power control algorithm yields significant improvement in client throughput.
ANIMATION METHOD FOR PEN-AND-INK ILLUSTRATIONS USING STROKE COHERENCY Toshiyuki

Pen-and-ink illustrations are attractive in that they have greater ability than photorealistic images to omit unimportant details, to clarify shapes and so on. Considering these advantages, we have created penand-ink-style animations. In our method, we treat 3D models as inputs and generate pen-and-ink-style line drawings in which the strokes of the illustration express the features of the original 3D geometry. In the illustrations generated, the density of strokes and the shapes of strokes represent the tone and the shape of the 3D models. If the models are moving/changing, we keep the coherence between the frames in order to generate smooth animations. For this purpose, the strokes are stored using a simple data structure that is able to retain the information in the previous frame.
Does low and oscillatory wall shear stress correlate spatially with early atherosclerosis? A systematic review

Low and oscillatory wall shear stress is widely assumed to play a key role in the initiation and development of atherosclerosis. Indeed, some studies have relied on the low shear theory when developing diagnostic and treatment strategies for cardiovascular disease. We wished to ascertain if this consensus is justified by published data. We performed a systematic review of papers that compare the localization of atherosclerotic lesions with the distribution of haemodynamic indicators calculated using computational fluid dynamics. The review showed that although many articles claim their results conform to the theory, it has been interpreted in different ways: a range of metrics has been used to characterize the distribution of disease, and they have been compared with a range of haemodynamic factors. Several studies, including all of those making systematic point-by-point comparisons of shear and disease, failed to find the expected relation. The various pre- and post-processing techniques used by different groups have reduced the range of shears over which correlations were sought, and in some cases are mutually incompatible. Finally, only a subset of the known patterns of disease has been investigated. The evidence for the low/oscillatory shear theory is less robust than commonly assumed. Longitudinal studies starting from the healthy state, or the collection of average flow metrics derived from large numbers of healthy vessels, both in conjunction with point-by-point comparisons using appropriate statistical techniques, will be necessary to improve our understanding of the relation between blood flow and atherogenesis.
TMS of posterior parietal cortex disrupts visual tactile multisensory integration

Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated a number of brain regions, especially the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), as being potentially important for visual–tactile multisensory integration. However, neuroimaging studies are correlational and do not prove the necessity of a region for the behavioral improvements that are the hallmark of multisensory integration. To remedy this knowledge gap, we interrupted activity in the PPC, near the junction of the anterior intraparietal sulcus and the postcentral sulcus, using MRI‐guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) while subjects localized touches delivered to different fingers. As the touches were delivered, subjects viewed a congruent touch video, an incongruent touch video, or no video. Without TMS, a strong effect of multisensory integration was observed, with significantly better behavioral performance for discrimination of congruent multisensory touch than for unisensory touch alone. Incongruent multisensory touch produced a smaller improvement in behavioral performance. TMS of the PPC eliminated the behavioral advantage of both congruent and incongruent multisensory stimuli, reducing performance to unisensory levels. These results demonstrate a causal role for the PPC in visual–tactile multisensory integration. Taken together with converging evidence from other studies, these results support a model in which the PPC contains a map of space around the hand that receives input from both the visual and somatosensory modalities. Activity in this map is likely to be the neural substrate for visual–tactile multisensory integration.
Partnership and collaboration: understanding the counsellor-principal relationship in the Philippine context

ABSTRACT In this study the nature and essence of the counsellor-principal relationship was ascertained, using a descriptive phenomenological design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted separately with eight principals and nine guidance counsellors. Five themes were extracted from the interviews: working alliance, hands-on management, collaborative leadership, impediments to the alliance, and personal qualities. The implications of the relationship on improving work effectiveness, and attainment of institutional objectives are discussed. Recommendations include the use of the themes as a guide in programme development and policymaking, replication and validation of the themes in other settings, the development of training modules for principals, and capability-building seminars for counsellors.
An artificial neural network for analysing the survival of patients with colorectal cancer

An internet/web based artificial neural network has been developed for use by practicing clinical oncologists and medical researchers as part of a programme to aid decision making and eventually, the management and treatment of individual patients with colorectal cancer. We have configured and implemented a Partial Likelihood Artificial Neural Network (PLANN) and trained it to predict cancer related survival in patients with confirmed colorectal cancer using a database provided by the Clinical Resource and Audit Group (CRAG) in Scotland. The reliability of the trained PLANN was evaluated against Kaplan- Meier (KM) actual survival plots and shows close agreement with them. We have applied artificial neural networks (ANNs) and their associated analytical techniques to healthcare, with special reference to patients suffering from common solid cancers. There is increasing complexity in the staging and management of these cancers, requiring specialist, multidisciplinary knowledge, and management. We believe that analytical systems such as these will become more readily available to clinicians with the emergence of web and grid-secure technology, which has the potential to link large clinical and scientific data sets of cancer patients from various sources and institutions. To date, ANNs of varying complexity and types have been used, mainly in clinical research rather than routine clinical oncology. Their usefulness has been investigated in the diagnosis, spread of the disease and prognosis in breast, ovarian, gastrointestinal, bronchial, prostatic and ovarian cancers (1-3). In breast and colorectal cancers, ANNs have been shown to be significantly more accurate in predicting survival than in predicting spread from the primary cancer site (4). To date, there have been no reported studies on the use of ANNs to formulate management plans for the treatment of patients with cancers, and this remains a long- term aim of the current interdisciplinary work by our group of oncologists in Dundee and physicists in Manchester. So far, we have trained the ANN by exposing it to sets of existing data on one type of solid cancer (colorectal), where the clinical outcome of the patients included in the data base is known over a 5-year follow-up period. This paper deals with the verification of the prediction of survival by our web-based system.
Digital Storytelling: A Narrative Method for Positive Identity Development in Minority Youth

ABSTRACT This article explores the use of digital storytelling as a group narrative method for positive identity development in the case of African American youth residing in economically disadvantaged, urban areas. Factors such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and/or violence exposure may heighten normal youth challenges and affect identity development. Narrative tools that help minority adolescents produce agentic, coherent, affective, and adaptive self-concepts contribute to a proactive identity system and, therefore, an enhanced capacity for them to intervene in their own lives. The purpose of the afterschool digital storytelling group was for youth to gain opportunities in media production and in personal story construction. As a result, youth gained a valuable narrative medium for constructing their stories, and thus their identities, into ones of possibility, promise, and potential. Implications for helping professionals include how to use digital storytelling with youth to gain insight and understanding into a personally difficult life event.
Testing the gender similarities hypothesis: differences in subjective task value and motivation to transfer training

ABSTRACT Are female and male trainees similar or different in their reaction to training programmes, specifically regarding their subjective task value and motivation to transfer? According to the gender similarities hypothesis, women and men are alike on most psychological variables. However, according to research in organizational behaviour, female and male employees differ on certain aspects, such as their job satisfaction and work identity. To test these two views on gender similarities and differences in the context of human resource development and training evaluation, the present study examined the extent to which gender moderated reactions to training. Based on the expectancy-value theory of motivation and self-determination theory, a web-based questionnaire was used to measure six training reactions: intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, perceived relative cost, autonomous motivation to transfer, and controlled motivation to transfer. The results indicated that women and men differed in their ratings of attainment value but were similar for the remaining five reaction measures. These outcomes support the gender similarities hypothesis. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for modelling gender effects in HRD research and their practical significance for promoting training effectiveness and transfer of training.
Natural Language Processing of Textual Requirements

—Natural language processing (NLP) is the application of automated parsing and machine learning techniques to analyze standard text. Applications of NLP to requirements engineering include extraction of ontologies from a requirements speciﬁcation, and use of NLP to verify the consistency and/or completion of a requirements speciﬁcation. This work-in-progress paper describes a new approach to the interpretation, organization and management of textual requirements through the use of application-speciﬁc ontologies and natural language processing. We also design and exercise a prototype software tool that implements the new framework on a simpliﬁed model of an aircraft.
Versioning of Ordered Model Element Sets

UML models contain various collections of ordered model elements. For example, a parameter list of an operation is an ordered set of parameters. The UML meta-model represents such orders by multi-valued properties having the modifier “ordered”. A total of 43 properties of UML 2.4. 1 are ordered. We have analyzed whether the order is conceptually relevant for model versioning (15 cases) or not (28 cases), how modifications of an order should be displayed in differences and how positions can be specified in edit scripts. On this basis, we propose a modified differencing pipeline of the SiLift model versioning framework which is able to detect ordering changes.
Edwards measure and the steady-state regime of a model with kinetic constraints under tapping

We study the tapping dynamics of a one-dimensional Ising model with symmetric kinetic constraints. We define and test a variant of the Edwards hypothesis that one may build a thermodynamics for the steady state by using a flat measure over the metastable states with several macroscopic quantities fixed. Various types of tapping are compared and the accuracy of this measure becomes quickly excellent when the number of quantities fixed on average increases, independent of the way the system is excited. We attribute the validity of the naive flat measure at weak tapping to the spatial separation of density defects.
Linear model incorporating feature ranking for Chinese documents readability

Assessing the readability of documents is always a rewarding work. In this paper, we apply linear regression models for readability assessment of Chinese documents, and put forward LiFR (Linear model incorporating Feature Ranking), which uses feature ranking to select the most appropriate text features to build the linear model. Text features specialized for Chinese are developed, which include the surface, part of speech, parse tree and entropy features. The experimental results demonstrate that both linear and log-linear regression models are worthy of confidence for readability assessment, and can achieve competitive performance to other machine learning methods, such as SVR (Support Vector Machine for Regression). Also the designed features are valuable, and feature ranking is essential to build useful linear functions.
The analysis of designed experiments and longitudinal data by using smoothing splines - Discussion

In designed experiments and in particular longitudinal studies, the aim may be to assess the effect of a quantitative variable such as time on treatment effects. Modelling treatment effects can be complex in the presence of other sources of variation. Three examples are presented to illustrate an approach to analysis in such cases. The first example is a longitudinal experiment on the growth of cows under a factorial treatment structure where serial correlation and variance heterogeneity complicate the analysis. The second example involves the calibration of optical density and the concentration of a protein DNase in the presence of sampling variation and variance heterogeneity. The final example is a multienvironment agricultural field experiment in which a yield-seeding rate relationship is required for several varieties of lupins. Spatial variation within environments, heterogeneity between environments and variation between varieties all need to be incorporated in the analysis. In this paper, the cubic smoothing spline is used in conjunction with fixed and random effects, random coefficients and variance modelling to provide simultaneous modelling of trends and covariance structure. The key result that allows coherent and flexible empirical model building in complex situations is the linear mixed model representation of the cubic smoothing spline. An extension is proposed in which trend is partitioned into smooth and non-smooth components. Estimation and inference, the analysis of the three examples and a discussion of extensions and unresolved issues are also presented.
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 a Time-lapse Photography Method for Monitoring Salmon (oncorhynchus Spp.) Passage and Abundance in Streams

Accurately estimating population sizes is often a critical component of fisheries research and management. Although there is a growing appreciation of the importance of small-scale salmon population dynamics to the stability of salmon stock-complexes, our understanding of these populations is constrained by a lack of efficient and cost-effective monitoring tools for streams. Weirs are expensive, labor intensive, and can disrupt natural fish movements. While conventional video systems avoid some of these shortcomings, they are expensive and require excessive amounts of labor to review footage for data collection. Here, we present a novel method for quantifying salmon in small streams (<15 m wide, <1 m deep) that uses both time-lapse photography and video in a model-based double sampling scheme. This method produces an escapement estimate nearly as accurate as a video-only approach, but with substantially less labor, money, and effort. It requires servicing only every 14 days, detects salmon 24 h/day, is inexpensive, and produces escapement estimates with confidence intervals. In addition to escapement estimation, we present a method for estimating in-stream salmon abundance across time, data needed by researchers interested in predator–prey interactions or nutrient subsidies. We combined daily salmon passage estimates with stream specific estimates of daily mortality developed using previously published data. To demonstrate proof of concept for these methods, we present results from two streams in southwest Kodiak Island, Alaska in which high densities of sockeye salmon spawn.
TRAIN: A Virtual Transaction Layer Architecture for TLM-based HW/SW Codesign of Synthesizable MPSoC

Our concept of a virtual transaction layer (VTL) architecture allows to directly map transaction-level communication channels onto a synthesizable multiprocessor SoC implementation. The VTL is above the physical MPSoC communication architecture, acting as a hardware abstraction layer for both HW and SW components. TLM channels are represented by virtual channels which efficiently route transactions between SW and HW entities through the on-chip communication network with respect to quality-of-service and realtime requirements. The goal is to methodically simplify MPSoC design by systematic HW/SW interface abstraction, thus enabling early SW verification, rapid prototyping and fast exploration of critical design issues. With TRAIN, we present our implementation of such a VTL architecture for Virtex-II Pro and PowerPC and illustrate its efficiency by experimentation
Iteration-Complexity of Block-Decomposition Algorithms and the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers

In this paper, we consider the monotone inclusion problem consisting of the sum of a continuous monotone map and a point-to-set maximal monotone operator with a separable two-block structure and introduce a framework of block-decomposition prox-type algorithms for solving it which allows for each one of the single-block proximal subproblems to be solved in an approximate sense. Moreover, by showing that any method in this framework is also a special instance of the hybrid proximal extragradient (HPE) method introduced by Solodov and Svaiter, we derive corresponding convergence rate results. We also describe some instances of the framework based on specific and inexpensive schemes for solving the single-block proximal subproblems. Finally, we consider some applications of our methodology to establish for the first time (i) the iteration-complexity of an algorithm for finding a zero of the sum of two arbitrary maximal monotone operators and, as a consequence, the ergodic iteration-complexity of the Douglas-.
QoE-Aware Scheduling for Video-Streaming in High Speed Downlink Packet Access

With widespread use of multimedia communication, quality of experience (QoE) progressively becomes an important factor in networking today. Besides, multimedia applications can be supported under various technologies, including wired and wireless networks. Among them, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the most popular technology thanks to its support on mobility. Improved with a new access method (High Speed Downlink Packet Access or HSDPA), it can provide higher bandwidth and enable wider range of services including multimedia applications. In UMTS, different categories of traffic are specified along with their characteristics. Best effort traffic has been specified with less priority because it has fewer constraints. On the other hand, real-time multimedia traffic such as streaming video or VoIP are more sensitive to network condition changes, hence special treatment (e.g. QoS scheduler) is needed in order to achieve user satisfaction. According to the literature, most of scheduling mechanisms mainly take into account signal quality and fairness and do not consider user perception. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, QoE-aware scheduler that takes quality of experience into account when making scheduling decisions. Compared to other existing schedulers, QoE-aware approach has reached a profitable performance in terms of user satisfaction, throughput, and fairness.
Impact of Heart Rate on Myocardial Salvage in Timely Reperfused Patients with ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: New Insights from Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Background Previous studies evaluating the progression of the necrotic wave in relation to heart rate were carried out only in animal models of ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI). Aim of the study was to investigate changes of myocardial salvage in relation to different heart rates at hospital admission in timely reperfused patients with STEMI by using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). Methods One hundred-eighty-seven patients with STEMI successfully and timely treated with primary coronary angioplasty underwent CMR five days after hospital admission. According to the heart rate at presentation, patients were subcategorized into 5 quintiles: <55 bpm (group I, n = 44), 55–64 bpm (group II, n = 35), 65–74 bpm (group III, n = 35), 75–84 bpm (group IV, n = 37), ≥85 bpm (group V, n = 36). Area at risk, infarct size, microvascular obstruction (MVO) and myocardium salvaged index (MSI) were assessed by CMR using standard sequences. Results Lower heart rates at presentation were associated with a bigger amount of myocardial salvage after reperfusion. MSI progressively decreased as the heart rates increased (0.54 group I, 0.46 group II, 0.38 group III, 0.34 group IV, 0.32 group V, p<0.001). Stepwise multivariable analysis showed heart rate, peak troponin and the presence of MVO were independent predictor of myocardial salvage. No changes related to heart rate were observed in relation to area at risk and infarct size. Conclusions High heart rates registered before performing coronary angioplasty in timely reperfused patients with STEMI are associated with a reduction in salvaged myocardium. In particular, salvaged myocardium significantly reduced when heart rate at presentation is ≥85 bpm.