Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An energy-efficient ring-based hierarchical routing protocol for wireless sensor networks

Clustering protocol is the most typical hierarchy protocol for wireless sensor networks. It has higher energy efficiency and better network management than traditional flat protocols. However, typical clustering protocols such as LEACH, have some drawbacks: unreasonable distribution of cluster heads, large consumption by the single-hop communication between cluster heads and the sink, and strong dependence on cluster heads. To solve these 3 problems, we proposed a novel ring-based topology, and designed an energy-efficient ring-based hierarchy routing protocol (RHR). This protocol does not need position information, centralized processing and critical synchronization. The whole network is divided into many homocentric rings so that the distribution of the key nodes tends to uniformization. Many multi-hop routes are maintained between the key nodes of neighboring rings so as to reduce the communication consumption. The regularly ordinal updating of key nodes leads to more balanceable energy consumption. Each node has many key nodes for transmission, which improves protocol robustness. Simulation results prove that this new protocol can prolong network lifetime efficiently, and its energy efficiency is better than LEACH and LEACH-C, especially for large-scale wireless sensor networks.
Modeling the need for hip and knee replacement surgery. Part 1. A two-stage cross-cohort approach.

OBJECTIVE To explore inequalities in the need for hip/knee replacement surgery using a 2-stage cross-cohort approach. METHODS In the first stage, a small-area population-based survey, the Somerset and Avon Survey of Health, was used to provide a high-quality measure of need for hip/knee replacement using the New Zealand (NZ) score. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to validate a simplified NZ score, excluding information from clinical examination. In the second stage, a nationally representative population-based survey, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, was used to explore inequalities in need for hip/knee replacement using the simplified NZ score. Multilevel Poisson regression modeling was used to estimate rates of need for surgery. Exposures considered were age, sex, social class, ethnicity, obesity, Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004 deprivation quintiles, rurality, and ethnic mix of area. RESULTS Rates of need for hip/knee replacement increase with age and are lower in men than in women (rate ratio [RR] 0.7, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.6-0.9 for hips; RR 0.8, 95% CI 0.7-1.0 for knees). Those of lowest social class have greater need. Need was greatest for people living in more deprived areas. Individual ethnic group did not predict the need for surgery. For hip replacement, there was no rurality effect; for knee replacement, those in town and fringe areas had greater need. Obesity was a strong predictor of need for surgery (RR 2.3, 95% CI 1.9-2.8 for hips; RR 2.4, 95% CI 2.0-2.8 for knees). CONCLUSION This study provides evidence of greater variations of inequalities in need for hip/knee replacement than previous studies. Further research should explore geographic variation and produce small-area estimates of need to inform local health planning. It is important to complement data on need with willingness to undergo surgery.
Application of Global Fuzzy C-Means (GFCM) Clustering Algorithm in Color Transfer

This paper proposes a color transfer approach based on Global Fuzzy C-Means (GFCM) clustering algorithm. GFCM algorithm is adopted to locate the matching areas between the images in lαβ space and to prevent the clustering processing from falling into the local optimal solution. The experiment shows that comparing to the traditional FCM method; GFCM method can obtain a better clustering result in a shorter time and achieve more natural and smoother visual effects.
Fast Ray Sorting and Breadth‐First Packet Traversal for GPU Ray Tracing

We present a novel approach to ray tracing execution on commodity graphics hardware using CUDA. We decompose a standard ray tracing algorithm into several data‐parallel stages that are mapped efficiently to the massively parallel architecture of modern GPUs. These stages include: ray sorting into coherent packets, creation of frustums for packets, breadth‐first frustum traversal through a bounding volume hierarchy for the scene, and localized ray‐primitive intersections. We utilize the well known parallel primitives scan and segmented scan in order to process irregular data structures, to remove the need for a stack, and to minimize branch divergence in all stages. Our ray sorting stage is based on applying hash values to individual rays, ray stream compression, sorting and decompression. Our breadth‐first BVH traversal is based on parallel frustum‐bounding box intersection tests and parallel scan per each BVH level.
Reliability , Diagnosis – Challenges to Pervasive Computing

Pervasive computing systems are highly complex due not only to vast heterogeneity but also to mobile, ad hoc interactions. As a result, it is very costly to provide post-purchase customer support for home pervasive computing. We have investigated current approaches that might provide technologies for solutions: faulttolerant/reliable computing, self-healing/autonomic computing, and tools for testing, fault diagnosis and isolation. We believe that fault-tolerant/reliable computing and self-healing/autonomic computing at their current stages are far too costly and complex to be adapted in consumer electronic systems, and developing testing and diagnostic tools for pervasive computing systems may be necessary. Although building a general, comprehensive testing and diagnostic tool is difficult if not impossible, tools that focus on specific areas may be a good way to start. To enable tool development for pervasive-computing test and diagnosis, fault models, testing and diagnostic methods/algorithms need to be developed, and standardization efforts may be necessary for testing and fault isolation especially for cross-vendor systems.
Quantifying aesthetic beauty through its dimensions: a case study on trochoids

This paper examines the aesthetic dimensions of the patterns generated from trochoids. A virtual trochoid was implemented and its parameters were varied to generate various patterns. These patterns were evaluated by a group of 101 participants. Inspired by Birkhoffs concept of measuring aesthetics, order to complexity, we calculated order as the quality related to composition and complexity as the quality related to the intricacy of the structure. The result of this experiment suggests that the aesthetic measure was able to predict at least half of the preferred patterns by the participants and that those with art experience were more developed in considering a balanced composition. There were also certain patterns that both the experienced and non-experienced participants agreed on. This was further analysed using Arnheims theory of compositional weight, where size, colour, negative space and central perceptual force determines whether the trochoids had a sense of unity in its composition. To quantify these factors, the patterns ink density, ink distribution and ink gradient were measured. Our findings suggest that Birkhoffs aesthetic measure reveals useful aesthetic information of trochoid patterns and that patterns that are cohesive appears to be more appealing.
Global register allocation at link time

In previous work in global register allocation, the compiler colors a conflict graph constructed from liveness dataflow information, in order to allocate the same register to many variables that are not simultaneously live. If two procedures are in separately compiled modules, however, the compiler must do this allocation separately for each procedure. As a result, the two procedures might use different registers for the same global, or the same register for different locals. We can remove these problems if we delay the register allocation until link time. Our compiler produces object modules that can be linked and run without global register allocation, but includes with each object module a body of information describing how the module uses variables and procedures. A link-time register allocator then decides which variables are used most frequently, selects registers for them, and rewrites the code to reflect the decision that these variables reside in registers rather than in memory. Construction of the call graph allows us to use the same register for locals of procedures that are not simultaneously active, giving us most of the advantages of a full-scale coloring without the expense. When we use our method for 52 registers, our benchmarks speed up by 10 to 25 percent. Even with only 8 registers, the speedup can be nearly that large if we use previously collected profile information to guide the allocation. We cannot do much better, because programs whose variables all fit in registers rarely speed up by more than 30%. Moreover, profiling shows us that we usually remove 60% to 90% of the loads and stores of scalar variables that the program performs during its execution, and often much more.
Analysis of volume holograms using the technique of Green's tensor

The holographic storage of information is based on the interference of two waves: the reference wave and the object wave, the latter is generated by using a spatial light modulator, and in the case of applications of data storage this corresponds to a binary pattern of one and zeros. The interference pattern is recorded in a photosensitive medium (photopolymers, photographic emulsions, photorefractive, etc.), so that when illuminated by the reference wave the object wave is reproduced. In order to properly investigate the characteristics of the generated hologram it is necessary to adequately study the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with the recording medium. In this work we develop a completely vectorial formalism for solving the Helmholtz equation that allows investigation of electromagnetic dispersion in dielectric media in which the refractive index varies spatially. The method is based on the technique of Green's tensor and allows to correctly simulate the behavior of a volume hologram. This method is compared with the method of discrete dipoles and a formalism based on the first Born approximation to determine the intensity of light scattered by a volume hologram.
Co-located 3D graphic and haptic display using electromagnetic levitation

This paper presents a novel system in which 3D graphics and high-fidelity haptic feedback can be generated seamlessly at the same physical location, without using mirrors or any other hardware other than a tool handle and the user's hand in the line of sight of the user. A thin flat screen is placed directly above an array of coils so that electromagnetic forces and torques can be generated through the display to act upon magnets inside the tool handle held by the user. An array of 16 coils generates forces and torques upon 3 magnets embedded in the tool handle. A detailed model of the forces and torques generated on a single magnet from the current through a single coil was calculated analytically. The coil currents required to generate desired haptic interaction forces and torques on the tool handle are calculated from this model at each control update using redundant control methods. Forces of several Newtons gan be generated on the handle in any orientation within approximately 25 mm from the display. Tool position and orientation feedback is provided by an optical motion tracking sensor and infrared LEDs on the tool handle. The design and analysis of the prototype system is presented with results from a simple interactive environment.
CALIBRATED FORECASTING AND MERGING + by Ehud Kalai

Consider a general finite-state stochastic process governed by an unknown objective probability distribution. Observing the system, a forecaster assigns subjective probabilities to future states. The resulting subjective forecast merges to the objective distribution if, with time, the forecasted probabilities converge to the correct (but unknown) probabilities. The forecast is calibrated if observed long-run empirical distributions coincide with the forecasted probabilities. This paper links the unobserved reliability of forecasts to their observed empirical performance by demonstrating full equivalence between notions of merging and of calibration. It also indicates some implications of this equivalence for the literatures of forecasting and learning.
NAST: a multiple sequence alignment server for comparative analysis of 16S rRNA genes

Microbiologists conducting surveys of bacterial and archaeal diversity often require comparative alignments of thousands of 16S rRNA genes collected from a sample. The computational resources and bioinformatics expertise required to construct such an alignment has inhibited high-throughput analysis. It was hypothesized that an online tool could be developed to efficiently align thousands of 16S rRNA genes via the NAST (Nearest Alignment Space Termination) algorithm for creating multiple sequence alignments (MSA). The tool was implemented with a web-interface at . Each user-submitted sequence is compared with Greengenes' ‘Core Set’, comprising ∼10 000 aligned non-chimeric sequences representative of the currently recognized diversity among bacteria and archaea. User sequences are oriented and paired with their closest match in the Core Set to serve as a template for inserting gap characters. Non-16S data (sequence from vector or surrounding genomic regions) are conveniently removed in the returned alignment. From the resulting MSA, distance matrices can be calculated for diversity estimates and organisms can be classified by taxonomy. The ability to align and categorize large sequence sets using a simple interface has enabled researchers with various experience levels to obtain bacterial and archaeal community profiles.
Consumer Motivation for Co-Creation and Resulting Effects on Brand Knowledge

The aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on co-creation in investigating consumers’ motives for participation on the one hand and possible effects of this participation on brand knowledge on the other. It thus provides a link between co-creation, motivation, and branding literature. A constructionist ontological stance and interpretive epistemology led us to the research philosophy of hermeneutical phenomenology and the implementation of a qualitative research strategy. By conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews in the context of a case study rich respondent data was gathered. The subsequent analysis followed the hermeneutic circle approach. Our main findings showed that consumers are driven by a combination of motives for co-creation, with internalised extrinsic motivation as a main driver and skill development being the overall most emphasised incentive. Affected by consumers’ motivation and expectations, co-creation was shown to change consumers’ brand knowledge, however not necessarily with a positive impact on the brand involved.
Growing Together: Personal Relationships Across the Life Span

Contributors Acknowledgements 1. Coming together: a perspective on relationships across the life span Karen L. Fingerman and Frieder R. Lang 2. Relationships as outcomes and contexts Toni C. Antonucci, Elizabeth S. Langfahl, and Hiroko Akiyama 3. Child-parent relationships Peter Noack and Heike M. Buhl 4. A dynamic ecological systems perspective on emotion regulation development within the sibling relationship context Victoria Hilkevitch Bedford and Brenda L. Volling 5. Romantic and marital relationships Hans-Werner Bierhoff and Martina Schmohr 6. Close relationships across the life span: toward a theory of relationship types Keiko Takahashi 7. Friendship across the life span: reciprocity in individual and relationship development Rosemary Bliezner and Karen A. Roberto 8. The consequential stranger: peripheral relationships across the life span Karen L. Fingerman 9. Stress in social relationships: coping and adaptation across the life span Karen Rook, Dara Sorkin and Laura Zettel 10. Social support and physical health across the life span: socioemotional influences Susan Turk Charles and Shahrzad Mavandadi 11. Social cognition and social relationships Fredda Blanchard-Fields and Carolyn Cooper 12. Dyadic fits and transactions in personality and relationships Franz J. Neyer 13. Relational competence across the life span Robert O. Hansson, Eric L. Daleiden and Bert Hayslip, Jr 14. Social motivation across the lifespan: a goal-resource-congruence model of social relationships Frieder R. Lang 15. A lifetime of relationships mediated by technology Rebecca G. Adams and Michelle L. Stevenson Indexes.
Health related quality of life in paediatric chronic health conditions: A comparative study among children and adolescents in Jordan

The major aim of the current study is to understand health related quality of life (HRQoL) domains from children’s own perspective. Specifically, we aim to determine the HRQoL in childhood chronic illnesses and to compare scores with healthy children. A cross-sectional study design with a total of 149 chronically ill children and 162 healthy participants was consecutively enrolled in this study. The Arabic-PedsQLTM-Version 0.4 Scales were used to assess HRQoL in both groups. Results showed that the chronically ill children reported more problems with physical, emotional and school functioning (all significant at p
Aging of Attentiveness in Border Collies and Other Pet Dog Breeds: The Protective Benefits of Lifelong Training

Aging of attentiveness affects cognitive functions like perception and working memory, which can seriously impact communication between dogs and humans, potentially hindering training and cooperation. Previous studies have revealed that aged laboratory beagles and pet Border collies (BC) show a decline in selective attention. However, much less is known about the aging of attentiveness in pet dogs in general rather than in specific breeds. Using 185 pet dogs (75 BC and 110 dogs of other breeds) divided into three age groups [late adulthood (6- < 8 year), senior (8- < 10 year) and geriatric (≥10 year)], we assessed the progress of aging of attentional capture, sustained and selective attention in older dogs in order to explore if prior results in BC are generalizable and to evaluate the influence of lifelong training on measures of attention. Each dog’s lifelong training score (ranging from 0 to 52) was calculated from a questionnaire filled in by the owners listing what kinds of training the dog participated in during its entire life. Dogs were tested in two tasks; the first, measuring attentional capture and sustained attention toward two stimuli (toy and human); and the second, measuring selective attention by means of clicker training for eye contact and finding food on the floor. In the first task, results revealed a significant effect of age but no effect of lifelong training on latency to orient to the stimuli. Duration of looking decreased with age and increased with lifelong training. In the second task, while lifelong training decreased the latency of dogs to form eye contact, aged dogs needed longer to find food. BC did not differ from other dogs in any measures of attention except latency to find food. In conclusion, aged dogs showed a decline in attentional capture and sustained attention demonstrating that these tests are sensitive to detect aging of attentiveness in older pet dogs. Importantly, selective attention remained unchanged with age and lifelong training seemed to delay or reduce the aging of attentiveness, further highlighting the importance of lifelong training in retaining general cognitive functions.
Passage Retrieval Using Answer Type Profiles in Question Answering

Retrieving answer containing passages is a challenging task in Question Answer- ing. In this paper, we describe a novel passage retrieval methodology using answer type profiles. Our methodology includes two steps: estimation and ranking. In the estimation step, answer type profiles are constructed from question-answer sentence pairs parallel cor- pus using a statistical alignment model. Each answer type profile consists of triples: the query word, the answering sentence word and the probability of translation. In the ranking step, answer type profiles are incorporated into the Language Modeling framework called Statistical Machine Translation models for Information Retrieval. Using this framework a set of relevant passages are retrieved, given a question. We conducted experiments on FACTOID questions from TREC 2002 to 2006 QA tracks. The experimental results showed signifi- cant improvements over different retrieval models including TFIDF, Okapi BM25, Indri and KL-divergence.
Association of variants in the PCSK1 gene with obesity in the EPIC-Norfolk study

Recently, the rs6232 (N221D) and rs6235 (S690T) SNPs in the PCSK1 gene were associated with obesity in a meta-analysis comprising more than 13 000 individuals of European ancestry. Each additional minor allele of rs6232 or rs6235 was associated with a 1.34- or 1.22-fold increase in the risk of obesity, respectively. So far, only one relatively small study has aimed to replicate these findings, but could not confirm the association of the rs6235 SNP and did not study the rs6232 variant. In the present study, we examined the associations of the rs6232 and rs6235 SNPs with obesity in a population-based cohort consisting of 20 249 individuals of European descent from Norfolk, UK. Logistic regression and generalized linear models were used to test the associations of the risk alleles with obesity and related quantitative traits, respectively. Neither of the SNPs was significantly associated with obesity, BMI or waist circumference under the additive genetic model (P > 0.05). However, we observed an interaction between rs6232 and age on the level of BMI (P = 0.010) and risk of obesity (P = 0.020). The rs6232 SNP was associated with BMI (P = 0.021) and obesity (P = 0.022) in the younger individuals [less than median age (59 years)], but not among the older age group (P = 0.81 and P = 0.68 for BMI and obesity, respectively). In conclusion, our data suggest that the PCSK1 rs6232 and rs6235 SNPs are not major contributors to common obesity in the general population. However, the effect of rs6232 may be age-dependent.
BASED ON EMPIRICAL RISK MINIMIZATION

EFFICIENCY OF CLASSIFICATION METHODS BASED ON EMPIRICAL RISK MINIMIZATION V. I. Norkin a and M. A. Keyzer b UDC 519:234:24:85 A binary classification problem is reduced to the minimization of convex regularized empirical risk functionals in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. The solution is searched for in the form of a finite linear combination of kernel support functions (Vapnik’s support vector machines). Risk estimates for a misclassification as a function of the training sample size and other model parameters are obtained.
Ternary Tree and Memory-Efficient Huffman Decoding Algorithm

In this study, the focus was on the use of ternary tree over binary tree. Here, a new one pass Algorithm for Decoding adaptive Huffman ternary tree codes was implemented. To reduce the memory size and fasten the process of searching for a symbol in a Huffman tree, we exploited the property of the encoded symbols and proposed a memory efficient data structure to represent the codeword length of Huffman ternary tree. In this algorithm we tried to find out the staring and ending address of the code to know the length of the code. And then in second algorithm we tried to decode the ternary tree code using binary search method. In this algorithm we tried to find out the staring and ending address of the code to know the length of the code. And then in second algorithm we tried to decode the ternary tree code using binary search method.