Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On user-centric QoE prediction for VoIP and video based on machine-learning

Assessing the impact of different network conditions on user experience is important for improving the telecommunication services. We have developed the MLQoE, a modular algorithm for user-centric QoE prediction. The MLQoE employs several machine learning (ML) algorithms and tunes their hyper-parameters. It selects the ML algorithm that exhibits the best performance and its parameters automatically given the input. The input consists of metrics based on empirical measurements. The MLQoE has been extensively evaluated in the context of VoIP. To assess the generality of our methodology, we have also evaluated the MLQoE using bidirectional VoIP and video traces. The MLQoE outperforms several state-of-the-art algorithms, resulting in fairly accurate predictions. Currently, we have been applying the MLQoE in the context of a video streaming service in a production environment of a large telecom operator in Greece. Note: This paper is based on our work entitled “On user-centric modular QoE prediction for VoIP over wireless networks based on machine-learning algorithms”, by Paulos Charonyktakis, Maria Plakia, Ioannis Tsamardinos, and Maria Papadopouli, that will appear in the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.
Exploiting macrophages as targeted carrier to guide nanoparticles into glioma

The restriction of anti-cancer drugs entry to tumor sites in the brain is a major impediment to the development of new strategies for the treatment of glioma. Based on the finding that macrophages possess an intrinsic homing property enabling them to migrate to tumor sites across the endothelial barriers in response to the excretion of cytokines/chemokines in the diseased tissues, we exploited macrophages as ‘Trojan horses’ to carry drug-loading nanoparticles (NPs), pass through barriers, and offload them into brain tumor sites. Anticancer drugs were encapsulated in nanoparticles to avoid their damage to the cells. Drug loading NPs was then incubated with RAW264.7 cells in vitro to prepare macrophage-NPs (M-NPs). The release of NPs from M-NPs was very slow in medium of DMEM and 10% FBS and significantly accelerated when LPS and IFN-γ were added to mimic tumor inflammation microenvironment. The viability of macrophages was not affected when the concentration of doxorubicin lower than 25 μg/ml. The improvement of cellular uptake and penetration into the core of glioma spheroids of M-NPs compared with NPs was verified in in vitro studies. The tumor-targeting efficiency of NPs was also significantly enhanced after loading into macrophages in nude mice bearing intracranial U87 glioma. Our results provided great potential of macrophages as an active biocarrier to deliver anticancer drugs to the tumor sites in the brain and improve therapeutic effects of glioma.
An Investigation into Influence Factor of Student Programming Grade Using Association Rule Mining

Computer programming is one of the most essential skills which each graduate has to acquire.However, there are reports that they are unable to write a program well. Researches indicated there are many factors can affect student programming performance.Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the significant factors that may influence students programming performance based information from previous student performance using data mining technique. Data mining is a data analysis technique that able to discover hidden knowledge in database. The programming dataset used in this study comprises information on the performance profile of Universiti Utara Malaysia students from 4 different bachelor programs that were Bachelor in Information Technology , Bachelor in Multimedia, Bachelor in Decision Science and Bachelor in Education specializing in IT of the November session year 2004/2005. They were required to enroll introductory programming subject as requirement to graduate . The dataset consisting of 4 19 records with 70 attributes were pre-processed and then mined using directed association rule mining algorithm namely Apriori. The result indicated that the student who has been exposed to programming prior to entering university and scored well in Mathematics and English subject during secondary Malaysian School Certificate examination were among strong indicators that contributes to good programming grades. This finding can be a guideline to the faculty to plan a teaching and learning program for new registered student.
Beneficial Effects of Physical Exercise on Functional Capacity and Skeletal Muscle Oxidative Stress in Rats with Aortic Stenosis-Induced Heart Failure

Objective. We evaluated the influence of exercise on functional capacity, cardiac remodeling, and skeletal muscle oxidative stress, MAPK, and NF-κB pathway in rats with aortic stenosis- (AS-) induced heart failure (HF). Methods and Results. Eighteen weeks after AS induction, rats were assigned into sedentary control (C-Sed), exercised control (C-Ex), sedentary AS (AS-Sed), and exercised AS (AS-Ex) groups. Exercise was performed on treadmill for eight weeks. Statistical analyses were performed with Goodman and ANOVA or Mann-Whitney. HF features frequency and mortality did not differ between AS groups. Exercise improved functional capacity, assessed by maximal exercise test on treadmill, without changing echocardiographic parameters. Soleus cross-sectional areas did not differ between groups. Lipid hydroperoxide concentration was higher in AS-Sed than C-Sed and AS-Ex. Activity of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase was changed in AS-Sed and restored in AS-Ex. NADPH oxidase activity and gene expression of its subunits did not differ between AS groups. Total ROS generation was lower in AS-Ex than C-Ex. Exercise modulated MAPK in AS-Ex and did not change NF-κB pathway proteins. Conclusion. Exercise improves functional capacity in rats with AS-induced HF regardless of echocardiographic parameter changes. In soleus, exercise reduces oxidative stress, preserves antioxidant enzyme activity, and modulates MAPK expression.
A Randomized, Open-Label, Multicenter Trial for the Safety and Efficacy of Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells after Acute Myocardial Infarction

Recent studies suggest that the intracoronary administration of bone marrow (BM)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may improve left ventricular function in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, there is still argumentative for the safety and efficacy of MSCs in the AMI setting. We thus performed a randomized pilot study to investigate the safety and efficacy of MSCs in patients with AMI. Eighty patients with AMI after successful reperfusion therapy were randomly assigned and received an intracoronary administration of autologous BM-derived MSCs into the infarct related artery at 1 month. During follow-up period, 58 patients completed the trial. The primary endpoint was changes in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) at 6 month. We also evaluated treatment-related adverse events. The absolute improvement in the LVEF by SPECT at 6 month was greater in the BM-derived MSCs group than in the control group (5.9%±8.5% vs 1.6%±7.0%; P=0.037). There was no treatment-related toxicity during intracoronary administration of MSCs. No significant adverse cardiovascular events occurred during follow-up. In conclusion, the intracoronary infusion of human BM-derived MSCs at 1 month is tolerable and safe with modest improvement in LVEF at 6-month follow-up by SPECT. (ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT01392105)
Pricing Asian and basket options via Taylor expansion

Asian options belong to the so-called path-dependent derivatives. They are among the most difficult to price and hedge both analytically and numerically. Basket options are even harder to price and hedge because of the large number of state variables. Several approaches have been proposed in the literature, including Monte Carlo simulations, tree-based methods, partial differential equations, and analytical approximations among others. The last category is the most appealing because most of the other methods are very complex and slow. Our method belongs to the analytical approximation class. It is based on the observation that though the weighted average of lognormal variables is no longer lognormal, it can be approximated by a lognormal random variable if the first two moments match the true first two moments. To have a better approximation, we consider the Taylor expansion of the ratio of the characteristic function of the average to that of the approximating lognormal random variable around zero volatility. We include terms up to σ6 in the expansion. The resulting option formulas are in closed form. We treat discrete Asian option as a special case of basket options. Formulas for continuous Asian options are obtained from their discrete counterpart. Numerical tests indicate that the formulas are very accurate. Comparisons with all other leading analytical approximations show that our method has performed the best overall in terms of accuracy for both short and long maturity options. Furthermore, unlike some other methods, our approximation treats basket (portfolio) and Asian options in a unified way. Lastly, in the appendix we point out a serious mathematical error of a popular method of pricing Asian options in the literature.
Managing Teams in Secondary Schools

1. The Context of Secondary school Management 2. Management for Effective Schools 3. Leadership and management in Secondary Schools 4. Staff Teams and their Management 5. Developing the School 6. The Staff Team: Its Priorities and their Management 7. Communication in Schools 8. Curriculum Profiles and Job Descriptions 9. Staff Appraisal and the Secondary School Team 10. Conclusion: Development, Change and Stability
Comparative Study of Features Space Reduction Techniques for Spam Detection By Nouman Azam 1242 ( MS-5 ) Supervised

The increased usage of the internet in the recent past has turned email as the most widely used medium for communication. Its wide usage soon attracted a lot of companies to advertise their products on the medium thus starting non ending streams of spams. The growing volume of spam emails has increased the demand for accurate and efficient spam solutions. Many spam solutions have been proposed in the recent past. The one which we addresses in this research has achieved wide spread popularity. It treats spam detection as a simple two class document classification problem, the solution of which will consist of classification algorithm coupled with dimensionality reduction method as document classification tasks are driven by high dimensionality. Classification in reduced dimensionality will help us improving the performance in terms of accuracy and will have lesser computational time and storage requirements. Earlier work in the feature reduction on the domain of document classification concentrated on multiple class problems [8] [9]. The contribution of this research is the comparison of different dimensionality reduction methods on a two class problem. Performances of the techniques were measured as a function of features set size. There were two sub objectives that were also addressed. Firstly, to find the best size of the features set for every feature reduction technique that will do a good job of classification. Secondly to compare different feature reduction techniques performances under different classifiers so that advances towards finding the best couple of classification algorithm and dimensionality reduction technique can be made. Eight different feature reduction techniques were compared and analyzed with three classifiers i.e. Nearest Neighbor, Weighted Nearest Neighbor and Naïve Bayesian. The techniques showed quite promising results in certain cases, even at as low as features set of size 10. Latent Semantic Indexing was found to have best performance at lower features set while Mutual Information and CHI Square techniques showed acceptable performance at lower features sets and have best performance at higher features set sizes. 1 http://www.templetons. com/brad/spam/spamsol.html 2 http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Bayesian_spam_filtering Comparative Study on Feature Space Reduction Techniques for Spam Detection______ i National University of Sciences & Technology MS Dissertation ______________________________________________________________________
Improving continence services for older people from the service-providers’ perspective: a qualitative interview study

Objective To examine in depth the views and experiences of continence service leads in England on key service and continence management characteristics in order to identify and to improve our understanding of barriers to a good-quality service and potential facilitators to develop and to improve services for older people with urinary incontinence (UI). Design Qualitative semistructured interviews using a purposive sample recruited across 16 continence services. Setting 3 acute and 13 primary care National Health Service Trusts in England. Participants 16 continence service leads in England actively treating and managing older people with UI. Results In terms of barriers to a good-quality service, participants highlighted a failure on the part of commissioners, managers and other health professionals in recognising the problem of UI and in acknowledging the importance of continence for older people and prevalent negative attitudes towards continence and older people. Patient assessment and continence promotion regardless of age, rather than pad provision, were identified as important steps for a good-quality service for older people with UI. More rapid and appropriate patient referral pathways, investment in service capacity, for example, more trained staff and strengthened interservice collaborations and a higher profile within medical and nurse training were specified as being important facilitators for delivering an equitable and high-quality continence service. There is a need, however, to consider the accounts given by our participants as perhaps serving the interests of their professional group within the context of interprofessional work. Conclusions Our data point to important barriers and facilitators of a good-quality service for older people with UI, from the perspective of continence service leads. Further research should address the views of other stakeholders, and explore options for the empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of identified service facilitators.
LANDMARK-BASED ELASTIC MATCHING OF TOMOGRAPHIC

We describe a novel approach for elastic matching of tomographic images of the human brain. The approach is based on a set of corresponding anatomical point landmarks and uses approximating thin-plate splines. Previous work on this topic has concentrated on using interpolation schemes which means that corresponding landmarks are exactly matched to each other. Consequently, the underlying assumption is that the landmark positions are known exactly. However , in real applications the localization of landmarks is always prone to error. Therefore, to cope with these errors, we have investigated the application of an approximation scheme which is based on a minimizing functional. This approach renders possible to individually weight the landmarks according to their loca-lization uncertainty. Our approach has been applied to 2D as well as 3D tomographic data.
The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: II. Second-Epoch LMC Data

We present revised and improved mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids based on double-epoch data of 70 Cepheids observed by Spitzer at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0um. The observed scatter at all wavelengths is found to decrease from +/-0.17 mag to +/-0.14 mag, which is fully consistent with the prediction that the total scatter is made up of roughly equal contributions from random sampling of the light curve and nearly-uniform samplings of stars across the instability strip. It is calculated that the Cepheids in this sample have a full amplitude of about 0.4 mag and that their fully-sampled, time-averaged magnitudes should eventually reveal mid-infrared PL relations that each have intrinsic scatter at most at the +/-0.12 mag level, and as low as +/-0.08 mag after correcting for the tilt of the LMC.
Information exchange in multiple cooperating swarms

This paper investigates the idea of having two cooperating swarms exchanging information in order to solve an optimization problem. The information being exchanged between the two swarms is an important factor that affects the quality of the obtained solution. The information to be shared between the two swarms has to be carefully selected depending on the model being used. This paper compares two types of information to be exchanged, namely the global best and the best particle. It is shown that exchanging the best particles leads to better results than only sharing the global best. This paper also addresses the idea of exchanging the best p particles between the two swarms.
A no-reference image sharpness estimation based on expectation of wavelet transform coefficients

In this work, the expectation of wavelet transform coefficients is used for estimating an image sharpness. It's based on the observation that the greater the probability of big detail coefficients, the more pixels appear sharply, and consequently, the sharper the image. Specifically, an input image is firstly decomposed into three directional sub-bands by a separable discrete wavelet transform. Then these directional sub-bands are viewed as three random variables, and their expectations are computed. Finally, The proposed sharpness index is the weighted sum of three expectations. The experiments show that, despite its simplicity, the proposed sharpness index is competitive with the current best-performance techniques for no-reference image sharpness estimation.
Gender Differences in Training, Capital, and Wages

This paper constructs an equilibrium job-matching model where workers differ in their attachment to the labor force. The model predicts that workers with weaker attachment to the labor market will receive lower starting wages and lower post-training wages, and will be placed in jobs that offer less training and use less capital. The implications of the model for gender differences in pay and job assignment are tested with the EOPP data set. Our findings suggest that while training intensity during the first three months of employment is similar in positions filled by males and females, females are employed in positions that have a shorter duration of on-the-job training and that use less capital. These differences in on-the-job training and capital in positions filled by men and women, as well as a lower market value for women's prior labor market experience, account for a substantial part of the gap in wages between males and females.
Brainstorm / J : a framework for intelligent agents

Based on common functionality existing among different mul ti-agent systems (MAS) such as reactivity, deliberation and communication, several tools have be en built to develop MAS. Despite these efforts, most of them are targeted to specific application domains or s pecific types of agents, limiting thus their applicability. This paper describes an approach to develop MAS that aims at providing flexibility by describing common agents abstractions in a reusable manner . As a consequence, our approach supports a broader scope of MAS applications than previous efforts.
Ray tracing as a design tool for radio networks

Efficient radio ray tracing programs developed particularly for reflector-rich environments are described. These image-based, dual-grid, scalar, coherent, ray tracing programs generate maps, (two-dimensional slices) of three-dimensional standing wave patterns for continuous wave illumination. The calculated maps are used to estimate system coverage quality in a macroscopic sense and to investigate design alternatives regarding antenna beamwidths, boresight orientations, spatially averaged signal strengths, and so forth. The programs run fast enough on engineering workstation to support indoor radio system design, but not fast enough for interactive use. Examples are given to illustrate the use of the programs. <<ETX>>
Accelerated fibrosis and apoptosis with ageing and in atrial fibrillation: Adaptive responses with maladaptive consequences

The aim of this study was to investigate whether abnormal expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9/tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMP)-1 and B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2)/BCL-2-associated X protein (BAX) are correlated with the characteristic accelerated fibrosis and apoptosis during ageing and in atrial fibrillation (AF). Four groups of dogs were studied: adult dogs in sinus rhythm (SR), aged dogs in SR, adult dogs with AF induced by rapid atrial pacing and aged dogs with AF induced by rapid atrial pacing. The mRNA and protein expression levels of the target gene in the left atrium were measured by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot analysis. Pathohistological and ultrastructural changes were assessed by light and electron microscopy. The apoptotic indices of myocytes were detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate (dUTP) nick end labeling (TUNEL). The mRNA and protein expression levels of MMP-9 and BAX and those of TIMP-1 and BCL-2 were significantly upregulated and down-regulated, respectively, in the aged groups compared with the adult groups. Compared with the control groups, the adult and aged groups with AF exhibited significantly increased mRNA and protein expression levels of MMP-9 and BAX and decreased expression levels of TIMP-1 and BCL-2. Samples of atrial tissue demonstrated abnormal pathohistological and ultrastructural changes, accelerated fibrosis and apoptosis. MMP-9/TIMP-1 and BCL-2/BAX hold potential for use as substrates conducive to AF and their abnormal expression plays a major role in structural remodeling of the atrium.
Robust online motion capture labeling of finger markers

Passive optical motion capture is one of the predominant technologies for capturing high fidelity human skeletal motion, and is a workhorse in a large number of areas such as bio-mechanics, film and video games. While most state-of-the-art systems can automatically identify and track markers on the larger parts of the human body, the markers attached to fingers provide unique challenges and usually require extensive manual cleanup. In this work we present a robust online method for identification and tracking of passive motion capture markers attached to the fingers of the hands. The method is especially suited for large capture volumes and sparse marker sets of 3 to 10 markers per hand. Once trained, our system can automatically initialize and track the markers, and the subject may exit and enter the capture volume at will. By using multiple assignment hypotheses and soft decisions, it can robustly recover from a difficult situation with many simultaneous occlusions and false observations (ghost markers). We evaluate the method on a collection of sparse marker sets commonly used in industry and in the research community. We also compare the results with two of the most widely used motion capture platforms: Motion Analysis Cortex and Vicon Blade. The results show that our method is better at attaining correct marker labels and is especially beneficial for real-time applications.