Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Random forests resource allocation for 5G systems: Performance and robustness study

Next generation cellular networks are expected to improve aggregate multi-user sum rates by a thousand-fold, implying the deployment of cloud radio access networks (CRANs) that consist of a dense set of radio heads. Such a densification of the network inevitably results in high interference coordination complexity and is associated with significant channel state information (CSI) acquisition overhead. The main hypothesis behind this study is that both the coordinated resource allocation complexity and the signaling overhead can be significantly reduced by exploiting explicit knowledge about a terminal's position to make resource allocation predictions. More specifically, we present a design of a learning-based resource allocation scheme for 5G systems that uses Random Forests as multi-class classifier to predict the modulation and coding scheme of a terminal at any given position served by the CRAN. Through performance evaluations it is shown that the signaling overhead is significantly reduced while the learning-based resource allocation scheme can achieve a comparable spectral efficiency to CSI-based schemes. We demonstrate the robustness of the proposed scheme for a varying accuracy of users' positions, showing that even for quite large variations the learning-based approach can still exhibit good performance.
Kestävä kehitys globaalin ajan hyvinvointiyhteiskunnan haasteena

The objective of the dissertation was to determine the concept of sustainable development according to current understanding and to analyze the structuration of sustainable daily life and how it varies between different groups. The present dissertation is both a literature-based theoretical study and data-based empirical research. The theoretical framework of the study was a greated model of the Structuration of Sustainability in Everyday Life. The model is based on a synthesis of Giddens Theory of Structuration (1984), Spaargaren & van Vliet's Theory of Consumption as Social Practices (2000) and principles of sustainable development. According to the model created, sustainable everyday life is generated in a context of internal and external factors compromising the interests of ecosystems, society and business. The literature used in the thesis included international and national statements on sustainable development and research into sustainability and the transition to sustainable societies. The data were collected at Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The discretionary sample consisted of students of social services (n = 210) and were collected using the semantic differential technique. The data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that the value placed on ecological, economic and social sustainability increased with age. Activity in non governmental organizations was associated with the acceptance of sustainable development as a whole and especially with global responsibility. Women's everyday life promoted sustainability more than men s. People living in Helsinki had more sustainable ways of living than those living in the surrounding municipalities because of greater recycling and the low importance given to ownership. Prefering vegetarian food turned out to be a real opportunity for a more sustainable way of living because there were few barriers identified. Contradictory human behavior occurred when advanced sustainable consumer were ready to risk their health. The importance of communality was high and it was considered an aspect of health. The most significant obstacles to sustainable development in daily life were high costs, lack of knowledge and busyness. Similar attitudes towards sustainable development translate into different people s behavior, which indicates complexities of the behaviour change in the context of sustainable development. The role of non governmental organizations is significant in increasing global responsibility. Education presents an opportunity to increase sustainability, but there are challenges to face from system thinking and in understanding entities in a state of transition towards sustainable everyday life. The responsibility of policy makers is paramount because high costs create a barrier to a sustainable way of living. The implementation of the concept of sustainable development should be focused on the planetary ethics which cover humans, animals, plants and ecosystems.
Mediation analysis when a continuous mediator is measured with error and the outcome follows a generalized linear model

Mediation analysis is a popular approach to examine the extent to which the effect of an exposure on an outcome is through an intermediate variable (mediator) and the extent to which the effect is direct. When the mediator is mis‐measured, the validity of mediation analysis can be severely undermined. In this paper, we first study the bias of classical, non‐differential measurement error on a continuous mediator in the estimation of direct and indirect causal effects in generalized linear models when the outcome is either continuous or discrete and exposure–mediator interaction may be present. Our theoretical results as well as a numerical study demonstrate that in the presence of non‐linearities, the bias of naive estimators for direct and indirect effects that ignore measurement error can take unintuitive directions. We then develop methods to correct for measurement error. Three correction approaches using method of moments, regression calibration, and SIMEX are compared. We apply the proposed method to the Massachusetts General Hospital lung cancer study to evaluate the effect of genetic variants mediated through smoking on lung cancer risk. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Integrating copy number polymorphisms into array CGH analysis using a robust HMM

MOTIVATION Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) is a pervasive technique used to identify chromosomal aberrations in human diseases, including cancer. Aberrations are defined as regions of increased or decreased DNA copy number, relative to a normal sample. Accurately identifying the locations of these aberrations has many important medical applications. Unfortunately, the observed copy number changes are often corrupted by various sources of noise, making the boundaries hard to detect. One popular current technique uses hidden Markov models (HMMs) to divide the signal into regions of constant copy number called segments; a subsequent classification phase labels each segment as a gain, a loss or neutral. Unfortunately, standard HMMs are sensitive to outliers, causing over-segmentation, where segments erroneously span very short regions. RESULTS We propose a simple modification that makes the HMM robust to such outliers. More importantly, this modification allows us to exploit prior knowledge about the likely location of "outliers", which are often due to copy number polymorphisms (CNPs). By "explaining away" these outliers with prior knowledge about the locations of CNPs, we can focus attention on the more clinically relevant aberrated regions. We show significant improvements over the current state of the art technique (DNAcopy with MergeLevels) on previously published data from mantle cell lymphoma cell lines, and on published benchmark synthetic data augmented with outliers. AVAILABILITY Source code written in Matlab is available from http://www.cs. ubc.ca/~sshah/acgh.
“It Goes with the Territory”

Abstract A qualitative, phenomenological methodology was used to explore and describe the experience and meaning of maternal guilt for eight women with one or more preadolescent child. A thematic analysis of the in-depth interviews revealed six common themes that were validated by the participants as representative of their experiences of maternal guilt. These findings help to articulate the nature and essence of what appears to be an essential component of the mothering experience for many women, and also provide some direction in terms of clinical practice.
1-pass relative-error Lp-sampling with applications

For any <i>p</i> ∈ [0, 2], we give a 1-pass poly(ε<sup>-1</sup> log <i>n</i>)-space algorithm which, given a data stream of length <i>m</i> with insertions and deletions of an <i>n</i>-dimensional vector <i>a</i>, with updates in the range { -- <i>M</i>, -- <i>M</i> + 1, . , <i>M</i> -- 1, <i>M</i>}, outputs a sample of [<i>n</i>] = {1, 2, . , <i>n</i>} for which for all <i>i</i> the probability that <i>i</i> is returned is (1 ± ε) |<i>a</i><sub><i>i</i></sub>|<i>p</i>/<i>F</i><sub><i>p</i></sub>(<i>a</i>) ± <i>n<sup>-C</sup></i>, where <i>a</i><sub><i>i</i></sub> denotes the (possibly negative) value of coordinate <i>i</i>, <i>F</i><sub><i>p</i></sub>(<i>a</i>) = Σ<i><sup>n</sup></i><sub><i>i</i>=1</sub> |<i>a</i><sub><i>i</i></sub>|<i><sup>p</sup></i> = ||<i>a</i>||<i><sup>p</sup></i><sub><i>p</i></sub> denotes the <i>p</i>-th frequency moment (i.e., the <i>p</i>-th power of the <i>L</i><sub><i>p</i></sub> norm), and <i>C</i> > 0 is an arbitrarily large constant. Here we assume that <i>n, m</i>, and <i>M</i> are polynomially related. Our generic sampling framework improves and unifies algorithms for several communication and streaming problems, including cascaded norms, heavy hitters, and moment estimation. It also gives the first relative-error forward sampling algorithm in a data stream with deletions, answering an open question of Cormode <i>et al</i>.
Investigation of an Escherichia coli environmental benchmark for waterborne pathogens in agricultural watersheds in Canada.

Canada's National Agri-Environmental Standards Initiative sought to develop an environmental benchmark for low-level waterborne pathogen occurrence in agricultural watersheds. A field study collected 902 water samples from 27 sites in four intensive agricultural watersheds across Canada from 2005 to 2007. Four of the sites were selected as reference sites away from livestock and human fecal pollution sources in each watershed. Water samples were analyzed for Campylobacter spp. , Salmonella spp. , Escherichia coli O157:H7, Cryptosporidium spp. , Giardia spp. , and the water quality indicator E. coli. The annual mean number of pathogen species was higher at agricultural sites (1.54 ± 0.07 species per water sample) than at reference sites (0.75 ± 0.14 species per water sample). The annual mean concentration of E. coli was also higher at agricultural sites (491 ± 96 colony-forming units [cfu] 100 mL(-1)) than at reference sites (53 ± 18 cfu 100 mL(-1)). The feasibility of adopting existing E. coli water quality guideline values as an environmental benchmark was assessed, but waterborne pathogens were detected at agricultural sites in 80% of water samples with low E. coli concentrations (<100 cfu 100 mL(-1)). Instead, an approach was developed based on using the natural background occurrence of pathogens at reference sites in agricultural watersheds to derive provisional environmental benchmarks for pathogens at agricultural sites. The environmental benchmarks that were derived were found to represent E. coli values lower than geometric mean values typically found in recreational water quality guidelines. Additional research is needed to investigate environmental benchmarks for waterborne pathogens within the context of the "One World, One Health" perspective for protecting human, domestic animal, and wildlife health.
Death of a monster

The Hydra was a monster with many heads, living in a marsh of Lerna. Hercules fought it in a formidable struggle, chopping off its heads with a club. However, as Hercules chopped a head, two new heads grew forth from the monster 's body. According to the official records Hercules won. What the Greek did not reveal is that , no mat ter in which order Hercules had decided to attack the heads, he would have annihilated the Hydra. Although less charming and botanically incorrect, we treat the Hydra as a rooted tree and the heads as leaves (figure 1). For a leaf z the predecessor y is the neck, and the predecessor's predecessor z is the trunk. When z is cut off two new subtrees, rooted in the new necks u and v, grow from the trunk z. These subtrees are identical to the one rooted in y (deprived of x). The first relevant fact is that , independently of the order in which the leaves are cut, the tree eventually reduces to its root after a f~nlte number of cuts, and then disappears with the next cut. Before we prove the.q, the reader may practice a little fighting the Hydra of figure I. Even if the battle is not brought to its end, as it may take a huge number of steps, the following facts may help understanding the nature of the process:
Characteristics and error estimation of stratospheric ozone and ozone-related species over Poker Flat (65° N, 147° W), Alaska observed by a ground-based FTIR spectrometer from 2001 to 2003

It is important to obtain the year-to-year trend of stratospheric minor species in the context of global changes. An important example is the trend in global ozone depletion. The purpose of this paper is to report the accuracy and precision of measurements of stratospheric chemical species that are made at our Poker Flat site in Alaska (65° N, 147° W). Since 1999, minor atmospheric molecules have been observed using a Fourier-Transform solar-absorption infrared Spectrometer (FTS) at Poker Flat. Vertical profiles of the abundances of ozone, HNO 3 , HCl, and HF for the period from 2001 to 2003 were retrieved from FTS spectra using Rodgers' formulation of the Optimal Estimation Method (OEM). The accuracy and precision of the retrievals were estimated by formal error analysis. Errors for the total column were estimated to be 5.3%, 3.4%, 5.9%, and 5.3% for ozone, HNO 3 , HCl, and HF, respectively. The ozone vertical profiles were in good agreement with profiles derived from collocated ozonesonde measurements that were smoothed with averaging kernel functions that had been obtained with the retrieval procedure used in the analysis of spectra from the ground-based FTS (gb-FTS). The O 3 , HCl, and HF columns that were retrieved from the FTS measurements were consistent with Earth Probe/Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and HALogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) data over Alaska within the error limits of all the respective datasets. This is the first report from the Poker Flat FTS observation site on a number of stratospheric gas profiles including a comprehensive error analysis.
On glottal source shape parameter transformation using a novel deterministic and stochastic speech analysis and synthesis system

In this paper we present a flexible deterministic plus stochastic model (DSM) approach for parametric speech analysis and synthesis with high quality. The novelty of the proposed speech processing system lies in its extended means to estimate the unvoiced stochastic component and to robustly handle the transformation of the glottal excitation source. It is therefore well suited as speech system within the context of Voice Transformation and Voice Conversion. The system is evaluated in the context of a voice quality transformation on natural human speech. The voice quality of a speech phrase is altered by means of resynthesizing the deterministic component with different pulse shapes of the glottal excitation source. A subjective listening test suggests that the speech processing system is able to successfully synthesize and arise to a listener the perceptual sensation of different voice quality characteristics. Additionally, improvements of the speech synthesis quality compared to a baseline method are demonstrated.
Real-Counter Automata and Their Decision Problems (Extended Abstract)

We introduce real-counter automata, which are two-way finite au- tomata augmented with counters that take real values. In contrast to traditional word automata that accept sequences of symbols, real-counter automata accept real words that are bounded and closed real intervals delimited by a finite number of markers. We study the membership and emptiness problems for one-way/two- way real-counter automata as well as those automata further augmented with other unbounded storage devices such as integer-counters and pushdown stacks.
SALSA : SAving Lives Staying Active to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating

Physical inactivity, poor dietary habits, and obesity are vexing problems among minorities. SAving Lives, Staying Active (SALSA) was an 8-week randomized controlled crossover design, pilot study to promote regular physical activity (PA) and fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption as a means to preventing weight gain among women of color. Participants completed measures of demographics, PA, and dietary habits. Women (N = 50; M = 42 years) who participated were overweight (MBMI = 29.7 kg/m2; Mbody fat = 38.5%) and reported low levels of leisure time PA (M = 10.7 MET-min/wk) and FV consumption (M = 4.2 servings/day). All were randomized to a four-week (1) semiweekly Latin dance group or (2) internet-based dietary education group. All participants reported a significant increase in weekly leisure time PA from baseline (M = 10.7 MET-min/wk) to follow up (M = 34.0 MET-min/wk, P < .001), and FV consumption increased over time by group (P = .02). Data suggest that Latin dance interventions to improve PA and web-based interventions to improve dietary habits show promise for improving health among women of color.
pFlexAna: detecting conformational changes in remotely related proteins

The pFlexAna (protein flexibility analyzer) web server detects and displays conformational changes in remotely related proteins, without relying on sequence homology. To do so, it first applies a reliable statistical test to align core protein fragments that are structurally similar and then clusters these aligned fragment pairs into ‘super-alignments’, according to the similarity of geometric transformations that align them. The result is that the dominant conformational changes occur between the clusters, while the smaller conformational changes occur within a cluster. pFlexAna is available at http://bigbird.comp.nus.edu. sg/pfa2/.
A Logical Approach to Data Fusion

Safety-critical systems often incorporate fault-tolerance techniques in their design, particularly the technique of redundancy. The idea of consistency checking found in redundancy techniques can be more broadly applied by using knowledge about system parameters and their relationships. Here we present a model of data fusion, which detects failures and provides good estimates of plant parameters by checking sensor data for consistency. We illustrate our approach with a boiler system example, proving that the water level in the boiler is always within its safe range.
Robot Aided Therapy: Challenges Ahead for Upper Limb Stroke Rehabilitation

People who have been discharged from hospital following a stroke still have a potential to continue their recovery by doing therapy at home. Unfortunately it is difficult to exercise a stroke affected arm correctly and many people simply resort to using their good arm for most activities. This strategy makes many tasks difficult and any tasks requiring two hands become nearly impossible. The use of haptic interface technologies will allow the reach and grasp movements to be retrained by either assisting movement, or directing movement towards a specified target. This paper demonstrates how initial work on machine mediated therapies can be made available to a person recovering at home.
Cytoplasmic Na+‐dependent modulation of mitochondrial Ca2+ via electrogenic mitochondrial Na+–Ca2+ exchange

To clarify the role of mitochondrial Na+–Ca2+ exchange (NCXmito) in regulating mitochondrial Ca2+ (Ca2+mito) concentration at intact and depolarized mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨmito), we measured Ca2+mito and ΔΨmito using fluorescence probes Rhod‐2 and TMRE, respectively, in the permeabilized rat ventricular cells. Applying 300 nm cytoplasmic Ca2+ (Ca2+c) increased Ca2+mito and this increase was attenuated by cytoplasmic Na+ (Na+c) with an IC50 of 2.4 mm. To the contrary, when ΔΨmito was depolarized by FCCP, a mitochondrial uncoupler, Na+c enhanced the Ca2+c‐induced increase in Ca2+mito with an EC50 of about 4 mm. This increase was not significantly affected by ruthenium red or cyclosporin A. The inhibition of NCXmito by CGP‐37157 further increased Ca2+mito when ΔΨmito was intact, while it suppressed the Ca2+mito increase when ΔΨmito was depolarized, suggesting that ΔΨmito depolarization changed the exchange mode from forward to reverse. Furthermore, ΔΨmito depolarization significantly reduced the Ca2+mito decrease via forward mode, and augmented the Ca2+mito increase via reverse mode. When the respiratory chain was attenuated, the induction of the reverse mode of NCXmito hyperpolarized ΔΨmito, while ΔΨmito depolarized upon inducing the forward mode of NCXmito. Both changes in ΔΨmito were remarkably inhibited by CGP‐37157. The above experimental data indicated that NCXmito is voltage dependent and electrogenic. This notion was supported theoretically by computer simulation studies with an NCXmito model constructed based on present and previous studies, presuming a consecutive and electrogenic Na+–Ca2+ exchange and a depolarization‐induced increase in Na+ flux. It is concluded that Ca2+mito concentration is dynamically modulated by Na+c and ΔΨmito via electrogenic NCXmito.
Improved Method for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of 6-Thioguanine Nucleotides and 6-Methylmercaptopurine in Whole-Blood by LC/MSMS Using Isotope-Labeled Internal Standards

Objectives: Thiopurine drugs (azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine) show wide interindividual variability and a narrow therapeutic range thus making therapeutic monitoring of their active metabolite 6-thioguanine nucleotides (6-TGN) desirable. We improved the currently available laborious and complex methodology of therapeutic drug monitoring of 6-TGN and the metabolite 6-methylmercaptopurine (6-MMP) in washed erythrocytes (ery) based on a whole-blood method. Methods: The analytes were hydrolyzed and extracted from 25-µL ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid–anticoagulated whole-blood spiked with isotope labeled 6-TG-13C215N and 6-MMP-d3 internal standards. Chromatography was performed in 5.1 minutes on a C18 reverse phase column followed by detection via electrospray interface–coupled API 4000 mass spectrometer set up in the positive multiple reaction monitoring mode. The hemoglobin concentration was measured in 20 µL of the original sample (AHD575 method), and the results were standardized to 120 g/L of hemoglobin. Results: Calibration curves were linear with r2 > 0.999 (6-TGN and 6-MMP up to 10,000 pmol/0.2 mL). The limit of quantification was 30 pmol/0.2 mL for 6-TGN and 6-MMP. Intraassay and interassay imprecision was <7.5% at 3 tested levels for 6-TGN and 6-MMP, respectively. Method comparisons were as follows: Ery 6-TGN: y = 1.3x − 11 and ery 6-MMP y = 1.1x − 124. Conclusions: The new method compares favorably with established ones, allowing for rapid single run determination of 6-TGN and 6-MMP from <50 µL of fresh or frozen whole blood. Linearity and limits of quantification cover the clinically relevant range. Variability during sample preparation and matrix effects are compensated by the use of isotope-labeled internal standards. The whole-blood method is hemoglobin standardized to avoid falsely low results in the case of anemia. The method correlates well with 6-TGN measured in washed erythrocytes, but it requires significantly less hands-on time. Preliminary therapeutic ranges for the most common indications of azathioprine and 6-MP are provided.