Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Graphical Models for Distributed Inference in Wireless Sensor Networks

Distributed information fusion is an active area of research; however, fusion in the large, dynamic, unpredictable, and power-scarce setting of wireless sensor network (WSN) requires more than just distributed fusion algorithms. Some of the important questions that need to be addressed are dynamic mapping of inference responsibilities to sensor nodes in a distributed manner and cost-effective, fault-tolerant exchange of fusion information. Graphical models provide compact representation of joint probability distributions; they help in drawing inference more efficiently. We propose two graphical models called Inference Cost Network (ICN) and Dynamic Inference Cost Network (DICN) that generalize Bayesian networks and dynamic Bayesian networks for truly distributed implementation. We also propose distributed inference algorithms for ICN/DICN that address the unique requirements of information fusion in WSN. We prove correctness of the model and the algorithms and demonstrate that the algorithms are lightweight in terms of computational complexity.
Miss penalty reduction using bundled capacity prefetching in multiprocessors

While prefetch has proven itself useful for reducing cache misses in multiprocessors, traffic is often increased due to extra unused prefetch data. Prefetching in multiprocessors can also increase the cache miss rate due to the false sharing caused by the larger pieces of data retrieved. The capacity prefetching strategy proposed in this paper is built on the assumption that prefetching is most beneficial for reducing capacity and cold misses, but not communication misses. We propose a simple scheme for detecting the most frequent communication misses and suggest that prefetching should be avoided for those. We also suggest a simple and effective strategy for reducing the address traffic while retrieving many sequential cache lines called bundling. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches, we have evaluated both strategies for one of the simplest forms of prefetching, sequential prefetching. The two new strategies applied to this bandwidth-hungry prefetch technique result in a lower miss rate for all studied applications, while the average amount of address traffic is reduced compared with the same application run with no prefetching. The proposed strategies could also be applied to more sophisticated prefetching techniques for better overall performance.
Personalized Recommendation of User Comments via Factor Models

In recent years, the amount of user-generated opinionated texts (e.g., reviews, user comments) continues to grow at a rapid speed: featured news stories on a major event easily attract thousands of user comments on a popular online News service. How to consume subjective information of this volume becomes an interesting and important research question. In contrast to previous work on review analysis that tried to filter or summarize information for a generic average user, we explore a different direction of enabling personalized recommendation of such information. For each user, our task is to rank the comments associated with a given article according to personalized user preference (i.e., whether the user is likely to like or dislike the comment). To this end, we propose a factor model that incorporates rater-comment and rater-author interactions simultaneously in a principled way. Our full model significantly outperforms strong baselines as well as related models that have been considered in previous work.
Human CD133+ Progenitor Cells Promote the Healing of Diabetic Ischemic Ulcers by Paracrine Stimulation of Angiogenesis and Activation of Wnt Signaling

We evaluated the healing potential of human fetal aorta–derived CD133+ progenitor cells and their conditioned medium (CD133+ CCM) in a new model of ischemic diabetic ulcer. Streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice underwent bilateral limb ischemia and wounding. One wound was covered with collagen containing 2×104 CD133+ or CD133− cells or vehicle. The contralateral wound, covered with only collagen, served as control. Fetal CD133+ cells expressed high levels of wingless (Wnt) genes, which were downregulated following differentiation into CD133− cells along with upregulation of Wnt antagonists secreted frizzled-related protein (sFRP)-1, -3, and -4. CD133+ cells accelerated wound closure as compared with CD133− or vehicle and promoted angiogenesis through stimulation of endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and survival by paracrine effects. CD133+ cells secreted high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A and interleukin (IL)-8. Consistently, CD133+ CCM accelerated wound closure and reparative angiogenesis, with this action abrogated by coadministering the Wnt antagonist sFRP-1 or neutralizing antibodies against VEGF-A or IL-8. In vitro, these effects were recapitulated following exposure of high-glucose-primed human umbilical vein endothelial cells to CD133+ CCM, resulting in stimulation of migration, angiogenesis-like network formation and induction of Wnt expression. The promigratory and proangiogenic effect of CD133+ CCM was blunted by sFRP-1, as well as antibodies against VEGF-A or IL-8. CD133+ cells stimulate wound healing by paracrine mechanisms that activate Wnt signaling pathway in recipients. These preclinical findings open new perspectives for the cure of diabetic ulcers.
Mechatronics and control system design for magnetic-levitation platform

In this study, a magnetic-levitation (maglev) precise-position device will be addressed. The precise-position device will be designed to avoid friction in motion by using a non-contact track made up of permanent magnets and a bipolar active electromagnetic levitation platform. First, a nonlinear electromagnetic force will be analyzed thoroughly and the dynamic model of the precise-position device will be derived. Moreover, the levitation or landing force will produced by individual electromagnet with appropriate exciting current, which is decided according the designed control effort passing through the linear servo current amplifier and the bipolar switching circuit. Finally, the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed novel adaptive control strategy in this study is verified by microcontroller-based experimental results.
Toward Deformation Modeling With Haptic Feedback

A fast deformation modeling method is presented. Based on elastic theory, an algorithm for animating viscoelastic systems is proposed. The integration scheme derived from implicit integration allows developers to obtain interactive realistic animation of models of viscoelastic objects. This method provides a simple, stable and tunable model for deformable object suitable for virtual reality environments. An implementation demonstrates this deformation analysis approach.
Self-regulatory perspectives in the theory of planned job-search behavior : Deliberate and automatic self-regulation strategies to facilitate job seeking

Because job search often is a lengthy process accompanied by complexities, disruptions, rejections, and other adversities, job seekers need self-regulation to initiate and maintain job search behaviors for obtaining employment goals. This chapter reviews goal/intention properties (e.g., specificity, proximity, conflicts, motivation type) and skills, beliefs, strategies, and capacities (e.g., self-monitoring skills and type, trait and momentary self-control capacity, nonlimited willpower beliefs, implementation intentions, goal-shielding and goal maintenance strategies) that facilitate self-regulation and as such may moderate the relationship between job search intentions and job search behavior. For each moderator, a theoretical rationale is developed based on self-regulation theory linked to the theory of planned job search behavior, available empirical support is reviewed, and future research recommendations are provided. The importance of irrationality and nonconscious processes is discussed; examples are given of hypoegoic self-regulation strategies that reduce the need for deliberate self-regulation and conscious control by automatizing job search behaviors.
Feature Selection Based on Fisher Ratio and Mutual Information Analyses for Robust Brain Computer Interface

This paper proposes a novel feature selection method based on two-stage analysis of Fisher ratio and mutual information for robust brain computer interface. This method decomposes multichannel brain signals into subbands. The spatial filtering and feature extraction is then processed in each subband. The two-stage analysis of Fisher ratio and mutual information is carried out in the feature domain to reject the noisy feature indexes and select the most informative combination from the remaining. In the approach, we develop two practical solutions, avoiding the difficulties of using high dimensional mutual information in the application, that are the feature indexes clustering using cross mutual information and the latter estimation based on conditional empirical PDF. We test the proposed feature selection method on two BCI data sets and the results are at least comparable to the best results in the literature. The main advantage of proposed method is that the method is free from any time-consuming parameter tweaking and therefore suitable for the BCI system design.
Finite elements on evolving surfaces

In this article, we define a new evolving surface finite-element method for numerically approximating partial differential equations on hypersurfaces (t) in n+1 which evolve with time. The key idea is based on approximating (t) by an evolving interpolated polyhedral (polygonal if n = 1) surface h(t) consisting of a union of simplices (triangles for n = 2) whose vertices lie on (t). A finite-element space of functions is then defined by taking the set of all continuous functions on h(t) which are linear affine on each simplex. The finite-element nodal basis functions enjoy a transport property which simplifies the computation. We formulate a conservation law for a scalar quantity on (t) and, in the case of a diffusive flux, derive a transport and diffusion equation which takes into account the tangential velocity and the local stretching of the surface. Using surface gradients to define weak forms of elliptic operators naturally generates weak formulations of elliptic and parabolic equations on (t). Our finite-element method is applied to the weak form of the conservation equation. The computations of the mass and element stiffness matrices are simple and straightforward. Error bounds are derived in the case of semi-discretization in space. Numerical experiments are described which indicate the order of convergence and also the power of the method. We describe how this framework may be employed in applications. Key Words: finite elements; evolving surfaces; conservation; diffusion; existence; error estimates; computations
Clever and crude but not kind: Narcissism, self-esteem, and the self-reference effect

According to the agency model of narcissism (Campbell, Brunell, & Finkel, 2006) narcissists view themselves as high on agentic traits but low on communal traits. To test if this self-view extends to recall, two experiments examined the extent to which narcissism was associated with self-ratings and recall of agentic and communal traits that varied in valence. Across both experiments a trait description task was followed by a surprise recall task for the trait words and then completion of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988). Within the self-reference condition narcissism was related to higher selection in the trait description task and to higher recall of positive-agentic (e.g., clever) traits. This general pattern of results occurred for narcissism even while controlling for the related personality variables of self-esteem, agency, and communion. In contrast to narcissism, within the self-referent group self-esteem predicted higher recall for positive-communal traits (e.g., kind) but lower recall for negative-communal traits, a finding consistent with mnemic neglect. Overall, results supported the agency model of narcissism and extended this model to suggest that narcissists rate themselves more highly not only on positive-agentic traits but also on negative-communal traits.
E‐government, People and Social Change: A Case Study in China

It is generally believed that ICT has considerable potential to improve governance capabilities and transform relations with customers. China, like many other countries, embraces e‐government enthusiastically but encounters big challenges at the same time. Therefore, the successful development of e‐government becomes a pivotal issue in China. Through the social study of e‐government the author criticises the prevalent technological determinism. Since information systems are social systems, e‐government encompasses various political, economic, social, organisational and people issues besides technical ones, so that its application is far more complicated. This paper studies the relevant social and organisational issues of e‐government in China, which are important but usually ignored in contemporary Chinese literature. As a lens, aspects of structuration, especially duality of technology is applied into the analysis of the selected Nanhai case. The research focuses on middle‐level officials’ views and attitudes towards e‐government; explores the ICT‐mediated interactions between public organisations and civil servants and implications on social change. Moreover, the research unveils the important role the middle‐level officials play, as well as that of senior management in the Information Systems (IS) application.
Genome-wide identification of genes directly regulated by the pleiotropic transcription factor Spx in Bacillus subtilis

The transcriptional regulator Spx plays a key role in maintaining the redox homeostasis of Bacillus subtilis cells exposed to disulfide stress. Defects in Spx were previously shown to lead to differential expression of numerous genes but direct and indirect regulatory effects could not be distinguished. Here we identified 283 discrete chromosomal sites potentially bound by the Spx–RNA polymerase (Spx–RNAP) complex using chromatin immunoprecipitation of Spx. Three quarters of these sites were located near Sigma(A)-dependent promoters, and upon diamide treatment, the fraction of the Spx–RNAP complex increased in parallel with the number and occupancy of DNA sites. Correlation of Spx–RNAP-binding sites with gene differential expression in wild-type and Δspx strains exposed or not to diamide revealed that 144 transcription units comprising 275 genes were potentially under direct Spx regulation. Spx-controlled promoters exhibited an extended −35 box in which nucleotide composition at the −43/−44 positions strongly correlated with observed activation. In vitro transcription confirmed activation by oxidized Spx of seven newly identified promoters, of which one was also activated by reduced Spx. Our study globally characterized the Spx regulatory network, revealing its role in the basal expression of some genes and its complex interplay with other stress responses.
ECT: A Toolkit to Support Rapid Construction of Ubicomp Environments

We describe the motivation, design and initial implementation of the Equip Component Toolkit (ECT), a software toolkit for ubiquitous computing that is intended to reduce the cost – especially in time and effort – of developing ubicomp installations, applications and environments, and increase the potential involvement of designers and users in this process. The toolkit supports distributed applications running over multiple hosts by the creation, configuration and interconnection of software components (especially existing/legacy components) and components which represent physical devices and sensors. Users are supported by graphical tools which provide various representations of the running environment, plus facilities for monitoring, (re)configuration, scripting and learning by example.
A Survey on Fingerprint Enhancement Techniques using Filtering Approach

Automated personal authentication has become increasingly important in modern information driven society and in this regard fingerprint-based personal identification is considered to be the most effective tool. A fingerprint image is composed of a foreground and background areas. The foreground area is collected of ridges and valleys, whereas the background area is the region that surrounds the fingertip and is mainly noisy. Fingerprint recognition systems amount to extracting minutiae as well as identifying ridge and valley regions. This paper proposes a matching process to increased accuracy in fingerprint enhancement. The proposed method which consists of input image, database fingerprint images, preprocessing, matching algorithm, classification and output images. The pre-processing step consists of four stages: image segmentation, local normalization, local orientation estimation, and broken ridge filling. Matching Algorithm is used for computing minutiae distances between two imprints of the same finger. Results show that proposed method has verified significant quality improvement over the existing published techniques.
Performance Bounds in Secure Network Coding

Consider a communication network represented by a directed graph $\mathcal{G}=(\mathcal{V},\mathcal{E})$, where $\mathcal{V}$ is the set of nodes and $\mathcal{E}$ is the set of point-to-point channels in the network. On the network a secure message $M$ is transmitted, and there may exist wiretappers who want to obtain information about the message. In secure network coding, we aim to find a network code which can protect the message against the wiretapper whose power is constrained. Cai and Yeung \cite{cai2002secure} studied the model in which the wiretapper can access any one but not more than one set of channels, called a wiretap set, out of a collection $\mathcal{A}$ of all possible wiretap sets. In order to protect the message, the message needs to be mixed with a random key $K$. They proved tight fundamental performance bounds when $\mathcal{A}$ consists of all subsets of $\mathcal{E}$ of a fixed size $r$. In this paper, we investigate the problem when $\mathcal{A}$ consists of arbitrary subsets of $\mathcal{E}$ and obtain the following results: 1) an upper bound on $H(M)$; 2) a lower bound on $H(K)$ in terms of $H(M)$. The upper bound on $H(M)$ is explicit, while the lower bound on $H(K)$ can be computed in polynomial time. The tightness of the lower bound for the point-to-point communication system is also proved.
Models for the Respiratory System Using Morphology-Based Electrical Analogy

This paper attempts to simulate changes in the mechanical properties of lungs through their equivalent changes in the human respiratory input impedance. The theory of electrical transmission lines and ladder networks is used to develop an equivalent model of the respiratory system. Three typical cases are investigated: healthy, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Simulation results are tested on different types of ladder network cells, such as RC, RLC and various simulating conditions of the whole system. Our conclusion is that an RLC cell gives results which are comparable to real measurements from healthy, asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease subjects and changes in the morphology.
A Latent Model for Prioritization of SNPs for Functional Studies

One difficult question facing researchers is how to prioritize SNPs detected from genetic association studies for functional studies. Often a list of the top M SNPs is determined based on solely the p-value from an association analysis, where M is determined by financial/time constraints. For many studies of complex diseases, multiple analyses have been completed and integrating these multiple sets of results may be difficult. One may also wish to incorporate biological knowledge, such as whether the SNP is in the exon of a gene or a regulatory region, into the selection of markers to follow-up. In this manuscript, we propose a Bayesian latent variable model (BLVM) for incorporating “features” about a SNP to estimate a latent “quality score”, with SNPs prioritized based on the posterior probability distribution of the rankings of these quality scores. We illustrate the method using data from an ovarian cancer genome-wide association study (GWAS). In addition to the application of the BLVM to the ovarian GWAS, we applied the BLVM to simulated data which mimics the setting involving the prioritization of markers across multiple GWAS for related diseases/traits. The top ranked SNP by BLVM for the ovarian GWAS, ranked 2nd and 7th based on p-values from analyses of all invasive and invasive serous cases. The top SNP based on serous case analysis p-value (which ranked 197th for invasive case analysis), was ranked 8th based on the posterior probability of being in the top 5 markers (0.13). In summary, the application of the BLVM allows for the systematic integration of multiple SNP “features” for the prioritization of loci for fine-mapping or functional studies, taking into account the uncertainty in ranking.
The Dynamics of Pretend Play Development in Early Childhood

The phenomenon of play is constantly raising many questions for researchers and practitioners. Why play important, what kind of play is should be promoted in kindergarten classrooms, should it be supported and how? This article provides a short analysis on the concept of play and introduces an investigation aimed at analyzing the dynamics of the development of children’s pretend play in early childhood settings. This research is performed within the framework of Cultural-Historical theory of play. The development of children’s pretend play in ECEC groups will be discussed; gender differences and the level of pretend play within different age groups of children will be analyzed. Keywords: pretend play, early childhood, dynamics of play development, Cultural-Historical theory of play DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.15823/p.2015. 013
Reverse engineering Ada into HOOD

HOOD (European Space Agency, 1989) is an architectural design notation and method, particularly suited to the design of large Ada systems, which is becoming widely used in Europe for the design of real-time embedded software. Among the very large projects which have committed to the use of HOOD are the European Fighter Aircraft where the method is currently being used to design the software for all the on-board computer systems, and the Columbus project of the European Space Agency. Columbus is the European component of the Space Station. Many other projects are also actively using HOOD.