Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deterministic Estimation of Channel Parameters in Asynchronous CDMA Communications Over Frequency-Selective Channels

Designing appropriate user codes for training, we propose a channel gains and delay estimation scheme for asynchronous CDMA systems over frequency-selective channels. Our design arises from a simple but important property of "complex exponentials": a circular shift in a complex exponential vector looks like multiplying it by a unit magnitude complex number. The main benefit of the algorithm is its independency of near-far ratio which arises from the fact that MUI is deterministically eliminated before estimating the channel parameters. Also, the proposed scheme doesn't need to estimate any statistic (such as a correlation matrix) for parameter estimation. Also since we are only involving in linear computations and search over parameter space, the computational complexity is less than other schemes which usually use subspace-decomposition or other enormous computations. We first formulate the problem in noise-free case, and then to improve the performance in noisy environments, MMSE as well as ML approaches will be formulated and investigated
Do Minimum Wages in Latin America and the Caribbean Matter? Evidence from 19 Countries

Despite the existence of minimum wage legislation in most Latin American countries, there is little empirical evidence demonstrating its impact on the distribution of wages. In this study the authors analyze cross-country data for 19 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to gain an understanding of if and how minimum wages affect wage distributions in LAC countries. Although there is no single minimum wage institution in the LAC region, the authors find regional trends. Minimum wages affect the wage distribution in both the formal and, especially, the informal sector, both at the minimum wage and at multiples of the minimum. The minimum does not uniformly benefit low-wage workers: in countries where the minimum wage is relatively low compared to mean wages, the minimum wage affects the more disadvantaged segments of the labor force, namely informal sector workers, women, young and older workers, and the low skilled, but in countries where the minimum wage is relatively high compared to the wage distribution, it primarily affects wages of the high skilled. This indicates that the minimum does not generally lift the wages of all, but instead, it offers a wage into which employers can"lock in"wages that are already near that level. Thus, minimum wage legislation is more far-reaching than originally thought, affecting both the uncovered informal sector and those earning above the minimum. In addition, the relative level of the minimum wage is important for determining whose wages are affected.
One Hemisphere Functional Plasticity Induced by Mirror Training : The Mirror as the Element Connecting Both Hands to

Background. Mirror therapy (MT) is a promising therapeutic approach in stroke patients with severe hand paresis. Objective. The ipsilateral (contralesional) primary sensorimotor cortex (SMC) and the mirror neuron system have been suggested to play decisive roles in the MT network. The present study investigated its underlying neural plasticity. Methods. Two groups of healthy participants (n = 13 in each group) performed standardized fine motor tasks moving pegs and marbles (20 min/d for 4 days) with their right hand with either a mirror (mirror training group, MG) or a nonreflective board (control training group, CG) positioned orthogonally in front of them. The number of items moved by each hand was tested after each training session. Functional MRI (fMRI) was acquired before and after the training procedure to investigate the mirror training (MTr)-specific network by the analysis of the factors Time and Group. Results. The hand performance test of the trained right hand did not differ between the 2 groups. The untrained left hand improved significantly more in the MG compared with the CG. fMRI analysis of action observation and imitation of grasping tasks demonstrated MTrspecific activation changes within the right dorsal and left ventral premotor cortex as well as in the left SMC (SMC left ). Analysis of functional and effective connectivity showed a MTr-specific increase of functional coupling between each premotor region and the left supplementary motor area, which in turn showed an increased functional interaction with the ipsilateral SMC left . Conclusions. MTr remodels the motor system by functionally connecting hand movement to the ipsilateral SMC. On a system level, it leads to interference of the neural circuit related to motor programming and observation of the trained hand with the illusionary movement of the untrained hand.
RAC: A Freerider-Resilient, Scalable, Anonymous Communication Protocol

Enabling anonymous communication over the Internet is crucial. The first protocols that have been devised for anonymous communication are subject to freeriding. Recent protocols have thus been proposed to deal with this issue. However, these protocols do not scale to large systems, and some of them further assume the existence of trusted servers. In this paper, we present RAC, the first anonymous communication protocol that tolerates freeriders and that scales to large systems. Scalability comes from the fact that the complexity of RAC in terms of the number of message exchanges is independent from the number of nodes in the system. Another important aspect of RAC is that it does not rely on any trusted third party. We theoretically prove, using game theory, that our protocol is a Nash equilibrium, i.e, that freeriders have no interest in deviating from the protocol. Further, we experimentally evaluate RAC using simulations. Our evaluation shows that, whatever the size of the system (up to 100.000 nodes), the nodes participating in the system observe the same throughput.
Two Further Blood Pressure Loci Identified in Ion Channel Genes With a Genecentric Approach

Background—Blood pressure (BP) is highly heritable, but our understanding of the genetic causes underlying variations in BP is incomplete. In this study, we explored whether novel loci associated with BP could be identified using a genecentric approach in 3 community-based cohorts with accurate BP measurements. Methods and Results—Genotyping of 1857 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 91 ion channel genes was performed in a discovery cohort (n=358). Thirty-four SNPs associated with BP traits (P⩽0.01) were followed up in an independent population (n=387); significant SNPs from this analysis were looked up in another independent population (n=1010) and meta-analyzed. Repeated clinic and ambulatory measurements were available for all but the discovery cohort (clinic only). Association analyses were performed, with systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressures as quantitative traits, adjusting for age and sex. Quantile–quantile plots indicated that the genecentric approach resulted in an inflation of association signals. Of the 29 SNPs taken forward from the discovery cohort, 2 SNPs were associated with BP phenotypes with the same direction of effect, with experiment-wide significance, in follow-up cohort I. These were rs2228291, in the chloride channel gene CLCN2, and rs10513488, in the potassium channel gene KCNAB1. Both associations were subsequently replicated in follow-up cohort II. Conclusions—Using a genecentric design and 3 well-phenotyped populations, this study identified 2 previously unreported, biologically plausible, genetic associations with BP. These results suggest that dense genotyping of genes, in pathways known to influence BP, could add to candidate-gene and Genome Wide Association studies in further explaining BP heritability.
Aid project exit strategies: building strong sustainable institutions

Foreign aid project exit strategies that contribute to sustainable development have been rarely considered throughout the history of development studies and practice. The philosophical underpinnings of early development were based on economic theories. Over the years initiatives have manifested themselves by investments through international aid projects. As aid projects are donor-driven, most exit strategy planning involves closing down a project without turning it over to another organization to continue implementation. This means that aid benefits end with whatever impact the project has made, leaving ill-equipped local ministries or under-resourced NGOs to meet local development needs and fill the gap of terminated services. The project cycle—a popular development tool used by multinational and bilateral organizations alike— provides a framework to induce development, but makes no accommodation for an exit strategy that perpetuates development. This is a missed opportunity that reveals a flaw in the project cycle. This flaw can be corrected by revising the project cycle implementation stage to include building the capacity of people to perform the functions the project was designed for, as well as a local implementing entity through which they can work. Once accomplished, a sponsor can transfer project activities and resources to the local implementing entity though a phase-over process to extend development post-project for ongoing impact. The aim of this thesis is to promote a greater understanding of exit strategies and analyze an aspect of project management essential to all foreign aid projects since every project must eventually end its interventions upon completion of its goals or within prescribed financial and time constraints. What are the conditions necessary to complete a foreign aid project phase-over to a local institution successfully? How can in-country local project staff contribute to institution-building before, during, and after a phase-over? What are the appropriate ways to measure the success of a phase-over? This thesis examines the concept of exit strategy within the context of a case study of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Marketing Assistance Project (USDA-MAP) in Armenia (1995-2005) and the innovative phase-over approach it used to establish the Center for Agribusiness & Rural Development (CARD). To do this, the writings of
Raman Spectroscopic Imaging of the Whole Ciona intestinalis Embryo during Development

Intracellular composition and the distribution of bio-molecules play central roles in the specification of cell fates and morphogenesis during embryogenesis. Consequently, investigation of changes in the expression and distribution of bio-molecules, especially mRNAs and proteins, is an important challenge in developmental biology. Raman spectroscopic imaging, a non-invasive and label-free technique, allows simultaneous imaging of the intracellular composition and distribution of multiple bio-molecules. In this study, we explored the application of Raman spectroscopic imaging in the whole Ciona intestinalis embryo during development. Analysis of Raman spectra scattered from C. intestinalis embryos revealed a number of localized patterns of high Raman intensity within the embryo. Based on the observed distribution of bio-molecules, we succeeded in identifying the location and structure of differentiated muscle and endoderm within the whole embryo, up to the tailbud stage, in a label-free manner. Furthermore, during cell differentiation, we detected significant differences in cell state between muscle/endoderm daughter cells and daughter cells with other fates that had divided from the same mother cells; this was achieved by focusing on the Raman intensity of single Raman bands at 1002 or 1526 cm−1, respectively. This study reports the first application of Raman spectroscopic imaging to the study of identifying and characterizing differentiating tissues in a whole chordate embryo. Our results suggest that Raman spectroscopic imaging is a feasible label-free technique for investigating the developmental process of the whole embryo of C. intestinalis.
Early Experience with Profiling and Optimizing Distributed Shared Cache Performance on Tilera ’ s Tile Processor

This paper describes our experience with profiling and optimizing physical locality for the distributed shared cache (DSC) in Tilera’s Tile multicore processor. Our approach uses the Tile Processor’s hardware performance measurement counters (PMCs) to acquire page-level access pattern profiles. A key problem we address is imprecise PMC interrupts. Our profiling tools use binary analysis to correct for interrupt “skid,” thus pinpointing individual memory operations that incur remote DSC slice references and permitting us to sample their access patterns. We use our access pattern profiles to drive page homing optimizations for both heap and static data objects. Our experiments show we can improve physical locality for 5 out of 11 SPLASH2 benchmarks running on 32 cores, enabling 32.9%–77.9% of DSC references to target the local DSC slice. To our knowledge, this is the first work to demonstrate page homing optimizations on a real system.
Uganda's Economic Reforms: Insider Accounts

Following the eight year rule of Idi Amin, then several years of war and civil war, the Ugandan economy was in ruins by the time peace was restored in 1986. Since then Uganda has consistently been one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, leading to a substantial reduction in poverty. Its economic success has attracted considerable attention and has arguably had more influence on development thinking and on the international aid architecture than any other country. The HIPC debt relief initiative, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, and the growth of budget support have all been strongly influenced by Ugandan experience and thinking. Ugandan innovations such as poverty reduction strategies, public expenditure tracking surveys, and virtual poverty funds have been widely adopted elsewhere. Most of the reforms which transformed the economy originated within the Uganda government during the 1990s, rather than being imposed through donor conditionality. In this book, for the first time many of the architects of those reforms give their personal accounts of the thinking behind the reforms, how they were implemented, and their impact. Since measures that work well in one environment may fail when transplanted to a different environment, the authors identify factors that were critical to the success of Uganda's reforms. While a number of individual reforms have been the subject of academic study, this book represents the first consolidated account of the economic reforms undertaken by the Uganda government and their impact on growth and poverty reduction. Contributors to this volume - Charles Byaruhanga, Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Mark Henstridge, Group Economics at BP, London Louis Kasekende, African Development Bank Mary Goretti Sendyona, Ugandan Ministry of Public Service Gerry Cawley, Independent economic consultant based in Nairobi, Kenya Justin Zake, Fiscal Affairs Department's Revenue Administration Division of the International Monetary Fund Kenneth Mugambe, Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Martin Brownbridge, Consultant on macroeconomics and fiscal policy Giulio Federico, CRA International and IESE Business School in Barcelona Ishmael Magona, Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Margaret Kakande, Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development E.S. K. Muwanga-Zake, Uganda Bureau of Statistics Damoni Kitabire, African Development Bank Gustavio Bwoch, Accountant General of Uganda Robert Muwanga, United Nations Development Programme in Sudan Emmanuel Nyirinkindi, International Finance Corporation, Johannesburg Michael Opagi, International Finance Corporation, Johannesburg
Constructing a Bio-Signal Repository from an Intensive Care Unit for Effective Big-data Analysis: Poster Abstract

Analyzing large quantities of bio-signal data can lead to new findings in patient status diagnosis and medical emergency event prediction. Specifically, improvements in machine learning schemes suggest that by inputting clinical waveforms, designing mechanisms to predict medical emergencies, such as ventricular arrhythmia or sepsis, can soon be possible. However, we are still lacking the data-vaults that provide such clinically useful bio-signal data. With the goal of providing such an environment, this work focuses on developing a data repository for bio-signals collected from a hospital's intensive care init (ICU). Specifically, we design our data collection system to effectively store data from at-bed patient monitors and also integrate sensing information from bed-embedded sensing platforms, which allow filtering of noisy bio-signal samples caused by motion artifacts.
Detecting the dimension of the subspace correlated across multiple data sets in the sample poor regime

This paper addresses the problem of detecting the number of signals correlated across multiple data sets with small sample support. While there have been studies involving two data sets, the problem with more than two data sets has been less explored. In this work, a rank-reduced hypothesis test for more than two data sets is presented for scenarios where the number of samples is small compared to the dimensions of the data sets.
Description of an epidemic simulation model for use in evaluating strategies to control an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

OBJECTIVE To develop a spatial epidemic model to simulate intraherd and interherd transmission of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus. SAMPLE POPULATION 2,238 herds, representing beef, dairy, swine, goats, and sheep, and 5 sale yards located in Fresno, Kings, and Tulare counties of California. PROCEDURE Using Monte-Carlo simulations, a spatial stochastic epidemic simulation model was developed to identify new herds that would acquire FMD following random selection of an index herd and to assess progression of an epidemic after implementation of mandatory control strategies. RESULTS The model included species-specific transition periods for FMD infection, locations of herds, rates of direct and indirect contacts among herds, and probability distributions derived from expert opinions on probabilities of transmission by direct and indirect contact, as well as reduction in contact following implementation of restrictions on movements in designated infected areas and surveillance zones. Models of supplemental control programs included slaughter of all animals within a specified distance of infected herds, slaughter of only high-risk animals identified by use of a model simulation, and vaccination of all animals within a 5- to 50-km radius of infected herds. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE The FMD model represents a tool for use in planning biosecurity and emergency-response programs and in comparing potential benefits of various strategies for control and eradication of FMD appropriate for specific populations.
Artificial Neural Network based dynamic modelling of indigenous pneumatic muscle actuators

Robots are increasingly becoming popular medical devices, helping surgeons and practitioners as surgical, rehabilitation or service robots. Robots have been proved commendable in working together with patients and practitioners to achieve the common goal of well-being. Apart from high power to weight ratio and accuracy, robots are expected to be safe and flexible. At The University of Auckland we had earlier developed robots for ankle joint and lower limb rehabilitation using McKibben pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA) which were safe and flexible. However, these actuators had larger response time and hysteresis apart from compromised actuation limits. As a result of our further research we have been able to develop inhouse pleated PMA (PPMA) in our laboratory which show improved response time with low hysteresis. The newly developed actuators have larger actuation as well. In order to cope with the non-linear and transient nature of these actuators, this paper further proposes a new Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based approach. To optimize ANN model parameters a hybrid approach combing back propagation (BP) algorithm with Modified Genetic Algorithm (MGA) is developed. Results show that the hybrid approach is able to model the PPMA behaviour closely.
Energy-Efficient Scheduling of Primary/Backup Tasks in Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems (Extended Version)

With the negative effects of the popular Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) technique on transient faults being considered, the Primary/Backup approach has recently been exploited to save energy while preserving system reliability. In this paper, with the objectives of tolerating a single permanent fault and maintaining system reliability with respect to transient faults, we study energy-efficient dynamic-priority based scheduling algorithms for periodic Primary/Backup tasks on multiprocessor systems. Specifically, by separating primary and backup tasks on their dedicated processors, we first devise two schemes based on the idea of Standby-Sparing (SS): For Paired-SS, processors are organized as groups of two (i.e., pairs) and the existing SS scheme is applied within each pair of processors after partitioning tasks to the pairs. In Generalized-SS, processors are divided into two groups (of potentially different sizes), which are denoted as primary and secondary processor groups, respectively. The main (backup) tasks are scheduled on the primary (secondary) processor group under the partitioned-EDF (partitioned-EDL) with DVFS (DPM) to save energy. Next, instead of dedicating some processors to backup tasks, we propose schemes that allocate primary and backup tasks in a mixed manner to better utilize the slack time on all processors for more energy savings. On each processor, the Preference-Oriented Earliest Deadline (POED) scheduler is adopted to run primary tasks at scaled frequencies as soon as possible (ASAP) and backup tasks at the maximum frequency as late as possible (ALAP) to save energy. Online power management and recovery strategies are further discussed to address the problem with multiple permanent faults. Our empirical evaluations show that, for systems with a given number of processors, there normally exists an optimal configuration of primary and secondary groups for the Generalized-SS scheme, which leads to better energy savings compared to that of the Paired-SS scheme. Moreover, the POED-based schemes normally perform more stable and achieve better energy savings compared to those of the SS-based schemes.
Web Surfing on the Go: A Scalable and Collaborative Internet Access Approach

With wireless technologies extending to every part of our daily lives, mobile networking applications are becoming increasingly popular for accessing the Internet. Among them, web surfing is one of the most important applications because the World Wide Web, unencumbered by geographic boundaries, has accelerated the dissemination of information and knowledge via the Internet. In this paper, we propose a peer-to-peer mobile web surfing scheme called Collaborative Internet Access (CIA). Unlike traditional approaches, the proposed scheme implements a Collaborative Forwarding algorithm that takes advantage of opportunistic wireless connections to improve network capacity by exploiting the diversity of network mobility. Moreover, we propose a Scalable CIA scheme, called SCIA, which integrates the Layered Multiple Description Coding (LMDC) algorithm with the CIA scheme. SCIA allows the end user to preview the web content, even before the data has been completely transferred. Using simulations as well as real-world network scenarios, we demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides a better web surfing service than traditional schemes, and thus facilitates more effective web surfing on the go.