Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Industrial restructuring and physical activity in England

In recent decades, the prevalence of physical activity has declined considerably in many high-income countries, and this has been linked to rising levels of obesity and several weight-related medical conditions such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer. There is some evidence that areas experiencing the lowest levels of physical activity tend to be those which have undergone a particularly strong transition away from employment in physically demanding occupations. It is proposed that such processes of industrial restructuring may be causally linked to unexplained geographical variations in activity patterns. Although the socio-cultural correlates of activity behaviours have been well studied, none have explicitly attempted to identify components of industrial change that may impact physical activity. This thesis addresses the gap in knowledge surrounding the socio-cultural context of industrial restructuring by investigating where, how and why dimensions of industrial change may impact current levels of physical activity in England. The research applies a mixed methods approach using GIS techniques, multilevel modelling and qualitative research interviewing. Firstly, the current literature on socio-cultural correlates of health behaviours is reviewed to present a novel conceptual framework that hypothesises how processes between physical activity and industrial restructuring may be linked in context. Subsequently, measures of industrial restructuring as well as physical activity are developed to analyse spatial variations in activity patterns across England. The analyses focus on how employment decline in physically demanding occupations may affect current levels of physical activity across different activity domains and relevant macroeconomic time periods. Finally, this research aims to get an insight in the mechanisms underlying the relationship between physical activity and industrial restructuring. Results from this research showed geographical variations with distinctive urban-rural disparities in levels of predominantly recreational physical activity across England. Processes of industrial restructuring appeared to be associated with patterns of physical activity, although the nature of the association differed across areas, time periods and employment types. The results also highlighted the plausible impact of inherited cultures and regional identities on health-related behaviours. Socio-cultural factors relevant in the context of industrial restructuring are likely to provide valuable context in activityrelated research.
SafeDrive: safe and recoverable extensions using language-based techniques

We present SafeDrive, a system for detecting and recovering from type safety violations in software extensions. SafeDrive has low overhead and requires minimal changes to existing source code. To achieve this result, SafeDrive uses a novel type system that provides fine-grained isolation for existing extensions written in C. In addition, SafeDrive tracks invariants using simple wrappers for the host system API and restores them when recovering from a violation. This approach achieves fine-grained memory error detection and recovery with few code changes and at a significantly lower performance cost than existing solutions based on hardware-enforced domains, such as Nooks [33], L4 [21], and Xen [13], or software-enforced domains, such as SFI [35]. The principles used in SafeDrive can be applied to any large system with loadable, error-prone extension modules. In this paper we describe our experience using SafeDrive for protection and recovery of a variety of Linux device drivers. In order to apply SafeDrive to these device drivers, we had to change less than 4% of the source code. SafeDrive recovered from all 44 crashes due to injected faults in a network card driver. In experiments with 6 different drivers, we observed increases in kernel CPU utilization of 4--23% with no noticeable degradation in end-to-end performance.
Table Extraction Using Spatial Reasoning on the CSS2 Visual Box Model

Tables on web pages contain a huge amount of semantically explicit information, which makes them a worthwhile target for automatic information extraction and knowledge acquisition from the Web. However, the task of table extraction from web pages is difficult, because of HTML's design purpose to convey visual instead of semantic information. In this paper, we propose a robust technique for table extraction from arbitrary web pages. This technique relies upon the positional information of visualized DOM element nodes in a browser and, hereby, separates the intricacies of code implementation from the actual intended visual appearance. The novel aspect of the proposed web table extraction technique is the effective use of spatial reasoning on the CSS2 visual box model, which shows a high level of robustness even without any form of learning (F-measure ≈ 90%). We describe the ideas behind our approach, the tabular pattern recognition algorithm operating on a double topographical grid structure and allowing for effective and robust extraction, and general observations on web tables that should be borne in mind by any automatic web table extraction mechanism.
With LSA Size DOES Matter

Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) is a technique from the field of Natural Language Processing that enables comparison of semantic similarities between documents using vector operations. This technique has been used in areas from Information Retrieval (IR) to the automated assessment of essays. One property used in document comparison is size. The general philosophy is that more text is better although few concrete examples or guidelines exist that demonstrate this. This paper shows, via a novel concrete example taken from real world data, that larger documents do imply more accurate semantic similarity comparisons.
Multi-database retrieval technology on CPSE-Bio

A vast number of Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) databases and different data formats among them make it difficult for researchers to research PPIs efficiently. We propose the Integrated Query Database (IQD) and Hot-Spot Database (HSD) on CPSE-Bio (PSE-Bio based on Cloud computing) to solve this problem in this paper. The IQD integrates several PPIs databases and researchers can retrieve PPIs in IQD one time rather than in other databases repeatedly. The HSD are also established in order to improve the efficiency of PPIs retrieval. Experimental results show that the IQD and HSD technologies enhance the PPIs retrieval efficiency remarkable.
Wheat Grain Yield Increase in Response to Pre-Anthesis Foliar Application of 6-Benzylaminopurine Is Dependent on Floret Development

Wheat yield is largely determined during the period prior to flowering, when the final numbers of fertile florets and grains per spike are established. The aim of this study was to assess the dynamics of floret primordia development in winter wheat in response to pre-anthesis application of a synthetic cytokinin, 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA). We conducted an experiment in which two foliar spray treatments were applied (water or 6-BA) to Chinese winter wheat at 25 days after jointing during two growing seasons (2012–2013 and 2013–2014). Both the final grain number per spike and grain yield at maturity exhibited remarkable increases in response to the 6-BA treatment. Application of 6-BA increased the number of fertile florets in basal spikelets and, to a greater extent, in central spikelets. The mechanism by which 6-BA application affected the final number of fertile florets primarily involved suppression of the floret abortion rates. Application of 6-BA considerably reduced the abortion rates of basal, central and apical spikelet florets (by as much as 77% compared with the control), as well as the degeneration rates of basal and central spikelet florets, albeit to a lesser degree. The effect of 6-BA application on the likelihood of proximal florets being set was limited to the distal florets in the whole spike, whereas obvious increases in the likelihood of grain set under 6-BA treatment were observed in distal florets, primarily in central spikelet positions. The results of this study provide important evidence that 6-BA application to florets (final fertile floret production) results in an increased grain yield.
An ionospheric conductance model based on ground magnetic disturbance data

An attempt is made to construct an improved ionospheric conductance model employing ground magnetic disturbance data as input. For each of the different regions in the auroral electrojets specified by different combinations of horizontal (ΔH) and vertical (ΔZ) magnetic perturbations, as well as by magnetic local time (MLT), an empirical relationship is obtained between the ionospheric conductance deduced from Chatanika radar data and magnetic disturbances from the nearby College magnetic station. The error involved in the empirical formula is generally of the order of 20–50%. However, some sectors are so poorly covered that uncertainty estimates cannot be made. The new formulas are applied to an average magnetic disturbance distribution to deduce the average conductance distribution. This is compared with a conductance model based on electron precipitation data [Hardy et al., 1987], finding good agreement in terms of the magnitude and distribution pattern. Combining our empirical relationships with the empirical formulas proposed by Robinson et al. [1987], the average energy and energy flux of precipitating electrons are also estimated. Notable similarities exist between the global distribution patterns of these and those obtained by Hardy et al. [1985]. It is proposed that the present conductance model can be used to complement more direct measurements in order to obtain the global distribution needed to study the large-scale electrodynamics of the polar ionosphere. Several interesting characteristics about the auroral electrojet system are apparent from the empirical relationship: (1) For a given magnitude of ΔH, the electric field is relatively stronger in the eastward electrojet region than in the westward electrojet region. (2) The electric field plays a greater role in the intensification of electrojet current than the ionospheric conductance does in the poleward half of the westward electrojet, whereas the opposite trend is apparent in the equatorward half. However, no such different roles of the electric field and conductance is noticeable in the eastward electrojet region. (3) The auroral conductance enhancements tend to be largest around midnight, due to more intense particle fluxes there. (4) The mean particle energy depends on MLT but is relatively insensitive to magnetic activity.
Considering Process Variations During System-Level Power Analysis

Process variations will increasingly impact the operational characteristics of integrated circuits in nanoscale semiconductor technologies. Researchers have proposed various design techniques to address process variations at the mask, circuit, and logic levels. However, as the magnitude of process variations increases, their effects will need to be addressed earlier in the design cycle. In this paper, we propose techniques for accurately and efficiently incorporating the effects of process variations into system-level power estimation tools. To motivate our work, we first study the impact of process variations on the power consumption of an example system-on-chip (SoC). We consider simple extensions of current approaches to system-level power estimation (spreadsheet-based and simulation-based power estimation), and demonstrate their limitations in performing variation-aware power estimation. We propose a system-level power estimation methodology that can accurately and efficiently analyze the impact of process variations on SoC power. The proposed methodology combines efficient trace-based analysis, power-state based leakage modeling, and Monte Carlo sampling. The key benefit of the proposed methodology is that it captures the necessary inter-dependencies while avoiding iterative system-level simulation. Our implementation of the proposed techniques within an in-house system-level power estimation framework indicates 2-5 orders of magnitude efficiency gains, with negligible loss in accuracy, compared to direct Monte Carlo techniques that require iterative system simulation
Finding Syntactic Similarities Between XML Documents

Detecting structural similarities between XML documents has been the subject of several recent work, and the proposed algorithms mostly use tree edit distance between the corresponding trees of XML documents. However, evaluating a tree edit distance is computationally expensive and does not easily scale up to large collections. We show in this paper that a tree edit distance computation often is not necessary and can be avoided. In particular, we propose a concise structural summary of XML documents and show that a comparison based on this summary is both fast and effective. Our experimental evaluation shows that this method does an excellent job of grouping documents generated by the same DTD, outperforming some of the previously proposed solutions based on a tree comparison. Furthermore, the time complexity of the algorithm is linear on the size of the structural description
WORKING PAPER: SOCIAL COMPUTING AND SOCIAL CAPITAL: EXPLORING THE LINKS

INTRODUCTION OPAL (IST-2000-28295) is an EC funded project that has recently started at Napier University. It offers an opportunity to explore links between social computing and social capital. The objective is to build and evaluate a computer application that may improve the quality of online partnerships.by allowing new candidates to acquire an extensive understanding of a range of potential partners before a contract is signed in situations where time is short and physical interaction is limited. The project focuses on the early stages of interaction where rapid and robust assessments must be made of partners’ competence, compatibility and confidence in each others’ future performance. The proposed application must support ‘best matching’ searches in order to perform at least as well as existing ‘matching’ technologies. It may also support reflective practice by broadening the field of view, and the decision parameters for informed choice. It does this by providing profiles of a range of partner attributes that are extracted from a number of sources: questionnaires, interaction patterns and conversation threads, ‘awareness’ logs. The sources reflect real-world experience. Interaction scenarios will be constructed to reflect the ‘social ordering’ described in user stories, that, with hindsight, show where assumptions about future conduct were misplaced, or where the processes that allow online work to proceed smoothly were subject to breakdown. The relationship between ‘social ordering’ and ‘social capital’ is highly contingent: tradeoffs must, for example, be made between disorderly conduct and availability, or competence and compatibility.
A novel resonant accelerometer based on nanoelectromechanical oscillator

This paper reports a novel resonant accelerometer based on a nanoelectromechanical oscillator. An external acceleration is measured by detecting the frequency shift of the nanowire-based oscillator, which consists of a single semiconducting zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire doubly-clamped onto two micromachined electrodes. The nanowire is electrostatically driven into a resonant vibration, the frequency of which is self-detected using a field effect transistor (FET) mixer and a lock-in detection technology. A high sensitivity of kilohertz per g is achieved for the accelerometer in virtue of using the nanowire oscillator, which has a free-frequency at tens of megahertz.
A data-flow modification of the MUSCLE algorithm for multiprocessors and a web interface for it

Nucleotide and amino acid sequences research is actual for molecular bi- ology and bioengineering. An important aspect of analysis of such sequences is multiple alignment. This article describes the implementations of the MUSCLE and ClustalW programs on multiprocessors and a web interface to them. The modifica- tion of the MUSCLE algorithm realize a data-flow manner of sequence alignment. It uses the PARUS system to build a data-flow graph and execute it on one mul- tiprocessor. The data-flow algorithm has been tested on the sequences of human Long Terminal Repeats class five (LTR5) and several other examples.
Motor experience alters action perception through predictive learning of sensorimotor information

Recent studies have revealed that infants' goal-directed action execution strongly alters their perception of similar actions performed by other individuals. Such an ability to recognize correspondences between self-experience and others' actions may be crucial for the development of higher cognitive social skills. However, there is not yet a computational model or constructive explanation accounting for the role of action generation in the perception of others' actions. We hypothesize that the sensory and motor information are integrated at a neural level through a predictive learning process. Thus, the experience of motor actions alters the representation of the sensorimotor integration, which causes changes in the perception of others' actions. To test this hypothesis, we built a computational model that integrates visual and motor (hereafter, visuomotor) information using a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) which is capable of learning temporal sequences of data. We modeled the visual attention of the system based on a prediction error calculated as the difference between the predicted sensory values and the actual sensory values, which maximizes the attention toward not too predictable and not too unpredictable sensory information. We performed a series of experiments with a simulated humanoid robot. The experiments showed that the motor activation during self-generated actions biased the robot's perception of others' actions. These results highlight the important role of modalities integration in humans, which accounts for a biased perception of our environment based on a restricted repertoire of own experienced actions.
Explicit 8-descent on elliptic curves

In this thesis I describe an explicit method for performing an 8-descent on an elliptic curve E over the rational numbers. An 8-descent is the next step after a 2- and a 4-descent. The method of 2-descent belongs to the classical tools in arithmetic geometry. More recent is the exploration of higher 2-descent. In 1996 Merriman, Siksek, and Smart found a method for doing 4-descent, and a different method for 4-descent was presented in 1998 by Cassels. I have been working on extending these methods to an 8-descent. I present a method for computing the 8-Selmer group of E as an abstract group, and next, for representing its elements as 8-coverings of E. With this method I was able to compute some examples, one of which is a curve of order 8 in the Shafarevich-Tate group of an elliptic curve. This is the first explicit example of a curve of such high order in Sha.
A new approach to the diagnostic quality ambulatory ECG recordings

Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring and the P-QRS-T waveform and rhythmic analysis are essential for clinicians to understand the vital cardiac physiological functions of the subjects with cardiac problems or heavier cardiac load. This is becoming more significant as seniors are getting popular who often need clinical cardiovascular attention. We propose a new approach to ECG acquisition with the capability of recording, analyzing, and monitoring ECG and P-QRS-T waveform with the diagnostic quality during various activity states from resting to strenuous exercises without missing ECG signals. The approach is based on the digital technologies of pure digital medical amplifier (PDMA) featuring great input signal dynamic range (ISDR) and high immunity to various noises, as well as extensive use of digital filtering and parallel processing. The device can monitor ECG traces with up-to-moment P-QRS-T waveform measurements. It can be used as an all-in-one ECG device for diagnostic, monitoring, ambulatory, and stress testing purposes, and so has many new potential applications.
Modelling Migration and Regional Labour Markets: An Application of the New Economic Geography Model Rhomolo

The objective of the present paper is to study the impact of R&D investment on inter-regional labour migration and inter-sectoral labour reallocation in the EU, specifically at regional level. In order to capture important general equilibrium effects, we employ a structural NEG model called RHOMOLO. The RHOMOLO model is a dynamic spatial general equilibrium (DSGE) modelling framework capturing 270 NUTS2 regions in EU-27, and decomposing the economy into 6 sectors. The current base year of RHOMOLO, and to which structural parametersâ€™ estimates are used to calibrate the model, is 2007. As a first step of our analysis we econometrically estimate both (i) within country and (ii) across countries migration flows as a function of relative population, relative real wages per employee, relative unemployment rate and regional connectivity (as proxied by bilateral trade between origin and destination regions normalised by the total of their GDP). Our econometric findings suggest that within-country migration is subject to much the same economic forces as between-country migration, with estimates of the coefficients of relative wages and relative unemployment within in the same range. Secondly, we econometrically estimate the R&D and human capital elasticities, which are key parameters in the semi-endogenous growth module of RHOMOLO to assess the impact of R&D investment on TFP growth. In our next step we produce regional scenarios for R&D investments according to the objective of the Europe 2020 strategy and use them to simulate a shock in R&D investments at the regional levels needed to meet the Europe 2020 strategy. Finally, we combine the previous work together in order to simulate the impact on employment levels of regional R&D investments through the geographically heterogeneous effect that they have on migration flows and on labour supply in each EU region. The geographical distribution of R&D expenditures is shown to affect migration flows as well as employment levels at the regional level by increasing skills in those regions affected by R&D expenditures. Spillover effects on neighbouring regions are also observed.
Improved CPHD filtering with unknown clutter rate

To accommodate the model mismatch in clutter rate, a cardinality probability hypothesis density (CPHD) filter with unknown clutter rate has been proposed by Mahler. It has proved to be a promising algorithm for multi-target tracking in complex environment. However, in Mahler's algorithm, the calculation of the number of clutters without observations is determined by the hybrid cardinality distribution and hybrid probability of misses, it will cause the confusion between undetected targets and clutters. To solve this problem, an improved CPHD filter is proposed which increases an estimation of the number of targets based on the measurement likelihood in the process of update and then modifies the hybrid cardinality distribution by treating the confused targets as detected ones more reasonably. Simulation results show that the improved CPHD filter is superior to the traditional method in both the estimates of clutter number and target state.