Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Organization Properties of CSMA/CA Systems and Their Consequences on Fairness

Decentralized medium access control schemes for wireless networks based on CSMA/CA, such as the IEEE 802.11 protocol, are known to be unfair. In multihop networks, they can even favor some links to such an extent that the others suffer from virtually complete starvation. This observation has been reported in quite a few works, but the factors causing it are still not well understood. We find that the capture effect and the relative values of the receive and carrier sensing ranges play a crucial role in the performance of these protocols. Using a simple Markovian model, we show that an idealized CSMA/CA protocol suffers from starvation when the receiving and sensing ranges are equal, but quite surprisingly that this unfairness is reduced or even disappears when these two ranges are sufficiently different. We also show that starvation has a positive counterpart, namely organization. When its access intensity is large the protocol organizes the transmissions in space in such a way that it maximizes the number of concurrent successful transmissions. We obtain exact formula for the so-called spatial reuse of the protocol on large line networks.
Emotional agent in serious game (DINO)

In this paper, we introduce an novel emotional agent system in 3D virtual world based on OCC (Ortony, Clore and Collins) theory, FCM (Fuzzy Cognitive Map) and GoalNet. The agent system is designed based on Goal Net model. Emotional modeling and decision making are based on OCC and FCM inference. Emotions modeled by the OCC model are incorporated into FCM inference. It has been shown emotion has a great impact in decision making. The proposed agent system has been applied to design human-like dinosaur agents in the research project "Immersion and Embodied Learning: Traces of Dinosaurs in Earth System Science" supported by National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore. In this project, we have developed an agent mediated immersive Interactive Digital Media that appropriately recreates and replays the traces of Earth's history using intelligent agent technology and 3D multi-user environment. The virtual world and emotional dinosaur agents are shown in the demo. The experiments conducted by students in secondary schools in Singapore have shown the emotional agents enable deep learning of earth science.
Anxiety, Depressed Mood, Self-Esteem, and Traumatic Stress Symptoms among Distant Witnesses of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: Transitory Responses and Psychological Resilience

Posttraumatic stress related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and general psychological distress were examined in six cohorts of college students (N=5,412) enrolled at an American public university between Spring 2000 and Fall 2002 some 2,500 miles from New York. Consistent with data from Schuster et al.'s (2001) national survey, which used a very low threshold criterion, our findings revealed that 44% of women and 32% of men experienced at least one symptom of posttraumatic stress 6-17 days after the attacks. In contrast to these results, depression levels showed only small differences, and self-esteem and trait anxiety showed no changes. Findings indicate that 9/11-related stress responses among distant witnesses were very mild, transitory and focused in scope, suggesting resilience with respect to broader psychological and psychopathological reactions. Findings are discussed with respect to the role of physical and psychological proximity on the reactions to traumatic events in the general population. El estrés post-traumático relacionado con los atentados terroristas del 11 de septiembre de 2001, así como el malestar psicológico general se examinaron en seis cohortes de estudiantes universitarios (N=5.412) matriculados entre la primavera de 2000 y el otoño de 2002 en una universidad pública norteamericana distante 2.500 millas aproximadamente de Nueva York De modo consistente con los datos del estudio a nivel nacional de Schuster et al. (2001), donde se empleó un criterio de corte muy bajo, nuestros resultados fueron que el 44% de las mujeres y el 32% de los hombres experimentaron al menos un síntoma de estrés post-traumático entre 6-17 días después de los atentados. En contraste con estos resultados, los niveles de depresión mostraron únicamente pequeñas diferencias y en la auto-estima y la ansiedad de rasgo no se encontró cambio alguno. Nuestros hallazgos indican que, entre testigos distantes, las respuestas de estrés relacionadas con el 11/9 fueron muy débiles, transitorias y de alcance limitado, lo que sugiere resiliencia en lo referido a las reacciones psicológicas y psicopatológicas Estos hallazgos se discuten en relación con los efectos de la proximidad física y psicológica sobre las reacciones a hechos traumáticos en la población general.
Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate pollution induces insulin resistance and mitochondrial alteration in adipose tissue.

We have previously shown that chronic exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter, PM₂.₅) pollution in conjunction with high-fat diet induces insulin resistance through alterations in inflammatory pathways. In this study, we evaluated the effects of PM₂. ₅ exposure over a substantive duration of a rodent's lifespan and focused on the impact of long-term exposure on adipose structure and function. C57BL/6 mice were exposed to PM₂. ₅ or filtered air (FA) (6 h/day, 5 days/week) for duration of 10 months in Columbus, OH. At the end of the exposure, PM₂. ₅-exposed mice demonstrated insulin resistance (IR) and a decrease in glucose tolerance compared with the FA-exposed group. Although there were no significant differences in circulating cytokines between PM₂. ₅- and FA-exposed groups, circulating adiponectin and leptin were significantly decreased in PM₂. ₅-exposed group. PM₂. ₅ exposure also led to inflammatory response and oxidative stress as evidenced by increase of Nrf2-regulated antioxidant genes. Additionally, PM₂. ₅ exposure decreased mitochondrial count in visceral adipose and mitochondrial size in interscapular adipose depots, which were associated with reduction of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) expression and downregulation of brown adipocyte-specific gene profiles. These findings suggest that long-term ambient PM₂. ₅ exposure induces impaired glucose tolerance, IR, inflammation, and mitochondrial alteration, and thus, it is a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes.
Displaced Discretion

While research indicates that sentencing guidelines systems often reduce sentencing disparity, few studies have examined whether sentencing guidelines shift discretion and disparity from judges to prosecutors. Some critics assert that guidelines do shift judicial discretion to prosecutors, but empirical evidence is scarce. This study seeks to provide some empirical data on the underresearched topic of hydraulic displacement of discretion. Using data from the District of Columbia Superior Court, the study asked whether charge bargaining practices changed after the District of Columbia adopted a regime of sentencing guidelines. The analyses indicate that some changes in the plea bargaining process did occur after the guidelines were implemented but that most were not statistically significant. Policy implications of the displacement thesis and the current findings are discussed.
Instruction Effects and Relation between Extraversion and the Spiral Aftereffect

The relation between extraversion (EPI) and length of aftereffect was investigated when spiral aftereffect was measured on the same Ss under three instructions: (a) normal—S is told to report “When the aftereffect appears to stop” and after Ss had been informed of two phases in the decay of the aftereffect and told to (b) report the end of the first, faster, phase of decay, or (c) report when “they were absolutely sure that the second phase of decay had ended. ” Near zero correlations were obtained between E and SAE under conditions (a) and (c) but E and SAE were negatively and significantly correlated under condition (b). It is suggested that failure to differentiate these instruction conditions could account for many of the previous contradictory findings on the relation between E and SAE duration.
Predicting Romanian Stress Assignment

We train and evaluate two models for Romanian stress prediction: a baseline model which employs the consonant-vowel structure of the words and a cascaded model with averaged perceptron training consisting of two sequential models ‐ one for predicting syllable boundaries and another one for predicting stress placement. We show in this paper that Romanian stress is predictable, though not deterministic, by using data-driven machine learning techniques.
The roots of collective memory: Public knowledge of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson

Claims that Thomas Jefferson fathered the children of Sally Hemings, a slave at Monticello, have received support over the past 35 years from revisionist biographies, DNA testing and other evidence. The claims have also been communicated to the general public through novels, films and other popular media. Both those persuaded by the claims and those critical of them assume that collective memory of Jefferson has been changed importantly, and that a considerable portion of the American public accepts the changes, which also include a new focus on Jefferson’s views and actions regarding slavery more generally. But collective memory at the individual level requires some degree of collective knowledge, and after reviewing the nature of memory of Sally Hemings at the cultural level, we explore the extent to which knowledge and belief about a Jefferson—Hemings liaison and Jefferson’s paternity has spread through the American population. We also consider differences in knowledge by race, education, gender and birth cohort. As part of our investigation, we compare the extent of knowledge of Sally Hemings — and the degree to which it carries hints of uncertainty — with what is true for other names and events from the past, including the name of another woman associated with an even more famous American president.
Insights Into Wideband Fractional ADPLLs: Modeling and Calibration of Nonlinearity Induced Fractional Spurs

As technology pushes deeper into the nanoscale, the difficulty in developing high-performance analog functions has driven an explosion in digitally intensive architectures to replace them. Commonalities among these new architectures include a paradigm shift toward temporal versus voltage encoding of analog signals, and the extensive use of digital calibration. In particular, recent developments in fractional-N all-digital phase-locked loops (ADPLLs) have proven them to be competitive with analog state of the art for narrowband applications, demonstrating excellent phase noise and achieving even traditionally difficult standards such as GSM. However, to achieve comparable high performance for wideband applications requires a reduction in fractional spurs. This paper provides a brief summary of ADPLL architectures, leading to a prototype synthesizer at 3 GHz which implements a spurious tone reduction technique. Along the way, an efficient simulation model to predict fractional spur amplitude and frequency in ADPLLs is presented. The 3 GHz prototype operates from a flexible reference frequency, between 25 MHz-100 MHz, has in-band phase noise of -101 dBc/Hz with a decade of loop bandwidth programmability, and in-band spurs below -45 dBc. The synthesizer occupies 0.4 mm2 in 65 nm digital CMOS and consumes less than 10 mW from a 1.2 V supply.
Block placement with symmetry constraints based on the O-tree non-slicing representation

The ordered tree (O-tree) representation has recently gained much interest in layout design automation. Different from previous topological representations of non-slicing floorplans, the O-tree representation is simpler, needs linear computation effort to generate a corresponding layout, and exhibits a smaller upper-bound of possible configurations. This paper addresses the problem of handling symmetry constraints in the context of the O-tree representation. This problem arises in analog placements, where symmetry is often used to match layout-induced parasitics and to balance thermal couplings in differential circuits. The good performance of our placement tool dealing with several analog designs taken from industry proves the effectiveness of our technique.
Evolutionary and Functional Analysis of Old World Primate TRIM5 Reveals the Ancient Emergence of Primate Lentiviruses and Convergent Evolution Targeting a Conserved Capsid Interface

The widespread distribution of lentiviruses among African primates, and the lack of severe pathogenesis in many of these natural reservoirs, are taken as evidence for long-term co-evolution between the simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) and their primate hosts. Evidence for positive selection acting on antiviral restriction factors is consistent with virus-host interactions spanning millions of years of primate evolution. However, many restriction mechanisms are not virus-specific, and selection cannot be unambiguously attributed to any one type of virus. We hypothesized that the restriction factor TRIM5, because of its unique specificity for retrovirus capsids, should accumulate adaptive changes in a virus-specific fashion, and therefore, that phylogenetic reconstruction of TRIM5 evolution in African primates should reveal selection by lentiviruses closely related to modern SIVs. We analyzed complete TRIM5 coding sequences of 22 Old World primates and identified a tightly-spaced cluster of branch-specific adaptions appearing in the Cercopithecinae lineage after divergence from the Colobinae around 16 million years ago. Functional assays of both extant TRIM5 orthologs and reconstructed ancestral TRIM5 proteins revealed that this cluster of adaptations in TRIM5 specifically resulted in the ability to restrict Cercopithecine lentiviruses, but had no effect (positive or negative) on restriction of other retroviruses, including lentiviruses of non-Cercopithecine primates. The correlation between lineage-specific adaptations and ability to restrict viruses endemic to the same hosts supports the hypothesis that lentiviruses closely related to modern SIVs were present in Africa and infecting the ancestors of Cercopithecine primates as far back as 16 million years ago, and provides insight into the evolution of TRIM5 specificity.
Establishing cross-discipline consensus on contraception, pregnancy and breast feeding-related educational messages and clinical practices to support women with rheumatoid arthritis: an Australian Delphi study

Objective Recognising the need for a best-practice and consistent approach in providing care to women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in relation to (1) general health, (2) contraception, (3) conception and pregnancy, (4) breast feeding and (5) early parenting, we sought to achieve cross-discipline, clinical consensus on key messages and clinical practice behaviours in these 5 areas. Design 3-round eDelphi study. In round 1, panellists provided free-text responses to open-ended questions about care for women with RA across the 5 areas. Subsequently, panellists refined and scored the synthesised responses, presented as metathemes, themes and detailed elements. Where ≥5% of panellists did not support a theme in a given round, it was removed. Setting Panel of practicing Australian rheumatologists (n=22), obstetricians/obstetric medicine physicians (n=9) and pharmacists (n=5). Results 34 (94.4%) panellists participated in all 3 rounds. The panel supported 18 themes across the 5 areas (support/strongly support: 88.2–100%) underpinned by 5 metathemes. Metathemes focused on coordination in information delivery, the mode and timing of information delivery, evidence underpinning information, engagement of the right health professionals at the right time and a non-judgemental approach to infant feeding. Themes included practices for primary prevention of chronic disease and their sequelae, the importance of contraception and planning pregnancy and breast feeding, close monitoring of medications, supporting mental well-being, managing disease activity and providing practical support for early parenting. Conclusions A cross-disciplinary clinical panel highly supported key information and clinical practices in the care for women with RA across the continuum of contraception to early parenting within a whole-person, chronic disease management approach.
Integration‐Free Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Model Genetic and Neural Developmental Features of Down Syndrome Etiology

Down syndrome (DS) is the most frequent cause of human congenital mental retardation. Cognitive deficits in DS result from perturbations of normal cellular processes both during development and in adult tissues, but the mechanisms underlying DS etiology remain poorly understood. To assess the ability of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model DS phenotypes, as a prototypical complex human disease, we generated bona fide DS and wild‐type (WT) nonviral iPSCs by episomal reprogramming. DS iPSCs selectively overexpressed chromosome 21 genes, consistent with gene dosage, which was associated with deregulation of thousands of genes throughout the genome. DS and WT iPSCs were neurally converted at >95% efficiency and had remarkably similar lineage potency, differentiation kinetics, proliferation, and axon extension at early time points. However, at later time points DS cultures showed a twofold bias toward glial lineages. Moreover, DS neural cultures were up to two times more sensitive to oxidative stress‐induced apoptosis, and this could be prevented by the antioxidant N‐acetylcysteine. Our results reveal a striking complexity in the genetic alterations caused by trisomy 21 that are likely to underlie DS developmental phenotypes, and indicate a central role for defective early glial development in establishing developmental defects in DS brains. Furthermore, oxidative stress sensitivity is likely to contribute to the accelerated neurodegeneration seen in DS, and we provide proof of concept for screening corrective therapeutics using DS iPSCs and their derivatives. Nonviral DS iPSCs can therefore model features of complex human disease in vitro and provide a renewable and ethically unencumbered discovery platform. STEM CELLS2013;31:467–478
MULTI-MUSCLE SYNERGIES DURING LIFTING AND LOWERING TASKS: AN UNCONTROLLED MANIFOLD ANALYSIS

In ergonomics, lifting tasks can be categorized according to their risk level of suffering work-related low back disorders (WRLBD). The aim of this study was to investigate whether trunk muscles form synergies that stabilize the time profile of selected performance variables that have been used previously to characterize the risk level for developing WRLBD. At the neuromuscular level, the spatiotemporal pattern of motoneuronal activity was quantified by applying matrix factorization algorithm with Varimax rotation. With this procedure, synergies were quantified using the framework of the UCM hypothesis. The results supported the hypothesis that trunk muscles form synergies to stabilize the time profile of variables that are being also used to characterize the risk of injury.
Do Code Smells Impact the Effort of Different Maintenance Programming Activities?

Empirical studies have shown so far that code smells have relatively low impact over maintenance effort at file level. We surmise that previous studies have found low effects of code smells because the effort considered is a "sheer-effort" that does not distinguish between the kinds of developers' activities. In our study, we investigate the effects of code smells at the activity level. Examples of activities are: reading, editing, searching, and navigating, which are performed independently over different files during maintenance. We conjecture that structural attributes represented in the form of different code smells do indeed have an effect on the effort for performing certain kinds of activities. To verify this conjecture, we revisit a previous study about the impact of code smell on maintenance effort, using the same dataset, but considering activity effort. Six professional developers were hired to perform three maintenance tasks on four functionally equivalent Java Systems. Each developer performs two maintenance tasks. During maintenance task, we monitor developers' logs. Then, we define an annotation schema to identify developers' activities and assess whether code smells affect different maintenance activities. Results show that different code smells affect differently activity effort. Yet, the size of the changes performed to solve the task impacts the effort of all activities more than code smells and file size. While code smells impact the editing and navigating effort more than file size, the file size impacts the reading and searching activities more than code smells. One major implication of these results is that if code smells indeed affect the effort of certain kinds of activities, it means that their effects are contingent on the type of maintenance task at hand, where some kinds of activities will become more predominant than others.
Courting the “Real” and Stumbling in “Reality”: Confusions and Hazards of Relational Practice

The article examines some of the difficulties and vulnerabilities inherent in conducting a relational psychoanalysis. It suggests that co-created relational space has its own particular contexts and boundaries, violations of which may render the analyst as vulnerable and confused as the patient. Hence, when life contexts outside the analysis intrude on the dyad in surprising, distracting, and hurtful ways, it sometimes seems impossible for an analyst simultaneously to engage in the dyad in affectively open and authentic ways while also maintaining professional clarity and containing and protecting the analysis.
The design of puzzle selection strategies for GWAP systems

The Games With A Purpose (GWAP) genre is a type of Human Computation that outsources certain steps of the computational process to humans. By taking advantage of people's desire to be entertained, GWAP attracts people to play voluntarily, and also produce useful metadata as a by‐product. The games have shown promise in solving a variety of problems, which computer computation has been unable to resolve completely thus far. In this paper, we propose a metric, called system gain, for evaluating the performance of GWAP systems, and also use analysis to study the properties of GWAP systems. We argue that it is important for GWAP systems to implement proper puzzle selection strategies in order to collect human intelligence in a more efficient manner. Therefore, based on our analysis, we implement an Optimal Puzzle Selection Strategy (OPSA) to improve GWAP systems. Using a comprehensive set of simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed OPSA approach can effectively improve the system gain of GWAP systems, as long as the number of puzzles in the system is sufficiently large. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
MR angiography using steady‐state free precession

Contrast‐enhanced MR angiography (CE‐MRA) using steady‐state free precession (SSFP) pulse sequences is described. Using SSFP, vascular structures can be visualized with high signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) at a substantial (delay) time after the initial arterial pass of contrast media. The peak blood SSFP signal was diminished by <20% 30 min after the initial administration of 0.2 mmol/kg of Gd‐chelate. The proposed method allows a second opportunity to study arterial or venous structures with high image SNR and high spatial resolution. A mask subtraction scheme using spin echo SSFP‐S(−) acquisition is also described to reduce stationary background signal from the delayed SSFP angiography images. Magn Reson Med 48:699–706, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.