Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parameter optimisation in duty-cycled wireless sensor networks under expected network lifetime

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), extensive research has focused on extending network lifetime and reducing energy consumption. The dispensable energy consumption among sensor nodes may cause network partition. Therefore, it is urgent to optimise network parameters and collect information from WSNs in an energy efficient manner during an expected network lifetime. In this paper, we propose a connected k–neighbourhood (CKN) algorithm based approach to optimise network parameters. The CKN mechanism is an energy saving algorithm with coordinated duty–cycled sleep schedule, which can adjust sensor nodes's the sleep/awake state to maximum data collection under expected network lifetime. We compare the energy consumption of network adopting CKN mechanism with that of network adopting random sleep (RS) mechanism, then further prove that we can get the maximum data collection by adjusting corresponding network parameters of the WSN. Simulation and performance analysis contribute to select the most appropriate network parameters under expected network lifetime.
Fishes and birds: Gondwana life rafts reconsidered.

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NOBODY KNOWS : PERCEIVED OPPORTUNITY AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

this study explores student academic dishonesty in the context of traditional and distance-learning courses in higher education. Data from 2,357 Students enrolled in academic institutes in the U.S.A and Israel were surveyed to assess their perceived opportunity to commit academic misconduct. The findings indicate that in both countries dishonest behaviors are greater in face-to-face courses than in online courses. Similarly, the perceived opportunity to engage in academic misconduct reported by both the American and the Israeli students is greater in face-to-face courses than in online courses. Stepwise regression showed that perceived opportunity predicts engagement in academic dishonesty, and this tendency is more likely to appear in face-to-face courses than in e-learning courses. Implications for further research are discussed. KeywordsAcademic Dishonesty, Perceived Opportunity, E-Learning.
Design space exploration of a stereo vision system using high-level synthesis

Stereoscopic vision is an essential building block of modern assisted driving and surveillance applications. Semi-Global Matching (SGM) is a very efficient approach, which outperforms most local algorithms and can deliver real-time performance if properly implemented in hardware. In this paper we describe the design space exploration of the SGM algorithm for automotive applications. The paper also highlights the methodology that we used for the transformation of the high-level code from a reference software implementation, which was unsuitable as a starting point for high-level synthesis, to the hardware implementation. Stream-based processing of the SGM algorithm, despite its complex data dependencies, is achieved by focusing on the inner most loops of the algorithms. Changing the choices of the loop implementation and type of the targeted memory implementation yield different RTL code with a broad range of area vs performance trade-offs.
Improvement in nonlinear characteristics of zero bias GaAsSb-based backward diodes

A high curvature coefficient (γ) of 49.4 V-1 was achieved at zero bias using p-GaAsSb/i-InAlAs/n-InGaAs backward diodes that were lattice-matched to an InP substrate. γ indicates a higher value than that of ideal Schottky diodes (39.6 V-1). Backward diodes with such a high y are applicable in mixers. The doping concentration in the p-GaAsSb layer was optimized to obtain an ideal energy band structure for a backward diode. The impedance-matched voltage sensitivity (βv,opt) at 94 GHz was estimated to be 6,069 V/W using a diode of 3.0 μm diameter.
Fracture Risk Among Patients with Paget's Disease: A Population‐Based Cohort Study

Localized disruption of bone architecture leads to an increased risk of pathological fractures in patients with Paget's disease, but the impact of the disease on overall fracture risk is unknown. We addressed this issue among 236 Olmsted County, Minnesota residents (107 women and 129 men) first diagnosed with Paget's disease from 1950 through 1994. These subjects (mean ± SD age at diagnosis, 69.6 ± 12.2 years) were followed subsequently for 2798 person‐years. During this period of observation, 33 pathological fractures were attributed to Paget's disease (1 skull, 11 vertebra, 1 shaft/distal humerus, 1 pelvis, 6 proximal femur, 2 shaft/distal femur, and 11 tibia/fibula). Excluding the fractures through pagetic bone, there was no increase in overall fracture risk in this cohort (standardized incidence ratio [SIR], 1.2; 95% CI, 0.9‐1.4). However, there was a statistically significant increase in the risk of subsequent vertebra (SIR, 3.0; 95% CI, 2.2‐4.1) and rib fractures (SIR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1‐2.4) but not fractures of the proximal femur (SIR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.3‐1.1) or distal forearm (SIR, 1.4; 95% CI, 0.7‐2.5). Thus, unselected patients with Paget's disease in the community, who mostly have mild disease, have a significantly increased risk of vertebral fractures, although this may relate partly to increased surveillance. Additional work is needed to clarify the relationship between Paget's disease and vertebral fractures and to identify individuals at increased risk for more aggressive therapy.
Weight Gain Prior to Diagnosis and Survival from Breast Cancer

Background: To examine the effects of prediagnostic obesity and weight gain throughout the life course on survival after a breast cancer diagnosis, we conducted a follow-up study among a population-based sample of women diagnosed with first, primary invasive, and in situ breast cancer between 1996 and 1997 (n = 1,508). Methods: In-person interviews were conducted shortly after diagnosis to obtain information on height and weight at each decade of life from age 20 years until 1 year before diagnosis. Patients were followed to determine all-cause (n = 196) and breast cancer–specific (n = 127) mortality through December 31, 2002. Results: In multivariate Cox proportional hazards models, obese women had increased mortality due to breast cancer compared with ideal weight women among those who were premenopausal at diagnosis [hazard ratio (HR), 2.85; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.30-6.23] and postmenopausal at diagnosis (HR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.06-3.46). Among women diagnosed with premenopausal breast cancer, those who gained >16 kg between age 20 years and 1 year before diagnosis, compared with those whose weight remained stable (±3 kg), had more than a 2-fold elevation in all-cause (HR, 2.45; 95% CI, 0.96-6.27) and breast cancer–specific mortality (HR, 2.09; 95% CI, 0.80-5.48). Women diagnosed with postmenopausal breast cancer who gained more than 12.7 kg after age of 50 years up to the year before diagnosis had a 2- to 3-fold increased risk of death due to all-causes (HR, 2.69; 95% CI, 1.63-4.43) and breast cancer (HR, 2.95; 95% CI, 1.36-6.43). Conclusions: These results indicate that high levels of prediagnostic weight and substantial weight gain throughout life can decrease survival in premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer patients. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(9):1803–11)
Using Metacognition to Enhance Web-based Collaboration: a Case Study in Engineering Education

In this work the use of metacognition for the enhancement of web-based collaboration is presented. In particular the work focuses on the enhancement of the collaborative skills by means of developing metacognitive strategies. Through such strategies the individual is expected to be able to monitor his/her collaborative interactions and adjust them in order to enhance the effectiveness of his/her collaborative activity. The adoption of metacogni-tive strategies is a conscious procedure therefore it is translatable through meta-cognitive interactions. Modeling of the metacognitive interactions using the intermediate variables approach is presented in a case study that refers to Lin2k, a web-based collaboration environment. Experimental uses of Lin2k allowed the investigation of the impact of metacognition on the collaborative activity. Discussion on the experimental results proves the potentiality of the presented approach and stimulates further thoughts on the role of metacognition within the collaborative procedure.
Wrinkle Based Skeleton Embedding Method for Refined Human Hand

It has been always a challenge to extract or generate a skeleton from a mesh. Most skeleton extraction methods are aimed at articulated character models, which are not well suitable for refined hand model. We proposed a novel automatic method for skeleton extraction of refined human hand meshes. Given a refined human hand meshes, we first use an automatic rigging system to extract a coarse skeleton graph. Then we run a refinement algorithm to the graph by tracking the wrinkles near the joints, so that the coarse skeleton graph is adjusted and refined. Finally, a match algorithm is applied to produce joint frames of the skeleton graph. Finally, joint frames are attached to support rotation. Our method produces reasonable skeleton on refined human hands while delivering an acceptable performance, enabling further use of hand pose animation by any skeleton-based methods.
Optimized 4D DPM for Pose Estimation on RGBD Channels using Polisphere Models

The Deformable Parts Model (DPM) is a standard method to perform human pose estimation on RGB images, 3 channels. Although there has been much work to improve such method, little work has been done on utilizing DPM on other types of imagery such as RGBD data. In this paper, we describe a formulation of the DPM model that makes use of depth information channels in order to improve joint detection and pose estimation using 4 channels. In order to offset the time complexity and overhead added to the model due to extra channels to process, we propose an optimization for the proposed algorithm based on solving direct and inverse kinematic equations, that form we can reduce the interested points reducing, at the same time, the time complexity. Our results show a significant improvement on pose estimation over the standard DPM model on our own RGBD dataset and on the public CAD60 dataset.
Advances in Human Stem Cell Research

Daily, scientists join the rapidly growing circle of researchers exploring one of the new frontiers of modern science: stem cells. Just as today medical practice previous to the introduction of antibiotics seems archaic and almost unimaginable, so will the pre“stem cell age” in the not so distant future. The aim of this review is to expose clinicians to the world of stem cells, provide key definitions, and discuss advances in stem cell research and obstacles to be overcome before clinical implementation can take place. Great confusion and many misnomers surround the criteria used to define stem cells. To be considered such, cells must exhibit at least the following characteristics:
Stimulatory effect of a phorbol ester on expression of insulin‐like growth factor (IGF) binding protein‐2 and level of IGF‐I receptors in mouse osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells

We examined the relationship between signal transduction and the expression of insulin‐like growth factor I (IGF‐I), IGF‐I receptor level, and IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs) in murine clonal osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells. 12–O‐Tetradecanoylphorbol‐13‐acetate (TPA), an activator of protein kinase C, decreased the secretion of immunoreactive IGF‐I into the medium, whereas dibutyryl cAMP (Bt2cAMP) augmented the secretion In contrast, TPA increased the level of type IIGF receptor on the cells. Furthermore, MC3T3‐E1 cells produced and secreted at least three different IGFBPs with molecular masses of 24, 30, and 34 kDa, and the 24‐kDa IGFBP was predominant under normal conditions. However, TPA specifically increased the secretion of the 34‐kDa IGFBP. The N‐terminal amino acid sequence of the purified 34‐kDa IGFBP was nearly identical with that of rat IGFBP‐2. Furthermore, the 34‐kDa IGFBP was immunoreactive to anti‐IGFBP‐2 antiserum. The level of IGFBP‐2 mRNA in the cells was increased by TPA, indicating that the increase in IGFBP‐2 secretion results from the stimulation of IGFBP‐2 production. In contrast, Bt2cAMP affected neither IGF‐l receptor number nor the IGFBP secretion. These results indicate that the production of IGF‐l and the expression of IGF‐l receptors and IGFBP‐2 are up‐regulated by the activation of adenylate cyclase and protein kinase C, respectively, in osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells. © 1994 Willey‐Liss, Inc.
Undergraduate Neuroscience Faculty: Results from a Survey of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Members

A survey was presented to members of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) to get a better idea of how neuroscience research and education is being delivered at the undergraduate level. A total of 155 individuals completed the survey, with 118 coming from faculty at traditional PUIs (primarily undergraduate institutions) and 37 from faculty at doctoral-granting institutions. The survey covered a number of different areas; including types of neuroscience programs, number of neuroscience faculty at the institution, average course loads, average number of research students, and external support for research. Results from this survey indicate that the structure of neuroscience programs vary among institutions. Course loads for faculty at PUIs averaged four to six courses per year and the total number of undergraduate students supervised in research per faculty member averaged five (± 2.8) students per year. Faculty show high success with external funding, both at PUIs and research universities. Faculty ranked FUN programs devoted to supporting both students and faculty development highly. The results of this survey provide data that can be used to determine future directions and priorities for FUN.
Con dence Regions For The Equality Of Two Survival Curves

Often when comparing the survival rates of individuals given either of two treatments the analysis stops with a test of the hypothesis of no treatment di erence and perhaps a plot of the two survival functions. The hypothesis test is usually a comparison of the two survival curves over the entire observational period. An alternative approach to this problem is to provide an investigator with a con dence region for the set of times at which the survival rates of the two treatments are the same. We discuss how such con dence regions can be constructed in three situations. First, we construct con dence regions when there are no additional factors that need be adjusted for. Second, based on a proportional hazards model, we show how to construct the desired con dence regions adjusted for explanatory covariates that are not confounded with the two treatments. Lastly, we extended these results to allow for explanatory covariates that are confounded with treatment. These approaches are illustrated on retrospective data gathered to compare the survival rates of allogeneic and autologous bone marrow transplants for acute leukemia.
A Neural Based Human Face Recognition System Using an Efficient Feature Extraction Method with Pseudo Zernike Moment

This paper introduces an ecient method for the recognition of human faces in 2D digital images using a feature extraction technique that combines the global and local information in frontal view of facial images. The proposed feature extraction includes human face localization derived from the shape information. Ecient parameters are dened to eliminate irrelevant data while Pseudo Zernike Moments (PZM) with a new moment orders selection method is introduced as face features. The proposed method while yields better recognition rate, also reduces the classier complexity. This paper also examines application of various feature domains as face features using the face localization method. These include Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). The Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network has been used as the classier and we have shown that the proposed feature extraction method requires an RBF neural network classier with a simpler structure and faster training phase that is less sensitive to select training and testing images. Simulation results on the Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) database and comparison with other techniques indicate the eectiveness of the proposed method.
Developing a System of Program Assessment Within Teacher Education: Lessons Learned

Our intention in this article is to present one institution's efforts to take on program assessment and respond to calls for accountability. To do so, the teacher education program simultaneously sought to address the narrowly defined measures called for by policy makers and politicians, while at the same time broadening and expanding outcomes (such as student learning) and the missions, themes, and values of the teacher education program. The following describes the accountability movement in teacher education and then offers the lessons learned within one program developing a system of assessment within teacher education.
The Effects of Nitrogen‐Containing Bisphosphonates on Human Epithelial (Caco‐2) Cells, an In Vitro Model for Intestinal Epithelium

Nitrogen‐containing bisphosphonates (N‐PCP) are bisphosphonates with an increased antiresorptive potency. Aminobisphosphonates, N‐PCPs with an amino group, can cause nonspecific gastrointestinal complaints. It is not known whether these side effects are specific for these bisphosphonates or for the whole class of N‐PCPs. In this study, we investigated the effects of two aminobisphosphonates (pamidronate and alendronate) and a structurally similar N‐PCP (olpadronate) and their three respective calcium complexes on the viability and the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) of cultured Caco‐2 cells a model for intestinal epithelium. These cells were also examined for apoptosis or necrosis. In the presence of calcium, pamidronate and alendronate were toxic to the cells, with pamidronate being more toxic than alendronate. Olpadronate induced toxicity only at concentrations more than ten times higher than the toxic concentrations of pamidronate. In the absence of calcium definite signs of toxicity were observed only with pamidronate at clinically relevant concentrations. The complexes of pamidronate and alendronate with calcium were considerably less soluble than the olpadronate calcium complex. There were no signs of apoptosis. [Ca2+]i was transiently raised after treatment with the N‐PCPs. Doses at which responses were seen were, respectively, 0.02 mM (pamidronate), 0.3 mM (alendronate), and 2 mM (olpadronate). The peak of response was slightly greater after pamidronate treatment than after alendronate or olpadronate, respectively. In conclusion pamidronate, either as an ion or as a calcium complex, is the most toxic of the bisphosphonates tested for Caco‐2 cells. Alendronate was less toxic while olpadronate was the least toxic in presence of calcium. The solubility of the bisphosphonate complexes with calcium may account for these differences in toxicity.
Phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) regulates synaptic plasticity independently of its effect on neuronal morphology and migration

Non‐technical summary The sizes of neurons and their synaptic connections are regulated by multiple molecular mechanisms to provide neuronal networks that perform well‐defined functions. Deletion of the tumour suppressor phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) during early development leads to a 2‐ to 3‐fold increase in neuronal and synaptic size and abnormalities in synaptic plasticity, the cellular mechanism underlying learning and memory. Whether PTEN deletion affects synaptic plasticity directly or as a consequence of its effect on the neuronal and synaptic size remained unclear. Here we show that deletion of the Pten gene Pten in mice during postnatal development, when the central nervous system is formed, does not affect neuronal or synaptic size but impairs synaptic plasticity. Thus, PTEN affects neuronal structure and synaptic plasticity through independent mechanisms.
Smartphones being implicitly used: How implicit knowledge affects the usage of a smartphone

Smartphones work well for smart people? Most Taiwanese were getting used to have menu to follow, if they buy a new device, that is, Taiwanese acculturate the difficulty to use a new technology, such as smartphone without menu introduction. Thus, the present study was focused on exploring how the implicit knowledge of users, affects the behavioral attitude when using smartphones. A total of 305 questionnaires were received, 293 of which were valid. A path analysis showed that out of a total of 9 hypotheses were supported, and all agreed with the related references and all had significant positive effects. The most important result was that implicit knowledge positively correlated with users' perceptions of usefulness and ease of use, and thus affected both attitude and behavioral intentions.
Forecasting Tourist Inflow in Bhutan using Seasonal ARIMA

The main aim of this paper is to generate one-period-ahead forecasts of international tourism demand for Bhutan by selecting appropriate model both ARIMA as well as exponential smoothing. Before selecting an appropriate model, formal stationary tests has been applied in this paper and finds that, the series are stationary at level. Secondly, in order to get a good estimation, this paper has identified the autoregressive (AR) and moving average (MA) of the entire period of the data. Therefore, the future demand of tourism is forecast based on the combination of AR and MA, which known as ARMA model. In this paper, the competing models have been thoroughly investigated when the model adequacy has been checked before the best combination of ARIMA model was selected. During the diagnostic stage we came to know that the data has a seasonal components thus, the best fitted ARIMA (0, 1, 1) (1, 1, 1) with seasonal effects or well known as SARIMA approaches has been suggested through this study and the forecasting process is based on this combination.