Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bit and Power Allocation in QAM Capable Multi-Differential Frequency-Shifted Reference UWB Radio

Auto-correlation receivers, such as frequency shift reference systems, offer a low-complexity alternative to Rake receivers, for low data-rate ultra-wideband applications. In such systems, a data signal and a reference signal are simultaneously transmitted. At the receiver, the received signal corresponding to the data is correlated with the received signal corresponding to the reference signal, thereby accumulating the multi-path channel energies in-phase. For improving bandwidth and energy efficiency, multi- differential schemes have also been proposed where multiple data signals share the same reference signal. With the aim of further boosting the achievable data rates, in this work we propose a multi-differential frequency shift reference receiver that supports higher order modulation formats. We design the corresponding receiver architecture that can exploit both the in-phase and quadrature-phase signal components and analytically characterize the signal and noise components. We also study the problem of optimal bit and power allocation to the multiple data signals, both for uncoded and coded systems, as a function of channel metrics that can be easily tracked at the receiver.
Vasculogenic potential of long term repopulating cord blood progenitors

In the adult, involvement of bone marrow‐derived circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in tissue revascularization (vasculogenesis) and the cooperation of hematopoietic cell subsets in supporting this process have been described in different experimental animal models. However, the effective contribution of such cells in restoring organ vascularization in a clinical setting needs to be clarified. In this study, a mouse transplantation model was engrafted by human cord blood hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to follow the behavior of donor‐derived endothelial and hematopoietic cells in the presence of a localized source of an angiogenic inducer. Human endothelial markers (CD31+/CD45–, VE‐cadherin+) were always detectable in the bone marrow of transplanted mice, while they were only randomly detectable in peripheral neovascularization sites. To investigate the ability of human transplanted hematopoietic stem cells to support new vessel formation in response to altered homeostatic conditions, chimeric mice were further treated by systemic injection of human mononuclear cells (MNCs). Our data indicate that MNC administration in transplanted mice enhances vasculogenesis in the newly formed vessels. Taken together these results suggest that human‐derived EPCs, long‐term engrafting a xenotransplantation model, have hematopoietic and endothelial developmental potential, which can be modulated by altering the physiological conditions of host microenvironment.
High resolution 2D time frequency representation of radar micro-Doppler pedestrian signal

In this paper, a modified 2D time-frequency minimum variance spectral estimation method has been applied to non-stationary micro-Doppler signal of radar targets. Pulse Doppler radar has been employed to capture returns from targets possessing vibrating sub-parts which cause micro-Doppler phenomenon. The aim is to obtain a high resolution time-frequency representation of the acquired micro-Doppler radar signal for use in feature extraction for the purpose of automatic radar target recognition.
Shared environment representation for a human-robot team performing information fusion

This paper addresses the problem of building a shared environment representation by a human-robot team. Rich environment models are required in real applications for both autonomous operation of robots and to support human decision-making. Two probabilistic models are used to describe outdoor environment features such as trees: geometric (position in the world) and visual. The visual representation is used to improve data association and to classify features. Both models are able to incorporate observations from robotic platforms and human operators. Physically, humans and robots form a heterogeneous sensor network. In our experiments, the human-robot team consists of an unmanned air vehicle, a ground vehicle, and two human operators. They are deployed for an information gathering task and perform information fusion cooperatively. All aspects of the system including the fusion algorithms are fully decentralized. Experimental results are presented in form of the acquired multi-attribute feature map, information exchange patterns demonstrating human-robot information fusion, and quantitative model evaluation. Learned lessons from deploying the system in the field are also presented. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Weight Change and All-Cause Mortality in Older Adults: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis of observational cohort studies examined the association between weight change (weight loss, weight gain, and weight fluctuation) and all-cause mortality among older adults. We used Pub Med (MEDLINE), Web of Science, and Cochrane Library to identify prospective studies published in English from inception to November 2014. Seventeen prospective studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis. Higher all-cause mortality risks were noted with weight change: weight loss (pooled RR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.51–1.85; p < 0.001 for heterogeneity), weight gain (pooled RR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.09–1.33; p = 0.03 for heterogeneity), and weight fluctuation (pooled RR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.36–1.72; p = 0.43 for heterogeneity). Similar results were observed with stricter criteria for sensitivity analyses. None of the study characteristics had statistically significant effects on the pooled RR, except for study quality on weight loss. Weight change is associated with higher mortality risk among community-dwelling adults 60 years and older.
Cognitively-inspired symbolic framework for knowledge representation

This paper introduces a cognitively-inspired symbolic framework for knowledge representation in human-machine interaction. The framework is developed within the ongoing research on a computational model of a hierarchical associative long-term memory. The model integrates neurocognitive understanding of the human memory system with selected insights from linguistics, and primarily addresses the storage aspect of the long-term memory. The proposed memory structure is conceptualized as a set of (multisource-multisink) semantic flow networks, including knowledge units of different complexity. It also provides algorithm for semantic integration and associative learning. The model is illustrated for a dedicated interaction domain, and implemented within a prototype system.
Framework for Analysis of Dynamic Social Networks Evolution 1

-----------------------------------------------------------------Abstract---------------------------------------------------------------------Recent years have seen an explosive growth of various online communities. The processes by which communities come together, attract new members, and develop over time is a central research issue in the social sciences—political movements, professional organizations, and religious denominations all provide fundamental examples of such communities. In the digital domain, on-line groups are becoming increasingly prominent due to the growth of community and social networking sites such as MySpace, Twitter. However, the challenge of collecting and analyzing large-scale time resolved data on social groups and communities has left most basic questions about the evolution of such groups largely unresolved: what are the structural features that influence whether individuals will join communities, which communities will grow rapidly, and how do the overlaps among pairs of communities change over time? So considering these, in this paper we present a framework for modeling and detecting community evolution in social networks. This framework allows tracking of events related to communities as well as events related to individual nodes. These events can be considered as building bloc ks for pattern detection in networks with evolving communities. This framework can be formalized by applying it to a real dataset consisting of emails.
Precursors to Femicide: Guatemalan Women in a Vortex of Violence

Today women in Guatemala are killed at nearly the same rate as they were in the early 1980s when the civil war became genocidal. Yet the current femicide epidemic is less an aberration than a reflection of the way violence against women has become normalized in Guatemala. Used to re-inscribe patriarchy and sustain both dictatorships and democracies, gender-based violence morphed into femicide when peacetime governments became too weak to control extralegal and paramilitary powers. The naturalization of gender-based violence over the course of the twentieth century maintained and promoted the systemic impunity that undergirds femicide today. By accounting for the gendered and historical dimensions of the cultural practices of violence and impunity, we offer a re-conceptualization of the social relations that perpetuate femicide as an expression of post-war violence.
The Effect of Team Building on Cohesion

The present study examined the effectiveness of a multidimensional team building intervention on perceptions of cohesion in which the sport psychology consultant, coach, and athletes were actively involved. Participants were members of an intercollegiate softball team (n = 16). The Group Environment Questionnaire was administered at five times during the season. Responses were compared to a non-intervention control (n = 17). Qualitative information concerning team functioning was also acquired pre and post intervention through the use of focus group methodology. Results indicated that the intervention group reported significantly higher levels of cohesion following the intervention period compared to the control. These differences did not extend throughout the competitive season. Recommendations for future team building research are discussed.
Characteristics of new P2Y12 inhibitors: selection of P2Y12 inhibitors in clinical practice

The options for antithrombotic therapy have recently been expanded, facilitating optimal tailored treatment. Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and an approved adenosine diphosphate P2Y12 receptor antagonist is recommended for the management of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). However, there are a number of controversies: which P2Y12 inhibitor to choose; how long should antiplatelet therapy be used so as to prevent thrombotic events and minimize bleeding risks; whether to use drug-eluting (DES) or bare-metal stents (BMS) and how to manage the individual variability in response to clopidogrel. Clopidogrel in combination with aspirin has been the standard dual antiplatelet regimen for ACS. The new, more potent P2Y12 inhibitors, prasugrel and ticagrelor, have shown improved antithrombotic effects compared with clopidogrel in patients with ACS (with or without ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction) in landmark trials, even if they were associated with an increased risk of major bleeding. Different pharmacogenetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics may explain, in part, the different pharmacologic and clinical responses to these antiplatelet agents. Importantly, both clopidogrel and prasugrel are prodrugs, i.e., they need to be converted in vivo into active metabolites that selectively and irreversibly bind the P2Y12 receptor. Unlike clopidogrel, however, common functional cytochrome P450 genetic variants do not affect prasugrel active metabolite levels or inhibition of platelet aggregation. In contrast, ticagrelor is not a prodrug (i.e., does not require hepatic metabolism to exert its antiplatelet effect) and represents the first oral P2Y12 receptor antagonist that is reversibly bound. Similar to prasugrel, ticagrelor achieves greater and more rapid inhibition of platelet function than clopidogrel. Evidence suggests that the new P2Y12 antagonists may offer improved antithrombotic effects compared with clopidogrel in selected patients for the optimal management of ACS in clinical practice.
Costs and quality of life associated with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding in the UK: cohort analysis of patients in a cluster randomised trial

Objectives Data on costs associated with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB) are scarce. We provide estimates of UK healthcare costs, indirect costs and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients presenting to hospital with AUGIB. Setting Six UK university hospitals with >20 AUGIB admissions per month, >400 adult beds, 24 h endoscopy, and on-site access to intensive care and surgery. Participants 936 patients aged ≥18 years, admitted with AUGIB, and enrolled between August 2012 and March 2013 in the TRIGGER trial of AUGIB comparing restrictive versus liberal red blood cell (RBC) transfusion thresholds. Primary and secondary outcome measures Healthcare resource use during hospitalisation and postdischarge up to 28 days, unpaid informal care, time away from paid employment and HRQoL using the EuroQol EQ-5D at 28 days were measured prospectively. National unit costs were used to value resource use. Initial in-hospital treatment costs were upscaled to a UK level. Results Mean initial in-hospital costs were £2458 (SE=£216) per patient. Inpatient bed days, endoscopy and RBC transfusions were key cost drivers. Postdischarge healthcare costs were £391 (£44) per patient. One-third of patients received unpaid informal care and the quarter in paid employment required time away from work. Mean HRQoL for survivors was 0.74. Annual initial inhospital treatment cost for all AUGIB cases in the UK was estimated to be £155.5 million, with exploratory analyses of the incremental costs of treating hospitalised patients developing AUGIB generating figures of between £143 million and £168 million. Conclusions AUGIB is a large burden for UK hospitals with inpatient stay, endoscopy and RBC transfusions as the main cost drivers. It is anticipated that this work will enable quantification of the impact of cost reduction strategies in AUGIB and will inform economic analyses of novel or existing interventions for AUGIB. Trial registration number ISRCTN85757829 and NCT02105532.
Peptides from the inside of the antibodies are active against infectious agents and tumours

Synthetic peptides, representative of sequences related to the complementarity determining regions and constant region of antibodies, proved to exert in vitro, ex vivo and/or in vivo antimicrobial, antiviral, anti‐tumour and/or immunomodulatory activities, conceivably mediated by different mechanisms of action and regardless of the specificity and isotype of the belonging immunoglobulin. Antibody‐derived peptides can show intrinsic properties of self‐aggregation in β structures, able to assemble on molecular targets and dissociate spontaneously, leading to the formation of hydrogels. Whilst the self‐assembled state may provide protection against proteases and the slow kinetic of dissociation assures a release of the active form over time, the receptor affinity is responsible for targeted delivery. Peptides derived from single amino acid substitution of bioactive antibody fragments, adopted as surrogates of natural point mutations, displayed further differential biological activities. Overall, these observations allow to envisage that antibodies could represent an unlimited source of new anti‐infective and anti‐tumour peptides. Copyright © 2015 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
LISP-based Application-Layer Multicasting System for a Content Distribution Network

A content distribution network (CDN) where the information provider can distribute copies of contents to a group of cache servers is a very useful solution in various on-line services. An application-layer multicasting (ALM) system is a candidate technology for constructing the CDN, and can be achieved by utilizing a Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP) which is actively discussed in IETF. A mapping system which manages relationship between each multicast group and the group members (i.e., cache servers) is a core component of the system, but the centralized system requires costly resources for handling a large-scale CDN. In this study, we propose a new mapping system for the LISP-based application-layer multicasting system using distributed cloud computing technologies. The proposed system utilizes a distributed hash table (DHT)-based network consisting of a large number of LISP routers to manage the membership information of multicast groups, and shortens the start-up time needed for newly-arrived multicast members to start communicating with other members. This paper considers the performance of the proposed system by using a realistic and a large-scale computer simulation and clarifies that the mapping system can halve the start-up time compared with the simple DHT-based system.
Application of ANN and SVM for identification of tsunamigenic earthquakes from 3-component seismic data

Two pattern classification methodologies — Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) have been used in this study to identify shallow focus (depth<70 km) tsunamigenic earthquakes at a regional distance. Besides location and magnitude, the root mean square (rms) amplitudes of seismic phases recorded by a single 3-component station have been considered as inputs to both ANN and SVM. The trained ANN and SVM have been found to categorize 100% and 91% respectively of the new earthquakes successfully as tsunamigenic or non-tsunamigenic. Both the methodologies have been tested using three component broad band seismic data recorded at PALK (Pallekele, Sri Lanka) station provided by IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology) for earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and above originating from Sumatra region. The fair agreement between the two methodologies ensures the existence of a single station based tsunami alert system which could be very useful for the poorly instrumented regions.
Anthropometric prediction equations for estimating body mass composition: a scoping review protocol

Review questions/objectives: The overall aim of this scoping review is to determine the optimal anthropometric variable parameters used to develop predictive equation(s) to estimate the components of body mass composition. The objectives of the scoping review are:To map the disparate international literature on the diverse anthropometric variable parameters included in predictive equations for estimating the components of body mass composition.To map how research has been undertaken on the development of the anthropometric prediction equations for estimating the components of body mass composition. The questions for the scoping review are:What types of anthropometric variable parameters have been reported in the literature about the predictive equations used for estimating the components of body mass composition? What explanations or justifications have been reported in the literature for the inclusion of diverse anthropometric variable parameters included in predictive equations used for estimating the components of body mass composition? What types of approaches have been reported in the literature for the development of predictive equations used for estimating the components of body mass composition?
Molecular In Vivo Imaging Using a Noninvasive Cardiac-Specific MLC-2v Promoter Driven Dual-Gene Recombinant Lentivirus Monitoring System

Background Our study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of using the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) to monitor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF165) expression in vivo. Methods We constructed a recombinant lentivirus plasmid with the MLC-2v promoter driving the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) reporter gene linked to the VEGF165 gene. Expression of NIS and VEGF gene were identified by Western blot. On days 2 and 54, 99mTc-MIBI imaging was used to evaluate changes in myocardial ischemia. Noninvasive 125I micro-SPECT/CT imaging was used to assess the expression of NIS reporter gene dynamically over the next 2 months. Results Western blot analysis showed that both NIS and VEGF165 were highly expressed in rat cardiomyoblast H9C2 cells transduced with Lenti-MLC-2v-NIS--VEGF165. 125I micro-SPECT/CT reporter imaging showed higher uptake in mouse myocardium transduced with Lenti-MLC-2v-VEGF165-IRES-NIS. NIS expression peaked on day 1 after transduction followed by a progressive decline to negligible levels by day 21. On day 1, mean 125I activity value in group 1 was higher than that in group 2 (P<0.05). The mean 125I activity value in group 3 was statically lower than that in group 1 and 2 (P<0.01). On day 60, 125I uptakes in test and positive control groups became very low, and no significant differences in the mean 125I activity values were detected between group 1 and group 2 (P = 0.531 > 0.05). In group 1 (test group), 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT revealed improvements in perfusion and wall thickening in the apical anterior wall. Mean IOD values of NIS and CD34 were significantly higher in group 1 than group 3 (P<0.05). Our study proved mean I-125 uptake was significantly correlated with mean IOD value of NIS and CD34 (P<0.05). Conclusion This study demonstrates the feasibility of using the NIS gene to monitor VEGF165 expression in a mouse myocardial ischemia model.
Capillarity and dynamic wetting

In this thesis capillary dominated two–phase flow is studied by means of numerical simulations and experiments. The theoretical basis for the simulations consists of a phase field model, which is derived from the system’s thermodynamics, and coupled with the Navier Stokes equations. Two types of interfacial flow are investigated, droplet dynamics in a bifurcating channel and spontaneous capillary driven spreading of drops. Microfluidic and biomedical applications often rely on a precise control of droplets as they traverse through complicated networks of bifurcating channels. Three–dimensional simulations of droplet dynamics in a bifurcating channel are performed for a set of parameters, to describe their influence on the resulting droplet dynamics. Two distinct flow regimes are identified as the droplet interacts with the tip of the channel junction, namely, droplet splitting and nonsplitting. A flow map based on droplet size and Capillary number is proposed to predict whether the droplet splits or not in such a geometry. A commonly occurring flow is the dynamic wetting of a dry solid substrate. Both experiments and numerical simulations of the spreading of a drop are presented here. A direct comparison of the two identifies a new parameter in the phase field model that is required to accurately predict the experimental spreading behavior. This parameter μf [Pa · s], is interpreted as a friction factor at the moving contact line. Comparison of simulations and experiments for different liquids and surface wetting properties enabled a measurement of the contact line friction factor for a wide parameter space. Values for the contact line friction factor from phase field theory are reported here for the first time. To identify the physical mechanism that governs the droplet spreading, the different contributions to the flow are measured from the simulations. An important part of the dissipation may arise from a friction related to the motion of the contact line itself, and this is found to be dominating both inertia and viscous friction adjacent to the contact line. A scaling law based on the contact line friction factor collapses the experimental data, whereas a conventional inertial or viscous scaling fails to rationalize the experimental observation, supporting the numerical finding. Descriptors: Phase field theory, finite element simulations, experiments, two– phase flow, dynamic wetting, contact line physics, capillarity.