Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive threshold techniques for cognitive radio‐based low power wide area network

Some low power wide area network (LPWAN) developers such as Sigfox, Weightless, and Nwave, have recently commenced the integration of cognitive radio (CR) techniques in their respective LPWAN technologies, generally termed CR‐LPWAN systems. Their objective is to overcome specific limitations associated with LPWANs such as spectra congestion and interference, which in turn will improve the performance of many Internet of Things (IoT)‐based applications. However, in order to be effective under dynamic sensing conditions, CR‐LPWAN systems are typically required to adopt adaptive threshold techniques (ATTs) in order to improve their sensing performance. Consequently, in this article, we have investigated some of these notable ATTs to determine their suitability for CR‐LPWAN systems. To accomplish this goal, first, we describe a network architecture and physical layer model suitable for the effective integration of CR in LPWAN. Then, some specific ATTs were investigated following this model based on an experimental setup constructed using the B200 Universal Software Radio Peripheral kit. Several tests were conducted, and our findings suggest that no single ATT was able to perform best under all sensing conditions. Thus, CR‐LPWAN developers may be required to select a suitable ATT only based on the specific condition(s) for which the IoT application is designed. Nevertheless, some ATTs such as the forward consecutive mean excision algorithm, the histogram partitioning algorithm and the nonparametric amplitude quantization method achieved noteworthy performances under a broad range of tested conditions. Our findings will be beneficial to developers who may be interested in deploying effective ATTs for CR‐LPWAN systems.
Effects of the Bioturbating Marine Yabby Trypaea australiensis on Sediment Properties in Sandy Sediments Receiving Mangrove Leaf Litter

Laboratory mesocosm incubations were undertaken to investigate the influence of burrowing shrimp Trypaea australiensis (marine yabby) on sediment reworking, physical and chemical sediment characteristics and nutrients in sandy sediments receiving mangrove (Avicennia marina) leaf litter. Mesocosms of sieved, natural T. australiensis inhabited sands, were continually flushed with fresh seawater and pre-incubated for 17 days prior to triplicates being assigned to one of four treatments; sandy sediment (S), sediment + yabbies (S+Y), sediment + leaf litter (organic matter; S+OM) and sediment + yabbies + leaf litter (S+Y+OM) and maintained for 55 days. Mangrove leaf litter was added daily to treatments S+OM and S+Y+OM. Luminophores were added to mesocosms to quantify sediment reworking. Sediment samples were collected after the pre-incubation period from a set of triplicate mesocosms to establish initial conditions prior to the imposition of the treatments and from the treatment mesocosms at the conclusion of the 55-day incubation period. Yabbies demonstrated a clear effect on sediment topography and leaf litter burial through burrow creation and maintenance, creating mounds on the sediment surface ranging in diameter from 3.4 to 12 cm. Within S+Y+OM sediments leaf litter was consistently removed from the surface to sub-surface layers with only 7.5% ± 3.6% of the total mass of leaf detritus added to the mesocosms remaining at the surface at the end of the 55-day incubation period. Yabbies significantly decreased sediment wet-bulk density and increased porosity. Additionally, T. australiensis significantly reduced sediment bio-available ammonium (NH4+bio) concentrations and altered the shape of the concentration depth profile in comparison to the non-bioturbated mesocosms, indicating influences on nutrient cycling and sediment-water fluxes. No significant changes for mean apparent biodiffusion coefficients (Db) and mean biotransport coefficients (r), were found between the bioturbated S+Y and S+Y+OM mesocosms. The findings of this study provide further evidence that T. australiensis is a key-species in shallow intertidal systems playing an important role as an ‘ecosystem engineer’ in soft-bottom habitats by significantly altering physical and chemical structures and biogeochemical function.
A new personal competencies approach: Bridging the gap between engineers and project managers

The goal of this study is to analyze the main gaps that currently exist between technical/engineering and project management positions in terms of managerial and personal competencies required for success in a projectized context. Although scholars have extensively studied managerial competencies, the topic in the context of project management requires further research. Through the participation of 199 individuals (104 master’s engineering students and 95 current project managers), using personal interviews and a survey, it was possible to assess eight units of competencies (37 items), determine major differences between both groups and assess the impact of a leadership program conducted at the university. The conclusions reveal interesting findings, such as the identification of relevant competencies needed to help engineers/technicians grow into project management positions, such as conflict management, team leadership and communication.
HYPERTENSION AND STROKE

Introduction Stroke is the third most frequent cause of death after cancer and heart disease in developed countries and one of the most common reasons for developing cognitive impairment and vascular dementia [1]. High blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for stroke, and a continuous relationship between BP and the occurrence of stroke has been well established [2]. On the other hand, evidence from hypertension treatment trials has shown that relatively small reductions in BP (5–6 mm Hg in diastolic BP, 10–12 mm Hg in systolic BP over 3–5 years) reduce the risk of stroke by more than one third [3]. The primary prevention of stroke through antihypertensive therapy and BP control is well established. Likewise, higher BP levels after stroke increase the risk of recurrent stroke [4], and recent trials indicate that BP reduction with combined antihypertensive therapy is beneficial in reducing stroke recurrence [5].
Oxidized Mitochondrial DNA Engages TLR9 to Activate the NLRP3 Inflammasome in Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDSs) are bone marrow (BM) failure malignancies characterized by constitutive innate immune activation, including NLRP3 inflammasome driven pyroptotic cell death. We recently reported that the danger-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) oxidized mitochondrial DNA (ox-mtDNA) is diagnostically increased in MDS plasma although the functional consequences remain poorly defined. We hypothesized that ox-mtDNA is released into the cytosol, upon NLRP3 inflammasome pyroptotic lysis, where it propagates and further enhances the inflammatory cell death feed-forward loop onto healthy tissues. This activation can be mediated via ox-mtDNA engagement of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), an endosomal DNA sensing pattern recognition receptor known to prime and activate the inflammasome propagating the IFN-induced inflammatory response in neighboring healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which presents a potentially targetable axis for the reduction in inflammasome activation in MDS. We found that extracellular ox-mtDNA activates the TLR9-MyD88-inflammasome pathway, demonstrated by increased lysosome formation, IRF7 translocation, and interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) production. Extracellular ox-mtDNA also induces TLR9 redistribution in MDS HSPCs to the cell surface. The effects on NLRP3 inflammasome activation were validated by blocking TLR9 activation via chemical inhibition and CRISPR knockout, demonstrating that TLR9 was necessary for ox-mtDNA-mediated inflammasome activation. Conversely, lentiviral overexpression of TLR9 sensitized cells to ox-mtDNA. Lastly, inhibiting TLR9 restored hematopoietic colony formation in MDS BM. We conclude that MDS HSPCs are primed for inflammasome activation via ox-mtDNA released by pyroptotic cells. Blocking the TLR9/ox-mtDNA axis may prove to be a novel therapeutic strategy for MDS.
Falcon: Addressing Stragglers in Heterogeneous Parameter Server Via Multiple Parallelism

The parameter server architecture has shown promising performance advantages when handling deep learning (DL) applications. One crucial issue in this regard is the presence of stragglers, which significantly retards DL training progress. Previous solutions for solving stragglers may not fully exploit the computation resource of the cluster as evidenced by our experiments, especially in the heterogeneous environment. This motivates us to design a heterogeneity-aware parameter server paradigm that addresses stragglers and accelerates DL training from the perspective of computation parallelism. We introduce a novel methodology named <italic>straggler projection</italic> to give a comprehensive inspection of stragglers and reveal practical guidelines to solve this problem in two aspects: (1) controlling each worker's training speed via elastic training parallelism control and (2) transferring blocked tasks from stragglers to pioneers to fully utilize the computation resource. Following these guidelines, we propose the abstraction of <italic>parallelism</italic> as an infrastructure and design the <italic>Elastic-Parallelism Synchronous Parallel</italic> (EPSP) algorithm to handle distributed training and parameter synchronization, supporting both <italic>enforced-</italic> and <italic>slack-synchronization</italic> schemes. The whole idea has been implemented into a prototype called <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\sf Falcon}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mi mathvariant="sans-serif">Falcon</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="wang-ieq1-2974461.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> which effectively accelerates the DL training speed with the presence of stragglers. Evaluation under various benchmarks with baseline comparison demonstrates the superiority of our system. Specifically, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\sf Falcon}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mi mathvariant="sans-serif">Falcon</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="wang-ieq2-2974461.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> reduces the training convergence time, by up to 61.83, 55.19, 38.92, and 23.68 percent shorter than FlexRR, Sync-opt, ConSGD, and DynSGD, respectively.
The efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions and cognitive rehabilitation on emotional and executive functioning problems after acquired brain injury

This thesis portfolio aimed to assess the effectiveness of interventions on emotional and executive functioning difficulties after brain injury; both of which can be debilitating to an individual’s everyday life. The aim was to systematically review mindfulness-based literature used within the brain injury population to ascertain its effectiveness on emotional difficulties, especially anxiety and depression. Along with a meta-analytic review to assess the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on executive functioning difficulties after brain injury. Databases were searched, and risk of bias and methodological quality was rated for all included papers. After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, 11 individual papers and five reviews were included in the systematic review, and 26 in the meta-analysis. Overall findings from the systematic review suggest that there is insufficient methodologically robust evidence from the reviewed studies to make confident conclusions about the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions reducing anxiety and/or depression symptoms after brain injury. Findings from the meta-analysis show small significant effect sizes across the majority of analyses which is suggestive of the heterogenous nature of brain injury literature. Methodological quality also varied across studies reviewed. Taking the findings from both reviews, whilst further methodologically robust research in both areas may be argued, the variation between participants and the interventions presented in both papers will create difficulty in concluding effectiveness confidently.
Accurate BER Estimation Scheme Based on K-Means Clustering Assisted Gaussian Approach for Arbitrary Modulation Format

We propose a novel bit error rate (BER) estimation scheme based on a k-means clustering algorithm assisted Gaussian approach (GA). This method can implement accurate BER estimation within a short symbol sequence and is applicable for arbitrary modulation formats. First, after carrier phase recovery (CPR), the k-means clustering algorithm is used to partition clusters and find the respective centroids of each cluster. The means and variances are calculated from the symbols of each cluster. Compared with the decision-directed method based on power normalization, our method can find more precise means and further obtain more accurate variances. Subsequently, with the accurate means and variances, the resultant probability density function (PDF) of each symbol under Gaussian assumption is integrated over the respective decision zone to calculate symbol error rate (SER). Finally, the general conversion factor from SER to BER is introduced by taking into account the coding information of adjacent symbols. Therefore, the accurate BER estimation is attributed to the more accurate statistical parameter calculation and general SER-to-BER conversion schemes. The proposed scheme is verified in 34 GBaud polarization division multiplexing (PDM)-QPSK/8-QAM/16-QAM experiments. Compared with error vector magnitude (EVM)-to-BER conversion and GA+ common approximation (CA) scheme, the better estimation accuracy in the BER range from 10−6–10−2 is achieved successfully with only 10000 symbols. More specifically, our method has a significant improvement in estimation accuracy for non-Gray-mapped signals under low optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR). The BER estimation error can be reduced from 60 to 14% with PDM-8-QAM signal considered when actual BER is around 10−3.
An Examination of Instructional Approaches in Online Technical Education in Community Colleges

Technical education programs in community colleges prepare students for many science and engineering-based jobs in the United States. An increasing number of technical education programs in community colleges are using online learning tools to teach courses. However, little is currently known about the ways these programs are integrating online learning in their coursework. This study examined fifteen National Science Foundation funded technical education programs that use online learning to partially or entirely deliver their courses. We conducted semi-structured interviews with key personnel from each project. Through analysis of this data, we found that technical education programs used a variety of instructional delivery approaches that can be categorized as follows: (a) a hybrid or blended course with asynchronous online lectures; (b) a hybrid or blended course with synchronous lectures; (c) a hybrid or blended course with a combination of asynchronous and synchronous lectures and discussions; or (d) a course that is fully online. We also found that online or hybrid technical education programs used a variety of different methods to give students experience in their field of study that can be categorized as follows: (a) pre-recorded video; (b) live video; (c) simulations; (d) equipment at home; (e) equipment in lab; and (f) professional site experience. We recommend that future research examine how well these approaches are working, incorporate student perceptions, and incorporate the views of employers of these programs’ graduates.
LUD as an Instrument for (Sub)Metropolitanization: The 1000-District in Rishon-Lezion, Israel as a Case Study

Interest in the role of large urban development (LUD) projects in regeneration efforts of cities has risen in recent years. Studies of their planning process have often focused on global cities, examining challenges associated with their joint (public–private) governance structure, as well as those emanating from the need to balance local and global needs and interests. With few exceptions, the ways in which these projects fit in with metropolitan aspirations of small and medium cities were largely overlooked. In this article, we explore how a large-scale project was used by local authorities to reposition a secondary city as a sub-metropolitan center. Using the case of the 1000-District (Mitcham HaElef) in the Israeli city of Rishon-Lezion, it argues that while the project was originally designed to resolve the city’s scarce employment problem, it was gradually used to endow it with higher-order urban qualities, re-situating it as a sub-metropolitan center in the Tel-Aviv area. To support our argument, we focus on the project’s housing and employment components, including changes they were subjected to along the planning process, as well as the marketing campaign, which sought to re-present the city as a viable sub-metropolitan alternative. Drawing on qualitative methods, including personal interviews and content analysis, the article illustrates how one city’s large project is instrumentalized to attain metro-scale objectives. In so doing, it contributes to a nuanced understanding of the complexity of LUD planning, its stated objectives at various scales, and implications for actors in and beyond metropolitan jurisdictions.
An assessment of oral fluid drug screening devices

ABSTRACT This project was to examine point-of-contact (POC) oral fluid drug screening devices to determine the suitability of such devices for potential use in the enforcement of drug-impaired driving in Canada. Oral fluid samples were collected from a group of individuals who admitted to having recently ingested drugs as well as a number of individuals who had not been using drugs. These samples were tested on one of three oral fluid screening devices to determine the presence of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, opioids, and benzodiazepines. Each participant also provided a second oral fluid sample that was sent to a reference laboratory for independent analysis. Comparison of the results from the oral fluid screening device and those from the laboratory analysis provided estimates of sensitivity and specificity for each of the six drugs/drug categories. Sensitivity exceeded 0.80 for cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, and opioids. False positive rates for these drugs/drug categories were all between 3% and 7%. Specificity exceeded 0.90 for all drugs/drug categories. These findings indicate that oral fluid screening could prove to be a valuable tool in the detection of driver drug use in Canada.
Ontology-based Population and Enrichment of Researcher Profiles

The representation, management, and exploitation of researcher profiles is an important task that every research institution must achieve. In this paper, we investigate on the use of ontologies as the main solution approach to support the representation of researcher profiles in a given academic environment. We describe the ontology model design, the automatic ontology population processes, and the discovery and enrichment processes of interesting semantic relations between researcher profiles. The functional competency of the enriched ontology is evaluated utilizing a set of inference rules and queries.
Caenorhabditis elegans processes sensory information to choose between freeloading and self-defense strategies

Hydrogen peroxide is the preeminent chemical weapon that organisms use for combat. Individual cells rely on conserved defenses to prevent and repair peroxide-induced damage, but whether similar defenses might be coordinated across cells in animals remains poorly understood. Here, we identify a neuronal circuit in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that processes information perceived by two sensory neurons to control the induction of hydrogen-peroxide defenses in the organism. We found that catalases produced by Escherichia coli, the nematode’s food source, can deplete hydrogen peroxide from the local environment and thereby protect the nematodes. In the presence of E. coli, the nematode’s neurons signal via TGFβ-insulin/IGF1 relay to target tissues to repress expression of catalases and other hydrogen-peroxide defenses. This adaptive strategy is the first example of a multicellular organism modulating its defenses when it expects to freeload from the protection provided by molecularly orthologous defenses from another species.
Assortment optimization with position effects under the nested logit model

We study the assortment optimization problem with position effects under the nested logit model, whose goal is to find the revenue‐maximizing subset of products as well as their corresponding display positions. In this joint assortment‐position optimization problem, the choices of products are affected by not only their qualities and prices but also the positions where they are displayed. Despite determining the assortment and their corresponding display positions sequentially, we propose to solve this problem in an integrated way to obtain the optimal solution. We formulate this problem as a nonlinear binary integer programming model and develop a dynamic programming based solution approach to obtain the optimal assortment‐position assignments. We carry out extensive numerical experiments to evaluate the benefit of our integrated approach. The most important insight we discover is that it is not necessarily better to put the most attractive products in the best position. Moreover, we show that compared to the sequential approaches, our approach can improve revenue by 10.38% on average, which suggests that firms should take into consideration position effects when making assortment decisions. Finally, we discuss results related to two extensions of this problem, that is, the special case when positions are preassigned to nests, and the joint assortment‐position‐price optimization problem.
A Study of Personalized Learning and its Impact on Middle School Teachers and Students

The purpose of this action research study is to investigate the cost-benefit of personalized learning and if it was an effective use of time and resources in the middle school classroom. The research was conducted in a sixth-grade mathematics classroom in a small town in Western Minnesota, and an eighth-grade science classroom from a medium size suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. The data was collected using student assessment scores, student surveys, and teacher reflection journals. The data collected was triangulated to determine if the implementation of a personalized learning method known as The GRID Method was beneficial for both the teacher and students. Both teachers found it to be an effective use of time and resources and plan to use it for future units.