Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A weighted parallel interference cancellation detector for convolutionally coded CDMA systems

A weighted parallel interference cancellation (PIC) detector with symbol-by-symbol weight determination is proposed for convolutionally coded code division multiple access (CDMA) systems. The proposed weighted PIC detector performs jointly post decoding PIC and weighted PIC. A soft-output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA) is employed as the decoder for the post-decoding PIC and generates the information bit log-likelihood ratio (LLR). The bit LLR is translated into symbol LLR, and the weight for weighted PIC is determined based on the statistical characteristics of the symbol LLR. Simulation results show that the proposed weighted PIC detector outperforms the weighted PIC detectors taking empirical weights under the interference-limited environments.
Hiding traffic flow in communication networks

The authors consider hiding traffic flow on a communication network from an outside eavesdropper. It is assumed that the eavesdropper can detect transmissions, but cannot understand the encrypted messages being sent. The solution proposed for the network is to choose a transmitter activation schedule independent of the traffic demand, and to use this schedule for all data transfers. For the spread spectrum broadcast model, the authors analyze the cost of using this scheme, as reflected in a possible reduction of throughput. <<ETX>>
Robust recognition of faces and facial features with a multi-modal system

We use a combination of shape and texture analysis, color segmentation and motion information for finding the positions of whole faces plus the precise location and shape of the mouth. Combining several modalities improves the robustness of the analysis considerably and allows handling of a wide variety of conditions. Mouth shapes can enhance the accuracy of speech recognition systems, in particular under noisy conditions. However, finding the shape of the mouth precisely under unrestricted conditions is a challenging task. To be of practical value a system must handle different complexions of people as well as variations in lighting, different head orientations, moustaches, beards, and glasses. To deal with such a diversity of conditions, our system includes several different models of the face and the mouth area. New faces are compared to these models and the most representative one is chosen for the analysis. We tested our system on samples from video sequences of 50 different speakers. When trained on a particular person, the mouth location is found correctly in more than 98% of the images. When trained on a random set of 10 people from the database, the system handles typically 87% of the other people correctly. In speaker-dependent lip reading experiments we observed 93% word accuracy on five-digit strings.
FPGA Implementationof Impulse Noise Removal by using New MDBUT Filter

A novel idea of using median deviation parameter in estimating the noise in the images is proposed and successfully applied to both gray level as well as color images. The median filter which is very popular in removing the salt and pepper noise from the images ,has undergone many changes in recent past. To this modified median filter the concept of median deviation is added and used in estimating and removing the noise. The proposed method is implemented by developing a Graphical User Interface in MATLAB and also implemented using the Spartan 3E Filed Programmable Device. The results are found to be better than earlier methods and also robust in terms of preserving the contrast and fine details of the image even at high noise densities.
A reliable multicast transport protocol for a Global Broadcast Service-based network

The Global Broadcast Service (GBS), a direct broadcast satellite network, connects military units in remote corners of the world using low-cost receive-only terminals. The marriage of GBS' network reach and commercial, off-the-shelf Internet software could connect these same units into a global internetwork and substantially improve battlefield communications and capabilities. This paper focuses on the efforts made in the DARPA BADD ACTD to lay the groundwork for future Internet applications of particular interest: multicast applications. Since no single, widely accepted reliable multicast protocol yet exists, we introduce and describe the Transport for Reliable Multicast (TRM) and a sample multicast application using TRM, the proxy Web server. The multicast proxy server is used to disseminate Web pages of interest to remote Web servers in the same multicast group.
Performance of decision-feedback equalizers with dual antenna diversity

Five equalization/diversity schemes applicable to time division multiple access (TDMA) digital cellular radio are discussed: (i) DFE with slot-by-slot diversity selection; (ii) DFE with multiple switching/training; (iii) DFE with symbol-by-symbol selection; (iv) DFE with diversity combining/selection; and (v) DFE with joint parameter optimization. Among these schemes, (i), (ii) and (iv) are newly proposed. It is shown that (i) has the lowest computational complexity but exhibits unsatisfactory performance in a multipath environment with severe fades. Scheme (v) exhibits excellent performance but it has the highest computational complexity among all schemes studied. Schemes (ii) and (iii) present comparable and reasonable performance but (ii) has lower computational complexity. Schemes (iii) and (iv) have approximately the same complexity; however, (iv) shows superior performance.
Grammatical Change in Progress: The Anejom Conditionals

Anejom is the sole indigenous language of Aneityum, the southernmost inhabited island in Vanuatu. Possibly due at least in part to drastic depopulation in the nineteenth century, as a result of introduced diseases and natural calamities, various aspects of Anejom lexicon and grammar have undergone fairly rapid change, often involving simplification. Interestingly, however, these changes seem to have been 'selective', as other areas of grammar remain unchanged and as complex as they ever were. One such area in which change still seems to be in progress is the marking of conditional clauses. An original conditional conjunction seems to have been lost, first undergoing reanalysis and paradigm reduction; and original conditional constructions were first replaced by temporal constructions and more recently by constructions based on a temporal clause, the quotative verb and a complement clause. This paper documents those changes and tries to explain why they have occurred.
Fire and Blood: Behavior and Thermoregulation in Small Nocturnal Mammals

As global temperatures continue to increase, so does the need to better assess the sensitivity of different species to climate change. Such assessments require accurate behavioral and physiological data, including on thermoregulation and the effects of high temperatures on the behavior of endotherms. Seeking to improve current knowledge and methodology, my research evaluated the connections between activity and thermoregulation, using deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) as a species model. By using a custom made maze, I was able to simulate an active foraging environment and examine both activity patterns and subcutaneous temperatures in mice during the activephase of their activity cycle. Due to several circumstances, not all parts of the study were completed. Available data was analyzed for possible relationships between observed Tsub frequencies and activity or consumed food. No significant relation between subcutaneous temperature waves and either activity or consumed food was found; as well as no relation between the sum of subcutaneous temperatures and consumed food. Nevertheless, my study emphasizes some of the benefits in using a behavioral maze. Protocols developed during this study could potentially assist in either the reconstruction of the full original study, or in future studies concerning variability in ecological and physiological data.
Collaborative software engineering of the life-critical systems

A collaborative software engineering approach for the life-critical systems is proposed in this paper. Life-critical systems are systems, where any fault can produce a danger for humans or can be extremely expensive. The life-critical systems' development is well known as expensive and slow one. Mostly it is because of its nature--fault-free development. The approach to be proposed includes two main elements: an effective feedback between neighbour steps of the development work cycle and a collaborative work team either global for the entire project or within neighbour steps. In the result, a development team can increase their productivity keeping products on the same quality level by eliminating certain extra-time spent on local verification by using next phases to support such evaluation.
A Historical Examination of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship Pedagogy

Four national surveys on course offerings and pedagogies in entrepreneurship and small business management were conducted by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in 1979, 1982, 1986, and 1992. The data are summarized, providing historical information in terms of the number of responses received and the major teaching pedagogies used by both 4-year colleges and universities and 2-year community and junior colleges. Tables are provided that reflect a definite growth pattern in small business management and entrepreneurship course offerings at both 4-year and 2-year schools. Tables also are provided that indicate the extent and use of various teaching and evaluation pedagogies used by these academic institutions.
Recurrent network automata for speech recognition: a summary of recent work

The integration of hidden Markov models (HMMs) and neural networks is an important research line to obtain new speech recognition systems that combine a good time-alignment capability and a powerful discrimination-based training. The recurrent network automata (RNA) model is a hybrid of a recurrent neural network, which estimates the state emission probability of a HMM, and a dynamic programming, which finds the best state sequence. This paper reports the results obtained with the RNA model, after three years of research and application in speaker independent digit recognition over the public telephone network. <<ETX>>
The Dynamics of Scientific Collaboration Networks in Scientometrics

In order to investigate the dynamics and the new trends of scientific collaboration in Scientometrics, we use bibliographic data of articles published in the journal of Scientometrics during 4 investigated periods of 1978-1986 (Period I), 1987-1995 (Period II), 1996-2004 (Period III) and 2005-2011 (Period IV), and integrate social network analysis and co-occurrence analysis to visualize the microstructure of networks in Scientometrics. According to the results, we find that the most active scholars changed from Braun and Schubert (Period I) to Tijssen (Period II), and Glanzel (Period III and Period IV). In addition, the percentile of productive co-authors publishing at least 2 articles during each period kept increasing from 50% (Period I) to 57.8% (Period II), 78.1% (Period III) and 84% (Period IV). From Period II to Period IV, the size of collaboration sub-groups kept growing and some separate sub-groups began to merge together and formed a bigger collaboration group, and the trend of merging continued and became more and more obvious period by period. Finally, the comparative study of evaluating cross-time collaboration, especially the growth trends of CI and DC, revealed that Scientometrics is becoming an increasingly mature collaborative endeavor and dominated by collaborative relationships in recent years, which indicates a “big collaboration” age of Scientometrics is coming soon.
A LINC transmitter

The LINC (linear amplification using nonlinear components) transmitter shows considerable potential for use in future mobile radio systems employing spectrally efficient linear modulation formats. An experimental LINC transmitter that utilizes modern digital signal processing techniques to perform accurately the necessary signal component separation within the transmitter is described. A technique for significantly reducing the bandwidth required for this digital signal processing is outlined, and practical results which demonstrate that the linearity of the transmitter compares favorably with established linearizing techniques such as Cartesian feedback are presented. <<ETX>>
An Experimental and Numerical Study on Supported Ultra-Lean Methane Combustion

With a much larger global warming potential (GWP) and much shorter lifespan, the reduction of methane emissions offers an additional opportunity and a relatively quick way of mitigating climate change in the near future. However, the emissions from coal mining in the form of ventilation air methane (VAM), usually in ultra-lean concentration, pose the most significant technical challenge to the mitigation of methane emission. Therefore, a better understanding of ultra-lean methane combustion is essential. With three 5 mm × 50 mm rectangle cross-section slot jets, a novel sandwich-type triple-jet burner is proposed to provide stable combustion of an ultra-lean methane–air mixture with equivalence ratios from 0.3 to 0.88, and 0.22 in extreme conditions. The ultra-lean methane flame in the center of the triple-jet burner is supported by the two lean outer flames at an equivalence ratio φ = 0.88. The flow field and combustion chemical reactions are predicted by detailed numerical simulation with GRI-Mech 3.0 reaction mechanisms. Two-dimensional numerical results are validated with those obtained by experimental particle image velocimetry (PIV), as well as visual flame height and temperature measurements. An ultra-lean methane–air mixture has to burn with external support. In addition, the ultra-lean flame is non-propagating with a relatively low temperature. The ultra-lean center flame is seen to start from the outer flame and incline perfectly to the post-flame temperature and OH concentration profiles of the outer lean flame. The adjacent stronger flame provides heat and active radicals, such as OH and HO2, from the post-flame region and in the wall proximity of the gap between the adjacent flame and the central ultra-lean jet to initiate and maintain the combustion of the central ultra-lean flame. The outstanding wall-proximity radical of HO2 is found to be the main contributor to the initiation and stabilization of the central ultra-lean flame by providing a low-temperature oxidation of fuel through the following reaction: HO2 + CH3 ⇔ OH + CH3O. The major chemical reaction paths contributing to fuel decomposition and oxidation of the supported ultra-lean center flame are also identified and delineated.
Type I Monteggia fracture in a kitten; a review on diagnostic and therapeutic methods

Bu olgu sunumunda yavru bir kedide karsilasilan tip I Monteggia kirigi ve tedavi sonuclarinin bildirilmesi amaclandi. Trafik kazasindan sonra on sol ekstremitesinde topallik sikayeti ile klinigimize getirilen 4 aylik disi bir kedi yavrusunun klinik muayenesinde radial basin kraniale dislokasyonu ile ulnanin 1/3 proksimalinde diafizer kirik belirlendi. Genel anestezi altinda ulnar kirik processus olecraniden anterograd olarak gonderilen intrameduller civi ile fikse edildi ve radiusun reduksiyonu kolay bir sekilde gerceklestirildi. Daha sonra ligamentum radii annulare polypropylene ile dikilerek onarildi. Postoperatif 2. ay kontrollerinde kedinin ekstremitesini duzgun ve fonksiyonel bir sekilde kullanabildigi goruldu. Sonuc olarak kedi veya yavrularinda Monteggia tip I kiriklarinda intrameduller civi ile saglanan internal fiksasyonun yeterli oldugu ve bu yuzden basarili bir yontem oldugu dusunuldu.
Research of Automatic Classification of Retrieval Results for Chinese Internet Fraud Information Management Platform

For solving some problems of information retrieval in the Chinese internet fraud information management platform, the automatic classification model of search results based on the personalized service was proposed. The model computes the K nearest neighbor of the search results in the training sample set, finds the class of the most of the K nearest neighbor, and then classifies the search results as the class, and divides the search results into a simple hierarchy, which can both convenient the user and improve search efficiency. The performance test presents that the model can improve the search accuracy and quality of the specified internet fraud information.
Cu-Doped Carbon Dots as Catalysts for the Chemiluminescence Detection of Glucose

Development of metal-doped carbon dots (CDs) to effectively modulate their electronic properties and surface chemical reactivities is still in its early stage. In this paper, a facile solid-phase synthesis strategy was developed to synthesize Cu-doped CDs (Cu-CDs) using citric acid as the carbon source and Cu(NO3)2·3H2O as the dopant, respectively. The as-prepared Cu-CDs exhibited superior peroxidase-like activity to horseradish peroxidase and were stable under a wide range of pH and temperatures. Consequently, the Cu-CD-based chemiluminescence sensing was applied to sensitively detect glucose with a low detection limit of 0.32 μM, and the recoveries and the relative standard deviation of the serum sample are 87.2–112.2 and 8.16% (n = 6), respectively. Notably, the proposed chemiluminescence sensing was also successfully applied for label-free detection of glucose in complex biological samples, which envisioned its potential applications in clinical diagnosis and other analytical assays.
LQAS in Health Monitoring â€“ Insights from a Bayesian Perspective

Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) is strongly advocated for use in monitoring the health status of populations, largely in the developing world. It is advocated both for the monitoring of small areas as well as for making global assessments of the health status of a larger region. This paper contrasts the interpretation offered by LQAS methods to that offered by Bayesian hierarchical models. It considers applications to previously reported local area data and presents a reanalysis of published data on vaccine coverage in Peru as well as HTLV-1 prevalence in Benin. The desirability of using Bayesian methods in the field may be challenged; nevertheless this work amplifies previously expressed concerns about the way the LQAS method can be used. It raises questions about the ability of the LQAS approach to make, sufficiently often, the correct decisions in order to be useful in monitoring health programmes at the local level.
Measuring the complexity of HDL models

This paper deals with the psychological complexity of HDL models. The results from software engineering regarding this topic are discussed. Then the main factors of complexity in an HDL model are identified. Following this, useful complexity measures are presented, and the meaning of their values is analyzed. Finally, the role of complexity measures for hardware design in the future is discussed.
Caterpillars Cooperate to Overcome Plant Glandular Trichome Defenses

One common advantage proposed for group-living in animals is social facilitation of feeding, by which food acquisition by an individual is made easier by feeding neighbours. The present paper provides an explanation of social facilitation of feeding in a gregarious leaf-chewing insect, demonstrating how caterpillars cooperate to overwhelm plant trichome defenses and pierce a hole in the leaf on which they feed collectively. Specifically, it tests the hypotheses that the caterpillars feed collectively, that the glandular trichomes of Solanum acerifolium are effective defenses against the specialist caterpillar Mechanitis menapis, and that feeding by early-instar M. menapis is socially facilitated in the presence of glandular trichomes. A field survey showed that Mechanitis menapis on trichome–bearing plants feed collectively on the abaxial surface of leaves during the first larval instars. In a lab experiment comparing feeding on control and ethanol-washed leaves, caterpillars on the glandular-trichome-free washed sides of leaves initiated feeding sooner and had higher survival rates, suggesting that glandular trichomes are effective defenses. Behavioural observations showed that feeding is socially facilitated in response to glandular trichomes: caterpillars on the washed sides of leaves were more likely to begin feeding alone and initiated more separate feeding sites, suggesting that caterpillars are less able to initiate feeding independently in the presence of glandular trichomes. These results demonstrate a novel mechanism of cooperation among folivores, showing how they can benefit from grouping to tackle food sources that would be unavailable to isolated individuals. This study thus demonstrates that social facilitation of feeding extends to insect folivores, a hyper-diverse and abundant feeding guild.
Transposons played a major role in the diversification between the closely related almond (Prunus dulcis) and peach (P. persica) genomes: Results from the almond genome sequence

Combining both short and long-read sequencing, we have estimated the almond Prunus dulcis cv. Texas genome size in 235 Mbp and assembled 227.6 Mb of its sequence. The highly heterozygous compact genome of Texas comprises eight chromosomes, to which we have anchored over 91% of the assembly. We annotated 27,042 protein-coding genes and 6,800 non-coding transcripts. High levels of genetic variability were characterized after resequencing a collection of ten almond accessions. Phylogenomic comparison with the genomes of 16 other close and distant species allowed estimating that almond and peach diverged around 5.88 Mya. Comparison between peach and almond genomes confirmed the high synteny between these close relatives, but also revealed high numbers of presence-absence variants, many attributable to the movement of transposable elements (TEs). The number and distribution of TEs between peach and almond was similar, but the history of TE movement was distinct, with peach having a larger proportion of recent transpositions and almond preserving a higher level of polymorphism in the older TEs. When focusing on specific genes involved in key characters such as the bitter vs. sweet kernel taste and the formation of a fleshy mesocarp, we found that for one gene associated with the biosynthesis of amygdalin that confers the bitter kernel taste, several TEs were inserted in its vicinity only in sweet almond cultivars but not in bitter cultivars and Prunus bitter kernel relatives, including P. webbii, P. mume, and other species like peach and cherry. TE insertions likely to produce affects in the expression of six more genes involved in the formation of the fleshy mesocarp were also identified. Altogether, our results suggest a key role of TEs in the recent history and diversification of almond with respect to peach.