Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design of low-density parity-check codes in relay channels

Recent breakthroughs in forward error correction, in the form of low-density parity-check (LDPC) and turbo codes, have seen near Shannon limit performances especially for pointto- point channels. The construction of capacity-achieving codes in relay channels, for LDPC codes in particular, is currently the subject of intense interest in the research and development community. This thesis adds to this field, developing methods and supporting theory in designing capacity-achieving LDPC codes for decode-and-forward (DF) schemes in relay channels. In the first part of the thesis, new theoretical results toward optimizing the achievable rate of DF scheme in half-duplex relay channels under simplified and pragmatic conditions (equal power or equal time allocation) are developed. We derive the closed-form solutions for the optimum parameters (time or power) that maximize the achievable rates of the DF scheme in the half-duplex relay channel. We also derive the closed-form expression for the DF achievable rates under these simplified and pragmatic conditions. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to study the problem of designing several classes of capacity-achieving LDPC codes in relay channels. First, a new ensemble of LDPC codes, termed multi-edge-type bilayer-expurgated LDPC (MET-BE-LDPC) codes, is introduced to closely approach the theoretical limit of the DF scheme in the relay channel. We propose two design strategies for optimizing MET-BE-LDPC codes; the bilayer approach and the bilayer approach with intermediate rates. Second, we address the issue of constructing capacity-achieving distributed LDPC codes in the multiple-access and two-way relay channels, with broadcast transmissions and time-division multiple accesses. We propose a new methodology to asymptotically optimize the code’s degree distribution when different segments within the distributed codeword have been transmitted through separate channels and experienced distinct signal-to-noise ratio in the relay system. Third, we investigate the use of LDPC codes under the soft-decode-and forward (SDF) scheme in the half-duplex relay channel. We introduce the concept of a K-layer doping matrix that enables one to design the rate-compatible (RC) LDPC code with a lower triangular parity-check matrix, subsequently allowing the additional parity bits to be linearly and systematically encoded at the relay. We then present the soft-decoding and soft-re-encoding algorithms for the designed RC-LDPC code so that the relay can forward soft messages to the destination when the relay fails to decode the source’s messages. Special attention is given to the detection problem of the SDF scheme. We propose a novel method, which we refer to as soft fading, to compute the log-likelihood ratio of the received signal at the destination for the SDF scheme.
Adaptive digital gate control for series connected IGBTs

In high power application, series connection of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) can increase their voltage handling capability. As to the serial IGBTs, the key issue is to ensure both dynamic and static voltage sharing among serial IGBTs. For the differences of IGBT's characteristics, even the same gate driver could not ensure voltage balance between serial IGBTs. In order to achieve the voltage sharing, the adaptive digital gate control (ADGC) is proposed in this paper. In the proposed adaptive digital gate control, the turn-on di/dt and turn-off dv/dt are digitally sampled and fed back to the control unit, FPGA. The FPGA chooses the suitable gate drive parameters to make the serial IGBTs' switching processes synchronized. The FPGA compares switching speeds of serial IGBTs and determines suitable drive parameters for each serial IGBT. Thus, the serial IGBTs' switching processes can be synchronized and the voltage sharing is achieved. Essentially, it is an optimization of IGBT's switching process, increasing its drive reliability. Experimental results validate the feasibility of the proposed adaptive digital gate control method.
Recovery of cerebral oxygen saturation : a comparative study on analytical spectroscopic methods and diffuse optical tomography

Book fNIRS UK September 7, 2017 Clore Management Centre Birbeck College University London 2 Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX L2 Onset effect on brain circuitry: An fNIRS study examining early Japanese-English bilinguals H. Taura and A. Taura a Graduate School of Language Education and Information Science, Ritsumeikan University, JAPAN b Department of Foreign Languages, Setsunan University, JAPAN
Active contour driven by local divergence energies for ultrasound image segmentation

In this study, a new local region-based active contour model in a variational level set formulation for ultrasound image segmentation is proposed. The energy function is formulated based on the local divergence with likelihood ratio. The proposed model can handle blurry boundaries and noise problems. In addition, the regularity of the level set function is intrinsically preserved by the level set regularisation term to ensure accurate computation. The authors only adopt a level set function to define the partition of image domain into two disjoined regions. Experimental results demonstrate desirable performance of the authors’ method for synthetic images with different level noise and ultrasound images with weak boundaries and noise.
Imagery rescripting of revenge, avoidance, and forgiveness for past bullying experiences in young adults

Abstract Background and Objectives: Forgiveness has been found to be a useful intervention for past trauma across a variety of situations. However, this has yet to be experimentally tested in victims of bullying. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the impact of imagining forgiveness, avoidance, or revenge responses towards a perpetrator among young adult victims of bullying. Methods: One hundred and thirty-five undergraduate psychology students aged 17–24 who reported a recent experience of being victimized were led through imagery rescripting where they recalled a personal episode of bullying and imagined a new ending to one where they forgave, avoided, or took revenge on the bully. Results: Results indicated significant differences between Time 1 (imagining the event as it occurred), to Time 2 (imagining an alternate ending) for all three processes. Negative affect decreased significantly in the forgiveness and avoidance conditions, but not in the revenge condition. Positive evaluations of coping decreased significantly in the revenge condition, but not in the avoidance or forgiveness conditions. However, imagined forgiveness of the bully was more stressful than either imagined avoidance or revenge. Limitations: The short-term measurements and the researcher-directed re-scripting limit the interpretation of results, however, yield valuable information about the immediate impact of imaginal exposure and point to future research directions. Conclusions: The impact of focusing on immediate stress reduction in dealing with bullying is explored, and a combination of short-term avoidance and longer term forgiveness is highlighted as a potentially effective strategy to deal with the negative emotional consequences of victimization.
Hand preferences in preschool children: Reaching, pointing and symbolic gestures

Manual asymmetries emerge very early in development and several researchers have reported a significant right-hand bias in toddlers although this bias fluctuates depending on the nature of the activity being performed. However, little is known about the further development of asymmetries in preschoolers. In this study, patterns of hand preference were assessed in 50 children aged 3–5 years for different activities, including reaching movements, pointing gestures and symbolic gestures. Contrary to what has been reported in children before 3 years of age, we did not observe any difference in the mean handedness indices obtained in each task. Moreover, the asymmetry of reaching was found to correlate with that of pointing gestures, but not with that of symbolic gestures. In relation to the results reported in infants and adults, this study may help deciphering the mechanisms controlling the development of handedness by providing measures of manual asymmetries in an age range that has been so far rather neglected.
High-Level Codewords Based on Granger Causality for Video Event Detection

Video event detection is a challenging problem in many applications, such as video surveillance and video content analysis. In this paper, we propose a new framework to perceive high-level codewords by analyzing temporal relationship between different channels of video features. The low-level vocabulary words are firstly generated after different audio and visual feature extraction. A weighted undirected graph is constructed by exploring the Granger Causality between low-level words. Then, a greedy agglomerative graph partitioning method is used to discover low-level word groups which have similar temporal pattern. The high-level codebooks representation is obtained by quantification of low-level words groups. Finally, multiple kernel learning, combined with our high-level codewords, is used to detect the video event. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed method achieves preferable results in video event detection.
Portfolio optimization problems with linear programming models

In this paper, we discuss four models proposed by Konno, Cai, Teo and Markowitz respectively. Two groups of data (one from 33 securities over 72 months, the other from 63 securities over 120 months) are used to examine these models. Efficient frontiers are presented. The utility levels in the four models do not decrease at the same rate with the change of the risk-aversion factor. Cai’s model provides the highest utility value and Markowitz’s provides the lowest one in most cases. When the expected returns are confronted with the true ones at the end of a 10-month period, Markowitz’s and Konno’s models seem to have similar tendencies while Cai’s and Teo’s models seem to have similar tendencies, and the four models get higher true wealth compared with Nikkei 225 and Nikkei 500 index respectively in most cases.
Alaskan Permafrost Groundwater Storage Changes Derived from GRACE and Ground Measurements

Abstract: The Arctic is in transition from climate-driven thawing of permafrost. We investigate satellite-derived water equivalent mass changes, snow water equivalent with in situ measurements of runoff and ground-survey derived geoid models from 1999 through 2009. The Alaskan Arctic coastal plain groundwater storage (including wetland bog, thaw pond and lake) is increasing by 1.15 ± 0.65 km 3 /a (area-average 1.10 ± 0.62 cm/a), and Yukon River watershed groundwater storage is decreasing by 7.44 ± 3.76 km 3 /a (area-average 0.79 ± 0.40 cm/a). Geoid changes show increases within the Arctic coastal region and decreases within the Yukon River watershed. We hypothesize these changes are linked to the development of new predominately closed- and possibly open-talik in the continuous permafrost zone under large thaw lakes with increases of lakes and new predominately open-talik and reduction of permafrost extent in the discontinuous and sporadic zones with decreases of thaw lakes.
Finally...real utility scores for hepatitis C patients!

Chong and colleagues (1) used gold-standard methods to assess health-state utilities in 193 outpatients at various stages of liver disease due to chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection. They showed worsening of health-state utility scores with progression of disease from mild to moderate chronic hepatitis, to compensated cirrhosis, to decompensated cirrhosis and to hepatocellular carcinoma. They also confirmed improvement in health-state utility scores after liver transplantation and with sustained virological response (SVR) to treatment of HCV infection. Patients with HCV infection had lower health-state utility scores than the general Canadian population (PA0.001) and significantly poorer quality of life compared with population norms in the United States (PA0.005).
The sensitivity of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array to individual sources of gravitational waves

ABSTRACT We present the sensitivity of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array to gravitational wavesemitted by individual super-massive black-hole binary systems in the early phases ofcoalescing at the cores of merged galaxies. Our analysis includes a detailed study of theeﬀects of ﬁtting a pulsar timing model to non-white timing residuals. Pulsar timingis sensitive at nanoHertz frequencies and hence complementary to LIGO and LISA.We place a sky-averaged constraint on the merger rate of nearby (z<0.6) black-holebinaries in the early phases of coalescence with a chirp mass of 10 10 M ⊙ of less thanone merger every seven years. The prospects for future gravitational-wave astronomyof this type with the proposed Square Kilometre Array telescope are discussed.Key words: gravitational waves – pulsars: general. 1 INTRODUCTIONIn the era of ground- and space-based gravitational-wave(GW) detectors, GW astronomy is becoming increasinglyimportant for the wider astronomy and physics communi-ties. The ability of the current GW community to provide ei-ther limits on, or detections of, GW emission is of enormousimportance in characterising astrophysical sources of inter-est for further investigation. It is possible that GW detectionwill provide the only means to probe some of these sources.The sensitivity of existing and future observatories to indi-vidual GW sources, such as neutron-star binary systems andcoalescing black-hole binary systems, has been calculatedin the ∼kHz and ∼mHz frequency ranges. The sensitiv-ity curves of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-WaveObservatory (Abbott et al. 2009)
Spermatocysts in Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus).

1. During the larval life of Aedes aegypti (L.), the testes greatly increase in size and numbers of germinal cells, and the number of compartments (or spermato-cysts) increases about five times, to a maximum of 24, usually several days before pupation. Although the germ cells may begin the process of differentiation of spermatids into spermatozoa within the terminal cysts of the testes just before pupation occurs, fully differentiated spermatozoa were never observed in larvae. Generally one testis is smaller than the other in fourth stage larvae, and this difference tends to persist throughout life.2. Although a significant increase in the number of spermatocysts could not be detected during pupal life, as many as 29 cysts were found among the testes examined during this period. Spermatids may transform into fully differentiated spermatozoa within five hours. While the beginning of differentiation of the spermatids may be delayed for as long as 21 hours after pupation, differentiated sperm were always fou.
Predictive Value of Immunologic and Virologic Markers After Long or Short Duration of HIV‐1 Infection

Summary: Laboratory markers that predict HIV‐1 disease progression include plasma viral burden, CD4+ T‐cell count, and CD38 expression on CD8 T cells. To better understand whether the predictive value of these markers is dependent on how long an individual has been infected, we analyzed data from the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study early (median = 2.8 years) and late (median = 8.7 years) in the course of infection. Overall, we found that HIV RNA and CD38 levels were similarly predictive of AIDS early on compared with a relatively weaker CD4 cell count signal. Later in the course of infection, CD38 level remained the strongest predictive marker and CD4 cell count registered a marked increase in prognostic power. Among untreated individuals, there was little difference in prognosis (median time to AIDS) associated with given marker values regardless of infection duration. The prognosis given a specific viral load level tended to deteriorate late in the course of infection among those undergoing treatment with monotherapy or combination therapy, however. These data provide a unique historical look at the predictive value and prognostic significance of HIV‐1 disease markers at different stages of infection in a large cohort, with direct relevance to current patients who are untreated or for whom treatment is ineffective.
Anti‐LFA1 monoclonal antibody (25.3) for treatment of steroid‐resistant grade III‐IV acute graft‐versus‐host disease

Abstract. The in vivo efficacy of 25.3 monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against human LFA1 molecule was assessed in ten patients with steroid‐resistant grade III‐IV acute graft‐versus‐host disease (AGVHD). These patients received non‐T‐cell‐depleted allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for aplastic anemia in two cases and hematologic malignancies in eight cases. Five grafts were fully matched, three were one antigen‐mismatched, and two were two antigen‐mismatched. Despite GVHD prophylaxis with cyclosporin A and short‐term methotrexate, AGVHD occurred after a median of 24 days and clearly progressed under prednisone (median 2 mg/kg), given for a median of 12 days. 25.3 mAb was given at a dosage of 0.1 mg/kg in a 4‐h perfusion for five daily doses without any clinical or biological side effects. Thirty percent of the patients experienced a reduction in the overall grading with two complete responses. Partial response in at least one involved organ (mostly skin) occurred in 80% of the patients. However, seven out of the eight responding patients experienced a new episode of AGVHD. This observation, which confirms that inhibiting a functional molecule is as efficient as a cytolytic therapy, offers an alternative strategy to antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and cytotoxic mAb in controlling steroid‐resistant GVHD.
Unspanned Macroeconomic Risks in Oil Futures Job Market Paper

This paper constructs a macro-finance model for commodity futures. I document a feedback relationship between crude oil prices and real economic activity. The channel from real activity to oil prices is unspanned – meaning not identified in current futures prices – consistent with oil futures as a hedge asset against supply shocks. Unspanned macroeconomic risks have first order effects on risk premiums and the value of real options. The model also yields a precise estimate of the cost of carry that is strongly related to physical inventories. ∗USC Marshall School of Business. Email: dheath@usc.edu. Many thanks to my committee members Wayne Ferson (chair), Scott Joslin, Gordon Phillips, Gerard Hoberg, and Kenneth Ahern for their advice and encouragement.
Site-specific Phosphorylation Dynamics of the Nuclear Proteome during the DNA Damage Response*

To investigate the temporal regulation of the DNA damage response, we applied quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics to measure site-specific phosphorylation changes of nuclear proteins after ionizing radiation. We profiled 5204 phosphorylation sites at five time points following DNA damage of which 594 sites on 209 proteins were observed to be regulated more than 2-fold. Of the 594 sites, 372 are novel phosphorylation sites primarily of nuclear origin. The 594 sites could be classified to distinct temporal profiles. Sites regulated shortly after radiation were enriched in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase SQ consensus sequence motif and a novel SXXQ motif. Importantly, in addition to induced phosphorylation, we identified a considerable group of sites that undergo DNA damage-induced dephosphorylation. Together, our data extend the number of known phosphorylation sites regulated by DNA damage, provides so far unprecedented temporal dissection of DNA damage-modified phosphorylation events, and elucidate the cross-talk between different types of post-translational modifications in the dynamic regulation of a multifaceted DNA damage response.
Presentation of problem-specific, text-based medical knowledge: XML and related technologies

Systematic reviews of the impact of clinical decision support systems on provider behavior and patient outcome have shown evidence of benefit. Knowledge-based functions for decision support or monitoring that are integrated in clinical information systems are a potentially effective way. But these concepts are restricted by the efforts required for development and maintenance of the information systems and the limited number of implemented medical rules. Physicians are familiar to get their information from text-based sources. It seems to be straight-forward to rely on a document-based solution in order to present problem-specific information at the point of care. We have developed a concept for context-sensitive retrieving and presentation of text-based medical knowledge (textbook of internal medicine) using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and related technologies. This concept can facilitate the electronic query and presentation of this resource. XML may replace narrative text as a storage format and allows to structure the data in a stepwise fashion. On the basis of structured data we are able to improve the search quality for clinical information and its presentation which forms a crucial pre-requisite for the use of the information and the implementation of evidence-based care in the clinical routine.
Role of Human Papillomavirus in Squamous Cell Metaplasia-Dysplasia-Carcinoma of the Rectum

Primary colorectal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and squamous dysplasia are uncommon and little is known about their pathogenesis. Most have been reported in association with ulcerative colitis and other chronic disease states. Although cervical and anal SCC have been strongly linked to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, the role of HPV in rectal squamous carcinoma has not been well-examined. We evaluated 3 cases of primary rectal SCC for the presence of high-risk HPV by immunohistochemistry for p16INK4A, in situ hybridization, and polymerase chain reaction. HPV type 16 was detected by polymerase chain reaction in all cases. In addition, all cases exhibited diffuse strong reactivity for p16INK4A and punctate nuclear staining by Ventana HPVIII in situ hybridization. The presence of HPV 16 in all three cases suggests that high-risk HPV infection is a risk factor for rectal SCC, particularly in patients with underlying chronic inflammatory disease processes or altered immune status. Further studies are warranted to determine if SCC occurring more proximal in the colon are also HPV-dependent or occur via another, HPV-independent pathway.