Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stochastic Hybrid Systems: Recent Developments and Research Trends

Most of today's Internet traffic uses the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and it is therefore not surprising that modeling TCP's behavior has been attracting the attention of academia and industry ever since this protocol was proposed. TCP is responsible for regulating the rate at which a source of data transmits packets , a task known as congestion control. TCP follows a greedy algorithm that constantly attempts to increase the rate at which data is transmitted. Eventually, the network is unable to carry the data and packets are dropped. When this is detected, the TCP source decreases its sending rate by roughly dividing it in half. However, shortly after that, the TCP source returns to its continuous attempt to increase the sending rate and the cycle repeats itself. During the first cycle (i.e., until the first drop) the rate is increased in an exponential fashion to rapidly reach an adequate value. This is called TCP's slow-start mode. However, in subsequent cycles, the increase is more gentle and roughly follows a linear law. This more gentle increase is crucial for stability (see, e.g., [6]). This second phase is called congestion-avoidance. The reader may want to consult a textbook, such as [33], for a more detailed description of TCP. As noted by Bohacek et al. [7], hybrid systems provide a natural framework to model TCP because this protocol is characterized by different modes of operation with distinct dynamics. The need for stochastic hybrid systems (SHS) arises because many of the events that drive traffic models — such as packet drops and the 1 2 Stochastic Hybrid Modeling of On-Off TCP Flows start/termination of transmissions — are well modeled by stochastic processes. In this chapter, we construct a SHS model for TCP. Each realization of this model is meant to represent the traffic generated by a single user that initiates a TCP session, waits until the transfer terminates (the " transmission-on " period), spends some time " processing " the file received (the " transmission-off " period), and then initiates a new TCP session. This behavior is continuously repeated, but the transfer-sizes and the durations of the off-periods are selected from pre-specified distributions. The transfer-sizes implicitly determine the duration of the on-periods, taking into account TCP's instantaneous transfer rate. This type of on-off model was also considered by [2]. Since we do not restrict our attention to infinitely long TCP sessions (usually called long-lived …
The efficacy of ferrous bisglycinate and electrolytic iron as fortificants in bread in iron-deficient school children

Food fortification is an important long-term strategy for addressing micronutrient deficiencies. Finding the ideal Fe fortification compound, however, remains a challenge. In the present study the effect of ferrous bisglycinate as fortificant in brown bread was compared with that of electrolytic Fe among Fe-deficient school children in a randomised controlled trial. Children (n 160), aged 6–11 years, with serum ferritin <20μg/l, were randomly assigned to one of three treatment categories: (i) standard unfortified bread; (ii) bread with electrolytic Fe as fortificant; and (iii) bread with ferrous bisglycinate as fortificant. Each child received four slices of bread (120g) on school days, which supplied an average of 3·66mg elemental Fe per intervention day for 137d (2·52mg/d for 75d and 5·04mg/d for 62d) over a period of 7·5 months. Hb, serum ferritin, serum Fe and transferrin saturation were measured at baseline and at the end of the intervention. Significant treatment effects were observed for Hb (P=0·013), serum Fe (P=0·041) and transferrin saturation (P=0·042) in the ferrous bisglycinate group, but not in the electrolytic Fe group. There were no significant intervention effects for serum ferritin in either treatment group. Overall, ferrous bisglycinate as Fe fortificant in brown bread performed better than electrolytic Fe in a group of Fe-deficient school children over a period of 7·5 months.
Tuberous Sclerosis Complex

TSC (OMIM#191100) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by a broad phenotypic spectrum including epilepsy, mental retardation, skin lesions and tumors in various organs. The broad phenotypic spectrum reflected the development of hamartomas in multiple organs throughout the body (Schwartz et al., 2008). The incidence of TSC has been reported to be 1 in approximately 6000 (Osborne et al., 1991). However, its true incidence is not known because of a number of undiagnosed cases consisting mostly of mildly affected or asymptomatic individuals (Osborne et al., 1991). Two-thirds of TSC patients have sporadic mutations and only about one-thirds is familial. The genes in which abnormalities are found are called TSC1 and TSC2. Both genes have been studied by multigenerational linkage analysis (Fryer et al., 1987 and Kandt et al., 1992). TSC1 is located at position 9q34, and encodes a protein called hamartin, with an mRNA transcript of 8.6 kb containing 23 exons and encompassing 55 kb of DNA (van Slegtenhorst et al., 1997). TSC2 is located at position 16p13.3, and encodes a protein called tuberin, with an mRNA transcript of 5.5 kb, containing 41 exons and encompassing 40 kb of DNA (Eur TS Consortium, 1993).
Head Circumference of Infants Born to Mothers with Different Educational Levels; The Generation R Study

Objective Head circumference (HC) reflect growth and development of the brain in early childhood. It is unknown whether socioeconomic differences in HC are present in early childhood. Therefore, we investigated the association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and HC in early childhood, and potential underlying factors. Methods The study focused on Dutch children born between April 2002 and January 2006 who participated in The Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Maternal educational level was used as indicator of SEP. HC measures were concentrated around 1, 3, 6 and 11 months. Associations and explanatory factors were investigated using linear regression analysis, adjusted for potential mediators. Results The study included 3383 children. At 1, 3 and 6 months of age, children of mothers with a low education had a smaller HC than those with a high education (difference at 1 month: −0.42 SD; 95% CI: −0.54,−0.30; at 3 months: −0.27 SD; 95% CI −0.40,−0.15; and at 6 months: −0.13 SD; 95% CI −0.24,−0.02). Child’s length and weight could only partially explain the smaller HC at 1 and 3 months of age. At 6 months, birth weight, gestational age and parental height explained the HC differences. At 11 months, no HC differences were found. Conclusion Educational inequalities in HC in the first 6 months of life can be mainly explained by pregnancy-related factors, such as birth weight and gestational age. These findings further support public health policies to prevent negative birth outcomes in lower socioeconomic groups.
FTL2: a hybrid flash translation layer with logging for write reduction in flash memory

NAND flash memory has been widely used to build embedded devices such as smartphones and solid state drives (SSD) because of its high performance, low power consumption, great shock resistance and small form factor. However, its lifetime and performance are greatly constrained by partial page updates, which will lead to early depletion of free pages and frequent garbage collections. On the one hand, partial page updates are prevalent as a large portion of I/O does not modify file contents drastically. On the other hand, general-purpose cache usually does not specifically consider and eliminate duplicated contents, despite its popularity. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach called FTL2, which employs both logging and mapping techniques in flash translation layer (FTL), to tackle the endurance problem and performance degradation caused by partial page updates in flash memory. FTL2 logs the latest contents in a high-speed temporary storage, called Content Cache to handle partial page updates. Experimental results show that FTL2 can greatly reduce page writes and postpone garbage collections with a small overhead.
A Topic Detection Method Based on Microblog Weight

Nowadays, micro blogging platforms, which have strong influence in social network, have become major platforms for Internet public opinion formation and propagation. By means of hot topic detection and topic tendency research on micro blogging platforms, it will help government and companies in a timely manner to get social public opinion and popular investment spots. LDA is a commonly used method for topic detection. In order to solve the problem of describing the influence power on topic generation and propagation for different micro blogs, W-LDA (Weighted LDA) model is designed to import micro blog weight in LDA model. The experimental results show that W-LDA model has a better perplexity score than original model.
Massive MIMO full-duplex for high-efficiency next generation WLAN systems

In this paper, massive multiple-input multiple-output (massive MIMO) and full-duplex communications (FDC) are considered together for high efficiency next generation wireless LAN (WLAN) systems such as IEEE 802.11ax or beyond. The proposed scheme allocates different carrier sensing thresholds by applying the joint spatial division and reuse (JSDR) scheme and is able to enhance the efficiency of multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) protocols by reducing the protocol overhead. Finally, FDC is applied to improve the spectral efficiency of the WLAN systems.
Emergency alarm system: prototype and experience

Finding fusion in the domain of engineering and healthcare, we propose a wearable emergency alarm system that 1) monitors continuously the activity levels of the patient and 2) detects anomalies, in particular unconsciousness, in a timely fashion to alert the caregivers of the emergencies. In this summary, we share our experience building the first prototype and the preliminary results that support the feasibility of the system and give rise to a number of design choices towards better energy efficiency and emergency event detection accuracy.
Active radial magnetic bearing for an ultra-high speed motor

The miniaturization trend of electric machines increases the demand for higher rotational speeds to provide a desired mechanical power level at decreased size. To push the limits of rotor miniaturization, new concepts for an ultra-high speed motor are researched, which employs sub-millimeter size rotors and is capable of achieving rotational speeds above 25 million rotations per minute (Mrpm). The rotor is supported by means of a frictionless active magnetic bearing, which counteracts the gravitational force in vertical direction. Due to the low damping of the rotor, a magnetic bearing is also required in horizontal direction for to fully stabilize it. The respective system model, position sensor system and controller design for such a magnetic bearing are outlined in this study. Experimental results demonstrate an increased horizontal damping of the rotor by a factor of more than 100.
The “Mill Worker’s Son” Heuristic: How Voters Perceive Politicians from Working-Class Families—and How They Really Behave in Office

Politicians often highlight how hard their families had it when they were growing up, presumably in the hopes that voters will see them as more supportive of policies that benefit middle- and working-class Americans. What do voters actually infer from how candidates were raised? And what should they infer? We use a set of candidate evaluation experiments (and an external validity test drawing on actual congressional election returns) to study how Americans perceive politicians raised in more and less affluent families. We then compare these perceptions to data on how lawmakers brought up in different classes actually behave in office. Although voters often infer that politicians from less privileged families are more economically progressive, these lawmakers don’t actually stand out on standard measures of legislative voting. The “mill worker’s son” heuristic appears to be a misleading shortcut, a cue that leads voters to make faulty inferences about candidates’ political priorities.
Melodic Analysis using Hierarchical Hidden Markov Models

This dissertation attempts to show that hierarchical hidden Markov models (HHMMs) can be used effectively to model mid-level musical structures. Using data taken from chorales composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, a number of models were designed and trained to reflect elements of phrase-level and bar-level structure. These models were evaluated based on their performance in two different tasks; the prediction of phrase boundaries in unannotated data, and the generation of new compositions.
Behavioral Responses of Mosquitoes to Insecticides

Many people living in areas of the tropical and subtropical world are at serious risk of infection from a wide variety of vector-borne diseases, most notably malaria and dengue. Globally, approximately 50-100 million people are estimated to be at risk of infection with dengue viruses (the cause of dengue fever/dengue haemorrhagic fever) and between 100300 million live in malaria endemic areas (World Health Organization [WHO], 2009). The viruses responsible for dengue are transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti, a predominately urban, day-biting mosquito that often resides in and around human dwellings and preferentially feeds on humans (Gubler, 1997); whereas the 4 human malaria parasites (Plasmodium) are transmitted by a wide variety of Anopheles species (Service & Townson, 2002 ). Dengue vector has proven extremely resilient to control measures because of its close association and exploitation of domestic and peridomestic human settings (Reiter & Gubler, 1997). On the other hand, malaria vectors display a more diverse array of host seeking behaviors and preference, biting patterns and larval breeding habitats (Pates & Curtis, 2005; Sinka et al., 2011). Despite decades of extensive research, efficacious and commercially viable vaccines for these 2 important vector-borne diseases are not yet available. Therefore, the prevention and control of dengue and malaria remains dependent on various vector control strategies to reduce risk of transmission; in some instances this requires the use of various chemical insecticides as larvicides, space spray and indoor residual spray (IRS) applications, and use of insecticide-impregnated bed nets to control adult mosquito blood feeding (Roberts & Andre, 1994; WHO, 1999; Reiter & Gubler, 1997; Grieco et al., 2007). Chemical insecticides, including organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, and synthetic pyrethroids, have long been used with great effect in public health vector control programs worldwide (Reiter & Gubler, 1997; Roberts & Andre, 1994; WHO, 1992). Although DDT used ceased in many countries several decades ago, the chemical has returned for use in malaria control IRS programs in Africa because of some its superior attributes (Roberts & Tren, 2010). The dramatic impact of DDT on mosquito populations in terms of both toxicity and behavior suppressing disease transmission is well known but in some instances the actual mechanisms at work remain unclear and poorly understood. Most studies on insecticides have placed attention exclusively on the direct toxicological (knockdown and killing) effects on mosquito populations; whereas far less research has focused on the
Microdroplet-based universal logic gates by electrorheological fluid

We demonstrate a uniquely designed microfluid logic gate with universal functionality, which is capable of conducting all 16 logic operations in one chip, with different input voltage combinations. A kind of smart colloid, giant electrorheological (GER) fluid, functions as the translation media among fluidic, electronic and mechanic information, providing us with the capability of performing large integrations either on-chip or off-chip, while the on-chip hybrid circuit is formed by the interconnection of the electric components and fluidic channels, where the individual microdroplets travelling in a channel represents a bit. The universal logic gate reveals the possibilities of achieving a large-scale microfluidic processor with more complexity for on-chip processing for biological, chemical as well as computational experiments.
How to ConQueR why-not questions

One useful feature that is missing from today's database systems is an explain capability that enables users to seek clarifications on unexpected query results. There are two types of unexpected query results that are of interest: the presence of unexpected tuples, and the absence of expected tuples (i.e., missing tuples). Clearly, it would be very helpful to users if they could pose follow-up why and why-not questions to seek clarifications on, respectively, unexpected and expected (but missing) tuples in query results. While the why questions can be addressed by applying established data provenance techniques, the problem of explaining the why-not questions has received very little attention. There are currently two explanation models proposed for why-not questions. The first model explains a missing tuple t in terms of modifications to the database such that t appears in the query result wrt the modified database. The second model explains by identifying the data manipulation operator in the query evaluation plan that is responsible for excluding t from the result. In this paper, we propose a new paradigm for explaining a why-not question that is based on automatically generating a refined query whose result includes both the original query's result as well as the user-specified missing tuple(s). In contrast to the existing explanation models, our approach goes beyond merely identifying the "culprit" query operator responsible for the missing tuple(s) and is useful for applications where it is not appropriate to modify the database to obtain missing tuples.
Energy-Aware Cooperative Wireless Networks With Multiple Cognitive Users

In this paper, we study and analyze cooperative cognitive radio networks with arbitrary number of secondary users (SUs). Each SU is considered a prospective relay for the primary user (PU) besides having its own data transmission demand. We consider a multi-packet transmission framework that allows multiple SUs to transmit simultaneously because of dirty-paper coding. We propose power allocation and scheduling policies that optimize the throughput for both PU and SU with minimum energy expenditure. The performance of the system is evaluated in terms of throughput and delay under different opportunistic relay selection policies. Toward this objective, we present a mathematical framework for deriving stability conditions for all queues in the system. Consequently, the throughput of both primary and secondary links is quantified. Furthermore, a moment generating function approach is employed to derive a closed-form expression for the average delay encountered by the PU packets. Results reveal that we achieve better performance in terms of throughput and delay at lower energy cost as compared with equal power allocation schemes proposed earlier in the literature. Extensive simulations are conducted to validate our theoretical findings.
TouchOver: decoupling positioning from selection on touch-based handheld devices

When compared to conventional desktop mouse input, touch input on handheld devices suffers from the lack of a main feature: that of a mouseover state that can provide users with dynamic pro-active information. In addition, with touch screens, selection precision is limited by undesired extra finger tracking during finger press and lift movements. We propose TouchOver, a multi-modal input technique for touch-screen accelerometers-enabled handheld devices where positioning is performed with a finger on the touch surface, while selection is triggered by a gentle "tilt forward" of the device. By doing so, TouchOver adds a mouseover-like state and improves selection precision while remaining compatible with existing interaction techniques such as Shift [10] devised to improve precision. Our formal user study shows a significant precision improvement over two other selection techniques as well as a good tradeoff between speed and accuracy.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease as Risk Factor for Ischemic Cerebrovascular Accident

Annually, 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke. Of these, 5 million die and another 5 million are left permanently disabled, placing immense burdens on family and community. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a stroke occurs every 5 seconds [1]. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia [2] and confers an independent risk of stroke and death [3]. The role of inflammation in atherosclerosis and stroke has been well-established [4] COPD with Reduced lung function is associated with increased levels of systemic inflammatory markers which may have important pathophysiological and therapeutic implications [5]. COPD is also associated with higher rates of myocardial infarction [6], and an increased risk of the development of cerebral micro-bleeds in deep or infra-tentorial locations [7]. About 14% of COPD subjects suffers from AF [8]. We proposed that COPD may increase the risk of ICVA in subjects with AF. Framingham study provided the risk estimate for risk factors for stroke, age-adjusted incidence of stroke was more than doubled in the presence of coronary heart disease, more than tripled in the presence of hypertension, more than fourfold in subjects with cardiac failure and a near fivefold in subjects with atrial fibrillation [9]. Since we wanted to estimate the risk of ICVA in subjects with COPD. Therefore we chose AF to compare this risk estimate associated with COPD. Purpose of the study was to detect if COPD is a risk factor and how significant is the risk associated with COPD comparing to another already established independent risk factor (Atrial fibrillation).
Sufficiency causatives

Against past analyses, we point out that the causative verbs cause and make have quite different inferential profiles, and argue that this is due to the fact that they assert different kinds of basic causal relations: cause asserts causal necessity, while make asserts causal sufficiency. We characterize these two notions in Schulz (2011)’s structural causal models and show how the analysis not only predicts correctly when one of these two causative verbs can be truthfully applied to a situation and the other cannot, but also can derive the coercive implication associated with make when (but only when) make embeds a VP denoting a volitional action. Along the way, we show that a suitably weakened sufficiency analysis also enables a univocal analysis of the German causative verb lassen, which has both ‘permissive’ (let) and ‘coercive’ (make) readings. On our account, these different readings arise from the backgrounding of different causal factors in the evaluation of the causative claim.
Lexical semantics meets pragmatics

The present paper outlines a conception of lexical pragmatics which deals with mutual connections of the lexicon and pragmatics and has the following characteristics. Besides lexical stereotypes, three types of encoded encyclopaedic information are differentiated: prototypes which are 1) added to and 2) built into the predicate decomposition of lexical-semantic representations as well as 3) those that constitute the main part of lexicalsemantic representations. Since a number of words do not encode full-fledged concepts, lexical pragmatics cannot do without underspecified meaning representations. Words reach their full meanings in corresponding contexts through a number of different ways of considerable pragmatic inference, depending on various types of underspecificity.