Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Suitability of FH codes as TH codes for multiuser UWB Systems

In this paper performance of four frequency hopping (FH) code sequences has been studied from the point of view of evaluating their suitability for time hopping (TH) UWB systems. Multiuser interference analysis and correlation properties of the code sequences have been considered as the tools to derive the final conclusions. The paper also provides the lower bound on the correlation measure of TH codes.
Analysis of the Clinicopathological Characteristics of Patients with Upper Urinary Tract Transitional Cell Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinomas who are treated surgically and to analyze the occurrence of bladder tumors as well as the development of metastases outside the urinary tract. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study comprised a retrospective analysis of 25 patients treated between February 1994 and August 2006. The variables analyzed were: patient age, gender, and clinical presentation; diagnostic methods; pathologic characteristics at the primary site of the tumor (pelvis or ureter); tumor stage and grade; and presence of carcinoma in situ, microvascular invasion and squamous differentiation. The Kaplan-Meier method and the Log-Rank test were used for statistical analysis of bladder recurrence-free survival. RESULTS Eighty-four percent of patients were male, and macroscopic hematuria was the most common clinical presentation. The majority of cases (56%) were infiltrative (T2–T3) and high-grade (76%) tumors. Synchronous or metachronous bladder tumors were found in 72% of cases. Five (20%) patients had a history of bladder tumor before the diagnosis of upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinomas. The mean follow-up period was 36 months (range: 1.5 to 156). During the follow-up period, eleven (44%) patients developed bladder tumors. After five years, the probability of being free of bladder tumor recurrence was 40%. No pathological variable was predictive for bladder tumor recurrence. Four patients presented disease recurrence outside the urinary tract. CONCLUSIONS The presence of metachronous bladder tumors is more often observed after the diagnosis of upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinomas. All of these patients should undergo rigorous follow-up during the postoperative period. Only patients with infiltrative and high-grade tumors developed metastases outside the urinary tract.
Carbon Nanofibers and Their Composites: A Review of Synthesizing, Properties and Applications

Carbon nanofiber (CNF), as one of the most important members of carbon fibers, has been investigated in both fundamental scientific research and practical applications. CNF composites are able to be applied as promising materials in many fields, such as electrical devices, electrode materials for batteries and supercapacitors and as sensors. In these applications, the electrical conductivity is always the first priority need to be considered. In fact, the electrical property of CNF composites largely counts on the dispersion and percolation status of CNFs in matrix materials. In this review, the electrical transport phenomenon of CNF composites is systematically summarized based on percolation theory. The effects of the aspect ratio, percolation backbone structure and fractal characteristics of CNFs and the non-universality of the percolation critical exponents on the electrical properties are systematically reviewed. Apart from the electrical property, the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of CNF composites are briefly reviewed, as well. In addition, the preparation methods of CNFs, including catalytic chemical vapor deposition growth and electrospinning, and the preparation methods of CNF composites, including the melt mixing and solution process, are briefly introduced. Finally, their applications as sensors and electrode materials are described in this review article.
Editorial: The Reasoning Brain: The Interplay between Cognitive Neuroscience and Theories of Reasoning

The ability to reach logical conclusions on the basis of prior information is central to human cognition. Yet, it is generally agreed that the state of our knowledge regarding the mechanisms underlying logical reasoning remains incomplete and highly fragmented (e.g., Khemlani and Johnson-Laird, 2012). The emergence of functional neuroimaging over the past 20 years—and its ability to examine reasoning at the level of recruitment of cortical systems—provides an additional source of data to, not only better understand reasoning as a phenomenon, but to test different theoretical approaches. This has the potential to both prune the number of theoretical explanations of reasoning, but also to expand the space of possibilities in directions unanticipated by behavioral data. This Research Topic explores the extent to which neuroimaging and brain-lesion studies have informed cognitive theories of reasoning. It includes a selection of 20 empirical and theoretical papers from 69 authors. Below we briefly review these papers by breaking them down into two types of contribution, (i) original research articles, and (ii) review and methodological articles.
Hunting for Problems with Artemis

Artemis is a modular application designed for analyzing and troubleshooting the performance of large clusters running datacenter services. Artemis is composed of four modules: (1) distributed log collection and data extraction, (2) a database storing the extracted data, (3) an interactive visualization tool for exploring the data, and (4) a plug-in interface (and a set of sample plug-ins) allowing users to implement data analysis tools including (a) the extraction and construction of new features from the basic measurements collected, and (b) the implementation and invocation of statistical and machine learning algorithms and tools. In this paper we describe each of these components and then we illustrate the power of the plug-in architecture by presenting a case-study using Artemis to analyze a Dryad application running on a 240-machine cluster.
A study of school leadership, culture and structures in the context of inclusion of learning disabled students as perceived by school staff in mainstream secondary schools in Israel

Since the end of the 1980s the Western World of education has increased its awareness towards learning-disabled students (LDS), and current legislation favours the inclusion for these students as well as for students with other special educational needs in mainstream education. Despite this worldwide commitment, there is no consensus regarding the definitions of learning disabilities (LD), and assessment instruments used for the identification of LD are varied. This lack of unanimity of procedures accompanied by over-inflated numbers of students identified as LDS has originated an in-depth study whose main focus will be managerial. A review of the empirical literature on inclusion has indicated that leadership, culture and structures are all involved in the process. However, the aim of this study was to explore more specifically how school leadership, school structures and school culture are related to inclusive elements and whether they can predict the level of inclusion. The exploration was conducted according to perceptions of three populations: headteachers, teachers and counselors. The research was carried out in five mainstream secondary schools in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Findings from this study matched the literature regarding the contribution of leadership, culture and structures to the process of change-making, but at the same time leadership seems to over-ride culture and structures in the context of inclusion. Findings showed that managerialism is in a transition phase from „old‟ to „new‟ in most schools. Yet, inclusive elements fall behind managerial elements in respect of their level of ripening. Thus, the process of inclusion was observed as slower than the process of management improvement and has not reached its full maturity yet. It has also been inferred that the level of inclusion might be predicted to some extent on the basis of school management. On the whole, it might be argued that LDS still present a burden to headteachers and they are not a top priority at schools. Despite the enhancement of the issue of LDS, the educational system does not offer at this point practical responses to these students. Therefore, this issue is still considered as a change in process. The study ends with suggestions for further research in the area.
Demystifying Casualties of Evictions in Big Data Priority Scheduling

The ever increasing size and complexity of large-scale datacenters enhance the difficulty of developing efficient scheduling policies for big data systems, where priority scheduling is often employed to guarantee the allocation of system resources to high priority tasks, at the cost of task preemption and resulting resource waste. A large number of related studies focuses on understanding workloads and their performance impact on such systems; nevertheless, existing works pay little attention on evicted tasks, their characteristics, and the resulting impairment on the system performance. In this paper, we base our analysis on Google cluster traces, where tasks can experience three diffierent types of unsuccessful events, namely eviction, kill and fail. We particularly focus on eviction events, i.e., preemption of task execution due to higher priority tasks, and rigorously quantify their performance drawbacks, in terms of wasted machine time and resources, with particular focus on priority. Motivated by the high dependency of eviction on underlying scheduling policies, we also study its statistical patterns and its dependency on other types of unsuccessful events. Moreover, by considering co-executed tasks and system load, we deepen the knowledge on priority scheduling, showing how priority and machine utilization affect the eviction process and related tasks.
Patterning Self-Assembled Monolayers: Applications in Materials Science

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) form when organic molecules spontaneously chemisorb on the surfaces of solids (e.g. organic thiols and disulfides on gold, silver, and copper or carboxylic acids on the surface of alumina). 1'2 The most robust and best characterized SAMs are those comprising alkanethiolates on gold.l By variation of the length of the alkane chain and the identityof the functional group at its terminus, the thickness of the organic layer and the chemical properties of the exposed interface can be controlled with great precision. We and others have used these SAMs for studies in tribology,t adhesion,a wetting,s and other fields.6 In this paper, we describe a technique for patterning the formation of SAMs, using an elastomeric stamp, that can routinely produce patterns with dimensions from 1 to 100 lrm;7 features as small as 0.2 mm (200 nm) have been generated using this procedure, although these very small features are not always easily reproduced. These patterned surfaces have geometrically well-defined regions with different chemical and physical properties. We demonstrate a number of uses for them.
Glove-based Interaction in Virtual Surgical Training System

A virtual training system has been developed to train novice surgeons on using the new jig and fixture in a knee replacement surgery. In this study, we described how a virtual hand was employed in a Virtual Knee Replacement Surgery Training System. The virtual hand is equipped with HOMER-G, a selection and manipulation technique that combines the Arm-extension and Ray-casting technique for easy selection and manipulation of virtual object with the virtual grasping capability during selection task. The virtual jig and fixture are selected using Ray- casting technique and the arm extension technique of HOMER-G will help to manipulate the object. The virtual hand's movement is controlled by a data glove and Flock of Birds tracking device. HOMER-G has the grasping capability that makes the manipulation of object looks more natural.
Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity

In the past twenty-five years the free-market neoliberal model has been hailed as a panacea for economic ills in both the advanced economies and the developing world. Pollin dissects this model as it has been implemented in the U.S. during the Clinton and Bush administrations under Greenspan's Chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, and in developing countries under the auspices of the IMF. Clinton's Third Way Policies were hailed as combining a pro-business stance with social responsibility. This approach seemed to be vindicated by the extraordinary fall in both inflation and unemployment. In fact, the apparent successes of the Clinton years were based on anti-labor policies, the stagnation of real wages, deregulation of financial markets, and an historically unprecedented stock market boom. Even before 9/11 there were indications that the Clinton bubble would collapse into recession. Bush's response was to give big tax breaks to the rich, introduce more anti-labor measures, and cut social spending at both the federal and state levels. Both Clinton and Bush have applied free-market policies only selectively within the U.S. itself, when such policies have most benefited the interests of business. At the same time, through the IMF, the U.S. has compelled developing countries to slash public spending, deregulate financial markets and dismantle trade barriers virtually across the board. Argentina's embrace of this policy package culminated in financial ruin. Throughout Asia and Africa, sweatshops and poverty are the testaments to a bankrupt economic model. Pollin concludes by exploring concrete proposals that would promote full employment, economic growth and increased equality in the U.S. and throughout the less developed countries, drawing on the spreading movements for living wages, the Tobin Tax on financial speculation, and more generally workable alternative to neoliberal globalization.
The effects of task and saliency on latencies for colour and motion processing

In human visual perception, there is evidence that different visual attributes, such as colour, form and motion, have different neural–processing latencies. Specifically, recent studies have suggested that colour changes are processed faster than motion changes. We propose that the processing latencies should not be considered as fixed quantities for different attributes, but instead depend upon attribute salience and the observer's task. We asked observers to respond to high– and low–salience colour and motion changes in three different tasks. The tasks varied from having a strong motor component to having a strong perceptual component. Increasing salience led to shorter processing times in all three tasks. We also found an interaction between task and attribute: motion was processed more quickly in reaction–time tasks, whereas colour was processed more quickly in more perceptual tasks. Our results caution against making direct comparisons between latencies for processing different visual attributes without equating salience or considering task effects. More–salient attributes are processed faster than less–salient ones, and attributes that are critical for the task are also processed more quickly.
The Capability Approach: Operationalising Sen's capability approach: the influence of the selected technique

Introduction A major feature of Sen's theory, characterising well-being as a rich and multifaceted concept, unquestionably lies in its conforming to intuitive notions of what it means to be better off or worse off. Essentially, this account confronts anybody who is willing to assign some kind of concrete shape to functionings and capabilities with a frame of analysis involving, however, analogous issues if compared with the concepts of the living standard traditionally used in practical work. In spite of this, when it comes to working definitions and measurements, its informational richness is often regarded as a worrisome feature. The existing applications have nevertheless proven to be rather fruitful in terms of the array of suggested techniques. As Atkinson (1999: 185) has stressed, ‘there is more than one way in which an idea of this kind [Sen's framework] can be operationally effective’. Focusing on micro applications, the literature has been basically ranging in between the use of simple descriptive statistics, multivariate methods and the ‘fuzziness’ approach. The adoption of the two latter methodologies has been repeatedly endorsed by Sen himself (1990, 1994 and 1996), emphasising their suitability for his framework. Accordingly, most applications nowadays rely on either of the two techniques. Meanwhile, increasing attention has been devoted to Sen's approach – at least in some countries – and also by public institutions.
Canonical Transient Receptor Channel 5 (TRPC5) and TRPC1/4 Contribute to Seizure and Excitotoxicity by Distinct Cellular Mechanisms

Seizures are the manifestation of highly synchronized burst firing of a large population of cortical neurons. Epileptiform bursts with an underlying plateau potential in neurons are a cellular correlate of seizures. Emerging evidence suggests that the plateau potential is mediated by neuronal canonical transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels composed of members of the TRPC1/4/5 subgroup. We previously showed that TRPC1/4 double-knockout (DKO) mice lack epileptiform bursting in lateral septal neurons and exhibit reduced seizure-induced neuronal cell death, but surprisingly have unaltered pilocarpine-induced seizures. Here, we report that TRPC5 knockout (KO) mice exhibit both significantly reduced seizures and minimal seizure-induced neuronal cell death in the hippocampus. Interestingly, epileptiform bursting induced by agonists for metabotropic glutamate receptors in the hippocampal CA1 area is unaltered in TRPC5 KO mice, but is abolished in TRPC1 KO and TRPC1/4 DKO mice. In contrast, long-term potentiation is greatly reduced in TRPC5 KO mice, but is normal in TRPC1 KO and TRPC1/4 DKO mice. The distinct changes from these knockouts suggest that TRPC5 and TRPC1/4 contribute to seizure and excitotoxicity by distinct cellular mechanisms. Furthermore, the reduced seizure and excitotoxicity and normal spatial learning exhibited in TRPC5 KO mice suggest that TRPC5 is a promising novel molecular target for new therapy.
Performance comparison of full 2-D DCT, 2-D Walsh and 1-D transform over row mean and column mean for iris recognition

In this paper we propose a novel iris recognition method which reduces the computational complexity and increases the accuracy. Iris recognition enjoys universality, high degree of uniqueness and moderate user co-operation. This makes Iris recognition systems unavoidable in emerging security & authentication mechanisms. Iris recognition is one of the important techniques and is rotation invariant. In this paper we have tested full 2-dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), full 2-dimensional Walsh Transform (WHT), and the proposed method DCT/WHT row mean and column mean. Row mean DCT/WHT gives the best performance with the accuracy of 75.78% outperforming full 2-dimensional DCT/WHT with low accuracy around 66.10% further proposed Walsh Row/Column mean requires 99.96% less computations as that of full 2-D DCT. Thus our proposed method not only gives better accuracy but also reduces computational time considerably.
The EPSI model as the main factor for identifying customer satisfaction: empirical research

Literature reveals the growing interest among researchers [Verdú, A. , Lloréns, F. J., & Fuentes, M. (2004). Measuring perceptions of quality in food products: The case of red wine. Food Quality and Preference, 15(5), 453–469. ; Rundle-Thiele, S. (2005). Elaborating customer loyalty: Exploring loyalty to wine retailers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 12(5), 333–344. ] to understand the elements involved in the formation of customer satisfaction and loyalty in the consumption of Designation of Origin wines. This study is based on the pan-European Customer Satisfaction Index and develops a model of causal relationships using the covariance-based approach (AMOS 19) in order to determine the relationships existing between the variables and the weight of each variable contributing to customer satisfaction. In this paper, the model was applied to study the satisfaction of 398 consumers of Qualified Designation of Origin Rioja wine (Spain). The results show consumer satisfaction with this Designation of Origin wine is very high and it fulfils their expectations, with higher satisfaction values than those obtained for other Designation of Origin wines, revealing inter-relationships with image, expectations, perceived quality, value and loyalty. The results of this study may be useful for winery managers since they will allow them to value their current position in the market.
Role of comorbidities in a cohort of patients with COPD undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is often associated with other chronic diseases. These patients are often admitted to hospital based rehabilitation programmes. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of chronic comorbidities in patients with COPD undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation and to assess their influence on outcome. Design: Observational retrospective cohort study. Setting: A single rehabilitation centre. Patients: 2962 inpatients and outpatients with COPD (73% male, aged 71 (SD 8) years, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) 49.3 (SD 14.8)% of predicted), graded 0, 1 or ⩾2 according to the comorbidity categories and included in a pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Measurements: The authors analysed the number of self-reported comorbidities and recorded the Charlson Index. They then calculated the percentage of patients with a predefined positive response to pulmonary rehabilitation (minimum clinically important difference (MCID)), as measured by improvement in exercise tolerance (6 min walking distance test (6MWD)), dyspnoea (Medical Research Council scale) and/or health related quality of life (St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ)). Results: 51% of the patients reported at least one chronic comorbidity added to COPD. Metabolic (systemic hypertension, diabetes and/or dyslipidaemia) and heart diseases (chronic heart failure and/or coronary heart disease) were the most frequently reported comorbid combinations (61% and 24%, respectively) among the overall diseases associated with COPD. The prevalence of patients with MCID was different across the comorbidity categories and outcomes. In a multiple categorical logistic regression model, the Charlson Index (OR 0.72 (96% CI 0.54 to 0.98) and 0.51 (96% CI 0.38 to 0.68) vs 6MWD and SGRQ, respectively), metabolic diseases (OR 0.57 (96% CI 0.49 to 0.67) vs 6MWD) and heart diseases (OR 0.67 (96% CI 0.55 to 0.83) vs SGRQ) reduced the probability to improve outcomes of rehabilitation. Conclusions: Most patients with COPD undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation have one or more comorbidities. Despite the fact that the presence of comorbidities does not preclude access to rehabilitation, the improvement in exercise tolerance and quality of life after rehabilitation may be reduced depending on the comorbidity.