Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extending Garbage Collection to Complex Data Structures

Objects that are pointer reachable through a complex data structure may be inaccessible to the external program, depending on the semantics of the structure. Failure to recognize the unusual behavior of complex data structures causes memory leaks in any collector that relies on pointer reachability to locate garbage. We extend the definition of reachability to distinguish between objects that are reachable to the program at large and objects that are within the interior of structures. Our general mechanism allows any structure to run arbitrarily complex collection algorithms during normal garbage collection.
PROVINCIAL DIFFERENCES IN HIGH SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT: FOR WHOM DO SCHOOLS MATTER?

This invention relates to a litter bag for automobiles and in particular to one including a body portion provided at the lower portion with a pocket and on the outer surface with a zipper through which a roll of plastic bags may be disposed therein. The top of the pocket has an elongated slit through which the plastic bag may be conveniently drawn out for use. The bottom of the body portion has a strap designed to fix the body portion under a seat. The upper edges of the body portion has a resilient member in the interior for keeping the mouth of the plastic bag closed normally and a male connector on both ends. The body portion is further provided on both sides with a side flap having on both ends a female connector engageable with the male connector.
Design and fabrication of a gripper actuated by shape memory alloy spring

Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) can be used as actuators in different robotic systems. Small size and weight of SMA springs make them appropriate for micro robotic devices such as surgery grippers. In this paper, a novel gripper actuated by SMA springs is designed and fabricated. Both closing and opening of the gripper's jaws is produced by a SMA spring which is actuates by applying voltage. A Fan is also considered in the gripper's design for increasing the low rate of operating frequency of SMA springs.
A study on effective algorithm for selecting PVA nodes in VANETs

In Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET), network performances represented by connectivity and/or throughput are much influenced by mobility patterns and densities, of vehicles. In order to improve network performance even if the density of vehicles is low, A method named Parked Vehicle Assistance (PVA) has been proposed[1]. PVA method improves network densities by introducing vehicle which is parking at a roadside, to the VANET, as a relay node of the communications (PVA node). The literature [1] reported that the performances of VANETs can be improved even if the number of PVA nodes is few. However, these performance evaluations have been conducted under the situation that the candidate nodes of PVA were randomly selected, from entire the simulation field, that is, in these evaluations PVA nodes were selected without strategies. Under the such condition, a number of needless candidate nodes will be selected as PVA nodes, and it increases needless traffic on VANETs. Then, in this paper, in order to improve VANET performance with smaller number of PVA nodes, we propose an algorithm for selecting PVA nodes in VANETs, and clarify the proposed algorithm can improve VANET performance effectively by computer simulations.
Coherence Function in Noisy Linear System

The coherence function provides a measure of spectral similarity of two signals, but measurement noise decreases the values of measured coherence. When the two signals are the input and output of a linear system, any system noise also decreases the measured coherence values. In digital computations, useful coherence values require some degree of averaging to increase the degrees of freedom to more than two. These fundamental issues are presented with application to system input-output coherence and two random signals with a common component. Finally, estimated coherence of the two random signals, with varying degrees of freedom, are shown with empirical adjustments that can improve the estimate of coherence. Coherence has a wide range of biomedical applications, but this article focuses on the fundamental properties of the coherence function.
COIN: System Architecture for Programmable Connected Devices

We present COIN, a system architecture to enable running a slice of a mobile app's logic onto connected devices such as proximity beacons, body-worn sensors, and controllable light bulbs. These are normally shipped as black-boxes: their functionality is fixed by vendors and typically accessed only through low-level APIs. This often limits the flexibility in designing applications and requires intense wireless interactions between mobile and connected devices, which impacts energy consumption particularly on the latter. We overcome the limitations of this design by providing a generic programmable substrate right onto the connected device. Mobile apps can dynamically deploy arbitrary tasks implemented as loosely-coupled actor-like components. The underlying run-time support takes care of the coordination across tasks and of their real-time scheduling.
Overcoming the traceability benefit problem

To modify complex computer-based systems requires a detailed understanding of their functionality. Requirements traceability can help the engineer to gain that understanding, but several surveys have observed that traceability information is poorly recorded. We argue that the cause is the lack of direct perceived benefit to the main development process. As a consequence traceability information is incomplete, inaccurate and out-of-date. We propose a method of recording traceability information, a traceable development contract (TDC), as a means of reducing this problem by tackling the issue of an upstream functional development team imposing changes on a downstream development team. The contract makes the recording of traceability information beneficial to both development teams.
EPs and Gene Expression Data 1 Emerging Patterns and Gene Expression

One important purpose of conducting gene expression experiments is to understand the correlation of gene expression prooles to disease states. Based on the notion of emerging patterns and an entropy-oriented discretization method, we discover groups of genes that are correlated to disease states in a signiicant way. In each group, every member gene constrained by a speciic expression interval, unanimously occurs only in one type of cells with a maximally large frequency, but never unanimously happens in the other types of cells. According to our studies on the colon tumor dataset, such gene groups (also called patterns) can reach a frequency of 90%, providing good insight into the correlation of gene expression prooles to disease states. The patterns can be used to correctly predict whether a new cell is normal or cancerous.
Work Biographies as Facilitators of Cognitive and Brain Development: A Lifespan Perspective on Occupational Health

In Germany as well as in most industrialized countries of the Western hemisphere, the workforce is constantly ‘aging’. Increasing age, however, is associated with a number of health risks. Cognitive decline may be a particular challenge to health at work. Long-term exposure to low mental stimulation at work has detrimental effects on brain and cognition. Low job complexity has repeatedly been associated with lower levels of cognitive functioning and with a higher risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. But good cognitive health is a necessary prerequisite to preserve well-being, work ability, and productivity. However, research has not yet found an effective way how to counteract these effects. This dissertation set out to fill this gap. Therefore, three studies were conducted: a conceptual literature review which systematized the available evidence on 'in vivo' mental stimulation as well as two experimental studies that investigated the effect of multiple work-task changes (WTC) on the cognitive functioning and brain anatomy of long-term industrial production workers. The findings reveal that (a) besides complexity, active learning and recurrent novelty can serve as valuable facilitators of positive plasticity in the cognitive system, (b) industrial production workers who underwent multiple WTC over 17 years showed higher levels of cognitive functioning, and displayed (c) more gray matter volume in hypothesized areas than a matched control group with 0 or 1 WTC. With this, the current dissertation extends the available evidence on the critical contextual features that foster cognitive plasticity; suggests recurrent exposure to WTC as strategic health management instrument to counteract cognitive decline; underlines the importance of cognitive health and cognitive aging as vital but neglected fields of occupational health psychology; and emphasizes the need for a lifespan developmental perspective on occupational health management.
Soft-tissue injury in robotics

Up to now, mostly blunt human-robot impacts were investigated in the robotics literature. In this context, the influence of robot mass and velocity during rigid impacts with and without the possibility of the human being clamped was quantified. In this paper an analysis of soft-tissue injuries caused by sharp tools, which are mounted on/grasped by a robot is carried out as the next step down the road to a full safety analysis of robots for HRI. We conducted an analysis of soft-tissue injuries based on available biomechanical and forensic data and to our knowledge for the first time in robotics present various experimental results with biological tissue for validation. Furthermore, possible countermeasures are evaluated quantitatively based biomechanically relevant quantities.
Physics aspects of polarized e+ at the linear collider

Polarized e- and e+ at the International Linear Collider play an important role for discovering physics beyond the Standard Model and for precisely unravelling the structure of the underlying physics. The physics programme at the first energy stage at sqrt{s}=500 GeV benefits strongly from the polarization of both beams. But also at 1 TeV as well as at a possible multi-TeV design of a linear collider, CLIC, the physics output is greatly enriched by beam polarization. An overview is given of the impact of providing polarized e+ at the linear collider in addition to polarized e- for physics studies in top, Higgs, supersymmetry and further models of physics beyond the Standard Model.
La Descentralizacion Tributaria En Las Comunidades Autonomas de Regimen Comun: Un Proceso Inacabado. (Tax Decentralization in the Autonomous Communities: An Unfinished Process. With English Summary.).”

Even though fiscal decentralization in Spain has advanced in several fronts over the last three decades, important issues remain and the decentralization of tax capacity to regions is among the most impor­ tant unfinished items. This review paper focuses on what has gone wrong and the causes for it, at the La descentralizacion tributaria en las Comunidades Autonomas de regimen comun: un proceso incabado 151 same time that proposes several avenues for reform in the future. The paper is divided in two parts. First, we quickly review the theoretical foundations of revenue assignments and the most relevant in­ ternational experience in this area. Second, we critically assess the Spanish experience to date and out­ line what needs to be done in the future to strengthen fiscal autonomy, responsibility and accountabil­ ity of sub­national governments
Potential Impact of miR-137 and Its Targets in Schizophrenia

The significant impact of microRNAs (miRNAs) on disease pathology is becoming increasingly evident. These small non-coding RNAs have the ability to post-transcriptionally silence the expression of thousands of genes. Therefore, dysregulation of even a single miRNA could confer a large polygenic effect. Schizophrenia is a genetically complex illness thought to involve multiple genes each contributing a small risk. Large genome-wide association studies identified miR-137, a miRNA shown to be involved in neuronal maturation, as one of the top risk genes. To assess the potential mechanism of impact of miR-137 in this disorder and identify its targets, we used a combination of literature searches, ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA), and freely accessible bioinformatics resources. Using TargetScan and the schizophrenia gene resource (SZGR) database, we found that in addition to CSMD1, C10orf26, CACNA1C, TCF4, and ZNF804A, five schizophrenia risk genes whose transcripts are also validated miR-137 targets, there are other schizophrenia-associated genes that may be targets of miR-137, including ERBB4, GABRA1, GRIN2A, GRM5, GSK3B, NRG2, and HTR2C. IPA analyses of all the potential targets identified several nervous system (NS) functions as the top canonical pathways including synaptic long-term potentiation, a process implicated in learning and memory mechanisms and recently shown to be altered in patients with schizophrenia. Among the subset of targets involved in NS development and function, the top scoring pathways were ephrin receptor signaling and axonal guidance, processes that are critical for proper circuitry formation and were shown to be disrupted in schizophrenia. These results suggest that miR-137 may indeed play a substantial role in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia by regulating networks involved in neural development and brain function.
AN OBJECT-RELATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR DEVELOPING OO GIS APPLICATIONS

This paper presents the underlying philosophy of GinisNT, an object-relational framework for developing OO, scaleable GIS applications. GinisNT is based on a mediator and is implemented on top of the relational data model. The Mediator automatically maps between the two data models, thus making the usage of a RDBMS transparent to the user, who can concentrate on the application itself.
TLR Ligands Induce Antiviral Responses in Chicken Macrophages

Chicken macrophages express several receptors for recognition of pathogens, including Toll-like receptors (TLRs). TLRs bind to pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) derived from bacterial or viral pathogens leading to the activation of macrophages. Macrophages play a critical role in immunity against viruses, including influenza viruses. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that treatment of chicken macrophages with TLR ligands reduces avian influenza replication. Furthermore, we sought to study the expression of some of the key mediators involved in the TLR-mediated antiviral responses of macrophages. Chicken macrophages were treated with the TLR2, 3, 4, 7 and 21 ligands, Pam3CSK4, poly(I:C), LPS, R848 and CpG ODN, respectively, at different doses and time points pre- and post-H4N6 avian influenza virus (AIV) infection. The results revealed that pre-treatment of macrophages with Pam3CSK4, LPS and CpG ODN reduced the replication of AIV in chicken macrophages. In addition, the relative expression of genes involved in inflammatory and antiviral responses were quantified at 3, 8 and 18 hours post-treatment with the TLR2, 4 and 21 ligands. Pam3CSK4, LPS and CpG ODN increased the expression of interleukin (IL)-1β, interferon (IFN)-γ, IFN-β and interferon regulatory factor (IFR) 7. The expression of these genes correlated with the reduction of viral replication in macrophages. These results shed light on the process of immunity to AIV in chickens.
Cap-assisted retrograde single-balloon enteroscopy results in high terminal ileal intubation rate

Background and study aims: Retrograde single-balloon enteroscopy (RSBE) facilitates evaluation of the distal small bowel and provision of appropriate therapy when necessary. Intubation of the terminal ileum (TI) is a major rate-limiting step, with failure rates as high as 30 %. Cap-assisted endoscopy has proven beneficial in other aspects of endoscopy. We have noticed that it similarly aids in TI intubation during RSBE by facilitating opening of the ileocecal valve (ICV). The primary aim of this study was to measure the TI intubation rate using cap-assisted RSBE. Other procedural details and outcomes were also measured. Patients and methods: A total of 36 consecutive RSBEs performed between July 2011 and May 2014 at the Medical University of South Carolina were retrospectively reviewed. All procedures were performed or supervised by our center’s small bowel endoscopist (ASB). Outcomes measured included TI intubation rate, procedure time, depth of maximal insertion (DMI), diagnostic yield (DY), therapeutic yield (TY), and complications. Results: The TI intubation rate was 97 % (35 /36). The one failure was due to stool completely obscuring the cecum. Median procedure time was 54 minutes, with a mean DMI of 68 cm beyond the ICV. The technical success rate was 86 %, whereas DY and TY were 61 % and 25 %, respectively. There were no complications. The study was limited in that it involved a single endoscopist at a single center. Conclusions: Cap-assisted RSBE results in a high TI intubation rate, without compromise to safety or procedural yield.
Recovery phase of the murine rod photoresponse reconstructed from electroretinographic recordings

The activation and recovery phases of the murine rod photo-response were determined from corneal electroretinograms (ERGs) obtained in response to pairs of full-field flashes producing 50-10(5) photoisomerized rhodopsins (R*) per rod. The a-wave component of the ERG in response to the initial flash provided a well established measure of the activation phase of the rod response. The amplitude of the a-wave response to an intense second flash (45,000 R*) delivered 0.2-5 seconds (s) after the first flash was used to reconstruct the recovery phase of the response. For 160-3000 R* rod-1, recovery curves were isomorphic, translating on the time axis such that each e-fold increase in R* produced an incremental recovery delay of tau c = 210 +/- 50 ms (mean +/- SD). For initial flashes producing > 3000 R*, recovery curves lost their initial isomorphism and half-times had intensity dependence exceeding 1 s per e-fold increase in R*. We conclude that for flashes producing < 3000 R*, the effective lifetime of these R* is not > 210 ms. Two extant and non-mutually exclusive hypotheses are discussed that can account for the sharp increase in recovery times from flashes producing > 3000 R*. They are as follows: (1) approximately 0.03% of R* have a lifetime exceeding 1 s; and (2) the gamma subunit of phosphodiesterase (PDE gamma) serves as a GTPase-activating factor, and 3000 R* produce sufficient activated G-protein (G*) to exceed the total quantity of PDE gamma subunits such that excess G* must wait for unoccupied PDE gamma to inactivate via GTP hydrolysis.
2 . Tourism development , quality of life and exogenous shocks : A systemic framework 1

This paper proposes an analytical framework describing a triangle relationship between tourism development (TD), quality of life (QoL) of residents, and shocks or disturbances (SoD). The impacts of TD on QoL have been studied extensively in the literature, but the possible effects of QoL on TD have only been implicitly considered in some studies. Moreover, the influence of SoD on both TD and QoL has only rarely been covered in the literature, and, consequently, the overall relation between these three constructs has remained unstructured and incompletely formulated. The proposed framework contributes to a better understanding of both TD and QoL, thereby providing opportunities for improving both. Additionally, understanding the possible implications of SoD for both TD and QoL provides prospects for improving the preparedness and responsiveness of actors, while potentially speeding up the recovery after unexpected events.
Capacity and game-theoretic power allocation for multiuser MIMO channels with channel estimation error

In this paper, we consider a multiuser multiple inputs and multiple output (MIMO) system. We study the erodogic capacity bound of the multi-access channels with channel estimation error, which has never been investigated before. Game theory is adopted to model the MIMO multi-access channels, which gives us a new understanding for the analysis of MIMO multi-access channels. Game-theoretic power allocation is used, which borrows the idea from iterative water-filling power allocation, to solve the Nash equilibrium and maximize the sum capacity of the multiuser MIMO system with channel estimation error. The effect of the channel estimation error to the capacity of multiuser MIMO multi-access channel is also studied.
Model-Based Design and Verification of Embedded Software

The widespread use of embedded systems mandates a rigorous engineering approach towards embedded software development, i.e. model-based design and verification of embedded software. The paper presents a number of models that have been developed in the context of the COMDES framework. These have been used to derive design patterns for reusable and reconfigurable components, such as the state logic controller and the hybrid state logic controller, whose principles of operation are presented in the paper. The implications of the adopted modeling technique are discussed in the context of model-based verification of component-based embedded systems.
Matrix Characterization for GFDM Systems: Low-Complexity MMSE Receivers and Optimal Prototype Filters

Generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) is considered to be a promising waveform candidate for 5G new radio. It features good properties such as low out-of-band (OOB) radiation. One major drawback of GFDM known in the literature is that a zero-forcing receiver suffers from the noise enhancement effect since the GFDM (transmitter) matrix in general has a greater-than-unity condition number. In this paper, we propose a new matrix-based characterization of GFDM matrices, as opposed to traditional vector-based characterization with prototype filters. The characterization is helpful in deriving properties of GFDM matrices, including conditions on GFDM matrices being nonsingular and unitary, respectively. Further, the condition on the existence of a form of low-complexity MMSE receivers is also derived. It is found that such a receiver under frequency-selective channels exists if and only if the GFDM transmitter matrix is chosen to be unitary. For non-unitary transmitter matrices, a low-complexity suboptimal MMSE receiver is proposed with a performance very close to that of an MMSE receiver. Besides, optimal prototype filters in terms of minimizing receiver mean square error (MSE) are derived and found to correspond to the use of unitary GFDM matrices under many scenarios. These optimal filters can be applied in GFDM systems without causing the problem of noise enhancement, thereby having the same MSE performance as OFDM. Furthermore, we find that GFDM matrices with a size of power of two do exist in the class of unitary GFDM matrices. Finally, while the OOB radiation performance of systems using a unitary GFDM matrix is not optimal in general, it is shown that the OOB radiation can be satisfactorily low if the parameters are carefully chosen.