Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Workshop : From Dependable to Resilient , from Resilient to Antifragile Ambients and Systems ( ANTIFRAGILE 2014 ) Engineering Antifragile Systems : A Change In Design Philosophy

While technology has made astounding advances in the last century, problems are confronting the engineering community that must be solved. Cost and schedule of producing large systems are increasing at an unsustainable rate and these systems often do not perform as intended. New systems are required that may not be achieved by current methods. To solve these problems, NASA is working to infuse concepts from Complexity Science into the engineering process. Some of these problems may be solved by a change in design philosophy. Instead of designing systems to meet known requirements that will always lead to fragile systems at some degree, systems should be designed wherever possible to be antifragile: designing cognitive cyberphysical systems that can learn from their experience, adapt to unforeseen events they face in their environment, and grow stronger in the face of adversity. Several examples are presented of on ongoing research efforts to employ this philosophy. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Elhadi M. Shakshuki.
A simplified model for the indoor power line channel

We report for the first time some statistical properties of the indoor power line (PL) channel that exhibit some interesting similarities to the wireless channel, although some fundamental differences are also pointed out. In particular, we argue here that, while multipath propagation in wireless channels gives rise to Rayleigh distributed fading, multipath in PL channels gives rise to lognormally distributed fading similarly to shadow fading. We also report for the first time that both channel gain and Root-Mean-Square Delay Spread (RMS-DS) of indoor channels are lognormally distributed, leptokurtic and negatively correlated, thus suggesting that channels that introduce severe multipath are also characterized by large attenuation. These results are used to define a simplified PL channel model useful for comparative analysis of communication schemes and, at the same time, to draw some general conclusions on the design of multicarrier schemes.
A robust coarse-to-fine sub-pixel registration method under noisy conditions

Image registration is an important task in the field of computer vision and pattern recognition. In this paper, we propose a robust sub-pixel registration algorithm which is based on multi-resolution and new edge detection interpolation method. After applying truncated window function to the images to be registration, the low-pass bands of the wavelet decomposition are applied to build the image pyramid. Performance of our proposed algorithm is compared with other method using the same block matching algorithm and mutual information similarity measure. The results show that our proposed algorithm is effective for noisy degradation condition and can lead to highly accurate image registration.
Hybrid Single-Phase AC–AC Modular Multilevel DSCC Converters With Modulation and DC-Link Voltage Ripple Improvement

This paper proposes two hybrid topologies based on a single ac–ac modular multilevel cascade cascade converter (MMCC) with double-star chopper cells (DSCC), in each of which a voltage reference technique (VRT) is associated for generating the output modulating references. In doing so, either the grid-connected leg or the shared leg can be switched at the line frequency, thus reducing the switching losses. For proper operation of the VRTs in real-time, the input and output converter voltages must be in sync, hence a synchronization technique is proposed. Furthermore, when no dc-link capacitor is used in a DSCC converter, the dc-link is subjected to voltage ripples derived from the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) technique. In that case, high-frequency PWM techniques can produce high-frequency components across the arm inductors, which are reflected in the dc-link. Therefore, this paper focuses on the operability of the hybrid modular multilevel DSCC converters, but also on the investigation of the proposed VRTs in reducing the dc-link voltage ripple on the conventional DSCC converter using PWM with phase-shifted carriers (PSCs). Simulated and experimental results are presented to validate the proposed techniques and converters.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Long-Term Survival in “Low-Risk” Adults

Background We sought to establish whether cardiorespiratory fitness had important implications for long-term cardiovascular risk among individuals classified as low risk by the Framingham Risk Score (10-year coronary heart disease risk <10%). Prognostic factors of long-term cardiovascular risk are needed for low-risk subjects who make up the largest percentage of the US population. Methods and Results The study population was composed of men and women, 30 to 50 years of age, who had a baseline medical exam at the Cooper Clinic, Dallas, TX, between 1970 and 1983. Eligible individuals were defined as at low risk for coronary heart disease by Framingham Risk Score at the time of study entry and had no history of diabetes (n=11 190). Cardiorespiratory fitness was determined by maximum graded exercise treadmill tests. Over an average 27±2-year period, 15% of low-fit (quintile 1) compared to 6% of high-fit (quintile 5) individuals died (P<0.001). A 1–metabolic equivalent level increase in baseline fitness was associated with an 11% reduction in all-cause deaths and an 18% reduction in deaths due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, blood glucose levels, smoking, and early family history of coronary disease. There was an incremental decrease in CVD risk with increasing fitness quintile, such that the high fit had the lowest adjusted 30-year CVD mortality rate (hazard ratio 0.29, 95% CI: 0.16–0.51) compared to the low fit. Conclusions Cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with a significant reduction in long-term CVD among individuals identified as low risk by Framingham Risk Score. These data suggest that preventive lifestyle interventions geared to optimize cardiorespiratory fitness, even among a “low-risk” subset, should be considered to improve CVD-free survival. (J Am Heart Assoc. 2012;1:e001354 doi: 10.1161/JAHA.112.001354.)
NIBBS-Search for Fast and Accurate Prediction of Phenotype-Biased Metabolic Systems

Understanding of genotype-phenotype associations is important not only for furthering our knowledge on internal cellular processes, but also essential for providing the foundation necessary for genetic engineering of microorganisms for industrial use (e.g., production of bioenergy or biofuels). However, genotype-phenotype associations alone do not provide enough information to alter an organism's genome to either suppress or exhibit a phenotype. It is important to look at the phenotype-related genes in the context of the genome-scale network to understand how the genes interact with other genes in the organism. Identification of metabolic subsystems involved in the expression of the phenotype is one way of placing the phenotype-related genes in the context of the entire network. A metabolic system refers to a metabolic network subgraph; nodes are compounds and edges labels are the enzymes that catalyze the reaction. The metabolic subsystem could be part of a single metabolic pathway or span parts of multiple pathways. Arguably, comparative genome-scale metabolic network analysis is a promising strategy to identify these phenotype-related metabolic subsystems. Network Instance-Based Biased Subgraph Search (NIBBS) is a graph-theoretic method for genome-scale metabolic network comparative analysis that can identify metabolic systems that are statistically biased toward phenotype-expressing organismal networks. We set up experiments with target phenotypes like hydrogen production, TCA expression, and acid-tolerance. We show via extensive literature search that some of the resulting metabolic subsystems are indeed phenotype-related and formulate hypotheses for other systems in terms of their role in phenotype expression. NIBBS is also orders of magnitude faster than MULE, one of the most efficient maximal frequent subgraph mining algorithms that could be adjusted for this problem. Also, the set of phenotype-biased metabolic systems output by NIBBS comes very close to the set of phenotype-biased subgraphs output by an exact maximally-biased subgraph enumeration algorithm ( MBS-Enum ). The code (NIBBS and the module to visualize the identified subsystems) is available at http://freescience.org/cs/NIBBS.
The equity effects of labour market programs

Labour market programs aim to enhance both total employment and equality of job opportunities. The existing literature implies that any assistance to a disadvantaged group will promote equity. This study attempts to present comparative information on the types of people who benefit and lose from the provision of labour market programs. It is found that, compared with an alternative of higher levels of health and education expenditure, expenditure on labour market programs, as they were constructed under Working Nation, favours people with more disadvantaged work histories and lower household incomes However, only 5, or at best 12, per cent of people achieve continuing employment as a result of program participation. Most of the benefits, therefore, are received during the program period.
Modelling Heterogeneous Dispersion in Marginal Models for Longitudinal Proportional Data

Continuous proportional data is common in biomedical research, e.g., the pre‐post therapy percent change in certain physiological and molecular variables such as glomerular filtration rate, certain gene expression level, or telomere length. As shown in (Song and Tan, 2000) such data requires methods beyond the common generalised linear models. However, the original marginal simplex model of (Song and Tan, 2000) for such longitudinal continuous proportional data assumes a constant dispersion parameter. This assumption of dispersion homogeneity is imposed mainly for mathematical convenience and may be violated in some situations. For example, the dispersion may vary in terms of drug treatment cohorts or follow‐up times. This paper extends their original model so that the heterogeneity of the dispersion parameter can be assessed and accounted for in order to conduct a proper statistical inference for the model parameters. A simulation study is given to demonstrate that statistical inference can be seriously affected by mistakenly assuming a varying dispersion parameter to be constant in the application of the available GEEs method. In addition, residual analysis is developed for checking various assumptions made in the modelling process, e.g., assumptions on error distribution. The methods are illustrated with the same eye surgery data in (Song and Tan, 2000) for ease of comparison. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Trustworthy and sustainable operations in marine environments

In order to address challenges and opportunities of engineering information systems for network-centric warfare, we have developed a prototype for trustworthy and sustainable operations in marine environments (TWOSOME). The system developed addressed qualities such as information fusion, target acquisition, and self-organization in open computational systems; comprised of distributed services. As such, the system prototype executes on a service-oriented layered architecture for communicating entities (SOLACE) and, furthermore, different perspectives of the prototype are visualized by means of a distributed interaction system for complex entity relation networks (DISCERN).
Statistical Analysis of Crystallization Database Links Protein Physico-Chemical Features with Crystallization Mechanisms

X-ray crystallography is the predominant method for obtaining atomic-scale information about biological macromolecules. Despite the success of the technique, obtaining well diffracting crystals still critically limits going from protein to structure. In practice, the crystallization process proceeds through knowledge-informed empiricism. Better physico-chemical understanding remains elusive because of the large number of variables involved, hence little guidance is available to systematically identify solution conditions that promote crystallization. To help determine relationships between macromolecular properties and their crystallization propensity, we have trained statistical models on samples for 182 proteins supplied by the Northeast Structural Genomics consortium. Gaussian processes, which capture trends beyond the reach of linear statistical models, distinguish between two main physico-chemical mechanisms driving crystallization. One is characterized by low levels of side chain entropy and has been extensively reported in the literature. The other identifies specific electrostatic interactions not previously described in the crystallization context. Because evidence for two distinct mechanisms can be gleaned both from crystal contacts and from solution conditions leading to successful crystallization, the model offers future avenues for optimizing crystallization screens based on partial structural information. The availability of crystallization data coupled with structural outcomes analyzed through state-of-the-art statistical models may thus guide macromolecular crystallization toward a more rational basis.
Model Driven Design Method for Software Architecture

Software Architecture allows for early assessment of and design for quality attributes of a software system. It provides an important help for current software development. The development of software architecture is complex due to the absence of a standard way that lead the generation of software architecture artifacts. In this paper we define an architecture design method that provides the systematic method for software architecture of business application. We apply model driven engineering techniques to achieve the goal, the architecture is treated as a model composed of related models and application of design decision is encoded in terms of model transformation. We define a specialization of the attribute driven design(Add) method using model driven engineering techniques that systematizes and assists the Decision Making activity. Keywords— Model Driven Architecture, Model Driven Development, UML, Model Driven Architecture tools etc.
A Flexible and Cost-Effective File-Wise Reliability Scheme for Storage Systems

This work presents a new scheme of reliability mechanism in storage systems. The new scheme defines reliability and protects data in the scope of file, which is very different from traditional strategies, which protect data in the scopes of storage block or the whole device. The scheme provides the possibility to store highly reliable files and normal ones under the same file system, increasing flexibilities and decreasing costs of storage systems. To implement this scheme, Linux virtual file system (VFS) layer has been modified to perform reliability related operations during I/O calling paths and provide new interfaces for file systems to define their own reliability methods. A modified Ext2 file system with different levels of reliability has also been built as an example design of the new scheme. Depending on reliability levels, files in the example design are protected by parity check and Reed-Solomon Code of different code rates, which incur different overheads.
Non-binary SAR ADC with digital error correction for low power applications

This paper describes techniques for creating a low-power SAR ADC with an error-correcting non-binary successive approximation algorithm; it is suitable for low power applications, performs digital error correction, and does not require analog calibration. Two techniques have been proposed for implementing low-power SAR ADCs: use of two comparators, and a charge-sharing architecture. However these techniques would normally require analog calibration of comparator offsets. Here we propose a non-binary SA algorithm that compensates for comparator offset effects in the digital domain, and so eliminates the need for analog calibration. Results of our Matlab simulation validate the effectiveness of this approach.
Tourism Behaviour: Travellers' Decisions and Actions

Part I Ecological Systems in Lifestyle, Leisure, and Travel Behaviour Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Travel and Tourism Purchase-Consumption Systems Holistic Case-Based Modelling of Customers' Thinking-Doing Destination Choice Introduction Part II Introduction to the Theory and Investigation of Planned and Realized Consumer Behaviour Summary of Findings Research Objectives and Theoretical Framework Research Method Variations Between Planned and Realised Behaviours Influence of Product Information on Planned and Realized Consumption Activities Influence of Consumer Characteristics On Planned and Realized Behaviours Strategic Implications and Discussion.
Extending dataflow programs with throughput properties

In the context of multi-core processors and the trend toward many-core, dataflow programming can be used as a solution to the parallelization problem. By decoupling computation from communication, this paradigm naturally exposes parallelism in several ways. In this work we propose language extensions for expressing throughput properties over dataflow programs together with a run-time mechanism for the observation of events meaningful to compute the effective throughput. We show the limited impact of such mechanisms on the application overall performances. We also review existing run-time adaptation mechanisms that may be used in a dataflow context to satisfy throughput requirements.
A distributed slots reservation protocol for QoS routing on TDMA-based mobile ad hoc networks

The paper presents a distributed slots reservation protocol (DSRP) for QoS routing on TDMA-based mobile ad hoc networks. According to one-hop neighboring information, slot decision policy (SDP) is proposed to select the time slots in order to construct a route satisfying the QoS requirement. The hidden-terminal and exposed-terminal problems are solved as well. In addition, a slot adjustment mechanism is proposed to adjust the slots in a mobile host if a slot conflict occurs in the reservation period. Route maintenance is also provided to maintain a route when the network topology is changed. By the simulation results, the proposed protocol can not only increase the search of a route with bandwidth requirement guaranteed but also raise the throughput and efficiency of the network.
Adaptive Skeletal Muscle Action Requires Anticipation and “Conscious Broadcasting”

Historically, the conscious and anticipatory processes involved in voluntary action have been associated with the loftiest heights of nervous function. Concepts like mental time travel, “theory of mind,” and the formation of “the self” have been at the center of many attempts to determine the purpose of consciousness. Eventually, more reductionistic accounts of consciousness emerged, proposing rather that conscious states play a much more basic role in nervous function. Though the widely held integration consensus proposes that conscious states integrate information-processing structures and events that would otherwise be independent, Supramodular Interaction Theory (SIT) argues that conscious states are necessary for the integration of only certain kinds of information. As revealed in this selective review, this integration is related to what is casually referred to as “voluntary” action, which is intimately related to the skeletal muscle output system. Through a peculiar form of broadcasting, conscious integration often controls and guides action via “ideomotor” mechanisms, where anticipatory processes play a central role. Our selective review covers evidence (including findings from anesthesia research) for the integration consensus, SIT, and ideomotor theory.
Unwired: A simulation test-bed for mobile P2P live streaming

The success of peer-to-peer live video streaming in wireline networks has inspired the development of mobile peer-to-peer streaming technologies. However, the traditional peer-to-peer live streaming techniques have been found to perform sub-optimal in wireless networks. Furthermore, the increasing energy consumption in wireless networks due to inefficient communication protocols has resulted in the need to develop greener, more energy efficient communication solutions. Therefore, we present Unwired, an OMNet++ based simulator for the development of mobile peer-to-peer live video streaming techniques. We have built upon the DenaCast simulation framework for peer-to-peer live streaming to include wireless peers. The major contributions to the existing framework are in the form of introducing mobility on the wireless peers, enabling hand-offs for the mobile peers and providing a power component on each mobile peer to monitor the energy consumption by the peers during video streaming. We simulate a hybrid network including both wireline and wireless peers and study the similarities and differences in the performance of the two types of peers. Finally, we explain the utility of the power component in the future development of energy efficient communication protocols for wireless networks.
An integrated computational model of the two phase theory of classical conditioning

According to Konorski's two phase theory of conditioning the associative processes underlying classical conditioning can be separated into a fast valence driven nonspecific learning systems (NLS) and a slow specific learning system (SLS) [1], [2]. The theory states that the NLS elicits a non-specific state of arousal and that the SLS is responsible for the exact elicitation of a coordinated motor response [3]. Based on biological evidence we propose the amygdala, the basal forebrain and the auditory cortex as an example of NLS [4] and the cerebellum for the SLS [5]. The performance of the model was tested applying the eye-blink paradigm of classical conditioning. The unconditioned stimulus induced amygdala stimulation of the nucleus basalis elicits plasticity in the NLS. This leads to an increased representation if the conditioned stimulus in the cortex. The plasticity of the cerebellar SLS is regulated by these increased cortical representation coding the behavioral importance of the conditioned stimulus. Here we provide a complete account of Konorskis proposal by integrating these two systems into a complete biologically-grounded computational model of the two-phase theory of classical conditioning.