Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antenna Selection for Large-Scale Mimo Systems with Low-Resolution Adcs

One way to reduce the power consumption in large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is to employ low-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). In this paper, we investigate antenna selection for large-scale MIMO receivers with low-resolution ADCs, thereby providing more flexibility in resolution and number of ADCs. To incorporate quantization effects, we generalize an existing objective function for a greedy capacity-maximization antenna selection approach. The derived objective function offers an opportunity to select an antenna with the best tradeoff between the additional channel gain and increase in quantization error. Using the generalized objective function, we propose an antenna selection algorithm based on a conventional antenna selection algorithm without an increase in overall complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithm in achievable capacity for the same number of antennas.
Construction of model Hamiltonians for adiabatic quantum computation and its application to finding low-energy conformations of lattice protein models

In this report, we explore the use of a quantum optimization algorithm for obtaining low energy conformations of protein models. We discuss mappings between protein models and optimization variables, which are in turn mapped to a system of coupled quantum bits. General strategies are given for constructing Hamiltonians to be used to solve optimization problems of physical/chemical/biological interest via quantum computation by adiabatic evolution. As an example, we implement the Hamiltonian corresponding to the Hydrophobic-Polar (HP) model for protein folding. Furthermore, we present an approach to reduce the resulting Hamiltonian to two-body terms gearing towards an experimental realization.
Healing through Story Telling: An Integrated Approach for Children Experiencing Grief and Loss

Stories convey complex meanings and facilitate understanding of human experience. This article presents a focused story telling approach to elicit, develop and share children's stories of grief and loss. Using an illustrative case study, it describes an integrated therapeutic approach based in familiar childhood occupations of constructing scenes using sand and objects, interacting with peers, and working with a therapist to write and illustrate the child's own story. The approach draws on the first author's many years of clinical experience and international evidence of the therapeutic power of narrative approaches, sand tray therapy and bereavement groups for children.
Stability analysis of force reflecting telerobotic systems

In the paper we aim to enhance the understanding of the effects of system properties, most notably the role of slave damping, on the performance of force reflecting teleoperators. Building on work by Daniel and McAree we argue that if a slave manipulator is critically damped then system performance, as measured by the maximum achievable force reflection ratio, becomes independent of the mass and stiffness of the operator. We give some experimental results in support of this.
COLLABORATION IN WEB BASED LEARNING: A SOCIAL COMPUTING PERSPECTIVE

— The rapid advance of Information Communication Technology [ICT] has enabled Higher Education Institutions to reach out and educate students transcending the barriers of time and space. This technology supports structured, web-based learning activities, and provides diverse multilingual and multicultural settings and also facilities for self assessment. Structured collaboration, in the conventional education system, has proven itself a successful and powerful learning method. Online learners do not enjoy the same collaborative benefits as face-to-face learners because the technology provides no guidance or direction during the online discussion sessions. This paper presents a Web Based Learning Environment [WBLE] from the perspective of social computing to bring collaborative learning benefits to online learners. The paper also highlights how the deployment of social computing tools can support the creation of an open and socially shared information space for better collaboration among the learners. With Social Network Analysis [SNA] techniques, collaboration among twenty learners is explored and metrics such as in-degree, out-degree and Betweenness and collaborative network mapping are presented.
Recognition of Facial Expressions in the Presence of Occlusion

We present a new approach for the recognition of facial expressions from video sequences in the presence of occlusion. Although promising results have been reported in the literature on automatic recognition of facial expressions, most techniques have been assessed using experiments performed in controlled laboratory conditions which do not reflect real-world conditions. The goal of the work presented herein, is to develop recognition techniques that will overcome some limitations of current techniques, such as their sensitivity to partial occlusion of the face. The proposed approach is based on a localised representation of facial features, and on data fusion. The experiments show that the proposed approach is robust to partial occlusion of the face.
A review of the literature on the effects of low doses of alcohol on driving-related skills

A review of the scientific literature regarding the effects of alcohol on driving-related skills was conducted. The review covered 112 articles dated from 1981 to 1997. Results were indexed by blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and behavioral area and entered into a database. Two separate analyses were conducted. The first analysis determined the lowest BAC at which impairment is reliably present in driving-related skills. The second analysis determined the thresholds of impairment for each of 12 separate behavioral areas. It was concluded that: (A) Alcohol impairs some driving skills beginning with any significant departure from zero BAC. By BACs of 0.05 g/dl, the majority of the experimental studies examined reported significant impairment. By 0.08 g/dl, more than 94% of the reviewed studies showed impairment in the skills they measured. (B) Specific performance skills are differentially affected by alcohol. Some skills are significantly impaired by BACs of 0.01 g/dl, while others do not show impairment until BACs of 0.06 g/dl. (C) Discrepancies among the reported BAC thresholds of impairment within a behavioral area reflected a lack of standardization of testing methods, instruments, and measures in the studies reviewed. (D) All drivers can be expected to experience impairment in some driving-related skills by 0.08 g/dl or less.
Improving the Vertical Accuracy of Indoor Positioning for Emergency Communication

The emergency communication systems are undergoing a transition from the PSTN-based legacy system to an IP-based next generation system. In the next generation system, GPS accurately provides a user’s location when the user makes an emergency call outdoors using a mobile phone. Indoor positioning, however, presents a challenge because GPS does not generally work indoors. Moreover, unlike outdoors, vertical accuracy is critical indoors because an error of few meters will send emergency responders to a different floor in a building. This paper presents an indoor positioning system which focuses on improving the accuracy of vertical location. We aim to provide floor-level accuracy with minimal infrastructure support. Our approach is to use multiple sensors available in today’s smartphones to trace users’ vertical movements inside buildings. We make three contributions. First, we present the elevator module for tracking a user’s movement in elevators. The elevator module addresses three core challenges that make it difficult to accurately derive displacement from acceleration. Second, we present the stairway module which determines the number of floors a user has traveled on foot. Unlike previous systems that track users’ foot steps, our stairway module uses a novel landing counting technique. Third, we present a hybrid architecture that combines the sensor-based components with minimal and practical infrastructure. The infrastructure provides initial anchor and periodic corrections of a user’s vertical location indoors. The architecture strikes the right balance between the accuracy of location and the feasibility of deployment for the purpose of emergency communication.
Social Job Characteristics and Older Workers: Effects on Job Satisfaction and Job Tension

The workforce in most industrialized countries is a ging and becoming more age diverse, but few studies have examined the implications of a ge differences in the design of jobs. This study examined the role of age as a moderator in the relationship between job characteristics and two individual outcomes, job sa tisfaction and job tension. Specifically, the study focused on the relationshi p between social characteristics of the job (given social support, [received] social suppor t, interdependence, interaction outside the organization, and feedback from others) and job tension and job satisfaction among Portland Water Bureau employees. Based in Socioemot ional Selectivity (SES) theory (Carstensen, 1991), I hypothesized that these job c hara teristics would have a differential relationship with these outcomes for older and youn ger workers. Results showed that four of the eight hypothesized interactions were signifi cant, providing support for age as a moderating variable. Differential interaction effec ts were demonstrated on job satisfaction and job tension. Further, this study i ncorporated a new conceptualization and measurement of the social support job characteristi c (given social support), which demonstrated utility in predicting outcomes. Subjec tiv age was also found to moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and job a ttitudes, but in a pattern similar to that found for chronological age. This study contributes to the existing literature by answering the call to examine the role of individual differen c s in the relationship between job design features and outcomes, and by increasing kno wledge of the types of job characteristics that increase job satisfaction and reduce job tension for older and younger SOCIAL JOB CHARACTERISTICS AND OLDER WORKERS ii employees. Implications for the aging workforce are discussed along with future research to better understand the mediating mechanisms. SOCIAL JOB CHARACTERISTICS AND OLDER WORKERS iii Table of
The Rate Problem : Orthodox , Bayesian and Information Theoretic Statistical Inference

The rate problem requires determining whether or not the underlying rate of some phenomenon is the same in two populations, based on finite samples from each population that count the number of ‘successes’ from the total number of observations. We develop Bayesian and Information Theoretic statistical criteria for making this decision, and compare their performance to the Orthodox significance testing approach at three commonly-used critical levels. Two Monte-Carlo evaluations, corresponding to two different realistic assumptions about the availability of data in rate problems, both show that the Bayesian and Information Theoretic criteria perform extremely similarly, and are more accurate than the Orthodox approach. The superiority of the Bayesian and Information Theoretic criteria is particularly evident when dealing with small sample sizes, corresponding to real-world situations where additional data are expensive, dangerous, or just impossible to obtain.
A perspective on sporadic inclusion-body myositis

Sporadic inclusion-body myositis (sIBM) is an age-related condition manifested after midlife. This review points out salient features of sIBM that are shared with normal aging in muscle and with inflammatory changes in vascular atheromas and senile plaques of Alzheimer disease (AD). The amyloid precursor protein (APP) and derived Abeta peptides are found in both AD and sIBM. Because transgenic expression of human APP induces sIBM like changes, it is of potential interest that an inducer of APP, IL-1, increases during aging in mouse muscle. Because various subsets of the usual aging changes in aging brain, muscle, and vessels can be attenuated in rodents by caloric intake and possibly in humans by drugs with anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant activities, this study suggests that diet and inflammation may be useful experimental variations in exploring the pathogenesis of sIBM.
Characterization of a monoclonal antibody to a conserved epitope on human seminal vesicle-specific peptides: a novel probe/marker system for semen identification.

A novel sperm-coating antigen from the human seminal vesicles was discovered. We identified a monoclonal antibody MHS-5, recognizing an epitope with characteristics of a forensic semen marker: conservation in all vasectomized or normal semen samples tested (421); absence in all human tissues or biological fluids other than semen; and immunolocalization on the surface of ejaculated sperm. Western blots of ejaculates allowed to liquefy for 5 min demonstrated the MHS-5 epitope to be located on peptides of a wide range of molecular masses from 69 to 8 kDa. After 15 h of semen liquefaction, immunoreaction peptides of higher molecular mass were undetectable in semen, while peptides of lower molecular mass from 8 to 21 kDa retained antigenicity. Three peptides of 10, 11.9, and 13.7 kDa were the most immunoreactive species in semen liquified for 15 h. Using the MHS-5 monoclonal, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed sensitive to 1 ng of seminal protein. This assay showed that the MHS-5 antigen was undetectable in semen of common domestic animals and monkeys but was present in chimpanzee, gorilla, and orangutan semen. ELISA of homogenates from human organs and reproductive tissues demonstrated the antigen only in samples of seminal vesicles. Epididymal sperm obtained at vasovasostomy lacked the MHS-5 epitope, a fact that, together with immunolocalization on ejaculated sperm, demonstrated that the MHS-5 antigen functions as a "sperm-coating antigen. " The MHS-5 monoclonal detected semen in sexual-assault evidence obtained six months previously and in mixtures of semen with vaginal or cervical fluid. Assay systems employing the MHS-5 monoclonal may be useful for identification of semen in sexual-assault casework. The MHS-5 epitope resides on novel seminal vesicle-specific peptides whose functions, aside from sperm coating, are uncharacterized.
Effect of synbiotic supplementation on layer production and cecal Salmonella load during a Salmonella challenge

&NA; This study analyzed the inhibitory effects of a synbiotic product (PoultryStar® me) on production parameters, intestinal microflora profile, and immune parameters in laying hens with and without a Salmonella challenge. The synbiotic product contained 4 probiotic bacterial strains (Lactobacillus reuteri, Enterococcus faecium, Bifidobacterium animalis, and Pediococcus acidilactici) and a prebiotic fructooligosaccharide. Layers were supplemented with the synbiotic from d of hatch to 28 wk of age. At 16 wk of age, birds were either vaccinated with Salmonella enterica Enteritidis (SE) vaccine or left unvaccinated. At 24 wk of age, a portion of the birds was challenged with 1 × 109 CFU of SE or left unchallenged, resulting in a 3 (vaccinated, challenged, or both vaccinated and challenged) X 2 (control and synbiotics) factorial arrangement of treatments. At 18 and 20 wk of age, birds fed synbiotics in both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups had increased (P < 0.05) BW more than those in the un‐supplemented groups. Birds fed synbiotics had 0.7, 17.8, 21.7, 3, and 4.2% higher (P < 0.05) hen d egg production (HDEP) at 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 wk of age, compared to the birds without supplementation, respectively. After administering the SE challenge, supplemented birds had 3, 6.7, 4.3, 12.5, and 14.4% higher (P < 0.05) HDEP at 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28 wk of age, compared to the birds not supplemented, respectively. Irrespective of the vaccination status, birds fed synbiotics and challenged with SE had a lower (P < 0.05) SE cecal load compared to the un‐supplemented groups. At 22 d post Salmonella challenge, birds supplemented, vaccinated, and challenged had the highest bile IgA content. It can be concluded that supplementation of the synbiotic product could be beneficial to layer diets as a growth promoter, performance enhancer, and for protection against SE infection.
VTP-CSMA: A Virtual Token Passing Approach for Real-Time Communication in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks

Currently, there is a trend towards the implementation of industrial communication systems using wireless networks. However, keeping up with the timing constraints of real-time traffic in wireless environments is a hard task. The main reason is that real-time devices must share the same communication medium with timing unconstrained devices. The VTP-CSMA architecture has been proposed to deal with this problem. It considers an unified wireless system in one frequency band, where the communication bandwidth is shared by real-time and non-real-time communicating devices. The proposed architecture is based on a virtual token passing (VTP) procedure that circulates a virtual token among real-time devices. This virtual token is complemented by an underlying traffic separation mechanism that prioritizes the real-time traffic over the non-real-time traffic. This is one of the most innovative aspects of the proposed architecture, as most part of real-time communication approaches are not able to handle timing unconstrained traffic sharing the same communication medium. A ring management procedure for the VTP-CSMA architecture is also proposed, allowing real-time stations to adequately join/leave the virtual ring.
Layout driven selecting and chaining of partial scan flip-flops

In an era of sub-micron technology, routing is becoming a dominant factor in area, timing, and power consumption. In this paper, we study the problem of selecting and chaining of scan flip-flops with the objective of achieving minimum routing area overhead. Most of previous work on partial scan has put emphasis on selecting as few scan flip-flops as possible to break all cycles in S-graph. However, the flip-flops that break more cycles are often the ones that have more fanins and fanouts. The area adjacent to these nodes is often congestive in layout. Such selections will cause layout congestion and increase in number of tracks to chain the scan flip-flops. We propose a matching-based algorithm to perform simultaneously the selecting and chaining of scan flip-flop taking layout information into account. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms the traditional one in final layout area.
Electroacupuncture Attenuates Visceral Hypersensitivity by Inhibiting JAK2/STAT3 Signaling Pathway in the Descending Pain Modulation System

Electroacupuncture (EA) has been used for treating visceral hypersensitivity (VH). However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. This study was aim to testify the effect of EA on ileitis-provoked VH, and to confirm whether EA attenuates VH through Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)/signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway in the periaqueductal gray (PAG)-the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM)-the spinal cord dorsal horn (SCDH) axis. Methods: Goats were anesthetized and laparotomized for injecting 2,4,6-trinitro-benzene-sulfonic acid (TNBS)-ethanol solution (30mg TNBS dissolved in 40% ethanol) into the ileal wall to induce VH. EA was treated for 30min from day 7, then every 3 days for six times. VH was assessed by visceromotor response (VMR) and pain behavior response to 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 mmHg colorectal distension pressures at day 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, and 22. The spinal cord in the eleventh thoracic vertebra and the brain were collected at day 22. The protein and mRNA levels of IL-6, JAK2, and STAT3 in the SCDH were detected with western blot and qPCR, respectively. The distribution of these substances was observed with immunohistochemistry in the ventrolateral PAG (vlPAG), RVM (mainly the nucleus raphe magnus, NRM), SCDH, the nucleus tractus solitaries (NTS) and the dorsal motor nucleus of vagi (DMV). Results: Goats administered with TNBS-ethanol solution showed diarrhea, enhanced VMR and pain behavior response, and increased IL-6, phosphorylated JAK2 and STAT3 (pJAK2 and pSTAT3) in the vlPAG, NRM, NTS and DMV, and their protein and mRNA levels in the SCDH. EA relieved diarrhea, VMR and pain behavior response, decreased IL-6, pJAK2 and pSTAT3 levels in the vlPAG, NRM, SCDH, NTS, and DMV except for pSTAT3 in the DMV, but did not affect mRNA level of these three substances in the SCDH. Conclusion: EA attenuates VH probably through inhibiting JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in the PAG-RVM-SCDH axis.
A Period of Transient Viremia and Occult Infection Precedes Persistent Viremia and Antiviral Immune Responses during Multiple Low-Dose Intravaginal Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Inoculations

ABSTRACT In rhesus macaques, classic systemic infection, characterized by persistent viremia and seroconversion, occurred after multiple low-dose (103 50% tissue culture infective doses) intravaginal (IVAG) inoculations with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) strain SIVmac251. Monkeys developed classic SIV infections after a variable number of low-dose IVAG exposures to SIVmac251. Once established, the systemic infection was identical to SIV infection following high-dose IVAG SIV inoculation. However, occult systemic infection characterized by transient cell-associated or cell-free viremia consistently occurred early in the series of multiple vaginal SIV exposures. Further, antiviral cellular immune responses were present prior to the establishment of a classic systemic infection in the low-dose vaginal SIV transmission model.
Evolution of a fictional dialogue

This paper describes user-supervised Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) experiments that investigate the evolution of a sensible fictional dialogue. A user-supervised EA was used given the difficulty of defining a fitness function for evolving art tasks. Two EAs were tested for the task of evolving dialogue given an English word population. The EAs required user-assigned fitness values to be given as input with varying degrees of frequency during the evolutionary process. The success of the EAs were comparatively evaluated with respect to two-point recombination and a novel complement gene scan operator. Task performance was evaluated according to average fitness, word and genotype diversity, and the number of words used in the fittest evolved dialogue. Results indicated that for both EAs, complement gene scan was more effective for evolving complex, sensible and grammatically correct dialogue, comparative to sentences evolved by the EAs using two-point recombination.
Deciding ATL ∗ Satisfiability by Tableaux Technical report

We propose a tableau-based decision procedure for the full Alternating-time Temporal Logic ATL∗. We extend our procedure for ATL in order to deal with nesting of temporal operators. As a side effect, we obtain a new and conceptually simple tableau method for CTL∗. The worst case complexity of our procedure is 2EXPTIME. Our method is human-readable and easily implementable. A web application and binaries for our procedure are available at http://atila.ibisc. univ-evry. fr/tableau_ATL_star/.