Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systematic LDPC Convolutional Codes: Asymptotic and Finite-Length Anytime Properties

Here we propose an ensemble of non-terminated systematic LDPC convolutional codes with increasing memory, and show that, over the binary erasure channel (BEC), these codes achieve anytime reliability asymptotically when decoded with an expanding-window message-passing decoder. The corresponding anytime exponents are determined through protograph-based extrinsic information transfer charts. Fundamental complications arising when transmitting with finite block lengths are identified and a combinatorial performance analysis, when transmitting over a static BEC with a fixed number of erasures per codeword block, is developed. Based on the performance analysis, we explore the use of feedback for achieving anytime behavior with constraints on block length. To meet complexity constraints, with or without feedback, the code memory can be limited at the cost of an error floor emerging with a delay proportional to the memory constraint. Although the analysis is developed for a static BEC we show numerically that we can design efficient low-complexity finite-length codes with anytime properties even for the conventional BEC.
Intelligent automatic starting engine based on voice recognition system

A vehicle key provides the main functions for accessing the vehicle, accessing the ignition mechanism, and the ability to actually start the car. Voice based starting engine access control system potentially replaces these main functions by replacing the key with the specific user voice. In the proposed system, the access may be authorized simply by means of an enrolled user speaking into a microphone attached to the system. The proposed system then will decide whether the word is `On' or `Off'. The decision voice will be sent to Arduino in order to activate the automotive relay, which will be used to activate the engine's motor starter. Furthermore, the intelligent system approach is used to develop authorized words model based on the voice. Particularly Support Vector Machines based classification system is used in the proposed system to identify the authorized words. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent Automatic voice-based starting engine access control system based on Mel-Frequency Ceptral Coefficient (MFCC) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs), since it resulting the training and testing accuracy of 100% and 92.15%, respectively.
Observational Epidemiologic Studies of Nutrition and Cancer: The Next Generation (with Better Observation)

It would be of enormous public health importance if diet and physical activity, both modifiable behavioral factors, were causally related to cancer. Nevertheless, the nutritional epidemiology of cancer remains problematic, in part because of persistent concerns that standard questionnaires measure diet and physical activity with too much error. We present a new strategy for addressing this measurement error problem. First, as background, we note that food frequency and physical activity questionnaires require respondents to report “typical” diet or activity over the previous year or longer. Multiple 24-hour recalls (24HR), based on reporting only the previous day's behavior, offer potential cognitive advantages over the questionnaires, and biomarker evidence suggests the 24-hour dietary recall is more accurate than the food frequency questionnaire. The expense involved in administering multiple 24HRs in large epidemiologic studies, however, has up to now been prohibitive. In that context, we suggest that Internet-based 24HRs, for both diet and physical activity, represent a practical and cost-effective approach for incorporating multiple recalls in large epidemiologic studies. We discuss (1) recent efforts to develop such Internet-based instruments and their accompanying software support systems; (2) ongoing studies to evaluate the feasibility of using these new instruments in cohort studies; (3) additional investigations to gauge the accuracy of the Internet-based recalls vis-à-vis standard instruments and biomarkers; and (4) new statistical approaches for combining the new instruments with standard assessment tools and biomarkers The incorporation of Internet-based 24HRs into large epidemiologic studies may help advance our understanding of the nutritional determinants of cancer. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(4):1026–32)
Bat echolocation calls: adaptation and convergent evolution

Bat echolocation calls provide remarkable examples of ‘good design’ through evolution by natural selection. Theory developed from acoustics and sonar engineering permits a strong predictive basis for understanding echolocation performance. Call features, such as frequency, bandwidth, duration and pulse interval are all related to ecological niche. Recent technological breakthroughs have aided our understanding of adaptive aspects of call design in free-living bats. Stereo videogrammetry, laser scanning of habitat features and acoustic flight path tracking permit reconstruction of the flight paths of echolocating bats relative to obstacles and prey in nature. These methods show that echolocation calls are among the most intense airborne vocalizations produced by animals. Acoustic tracking has clarified how and why bats vary call structure in relation to flight speed. Bats using broadband echolocation calls adjust call design in a range-dependent manner so that nearby obstacles are localized accurately. Recent phylogenetic analyses based on gene sequences show that particular types of echolocation signals have evolved independently in several lineages of bats. Call design is often influenced more by perceptual challenges imposed by the environment than by phylogeny, and provides excellent examples of convergent evolution. Now that whole genome sequences of bats are imminent, understanding the functional genomics of echolocation will become a major challenge.
Sialic Acid Catabolism Confers a Competitive Advantage to Pathogenic Vibrio cholerae in the Mouse Intestine

ABSTRACT Sialic acids comprise a family of nine-carbon ketosugars that are ubiquitous on mammalian mucous membranes. However, sialic acids have a limited distribution among Bacteria and are confined mainly to pathogenic and commensal species. Vibrio pathogenicity island 2 (VPI-2), a 57-kb region found exclusively among pathogenic strains of Vibrio cholerae, contains a cluster of genes (nan-nag) putatively involved in the scavenging (nanH), transport (dctPQM), and catabolism (nanA, nanE, nanK, and nagA) of sialic acid. The capacity to utilize sialic acid as a carbon and energy source might confer an advantage to V. cholerae in the mucus-rich environment of the gut, where sialic acid availability is extensive. In this study, we show that V. cholerae can utilize sialic acid as a sole carbon source. We demonstrate that the genes involved in the utilization of sialic acid are located within the nan-nag region of VPI-2 by complementation of Escherichia coli mutants and gene knockouts in V. cholerae N16961. We show that nanH, dctP, nanA, and nanK are highly expressed in V. cholerae grown on sialic acid. By using the infant mouse model of infection, we show that V. cholerae ΔnanA strain SAM1776 is defective in early intestinal colonization stages. In addition, SAM1776 shows a decrease in the competitive index in colonization-competition assays comparing the mutant strain with both O1 El Tor and classical strains. Our data indicate an important relationship between the catabolism of sialic acid and bacterial pathogenesis, stressing the relevance of the utilization of the resources found in the host's environment.
Using Qualitative Relationships for Bounding Probability Distributions

We exploit qualitative probabilistic relationships among variables for computing bounds of conditional probability distributions of interest in Bayesian networks. Using the signs of qualitative relationships, we can implement abstraction operations that are guaranteed to bound the distributions of interest in the desired direction. By evaluating incrementally improved approximate networks, our algorithm obtains monotonically tightening bounds that converge to exact distributions. For supermodular utility functions, the tightening bounds monotonically reduce the set of admissible decision alternatives as well.
The Scent of a Smell: An Extensive Comparison Between Textual and Structural Smells

Code smells are symptoms of poor design or implementation choices that have a negative effect on several aspects of software maintenance and evolution, such as program comprehension or change- and fault-proneness. This is why researchers have spent a lot of effort on devising methods that help developers to automatically detect them in source code. Almost all the techniques presented in literature are based on the analysis of structural properties extracted from source code, although alternative sources of information (e.g., textual analysis) for code smell detection have also been recently investigated. Nevertheless, some studies have indicated that code smells detected by existing tools based on the analysis of structural properties are generally ignored (and thus not refactored) by the developers. In this paper, we aim at understanding whether code smells detected using textual analysis are perceived and refactored by developers in the same or different way than code smells detected through structural analysis. To this aim, we set up two different experiments. We have first carried out a software repository mining study to analyze how developers act on textually or structurally detected code smells. Subsequently, we have conducted a user study with industrial developers and quality experts in order to qualitatively analyze how they perceive code smells identified using the two different sources of information. Results indicate that textually detected code smells are easier to identify and for this reason they are considered easier to refactor with respect to code smells detected using structural properties. On the other hand, the latter are often perceived as more severe, but more difficult to exactly identify and remove.
Investigation of the effect of magnetic field on ferrofluid in microelectromechanical devices (MEMS)

Considerable efforts have been spent in the development of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in the last decade to understand their behaviour, and the improvement of their applicability in many different areas. Precise control over the synthesis conditions and surface functionalization of MNPs is crucial because it governs their physical properties and their colloidal stability. The magnetic platforms possess very small size and narrow size distribution together with high magnetization values. These nanoparticles (NPs) must combine high magnetic susceptibility for an optimum magnetic enrichment and loss of magnetization after removal of the magnetic field. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach has been used to investigate the impact of a magnetic field in ferrofluid flow through a T-microchannel. The microchannel consists of one 400μm wide main branch and two 200μm wide sidebranches. Available experimental data is used to validate the Eulerian-Eulerian approach in simulating the nanoparticles in flow flow under the influence of magnetic field. In general, magnetic nanoparticles are deflected across the suspending ferrofluid by negative magnetophoresis and confined by a water flow to the center of the micro-channel. The effect of ferrofluid flow rate on the particle focusing performance has been examined. It is found that the particle focusing effectiveness increases with decreasing flow rate.
Temporal Analysis in Epistemic SCIS Tasks

Temporal considerations are core to understanding both learning, and information seeking processes and outcomes. This claim is true of both individual, and collaboratively based work. Indeed, limited analysis has been conducted in both the learning and information sciences to describe temporal features of SCIS. This paper discusses some of this work, which provides the background for ongoing analysis (to be presented at the workshop) of temporal factors in a designed epistemic SCIS task.
State assignment for FSM low power design

The paper concerns low power design of synchronous FSM and power estimation regarding a given input sequence. A novel and practical approach for state assignment is suggested bp means of which the average rate of register switching is reduced. We achieved more realistic power estimates in comparison with the probabilistic approach. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Putative Surface Proteins Encoded within a Novel Transferable Locus Confer a High-Biofilm Phenotype to Enterococcus faecalis

ABSTRACT Enterococci are opportunistic pathogens and among the leading causes of nosocomial infections. Enterococcus faecalis, the dominant species among infection-derived isolates, has recently been recognized as capable of forming biofilms on abiotic surfaces in vitro as well as on indwelling medical devices. A few bacterial factors known to contribute to biofilm formation in E. faecalis have been characterized. To identify additional factors which may be important to this process, we utilized a Tn917-based insertional mutagenesis strategy to generate a mutant bank in a high-biofilm-forming E. faecalis strain, E99. The resulting mutant bank was screened for mutants exhibiting a significantly reduced ability to form biofilms. One mutant, P101D12, which showed greater than 70% reduction in its ability to form biofilms compared to the wild-type parent, was further characterized. The single Tn917 insertion in P101D12 was mapped to a gene, bee-2, encoding a probable cell wall-anchored protein. Sequence information for the region flanking bee-2 revealed that this gene was a member of a locus (termed the bee locus for biofilm enhancer in enterococcus) comprised of five genes encoding three putative cell wall-anchored proteins and two probable sortases. Contour-clamped homogeneous electric field gel and Southern hybridization analyses suggested that the bee locus is likely harbored on a large conjugative plasmid. Filter mating assays using wild-type E99 or mutant P101D12 as a donor confirmed that the bee locus could transfer conjugally at high frequency to recipient E. faecalis strains. This represents the first instance of the identification of a mobile genetic element conferring biofilm-forming property in E. faecalis.
Uniformly Improving the Cram&#201;r-Rao Bound and Maximum-Likelihood Estimation

An important aspect of estimation theory is characterizing the best achievable performance in a given estimation problem, as well as determining estimators that achieve the optimal performance. The traditional Cramer-Rao type bounds provide benchmarks on the variance of any estimator of a deterministic parameter vector under suitable regularity conditions, while requiring a-priori specification of a desired bias gradient. In applications, it is often not clear how to choose the required bias. A direct measure of the estimation error that takes both the variance and the bias into account is the mean squared error (MSE), which is the sum of the variance and the squared-norm of the bias. Here, we develop bounds on the MSE in estimating a deterministic parameter vector x0 over all bias vectors that are linear in x0, which includes the traditional unbiased estimation as a special case. In some settings, it is possible to minimize the MSE over all linear bias vectors. More generally, direct minimization is not possible since the optimal solution depends on the unknown x0. Nonetheless, we show that in many cases, we can find bias vectors that result in an MSE bound that is smaller than the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for all values of x0. Furthermore, we explicitly construct estimators that achieve these bounds in cases where an efficient estimator exists, by performing a simple linear transformation on the standard maximum likelihood (ML) estimator. This leads to estimators that result in a smaller MSE than the ML approach for all possible values of x0
Interactive Retrieval of Color Images

Retrieval of color images has become an important application in recent years. We make a concise analysis of methodologies for interactive retrieval of color images. Two issues are of importance. First, the domain, which can be broad or narrow. Second, the search method, which can be object search, target search, category search or associative search. On the basis of these, we give complete guidelines for choosing and designing methods for interactive color image retrieval based on the domain and search goal characteristics.
LOS and NLOS Classification for Underwater Acoustic Localization

The low sound speed in water makes propagation delay (PD)-based range estimation attractive for underwater acoustic localization (UWAL). However, due to the long channel impulse response and the existence of reflectors, PD-based UWAL suffers from significant degradation when PD measurements of nonline-of-sight (NLOS) communication links are falsely identified as line-of-sight (LOS). In this paper, we utilize expected variation of PD measurements due to mobility of nodes and present an algorithm to classify the former into LOS and NLOS links. First, by comparing signal strength-based and PD-based range measurements, we identify object-related NLOS (ONLOS) links, where signals are reflected from objects with high reflection loss, for example, ships hull, docks, rocks and so on. In the second step, excluding PD measurements related to ONLOS links, we use a constrained expectation-maximization algorithm to classify PD measurements into two classes: LOS and sea-related NLOS (SNLOS), and to estimate the statistical parameters of each class. Since our classifier relies on models for the underwater acoustic channel, which are often simplified, alongside simulation results, we validate the performance of our classifier based on measurements from three sea trials. Both our simulation and sea trial results demonstrate a high detection rate of ONLOS links, and accurate classification of PD measurements into LOS and SNLOS.
Research on Tujia Brocade Craft Visualization Based on Unmarked Motion Capture Technique

Tujia brocade is a typical brocade of ethnic groups in China and also known as "Xilankapu", or "Knitting Floral Bedspread". It was listed in the directory of National Intangible Heritages of China in 2006. However, due to the impact of the way of Tujia brocade craft inheritance and other factors, Tujia brocade craft is increasingly declining. So it is urgent to strengthen the digital protection of Tujia brocade, this paper tries to carry out discussion and study of the key movements of Tujia brocade craft. And it puts forward a new method in intangible culture heritage protection based on unmarked motion capture technique. It captures the key actions of twelve processes of Tujia brocade craft combined with Kinect and Leap Motion and establishes a motion data set of Tujia brocade. In addition, virtual representation of Tujia brocade craft is realized by three-dimensional animation technology. Thus the research causes quite great practical effect on digital protection of Tujia brocade.
Advanced accelerated testing methodology for long-term life prediction of CFRP laminates

An advanced accelerated testing methodology (ATM-2) for long-term life prediction of CFRP laminates exposed to actual loading with a general stress and temperature history is proposed based on the conventional accelerated testing methodology (ATM-1) established for the long-term life prediction of CFRP laminates exposed to stress and temperature. The most important condition for ATM-1 is that the time–temperature superposition principle held for the viscoelastic behavior of matrix resin holds also for the static, creep, and fatigue strengths of CFRP laminates. Furthermore, three conditions that form the basis of ATM-2 are introduced along with their scientific bases. The long-term fatigue strength of CFRP laminates under an actual loading is formulated based on the three conditions. The viscoelastic coefficients of matrix resin, which perform an important role for the time and temperature dependence of long-term life of CFRP laminates, are also formulated based on the time–temperature superposition principle. The applicability of ATM-2 is demonstrated by predicting the long-term fatigue strengths of four typical directions of unidirectional CFRP laminates.
Characterisations of fibre networks in paper using micro computed tomography images

Although several methods exist for characterisation of the morphology of wood fibres, the application of these procedures for the analysis of paper microstructure has been limited due to their complexity or shortcomings. Here, a methodology for microstructure characterisation of individual fibres, as well as paper, is presented which is based on three dimensional computed tomography images of paper at micrometer resolution. The first step of the method consists of a graphical user interface (GUI), designed to minimize the amount of manual labour. To manually identify a fibre from a 2 x 2 mm2 paper sheet takes about one minute with this GUI. Then several algorithms are available to analyse the image data automatically guided by the user input. With this approach it is possible to measure several characteristic properties without complete segmentation of the individual fibres. The methodology includes a method to calculate the contact areas between fibres even in extreme cases of severely deformed fibres, which are naturally present in paper. Among the measurable properties are also estimators for the free fibre lengths and fibre wall thickness.
Nutritional quality of food resources for zooplankton (Daphnia) in a tidal freshwater system (Sacramento‐San Joaquin River Delta)

We examined the relative nutritional values of natural phytoplankton and particulate detritus for zooplankton growth in a detritus‐rich environment. Seston was collected seasonally from four different habitat types in a tidal freshwater system and fed to juvenile Daphnia magna under controlled culture conditions by use of a flow‐through design. Seston particulate organic carbon (POC) and chlorophyll a contents ranged from ~330 to 3,800 µg L-1 POC and 1.4 to 45 µg L-1 Chl a. A partial residual analysis revealed that detrital carbon concentrations were only weakly related to Daphnia growth, whereas Chl a proved to be highly predictive of Daphnia growth rates across all investigated habitat types. Overall, habitat type had a strong effect on growth rates, whereas season of seston collection did not, but differences among habitats could be attributed to differing Chl a concentrations. The results from this study imply that, even in systems with overwhelming amounts of detrital carbon from a variety of sources, nutritional factors associated with phytoplankton can be dominant in regulating zooplankton growth.