Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Randomized Kernel Methods for Least-Squares Support Vector Machines

The least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) is a frequently used kernel method for non-linear regression and classification tasks. Here we discuss several approximation algorithms for the LS-SVM classifier. The proposed methods are based on randomized block kernel matrices, and we show that they provide good accuracy and reliable scaling for multi-class classification problems with relatively large data sets. Also, we present several numerical experiments that illustrate the practical applicability of the proposed methods.
A novel classification method for motor imagery based on Brain-Computer Interface

Brain computer interface (BCI) is known as a good way to communicate between brain and computer or other device. There are many kinds of physiological signal can operate BCI systems. Motor imagery (MI) has been demonstrated to be a good way to operate a BCI system. In some recent studies about MI based BCI systems, low accuracy rate and time consuming are common problems. In this thesis, a novel motor imagery algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy rate and computational efficiency at the same time. The architecture of many BCI system is quite complex and they involve time consuming processing. The electroencephalography (EEG) signal is the most commonly used inputs for BCI applications but EEG is often contaminated with noise. To overcome such drawbacks, in this paper we use the common spatial pattern (CSP) for feature extraction from EEG and the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) for motor imagery classification. In this study, CSP and LDA have been used to reduce the artifact and classify Mi-based EEG signal. We have used two-level cross validation scheme to determine the subject specific best time window and number of CSP features. We have compared the performance of our system with BCI competition results. This novel algorithm with high accuracy rate and efficiency can be applied to real time BCI system in real-life applications.
A SURVEY OF MULTI-START METHODS FOR COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION

Multi-start methods strategically sample the solution space of an optimization problem. The most successful of these methods have two phases that are alternated for a certain number of global iterations. The first phase generates a solution and the second seeks to improve the outcome. Each global iteration produces a solution that is typically a local optimum, and the best overall solution is the output of the algorithm. The interaction between the two phases creates a balance between search diversification (structural variation) and search intensification (improvement), to yield an effective means for generating high-quality solutions. This survey briefly sketches historical developments that have motivated the field, and then focuses on modern contributions that define the current state-of-the-art. We consider two categories of multi-start methods: memory-based and memoryless procedures. The former are based on identifying and recording specific types of information (attributes) to exploit in future constructions. The latter are based on order statistics of sampling and generate unconnected solutions. An interplay between the features of these two categories provides an inviting area for future
Rectangular room dimensions estimation using narrowband signal and sectorized antennas

A system for estimation of unknown rectangular room dimensions based on two radio transceivers, both capable of full duplex operations, is presented. The approach is based on CIR measurements taken at the same place where the signal is transmitted (generated), commonly known as self-to-self CIR. Another novelty is the receiver antenna design which consists of eight sectorized antennas with 45° aperture in the horizontal plane, whose total coverage corresponds to the isotropic one. The dimensions of a rectangular room are reconstructed directly from radio impulse responses by extracting the information regarding features like round trip time, received signal strength and reverberation time. Using radar approach the estimation of walls and corners positions are derived. Additionally, the analysis of the absorption coefficient of the test environment is conducted and a typical coefficient for office room with furniture is proposed. Its accuracy is confirmed through the results of volume estimation. Tests using measured data were performed, and the simulation results confirm the feasibility of the approach.
Eyes on the clinic: Accelerating meaningful interface analysis through unobtrusive eye tracking

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are changing the way physicians work and how medical staff care for patients. While their widespread adoption promise many benefits and computationally powerful features for end users, they may also carry with them other unintended and troubling consequences. As part of a larger ongoing research study, we deployed an unobtrusive eye tracker in outpatient clinics to observe how physicians use their EMRs. We report on our experiences and we derive a methodology for successful eye tracking data collection in the clinic. Our results highlight multiple applications for the quantitative and qualitative assessment of EMR interfaces from eye tracking data collected in situ. We describe one of these applications, the association of eye movements with the specific task that physicians engage with in the EMR, and we discuss both next steps and future application of these results.
Identification of potential biomarkers for measuring inhibition of Src kinase activity in colon cancer cells following treatment with dasatinib

Elevated levels of Src kinase expression have been found in a variety of human epithelial cancers. Most notably in colon cancer, elevated Src expression correlates with malignant potential and is also associated with metastatic disease. Dasatinib (BMS-354825) is a novel, orally active, multi-targeted kinase inhibitor that targets Src family kinases and is currently under clinical evaluation for the treatment of solid tumors. However, the effects of dasatinib on epithelial tumors are not fully understood. We show that concentrations of dasatinib that inhibit Src activity do not inhibit proliferation in 10 of 12 colon cancer cells lines. However, inhibition of integrin-dependent adhesion and migration by dasatinib correlated with inhibition of Src activity, suggesting that dasatinib may have anti-invasive or anti-metastatic activity and antiproliferative activity in epithelial tumors. Using phospho-specific antibodies, we show that inhibition of Src activity in colon cancer cell lines correlates with reduced phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase and paxillin on specific Src-dependent phosphorylation sites. We have validated the use of phospho-specific antibodies against Src Tyr419 and paxillin Tyr118 as biomarkers of dasatinib activity in vivo. Colon carcinoma–bearing mice treated with dasatinib showed a decrease in both phospho-Src Tyr419 and phospho-paxillin Tyr118 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, which correlated with inhibition of Src activity in the colon tumors. Thus, peripheral blood mononuclear cells may provide a useful surrogate tissue for biomarker studies with dasatinib using inhibition of Src Tyr419 and paxillin Tyr118 phosphorylation as read-outs of Src activity. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(12):3014–22]
Suppression of bit-pulsed jammer signals in DS-CDMA array system using independent component analysis

In this paper, independent component analysis is considered for blind suppression of interference caused by bit-pulsed jamming in a direct sequence spread spectrum communication system. A framework for applying blind techniques to the jammer mitigation problem was earlier introduced in Belouchrani et al. (2000). However, the scheme proposed there is based on second-order statistics only, and has serious practical limitations. For example, it fails for temporally uncorrelated data which is commonplace in CDMA communications. This paper extends the framework by taking into account both data modulation and temporally uncorrelated jamming, and removes the uncorrelatedness limitation by employing independent component analysis instead of second-order statistics. Computer simulations show that the proposed method performs better than the well-known RAKE method, which is the standard choice for suppressing jammer signals.
Impaired retinal iron homeostasis associated with defective phagocytosis in Royal College of Surgeons rats.

PURPOSE To determine whether iron homeostasis disorder accompanies retinal degeneration in Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats. METHODS The presence of iron was revealed directly by proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and indirectly by electron microscopy (EM). Ferritin, transferrin (Tf), and transferrin receptor (Tf-R) were localized by immunohistochemistry. Ferritin and Tf proteins were analyzed by Western blot analysis. Comparative study of Tf-R content was performed by slot-blot analysis and ferritin content was evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Ferritin and Tf-R expression was studied by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Tf expression by in situ hybridization (ISH). All studies were performed in RCS and control retinas from postnatal days (PN)20 to PN55. RESULTS PIXE analysis showed iron accumulation in outer retina of RCS rats in a time-dependent manner. EM studies revealed irregular iron inclusions on partially degenerated outer segments (OS) of photoreceptors and lamellar whorls at PN35 and very large iron deposits on membranes from a debris layer at PN55. No such deposits were found in the inner retina. Ferritin and Tf-R expression and protein levels seemed to be unaffected in the inner part of the retina. Iron accumulation was preceded by Tf degradation, as revealed by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. Tf mRNA was detected in RCS rat retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) at all stages studied. CONCLUSIONS This study presents the first evidence for a correlation of iron homeostasis imbalance with the neurodegenerative state of the retina in RCS rats. The iron imbalance is not the underlying genetic defect but is the result of impaired RPE-photoreceptor interaction, which leads to debris accumulation and subsequent blockage of the outer retina's iron delivery pathway. The increase of iron in the photoreceptor area may enhance the vulnerability of cells to oxidative stress.
Emotional Intelligence of school teachers

Emotional Intelligence is one of the predominant factors that influence in personal and as well as their professional lives of human beings. According to Goleman(1998), 80% of a person’s success in life depends on one’s emotional intelligence and 20% depends on IQ. In the teaching profession, we know the teacher undergoes the stress due to the changes in educational policies, globalization, liberalization, and advances in information technology. Hence emotional intelligence plays an important role to become a successful teacher. Emotional intelligence can be developed continuously throughout the life and learn from experiences. The Skill India is only possible with the teachers with high emotional intelligence.
A Hybird Image Retrieval System with User's Relevance Feedback Using Neurocomputing

This paper aims at developing a hybrid scheme for intelligent image retrieval using neural nets. Each item in an image database is indexed by a visual feature vector, which is extracted using color moments and discrete cosine transform coefficients. Query is characterized by a set of semantic labels, which are predefined by system designers and associated with domain concerns. The proposed hybrid image retrieval (HIR) system utilizes the image content features as the system input, and the semantic labels as its output. To compensate the deficiency of semantics modelling, an on-line user’s relevance feedback is applied to improve the retrieval performance of the HIR system. The neural net acts like a pattern association memory bank that maps the low-level feature vectors to their corresponding semantic labels. During the retrieval process, the weights of the neural net are updated by an interactive user’s relevance feedback technique, where the feedback signal comprise the neural net actual output, semantic labels provided by users and the given query. A prototype HIR system is implemented and evaluated using an artificial image database. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed techniques are promising.
The design of the en-route filtering mechanism with immediately lightweight authentication for wireless sensor networks

Security is a critical issue when sensor networks are deployed in the military, homeland or other hostile environments. Recently, Deng et al. pointed out the Path-based Denial of Service (PDoS) attacks can cause serious damage in a resource constrained WSNs. In the PDoS attack, an adversary floods either replayed packets or injected spurious packets in a multi-hop end-to-end communication path, so that the adversary can exhaust the resource of sensor nodes located in this routing path. Perrig et al. proposed a loosely time synchronous mechanism called μTESLA to cope with the above attack. However, the time asynchronous problem causes that the sensor node cannot verify whether the messages are valid or not before the trusted party releases the trapdoor key. In our scheme, the sensor nodes can verify the transmitted packets immediately to see whether they are generated by the trusted party or an adversary. Finally, we analyze the security of the proposed scheme and show that our scheme can resist the above attacks with lightweight operations.
FIELD COMPARISON OF IOMS AND IMPINGERS FOR SAMPLING OF ALIPHATIC ISOCYANATES USING THE MAP REAGENT

The determination of isocyanates concentrations in air is complicated by the presence of these substances as monomers and oligomers as well as in the vapor and aerosol phases. Direct-reading instruments (DRIs) are available for determining the diisocyanate concentrations in workplace air, but they are calibrated for the monomers only. Industry uses polymeric diisocyanates which contain monomers and oligomers. This study evaluated DRIs under laboratory conditions for their use in determining the total concentration of isocyanates monomers and oligomers that are contained in commercial polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate (PMDI). Aerosols of different commercially available PMDIs were generated at known concentrations in an exposure chamber. Parallel sampling was carried out using two laboratory methods and direct-reading instruments (DRIs) for evaluation purposes. Response curves for five commercial PMDIs were produced at chamber concentrations ranging from 4 to 40 ppb (0.05 at 0.46 mg/m) for the different instruments studied. For a given aerosol particle size distribution (MMAD 3μm), the different PMDIs slightly affect the instruments’ responses. Finally, relative humidity (RH) above 60% was shown to have an effect on the responses of most of the instruments studied. These results confirm that DRIs can be used for PMDI determinations with appropriate calibration (using accepted method); however, the user needs to know the limitations of these instruments.
Position Paper on Aspect-Oriented Modeling : Issues on Representing Crosscutting Features

This paper deals with the design of crosscutting features in general and in the UML in particular. We postulate a couple of issues that we think an aspect-oriented designer is faced with when designing crosscutting features. These issues include the independent specification of the crosscutting details and of where to crosscut, the designation of crosscut or referenced elements, the characterization of the composition strategy, and the abstract representation of crosscutting features in the overall design model. Then, we contemplate ways to obey these issues using the UML. In that contemplation, we concentrate on the design of the details of crosscutting features, i.e., the separate specification of the elements that crosscut a given decomposition and of the join points at which that crosscutting takes place, as well as the distinct designation of elements belonging to the crosscut decomposition that are used (e.g., referenced) by the crosscutting elements.
Role of type 1 T helper cells in the resolution of acute Streptococcus pneumoniae sinusitis: a mouse model.

BACKGROUND We examined the importance of the adaptive and innate immune responses in the resolution of an acute bacterial sinus infection in mice. METHODS Recombinase-activating gene knockout (RAG-1(-/-)) (no lymphocytes) and C57BL/6 (wild-type) mice were infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae. For determination of the cell type involved, lymphocytes from mice were adoptively transferred into RAG-1(-/-), C57BL/6 (all lymphocytes), B cell-deficient, and T cell-deficient mice. The degree of infection and inflammation was determined by quantification of S. pneumoniae from nasal lavage and analysis of sinus tissue, respectively. RESULTS In C57BL/6 mice, both the infection and inflammation resolved in 21 days, whereas neither resolved in RAG-1(-/-) mice. When C57BL/6 lymphocytes were adoptively transferred into RAG-1(-/-) mice, resolution of the infection and inflammation occurred. Mice without B cells were able to clear the infection, whereas mice without T cells could not clear it. In vitro stimulation of the draining lymph nodes of the infected mice by use of heat-killed S. pneumoniae led to the production of interferon (IFN)- gamma. Flow-cytometric analysis of lymphocytes obtained from sinus mucosa and draining lymph nodes showed an increase in the number of type 1 T helper cell-like cells over that in control mice. CONCLUSIONS RAG-1(-/-) mice with innate immunity but no lymphocytes contain--but cannot clear--a bacterial sinus infection. Lymphocytes transferred to RAG-1(-/-) mice clear the infection. The sinus mucosa and draining lymph nodes show an increase in T cells generating IFN- gamma. These data demonstrate that T cells are essential in clearing an acute S. pneumoniae bacterial sinus infection.
Cx43 CT domain influences infarct size and susceptibility to ventricular tachyarrhythmias in acute myocardial infarction.

AIMS Hearts of mice expressing K258stop in place of connexin43 (Cx43) protein were subjected to acute myocardial infarction in order to assess the importance of Cx43 regulation on infarct size and arrhythmia susceptibility. This mutation K258stop prevents chemical regulation of Cx43 channels, including by low intracellular pH. METHODS AND RESULTS Langendorff-perfused hearts of mice harbouring one Cx43 knockout (KO) allele and one K258stop or Cx43 allele (K258stop/KO; Cx43/KO as control) were subjected to 1 h of ischaemia and 4 h of reperfusion by reversibly occluding the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery. Inducibility of ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTs) was tested by applying an endocardial burst-pacing protocol during LAD occlusion. Separately, time course and the extent of acidification-induced closure of gap junction channels were tested by dual-voltage clamp. Infarct volume (as per cent of area at risk) was significantly larger in K258stop/KO hearts compared with Cx43/KO controls (42.2 +/- 3 vs. 30.4 +/- 1.7%, P = 0.004, n = 8 each). During LAD occlusion, K258stop/KO hearts had a higher incidence of pacing-induced VT and a higher frequency of occurrence of spontaneous premature ventricular beats. The occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias was also significantly larger in the K258stop/KO hearts during reperfusion. In separate experiments, we demonstrated reduced sensitivity to acidification-induced uncoupling in cell pairs obtained from K258stop/KO hearts. CONCLUSION Loss of the regulatory domain of Cx43 leads to an increase in infarct size and increased susceptibility to arrhythmias following acute coronary occlusion.
A 975-to-1960MHz fast-locking fractional-N synthesizer with adaptive bandwidth control and 4/4.5 prescaler for digital TV tuners

There is a high demand for high-performance tuners to meet the digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) standard. Often the DVB-T tuners employ a double-conversion zero-IF (DZIF) architecture that demands a wideband fractional-N synthesizer as the first local oscillator (LO1) to cover the frequency range of 975 to 1960MHz. This LO1 needs to meet a stringent phase-noise requirement with an adequate target phase noise of −87dBc/Hz at a 10kHz offset and integrated rms phase error less than 1° [1]. Because of the very wide frequency range, the variation of loop bandwidth may affect the phase-noise performance and loop stability.
Supervisors’ perceptions of student placements in speech-language pathology private practice: benefits, challenges and strategies

ABSTRACT The private practice workforce in speech-language pathology (SLP) has grown considerably in recent years, but growth in student placements in this setting has not seen commensurate growth. This study investigated benefits and challenges reported by SLP private practitioners in facilitating student placements, strategies they used to manage challenges encountered, and their perceptions of impacts of placements on client services and practice income. A qualitative case study approach was used involving semi-structured interviews with five participants who had recently supervised student placements in their private practice. Transcripts were analysed using a deductive content analysis approach to coding. Codes were collapsed into sub-categories then categories pertaining to benefits, challenges and strategies used. Benefits to clients, private practitioners, their practice, the students and the profession broadly were identified. Challenges included finding time for supervision and managing under-performing students. Income was not affected by the placements. SLPs used a range of strategies to successfully manage the challenges. Four of the five participants expressed high levels of satisfaction with the placements. Participants felt that placements were beneficial to all involved with prior planning and strategies to manage any challenges and most plan to continue offering student placements.
Effect of Learning and Database in Robustness of Security Tools: Based on Immune System Modeling

Increasing complexity and dynamics of systems has reduced the efficiency of security tools. For overcoming this problem, security tools introduce newer patches, thereby the size of database and computation overloads are increased. By Biological Immune System (BIS) modeling and simulation, its behavior in different situations will be considered and the effect of database size and learning ability in robustness of the BIS will be evaluated. For the BIS modeling and simulation, Biological Agent will be introduced and a Multi Agent System in Net logo software has been designed. According the results of simulation, the effect of learning rate in different states in system's robustness has been evaluated. Furthermore, robustness of the systems with different sizes of database in the initial state has been considered. After all, the effect these two parameters on the BIS robustness have been illustrated and compared.