Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Iterative detection in a multi-user cooperative OFDM system with carrier frequency offsets

The problem of multi-user cooperation to achieve cooperative diversity for single-antenna terminals is considered. A cooperative strategy is proposed which divides multiple users into groups with each group having two users as partners. The two users alternately transmit their own information first, then simultaneously amplify and forward the partner's data in the same channel. Comparing to the conventional multi-user cooperation where the two users relay the partner's data in two orthogonal channels, the spectral efficiency of the proposed scheme is increased. However, as the two users relay the partner's data in the same channel, multi-user detection problem arises. An iterative detection making use of the new scheme's property is proposed in the presence of frequency offsets. The proposed scheme only requires time and frequency synchronization but no channel state information at the user terminals. To estimate the channel at the destination, a training scheme is proposed. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve the same cooperative diversity as the conventional scheme, while the spectral efficiency is lifted by 4/3.
Fibromodulin-null Mice Have Abnormal Collagen Fibrils, Tissue Organization, and Altered Lumican Deposition in Tendon*

Fibromodulin is a member of a family of connective tissue glycoproteins/proteoglycans containing leucine-rich repeat motifs. Several members of this gene family bind to fibrillar collagens and are believed to function in the assembly of the collagen network in connective tissues. Here we show that mice lacking a functional fibromodulin gene exhibit an altered morphological phenotype in tail tendon with fewer and abnormal collagen fiber bundles. In fibromodulin-null animals virtually all collagen fiber bundles are disorganized and have an abnormal morphology. Also 10–20% of the bundles in heterozygous mice are similar to the abnormal bundles in fibromodulin-null tail tendon. Ultrastructural analysis of Achilles tendon from fibromodulin-null mice show collagen fibrils with irregular and rough outlines in cross-section. Morphometric analysis show that fibromodulin-null mice have on the average thinner fibrils than wild type animals as a result of a larger preponderance of very thin fibrils in an overall similar range of fibril diameters. Protein and RNA analyses show an approximately 4-fold increase in the content of lumican in fibromodulin-null as compared with wild type tail tendon, despite a decrease in lumican mRNA. These results demonstrate a role for fibromodulin in collagen fibrillogenesis and suggest that the orchestrated action of several leucine-rich repeat glycoproteins/proteoglycans influence the architecture of collagen matrices.
Crossword Puzzle Resolution in Italian using Distributional Models for Clue Similarity

Leveraging previous knowledge is essential for the automatic resolution of Crossword Puzzles (CPs). Clues from a new crossword may have appeared in the past, verbatim or paraphrased, and thus we can extract similar clues using information retrieval (IR) techniques. The output of a search engine implementing the retrieval model can be refined using learning to rank techniques: the goal is to move the clues that have the same answer of the query clue to the top of the result list. The accuracy of a crossword solver heavily depends on the quality of the latter. In previous work, the lists generated by an IR engine were reranked with a linear model by exploiting the multiple occurrences of an answer in such lists. In this paper, following our recent work on CP resolution for the English language, we create a labelled dataset for Italian, and propose (i) a set of reranking baselines and (ii) a neural reranking model based on distributed representations of clues and answers. Our neural model improves over our proposed baselines and the state of the art.
Modeling and analyzing technical systems as complex networks: Detecting inverse response

”Complex networks” is the term for a research area where complex systems are modeled by a graph to analyze their structural behavior. They are mostly used in the areas of social sciences, biology and physics. For example, complex networks are a proper method to describe and analyze the non-trivial characteristics depending on the interconnection in a society or between human organs. In the context of computational intelligence, this paper introduces an idea to transfer the methods of the area of complex networks to technical systems, and, fur-thermore, enhance them to permit analyzing dynamic behavior. As a basis for the method transfer a transfer-function-based graph is presented which allows modeling technical systems in the same way as complex networks. The potential to detect dynamical behavior, in addition to structural behavior, is demonstrated by a new algorithm that detects inverse response in interconnected systems based on methods of complex networks. The introduced algorithm provides a qualitative answer if inverse response behavior is possible between a pair of input and output of a system. Finally, two case studies are used to demonstrate the algorithm.
A MapReduce based Parallel SVM for Email Classification

Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a powerful classification and regression tool. Varying approaches including SVM based techniques are proposed for email classification. Automated email classification according to messages or user-specific folders and information extraction from chronologically ordered email streams have become interesting areas in text machine learning research. This paper presents a parallel SVM based on MapReduce (PSMR) algorithm for email classification. We discuss the challenges that arise from differences between email foldering and traditional document classification. We show experimental results from an array of automated classification methods and evaluation methodologies, including Naive Bayes, SVM and PSMR method of foldering results on the Enron datasets based on the timeline. By distributing, processing and optimizing the subsets of the training data across multiple participating nodes, the parallel SVM based on MapReduce algorithm reduces the training time significantly
Molecular dynamics simulation of doxorubicin adsorption on a bundle of functionalized CNT

In this study, molecular dynamics simulation is used to investigate the adsorption of an anticancer drug, doxorubicin, on bundles of functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in an aqueous solution. Carboxylic group has been selected as the functional group. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed for both separated systems containing a SWNT bundle and a functionalized carbon nanotube bundle, and results are compared with existing experimental data. MD results show that doxorubicin can be adsorbed on CNTs using different methods such as entrapment within CNT bundle, attachment to the side wall of the CNT, and adsorption on the CNT inner cavity. For functionalized CNT, the adsorption of drugs on the functional groups is essential for predicting the enhancement of drug loading on the functionalized nanotubes. Furthermore, the adsorption behavior of doxorubicin on CNTs is fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The results show that Langmuir model can predict the adsorption behavior of doxorubicin on CNTs more accurately than Freundlich model does. As predicted by this isotherm model, the adsorption process of doxorubicin on CNTs is relatively difficult, but it can be improved by increasing the functional groups on the CNTs surface.
Semantic retrieval system based on ontology

The recall factor is low when keywords are used to retrieve information, and many related documents are omitted. Semantic annotation is used to comment documents to improve the recall factor. While extremely large instances querying requirements may crash ABox reasoner. In this research, a method is proposed to improve the efficiency of semantic retrieving via combining ABox reasoning and database retrieving. A definition of semantic relatedness between two concepts is proposed by way of computing the semantic distance. In order to avoid repeatedly computing the relatedness in information retrieving, semantic relatedness is computed outline and saved. We note documents with Annotea editing system and extract these annotations to store semantic relatedness information in database. And an algorithm is proposed to retrieve semantic information in database.
Effects of continuous positive airway pressure and isocapnic‐hypoxia on cerebral autoregulation in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea

Altered cerebral autoregulation (CA) in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients may contribute to increased stroke risk in this population; the gold standard treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure, which improves cerebrovascular regulation and may decrease the risk of stroke. Isocapnic‐hypoxia impairs CA in healthy subjects, but it remains unknown in OSA whether impaired CA is further exacerbated by isocapnic‐hypoxia and whether it is improved by treatment with continuous positive airway pressure. During normoxia, CA was altered in the more severe but not in the less severe OSA patients, while, in contrast, during isocapnic‐hypoxia, CA was similar between groups and tended to improve in patients with more severe OSA compared to normoxia. From a clinical perspective, one month of continuous positive airway pressure treatment does not improve CA. From a physiological perspective, this study suggests that sympathetic overactivity may be responsible for altered CA in the more severe OSA patients.
AWG-based metro WDM networking

A plethora of metropolitan area wavelength-division multiplexing networks have been proposed and examined in recent years with the aim to alleviate the bandwidth bottleneck between increasingly higher-speed local/access networks and high-speed backbone networks. Many of the considered metropolitan area networks use the arrayed waveguide grating as an optical building block. As we review in this article, in ring, interconnected ring, and meshed metro WDM networks, the AWG is typically used to realize wavelength multiplexers, demultiplexers, or optical add-drop multiplexers without capitalizing on spatial wavelength reuse. By using the AWG as a wavelength router, highly efficient star metro WDM networks can be realized due to extensive spatial wavelength reuse. We give an overview of star metro WDM networks that are able to meet modular upgradability, transparency, flexibility, efficiency, reliability, and protection requirements of future metro networks. AWG-based star networks also enable an evolution path of ring networks toward highly efficient and fault-tolerant hybrid star-ring metro network solutions.
Effects of Ezetimibe/Simvastatin and Rosuvastatin on Oxidative Stress in Diabetic Neuropathy: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Objective. To evaluate the effects of ezetimibe/simvastatin (EZE/SIMV) and rosuvastatin (ROSUV) on oxidative stress (OS) markers in patients with diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN). Methods. We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial in adult patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and DPN, as evaluated by composite scores and nerve conduction studies (NCS). Seventy-four subjects with T2DM were allocated 1 : 1 : 1 to placebo, EZE/SIMV 10/20 mg, or ROSUV 20 mg for 16 weeks. All patients were assessed before and after treatment: primary outcomes were lipid peroxidation (LPO), and nitric oxide (NO) surrogate levels in plasma; secondary outcomes included NCS, neuropathic symptom scores, and metabolic parameters. Data were expressed as mean ± SD or SEM, frequencies, and percentages; we used nonparametric analysis. Results. LPO levels were reduced in both statin arms after 16 weeks of treatment (p < 0.05 versus baseline), without changes in the placebo group. NO levels were not significantly affected by statin treatment, although a trend towards significance concerning increased NO levels was noted in both statin arms. No significant changes were observed for the NCS or composite scores. Discussion. EZE/SIMV and ROSUV are superior to placebo in reducing LPO in subjects with T2DM suffering from polyneuropathy. This trial is registered with NCT02129231.
An integrated environment for open-source network softwarization

Network softwarization drives innovation both in software and hardware. This demo introduces a highly integrated environment that enables open source solutions for software defined network (SDN) in both hardware and software. This environment is built upon the NetFPGA platform for rapid prototyping of networking devices. It showcases tools (OSNT and OFLOPS) for evaluating the performance of networking devices, and demonstrates them using a pipelined multi-table OpenFlow enabled switch application. An open-source environment integrating both software and hardware that fully inter-operate, as demonstrated here, is essential for high-quality software defined networking solutions.
Social networking site use among caregivers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience higher levels of stress relative to those of children with other developmental disabilities and typical development. To date, little research has empirically examined the relationship between social supports, social networking site (SNS) use, and stress among caregivers of children with ASD. Using the resiliency model of family stress, adjustment, and adaptation as a theoretical framework, we explore the links between perceived social supports, SNS use, and stress among caregivers of children with ASD. We do this by conducting a cross-sectional research design and using a structural equation modeling statistical approach. Practical and theoretical implications will be revealed by this study. Keywords : Social networking site, stress, caregiver, strain, social support, coping strategies, Partial Least Squares. Introduction Research consistently demonstrates that stress among caregivers is linked with several negative outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and disease (Dyson 1997; Mausbach et al. 2012). Evidence also shows, however, that perceived social support mitigates caregiver stress (Luther et al. 2005), and can contribute to more positive outcomes for caregivers of individuals with various conditions including dementia (Kaufman et al. 2010), Alzheimer (Mausbach et al. 2012), and mental health (Mackay and Pakenham 2012). While traditional, face-to-face support groups have been shown to provide caregivers with social support thereby decreasing stress, the recent availability of social networking sites has broadened the ways in which caregivers connect with one another. For example, social media is used by patients to seek healthcare information and social support through support groups (Hamm et al. 2013). A major reason for studying the antecedents of stress among caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is the rapidly growing prevalence of the disorder. The growing prevalence of ASD in recent years has increased the interest among researchers to investigate the effect of caring for children with ASD on caregivers. Autism is arguably the fastest growing developmental disability since estimates show the number of American children diagnosed with ASD will increase by 10 t0 15 percent annually (Luther et al. 2005). Recent estimates suggest that 1 in 68 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with an ASD by the age of 8 years (CDC, 2014). Studies consistently show that caregivers of children with ASD report higher levels of stress than those of children with other developmental disabilities as well as typical development (Dykens et al. 2014; Emerson 2003; Estes et al. 2009; Harper et al. 2013). Among caregivers of children with developmental disabilities, similarly to research on caregivers of others with other disabilities, research suggests that formal social support groups partially mitigate the immense stress
Comparing Direct Off-Screen Pointing, Peephole, and Flick & Pinch Interaction for Map Navigation

Navigating large workspaces with mobile devices often require users to access information that spatially lies beyond it's viewport. To browse information on such workspaces, two prominent spatially-aware navigation techniques, peephole, and direct off-screen pointing, have been proposed as alternatives to the standard on-screen flick and pinch gestures. Previous studies have shown that both techniques can outperform on-screen gestures in various user tasks, but no prior study has compared the three techniques in a map-based analytic task. In this paper, we examine these two spatially-aware techniques and compare their efficiency to on-screen gestures in a map navigation and exploration scenario. Our study demonstrates that peephole and direct off-screen pointing allows for 30% faster navigation times between workspace locations and that on-screen flick and pinch is superior for accurate retrieval of workspace content.
International Journal of Health Geographics Open Access Research Physical Accessibility and Utilization of Health Services in Yemen

Background: Assessment of physical access to health services is extremely important for planning. Complex methods that incorporate data inputs from road networks and transport systems are used to assess physical access to healthcare in industrialised countries. However, such data inputs hardly exist in many developing countries. Straight-line distances between the service provider and resident population are easily obtained but their relationship with driving distance and travel time is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between different measures of physical access, including straight-line distances, road distances and travel time and the impact of these measures on the vaccination of children in Yemen. Methods: Coordinates of houses and health facilities were determined by GPS machine in Urban and rural areas in Taiz province, Yemen. Road distances were measured by an odometer of a vehicle driven from participants' houses to the nearest health centre. Driving time was measured using a stopwatch. Data on children's vaccination were collected by personal interview and verified by inspecting vaccination cards. Results: There was a strong correlation between straight-line distances, driving distances and driving time (straight line distances vs. driving distance r = 0.92, p < 0.001, straight line distances vs. driving time r = 0.75; p < 0.001, driving distance vs. driving time r = 0.83, p < 0.001). Each measure of physical accessibility showed strong association with vaccination of children after adjusting for socioeconomic status. Conclusion: Straight-line distances, driving distances and driving time are strongly linked and associated with vaccination uptake. Straight-line distances can be used to assess physical access to health services where data inputs on road networks and transport are lacking. Impact of physical access is clear in Yemen, highlighting the need for efforts to target vaccination and other preventive healthcare measures to children who live away from health facilities. Background Access to health services is difficult to define. It is a mul-tidimensional process that in addition to the quality of care, involves geographical accessibility, availability of the right type of care for those who need it, financial accessibility , and acceptability of service [1]. Geographic accessibility , the distance that must be traveled in order to use health facility, may present an important barrier of access to health services. Studies in developing countries have presented strong evidence that physical proximity of health service can play an important role in the use of primary healthcare [2-12]. In Yemen, we have demonstrated that …
Creating pen-and-ink illustration using stroke morphing method

Most illustration systems need a lot of user strokes to generate natural-looking pen-and-ink illustrations. In order to reduce the number of user strokes necessary, we propose a new method for pen-and-ink illustrations using a stroke morphing concept. For this, we introduce a general stroke morphing procedure, which consists of both flow-oriented morphing and shape-oriented morphing. Using this morphing technique, we can make more natural-looking pen-and-ink illustration with fewer user strokes. This work can be applied to generate simplified pictures for dictionary typesetting. The main purpose of this paper is to describe this method, which requires fewer user strokes than other previous methods. Experimental results are given in the final section.
Predicting Protein Functions from Protein Interaction Networks

Functional characterization of genes and their protein products is essential to biological and clinical research. Yet, there is still no reliable way of assigning functional annotations to proteins in a high-throughput manner. In this article, the authors provide an introduction to the task of automated protein function prediction. They discuss about the motivation for automated protein function prediction, the challenges faced in this task, as well as some approaches that are currently available. In particular, they take a closer look at methods that use protein-protein interaction for protein function prediction, elaborating on their underlying techniques and assumptions, as well as their strengths and limitations.
Factors affecting the sex ratio in large populations

Summary and conclusions To summarize the findings presented here, only three of the five factors studied appear to be independently related to the sex ratio at birth. The significant negative birth-order effect, which in the first analysis accounted for a 2·6% shift in the relative odds of male birth, remained significant when adjustment for the race effect was provided in the second analysis. The magnitude of the effect was diminished by this adjustment, however, indicating that analysis for birth-order effects in the absence of adjustment for the race factor may lead to over-estimates of the importance of the birth-order factor. The significant race effect detected in the second analysis resulted in a 3% lower relative odds for a Negro male birth than that for a white. This racial difference, coupled with the non-uniform distribution of Negro births by paternal-age and birth-order categories, appears to be the source of the mysterious ‘interaction effect’ between birth order and paternal age reported by Novitski & Kimball. The race effect remained significant after adjustment was provided for both the birthorder and socio-economic effects.