Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rate adaptation based on inherent frame delivery ratio for wireless networks

Rate adaptation mechanism can significantly impact the performance of wireless networks. Most existing rate adaptation mechanisms change bitrates based on wireless link quality to achieve higher throughput. Frame delivery ratio(FDR) is a widely-used link quality metric. However, FDR can be affected by different reasons such as channel fading, packet collisions, etc. So when FDR falls, rate adaptation mechanisms should not always reduce the transmission bitrate. We present the concept of inherent FDR(iFDR) to reflect the inherent link quality which is not affected by packet collisions. And based on this new metric, we present a new rate adaptation mechanism which can achieve over 40% improvement compared to traditional ones.
Buffet hypothesis for microbial nutrition at the rhizosphere

An emphasis is made on the diversity of nutrients that rhizosphere bacteria may encounter derived from roots, soil, decaying organic matter, seeds, or the microbial community. This nutrient diversity may be considered analogous to a buffet and is contrasting to the hypothesis of oligotrophy at the rhizosphere. Different rhizosphere bacteria may have preferences for some substrates and this would allow a complex community to be established at the rhizosphere. To profit from diverse nutrients, root-associated bacteria should have large degrading capabilities and many transporters (seemingly inducible) that may be encoded in a significant proportion of the large genomes that root-associated bacteria have. Rhizosphere microbes may have a tendency to evolve toward generalists. We propose that many genes with unknown function may encode enzymes that participate in degrading diverse rhizosphere substrates. Knowledge of bacterial genes required for nutrition at the rhizosphere will help to make better use of bacteria as plant-growth promoters in agriculture.
Knowledge-Based Adaptive Detection: Joint Exploitation of Clutter and System Symmetry Properties

We address adaptive radar detection of targets embedded in clutter characterized by a symmetrically structublack power spectral density (PSD) and persymmetric covariance matrix. At the design stage, such properties are jointly exploited to come up with decision schemes capable of guaranteeing superior detection performances with respect to architectures which incorporate either persymmetry or clutter PSD symmetry. The performance analysis, both on simulated and on real radar data, confirms the superiority of the newly proposed architectures over their natural counterparts which do not take advantage of both the sources of a priori information.
DIFFUSION IN DEFORMABLE

We begin with the initial-boundary-value problem for a coupled system of partial diierential equations which describes the Biot consolidation model in poro-elasticity. Existence, uniqueness and regularity theory is developed for the quasi-static case as an application of the theory of linear degenerate evolution equations in Hilbert space, and this leads to a precise description of the dynamics of the system. Current work on the foundations of the model and appropriate extensions to models with elastic-viscous-plastic media or nonhomogeneous media will be brieey described.
Exploring Two Main Perspectives towards Customer Satisfaction in hotel industry: Managers and Customers

Purpose- One of the most substantial factors for Tourism Industry is Hotel Industry while it could provide the necessary substructures for Touris m. Growth in Hotel industry will lead to the growth in Tourism industry. Considering a major growth in Hotel industry in recent years in Iran, in this research, numerous objectives had been pursued. The first purpose of this study is to explore four different factors of salary, age, gender, and marital status between customers. The second goal is to study customer satisfaction from two main perspectives of customers and hotel managers and explaining whether there is a significant difference in customers and hotel managers perceptions of customer satisfaction or not and what role customer satisfaction factors such as perceived quality, perceived value, image and customer’s expectations have in making these differences. Finally, the third objective is to find out whether there is a significant difference between male satisfaction and female satisfaction or not. Design/Methodology/approach- Descriptive survey design is utilized in this study. The researcher selected the quantitative research methodology to pursue her research. Questionnaire has been chosen as the best tool for collecting primary data from hotelmanagers and customers in Iran. In this study the researcher has used two different kinds of questionnaires for customers and hotel managers.Descriptive data was organized. The researcher organized all the respondents' background data such as gender, age, personal income then the percentage method; mean and. standard deviation are used to analyze the distribution of data.The researcher applied independent T-test to find out the differences between effective factors (perceived quality, perceived value, image, customer expectations) of customer satisfaction from two points of view. This method is also used to explore the differences between male female satisfactions. Findings- The main consumers of hotels are married, young and males. The majority of people in this study have high monthly income. There are no significant differences between customer satisfaction of males and females. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between two perspectives (hotel managers and customers) in all effective factors of customer satisfaction and its consequences. According to the other objective the researcher found out
AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR GENERATING OLIGODENDROCYTE PROGENITOR CELLS FROM MURINE INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS

Acknowledgements I would like to express my very great appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Ann Parr, who gave me the opportunity to work with her, and provided unreserved support, resources, and guidance. I would like to offer my special thanks to Dr. James Dutton, without whose perseverance and guidance this work would not be possible. I would like to thank Lucas Greder for providing iPS and feeder cells, as well as guidance and support, Michael Ritchie, for his assistance with mouse injections and histology, Christina DiBartolomeo, for help with PCR and histology, and Tarini Goyal, for her assistance with PCR. I would like to acknowledge like to thank Dr. Sue Keirstead for providing guidance and assistance during the course of the Master of Science program.
Expressibility in Σ

Inspired by Fagin’s result that NP = Σ 1 , we have developed a partial framework to investigate expressibility inside Σ 1 so as to have a finer look into NP . The framework uses interesting combinatorics derived from second-order EhrenfeuchtFräıssé games and the notion of game types. Some of the results that have been proven within this framework are: (1) for any k, divisibility by k is not expressible by a Σ 1 sentence where (1.i) each second-order variable has arity at most 2, (1.ii) the first-order part has at most 2 first-order variables, and (1.iii) the first-order part has quantifier depth at most 3, (2) adding one more first-order variable makes the same problem expressible, and (3) inside this last logic the parameter k creates a proper hierarchy with varying the number of second-order variables.
Automatic Estimation of Bloggers' Gender

We propose an approach employing Support Vector Machine (SVM) to estimate bloggers’ gender from blog posts. The data we analyze consists of blog posts on Doblog (Japanese blog-hosting service) and questionnaire results by Doblog users. Experimental evaluations show that our approach achieved 90% accuracy for 83% bloggers.
Integrated Range Comparison for Data-Parallel Compilation Systems

A major difficulty in restructuring compilation, and in parallel programming in general, is how to compare parallel performance over a range of system and problem sizes. Execution time varies with system and problem size and an initially fast implementation may become slow when system and problem size scale up. This paper introduces the concept of range comparison. Unlike conventional execution time comparison in which performance is compared for a particular system and problem size, range comparison compares the performance of programs over a range of ensemble and problem sizes via scalability and performance crossing point analysis. A novel algorithm is developed to predict the crossing point automatically. The correctness of the algorithm is proven and a methodology is developed to integrate range comparison into restructuring compilations for data-parallel programming. A preliminary prototype of the methodology is implemented and tested under Vienna Fortran Compilation System. Experimental results demonstrate that range comparison is feasible and effective. It is an important asset for program evaluation, restructuring compilation, and parallel programming.
A Concurrent Function Deployment Process for Product Life-cycle Management

In this paper, an alternate framework for deployment called Concurrent Function Deployment (CFD) for managing a product's life-cycle process is described. The framework considers parallel deployment of several value characteristics as opposed to a single value such as Quality. The American Supplier Institute's (ASI's) quality function deployment (QFD) concept [Sullivan, 1988] is a typical case of a conventional four-phased deployment process, where quality is the prime consideration for deploying life cycle functions. CFD is not based on using a single measurement, such as " Quality " as in ASI's QFD. (delivery) are considered simultaneously in CFD rather than serially in QFD. Three-dimensional Value Characteristics Matrices (VCM) are employed to ensure that both the company and the customers' goals are optimally met. In the present setting, ASI's deployment scenario emerges as a special case of Concurrent Function Deployment. CFD enables the planners and strategic decision-makers-early-on during a design process-to deal with tradeoffs among the crucial factors of artifact values.
Complementarity of Signals in Early-Stage Equity Investment Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

This study employs a randomized field experiment to causally identify what type of signal is likely to complement another signal in the context of financing technology ventures. The study examines the effect of product certification by expert intermediaries, prominent customers, and social proof (that is, others' interest in investing in a venture) on interest in investing. These three signals are primarily signals of a venture's product, market, and investment characteristics, respectively. The study finds that signals of product certification and prominent customers, and product certification and social proof are complements. In particular, investors who were able to view the combined product certification and prominent customer signals have a 72% higher likelihood of indicating an interest in making an equity investment, than those who did not receive any of the three signals. Similarly, investors who were able to view the combined product certification and social proof signals have a 65% higher likelihood of indicating an interest in investing These results suggest that in the context of technology ventures, a signal about product characteristics is the key to unlocking the value of signals of market or investment characteristics.
Efficiency optimization for a power factor correction (PFC) rectifier with gallium nitride transistor

In this contribution, a 1 kW one phase power factor correction (PFC) rectifier with a Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistor is optimized considering switching frequency in regard to the losses of the PFC inductor. A driver circuit with negative voltage at switch-off supplied from a unipolar voltage supply is proposed. A model of the PFC rectifier including conduction and switching losses of semiconductors, copper and core losses of inductor is developed and utilized to identify the best design by numeric optimization of switching frequency, number of turns and length of air gap. Simulation results show an efficiency of about 98.6% at full load with 230 V mains voltage.
Whole-system metabolism and CO2 fluxes in a Mediterranean Bay dominated by seagrass beds (Palma Bay, NW Mediterranean)

Abstract. Planktonic and benthic incubations (bare and Posidonia oceanica vegetated sediments) were performed at monthly intervals from March 2001 to October 2002 in a seagrass vegetated area of the Bay of Palma (Mallorca, Spain). Results showed a contrast between the planktonic compartment, which was on average near metabolic balance (−4.6±5.9 mmol O2 m-2 d-1) and the benthic compartment, which was autotrophic (17.6±8.5 mmol O2 m-2 d-1). During two cruises in March and June 2002, planktonic and benthic incubations were performed at several stations in the bay to estimate the whole-system metabolism and to examine its relationship with partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and apparent oxygen utilisation (AOU) spatial patterns. Moreover, during the second cruise, when the residence time of water was long enough, net ecosystem production (NEP) estimates based on incubations were compared, over the Posidonia oceanica meadow, to rates derived from dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and oxygen (O2) mass balance budgets. These budgets provided NEP estimates in fair agreement with those derived from direct metabolic estimates based on incubated samples over the Posidonia oceanica meadow. Whereas the seagrass community was autotrophic, the excess organic carbon production therein could only balance the planktonic heterotrophy in shallow waters relative to the maximum depth of the bay (55 m). This generated a horizontal gradient from autotrophic or balanced communities in the shallow seagrass-covered areas, to strongly heterotrophic communities in deeper areas of the bay. It seems therefore that, on an annual scale in the whole bay, the organic matter production by the Posidonia oceanica may not be sufficient to fully compensate the heterotrophy of the planktonic compartment, which may require external organic carbon inputs, most likely from land.
Strong invariance and noise-comparison principles for some parabolic stochastic PDEs

We consider a system of interacting diffusions on the integer lattice. By letting the mesh size go to zero and by using a suitable scaling, we show that the system converges (in a strong sense) to a solution of the stochastic heat equation on the real line. As a consequence, we obtain comparison inequalities for product moments of the stochastic heat equation with different nonlinearities.
Genetic Algorithm for Routing and Spectrum Allocation in Elastic Optical Networks

Elastic Optical Network (EON) architecture has been proposed as a promising technology for a new generation of OFDM networks. It is based on the concept that spectrum can be split into smaller slices than are used currently in the fixed-grid network. It allows better spectral utilization and support for bit rates over 100 Gb/s. EONs arise with the problem of routing and spectrum allocation (RSA). In this paper, we propose a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to solve the RSA problem with multicast flows. Different selection and crossover strategies are presented. Extensive numerical experiments are performed to select the most appropriate combination of operators and tuning parameters of the GA algorithm in the context of the RSA problem. Obtained results show that GA can be applicable.
Report on past research works Helping knowledge representation , sharing and retrieval

My research so far has been focused on integrating and developing methodologies, techniques, tools and resources to support a precise manual knowledge representation, sharing and retrieval (KRSS). The resulting models, notations and normalization techniques for representing, indexing, querying, evaluating and integrating knowledge are however also important to follow for precision-oriented (semi-)automatic knowledge extraction and integration. From the end of 1992 to the end of 1999, the context of my work was the "semi-independent knowledge representation approach" where knowledge providers do not have to represent their information into a shared knowledge base (KB). This approach is still the only one considered by most knowledge representation, sharing and retrieval (KRSS) related works today. Nonetheless, as detailed below, this approach is very restricting for precise KRSS. Hence, from 2000 to 2007, my work focused more on also enabling people to easily update a very large consistent well-organized KB while avoiding the classic problem of either allowing any user to modify any part of the KB (as in wikis) or having the bottleneck and restrictions associated to the existence of a selection committee.
Supervised learning of hidden Markov models for sequence discrimination

We present two supervised learning algorithms for hidden Markov models (HMMs) for sequence discrimination. When we model a class of sequences with an HMM, conventional learning algorithms for HMMs have trained the HMM with training examples belonging to the class, i.e. positive examples alone, while both of our methods allow us to use negative examples as well as positive examples. One of our algorithms minimizes a kind of distance between a target likelihood of a given training sequence and an actual likelihood of the sequence, which is obtained by a given HMM, using an additive type of parameter updating based on a gradient-descent learning. The other algorithm maximizes a criterion which represents a kind of ratio of the likelihood of a positive example to the likelihood of the total example, using a multiplicative type of parameter updating which is more efficient in actual computation time than the additive type one. We compare our two methods with two conventional methods on a type of cross-validation of actual motif classification experiments. Experimental results show that in terms of the average number of classification errors, our two methods out-perform the two conventional algorithms.
A New Linear Camera Self-Calibration Technique

In this paper, a new active vision based camera self-calibration technique is proposed. The novelty of this new technique is that it can determine LINEARLY all the FIVE intrinsic parameters of a camera. The basic principle of our new calibration technique is to use the planar information in the scene and to control the camera to undergo several sets of orthogonal planar motions. Then, a set of linear constraints on the 5 intrinsic parameters is derived by means of planar homographies between images. In addition, the uniqueness of the calibration solution with respect to the configurations of the camera’s motion is also investigated.
Management of symptomatic vulvovaginal atrophy: 2013 position statement of The North American Menopause Society

Objective To update and expand the previous position statement of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) on the management of symptomatic vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA) in postmenopausal women. Methods NAMS searched PubMed for medical literature on VVA published since their 2007 position statement on the role of local vaginal estrogen for treatment of vaginal atrophy in postmenopausal women. A panel of acknowledged experts in the field of genitourinary health reviewed the literature to evaluate new evidence on local estrogen as well as on other management options available or in development for symptomatic VVA. The panel’s conclusions and recommendations were reviewed and approved by the NAMS Board of Trustees. Results Symptomatic VVA can significantly impair the quality of life (QOL) of postmenopausal women and may be underdiagnosed. In most cases, it can be managed successfully. A number of over-the-counter and government-approved prescription therapies available in the United States and Canada demonstrate effectiveness, depending on the severity of VVA symptoms. These include vaginal lubricants and moisturizers, vaginal estrogen, hormone therapy, and the selective estrogen-receptor modulator ospemifene (indicated for dyspareunia). Long-term studies on the endometrial safety of local estrogen and ospemifene are lacking. Changes in the vaginal microbiome have various effects on symptoms. Conclusions Clinicians can improve the sexual health and QOL of postmenopausal women by educating women about, diagnosing, and appropriately managing symptomatic VVA. Choice of therapy depends on the severity of symptoms, the effectiveness and safety of therapy for the individual patient, and patient preference. Estrogen therapy is the most effective treatment for moderate to severe symptoms, although a direct comparison of estrogen and ospemifene is not available. Nonhormonal therapies available without a prescription provide sufficient relief for most women with mild symptoms. When low-dose estrogen is administered locally, a progestogen is not indicated for women without a uterus and generally is not indicated for women with an intact uterus. However, endometrial safety has not been studied in clinical trials beyond 1 year. There are insufficient data to confirm the safety of local estrogen in women with breast cancer; management of VVA should take the woman’s needs and the recommendation of her oncologist into consideration. Research on the vaginal microbiome may lead to other therapies in the future.
Quality-aware data allocation in approximate DRAM*

Approximate computing is an emerging design paradigm that leverages the inherent error tolerance present in many applications to optimize their power consumption and performance. Due to the forgiving nature of these error-resilient applications, highly precise input data is not always necessary for them to produce outputs of acceptable quality. This makes memory, the place where data is stored, a suitable component for introducing errors or approximations in return for considerable energy savings. Towards this end, this paper proposes, for the first time, a systematic way for constructing a quality-aware approximate DRAM system. Our design is based upon an extensive experimental characterization of memory errors as a function of the DRAM refresh rate. Leveraging the insights gathered from this characterization, we propose four novel strategies for partitioning the DRAM into a number of quality bins based on the frequency, location, and nature of bit errors in each of the physical pages. During allocation, critical data is placed in the highest quality bin containing only accurate pages and approximate data is allocated to bins sorted in descending order of quality. We validate our proposed scheme on several error-resilient applications implemented using an Altera Stratix IV GX FPGA based Terasic TR4-230 development board containing a 1GB DDR3 DRAM module. Experimental results demonstrate a significant improvement in the energy-quality trade-off compared to previous work and show a reduction in DRAM refresh power of up to 73% with minimal loss in output quality.