Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SPEED: A Real-Time Routing Protocol for Sensor Networks

Abstract : In this paper, we present a real-time communication protocol, called SPEED, for sensor networks. The protocol provides three types of real-time communication services, namely, real-time unicast, real-time area-multicast and real-time area-anycast. SPEED is specifically tailored to be a stateless, localized algorithm with minimal control overhead. End-to-end real-time communication guarantees are achieved using a novel combination of feedback control and non-deterministic QoS-aware geographic forwarding with a bounded hop count. SPEED is a highly efficient and scalable protocol for the sensor networks where node density is high while the resources of each node are scarce. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments are provided to validate our claims.
CHLOROPLAST STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN ac-20, A MUTANT STRAIN OF CHLAMYDOMONAS REINHARDI

A mutant strain of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardi, ac-20, is described in which both the rate of CO(2) fixation by whole cells and the rate of carboxylation of ribulose-1,5-diphosphate in cell-free extracts are reduced, particularly when sodium acetate is present in the growth medium. Of the enzymes of the reductive pentose phosphate cycle tested, only ribulose-1,5-diphosphate carboxylase activity is reduced in the mutant strain, and it appears that the low carboxylase activity limits the strain's rate of photosynthetic carbon metabolism. Evidence is presented to show that the fluctuation in the level of the enzyme activity in the presence or absence of acetate results from the fluctuation in the level of some factor(s) limiting the rate of synthesis of the protein.
Drinking water turbidity and gastrointestinal illness in the elderly of Philadelphia

STUDY OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between drinking water quality and gastrointestinal illness in the elderly of Philadelphia. DESIGN Within the general population, children and the elderly are at highest risk for gastrointestinal disease. This study investigates the potential association between daily fluctuations in drinking water turbidity and subsequent hospital admissions for gastrointestinal illness of elderly persons, controlling for time trends, seasonal patterns, and temperature using Poisson regression analysis. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS All residents of Philadelphia aged 65 and older in 1992–1993 were studied through their MEDICARE records. MAIN RESULTS For Philadelphia's population aged 65 and older, we found water quality 9 to 11 days before the visit was associated with hospital admissions for gastrointestinal illness, with an interquartile range increase in turbidity being associated with a 9% increase (95% CI 5.3%, 12.7%). In the Belmont service area, there was also an association evident at a lag of 4 to 6 days (9.1% increase, 95% CI 5.2, 13.3). Both associations were stronger in those over 75 than in the population aged 65–74. This association occurred in a filtered water supply in compliance with US standards. CONCLUSIONS Elderly residents of Philadelphia remain at risk of waterborne gastrointestinal illness under current water treatment practices. Hospitalisations represent a very small percentage of total morbidity.
Relation between baseline risk and treatment decisions in non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes: an examination of international practice patterns

Objectives: To examine the interaction between ST segment depression on the baseline ECG and subsequent in-hospital revascularisation on six month mortality among patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes. To examine whether ST segment depression influenced clinical decision making and whether there was international variation in the use of cardiac procedures across ST segment depression categories. Methods: 11 453 patients enrolled in GUSTO-IIB (global use of strategies to open occluded coronary arteries), PARAGON (platelet IIb/IIIa antagonism for the reduction of acute coronary syndrome events in a global organisation network) -A, and PARAGON-B were studied. Patients were categorised as having no ST segment depression, 1 mm ST segment depression in two contiguous leads, and ST segment depression ⩾ 2 mm in two contiguous leads. International practice across four geographic regions was examined: USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. Results: Revascularisation appeared to have no impact on survival among patients with no ST segment depression; however, revascularisation was associated with a significant survival benefit among patients with ST segment depression ⩾ 1 mm. There was an inverse relation between the extent of ST segment depression and the use of angiography as well as angioplasty (p < 0.01). However, patients with ST segment depression ⩾ 2 mm were more likely to undergo bypass surgery. The only significant trend of increasing use of revascularisation procedures with increasing ST segment depression was observed in the USA. Conclusions: International practice patterns in procedure use appear to be insensitive to the extent of ST segment depression. Major opportunities for more efficient delivery of care exist in all regions.
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Motion Coordination Affects Movement Parameters in a Joint Pick-and-place Task

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the " Content ") contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
Energetic Adaptations along a Broad Latitudinal Gradient: Implications for Widely Distributed Assemblages

Abstract Most community-based models in ecology assume that all individuals within a species respond similarly to environmental conditions and thereby exert identical effects as consumers or prey. Rather, individuals differ among systems, with important implications for population demographics and community interactions. For widely distributed assemblages made up of poikilotherms with high first-year mortality, species-specific differences in growth reaction norms as affected by both temperature and genotype will influence biotic interactions. For a broadly distributed fish assemblage, first-year growth does not vary with latitude for a planktivorous prey species, but declines with increasing latitude for a terminal piscivore. Size-based competitive interactions between these species are likely to be more intense at high latitudes, as they spend an extended time sharing resources during early life. Such patterns probably are pervasive and must be considered when seeking to understand species interactions. Improving our knowledge of how temperature and local adaptations affect size-based interactions should enhance our ability to manage and conserve widespread assemblages.
The structure of oriented vegetation from polarimetric interferometry

Polarimetric radar interferometry is much more sensitive to the distribution of oriented objects in a vegetated land surface than either polarimetry or interferometry alone. This paper shows that single-baseline polarimetric interferometry can be used to estimate the heights of oriented-vegetation volumes and underlying topography, while at least two baselines are needed for randomly oriented volumes. Single-baseline, calculated vegetation-height accuracies are in the range of 2-8 m for reasonable levels of vegetation orientation in forest canopies.
High-intensity aerobic exercise improves diastolic function in coronary artery disease

Objective. To study the effect of aerobic treadmill exercise training with different intensity on left ventricular (LV) function in patients with stable coronary artery disease, using Strain Rate- and Tissue Doppler Imaging. Design. Seventeen patients were randomly assigned to either moderate (50–60% of peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak)) or high intensity exercise (80–90% of VO2peak) for 10 weeks. Results. The increase of VO2peak was significantly higher (p=0.01) in the high intensity group (17 vs. 8%). Mean LV early diastolic strain rate increased in the high, but not in the moderate, intensity group. For systolic strain rate or mitral annular velocities there were no change after training in either group. Conclusions. Aerobic treadmill exercise improves early diastolic relaxation in patients with stable coronary artery disease, measured by the mean LV early diastolic strain rate.
3-D Gaze Tracking Using Pupil Contour Features

Glint features have important roles in gaze tracking systems. But when the operation range of a gaze tracking system is enlarged, the performance of glint-feature-based (GFB) approaches will be degraded mainly due to the curvature variation problem at around the edge of the cornea. Although the pupil contour feature may provide complementary information to help estimating the eye gaze, existing methods do not properly handle the cornea refraction problem, leading to inaccurate results. This paper describes a contour-feature-based (CFB) 3-D gaze tracking method that is compatible to cornea refraction. Experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed approach for gaze tracking.
Investigation of the Elastic-Plastic Stress State Around a Reinforced Opening in a Spherical Shell

Abstract : A study was made to correlate theoretical stresses and strains in a pressure_vessel having a reinforced opening with experimental data obtained for progressive stages of elastic-plastic deformation up to the point of failure. The pressure vessel consisted of a hemispherical dome 12 inches in diameter with a wall thickness of 0.060 inch and a reinforced opening 1 inch in diameter and was machined from 6061 aluminum. The reinforcement was an integrally machined ring 1.70 inches in outer diameter and 0.300 inch thick. In general, there was good agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical results based on true stress - conventional strain data and modified shell dimensions. The conclusion was drawn that the theoretically computed elastic-plastic stresses can be used with the true ultimate tensile strength of the shell material to give a reasonably accurate prediction of the burst pressure. Also, the elastic stress- with the true ultimate tensile strength concentration factor can be used together with true ultimate tensile strength to give a conservative approximation of this burst pressure.
Joint Pilot and Data Loading Technique for Mimo Systems Operating with Covariance Feedback

We consider a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system wherein channel correlation as well as noisy channel estimation are both taken into account. For a given block fading duration, pilot-assisted channel estimation is carried out with the aid of a minimum mean square error estimator. The pilot sequences and data are jointly optimized to maximize the ergodic capacity while fulfilling a total transmit energy constraint. Using the optimization results, we study the effect of various system parameters and different types of channel knowledge. We show that systems with channel covariance knowledge and imperfect channel estimates can even outperform those with perfect channel estimation at the receiver, but without any channel knowledge at the transmitter. Further, we show that the signal to noise ratio and the block fading duration determine the qualitative behavior of ergodic capacity as a function of antenna spacing or angular spread. Finally, we find that the optimum pilot-to-data power ratio is always greater than one. It increases as the total transmit power decreases or as the block fading length increases.
The Hardest Problems in Data Management

• Exploit memory and machine parallelism for low-latency and high scalability grow and shrink elastically with business demand • Treat failures as the norm, rather than the exception, providing always-on service • Span time zones and geography uniting remote business processes and stakeholders • Support pull, push, transactional, and analytic based workloads increase cost-effectiveness with service growth
Cubist Style Rendering for 3D Polygonal Models

In this paper, we present a non-photorealistic rendering framework to emulate cubist style paintings for 3D polygonal models. This research is inspired from the Picasso’s paintings, i.e., the paintings in the early stage of cubism, which compose the object’s elements captured from different viewpoints in a painting. To achieve this aim, our system strives to render all the interesting features of the given model on a 2D image plane without affecting the model’s appearance. Specifically, in the preprocessing we emphasize the characteristic features of the model using the proposed global shape enhancement approach. Then, we determine a set of good views by analyzing the enhanced model, and duplicate a copy for each view. The duplicated models are composed and rendered together to expose the geometric features from different viewpoints. Since several models are rendered on one image, we occlude the repeated regions by finding the intersection of models. The models are enforced to intersect at the compatible and low-salient regions by an optimization process, making the composition visually pleasing. Finally, the composed model is rendered by a non-photorealistic rendering technique to generate a cubist-like painting.
Data Mining for Automated GIS Data Collection

An ophthalmic surgery tool which takes the form of an apparatus which is to simultaneously produce a plurality of cuts within the cornea of an eye in order to improve vision. The surgery tool includes a cutter assembly which is movably mounted in respect to a base. The extent of movement of the cutter assembly is predetermined to preclude excessive cutting. Movement of the cutter assembly is due to movement structure which may either be mechanical or fluid operated.
Collaborative modeling: hiding UML and promoting data examples in NEMo

Domain experts are essential for successful software development, but these experts may not recognize their ideas when abstracted into Unified Modeling Language (UML) or ontologies. We describe a Web-based tool for modeling that creates and manipulates a simple data model without representing it in UML, while promoting collaboration and the use of examples to compare and validate the model. The open-source tool, "NEMo," is a by-product of a team effort to invent and refine a complex data model and library of examples.
Ambiente kapazitive EKG-Messung - Elektroden, Systeme und Konzepte

Kapazitive Elektroden sind ein vielversprechender Ansatz fur alltagstaugliche EKG-Systeme, da sie Biosignale auch ohne direkten Hautkontakt erfassen konnen. Im Rahmen der Arbeit werden textile kapazitive Elektroden entwickelt, die fur ambiente Szenarien geeignet sind und an 2 Beispielsystemen demonstriert: einem textilintegrierten System zum mobilen EKG-Monitoring, und einem ambienten System zur EKG-Ableitung im Automobil. Daneben werden Konzepte zum Umgang mit Bewegungsartefakten vorgestellt
Synchrony in neuronal communication: An energy efficient scheme

We are interested in understanding the neural correlates of attentional processes using first principles. Here we apply a recently developed first principles approach that uses transmitted information in bits per joule to quantify the energy efficiency of information transmission for an inter-spike-interval (ISI) code that can be modulated by means of the synchrony in the presynaptic population. We simulate a single compartment conductance-based model neuron driven by excitatory and inhibitory spikes from a presynaptic population, where the rate and synchrony in the presynaptic excitatory population may vary independently from the average rate. We find that for a fixed input rate, the ISI distribution of the post synaptic neuron depends on the level of synchrony and is well-described by a Gamma distribution for synchrony levels less than 50%. For levels of synchrony between 15% and 50% (restricted for technical reasons), we compute the optimum input distribution that maximizes the mutual information per unit energy. This optimum distribution shows that an increased level of synchrony, as it has been reported experimentally in attention-demanding conditions, reduces the mode of the input distribution and the excitability threshold of post synaptic neuron. This facilitates a more energy efficient neuronal communication.
Computational research in Arabic

In the preparation of an Arabic to English sentence-for-sentence mechanical translation program, a computer has been applied to the testing of statements concerning various phases of the morphological and syntactic structure of Arabic and structural equivalences between Arabic and English, This paper discusses briefly the testing procedure used, the grammatical statements tested in the form of an Arabic sentence-con-struction grammar programmed for a computer and some results of the testing procedure applied to sentences randomly composed in Arabic by the computer. The research in Arabic at M.I. T. has been strongly influenced by an original interest in the preparation of a computer program for the translation of Arabic to English. It was initially recognized that it would be quite impossible to prepare, in one step, a mechanical translation program which would be capable of translating any modern Arabic text into English. It was, therefore, decided to make a general study of the problems of mechanical translation by
Detection of Manipulation Action Consequences (MAC)

The problem of action recognition and human activity has been an active research area in Computer Vision and Robotics. While full-body motions can be characterized by movement and change of posture, no characterization, that holds invariance, has yet been proposed for the description of manipulation actions. We propose that a fundamental concept in understanding such actions, are the consequences of actions. There is a small set of fundamental primitive action consequences that provides a systematic high-level classification of manipulation actions. In this paper a technique is developed to recognize these action consequences. At the heart of the technique lies a novel active tracking and segmentation method that monitors the changes in appearance and topological structure of the manipulated object. These are then used in a visual semantic graph (VSG) based procedure applied to the time sequence of the monitored object to recognize the action consequence. We provide a new dataset, called Manipulation Action Consequences (MAC 1.0), which can serve as test bed for other studies on this topic. Several experiments on this dataset demonstrates that our method can robustly track objects and detect their deformations and division during the manipulation. Quantitative tests prove the effectiveness and efficiency of the method.
COACS: A Cooperative and Adaptive Caching System for MANETs

This paper introduces a cooperation-based database caching system for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). The heart of the system is the nodes that cache submitted queries. The queries are used as indices to data cached in nodes that previously requested them. We discuss how the system is formed and how requested data is found if cached, or retrieved from the external database and then cached. Analysis is performed and expressions are derived for the different parameters, including upper and lower bounds for the number of query caching nodes as well as the average load they experience, generated network traffic, node bandwidth consumption, and other performance-related measures. Simulations with the ns-2 software were used to study the performance of the system in terms of average delay and hit ratio, and to compare it with the performance of two other caching schemes for MANETs, namely CachePath and CacheData. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of achieved hit ratio and low delay.
Cellular Aging Reflected by Leukocyte Telomere Length Predicts Advanced Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Objective—To determine the association between leukocyte telomere length (TL) and atherosclerosis and its clinical sequelae stroke and myocardial infarction. Methods and Results—Within the scope of the prospective population-based Bruneck Study, leukocyte TL was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 800 women and men aged 45 to 84 years (in 1995). The manifestation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (1995–2005) and the progression of atherosclerosis (1995–2000) were carefully assessed. The TL was shorter in men than in women (age-adjusted mean [95% CI], 1.41 [1.33 to 1.49] versus 1.55 [1.47 to 1.62]; P=0.02) and inversely correlated to age (r=−0.22, P<0.001) and family history of CVD (P=0.03). Participants with CVD events during follow-up (n=88) had significantly shorter telomeres (age- and sex-adjusted mean [95% CI], 1.25 [1.08 to 1.42] versus 1.51 [1.45 to 1.57]; P<0.001). In multivariable Cox models, baseline TL emerged as a significant and independent risk predictor for the composite CVD end point and its individual components (myocardial infarction and stroke); however, this was not the case for de novo stable angina and intermittent claudication. Subjects in the top and bottom TL tertile group differed in their CVD risk by a factor of 2.72 (95% CI, 1.41 to 5.28), which is the risk ratio attributable to a 13.9-year difference in chronological age. Remarkably, in our atherosclerosis progression model, TL was strongly associated with advanced, but not early, atherogenesis. All findings were consistent in women and men. Conclusion—Our findings indicate a differential role of telomere shortening in the various stages of atherosclerosis, with preferential involvement in advanced vessel pathology and acute vascular syndromes.
Piggybacking on Social Networks

The popularity of social-networking sites has increased rapidly over the last decade. A basic functionalities of social-networking sites is to present users with streams of events shared by their friends. At a systems level, materialized per-user views are a common way to assemble and deliver such event streams on-line and with low latency. Access to the data stores, which keep the user views, is a major bottleneck of social-networking systems. We propose to improve the throughput of these systems by using social piggybacking, which consists of processing the requests of two friends by querying and updating the view of a third common friend. By using one such hub view, the system can serve requests of the first friend without querying or updating the view of the second. We show that, given a social graph, social piggybacking can minimize the overall number of requests, but computing the optimal set of hubs is an NP-hard problem. We propose an O(log n) approximation algorithm and a heuristic to solve the problem, and evaluate them using the full Twitter and Flickr social graphs, which have up to billions of edges. Compared to existing approaches, using social piggybacking results in similar throughput in systems with few servers, but enables substantial throughput improvements as the size of the system grows, reaching up to a 2-factor increase. We also evaluate our algorithms on a real social networking system prototype and we show that the actual increase in throughput corresponds nicely to the gain anticipated by our cost function.