Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optical Transmission of OFDM Ultra-wideband Signals beyond 40 Gb/s (Invited Paper)

We for the fi rst time propose the highly eff icient method of RF and optical signal mixing based on two different architectures: the parallel-RF/serial-optics architecture charac- terized by all-optical mixing for sub-carrier multiplexing, and the parallel-RF/parallel-optics architecture based on the array of 12x10 GHz components with directly modulated VCSELs and 12 multimode optical fibers. The main advantages of the both architectures are simplicity and low-cost implementation. We have carried out numerical simulations of ultra-wideband signals propagation in the proposed systems and proved the high efficiency and feasibility of the proposed method.
Expertise Exchange in Transactive Memory Work Groups Strength of Communication Network Ties as Multilevel Predictors of Expertise Directory Development , Shared Task Interdependence

Building on Kozlwoski and Klein’s emergence framework, this research developed and tested a set of multilevel hypotheses regarding individual and team transactive memory processes in work teams. Literature from social psychology suggested hypotheses on how shared task interdependence influences individual expertise exchange. Social network theory suggested hypotheses that individual expertise exchange is channeled according to communication tie strength. Using data collected from 218 individuals from 18 organizational teams, the proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. The results showed that at the individual level the relationship between directory development and expertise exchange was mediated by communication tie strength and moderated by shared task interdependence. Team-level variables also were significantly related to individual-level outcomes such that individual expertise exchange happened more frequently in teams with well-developed team-level expertise directories, as well as with higher team communication tie strength and shared task interdependence.
Comparative Analysis of Anisotropic Diffusion and Non Local Meanson Ultrasound Images

Applications of Ultrasound in examining physical health of patient are continuously expanding over last few decades. Ultrasound imaging has assisted doctors in the diagnosis of medical health of patient in obstetrics, cardiology, gynaecology, musculoskeletal, urology and others. It has proved to be very promising and considerably advantageous over other imaging methods because of its features like non-invasive nature, use of non-ionizing radiation, portability, rapidity in performance, ease and cheap availability, real time imaging capability, high patient acceptability. Despite many advantages, it suffers from Speckle noise which results in affecting image resolution and contrast making an adverse impact on the diagnostic capability of the imaging modality. In this paper, we attempt to remove speckle noise from musculoskeletal ultrasound image for shoulder application using Anisotropic Diffusion and Non-Local Means (NLM) method. The quantitative analysis of the result is done using measurement indexes such as peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), signal to noise ratio (SNR) and root mean square error (RMSE), whereas, visual inspection is carried out for qualitative analysis.
Measuring and analyzing German and Spanish customer satisfaction of using the iPhone 4S Mobile Cloud service

This paper presents the customer satisfaction analysis for measuring popularity in the Mobile Cloud, which is an emerging area in the Cloud and Big Data Computing. Organizational Sustainability Modeling (OSM) is the proposed method used in this research. The twelve-month of German and Spanish consumer data are used for the analysis to investigate the return and risk status associated with the ratings of customer satisfaction in the iPhone 4S Mobile Cloud services. Results show that there is a decline in the satisfaction ratings in Germany and Spain due to economic downturn and competitions in the market, which support our hypothesis. Key outputs have been explained and they confirm that all analysis and interpretations fulfill the criteria for OSM. The use of statistical and visualization method proposed by OSM can expose unexploited data and allows the stakeholders to understand the status of return and risk of their Cloud strategies easier than the use of other data analysis.
A New Bound for the Minimum Distance of a Cyclic Code From Its Defining Set

A new lower bound for the distance of cyclic codes is proposed. This bound depends on the defining set of the code, like several other bounds. The proposed bound improves upon the Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquehghen (BCH) bound and, for some codes, improves upon the Hartmann-Tzeng bound and the Roos bound as well
A Tale of Three Social Networks: User Activity Comparisons across Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare

Despite recent efforts to characterize online social network (OSN) structures and activities, user behavior across different OSNs has received little attention. Yet such information could provide insight into issues relating to personal privacy protection. For instance, many Foursquare users reveal their Facebook and Twitter accounts to the public. The authors' in-depth measurement study examines users' network activities and privacy settings across Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. Results show that user activities are highly correlated among these three OSNs, which causes information leakage for a large fraction of Foursquare users.
Malaria Parasite CLAG3, a Protein Linked to Nutrient Channels, Participates in High Molecular Weight Membrane-Associated Complexes in the Infected Erythrocyte

Malaria infected erythrocytes show increased permeability to a number of solutes important for parasite growth as mediated by the Plasmodial Surface Anion Channel (PSAC). The P. falciparum clag3 genes have recently been identified as key determinants of PSAC, though exactly how they contribute to channel function and whether additional host/parasite proteins are required remain unknown. To begin to answer these questions, I have taken a biochemical approach. Here I have used an epitope-tagged CLAG3 parasite to perform co-immunoprecipitation experiments using membrane fractions of infected erythrocytes. Native PAGE and mass spectrometry studies reveal that CLAG3 participate in at least three different high molecular weight complexes: a ~720kDa complex consisting of CLAG3, RHOPH2 and RHOPH3; a ~620kDa complex consisting of CLAG3 and RHOPH2; and a ~480kDa complex composed solely of CLAG3. Importantly, these complexes can be found throughout the parasite lifecycle but are absent in untransfected controls. Extracellular biotin labeling and protease susceptibility studies localize the 480kDa complex to the erythrocyte membrane. This complex, likely composed of a homo-oligomer of 160kDa CLAG3, may represent a functional subunit, possibly the pore, of PSAC.
Evaluation of a Mobile Robotic Telepresence System in a One-on-One Meeting Scenario

Despite the increased popularity and availability of mobile robotic telepresence systems during the last years, there has been little research that systematically compares these systems against more traditional systems, such as teleconference systems. In this work, we present a 40 person user study in a simulated one-on-one meeting scenario. In a between-subject design participants performed the Desert Survival Task with an unknown examiner's confederate either calling in using a conventional phone or beaming in using Beam system from Suitable Technologies [1]. In the study we also simulated a typical meeting disturbance. Several aspects of the discussion's effectiveness were assessed (e.g. connectivity, disturbance, problem solving, ease of collaboration) by using questionnaires as well as video observations. Our findings consistently corroborated a significantly more effective, natural and likeable interaction by using Beam. Though our scenario is real and a true pain point of many large corporations further studies will need to be carried out comparing such telepresence system to video conference systems.
Docetaxel plus prednisone or mitoxantrone plus prednisone for advanced prostate cancer: updated survival in the TAX 327 study.

PURPOSE The TAX 327 study compared docetaxel administered every 3 weeks (D3), weekly docetaxel (D1), and mitoxantrone (M), each with prednisone (P), in 1,006 men with metastatic hormone-resistant prostate cancer (HRPC). The original analysis, undertaken in August 2003 when 557 deaths had occurred, showed significantly better survival and response rates for pain, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and quality of life for D3P when compared with MP. Here, we report an updated analysis of survival. METHODS Investigators were asked to provide the date of death or last follow-up for all participants who were alive in August 2003. RESULTS By March 2007, data on 310 additional deaths were obtained (total = 867 deaths). The survival benefit of D3P compared with MP has persisted with extended follow-up (P = .004). Median survival time was 19.2 months (95% CI, 17.5 to 21.3 months) in the D3P arm, 17.8 months (95% CI, 16.2 to 19.2 months) in the D1P arm, and 16.3 months (95% CI, 14.3 to 17.9 months) in the MP arm. More patients survived >/= 3 years in the D3P and D1P arms (18.6% and 16.6%, respectively) compared with the MP arm (13.5%). Similar trends in survival between treatment arms were seen for men greater than and less than 65 years of age, for those with and without pain at baseline, and for those with baseline PSA greater than and less than the median value of 115 ng/mL. CONCLUSION The present analysis confirms that survival of men with metastatic HRPC is significantly longer after treatment with D3P than with MP. Consistent results are observed across subgroups of patients.
Clinico-Radiologic Findings in Primary Cutaneous Extranodal Natural Killer/T-Cell Lymphoma, Nasal Type Mimicking Cellulitis of the Left Arm

Extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma is a very rare and aggressive disease characterized histopathologically by an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive atypical lymphoid cytotoxic infiltrate, extensive vascular destruction, and prominent tissue necrosis. It commonly shows cutaneous lesions that primarily or secondarily mimic cellulitis at the primary site. We report on a very rare case of extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type of skin/soft tissue, in a 64-year-old man, and describe the radiological findings. The condition was misdiagnosed as cellulitis of the left arm based on initial noninvasive clinical and radiologic work-up.
One Sustained Moment: The Constant Re-creation of Caribbean Sexualities

Abstract:King responds to essays by noted scholars Faith Smith and Lisa Outar critiquing her 2014 book Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination. In particular, she addresses the choice to examine interracial relationships between Caribbean men of color and foreign white woman rather than between Caribbean people of African and Indian descent. King also addresses recent portrayals of Caribbean trans people and of Caribbean women who desire other women, in particular Shani Mootoo’s Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab. Several recent court cases related to Caribbean sexuality and nonbinary gender are addressed. King ends by introducing her current research project, which uses existing and imagined archives to examine Afro-Trinidadian women’s protest and performance in the late nineteenth century.
Two Efficient Algorithms for Approximately Orthogonal Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) with orthogonality constraints is quite important due to its close relation with the K-means clustering. While existing algorithms for orthogonal NMF impose strict orthogonality constraints, in this letter we propose a penalty method with the aim of performing approximately orthogonal NMF, together with two efficient algorithms respectively based on the Hierarchical Alternating Least Squares (HALS) and the Accelerated Proximate Gradient (APG) approaches. Experimental evidence was provided to show their high efficiency and flexibility by using synthetic and real-world data.
Compensated Time Synchronization in WSN with Multiple Reference Nodes

Recent technological advances such as MEMS and pervasive deployment of low-power wireless sensor devices have led to large-scaled wireless sensor networks. Time synchronization is important in largely deployed sensor nodes for various purposes including sensor data fusion and energy-efficiency. The time_sync_error is occurred to many factors. The main factor is that accumulated time error as hop count increases in multi-hop wireless sensor network. In the environment of multiple reference nodes, the reference nodes should be synchronized exactly before starting the node synchronization in the network. This paper suggests improved accuracy of the TSync algorithm in the environment of multiple reference nodes, by setting Multi time reference node (MtrN) to compensate the time differences among multiple reference nodes themselves. The simulation shows that proposed protocol reduces the accumulated time_sync_error; so improves the overall accuracy in WSN.
A Markov Switch to Inflation Targeting in Emerging Market Peggers with a Focus on the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary

The objective of this paper is to empirically examine if monetary policy conduct has significantly changed in nine emerging economies, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, after the switch from exchange rate targeting to inflation targeting. An augmented Taylor rule is estimated with a Markov switching method for each of the nine countries on the basis of monthly data over the period from the early 1990s to end-2009. In general, the results suggest that inflation targeting represented a real switch in eight emerging economies. We identified the following differences for the period of inflation targeting compared to the preceding period of exchange rate targeting: (1) The economic environment became more stable; (2) the central bank’s reaction to inflation deviations from the target moderated (as it was probably possible to share the burden of inflationary pressures between interest rate increases and currency depreciations); (3) the central bank’s response to the output gap also moderated although it was statistically significant in only half of the countries; this is an indication of strict inflation targeting whereby meeting the inflation target is the primary objective. For the Czech Republic and Poland, an intermediate regime is identified, which is associated with the economic developments in these two countries prior to establishing a full-fledged inflation targeting regime. For Hungary, we identified only one regime, which is likely to reflect the combined strategy of targeting both the exchange rate and inflation that the country followed nearly over the entire period under review.
Scalar field estimation using adaptive networks

A new method for estimating scalar fields is proposed employing adaptive networks. The theoretical problem of function approximation is posed and the networked solution via distributed adaptive algorithms is introduced. Two approximate solutions employing adaptive networks are considered, and it is shown that both cases approach the theoretical solution in the limit case. In the first setup, nodes remain anchored during the network operation. The second version involves node relocation, either entirely at random over the region of interest or drifting according to a random walk model. Simulations illustrate the method for estimating a 2D scalar field.
The importance of PET/CT in the evaluation of patients with Ewing tumors*

The effective evaluation for the treatment of patients with Ewing tumors depends on the accuracy in the determination of the primary tumor extent and the presence of metastatic disease. Currently, no universally accepted staging system is available to assess Ewing tumors. The present study aimed at discussing the use of PET/CT as a tool for staging, restaging and assessment of therapeutic response in patients with Ewing tumors. In spite of some limitations of PET/CT as compared with anatomical imaging methods, its relevance in the assessment of these patients is related to the capacity of the method to provide further physiological information, which often generates important clinical implications. Currently, the assessment of patients with Ewing tumor should comprise a study with PET/CT combined with other anatomical imaging modalities, such as radiography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.
M-band wavelet transform in face recognition system

The low-frequency subband of DWT decomposition has been used as the important subband in face recognition system. But we believe that some subbands other than low-frequency subband contain discriminative information. Consequently, a series of experiments are carried out to test the recognition accuracy on various combinations of the low-frequency with some mid- and high-frequency subbands and subbands that perform the best are selected. We use the M-band decomposition to decompose a face image into smaller frequency subbands. The resulting best combination of low-frequency subband and some subbands named as MBCom achieves a higher recognition rate as compared to the low-frequency subband alone. The MBCom is proposed to work in conjunction with PCA and it outperforms other feature extraction methods in term of recognition rate.
Hyper-reactive Malarial Splenomegaly (HMS) in a patient with β thalassaemia syndrome

This report describes a case of hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly in a patient with a thalassaemia syndrome. Increased haemoglobin A2 is valuable for the diagnosis of common forms of β-thalassemia, while haemoglobin F (HbF) helps in diagnosis of the rarer δβ- forms. Thalassemia is characterised by splenomegaly and is common in malaria endemic areas. Hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly is also a common cause of massive splenomegaly in malaria endemic areas. Splenic enlargement regresses with prolonged antimalarial therapy
Free Fatty Acid Flux in African American and Caucasian Adults – Effect of Sex and Race

Obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes disproportionately affect African‐American (AA) women. Abnormal adipose tissue free fatty acid (FFA) release is associated with these conditions. Resting energy expenditure (REE) and sex predict FFA release in Caucasians, but whether this is true in AA is unknown. The sex‐specific relationships between FFA release, REE, and race was compared.
Optimal bandwidth allocation for non-critical traffics in AFDX network

This paper addresses the problem of optimal bandwidth allocation in Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX). Typically, AFDX Network is designed for ensuring a reliable communication among critical applications. As critical traffics occupy only a small portion of the available bandwidth, it is of great interest to exploit the leftover bandwidth for non-critical traffics. In the present work, the bandwidth allocation problem is tackled under the framework of Network Utility Maximization by considering frame length adjustment as flow control mechanism with static virtual link-based routing. The duality theory is applied to decompose the optimization problem into transmission rate control and price update with respect to redundant networks. A distributed algorithm for cooperative bandwidth allocation and price update is developed and the convergence of such a scheme is demonstrated using Lyapunov stability theory. The validity and the effectiveness of the proposed approach are confirmed by numerical simulations.
Parallel Spectral Clustering Algorithm for Large-Scale Community Data Mining

The spectral clustering algorithm has been shown to be very effective in finding clusters of non-linear boundaries. Unfortunately, spectral clustering suffers from the scalability problem in both memory use and computational time. In this work, we parallelize the algorithm by dividing both memory use and computation on distributed machines. Empirical study on some small datasets shows the accuracy of our parallelization scheme. Empirical study on a large community dataset obtained from Orkut demonstrates the scalability of our parallel spectral clustering algorithm.
High-speed face recognition based on discrete cosine transform and RBF neural networks

In this paper, an efficient method for high-speed face recognition based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT), the Fisher's linear discriminant (FLD) and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks is presented. First, the dimensionality of the original face image is reduced by using the DCT and the large area illumination variations are alleviated by discarding the first few low-frequency DCT coefficients. Next, the truncated DCT coefficient vectors are clustered using the proposed clustering algorithm. This process makes the subsequent FLD more efficient. After implementing the FLD, the most discriminating and invariant facial features are maintained and the training samples are clustered well. As a consequence, further parameter estimation for the RBF neural networks is fulfilled easily which facilitates fast training in the RBF neural networks. Simulation results show that the proposed system achieves excellent performance with high training and recognition speed, high recognition rate as well as very good illumination robustness.
Collaborating on Affinity Diagrams Using Large Displays

Gathering and understanding user requirements is an essential part of design. Techniques like affinity diagramming are useful for gathering and understanding user data but have shortcomings such as the difficulty to preserve the diagram after its creation, problems during the process such as searching for notes, and loss of shared awareness. We propose an early prototype that solves problems in the process of creating an affinity diagram and enhances it using a large screen display in combination with individual PDAs.
Understanding admixture patterns in supplemented populations: a case study combining molecular analyses and temporally explicit simulations in Atlantic salmon

Genetic admixture between wild and introduced populations is a rising concern for the management of endangered species. Here, we use a dual approach based on molecular analyses of samples collected before and after hatchery fish introduction in combination with a simulation study to obtain insight into the mechanisms of admixture in wild populations. Using 17 microsatellites, we genotyped pre‐ and post‐stocking samples from four Atlantic salmon populations supplemented with non‐native fish to estimate genetic admixture. We also used individual‐based temporally explicit simulations based on realistic demographic and stocking data to predict the extent of admixture. We found a low admixture by hatchery stocks within prestocking samples but moderate to high values in post‐stocking samples (from 12% to 60%). The simulation scenarios best fitting the real data suggested a 10–25 times lower survival of stocked fish relative to wild individuals. Simulations also suggested relatively high dispersal rates of stocked and wild fish, which may explain some high levels of admixture in weakly stocked populations and the persistence of indigenous genotypes in heavily stocked populations. This study overall demonstrates that combining genetic analyses with simulations can significantly improve the understanding of admixture mechanisms in wild populations.