Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring the Effect of Cross-Traffic on Execution Time in a Parallel and Distributed Network Simulator

Simulation of large-scale telecommunications networks requires enormous amounts of memory and processing time. One way of speeding up these simulations is to distribute the model over a number of connected workstations. However, this introduces inefficiencies caused by the need for synchronisation between machines. In distributed network simulation, one of the factors affecting synchronisation overhead is the amount of cross-traffic and interaction between machines. We perform an independent evaluation of the Parallel/Distributed Network Simulator (PDNS) based on experimental results processed at the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications (AC3) cluster. We measure the effect of cross-traffic on wall-clock time needed to complete a simulation for a set of basic network topologies by comparing the result with the wall-clock time needed on a single processor. Our results show that although efficiency is reduced with large amounts of cross-traffic, speedup can still be achieved with PDNS. With these results, we developed a model that can be used as a guideline for designing future simulations. 
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

This collection of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) papers has been put together to reflect the importance of the technique in modern analytical chemical research. A number of papers featuring SERS over the years have gone into understanding the phenomena and even now there are still debates about the exact mechanism of the surface enhancement depending on the nature of the system being investigated.
Evaluation of guidelines for community-acquired pneumonia: a story of confounders, surprises and challenges

Maybe guidelines are our fate. With the widespread acknowledgement of the principles of evidence-based medicine as the major basis for medical research, the number of evidence-based guidelines following a predefined methodological approach is steadily increasing. Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) was one of the first diseases to be covered by guidelines. Since then, in addition to the most authoritative American Thoracic Society (ATS)/Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 1, European Respiratory Society (ERS) 2 and British Thoracic Society (BTS) 3 guidelines, multiple national guidelines have been released and repeatedly updated. Without doubt, the ongoing discussion among international experts covering diverse specialties has substantially stimulated clinical research. Searching the world literature of the last 50 yrs, reviewing and rating every meaningful paper, and putting together the available evidence revealed that there are far more questions than answers regarding even the simplest clinical objectives. Some of these were successfully worked on, with the most impressive result being the derivation and validation of tools for severity assessment as the basis for decisions on treatment settings 4. But, do guidelines on CAP actually improve routine clinical practice? Several studies have tried to approach this issue. The populations studied were very different: some included all hospitalised patients 5–12, whereas others included subgroups such as outpatients 13 and intensive care unit (ICU) patients 14. Most studies were retrospective in design 5–9, 14 and one relied on a pre–post intervention design 10. The selected outcomes usually covered length of hospital stay and mortality 5–11, 14. Most studies focused on antimicrobial treatment as an intervention variable 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, while others evaluated clinical pathways 5. This heterogeneity of study design means conflicting results are not surprising, although most studies …
A heteroscedastic approach to independent motion detection for actuated visual sensors

We present an original method for independent motion detection in dynamic scenes. The algorithm is designed for robotics real-time applications and it overcomes the short-comings of current approaches for the egomotion estimation in presence of many outliers, occlusions and cluttered background. The method relies on a stereo system which performs the reprojection of a sparse set of features following the camera displacement. We assume that noisy prior knowledge of the motion is available (i.e. a robot's kinematic model). Since this estimation leads to a heteroscedastic regression problem due to input-dependent noise, we employ a simple, but computationally efficient approach in order to accurately determine the latent egomotion subspace spanned by the Degrees of Freedom (DOFs) of the robot. The algorithm has been implemented and validated on the iCub humanoid robot. Qualitative and quantitative experiments are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The contribution of the paper is a modular framework for independent motion detection naturally extendable to any architecture featuring a visual sensor that can be directly controllable.
Privacy and Integrity Preserving Range Queries in Wireless Sensor Networks

—A two tiered sensor network architecture, where storage nodes act as an intermediate tier between sensor nodes and sink which is act as a receiver for storing data items and calculating queries. I propose beneficial techniques to save power consumption and memory space consumption and buildup efficient query processing. For preserve privacy, I propose a technique named SafeQ. SafeQ is a protocol, which is used to detect misbehavior of attackers. And storage node can perfectly process queries issued from sink and data items sent by sensor nodes without knowing their original values. For preserve integrity, I propose two methods namely Merkle hash tree and neighborhood chains. Both are used for verify whether the query result of data items that satisfy the query. For reduce communication cost, I propose Bloom filters for reduce the communication cost between sensor nodes and storage nodes in sensor networks. I. INTRODUCTION In this paper, we consider a two-tiered sensor network architecture in which storage nodes gather data from nearby sensors and answer queries from the sink of the network. The storage nodes serve as an intermediate tier between the sensors and the sink for storing data and processing queries. Storage nodes bring three main benefits to sensor networks. First, sensors save power by sending all collected data to their closest storage node instead of sending them to the sink through long routes. Second, sensors can be memory-limited because data are mainly stored on storage nodes. Third, query processing becomes more efficient because the sink only communicates with storage nodes for queries.
Convergence of Fundamental Limitations in Feedback Communication, Estimation, and Feedback Control over Gaussian Channels

In this paper, we establish the connections of the fundamental limitations in feedback communication, estimation, and feedback control over Gaussian channels, from a unifying perspective for information, estimation, and control. The optimal feedback communication system over a Gaussian necessarily employs the Kalman filter (KF) algorithm, and hence can be transformed into an estimation system and a feedback control system over the same channel. This follows that the information rate of the communication system is alternatively given by the decay rate of the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) of the estimation system and by the Bode integral (BI) of the control system. Furthermore, the optimal tradeoff between the channel input power and information rate in feedback communication is alternatively characterized by the optimal tradeoff between the (causal) one-step prediction mean-square error (MSE) and (anti-causal) smoothing MSE (of an appropriate form) in estimation, and by the optimal tradeoff between the regulated output variance with causal feedback and the disturbance rejection measure (BI or degree of anti-causality) in feedback control. All these optimal tradeoffs have an interpretation as the tradeoff between causality and anti-causality. Utilizing and motivated by these relations, we provide several new results regarding the feedback codes and information theoretic characterization of KF. Finally, the extension of the finite-horizon results to infinite horizon is briefly discussed under specific dimension assumptions (the asymptotic feedback capacity problem is left open in this paper).
Las elecciones de 2018 en México y el triunfo del Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Morena)

Este artículo analiza las elecciones de 2018 en México, en las que por primera vez un candidato de un partido de izquierda ganó la Presidencia de ese país, obteniendo una amplia mayoría en el Poder Legislativo en los ámbitos estatal y municipal. Para ello se consideran las dinámicas y patrones que el sistema político mexicano ha presentado en las últimas cuatro décadas a partir de una clave político-histórica. Se analiza el surgimiento del Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Morena) como un partido nuevo con capacidad de éxito electoral en este marco de estabilidad partidaria. Se ausculta el pulso político partidario en las campañas electorales para ver cómo se producía la tensión entre los candidatos y las siglas partidarias. Se comparan los resultados electorales de 2006, 2012 y 2018 por circunscripción, para presentar las transformaciones que llevaron al triunfo de Morena. En definitiva, este derrotero permitirá analizar en qué medida la elección en 2018 de un nuevo partido produjo una transformación histórica que inaugura un nuevo sistema de partidos en México.
Towards a Cognitive Approach to User-Centered Visualization Design and Evaluation

How we visualize graph data is important for us to make sense of it. A number of aesthetic criteria have been used in practice to guide the visualization process and judge the quality of graph drawings. These aesthetics are limited since they often conflict with each other. It is generally agreed that in order to make visualizations effective, well-grounded perception and cognitive theories and design principles are needed. Some attempts have been made to develop visualization theories. In this paper, we present a preliminary study which we conducted with a cognitive approach to add to this growing body of research. More specifically, we propose a graph visualization model, which is further conceptualized into a two-stage assessment cycle. Examples of potentially useful methodologies and theories are introduced and their implications for producing user-friendly visualizations are discussed.
An Effective Iris Recognition System Based on Biomimetic Pattern Recognition

This paper presents a new method for effective iris recognition using Biomimetic Pattern Recognition (BPR), which is a new theory proposed by academician ShoujueWang. A model for iris recognition that is based on BPR was introduced and thoroughly discussed here. Experimental results on the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Automation (CASIA) iris image database clearly demonstrates that the use of Biomimetic Pattern Recognition makes it possible to achieve highly accurate and efficient recognition results with the proposed iris recognition model.
Impact of Product/Service Characteristics on the Rate of Adoption of an Innovation: A case of Eco Cash mobile services in Chipinge District, Zimbabwe.

The emergence of Eco Cash in Zimbabwe ushered a new dispensation in the banking services sector market, with the urbanites responding favorably. The range of mobile banking services offered include bank transfers (sending and receiving money), airtime top-ups, bill payments and bank to wallet and wallet to bank transfers. However this development was not welcome by the traditional banking businesses as they realized the imminent danger of competition, a move that prompted the brick and mortar banks to summon the central bank to force the new rival to undertake its services in conjunction with them. Despite showing great potential, the Eco Cash services have attracted limited attention in some rural market segments in the country and yet this innovation was aimed at bringing banking convenience to the rural folks. It is against this background that this research was carried out to establish the extent to which the characteristic nature (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial-ability and observability) of the Eco Cash mobile services impacts on its rate of adoption and acceptance in the rural market. The study was conducted in Chipinge District at four selected business centers, namely Birchenough Bridge, Tanganda, Chibuwe and Rimbi and Checheche. A descriptive survey research design was employed and a sample size of 80 respondents comprising principally registered Econet Wireless subscribers was conveniently intercepted as they entered the townships. The major instrument used was a structured questionnaire and the results were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools namely the mean and standard. The results show that Eco Cash services are not popular in the rural market, despite them having better attributes that can hasten their rate of adoption by the target market. This therefore implies that Econet Wireless should make some deliberate targeted promotional programs aimed at the rural market and this may improve the adoption of eco cash service in Zimbabwe. Key Terms: Product/Service, Eco-cash, Innovation, Service Characteristics, Rate of Adoption,
Onur: 'emotional habitus' of LGBTI activism in Turkey

This thesis focuses on the generation of emotions around Pride activism in Turkey. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with people who have been part of LGBTI activism in Turkey, this study investigates how feelings and emotions are becoming sites of political activism and how they generate discourses of equality, justice and humaneness that enables political participation and activism. What is ‘emotional habitus’? What does “pride” refer to in the context of LGBTI activism historically? How is it emotionally charged through political activism? In the local context, what is the difference between “pride” and onur? What kind of emotions Pride Parades invokes in people participating in the organization of this event? How does Pride activism transform feelings such as shame, fear, anxiety, loneliness and vulnerability into anger, motivation, courage, joy, enthusiasm, solidarity and empowerment? How are these altered through the changing social political and economic conjuncture of Turkey? Are there any challenges to these emotional practices? Posing these questions, among others, this research examines Deborah Gould’s conceptualization of “emotional habitus” in terms of the ‘ambivalent’ feelings and emotions attributed to being LGBTI in the context of heteronormative sociality and argues that the ambivalence created by the simultaneous existence of “conflicting” feelings can bolster political action and confrontational activism. Pride Weeks and Parades as a site to investigate relations between emotions and political activism, has been a focal point because they constitute the most visible physical outcome of the workings of emotions with activism, because of their associations to various forms of emotional states starting with pride itself. This study aims to articulate a new perspective to the LGBTI studies and literature in Turkey in its early stages by discussing the possibilities and openings that the concept “emotional habitus” can provide to the formation of political action.
Color Video Contrast Enhancement using Effective intraframe Histogram Equalization Technique

—This paper proposes a scheme for Video contrast enhancement based on histogram equalization (HE). Digital images and videos are everywhere these days. The application areas for the same are industries, research, medical, intelligence, security etc. The ability to process image and video signals is therefore an incredibly important skill to master for engineering/science students, software developers, and practicing scientists. Digital image and video processing continues to enable the multimedia technology revolution we are experiencing today. Some important examples of image and video processing include the removal of degradations images suffer during acquisition (e.g., removing blur from a picture of a fast moving car), and the compression and transmission of images and videos. Study of images and videos, trying to improve the quality through enhancing brightness, improving contrast, decreasing blurriness, removing noise, all these things are known as image processing and video processing. Image or Video enhancement is a process involving changing the pixels’ intensity of the input image, so that the output image should subjectively looks better [5]. Several methods like Brightness preserving Bi-Histogram Equalization (BBHE) and Quantized Bi-Histogram Equalization (QBHE) use the average intensity value as their separating point. Dual Sub-Image Histogram Equalization (DSIHE) uses the median intensity value as the separating point. Minimum Mean Brightness Error Bi-HE (MMBEBHE) uses the separating point that produces the smallest Absolute Mean Brightness Error (AMBE). Recursive Mean-Separate Histogram Equalization (RMSHE) is another improvement of BBHE. The Brightness preserving dynamic histogram equalization (BPDHE) method is actually an extension to both MPHEBP and DHE. Weighting mean-separated sub-histogram equalization (WMSHE) method is to perform the effective contrast enhancement of
A Modern Reconsideration of the Theory of Optimal Currency Areas

What can be learnt from revisiting the Optimal Currency Areas (OCA) theory 50 years from its birth, in light of recent advances in open economy macro and monetary theory? This paper presents a stylized micro-founded model of the costs of adopting a common currency, relative to an ideal benchmark in which domestic monetary authorities pursue country-specific efficient stabilization. Costs from (a) limiting monetary autonomy and (b) giving up exchange rate flexibility are examined in turn. These costs will generally be of the same magnitude as the costs of the business cycle. However, to the extent that exchange rates do not perform the stabilizing role envisioned by traditional OCA theory, a common monetary policy can be as efficient as nationally differentiated policies, even when shocks are strongly asymmetric, provided that the composition of aggregate spending tends to be symmetric at union-wide level. Convergence in consumption (and spending) patterns thus emerges as a possible novel attribute of countries participating in an efficient currency area.
Risk Factors, Coronary Severity, Outcome and ABO Blood Group

AbstractABO blood type locus has been reported to have ethnic difference and to be a pivotal genetic determinant of cardiovascular risk, whereas few prospective data regarding the impact on cardiovascular outcomes are available in a large cohort of patients with angiography-proven coronary artery disease, especially from the Chinese population. The objective of this study was to assess the prognostic role of blood type in future cardiovascular events (CVEs) in Chinese Han patients undergoing coronary angiography.The population of this prospective cohort study consisted of 3823 eligible patients, and followed annually to capture all CVEs. Baseline characteristics and ABO blood type were obtained. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the risk of ABO blood type on CVEs.New CVEs occurred in 348 patients [263 (10.3%) non-O and 85 (7.8%) O] during a median period of 24.6 months follow-up. Significantly, non-O blood group was related to the presence and severity of coronary atherosclerosis and several risk factors including inflammatory markers. The log-rank test revealed that there was a significant difference between non-O and O blood groups in event-free survival analysis (P = 0.026). In particular, the Cox proportional hazards models revealed that non-O blood type was associated with increased CVEs risk [hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) 1.320 (1.033–1.685)], even after adjusting for potential confounders [adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) non-O: 1.289 (1.003–1.656); A: 1.083 (0.797–1.472); B: 1.481 (1.122–1.955); AB: 1.249 (0.852–1.831), respectively]. Non-O blood type is associated with future CVEs in Chinese Han patients undergoing coronary angiography.
Mind-modulated music in the mind attention interface

A recent study of electroencephalogram (EEG) activity associated with musical cognition has suggested a correlate for the amount of active musical processing taking place in the brains of musicians. Using a version of this measure, we have built a new brain computer interface which harnesses the "natural" brain activity of musicians to mold and modulate music as it is being composed and played. This computer music instrument is part of a system, the Mind Attention Interface, which provides an interface to a virtual reality theatre using measures of a participant's EEG, eye-gaze and head position. The theatre itself, and its spatialised sound system, closes a feedback loop through the mind of the participant.
Are men at greater risk for Parkinson’s disease than women?

Parkinson’s disease seems to occur more commonly in men than women based primarily on studies of death rates and prevalence. In recent years, several population based incidence studies of Parkinson’s disease that included sex data have been conducted in a variety of populations around the world. To investigate whether these incidence studies suggest an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease in men, a meta-analysis was performed of the differences in incidence of Parkinson’s disease between men and women reported in seven studies that met the inclusion criteria. A significantly higher incidence rate of Parkinson’s disease was found among men with the relative risk being 1.5 times greater in men than women. Possible reasons for this increased risk of Parkinson’s disease in men are toxicant exposure, head trauma, neuroprotection by oestrogen, mitochondrial dysfunction, or X linkage of genetic risk factors.
Voice conversion: Wavelet based residual selection

Voice conversion has been studied over past few decades and yet no flawless system has been developed. Primary restriction in developing conversion systems is decayed output speech quality. Work presented here alleviates this problem by mapping higher order excitation features along with state of the art spectral parameters. Well known linear predictive analysis is used to extract shape of the vocal tract and corresponding residual signal. Higher feature dimensionality of the excitation signal is confronted using synchronous segmentation and windowing of the signal. Each of the resulting frames are wavelet analyzed to calculate normalized sub-band energy coefficients forming a codebook. Conversion is obtained by selecting target residual corresponding to minimized energy cost function. Primary advantage of this technique is reduced dimensionality with satisfactory conversion statistics. Proposed method is compared with baseline residual selection approach using various subjective and objective tests. Wavelet features provide better selection criteria with slight improvement in output speech individuality.