Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secure beamforming transmission with limited training and feedback

We consider the secure beamforming transmission over a quasi-static block fading channel from a multi-antenna transmitter to a desired single-antenna receiver, in the presence of a passive single-antenna eavesdropper. We focus on a practical scenario where the transmitter can only acquire the statistical channel knowledge of the eavesdropper and the partial channel knowledge of the legitimate receiver through a finite amount of signaling overhead. To keep control of the outage events caused by the limited channel knowledge, We firstly propose a strategy to determine the wiretap code parameters under the outage constraints, based on which we establish a necessary transmission condition to guarantee a positive secrecy rate. Aided by this transmission condition, we propose an on-off-based transmission scheme and characterize the secrecy throughput performance of the system. Our designed transmission scheme is beneficial for the deployment of physical layer security in practical frequency division duplex (FDD) systems with limited training and feedback.
Early lexical development in Spanish-speaking infants and toddlers

ABSTRACT This paper describes the early lexical development of a group of 328 normal Spanish-speaking children aged 0;8 to 2;7. First the development and structure of a new parent report instrument, Inventario del Desarollo de Habilidades Communcativas is described. Then five studies carried out with the instrument are presented. In the first study vocabulary development of Spanish-speaking infants and toddlers is compared to that of English-speaking infants and toddlers. The English data were gathered using a comparable parental report, the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories. In the second study the general characteristics of Spanish language acquisition, and the effects of various demographic factors on that process, are examined. Study 3 examines the differential effects of three methods of collecting the data (mail-in, personal interview, and clinic waiting room administration). Studies 4 and 5 document the reliability and validity of the instrument. Results show that the trajectories of development are very similar for Spanish-and English-speaking children in this age range, that children from varying social groups develop similarly, and that mail-in and personal interview administration techniques produce comparable results. Inventories administered in a medical clinic waiting room, on the otherhand, produced lower estimates of toddler vocabulary than the other two models.
Robot Navigation with Schematic Maps

We outline an approach to high-level interaction with autonomous robots by means of schematic maps. Schematic maps are knowledge representation structures to encode qualitative spatial information about physical environments. We present a scenario in which robots rely on high-level knowledge from perception and instruction to perform navigation tasks in physical environments. We discuss the general problem of formally representing a physical environment for acting in it. We propose a hybrid approach to knowledge and perception driven navigation.
Potency of Transgenic Effectors for Neurogenetic Manipulation in Drosophila Larvae

Genetic manipulations of neuronal activity are a cornerstone of studies aimed to identify the functional impact of defined neurons for animal behavior. With its small nervous system, rapid life cycle, and genetic amenability, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster provides an attractive model system to study neuronal circuit function. In the past two decades, a large repertoire of elegant genetic tools has been developed to manipulate and study neural circuits in the fruit fly. Current techniques allow genetic ablation, constitutive silencing, or hyperactivation of neuronal activity and also include conditional thermogenetic or optogenetic activation or inhibition. As for all genetic techniques, the choice of the proper transgenic tool is essential for behavioral studies. Potency and impact of effectors may vary in distinct neuron types or distinct types of behavior. We here systematically test genetic effectors for their potency to alter the behavior of Drosophila larvae, using two distinct behavioral paradigms: general locomotor activity and directed, visually guided navigation. Our results show largely similar but not equal effects with different effector lines in both assays. Interestingly, differences in the magnitude of induced behavioral alterations between different effector lines remain largely consistent between the two behavioral assays. The observed potencies of the effector lines in aminergic and cholinergic neurons assessed here may help researchers to choose the best-suited genetic tools to dissect neuronal networks underlying the behavior of larval fruit flies.
Risk Assessment of Shellfish Toxins

Complex secondary metabolites, some of which are highly toxic to mammals, are produced by many marine organisms. Some of these organisms are important food sources for marine animals and, when ingested, the toxins that they produce may be absorbed and stored in the tissues of the predators, which then become toxic to animals higher up the food chain. This is a particular problem with shellfish, and many cases of poisoning are reported in shellfish consumers each year. At present, there is no practicable means of preventing uptake of the toxins by shellfish or of removing them after harvesting. Assessment of the risk posed by such toxins is therefore required in order to determine levels that are unlikely to cause adverse effects in humans and to permit the establishment of regulatory limits in shellfish for human consumption. In the present review, the basic principles of risk assessment are described, and the progress made toward robust risk assessment of seafood toxins is discussed. While good progress has been made, it is clear that further toxicological studies are required before this goal is fully achieved.
A Multilevel Study of Students' Motivations of Studying Accounting: Implications for Employers.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of factors affecting students’ choice of accounting as a study major in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach – Multinomial logistic regression and Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling (HGLM) are used to analyze the survey data for the level one and level two data, which is the first time such an approach has been used in the literature. Twenty semi‐structured interviews are conducted.Findings – Results reveal that parental influence has the highest explanatory power among all three groups of students (i.e. accounting major, accounting minor, and other majors). This finding reflects the inculcation in students of the Confucian cultural norms ingrained in Chinese societies. Intrinsic interest is the second most important influencing factor reported by students. Two factors, “intrinsic interest” (attitude towards the behavior) and “parental influence” (subjective norm) in the multinomial logistic regressions and HGLM make significant contri.
Turbulenzen im Kinderleben. Mütterliche Partnerschaftsbiographien und multiple Übergänge nach elterlicher Trennung

Zusammenfassung Nach einer elterlichen Trennung gilt das Erleben multipler Ubergange als Risikofaktor fur Kinder. Wir analysieren erstmals fur Osterreich im Zeitverlauf, wie viele Ubergange, definiert als neuerliche mutterliche Partnerbeziehungen oder Trennungen, Kinder erleben und von welchen Determinanten dies beeinflusst wird. Die Analysen erfolgen mittels multinomialer logistischer Regression auf Basis der osterreichischen Daten des Fertility and Family Survey 1995/96 und des Generations and Gender Survey 2008/09. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass innerhalb von acht Jahren nach der elterlichen Trennung jeweils rund 50% der Kinder keine und rund 40% genau eine neue Kohabitation (Lebensgemeinschaft oder Ehe) der Mutter erleben, zumeist in den ersten vier Jahren nach der elterlichen Trennung. Fast jedes siebte Kind mit getrennten Eltern (13%) macht die Erfahrung multipler Ubergange. Erklarende Faktoren sind niedriges Alter der Mutter zum Zeitpunkt der Trennung, geringes mutterliches Bildungsniveau sowie niedriges Alter des jungsten Kindes. Des Weiteren zeigt sich ein deutlicher Effekt des Trennungsjahres: die Wahrscheinlichkeit fur das Erleben multipler Ubergange ist im Zeitverlauf markant angestiegen. Schlagworte: Scheidung, Trennung, Kinder, Familienstruktur, multiple Ubergange, Partnerschaftsbiographie ----- Abstract Experiencing multiple transitions after a parental separation was identified as an important risk factor for children. We investigate for the first time for Austria, how many transitions (i.e. changes in maternal partnership arrangements) children experience and what determines their number. The analyses are based on the Austrian Fertility and Family Survey 1995/96 and the Generations and Gender Survey 2008/09 using a multinomial logistic regression model. The results show that within eight years after parental separation, about 50% of children experience no new cohabitation or marriage of their mother and about 40% experience exactly one. For the majority of children, these changes happen within four years after their parents’ separation. Almost every seventh child with separated parents (13%) experiences multiple transitions. Children with a low-level educated mother and those whose mother is young at the time of separation face a particularly high risk, as well as those living in families with a low age of the youngest child. Moreover, a strong effect of the year of separation could be detected: the probability of experiencing multiple transitions increases strongly over time. Keywords: divorce, separation, children, family structure, multiple transitions, partnership history
Bilateral negotiation of energy contracts from the buyer perspective

In this study is presented a decision support model considering the perspective of a buyer who needs evaluating a basic set of contractual conditions. The approach recognizes that a potential new contract under negotiation introduces two main risks: One is related to the insufficiency of load supply (ILS) to end users. Other risk is related with the volatility of the short term spot prices used as a reference for defining the contractual price. Both of these risks are estimated based on the Monte Carlo method and payment minimization. Important characteristics of bilateral contracts like, the necessary modulation to compensate seasonal load variations and the flexibility margins are considered in the model. In case the risks levels are not acceptable, the model makes possible to evaluate a review in the previous conditions in a responsive manner. Results show that with this tool, agents have important information about the negotiated offers being able to clearly define margins of negotiation. These margins are based on the relationships between levels of risk and contractual conditions. The proposed tool is easy to implement and gives a strong support in the decision making process during negotiation of bilateral energy contracts.
Determining user's interest in real time

Most of the search engine optimization techniques attempt to predict users interest by learning from the past information collected from different sources. But, a user's current interest often depends on many factors which are not captured in the past information. In this paper, we attempt to identify user's current interest in real time from the information provided by the user in the current query session. By identifying user's interest in real time, the engine could adapt differently to different users in real time. Experimental verification indicates that our approach is encouraging for short queries
Automated Assessment of Students’ Conceptual Understanding: Supporting Students and Teachers Using Data from an Interactive Textbook

Online, interactive textbooks utilizing multimedia are continually gaining popularity in computer science courses. We present a system for automated analysis that can harness the power of these textbook and practice systems to provide information about high-level conceptual understanding to educators. The system presents a visualization using data logged by an interactive textbook to provide numeric estimates of a student's knowledge of course concepts. This information can be used to support teachers and individual students. The basis of our system is a Concept Graph, an artifact representing the concepts to be taught during the course, and their interrelations. We describe the manner in which our system uses these Concept Graphs to provide useful information to educators and students.
Matrix adaptive synthesis filter for uniform filter bank

In this paper, we use a matrix adaptive filter as the synthesis stage of a Uniform Filter Bank (UFB) to reconstruct the input signal. We first develop the mathematical theory behind it by applying the model of optimal filtering at the synthesis stage of the UFB and obtaining an expression for the matrix Wiener filter. We have developed a theorem which we use to simplify the expression further. In the absence of required information about the analysis stage, we use adaptive filtering to arrive at the Wiener solution. We use the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm to update the filter coefficients. Through experimental results, we find that the adaptive filter is convergent for a stable Wiener filter.
A framework for HDR stereo matching using multi-exposed images

Real world scenes that contain high dynamic range illumination present a special challenge for stereo matching algorithms due to a lack of texture in over- or under-exposed image regions. In this paper, we discuss possibilities for combining state-of-the-art stereo matching algorithms with High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging techniques, in order to exploit a set of multi-exposed input images of both the left and right stereo view for high-quality stereo reconstruction. We sketch the overall concept of our HDR stereo matching framework and demonstrate some first steps of its implementation, including the acquisition of HDR stereo test data, stereo matching experiments on tone-mapped images, and ideas for combining disparity maps derived from different exposures.
Taming power peaks in mapreduce clusters

Along with the surging service demands on the cloud, the energy cost of Internet Data Centers (IDCs) is dramatically increasing. Energy management for IDCs is becoming ever more important. A large portion of applications running on data centers are data-intensive applications. MapReduce (and Hadoop) has been one of the mostly deployed frameworks for data-intensive applications. Both academia and industry have been greatly concerned with the problem of how to reduce the energy consumption of IDCs. However the critical power peak problem for MapReduce clusters has been overlooked, which is a new challenge brought by the usage of MapReduce. We elaborate the power peak problem and investigate the cause of the problem in details. Then we design an adaptive approach to regulate power peaks.
The effect of tumour size on ferromagnetic embolization hyperthermia in a rabbit liver tumour model

Objective : Ferromagnetic Embolization Hyperthermia (FEH) consists of arterially embolizing tumours with ferromagnetic particles to cause hysteretic heating upon subsequent exposure to an alternating magnetic field. The objective was to determine the effect of tumour size during FEH using a rabbit liver tumour model. Method : Thirty-three rabbits containing implanted hepatic VX2 carcinomas received a hepatic arterial infusion of ferromagnetic particles suspended in lipiodol. Following hysteretic heating, tumour and normal hepatic tissues were chemically analysed for iron content. Tumours were classed as small if their mass was less than the median mass for the whole group of subjects (2.1g), and as large if their mass was greater than or equal to the median. To control for variability in tumour iron concentration, 13 small tumours were matched to 13 large tumours by iron concentration, and their heating characteristics compared. Results : The heating rate in large tumours (median = 5.0°C/min) was significantly greater than that in the matched small tumours (median = 2.8°C/min), p = 0.006. Regression analysis determined that the slope of the heating rate vs iron concentration curve for large tumours was 1.5 times greater than that for the matched small tumours, p < 0.001. After cessation of heating in large tumours, there was continued heat dissipation into surrounding tissues, which led to anomalous temperature increases. There was an inverse linear relationship between tumour size and tumour iron concentration for a given dose of particles. Conclusion : For a given tumour iron concentration, larger tumours heat at a greater rate than small tumours, due to the poorer tissue cooling and better heat conduction in the necrotic regions of large tumours. This warrants further investigation as this finding could confer a significant advantage on FEH over other hyperthermic modalities in the treatment of hepatic malignancies.
Adaptive binary splitting for efficient RFID tag anti-collision

Tag collision arbitration for passive RFID tags is a significant issue for fast tag identification. This letter presents a novel tag anti-collision scheme called adaptive binary splitting (ABS). For reducing collisions, ABS assigns distinct timeslots to tags by using information obtained from the last identification process. Our performance evaluation shows that ABS outperforms other tree based tag anti-collision protocols.
THE FIS ELECTRONICS TROUBLESHOOTING PROJECT

FIS, short for Fault Isolation System. is an ongoing research project at the Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence, a branch of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The focus of the work is a model-based expert system shell capable of acquiring from a user a description of a piece of electronic equipment. called a unit under test (UUT). This description is later used by FIS to perfonn such diagnostic functions as recommending the next "best" test to make on the UUT during a fault isolation sequence and estimating fault probabilities after each test is made. These and other capabilities make FIS a powerful tool that can be used in a variety of diagnostic settings, as discussed in Section 1.2. FIS has been developed primarily with large-scale analog-hybrid electronic systems such as radar and sonar systems in mind, but it is applicable at least in principle to any human­ engineered system with discrete replaceable components. FIS is written in LISP and has been under development for several years. Earlier versions of the FIS prototype system are described by Pipitone [1,21.
Interactive data visualization using focusing and linking

Two basic principles for interactive visualization of high-dimensional data-focusing and linking-are discussed. Focusing techniques may involve selecting subsets, dimension reduction, or some more general manipulation of the layout information on the page or screen. A consequent of focusing is that each view only conveys partial information about the data and needs to be linked so that the information contained in individual views can be integrated into a coherent image of the data as a whole. Examples are given of how graphical data analysis methods based on focusing and linking are used in applications including linguistics, geographic information systems, time series analysis, and the analysis of multi-channel images arising in radiology and remote sensing. <<ETX>>
Expression and role of a2 vacuolar‐ATPase (a2V) in trafficking of human neutrophil granules and exocytosis

Neutrophils kill microorganisms by inducing exocytosis of granules with antibacterial properties. Four isoforms of the “a” subunit of V‐ATPase—a1V, a2V, a3V, and a4V—have been identified. a2V is expressed in white blood cells, that is, on the surface of monocytes or activated lymphocytes. Neutrophil associated‐a2V was found on membranes of primary (azurophilic) granules and less often on secondary (specific) granules, tertiary (gelatinase granules), and secretory vesicles. However, it was not found on the surface of resting neutrophils. Following stimulation of neutrophils, primary granules containing a2V as well as CD63 translocated to the surface of the cell because of exocytosis. a2V was also found on the cell surface when the neutrophils were incubated in ammonium chloride buffer (pH 7.4) a weak base. The intracellular pH (cytosol) became alkaline within 5 min after stimulation, and the pH increased from 7.2 to 7.8; this pH change correlated with intragranular acidification of the neutrophil granules. Upon translocation and exocytosis, a2V on the membrane of primary granules remained on the cell surface, but myeloperoxidase was secreted. V‐ATPase may have a role in the fusion of the granule membrane with the cell surface membrane before exocytosis. These findings suggest that the granule‐associated a2V isoform has a role in maintaining a pH gradient within the cell between the cytosol and granules in neutrophils and also in fusion between the surface and the granules before exocytosis. Because a2V is not found on the surface of resting neutrophils, surface a2V may be useful as a biomarker for activated neutrophils.
Influx of Neutrophils Into the Walls of Large Epicardial Coronary Arteries in Response to Ischemia/Reperfusion

BackgroundThere are several clinical situations in which large epicardial coronary arteries are deprived of blood flow, such as occurs when an obstructing thrombus or embolus lodges within a vessel or during coronary dissection. There is little information concerning the effect of flow deprivation on large epicardial coronary arteries. Methods and ResultsWe studied a model in which a segment of a large epicardial coronary artery was deprived of blood flow using both proximal and distal clamps for 3 hours followed by reperfusion. On examination by light microscopy of cross sections of the arteries, 19 ± t6 neutrophils were present in the intima of ischemic/reperfused vessels, whereas only a mean of 4 ± 3 (SEM) were present in the intima of nonischemic vessels (p < 0.02). On average, there were 17 ± 9 neutrophils just under the elastic lamina in ischemic/reperfused vessels versus none in the nonischemic vessels (p < 0.05); there were 16 ± 10 neutrophils present within the media of ischemic/reperfused vessels, and none (p < 0.05) in the nonischemic vessels. Electron microscopic analysis revealed that neutrophils in the ischemic/reperfused vessels were often “sandwiched” between the endothelial cells and the elastic lamina. Ultrastructural abnormalities within the myocardium also revealed damage to the microvasculature, including the presence of neutrophils within the vessels and erythrocyte stasis. To rule out the possibility that findings in the large epicardial arteries were due to toxic substances from static blood within the isolated arterial segment, a protocol was performed in which blood was removed from the isolated segment. Again, neutrophil infiltration into the vessel was observed. Resting mean epicardial coronary artery blood flow before coronary occlusion was 19 ± 3 mVmin; mean coronary blood flow 2.5 hours after reperfusion was identical at 19 ± 3 ml/min. Response to both endothelial-dependent vasodilation (acetylcholine) and endothelial-independent vasodilation (nitroglycerin) challenges was normal early after reperfusion but was depressed late after reperfusion, suggesting progressive vascular dysfunction and hence a form of vascular reperfusion injury in this model. ConclusionsWhen large epicardial coronary arteries are deprived of blood flow, followed by reperfusion in this model, neutrophils migrate into the vessel wall as well as into the microvasculature. These abnormalities are associated with reduced endothelial-dependent and endothelial-independent coronary vasodilator reserve.