Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Issues on information dissemination and routing in wireless sensor networks

There exists a plethora of work about information dissemination and routing in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), but no work tries to aggregate all this research and connect it all together. This paper, however, reviews WSN research and presents a two-tier framework that can be used to classify alternative approaches and techniques. This framework includes: i) logical network architecture for information dissemination, and ii) physical network infrastructure and routing.
Development of Relative Risk Model for Regional Groundwater Risk Assessment: A Case Study in the Lower Liaohe River Plain, China

Increasing pressure on water supply worldwide, especially in arid areas, has resulted in groundwater overexploitation and contamination, and subsequent deterioration of the groundwater quality and threats to public health. Environmental risk assessment of regional groundwater is an important tool for groundwater protection. This study presents a new approach for assessing the environmental risk assessment of regional groundwater. It was carried out with a relative risk model (RRM) coupled with a series of indices, such as a groundwater vulnerability index, which includes receptor analysis, risk source analysis, risk exposure and hazard analysis, risk characterization, and management of groundwater. The risk map is a product of the probability of environmental contamination and impact. The reliability of the RRM was verified using Monte Carlo analysis. This approach was applied to the lower Liaohe River Plain (LLRP), northeastern China, which covers 23604 km2. A spatial analysis tool within GIS which was used to interpolate and manipulate the data to develop environmental risk maps of regional groundwater, divided the level of risk from high to low into five ranks (V, IV, III, II, I). The results indicate that areas of relative risk rank (RRR) V cover 2324 km2, covering 9.8% of the area; RRR IV covers 3986 km2, accounting for 16.9% of the area. It is a new and appropriate method for regional groundwater resource management and land use planning, and is a rapid and effective tool for improving strategic decision making to protect groundwater and reduce environmental risk.
Visual systemizing preference in children with autism: A randomized controlled trial of intranasal oxytocin

Abstract Several studies have suggested that the neuropeptide oxytocin may enhance aspects of social communication in autism. Little is known, however, about its effects on nonsocial manifestations, such as restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. In the empathizing–systemizing theory of autism, social deficits are described along the continuum of empathizing ability, whereas nonsocial aspects are characterized in terms of an increased preference for patterned or rule-based systems, called systemizing. We therefore developed an automated eye-tracking task to test whether children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to matched controls display a visual preference for more highly organized and structured (systemized) real-life images. Then, as part of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, we examined the effect of intranasal oxytocin on systemizing preferences in 16 male children with ASD, compared with 16 matched controls. Participants viewed 14 slides, each containing four related pictures (e.g., of people, animals, scenes, or objects) that differed primarily on the degree of systemizing. Visual systemizing preference was defined in terms of the fixation time and count for each image. Unlike control subjects who showed no gaze preference, individuals with ASD preferred to fixate on more highly systemized pictures. Intranasal oxytocin eliminated this preference in ASD participants, who now showed a similar response to control subjects on placebo. In contrast, control participants increased their visual preference for more systemized images after receiving oxytocin versus placebo. These results suggest that, in addition to its effects on social communication, oxytocin may play a role in some of the nonsocial manifestations of autism.
Comparative Analysis and Framework Evaluating Web Single Sign-on Systems

We perform a comprehensive analysis and comparison of 14 web single sign-on (SSO) systems proposed and/or deployed over the past decade, including federated identity and credential/password management schemes. We identify common design properties and use them to develop a taxonomy for SSO schemes, highlighting the associated tradeoffs in benefits (positive attributes) offered. We develop a framework to evaluate the schemes, in which we identify 14 security, usability, deployability, and privacy benefits. We also discuss how differences in priorities between users, service providers, and identity providers impact the design and deployment of SSO schemes.
Towards the optimal caching strategies of peer-assisted VoD systems with HD channels

In this paper, we propose a modeling framework to capture the major characteristics of peer-assisted video ondemand systems offering standard and high-definition channels. Our framework can be extended to model a variety of caching strategies, including FIFO, passive caching, and active caching. We use the framework to prove that passive caching is sufficiently effective for stationary user behaviors, and generate the optimal caching solutions when the channels in the system demonstrate different popularity evolutions, i.e., with non-stationary behaviors. Simulation results verify the efficacy of our active-caching strategy and provide further insights into such systems that are gaining more popularity over the Internet.
Lateral Diffusion and Exocytosis of Membrane Proteins in Cultured Neurons Assessed using Fluorescence Recovery and Fluorescence-loss Photobleaching

Membrane proteins such as receptors and ion channels undergo active trafficking in neurons, which are highly polarised and morphologically complex. This directed trafficking is of fundamental importance to deliver, maintain or remove synaptic proteins. Super-ecliptic pHluorin (SEP) is a pH-sensitive derivative of eGFP that has been extensively used for live cell imaging of plasma membrane proteins1-2. At low pH, protonation of SEP decreases photon absorption and eliminates fluorescence emission. As most intracellular trafficking events occur in compartments with low pH, where SEP fluorescence is eclipsed, the fluorescence signal from SEP-tagged proteins is predominantly from the plasma membrane where the SEP is exposed to a neutral pH extracellular environment. When illuminated at high intensity SEP, like every fluorescent dye, is irreversibly photodamaged (photobleached)3-5. Importantly, because low pH quenches photon absorption, only surface expressed SEP can be photobleached whereas intracellular SEP is unaffected by the high intensity illumination6-10. FRAP (fluorescence recovery after photobleaching) of SEP-tagged proteins is a convenient and powerful technique for assessing protein dynamics at the plasma membrane. When fluorescently tagged proteins are photobleached in a region of interest (ROI) the recovery in fluorescence occurs due to the movement of unbleached SEP-tagged proteins into the bleached region. This can occur via lateral diffusion and/or from exocytosis of non-photobleached receptors supplied either by de novo synthesis or recycling (see Fig. 1). The fraction of immobile and mobile protein can be determined and the mobility and kinetics of the diffusible fraction can be interrogated under basal and stimulated conditions such as agonist application or neuronal activation stimuli such as NMDA or KCl application8,10. We describe photobleaching techniques designed to selectively visualize the recovery of fluorescence attributable to exocytosis. Briefly, an ROI is photobleached once as with standard FRAP protocols, followed, after a brief recovery, by repetitive bleaching of the flanking regions. This 'FRAP-FLIP' protocol, developed in our lab, has been used to characterize AMPA receptor trafficking at dendritic spines10, and is applicable to a wide range of trafficking studies to evaluate the intracellular trafficking and exocytosis.
Cortico‐cortical connectivity within ferret auditory cortex

Despite numerous studies of auditory cortical processing in the ferret (Mustela putorius), very little is known about the connections between the different regions of the auditory cortex that have been characterized cytoarchitectonically and physiologically. We examined the distribution of retrograde and anterograde labeling after injecting tracers into one or more regions of ferret auditory cortex. Injections of different tracers at frequency‐matched locations in the core areas, the primary auditory cortex (A1) and anterior auditory field (AAF), of the same animal revealed the presence of reciprocal connections with overlapping projections to and from discrete regions within the posterior pseudosylvian and suprasylvian fields (PPF and PSF), suggesting that these connections are frequency specific. In contrast, projections from the primary areas to the anterior dorsal field (ADF) on the anterior ectosylvian gyrus were scattered and non‐overlapping, consistent with the non‐tonotopic organization of this field. The relative strength of the projections originating in each of the primary fields differed, with A1 predominantly targeting the posterior bank fields PPF and PSF, which in turn project to the ventral posterior field, whereas AAF projects more heavily to the ADF, which then projects to the anteroventral field and the pseudosylvian sulcal cortex. These findings suggest that parallel anterior and posterior processing networks may exist, although the connections between different areas often overlap and interactions were present at all levels. J. Comp. Neurol. 523:2187–2210, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Event Diffusion Patterns in Social Media

This study focuses on real-world events and their reflections on the continuous stream of online discussions. Studying event diffusion on social media is important, as this will tell us how a significant event (such as a natural disaster) spreads and evolves interacting with other events, and who has helped spreading the event. Tracking an ever-changing list of often unanticipated events is difficult, and most prior work has focused on specific event derivatives such as quotes or user-generated tags. In this paper, we propose a method for identifying real-world events on social media, and present observations about event diffusion patterns across diverse media types such as news, blogs, and social networking sites. We first construct an event registry based on the Wikipedia portal of global news events, and we represent each real-world event with entities that embody the 5W1H (e.g., organization, person name, place) used in news coverage. We then label each web document with the list of identified events based on entity similarity between them. We analyze the ICWSM’11 Spinn3r dataset containing over 60 million English documents. We observe surprising connections among the 161 events it covers, and that over half (55%) of users only link to a small fraction of prolific users (4%), a notable departure from the balanced traditional bow-tie model of web content.
and the neurophysiological basics of methodological individualismThe Sensory Order

Purpose – To show that The Sensory Order is an original effort to support, on a neurophysiologic basis, methodological individualism. Methodology/approach – Considering that the mind is a complex and self-organized order, Hayek criticizes methodological holism according to which the cause of action has to be sought outside the individual, in macro-laws governing social wholes. He argues that, due to the nature of the mind, the cause of action has to be sought inside the individual. Findings – The paper stresses that scholars have more or less neglected a very important point in discussions of the Austrian author's psychology. Hayek's psychology supports the idea that the explanation of the action stems from the understanding of its meaning. Research limitations/implications – The article only discusses some of the epistemological consequences of Hayek's theory of the mind. For instance, it does not analyze in a detailed way the relationship between this theory and the idea of distributed knowledge. It left an in-depth examination of this issue for subsequent research. Originality/value of paper – Many authors state that Hayek's version of methodological individualism only examines the non-intentional effects of action, neglecting the importance of Verstehen. They argue that the Austrian scholar is not a complete and coherent champion of methodological individualism. The paper shows that this criticism is unfounded.
Regulation of agrin-induced acetylcholine receptor aggregation by Ca++ and phorbol ester

Agrin, a protein extracted from the electric organ of Torpedo californica, induces the formation of specializations on cultured chick myotubes that resemble the postsynaptic apparatus at the neuromuscular junction. The aim of the studies reported here was to characterize the effects of agrin on the distribution of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) and cholinesterase as a step toward determining agrin's mechanism of action. When agrin was added to the medium bathing chick myotubes small (less than 4 micron 2) aggregates of AChRs began to appear within 2 h and increased rapidly in number until 4 h. Over the next 12-20 h the number of aggregates per myotube decreased as the mean size of each aggregate increased to approximately 15 micron 2. The accumulation of AChRs into agrin-induced aggregates occurred primarily by lateral migration of AChRs already in the myotube plasma membrane at the time agrin was added to the cultures. Aggregates of AChRs and cholinesterase remained as long as agrin was present in the medium; if agrin was removed the number of aggregates declined slowly. The formation and maintenance of agrin-induced AChR aggregates required Ca++, Co++ and Mn++ inhibited agrin-induced AChR aggregation and increased the rate of aggregate dispersal. Mg++ and Sr++ could not substitute for Ca++. Agrin- induced receptor aggregation also was inhibited by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, an activator of protein kinase C, and by inhibitors of energy metabolism. The similarities between agrin's effects on cultured myotubes and events that occur during formation of neuromuscular junctions support the hypothesis that axon terminals release molecules similar to agrin that induce the differentiation of the postsynaptic apparatus.
Genome Analysis of the First Extensively Drug-Resistant (XDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Malaysia Provides Insights into the Genetic Basis of Its Biology and Drug Resistance

The outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has become an increasing problem in many TB-burdened countries. The underlying drug resistance mechanisms, including the genetic variation favored by selective pressure in the resistant population, are partially understood. Recently, the first case of XDR-TB was reported in Malaysia. However, the detailed genotype family and mechanisms of the formation of multiple drugs resistance are unknown. We sequenced the whole genome of the UM 1072388579 strain with a 2-kb insert-size library and combined with that from previously sequenced 500-bp-insert paired-end reads to produce an improved sequence with maximal sequencing coverage across the genome. In silico spoligotyping and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that UM 1072388579 strain belongs to an ancestral-like, non-Beijing clade of East Asia lineage. This is supported by the presence of a number of lineage-specific markers, including fadD28, embA, nuoD and pks7. Polymorphism analysis showed that the drug-susceptibility profile is correlated with the pattern of resistance mutations. Mutations in drug-efflux pumps and the cell wall biogenesis pathway such as mmpL, pks and fadD genes may play an important role in survival and adaptation of this strain to its surrounding environment. In this work, fifty-seven putative promoter SNPs were identified. Among them, we identified a novel SNP located at -4 T allele of TetR/acrR promoter as an informative marker to recognize strains of East Asian lineage. Our work indicates that the UM 1072388579 harbors both classical and uncommon SNPs that allow it to escape from inhibition by many antibiotics. This study provides a strong foundation to dissect the biology and underlying resistance mechanisms of the first reported XDR M. tuberculosis in Malaysia.
WiP Abstract: Challenges and Strategies for Exploiting Integrated Modular Avionics on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) has been suggested to address issues of size, weight, and power in avionics systems by means of partitioning. We are currently designing and implementing the IMA architecture for a university-operated UAV aiming for lightweight, low cost, easy development, and easy extension. This study can provide invaluable insights into building IMA on a small UAV by combining free software and COTS hardware.
IRCI Free Range Reconstruction for SAR Imaging With Arbitrary Length OFDM Pulse

Our previously proposed OFDM with sufficient cyclic prefix (CP) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging algorithm is inter-range-cell interference (IRCI) free and achieves ideally zero range sidelobes for range reconstruction. In this OFDM SAR imaging algorithm, the minimum required CP length is almost equal to the number of range cells in a swath, while the number of subcarriers of an OFDM signal needs to be more than the CP length. This makes the length of a transmitted OFDM sequence at least almost twice of the number of range cells in a swath and for a wide swath imaging, the transmitted OFDM pulse length becomes long, which may cause problems in some radar applications. In this paper, we propose a CP-based OFDM SAR imaging with arbitrary pulse length, which has IRCI free range reconstruction and its pulse length is independent of a swath width. We then present a novel design method for our proposed arbitrary length OFDM pulses. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performances of the OFDM pulse design and the arbitrary pulse length CP-based OFDM SAR imaging.
F0 prediction from linear predictive cepstral coefficient

In this paper, we proposed a fundamental frequency prediction method which is used primarily in the voice conversion system. This paper establishes a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to predict the fundamental frequency based on the Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficient (LPCC). The model may be the speaker-dependent Gaussian mixture model or the speaker-independent universal background model that is decided by the number of speakers in the training data set. The gross pitch error and the tone correct rate of the predicted F0 are reviewed and analyzed separately. The experimental results show that there is a relatively stable mapping relationship between LPCCs and fundamental. The gross pitch error in the GMM and UBM is about 7.52% and 14.03%. Subjective tests certify that the tone could be understood well. This F0 prediction method could be utilized to predict pitch in whispered speech conversion system and voice conversion system.
LUSTER: wireless sensor network for environmental research

Environmental wireless sensor network (EWSN) systems are deployed in potentially harsh and remote environments where inevitable node and communication failures must be tolerated. LUSTER---Light Under Shrub Thicket for Environmental Research---is a system that meets the challenges of EWSNs using a hierarchical architecture that includes distributed reliable storage, delay-tolerant networking, and deployment time validation techniques. In LUSTER, a fleet of sensors coordinate communications using LiteTDMA, a low-power cluster-based MAC protocol. They measure the complex light environment in thickets and are open to additional ecological parameters, such as temperature and CO2. LUSTER has been deployed and evaluated in laboratory, forested, and barrier island environments. It includes new sensor hardware designs: (a) "SolarDust," a hybrid multichannel energy harvesting and sensing device; (b) "Medusa," a spatially reconfigurable light sensor; (c) a removable SD card storage node; and, (d) in-situ user interface tool for deployment time validation.
Towards a more complete model of role

In order to manage the use of roles for the purpose of access control, it is important to look at attributes beyond the consideration of capability assignment. Fundamentally, a generic attribute description using a constraint-based approach will allow many of the important aspects of role, such as scope, activation and deactivation, to be included. Furthermore, the commonly accepted concept of role hierarchy is challenged from the point of view of subsidiarity in real organisations, with the suggestion that role hierarchy has limited usefulness that does not seem to apply widely.
Au rythme du tourisme. Le monde transnational de la percussion guinéenne

Mis a part le tourisme d'affaires et quelques circuits de trekking dans le Fouta-Jalon, le tourisme en Guinee est porte par un engouement international grandissant pour les percussions et les danses traditionnelles. Le tambour jembe, l'instrument emble­matique de la culture guineenne, attire chaque annee des centaines de touristes desi­rant perfectionner leur pratique musicale et decouvrir le pays d'origine de leur instrument d'election. Nous proposons d'etudier ce tourisme du rythme, emergent en Guinee depuis la fin des annees 1980, en replacant le phenomene dans le cadre de l'acceleration des transformations musicales et de la circulation des artistes depuis la decolonisation. Comment cette nouvelle economie du tourisme musical genere des reseaux transnationaux d'artistes, suscite localement des vocations artistiques mais provoque egalement des tensions autour d'un patrimoine musical desormais partage ?
PrivOnto: A semantic framework for the analysis of privacy policies

Privacy policies are intended to inform users about the collection and use of their data by websites, mobile apps and other services or appliances they interact with. This also includes informing users about any choices they might have regarding such data practices. However, few users read these often long privacy policies; and those who do have difﬁculty understanding them, because they are written in convoluted and ambiguous language. A promising approach to help overcome this situation revolves around semi-automatically annotating policies, using combinations of crowdsourcing, machine learning and natural language processing. In this article, we introduce PrivOnto, a semantic framework to represent annotated privacy policies. PrivOnto relies on an ontology developed to represent issues identiﬁed as critical to users and/or legal experts. PrivOnto has been used to analyze a corpus of over 23,000 annotated data practices, extracted from 115 privacy policies. We introduce a collection of 57 SPARQL queries to extract information from the PrivOnto knowledge base, with the dual objective of (1) answering privacy questions of interest to users and (2) supporting researchers and regulators in the analysis of privacy policies at scale. We present an interactive online tool using PrivOnto to help users explore our corpus of 23,000 annotated data practices. Finally, we outline future research and open challenges in using semantic technologies for privacy policy analysis.