Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reliable transmission schemes for train control information in high-speed railway

The reliability of wireless communication systems in high-speed railway, especially the reliable transmission of train control information, has attracted a lot of attention. With the decision of global system for mobile communication for railway (GSM-R) evolution to long-term evolution (LTE) for railway by International Union of Railways (ITU), many techniques such as redundant transmission and low order modulation and coding scheme (MCS) without adaption like PDCCH are considered to enhance the reliability of train control information. In the paper, two PHY-diversity reliable transmission schemes adapted to train location are proposed. Then, the closed form expression for SER (Symbol Error Rate) of these schemes experiencing the Ricean-faded channel is derived. The numerical results show that, in the scenario whose SNR is larger than 10 dB, the proposed schemes can dramatically decrease the transmission SER.
Performance evaluation of a new route optimization technique for mobile IP

Mobile ip (mip) is an internet protocol that allows mobile nodes to have continuous network connectivity to the internet without changing their ip addresses while moving to other networks. The packets sent from correspondent node (cn) to a mobile node (mn) go first through the mobile node's home agent (ha), then the ha tunnels them to the mn's foreign network. One of the main problems in the original mip is the triangle routing problem. Triangle routing problem appears when the indirect path between cn and mn through the ha is longer than the direct path. This paper proposes a new technique to improve the performance of the original mip during the handoff. The proposed technique reduces the delay, the packet loss and the registration time for all the packets transferred between the cn and the mn. In this technique, tunneling occurs at two levels above the ha in a hierarchical network. To show the effectiveness of the proposed technique, it is compared with the original mip and another technique for solving the same problem in which tunneling occurs at one level above the ha. Simulation results presented in this paper are based on the ns2 mobility software on linux platform. The simulations results show that our proposed technique achieves better performance than the others, considering the packet delay, the packet losses during handoffs and the registration time, in different scenarios for the location of the mn with respect to the ha and fas.
Crystalline Ropes of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes

Fullerene single-wall nanotubes (SWNTs) were produced in yields of more than 70 percent by condensation of a laser-vaporized carbon-nickel-cobalt mixture at 1200°C. X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy showed that these SWNTs are nearly uniform in diameter and that they self-organize into “ropes,” which consist of 100 to 500 SWNTs in a two-dimensional triangular lattice with a lattice constant of 17 angstroms. The x-ray form factor is consistent with that of uniformly charged cylinders 13.8 ± 0.2 angstroms in diameter. The ropes were metallic, with a single-rope resistivity of <10−4 ohm-centimeters at 300 kelvin. The uniformity of SWNT diameter is attributed to the efficient annealing of an initial fullerene tubelet kept open by a few metal atoms; the optimum diameter is determined by competition between the strain energy of curvature of the graphene sheet and the dangling-bond energy of the open edge, where growth occurs. These factors strongly favor the metallic (10,10) tube with C5v symmetry and an open edge stabilized by triple bonds.
Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-3 Induces a Fas-associated Death Domain-dependent Type II Apoptotic Pathway*

Tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) are important regulators of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and adamalysin metalloproteinase activity. We previously reported that overexpression of TIMP-3 inhibits MMPs and induces apoptotic cell death in a variety of cell types and demonstrated that apoptosis is mediated through the N terminus of TIMP-3, which harbors the MMP inhibitory domain. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying TIMP-3-induced apoptosis. Here we demonstrate that overexpression of TIMP-3 induced activation of initiator caspase-8 and -9 and promoted caspase-mediated cleavage of the death substrates poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and focal adhesion kinase. Furthermore, TIMP-3 induced mitochondrial activation as demonstrated by loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and release of cytochrome c. Intervention studies demonstrated that overexpression of Bcl-2, the anti-apoptotic mitochondrial membrane protein, or CrmA, a viral serpin inhibitor of caspase-8, completely inhibited TIMP-3-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, a dominant-negative Fas-associated death domain mutant inhibited TIMP-3-induced death substrate cleavage and apoptotic death. Taken together, these results indicate that TIMP-3 overexpression induces a type II apoptotic pathway initiated via a Fas-associated death domain-dependent mechanism.
UGENT-LT3 SCATE System for Machine Translation Quality Estimation

This paper describes the submission of the UGENT-LT3 SCATE system to the WMT15 Shared Task on Quality Estimation (QE), viz. English-Spanish word and sentence-level QE. We conceived QE as a supervised Machine Learning (ML) problem and designed additional features and combined these with the baseline feature set to estimate quality. The sentence-level QE system re-uses the word level predictions of the word-level QE system. We experimented with different learning methods and observe improvements over the baseline system for wordlevel QE with the use of the new features and by combining learning methods into ensembles. For sentence-level QE we show that using a single feature based on word-level predictions can perform better than the baseline system and using this in combination with additional features led to further improvements in performance.
CSRP2, TIMP‐1, and SM22α promoter fragments direct hepatic stellate cell‐specific transgene expression in vitro, but not in vivo

Background/Aims: The activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) and their transdifferentiation into myofibroblasts (MFB) is the key step for development of liver fibrosis. Over the past several years, significant progress has been made in the understanding of the critical pathways involved incells undergoing activation. Cellular activation in the course of transdifferentiation involves, among other biochemical modifications, functionally relevant changes in the control of gene expression. These include the up‐regulation of transcription factors, different extracellular matrix proteins, cell adhesion molecules, smooth muscle specific genes, and proteins involved in matrix remodelling, or cytoskeletal organization. The corresponding regulatory elements of these genes have afforded us the opportunity to express transgenes with antifibrotic potential in a cell type‐ and/or transdifferentiation‐dependent manner.
[Functional recovery and self-regulation: assignments for both clients and psychiatrists].

BACKGROUND Currently, attention is focused on recovery, but the concept is under discussion. The functional aspect, i.e. the re-establishment and development of mental functions, is rarely explained in mental health care. As a result, certain opportunities may be missed, particularly with regard to helping clients to develop or restore their self-regulatory abilities. AIM To clarify what we mean by functional recovery and to explain why it is important to deal with this theme separately and to distinguish between functioning and mental functions. METHOD An overview is given of current developments in and around mental health care, and the true meaning of the concept of recovery is discussed. Furthermore, arguments are presented which stress the usefulness of distinguishing between four aspects of recovery: clinical, personal, social and functional. RESULTS As is still the case in regular health care (rehabilitation), the subject of functional recovery is hardly ever dealt with as a separate entity. If it were to be dealt with separately and if attention were to be given particularly to the executive functions and their significance for self-regulation, fresh opportunities would arise for supporting clients in their recovery process. CONCLUSION If functional recovery is dealt with separately, new opportunities for recovery will arise, even if clinical recovery is no longer a viable option. The use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) can ensure that focus in the future will shift to the recovery of psychosocial functioning and mental functions.
Direct Physical Contact between Intercalated Cells in the Distal Convoluted Tubule and the Afferent Arteriole in Mouse Kidneys

Recent physiological studies in the kidney proposed the existence of a secondary feedback mechanism termed ‘crosstalk’ localized after the macula densa. This newly discovered crosstalk contact between the nephron tubule and its own afferent arteriole may potentially revolutionize our understanding of renal vascular resistance and electrolyte regulation. However, the nature of such a crosstalk mechanism is still debated due to a lack of direct and comprehensive morphological evidence. Its exact location along the nephron, its prevalence among the different types of nephrons, and the type of cells involved are yet unknown. To address these issues, computer assisted 3-dimensional nephron tracing was applied in combination with direct immunohistochemistry on plastic sections and electron microscopy. ‘Random’ contacts in the cortex were identified by the tracing and excluded. We investigated a total of 168 nephrons from all cortical regions. The results demonstrated that the crosstalk contact existed, and that it was only present in certain nephrons (90% of the short-looped and 75% of the long-looped nephrons). The crosstalk contacts always occurred at a specific position – the last 10% of the distal convoluted tubule. Importantly, we demonstrated, for the first time, that the cells found in the tubule wall at the contact site were always type nonA-nonB intercalated cells. In conclusion, the present work confirmed the existence of a post macula densa physical crosstalk contact.
The contest over employer status in the postwar United States : The case of temporary help firms

This study examines the sociolegal underpinnings of the temporary help relationship as one kind of contingent work arrangement and explores how it became institutionalized in the post-World War II United States. While the American literature on contingent work suggests its tremendous growth has been merely a result of changing human resource strategies on the part of business managers, the focus here is on the specific role played by courts, state legislatures, and government administrative bodies in ratifying the temporary help arrangement as legal and legitimate. The article details the obscure history of the campaign waged by temporary help firms to win their claim as the legal employers of workers they send out to client firms, a central premise of the arrangement. It shows that statutory and policy changes supporting the increased use of temporary work were in place by the early 1970s, in time for its expanded use to play a key role in the restructuring of U.S. employment relations since that time
An open-label study of vandetanib with pemetrexed in patients with previously treated non-small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND Vandetanib (ZACTIMA; ZD6474) is a once-daily, oral inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and epidermal growth factor receptor signaling. The safety and tolerability of vandetanib plus pemetrexed was assessed in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with previously treated NSCLC (stage IIIB/IV) received once-daily oral vandetanib (100 or 300 mg) with pemetrexed (500 mg/m(2) i.v. infusion every 21 days). RESULTS Patients received vandetanib 100 mg + pemetrexed (n=10) or vandetanib 300 mg + pemetrexed (n=11). The protocol definition of a tolerable dose [vandetanib-related dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) in less than 2 patients] was met in both dose cohorts, with one DLT reported in each: asymptomatic QTc prolongation (>100 ms increase from baseline, but absolute QTc<500 ms) in the 100 mg cohort and interstitial lung disease, which resolved after steroid therapy, in the 300 mg cohort. The most common adverse events were rash, anorexia, fatigue and diarrhea (all n=10). CONCLUSION Vandetanib and pemetrexed in combination were generally well tolerated in patients with advanced NSCLC.
Propagation of high-power parabolic pulses in cubicon fiber amplifiers

We have theoretically studied pulse propagation in normal-dispersion optical cubicon fiber amplifier (NDOCFA) with arbitrary longitudinal gain profile, and have obtained analytical solution for nonlinear Schrödinger equation that describes such an amplifier. The results showed that the characteristics of self-similarity and linear chirp will be lost due to third-order dispersion.
Modulation Enhancement of Temporal Envelopes for Increasing Speech Intelligibility in Noise

In this paper, speech intelligibility is enhanced by manipulating the modulation spectrum of the signal. First, the signal is decomposed into Amplitude Modulation (AM) and Frequency Modulation (FM) components using a high resolution adaptive quasi-harmonic model of speech. Then, the AM part of midrange frequencies of speech spectrum is modiﬁed by applying a transforming function which follows the characteristics of the clear style of speaking. This results in increasing the modulation depth of the temporal envelopes of casual speech as in clear speech. The modiﬁed AM components of speech are then combined with the original FM parts to synthesize the ﬁnal processed signal. Subjective listening tests evaluating the intelligibility of speech in noise showed that the suggested approach increases the intelligibility of speech by 40% on average, while it is comparable with recently suggested state-of-the-art algorithms of intelligibility boosters.
From the SelectedWorks of Nader Ale Ebrahim December 2009 SMEs and Virtual R & D Teams : A Motive Channel for Relationship between SMEs Contact

This paper explores potential advantages and barriers of virtual teams toward making an interrelation between small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) with a comprehensive review on different aspects of virtual teams in SMEs based on authentic and reputed publications. The purpose of the state-of-the-art literature review is to provide an overview of what is known about the structure and dynamics of virtual collaboration in SMEs which they are the back bone of the world business. This study seeks to address some of the advantages of virtual R&D team in the existing extensive literature on the increase SMEs interrelations. Besides of identify benefits of virtual R&D team in SMEs, propose the way of further studies and recommend improvements. We argue that the routines used to promote interrelation between SMEs, based on virtual collaboration can sometimes create problems for firms as they ignore new challenges. We elaborate various theories on the virtual R&D team by reviewing the precedent papers.
Self-Organizing Sleep-Wake Sensor Systems

We propose a self-organizing sleep-wake sensor system that is scalable, easily implemented, and energy conserving. An application of concepts from cellular automata theory accounts for much of its novelty. As a surprising by product of its self-organizing behavior, the system has additional, highly desirable properties such as a self-healing capability, fault tolerance, asynchronous operation, seamless accommodation of obstacles in the sensor field, and effectiveness even in the case of intelligent intruders who know sensor design and sensor locations. System performance is a focus of the paper, along with the inverse problem of cellular automata, and self-organizing systems in general: How does one set local rules and initial states so as to achieve pre-specified behavior? Our experimental studies show that broad classes of behavior can be achieved by design, especially by the placement of artificial nucleation centers.
Speech Enhancement with EMD and Hurst-Based Mode Selection

This paper presents a speech enhancement technique for signals corrupted by nonstationary acoustic noises. The proposed approach applies the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to the noisy speech signal and obtains a set of intrinsic mode functions (IMF). The main contribution of the proposed procedure is the adoption of the Hurst exponent in the selection of IMFs to reconstruct the speech. This EMD and Hurst-based (EMDH) approach is evaluated in speech enhancement experiments considering environmental acoustic noises with different indices of nonstationarity. The results show that the EMDH improves the segmental signal-to-noise ratio and an overall quality composite measure, encompassing the perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ). Moreover, the short-time objective intelligibility (STOI) measure reinforces the superior performance of EMDH. Finally, the EMDH is also examined in a speaker identification task in noisy conditions. The proposed technique leads to the highest speaker identification rates when compared to the baseline speech enhancement algorithms and also to a multicondition training procedure.
Towards Understanding the Needs of Cognitive Support for Ontology Mapping

Researchers have developed a large number of ontology-mapping algorithms in recent years. However, ontology mapping is hardly a fully automated task and users must verify and fine-tune the mappings resulting from automated algorithms. Both academic and industry researchers have focused on the algorithms themselves and largely ignored the issue of cognitive support for users in the task of analyzing mappings proposed by the algorithms and creating new mappings. The lack of comprehensive user-oriented tools for ontology mapping (rather than just algorithms) hinders the adoption of the technologies developed by academic researchers. In this paper, we analyze requirements for cognitive support in the ontology-mapping task. Recognizing that many researchers must focus on improving the algorithm performance itself (or only on providing better visualization), we have developed a plugin framework that enables developers to assemble a comprehensive ontology-mapping tool by plugging in various components. We provide a reference implementation of the complete framework. Thus, developers can plug in only the components they are interested in. For example, algorithm developers can plug in their algorithm and use the visualization components that we provide and the user-interface researchers can use the framework to experiment with various visualization paradigms for ontology mapping (and not worry about implementing the algorithms themselves). We also discuss specific cognitive aids for ontology mapping that we have developed and that are available as part of this framework.
Human emotion recognition: An interval type-2 fuzzy inference system based approach

In this paper, an Interval Type-2 neuro-fuzzy inference system based emotion recognition system is proposed. The employed fuzzy inference system is a four layer network realizing Takagi-Sugeno-Kang fuzzy inference mechanism, with an input layer, a rule layer, a normalization layer and an output layer. The rule layer employs an Interval Type-2 fuzzy membership function to handle the uncertainty in the facial emotions of different individuals. The rules for this network is generated by employing a meta-cognitive projection based learning algorithm. The aim of the proposed approach is to approximate the decision surface separating different emotions based on noisy input features. During learning, as a sample is presented to the network, it calculates the prediction error and knowledge content in the sample to decide on whether to learn the sample, when to learn it and which technique to use to learn it. The meta-cognitive learning mechanism helps in avoiding overtraining and achieving better generalization performance. The projection based learning approach employed to learn the knowledge in a given sample works by minimizing the total energy in the network in a linear least squared sense. The proposed emotion recognition system is tested on two well-known publicly available datasets: Japanese female facial expression dataset and Taiwanese female expression image database. Local binary pattern based features are extracted from these databases, as they have been shown to describe facial features such as edges and spots, efficiently. Two different studies are performed: a 5-fold cross-validation study on the emotion recognition ability of the system and a database independent study. The performance comparison with other approaches clearly highlights the advantage of the proposed system.
Estimating routing congestion using probabilistic analysis

Design routability is a major concern in the ASIC design flow, particularly with todays increasingly aggressive process technology nodes. Increased die areas, cell densities, routing layers, and net count all contribute to complex interconnect requirements, which can significantly deteriorate performance, and sometimes lead to unroutable solutions. Congestion analysis and optimization must be performed early in the design cycle to improve routability. This paper presents a congestion estimation algorithm for a placed netlist. We propose a net-based stochastic model for computing expected horizontal and vertical track usage, which considers routing blockages. The main advantages of this algorithm are accuracy and fast runtime. We show that the congestion estimated by this algorithm correlates well with post-route congestion, and show experimental results of subsequent congestion optimization based this algorithm.
A Gracefully Degrading and Energy-Efficient Fault Tolerant NoC Using Spare Core

Reliability is a significant strategy concern for modern day multi core embedded systems. On chip communicating systems are vulnerable to permanent network faults and transient faults which might essentially affect the performance of the system. Targeting at fault tolerance solution for cores with faults in Network on Chip (NoC), this paper proposes an energy efficient fault tolerant NoC architecture using spare core. The proposed strategy comprises of finding smallest rectangular region to place the given application using a heuristic technique, and mapping vertices within the selected region, and selecting a region which results maximum overall performance and minimum communication energy. Spare core is placed within a region and connected to the vertices. Many application core graphs are used to evaluate the proposed technique. The simulation outcomes of many fault injection tests indicate that the proposed technique results in performance enhancement while also saving communication energy.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BALANCED SCORECARD IN THE AGRI-FOOD SECTOR: THE CASE OF FOOD GROUP GUISSONA

The Guissona Food Group (located in the province of Lleida in Spain), was born with a strategic vision that has led it to position itself with remarkable success in the market. It has also implemented several management tools that have enabled the company to develop, adapt and grow for more than 50 years. This article discusses the implementation of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to monitor the aforementioned strategy. It is suggested to implement this particular tool, since it is the fifth most used management tool in the world according to the biannual study conducted by Bain & Company (Rigby & Bilodeau, 2013). BSC's proposal contained in this study includes 27 indicators, ranked the 4 perspectives proposed in the BSC.