Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two-Way Amplify-and-Forward Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Relay Networks with Antenna Selection

Two new transmit/receive (Tx/Rx) antenna selection strategies are proposed and analyzed for two-way multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks. These two strategies select the best transmit and receive antennas at the two sources and the relay based on (i) minimizing the overall outage probability and (ii) maximizing the sum-rate. The performance of these selection strategies is quantified by deriving the overall outage probability, its high SNR approximation and the diversity order providing valuable insights into practical system-designs. Importantly, multiple relay and multiple user two-way relay network set-ups are also treated by proposing and analyzing (i) joint relay and antenna selection strategies, and (ii) joint user, relay and antenna selection strategies, respectively. Interestingly, our outage probability results reveal that the joint relay and antenna selection strategies achieve significant diversity and array gains over those of their single relay counterparts. In fact, the diversity orders of individual relayed-branches accumulate to yield the overall diversity of the multi-relay networks. For example, at 10-2 outage probability, the dual-antenna relay provides a 14 dB gain over a single-antenna relay, and having two dual-antenna relays improves the gain by another 5 dB. Moreover, the performance degradation due to practical transmission impairments (i) feedback delays, (ii) spatially-correlated fading and (iii) non-identically distributed fading is quantified. Impact of channel prediction to circumvent outdated channel state information for antenna selection due to feedback delay is also studied. All the derivations are validated through Monte-Carlo simulations.
The price of insecurity: Public information transmission in zero-sum games

Alice has information relevant to a zero-sum game that Bob and Eve will be playing and she wants to help Bob. Alice is constrained to communicate publicly. How should she do it? What is the loss in utility to Bob compared to the case where Alice can communicate privately? We define the ratio of payoff achieved by Bob under optimal public signaling and that obtained through optimal private signaling as the `price of insecurity'. This price quantifies the value of secure communication between Alice and Bob. In some situations, some suitably designed public communication has the same value as secure communication. We explore the price of insecurity in different scenarios and show that a concave function on the unit simplex captures the value of public signaling. We derive an algorithm to compute the price of insecurity for a class of scenarios involving two games.
Psychological Aspects of Cosmetic Surgery among Females: A Media Literacy Training Intervention

Introduction: The present study examined the favorable attitude of a sample of female university students regarding elective cosmetic surgery, body dysmorphic disorder, self-esteem and body dissatisfaction following a media literacy training intervention. Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental type. The study sample included 140 female university students who were allocated to either the intervention (n=70) or the control group (n=70). Attitude toward cosmetic surgery, body dysmorphic disorder, self-esteem and, body satisfaction was measured in both groups before the intervention and 4 weeks later. Four media literacy training sessions were conducted over 4 weeks for the intervention group. The data was analyzed through analysis of covariance, student’s paired-samples t test, and Pearson correlation. Results: Our findings showed that favorable attitude, body dysmorphic disorder and body dissatisfaction scores were significantly lower (p<0.05) in the intervention group than the control group. Furthermore, self-esteem score increased significantly in the intervention group. Conclusions: Our results underscores the importance of media literacy intervention in decreasing female’s favorable attitude towards elective cosmetic surgery, body dysmorphic disorder and body dissatisfaction as well as increasing self-esteem.
A Clean-Slate Look at Disk Scrubbing

A number of techniques have been proposed to reduce the risk of data loss in hard-drives, from redundant disks (e.g., RAID systems) to error coding within individual drives. Disk scrubbing is a background process that reads disks during idle periods to detect irremediable read errors in infrequently accessed sectors. Timely detection of such latent sector errors (LSEs) is important to reduce data loss. In this paper, we take a clean-slate look at disk scrubbing. We present the first formal definition in the literature of a scrubbing algorithm, and translate recent empirical results on LSE distributions into new scrubbing principles. We introduce a new simulation model for LSE incidence in disks that allows us to optimize our proposed scrubbing techniques and demonstrate the significant benefits of intelligent scrubbing to drive reliability. We show how optimal scrubbing strategies depend on disk characteristics (e.g., the BER rate), as well as disk workloads.
On the force capability of underactuated fingers

This paper studies the force capability of a particular class of underactuated fingers. Force capability is defined as the ability to create an external wrench onto a fixed object. The concept of the underactuation in robotic fingers, with fewer actuators than degrees of freedom (DOF) through the use of springs and the mechanical limits, allows the hand to adjust itself to an irregularly shaped object without complex control strategy and numerous sensors. However, in some configurations, the force distribution in an underactuated finger can degenerate. The finger can no longer apply forces on the object, leading in some cases to the ejection of the latter from the hand. This paper focuses on a 2-DOF finger and studies its ability to seize objects with a secure grasp.
Vision-based 3D motion reconstruction of octopus arm swimming and comparison with an 8-arm underwater robot

The octopus uses the arm-swimming behavior primarily for escape, defense, or foraging. This mode of locomotion is comprised of two strokes, with the arms opening slowly and closing rapidly, and generally results in considerable propulsive acceleration. In light of the recent development by our group of an octopus-like eight-arm underwater robot, we are interested to analyze the details of the biological arm swimming motion, in order to understand its kinematics. In this paper, we address methodological aspects of the 3D reconstruction process of octopus arm trajectories, based on computer vision, and present the resulting arm swimming movement of a benthic common octopus. The 3D trajectories of all eight octopus arms were tracked and analyzed, providing information about speed, acceleration and arm elongation. The animal's performance is then used for a direct comparison with our 8-arm robotic swimmer. The data obtained provide new kinematic information about this, relatively unknown, propulsive mode, which can be exploited for multi-functional underwater robots.
Anytime Measures for Top-k Algorithms

Top-k queries on large multi-attribute data sets are fundamental operations in information retrieval and ranking applications. In this paper, we initiate research on the anytime behavior of top-k algorithms. In particular, given specific top-k algorithms (TA and TA-Sorted) we are interested in studying their progress toward identification of the correct result at any point during the algorithms' execution. We adopt a probabilistic approach where we seek to report at any point of operation of the algorithm the confidence that the top-k result has been identified. Such a functionality can be a valuable asset when one is interested in reducing the runtime cost of top-k computations. We present a thorough experimental evaluation to validate our techniques using both synthetic and real data sets.
Parity of the Partition Function in Arithmetic Progressions, II

Let p(n) denote the ordinary partition function. Subbarao conjectured that in every arithmetic progression r (mod t) there are infinitely many integers N = r (mod t) for which p(N) is even, and infinitely many integers M = r (mod t) for which p(M) is odd. We prove the conjecture for every arithmetic progression whose modulus is a power of 2. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification 11P83.
Helpers increase the reproductive potential of offspring in cooperative meerkats

In both animal and human societies, individuals may forego personal reproduction and provide care to the offspring of others. Studies aimed at investigating the adaptive nature of such cooperative breeding systems in vertebrates typically calculate helper ‘fitness’ from relationships of helper numbers and offspring survival to independence. The aim of this study is to use observations and supplemental feeding experiments in cooperatively breeding meerkats, Suricata suricatta, to investigate whether helpers influence the long-term reproductive potential of offspring during adulthood. We show that helpers have a significant and positive influence on the probability that offspring gain direct reproductive success in their lifetimes. This effect arises because helpers both reduce the age at which offspring begin to reproduce as subordinates and increase the probability that they will compete successfully for alpha rank. Supplemental feeding experiments confirm the causality of these results. Our results suggest that one can neither discount the significance of helper effects when none is found nor necessarily estimate accurately the fitness benefit that helpers accrue, unless their effects on offspring are considered in the long term.
Understanding the role of stakeholders during business intelligence implementations: an actor-network theory perspective

This paper is concerned with the implementation of business intelligence (BI) presenting a case study from the Hellenic banking sector. Based on the paucity of BI literature on the role of stakeholders in the implementation and by adopting an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective, it focuses and discusses the emergence of actors and their associations during this process. The contribution of this study lies in providing an insight of the manner system stakeholders come in the fore during the different phases in complex system implementation contexts and influence along the way the process from design to the final roll-out.
Query-aware shrinking test databases

Keeping the test databases as small as possible leads to faster execution of tests and facilitates the task of completing the test cases and evaluating the actual outputs against the expected. In this paper we present an automated approach to database reduction that considers an initial database that may be a copy of a production database and the set of queries that are executed against it. The database is reduced in order to preserve the coverage of the data with respect to the queries attaining large reductions with very similar fault detection ability.
A Novel Mat-Based System for Position-Varying Wireless Power Transfer to Biomedical Implants

Wireless power transfer via magnetically resonant coupling is a new technology to deliver power over a relatively long distance. Here, we present a mat-based design to wirelessly power moving targets based on this technology. Our design is specifically applied to transcutaneously power medical implants within free-moving laboratory animals. Our system comprises a driver coil array, a hexagonally packed transmitter mat, a receiver coil, and a load coil, and generates a nearly flat magnetic distribution over a defined area to produce an approximately constant power output independent of the location of the receiver coil. This paper also describes a novel power receiver coil design of the same shape as the exterior of the implant, allowing for maximum magnetic coupling, eliminating the space restrictions due to the coil within the implant, and matching the resonant frequencies of the implant and the transmitter coil. Our new transmitter and receiver designs significantly reduce the size of a biomedical implant and may provide a lifetime power supply to implanted circuits without the need for an internal battery. Our designs are also useful in various other applications involving moving targets, such as part of a robot or a vehicle.
Biodegradation of Phenol by Bacteria Strain Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus PA Isolated from Phenolic Wastewater

A phenol-degrading bacterium strain PA was successfully isolated from the effluent of petrochemical wastewater. Based on its morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics, the strain PA was characterized as a Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, nonmotile and short rod-shaped bacterium that utilizes phenol as a sole carbon and energy source. 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed that this strain is affiliated to Acinetobacter calcoaceticus in the group of Gammaproteobacteria. The strain was efficient in removing 91.6% of the initial 800 mg∙L−1 phenol within 48 h, and had a tolerance of phenol concentration as high as 1700 mg∙L−1. These results indicated that A. calcoaceticus possesses a promising potential in treating phenolic wastewater.
A Self-stabilizing (k,r)-clustering Algorithm with Multiple Paths for Wireless Ad-hoc Networks

Wireless Ad-hoc networks are distributed systems that often reside in error-prone environments. Self-stabilization lets the system recover autonomously from an arbitrary state, making the system recover from errors and temporarily broken assumptions. Clustering nodes within ad-hoc networks can help forming backbones, facilitating routing, improving scaling, aggregating information, saving power and much more. We present the first self-stabilizing distributed (k,r)-clustering algorithm. A (k,r)-clustering assigns k cluster heads within r communication hops for all nodes in the network while trying to minimize the total number of cluster heads. The algorithm uses synchronous communication rounds and uses multiple paths to different cluster heads for improved security, availability and fault tolerance. The algorithm assigns, when possible, at least k cluster heads to each node within O(r) rounds from an arbitrary configuration. The set of cluster heads stabilizes, with high probability, to a local minimum within O(gr log n) rounds, where n is the size of the network and g is an upper bound on the number of nodes within 2r hops.
Built-in-Self-Test of FPGAs with Provable Diagnosabilities and High Diagnostic Coverage with Application to On-Line Testing

We present novel and efficient methods for builtin-self-test (BIST) of FPGAs for detection and diagnosis of permanent faults in current as well as emerging technologies that are expected to have high fault densities. Our basic BIST methods can be used in both on-line as well as off-line testing scenarios, though we focus on the former in this paper. We present 1and 2-diagnosable BISTer designs that make up a ROving TEster (ROTE). Due to their provable diagnosabilities, these BISTers can avoid time-intensive adaptive diagnosis without significantly compromising diagnostic coverage—the percentage of faults correctly diagnosed. We also develop functional testing methods that test programmable logic blocks ( PLBs) in only two circuit functions that will be mapped to them as the ROTE moves across a functioning FPGA. We extend our basic BISTer designs to those with test-pattern generators (TPGs) using multiple PLBs to more efficiently test the complex PLBs of current commercial FPGAs, and prove the diagnosabilities of these designs as well. Simulation results show that our 1-diagnosable functional-test based BISTer with a 3-PLB TPG has very high diagnostic coverages—for example, for a random fault distribution, our nonadaptive diagnosis methods provide diagnostic coverages of 96% and 88% at fault densities of 10% and 25%, respectively, while the previous best non-adaptive diagnosis method of the STARBISTer has diagnostic coverages of about 75% and 55% at these fault densities.
Role of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1/very late activation antigen 4 and intercellular adhesion molecule 1/lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 interactions in antigen-induced eosinophil and T cell recruitment into the tissue

To determine the role of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM- 1)/very late activation antigen 4 (VLA-4) and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1)/lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) interactions in causing antigen-induced eosinophil and T cell recruitment into the tissue, we studied the effect of the in vivo blocking of VCAM-1, ICAM-1, VLA-4, and LFA-1 by pretreatment with monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to these four adhesion molecules on the eosinophil and T cell infiltration of the trachea induced by antigen inhalation in mice. The in vivo blocking of VCAM-1 and VLA-4, but not of ICAM-1 and LFA-1, prevented antigen-induced eosinophil infiltration into the mouse trachea. On the contrary, the in vivo blocking of VCAM-1 and VLA-4, but not of ICAM-1 and LFA-1, increased blood eosinophil counts after antigen challenge, but did not affect blood eosinophil counts without antigen challenge in sensitized mice. Furthermore, the expression of VCAM-1 but not ICAM-1 was strongly induced on the endothelium of the trachea after antigen challenge. In addition, pretreatment with anti-IL-4 mAb decreased the antigen-induced VCAM-1 expression only by 27% and had no significant effect on antigen-induced eosinophil infiltration into the trachea. The in vivo blocking of VCAM- 1 and VLA-4 inhibited antigen-induced CD4+ and CD8+ T cell infiltration into the trachea more potently than that of ICAM-1 and LFA-1. In contrast, regardless of antigen challenge, the in vivo blocking of LFA- 1, but not of ICAM-1, increased blood lymphocyte counts more than that of VCAM-1 and VLA-4. These results indicate that VCAM-1/VLA-4 interaction plays a predominant role in controlling antigen-induced eosinophil and T cell recruitment into the tissue and that the induction of VCAM-1 expression on the endothelium at the site of allergic inflammation regulates this eosinophil and T cell recruitment.
The geo-social relevance ranking: A method based on geographic information and social media data

A geographic search engine should be capable of identifying, indexing and retrieving the geographic context present in a considerable portion of the Web content, which is not expected in classic search engines. This type of search engine is characterised by a set of features, such as toponym recognition and resolution, geographic scope modelling, and relevance ranking. Ranking the results returned by a user query is a crucial task for this kind of system. In this paper, we present a method of ranking Web documents, which consider both the documents' geographic context and information collected from microblogs. This method also comprises an algorithm to estimate the affinity between locations and social network users, based on their interactions. The proposed method was evaluated within the news domain, using a system prototype which recognises geographic information contained in the news content and integrates information collected from Twitter.
Effect of polyvinylpyrrolidone on complexation and dissolution rate of β- and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin complexes of celecoxib

Complexation of celecoxib with β-cyclodextrin and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin in the presence and absence of polyvinylpyrrolidone and the effect of polyvinylpyrrolidone on the solubilizing efficiency of cyclodextrins and on the dissolution rate of celecoxib from the cyclodextrin complexes were investigated. The phase solubility studies indicated the formation of celecoxib-β-cyclodextrin and celecoxib-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin inclusion complexes at a 1:1 M ratio in solution, both in the presence and absence of polyvinylpyrrolidone. The complexes formed were quite stable. The solubility and dissolution rate of celecoxib were markedly enhanced by complexation with β-cyclodextrin and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin. Celecoxib-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (1:2) inclusion complex gave a 36.57-fold increase in the dissolution rate of celecoxib. Addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone resulted in higher complexation efficiency and markedly enhanced solubilizing efficiency of β-cyclodextrin and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin. Solid inclusion complexes of cyclodextrins with polyvinylpyrrolidone gave several times higher rates of dissolution than those of celecoxib and its complexes with cyclodextrins alone.
The Proteasome as a Lipopolysaccharide-Binding Protein in Macrophages: Differential Effects of Proteasome Inhibition on Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Signaling Events 1

We have developed a novel LPS probe using a highly purified and homogenous preparation of [3H] Escherichia coli LPS from the deep rough mutant, which contains a covalently linked, photoactivable 4-p-(azidosalicylamido)-butylamine group. This cross-linker was used to identify the LPS-binding proteins in membranes of the murine-macrophage-like cell line RAW 264.7. The α-subunit (PSMA1 C2, 29.5 kDa) and the β-subunit (PSMB4 N3, 24.36 kDa) of the 20S proteasome complex were identified as LPS-binding proteins. This is the first report demonstrating LPS binding to enzymes such as the proteasome subunits. Functionally, LPS enhanced the chymotrypsin-like activity of the proteasome to degrade synthetic peptides in vitro and, conversely, the proteasome inhibitor lactacystin completely blocked the LPS-induced proteasome’s chymotrypsin activity as well as macrophage TNF-α secretion and the expression of multiple inflammatory mediator genes. Lactacystin also completely blocked the LPS-induced expression of Toll-like receptor 2 mRNA. In addition, lactacystin dysregulated mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation in LPS-stimulated macrophages, but failed to inhibit IL-1 receptor-associated kinase-1 activity. Importantly, lactacystin also prevented LPS-induced shock in mice. These data strongly suggest that the proteasome complex regulates the LPS-induced signal transduction and that it may be an important therapeutic target in Gram-negative sepsis.
ElastiNoC: A self-testable distributed VC-based Network-on-Chip architecture

Network-on-Chip (NoC) design tries to keep a balance between network performance and physical implementation flexibility. The adoption of Virtual Channels (VC) holds promise for scalable NoC design. VCs allow for traffic separation and isolation, enable deadlock avoidance and improve network performance. In this paper, we present ElastiNoC, a novel distributed VC-based router architecture that enjoys all the benefits offered by VCs and leads to efficient silicon-aware implementations. The proposed architecture utilizes an efficient buffering strategy and allows for modular pipelined organizations that increase the clock frequency. Moreover, it offers maximum freedom in terms of physical placement, by allowing the NoC components to be physically spread throughout the chip, irrespective of the network topology. The combined effect of all supported features enables significant delay reductions under equal performance, when compared to state-of-the-art VC-based NoC implementations. Moreover, the careful addition of self-test structures allows ElastiNoC to enjoy fully distributed Built-In Self Testability (BIST), where testing unfolds in phases and reaches high fault coverage with small test application time.
The effects of a multiple carrier model of interface trap generation on lifetime extraction for MOSFETs

An isotope e ect in the slope of the substrate current versus lifetime requires a model beyond the standard single carrier lucky electron model typically used for MOSFET lifetime extrapolation. A multiple scattering model is developed which allows us to explain this e ect. A nonlinearity in the drain current vs. device lifetime curve similar to the one predicted by our model has already been observed by the IBM group.