Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ground-Based Array for Tomographic Imaging of the Tropical Forest in P-Band

In this paper we discuss the design concepts and preliminary results relating to the European Space Agency's ground-based campaign TropiScat, whose main goal is to evaluate temporal coherence at P-band in a tropical forest in quad-polarization, considering temporal lags ranging from hours to months and at different heights within the vegetation layer. The experiment has been successfully set up and operated since October 2011 at the Paracou field station, French Guiana, where the equipment was installed on top of the 55-m high Guyaflux Tower to illuminate the forest below. The system consists of a vector network analyzer connected to 20 antennas through a switchbox, which allows the use of any of them either as a transmitter or as a receiver. Vertical imaging and fully polarimetric capabilities are achieved by operating the 20 antennas in a multistatic fashion, resulting in an equivalent monostatic array consisting of 15 phase centers displaced along the vertical direction in each polarization. Such a design allows unambiguous imaging of the vegetation while yielding a minimum distance between nearby antennas on the order of 0.8 m, so as to minimize coupling effects. The equipment allows the gathering of signals with the tomographic array within a few minutes, resulting in the possibility to produce a tomographic image of the forest with a temporal sampling of 15 min. System calibration and validation was performed by employing a 2-m trihedral reflector and a rotating dihedral reflector. This allowed the evaluation of the system pulse response in all polarizations and also assessment of the extent of tower motions. As a result, tomographic images have been generated from 500 (P-band) to 900 MHz in all polarizations. Results from real data acquired in Fall 2011 confirm the feasibility of carrying out reliable coherence measurements for the whole duration of the campaign.
Walking pads: Fast power-supply pad-placement optimization

We propose a novel C4 pad placement optimization framework for 2D power delivery grids: Walking Pads (WP). WP optimizes pad locations by moving pads according to the “virtual forces” exerted on them by other pads and current sources in the system. WP algorithms achieve the same IR drop as state-of-the-art techniques, but are up to 634X faster. We further propose an analytical model relating pad count and IR drop for determining the optimal pad count for a given IR drop budget.
Context aware biomedical robotic platform for elderly health care

Health professionals, nursing and care staff are in short supply to cater to all the needs of the growing, global elderly population. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low cost and low power context aware robotic system to assist the elderly due to a desire to develop accessible technology for all countries and considering the poverty of many elderly. The system is furnished with 4 wheels for indoor navigation. It is equipped with 'environmental parameter monitoring' sensors and the system can be controlled by the user through voice commands. The system interprets the environmental contexts and makes context aware decisions based on the sensed information. On the basis of the previous medical history from the database server and the newly interpreted data, the decision making unit makes efficient decisions and gives feedback to the device control unit. The system improves the health of the elderly by regularly monitoring the environmental conditions of people.
Helping users review and make sense of access policies in organizations

This work addresses the problem of reviewing complex access policies in an organizational context using two studies. In the first study, we explored the access review activity and identified its challenges using semi-structured interviews. Interviews revealed that access review involves challenges such as scale, technical complexity, the frequency of reviews, human errors, and exceptional cases. We also modeled access review in the activity theory framework. The model shows that access review requires an understanding of the activity context including information about the users, their job, and their access rights, and the history of them. We then used activity theory guidelines to design a new user interface named AuthzMap. We conducted a user study with 340 participants to compare the use of AuthzMap with two of the existing commercial systems for access review. The results show that AuthzMap improved the efficiency of access review in 5 of the 7 tested scenarios compared to the existing systems.
Spectrum Trading in Cognitive Radio Networks: A Contract-Theoretic Modeling Approach

Cognitive radio is a promising paradigm to achieve efficient utilization of spectrum resource by allowing the unlicensed users (i.e., secondary users, SUs) to access the licensed spectrum. Market-driven spectrum trading is an efficient way to achieve dynamic spectrum accessing/sharing. In this paper, we consider the problem of spectrum trading with single primary spectrum owner (or primary user, PO) selling his idle spectrum to multiple SUs. We model the trading process as a monopoly market, in which the PO acts as monopolist who sets the qualities and prices for the spectrum he sells, and the SUs act as consumers who choose the spectrum with appropriate quality and price for purchasing. We design a monopolist-dominated quality-price contract, which is offered by the PO and contains a set of quality-price combinations each intended for a consumer type. A contract is feasible if it is incentive compatible (IC) and individually rational (IR) for each SU to purchase the spectrum with the quality-price intended for his type. We propose the necessary and sufficient conditions for the contract to be feasible. We further derive the optimal contract, which is feasible and maximizes the utility of the PO, for both discrete-consumer-type model and continuous-consumer-type model. Moreover, we analyze the social surplus, i.e., the aggregate utility of both PO and SUs, and we find that, depending on the distribution of consumer types, the social surplus under the optimal contract may be less than or close to the maximum social surplus.
Prediction Algorithms for User Actions

Proactive User Interfaces (PUIs) aim at facilitating the interaction with a user interface, e.g., by highlighting fields or adapting the interface. For that purpose, they need to be able to predict the next user action from the interaction history. In this paper, we give an overview of sequence prediction algorithms (SPAs) that are applied in this domain, and build upon them to develop two new algorithms that base on combining different order Markov models. We identify the special requirements that PUIs pose on these algorithms, and evaluate the performance of the SPAs in this regard. For that purpose, we use three datasets with real usage-data and synthesize further data with specific characteristics. Our relatively simple yet efficient algorithm FxL performs extremely well in the domain of SPAs which make it a prime candidate for integration in a PUI. To facilitate further research in this field, we provide a Perl library that contains all presented algorithms and tools for the evaluation.
Event Detection based on Twitter Enthusiasm Degree for Generating a Sports Highlight Video

This paper presents a Twitter-based event detection method based on "Twitter Enthusiasm Degrees (TED)" toward generating a highlight video of a sports game. Existing methods not only depend on both languages and sports types but also often falsely detect non-target events. In contrast, the proposed method detects sports events using TEDs calculated from several kinds of string features independent of languages and sports. We applied the proposed method to actual sports games, and compared the detected events with the events present in broadcasted highlight videos, and confirmed the effectiveness and the language and sports type independencies of the proposed method.
Functional coadaptation between cytochrome c and cytochrome c oxidase within allopatric populations of a marine copepod

Geographically isolated populations may accumulate alleles that function well on their own genetic backgrounds but poorly on the genetic backgrounds of other populations. Consequently, interpopulation hybridization may produce offspring of low fitness as a result of incompatibilities arising in allopatry. Genes participating in these epistatic incompatibility systems remain largely unknown. In fact, despite the widely recognized importance of epistatic interactions among gene products, few data directly address the functional consequences of such interactions among natural genetic variants. In the marine copepod, Tigriopus californicus, we found that the cytochrome c variants isolated from two different populations each had significantly higher activity with the cytochrome c oxidase derived from their respective source population. Three amino acid substitutions in the cytochrome c protein appear to be sufficient to confer population specificity. These results suggest that electron transport system (ETS) proteins form coadapted sets of alleles within populations and that disruption of the coadapted ETS gene complex leads to functional incompatibilities that may lower hybrid fitness.
Localization of mGluR6 to dendrites of ON bipolar cells in primate retina

We prepared antibodies selective for the C‐terminus of the human mGluR6 receptor and used confocal and electron microscopy to study the patterns of immunostaining in retina of monkey, cat, and rabbit. In all three species punctate stain was restricted to the outer plexiform layer. In monkey, stain was always observed in the central element of the postsynaptic “triad” of rod and cone terminals. In monkey peripheral retina, stain was seen only in central elements, but in the fovea, stain was also observed in some dendrites contacting the base of the cone terminal. S‐cone terminals, identified by staining for S opsin, showed staining of postsynaptic dendrites. These were identified as dendrites of the ON S‐cone bipolar cell by immunostaining for the marker cholecystokinin precursor. The staining pattern suggests that all types of ON bipolar cells, despite their marked differences in function, express a single isoform of mGluR6. Ultrastructurally, mGluR6 was located not on the tip of the central element, near the site of vesicle release, but on its base at the mouth of the invagination, 400–800 nm from the release site. Thus, the mGluR6 receptors of ON bipolar cells lie at about the same distance from sites of vesicle release as the iGluR receptors of OFF bipolar cells at the basal contacts. J. Comp. Neurol. 423:402–412, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Stabilization of counter-rotating vortex pairs in nonlocal media

The dynamics of vector vortex pairs with explicit and hidden vorticity in nonlocal media with an arbitrary degree of nonlocality is investigated analytically and numerically. We show that the stability dynamics of the vortex pairs depends crucially upon their total angular momentum, the topological charge, and the degree of nonlocality. In particular, we show that nonlocality eliminates the splitting of the vortex pairs, improves their propagation stability, and leads to formation of stationary bound states of vortex pairs.
Iterators and Handles for Nodes and Edges in Graphs

In the CGAL startup meeting in Z urich, September 1996, it has turned out that iterators on highly structured container types is a key design issue. This document is intended to serve as an additional basis for further discussions about this topic. We focus on graph data structures, and we propose a taxonomy of iterators and related types in C++. Moreover, we introduce templates that make deening such classes for a given graph data structure easy. The concept presented here might ooer high exibility and eeciency. However, for a real library, a good compromise must be found between these desirable goals and ease of use (and ease of learning! ). Therefore, our point of view is by no means \puristic. " For example, in 4] we developed a proposal for an integration into the LEDA library, which tries to nd a good compromise between LEDA's ease{of{use style and our own concept. Anyway, we think that our concept is a good point to start from, not only in graph algorithmics, but also in computational geometry.
Propositional Information Systems

Resolution is an often used method for deduction in propositional logic. Here a proper organization of deduction is proposed which avoids redundant computations. It is based on a generic framework of decompositions and local computations as introduced by Shenoy and Shafer. The system contains the two basic operations with information, namely marginalization (or projection) and combination; the latter being an idempotent operation in the present case. The theory permits the conception of an architecture of distributed computing. As an important application assumption-based reasoning is discussed.
Negative regulation of CDC42 expression and cell cycle progression by miR-29a in breast cancer

Abstract Objective The inhibitory role of microRNA-29a (miR-29a) has been assessed in breast cancer cells. Herein, we analyze the underlying mechanisms of its role in cell cycle progression in breast cancer cells. Methods We applied real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the expression of miR-29 in breast cancer cell lines. Then one of the cell lines, MDA-MB-453, was transfected with mimics of miR-29a. The cell cycle was analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting after staining the cells with propidium iodide. Real-time PCR, luciferase assay and western blot were used together to verify the regulation of the predicted target, cell division cycle 42 (CDC42) by miR-29a. Results MiR-29s were decreased in our selected mammary cell lines, among which miR-29a was the dominant isoform. Overexpression of miR-29a caused cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. We further found that miR-29a could target the expression of CDC42, which is a small GTPase associated with cell cycle progression. Conclusion We suggest that miR-29a exerts its tumor suppressor role in breast cancer cells partially by arresting the cell cycle through negative regulation of CDC42.
AWSR: Active Web Service Recommendation Based on Usage History

Web services are very prevalent nowadays. Recommending Web services that users are interested in becomes an interesting and challenging research problem. In this paper, we present AWSR (Active Web Service Recommendation), an effective Web service recommendation system based on users' usage history to actively recommend Web services to users. AWSR extracts user's functional interests and QoS preferences from his/her usage history. Similarity between user's functional interests and a candidate Web service is calculated first. A hybrid new metric of similarity is developed to combine functional similarity measurement and nonfunctional similarity measurement based on comprehensive QoS of Web services. The AWSR ranks publicly available Web services based on values of the hybrid metric of similarity, so that a Top-K Web service recommendation list is created for a user. AWSR has been implemented and deployed on the Web. By conducting large-scale experiments based on a real-world Web services dataset, it is shown that our system effectively recommends Web services based on users functional interests and non-functional requirements with excellent performance.
What Is the Role of Informal Healthcare Providers in Developing Countries? A Systematic Review

Informal health care providers (IPs) comprise a significant component of health systems in developing nations. Yet little is known about the most basic characteristics of performance, cost, quality, utilization, and size of this sector. To address this gap we conducted a comprehensive literature review on the informal health care sector in developing countries. We searched for studies published since 2000 through electronic databases PubMed, Google Scholar, and relevant grey literature from The New York Academy of Medicine, The World Bank, The Center for Global Development, USAID, SHOPS (formerly PSP-One), The World Health Organization, DFID, Human Resources for Health Global Resource Center. In total, 334 articles were retrieved, and 122 met inclusion criteria and chosen for data abstraction. Results indicate that IPs make up a significant portion of the healthcare sector globally, with almost half of studies (48%) from Sub-Saharan Africa. Utilization estimates from 24 studies in the literature of IP for healthcare services ranged from 9% to 90% of all healthcare interactions, depending on the country, the disease in question, and methods of measurement. IPs operate in a variety of health areas, although baseline information on quality is notably incomplete and poor quality of care is generally assumed. There was a wide variation in how quality of care is measured. The review found that IPs reported inadequate drug provision, poor adherence to clinical national guidelines, and that there were gaps in knowledge and provider practice; however, studies also found that the formal sector also reported poor provider practices. Reasons for using IPs included convenience, affordability, and social and cultural effects. Recommendations from the literature amount to a call for more engagement with the IP sector. IPs are a large component of nearly all developing country health systems. Research and policies of engagement are needed.
Automatically Acquiring Fine-Grained Information Status Distinctions in German

We present a model for automatically predicting information status labels for German referring expressions. We train a CRF on manually annotated phrases, and predict a fine-grained set of labels. We achieve an accuracy score of 69.56% on our most detailed label set, 76.62% when gold standard coreference is available.
Spatial Restoration with Reduced Boundary Error

Since any symmetric BTHTHB matrix can be diagonalized by the DCT matrix, a BTTB matrix encountered in the image reconstruction problem is sometimes approximated by a BTHTHB matrix for computational efficiency. In this paper, the error caused by the approximation of a BTTB matrix by a BTHTHB matrix is analyzed. It is also shown that a simple modification of the observed image can achieve both reduced boundary error and fast deblurring.
Ad-hoc behavior in opportunistic radio

The application of mathematical analysis to the study of wireless ad hoc networks has met with limited success due to the complexity of mobility, traffic models and the dynamic topology. A scenario based universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) time division duplex (TDD) opportunistic cellular system with an ad hoc behaviour that operates over UMTS frequency division duplex (FDD) licensed cellular network is considered. In this paper, we present a new routing metric which overall improves system performance in terms of interference and routing which operate in an ad hoc network in an opportunistic manner. Therefore we develop a simulation tool that addresses the goal of analysis and assessment of UMTS TDD opportunistic radio system with ad hoc behavior in coexistence with a UMTS FDD primary cellular networks.
Network-Coding-based Adaptive Decode and Forward Cooperative Transmission in a Wireless Network : Outage Analysis

In cooperative transmission users are allowed to share antennas to transmit their messages to a common destination. Users employ either amplify-and-forward or deco deand-forward strategies to forward each others’ messages. In network-coding-based cooperative transmission scheme s, users are allowed to combine their own and their partner’s message by a network-coding operation. This work analysis the outage probability of a network-coding-based decodeand-forward cooperative transmission scheme, when non-id eal inter-user channels exist. A modulo-2 summation is used to implement the network coding, and transmissions are done us ing time division duplex channels. At the destination, iden tical messages are combined using either Selection combining or Maximum-Ratio combining. The numerical results show that a diversity order in the range of two can be obtained using this scheme, taking point-to-point transmission as a basel ine. The work is extended to goodput analysis, based on feedback from the destination.
Autosomal dominant familial dyskinesia and facial myokymia: single exome sequencing identifies a mutation in adenylyl cyclase 5.

BACKGROUND Familial dyskinesia with facial myokymia (FDFM) is an autosomal dominant disorder that is exacerbated by anxiety. In a 5-generation family of German ancestry, we previously mapped FDFM to chromosome band 3p21-3q21. The 72.5-Mb linkage region was too large for traditional positional mutation identification. OBJECTIVE To identify the gene responsible for FDFM by exome resequencing of a single affected individual. PARTICIPANTS We performed whole exome sequencing in 1 affected individual and used a series of bioinformatic filters, including functional significance and presence in dbSNP or the 1000 Genomes Project, to reduce the number of candidate variants. Co-segregation analysis was performed in 15 additional individuals in 3 generations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Unique DNA variants in the linkage region that co-segregate with FDFM. RESULTS The exome contained 23 428 single-nucleotide variants, of which 9391 were missense, nonsense, or splice site alterations. The critical region contained 323 variants, 5 of which were not present in 1 of the sequence databases. Adenylyl cyclase 5 (ADCY5) was the only gene in which the variant (c.2176G>A) was co-transmitted perfectly with disease status and was not present in 3510 control white exomes. This residue is highly conserved, and the change is nonconservative and predicted to be damaging. CONCLUSIONS ADCY5 is highly expressed in striatum. Mice deficient in Adcy5 develop a movement disorder that is worsened by stress. We conclude that FDFM likely results from a missense mutation in ADCY5. This study demonstrates the power of a single exome sequence combined with linkage information to identify causative genes for rare autosomal dominant mendelian diseases.
On the Calibration of Satellite On-Board Magnetometer

Three axes magnetometers (MAG) are used on satellites for attitude determination and Earth magnetic field mapping pur- poses. Instrument calibration is important for correct perform- ance of space-based applications and operations. This article explores Kalman Filtering as a technique for performing this calibration on-orbit in real-time, to be incorporated into micro- satellite flight algorithms. Due to practical computational re- strictions of real flight computers accessible to microsatellites, this paper also considers a suboptimisation strategy that eases computational requirements while maintaining the accuracy of the optimal Kalman Filter.