Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Algorithm for the optimization of IMRT inverse planning

A Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Algorithm(MOPSA) is applied to the optimization of Intensity Modulated Radiation Treatment inverse planning. The test cases of irregular field under the condition of water phantom prove the practicability of the algorithm. The optimization results compared with other algorithms proposed by our group show that the algorithm has clearly advantages on convergence speed.
Tech — Gamification in university engineering education: Captivating students, generating knowledge

University students, especially those who take advanced courses and work simultaneously usually have problems on arriving on time to class. Some days there is a low level of participation in discussions and some students complete their assignments a few days before the due date. These students use technology frequently, and it is tough for them to log onto the boring and complicated virtual campus. Gamification and technology together help students to develop their participation both inside and outside of the classroom. Investigative abilities, competitiveness, effort and punctuality, helps them build a strong and direct connection with their teachers. All above through games with purpose.
NLRC5 elicits antitumor immunity by enhancing processing and presentation of tumor antigens to CD8+ T lymphocytes

ABSTRACT Cancers can escape immunesurveillance by diminishing the expression of MHC class-I molecules (MHC-I) and components of the antigen-processing machinery (APM). Developing new approaches to reverse these defects could boost the efforts to restore antitumor immunity. Recent studies have shown that the expression of MHC-I and antigen-processing molecules is transcriptionally regulated by NOD-like receptor CARD domain containing 5 (NLRC5). To investigate whether NLRC5 could be used to improve tumor immunogenicity, we established stable lines of B16-F10 melanoma cells expressing NLRC5 (B16-5), the T cell co-stimulatory molecule CD80 (B16-CD80) or both (B16-5/80). Cells harboring NLRC5 constitutively expressed MHC-I and LMP2, LMP7 and TAP1 genes of the APM. The B16-5 cells efficiently presented the melanoma antigenic peptide gp10025–33 to Pmel-1 TCR transgenic CD8+ T cells and induced their proliferation. In the presence of CD80, B16-5 cells stimulated Pmel-1 cells even without the addition of gp100 peptide, indicating that NLRC5 facilitated the processing and presentation of endogenous tumor antigen. Upon subcutaneous implantation, B16-5 cells showed markedly reduced tumor growth in C57BL/6 hosts but not in immunodeficient hosts, indicating that the NLRC5-expressing tumor cells elicited antitumor immunity. Following intravenous injection, B16-5 and B16-5/80 cells formed fewer lung tumor foci compared to control cells. In mice depleted of CD8+ T cells, B16-5 cells formed large subcutaneous and lung tumors. Finally, immunization with irradiated B16-5 cells conferred protection against challenge by parental B16 cells. Collectively, our findings indicate that NLRC5 could be exploited to restore tumor immunogenicity and to stimulate protective antitumor immunity.
QoS associated path selection in wireless mesh networks

This paper proposes an improved mesh path selection protocol for QoS support in wireless mesh network, while avoiding the inherent problems of proactive and reactive path selection elements. The proposed `Advanced Selective Greedy' (SelG+) path selection protocol operates in two phases. In the first phase it constructs a set of potential forwarders for every mesh stations. In the second phase during the actual data communication, a candidate is selected from the set of potential forwarders based on a local greedy optimization approach. A new routing metric is designed for the construction of the set of potential forwarders, that considers the queuing delay during data forwarding. Further, a path differentiation mechanism is introduced during the greedy selection to avoid interference among different traffic classes. The proposed scheme improves the performance of delay sensitive traffics by reducing the forwarding delay, and the throughput of background and best effort elastic traffics by reducing the inter-traffic class interference. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated using a practical indoor mesh testbed, and compared with other schemes.
Subband Level Adaptation for Bit-interleaved Coded OFDM ( BIC-OFDM )

Subcarrier level adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) for BIC-OFDM has been shown to give significant performance gains over conventional BIC-OFDM systems such as IEEE 802.11a standard. But subcarrier level adaptation involves a large signaling overhead. Subband level adaptation can give performance close to subcarrier level adaptation systems with reduced signaling overhead. We analyze two techniques to do subband level AMC over BIC-OFDM. In the first technique, the rate and power for a subband is chosen based on the channel information of the subcarrier in the subband with the minimum channel gain. Since this technique is found to be far too conservative for large subband sizes, we analyze another approach to subband adaptation in the second part. Here, the subband allocation is performed based on an equivalent subband channel. Simulation results show that the second technique is better than the first technique in terms of data rates achievable for the same number of subbands. Simulation results also show that, with these subband level adaptation techniques, we can achieve performance levels close to that of subcarrier level adaptation with a significant reduction in signaling overhead.
Leakage-Aware Cooling Management for Improving Server Energy Efficiency

The computational and cooling power demands of enterprise servers are increasing at an unsustainable rate. Understanding the relationship between computational power, temperature, leakage, and cooling power is crucial to enable energy-efficient operation at the server and data center levels. This paper develops empirical models to estimate the contributions of static and dynamic power consumption in enterprise servers for a wide range of workloads, and analyzes the interactions between temperature, leakage, and cooling power for various workload allocation policies. We propose a cooling management policy that minimizes the server energy consumption by setting the optimum fan speed during runtime. Our experimental results on a presently shipping enterprise server demonstrate that including leakage awareness in workload and cooling management provides additional energy savings without any impact on performance.
An Optical Fibre-Based Sensor for Respiratory Monitoring

In this paper, a textile-based respiratory sensing system is presented. Highly flexible polymeric optical fibres (POFs) that react to applied pressure were integrated into a carrier fabric to form a wearable sensing system. After the evaluation of different optical fibres, different setups were compared. To demonstrate the feasibility of such a wearable sensor, the setup featuring the best performance was placed on the human torso, and thus it was possible to measure the respiratory rate. Furthermore, we show that such a wearable system enables to keep track of the way of breathing (diaphragmatic, upper costal and mixed) when the sensor is placed at different positions of the torso. A comparison of the results with the output of some commercial respiratory measurements devices confirmed the utility of such a monitoring device.
Hypoxia Is Increasing in the Coastal Zone of the Baltic Sea

Hypoxia is a well-described phenomenon in the offshore waters of the Baltic Sea with both the spatial extent and intensity of hypoxia known to have increased due to anthropogenic eutrophication, however, an unknown amount of hypoxia is present in the coastal zone. Here we report on the widespread unprecedented occurrence of hypoxia across the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. We have identified 115 sites that have experienced hypoxia during the period 1955–2009 increasing the global total to ca. 500 sites, with the Baltic Sea coastal zone containing over 20% of all known sites worldwide. Most sites experienced episodic hypoxia, which is a precursor to development of seasonal hypoxia. The Baltic Sea coastal zone displays an alarming trend with hypoxia steadily increasing with time since the 1950s effecting nutrient biogeochemical processes, ecosystem services, and coastal habitat.
CRISMA : Context and Ranking in SeMantic Associations

Information retrieval over semantic metadata, has recently received a great amount of interest in both industry and academia. Discovering complex and meaningful relationships among this data has become an actively researched topic. Just as ranking of documents is a critical component of today’s search engines, the ranking of relationships will be essential in tomorrow’s semantic analytics engines. Building upon our recent work on specifying and ranking semantic relationships, which we refer to as Semantic Associations, we demonstrate a system, CRISMA, where ranking techniques are used to provide users the most interesting and relevant Semantic Associations queried from a large semantic metabase represented in RDF.
Performance queries on semi-Markov stochastic Petri nets with an extended continuous stochastic logic

Semi-Markov Stochastic Petri Nets (SM-SPNs) are a highlevel formalism for defining semi-Markov processes. We present an extended Continuous Stochastic Logic (eCSL) which provides an expressive way to articulate performance queries at the SM-SPN model level. eCSL supports queries involving steady-state, transient and passage time measures. We demonstrate this by formulating and answering eCSL queries on an SM-SPN model of a distributed voting system with up to states.
The Effects of Natural Cell Loss on the Regularity of the Retinal Cholinergic Arrays

The retina provides a paradigmatic example of the modularity of neuronal circuitry. Different cells are stacked in layers, and neurons of the same type are commonly regularly spaced within their layer. Although the orderly arrays formed by homotypic neurons provide the basis for parallel processing, the mechanisms responsible for regular cell spacing are just beginning to be elucidated. All the developing retinal arrays for which early markers have been identified are regular before being complete. This indicates that the positional constraints controlling mosaic formation are active at times when cell genesis, migration, and death also occur in the retina. To begin investigating how these different processes are coordinated, we have focused here on the effects of cell death on the spatial organization of the two rat cholinergic mosaics, the only arrays for which the development of spatial ordering has been described quantitatively to date. We have chosen an age interval when new cell genesis is over and death predominantly or nearly exclusively controls cell number in one of these array. We found that the regularity of this array is not improved by the loss of cells occurring in this age period. Rather, death appears to be largely independent of cell position.
You Can Leave Your Glasses on: Glasses Can Increase Electoral Success

Does wearing glasses hurt or help politicians in elections? Although some research shows that glasses signal unattractiveness, glasses also increase perceptions of competence. In eight studies, participants voted for politicians wearing (photoshopped) glasses or not. Wearing glasses increased politicians’ electoral success in the US (Study 1), independent of their political orientation (Studies 2a and 2b). This positive effect was especially strong when intelligence was important (Study 3), and even occurred if glasses were used strategically (Study 4). However, it did not extend to India (Study 5) due to different cultural associations with glasses (Study 6). Furthermore, while intelligence mediated the effect, warmth did not (Study 7). In summary, wearing glasses can robustly boost electoral success, at least in Western cultures.
Transoral ultrasonographic evaluation of carotid flow in predicting cerebral hemodynamics after carotid endarterectomy.

PURPOSE We investigated whether measurement of blood flow in the extracranial distal internal carotid artery (ICA) by transoral carotid ultrasonography (TOCU) can predict the cerebral hemodynamics and the hemodynamic effect of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in patients with unilateral carotid stenosis. METHODS Forty-nine patients with unilateral ICA stenosis who underwent CEA were studied. Preoperative blood flow in the poststenotic portion of the extracranial ICA was studied by using TOCU. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and vasoreactivity to acetazolamide (VR) in the territory of the middle cerebral artery were investigated by using single-photon emission CT (SPECT) before, 2 weeks after, and 3 months after CEA. RESULTS Doppler flow velocities in the extracranial distal ICA measured transorally by TOCU correlated with baseline as well as postacetazolamide rCBF in the ipsilateral side (regression analysis, P < .05). Diameter and blood flow volume in the extracranial distal ICA were associated with ipsilateral postacetazolamide rCBF and VR (regression analysis, P < .05). When the patients were divided into 2 groups according to the ICA volume flow distal to a carotid stenosis, group I < 3.5 mL/s and group II > 3.5 mL/s, ipsilateral postacetazolamide rCBF in group I was significantly lower than that in group II (P = .008). Ipsilateral postacetazolamide rCBF (analysis of variance [ANOVA], P = .02) and VR (ANOVA, P = .03) significantly improved after CEA for 3 months in group I but not in group II. CONCLUSION TOCU can detect the decrease in poststenotic flow of the distal extracranial ICA that is indicative of impaired intracranial hemodynamics and predictive for improvement of cerebral blood flow after CEA in patients with unilateral carotid stenosis.
The leadership paradox: Can school leaders transform student outcomes?

This qualitative case study of an exceptional school in the south of England challenges the hypothesis that transformational leaders significantly impact on student outcomes. Interviews with staff and students, together with classroom observation, confirm that the head, appointed in 1995, has played an important role in transforming internal processes and in changing the context of the school. Although the observed and reported behaviour of leaders, teachers, and students matches expectations from the literature, the consequences for student achievement are unclear. Background variables seem to explain most of the apparent improvement in student outcomes. An effectiveness framework that assigns disproportionate value to examination results seems to have created a leadership paradox, where heads reported to be transformational produce only limited gains in performance. The study concludes that the government's determination to assume a strongly positive relationship between leaders and outcomes has compromised the principle of evidence-informed policy-making and that we need a different approach based on a broadly defined, qualitative conception of student success.
WDM Optical Interconnects: A Balanced Design Approach

In this paper, we develop a new design approach to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical interconnects with the objective of designing cost-effective and scalable interconnects. Our design philosophy strikes a balance between switching and conversion costs, and requires wavelength conversion only between two fixed and predefined wavelengths. The proposed design approach exploits the potential of the wavelength exchange optical crossbar (WOC) - a device that can switch signals simultaneously and seamlessly both in space and wavelength domains. We propose a novel crossbar switch that minimizes hardware and control complexity and use it as a building block for developing a new class of three-stage Clos-like WDM optical interconnects. The design space of the proposed interconnect is characterized and its hardware complexity is analyzed. We also show that the proposed crossbar switch and the new class of WDM interconnects admit most existing routing algorithms with simple modifications. In addition, we show that our design approach can be generalized to develop a class of k-stage interconnects, 3 < k les 2 log2 N-1.
Replication of the Chikungunya virus genome requires cellular chloride channels

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes fever and debilitating joint pain, with frequent long-term health implications and cumulating fatalities worldwide. There are no specific antivirals and vaccines, therefore understanding CHIKV replication is essential to establish treatments and preventative measures. Cellular ion channels are druggable targets and are known to facilitate replication of RNA viruses. To determine if the activities of cellular chloride channels (Cl--channels) are required during CHIKV replication, we applied broad-ranging inhibitors and siRNA to mammalian and invertebrate cells. The Cl--channel inhibitors DIDS, 9-ACA and NPPB significantly reduced the titre of released CHIKV progeny at 12 h post-infection in a dose-dependent manner suggesting that Cl--channels are pro-viral factors. Analysis of viral protein expression and time-of-inhibitor-addition studies indicated that CHIKV requires Cl--channels at post-entry and pre-egress stages. Replication of a sub-genomic replicon was restricted and genome copy numbers reduced by Cl--channel inhibition, implying that Cl--channels are involved in genome replication. siRNA knock-down identified the chloride intracellular channels (CLIC) 1 and 4 to be required for the CHIKV infectious cycle with CLIC1 interacting with the viral protein nsP3. We hypothesise that the channels play a role in formation or maintenance of the membranous, viral replication-complexes and that this important role is conservt amongst the mammalian and invertebrate hosts. These findings advance our understanding of CHIKV replication in the two host environments and help to identify drugs/druggable targets for treatment and prevention of CHIKV disease.
Entrepreneurial intention among convicts undergoing entrepreneurial skills training at a correctional institution

Prison is a correctional institution to form and correct the behavior of prisoners so as to be in line with the requirements of the norm and also the values of society.A convict is a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court.A person serving a sentence in prison is known as prisoner or inmate undergoing a sentence of imprisonment. While undergoing punishment in prison, convicts also undergoing entrepreneurial skills training with the hoped that when they have completed their time in prison, they would not return repeated crimes and return to prison. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to review the profiles of convicts and to assess the level of entrepreneurial intention among convicts who have followed conviction entrepreneurial skills training in prison.The samples consist of 300 convicts taken at random from one of the correctional institution.Data were collected at random using questionnaire instrument and analyzed using a descriptive statistics comprising of mean score, standard deviation, frequency, percentage and ranking.The study found that convicts who have followed the conviction entrepreneurial skills training program while in the prison have a high level of entrepreneurial intention with a mean score 4.12 and standard deviation 0.561. This study showed that entrepreneurial skills training undergoing by these convicts, and followed by their sentenced conviction while completing their punishment in prison, they have been able to foster a high level of entrepreneurial intention. Implications of the study showed that convicts that undergoing entrepreneurial skills training have the potential to be shaped up into becoming entrepreneurs.Therefore, a comprehensive entrepreneurial skills training program, entrepreneurship education and support program should be planned and implemented for convicts to assist and prepare them for their new future business venture.This can give way to convicts as their willingness to make entrepreneurship as a career option after they get out of jail later.
Lagrange relaxation based method for the QoS routing problem

In this paper a practically efficient QoS routing method is presented, which provides a solution to the delay constrained least cost routing problem. The algorithm uses the concept of aggregated costs and provides an efficient method to find the optimal multiplier based on Lagrange relaxation. This method is proven to be polynomial and it is also efficient in practice. The benefit of this method is that it also gives a lower bound on the theoretical optimal solution along with the result. The difference between the lower bound and the cost of the found path is very small proving the good quality of the result. Moreover, by further relaxing the optimality of paths, an easy way is provided to control the trade-off between the running time of the algorithm and the quality of the found paths. We present a comprehensive numerical evaluation of the algorithm, by comparing it to a wide range of QoS routing algorithms proposed in the literature. It is shown that the performance of the proposed polynomial time algorithm is close to the optimal solution computed by an exponential algorithm.
Remote Food Shopping Robot System in a Supermarket -Realization of the shopping task from remote places

This paper describes a system which uses a mobile manipulator as a teleoperated tool for accessing and manipulating remote objects. This system attempts to answer the challenge of extending mobile robot potentials and usage in human daily life. The specific task we set up in this research is to help people buy fresh food in a supermarket from a remote location using the Internet. We built the prototype system by integrating custom designed components: the mobile manipulator, the sucker gripper, the shape scanner using a small laser range finder, and the communication interface. With this system, the selection of the food item by the remote user from the supermarket showcase, its close examination using the gripper, and final placement into the shopping basket were realized. This paper describes the hardware and software of this system, and shows the experimental result performed with the integrated system.
Analysis and Simulation of Composite Bridge for Electrostatic MEMS Switch

This paper deals with design, modeling and simulation of Fixed-Fixed composite bridge structure with Gold and Chrome layer used in electrostatic MEMS switches for pull-in voltage optimization. Structural static analysis of composite bridge is done using ANSYS FEM simulator. The composite bridge is modeled by linear layered structural SHELL 99. Mechanical modeling is done in terms of stiffness of the structure for which a static mechanical model is used for the study of the dependence of critical voltage Vpull-in of the idealized bridge structure on the geometrical parameters and material properties. Keywords— Fixed-Fixed composite bridge structure, SHELL 99, Pull-in voltage, Static Structural analysis, ANSYS FEM simulation.
A Low-Noise, High-Gain Quasi-Millimeter-Wave Receiver MMIC with a Very High Degree of Integration Using 3D-MMIC Technology

We present a highly integrated quasi-millimeter-wave receiver MMIC that integrates 22 circuits in a 3×2.3mm area using three-dimensional MMIC (3D-MMIC) technology. The MMIC achieves low noise (3dB) and high gain (41dB) at 26GHz by using an on-chip image reject filter. It integrates a multiply-by-eight (X8) local oscillator (LO) chain with the IF frequency of the 2.4GHz band and can use low-cost voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) and demodulators in a 2-3GHz frequency band. Multilayer inductors contribute to the miniaturization especially in a 2-12GHz frequency band. Furthermore, it achieves a high dynamic range by using two step attenuators with a new built-in inverter using an N-channel depression field-effect transistor (FET). The power consumption of the MMIC is only 450mW.