Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-Efficiency Device Positioning and Location-Aware Communications in Dense 5G Networks

In this article, the prospects and enabling technologies for high-efficiency device positioning and location-aware communications in emerging 5G networks are reviewed. We will first describe some key technical enablers and demonstrate by means of realistic ray-tracing and map based evaluations that positioning accuracies below one meter can be achieved by properly fusing direction and delay related measurements on the network side, even when tracking moving devices. We will then discuss the possibilities and opportunities that such high-efficiency positioning capabilities can offer, not only for location-based services in general, but also for the radio access network itself. In particular, we will demonstrate that geometric location-based beamforming schemes become technically feasible, which can offer substantially reduced reference symbol overhead compared to classic full channel state information (CSI)-based beamforming. At the same time, substantial power savings can be realized in future wideband 5G networks where acquiring full CSI calls for wideband reference signals while location estimation and tracking can, in turn, be accomplished with narrowband pilots.
On local kernel polarization

The problem of evaluating the quality of a kernel function for a classification task is considered. Drawn from physics, kernel polarization was introduced as an effective measure for selecting kernel parameters, which was previously done mostly by exhaustive search. However, it only takes between-class separability into account but neglects the preservation of within-class local structure. The `globality¿ of the kernel polarization may leave less degree of freedom for increasing separability. In this paper, we propose a new quality measure called local kernel polarization, which is a localized variant of kernel polarization. Local kernel polarization can preserve the local structure of the data of the same class so the data can be embedded more appropriately. This quality measure is demonstrated with some UCI machine learning benchmark examples.
Structure-function analysis of the EF-hand protein centrin-2 for its intracellular localization and nucleotide excision repair

Centrin-2 is an evolutionarily conserved, calmodulin-related protein, which is involved in multiple cellular functions including centrosome regulation and nucleotide excision repair (NER) of DNA. Particularly to exert the latter function, complex formation with the XPC protein, the pivotal NER damage recognition factor, is crucial. Here, we show that the C-terminal half of centrin-2, containing two calcium-binding EF-hand motifs, is necessary and sufficient for both its localization to the centrosome and interaction with XPC. In XPC-deficient cells, nuclear localization of overexpressed centrin-2 largely depends on co-overexpression of XPC, and mutational analyses of the C-terminal domain suggest that XPC and the major binding partner in the centrosome share a common binding surface on the centrin-2 molecule. On the other hand, the N-terminal domain of centrin-2 also contains two EF-hand motifs but shows only low-binding affinity for calcium ions. Although the N-terminal domain is dispensable for enhancement of the DNA damage recognition activity of XPC, it contributes to augmenting rather weak physical interaction between XPC and XPA, another key factor involved in NER. These results suggest that centrin-2 may have evolved to bridge two protein factors, one with high affinity and the other with low affinity, thereby allowing delicate regulation of various biological processes.
Signature-based Botnet Detection and Prevention

The Internet is used extensively for important services such as banking, business, medicine, education, research, stock trades, weather forecasting etc. Most of these services must be processed in a timely manner. However these services are delayed, degraded and sometimes completely disrupted because of unavailability of internet. The inherent vulnerabilities of the internet architecture provide opportunities for a lot of attacks on its infrastructure and services. Behind these attacks is a large pool of compromised hosts sitting in homes, school, business and governments around the world. These infected systems are called bots that communicates with a bot controller and other bots to form what is commonly referred to as a Zombie army or Botnet. For any organization, internal bot infections cause serious repercussions including loss of man hours and downtime. The average cost of such disasters runs into tens of thousands of dollars. So there is need to defend against such attacks. In this paper, we have analysed the feasibility of outbound traffic i.e. extrusions, to detect and prevent attacks caused because of botnets. As a part of the research work, a Network-based Detection and Prevention systems of botnets called N-EDPS has been
Série Scientifique Scientific Series the Valuation of Volatility Options

CIRANO Le CIRANO est un organisme sans but lucratif constitué en vertu de la Loi des compagnies du Québec. Le financement de son infrastructure et de ses activités de recherche provient des cotisations de ses organisations-membres, d=une subvention d=infrastructure du ministère de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie, de même que des subventions et mandats obtenus par ses équipes de recherche. CIRANO is a private non-profit organization incorporated under the Québec Companies Act. Its infrastructure and research activities are funded through fees paid by member organizations, an infrastructure grant from the Ministère de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie, and grants and research mandates obtained by its research teams.
Audibility and speech intelligibility revisited: implications for amplification

A major goal of amplification is to restore audibility to people with hearing loss in as wide a range of frequencies as possible for maximising speech intelligibility. The usefulness of audibility for speech intelligibility, however, decreases as hearing loss increases. This reduced effectiveness of audibility may be related to the presence of cochlear dead regions or just to reduced frequency and temporal resolution. In this paper, the current literature that relates the presence of dead regions to usefulness of highfrequency audibility is examined. This is followed by a brief description of an empirical study that investigated factors affecting speech intelligibility in quiet and in noise by hearing-impaired listeners. A modification of the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) method that minimised discrepancies between observed and predicted speech intelligibility is presented. Finally, factors that affect speech intelligibility are summarised together with a discussion on implications for amplification.
Performance evaluation of single channel speech separation using non-negative matrix factorization

Blind Source Separation (BSS) of underdetermined mixture has acquired a huge attention in signal processing environment, even though it is very much difficult to separate the underlying sources. The difficulty in source separation arise due to the mixing of large number of source signals in time and frequency, and propagation of it to one or more sensors through air. The objective in BSS is to identify the underlying source signals based on measurements of the mixed sources. Among many of the techniques used in BSS, due to its direct, easy to code and intuitive interpretability of basis and activation components, NMF provide an accurate form of parts-based representation of underlying data. Even though both supervised and unsupervised modes of operations are used in NMF, supervised mode performs well due to the use of pre-learned basis vectors corresponding to each underlying source. In this paper two of the multiplicative algorithms, Regularized Expectation Minimization Maximum Likelihood Algorithm (REMML) and Regularized Image Space Reconstruction Algorithm (RISRA) with sparseness constraint are taken to evaluate the performance of BSS. By the use of speech and music mixtures, Signal to Distortion Ratio (SDR), Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) and Signal to Artifact Ratio (SAR) are evaluated.
Organizational Culture’s Influence on Creativity and Innovation: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Human Resource Development

The majority of the literature on creativity has focused on the individual, yet the social environment can influence both the level and frequency of creative behavior. This article reviews the literature for factors related to organizational culture and climate that act as supports and impediments to organizational creativity and innovation. The work of Amabile, Kanter, Van de Ven, Angle, and others is reviewed and synthesized to provide an integrative understanding of the existing literature. Implications for human resource development research and practice are discussed.
A Distinct Peripheral Blood Monocyte Phenotype Is Associated with Parasite Inhibitory Activity in Acute Uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum Malaria

Monocyte (MO) subpopulations display distinct phenotypes and functions which can drastically change during inflammatory states. We hypothesized that discrete MO subpopulations are induced during malaria infection and associated with anti-parasitic activity. We characterized the phenotype of blood MO from healthy malaria-exposed individuals and that of patients with acute uncomplicated malaria by flow cytometry. In addition, MO defense function was evaluated by an in vitro antibody dependent cellular inhibition (ADCI) assay. At the time of admission, the percentages and absolute numbers of CD16+ MO, and CCR2+CX3CR1+ MO, were high in a majority of patients. Remarkably, expression of CCR2 and CX3CR1 on the CD14high (hi) MO subset defined two subgroups of patients that also differed significantly in their functional ability to limit the parasite growth, through the ADCI mechanism. In the group of patients with the highest percentages and absolute numbers of CD14hiCCR2+CX3CR1+ MO and the highest mean levels of ADCI activity, blood parasitemias were lower (0.14±0.34%) than in the second group (1.30±3.34%; p = 0.0053). Data showed that, during a malaria attack, some patients' MO can exert a strong ADCI activity. These results bring new insight into the complex relationships between the phenotype and the functional activity of blood MO from patients and healthy malaria-exposed individuals and suggest discrete MO subpopulations are induced during malaria infection and are associated with anti-parasitic activity.
Pharmacological Modulation of Cardiac Gap Junctions to Enhance Cardiac Conduction: Evidence Supporting a Novel Target for Antiarrhythmic Therapy

Background—Disease-induced alterations of cardiac gap junctions lead to intercellular uncoupling, which is an important mechanism of arrhythmogenesis. Therefore, drugs that selectively open gap junctions potentially offer a novel strategy for antiarrhythmic therapy. Because the peptide ZP123 was found to increase conductance between paired myocytes, we hypothesized that ZP123 would suppress acidosis-induced gap junction closure in the intact heart. Methods and Results—High-resolution optical mapping was used to measure conduction velocity (CV) and action potential duration from ventricular epicardium of Langendorff-perfused guinea pig hearts at baseline (pH 7.4) and during 45 minutes of perfusion with acidotic (pH 6.0) Tyrode’s solution with (n=8) and without (control, n=7) ZP123 (80 nmol/L). Acidosis produced conduction slowing transverse (29.1±0.1 to 16.8±0.2 cm/s, P <0.0001) and longitudinal (47.2±2.4 to 33.2±4.8 cm/s, P <0.0001) to cardiac fibers. Importantly, ZP123 inhibited conduction slowing during acidosis by approximately 60%. The peak effect of ZP123 was achieved after 16 minutes of acidosis, consistent with inhibition of uncoupling. ZP123 did not affect Na+ current in isolated myocytes, additionally affirming that preservation of CV was attributable to the compound’s action on gap junctions. ZP123 had no effect on CV in the absence of acidosis, suggesting that drug activity targets gap junctions under metabolic stress. Action potential duration heterogeneity was significantly reduced by ZP123 (6.7±0.8 ms) compared with controls (9.7±3.1 ms, P <0.05), presumably by enhancing cell-to-cell coupling. Conclusions—These data suggest that ZP123 significantly attenuates gap junction closure during acidosis. Preservation of intercellular coupling diminished CV slowing and heterogeneous repolarization, eliminating arrhythmogenic substrates.
Phonon and electron transport in graphene nanoribbons

An atomistic Green's function approach to simulating electron and phonon transport in graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) is presented. Phonons are described by an empirical Force-Constant model including interactions up to the fifth nearest neighbour while the nearest neighbour tight-binding Hamiltonian is used for electrons. The model was applied to investigate the edge dependence of GNR thermoelectric properties. The factor of merit ZT appears to be strongly enhanced in mixed-edge ribbons.
Sun Protection Beliefs among Hispanics in the US

Purpose. We reviewed the literature on sun protection beliefs in Hispanics living in the United States to explore what challenges are faced by area of research. Method. A review of PubMED, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases was performed. Studies were published in peer-reviewed journals (in all years available) and written in English. The search terms used were [“skin cancer” OR “sun protection”] AND [“Latino” OR “Hispanic”] AND “beliefs. ” Eligible papers were included in the final analysis after meeting the following inclusion criteria: (1) the records had to quantitatively examine and report sun protection beliefs in Hispanics, (2) the number of Hispanic participants in the sample had to be clearly specified, and (3) studies reporting differences in sun protection beliefs between Hispanics and other racial and ethnic groups were included in the review. Results. Of the 92 articles identified, 11 met inclusion criteria and addressed sun protection beliefs regarding skin cancer seriousness and susceptibility, and benefits and barriers of sun protection and skin cancer risk behaviors. Characteristics of studies and results were examined. Conclusion. There is insufficient evidence to determine a pattern of sun protection beliefs among Hispanics in the United States. More quality studies are needed which focus on sun protection beliefs in Hispanics.
Can sexual selection drive female life histories? A comparative study on Galliform birds

Sexual selection has been identified as a major evolutionary force shaping male life history traits but its impact on female life history evolution is less clear. Here we examine the impact of sexual selection on three key female traits (body size, egg size and clutch size) in Galliform birds. Using comparative independent contrast analyses and directional discrete analyses, based on published data and a new genera‐level supertree phylogeny of Galliform birds, we investigated how sexual selection [quantified as sexual size dimorphism (SSD) and social mating system (MS)] affects these three important female traits. We found that female body mass was strongly and positively correlated with egg size but not with clutch size, and that clutch size decreased as egg size increased. We established that SSD was related to MS, and then used SSD as a proxy of the strength of sexual selection. We found both a positive relationship between SSD and female body mass and egg size and that increases in female body mass and egg size tend to occur following increases in SSD in this bird order. This pattern of female body mass increases lagging behind changes in SSD, established using our directional discrete analysis, suggests that female body mass increases as a response to increases in the level of sexual selection and not simply through a strong genetic relationship with male body mass. This suggests that sexual selection is linked to changes in female life history traits in Galliformes and we discuss how this link may shape patterns of life history variation among species.
Post-Error Behavioral Adjustments Are Facilitated by Activation and Suppression of Task-Relevant and Task-Irrelevant Information Processing

Error monitoring by the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) has been linked to post-error behavioral adaptation effects and cognitive control dynamics in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). It remains unknown, however, whether control adjustments following errors produce post-error behavioral adjustments (PEBAs) by inhibiting inappropriate responses or facilitating goal-directed ones. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the hemodynamic correlates of PEBAs in a stimulus–response compatibility task. Our task was designed to test whether PEBAs are implemented by suppressing motor responses primed by irrelevant stimulus features (face location), redirecting attention to relevant features (face gender), or both or neither of these possibilities. Independent of PEBAs, error-related pMFC activation was followed by post-error recruitment of prefrontal and parietal control regions and, crucially, both (1) suppressed response-related activity in sensorimotor cortex and (2) enhanced target processing in face-sensitive sensory cortex (“fusiform face area”). More importantly, by investigating the covariation between post-error hemodynamic activity and individual differences in PEBAs, we showed that modulation of task-related motor and sensory processing was dependent on whether participants produced generally slower responses (“post-error slowing”; PES) or selectively reduced interference effects (“post-error reduction of interference”; PERI), respectively. Each of these behaviorally dependent effects was mediated by distinct LPFC control mechanisms (PES: inferior frontal junction; PERI: superior frontal sulcus). While establishing relationships between PEBAs and cognitive control, our findings suggest that the neural architecture underlying sequential behavioral adaptation may be determined primarily by how control is executed by the individual when adjustments are needed.
Prognostic relevance of HER2/neu in acute lymphoblastic leukemia and induction of NK cell reactivity against primary ALL blasts by trastuzumab

The epidermal growth factor receptor HER2/neu is expressed on various cancers and represents a negative prognostic marker, but is also a target for the therapeutic monoclonal antibody Trastuzumab. In about 30% of cases, HER2/neu is expressed on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells and was proposed to be associated with a deleterious prognosis. Here we evaluated clinical data from 65 ALL patients (HER2/neu+, n = 17; HER2/neu−, n = 48) with a median follow-up of 19.4 months (range 0.6-176.5 months) and observed no association of HER2/neu expression with response to chemotherapy, disease free or overall survival. In vitro, treatment of primary ALL cells (CD20+HER2/neu+, CD20+HER2/neu− and CD20−HER2/neu−) with Rituximab and Trastuzumab led to activation of NK cells in strict dependence of the expression of the respective antigen. NK reactivity was more pronounced with Rituximab as compared to Trastuzumab, and combined application could lead to additive effects in cases where both antigens were expressed. Besides providing evidence that HER2/neu expression is no risk factor in ALL patients, our data demonstrates that HER2/neu can be a promising target for Trastuzumab therapy in the subset of ALL patients with the potential to improve disease outcome.
A low-complexity issue logic

One of the main concerns in today's processor design is the issue logic. Instruction-level parallelism is usually favored by an out-of-order issue mechanism where instructions can issue independently of the program order. The out-of-order scheme yields the best performance but at the same time introduces important hardware costs such as an associative look-up, which might be prohibitive for wide issue processors with large instruction windows. This associative search may slow-down the clock-rate and it has an important impact on power consumption. In this work, two new issue schemes that reduce the hardware complexity of the issue logic with minimal impact on the average number of instructions executed per cycle are presented.
“You Shouldn’t Use Facebook for That”: Navigating Norm Violations While Seeking Emotional Support on Facebook

Facebook users who choose to seek emotional support publicly via Facebook Timeline posts must balance their needs for emotional comfort with norms for appropriate behavior within the Facebook context. Although Facebook promotes access to diverse social contacts who could serve as emotional support providers, the norms of Facebook use often prevent users from explicitly and directly venting their affect and requesting emotional support. A community sample (N = 185) completed an online questionnaire through which participants provided their most recent public Facebook post that was intended to garner social support. Inductive thematic analysis was employed to identify the strategies individuals enact to navigate the tension between effectively seeking emotional support while avoiding violating implicit Facebook norms associated with oversharing or appearing emotionally needy. Six themes characterizing emotional support-seeking strategies on Facebook emerged from the data. These themes are further subdivided, described, and discussed as they pertain to extant literature on supportive communication and Facebook norms.
Implementation of RSA security protocol for sensor network security: Design and network lifetime analysis

Application of Wireless sensor network (WSN) is increasing in a rapid speed. As sensor networks may interact with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments, it is imperative that security concern be addressed from the beginning of the system. But sensor networks also introduce severe resource constraints due to their lack of data storage and power. Both of these represent major obstacles to the implementation of traditional computer security techniques in a wireless sensor network. There has to be some compromise between the security and the energy. Asymmetric protocol like RSA has not been implemented due to high power constrain and for memory issue. In this paper, we have shown that RSA can be implemented for sensor in an efficient manner by using optimized computation. We have simulated the protocol in NS2.34 platform. The energy requirement gives an optimistic result quite similar to symmetric protocol energy requirement for sensor.