Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards the Integration of Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Platforms: A generic API Approach

Gathering different pieces of information about the environmental parameters within certain places is becoming a cornerstone for a set of applications and services and is, in fact, bringing about the appearance of new ones. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) appear as a key enabler for this sort of functionality, being able to obtain the required information and transmitting it to concentrator nodes. However, there are different sensor platforms, usually not compatible among them and, under specific conditions, considering the advantages of each one, it might be sensible using more than one of them within the same application. This paper describes the design and implementation of a framework for WSN (WSN adaptation framework, WAF), which offers a generic API able to manage subjacent heterogeneous sensor platforms, thus allowing a homogenous usage of their functionalities, especially from the service developer perspective, who does not longer need to worry about the primitives specific to the different platforms. Furthermore, the paper shows two illustrative examples on the usage of the generic API.
Prevalence of iron deficiency across different tumors and its association with poor performance status, disease status and anemia

Background Only limited data on the prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) and its correlation with clinical parameters are available in cancer. ID frequently contributes to the pathogenesis of anemia in patients with cancer and may lead to several symptoms such as impaired physical function, weakness and fatigue. Patients and methods Parameters of iron status and clinical parameters were evaluated in 1528 patients with cancer who presented consecutively within a four-month period at our center. One thousand fifty-three patients had solid tumors and 475 hematological malignancies. Results ID [transferrin saturation (TSAT) < 20%] was noted in 645 (42.6%) of the 1513 patients with TSAT tests available and 500 (33.0%) were anemic. ID rates were highest in pancreatic (63.2%), colorectal (51.9%) and lung cancers (50.7%). Of the 409 iron-deficient patients in whom serum ferritin levels were available additionally to TSAT, 335 (81.9%) presented with functional ID (FID) (TSAT < 20%, serum ferritin ≥30 ng/ml) and 74 (18.1%) with absolute ID. In patients with solid tumors, prevalence of ID correlated with cancer stage at diagnosis (P = 0.001), disease status (P = 0.001) and ECOG performance status (P = 0.005). Conclusions ID was frequently noted in cancer and was associated with advanced disease, close proximity to cancer therapy, and poor performance status in patients with solid tumors.
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Distance to Food Stores & Adolescent Male Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: Mediation Effects

Background: The physical environments in which adolescents reside and their access to food stores may influence their consumption of fruit and vegetables. This association could either be direct or mediated via psychosocial variables or home availability of fruit and vegetables. A greater understanding of these associations would aide the design of new interventions. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between distance to food stores and restaurants and fruit and vegetable consumption and the possible mediating role of psychosocial variables and home availability.
Towards a New Understanding of Advice Interference

Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) is an established programming paradigm for addressing crosscutting concerns that cannot be modularized using traditional dominant decomposition paradigms. However, the new language constructs introduced in AOP also raise new problems. One of such problems is Advice Interference, where interferences between aspects’ advices by data and control flow dependencies jeopardize the correctness of an AOP program. Advice Interference has been qualitatively defined, but the cumulative effects of an aspect’s advice on program contexts are overlooked in the definition. The definition also obscures the differences between Advice Interference and Weaving Interference, another well recognized type of AOP problems. Additionally, for Advice Interference, there is a fundamental flaw in the definition of relevant advices, between which interferences may occur. This paper investigates cumulative advice effects on a program context to provide a basis for a new understanding of Advice Interference. It also proposes a new semi-formal definition of Advice Interference that clarifies its differences from Weaving Interference. Finally, the flaw in the current definition of relevant advices for Advice Interference is addressed. The results of this research would provide AOP practitioners with a deepened understanding and fundamentally enhanced definition of Advice Interferece
Simulation and Experimental Verification of Weighted Velocity and Acceleration Minimization for Robotic Redundancy Resolution

This paper proposes and investigates a weighted velocity and acceleration minimization scheme to prevent the occurrence of high joint velocity and joint acceleration caused by the minimum acceleration norm (MAN) scheme in redundant robot manipulators. The proposed scheme considers minimum kinetic energy (MKE) and MAN criterions via two weighting factors, thus guaranteeing the final joint velocity of motion to be near zero, which is acceptable for engineering applications. Joint physical constraints (i.e., joint angle limits, joint velocity limits, and joint acceleration limits) are incorporated in the formulation of the proposed scheme. The proposed scheme is reformulated as a quadratic program and then calculated by using a numerical algorithm based on linear variational inequality. Computer simulation results of a PUMA560 robot manipulator verify the efficacy and flexibility of the proposed scheme for redundancy resolution in robot manipulators. Experimental verifications conducted on a six-link planar robot manipulator demonstrate the effectiveness and physical realizability of the proposed scheme.
FPGA-based real-time acoustic camera prototype

Acoustic cameras visualize the origin and intensity of sound waves using an array of microphones and sophisticated signal-processing algorithms. Due to the high memory-bandwidth and signal-processing complexity required by such algorithms, current available devices either compute the corresponding intensity-images off-line or require large and expensive hardware equipment. In this paper, we describe a low-complexity field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based prototype, which computes and visualizes acoustic intensity-images in real-time. The system consists of 32 microphones and performs all signal processing tasks on a low-cost Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA. The prototype computes intensity-images with a resolution of 320×240 pixels at 10 frames-per-second.
Feature data optimization with LVQ technique in semantic image annotation

In order to improve the classifier performance in semantic image annotation, we propose a novel method which adopts learning vector quantization (LVQ) technique to optimize low level feature data extracted from given image. Some representative vectors are selected with LVQ to train support vector machine (SVM) classifier instead of using all feature data. Performance is compared between the methods with and without feature data optimization when SVM is applied to semantic image annotation. Experiment results show that the proposed method has a better performance than that without using LVQ technique.
Primary to post-primary: Issues in school choice

i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . ii TABLE OF CONTENTS . iii LIST OF TABLES . vi LIST OF FIGURES . vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 Background . 1 Previous work . 2 Methods . 2 Aims . 3 Statement of suitability . 4 Organisation . 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 6 Markets, Education and Marketing . 6 Markets and Education . 6 Market Forces . 8 External Factors . 10 Holding Schools Accountable . 11 Educational Marketing . 12 Defining Educational Marketing . 12 Market Research and Analysis . 15 Implementing Marketing Mix . 17 Evaluating Processes . 18 Internal and Relationship Marketing . 19 Attitudes Towards Marketing . 21 An Indispensible Activity . 22 A Negative Activity . 22 Engendering Dilemmas . 23 The Principal’s Role . 23 Leadership or Management . 24 Beneficiaries . 28 Marketing a School . 29 School Choice . 32 Defining Choice . 32 Vouchers as a Means of Choice . 35 Choice in the Global Market . 38 Sweden . 39 United States . 39 New Zealand . 41 Decision-making . 44 Rational or Irrational? 45 Stages of Decision-making . 47 The Process of Choosing . 51 Who chooses? 51 Mothers . 52 Students . 53 Schools . 55 Parental Choice . 55
Inflammation-Mediated Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations Drive Cancer Development in the Neighboring Epithelium upon Stromal Abrogation of TGF-β Signaling

Deletion of tumor suppressor genes in stromal fibroblasts induces epithelial cancer development, suggesting an important role of stroma in epithelial homoeostasis. However, the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Here we report that deletion of the gene encoding TGFβ receptor 2 (Tgfbr2) in the stromal fibroblasts (Tgfbr2fspKO) induces inflammation and significant DNA damage in the neighboring epithelia of the forestomach. This results in loss or down-regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p15, p16, and p21, which contribute to the development of invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Anti-inflammation treatment restored p21 expression, delayed tumorigenesis, and increased survival of Tgfbr2fspKO mice. Our data demonstrate for the first time that inflammation is a critical player in the epigenetic silencing of p21 in tumor progression. Examination of human esophageal SCC showed a down-regulation of TGFβ receptor 2 (TβRII) in the stromal fibroblasts, as well as increased inflammation, DNA damage, and loss or decreased p15/p16 expression. Our study suggests anti-inflammation may be a new therapeutic option in treating human SCCs with down-regulation of TβRII in the stroma.
Time-constrained Aggregated-ARQ video streaming in wireless LAN

In this paper, TA-ARQ (Time-constrained Aggregated Automatic Repeat-reQuest) with an adaptive rate control for SVC streaming based on HDP transport protocol is proposed. To meet the requirement of terminal equipment in the heterogeneous network environments, we consider SVC for different applications. Selected NALUs (Network Abstraction Layer Units) are sent according to the quality estimation of scalable video coding in the server. Moreover, a retransmission mechanism is adopted to reduce loading of the aggregated ARQ retransmissions in multimedia networks and enhance the quality of video streaming. Based on the evaluation of NALU quantity and display order, the priority of each unit is determined. In transmission of SVC sequences, the server can extract different transmission packets, especially for retransmitting lost data. The experimental results show that the bandwidth utilization ratio of the proposed scheme can be up to 91.25% compared with decoding-order-based decision when the theoretical bandwidth is 5 Mbps. In advance, the proposed scheme with TA-ARQ can have quality gain about 0.4 dB in the unicast receiver.
Towards high performance paged memory for GPUs

Despite industrial investment in both on-die GPUs and next generation interconnects, the highest performing parallel accelerators shipping today continue to be discrete GPUs. Connected via PCIe, these GPUs utilize their own privately managed physical memory that is optimized for high bandwidth. These separate memories force GPU programmers to manage the movement of data between the CPU and GPU, in addition to the on-chip GPU memory hierarchy. To simplify this process, GPU vendors are developing software runtimes that automatically page memory in and out of the GPU on-demand, reducing programmer effort and enabling computation across datasets that exceed the GPU memory capacity. Because this memory migration occurs over a high latency and low bandwidth link (compared to GPU memory), these software runtimes may result in significant performance penalties. In this work, we explore the features needed in GPU hardware and software to close the performance gap of GPU paged memory versus legacy programmer directed memory management. Without modifying the GPU execution pipeline, we show it is possible to largely hide the performance overheads of GPU paged memory, converting an average 2× slowdown into a 12% speedup when compared to programmer directed transfers. Additionally, we examine the performance impact that GPU memory oversubscription has on application run times, enabling application designers to make informed decisions on how to shard their datasets across hosts and GPU instances.
Development and Ev aluation of a Kinect Based Motor Rehabilitation Game

Th e use of computational resources, such as virtual and augmented reality based systems has being commonly used to provide patient motivation in rehabilitation processes, great interaction, fun and challenges to therapy. This study presents a development and evaluation of a Kinect based motor rehabilitation system developed iteratively by gathering users’ opinion. This systems is currently a prototype and consists of a physiotherapeutic game controlled by biomechanical movements that supports therapeutics exercises and a module that performs a biomechanical analysis, detecting postural compensation. The system development included two versions. A first system version was developed and evaluated by users. Based on this evaluation the system was upgraded and the new version was evaluated once again by the same users. By comparing these two tests it was possible to notice an improvement of the system in all evaluated aspects.
PreSenseII: bi-directional touch and pressure sensing interactions with tactile feedback

This paper introduces a new input device called "PreSenseII" that recognizes position, touch and pressure of a user's finger. This input device acts as a normal touchpad, but also senses pressure for additional control. Tactile feedback is provided to indicate the state of the user interface to the user. By sensing the finger contact area, pressure can be treated in two ways. This combination enables various user interactions, including multiple hardware button emulation, map scrolling with continuous scale change, and list scrolling with pressure-based speed control.
0 20 80 82 v 1 2 7 A ug 2 00 2 The Einstein-Vlasov system

Rigorous results on solutions of the Einstein-Vlasov system are surveyed. After an introduction to this system of equations and the reasons for studying it, a general discussion of various classes of solutions is given. The emphasis is on presenting important conceptual ideas, while avoiding entering into technical details. Topics covered include spatially homogenous models, static solutions, spherically symmetric collapse and isotropic
Real-time remote rendering of large 3D models on smartphones using multi-layered impostors

We present a novel 3D-image-based client-server streaming approach, as an alternative to current video-based streaming for engineering applications on mobile devices. A render server generates multi-layered panoramic 3D impostors on-the-fly. The impostors are compressed and then transmitted to the client. Since impostors can be reused for several frames of a camera path, the necessary bandwidth can be reduced to a level much below video compression. Furthermore, this approach completely eliminates latencies, which are a major problem of 2D-image-based streaming methods. Also, client rendering speed is decoupled from scene size and complexity and server rendering load can be reduced many times compared to continuous 2D streaming. We demonstrate navigating through a CAD model of a Boeing 777 passenger aircraft with 350 million triangles, on a smartphone, remotely connected via an EDGE network, with zero latency, at 60 frames per second. This makes the approach suitable also for Augmented Reality applications.
On iterated logarithm solutions to identification protocols

We show in this paper that when some constraints are relaxed in the League Problem, we can obtain a communicating scheme in 1 + ⌈log log log n⌉ bits exchanged where n is the number of teams involved in the league. This contrasts with previous results due mainly to Ortlitsky. The price we have to pay is that, with a vanishing error probability, a wrong decision is made. We also give some extensions and applications to our setting.
Strong Stability Results for Solutions of Elliptic Equations with Power-like Lower Order Terms and Measure Data☆

Abstract Let u n be the sequence of solutions of −div(a(x, u n , ∇u n ))+|u n | q −1 u n =f n in Ω, u n =0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a bounded set in R N and f n is a sequence of functions which is strongly convergent to a function f in L 1 loc ( Ω \ K ), with K a compact in Ω of zero r -capacity; no assumptions are made on the sequence f n on the set K . We prove that if a has growth of order p −1 with respect to ∇ u ( p >1), and if q > r ( p −1)/( r − p ), then u n converges to u , the solution of the same problem with datum f , thus extending to the nonlinear case a well-known result by H. Brezis.
Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories

The purpose of this article was to examine the following three questions: Are women’s leadership styles truly different from men’s? Are these styles less likely to be effective? Is the determination of women’s effectiveness as a leaders fact‐based or a perception that has become a reality? Conclusions revealed: Question one: Yes, women’s leadership style is, at this point, different from men’s but men can learn from and adopt “women’s” style and use it effectively as well. In other words, effective leadership is not the exclusive domain of either gender and both can learn from the other. Question two: No, women’s styles are not at all likely to be less effective; in fact, they are more effective within the context of team‐based, consensually driven organizational structures that are more prevalent in today’s world. Question three: The assessment that a woman’s leadership style is less effective than a man’s is not fact‐based but rather driven, by socialization, to a perception that certainly persists. The inescapable reality is that, within the senior ranks of corporate north America (and elsewhere), women remain conspicuous by their absence.
ADHD prevalence estimates across three decades: an updated systematic review and meta-regression analysis.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have identified significant variability in attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) prevalence estimates worldwide, largely explained by methodological procedures. However, increasing rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment throughout the past few decades have fuelled concerns about whether the true prevalence of the disorder has increased over time. METHODS We updated the two most comprehensive systematic reviews on ADHD prevalence available in the literature. Meta-regression analyses were conducted to test the effect of year of study in the context of both methodological variables that determined variability in ADHD prevalence (diagnostic criteria, impairment criterion and source of information), and the geographical location of studies. RESULTS We identified 154 original studies and included 135 in the multivariate analysis. Methodological procedures investigated were significantly associated with heterogeneity of studies. Geographical location and year of study were not associated with variability in ADHD prevalence estimates. CONCLUSIONS Confirming previous findings, variability in ADHD prevalence estimates is mostly explained by methodological characteristics of the studies. In the past three decades, there has been no evidence to suggest an increase in the number of children in the community who meet criteria for ADHD when standardized diagnostic procedures are followed.
Effects of blood pressure and the renin‐angiotensin system on platelet activation in type 2 diabetes

Aims/Introduction: Platelet‐derived microparticles (PDMP) are released from the platelets either after activation or in response to physical stimulation in vivo. The present study examined the association between blood pressure and PDMP, and the effects of high‐dose angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) on PDMP in patients with type 2 diabetes.
AGORA: the interactive document image analysis tool of the BVH project

In this paper, we describe how meta-data of indexation can be extracted from historical document images using an interactive process with a software called AGORA. The algorithms involved in AGORA use two maps to segment noisy images: a shape map that focuses on connected components and a background map that provides information on white areas corresponding to block separations in the page. Using a first segmentation result obtained by using these two maps, meta-data can be extracted according to scenarios produced by the users. These scenarios are defined very simply during an interactive stage. The user is able to make processing sequences adapted to the different kinds of images he is likely to meet and according to the desired meta-data. Finally, we describe different experimentations that have been done during the BVH project to test the usability and the performances of AGORA software
Mass dependence of the HBT radii observed in e+e- annihilation

It is shown that the recently established strong mass- dependence of the radii of the hadron sources, as observed in HBT analyses of the $e^+e^-$ annihilation, can be explained by assuming a generalized inside-outside cascade, i.e. that (i) the four-momenta and the space-time position four-vectors of the produced particles are approximately proportional to each other and (ii) the "freeze-out"times are distributed along the hyperbola $t^2 - z^2 = \tau_0^2$.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health a 13-hour Laboratory School Study of Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate in School-aged Children with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity Disorder

Background: Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) is indicated for the treatment of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children 6 to 12 years of age and in adults. In a previous laboratory school study, LDX demonstrated efficacy 2 hours postdose with duration of efficacy through 12 hours. The current study further characterizes the time course of effect of LDX.
Limit Cycle Prediction Based on Evolutionary Multiobjective Formulation

This paper is concerned with an evolutionary search for limit cycle operation in a class of nonlinear systems. In the first part, single input single output (SISO) systems are investigated and sinusoidal input describing function (SIDF) is extended to those cases where the key assumption in its derivation is violated. Describing function matrix (DMF) is employed to take into account the effects of higher harmonic signals and enhance the accuracy of predicting limit cycle operation. In the second part, SIDF is extended to the class of nonlinear multiinput multioutput (MIMO) systems containing separable nonlinear elements of any general form. In both cases linearized harmonic balance equations are derived and the search for a limit cycle is formulated as a multiobjective problem. Multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA) is utilized to search the space of parameters of theoretically possible limit cycle operations. Case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.