Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mc-Dis: A Heterogeneous Neighbor Discovery Protocol for Multi-channel Wireless Networks

In distributed wireless networks, neighbor discovery is one of the bootstrapping primitives in supporting many important network functionalities. Existing neighbor discovery protocols mostly assume a single-channel network model and can only support a subset of duty cycles, thus limiting the energy conservation levels of wireless devices. In this paper, we study the neighbor discovery problem in multi-channel networks where the wireless nodes have heterogeneous duty cycles, asynchronous clocks and asymmetrical channel perceptions, which we formulate as heterogeneous neighbor discovery problem. We first establish a performance bound for any neighbor discovery protocol by relating the two performance metrics, discovery delay and diversity. We then present the design, analysis and evaluation of Mc-Dis, a multi-channel neighbor discovery protocol that can support can practically support almost all duty cycles and guarantee discovery on every channel in multichannel networks even when nodes have asynchronous clocks and asymmetrical channel perceptions.
Logic programming with simulation-based temporal projection for everyday robot object manipulation

In everyday object manipulation tasks, like making a pancake, autonomous robots are required to decide on the appropriate action parametrizations in order to achieve desired (and to avoid undesired) outcomes. For determining the right parameters for actions like pouring a pancake mix onto a pancake maker, robots need capabilities to predict the physical consequences of their own manipulation actions. In this work, we integrate a simulation-based approach for making temporal projections for robot manipulation actions into the logic programming language PROLOG. The realized system enables robots to determine action parameters that bring about certain effects by utilizing simulation-based temporal projections within PROLOG's chronological backtracking mechanism. For a set of formal parameters and their respective ranges of values, the developed system translates the manipulation problems into physical simulations, monitors and logs the relevant data structures of the simulations, translates the logged data back into first-order time-interval-based representations, called timelines, and eventually evaluates the individual timelines with respect to specified performance criteria. Integrating the proposed approach into robot control programs allow robots to mentally simulate the consequences of different action parametrizations before committing to them and thereby to reduce the number of undesired outcomes.
The Effects of web-based Instruction Navigation Modes on Undergraduates' Learning Outcomes

The purpose of this study was to examine whether matching navigation mode of a learning environment with learners’ preferred navigation mode would facilitate their learning in a web environment. Sixty-eight undergraduate students were randomly assigned to treatments (linear vs. nonlinear navigation mode) and received four criterion tests designed to measure different educational objectives immediately after interacting with the instructional material about human heart. The results suggested that matching or mismatching navigation mode of the learning environment with learners’ preference did not lead to significant differences in learning outcomes. However, there were significant differences in achievement between groups with different navigation mode preferences. Our findings indicated that students preferring nonlinear navigation had significantly higher achievement scores on higher levels of learning outcomes. Based on the results of the study, we discussed specific recommendations for instructional designers and the issue concerning matching/mismatching navigation modes with learning preferences.
Resident Perceptions of Housing, Neighborhood, and Economic Conditions After Relocation From Public Housing Undergoing HOPE VI Redevelopment

Objective: This study evaluates participant perception of neighborhood, economic, and housing well-being of residents 4 and 5 years after forced relocation from a public housing complex in Atlanta, Georgia. Method: The study used a mixed-method, posttest-only design with two data points. Focus groups with 93 participants combined qualitative, open-ended questions with quantitative measures. Results: Four years after relocation, residents living in homes/apartments found with Section 8 housing vouchers were faring better than residents who moved to other public housing projects. A majority of voucher users believed their house, neighborhood, and overall global living situation had improved since relocation. In the year between the first and second wave of focus groups, 40% of voucher users had moved to a new house/apartment. Moving was associated with residents perceiving their situations improving in many categories. Implications: Our findings suggest HOPE VI developments are more likely to accomplish their objectives if the current administration continues full funding of the voucher program rather than implements the cutbacks it is currently proposing.
Screening in Ultrashort (5 nm) Channel MoS2 Transistors: A Full-Band Quantum Transport Study

Full-band ballistic quantum transport calculations were used to study the screening effects in ultrashort-channel few-layer MoS2 transistors. A large density of states resulted in small screening lengths while inhibiting direct source-to-drain tunneling. Short-channel effects were observed even for the structurally confined 2-D transistors resulting in degraded electrostatic control. Electron confinement effects were also observed in the OFF-state in multilayered devices.
Predicting the development of schizophrenia in high-risk populations: Systematic review of the predictive validity of prodromal criteria

Background There is a great deal of debate on the usefulness and accuracy of prodromal criteria in predicting schizophrenia. The risk of treating people who screen false positive with medication is considerable. Yet intervening during the prodromal stage of illness may reduce the burden caused by schizophrenia. Aims To draw together the evidence base for the predictive validity of prodromal criteria in identifying individuals at high risk of developing schizophrenia. Method We conducted a systematic review of prospective studies investigating the predictive validity of prodromal criteria in schizophrenia. Results Our study found two main criteria, ultra-high-risk criteria and basic-symptoms criteria, used in studies investigating the predictive validity of prodromal symptoms. The sensitivity and specificity of ultra-high-risk criteria was 0.81 (95% CI 0.76–0.85) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.64–0.70) respectively and for basic-symptoms criteria sensitivity and specificity was 0.97 (95% CI 0.91–1.00) and 0.59 (95% CI 0.48–0.70) respectively. Conclusions Both ultra-high-risk criteria and basic-symptoms criteria are useful in predicting the development of schizophrenia among high-risk populations.
A Structured Language Model for Incremental Tree-to-String Translation

Tree-to-string systems have gained significant popularity thanks to their simplicity and e ciency by exploring the source syntax information, but they lack in the target syntax to guarantee the grammaticality of the output. Instead of using complex tree-to-tree models, we integrate a structured language model, a left-to-right shift-reduce parser in specific, into an incremental tree-to-string model, and introduce an e cient grouping and pruning mechanism for this integration. Large-scale experiments on various Chinese-English test sets show that with a reasonable speed our method gains an average improvement of 0.7 points in terms of (Ter-Bleu)/2 than a state-of-the-art tree-to-string system.
Computer Simulation as a Method of Further Developing a Theory: Simulating the Elaboration Likelihood Model

Implemented specifically as a method of theory development, computer simulation allows clarification of a theory and investigation of its implications. Using Petty and Cacioppo's (1986a, 1986b) Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the use of simulation in formalizing a theory, testing the simulation model, and conducting simulation experiments is demonstrated. With formalization of the theory in the form of a block diagram, the entire pattern of causal effects in the ELM core statements becomes visible at a glance. The simulation model was tested through comparing simulated individuals' reactions to stimuli with the experimental and statistical observed reactions of real participants in experiments. The simulation experiments revealed a dynamic attitude shift in dependency on the development of processing intensity.
Edge-Dual Graph Preserving Sign Prediction for Signed Social Networks

Though existing works of sign prediction have reasonable prediction performances, they suffer from the data sparseness problem, especially for the negative link prediction. Most nodes in signed social networks are connected to very limited number of other nodes, which could not provide enough knowledge for sign prediction. This paper, therefore, proposes a novel edge-dual graph preserving sign prediction model, which reconstructs the signed social network by converting the original graph into the edge-dual graph, uses Jaccard coefficient to measure the node similarity and applies support vector machine classifier to predict signs. The proposed method reconstructs the graph by converting edges of the original graph into nodes of the edge-dual graph, and creating edges for the edge-dual graph according to the connections of edges in the original graph. It is mathematically and experimentally verified that the sparseness of the signed social networks can be significantly reduced by the proposed method. Using the publicly available data sets, it is verified that the average degree of signed social networks can be 7 to 8 times enlarged by the proposed method and the sign prediction accuracy can be improved around 10% comparing with the existing works.
Detection of Land Mines in Multi-Spectral and Multi-Temporal IR Imagery

In this paper we present techniques for detecting mines using data acquired at multiple wavelengths (multi-spectral) or at multiple times (multi-temporal). Both types of data employ vector-valued pixels, and therefore they have a common mathematical structure. For the multi-spectral data we show that the performance of standard algorithms can be improved signiÞcantly through spatial whitening when there is spatial correlation in the scene. For multitemporal data we employ a classiÞer of the vector-valued pixels to identify mine-like and clutter-like regions. Both multi-spectral and multi-temporal algorithms are demonstrated using experimental data collected at Fort A.P. Hill, VA under a variety of conditions.
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Urdu Medium Intermediaries Issues Getting Higher Education in English Medium Institutions: Evidence from Pakistan

The most important aspect of all beings is language. Language connects us with other people, we use express our thought and emotions, to fulfill our needs of life. However, the barrier to understand language can put you at trouble especially if the matter is of education. Education system of Pakistan is preserve of an elite, leaving the rest of the country to linguistic confusion and educational failure. This system has put the youth at confusion and threat to pursue their higher education where they have to study their courses in English. It has created the cultural and social discrimination in our youth. This study examines the issues related to language choice in education system of Pakistan. The study is qualitative in nature and four in depth interviews are conducted with the Urdu medium intermediates who have started their university education in English medium. The respondents reveal system that such system has put them in great difficulty and disappointed to continue their education. The study implies that language discrimination has greatly affect the confidence level of Urdu medium students clearly indicates that Urdu background students have to face problems in every field of life because the mindset of society is quite conservative towards a person who cannot speak English. Key words: higher education, language discrimination, Urdu intermediaries
Efficacy of Intervention for a Bilingual Child Making Articulation and Phonological Errors

This treatment case study presents a five-year-old bilingual Cantonese/English speaking boy with articulation and phonological errors. It reports two treatment phases: articulation therapy and phonological therapy. The articulation therapy was given in English and targeted the distorted production of /s/. The result was a perceptually acceptable pronunciation of /s/ in both English and Cantonese. The phonological therapy, also given in English, targeted cluster reduction, but it was only effective in treating English errors. The reduction of consonant clusters in Cantonese remained unchanged. These data have implications for two issues: the separateness of bilingual children's two phonological systems, and the differences between articulation and phonological errors.
Role of heme compounds and haptoglobin in Vibrio vulnificus pathogenicity

An induced peritonitis model was employed in mice to determine whether heme-containing molecules enhance the lethality of infections by Vibrio vulnificus. The lethality of intraperitoneal (ip) inocula of the bacteria was increased by concurrent injections (ip) of hemoglobin, methemoglobin, or hematin, but not by myoglobin. Similar results were obtained in mice with phenylhydrazine-induced hemoglobinemia, in which after ip injections of V. vulnificus, a direct correlation between lethality and levels of plasma hemoglobin was observed. In vitro studies indicated that the growth of V. vulnificus, which was limited in an iron-poor medium, was enhanced by the addition of hemoglobin in a manner similar to an inorganic iron source, ferric ammonium citrate. These results suggest that V. vulnificus is capable of extracting iron from hemoglobin for use as a nutrilite, thereby promoting growth and increased lethality in the in vivo models. Further studies with human serum cultures demonstrated that the growth of V. vulnificus was not decreased when hemoglobin added to the serum was completely complexed with haptoglobin; these results are in opposition to those with cultures of Escherichia coli. These results are discussed relative to the capacity of V. vulnificus to produce fatal human infections.
High Risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Cohort Study of 493 Patients

Introduction: The risk of symptomatic deep vein thrombosis (DVT) among patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been well studied. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with NSCLC to determine the incidence of DVT and to characterize predictors of DVT in patients with NSCLC. Methods: The pulmonary oncology database of the Sir Mortimer B. Davis–Jewish General Hospital contains prospectively collected clinical data on lung cancer patients since January 1, 1997. We identified all consecutive patients with histologically confirmed new diagnoses of NSCLC between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2004, and we determined the occurrence of an objectively defined DVT. Data on clinical and tumor characteristics were collected and compared among patients with DVT and patients without DVT. Results: Of the 493 NSCLC patients included in the cohort for a total of 634 person-years, 67 (13.6%) patients developed objectively confirmed DVTs, with an incidence of 110 cases (95% confidence interval [CI] 80, 130) per 1000 person-years. An adjusted multivariable regression analysis showed that advanced stage (rate ratio [RR] 2.63, 95% CI 1.38, 5.00) and male sex (RR 1.75, 95% CI 1.03–2.94) were independent predictors of DVT. Conclusions: Our results show a high incidence of DVT in NSCLC patients. Advanced stage and, to a lesser extent, male sex, are important predictors of DVT. Trials to evaluate the use of prophylactic anticoagulant treatments in patients with NSCLC should be conducted.
Code-switching and pausing: an interdisciplinary study

This study considers code-switching (CS) and pausing in two sociolinguistically distinct groups in London and Cyprus, bilingual in Greek-Cypriot Dialect (GCD) and English. The characteristics of their speech are examined both in monolingual and bilingual modes (Grosjean, 2001). It was hypothesised that in London Greek-Cypriots, where CS is a ‘default mode’, pausing behaviour would be affected by the same factors as in monolinguals, but not by CS. In Cyprus, on the other hand, where CS serves specific discourse functions, overall fluency was expected to be negatively affected by the more marked character of the alternation. Results revealed that CS has no significant effect on pausing in either context. Conversational motives, along with lexical, grammatical and processing issues, are the determining factors in bilingual, as well as monolingual, pausing. Despite the lack of difference found here between the two groups, we conclude that sociolinguistic and discourse variables should form an essential element in attempts to model bilingual speech production.
Protecting Against Misleading Post‐event Information with a Self‐Administered Interview

Two studies investigated whether an early recall opportunity, in the form of a self-administered interview (SAI), reduced forgetting and protected against the negative consequences of post-event misinformation. In both studies, participants viewed a simulated crime on DVD after which half immediately recorded their statement by using the SAI, whereas control participants did not have an immediate recall opportunity. Following a delay, participants were presented with misinformation encountered either in a misleading news report (Study 1) or in the form of misleading cued-recall questions (Study 2). Results showed that participants who had completed a SAI after witnessing an event were significantly less prone to forgetting and significantly more resistant to the negative consequences of misinformation. The SAI was able to protect both the quantity and quality of information about a previously witnessed event. Applied implications are discussed.
Interference alignment via minimizing projector distances of interfering subspaces

A novel interference alignment (IA) algorithm is presented. Interference alignment solutions can be obtained in closed-form for special cases only. In general, iterative algorithms need to be used. Most of these algorithms are based on a joint design of precoders at the transmitter side and receive filters at the receiver side, while the proposed method achieves IA with a precoder design only. We present a new formulation, with more geometrical insights to the IA problem. A design based on precoders simplifies the problem structure and allows receive filters to be designed independently of the IA conditions. We show that optimal precoders lie in complex Grassmannian manifolds. Consequently, the proposed algorithm is an alternating optimization algorithm on the Grassmannian manifold. Simulation results show that a precoder based scheme does not lead to any performance degradation and that the same degrees of freedom as state-of-the-art methods are achieved.
The Effects of Post-marital Childbearing on Divorce and Remarriage: An Application of Hazards Models with Time-dependent Covariates

In this paper we examine the effects of having a baby during a period of separation on the probability of divorce, and the impact of bearing a child while divorced on the likelihood of remarriage in the United States. Among whites, neither a first nor a second birth during separation had any significant effect on the probability of divorce. Among blacks, either a first or second birth significantly increased the chance of divorce. The function of post-marital childbearing among black women as an incentive to obtaining divorces (presumably to allow them to establish new unions formally) is important, because a large proportion remain separated indefinitely. Whereas the occurrence of both first and second births during divorce significantly increased the probability of remarriage among whites, only a second birth did so among blacks. Further analysis suggests that while the legitimization of births was an important factor among whites, there was little evidence of a comparable effect among blacks.
Merging technology and users: Applying image browsing to the fashion industry for design inspiration

Archives are increasingly important to creative industries, especially the fashion sector, which often relies on historical collections for design inspiration, product-development, and market strategizing. As these collections are digitized and catalogued their accessibility becomes more complex and their usefulness restricted to those skilled in navigating through the metadata. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) offers only a partial solution to this dilemma. Requirements of the fashion sector necessitate a tool to enhance the browsing experience for creative applications beyond retrieval. This paper highlights limitations of CBIR for applications in creative industries such as fashion. It briefly reviews relevant literature, highlights some research questions, and outlines the approach we are adopting to integrate the requirements of users with the appropriate technology. Examples from Fashion and Apparel Browsing for Inspirational Content (FABRIC), a collaborative 3-year pound1.4 M Technology Strategy Board project, sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), provide a real-world application.
Robot Manzai: Robot Conversation as a Passive-Social Medium

This paper reports on the development of a multirobot cooperation system for human–robot communication in which robots behave as if communicating by speech, while the system exchanges information through a network that maintains natural communication timing. The information exchanged through the network is based on the analysis of interhuman conversation. This system is based on a scripting language for coordinating multirobot communication, which has a merit for developers: easy development. The developed system is used for Manzai, which is a kind of a Japanese stand-up comedy mainly performed by two persons. While tempo and timing are particularly important in Manzai, the developed "robot Manzai" system received higher evaluations than the Manzai shown in a video performed by humans. We believe that this system demonstrates the potential of robots as a passive–social medium, including television and computers.