Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A cross-spectral SVD method for chirp time delay estimation

In this paper a new approach for time delay estimation of chirp signals is presented. It is based on an especial pre-transform and a cross-spectral SVD method. Even working in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) environment as low as -5dB, the technique here can obtain chirp time delay estimation outcomes with high accuracy, high reliability and high resolution. Computer emulations have verified that it is superior to the cross correlation method apparently.
The Relation between the Effects of Testimonials' Sources and the Cognitive, Affective and Behavioural Changes

Purpose – Endorsement strategies have a well-known potential of generating good results and there are various studies which refer to the endorsement sources as either a contextually effective or ineffective strategy. The present study is a new approach on this topic and it aims at identifying whether there are significant attitude changes towards the service category after the exposure to different types of service brand testimonials or not. The service category is represented by cosmetic treatments. The attitude structure in this study specifies three distinct components: the affective, the behavioural and the cognitive one. Design/methodology/approach –The study was conducted on a sample of 426 males and females from Romania. Each subject was exposed to testimonials coming from experts, celebrities and satisfied customers who were endorsing a branded cosmetic treatment. Measurements included endorsers’ perceived credibility and changes in affective, cognitive and behavioural attitudes towards the service category. Findings – Credibility derived from brand testimonials has an impact on the service category, as all three changes have been significant. The change in behavioural attitude was the most affected by perceived credibility, closely followed by the change in affective attitude and the change in cognitive attitude. Gender differences were also discussed. Research limitations/implications – The measurement of the endorsement's effect was performed only through the instrumentality of credibility. Another limitation is the survey context in which subjects got in contact with testimonials. Originality/value – This research is useful for both academics and practitioners, offering insights for those who are interested in attitude research and for those activating in the field of beauty service industry.
The abundance of HNCO and its use as a diagnostic of environment

Aims. We aim to investigate the chemistry and gas phase abundance of HNCO and the variation of the HNCO/CS abundance ratio as a diagnostic of the physics and chemistry in regions of massive star formation. Methods. A numerical-chemical model has been developed which self-consistently follows the chemical evolution of a hot core. The model comprises of two distinct stages. The first stage follows the isothermal, modified free-fall collapse of a molecular dark cloud. This is immediately followed by an increase in temperature which represents the switch on of a central massive star and the subsequent evolution of the chemistry in a hot, dense gas cloud (the hot core). During the collapse phase, gas species are allowed to accrete on to grain surfaces where they can participate in further reactions. During the hot core phase surface species thermally desorb back in to the ambient gas and further chemical evolution takes place. For comparison, the chemical network was also used to model a simple dark cloud and photodissociation regions. Results. Our investigation reveals that HNCO is inefficiently formed when only gas-phase formation pathways are considered in the chemical network with reaction rates consistent with existing laboratory data. This is particularly true at low temperatures but also in regions with temperatures up to ∼200 K. Using currently measured gas phase reaction rates, obtaining the observed HNCO abundances requires its formation on grain surfaces – similar to other “hot core” species such as CH3OH. However our model shows that the gas phase HNCO in hot cores is not a simple direct product of the evaporation of grain mantles. We also show that the HNCO/CS abundance ratio varies as a function of time in hot cores and can match the range of values observed. This ratio is not unambiguously related to the ambient UV field as been suggested – our results are inconsistent with the hypothesis of Martin et al. (2008, ApJ, 678, 245). In addition, our results show that this ratio is extremely sensitive to the initial sulphur abundance. We find that the ratio grows monotonically with time with an absolute value which scales approximately linearly with the S abundance at early times.
Insufficient Accuracy and Specificity of Polyanion Precipitation Methods for Quantifying Low-Density Lipoproteins

Recently, polyanion precipitation assays for low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol have been found to underestimate their analyte in normolipidemic samples (Siekmeier et al., Clin Chim Acta 1988;177:221-30). Therefore, accuracy, specificity, and interference by nonesterified fatty acids have been studied for three precipitants (obtained by hepann, dextran sulfate, or polyvinyl sulfate precipitation). At normal concentrations of LDL, precipitation is incomplete, whereas it is nearly quantitative at high concentrations of LDL. The polyvinyl sulfate reagent markedly responds to variations in the amount of non-LDL protein present in the precipitation mixture. In the dextran sulfate and the polyvinyl sulfate method, but not in the heparin method, the percentages of LDL precipitated notably increase as the concentration of the polyanion compound is decreased. In either assay, very-lowdensity lipoproteins, but not high-density lipoproteins, are significantly coprecipitated (dextran sulfate 28%, polyvinyl sulfate and heparin 66%) in a concentration-independent fashion. increased concentrations of nonesterified fatty acids markedly interfere with the dextran sulfate and polyvinyl sulfate assay, but do not much affect results with the heparin reagent.
Language socialization and code-switching: a case study of a Korean–English bilingual child in a Korean transnational family

ABSTRACT This study presents a sociolinguistic analysis of a Korean–English bilingual child’s code-switching practices from the perspective of language socialization. The ethnographic description and discourse analysis of a migrant Korean family’s interaction in the US home shows how the social meanings of languages and language ideologies present within the family’s language socialization context were brought into play through code-switching practices. This analysis illuminates the relation of the bilingual child’s language socialization practices in his home to the shifts in tones of voice and speech acts in his code-switching, through which he evokes different stances and personae in English and Korean. In this regard, the code-switching practice is a creative linguistic performance co-constituted by the agency and language ideologies enacted in his home context. The language socialization framework in this study provides richer contextual information for the interpretation of complex social meanings of bilingual children’s code-switching and agency.
Minority Shareholder Rights in Canada and England: 1860-1987

This article reviews the changing relationship between majority and minority shareholders over approximately the past century and a quarter. In the last century and the early part of this century, company law in Canada and England was built on a foundation of majoritarianism, which was sometimes applied over-zealously by the courts to the detriment of minority shareholders. This majoritarianism has slowly yielded over time, however, to a greater concern for the position of minority shareholders. It is still not clear if controlling shareholders owe fiduciary duties at common law either to the company or to other shareholders. However, the courts have impressed controlling shareholders with what amount to fiduciary duties under the statutory oppression remedy.
LAST-HDFS: Location-Aware Storage Technique for Hadoop Distributed File System

Enabled by the state-of-the-art cloud computing technologies, cloud storage has gained increasing popularity in recent years. Despite of the benefit of flexible and reliable data access offered by such services, users have to bear with the fact of not actually knowing the whereabouts of their data. The lack of knowledge and control of the physical locations of data could raise legal and regulatory issues, especially for certain sensitive data that are governed by laws to remain within certain geographic boundaries and borders. In this paper, we study the problem of data placement control within distributed file systems supporting cloud storage. Particularly, we consider the open source Hadoop file system (HDFS) as the underlying architecture, and propose a location-aware cloud storage system, named LAST-HDFS, to support and enforce location-aware storage in HDFS-based clusters. In addition, it also includes a monitoring system deployed at individual hosts to oversee and detect potential data placement violations due to the existence of malicious datanodes. We carried out an extensive experimental evaluation in a real cloud environment that demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed system.
Beyond native apps: web technologies to the rescue! (keynote)

As of today, mobile software development teams can follow a number of different development and distribution strategies, ranging from native apps, to mobile web apps, hybrid apps, and the recently emerging progressive web apps. This talk provides a state-of-the-art overview of the development strategies and technologies for developing mobile apps, each of them with its own advantages and drawbacks. In this context, the use of web technologies is discussed as a promising investment for moving forward one of the most intriguing challenges in the world of mobile apps: its fragmentation with respect to mobile platforms. A discussion of research challenges, and thus opportunities, closes the talk.
Teaching about Race and Racism: History Education, Teacher Subjectivity, and Pedagogical Practices

This Master’s thesis examines how a history teacher subject position emerges from the discursive practices of history teachers teaching about race and racism in Canadian history. It use semistructured and focus group interviews, classroom observations, and analysis of documents and cultural-visual material to track the formation of the subject position across a range of discursive and material contexts. Through Foucault’s theories on power/knowledge and governmentality, the researcher identifies how the role of the history teacher subject serves as rationalization to the deployment of history as moral education for students. She illustrates how the history teacher subject produces and mediates knowledge of race and racism in curriculum and manages their own conduct in order to mobilize student affect, while considering how pedagogy inherently fails as a practice of prediction and control. These findings have implications for educators and researchers interested in history education, teacher identity, and teaching about race and racism.
RMS performance limitations and constraints for quarter-car active suspensions

In this paper, performance limitations and constraints for an actively controlled quarter- car model subject to white or colored-noise velocity road inputs are investigated. It is demonstrated that tire damping by coupling the motions of the sprung and unsprung masses eliminates a wheel-hop mode constraint; thus reduces the rms sprung mass vertical acceleration without increasing the rms suspension travel and the rms tire deflection.
What can one reconstruct from the representation ring of a compact group

It is well known that there exist non-isomorphic compact groups with isomorphic representation rings (fusion rules). Nevertheless, considerable structural information about the group can be reconstructed from its representation ring. We review these types of partial reconstruction theorems, including some recent results. In the Appendix a derivation of the Clebsch-Gordan series of SU(2) based only on information about the dimensions of the irreps is presented.
Fast HEVC CU/PU mode decision based on ANN and texture analysis

HEVC (high efficiency video coding), as the latest video coding standard, is more efficient than H.264/AVC, nevertheless it also brings in a very high computational complexity. To reduce the time of CU (coding unit) splitting or PU (prediction unit) mode deciding, a fast algorithm based on ANN (artificial neural network) and texture analysis is proposed in this paper. First, we acquire and then label the CUs of the training set with “split” and “unsplit” according to the quad-tree CU depth. Second, the texture features of “split” and “unsplit” CUs are quantified and compiled, based on which we can set the texture thresholds to judge whether or not to split the current CU or which prediction mode should be taken preliminarily. Finally, in terms of the CUs we can't judge from texture, we use ANN or the original algorithm of HM (HEVC test model) software to decide. Compared to HM15.0, the proposed algorithm can save 51.85% encoding time on average with negligible coding efficiency loss.
Baseline Functioning and Stress Reactivity in Maltreating Parents and At-Risk Adults

We reviewed and meta-analyzed 10 studies (N = 492) that examined the association between (risk for) child maltreatment perpetration and basal autonomic activity, and 10 studies (N = 471) that examined the association between (risk for) child maltreatment and autonomic stress reactivity. We hypothesized that maltreating parents/at-risk adults would show higher basal levels of heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) and lower levels of HR variability (HRV) and would show greater HR and SC stress reactivity, but blunted HRV reactivity. A narrative review showed that evidence from significance testing within and across studies was mixed. The first set of meta-analyses revealed that (risk for) child maltreatment was associated with higher HR baseline activity (g = 0.24), a possible indication of allostatic load. The second set of meta-analyses yielded no differences in autonomic stress reactivity between maltreating/at-risk participants and nonmaltreating/low-risk comparison groups. Cumulative meta-analyses showed that positive effects for sympathetic stress reactivity as a risk factor for child maltreatment were found in a few early studies, whereas each subsequently aggregated study reduced the combined effect size to a null effect, an indication of the winner’s curse. Most studies were underpowered. Future directions for research are suggested.
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology a Novel Information Hiding Technique for Security by Using Image Steganography

In this paper a novel method is proposed to provide more security for the key information with the combination of image compression and data encryption method. This method requires less memory space and fast transmission rate because of image compression technique is applied. Steganography plays an important role in information security. Since the rise of the Internet one of the most important factors of information technology and communication has been the security of information. It is the art of hiding the fact that communication is takes place, by hiding information in other information. Many different file formats can be used, but digital images are the most popular because of their frequency on the Internet. For hiding secret information in images, there exist a large variety of steganographic techniques some are more complex than others and all of them have respective strong and weak points. Many applications have different requirements of the steganography technique used. Some applications may use absolute invisibility of the secret information, but others require a larger secret message to be hidden. This method has been implemented and tested on varies images and data. It provides better security for encrypted data and no distortion in the image quality. 1.INTRODUCTION Cryptography was created as a technique for securing the secrecy of communication and many different methods have been developed to encrypt and decrypt data in order to keep the message secret. Unfortunately it is sometimes not enough to keep the contents of a message secret, it may also be necessary to keep the existence of the message secret. The technique used to implement is called steganography. It is the art and science of
Evaluation of a Standardized Extract from Morus alba against α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Effect and Postprandial Antihyperglycemic in Patients with Impaired Glucose Tolerance: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial

To evaluate the antihyperglycemic effect of a standardized extract of the leaves of Morus alba (SEMA), the present study was designed to investigate the α-glucosidase inhibitory effect and acute single oral toxicity as well as evaluate blood glucose reduction in animals and in patients with impaired glucose tolerance in a randomized double-blind clinical trial. SEMA was found to inhibit α-glucosidase at a fourfold higher level than the positive control (acarbose), in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, blood glucose concentration was suppressed by SEMA in vivo. Clinical signs and weight changes were observed when conducting an evaluation of the acute toxicity of SEMA through a single-time administration, with clinical observation conducted more than once each day. After administration of the SEMA, observation was for 14 days; all of the animals did not die and did not show any abnormal symptoms. In addition, the inhibitory effects of rice coated with SEMA were evaluated in a group of impaired glucose tolerance patients on postprandial glucose and a group of normal persons, and results showed that SEMA had a clear inhibitory effect on postprandial hyperglycemia in both groups. Overall, SEMA showed excellent potential in the present study as a material for improving postprandial hyperglycemia.
Analysis of Performance Degradation Due to RF Impairments in Quadrature Bandpass Sampling GNSS Receivers

Radio receiver architectures with Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) close to the antenna can perform reconfigurable band selection in the digital domain hence resulting in increased integration and improved performance. Techniques such as Bandpass Sampling (BPS) require a sampling rate of at least twice the bandwidth of the received signal to sample and downconvert it to the baseband. Quadrature Bandpass Sampling (QBPS), on the other hand, accomplishes this with half the sampling rate of BPS, but utilises two ADCs. QBPS operates on the received Radio Frequency (RF) signal and uses two ADCs with sampling clocks separated by one quarter of the carrier signal period, ) 4 /( 1 c f , relative to one another. For GPS L1 signal, this delay corresponds to 158.69 ps, which is not trivial to generate accurately. The use of QBPS in the analog front-end eliminates the need for expensive mixers, filters and the impairments associated with them. However, impairments associated with accurately generating the delay required between the sampling clocks, along with impairments in the signal paths between the ADCs result in performance degradation. This paper investigates the influence of these RF impairments associated with the QBPS scheme and compares its performance with different traditional RF front-end architectures in generating in-phase and quadrature signals. A quantitative comparison of architectures is performed using simulation case studies in MATLAB environment and their performance with respect to Image Rejection Ratio (IRR) and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) is analysed. Results show that QBPS based architecture outperforms other architectures as well as resulting in reduced hardware complexity and subsequent reduced power consumption.
Perinatal outcomes following maternal asthma and cigarette smoking during pregnancy

Does cigarette smoking in pregnancy explain the increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes that occur with maternal asthma or does it compound the effect? Using population based birth records, a retrospective analysis was conducted of all singleton pregnancies in South Australia over 10 years (1999–2008; n=172 305), examining maternal asthma, cigarette smoking and quantity of smoking to estimate odds ratios. Compared with nonasthmatic females who did not smoke during pregnancy, both asthmatic females who smoked and those who did not smoke during pregnancy had a significantly increased risk of gestational diabetes, antepartum haemorrhage, polyhydramnios, premature rupture of membranes, emergency Caesarean section, and the child being small for gestational age and having congenital abnormalities. These associations suggest that asthma, independently of maternal smoking, increases the risk of these adverse perinatal outcomes. Maternal smoking was itself associated with an increased risk of a number of poor neonatal outcomes, with a dose–response relationship observed. Notably, maternal asthma combined with cigarette smoking significantly increased the risk of preterm birth and urinary tract infections to a greater degree than with either exposure alone. Maternal asthma and cigarette smoking during pregnancy are both independently associated with adverse perinatal outcomes and, combined, compound the risk of preterm birth and urinary tract infections. Asthma and smoking are independently associated with adverse perinatal outcomes and compound the effect in combination http://ow.ly/s1Bw9
Yield-enhancement techniques for 3D random access memories

Three-dimensional (3D) integration technology using through silicon via (TSV) is an emerging technology for integrated circuit designs. Random access memory (RAM) is one good candidate for using the 3D integration technology. Introducing redundancies into a large-capacity RAM in design phase is essential for yield improvement. In this paper, we present yield-enhancement techniques for 3D RAMs. In addition to typical redundancy schemes are used to improve the yield of 3D RAMs, an inter-die redundancy scheme is proposed. Also, a stacking flow is proposed to further improve the final yield of 3D RAMs with the proposed inter-die redundancy scheme.
Using data prediction techniques to reduce data transmissions in the IoT

Part of the data in the Internet of Things (IoT) will be generated by wireless sensor nodes organized in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). However, these nodes are mainly designed to have low costs, which implies constrained memory and energy supplies, and does not permit high data transfer rates. Despite that, modern applications rely on the knowledge acquired by WSNs to trigger other systems and sensed data has become critical to avoid economic-and living-losses. Therefore, it is important to optimize data transmissions in WSNs to support more wireless sensor nodes and a higher diversity of sensed parameters. The thesis “Prediction-Based Strategies for Reducing Data Transmissions in the IoT” extends a paradigm that exploits WSNs to the utmost: data that can be predicted does not have to be transmitted. We simulated and tested a self-managing WSN architecture in the cloud to adjust the sensor nodes' sampling intervals. For the future generations of WSNs, we designed a theoretical model for estimating the efficiency of prediction-based data reduction methods in WSNs. It will permit a strict control over the quality of the reported data without being harmed by the adoption of a higher number of sensor nodes; hence, collaborating to the IoT's growth.