Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy-aware adaptive sectorisation in LTE systems

In this paper, we propose a novel energy-aware adaptive sectorisation strategy, where the base stations are able to adapt themselves to the temporal traffic variation by switching off some sectors and changing the beam-width of the remaining sectors. An event based user traffic model is established according to Markov-Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP). Adaptation is performed while taking into account the the target Quality of Service (QoS), in terms of blocking probability. In addition, coverage requirement is also considered. This work targets at future cellular systems, in particular LTE systems. The results show that at least 21% energy consumption can be reduced by using the proposed adaptive sectorisation strategy.
CAM for Pediatric Pain: What is State-of-the-Research?

Previously, we reviewed the evidence for the efficacy of CAM approaches for pediatric pain (volume 2; issue 2; 2005) using criteria developed by the American Psychological Association Division 12 Task Force. Our review focused on CAM modalities that had been tested with at least one controlled trial or multiple baseline study. In addition, only those trials in which children comprised the study sample were included. Thus, several CAM modalities were not included in our review. Key ethical and other reasons for the limited literature on CAM for pediatric pain as well as directions for future studies are discussed.
Detection and molecular characterization of diarrhea causing viruses in single and mixed infections in children: A comparative study between Bangladesh and Turkey

The incidence and mortality caused by diarrhea differ among countries. The prevalence of different enteric viruses, their molecular characteristics, and infections with multiple viruses might affect the disease incidence and mortality caused by diarrhea. The objective of this study was to determine the distribution and molecular characteristics of enteric viruses in children with diarrhea in Turkey and Bangladesh. A total of 288 stool samples that were negative for group A rotavirus were collected from children aged <5 years with acute diarrhea who presented to hospitals in Turkey and Bangladesh. The samples were screened for human bocavirus (HBoV), astrovirus (HAstV), norovirus (NoV), and adenovirus (AdV). Phylogenetic analyses of the targeted virus genes were performed. In Turkey, viruses were detected in 87/150 samples (58%), which included 69 (79.3%) with single viruses and 18 (20.7%) with multiple viruses. AdV was the most common virus, followed by HBoV. In Bangladesh, viruses were detected in 123/138 samples (89.1%), which included 29 (23.6%) with single viruses and 94 (76.4%) with multiple viruses. NoV GII was the most common, followed by AdV. The dominant genotypes among the virus species were HBoV 2A, HAstV 1, NoV GI type 1, and AdV 40. For NoV GII, the Hunter variant of genotype 4 in Turkey and genotype 17 in Bangladesh were the most common among the sequenced strains. It was concluded that the distribution of the viruses associated with diarrhea in Turkish and Bangladeshi children was different. Enteric viruses and mixed infections were more prevalent in Bangladesh than in Turkey. J. Med. Virol. 86:1159–1168, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The relationships between personality, approaches to learning, and academic success in first-year psychology distance education students

[Abstract]: The first aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the big five personality traits and approaches to learning in a sample of first-year psychology distance students. Approaches to learning are the intentions a student has when faced with a learning task. A deep approach reflects an intention to understand the material, a strategic approach reflects an intention to achieve the highest grades possible, and a surface approach reflects an intention to cope with the course requirements by memorising facts. Consistent with previous research of on-campus students, the Intellect trait predicted the deep learning approach; the Conscientiousness trait predicted the strategic learning approach; and the Emotional Stability trait negatively predicted the surface learning approach. The second aim of this study was to investigate whether approaches to learning predict academic success, as measured by grade point average. As expected, the surface learning approach negatively predicted achievement. However, contrary to expectations, neither the deep nor the strategic learning approach predicted academic success. This finding may partly be explained by these first-year distance students undergoing a transition to the expectations and requirements of their flexible learning environments. Further research is warranted to establish whether the deep and strategic learning approaches become more likely to predict academic success in the latter years of study, after distance students have adapted to the flexible delivery methods. To this end, a longitudinal study that tracks the academic performance of these students until they complete their degrees or leave the university is recommended.
Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Organochlorine Pesticides in Plasma Predict Development of Type 2 Diabetes in the Elderly

OBJECTIVE Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), lipophilic chemicals that accumulate mainly in adipose tissue, have recently been linked to type 2 diabetes. However, evidence from prospective studies is sparse. This study was performed to evaluate prospective associations of type 2 diabetes with selected POPs among the elderly. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Nineteen POPs (14 polychlorinated biphenyl [PCB] congeners, 3 organochlorine pesticides, 1 brominated diphenyl ether, and 1 dioxin) were measured in plasma collected at baseline in 725 participants, aged 70 years, of the Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors (PIVUS). RESULTS After adjusting for known type 2 diabetes risk factors, including obesity, odds ratios (ORs) (95% CIs) for type 2 diabetes at age 75 years (n = 36) according to the quintiles of a summary measure of concentrations of PCBs (vs. the lowest quintile) were 4.5, 5.1, 8.8 (1.8–42.7), and 7.5 (1.4–38.8) (Ptrend <0.01). Among organochlorine pesticides, adjusted ORs across concentrations of trans-nonachlor showed that Ptrend = 0.03. Adjusted ORs (95% CIs) across quintiles of the sum of three organochlorine pesticides were 1.1, 1.6, 1.5, and 3.4 (1.0–11.7) (Ptrend = 0.03). Neither brominated diphenyl ether 47 nor dioxin was significantly associated with incident diabetes. The sum of PCBs improved reclassification significantly when added to traditional risk factors for diabetes. CONCLUSIONS Despite the small number of incident cases, this study found that environmental exposure to some POPs substantially increased risk of future type 2 diabetes in an elderly population.
Robust view synthesis under varying illumination conditions using segment-based disparity estimation

An intermediate view synthesis scheme under varying illumination conditions is proposed in this work. First, we estimate the disparity map based on cumulative color histograms. Since the cumulative histogram of an image represents the brightness ranks of pixels, the disparity estimation is robust against varying illumination conditions. More specifically, we divide each image into segments, and compute the cumulative histogram of the representative values for these segments. Then, we estimate the disparity map based on the similarity of the cumulative histograms between stereo images. Second, we transform the colors of stereo images adaptively using the disparity map. Finally, we synthesize intermediate views using the transformed stereo images and the disparity map. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm provides better disparity maps and intermediate views under varying illumination conditions than the conventional techniques.
Intensity fluctuations and natural texturing

A model for texturing of surfaces is introduced based on the concept of light intensity fluctuations. During the evaluation of the reflected intensity in the rendering process a non-Gaussian stochastic component is added which is governed by electromagnetic scattering theory. This component simulates the appearence of macroscopic surface irregularities in the image plane by considering not only the mean value of the intensity, given by the usual specular contribution, but also its variance and autocorrelation function. The variance generates the strength and distribution of the intensity fluctuations and the spatiotemporal auto-correlation function can be used to model the form and temporal development of the texture patterns. With an appropriate choice of a few parameters, soft intensity perturbations and bumpy speckle patterns as well as glint effects can be created.
Determinants of Stock-Out in Retail Shops in Ghana: Evidence from Kumasi Metropolis

This study investigates factors influencing stock-out occurrence in retail shops in Kumasi Metropolis in Ghana. The study sampled two hundred and forty four retail outlets located in the central business areas of Kumasi Metropolis. A well structured questionnaire was used to solicit information from the respondents. Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results of the study revealed that delay in supplier’s items, demand underestimation, and bad back-of-store practices were the main causes of stock-outs. Generally, the study reveals that most retailers are not equipped to use most of the sophisticated stock control techniques and only limit themselves to the use of stock books to control stock. Information and communication technology and collaboration with suppliers were considered by the retailers as the main stock control implementation barriers. The study concludes that, although retailers are aware of the occurrence and the causes of stock-outs, many of them had done little to put in place measures to control it; and even the few that have been able to put in place stock control measures were confronted with implementation challenges. It is therefore recommended that retailers should adopt effective and efficient stock control techniques to limit out-of-stock occurrence.
ScatterScopes: Understanding events in real-time through spatiotemporal indication and hierarchical drilldown: VAST 2014 Mini Challenge 3 Recognition: "Honorable mention for good support for situation awareness"

The VAST Challenge 2014 MC3 featured a dataset of roughly 4000 microblog messages and 200 emergency callcenter reports produced in the fictitious city of Abila. The task was to identify relevant events and outliers in the data and highlight observations that are connected to an earlier kidnapping of employees from a company called GASTECH. In contrast to earlier challenges, the focus was on real-time data processing. The microblog messages were hosted on a web-server that simulated real-time streaming of the data during a 4.5 hour period and the challenge participants had to monitor and analyze them as they were transmitted. To tackle the challenge we developed ScatterScopes, a real-time enabled visual analytics system that fosters understanding of ongoing events by means of spatiotemporal overview and hierarchical drilldown. Trends and anomalies in space, time and content can be quickly identified with the system using interactive maps, sentiment timelines and textual search. Once interesting or suspicious subsets of elements are selected, their inherent topic structure can be further dissected based on a highly interactive treemap of message clusters. Subset selection and recombination is furthermore supported by a filter-and-flow mechanism that can also be used to formulate and test hypotheses based on Boolean logic. ScatterScopes has been used by our team to successfully identify and describe all events hidden in the MC3 data streams.
Exploration of Individual Differences in Preferences for Humor

Liking scores for hostile, sexual, and nontendentious cartoons were correlated with personality factor scores of 20 female and 19 male college students. Sexual cartoons were liked more by males, especially by those tending to be tough or group-dependent, than by females, especially by those with higher general intelligence. Nonsense cartoons were liked more by females, especially by those with lower general intelligence.
New bi-directional DC-AC converters with high frequency isolation

For applications such as UPSs (uninterruptible power supplies) and new energy systems, e.g photovoltaic or fuel cell systems connected to the grid, it is essential to isolate the load or the photovoltaic cells from the grid for the following reasons: a) to prevent a DC current from flowing to the AC side; b) to prevent high fault currents from flowing through the converter; c) to protect the user against electrical shocks or leakage currents as presented in M. Matsui and M. Yamagami (1998); and d) the need to adapt voltage level between battery and grid or battery and load. For these applications, the use of a converter that has high frequency isolation and also provides sinusoidal voltage would be very advantageous, since it would eliminate the low frequency transformer with an iron alloy core which is voluminous and heavy besides frequently producing audible noise.
Cellular calcium and sodium regulation, salt-sensitivity and essential hypertension in African Americans.

The predisposition of African Americans to the salt sensitive form of essential hypertension may result from increased freely exchangeable Ca in intracellular Ca stores and a higher cellular Ca turnover (i.e., enhanced Ca entry into and accelerated Ca extrusion from the cytosol). These alterations entail higher activities of Ca extrusion transport systems, including the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCE), which extrudes Ca in exchange for external Na+, and plasma membrane Ca-ATPase (PMCA) that extrudes Ca in exchange for external protons. The higher activity of PMCA, coupled with a higher metabolic activity resulting from a rise in freely exchangeable Ca, increase cellular acid load. Adaptive cellular mechanisms must evolve under these conditions, whereby increased activity of the Na/H exchanger (NHE-1) maintains normal cytosolic pH by enhancing the extrusion of cytosolic protons in exchange for extracellular Na. Cells with increased cellular Ca stores and enhanced Ca turnover may be particularly vulnerable to the factors that inhibit the Na-pump. By inhibiting the Na-pump, these factors diminish the transmembrane Na gradient and consequently inhibit the forward mode of the NCE. Since cells from African Americans show increased Ca turnover, they should retain more Ca upon exposure to Na-pump inhibitors; a heightened sensitivity to Na-pump inhibitors could therefore underlie the propensity of African Americans and other individuals with accelerated cellular Ca turnover rate to the salt sensitive form of essential hypertension. Accelerated cellular Ca turnover in African Americans also explains their better response to Ca antagonists compared with other antihypertensive drugs.
Etude et proposition d'un système comportemental autonome anticipatif

La generation de comportements autonomes est directement associee a la perception que l'agent a de son environnement et a sa capacite d'adaptation. Dans les systemes dynamiques, la qualite d'adaptation sera un critere plus determinant que pour les environnements statiques. La robustesse de ces systemes sera evaluee par rapport a leurs capacites a detecter un changement dans l'environnement et a fournir une reponse appropriee. Differentes approches sont proposees pour l'emergence de comportements : definition d'un modele decisionnel, stimulus / reponse, script de comportement, environnement predefinis et automates. Ces modeles restent relativement simples mais leur probleme est qu'ils ne prennent pas en compte l'aspect temporel qui est primordial dans la prise de decision. Nous cherchons un modele qui prenne en compte le parametre temps. Nous nous sommes interesses principalement aux systemes de classeur pour leur originalite dans leur maniere de representer l'environnement. Notre objectif est de construire un systeme comportemental ayant non seulement des capacites d'adaptation et d'evolution mais egalement la capacite d'anticipation.
Do games attract or sustain engagement in citizen science?: a study of volunteer motivations

Increasingly, games are being incorporated into online citizen science (CS) projects as a way of crowdsourcing data; yet the influence of gamification on volunteer motivations and engagement in CS projects is still unknown. In an interview study with 8 CS volunteers (4 from Foldit, 4 from Eyewire), we found that game elements and communication tools are not necessary for attracting new volunteers to a project; however they may help to sustain engagement over time, by allowing volunteers to participate in a range of social interactions and through enabling meaningful recognition of achievements.
Three-dimensional impact: energy-based modeling of tangential compliance

Impact is indispensable in robotic manipulation tasks in which objects and/or manipulators move at high speeds. Applied research using impact has been hindered by underdeveloped computational foundations for rigid-body collision. This paper studies the computation of tangential impulse as two rigid bodies in the space collide at a point with both tangential compliance and friction. It extends Stronge’s spring-based planar contact structure to three dimensions by modeling the contact point as a massless particle able to move tangentially on one body while connected to an infinitesimal region on the other body via three orthogonal springs. Slip or stick is indicated by whether the particle is still or moving. Impact analysis is carried out using normal impulse rather than time as the only independent variable, unlike in previous work on tangential compliance. This is due to the ability to update the energies stored in the three springs. Collision is governed by a system of differential equations that are solvable numerically. Modularity of the impact model makes it easy to be integrated into a multibody system, with one copy at each contact, in combination with a model for multiple impacts that governs normal impulses at different contacts.
Gene Expression Signature of Cigarette Smoking and Its Role in Lung Adenocarcinoma Development and Survival

Background Tobacco smoking is responsible for over 90% of lung cancer cases, and yet the precise molecular alterations induced by smoking in lung that develop into cancer and impact survival have remained obscure. Methodology/Principal Findings We performed gene expression analysis using HG-U133A Affymetrix chips on 135 fresh frozen tissue samples of adenocarcinoma and paired noninvolved lung tissue from current, former and never smokers, with biochemically validated smoking information. ANOVA analysis adjusted for potential confounders, multiple testing procedure, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, and GO-functional classification were conducted for gene selection. Results were confirmed in independent adenocarcinoma and non-tumor tissues from two studies. We identified a gene expression signature characteristic of smoking that includes cell cycle genes, particularly those involved in the mitotic spindle formation (e.g., NEK2, TTK, PRC1). Expression of these genes strongly differentiated both smokers from non-smokers in lung tumors and early stage tumor tissue from non-tumor tissue (p<0.001 and fold-change >1.5, for each comparison), consistent with an important role for this pathway in lung carcinogenesis induced by smoking. These changes persisted many years after smoking cessation. NEK2 (p<0.001) and TTK (p = 0.002) expression in the noninvolved lung tissue was also associated with a 3-fold increased risk of mortality from lung adenocarcinoma in smokers. Conclusions/Significance Our work provides insight into the smoking-related mechanisms of lung neoplasia, and shows that the very mitotic genes known to be involved in cancer development are induced by smoking and affect survival. These genes are candidate targets for chemoprevention and treatment of lung cancer in smokers.
Combinatorial Control of mRNA Fates by RNA-Binding Proteins and Non-Coding RNAs

Post-transcriptional control of gene expression is mediated by RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and small non-coding RNAs (e.g., microRNAs) that bind to distinct elements in their mRNA targets. Here, we review recent examples describing the synergistic and/or antagonistic effects mediated by RBPs and miRNAs to determine the localisation, stability and translation of mRNAs in mammalian cells. From these studies, it is becoming increasingly apparent that dynamic rearrangements of RNA-protein complexes could have profound implications in human cancer, in synaptic plasticity, and in cellular differentiation.
Information reconciliation for QKD

Quantum key distribution (QKD) relies on quantum and classical procedures in order to achieve the growing of a secret random string -the key- known only to the two parties executing the protocol. Limited intrinsic efficiency of the protocol, imperfect devices and eavesdropping produce errors and information leakage from which the set of measured signals -the raw key- must be stripped in order to distill a final, information theoretically secure, key. The key distillation process is a classical one in which basis reconciliation, error correction and privacy amplification protocols are applied to the raw key. This cleaning process is known as information reconciliation and must be done in a fast and efficient way to avoid cramping the performance of the QKD system. Brassard and Salvail proposed a very simple and elegant protocol to reconcile keys in the secret-key agreement context, known as Cascade, that has become the de-facto standard for all QKD practical implementations. However, it is highly interactive, requiring many communications between the legitimate parties and its efficiency is not optimal, imposing an early limit to the maximum tolerable error rate. In this paper we describe a low-density parity-check reconciliation protocol that improves significantly on these problems. The protocol exhibits better efficiency and limits the number of uses of the communications channel. It is also able to adapt to different error rates while remaining efficient, thus reaching longer distances or higher secure key rate for a given QKD system.
Clinical Immunosuppressants Inhibit Inflammatory, Proliferative, and Reprogramming Potential, But not Angiogenesis of Human Pancreatic Duct Cells

The presence of pancreatic duct cells in clinical islet grafts may affect long-term metabolic success. Human pancreatic duct cells express factors that may exert both protective and damaging effects on islet cells in the graft. Here we studied the potential of commonly used immunosuppressive drugs in islet transplantation—sirolimus, tacrolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF)—to influence the inflammatory and angiogenic capacity of human pancreatic duct cells in addition to their proliferation and reprogramming abilities. Our data show that the expression of specific proinflammatory cytokines by the human pancreatic duct cells was either unaltered or inhibited by the immunosuppressants studied, especially tacrolimus and MMF, whereas expression of chemotactic and angiogenic factors was unaffected. Although none of the immunosuppressants directly led to duct cell death, MMF prevented duct cell proliferation, and sirolimus inhibited neurogenin 3-mediated duct-to-(neuro)endocrine cell reprogramming. Our data indicate that the immunosuppressant tacrolimus was the least aggressive on the angiogenic, proliferative, and reprogramming potential of human pancreatic duct cells, while it was most powerful in inhibiting inflammatory cytokines, which may influence the outcome of islet transplantation.