Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating Familiarity in Older Adults to Facilitate Intuitive Interaction

This paper discusses how intuitive interaction is a possible way to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of interaction with older adults. It provides insights into existing research on intuitive interaction, and the role of prior experience and familiarity in intuition. An experiment is discussed which investigates differences in familiarity between younger and older adults. A comprehensive coding system has been developed to help analyse the data collected. This research is currently in progress.
Long-Term Survival and Pattern of Recurrence After Resection of Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients With Preserved Liver Function: Implications for a Strategy of Salvage Transplantation

ObjectiveTo evaluate the survival results and pattern of recurrence after resection of potentially transplantable small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) in patients with preserved liver function, with special reference to the implications for a strategy of salvage transplantation. Summary Background DataPrimary resection followed by transplantation for recurrence or deterioration of liver function has been recently suggested as a rational strategy for patients with HCC 5 cm or smaller and preserved liver function. However, there are no published data on transplantability after HCC recurrence or long-term deterioration of liver function after resection of small HCC in Child-Pugh class A patients. Such data are critical in determining the feasibility of salvage transplantation. MethodsFrom a prospective database of 473 patients with resection of HCC between 1989 and 1999, 135 patients age 65 years or younger had Child-Pugh class A chronic liver disease (chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis) and transplantable small HCC (solitary ≤5 cm or two or three tumors ≤3 cm). Survival results were analyzed and the pattern of recurrence was examined for eligibility for salvage transplantation based on the same criteria as those of primary transplantation for HCC. ResultsOverall survival rates at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years were 90%, 76%, 70%, and 35%, respectively, and the corresponding disease-free survival rates were 74%, 50%, 36%, and 22%. Cirrhosis and oligonodular tumors were predictive of worse disease-free survival. Patients with concomitant oligonodular tumors and cirrhosis had a 5-year overall survival rate of 48% and a disease-free survival rate of 0%, which were significantly worse compared with other subgroups. At a median follow-up of 48 months, 67 patients had recurrence and 53 (79%) of them were considered eligible for salvage transplantation. Decompensation from Child-Pugh class A to B or C without recurrence occurred in only six patients. ConclusionsFor Child-Pugh class A patients with small HCC, hepatic resection is a reasonable first-line treatment associated with a favorable 5-year overall survival rate. A considerable proportion of patients may survive without recurrence for 5 or even 10 years; among those with recurrence, the majority may be eligible for salvage transplantation. These data suggest that primary resection and salvage transplantation may be a feasible and rational strategy for patients with small HCC and preserved liver function. Primary transplantation may be a preferable option for the subset of patients with oligonodular tumors in cirrhotic liver in view of the poor survival results after resection.
ClusterSchedSim: A Unifying Simulation Framework for Cluster Scheduling Strategies

As clusters are being deployed to support a wide range of parallel workloads, scheduling becomes a challenging research issue because these workloads exhibit diverse characteristics and impose varying quality-of-service requirements. Many scheduling strategies are thus proposed, each intended for a different application/system setting. Due to the lack of a uniform simulation platform, a significant amount of research effort is spent in building a unique simulator for each algorithm, which may lead to false conclusions. This article presents ClusterSchedSim, which is a unifying simulation frame-work of cluster scheduling strategies. The core of ClusterSchedSim includes the node model and an interconnect model. ClusterSchedSim has implemented variations of popular cluster scheduling schemes, and it is flexible enough to add on new schemes. Using ClusterSchedSim, one can conveniently compare different scheduling schemes, profile their executions, and understand the impact of different application and system configuration parameters.
Serum Neurofilament Light Chain Levels Are Associated with Clinical Characteristics and Outcome in Patients with Cervical Artery Dissection

Background: Serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) levels represent a promising marker of neuroaxonal injury. They are elevated in several neurological conditions, but their importance in cerebrovascular diseases remains unclear. In a proof of concept study, we compared sNfL levels with clinical characteristics and outcome in patients with cervical artery dissection (CeAD). Methods: A total of 49 non-traumatic CeAD patients were included. sNfL levels were measured by high-sensitivity electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Levels were compared with regard to (i) type of presenting symptoms (local symptoms only (n = 8), transient ischemic attack (TIA; n = 10) or ischemic stroke (n = 31)), (ii) stroke severity quantified by National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), (iii) time interval between onset of symptoms and blood sampling and (iv) 3-month outcome as measured by the modified Rankin Scale score. Analyses were performed using univariate and multivariate linear and ordinal regression models. Results: CeAD patients presenting with stroke had significantly higher sNfL levels (median 108.9 pg/ml, interquartile range (37.8-427.7)) than patients with TIA (16.4 pg/ml (8.7-36.3), p = 0.002) or local symptoms (23.4 pg/ml (17.8-30.8), p = 0.0007). Among stroke patients, sNfL levels were positively associated with both NIHSS (p = 0.0002) and time between stroke onset and serum sampling (p = 1.9 × 10-6). Higher sNfL levels were associated with unfavorable outcome at 3 months (OR 4.67, 95% CI 1.69-12.95, p = 0.003). However, this association lost significance after adjustment for NIHSS. The highest sNfL level was observed in a TIA patient who had ischemic stroke 1 day after serum sampling for sNfL measurement. Conclusion: sNfL levels were increased in CeAD patients presenting with stroke, correlated with clinical severity and were influenced by the time point of blood sampling. The prognostic meaning of sNfL in CeAD deserves further testing.
Face Hallucination Based on Eigentransformation Learning

In this paper, we study face hallucination which refers to inferring a high-resolution (HR) face image from the input low-resolution (LR) one. We advance an eigentransformation method [1] based on principal component analysis (PCA) for face hallucination by exploring the local geometry structure of data manifold and learning a specified eigentransformation model for each observation image. Firstly, we select some samples that are most similar to the input image patch. Secondly, a local patch-based eigentransformation method that can capture the local geometry structure is introduced for modeling the relationship between the LR and HR training samples. What’s more, we also take a post-processing approach to refine the hallucinated results. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm generates hallucinated face images with good quality and adaptability.
Thermal Emission as a Test for Hidden Nuclei in Nearby Radio Galaxies

The clear sign of a hidden quasar inside a radio galaxy is the appearance of quasar spectral features in its polarized (scattered) light. However, that observational test requires suitably placed scattering material to act as a mirror, allowing us to see the nuclear light. A rather robust and more general test for a hidden quasar is to look for the predicted high mid-IR luminosity from the nuclear obscuring matter. The nuclear waste heat is detected and well isolated in the nearest narrow-line radio galaxy, Cen A. This confirms other indications that Cen A does contain a modest quasar-like nucleus. However, we show here that M87 does not: at high spatial resolution, the mid-IR nucleus is seen to be very weak and consistent with simple synchrotron emission from the base of the radio jet. This fairly robustly establishes that there are "real" narrow-line radio galaxies, without the putative accretion power and with essentially all the luminosity in kinetic form. Next, we show the intriguing morphology of Cygnus A, where all of the mid-IR emission is consistent with reprocessing by the hidden quasar known to exist from spectropolarimetry and other evidence.
International Workshop on the Interplay between User Experience (UX) Evaluation and System Development (I-UxSED 2012) NordiCHI 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark

User Experience (UX) is an emerging research area pertaining to as well as extending beyond the traditional usability. Issues in the realm of usability may be amplified in UX because of its larger scope. Four key non-orthogonal issues are: definition, modeling, method selection, and interplay between evaluation and development. Leveraging the legacy of a series of earlier workshops, I-UxSED 2012 aims to develop a deeper understanding of how evaluation feedback shapes software development, especially when experiential qualities such as fun, trust, aesthetic values are concerned. Is feedback on these fuzzy qualities less useful for problem prioritization or less persuasive for problem fixing? This and other challenging questions will be explored in I-UxSED 2012 that brings together researchers and practitioners from two communities HCI and Software Engineering. Author
Formal verification of communication protocol using type theory

In this paper, an approach is proposed to verify communication protocol using the type theoretical proof assistant Coq. Compared with existing methods of protocol verification, this approach is based directly on the simple notion of event trace. Without the burden of embedding external concurrent languages such as process algebra, finite state machine, temporal logic, etc., this approach leads to very efficient reasoning. The approach is deliberately designed to exploit the computational mechanism intrinsic to type theory so that many cases can be proved automatically by computation. Because of these advantages, even non-trivial protocols can be verified within reasonable cost. This paper shows that both safeness and liveness can be formalized and verified using only finite event traces. A simplified version of the sliding window protocol is used to illustrate the approach. All the results presented in this paper have been mechanically checked in Coq. The relevant Coq scripts are accessible through Internet.
CMOS Single-Chip Electronic Compass With Microcontroller

We present a CMOS single-chip electronic compass sensor including the complete digital signal processing for accurate heading calculation. The device's analog part consists of Hall- based three-axis magnetic field transducer with integrated magnetic concentrator that operates as a passive magnetic amplifier. The analog amplification chain features a gain of up to 20 000. A true-12-bit extended counting ADC converts the amplified magnetic field signals into the digital domain, where a 16-bit microcontroller calculates the heading information and outputs it via an SPI interface. The compass sensor is realized in 0.35 mum low-voltage CMOS technology plus a simple batch processing step for deposition of a metal layer. The compact die size of 2.3 mm times 2.8 mm allows for packaging into a standard 4 mm times 5 mm times 1 mm surface-mount plastic package. The heading resolution is better than 0.5deg, and the accuracy better than plusmn2deg.
CPM: A Cross-Layer Framework to Efficiently Support Distributed Resources Management

Resource management, and especially power management, is a key aspect for the success of modern battery supplied multimedia devices. This class of devices are usually based on SoCs with a wide range of heterogeneous subsystems, competing for shared resources while offering several power control mechanisms. Many of these mechanisms require suitable software support to be exploited effectively. Unfortunately, real commercial systems focusing on mobile multimedia exposes a software layer composed by a collection of fairly independent local optimization policies, each focusing on a specific device or subsystem. This paper presents CPM, a cross-layer model and framework to support system wide resource management. The main goals of this framework are to efficiently support the aggregation of applications’ QoS requirements and to provide a dynamic, system-wide, and multi-objective optimization to coordinate devices’ local policies. A real solution, which is well integrated within the existing Linux kernels, has been developed and evaluated to asses its negligible overhead.
Towards a simple dynamical model of citizens' perception

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimal dynamic two-dimensional map for the relation between citizens’ perception of quality of life (y) and their perception of the city Mayor management abilities (F). Design/methodology/approach – The authors use data from the Ciudades como vamos? project and test a simple hypothesis: there is a linear positive correlation between y and F. Following the authors propose a two-dimensional map based on ideas from a statistical regression model and a non-linear dynamical map on the [0; 1] interval. Findings – The authors give evidence that suggests that y and F are not linearly correlated. The authors show that the two-dimensional map, mentioned above, is able to reproduce non-trivial and unsynchronized relations between the variables, as well as the whole range of correlation coefficients. Research limitations/implications – There is a very limited amount of data to work with, therefore it was not possible to explore other possible relations thoroughly.
Iterative MIMO Turbo Multiuser Detection and Equalization for STTrC-Coded Systems with Unknown Interference

Iterative multiuser detection in a single-carrier broadband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is studied in this paper. A minimum mean squared error (MMSE) low-complexity multiuser receiver is derived for space-division multiple-access (SDMA) space-time trellis-coded (STTrC) systems in frequency-selective fading channels. The receiver uses MMSE filtering to jointly detect several transmit antennas of the user of interest, while the interference from the undetected transmit antennas, cochannel interference (CCI), and intersymbol interference (ISI) are all cancelled by the soft cancellation. The performances of two extreme receiver cases are evaluated. In the first case, only one transmit antenna of the user of interest is detected at a time and the remaining ones are cancelled by soft cancellation. In the second case, all the transmit antennas are detected jointly. The comparison of the two cases shows improvement with the latter one, both in single-user and multiuser communications and in the presence of unknown cochannel interference (UCCI). It is further shown that in the multiuser case, the proposed receivers approach the corresponding single-user bounds. The number of receive antenna elements required to achieve single-user bound is thereby equal to the number of users and not to the total number of transmit antennas.
Blind 3D Mesh Watermarking for 3D Printed Model by Analyzing Layering Artifact

Because they will impact so many areas, copyright issues will inevitably arise as 3D printing expands into the content industry. The problem is that protections based on conventional methods are not effective, because the 3D printing process disables those protections. In this paper, we propose a robust and blind watermarking scheme that is able to protect content not only when the 3D model is shared in the digital world, but also when the 3D digital content is converted to analog content by 3D printing. First, we base our proposed watermark on a component that is unchanging to the printing direction for robustness against the printing process. The printing artifacts, instead of being regarded as severe distortion, are treated as a template that provides orientation information to the watermark detector. To achieve this, we also propose a blind estimation algorithm for the printing direction that starts from an analysis of the layering artifact. Using the results from a proposed estimator, the watermark from the printed-and-scanned model is synchronized with the original orientation. With the results of our tests with various 3D mesh models and attacks, we experimentally verified that the proposed method does not lose embedded patterns during the 3D print-scan process, especially with low-cost printers. Moreover, our method provides a new solution for estimating the printing direction that will be useful in a variety of fields.
Direction finding by complex L1-principal-component analysis

In the light of recent developments in optimal real L1-norm principal-component analysis (PCA), we provide the first algorithm in the literature to carry out L1-PCA of complex-valued data. Then, we use this algorithm to develop a novel subspace-based direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation method that is resistant to faulty measurements or jamming. As demonstrated by numerical experiments, the proposed algorithm is as effective as state-of-the-art L2-norm methods in clean-data environments and significantly superior when operating on corrupted data.
A locus for posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy (PPCD3) maps to chromosome 10

Posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy (PPCD) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by corneal endothelial abnormalities, which can lead to blindness due to loss of corneal transparency and sometimes glaucoma. We mapped a new locus responsible for PPCD in a family in which we excluded the previously reported PPCD locus on 20q11, and the region containing COL8A2 on chromosome 1. Results of a 317‐marker genome scan provided significant evidence of linkage of PPCD to markers on chromosome 10, with single‐point LOD scores of 2.63, 1.63, and 3.19 for markers D10S208 (at $\hat \theta = 0.03$), D10S1780 (at $\hat \theta = 0.00$), and D10S578 (at $\hat \theta = 0.06$). A maximum multi‐point LOD score of 4.35 was found at marker D10S1780. Affected family members shared a haplotype in an 8.55 cM critical interval that was bounded by markers D10S213 and D10S578. Our finding of another PPCD locus, PPCD3, on chromosome 10 indicates that PPCD is genetically heterogeneous. Guttae, a common corneal finding sometimes observed along with PPCD, were found among both affected and unaffected members of the proband's sib ship, but were absent in the younger generations of the family. Evaluation of phenotypic differences between family members sharing the same affected haplotype raises questions about whether differences in disease severity, including differences in response to surgical interventions, could be due to genetic background or other factors independent of the PPCD3 locus. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Diffusion MRI in corticofugal fibers correlates with hand function in unilateral cerebral palsy

Diffusion MRI improves detection of abnormalities in white matter tracts in cerebral palsy (CP). Relationships between diffusion measurements and hand function are largely unexplored. We aimed first to assess microstructure of corticofugal fibers, and second to explore associations between tract injury as assessed by quantitative analysis of diffusion MRI and hand function in children with unilateral CP. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 15 children with unilateral CP (6 boys, median age 12.4 years, min 7.2, max 17) and 24 controls were included (9 boys, median age 12.7 years, min 8.8, max 17.3). Hand function was assessed with the Box and Blocks (B&B) test. Magnetic resonance diffusion data (b value = 1,000 s/mm2, 45 directions) were collected on a 1.5-T scanner. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and tensor eigenvalues were measured bilaterally in the cerebral peduncle (ROI1), the posterior limb of the internal capsule (PLIC, ROI2), and corticofugal fibers connecting these regions. Results: In children with CP, FA in both ROIs and the partial tract corresponding to the affected hand was significantly lower compared to controls. This was caused by an increase in diffusivity perpendicular to the tract. After controlling for age, mean FA contralateral to the affected hand correlated with B&B scores, which was independent of lesion type or number of voxels in the partial tract, cerebral peduncle, or PLIC. Conclusions: FA in corticofugal fibers is a sensitive marker of damage to the motor system and correlates with hand function in CP. Using FA may improve early prediction of outcome. Neurology® 2011;77:775–783
Exploring Determinants of Housing Prices in Beijing: An Enhanced Hedonic Regression with Open Access POI Data

The housing market in Chinese metropolises have become inflated significantly over the last decade. In addition to an economic upturn and housing policies that have potentially fueled the real estate bubble, factors that have contributed to the spatial heterogeneity of housing prices can be dictated by the amenity value in the proximity of communities, such as accessibility to business centers and transportation hubs. In the past, scholars have employed the hedonic pricing model to quantify the amenity value in relation to structural, locational, and environmental variables. These studies, however, are limited by two methodological obstacles that are relatively difficult to overcome. The first pertains to difficulty of data collection in regions where geospatial datasets are strictly controlled and limited. The second refers to the spatial autocorrelation effect inherent in the hedonic analysis. Using Beijing, China as a case study, we addressed these two issues by (1) collecting residential housing and urban amenity data in terms of Points of Interest (POIs) through web-crawling on open access platforms; and (2) eliminating the spatial autocorrelation effect using the Eigenvector Spatial Filtering (ESF) method. The results showed that the effects of nearby amenities on housing prices are mixed. In other words, while proximity to certain amenities, such as convenient parking, was positively correlated with housing prices, other amenity variables, such as supermarkets, showed negative correlations. This mixed finding is further discussed in relation to community planning strategies in Beijing. This paper provides an example of employing open access datasets to analyze the determinants of housing prices. Results derived from the model can offer insights into the reasons for housing segmentation in Chinese cities, eventually helping to formulate effective urban planning strategies and equitable housing policies.
Belief Echoes: The Persistent Effects of Corrected Misinformation

Across three separate experiments, I find that exposure to negative political information continues to shape attitudes even after the information has been effectively discredited. I call these effects “belief echoes. ” Results suggest that belief echoes can be created through an automatic or deliberative process. Belief echoes occur even when the misinformation is corrected immediately, the “gold standard” of journalistic fact-checking. The existence of belief echoes raises ethical concerns about journalists’ and fact-checking organizations’ efforts to publicly correct false claims.