Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Approximate Linear Time ML Decoding on Tail-Biting Trellises in Two Rounds

A linear time approximate maximum likelihood decoding algorithm on tail-biting trellises is presented, that requires exactly two rounds on the trellis. This is an adaptation of an algorithm proposed earlier with the advantage that it reduces the time complexity from O(m log m) to O(m) where m is the number of nodes in the tail-biting trellis. A necessary condition for the output of the algorithm to differ from the output of the ideal ML decoder is deduced and simulation results on an AWGN channel using tail-biting trellises for two rate 1/2 convolutional codes with memory 4 and 6 respectively, are reported
Nonparametric Sparse Representation

This paper suggests a nonparametric scheme to find the sparse solution of the underdetermined system of linear equations in the presence of unknown impulsive or non-Gaussian noise. This approach is robust against any variations of the noise model and its parameters. It is based on minimization of rank pseudo norm of the residual signal and l_1-norm of the signal of interest, simultaneously. We use the steepest descent method to find the sparse solution via an iterative algorithm. Simulation results show that our proposed method outperforms the existence methods like OMP, BP, Lasso, and BCS whenever the observation vector is contaminated with measurement or environmental non-Gaussian noise with unknown parameters. Furthermore, for low SNR condition, the proposed method has better performance in the presence of Gaussian noise.
Effects of β2-Adrenergic Receptor Gene Polymorphisms on Ritodrine Therapy in Pregnant Women with Preterm Labor: Prospective Follow-Up Study

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of β2-adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) gene polymorphisms on ritodrine therapy outcomes in patients with preterm labor. Genotyping analysis of ADRB2 gene (rs1042713, rs1042714, rs1042717, rs1042718, and rs1042719) was performed on 137 patients with preterm labor. Survival analysis was conducted for the effects of SNPs on the median time to delivery as a primary outcome. The median time to delivery in the study patients was 349.3 h. Gestational age at admission and modified Bishop scores revealed significant effects on time to delivery (p < 0.001). Among studied SNPs, rs1042717 and rs1042718 showed linkage disequilibrium in this population, and their effects on time to delivery were marginally significant (p < 0.1). Patients with variant-homozygotes in the rs1042713 showed considerably shortened time to delivery compared to wild-allele carriers. The rs1042719 polymorphism significantly affected time to delivery in both univariate and multivariate analysis; the GC and CC carriers showed 64% decrease in time to delivery compared to the wild-type homozygote carriers. Based on the results, it was concluded that the gene polymorphisms of ADRB2 could affect ritodrine therapy in patients with preterm labor. However, given the single-center and the relatively small sample size, our hypothesis requires further independent validation using multi-center and large sample size.
Comparing ZFNs and TALENs for Gene Targeting in Drosophila

Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development and Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN Mutation Generation and Detection Core, University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, UT Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
Anomaly Detection for Symbolic Representations

A fully autonomous agent recognizes new problems, explains what causes such problems, and generates its own goals to solve these problems. Our approach to this goal-driven model of autonomy uses a methodology called the Note-Assess-Guide procedure. It instantiates a monitoring process in which an agent notes an anomaly in the world, assesses the nature and cause of that anomaly, and guides appropriate modifications to behavior. This report describes a novel approach to the note phase of that procedure. Adistance, a sliding-window statistical distance metric, is applied to numerical vector representations of intermediate states from plans generated for two symbolic domains. Using these representations, the metric is able to detect anomalous world states caused by restricting the actions available to the planner.
DOA estimation based on cross-correlation by two-step particle filtering

This paper proposes a two-step particle filtering method for achieving robust DOA estimation under noisy environments. The proposed method aims at fusing the advantages of traditional cross-correlation (CC) and generalized (whitened) cross-correlation (WCC) methods, which are a CC method taking power information into account and a WCC method having a sharp peak in a cross-correlation function. We regard rectified CC and WCC functions as likelihood. The two-step filtering is carried out on bi-dimensional, spectro-spatial state space. Experimental results under noisy and slightly reverberant environments show that the proposed method is superior to CC and WCC methods both in accuracy and stability.
Model and algorithm for solving real time dial-a-ride problem

Title of Document: MODEL AND ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING REAL TIME DIAL-A-RIDE PROBLEM Taehyeong Kim, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Directed By: Professor Ali Haghani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering This research studies a static and real-time dial-a-ride problem with time varying travel times, soft time windows, and multiple depots. First, a static DARP model is formulated as a mixed integer programming and in order to validate the model, several random small network problems are solved using commercial optimization package, CPLEX. Three heuristic algorithms based on sequential insertion, parallel insertion, and clustering first-routing second are proposed to solve static DARP within a reasonable time for implementation in a real-world situation. Also, the results of three heuristic methods are compared with the results obtained from exact solution by CPLEX to validate and evaluate three heuristic algorithms. Computational results show that three heuristic algorithms are superior compared to the exact algorithm in terms of the calculation time as the problem size (in terms of the number of demands) increases. Also among the three heuristic algorithms, the heuristic algorithm based on sequential insertion is more efficient than other heuristic algorithms that are based on parallel insertion and clustering first-routing second. For the case study, Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)’s real operation of Dial-a-ride service is introduced and compared with the results of developed heuristic. The objective function values from heuristic based on clustering firstrouting second are better than those from MTA’s operation for all cases when waiting cost, delay cost, and excess ride cost are not included in the objective function values. Also, the algorithm for real-time DARP considering dynamic events such as customer no shows, accidents, cancellations, and new requests is developed based on static DARP. The algorithm is tested in a simulation framework. In the simulation test, we compared the results of cases according to degree of gap between expected link speeds and real link speeds. Also for competitive analysis, the results of dynamic case are compared with the results of static case, where all requests are known in advance. The simulation test shows that the heuristic method could save cost as the uncertainty in new requests increases. MODEL AND ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING REAL TIME DIAL-A-RIDE PROBLEM
A mixture model for estimating the local false discovery rate in DNA microarray analysis

MOTIVATION Statistical methods based on controlling the false discovery rate (FDR) or positive false discovery rate (pFDR) are now well established in identifying differentially expressed genes in DNA microarray. Several authors have recently raised the important issue that FDR or pFDR may give misleading inference when specific genes are of interest because they average the genes under consideration with genes that show stronger evidence for differential expression. The paper proposes a flexible and robust mixture model for estimating the local FDR which quantifies how plausible each specific gene expresses differentially. RESULTS We develop a special mixture model tailored to multiple testing by requiring the P-value distribution for the differentially expressed genes to be stochastically smaller than the P-value distribution for the non-differentially expressed genes. A smoothing mechanism is built in. The proposed model gives robust estimation of local FDR for any reasonable underlying P-value distributions. It also provides a single framework for estimating the proportion of differentially expressed genes, pFDR, negative predictive values, sensitivity and specificity. A cervical cancer study shows that the local FDR gives more specific and relevant quantification of the evidence for differential expression that can be substantially different from pFDR. AVAILABILITY An R function implementing the proposed model is available at http://www.geocities. com/jg_liao/software
The relationship between erectile function and complex panurethral stricture: a preliminary investigative and descriptive study

The aim of this study was to evaluate erectile function in patients with panurethral stricture after urethral reconstruction. Totally, 65 patients were enrolled. Different urethral reconstructions were performed according to the details of urethral strictures. The erectile function was evaluated before and after surgery. The length and location of stricture and duration from initial diagnosis to operation were recorded. The International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) scores, the quality of life (QoL) scores and the maximal flow rate were obtained before and 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. A significant improvement in QoL and maximal flow rate was observed 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery compared with those observed before surgery (P < 0.05). An impairment of erectile function was observed in patients with multi-site stricture 3 months after surgery (P < 0.05). Subsequently, these patients recovered 6 and 12 months after surgery. Three months after surgery, the IIEF-5 scores in patients with anterior urethral stricture were higher than those with multi-site stricture. Similar results were observed 6 and 12 months after surgery. No significant difference in age or duration from initial diagnosis to final operation was observed between patients with erectile dysfunction after surgery and patients with normal erectile function. However, a linear regressive relationship was detected between IIEF-5 scores and location of urethral stricture. Surgical reconstruction for treating panurethral strictures has limited effects on erectile function. The location of the stricture, particularly when extended to posterior urethra, was found to be associated with erectile function after surgery.
An Analysis of Factors Affecting the Adoption of ICT By MSMEs in Rural and Urban Jamaica

Researchers argue that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play a pivotal role in national and regional economies. These companies play a major part in sustaining domestic and regional economic growth and are important agents for alleviating poverty in developing countries. It has been suggested that the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) increases richness, reach and the ability of local SMEs to participate in the digital economy. However the concept of the internal digital divide suggests that the pattern of ICT diffusion vary between urban and rural area with rural areas adopting ICT at a slower rate. This research-in-progress will compare the adoption patterns of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in two regions: urban and rural Jamaica. Five hundred MSME will be sampled and Rogers Innovation Diffusion Theory will be used as the base theory for the study. The results of the research will have the potential to assist the Jamaican government in implementing programs and policies to increase the adoption and diffusion of ICT in rural areas. The results of the study will also be used to create ICT training programs for MSMEs in Jamaica.
Statistical Consistency of Top-k Ranking

This paper is concerned with the consistency analysis on listwise ranking methods. Among various ranking methods, the listwise methods have competitive performances on benchmark datasets and are regarded as one of the state-of-the-art approaches. Most listwise ranking methods manage to optimize ranking on the whole list (permutation) of objects, however, in practical applications such as information retrieval, correct ranking at the top k positions is much more important. This paper aims to analyze whether existing listwise ranking methods are statistically consistent in the top-k setting. For this purpose, we define a top-k ranking framework, where the true loss (and thus the risks) are defined on the basis of top-k subgroup of permutations. This framework can include the permutation-level ranking framework proposed in previous work as a special case. Based on the new framework, we derive sufficient conditions for a listwise ranking method to be consistent with the top-k true loss, and show an effective way of modifying the surrogate loss functions in existing methods to satisfy these conditions. Experimental results show that after the modifications, the methods can work significantly better than their original versions.
Energy-Efficient Data Dissemination for Wireless Sensor Networks

In order to disseminate a large amount of data through a sensor network, it is common to split the data into small-sized chunk packets. If the data is additionally encoded by a forward error correction (FEC) code, missed chunks can be recovered. Fountain codes are a special kind of FEC code which have the property that the sender provides the data in a virtually endless stream by combining original chunks at random. No matter which chunks get lost, each receiver only needs any k chunks from the stream. In broadcast scenarios, fountains have the additional advantage that only little redundancy is required, even if several receivers have missed different chunks. We will show the benefit of Fountain codes in wireless sensor networks in comparison to raw transmissions and other FEC codes. To support the actual data dissemination, we propose two generic distributed protocols: an acknowledgement-based and a request-based protocol. The evaluation is carried out in a real testbed consisting of 20 sensor nodes
fLogger - A WiFi and GSM information logging system for positioning purposes

The use of existing wireless communications infrastructure for positioning to meet the increasing requirement of the location based services is now a viable option. In recent years, the so-called signal “fingerprinting” technique based on WiFi and cellular phone information has been widely accepted as an effective method for indoor and urban positioning (it can also be used as an alternative when the user device does not incorporate a GPS receiver). Fingerprinting has two phases: training and positioning. During the training phase the received signal information across the area of interest is collected. This information includes MAC address (for WiFi), Cell ID (for cellular phone network), signal strength (for all), the position where the information is collected, etc. The software ‘fLogger’ was developed to collect WiFi and cellular station information in as an efficient manner as possible. There are two types of environment: indoors and outdoors. In outdoor situations GPS is used to provide the position (and time) information. Indoors a map of the building is utilised and position based on pixel coordinates is used. The data collected is analysed and stored in a database for the subsequent positioning phase, or other application.
Stephan's Quintet: The X-ray Anatomy of a Multiple Galaxy Collision

Chandra observations of the compact galaxy group known as Stephan's Quintet (SQ) are presented. The major morphological features that were discovered with the ROSAT HRI are now imaged with higher resolution and S/N. The large scale shock (1. 5, ∼40 kpc if at 85 Mpc) is resolved into a narrow NS feature embedded in more extended diffuse emission (D ≥ 3 � ). The NS structure is somewhat clumpy, more sharply bounded on the W side and prominent only in the soft band (energies below ∼2 keV). Its observational properties are best explained as a shock produced by a high velocity encounter between NGC 7318b, a "new intruder", and the intergalactic medium in SQ. The shock conditions near the high speed intruder suggest that a bow shock is propagating into a pre-existing H  cloud and heating the gas to a temperature of 0.5 keV. The low temperature in the shock is a problem unless we postulate an oblique shock. One member, NGC 7319, hosts a Seyfert 2 nucleus, with an intrinsic luminosity LX = 10 43 erg s −1 , embedded in a region of more diffuse emission with 10 �� radius extent. The nuclear spectrum can be modeled with a strongly absorbed power-law typical of this class of sources. Several additional compact sources are detected including three in foreground NGC 7320. Some of these sources are very luminous and could be related to the ultraluminous X-ray sources found in nearby galaxies.
Sharing resources among periodic and aperiodic tasks with dynamic deadlines

In this paper, we address the problem of scheduling hybrid task sets consisting of hard periodic and soft aperiodic tasks that may share resources in exclusive mode in a dynamic environment, where tasks are scheduled based on their deadlines. Bounded blocking on exclusive resources is achieved by means of a dynamic resource access protocol which also prevents deadlocks and chained blocking. A tunable servicing technique is used to improve aperiodic responsiveness in the presence of resource constraints. The schedulability analysis is also extended to the case in which aperiodic deadlines vary at runtime. The results achieved in this paper can also be used for developing adaptive real-time systems, where task deadlines or periods can change to conform to new load conditions.
Exploring Online Nuclear Segmentation on Large Fluorescence Brain Tumor Images using CometCloud

A bottleneck of histopathology image segmentation is its execution speed and memory capacity for large images containing hundreds and thousands of objects, such as cells. In this paper we propose an approach to perform online nuclear segmentation on large fluorescence brain tumor images using CometCloud, an autonomic Cloud Engine. Based on our previously developed cellular segmentation algorithm, the seed detection and contour generation were parallelized on CometCloud, using the HPC infrastructure available at Rutgers University. The method was tested on some fluorescence brain tumor images (4096x4096x3), containing thousands of nuclei within each image. We have achieved more than 100 times speed up compared to the original sequential implementation.
Identification, prevention and treatment: a review of individual-focused strategies to reduce problematic alcohol consumption by college students.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to review and assess the existing body of literature on individually focused prevention and treatment approaches for college student drinking. METHOD Studies that evaluate the overall efficacy of an approach by measuring behavioral outcomes such as reductions in alcohol use and associated negative consequences were included. All studies discussed utilized at least one outcome measure focused on behavioral change and included a control or comparison condition; however, not all trials were randomized. RESULTS Consistent with the results of previous reviews, little evidence exists for the utility of educational or awareness programs. Cognitive-behavioral skills-based interventions and brief motivational feedback (including mailed graphic feedback) have consistently yielded greater support for their efficacy than have informational interventions. CONCLUSIONS There is mixed support for values clarification and normative reeducation approaches. Much of the research suffers from serious methodological limitations. The evidence from this review suggests that campuses would best serve the student population by implementing brief, motivational or skills-based interventions, targeting high-risk students identified either through brief screening in health care centers or other campus settings or through membership in an identified risk group (e.g., freshmen, Greek organization members, athletes, mandated students). More research is needed to determine effective strategies for identifying, recruiting and retaining students in efficacious individually focused prevention services, and research on mandated student prevention services is an urgent priority. Integration between campus policies and individually oriented prevention approaches is recommended.
Information-based gaze control adaptation to scene context for mobile robots

Goal-directed guidance of gaze control based on coordinated task and stimulus parameters is essential for steering a mobile cognitive system efficiently and autonomously through the real world. This paper focuses on coordination mechanisms of top-down and bottom-up attentional allocation, with particular consideration of the current local environment. The top-down attention selection in the task-space and the bottom-up attention selection in the image-space is evaluated and combined using information theory. An information-based scene context classification considering scene dynamics is proposed to bias attention selection, which is the main contribution of this paper. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance.
Asymptotic error distributions for the Euler method for stochastic differential equations

We are interested in the rate of convergence of the Euler scheme approximation of the solution to a stochastic differential equation driven by a general (possibly discontinuous) semimartingale, and by the asymptotic behavior of the associated normalized error. It is well known that for Ito's equations the rate is 1/√n; we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for this rate to be 1/√n when the driving semimartingale is a continuous martingale, or a continuous semimartingale under a mild additional assumption; we also prove that in these cases the normalized error processes converge in law. The rate can also differ from 1/√n: this is the case for instance if the driving process is deterministic, or if it is a Levy process without a Brownian component. It is again 1/√n when the driving process is Levy with a nonvanishing Brownian component, but then the normalized error processes converge in law in the finite-dimensional sense only, while the discretized normalized error processes converge in law in the Skorohod sense, and the limit is given an explicit form.