Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Channel Prediction for Adaptive Modulation in Wireless Communications

(ABSTRACT) This thesis examines the benefits of using adaptive modulation and coding in terms of spectral efficiency and probability of bit error. Specifically, we examine the performance enhancement made possible by using linear prediction along with channel estimation in conjunction with adaptive modulation. We begin this manuscript with basic fundamentals of our study, followed by a detailed view of simulations, their results, and our conclusions from them. The study includes simulations in slow and moderately fast flat fading Rayleigh channels. We present our findings regarding the advantages of using predictive measures to foresee the state of the channel and make adjustments to transmissions accordingly. In addition to finding the general advantages of channel prediction in adaptive modulation, we explore various ways to adjust the prediction algorithm when we are faced with high Doppler rates and fast fading. By the end of this work, we should have a better understanding of when channel prediction is most valuable to adaptive modulation and when it is weakest, and how we can alleviate the problems that prediction will have in harsh environments. xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express sincere appreciation to Professor Buehrer for his assistance in the preparation of this manuscript and the work it represents. Without his patience and guidance, nothing would have been done. I would also like to thank my committee for taking the time and effort that they did for the review of my work. Also, I would like to thank the students of MPRG for giving me all the help and advice. I should also have to thank my family for giving me the support that they have. And lastly, I thank all of my old teachers who have helped shape me into who I am today. Special thanks to Peter Kinman and Fugen Shinjin.
A SIGNAL IDENTIFICATION APPLICATION FOR COGNITIVE RADIO

A modular actuator assembly includes one or more plates or elements of electro-active material bonded to an electroded sheet, preferably by a structural polymer to form a card. The card is sealed, and may itself constitute a practical device, such as a vane, shaker, stirrer, lever, pusher or sonicator for direct contact with a solid or immersion in a fluid, or may be bonded by a stiff adhesive to make a surface-to-surface mechanical coupling with a solid workpiece, device, substrate, machine or sample. The structural polymer provides a bending stiffness such that the thin plate does not deform to its breaking point, and a mechanical stiffness such that shear forces are efficiently coupled from the plate to the workpiece. In further embodiments, the card may include active circuit elements for switching, powering or processing signals, and/or passive circuit elements for filtering, matching or damping signals, so that few or no connections to outside circuitry are required. The actuator assembly can be manufactured in quantity, to provide a versatile actuator with uniform mechanical and actuation characteristics, that introduces negligible mass loading to the workpiece. The cards themselves may be arranged as independent mechanical actuators, rather than strain-transfer actuators, in which the induced strain changes the position of the card. Various arrangements of pinned or cantilevered cards may act as a pusher, bender or other motive actuator, and structures such as powered bellows may be formed directly by folding one or more suitably patterned cards.
Algorithms for White-Box Obfuscation Using Randomized Subcircuit Selection and Replacement

Abstract : Software protection remains an active research area with the goal of preventing adversarial software exploitation such as reverse engineering, tampering, and piracy. Heuristic obfuscation techniques lack strong theoretical underpinnings while current theoretical research highlights the impossibility of creating general, efficient, and information theoretically secure obfuscators. In this research, we consider a bridge between these two worlds by examining obfuscators based on the Random Program Model (RPM). Such a model envisions the use of program encryption techniques which change the black-box (semantic) and white-box (structural) representations of underlying programs. In this thesis we explore the possibilities for white-box transformation. Under an RPM formulation, if an adversary cannot distinguish an original program from either its obfuscated version (whose black-box behavior has been strategically altered) or a randomly generated program of comparable size, then the white-box intent of the original program has been sufficiently protected. One proposed method of creating such random indistinguishability is by choosing (at random) a program from a size-bounded set of all semantically equivalent possibilities. Since full enumeration of reasonably sized programs is not possible, in this work we focus on obfuscators which introduce random white-box structural variation based on iterative selection and replacement. We design and develop an obfuscation framework for programmatic logic expressed as combinatorial Boolean circuits and compare six unique approaches for sub-circuit selection. We analyze the relative behavior of random and guided-random sub-circuit selection algorithms while showing their utility in producing random white-box structural variation.
Fast Algorithms for Mining Co-evolving Time Series

Time series data arise in many applications, from motion capture, environmental monitoring, temperatures in data centers, to physiological signals in health care. In the thesis, I will focus on the theme of learning and mining large collections of co-evolving sequences, with the goal of developing fast algorithms for finding patterns, summarization, and anomalies. In particular, this thesis will answer the following recurring challenges for time series: 1. Forecasting and imputation: How to do forecasting and to recover missing values in time series data? 2. Pattern discovery and summarization: How to identify the patterns in the time sequences that would facilitate further mining tasks such as compression, segmentation and anomaly detection? 3. Similarity and feature extraction: How to extract compact and meaningful features from multiple co-evolving sequences that will enable better clustering and similarity queries of time series? 4. Scale up: How to handle large data sets on modern computing hardware? We develop models to mine time series with missing values, to extract compact representation from time sequences, to segment the sequences, and to do forecasting. For large scale data, we propose algorithms for learning time series models, in particular, including Linear Dynamical Systems (LDS) and Hidden Markov Models (HMM). We also develop a distributed algorithm for finding patterns in large web-click streams. Our thesis will present special models and algorithms that incorporate domain knowledge. For motion capture, we will describe the natural motion stitching and occlusion filling for human motion. In particular, we provide a metric for evaluating the naturalness of motion stitching, based which we choose the best stitching. Thanks to domain knowledge (body structure and bone lengths), our algorithm is capable of recovering occlusions in mocap sequences, better in accuracy and longer in missing period. We also develop an algorithm for forecasting thermal conditions in a warehouse-sized data center. The forecast will help us control and manage the data center in a energy-efficient way, which can save a significant percentage of electric power consumption in data centers.
A MULTIFACETED DYNAMIC MODEL OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

A device for firmly holding a frame adjacent to a construction member comprising a piece of sheet having marks for bending in the form of material remaining when an aperture is stamped out. The side of the stamped out aperture extending aligned with marks for bending is provided with serrations. Edges at the ends are also provided with serrations which will engage firmly in adjacent material when the device takes a zigzag shape in a space between members after compression in the longitudinal direction by the aid of a tool cooperating with hooks on the device. Said tool comprises two members which are movable relative to each other by a force exerting means. A device which is caught with hooks on the movable member and on a projecting on the other tool member is, thus, compressed in the longitudinal direction when said force exerting means is actuated.
Incremental Recompilation of Knowledge

Approximating a general formula from above and below by Horn formulas (its Horn envelope and Horn core, respectively) was proposed in [SK] as a form of "knowledge compilation," supporting rapid approximate reasoning; on the negative side, this scheme is static in that it supports no updates, and has certain complexity drawbacks pointed out in [KPS]. On the other hand, the many frameworks and schemes proposed in the literature for theory update and revision are plagued by serious complexity-theoretic impediments, even in the Horn case, as was pointed out in [EG2] and the present paper. More fundamentally, these schemes are not inductive, in that they lose in a single update any positive properties of the represented sets of formulas (small size, Horn, etc.). In this paper we propose a new scheme, incremental recompilation, combining Horn approximation and model-based updates; this scheme is inductive and very efficient, free of the problems facing its constituents. A set of formulas is represented by an upper and lower Horn approximation. To update, we replace the upper Horn formula by the Horn envelope of its minimum-change update, and similarly the lower one by the Horn core of its update; the key fact is that Horn envelopes and cores are easy to compute when the underlying formula is the result of a minimum-change update of a Horn formula by a clause. We conjecture that efficient algorithms are possible for more complex updates.
Context Aware File Sharing Protocol Designed for Mobile Devices

Future applications for embedded devices are expected to share some common functionality. The ability to create mobile mesh networks is one of them and will enable application developers to create ground breaking innovative applications which has not been possible yet. Having an Erlang application which provides just that functionality could foster innovative application development and convince developers to use Erlang for their work
Fundamentals of suturing simulation in surgical training environment

This thesis presents a knotting and suturing model based on the Virtual Training Environment (VTE). We introduce a mechanics-based approach to real-time simulation of deformable linear objects (DLOs) with visual and force feedback, which can represent the mechanical properties of a real thread, such as stretching, compressing, bending, and twisting. We also present how forces propagate along the suture when the user pulls it with one or two hands. The user can practice the basic suturing techniques on the simulator presented in this thesis. The pre-wound suturing target is modeled as a modified mass-spring system. The tools involved in the live suturing procedures are also simulated. Collisions between the soft tissue and the needle, between the soft tissue and the suture are analyzed. In addition, the tissue tearing is also studied in this thesis. Furthermore, this thesis addresses the GPU application in simulating deformable objects.
Performance Analysis and Validation of the Intel Pentium 4 Processor on 90nm Technology

In addition to the considerable effort spent on functional validation of Intel processors, a separate parallel activity is conducted to verify that processor performance meets or exceeds specifications. In this paper, we discuss both the pre-silicon and post-silicon performance validation processes carried out on the 90nm version of the Intel Pentium 4 processor. For pre-silicon performance work, we describe how a detailed performance simulator is used to ensure that the processor specification meets the product’s performance targets and also that the implementation matches the defined specification. Additionally, we describe how we project the performance of the Pentium 4 processor on key applications and benchmarks. Once silicon arrives, the second phase of performance verification work starts. We describe the process for detecting post-silicon performance issues, developing associated optimizations, and communicating these to application engineers, compiler teams, and microprocessor architects for appropriate action. We also discuss the tools used to gather performance metrics and characterize application performance.
Ontology-based Assessment Technique

Ontologies that describe the main concepts of the domains are used both for teaching and assessment techniques. The paper presents ontology- based approach to a student assessment. Students show their knowledge and understanding while creating ontologies. Such way of assessment gives advantages over traditional quizzes. The approach is illustrated by students’ test papers made them before and after course listening.
POLYPHASE CHANNELIZATION UTILIZING GENERAL-PURPOSE COMPUTING ON A GPU

In order to provide a wind stop device for a passenger vehicle with a roll bar, comprising surface elements of the wind stop device and a supporting device for the surface elements of the wind stop device which can be secured on the roll bar, which can be assembled in a simple manner and quickly it is suggested that the supporting device be provided with at least two holding brackets arranged in spaced relationship, wherein the holding brackets are arranged and designed such that they can be abutted on respective bar sections of the roll bar for securing the supporting device on the roll bar.
Agreement and subjects

LA PRESENTE TESIS SE SITUA DENTRO DEL MARCO TEORICO "PRINCIPIOS Y PARAMETROS", QUE HA TENIDO UN GRAN DESARROLLO DENTRO DE LA SINTAXIS GENERATIVA DE LA ULTIMA DECADA. LA PROPUESTA TEORICA ES UNA ALTERNATIVA A LAS TEORIAS STANDARD SOBRE LOS FENOMENOS DE 'SUJETO NULO' E 'INVERSION DE SUJETO', QUE ESTAN CORRELACIONADOS: LENGUAS COMO EL CASTELLANO PRESENTAN AMBOS, MIENTRAS LENGUAS COMO EL INGLES NO PRESENTAN NINGUNO. MI HIPOTESIS ES QUE, EN UN SENTIDO MAS ABSTRACTO, TODAS LAS LENGUAS PRESENTAN AMBOS FENOMENOS. ESTA PROPUESTA ENCAJA EN EL ESPIRITU DEL PROGRAMA DE REDUCCION DE LA VARIACION LINGUISTICA A FACTORES MINIMOS (PARAMETROS), Y CARACTERIZACION EXPLICITA DEL COMPONENTE COMUN DE TODAS LAS GRAMATICAS ('GRAMATICA UNIVERSAL', O FACTOR COMUN DE LA CAPACIDAD LINGUISTICA INNATA DE LA ESPECIE HUMANA). LA BASE EMPIRICA DE LA HIPOTESIS CONTIENE DATOS DE LA MAYORIA DE LENGUAS ROMANICAS Y GERMANICAS, ASI COMO DEL GRIEGO, EL ARABE Y EL VASCO.
Review: Yueting Zhuang, Yunhe Pan and Jun Xiao, A Modern Approach to Intelligent Animation: Theory and Practice. New York: Springer, 2007. 310 pp. ISBN: 3540737596 (hbk)

‘Intelligent Animation’ is a term likely to conjure a differing notion in every reader. It may be a surprise to many, then, that the meat of Zhuang et al.’s book explores 2D tracking, motion analysis and videobased 3D motion capture algorithms; that is to say, similar techniques to those behind specialist 3D motion capture software such as Autodesk Motionbuilder, Vicon IQ and Organic Motion.1 Behind this somewhat misleading title, this book performs two tasks: it briefly introduces the reader to basic and commonly used animation software principles through a survey of techniques such as keyframes, spline animation and motion capture; it then quickly moves on to documentation and discussions of the authors’ own project work focusing on implementations of a range of video-based 3D motion capture mapping techniques and solutions to perceived problems within the field, such as facial motion capture and motion categorization. As the book exclusively explores technical issues, A Modern Approach to Intelligent Animation is almost certainly aimed at undergraduate or postgraduate students in technical subjects such as mathematics and computing, or perhaps software developers, looking to specialize in computer vision or processing of 3D motion capture data. Those without higher-level mathematics knowledge, but with some patience, will still be able to grasp most of the principles, as the majority of techniques are adequately explained and well annotated with figures and diagrams. Character animators, surprisingly – given the title – are unlikely to gain much from Zhuang’s book, as the
Evaluating the effect of tanning response to sun exposure on the risk of skin diseases through Mendelian randomization

Background: Until now, the relevance of the tanning response to sun exposure and skin diseases has incomplete and inconsistent epidemiological observations. In this case, it is valuable to find out the causality of tanning response to sun exposure and skin diseases, and take a step further toward developing effective therapies as well as prevention methods. Methods: We investigated the causal effect of tanning response to sun exposure on 10 major skin diseases that have been studied in recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Significant independent genetic variants from large-scale GWAS on ease of skin tanning (N = 453,065) are selected as the effective instrumental variables (IVs). For each skin disease, we extracted the summary statistics of those IVs (or their proxies) from the corresponding skin disease-GWAS as the valid IVs. Mendelian randomization (MR) was further performed to evaluate the causal association of ease of skin tanning with each of the skin diseases using different statistical methods, including inverse-variance weighted (IVW), the weighted median, and MR-Egger. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to evaluate the effect of horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity. Results: We observe significant associations between six skin diseases with tanning response to sun exposure with adjusted p-value derived by IVW less than 0.05 and with nominal p value less than 0.05 at the same time derived by either MR-Egger or weighted median. The six skin diseases include actinic keratosis (IVW FDR = 1.71E-40, MR Egger p-value = 3.46E-22), seborrhoeic keratosis (IVW FDR = 2.97E-4, MR Egger p-value = 1.06E-3), blepharochalasis (IVW FDR = 1.30E-3, MR Egger p-value = 2.91E-4), seborrhoeic dermatitis (IVW FDR = 1.29E-2, MR Egger p-value = 1.23E-2), malignant melanoma of skin (IVW FDR = 2.95E-2, MR Egger p-value = 1.91E-2), and freckles (IVW FDR = 2.95E-2, weighted median p-value = 1.02E-3). Interestingly, we find increased trends of developing all of the six skin diseases with increased tanning response to sun exposure (beta values are positive using IVW, MR-egger, and weighted median methods). We also replicate the association on three skin diseases using an independent outcome GWAS cohort, including malignant melanoma of the skin (replication IVW p-value = 2.13E-39), actinic keratosis (replication IVW p-value = 4.64E-32), and seborrhoeic keratosis (replication IVW p-value = 1.79E-3). Conclusion: Our observation shows that the tanning response to sun exposure is positively correlated with the development of skin diseases in people of European descent by Mendelian randomization studies. But randomized controlled trials are still needed to add proof to our observations.
Transfer of LOGO Debugging Skill: Analysis, Instruction, and Assessment.

The goal of thls dissertation is to determine the extent to which learning debugging in the context of LOGO programming improves children's debugging in other programming and nonprogramming contexts. The approach involves detailed task analysis of debugging (in the form of a computer simulation model), development of model-based instructional guidelines for teaching children debugging skills they do not learn "by discovery. " and assessment of the debugging skills children are able to transfer to other programming and non-programming tasks. Twenty-tWo 8to I1-year-old students took two 25 hour LOGO courses. Halt of the students were taught debugging In the context of a LOGO graphics course first and then a LOGO list-processing course. The other half were taught debugging in the same two minicourses but In the reverse order. Debugging skills were tested at three times during each mini-course. The performance of children taking tests In the first mfrtl-course was compared with the performance of children taking the same tests in the seconFrmlni-course to reveal the transfer from one LOGO domain to the other. Debugging on no44-pregramming tasks was assessed prior to the first mini-course, between minl-courses, and after the last minicourse to assess more remote transfer of debugging skills. Assessments of students' debugging skill revealed large savings from the first to the second mini-course. Students' Increasing use of selective search strategies increased the accuracy. efficiency, and :peed of their debugging. Corresponding Improvements were demonstrated on a variety of tasks requiring debugging of non-computer directions. Children shifted from exhaustive to selectiVe search strategies which increased the accuracy. efficiency, and speed with which they debugged written directions; Thus; the debugging strategies learned from explicit Instruction in the the first computer programming mini-course had a positive impact on children's debugging in both new programming and non-programming situations.
Process and product: High school English learners redefined

PROCESS AND PRODUCT: HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH LEARNERS REDEFINED by Sarah Tumblin Mantegna Despite 21 Century technology, our nation’s high schools deliver a print-centric curriculum driven by high-stakes tests. A majority of states have adopted Common Core State Standards that incorporate producing and consuming multiple media texts. Some teachers have begun to include multimodal activities but few are exploiting the affordances of multimodal composition specifically for the benefit of English learners. Public high school teachers hold deficit views of English learners and fail to offer them challenging, creative tasks. Framed by the complementary sociocultural theories of ecological linguistics (van Lier, 2004), multimodality (Kress, 2010), and identity (Gee, 2001; Norton, 2000), this qualitative case study examined the process and product of high school English learners composing multimodally with digital video. Four questions guided the study: 1) What can we learn from adolescent English learners engaged in composing with video? 2) What identities do adolescent ELs explore while engaging in multimodal communication? 3) What processes do ELs engage in as they compose multimodally? 4) How do their multimodal compositions contribute to our understanding of ELs? Participants were enrolled in an elective English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class at a public high school during Spring semester of 2012. Data included student generated lesson artifacts, audio/video recordings, researcher journal, and participants' video compositions. Data were analyzed through an ongoing, recursive cycle to determine themes, categories, and trends. Visual and video data were examined through visual discourse analysis (Albers, 2007b; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) and multimodal interaction analysis (Norris, 2004). Addressing the process and product of learning to read and compose visual and video texts, this dissertation examines 3 pairs of student participants and their video compositions. It reveals English learners working collaboratively and creatively, exploring imagined identities, showing investment in learning, engaging in critical analysis, and effectively communicating through multiple modes. Multimodal analysis of three student videos revealed four patterns of multimodal design; less is less, layered modes, less is more, and overlapping modes. The study redefines English learners as multilingual, multimodal communicators. It illustrates the complexity and reveals the benefit of incorporating multimodal activities and provides a model for fostering multilingual, multimodal communicators. PROCESS AND PRODUCT: HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH LEARNERS REDEFINED by Sarah Tumblin Mantegna