Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi Bit-Rate Video on Demand for P2P networks

The Internet has become in the last years more and more a means of conveyance for multimedia delivering. Many solutions have been proposed to gain high quality of service for video on demand in client-server environments, with adaptive algorithms that adjust the bit-rate of a video stream depending on the clients available bandwidth. Providing video on demand over decentralized peer-to-peer systems is an active research field. The variable bit-rate environment that characterizes peer-to-peer networks causes significant difficulties to ensure quality of service and playback continuity for video on demand applications. This thesis addresses the challenge of serving high quality video on demand by designing and implementing a multi bit-rate video on demand architecture for peer-to-peer networks. We propose a switching scheme, an encoding methodology and a novel algorithm for multiple bit-rate video streaming over peer-to-peer networks. Identical video content is encoded into three different sets of streams with different average bit-rates. The novel multi bit-rate algorithm will switch dynamically between the three sets of streams depending on the available bandwidth. Through a series of experiments we present the effectiveness of this architecture in fluctuating bandwidth scenarios.
Crença religiosa e doação de órgãos e tecidos: revisão integrativa da literatura

This study aims to analyzing whether religion interfere in the decision for donors and/or their family to consent to both organ donation and the process of organ collection and transplantation. This integrating literature review has been carried out through searches in SciELO, MEDLINE and LILACS databases, from 1995 to 2010, using the following words: organ donation, organ transplantation, ethics, religion, and religious belief. Nineteen papers have been selected. We have concluded that spiritual beliefs have influence on decision-making. No religion has been completely contrary to donation, but the belief of death being related to heart failure, and the rituals associated with the dead body hinder the possibilities of adhering to donation and, ultimately, to transplantation
Consideration to a New Standard for the Diagnosis of Lumbar Central Canal Stenosis by Quantitative MRI Assessment

The first aim of this study is to assess the Dural Sac Cross-sectional Area (DSCA) of the lumbar spinal canal in healthy young individuals with the appropriate posture when using MRI. A secondary aim was to determine if obtained DSCA values are correlated with each symptom. The group of 15 healthy individuals (group I) were scanned in the flexed and extended knee posture. The DSCA and Spinal Canal Cross-sectional Area (SCCA) were measured at the center of the pedicle level of each vertebral body. A group of 42 symptomatic patients (group II) were scanned, and the correlation with each symptom was statistically evaluated. In group (I), the mean DSCA was 178 ± 5.1 mm2 in the flexed posture and 158.9 ± 5.6 mm2 in the extended knee posture. At each level, there was a significantly smaller DSCA in the extended posture. In group (II), the mean DSCA was almost two-third of that in group (I). The DSCA at L1/2 and L2/3 showed a mild correlation with the Japanese Orthopedic Association score IV (JOA IV) (urinary disturbance score) (r2 = 0.16 and 0.21). Minimum DSCA was significantly correlated with JOA IC (intermittent claudication) (p = 0.0003, r2 = 0.278). The number of inter vertebral levels with severe and moderate stenosis was assessed and a significant negative correlation was found with JOA IC and IV (p = 0.0046 and 0.0275. r2 = 0.184 and 0.116, respectively). It should be noted that these imaging values should be always considered with matched lumbar symptoms.
Adaptive Information Extraction and Sublanguage Analysis

Information extraction (IE) has made significant progress in the last decade. We have developed practical, efficient approaches to IE which have yielded modest levels of performance on general texts and quite good performance on restricted, ‘semi-structured’ texts. More notably, over the last few years there has been a blossoming of work in adaptive IE — the topic of this and other recent workshops — IE systems which can be rapidly and automatically (or semi-automatically) moved to new extraction tasks.
Novel reflective SOA with MMI-loop mirror based on semi-insultating InP

The reflective SOA has been heavily investigated to carry the upstream signal for colorless operation in the user access network. We propose a new method to realize such a reflective SOA modulator by integrating a SOA with a MMI-loop mirror (loop-RSOA). This allows for more flexibility in the design of photonic integrated circuits without additional cost. The first loop-RSOA has been designed and fabricated. The fiber access side of the loopRSOA was left as cleaved. The measurement results show that this loop-RSOA can be operated error free with 1.25 Gbit/s data with 223−1 PRBS word length while the injected optical power is −14 dBm. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the loop-RSOA has been investigated from 12◦C up to 36◦C showing Q factors higher than 6.5 at 1 Gbit/s. Introduction
Stabilization of LTI systems with planar anti-stable dynamics using saturated linear feedback

In this paper, we first study the stabilization of an LTI anti-stable planar system with a saturated linear state feedback. We show that the domain of attraction of such a system under any saturated linear stabilizing feedback can be obtained easily by simulating the time-reversed closed-loop system. We then show that a saturated linear state feedback can be designed for such a system so that the equilibrium of the closed-loop system has a domain of attraction that is arbitrarily close to the null controllable region. Finally we present an extension of this result to general LTI systems with planar anti-stable dynamics.
BELL'S PHENOMENON: A STUDY OF 508 PATIENTS

Bell's phenomenon is an important physical sign in clinical medicine. An assessment of Bell's phenomenon may help to explain or localize the cause of ocular disease and lead to the diagnosis of systemic disease. We report in this paper our findings in 508 patients who presented consecutively to a general ophthalmic practice, and who were examined for their Bell's phenomenon and for lagophthalmos. The study demonstrated a good deal of variability not only in the amount but also in the type of Bell's phenomenon response in normal patients. It also demonstrated the usefulness of Bell's phenomenon in specific clinical situations. The literature on the usefulness of Bell's phenomenon is reviewed.
Women with type 1 diabetes during pregnancy and postpartum Well-being and diabetes management

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is associated with increased medical risks during pregnancy and birth. To minimize the risks and increase the possibility of a healthy offspring, blood glucose levels near normal are required. This puts women with T1DM in a vulnerable situation in relation to pregnancy and childbirth, as it demands high levels of diabetes management. The overall aim was to investigate well-being and diabetes management in women with T1DM during pregnancy and in the first six months postpartum. Studies I, II and III mainly report on patient-reported outcome measures in terms of questionnaires. Studies I and III have an observational design and Study II was a randomized controlled trial. Study IV used a case study design and analysed data with both quantitative and qualitative methods. In Study I, well-being and diabetes management in early pregnancy was explored. A higher degree of diabetes management correlated positively with self-perceived health and well-being and with less worry about diabetes distress and hypoglycemia. In Study II, a web-based support program during pregnancy and up to six months after childbirth was evaluated. The findings suggest that the web-based support and standard care was not superior to standard care alone in terms of general well-being or self-efficacy of diabetes management at six months postpartum and that few participants had a high activity level. In Study III, associations between well-being, diabetes management and breastfeeding postpartum were investigated. Participants with lower scores of general well-being and sense of coherence expressed a need for more professional support to manage their diabetes than they were offered. In Study IV, adherence to technological elements and study design in a web-based intervention were critically analysed. The results highlight that technology and study design matter and might mutually influence each other. The findings confirm that well-being and diabetes management are closely linked during the childbearing period. Means of identifying a more vulnerable group of women with T1DM during pregnancy and new approaches to professional support after childbirth are needed.
What advances have been made in the areas of genomics and proteomics in screening and/or predicting preeclampsia?

RESUMEN Introduccion: la preeclampsia constituye una causa importante de morbimortalidad materna y perinatal en el mundo. Su etiopatogenia es aun un enigma; sin embargo, los avances en genomica y proteomica prometen la identificacion temprana de la enfermedad o del riesgo de padecerla. Objetivo: hacer una reflexion sobre los avances mas promisorios de la genomica y proteomica, en el tamizaje y/o prediccion de la preeclampsia. Conclusiones: dos polimorfismos funcionales, uno en el gen ACE (I/D) y otro en el gen COMT (Val158Met), poseen los resultados mas promisorios para cumplir con el objetivo de identificar geneticamente a las mujeres con mayor riesgo de desarrollar preeclampsia durante un embarazo. Por su parte, la proteomica ha identificado a la SERPINA-1 como un biomarcador util para detectar en la orina de las embarazadas que esten desarrollando la preeclampsia, con al menos 10 semanas de antelacion a las manifestaciones clinicas de la misma y la necesidad de finalizar el embarazo. En conjunto, estos avances llevados a la practica clinica podrian reducir el impacto de esta patologia en la salud materna.
Strength and Flexibility Characteristics of Athletes with Chronic Low-Back Pain

The purpose of this study was to identify strength and flexibility deficits in subjects with chronic low-back pain (CLBP). Subjects were 16 female Division I athletes: 8 athletes who had experienced CLBP for at least 6 months prior to testing and a control group of 8 matched subjects. Athletes with neurological symptoms, previous back operations, and leg length discrepancies and those who were diagnosed with scoliosis, spondylolisthesis, or spondylolysis were excluded from this study. Variables assessed included abdominal strength, erector spinae endurance, hip flexion and extension endurance, torso lateral flexibility, and low-back flexibility. Strength and endurance were calculated as a function of time in seconds. Goniometric measurements were used to determine flexibility. Significant mean differences were found by using dependent t tests for abdominal strength, erector Spinae endurance, hip extension, and right lateral flexion of the torso. The results validate the necessity for pelvic stabilization .
Modelos de Base de Datos de Grafo y RDF

In 2004 the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standardized a metadata langu age for describing resources on the Web, called the Resource Description Framework (R DF). The motivation was to have a language to serve as the basis for extensible modeling of highly interconnected domains and networks of information. The RDF specification can be viewed, from a database point of view, as a d tabase model. In fact, underlying RDF resides a model which brings to mind data with a graph -like structure. Moreover, due to the increasing amount of information defined in the RDF lan guage, several proposals for storing and querying RDF data have been presented. He nce, it becomes natural to study RDF from the point of view of databases. The main goal of this thesis is the study of RDF from a database perspective . We concentrate our study in the area of database modeling and focus our efforts in pa rticular models called graph database models, which from a theoretical point of view seem more r elat d to RDF. This thesis also follows closely the W3C developments in the direction of giving datab ase model support to RDF, particularly on query features. The main contribution of the thesis is to have clarified and developed the relation ship between RDF and graph database models. This has been done first, by stu dying RDF as a database model. Second, by conceptualizing the area of graph database models. Third by proposing a desiderata of graph features which an ideal query langua ge for RDF should support. Fourth, by showing that the standard query language defined by th e W3C, SPARQL, does not support essential graph features expected in a query langu age for graph databases. This was done by characterizing the expressive power of SPARQL. Fin ally, due to the above results, we concentrate on the application of graph database models to data v isu lization, by formally defining a graph visualization model for RDF.
La publicidad de prevención del SIDA en Europa: un análisis de sus componentes persuasivos Advertising against AIDS in Europe: An analysis of its persuasive components

We here in present the result of a content analysis investigation of spots directed towards A1DS prevention. The example consists of 16 spots which are part of several health campaigns held in the 90's in 8 Europearz countries. Fourteen people (Audiovisual Communication students) participated in the codification process. The spots were reported to provided a "positive view" of the problem, alluding less emphatically to the seriousness of the illness. However the.se spots provided unable to confront effectively the cognitive biases call "primus inter pares" ("AIDS can affect everyone but me"). An alternative is proposed to eradicate biases such as the mention, based in the use of spots centre in dramatization and the inclusion of characters which encourage enzotional empatby and self-identification.
Occupational well-being and leadership in a school community

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present well-being, leadership, and the development of each from a communal perspective in a Finnish primary school in the years 2000-2009. Design/methodology/approach The study included five sets of data. The quantitative research data were collected from the school staff using the Well-Being at Your Work index questionnaire in 2004 (n=36), 2005 (n=41), and in 2009 (n=34). In 2006, two group interviews were carried out with the school personnel (n=21), and in 2011, retrospective interview data were collected from an expert classroom teacher (n=1). Quantitative data were analysed statistically using descriptive statistics. The qualitative group interview data were analysed by an inductive content analysis, while the expert interview was analysed according to the methods of factual analysis. Findings During this period, several communal interventions were developed in the school to promote occupational well-being. Over the course of the study, staff members’ satisfaction with the actions and the support provided by the principal has improved, and leadership-related problems have decreased. Research limitations/implications The results cover research findings from one school and therefore cannot be generalised to other Finnish school communities. Originality/value Schools’ work communities must be active in developing interventions to improve their own occupational well-being. Furthermore, leaders must be actively involved in the development of occupational well-being.
Efficient image database filtering using colour vector techniques

With the widespread availability of personal computers and the staggering amount of digital imagery available, recent investigation has focused on the storage, query and retrieval of images from large image databases. Methods, which are employed presently, precompute image indices, which are deemed to be statistical representations of image information. Queries of colour, shape, texture, etc., are then performed directly on these indices to find valid images. The authors propose a new indexing technique which calculates the multidimensional histogram of the directional detail in a given image. They apply wavelet theory and multiresolution analysis to extract the directional information from an image and then map this information into 3-dimensional vectors. Histograms of these vectors are then calculated at different levels of resolution, allowing progressive image query using colour histogram techniques to be directly applied. The technique is capable of querying and searching a database for images based on attributes such as smoothness, randomness and horizontal, vertical and diagonal edges at varying resolutions.
A Survey on Use Cases and Security Issues in Fog Computing

According to the forecast that billions of devices will get connected to the internet by 2020, it will become a challenge for real time applications to handle this huge data generated while considering security issues as well as time constraints. The cloud faces many issues like high latency, network failure, low storage capacity, extra computational capability and high computational power due to centralized server approach. These issues can be resolved by using a new concept called, Fog Computing. Fog computing is an emerging research area for both academia and industry. In this paper, we view and summarize different use case scenarios of fog computing. The recent research contributions on security and privacy issues in fog computing are also discussed in this paper. Finally, this paper also highlights several open issues in fog computing thereby giving light on future research directions for implementing fog computing systems.
Dedicated Machines for Biological SequenceComparisonAbstract

The application domains for video imaging are ceaselessly expanding under the combined impulses of progress in signal processing and video architectures, as well as technological advances in the integration of components. In high-definition television this evolution is particularly noticeable, and one notices that the applications, the algorithms implemented, the transmission equipment used and the standardization of formats are closely coupled. In the context of a study of a programmable video coder it has become necessary to have a global vision of all these aspects. This report formalizes this study and presents above all a state-of-the-art, at a given moment, of the domain of the given application. Key-words: television, coding De l’image vers la compression 1
Distribution des patronymes et structure des populations dans les Pyrénées occidentales

Introduction Les recherches sur les noms de familles connaissent, depuis quelques annees, des developpements considerables consecutifs a l’informatisation des sources et aux raffinements methodologiques avec lesquels ces sources sont exploitees. Les registres paroissiaux, les actes de naissances, mariages ou deces sont en passe d’etre systematiquement depouillees et informatises sur de larges zones geographiques et sur plusieurs dizaines de generations, ouvrant ainsi de vastes champs d’invest.
Assessment of clinical utility of breast cancer biomarkers uPA and PAI-1

The aim of the study was to establish protocols for quantitative assessment of cancer biomarker uPA and PAI-1 in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary breast cancer tumor tissue by immunohistochemistry and to explore the clinical utility of this method as an alternative to the clinically relevant ELISA test. It could be shown that there is difference in breast cancer patients' outcome regarding to the PAI-1-expressing cell type: overexpression in cells of the tumor stroma is associated with longer overall and disease-free survival, whereas overexpression in the epithelial tumor cells is associated with poor outcome.
Random Heterogeneous Materials

Because heterogeneous materials can be designed to exhibit the best characteristics of their individual constituents, they are ideally suited to modern technologies that require materials with an unusual combination of properties. The study presented in the current work is aimed to approach effective electrical conductivity of various random heterogeneous materials. It starts with the description of a type of modern material with specific morphology. Percolation theory and finite element analysis are used in computations and comparison with experimental results is provided. To understand difficulties with classical approaches, next a two-component composite material on a lattice is studied, followed by discoveries in the electrical field properties. Finally, a new algorithm is suggested, which can be used to find effective properties for any arbitrary morphology. Material covered in this book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers who work on the front edge of physics, materials science, engineering and applied mathematics. All necessary derivations and definitions are included to make the book self-contained and approachable.
Medical professionalism: how can we encourage it in our students?

I n the past fifty years, professions have moved increasingly from being revered, unquestioned controllers of their own knowledge, education and standards to the spotlight of public and governmental scrutiny. High profile cases such as the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Shipman inquiries may have increased the intensity of the spotlight on the medical profession, but longer term secular trends towards consumerism and accountability have been more influential.
Estimation of pedestrian walking direction for driver assistance system

I Estimation of Pedestrian Walking Direction for Driver Assistance System Abstract Road traffic accidents are a serious problem around the world, where the cost of human life is impossible to evaluate, and cause massive and continuous government spending. Different solutions have been proposed to reduce the effects of accidents, one of which, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, as their name suggest, assist the driver by providing vital information on the traffic environment or by acting under specific circumstances to safeguard the occupants of the vehicle, or to facilitate driving. In case that an accident cannot be prevented, collision mitigation devices that are incorporated into vehicle design enhancement can be deployed to reduce the impact of the collision on the pedestrian. In this thesis we present a practical approach to the problem. Pedestrian protection is a crucial component of driver assistance systems. Our aim is to develop a video-based driver assistance system for the detection of the potential dangerous situation, in order to warn the driver. We address the problems of detecting pedestrian in real-world scenes and estimating walking direction with a single camera from a moving vehicle. The challenge is of considerable complexity due to the varying appearance of people (e.g., clothes, size, pose, shape, etc.), and the unstructured moving environments that urban scenarios represent. In addition, the required performance is demanding both in terms of computational time and detection rates. Considering all the available cues for predicting the possibility of collision is very important. The ―direction‖ in which the pedestrian is facing is one of the most important cues to predict where the pedestrian may move in future. Therefore we first emphasize the core problem of pedestrian orientation estimation in real-world scenes. The method is designed to estimate major eight orientations of different appearances. By taking account head-part orientation into the estimation, accuracy of overall estimation is drastically improved. Consequently, we construct and propose a three-stage method: (i) pedestrian detection, (ii) orientation estimation for single-frame and (iii) walking direction estimation for multi-frame. The first two stages employ and extend computationally