Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Impact of Time-Correlated Fading for Downlink NOMA

This paper investigates the performance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems over time-correlated Rayleigh fading channels, where the users have heterogeneous quality of service requirements, e.g., a latency-critical user with a low target rate and a delay-tolerant user with a large target rate. In order to meet the different requirements of the users, two partial hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) schemes, including partial HARQ with chase combining (HARQ-CC) and HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ-IR), are proposed. The closed-form expressions of outage probabilities for NOMA with and without re-transmission are derived. With the developed outage probabilities, a condition on the superiority of NOMA to orthogonal multiple access (OMA) is obtained. In particular, the condition is characterized by the transmit powers for NOMA without re-transmission and is obtained by using the bisection method in the case with re-transmission. To further improve the performance of the HARQ enabled NOMA schemes, we consider an average transmit power minimization problem by optimizing the transmit power among different transmission rounds with outage constraints. However, due to the complexity of the developed outage probabilities, the formulated problem is non-convex and challenging to solve. Then we approximate the original problem by deriving the upper-bound approximations of the outage probabilities and solve it by using the geometric programming method. Simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of the developed analytical results. It is shown that the performance of NOMA is superior to OMA, only when the obtained condition is satisfied. HARQ-CC and HARQ-IR can enhance the outage performance of NOMA over time-correlated fading channels and the HARQ-IR has excellent performance in terms of energy efficiency.
Assessing Sequential Monoscopic Images for Height Estimation of Fixed-Wing Drones

We design a feature-based model to estimate and predict the free height of a fixed-wing drone flying at altitudes up to 100 meters above terrain using the stereo vision principles and a one-dimensional Kalman filter. We design this using a single RGB camera to assess the viability of sequential images for height estimation, and to assess which issues and pitfalls are likely to affect such a system. This model is tested on both simulation data flying above flat and varying terrain, as well as data from a real test flight. Simulation RMSE ranges from 10.7% to 21.0% of maximum flying height. Real estimates vary significantly more, resulting in an RMSE of 27.55% of median flying height of one test flight. Best MAE was roughly 17%, indicating the error to expect from the system. We conclude that feature-based detection appears to be too heavily influenced by noise introduced by the drone and other uncontrollable parameters to be used in reliable height estimation.
Recapitulating Parkinson's disease pathology in a three-dimensional human neural cell culture model

ABSTRACT Extensive loss of dopaminergic neurons and aggregation of the protein α-synuclein into ubiquitin-positive Lewy bodies represents a major neuropathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). At present, the generation of large nuclear-associated Lewy bodies from endogenous wild-type α-synuclein, translationally regulated under its own promoter in human cell culture models, requires costly and time-consuming protocols. Here, we demonstrate that fully differentiated human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells grown in three-dimensional cell culture develop Lewy-body-like pathology upon exposure to exogenous α-synuclein species. In contrast to most cell- and rodent-based PD models, which exhibit multiple diffuse α-synuclein aggregates throughout the cytoplasm, a single large nuclear inclusion that is immunopositive for α-synuclein and ubiquitin is rapidly obtained in our model. This was achieved without the need for overexpression of α-synuclein or genetic modification of the cell line. However, phosphorylation of α-synuclein within these inclusions was not observed. The system described here provides an ideal tool to screen compounds to therapeutically intervene in Lewy body formation, and to investigate the mechanisms involved in disease progression in synucleinopathies. Editor's choice: This study describes a novel 3D cell culture model that recapitulates key features of neuropathology in synucleinopathies, including large, nuclear-associated α-synuclein and ubiquitin-positive inclusions.
Design of a Wearable 12-Lead Noncontact Electrocardiogram Monitoring System

A standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important tool in the diagnosis of heart diseases. Here, Ag/AgCl electrodes with conductive gels are usually used in a 12-lead ECG system to access biopotentials. However, using Ag/AgCl electrodes with conductive gels might be inconvenient in a prehospital setting. In previous studies, several dry electrodes have been developed to improve this issue. However, these dry electrodes have contact with the skin directly, and they might be still unsuitable for patients with wounds. In this study, a wearable 12-lead electrocardiogram monitoring system was proposed to improve the above issue. Here, novel noncontact electrodes were also designed to access biopotentials without contact with the skin directly. Moreover, by using the mechanical design, this system allows the user to easily wear and take off the device and to adjust the locations of the noncontact electrodes. The experimental results showed that the proposed system could exactly provide a good ECG signal quality even while walking and could detect the ECG features of the patients with myocardial ischemia, installation pacemaker, and ventricular premature contraction.
Discrete Time Geo/Geo/1 Retrial G - Queuewith Server Break Down and Repair

This paper deals with discrete-time Geo/Geo/1 retrial queue with negative customers where the server is subject to breakdown and repair due to the negative arrivals. If the server is idle, negative customer break the server down, if the server is busy, it kill a customer in service and break the server down and if the server is under repair, it has no effect. If the server is breakdown, it is sent to repair immediately and after repair it is as good as new. We analyze the Markov chain underlying the queueing system and obtain its ergodicity condition. Keywords—retrial queue; negative customer; break down and repair.
Sensitivity Analysis of Inductive Power Transfer Systems With Voltage-Fed Compensation Topologies

The output characteristics and the transfer efficiencies of inductive power transfer (IPT) systems are affected by (but not limited to) the variation of parameters such as, variable load, misalignment between the primary and secondary coils, and resonance frequency detuning. This paper first analyzes the resonant conditions of all voltage-fed compensation topologies in IPT systems to achieve the load-independent voltage transfer characteristic at load-independent zero phase angle frequency. With these conditions, the parameters sensitivity to the key performance factors of the S-SP, LCC-S, LCC-P, and double-sided LCC compensated IPT systems are systematically investigated when considering the losses in coils and compensation networks. Comparisons of the quantitative sensitivity analysis and experimental results for all IPT systems are made in terms of the voltage transfer ratio and efficiency. These analyses can provide guidance for the selection of superior compensation networks to minimize the additional converter effort and simplify the control algorithm of closed-loop IPT systems.
Amorphous Silica Nanoparticles Obtained by Laser Ablation Induce Inflammatory Response in Human Lung Fibroblasts

Silica nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) represent environmentally born nanomaterials that are used in multiple biomedical applications. Our aim was to study the amorphous SiO2 NP-induced inflammatory response in MRC-5 human lung fibroblasts up to 72 hours of exposure. The intracellular distribution of SiO2 NPs was measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) test was used for cellular viability evaluation. We have also investigated the lysosomes formation, protein expression of interleukins (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-18), COX-2, Nrf2, TNF-α, and nitric oxide (NO) production. Our results showed that the level of lysosomes increased in time after exposure to the SiO2 NPs. The expressions of interleukins and COX-2 were upregulated, whereas the expressions and activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9 decreased in a time-dependent manner. Our findings demonstrated that the exposure of MRC-5 cells to 62.5 µg/mL of SiO2 NPs induced an inflammatory response.
A Mode Selection Algorithm for Mitigating Interference in D2D Enabled Next-Generation Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is becoming more popular research topic among the network researchers and engineers across the globe This popularity is due to various key applications of D2D communications including 4G LTE-A envisioning the continuous evolution of current cellular networks into 5G to support a much larger and diverse range of applications. D2D communications play an important role to fulfill the quality of service (QoS) requirements for 5G networks. However, to realize the performance gain of D2D communications, various open challenges need to be resolved including mode selection (MS). This paper, therefore proposes a new mode selection algorithm for D2D enabled heterogeneous 5G cellular network. By quantifying the key parameters we mitigate interference that affect the system performance, and finally proposed an algorithm for optimal selection of transmission mode in a heterogeneous cellular network. The findings reported in this paper provide some insights into the design of 5G networks that may help network designer and engineers to contribute further towards the development of next generation wireless networks.
Management options for pulmonary nodules with cancer of unknown primary

Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) is defined as a cancer with a histological diagnosis suggestive of a metastasis and incompatible with that of the biopsy site. This means that metastatic cancer has been diagnosed but the primary site remains unknown. It represents 2–3% of all cancers and 10% of tumors with metastasis, with the location of the primary never found in 40–50% in spite of exhaustive investigations. This may be because the primary is very small and slow growing, making it outside the resolution of modern imaging techniques or because the body’s immune system has already destroyed the primary but not before haematological or lymphatic spread has occurred. Staging of CUP located in the lung of necessity does not follow the traditional TNM classification, with the TNM classification in this scenario being ambiguous and open to differing interpretations. This means that there may be diverging perspectives and viewpoints between surgeons, physicians and pathologists leading to different treatment pathways. It can result in the chance of potentially curative surgical resection of a lung lesion, if necessary by lobectomy, being missed in the belief that the lung mass in such CUP cases is by definition a metastasis. This perspective explores the diagnostic challenges of CUP, highlights the diverging opinions between different specialties in CUP and illustrates how knowledge of the different survival subsets that make up the diverse pathologies under CUP, together with informed surgical decision regarding tumour resectability should guide treatment choices. Patients with surgical resectable lung pathology fall into the 20% of CUP identified as having better prognosis; these carry a 15% 5-year survival and a median survival of 3 years, compared to the unfavorable subset that carries a dismal mean survival of 6 months. This suggests that surgery, when possible, remains a treatment of first choice.
The Effects of Dietary Supplements on Asthma and Lung Cancer Risk in Smokers and Non-Smokers: A Review of the Literature

Smoking is one of the major global causes of death. Cigarette smoke and secondhand (passive) smoke have been causally related to asthma and lung cancer. Asthma is a potential risk factor for developing lung cancer in both smokers and non-smokers. Prospective studies and randomized control trials (RCTs) of dietary supplements and lung cancer risk in adult smokers and non-smokers have yielded inconsistent results. A few prospective studies have shown that long-term use of high doses of some supplements, such as retinol, β-carotene, B vitamins, and vitamin E, increase lung cancer risk in current and former smokers. Limited evidence from RCTs suggests that vitamin D supplementation is effective in improving lung function and reducing asthma risk in current/former smokers. The relationship between dietary supplements and lung cancer risk has never before been examined in asthmatic smokers and non-smokers. This short review aims to examine the evidence from existing studies for the effects of dietary supplements on asthma/lung cancer risk and mortality in smokers and non-smokers.
The Role of Defense Mechanisms in Emerging Personality Disorders in Clinical Adolescents

Background: Defensive functioning is related to overall mental functioning and personality traits in adults but only few studies investigated the role of defenses in adolescence. The present study analyzed the use of defense mechanisms in clinical adolescents to test how defensive functioning is related to age, gender, and personality traits.Design: 102 self-referred outpatients were interviewed using the Clinical Diagnostic Interview (CDI). Defense mechanisms and personality profile were assessed using the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scale (DMRS) and the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 for Adolescence (SWAP-200-A) respectively.Findings: Multivariate analysis of variance showed significant age and gender differences in clinical adolescents; while younger teenagers used more immature defenses, older adolescents scored significantly higher in high-neurotic and mature defenses. Girls showed higher use of minor image distortion and neurotic defenses, whereas boys recurred more frequently to obsessional level defenses. Neither age nor gender differences were found for narcissistic defense level. Significant correlations between personality disorders and specific defenses were found for all personalities with sufficient base rate, with the exception of paranoid, schizotypal, and schizoid personalities.Conclusions: In line with previous studies we confirmed the hypothesis of an ontogenetic line of development of defense mechanisms. In addition, the present study found that age and gender differences in adolescence are related to the use of specific defenses that contribute to the development of the personality and various psychological capacities. Several clinical implications are linked to the systematic investigation of defense mechanisms in youth, although further studies are required to confirm these findings.
The Influence of Meal Frequency and Timing on Health in Humans: The Role of Fasting

The influence of meal frequency and timing on health and disease has been a topic of interest for many years. While epidemiological evidence indicates an association between higher meal frequencies and lower disease risk, experimental trials have shown conflicting results. Furthermore, recent prospective research has demonstrated a significant increase in disease risk with a high meal frequency (≥6 meals/day) as compared to a low meal frequency (1–2 meals/day). Apart from meal frequency and timing we also have to consider breakfast consumption and the distribution of daily energy intake, caloric restriction, and night-time eating. A central role in this complex scenario is played by the fasting period length between two meals. The physiological underpinning of these interconnected variables may be through internal circadian clocks, and food consumption that is asynchronous with natural circadian rhythms may exert adverse health effects and increase disease risk. Additionally, alterations in meal frequency and meal timing have the potential to influence energy and macronutrient intake.A regular meal pattern including breakfast consumption, consuming a higher proportion of energy early in the day, reduced meal frequency (i.e., 2–3 meals/day), and regular fasting periods may provide physiological benefits such as reduced inflammation, improved circadian rhythmicity, increased autophagy and stress resistance, and modulation of the gut microbiota
Spontaneous driving forces give rise to protein−RNA condensates with coexisting phases and complex material properties

Significance Biomolecular condensates comprise multiple protein and RNA molecules that are typically organized into complex, multilayered structures. Although recent studies have shown that multilayered condensates can arise spontaneously, the interactions that drive the spontaneous transitions remain unclear. Further, can molecules within the same layer have different dynamical properties or do such complex features require inputs of energy? Here, we report results from in vitro studies, which show that coexisting liquid- and solid-like material properties and multilayered architectures can result from spontaneous, sequence-encoded driving forces. Our studies, which are directed at the simplest biologically relevant protein and RNA sequences, suggest that spontaneous processes make key contributions to the formation of condensates with complex morphologies and diverse material properties. Phase separation of multivalent protein and RNA molecules underlies the biogenesis of biomolecular condensates such as membraneless organelles. In vivo, these condensates encompass hundreds of distinct types of molecules that typically organize into multilayered structures supporting the differential partitioning of molecules into distinct regions with distinct material properties. The interplay between driven (active) versus spontaneous (passive) processes that are required for enabling the formation of condensates with coexisting layers of distinct material properties remains unclear. Here, we deploy systematic experiments and simulations based on coarse-grained models to show that the collective interactions among the simplest, biologically relevant proteins and archetypal RNA molecules are sufficient for driving the spontaneous emergence of multilayered condensates with distinct material properties. These studies yield a set of rules regarding homotypic and heterotypic interactions that are likely to be relevant for understanding the interplay between active and passive processes that control the formation of functional biomolecular condensates.
Ethylene Response Factor ERF11 Activates BT4 Transcription to Regulate Immunity to Pseudomonas syringae1[OPEN]

ERF11 directly activates BT4 in Arabidopsis response to Pst DC3000 infection and depends on the salicylic acid and ethylene signaling pathways Pseudomonas syringae, a major hemibiotrophic bacterial pathogen, causes many devastating plant diseases. However, the transcriptional regulation of plant defense responses to P. syringae remains largely unknown. Here, we found that gain-of-function of BTB AND TAZ DOMAIN PROTEIN 4 (BT4) enhanced the resistance of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) to Pst DC3000 (Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000). Disruption of BT4 also weakened the salicylic acid (SA)-induced defense response to Pst DC3000 in bt4 mutants. Further investigation indicated that, under Pst infection, transcription of BT4 is modulated by components of both the SA and ethylene (ET) signaling pathways. Intriguingly, the specific binding elements of ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR (ERF) proteins, including dehydration responsive/C-repeat elements and the GCC box, were found in the putative promoter of BT4. Based on publicly available microarray data and transcriptional confirmation, we determined that ERF11 is inducible by salicylic acid and Pst DC3000 and is modulated by the SA and ET signaling pathways. Consistent with the function of BT4, loss-of-function of ERF11 weakened Arabidopsis resistance to Pst DC3000 and the SA-induced defense response. Biochemical and molecular assays revealed that ERF11 binds specifically to the GCC box of the BT4 promoter to activate its transcription. Genetic studies further revealed that the BT4-regulated Arabidopsis defense response to Pst DC3000 functions directly downstream of ERF11. Our findings indicate that transcriptional activation of BT4 by ERF11 is a key step in SA/ET-regulated plant resistance against Pst DC3000, enhancing our understanding of plant defense responses to hemibiotrophic bacterial pathogens.
Homomorphic Encryption for Cluster in Cloud

Data storage and its security have been a distress, since the development of the several computing capabilities. Any potential data mishandling can escalate to leakage or breaching, resultant of this can be decline or impinging of trust, privacy or economical stance of the related cloud delegates. Cloud computing is a new technological trend that enables outsourcing of data into the cloud aimed towards elimination of sneakernet as there is no need for rudimentary storage of data as previously in confined physical storages. During decryption data will be vulnerable for some instant of time, as the plain text can be expose, contrary to homomorphic encryption which promotes privacy of the secured data by allowing some operation to be performed on the encrypted data, The homomorphic encryption is presently available for traditional system, the same procedure is applied to the cloud data and in transit.
Structural Change Detection by Direct 3D Model Comparison

: Tracking the structural evolution of a site has important ﬁelds of application, ranging from documenting the excavation progress during an archaeological campaign, to hydro-geological monitoring. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective method that exploits vision-based reconstructed 3D models of a time-changing environment to automatically detect any geometric changes in it. Changes are localized by direct comparison of time-separated 3D point clouds according to a majority voting scheme based on three criteria that compare density, shape and distribution of 3D points. As a by-product, a 4D (space + time) map of the scene can also be generated and visualized. Experimental results obtained with two distinct scenarios (object removal and object displacement) provide both a qualitative and quantitative insight into method accuracy.
The Impact of Logistics Factors on Customer Reviews in E-Commerce

Logistics is the next step and the server of the business, which has a crucial importance for an intensive research. In this paper, taking the amazon reviews for example, we will segment the logistics factors in customer reviews from multiple perspectives, and use the method of data mining analysis to construct a model to mine the association rules which based on APRIORI algorithm. At last, the reliability was validated by an actual example. Such study can help businesses understand the influence degree of logistics in the comments better and help them reduce bad reviews causing by logistics factors. Finally, businesses could improve their reliability and increase their efficiency
Student Modeling From Different Aspects

1 Students vs. Skills: Partitioning Variance Explained in Learner Models . 2 The Opportunity Count Model: A Flexible Approach to Modeling Student Performance . 10 Enhancing the Efficiency and Reliability of Group Differentiation through Partial Credit . 17 Partial Credit Revisited: Enhancing the Efficiency and Reliability of Group Differentiation at Scale . 22 How Long Must We Spin Our Wheels? Analysis of Student Time and Classifier Inaccuracy . 32 Defining Mastery: Knowledge Tracing Versus NConsecutive Correct Responses . 39 Improving Students’ Long-Term Retention Performance: A Study on Personalized Retention Schedules . 47 The Assessment of Learning Infrastructure (ALI): The Theory, Practice, and Scalability of Automated Assessment . 52 Acknowledgement . 62