Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-robot heuristic goods transportation

In this paper, we consider the issue of transporting a certain number of goods by a team of mobile robots. The target is to minimize the total transportation time and keep a low energy consumption of the intelligent agents on assuring security and quality during the transportation process. The pivotal issue needs to be solved is how to assign tasks to individual robots in a more reasonable and efficient way. We present a novel solution by using an empirical-based heuristic planning strategy for the goods transportation by multiple robots. In contrast to previous approaches, this strategy is designed to plan the transportation task for each individual robot by estimating the production rate of goods based on multi-robot coordination. Our approach has been implemented and evaluated in simulation. The experimental results demonstrate that the completion time of the whole transportation mission can be significantly reduced and the energy consumption of robots can be kept at a low level of our heuristic planning strategy compared with the previous approach.
Promoter Recognition in human genome Chandrashekar

promoter is a specific region of DNA that facilitates the transcription of a particular gene. Promoters are typically located near the genes they regulate, on the same strand and upstream (towards the 5′ region of the sense strand). Promoters contain specific DNA sequences and response elements which provide binding sites for RNA polymerase and for proteins called transcription factors that recruit RNA polymerase. Promoter prediction programs (ppps) are computational models which aim at identifying the promoter regions in a genome. The main approaches of the promoter prediction are either assigning scores to all single nucleotides to identify TSS or identifying a promoter region without providing scores to all nucleotides. In this project n-gram features are extracted and used in promoter prediction. Here a systematic study is made to discover the efficacy of n-grams (n=2, 3, 4, 5) as features in promoter prediction problem. Neural network classifiers with these n-grams as features are used to identify promoters in a human genome. In this case for n=4 we are getting optimal values. Keywords—Biological data sets, machine learning method, neural networks, in silico method for promoter prediction, Binary classification, cascaded classifiers.
Color and Psychological

Color is a ubiquitous perceptual experience, yet little scientific information about the influence of color on affect, cognition, and behavior is available. Accord ingly, we have developed a general model of color and psychological functioning, which we present in this article. We also describe a hypothesis derived from this model re garding the influence of red in achievement contexts. In addition, we report a series of experiments demonstrating that a brief glimpse of red evokes avoidance motivation and undermines intellectual performance, and that it has these effects without conscious awareness or intention. We close with thoughts on the need for rigorous scientific work on color psychology.
The Role of Cultural Intelligence in Marketing Adaptation and Export Performance

This study examines how export manager cultural intelligence (CQ) affects the relationship between marketing-mix adaptation and export performance. From a resource-advantage theory perspective, the authors posit that export managers’ motivational and metacognitive CQ are intangible but valuable resources that influence marketing strategy and export performance. According to survey data from 153 U.S. exporting firms, export managers’ metacognitive CQ positively moderates the relationship between marketing-mix adaptations and export performance. Furthermore, export managers’ motivational CQ positively moderates the relationship between environmental differences and marketing-mix adaptations. The study adds to the theoretical understanding of the adaptation–performance relationship and provides valuable guidelines for exporting firms in the recruitment, training, and promotion of export managers.
Selective Inhibition of Fatty Acid Synthase for Lung Cancer Treatment

Purpose: Fatty acid synthase (FAS) is overexpressed in many human cancers and is considered to be a promising target for therapy. However, in vitro use of previous generations of FAS inhibitors has been limited by severe, but reversible, anorexia in treated animals, which is thought to be related to a parallel stimulation of fatty acid oxidation by these agents. This study investigated pharmacologic inhibition of FAS using C93, a rationally designed molecule that inhibits FAS activity without affecting fatty acid oxidation in preclinical models of lung cancer. Experimental Design: Activity of C93 on FAS and fatty acid oxidation was evaluated in cultured non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. Antineoplastic activity of the compound, given orally or by i.p. injection, was evaluated in s.c. and orthotopic NSCLC xenografts. Results: Our experiments confirm that C93 effectively inhibits FAS without stimulating fatty acid oxidation in lung cancer cells. More importantly, C93 significantly inhibits the growth of both s.c. and orthotopic xenograft tumors from human NSCLC cell lines without causing anorexia and weight loss in the treated animals. Conclusions: We conclude that inhibition of FAS can be achieved without parallel stimulation of fatty acid oxidation and that inhibition of tumor growth in vivo can be achieved without anorexia and weight loss. Thus, this therapeutic strategy holds promise for clinical treatment of cancers, including non–small cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States and Europe.
Understanding Human-Chosen PINs: Characteristics, Distribution and Security

Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) are ubiquitously used in embedded computing systems where user input interfaces are constrained. Yet, little attention has been paid to this important kind of authentication credentials, especially for 6-digit PINs which dominate in Asian countries and are gaining popularity worldwide. Unsurprisingly, many fundamental questions (e.g., what's the distribution that human-chosen PINs follow? ) remain as intact as about fifty years ago when they first arose. In this work, we conduct a systematic investigation into the characteristics, distribution and security of both 4-digit PINs and 6-digit PINs that are chosen by English users and Chinese users. Particularly, we, for the first time, perform a comprehensive comparison of the PIN characteristics and security between these two distinct user groups. Our results show that there are great differences in PIN choices between these two groups of users, a small number of popular patterns prevail in both groups, and surprisingly, over 50% of every PIN datasets can be accounted for by just the top 5%~8% most popular PINs. What's disturbing is the observation that, as online guessing is a much more serious threat than offline guessing in the current PIN-based systems, longer PINs only attain marginally improved security: human-chosen 4-digit PINs can offer about 6.6 bits of security against online guessing and 8.4 bits of security against offline guessing, and this figure for 6-digit PINs is 7.2 bits and 13.2 bits, respectively. We, for the first time, reveal that Zipf's law is likely to exist in PINs. Despite distinct language/cultural backgrounds, both user groups choose PINs with almost the same Zipf distribution function, and such Zipf PIN-distribution from one source (about which we may know little information) can be well predicted by real-world attackers by running Markov-Chains with PINs from another known source. Our Zipf theory would have foundational implications for analyzing PIN-based protocols and for designing PIN creation policies, while our security measurements provide guidance for bank agencies and financial authorities that are planning to conduct PIN migration from 4-digits to 6-digits.
Tensors versus matrices usefulness and unexpected properties

Since the nineties, tensors are increasingly used in Signal Processing and Data Analysis. There exist striking differences between tensors and matrices, some being advantages, and others raising difficulties. These differences are pointed out in this paper while briefly surveying the state of the art. The conclusion is that tensors are omnipresent in real life, implicitly or explicitly, and must be used even if we still know quite little about their properties.
Novel SINR‐Based User Selection for an MU‐MIMO System with Limited Feedback

This paper presents a novel user selection method based on the signal‐to‐interference‐plus‐noise ratio (SINR), which is approximated using limited feedback data at the base stations (BSs) of multiple user multiple‐input multiple‐output (MU‐MIMO) systems. In the proposed system, the codebook vector index, the quantization error obtained from the correlation between the measured channel and the codebook vector, and the measured value of the largest singular value are fed back from each user to the BS. The proposed method not only generates precoding vectors that are orthogonal to the precoding vectors of the previously selected users and are highly correlated with the codebook vector of each user but also adopts the quantization error in approximating the SINR, which eventually provides a significantly more accurate SINR than the conventional SINR‐based user selection techniques. Computer simulations show that the proposed method enhances the sum rate of the conventional SINR‐based methods by at least 2.4 (2.62) bps/Hz when the number of transmit antennas and number of receive antennas per user terminal is 4 and 1(2), respectively, with 100 candidate users and an SNR of 30 dB.
Delayed convergence between brain network structure and function in rolandic epilepsy

Introduction: Rolandic epilepsy (RE) manifests during a critical phase of brain development, and has been associated with language impairments. Concordant abnormalities in structural and functional connectivity (SC and FC) have been described before. As SC and FC are under mutual influence, the current study investigates abnormalities in the SC-FC synergy in RE. Methods: Twenty-two children with RE (age, mean ± SD: 11.3 ± 2.0 y) and 22 healthy controls (age 10.5 ± 1.6 y) underwent structural, diffusion weighted, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3T. The probabilistic anatomical landmarks atlas was used to parcellate the (sub)cortical gray matter. Constrained spherical deconvolution tractography and correlation of time series were used to assess SC and FC, respectively. The SC-FC correlation was assessed as a function of age for the non-zero structural connections over a range of sparsity values (0.01–0.75). A modularity analysis was performed on the mean SC network of the controls to localize potential global effects to subnetworks. SC and FC were also assessed separately using graph analysis. Results: The SC-FC correlation was significantly reduced in children with RE compared to healthy controls, especially for the youngest participants. This effect was most pronounced in a left and a right centro-temporal network, as well as in a medial parietal network. Graph analysis revealed no prominent abnormalities in SC or FC network organization. Conclusion: Since SC and FC converge during normal maturation, our finding of reduced SC-FC correlation illustrates impaired synergy between brain structure and function. More specifically, since this effect was most pronounced in the youngest participants, RE may represent a developmental disorder of delayed brain network maturation. The observed effects seem especially attributable to medial parietal connections, which forms an intermediate between bilateral centro-temporal modules of epileptiform activity, and bear relevance for language function.
Tort Reform, Disputes and Belief Formation

We experimentally study the effects of the split-award tort reform, where the state takes a share of the plaintiff's punitive damage award, on litigants' beliefs and bargaining outcomes. In addition, we study the formation of litigants' beliefs in a strategic environment. Our results provide support for coherence-based reasoning theories: coherence shifts in litigants' background beliefs (elicited before a role is assigned and after commitment to a choice at the pretrial bargaining stage) suggest bi-directionality between choices and beliefs. Our findings also suggest role-specific bias in the updating of plaintiffs' beliefs about firm's negligence. Finally, our findings indicate that split-awards affect plaintiffs' beliefs about fairness and lower out-of-court settlement amounts.
Fast concurrent queues for x86 processors

Conventional wisdom in designing concurrent data structures is to use the most powerful synchronization primitive, namely compare-and-swap (CAS), and to avoid contended hot spots. In building concurrent FIFO queues, this reasoning has led researchers to propose combining-based concurrent queues. This paper takes a different approach, showing how to rely on fetch-and-add (F&A), a less powerful primitive that is available on x86 processors, to construct a nonblocking (lock-free) linearizable concurrent FIFO queue which, despite the F&A being a contended hot spot, outperforms combining-based implementations by 1.5x to 2.5x in all concurrency levels on an x86 server with four multicore processors, in both single-processor and multi-processor executions.
Prevention of Rectal SHIV Transmission in Macaques by Daily or Intermittent Prophylaxis with Emtricitabine and Tenofovir

Background In the absence of an effective vaccine, HIV continues to spread globally, emphasizing the need for novel strategies to limit its transmission. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with antiretroviral drugs could prove to be an effective intervention strategy if highly efficacious and cost-effective PrEP modalities are identified. We evaluated daily and intermittent PrEP regimens of increasing antiviral activity in a macaque model that closely resembles human transmission. Methods and Findings We used a repeat-exposure macaque model with 14 weekly rectal virus challenges. Three drug treatments were given once daily, each to a different group of six rhesus macaques. Group 1 was treated subcutaneously with a human-equivalent dose of emtricitabine (FTC), group 2 received orally the human-equivalent dosing of both FTC and tenofovir-disoproxil fumarate (TDF), and group 3 received subcutaneously a similar dosing of FTC and a higher dose of tenofovir. A fourth group of six rhesus macaques (group 4) received intermittently a PrEP regimen similar to group 3 only 2 h before and 24 h after each weekly virus challenge. Results were compared to 18 control macaques that did not receive any drug treatment. The risk of infection in macaques treated in groups 1 and 2 was 3.8- and 7.8-fold lower than in untreated macaques (p = 0.02 and p = 0.008, respectively). All six macaques in group 3 were protected. Breakthrough infections had blunted acute viremias; drug resistance was seen in two of six animals. All six animals in group 4 that received intermittent PrEP were protected. Conclusions This model suggests that single drugs for daily PrEP can be protective but a combination of antiretroviral drugs may be required to increase the level of protection. Short but potent intermittent PrEP can provide protection comparable to that of daily PrEP in this SHIV/macaque model. These findings support PrEP trials for HIV prevention in humans and identify promising PrEP modalities.
Stakeholder Rights and Corporate Governance: A Cross-National Study of Hostile Takeovers

We examine the role of three types of stakeholders in the uneven adoption of an organizational practice in different countries, arguing that organizational practices achieve widespread use only when they are consistent with the interests of the most powerful social actors as enshrined in legal rights. Building on a “stakeholder-power” approach to corporate governance, we examine whether the interests of shareholders, workers, and banks are consistent with the practice of hostile takeovers. Regressions using data on as many as 37 countries between 1988 and 1998 lend support to predictions that hostile takeovers increase in frequency with the extent to which shareholder rights are protected and decrease with the degree to which workers' and banks' rights are protected. We discuss the implications for the analysis of comparative institutions and for organizational theory.
Institutional Allocation in Initial Public Offerings: Empirical Evidence

We analyze institutional allocation in initial public offerings (IPOs) using a new dataset of US offerings between 1997 and 1998. We document a positive relationship between institutional allocation and day one IPO returns. This is partly explained by the practice of giving institutions more shares in IPOs with strong pre-market demand, consistent with book-building theories. However, institutional allocation also contains private information about first-day IPO returns not reflected in pre-market demand and other public information. Our evidence supports book-building theories of IPO underpricing, but suggests that institutional allocation in underpriced issues is in excess of that explained by book-building alone.
Invariant Regions and Global Existence of Solutions for Reaction-Diffusion Systems with a Full Matrix of Diffusion Coefficients and Nonhomogeneous Boundary Conditions

Abstract The purpose of this paper is the construction of invariant regions in which we establish the global existence of solutions for reaction-diffusion systems with a general full matrix of diffusion coefficients without balance law'condition (𝑓 + 𝑔 ≡ 0) and with nonhomogeneous boundary conditions. Our techniques are based on invariant regions and Lyapunov functional methods. The nonlinear reaction term has been supposed to be of polynomial growth.
400 Discussion/Errata.qxd

We have read with great interest the paper entitled " 3D inversion of gravity and magnetic data with depth resolution " by Fedi and Rapolla. We realize that many discussions we had with one of the authors had not resolved our differences and, therefore, we are writing this comment to document out concerns regarding the authors' conclusion that the upward-continued gravity or magnetic data contain extra information and provide depth resolution. As is well known in potential-field theory, the fields produced by the subsurface source at any two nonintersecting observational surfaces are linearly related to each other and one contains no more information than does the other. Furthermore, the field on the observational surface above the source can be reproduced by an infinite number of equivalent sources below that surface. As a consequence, gravity or magnetic data do not provide any information about the subsurface structure unless the source is assumed to have certain restrictive properties. No amount of upward continuation will create any new information and, consequently, the addition of upward-continued data will not resolve the depth distribution of the source. In practical applications, when the data are available in a small area and/or when the data are coursely sampled, then exact numerical continuation is not possible to perform. In such circumstances, independently-measured data at a different level will provide extra information that is not contained in the data at the original level. The maximum amount of additional information that any upper-level data can supply is that which is contained in the missing portion of the data map at the lower level. Fedi and Rapolla provide two examples which they claim support their hypothesis that data along the vertical direction are needed to obtain depth resolution and, furthermore, that upward-continued data serve this purpose. As is shown below, both results arise because of a priori restrictions upon the model space used to carry out the inversion. The first example (Figures 3 and 4 of their paper) compares the recovery of a buried susceptible block when only surface data are used, and when data at 10 different heights are used. When the surface data are inverted, the susceptibility maximum is at the surface, whereas when data at all 10 levels are inverted, the recovered susceptibility compares well with the true values. In both inversions the earth was modeled with a 7 × 7 × 7 set of prismatic cells. Each …
Distributed remote vector gaussian source coding with covariance distortion constraints

In this paper, we consider a distributed remote source coding problem, where a sequence of observations of source vectors is available at the encoder. The problem is to specify the optimal rate for encoding the observations subject to a covariance matrix distortion constraint and in the presence of side information at the decoder. For this problem, we derive lower and upper bounds on the rate-distortion function (RDF) for the Gaussian case, which in general do not coincide. We then provide some cases, where the RDF can be derived exactly. We also show that previous results on specific instances of this problem can be generalized using our results. We finally show that if the distortion measure is the mean squared error, or if it is replaced by a certain mutual information constraint, the optimal rate can be derived from our main result.
Evolution of gene expression and expression plasticity in long‐term experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster maintained under constant and variable ethanol stress

Gene expression responds to the environment and can also evolve rapidly in response to altered selection regimes. Little is known, however, about the extent to which evolutionary adaptation to a particular type of stress involves changes in the within‐generation (‘plastic’) responses of gene expression to the stress. We used microarrays to quantify gene expression plasticity in response to ethanol in laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster differing in their history of ethanol exposure. Two populations (‘R’ populations) were maintained on regular medium, two (‘E’) were maintained on medium supplemented with ethanol, and two (‘M’) were maintained in a mixed regime in which half of the population was reared on one medium type, and half on the other, each generation. After more than 300 generations, embryos from each population were collected and exposed to either ethanol or water as a control, and RNA was extracted from the larvae shortly after hatching. Nearly 2000 transcripts showed significant within‐generation responses to ethanol exposure. Evolutionary history also affected gene expression: the E and M populations were largely indistinguishable in expression, but differed significantly in expression from the R populations for over 100 transcripts, the majority of which did not show plastic responses. Notably, in no case was the interaction between selection regime and ethanol exposure significant after controlling for multiple comparisons, indicating that adaptation to ethanol in the E and M populations did not involve substantial changes in gene expression plasticity. The results give evidence that expression plasticity evolves considerably more slowly than mean expression.