Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial coordination - human and robotic communicative whole-body motions in narrow passages

The focus of this thesis is the nonverbal communication via robotic and human whole-body motions in HRI. Humans have the natural ability to nonverbally communicate with each other via whole-body motion and are very able to interpret and predict motions of others, e.g., in order to coordinate themselves with others in narrow environments. This thesis investigates the communicative potential of whole-body motions not only on the robotic side of conveying motion but also on the human side in HRI. To observe human interpretation of robot motion and to observe human communicative whole-body motion in interaction, two studies have been conducted. A result of the studies is that abrupt motions and motions which are bounded with pauses are clearer to interpret. A human interprets robotic motions as reaction to her / his own presence if the robotic motion is abrupt, e.g., humans attribute intentional behaviour more to a driving robot, which stops or to a robot which has not been moving and then moves compared to a robot which has been moving constantly. Another important result of the studies is the creation of a coding scheme based on a detailed description of human whole-body motions and their associated characteristics. Small steps are conveyed and bounded with pauses. Characteristics of motion (trajectory, distance, position, orientation) are analysed as to whether they form any patterns that represent specific communicative whole-body motions. This thesis discusses that a mere representations of two moving objects is not enough for a robot to interpret communicative whole-body motions. A relative and qualitative framework of representing motions and its advancements are used and discussed. This thesis identifies the need for a system to represent possible interpretations or meanings according to the observed communicative motions for robots. This PhD thesis is a fundamental and interdisciplinary work and the basis for different future projects which have been already initiated. This thesis provides pieces of advice of how a robot should cope with the communicative power of whole-body motions in HRI. A robot should: a) consider human communicative whole-body motion and ask for its meaning. b) be aware of the own motion. c) express goal-directed actions.
Detection of Botnet Command and Control Traffic in Enterprise Networks

Botnets play an important role in modern Internet-related cybercrime. A botnet consists of a group of infected computers, referred to as bots. The bots are remotely controlled and deployed in malicious activities, such as DDoS attacks, spam, and espionage. Clever design of the botnet C&C (Command and Control) infrastructure, combined with the adaptability of the bot and its attacks make botnets a universal cybercrime tool. This is reflected in the large number of discovered botnets and botnet-related incidents. This doctoral thesis aims to explore new and specialized C&C detection approaches for enterprise networks. Three new detection approaches are proposed. The first detection approach, referred to as TFC detection (TFC=Traffic Flow Causality), detects C&C traffic by the direct causes of egress traffic. The second approach, referred to as UDI-detection (UDI =Untrusted Destination Identification), detects C&C traffic by the estimation of the trustworthiness of egress traffic destinations. The third approach detects DNS-based C&C traffic by the degree distribution of resolved DNS domains. The ability of all three approaches to detect botnet C&C traffic differently from existing techniques allows for implementation in intrusion detection systems of enterprise networks alongside existing anomaly-based and signature based detection approaches, to improve diversity
Effective Service Discovery based on Pertinence Probabilities Learning

Web service discovery is one of the most motivating issues of service-oriented computing field. Several approaches have been proposed to tackle this problem. In general, they leverage similarity measures or logic-based reasoning to perform this task, but they still present some limitations in terms of effectiveness. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic-based approach to merge a set of matching algorithms and boost the global performance. The key idea consists of learning a set of relevance probabilities; thereafter, we use them to produce a combined ranking. The conducted experiments on the real world dataset “OWL-S TC 2” demonstrate the effectiveness of our model in terms of mean averaged precision (MAP); more specifically, our solution, termed “probabilistic fusion”, outperforms all the state of the art matchmakers as well as the most prominent similarity measures. Keywords—Service-oriented computing; web service discovery; rank aggregation; probabilistic fusion
Retinoic acid affects basic cellular processes and SOX2 and SOX18 expression in breast carcinoma cells

: Genetic and molecular heterogeneity, together with intrinsic and acquired resistance to therapy, represent the major obstacles to the successful treatment of different types of breast carcinoma. Increasing evidence demonstrates that SOX transcription factors in breast carcinomas could act both as oncogenes and tumor suppressors and have been associated with tumor stage and grade, poor prognosis, and therapy resistance. Both SOX2 and SOX18 overexpression has been correlated with poor prognosis in breast carcinomas, and these genes are recognized as potential antitumor targets. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of retinoic acid (RA), a well-known cyto-differentiating agent, on breast carcinoma cells in vitro and to investigate the potential of RA treatment to modify the expression of SOX2 and SOX18 genes. By applying various experimental approaches, we evaluated the effect of RA on basic cellular processes in SK-BR-3 and MCF7 breast carcinoma cell lines. We have shown that RA inhibits cell growth, reduces the number of Ki-67 positive cells, and causes cell-cycle arrest. RA effect was more prominent in SK-BR-3 cell line that lacks SOX2 expression, including a higher decrease in cell viability, reduction in colony formation, and signi ﬁ cant remodeling of cellular structure. We have shown that RA treatment led to the downregulation of SOX2 expression in MCF7 cells and to the reduction of SOX18 expression in both cell lines. By functional analysis, we showed that the anti-proliferative effect of RA in both cell lines was not based on the activity of stemness marker SOX2 , pointing to a SOX2 -independent mechanism of action. The ability of RA to reduce SOX2/ SOX18 expression raises the possibility that these genes can be used as biomarkers to distinguish RA-responders from non-responders. Together, our study shows that the response of breast carcinoma cell lines to RA treatment may vary, highlighting that the development of RA-based therapy should consider differences in breast carcinoma subtypes.
Local Oscillator Power Requirement and Saturation Effects in NbN HEB Mixers

The local oscillator power required for NbN hot-electron bolometric mixers (PLO) was investigated with respect to mixer size, critical temperature and ambient temperature. PLO can be decreased by a factor of 10 as the mixer size decreases from 4×0.4 μm to 0.6×0.13 μm. For the smallest volume mixer the optimal local oscillator power was found to be 15 nW. We found that for such mixer no signal compression was observed up to an input signal of 2 nW which corresponds to an equivalent input load of 20,000 K. For a constant mixer volume, reduction of Tc can decrease optimal local oscillator power at least by a factor of 2 without a deterioration of the receiver noise temperature. Bath temperature was found to have minor effect on the receiver characteristics
FATIGUE BEHAVIOR UNDER NEW AIRCRAFT LOADING CONDITIONS

Mechanistic design procedures for flexible airport pavements require laboratory characterization of the properties of the asphalt concrete. Because new gear configurations, such as the tridem gear, impose different load levels, duration, and shapes, the current performance characteristics of asphalt concrete mixtures derived from laboratory testing or field performance surveys may not be appropriate. Current performance characteristics are often based either on highway loadings or on previous loading histories, and the nonappearance of any one distress level is no guarantee against its appearance in the future when the loading conditions are altered. This paper examines the impact of new gear configurations on fatigue characteristics of an asphalt concrete mixture in terms of changes induced in the laboratory fatigue behavior of the mixture when used in an airport pavement and the potential implication for field performance. Different pulse durations were examined from the standard 0.1 sec (10 Hz) to a 2 second pulse duration for a slow moving aircraft. The shape of the loading pulse was varied to precisely model the pulse induced from tandem and tridem gear to illustrate any difference in fatigue behavior resulting from conditions other than the standard laboratory loadings which use haversine wave forms in both controlled stress and controlled strain mode. The test results clearly indicate the impact of load pulse duration and shape on the laboratory fatigue representation. The data clearly illustrates the need for accurate material modeling in the mechanistic design process to ensure meaningful predictions of fatigue life in pavement under new gear configurations. The unifying concept of dissipated energy is illustrated for this one mixture.
WITHIN BLOCK SPATIAL VARIATION IN CCS—ANOTHER POTENTIALLY IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION IN THE APPLICATION OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE TO SUGARCANE PRODUCTION

Growers adopting Precision Agriculture approaches to sugar cane production has been predominantly focussed on the use of variable rate management of fertilizers and soil amendments (VRT) to optimise yield. However, cane yield is only one component of the sugar production system; CCS (Commercial Cane Sugar) is also important. Clearly, growers using VRT to optimise yield will not want the benefit of doing so to be offset by a possible consequent CCS penalty. We collected cane stalk samples from 202 geo-referenced locations in a 6.8 ha block of cane in the Bundaberg district during the 2011 harvest and analysed them in the lab for brix, pol and CCS. CCS varied from 13.29 to 16.84 with a mean of 15.73 and median of 15.80; the coefficient of variation (CV) was only 3.5%. However, the variation in CCS was spatially structured - that is, it was not random. Brix and pol followed the same patterns of variation. Future work will seek to characterise CCS variation in potentially more variable blocks and explore the drivers of CCS variation. Nevertheless, the present results suggest that spatial variation in CCS is something that adopters of PA should consider, alongside variation in yield and soil properties. They also lend weight to the need for a harvester-mounted on-the-go sensor for CSS determination as a complement to yield monitoring technology.
Stem-Cell Transplantation in Adult Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma

Although the majority of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) are cured with initial therapy, in 85–90% of early stage and 70–80% of advanced-stage disease cases, relapse remains a major problem. Autologous stem-cell transplantation (auto-HCT) after salvage chemotherapy is currently considered to be the standard of care for patients who relapse after first-line chemotherapy or for whom first-line treatment fails. The curative capacity of auto-HCT has been improving with the introduction of new drug-based salvage strategies and consolidation strategies after auto-HCT. Allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (allo-HCT) represents a reasonable treatment option for young patients who relapse or progress after auto-HCT and have chemosensitive disease at the time of transplantation. Allo-HCT is a valid treatment strategy for patients with relapse/refractory HL (r/r HL) because the results have improved over time, mainly with the safe combination of allo-HCT and new drugs. Bearing in mind that outcomes after haploidentical stem-cell transplantation (haplo-HCT) are comparable with those for matched sibling donors and matched unrelated donors, haplo-HCT is now the preferred alternative donor source for patients with r/r HL without a donor or when there is urgency to find a donor if a matched related donor is not present. The development of new drugs such as anti-CD 30 monoclonal antibodies and checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) for relapsed or refractory HL has demonstrated high response rates and durable remissions, and challenged the role and timing of HCT. The treatment of patients with HL who develop disease recurrence or progression after allo-HCT remains a real challenge and an unmet need.
Advanced tilted fiber gratings and their applications

This thesis presents a detailed numerical analysis, fabrication method and experimental investigation on 45o tilted fiber gratings (45o-TFGs) and excessively tilted fiber gratings (Ex-TFGs), and their applications in fiber laser and sensing systems. The one of the most significant contributions of the work reported in this thesis is that the 45o-TFGs with high polarization extinction ratio (PER) have been fabricated in single mode telecom and polarization maintaining (PM) fibers with spectral response covering three prominent optic communication and central wavelength ranges at 1060nm, 1310nm and 1550nm. The most achieved PERs for the 45o-TFGs are up to and greater than 35-50dB, which have reached and even exceeded many commercial in-fiber polarizers. It has been proposed that the 45o-TFGs of high PER can be used as ideal in-fiber polarizers for a wide range of fiber systems and applications. In addition, in-depth detailed theoretical models and analysis have been developed and systematic experimental evaluation has been conducted producing results in excellent agreement with theoretical modeling. Another important outcome of the research work is the proposal and demonstration of all fiber Lyot filters (AFLFs) implemented by utilizing two (for a single stage type) and more (for multi-stage) 45o-TFGs in PM fiber cavity structure. The detailed theoretical analysis and modelling of such AFLFs have also been carried out giving design guidance for the practical implementation. The unique function advantages of 45o-TFG based AFLFs have been revealed, showing high finesse multi-wavelength transmission of single polarization and wide range of tuneability. The temperature tuning results of AFLFs have shown that the AFLFs have 60 times higher thermal sensitivity than the normal FBGs, thus permitting thermal tuning rate of ~8nm/10oC. By using an intra-cavity AFLF, an all fiber soliton mode locking laser with almost total suppression of siliton sidebands, single polarization output and single/multi-wavelength switchable operation has been demonstrated. The final significant contribution is the theoretical analysis and experimental verification on the design, fabrication and sensing application of Ex-TFGs. The Ex-TFG sensitivity model to the surrounding medium refractive index (SRI) has been developed for the first time, and the factors that affect the thermal and SRI sensitivity in relation to the wavelength range, tilt angle, and the size of cladding have been investigated. As a practical SRI sensor, an 81o-TFG UV-inscribed in the fiber with small (40μm) cladding radius has shown an SRI sensitivity up to 1180nm/RIU in the index of 1.345 range. Finally, to ensure single polarization detection in such an SRI sensor, a hybrid configuration by UV-inscribing a 45o-TFG and an 81o-TFG closely on the same piece of fiber has been demonstrated as a more advanced SRI sensing system.
Ressox Control of QZSS During Communication Interruption

Abstract : The Remote Synchronization System for the Onboard Crystal Oscillator (RESSOX) is a new timekeeping method for the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), and a remote synchronization system for the onboard crystal oscillator of a satellite and the atomic clock of the ground station. RESSOX is developed with an eye to replacing the onboard atomic clock. One of the serious problems of RESSOX is that the QZSS must have an approximately 35-minute communication interruption twice a day to avoid interfering with the communication of other geostationary satellites when the QZS crosses the equator. During the communication interruption, the onboard crystal oscillator will be controlled, not by RESSOX, but by an onboard local system. Two control algorithms were proposed: (1) the averaging of adjacent voltage data and (2) the first-order extrapolation of adjacent voltage data prior to communication interruption. As the behavior of the crystal oscillator is statistical, we attempted to apply a statistical method using our RESSOX hardware/software simulators for the evaluation. At least 12 experiments/simulations were conducted for each case. The standard deviations of the maximum synchronization errors during the 35-minute communication interruption between the onboard crystal oscillator of the satellite and the atomic clock of the ground station were compared. The results of simulations and experiments correspond to each other. In general, the results obtained by averaging show better synchronization than those obtained by first-order extrapolation. The best result was given by the case of averaging 100 adjacent voltage data, and the standard deviation of the maximum synchronization error was 2.80 ns.
JAK2 V617F Mutational Burden and Clinical Findings Relationship in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Background: Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms(MPN) are associated with various genetic abnormalities. JAK2 V617F mutation is the most common one and important for diagnosis. We aimed to evaluate JAK2 mutation status and clinical parameters relationship of the MPN patients referred to our clinic.Methods and Results: We evaluate 143 JAK-2 positive patients diagnosed with polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and primary myelofibrosis (PMF). JAK2 mutational burden was higher in PV and PMF than ET. Laboratory findings were different in MPN groups and higher –lower JAK2 mutational burden groups. JAK2 mutational burden was correlated with spleen size and LDH level, particularly in PMF. There was no significant difference in age, gender, jak2 mutation burden and laboratory findings in patients with and without thrombosis and bleeding. Common treatment protocols were acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) + hydroxyurea, ASA and ASA + phlebotomy and others respectively. JAK2 mutational burden, mean age and LDH level were higher significantly in the patients treated with ASA+ hydroxyurea than the patients treated with ASA.Conclusion: We speculate that if the spleen size in MPN is as large as the massive splenomegaly and the LDH level is high, the JAK2 mutation burden may tend to be higher. This relationship is more pronounced for PMF.
Pinch-off voltage modeling for CMOS image pixels with a pinned photodiode structure

A novel analytical model of pinch-off voltage for CMOS image pixels with a pinned photodiode structure is proposed. The derived model takes account of the gradient doping distributions in the N buried layer due to the impurity compensation formed by manufacturing processes; the impurity distribution characteristics of two boundary PN junctions located in the region for particular spectrum response of a pinned photodiode are quantitative analyzed. By solving Poisson's equation in vertical barrier regions, the relationships between the pinch-off voltage and the corresponding process parameters such as peak doping concentration, N type width and doping concentration gradient of the N buried layer are established. Test results have shown that the derived model features the variations of the pinch-off voltage versus the process implant conditions more accurately than the traditional model. The research conclusions in this paper provide theoretical evidence for evaluating the pinch-off voltage design.
Oversampled Delta-Sigma Modulators: Analysis, Applications and Novel Topologies

Preface. 1: Introduction. 1.1. Aims and Motivations. 1.2. Original Contributions. 1.3. Outline of the Research Monograph. 2: Basic Principles of Delta-Sigma Modulation. 2.1. Nyquist Rate Converters. 2.2. Quantization Noise. 2.3. Oversampling Advantage. 2.4. DeltaSigma Modulation. 2.5. Limit Cycle Oscillations and Tones. 2.6. Higher Order DeltaSigma Modulators. 2.7. Multi-Bit DeltaSigma Converters. 2.8. State-of-the-art Analysis. 3: Analysis of Mash Delta-Sigma Modulators with DC Inputs. 3.1. Introduction. 3.2. Non-Linear Difference Equations. 3.3. Statistics of the Quantizer Error Sequence. 3.4. Simulation Results. 3.5. Output Spectrum. 3.6. Digital Realization of Irrational Initial Condition. 3.7. Conclusion. 4: Analysis of Single-Stage Delta-Sigma Modulators with DC Inputs. 4.1. Motivation behind the Work. 4.2. Uniform Quantizer in the No-Overload Region. 4.3. Non-Linear Difference Equations. 4.4. No-Overload Stability Criterion. 4.5. Solution to the Non-Linear Difference Equation. 4.6. Statistics of the Quantizer Error Sequence. 4.7. Fundamental Result. 4.8. Simulation Results. 4.9. Output Spectrum. 4.10. Error-Feedback Topology. 4.11. Conclusion. 5: Fractional-N PLL Frequency Synthesizers. 5.1. Introduction. 5.2. Analysis of PLLs. 5.3. The Fractional-N Concept. 5.4. Design and Simulation of Fractional-N PLL Frequency Synthesizers. 5.5. Pipelined Implementation of Mash DS Modulators. 5.6. Conclusion. 6: Time-Interleaved Delta-Sigma Modulators. 6.1. Introduction. 6.2. Block Digital Filtering Approach. 6.3. Time-Interleaved DS Modulators with Reduced Complexity. 6.4. Simulations. 6.5. Implementation Issues. 6.6. Hardware Comparison. 6.7. Higher-Order Time-Interleaved DS Modulators. 6.8. Zero-Insertion Interpolation Time-Interleaving. 6.9. Further Practical Issues. 6.10. Conclusion. References.
Pengungkapan Informasi Keuangan Secara Sukarela di Internet oleh Perusahaan Besar di Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of characteristics as a potential factor that might influence each financial disclosure on the internet voluntarily by large companies in Indonesia. The characteristic in this study are the company size, leverage, profitability, company age, dispersion ownership, industrial sector, and auditor type. The sample chosen uses a purposive sampling method to collect as many as 414 large companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2013 to 2017. Using binary logistic regression to determine the effect of independent variables on the dependent variables and processed using the program of SPSS version 21. The results of data analysis and conclusions indicate that the size of the company has a significantly positive effect on Internet Financial Reporting. Variables of company age, industry sector, and auditor type indicate a significantly negative influence. Wheares, for the variables of leverage, profitability, and dispersion of ownership there are no significant findings on Internet Financial Reporting.
Hybrid Atomic Orbitals in Organic Chemistry. Part 2: Critique of Practical Aspects

The importance of hybrid atomic orbitals, in both general and organic chemistry, is reviewed. Every contemporary textbook of organic chemistry introduces the sp3, sp2, sp model, but the suitability of these hybrid orbitals for use in the teaching of molecular structure has been increasingly questioned. Based on a critical survey of the literature, we submit seven practical criteria that deprecate the use of hybrid orbitals in a pedagogical context. We suggest how the teaching of organic chemistry without hybrid orbitals will provide students with an enhanced education.