Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online Learning of Exploratory Behavior through Human-robot Interaction

Currently, many studies have been conducted on robot interactions with humans. Object recognition and feature extraction are essential functions for such robots. Discernment behavior is a type of exploratory behavior that supports object feature extraction. We have proposed an active perception model that autonomously learns discernment behaviors. We have shown the effectiveness of our model using a mobile robot simulation. In this study, we applied our model to a real humanoid robot and confirmed that the robot successfully learns exploratory behaviors. We show that the robot can learn suitable exploratory behaviors by online learning applicable to real-world environments.
Towards Robust Real-Time Valence Recognition from Facial Expressions for Market Research Applications

A novel system for facial expression recognition is presented. It is designed to assess valence (positive or negative feeling) in the context of market research applications. Other design parameters that were met are real-time capability and robust results even when using off-the-shelf equipment (standard web cam and lighting). The paper further presents an empirical study that attests the system satisfying predictive validity for market research applications as long as very small absolute valence values close to zero are not interpreted.
Three-Dimensional Patterning using Ultraviolet Nanoimprint Lithography

Although an extensive number of publications have been reported on nanoimprint lithography (NIL) techniques, the ability of NIL for three-dimensional (3-D) patterning has not been fully addressed in terms of the mold fabrication and imprint processes. Developing technologies for patterning 3-D and multilevel features are important because they eliminate multiple steps and complex interlevel alignments in the fabrication process of nanoscale devices and structures. The semiconductor industries through the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductor (ITRS) organization have identified NIL (ITRS 2003; ITRS 2008), especially ultraviolet curable nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) as a strong candidate for the next generation lithography (NGL) technology for nodes down to 5 nm. Three dimensional NIL (3D-NIL) will have a variety of practical applications including generating patterns for MEMS and NEMS devices, on-chip optics, antireflection structures and in biochip reactors. This chapter explores the 3-D patterning capability using an UV-NIL technique. The 3-D features and multilevel mold design, fabrication, and imprint processes have been studied and analysed and outcome will be presented and discussed. In the UV-NIL technique, a transparent mold with micro/nanostructure patterns on its surface is allowed to be printed and replicated on UV curable polymer without the need of high applied pressure or temperature. UV-NIL has the potential to fabricate micro/nanostructures with high resolution, high reproducibility, low cost, high throughput and in addition is capable of 3-D patterning. Its resolution is not limited by diffraction as in optical lithography or electron scattering as in electron beam lithography (EBL) and there is no expense that scales with reducing dimensions as in other nanolithography technologies. The UV-NIL technique is especially useful in avoiding processes that require high pressure and high temperature cycles. Mold pattern writing, pattern transfer and imprint are the three major areas that are described here. The master molds or dies are made using a high-resolution but low-throughput EBL technique. The pattern transfer process for making the mold is achieved using a reactive ion etching (RIE) technique and subsequent imprint lithography is employed for the replication of the micro/nanostructures onto the daughter molds.
Human mobility in shopping mall environments

The need for a network when there is no infrastructure is no longer limited to military and emergency applications; ad hoc networks can support private and public applications as well. Ad hoc networking has been a dynamically growing research area in recent years. In order to conduct informed and realistic design of forwarding policies and algorithms for mobile ad-hoc delay tolerant networks, it is important to gather appropriate real human mobility data. In this paper we study human mobility in a shopping mall environment. In such an environment, people using network devices such as mobile phones, PDA, etc. could be willing to communicate in a variety of ways, without the mediation of routing across the global Internet. The ultimate goal is to enable a multitude of users at any place in the shopping mall to access/receive appropriate local information at any time. We discuss the implications of our results and make recommendations for the design of opportunistic forwarding algorithms for shopping mall environments.
Investigation of LKB1 Ser431 phosphorylation and Cys433 farnesylation using mouse knockin analysis reveals an unexpected role of prenylation in regulating AMPK activity

The LKB1 tumour suppressor protein kinase functions to activate two isoforms of AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) and 12 members of the AMPK-related family of protein kinases. The highly conserved C-terminal residues of LKB1 are phosphorylated (Ser431) by PKA (cAMP-dependent protein kinase) and RSK (ribosomal S6 kinase) and farnesylated (Cys433) within a CAAX motif. To better define the role that these post-translational modifications play, we created homozygous LKB1S431A/S431A and LKB1C433S/C433S knockin mice. These animals were viable, fertile and displayed no overt phenotypes. Employing a farnesylation-specific monoclonal antibody that we generated, we established by immunoprecipitation that the vast majority, if not all, of the endogenous LKB1 is prenylated. Levels of LKB1 localized at the membrane of the liver of LKB1C433S/C433S mice and their fibroblasts were reduced substantially compared with the wild-type mice, confirming that farnesylation plays a role in mediating membrane association. Although AMPK was activated normally in the LKB1S431A/S431A animals, we unexpectedly observed in all of the examined tissues and cells taken from LKB1C433S/C433S mice that the basal, as well as that induced by the AMP-mimetic AICAR (5-amino-4-imidazolecarboxamide riboside), AMPK activation, phenformin and muscle contraction were significantly blunted. This resulted in a reduced ability of AICAR to inhibit lipid synthesis in primary hepatocytes isolated from LKB1C433S/C433S mice. The activity of several of the AMPK-related kinases analysed [BRSK1 (BR serine/threonine kinase 1), BRSK2, NUAK1 (NUAK family, SNF1-like kinase 1), SIK3 (salt-inducible kinase 3) and MARK4 (MAP/microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 4)] was not affected in tissues derived from LKB1S431A/S431A or LKB1C433S/C433S mice. Our observations reveal for the first time that farnesylation of LKB1 is required for the activation of AMPK. Previous reports have indicated that a pool of AMPK is localized at the plasma membrane as a result of myristoylation of its regulatory AMPKβ subunit. This raises the possibility that LKB1 farnesylation and myristoylation of AMPKβ might promote the interaction and co-localization of these enzymes on a two-dimensional membrane surface and thereby promote efficient activation of AMPK.
Squibs and Discussions: Identifying Sources of Disagreement: Generalizability Theory in Manual Annotation Studies

Many annotation projects have shown that the quality of manual annotations often is not as good as would be desirable for reliable data analysis. Identifying the main sources responsible for poor annotation quality must thus be a major concern. Generalizability theory is a valuable tool for this purpose, because it allows for the differentiation and detailed analysis of factors that influence annotation quality. In this article we will present basic concepts of Generalizability Theory and give an example for its application based on published data.
Intestinal Stem Cells in GI Physiology and Disease Distinct levels of Sox 9 expression mark colon epithelial stem cells that form colonoids in culture

Ramalingam S, Daughtridge GW, Johnston MJ, Gracz AD, Magness ST. Distinct levels of Sox9 expression mark colon epithelial stem cells that form colonoids in culture. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 302: G10–G20, 2012. First published October 13, 2011; doi:10.1152/ajpgi.00277. 2011. —Sox9 is an high-mobility group box transcription factor that is expressed in the stem cell zone of the small intestine and colon. We have previously used a Sox9EGFP mouse model to demonstrate that discrete levels of Sox9 expression mark small intestine epithelial stem cells that form crypt/villus-like structures in a three-dimensional culture system (Formeister EJ, Sionas AL, Lorance DK, Barkley CL, Lee GH, Magness ST. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 296: G1108–G1118, 2009; Gracz AD, Ramalingam S, Magness ST. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 298: G590–G600, 2010). In the present study, we hypothesized that discrete levels of Sox9 expression would also mark colonic epithelial stem cells (CESCs). Using the Sox9EGFP mouse model, we show that lower levels of Sox9 mark cells in the transit-amplifying progenitor cell zone, while higher levels of Sox9 mark cells in the colonic crypt base. Furthermore, we demonstrate that variable SOX9 levels persist in cells of colonic adenomas from mice and humans. Cells expressing lower Sox9 levels demonstrate gene expression profiles consistent with more differentiated populations, and cells expressing higher Sox9 levels are consistent with less differentiated populations. When placed in culture, cells expressing the highest levels of Sox9 formed “colonoids,” which are defined as bodies of cultured colonic epithelial cells that possess multiple cryptlike structures and a pseudolumen. Cells expressing the highest levels of Sox9 also demonstrate multipotency and self-renewal in vitro, indicating functional stemness. These data suggest a dose-dependent role for Sox9 in normal CESCs and cells comprising colon tumors. Furthermore, distinct Sox9 levels represent a new biomarker to study CESC and progenitor biology in physiological and disease states.
Broadband permeability measurement method for ferrites at any magnetization state: Direct problem

A data processing program based on a full-wave electromagnetic (EM) analysis of a non-reciprocal transmission line partially filled with a ferrite sample is presented. A predictive permeability tensor model is introduced in the Maxwell equations to allow the program to work at any magnetization state. The dispersion diagram for the first significant modes inside the ferrite loaded region of the line is obtained. The presence of magnetostatic modes generated by magnetized ferrite inside the line is verified. Using a mode matching technique, the theoretical scattering parameters (S-parameters) of the non-reciprocal transmission line are calculated. The analysis is validated by the comparison between the calculated S-parameters with those obtained with a FEM based EM simulator and the measurements at limit cases.
Finding Communities in Site Web-Graphs and Citation Graphs

The Web is a typical example of a social network. One of the most intriguing features of the Web is its self-organization behavior, which is usually faced through the existence of communities. The discovery of the communities in a Web-graph can be used to improve the effectiveness of search engines, for purposes of prefetching, bibliographic citation ranking, spam detection, creation of road-maps and site graphs, etc. Correspondingly, a citation graph is also a social network which consists of communities. The identification of communities in citation graphs can enhance the bibliography search as well as the data-mining. In this paper we will present a fast algorithm which can identify the communities over a given unweighted/undirected graph. This graph may represent a Web-graph or a citation graph.
Generative and Discriminative Methods Using Morphological Information for Sentence Segmentation of Turkish

This paper presents novel methods for generative, discriminative, and hybrid sequence classification for segmentation of Turkish word sequences into sentences. In the literature, this task is generally solved using statistical models that take advantage of lexical information among others. However, Turkish has a productive morphology that generates a very large vocabulary, making the task much harder. In this paper, we introduce a new set of morphological features, extracted from words and their morphological analyses. We also extend the established method of hidden event language modeling (HELM) to factored hidden event language modeling (fHELM) to handle morphological information. In order to capture non-lexical information, we extract a set of prosodic features, which are mainly motivated from our previous work for other languages. We then employ discriminative classification techniques, boosting and conditional random fields (CRFs), combined with fHELM, for the task of Turkish sentence segmentation.
CoMoT -- A Platform-as-a-Service for Elasticity in the Cloud

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) should support the design, deployment, execution, test and monitoring of native elastic systems constructed from elastic service units based on multi-dimensional elasticity requirements. In this paper, we discuss fundamental building blocks for enabling multi-dimensional elasticity programming of software-defined elastic systems. We describe CoMoT, a novel PaaS for elasticity in the cloud that is developed based on these fundamental building blocks.
Nano-indentation studies and macro-scale mechanical testing of vanadium modified BBN ceramics

The mechanical properties of the pure as well as vanadium modified BaBi2Nb2O9 ceramics have been studied in macro and nano-scales using three different methods. Specifically for macro-scale, ultrasonic velocity and internal friction were employed to evaluate the Young modulus (E), whereas for nano-scale the nanoindentation method was a very useful tool to obtain the elastic modulus and hardness. These results reveal the strong influence of vanadium admixture on mechanical properties of the discussed material. In the case of modified ceramics the value of Young modulus increases, which is probably connected with the decreasing of the number of defects. Moreover, the described results show the significant differences in mechanical properties measured on nano and macro-scale. It is concluded that the knowledge of the mechanical properties of the ceramic material is complete only when we take into account both the macro and nano-scale.
Efficient Method for Time-Domain Analysis of Lossy Nonuniform Multiconductor Transmission Line Driven by a Modulated Signal Using FDTD Technique

In this paper, an unconditionally stable finite-difference time-domain algorithm is presented for analysis of lossy nonuniform multiconductor transmission line (MTL). The results of the proposed algorithm are confirmed by those of the Leap-Frog algorithm. The unconditionally stable algorithm alone cannot decrease the time consumption, especially when the MTL is excited by modulated signals. The complex phasor transformation approach is used to separate the modulating signal from the carrier signal when an MTL is excited by a modulated signal. A new set of equations is generated using this approach. The new equations are based on the modulating signal, and the carrier signal is eliminated in these equations. The derived equations are solved by Leap-Frog algorithm, and the results confirm the accuracy of these equations. Finally, the proposed equations are solved by the unconditionally stable algorithm at several temporal step sizes. The results indicate that this method has much lower CPU time compared with the conventional method and also has a very good accuracy.
PROPERTIES AND FROST DURABILITY OF RECYCLED AGGREGATE FROM OSLO, NORWAY

Properties of bulk aggregate and concrete were investigated with RCA from the recycling plant of BA Gjenvinning in Oslo. The coarse RCA can probably be classified as Type II concrete aggregate following Rilem (and CEN) recommendations since absorption (5.7-6.3 %) and dry density (2280-2240 kg/cu.m) agree with typical RCA values. The sand with 12.8 - 14.7 % absorption and 1970 - 1910 kg/cu.m density had low fines content, giving good concrete workability at w/c = 0.60 and 365 kg/cu.m cement. RCA concrete with density below 2000 kg/cu.m had 50 - 55 % of the 28 day strength of granitic aggregate content. Frost testing of bulk coarse RCA could give rather high mass loss: 5.8 - 14.6 % in water and 27.2 - 40.4 % in 1 % NaCl. However, drying at 105 degrees C for 24 hours before freeze/thaw is not recommended since mass loss increased compared to 3 months drying in lab air before freeze/thaw. Furthermore, frost dilation testing of concrete made with wet and dry RCA demonstrated that the degree of saturation is the main factor governing frost damage in concrete with RCA. For the covering abstract see ITRD E112391.
SMAUG: Secure Mobile Authentication Using Gestures

We present SMAUG (Secure Mobile Authentication Using Gestures), a novel biometric assisted authentication algorithm for mobile devices that is solely based on data collected from multiple sensors that are usually installed on modern devices -- touch screen, gyroscope and accelerometer. As opposed to existing approaches, our system supports a fully flexible user input such as free-form gestures, multi-touch, and arbitrary amount of strokes. Our experiments confirm that this approach provides a high level of robustness and security. More precisely, in 77% of all our test cases over all gestures considered, a user has been correctly identified during the first authentication attempt and in 99% after the third attempt, while an attacker has been detected in 97% of all test cases. As an example, gestures that have a good balance between complexity and usability, e.g., drawing a two parallel lines using two fingers at the same time, 100% success rate after three login attempts and 97% impostor detection rate were given. We stress that we consider the strongest possible attacker model: an attacker is not only allowed to monitor the legitimate user during the authentication process, but also receives additional information on the biometric properties, for example pressure, speed, rotation, and acceleration. We see this method as a significant step beyond existing authentication methods that can be deployed directly to devices in use without the need of additional hardware.
Beacon-driven Leader Based Protocol over a GE Channel for MAC Layer Multicast Error Control

In wireless networks current standard MAC layer protocols don’t provide any error correction scheme for broadcast/multicast. In this paper, we enhance a Leader Based Protocol (LBP) and propose a Beacon-driven Leader Based Protocol (BLBP) for the MAC layer multicast error control. To guarantee a very low Packet Loss Ratio (PLR) under strict delay constraints for video multicast over a Gilbert-Elliott (GE) channel, we analyze BLBP and compare it with LBP and different application layer multicast error control schemes via simulation experiments. Both the theoretical analysis and simulation results show that BLBP can correct nearly all the errors for all receivers in the MAC layer and is more efficient than LBP. BLBP is also more efficient than the application layer Automatic Repeat request (ARQ) scheme and the total multicast delay is much shorter. BLBP is very good for real-time multicast applications with strict delay constraints.
Direct self control with minimum torque ripple and high dynamics for a double three-level GTO inverter drive

A highly dynamic control scheme with very low torque ripple-direct self control (DSC) with torque hysteresis control-for very high-power medium-voltage induction motor drives fed by a double three-level inverter (D3LI) is presented. In this arrangement, two three-level inverters that are connected in parallel at their DC sides are feeding the open motor windings. The DSC, well known from two- and three-level inverters, is adapted to the D3LI and optimized for a minimum torque ripple. An 18-corner trajectory is chosen for the stator flux of the induction machine since it is approaching the ideal circle much better than the hexagon known from DSC for two-level inverters, without any detriment to the torque ripple. The machine and inverter control are explained and the proposed torque quality and dynamics are verified by measurements on a 180-kW laboratory drive.
A systems biology approach to understanding elevated serum alanine transaminase levels in a clinical trial with ximelagatran

Ximelagatran was developed for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic conditions. However, in long-term clinical trials with ximelagatran, the liver injury marker, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) increased in some patients. Analysis of plasma samples from 134 patients was carried out using proteomic and metabolomic platforms, with the aim of finding predictive biomarkers to explain the ALT elevation. Analytes that were changed after ximelagatran treatment included 3-hydroxybutyrate, pyruvic acid, CSF1R, Gc-globulin, L-glutamine, protein S and alanine, etc. Two of these analytes (pyruvic acid and CSF1R) were studied further in human cell cultures in vitro with ximelagatran. A systems biology approach applied in this study proved to be successful in generating new hypotheses for an unknown mechanism of toxicity.
A Benchmark for Betweenness Centrality Approximation Algorithms on Large Graphs

Betweenness centrality quantifies the importance of graph nodes in a variety of applications including social, biological and communication networks. Its computation is very costly for large graphs; therefore, many approximate methods have been proposed. Given the lack of a golden standard, the accuracy of most approximate methods is evaluated on tiny graphs and is not guaranteed to be representative of realistic datasets that are orders of magnitude larger. In this paper, we develop BeBeCA, a benchmark for betweenness centrality approximation methods on large graphs. Specifically: (i) We generate a golden standard by deploying a parallel implementation of Brandes algorithm using 96,000 CPU cores on a supercomputer to compute exact betweenness centrality values for several large graphs with up to 126M edges. (ii) We propose an evaluation methodology to assess various aspects of approximation accuracy, such as average error and quality of node ranking. (iii) We survey a large number of existing approximation methods and compare their performance and accuracy using our benchmark. (iv) We publicly share our benchmark, which includes the golden standard exact betweenness centrality values together with the scripts that implement our evaluation methodology; for researchers to compare their own algorithms and practitioners to select the appropriate algorithm for their application and data.
Spectral Properties of Homogeneous and Nonhomogeneous Radar Images

On the basis of a two-dimensional, nonstationary white noisemodel for the complex radar backscatter, the spectral properties ofa one-look synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system is derived. It isshown that the power spectrum of the complex SAR image is sceneindependent. It is also shown that the spectrum of the intensityimage is in general related to the radar scene spectrum by a linearintegral equation, a Fredholm's integral equation of the third kind.Under simplifying assumptions, a closed-form equation giving theradar scene spectrum as a function of the SAR image spectrum canbe derived.