Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A minimax linear quadratic Gaussian method for antiwindup control synthesis

In this paper, a dynamic antiwindup compensator design is proposed which augments the main controller and guarantees robust performance in the event of input saturation. This is a two stage process in which first a robust optimal controller is designed for an uncertain linear system which guarantees the internal stability of the closed loop system and provides robust performance in the absence of input saturation. Then a minimax linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) compensator is designed to guarantee the performance in certain domain of attraction, in the presence of input saturation. This antiwindup augmentation only comes into action when plant is subject to input saturation. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach, the proposed method is applied to a tracking control problem for an air-breathing hypersonic flight vehicle (AHFV).
Brain activations during conscious self‐monitoring of speech production with delayed auditory feedback: An fMRI study

When a speaker's voice returns to one's own ears with a 200‐ms delay, the delay causes the speaker to speak less fluently. This phenomenon is called a delayed auditory feedback (DAF) effect. To investigate neural mechanisms of speech processing through the DAF effect, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, in which we designed a paradigm to explore the conscious overt‐speech processing and the automatic overt‐speech processing separately, while reducing articulatory motion artifacts. The subjects were instructed to (1) read aloud visually presented sentences under real‐time auditory feedback (NORMAL), (2) read aloud rapidly under real‐time auditory feedback (FAST), (3) read aloud slowly under real‐time auditory feedback (SLOW), and (4) read aloud under DAF (DELAY). In the contrasts of DELAY‐NORMAL, DELAY‐FAST, and DELAY‐SLOW, the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG), the supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) showed significant activation. Moreover, we found that the STG activation was correlated with the degree of DAF effect for all subjects. Because the temporo‐parietal regions did not show significant activation in the comparisons among NORMAL, FAST, and SLOW conditions, we can exclude the possibility that its activation is due to speech rates or enhanced attention to altered speech sounds. These results suggest that the temporo‐parietal regions function as a conscious self‐monitoring system to support an automatic speech production system. Hum. Brain Mapping 20:22–28, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Broadband noise cancellation systems: new approach to working performance optimization

The report deals with speech enhancement in a noisy environment. A new, direct shaping parametric formulation of generalised adaptive spectral subtraction algorithm for non-stationary interference is considered. The idea of the authors is not to select but to form desirable envelope of spectral estimator function in SNR*Gain-function area. Some principles of parameters choice are proposed, based not only on aural estimations of signal quality but also on graphical analysis of target test signals. The field examinations showed good working performance of the proposed approach for noisy speech signal enhancement. The accuracy of various speech recognisers with the described pre-processing was significantly improved for noisy input speech. The paper develops approach originally reported in [5].
PLZT electro-optic waveguides and switches

Switches using (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O/sub 3/ waveguides on Nb-doped SrTiO/sub 3/ semiconductor substrates were fabricated. A fabricated 1 2 switch showed crosstalk of n22 dB and response of 20 ns at a voltage as low as 10 V.
MDEForge: an Extensible Web-Based Modeling Platform

Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) refers to the systematic use of models as first class entities throughout the software development life cycle. Over the last few years, many MDE technologies have been conceived for developing domain specific modeling languages, and for supporting a wide range of model management activities. However, existing modeling platforms neglect a number of important features that if missed reduce the acceptance and the relevance of MDE in industrial contexts, e.g., the possibility to search and reuse already developed modeling artifacts, and to adopt model management tools as a service. In this paper we propose MDEForge a novel extensible Web-based modeling platform specifically conceived to foster a community-based modeling repository, which underpins the development, analysis and reuse of modeling artifacts. Moreover, it enables the adoption of model management tools as software-as-a-service that can be remotely used without overwhelming the users with intricate and error-prone installation and configuration procedures.
Text Detection and Classiï¿¿cation in Natural Images

—Text detection and classiï¿¿cation in natural images is important for many computer vision applications. Here, to detect text, we ï¿¿nd connected components based on consistency in stroke width, chain them based on their relative spatial positions, and use a text classiï¿¿cation engine to ï¿¿lter chains with low clas-siï¿¿cation conï¿¿dence scores. The algorithm performs well using the ICDAR 2015 competition images, with 72.4% precision and 71.0% recall, but struggles under certain imaging conditions or types of text. Finally, we discuss ways to improve the algorithm to yield better performance. Iï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿ Text detection in natural images is an important step in extracting the textual information, which has applications that include text image search, assistance for the visually impaired, and landmark identiï¿¿cation. However, it is also a diï¿¿cult problem due to the variability in imaging conditions, such as lighting, specular reï¿¿ections, noise, blur, and presence of obstructions over the text, and in the variability of the text itself, such as its scale, orientation, font, and style [1]. Good text detection algorithms should thus be robust against such variabilities. Various approaches have been developed to address this problem, and can be classiï¿¿ed into either texture-based methods, which identify text based on its diï¿¿er-ence in texture from the background, or connected component (CC)-based methods, which identify text based on its geometric properties [2]. Recently, Ephstein et al developed a CC-based text detection algorithm using the Stroke Width Transform (SWT), which computes for each pixel the stroke width, i.e. the width of the most likely stroke that generated that pixel [1]. The reasoning is that stroke width generally varies less in text than background, and thus may be used as a ï¿¿lter for text detection. The SWT is robust to scale changes and invariant to rotation, and has shown promising results for this application [1-3]. Here, we employ the method developed by Eph-stein for text detection. First, we ï¿¿nd candidate text components using the SWT, then chain them based on their relative spatial positions. We ï¿¿lter the chains based on consistency between their components, and pass them to an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine, Tesseract [4], which we use to remove chains with low classiï¿¿cation conï¿¿dence scores. The ï¿¿ltered chains are reinput into Tesseract for classiï¿¿cation. In the rest of the paper, we describe the algorithm in greater detail, show results that highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the algorithm, and discuss the performance and …
Digital Design of 12-Phase Cycloconverter Based on DSP with CPLD

Recently, analog control is replaced by digital control in cycloconverter-fed adjustable speed drives. However, cycloconverter has many thyristors and control signals. Multi-CPU has to be adopted for its complexity. In this paper, main circuit is redesigned due to multi-phase. An interstar winding method is used in insulating transformers to supply 12-phase power. A 12-phase cycloconverter based on DSP with CPLD is proposed. The inner structure of CPLD is designed especially to generate heavy firing pulses composed of control signal distributor, counting time delay and pulses widening, and pulses distribution parts. Simulation and experiment results denote that a digital cycloconverter based on DSP with CPLD has the convenience of design and debugging, and has preferable control performance and high reliability
Identification of Host Audit Data to Detect Attacks on Low-level IP Vulnerabilities

Conventional host-based and network-based intrusion and misuse detection systems have concentrated on detecting network-based and internal attacks, but little work has addressed host-based detection of low-level network attacks. A major reason for this is the misuse detection systems dependence on audit data and the absence of low-level network data in audit trails. This work defines low-level IP vulnerabilities and distinguishes between low-level IP and IP-based vulnerabilities. Furthermore, we analyze a number of different low-level IP attacks and the vulnerabilities that they exploit. We develop attack signatures for each attack, and based upon our analysis, we determine a baseline collection of information needed to detect the attacks. We suggest locations within protocol stacks where the needed data can be collected. Finally, we generalize from the baseline audit data to try to predict audit content suitable not only for detecting these attacks, but possible future ones.
Analysis and Design of Resonant Current Controllers for Voltage-Source Converters by Means of Nyquist Diagrams and Sensitivity Function

The following two types of resonant controllers are mainly employed to obtain high performance in voltage-source converters: 1) proportional + resonant (PR) and 2) vector proportional + integral (VPI). The analysis and design of PR controllers is usually performed by Bode diagrams and phase-margin criterion. However, this approach presents some limitations when resonant frequencies are higher than the crossover frequency defined by the proportional gain. This condition occurs in selective harmonic control and applications with high reference frequency with respect to the switching frequency, e.g., high-power converters with a low switching frequency. In such cases, additional 0-dB crossings (phase margins) appear; therefore, the usual methods for simple systems are no longer valid. In addition, VPI controllers always present multiple 0-dB crossings in their frequency response. In this paper, the proximity to the instability of PR and VPI controllers is evaluated and optimized through Nyquist diagrams. A systematic method is proposed to obtain the highest stability and avoidance of closed-loop anomalous peaks: it is achieved by the minimization of the inverse of the Nyquist trajectory distance to the critical point, i.e., the sensitivity function. Finally, several experimental tests, including an active power filter that operates at a low switching frequency and compensates harmonics up to the Nyquist frequency, validate the theoretical approach.
Linking Oxidative Events to Inflammatory and Adaptive Gene Expression Induced by Exposure to an Organic Particulate Matter Component

Background: Toxicological studies have correlated inflammatory effects of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) with its organic constituents, such as the organic electrophile 1,2-naphthoquinone (1,2-NQ). Objective: To elucidate the mechanisms involved in 1,2-NQ–induced inflammatory responses, we examined the role of oxidant stress in 1,2-NQ–induced expression of inflammatory and adaptive genes in a human airway epithelial cell line. Methods: We measured cytosolic redox status and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in living cells using the genetically encoded green fluorescent protein (GFP)-based fluorescent indicators roGFP2 and HyPer, respectively. Expression of interleukin-8 (IL-8), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) mRNA was measured in BEAS-2B cells exposed to 1,2-NQ for 1–4 hr. Catalase overexpression and metabolic inhibitors were used to determine the role of redox changes and H2O2 in 1,2-NQ–induced gene expression. Results: Cells expressing roGFP2 and HyPer showed a rapid loss of redox potential and an increase in H2O2 of mitochondrial origin following exposure to 1,2-NQ. Overexpression of catalase diminished the H2O2-dependent signal but not the 1,2-NQ–induced loss of reducing potential. Catalase overexpression and inhibitors of mitochondrial respiration diminished elevations in IL-8 and COX-2 induced by exposure to 1,2-NQ, but potentiated HO-1 mRNA levels in BEAS cells. Conclusion: These data show that 1,2-NQ exposure induces mitochondrial production of H2O2 that mediates the expression of inflammatory genes, but not the concurrent loss of reducing redox potential in BEAS cells. 1,2-NQ exposure also causes marked expression of HO-1 that appears to be enhanced by suppression of H2O2. These findings shed light into the oxidant-dependent events that underlie cellular responses to environmental electrophiles.
Patients with more severe symptoms benefit the most from an intensive multimodal programme in patients with fibromyalgia

Purpose. Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) experience symptoms over a long period of time impacting their quality of life (QoL). Patients are often treated in multimodal programmes that combine physical and cognitive treatment modalities. Purpose of this study was to identify prognostic factors of effectiveness of a multimodal programme. Method. A prospective study was performed with a group of 87 patients with FM who had participated in a multimodal programme. The Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) were used. Criterion for clinically relevant improvement was a decline in total FIQ score of 12.5 points or more after the treatment programme. Investigated determinants of improvement of QoL were patient characteristics, illness perceptions (IP) and QoL at baseline. Results. QoL of 34 patients with FM made a clinically relevant improvement after the programme. There was no difference in age, number of years with pain, number of years diagnosed or IP compared to the group that did not improve. The group of patients with an improved QoL after the programme reported severe impact on daily living, highest intensity of pain and most depression at baseline. Conclusions. Total FIQ score on QoL, intensity of pain, morning tiredness and depression can be used as prognostic factors to pre-select patients with FM for a multimodal treatment. IP were not adequate to predict treatment outcome. An intensive multimodal programme seemed most suitable for patients with severe symptoms and limitations.
The design challenges for unmanned vehicular video streaming

The basic concept of video streaming over several vehicular platforms, the main requirements from those different applications are described. The common challenges from these sectors are studied; an actual design overcoming part of these difficulties is reported. Section I is the introduction of the challenges, section II is the briefing for the customized solution, section III is the detail design analysis and the last section is the summary and future work. The major challenge in this area is providing fast image processing with low latency, under limited space, limited weight, limited power and limited link bandwidth constrains. This paper offers the fundamental design choices and rules of thumb.
Animal models of neonatal stroke

Neonatal stroke occurs in approximately 1 in 4,000 to 1 in 10,000 newborns, and more than 80% involve the vascular territory supplied by the middle cerebral artery. Neonatal stroke is associated with many acquired and genetic prothrombotic factors, and follow-up studies indicate that as many as two thirds of neonates develop neurologic deficits. In the past two decades unilateral carotid occlusion with 8% hypoxia has been used to study focal and global ischemia in the newborn, and recently a filament model of middle cerebral artery occlusion has been developed. This review describes the results of studies in these two newborn models covering aspects of the injury cascade that occurs after focal ischemia. A likely requirement is that therapeutic efforts be directed less at using thrombolytic therapy and more toward treatment of events associated with reperfusion injury, the inflammatory cascade, and apoptosis. Additional areas of research that have received attention in the past year include inhibition of nitric oxide and free-radical formation, use of iron chelating agents, the potential role of hypoxia-inducible factors and mediators of caspase activity, use of growth factors, hypothermia, and administration of magnesium sulfate.
A General Theory for Training Learning Machine

Though the deep learning is pushing the machine learning to a new stage, basic theories of machine learning are still limited. The principle of learning, the role of the a prior knowledge, the role of neuron bias, and the basis for choosing neural transfer function and cost function, etc., are still far from clear. In this paper, we present a general theoretical framework for machine learning. We classify the prior knowledge into common and problem-dependent parts, and consider that the aim of learning is to maximally incorporate them. The principle we suggested for maximizing the former is the design risk minimization principle, while the neural transfer function, the cost function, as well as pretreatment of samples, are endowed with the role for maximizing the latter. The role of the neuron bias is explained from a different angle. We develop a Monte Carlo algorithm to establish the input-output responses, and we control the input-output sensitivity of a learning machine by controlling that of individual neurons. Applications of function approaching and smoothing, pattern recognition and classification, are provided to illustrate how to train general learning machines based on our theory and algorithm. Our method may in addition induce new applications, such as the transductive inference.
Crystal structure of a transcriptional activator of comK gene from Bacillus halodurans

ComK is the competence transcription factor of Bacillus subtilis whose synthesis activates the transcription of the competence genes.1 The expression of these genes induces competence, which is the ability to bind and take up exogenous DNA into the cell. The synthesis of ComK itself is regulated by a complex signal transduction network that involves a number of proteins.2 Med has been found as a transcriptional activator of the comK gene and the disruption of the med gene leads to a dramatic decrease in ComK levels in B. subtilis.3 The Berkeley Structural Genomics Center target 1957B (gi:10175511) is a 290 amino acid protein encoded by the med gene from Bacillus halodurans (hereafter referred to as BH1957). Its structure was unknown and no significant sequence homologues are found in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) structure database. Here, we report the crystal structure of BH1957 at 2.7 Å resolution determined by single wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) method. Analysis of the 3D structure of the protein shows that it consists of two similar a/b domains separated by a distinct cleft. Comparison with other protein structures reveals that BH1957 has, despite the absence of significant sequence identities, striking structural similarity to certain substrate-binding proteins and transcription regulators that contain the L-arabinose binding protein-like fold.
An Improved RSA Cryptographic System

introduced RSA cryptosystem and its security aspects. RSA is a public key algorithm that applied widely in the field of information security in the Internet-Banking and E- Commerce applications. The proposed scheme for RSA cryptosystem contains three prime numbers and overcome several attack possible on RSA. The proposed scheme has speed improvement on RSA decryption side by using the Chinese Reminder Theorem (CRT) and the scheme is semantically secure also.
Hybridization and contemporary evolution in an introduced cichlid fish from Lake Malawi National Park

Rapidly evolving systems offer the chance to observe genetic and phenotypic change in real time. We exploit a well‐characterized introduction of cichlid fish into Lake Malawi National Park to document a short history of habitat colonization and the evolution of genes and colour pattern. In the early 1960s, a fish exporter introduced individuals of Cynotilapia afra to a single site (Mitande Point) of Thumbi West Island and, as late as 1983, the species was confined to this location. In 2001, C. afra had colonized the entire perimeter of Thumbi West. In July of that year, we sampled C. afra individuals from six sites around the island and scored variation in dorsal fin colour as well as allelic diversity at six microsatellite loci. We found that, in two decades, C. afra had diverged into genetically distinct, phenotypically different northern and southern populations. We observed a high proportion of hybrids between the introduced C. afra and the native Metriaclima zebra on the southern coast of Thumbi West, and speculate that hybridization is facilitated by low water clarity at these windward sites. The short history of C. afra at Thumbi West is a microcosm of contemporary evolutionary divergence and may provide the opportunity to study the process from start to finish in genetic detail.
LIGHTWEIGHT PARSING OF CLASSIFICATIONS

Understanding metadata written in natural language is a crucial requirement towards the successful automated integration of large scale, language-rich, classifications such as the ones used in digital libraries. In this article we analyze natural language labels used in such classifications by exploring their syntactic structure, and then we show how this structure can be used to detect patterns of language that can be processed by a lightweight parser whose average accuracy is 96.82%. This allows for a deep understanding of natural language metadata semantics. In particular we show how we improve the accuracy of the automatic translation of classifications into lightweight ontologies by almost 18% with respect to the previously used approach. The automatic translation is required by applications such as semantic matching, search and classification algorithms.
Multi-scale Evaluation of Texture Features for Salt Dome Detection

Detecting salt domes in seismic images is veryimportant for the exploration of petroleum reservoirs. However, this task is characterized as being time-consuming when performed by human interpreters due to the structural complexity of salt bodies found on different seismic volumes. This work aims at performing a comprehensive evaluation of texture descriptors broadly used in the image processing community when applied to seismic images. A robust multi-scale analysis is conducted in order to assess which features and corresponding parameters are more relevant for salt dome detection according to various patch sizes. Experiments with the Netherlands Offshore F3 Block public dataset [1] demonstrate that Gabor filter, GLCM and Histogram features – this last, little exploredin the seismic image literature – produced the best results. We performed preliminary experiments with a set of seismicimages from the aforementioned dataset, using the proposed multi-scale combination of texture features. The results indicate that these descriptors are able to produce satisfying results for clustering algorithms.