Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Separation-sensitive collision detection for convex objects

We develop a class of new kinetic data structures for collision detection between moving convex polytopes; the performance of these structures is sensitive to the separation of the polytopes during their motion. For two convex polygons in the plane, let D be the maximum diameter of the polygons, and let s be the minimum distance between them during their motion. Our separation certificate changes O(log(D/s)) times when the relative motion of the two polygons is a translation along a straight line or convex curve, O( √ D/s) for translation along an algebraic trajectory, and O(D/s) for algebraic rigid motion (translation and rotation). Each certificate update is performed in O(log(D/s)) time. Variants of these data structures are also shown that exhibit hysteresis—after a separation certificate fails, the new certificate cannot fail again until the objects have moved by some constant fraction of their current separation. We can then bound the number of events by the combinatorial size of a certain cover of the motion path by balls.
A GCC Time Delay Estimation Algorithm Based on Wavelet Transform

Summary This paper introduces a new time delay estimation(TDE) algorithm, which applies the discrete wavelet transform and generalized cross-correlation(GCC). This algorithm first handles separately the signals received by the two microphones with wavelet transform, then under each scale, applying separately GCC to estimate the time delay in the wavelet threshold. At last, getting the final result by transforming the estimated time delay to the time field. In order to testify the stability and feasibility of the new algorithm, this paper illustrates the simulation result under different circumstances (including different signal to noise ratio and different reverberation circumstances).
A competitive evolution strategy memetic algorithm for unrelated parallel machine scheduling to minimize total weighted tardiness and flow time

This research proposes a competitive evolution strategy memetic algorithm (CESMA) to solve unrelated parallel machines scheduling problems with two minimization objectives subject to job sequence- and machine-dependent setup times. A memetic operation is regarded as a genetic operation following a local search-weighted bipartite matching algorithm (WBM). The competitive evolution strategy maintains one generational population (GP) and two external archives at each generation, one preserving efficient solutions and the other preserving inefficient solutions. At each generation, two procedures, EAMA (efficient archive memetic algorithm) and IAMA (inefficient archive memetic algorithm), are applied to compete for producing the next generation offspring. The fraction p of memetic operations assigned to EAMA varies at each generation and depends on the competition results of the last generation. An experiment is conducted to compare the performance of the CESMA against two well-known evolutionary algorithms (NSGA II and SPEA2) with WBM. The effects of incorporating the WBM into these algorithms are also investigated. In the experimental study, three instances of different problem parameters were generated using a method in the literature. The experimental results show that the CESMA excels the others in terms of several proximity measures
Extracting Product Features from Chinese Product Reviews

With the great development of e-commerce, the number of product reviews grows rapidly on the e-commerce websites. Review mining has recently received a lot of attention, which aims to discover the valuable information from the massive product reviews. Product feature extraction is one of the basic tasks of product review mining. Its effectiveness can influence significantly the performance of subsequent jobs. Double Propagation is a state-of-the-art technique in product feature extraction. In this paper, we apply the Double Propagation to the product feature exaction from Chinese product reviews and adopt some techniques to improve the precision and recall. First, indirect relations and verb product features are introduced to increase the recall. Second, when ranking candidate product features by using HITS, we expand the number of hubs by means of the dependency relation patterns between product features and opinion words to improve the precision. Finally, the Normalized Pattern Relevance is employed to filter the exacted product features. Experiments on diverse real-life datasets show promising results
ELF3 Modulates Resetting of the Circadian Clock in Arabidopsis

The Arabidopsis early flowering 3 (elf3) mutation causes arrhythmic circadian output in continuous light, but there is some evidence of clock function in darkness. Here, we show conclusively that normal circadian function occurs with no alteration of period length in elf3 mutants in dark conditions and that the light-dependent arrhythmia observed in elf3 mutants is pleiotropic on multiple outputs normally expressed at different times of day. Plants overexpressing ELF3 have an increased period length in both constant blue and red light; furthermore, etiolated ELF3-overexpressing seedlings exhibit a decreased acute CAB2 response after a red light pulse, whereas the null mutant is hypersensitive to acute induction. This finding suggests that ELF3 negatively regulates light input to both the clock and its outputs. To determine whether ELF3's action is phase dependent, we examined clock resetting by using light pulses and constructed phase response curves. Absence of ELF3 activity causes a significant alteration of the phase response curve during the subjective night, and constitutive overexpression of ELF3 results in decreased sensitivity to the resetting stimulus, suggesting that ELF3 antagonizes light input to the clock during the night. The phase of ELF3 function correlates with its peak expression levels in the subjective night. ELF3 action, therefore, represents a mechanism by which the oscillator modulates light resetting.
The Self-Organization of Explicit Attitudes

How do minds produce explicit attitudes over several hundred milliseconds? Speeded evaluative measures have revealed implicit biases beyond cognitive control and subjective awareness, yet mental processing may culminate in an explicit attitude that feels personally endorsed and corroborates voluntary intentions. We argue that self-reported explicit attitudes derive from a continuous, temporally dynamic process, whereby multiple simultaneously conflicting sources of information self-organize into a meaningful mental representation. While our participants reported their explicit (like vs. dislike) attitudes toward White versus Black people by moving a cursor to a “like” or “dislike” response box, we recorded streaming x- and y-coordinates from their hand-movement trajectories. We found that participants' hand-movement paths exhibited greater curvature toward the “dislike” response when they reported positive explicit attitudes toward Black people than when they reported positive explicit attitudes toward White people. Moreover, these trajectories were characterized by movement disorder and competitive velocity profiles that were predicted under the assumption that the deliberate attitudes emerged from continuous interactions between multiple simultaneously conflicting constraints.
Estimating intercellular surface tension by laser-induced cell fusion

Intercellular surface tension is a key variable in understanding cellular mechanics. However, conventional methods are not well suited for measuring the absolute magnitude of intercellular surface tension because these methods require determination of the effective viscosity of the whole cell, a quantity that is difficult to measure. In this study, we present a novel method for estimating the intercellular surface tension at single-cell resolution. This method exploits the cytoplasmic flow that accompanies laser-induced cell fusion when the pressure difference between cells is large. Because the cytoplasmic viscosity can be measured using well-established technology, this method can be used to estimate the absolute magnitudes of tension. We applied this method to two-cell-stage embryos of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and estimated the intercellular surface tension to be in the 30–90 µN m−1 range. Our estimate was in close agreement with cell–medium surface tensions measured at single-cell resolution.
A composite B-spline method for cutter path generation on free-form surfaces

This paper presents a composite B-spline method for cutter path generation on free-form surfaces on a point-by-point basis, with appropriate radial offset and interference checking along the cutter path. It is aimed at developing a more efficient and accurate free-form surface machining method for an open-architecture CNC system with B-spline interpolation capability. In this method, the cutter paths over the free-form surface are composed of a sequence of B-spline segments. The length of each spline segment is determined by the desired deviation, within some given tolerance, from the curve of the surface over which the cutter path is to be generated. If the spline segment does not satisfy the specified dimensional tolerance, control points of the spline segment are adjusted to modify the curve shape according to the required accuracy. As a result, the deviation between the actual cutter paths and the desired surface curves will always fall within the allowable tolerance. In addition, by adjusting the position of the control points, the adjacent spline segments are made at least C1 geometrically continuous. The distance between adjacent cutter paths in the side step direction is determined by checking the scallop height between them. To make the cutting process more efficient, a modified adaptive iso-parametric curve generation approach is employed. The resulting cutter paths are more compact and accurate compared with those from commonly used cutter path generation techniques.
Charge plasma based partial-ground-plane-MOSFET on selective buried oxide (SELBOX)

In this work, we propose a novel charge plasma based partial ground plane selective buried oxide MOSFET (CP-PGP-SELBOX-MOSFET). In the proposed device source, drain regions and the partial ground planes (PGPs) have been realized by using metals of different work-functions and not by the conventional method of doping. A two dimensional (2D) simulation study has revealed that the magnitude of the short-channel effects (SCEs) have got significantly reduced in the proposed device in comparison to the conventional one. Further, it has been observed that ION/IOFF ratio and subthreshold slope (SS) in the proposed device has been improved significantly in comparison to conventional SELBOX MOSFET. Further, the proposed device is free from doping related issues and can be fabricated at low temperature, as it does not employ the conventional ion implantation for realizing various regions.
Routes to rupture and folding of graphene on rough 6H-SiC(0001) and their identification

Twisted few layer graphene (FLG) is highly attractive from an application point of view, due to its extraordinary electronic properties. In order to study its properties, we demonstrate and discuss three different routes to in situ create and identify (twisted) FLG. Single layer graphene (SLG) sheets mechanically exfoliated under ambient conditions on 6H-SiC(0001) are modified by (i) swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation, (ii) by a force microscope tip and (iii) by severe heating. The resulting surface topography and the surface potential are investigated with non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). SHI irradiation results in rupture of the SLG sheets, thereby creating foldings and bilayer graphene (BLG). Applying the other modification methods creates enlarged (twisted) graphene foldings that show rupture along preferential edges of zigzag and armchair type. Peeling at a folding over an edge different from a low index crystallographic direction can result in twisted BLG, showing a similar height as Bernal (or AA-stacked) BLG in NC-AFM images. The rotational stacking can be identified by a significant contrast in the local contact potential difference (LCPD) measured by KPFM.
Positive selection 1 A test for positive Darwinian selection

The neutral theory of molecular evolution maintains that most sequence variation among genomes has no direct relevance to adaptation [1]. The rapidly-growing amount of genomic data makes it possible now to ask which proteins are undergoing adaptive evolution. This, in turn calls for better computational tools to detect positive selection. In this study, we present a new test for detecting positive Darwinian selection. The test identifies large deviation of the mean observed chemical distance between two proteins from the expected distance along a branch in a phylogenetic tree. The mean observed chemical distance is calculated as the average over all possible ancestral sequence reconstruction, weighted by their likelihoods. Our novel method of averaging over all possible ancestral amino-acid assignments eliminates possible bias that could have resulted if the calculation was based solely on the most likely ancestral sequence. We present an O(n)-time algorithm to perform this test for all branches of a phylogenetic tree with n leaves. We apply our test to study adaptive evolution in rat olfactory proteins.
[Dynamic changes of cytokines in G-CSF mobilized peripheral blood].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the level and significance of interleukin-8 (IL-8), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule (sICAM-1) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) in patients peripheral blood (PB) during mobilization for peripheral blood stem cells harvesting. METHODS The levels of IL-8, sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 in patients were dynamically assayed by ELISA during the mobilization procedure and the number of CD(34)(+) cell, white blood cell (WBC) and platelet (BPC) by flow cytometric analysis and hematometry respectively. Colony formation was assayed by using semisolid methycellulose culture. RESULTS There was a significant increase in plasma levels of IL-8 and both adhesion molecules [IL-8 (247.4 +/- 84.2) microg/L (P < 0.01); sICAM-1 (530.3 +/- 286.1) microg/L (P = 0.002 7); sVCAM-1 (575.3 +/- 350.4) microg/L (P = 0.001 3)] during the mobilization process; furthermore, IL-8 and sVCAM-1 concentration in the patient's plasma was paralleled to the numbers of CD(34)(+) cell, CFU-GM, WBC and BPC (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The levels of IL-8, sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 in the patient's plasma were correlated to the PB number of CD(34)(+) cells, CFU-GM, WBC and BPC during the mobilization process. It suggested that analysis of IL-8, and sVCAM-1 dynamic changes may serve as markers for CD(34)(+) cells.
Impact of type 2 diabetes on cardiorespiratory function and exercise performance

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of well-controlled uncomplicated type 2 diabetes (T2D) on exercise performance. Six obese sedentary men with T2D and 7 control participants without diabetes matched for age, sex and body mass index were recruited. Anthropometric characteristics, blood samples, resting cardiac and pulmonary functions and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and ventilatory threshold were measured on a first visit. On the four subsequent visits, participants performed step transitions (6 min) of moderate-intensity exercise on an upright cycle ergometer from unloaded pedaling to 80 % of ventilatory threshold. VO2 (τVO2) and HR (τHR) kinetics were characterized with a mono-exponential model. VO2max (27.8±4.0 vs. 27.5±5.3 ml kg-1 min-1; p=0.95), τVO2 (43±6 vs. 43±10 s; p=0.73) and τHR (42±17 vs. 43±13 s; p=0.94) were similar between diabetics and controls respectively. The remaining variables were also similar between groups. These results suggest that well-controlled T2D is not associated with a reduction in VO2max or slower τVO2 and τHR.
Perturbation Bounds for Hyperbolic Matrix Factorizations

Several matrix factorizations depend on orthogonal factors, matrices that preserve the Euclidean scalar product. Some of these factorizations can be extended and generalized to (J, J̃)-orthogonal factors, that is, matrices that satisfy H JH = J̃ , where J and J̃ are diagonal with diagonal elements ±1. The purpose of this work is to analyze the perturbation of matrix factorizations that have a (J, J̃)-orthogonal or orthogonal factor and to give first order perturbation bounds. For each factorization analyzed, we give the sharpest possible first order bound, which yields a condition number. The cost of computing these condition numbers is high. It is usually equivalent to computing the 2-norm of an n2×n2 matrix for a problem of size n. Thus, we also propose less sharp bounds that are less expensive to compute.
Pattern Based Integration of Time applied to the 2-Slots Simpson Algorithm

Event-B is a formal method used to do model driven engineering correct by construction. We propose a pattern to integrate time in this method. This pattern integrates elements from the theory of timed automata and event-clock automata. As experimentation of our ideas, we present a case study: an algorithm for asynchronous communication from H.R. Simpson. We prove this formal development with the software tool Rodin.
Channel aware decentralized detection in wireless sensor networks

Most of the channel aware decentralized detection methods are actually semi-decentralized in the sense that all the peripheral sensors transmit a quantized function of their observations to a central node (fusion center) and the final decision is made there. In this paper, we propose a fully decentralized channel aware algorithm for decentralized detection which is based on gossip. In our method nodes try to reach consensus by communicating only with neighbouring nodes. First, we propose our method where the channels between the nodes are ideal (i.e., no fading or noise) and show that it converges to the same solution as the centralized scheme, and hence it is globally optimum. Then, we modify it for the case of noisy channels with flat fading and show by simulation that our algorithm still converges to the optimum solution.
Architecture-Level Dependence Analysis for Software Systems

The emergence of formal software architecture description languages provides an opportunity to perform analyses at high levels of abstraction, as well as early in the development process. Previous research has primarily focused on developing techniques such as algebraic and transition-system analysis to detect component mismatches or global behavioral incorrectness. In this paper we motivate the utility and describe the challenges in developing a different kind of analysis for use at the architectural level, namely dependence analysis. Various kinds of dependence analyses have been used widely at the implementation level to aid program optimization, anomaly checking, program understanding, testing, and debugging. However, the languages used for architectural description offer quite different features than the languages for which traditional dependence analysis techniques have been developed. We describe our initial approach to architecture-level dependence analysis and illustrate that approach through a prototype tool we have built, called Aladdin, to automatically perform the analysis.
Visual information about time-to-collision between two objects.

In a forced-choice paradigm, human observers' sensitivity to visual information specifying a moving object's future time of arrival at a designated position in the field of view was evaluated. A geometrical analysis demonstrated that information specifying a first-order temporal relationship (i.e., without taking changes in velocity into account) is available in the combination of the relative rate of dilation of the optical contour of the moving object and the relative rate of constriction of the optical gap separating the moving object from the target position. Observers were sensitive to information contained in the relative rate of constriction of the optical gap if no contour dilation component was present and to the combination of information contained in the relative rates of dilation of the optical contour of the moving object and constriction of the optical gap if both were present albeit with a differential weighting of the 2 components.
Radiometric calibration using photo collections

Access to the scene irradiance is a desirable feature in many computer vision algorithms. Applications like BRDF estimation, relighting or augmented reality need measurements of the object's photometric properties and the simplest method to get them is using a camera. However, the first step necessary to achieve this goal is the computation of the function that relates scene irradiance to image intensities. In this paper we propose to exploit the large variety of an object's appearances in photo collections to recover this non linear function for each of the cameras that acquired the available images. This process, also known as radiometric calibration, uses an unstructured set of images, to recover the camera's geometric calibration and a 3D scene model, using available methods. From this input, the camera response function is estimated for each image. This highly ill-posed problem is made tractable by using appropriate priors. The proposed approach is based on the empirical prior on camera response functions introduced by Grossberg and Nayar. Linear methods are proposed that allow to compute approximate solutions, which are then refined by non-linear least squares optimization.
Uptake of pH-Sensitive Gold Nanoparticles in Strong Polyelectrolyte Brushes

The impact of electrostatic attraction on the uptake of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) into positively charged strong poly-[2-(Methacryloyloxy) ethyl] trimethylammonium chloride (PMETAC) polyelectrolyte brushes was investigated. In this work, PMETAC brushes were synthesized via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (Si-ATRP). PMETAC/AuNP composite materials were prepared by incubation of the polymer brush coated samples into 3-mercaptopropionic acid-capped AuNP (5 nm in diameter) suspension. The electrostatic interactions were tuned by changing the surface charge of the AuNPs through variations in pH value, while the charge of the PMETAC brush was not affected. Atomic-force microscopy (AFM), ellipsometry, UV/Vis spectroscopy, gravimetric analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to study the loading and penetration into the polymer brush. The results show that the number density of attached AuNPs depends on the pH value and increases with increasing pH value. There is also strong evidence that the particle assembly is dependent on the pH value of the AuNP suspension. Incubation of PMETAC brushes in AuNP suspension at pH 4 led to the formation of a surface layer on top of the brush (2D assembly) due to sterical hindrance of the clustered AuNPs, while incubation in AuNP suspension at pH 8 led to deeper particle penetration into the brush (3D assembly). The straightforward control of particle uptake and assembly by tuning the charge density of the nanoparticle surface is a valuable tool for the development of materials for colorimetric sensor applications.