Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Traveling Salesman Problem for the Reeds-Shepp Car and the Differential Drive Robot

In this paper we consider variations on the traveling salesman problem for the Reeds-Shepp car and differential drive robot. We consider the problem of finding the shortest path compatible with the dynamics of such models through a set of points. We present algorithms that asymptotically perform within a deterministic constant factor of the optimum, for any distribution of points. In addition, we consider a version of such problems in which the target points are dynamically generated by a stochastic process with uniform spatial density. In such a case, the objective will be to minimize the expected waiting time between the appearance of a target and the time it is visited by the vehicle. We present algorithms that (i) ensure stability of the system, for all target generation rates, and (ii) provably perform within a constant factor of the optimum
Continuous Symmetric Stereo with Adaptive Outlier Handling

We present a method for symmetric stereo matching in which outliers from occlusions, texture-less regions, and repeated patterns are handled in a soft and adaptive manner. Rather than making binary outlier decisions, our model incorporates continuous-valued confidence weights that account for outlier likelihood, to promote robustness in disparity estimation. In contrast to previous outlier labeling techniques that fix the labels at the start of optimization, our method iteratively updates our outlier confidence weights as the matching results are gradually refined. By doing this, errors in an initial labeling can be rectified in the matching process. Our model is optimized in an Expectation-Maximization framework that efficiently produces continuous disparity estimates. This approach provides a good combination of accuracy and speed. Experiments show that our method compares favorably to prior outlier labeling techniques on the Middlebury benchmark, and that it can generate high-quality reconstruction for outdoor images with much more complex occlusions.
An experimental comparison of several PWM controllers for a single-phase AC-DC converter

An experimental comparative study of various controllers for a class of ac-dc converters, known as power factor precompensators (PFP) is presented. The control objective is to robustly regulate the output voltage to a desired constant level in the presence of variations in the load, while retaining a unit power factor at the input, i.e., the input current should follow in frequency and in phase the input voltage. Several control schemes are presented and compared via experiments.
Feature extraction method of fractional cosine and sine transform for speaker recognition

In this paper, the novel features derived from fractional cosine and sine transform of speaker recognition task are presented, which are abbreviated to be DMEGB and Delta DMEGB. A lot of the experiments based on the multiple parameters are employed to investigate their recognition performance. The single application of above mentioned features doesn't show the excellent results, but the reasonable combination of them which is able to describe the speaker individual characteristics more exactly will lead to the favorable effects which are even better than the conventional MFCC feature.
Computing Sparse Representations in O(N log N) Time

Machine learning concerns forming representations of input observations to facilitate tasks such as classification. A recent insight in deep learning [1] is to use a deep architecture that stacks multiple levels of nonlinear operations in an inference hierarchy to extract different layers of abstractions. Deep learning is a promising direction and has attained state-of-the-art performance in some application areas such as computer vision and speech recognition. In this work, we aim to improve the computational efficiency of deep learning. A key step in deep learning is to represent input signals as layers of sparse representations. In image processing, this means to progressively describe objects using features of larger spatial scales. For example, in the bottom layer objects can be represented by edges of different widths, lengths and orientations over small regions. In higher layers objects may be represented by shapes such as squares, triangles and so on over large regions. The representations are computed based on some designed or learned dictionary. At each layer an input signal is represented using just a few dictionary atoms. We consider the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm [5], which forms sparse representations by greedily selecting representing dictionary atoms. The computation cost of OMP is proportional to the dimensions of the dictionary. Suppose that the input signal is an M×1 vector x, and the dictionary has N M×1 atoms di, i = 1, . , N . The bulk of the sparse representation computation amounts to computing N correlations between x and di for all i. Thus the total computation cost is O(MN). Note that N is usually governed by the characteristics of a given machine learning task. For example, if the task is to classify objects with a large number of categories, N tends to be large for an increased chance of representing x with just a few dictionary atoms. On the other hand, with an easier task such as differentiating between only a few different looking objects, a relatively small N may be sufficient to derive discernible representations. M , however, is driven by the input signal size and the size of intermediate sparse representations computed in the hierarchy. This means M can be large especially in higher layers of the learning framework. For example, in image processing, sparse representations for small local regions of an image are formed in the bottom layer. The representations are then aggregated and vectorized over a larger neighborhood as the input signal for the next layer, which can easily be very long. We show that this O(MN) cost can be reduced to O(N logN), a complexity independent of the signal or representation size M . This means that the computation cost is only dictated by the desired classification resolution.
Efficient Charging of Access Limited Wireless Underground Sensor Networks

Wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs) present a variety of new research challenges. Magnetic induction (MI)-based transmission has been proposed to overcome the very harsh propagation conditions in underground communications in recent years. In this approach, induction coils are utilized as antennas in the sensor nodes. This solution achieves larger transmission ranges compared with the traditional electromagnetic wave-based approach. In the past, some efforts have been made to characterize the signal transmission in MI-WUSNs. Those investigations, however, mostly refer to the information transmission. One of the open issues that may constrain the system design in some of the applications is the powering of the individual sensor nodes. Due to the low accessibility of the nodes, a new method of wireless power transfer for MI-WUSNs is proposed in this paper. This method is mainly based on simultaneous signal transmissions from multiple sensor nodes with optimized signal constellations. Furthermore, the optimal scheduling for power transmission and reception is provided, which maximizes the energy efficiency of the network charging procedure. The proposed method is compared with the naive approaches and shows a significant improvement of the system performance in terms of energy efficiency.
ACUTE NON-ORGANIC PSYCHOSIS-OUTCOME AFTER 10 YEARS

62 out of 68 acute psychosis patients who were initially recruited from the Bikaner Centre in 1982 for the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study on "phenomenology and natural history of acute psychosis" were assessed after completion of 10 years in 1992-93 on SCAAPS and PSE with the objective of studying the long term course and outcome of acute psychosis. The results show that 35 (56.45%) patients of acute brief episode of psychosis never had any psychotic illness during the course of follow-up. Remission was significantly better in the young, the unmarried, in those who belonged to the Hindu religion and in those who developed the full blown psychosis abruptly within 48 hours. Other sociodemographic, personal history variables, and symptomatology could not distinguish this remitted group from the rest of the patients.
Retrospective: the Stanford FLASH multiprocessor

s ince the publication of the initial FLASH paper in the proceedings of ISCA 1994, the underlying architecture and goals of the FLASH system and of the MAGIC chip have remained essentially as described: to design a multiprocessor node controller (MAGIC) based on a flexible, programmable protocol processor core while minimizing the protocol processing overhead caused by using a flexible, rather than a hardwired, protocol engine. Although this basic architectural goal remains, our perspective on the utility of flexibility has changed over the course of the design. In addition, as MAGIC and the other parts of the FLASH machine have moved from paper proposals to microarchitectural specifications to actual hardware as of this writing a FLASH system is operational we have developed some perspective on the trials and tribulations of building hardware in a university environment. The sections that follow describe the current project status, our new insights on the benefits of flexibility, and offer some comments on how to best approach hardware construction in a university.
Securin Is Not Required for Chromosomal Stability in Human Cells

Abnormalities of chromosome number are frequently observed in cancers. The mechanisms regulating chromosome segregation in human cells are therefore of great interest. Recently it has been reported that human cells without an hSecurin gene lose chromosomes at a high frequency. Here we show that, after hSecurin knockout through homologous recombination, chromosome losses are only a short, transient effect. After a few passages hSecurin−/− cells became chromosomally stable and executed mitoses normally. This was unexpected, as the securin loss resulted in a persisting reduction of the sister-separating protease separase and inefficient cleavage of the cohesin subunit Scc1. Our data demonstrate that securin is dispensable for chromosomal stability in human cells. We propose that human cells possess efficient mechanisms to compensate for the loss of genes involved in chromosome segregation.
A Kernel for Time Series Based on Global Alignments

We propose in this paper a new family of kernels to handle time series, notably speech data, within the framework of kernel methods which includes popular algorithms such as the support vector machine. These kernels elaborate on the well known dynamic time warping (DTW) family of distances by considering the same set of elementary operations, namely substitutions and repetitions of tokens, to map a sequence onto another. Associating to each of these operations a given score, DTW algorithms use dynamic programming techniques to compute an optimal sequence of operations with high overall score, in this paper we consider instead the score spanned by all possible alignments, take a smoothed version of their maximum and derive a kernel out of this formulation. We prove that this kernel is positive definite under favorable conditions and show how it can be tuned effectively for practical applications as we report encouraging results on a speech recognition task.
Structured Formalization of Service-Oriented Specifications

We present and formalize concepts for the structured specification of system behavior based on services. Services are patterns of interaction between reactive components, thus supporting especially the development of distributed systems. We introduce a core set of concepts for the specification of basic services as well as for the combination of those to complex functionality. The result is an expressive mechanism for structured behavioral specifications. While basically independent from specific notations, we demonstrate the application of those concepts using (High-level) Message Sequence Charts and Mode Diagrams for the specification of services and their combination. We illustrate the approach using a simple telephone system as a running example.
Categorial Type Logic meets Dependency Grammar to annotate an Italian corpus

In this paper we present work in progress on the annotation of an Italian Corpus ( CORIS ) developed at CILTA (University of Bologna). We induce categorial type assignments from a dependency treebank (Torino University treebank, TUT ) and use the obtained categories with annotated dependency relations to study the distributional behavior of Italian words and reach an empirically founded part-of-speech classiﬁcation.
Simulations of pulsed rf plasma sources using CFD-ACE+

Submitted for the GEC12 Meeting of The American Physical Society Simulations of pulsed rf plasma sources using CFD-ACE+ MUSTAFA MEGAHED, ANANTH BHOJ, ESI Group, SING KI NAM, RAJ DHINDSA, Lam Research Corporation, ESI GROUP TEAM, LAM RESEARCH CORPORATION TEAM — Pulsing techniques are increasingly being used in plasma processing reactors for newer technological nodes. Pulsed rf sources allow for additional “knobs” to control plasma parameters. In particular, varying the pulsing frequency, duty cycle and pulse shape enables manipulation of the fluxes and energy distribution functions. Accurate numerical simulations of pulsed discharges require that transients are tracked. Time scales for the rf signals, pulsing frequency and the neutral / heavy species response times can span orders of magnitude posing a significant challenge. The multi-physics modeling platform CFD-ACE+ was used in this work to address simulations of an Ar discharge in a typical CCP reactor configuration. The effect of pulsing on plasma characteristics was investigated. Initial results comparing the continuous and pulsed rf operating modes will be discussed. Mustafa Megahed ESI Group Date submitted: 14 Jun 2012 Electronic form version 1.4
New horizons in the pathogenesis, assessment and management of delirium

Delirium is one of the foremost unmet medical needs in healthcare. It affects one in eight hospitalised patients and is associated with multiple adverse outcomes including increased length of stay, new institutionalisation, and considerable patient distress. Recent studies also show that delirium strongly predicts future new-onset dementia, as well as accelerating existing dementia. The importance of delirium is now increasingly being recognised, with a growing research base, new professional international organisations, increased interest from policymakers, and greater prominence of delirium in educational and audit programmes. Nevertheless, the field faces several complex research and clinical challenges. In this article we focus on selected areas of recent progress and/or uncertainty in delirium research and practice. (i) Pathogenesis: recent studies in animal models using peripheral inflammatory stimuli have begun to suggest mechanisms underlying the delirium syndrome as well as its link with dementia. A growing body of blood and cerebrospinal fluid studies in humans have implicated inflammatory and stress mediators. (ii) Prevention: delirium prevention is effective in the context of research studies, but there are several unresolved issues, including what components should be included, the role of prophylactic drugs, and the overlap with general best care for hospitalised older people. (iii) Assessment: though there are several instruments for delirium screening and assessment, detection rates remain dismal. There are no clear solutions but routine screening embedded into clinical practice, and the development of new rapid screening instruments, offer potential. (iv) Management: studies are difficult given the heterogeneity of delirium and currently expert and comprehensive clinical care remains the main recommendation. Future studies may address the role of drugs for specific elements of delirium. In summary, though facing many challenges, the field continues to make progress, with several promising lines of enquiry and an expanding base of interest among researchers, clinicians and policymakers.
Translating the Histone Code

Chromatin, the physiological template of all eukaryotic genetic information, is subject to a diverse array of posttranslational modifications that largely impinge on histone amino termini, thereby regulating access to the underlying DNA. Distinct histone amino-terminal modifications can generate synergistic or antagonistic interaction affinities for chromatin-associated proteins, which in turn dictate dynamic transitions between transcriptionally active or transcriptionally silent chromatin states. The combinatorial nature of histone amino-terminal modifications thus reveals a “histone code” that considerably extends the information potential of the genetic code. We propose that this epigenetic marking system represents a fundamental regulatory mechanism that has an impact on most, if not all, chromatin-templated processes, with far-reaching consequences for cell fate decisions and both normal and pathological development.
Inhibition by adrenocorticotrophin of gonadotrophin-induced ovulation in immature female rats.

ACTH blocks PMS-induced ovulation in infantile rats. This effect is exerted at the hypothalamic level rather than directly on the ovary; it is not exerted directly by ACTH, but by a secretory product of the adrenal. A large difference between corticosterone and dexamethasone was demonstrated. Corticosterone did not block PMS-induced ovulation by systemic injection. On the other hand, dexamethasone was active when given systemically or when injected into the medial preoptic area. It seemed to be less effective when injected into the ventromedial-arcuate complex. It may be inferred that the medial preoptic area leads neural regulation of gonadotrophin release under influence of both ovarian and adrenal hormones. (Endocrinology 84: 308, 1969)
Robonaut 2 and you: Specifying and executing complex operations

Crew time is a precious resource due to the expense of trained human operators in space. Efficient caretaker robots could lessen the manual labor load required by frequent vehicular and life support maintenance tasks, freeing astronaut time for scientific mission objectives. Humanoid robots can fluidly exist alongside human counterparts due to their form, but they are complex and high-dimensional platforms. This paper describes a system that human operators can use to maneuver Robonaut 2 (R2), a dexterous humanoid robot developed by NASA to research co-robotic applications. The system includes a specification of constraints used to describe operations, and the supporting planning framework that solves constrained problems on R2 at interactive speeds. The paper is developed in reference to an illustrative, typical example of an operation R2 performs to highlight the challenges inherent to the problems R2 must face. Finally, the interface and planner is validated through a case-study using the guiding example on the physical robot in a simulated microgravity environment. This work reveals the complexity of employing humanoid caretaker robots and suggest solutions that are broadly applicable.
Reconstruction of the lost Muisca Siecha raft pouring process by reverse engineering methodology

ABSTRACT This work presents a study of a pre-Hispanic artifact based on a reverse engineering methodology, by which an object is reconstructed by computer-aided design to obtain information. The object of the study is the Siecha raft–a Muisca goldwork piece that disappeared in the nineteenth century and was reconstructed based on historical sources. The pouring process of the raft was studied by characterizing the metal flow within a mold, by using the analytical, experimental, and computational fluidity length parameter. After this, the flow was studied, by using estimated parameters from the previous three methods, in the reconstructed geometry of the raft. Pouring temperature, materials, and temperature of the mold, entrance velocity, and other parameters of the fabrication process were calculated. The results showed that the geometry of the raft could have been cast by gravity casting pouring process, with the calculated parameters.
Identification of Questionable Exclusion Criteria in Mental Disorder Clinical Trials Using a Medical Encyclopedia

Precision medicine requires precise evidence-based practice and precise definition of the patients included in clinical studies for evidence generalization. Clinical research exclusion criteria define confounder patient characteristics for exclusion from a study. However, unnecessary exclusion criteria can weaken patient representativeness of study designs and generalizability of study results. This paper presents a method for identifying questionable exclusion criteria for 38 mental disorders. We extracted common eligibility features (CEFs) from all trials on these disorders from ClinicalTrials.gov. Network Analysis showed scale-free property of the CEF network, indicating uneven usage frequencies among CEFs. By comparing these CEFs' term frequencies in clinical trials' exclusion criteria and in the PubMed Medical Encyclopedia for matching conditions, we identified unjustified potential overuse of exclusion CEFs in mental disorder trials. Then we discussed the limitations in current exclusion criteria designs and made recommendations for achieving more patient-centered exclusion criteria definitions.
Implementation and Operational Research: Strengthening HIV Test Access and Treatment Uptake Study (Project STATUS): A Randomized Trial of HIV Testing and Counseling Interventions

Objective:To determine which of 3 HIV testing and counseling (HTC) models in outpatient departments (OPDs) increases HIV testing and entry of newly identified HIV-infected patients into care. Design:Randomized trial of HTC interventions. Methods:Thirty-six OPDs in South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda were randomly assigned to 3 different HTC models: (A) health care providers referred eligible patients (aged 18–49, not tested in the past year, not known HIV positive) to on-site voluntary counseling and testing for HTC offered and provided by voluntary counseling and testing counselors after clinical consultation; (B) health care providers offered and provided HTC to eligible patients during clinical consultation; and (C) nurse or lay counselors offered and provided HTC to eligible patients before clinical consultation. Data were collected from October 2011 to September 2012. We describe testing eligibility and acceptance, HIV prevalence, and referral and entry into care. Chi-square analyses were conducted to examine differences by model. Results:Of 79,910 patients, 45% were age eligible and 16,099 (45%) age eligibles were tested. Ten percent tested HIV positive. Significant differences were found in percent tested by model. The proportion of age eligible patients tested by Project STATUS was highest for model C (54.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 42.4 to 65.9), followed by model A (41.7%, 95% CI: 30.7 to 52.8), and then model B (33.9%, 95% CI: 25.7 to 42.1). Of the 1596 newly identified HIV positive patients, 94% were referred to care (96.1% in model A, 94.7% in model B, and 94.9% in model C), and 58% entered on-site care (74.4% in model A, 54.8% in model B, and 55.6% in model C) with no significant differences in referrals or care entry by model. Conclusions:Model C resulted in the highest proportion of all age-eligible patients receiving a test. Although 94% of STATUS patients with a positive test result were referred to care, only 58% entered care. We found no differences in patients entering care by HTC model. Routine HTC in OPDs is acceptable to patients and effective for identifying HIV-infected persons, but additional efforts are needed to increase entry to care.