Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ISE02-1: A Proactive Scheme for QoS Enhanced Alternate Path Discovery in a Super-Peer Architecture

In the next generation Internet, the network should evolve from a plain communication medium into an endless source of services available to the end-systems. We name these services "overlay applications". They would be composed of multiple cooperative distributed application elements that would build a dynamic communication mesh, namely "overlay association". In a former contribution, we proposed an unstructured super-peer architecture (SPAD) that provides enhanced quality of service (QoS) between end-points within an overlay association. This architecture aims at discovering and utilizing composite alternate end-to-end paths that experience better QoS than the path given by the default IP routing mechanisms. This paper presents a proactive information dissemination scheme that complements SPAD's mechanisms and significantly improves its performances.
Total Amino Acids by UHPLC-UV in Infant Formulas and Adult Nutritionals, First Action 2018.06.

BACKGROUND An acid hydrolysis UHPLC-UV method was evaluated for the determination of total amino acids in infant formula and adult/pediatric nutritional formula. OBJECTIVE It was assessed for compliance against AOAC Standard Method Performance Requirements (SMPR®) established by the AOAC INTERNATIONAL Stakeholder Panel for Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals (SPIFAN). METHODS A single-laboratory-validation (SLV) study was conducted as a first step in the process to validate the method. In this SLV, 17 SPIFAN matrices representing a range of infant formula and adult nutritional products were evaluated for their amino acid content. RESULTS The analytical range was found to be within the needs for all products, some may require a dilution. Evaluation of trueness performed on SRM 1849a (Infant/Adult Nutritional Formula) showed all compounds met the SMPR theoretical value, with exceptions for THR and TYR. These may have a bias for the NIST data depending on hydrolysis used in the determination of the NIST CoA. CONCLUSIONS Based on the results of this SLV, this method met the Standard Method Performance Requirements and was approved as a First Action method by the AOAC Expert Review Panel on Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals on August 28, 2018.
Early Childhood Teachers’ Perspectives of Growth Mindset: Developing Agency in Children

THE INTEGRATION OF MINDSET THEORY into classrooms can assist children in optimising academic achievement, increasing their agency for learning. The development of a growth mindset allows children to exercise autonomy over their learning, helping them to develop positive lifelong learning habits for the twenty-first century. This paper explores early childhood teachers’ perspectives of mindset and the role of a growth mindset in developing children's agency for learning. Despite increasing research in this field, little is known about the perspectives that early childhood teachers have of mindset. This paper reports on the data from a study that describes teachers’ perspectives towards fostering a growth mindset in children in the early years of school. Ninety-five Western Australian early childhood teachers from Kindergarten to Year 2 completed a survey that examined their perspectives of growth mindset. The analysis revealed competing knowledge about what teachers believe about mindset, and their ability to implement it. The information shared by teachers has implications for quality learning and teaching in the early years.
Clustering categorical data: A stability analysis framework

Clustering to identify inherent structure is an important first step in data exploration. The k-means algorithm is a popular choice, but K-means is not generally appropriate for categorical data. A specific extension of k-means for categorical data is the k-modes algorithm. Both of these partition clustering methods are sensitive to the initialization of prototypes, which creates the difficulty of selecting the best solution for a given problem. In addition, selecting the number of clusters can be an issue. Further, the k-modes method is especially prone to instability when presented with ‘noisy’ data, since the calculation of the mode lacks the smoothing effect inherent in the calculation of the mean. This is often the case with real-world datasets, for instance in the domain of Public Health, resulting in solutions that can be radically different depending on the initialization and therefore lead to different interpretations. This paper presents two methodologies. The first addresses sensitivity to initializations using a generic landscape mapping of k-mode solutions. The second methodology utilizes the landscape map to stabilize the partition clusters for discrete data, by drawing a consensus sample in order to separate signal from noise components. Results are presented for the benchmark soybean disease dataset, an artificially generated dataset and a case study involving Public Health data.
Key Aspects of PSO-Type Swarm Robotic Search: Signals Fusion and Path Planning

Extending the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to be one of systemic modeling and controlling tools, several research groups investigate target search with swarm robots (simulated or physical) respectively (Doctor et al., 2004; Hereford & Siebold, 2008; Jatmiko et al., 2007; Marques et al., 2006; Pugh & Martinoli, 2007; Xue & Zeng, 2008). The common idea they hold is to map such swarm robotic search to PSO and deal it with by employing the existing bio-inspired approaches to the latter case in a similar way (Xue et al., 2009). Of the mapping relations, some aspects including fitness evaluate and path planning have to be especially considered because PSO-type algorithm working depends heavily upon them. Unlike regarding these respects in PSO, however, the actual characteristics of robot and complexity of sensing to environment make it impossible to be simplified even ignored. Bear that in mind, we might as well explore some representative research work. Pugh et al. compare the similarities and differences in properties between real robot and ideal particle, then extend PSO directly to model multiple robots for studying at an abstract level the effects of changing parameters of the swarm system (Pugh & Martinoli, 2007). Xue et al. simplify characteristics of robot by treating each physical robot as a first order inertial element to study mechanism of limited sensing and local interactions in swarm robotic search (Xue & Zeng, 2008). Doctor et al. discuss applying PSO for multiple robot searches, whose focus is on optimizing the parameters of their algorithm (Doctor et al., 2004). Jatmiko et al. exert mobile robots for plume detection and traversal, with utilizing a modified form of PSO to control the robots and consider how the robots respond to search space changes such as turbulence and wind changes (Jatmiko et al., 2007). Hereford et al. consider how well the PSO-based robot search will scale to large numbers of robots by designing specific communication strategies. Based upon this, they have published results of implementing their PSO variants in actual hardware robot swarms (Hereford & Siebold, 2008). Marques et al. analytically compare PSO-based cooperative search and gradient search as well as biased-random walk search to try to find out which performing well in search efficiency. Due to the exchange of information between neighbors in the first search mode, PSO-type olfactory guided search possesses merit in search properties over its two competitors (Marques et al., 2006). It is clear that all of works mentioned above neither involve target search with PSO-type control algorithm under conditions of realistic sensing to environment, nor handle the problem of obstacle avoidance in the process of target search. On the contrary, each of them assumes a potential target in search space to give off a diffuse residue that can be detected by a single 4
Behavioural Model Based Testing of Software Product Lines Research

Since the inception of Software Product Line (SPL) engineering, concerns about testing SPLs emerged. The large number of possible products that may be derived from a SPL induces an even larger set of test-cases, which make SPL testing a very challenging activity. Some individual solutions have been proposed, but few are integrated in a complete testing process. In this paper, we summarize our research addressing variability-aware behavioural model-based testing. So far we developed a statistical prioritization technique and we have defined behavioural coverage criteria dedicated to behavioural model of a SPL. Our overall goal is to form an end-to-end model-driven approach, relying on Featured Transition System (FTS), a compact formalism to represent the behaviour of a SPL, where test-cases selection techniques are automated and made practical to the engineers. The formality of the envisioned models also makes them amenable to model-checking, yielding innovative combinations of quality assurance activities. The evaluation will be performed in two phases: using standard approaches (fault seeding and mutation testing); using the approach on an industrial casestudy.
Empirical Evaluation of Network-Wide Anomaly Detection

A closed horizontal path nonsynchronous manufacturing system employing dual conveyor chains supporting and transporting fixurized workpiece pallets in single file to a plurality of sequential work stations located at straight segments of the path connected by polygonal obtuse angle corners. Accurate registration and clamping means engaging a straight pallet side with single register pin actuation utilizes straight conveyor segments for inside and/or outside operating stations with minimum lost space for polygonal obtuse angle corner transition.
Path following for autonomous vehicle navigation with inherent safety and dynamics margin

This paper addresses the path following problem for autonomous Ackermann-like vehicle navigation. A control strategy that takes into account both kinodynamic and configuration space constraints of the vehicle, denoted as traversability-anchored dynamic path following (TADPF) controller is presented. It ensures secure vehicle commands in presence of obstacles, based on traversability information given by a global navigation function. By additionally using a reference point on the global smooth path, the local vicinity path configuration with respect to the vehicle is taken explicitly into account to ensure smooth and stable path following. Furthermore, a previously developed sliding mode path following (SMPF) controller that results in fast convergence rate and low path following error but which does not consider kinodynamic constraints, is augmented by the the kinodynamic and configuration space constraints check of the TADPF controller. The new proposed control strategy denoted as TADPF-SMPF controller thus combines advantageous characteristics of both original control strategies for path following, yielding inherent safety and vehicle dynamics margin. All three control strategies are verified in simulation, whereas the TADPF and TADPF-SMPF path following schemes are also verified experimentally.
The impact of monsoon outflow from India and Southeast Asia in the upper troposphere over the eastern Mediterranean

Abstract. A major objective of the Mediterranean INtensive Oxidant Study (MINOS) was to investigate long-range transport of pollutants (notably ozone precursor species). Here we present trace gas measurements from the DLR (German Aerospace Organization) Falcon aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean troposphere. Ten day backward trajectories and a coupled chemistry-climate model (ECHAM4) were used to study the nature and origin of pollution observed in the upper troposphere between 6 and 13 km altitude. We focus on a large pollution plume encountered over the eastern Mediterranean between 1 and 12 August originating in South Asia (India and Southeast Asia), referred to as the Asian plume, associated with the Asian Summer Monsoon. Vertical as well as longitudinal gradients of methane, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons including acetone, methanol, and acetonitrile, halocarbons, ozone and total reactive nitrogen (NO y ) are presented, showing the chemical impact of the Asian plume compared to westerly air masses containing pollution from North America. The Asian plume is characterized by enhanced concentrations of biomass burning tracers (acetylene, methyl chloride, acetonitrile), notably from biofuel use. Concentrations of the new automobile cooling agent HFC-134a were significantly lower in the Asian plume than in air masses from North America. Relatively high levels of ozone precursors (CO, hydrocarbons) were found in both air masses, whereas lower ozone concentrations in the Asian plume suggest NO x -limited conditions. Consistently, ECHAM model simulations indicate that the expected future increase of NO x -emissions in Asia enhances the photochemical ozone production in the Asian plume. The size and location of the Asian plume near the tropopause provides an important potential for pollution transport into the lowermost stratosphere. We present observations indicative of Asian pollution transport into the lower stratosphere.
LRRK2 kinase activity regulates synaptic vesicle trafficking and neurotransmitter release through modulation of LRRK2 macro-molecular complex

Mutations in Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 gene (LRRK2) are associated with familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD). LRRK2 is a complex protein that consists of multiple domains executing several functions, including GTP hydrolysis, kinase activity, and protein binding. Robust evidence suggests that LRRK2 acts at the synaptic site as a molecular hub connecting synaptic vesicles to cytoskeletal elements via a complex panel of protein-protein interactions. Here we investigated the impact of pharmacological inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity on synaptic function. Acute treatment with LRRK2 inhibitors reduced the frequency of spontaneous currents, the rate of synaptic vesicle trafficking and the release of neurotransmitter from isolated synaptosomes. The investigation of complementary models lacking LRRK2 expression allowed us to exclude potential off-side effects of kinase inhibitors on synaptic functions. Next we studied whether kinase inhibition affects LRRK2 heterologous interactions. We found that the binding among LRRK2, presynaptic proteins and synaptic vesicles is affected by kinase inhibition. Our results suggest that LRRK2 kinase activity influences synaptic vesicle release via modulation of LRRK2 macro-molecular complex.
A Cristo moreno in Barcelona: The Staging of Identity-Based Unity and Difference in the Procession of the Lord of Miracles

The procession known as “Lord of Miracles” is a massive religious phenomenon that takes place in various cities around the world in October. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze certain elements of the procession, which champion not only the idea of unity (religious, cultural, ethnical, and national), but also the sociocultural differences. With this in mind, we conducted ethnographical research focused on the processions that took place in Barcelona, Spain, in 2016 and 2017. Along with a number of practices and talks intended to activate and strengthen the image of religious unity (Brothers in Christ) and national unity (Brothers of Peru), there are certain dynamics that point to differences, which call that unity into question. Specifically, we focused our study on two seasons of the procession: the scissors dance and the Marian, both dances for the Lord. However, the type of interaction that happens with each of them shows inner differences, which the members establish with the image of the Cristo moreno. These differences are expressed in the special-temporal location of certain stations—which represent subordinate sociocultural manifestations—and in the type of interaction, which the members establish with the image of the Cristo moreno.
Symbolization of time-series: An evaluation of SAX, Persist, and ACA

Symbolization of time-series has successfully been used to extract temporal patterns from experimental data. Segmentation is an unavoidable step of the symbolization process, and it may be characterized on two domains: the amplitude and the temporal domain. These two groups of methods present advantages and disadvantages each. Can their performance be estimated a priori based on signal characteristics? This paper evaluates the performance of SAX, Persist and ACA on 47 different time-series, based on signal periodicity. Results show that SAX tends to perform best on random signals whereas ACA may outperform the other methods on highly periodic signals. However, results do not support that a most adequate method may be determined a priory.
Flow patterns and transport in Rayleigh surface acoustic wave streaming: combined finite element method and raytracing numerics versus experiments

This work presents an approach for determining the streaming patterns that are generated by Rayleigh surface acoustic waves in arbitrary 3-D geometries by finite element method (FEM) simulations. An efficient raytracing algorithm is applied on the acoustic subproblem to avoid the unbearable memory demands and computational time of a conventional FEM acoustics simulation in 3-D. The acoustic streaming interaction is modeled by a body force term in the Stokes equation. In comparisons between experiments and simulated flow patterns, we demonstrate the quality of the proposed technique.
Workload-aware aggregate maintenance in columnar in-memory databases

Database workloads generated by enterprise applications are comprised of short-running transactional as well as long-running analytical queries with resource-intensive aggregations. The expensive aggregate queries can be significantly accelerated by using materialized views. This speed-up, however, comes with the cost of materialized view maintenance which is necessary to guarantee consistency when the underlying data changes. While several view maintenance strategies are applicable in the context of an in-memory column store, their performance depends on various factors, most importantly the ratio between queries accessing the materialized view and queries altering the base data, called insert ratio. As a contribution in this paper, we propose algorithms that determine the best-performing view maintenance strategy based on the currently monitored factors. Using our novel materialized aggregate engine, we are able to switch between view maintenance strategies on demand. We have created cost models for the identified view maintenance strategies that determine at which insert ratio it is advisable to switch to another strategy. Our benchmarks in SanssouciDB reveal that for all identified workloads, switching between maintenance strategies is more beneficial than staying with a single strategy.
Experimental colitis in IL‐10‐deficient mice ameliorates in the absence of PTPN22

Interleukin (IL)‐10 plays a key role in controlling intestinal inflammation. IL‐10‐deficient mice and patients with mutations in IL‐10 or its receptor, IL‐10R, show increased susceptibility to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Protein tyrosine phosphatase, non‐receptor type 22 (PTPN22) controls immune cell activation and the equilibrium between regulatory and effector T cells, playing an important role in controlling immune homoeostasis of the gut. Here, we examined the role of PTPN22 in intestinal inflammation of IL‐10‐deficient (IL‐10–/–) mice. We crossed IL‐10–/– mice with PTPN22–/– mice to generate PTPN22–/–IL‐10–/– double knock‐out mice and induced colitis with dextran sodium sulphate (DSS). In line with previous reports, DSS‐induced acute and chronic colitis was exacerbated in IL‐10–/– mice compared to wild‐type (WT) controls. However, PTPN22–/–IL‐10–/– double knock‐out mice developed milder disease compared to IL‐10–/– mice. IL‐17‐promoting innate cytokines and T helper type 17 (Th17) cells were markedly increased in PTPN22–/–IL‐10–/– mice, but did not provide a protctive function. CXCL1/KC was also increased in PTPN22–/–IL‐10–/– mice, but therapeutic injection of CXCL1/KC in IL‐10–/– mice did not ameliorate colitis. These results show that PTPN22 promotes intestinal inflammation in IL‐10‐deficient mice, suggesting that therapeutic targeting of PTPN22 might be beneficial in patients with IBD and mutations in IL‐10 and IL‐10R.
Maximum Liklihood Deterministic Particle Filter for State Estimation and Fault Detection in Stochastic Hybrid Systems

In this paper we present a deterministic particle method for estimating the joint continuous/discrete state (x, i), of a class of stochastic hybrid systems, where the discrete state obeys a Markov chain, while noisy measurements of continuous states are taken. We focus on the problem of fault detection. A turbojet engine system example is used to demonstrate this approach, in fault detection and estimation
Load Based Relay Selection Algorithm for Fairness in Relay Based OFDMA Cellular Systems

A load-based relay selection algorithm that improves the fairness of resource allocation is proposed for relay-based OFDMA systems. This algorithm takes into account the traffic load condition (bandwidth requirement) of relay link users and direct link users. The transmission mode (direct transmission mode or relay transmission mode) of each user will be adjusted based on the user average data rate; this will make the long-term average data rate of relay link users and direct link users equal so that user fairness is enhanced. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm will improve the user fairness compared with a popular traditional relay selection algorithm, for both uniform distribution and hot-spot scenarios.
Fine grain parallelism on a MIMD machine using FPGAs

The article presents the use of an FPGA chip (Xilinx 3090) to set up a fast systolic communication agent on a linear asynchronous network of transputer processors; the machine is called ArMen. The authors' work relies on the systolic programming environment ReLaCS, a close cousin to the C programming language. ReLaCS provides synchronous communication operators to simplify the programming of data transfers that occur in systolic algorithms. The ReLaCS compiler generates C programs that perform the computation process and the data management process of a systolic network. <<ETX>>
Hardware Accelerated Rendering of Emissive Volumes

Traditional volume rendering is computationally expensive and can therefore only be performed at low frame rates. In recent years algorithms have been developed that are speciically tailored towards the use of graphics hardware for volume rendering. On systems equipped with the appropriate hardware, these algorithms are capable of rendering volumes at interactive rates. Unfortunately, existing algorithms rely on advanced graphics features like texture mapping, which are not available on contemporary low-end systems. In this paper we describe a novel approach for the hardware based rendering of emissive volumes, which only requires very basic support by the graphics hardware, such as at shaded polygons, depth cueing and depth buuer. Therefore the algorithm is capable of exploiting low-end graphics hardware without support for texture mapping and other advanced features.