Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robotic Manipulation Project Block-Stacking using a Multi-fingered Manipulator

The DaVinci Simulator can be used to analyze the stackin g process using different forces and different placements of the fingers. An existing code f or block-stacking simulates free fall of blocks. However, a free fall cannot be quasi -static. So, a modified code has been written to include additional forces (applied by the robot fingers) which act opposite to the gravitational force to enable quasi-static lifting of blocks.
Software canaries: Software-based path delay fault testing for variation-aware energy-efficient design

Software-based path delay fault testing (SPDFT) has been used to identify faulty chips that cannot meet timing constraints due to gross delay defects. In this paper, we propose using SPDFT for a new purpose - aggressively selecting the operating point of a variation-affected design. In order to use SPDFT for this purpose, test routines must provide high coverage of potentially-critical paths and must have low dynamic performance overhead. We describe how to apply SPDFT for selecting an energy-efficient operating point for a variation-affected processor and demonstrate that our test routines achieve ample coverage and low overhead.
Synaptic Mechanisms of Memory Consolidation during Sleep Slow Oscillations

Sleep is critical for regulation of synaptic efficacy, memories, and learning. However, the underlying mechanisms of how sleep rhythms contribute to consolidating memories acquired during wakefulness remain unclear. Here we studied the role of slow oscillations, 0.2–1 Hz rhythmic transitions between Up and Down states during stage 3/4 sleep, on dynamics of synaptic connectivity in the thalamocortical network model implementing spike-timing-dependent synaptic plasticity. We found that the spatiotemporal pattern of Up-state propagation determines the changes of synaptic strengths between neurons. Furthermore, an external input, mimicking hippocampal ripples, delivered to the cortical network results in input-specific changes of synaptic weights, which persisted after stimulation was removed. These synaptic changes promoted replay of specific firing sequences of the cortical neurons. Our study proposes a neuronal mechanism on how an interaction between hippocampal input, such as mediated by sharp wave-ripple events, cortical slow oscillations, and synaptic plasticity, may lead to consolidation of memories through preferential replay of cortical cell spike sequences during slow-wave sleep. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Sleep is critical for memory and learning. Replay during sleep of temporally ordered spike sequences related to a recent experience was proposed to be a neuronal substrate of memory consolidation. However, specific mechanisms of replay or how spike sequence replay leads to synaptic changes that underlie memory consolidation are still poorly understood. Here we used a detailed computational model of the thalamocortical system to report that interaction between slow cortical oscillations and synaptic plasticity during deep sleep can underlie mapping hippocampal memory traces to persistent cortical representation. This study provided, for the first time, a mechanistic explanation of how slow-wave sleep may promote consolidation of recent memory events.
SleepTalker: A ULV 802.15.4a IR-UWB Transmitter SoC in 28-nm FDSOI Achieving 14 pJ/b at 27 Mb/s With Channel Selection Based on Adaptive FBB and Digitally Programmable Pulse Shaping

Achieving wireless communications at 5–30 Mb/s in energy-harvesting Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications requires energy efficiencies better than 100 pJ/b. Impulse-radio ultrawideband (UWB) communications offer an efficient way to achieve high data rate at ultralow power for short-range links. We propose a digital UWB transmitter (TX) system-on-chip (SoC) designed for ultralow voltage in 28-nm FDSOI CMOS. It features a PLL-free architecture, which exploits the duty-cycling nature of impulse radio through aggressive duty cycling within the pulse modulation time slot for high energy efficiency and minimum jitter accumulation. Wide-range on-chip adaptive forward back biasing is used for threshold voltage reduction, PVT compensation, and tuning of both the carrier frequency and the output power. To ensure spectral compliance with output power regulations without the use of bulky and expensive off-chip filters, a programmable pulse-shaping functionality is integrated in the digital power amplifier based on a 7–9-GS/s, 5-b current DAC. Operated at 0.55 V, it achieves a record energy efficiency of 14 pJ/b for the TX alone and 24 pJ/b for the complete SoC with embedded power management. The TX SoC occupies a core area of 0.93 mm2.
Interorganizational Networks at the Network Level: A Review of the Empirical Literature on Whole Networks

This article reviews and discusses the empirical literature on interorganizational networks at the network level of analysis, or what is sometimes referred to as “whole” networks. An overview of the distinction between egocentric and network-level research is first introduced. Then, a review of the modest literature on whole networks is undertaken, along with a summary table outlining the main findings based on a thorough literature search. Finally, the authors offer a discussion concerning what future directions might be taken by researchers hoping to expand this important, but understudied, topic.
A Scores Based Rendering for Yunnan Out-of-Print Woodcut

Woodcut is a painting, in which knife and woodblock are used instead of pen and paper. Yunnan out-of-print woodcut is an extension of the traditional woodcut. In this paper, we introduce an automatic image-based approach with three steps. First, image is sliced out by color clustering. Then, scores collected from real woodcuts are placed automatically in segmenting regions. Finally, a virtual printing method combining all regions with their colors is proposed to synthesize multicolor woodcut. This method is simple and efficient, and the simulated result looks good.
Transmission Schemes for Two-User Linear Multi-Access Relay Networks

This paper considers multi-access relay networks (MARNs) where two single-antenna users communicate to one N-antenna receiver via two hops of transmissions through one R-antenna relay. Nodes in the network are under two linear constraints. The relay linearly maps its received signal to generate its forwarding signal without decoding; the receiver has linear decoding complexity in the number of users. Since the relay-receiver link has more transmission paths than the link from each user to the relay, a two-step protocol, called TDMA-ICRec, is proposed. In the first step, both users timeshare the user-relay link. Linear combining is then performed at the relay to maximize the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) for each user. In the second step, the relay forwards both users' symbols concurrently to the receiver to enhance the transmission rate. At the receiver, an interference cancellation (IC) technique is used to decouple the users and ML decoding is conducted to recover each user's symbols. Two network scenarios are studied when the relay has two antennas and four antennas. Through analysis and simulation, when the receiver has more than two antennas, TDMA-ICRec achieves the same diversity as the full-TDMA-DSTC interference-free (int-free) scheme, yet with higher symbol rate.
The NetWork Project: Asynchronous Distributed Computingon Personal Workstations

NetWork is an experiment in distributed computing. The idea isto make use of idle time on personal workstations while retaining theiradvantages of immediate and guarantied availability. NetWork wants tomake use of otherwise idle resources only. The performance criterion ofNetWork is the net work done per unit time - not computing time or othermeasures of resource utilization. The NetWork model provides correspondingprogramming primitives for distributed computing. An implementation of adistributed asynchronous neural net serves as test application.
Increasing axial resolution of ultrasonic imaging with a joint sparse representation model.

The axial resolution of ultrasonic imaging is confined by the temporal width of acoustic pulse generated by the transducer, which has a limited bandwidth. Deconvolution can eliminate this effect, and therefore improve the resolution. However, most ultrasonic imaging methods perform deconvolution scan line by scan line, therefore the information embedded within the neighbor scan lines is unexplored, especially for those materials with layered structures such as blood vessels. In this paper, a joint sparse representation model is proposed to increase the axial resolution of ultrasonic imaging. The proposed model combines the sparse deconvolution along the axial direction with a sparsity-favoring constraint along the lateral direction. Since the constraint explores the information embedded within neighbour scan lines by connecting nearby pixels in the ultrasound image, the axial resolution of the image improves after deconvolution. Results on simulated data showed that the proposed method can increase resolution and discover layered structure. Moreover, results on real data showed that the proposed method can measure carotid intima-media thickness automatically with good quality (0.56±0.03 mm vs 0.60±0.06 mm manually).
A Short-term Longitudinal Analysis of Leisure Coping Used by Police and Emergency Response Service Workers

Despite the growth of leisure coping research, an important yet neglected idea is whether or not and how leisure contributes to coping with stress above and beyond the effects of general coping; that is, coping not directly associated with leisure (e.g., problem-focused coping). The purpose of the present study was to examine the contributions of leisure to coping with stress and maintaining good physical and mental health among workers of police and emergency response services when the effects of general coping were taken into account. According to hierarchical regression analyses, leisure coping showed a positive relationship with both short-term and longer-term outcomes of stress and coping above and beyond the contributions of general coping. It is worth emphasizing that mental health was significantly predicted only by leisure coping, not by general coping. The use of leisure for enhancing mood and facilitating palliative coping was found to significantly predict coping effectiveness, satisfaction with coping, and stress reduction. The facilitation of palliative coping and companionship through leisure was related to good mental health, whereas high leisure empowerment was associated with better physical health. Implications of the findings and future research perspectives on leisure coping are discussed.
Orthostatic tolerance, cerebral oxygenation, and blood velocity in humans with sympathetic failure.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Patients with orthostatic hypotension due to sympathetic failure become symptomatic when standing, although their capability to maintain cerebral blood flow is reported to be preserved. We tested the hypothesis that in patients with sympathetic failure, orthostatic symptoms reflect reduced cerebral perfusion with insufficient oxygen supply. METHODS This study addressed the relationship between orthostatic tolerance, mean cerebral artery blood velocity (V(mean), determined by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography), oxygenation (oxyhemoglobin [O(2)Hb], determined by near-infrared spectroscopy), and mean arterial pressure at brain level (MAP(MCA), determined by finger arterial pressure monitoring [Finapres]) in 9 patients (aged 37 to 70 years; 4 women) and their age- and sex-matched controls during 5 minutes of standing. RESULTS Supine MAP(MCA) (108+/-14 versus 86+/-14 mm Hg) and V(mean) (84+/-21 versus 62+/-13 cm. s(-1)) were higher in the patients. After 5 minutes of standing, MAP(MCA) was lower in the patients (31+/-14 versus 72+/-14 mm Hg), as was V(mean) (51+/-8 versus 59+/-9 cm. s(-1)), with a larger reduction in O(2)Hb (-11. 6+/-4 versus -6.7+/-4.5 micromol. L(-1)). Four patients terminated standing after 1 to 3.5 minutes. In these symptomatic patients, the orthostatic fall in V(mean) was greater (45+/-6 versus 64+/-10 cm. s(-1)), and the orthostatic decrease in O(2)Hb (-12.0+/-3.3 versus -7.6+/-3.9 micromol. L(-1)) tended to be larger. The reduction in MAP(MCA) was larger after 10 seconds of standing, and MAP(MCA) was lower after 1 minute (25+/-8 versus 40+/-6 mm Hg). CONCLUSIONS In patients with sympathetic failure, the orthostatic reduction in cerebral blood velocity and oxygenation is larger. Patients who become symptomatic within 5 minutes of standing are characterized by a pronounced orthostatic fall in blood pressure, cerebral blood velocity, and oxygenation manifest within the first 10 seconds of standing.
Parallel algorithms for logic synthesis using the MIS approach

Combinational logic synthesis is a very important but computationally expensive phase of VLSI system design. Parallel processing offers an attractive solution to reduce this design cycle rime. In this paper we describe ProperMIS, a portable parallel algorithm for logic synthesis based on the MIS multi-level logic synthesis system. As part of this work, we have developed novel parallel algorithms for the different logic transformations of the MIS system. Our algorithm uses art asynchronous message-driven computing model with no synchronizing barriers separating phases of parallel computation. The algorithm is portable across a wide variety of parallel architectures, and is built around a well-defined sequential algorithm interface, so that we can benefit from future expansion of the sequential algorithm. We present results on several MCNC and ISCAS benchmark circuits for a variety of shared memory and distributed processing architectures. Our implementation produces speedups of an average of 4 on 8 processors. <<ETX>>
Seeing Similarity or Distance? Racial Identification Moderates Intergroup Perception After Biracial Exposure

Biracial individuals threaten the distinctiveness of racial groups because they have mixed-race ancestry, but recent findings suggest that exposure to biracial-labeled, racially ambiguous faces may positively influence intergroup perception by reducing essentialist thinking among Whites (Young, Sanchez, & Wilton, 2013). However, biracial exposure may not lead to positive intergroup perceptions for Whites who are highly racially identified and thus motivated to preserve the social distance between racial groups. We exposed Whites to racially ambiguous Asian/White biracial faces and measured the perceived similarity between Asians and Whites. We found that exposure to racially ambiguous, biracial-labeled targets may improve perceptions of intergroup similarity, but only for Whites who are less racially identified. Results are discussed in terms of motivated intergroup perception.
Attitude Synchronization of a Group of Spacecraft Without Velocity Measurements

We consider the coordinated attitude control problem for a group of spacecraft, without velocity measurements. Our approach is based on the introduction of auxiliary dynamical systems (playing the role of velocity observers in a certain sense) to generate the individual and relative damping terms in the absence of the actual angular velocities and relative angular velocities. Our main focus, in this technical note, is to address the following two problems: 1) Design a velocity-free attitude tracking and synchronization control scheme, that allows the team members to align their attitudes and track a time-varying reference trajectory (simultaneously). 2) Design a velocity-free synchronization control scheme, in the case where no reference attitude is specified, and all spacecraft are required to reach a consensus by aligning their attitudes with the same final time-varying attitude. In this work, one important and novel feature (besides the non-requirement of the angular velocity measurements), consists in the fact that the control torques are naturally bounded and the designer can arbitrarily assign the desired bounds on the control torques, a priori, through the control gains, regardless of the angular velocities. Throughout this technical note, the communication flow between spacecraft is assumed to be undirected. Simulation results of a scenario of four spacecraft are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.
Common Drifting Volatility in Large Bayesian VARs ∗

The general pattern of estimated volatilities of macroeconomic and financial variables is often broadly similar. We propose two models in which conditional volatilities feature comovement and study them using U.S. macroeconomic data. The first model specifies the conditional volatilities as driven by a single common unobserved factor, plus an idiosyncratic component. We label this model BVAR with General Factor Stochastic Volatility (BVAR-GFSV) and we show that the loss in terms of marginal likelihood from assuming a common factor for volatility is moderate. The second model, which we label BVAR with Common Stochastic Volatility (BVAR-CSV), is a special case of the BVARGFSV in which the idiosyncratic component is eliminated and the loadings to the factor are set to 1 for all the conditional volatilities. Such restrictions permit a convenient Kronecker structure for the posterior variance of the VAR coefficients, which in turn permits estimating the model even with large datasets. While perhaps misspecified, the BVAR-CSV model is strongly supported by the data when compared against standard homoskedastic BVARs, and it can produce relatively good point and density forecasts by taking advantage of the information contained in large datasets.
Prevention of stroke and systemic embolism with rivaroxaban compared with warfarin in Chinese patients with atrial fibrillation

This study assessed the effects and safety of rivaroxaban versus warfarin in Chinese patients with atrial fibrillation. In this double-blind clinical trial, a total of 353 consecutive patients with atrial fibrillation who were at risk of stroke or systemic embolism were enrolled to receive either rivaroxaban or warfarin. The primary effect endpoint occurred in five patients in the rivaroxaban group (2.29% per year) and in seven patients in the warfarin group (2.91% per year) (hazard ratio with warfarin, 0.76, 95% CI, 0.64–0.91; p = 0.03). Major and non-major clinically relevant bleeding occurred in 38 patients (14.3% per year) in the rivaroxaban group and in 36 patients (13.7% per year) in the warfarin group (hazard ratio rivaroxaban versus warfarin, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.93–1.14; p = 0.39). Adverse events were similar between these two arms (p > 0.05). In conclusion, oral administration of rivaroxaban reduced the risk of stroke or systemic embolism without significantly increasing the safety concern.
Team–Based Learning for Students with High–Incidence Disabilities in High School Social Studies Classrooms

We examined the effectiveness of implementing team–based learning (TBL) practices on content acquisition for 11th grade students with high–incidence disabilities enrolled in general education social studies courses. TBL components focus on collaborative discourse within heterogeneous teams. TBL, which requires critical thinking and the application of content knowledge for problem–solving, was implemented for three units of instruction. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between groups on a measure of content knowledge, although a moderate effect size was noted (ES = 0.50). Significant and large effects (ES = 1.01) favoring the TBL treatment were noted for items related to content–area vocabulary. There were no significant differences on items measuring comprehension of historical events, facts, and issues (ES = 0.38). Practical implications for content–area instruction are discussed.
Contributions à la génération de tests à base de contraintes. (Contributions to Constraint-Based Testing)

Ces dernieres annees, les recherches en matiere de Test Logiciel ont conduit au developpement de techniques de resolution de contraintes dediees, dans ce qui est appele ''le test a base de contraintes''. Notre approche dans ce domaine vise a explorer l'apport de la Programmation par Contraintes a la generation automatique de test pour les programmes imperatifs. Nous nous sommes interesses a la resolution de problemes combinatoires difficiles issus de la generation de donnees de test, en developpant des techniques de propagation de contraintes et de filtrage, adaptees au traitement des constructions des langages de programmation. Notre habilitation tente de faire une premiere synthese de ce sujet au travers de cinq contributions: l'hybridation de techniques de resolution de contraintes pour la generation automatique de cas de test, la generation probabiliste de cas de test a l'aide d'operateurs a contrainte probabiliste, les contraintes sur un modele memoire pour les programmes manipulant les pointeurs, la resolution de contraintes sur les expressions portant sur les nombres a virgule flottante, et le test de programmes a contraintes. Nous illustrons egalement ces contributions par leur application a la verification de logiciels critiques, et dressons quelques perspectives a ces travaux.
Red queen dynamics, competition and critical points in a model of RNA virus quasispecies.

RNA viruses offer a unique opportunity for the study of evolution at the molecular level. Recent experiments involving clonal populations of RNA viruses have shown that competition among virus strains of approximately equal relative fitness can result in the eventual competitive exclusion of one of the species. As competition proceeds in time, both the winners and the losers exhibited absolute gains in fitness, consistent with the "Red Queen" hypothesis of evolution. Further experiments involving closely related evolving quasispecies revealed a highly predictable nonlinear behavior suggesting a deterministic component in the underlying quasispecies dynamics. This is apparently in contradiction with the standard view of RNA virus evolution as a highly unpredictable process. In this paper we present a simple model which allows previous hypothesis to be tested and provides an interpretation for the observed experimental results.
Butyrate-induced changes in nuclease sensitivity of chromatin cannot be correlated with transcriptional activation

We examined in the H4IIE rat hepatoma cell line the relationship between butyrate-induced changes in the nuclease sensitivity of chromatin and changes in transcriptional activity of specific genes. The butyrate-inducible metallothionein I (MT-I) gene underwent a dramatic increase in DNase I sensitivity after 3 h of butyrate treatment. However, genes not transcribed in H4IIE cells underwent the same changes in DNase I sensitivity. Thus, butyrate-induced increases in DNase I sensitivity are not sufficient for the transcriptional activation of a gene. Butyrate treatment has also been reported to alter the sensitivity of sequences to micrococcal nuclease (MNase) in a manner reflecting their tissue-specific expression. Butyrate exposure caused increased digestion of the MT-I gene by MNase. However, butyrate-induced MNase sensitivity also occurred for genes which are neither transcribed in untreated cells nor butyrate inducible. Moreover, cadmium, a potent transcriptional activator of the MT-I gene, does not alter the sensitivity of the MT-I gene to MNase. Thus, the butyrate-induced alterations in MNase sensitivity are neither sufficient for, necessary for, nor indicative of transcriptional activation.