Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Power-Aware Streaming Proxy Architecture

To improve energy efficiency, major components of mobile devices implement two operational modes: active and sleep mode. When devices are idle, their components are in sleep mode and power consumption can drop by an order of magnitude or more. When devices are in use, their components sleep for many short time intervals. To conserve energy, components have to transition less frequently between modes, and sleep for longer intervals. Our approach to reduce energy consumption uses HTTP proxies to shape incoming WLAN traffic. Our proxies use techniques specific to the HTTP payload to compensate for any negative impact that shaping may have. This paper describes the architecture of a PowerAware Streaming Proxy (PASP), built on the PowerAware x-Proxy (PAxP) framework. PASP uses RTSP/RTP semantics to effectively schedule media streams across the WLAN. We compare PASP with PAWP, which is a PAxP extension for web traffic, and identify problem areas.
Statistical QoS analysis of full duplex and half duplex heterogeneous cellular networks

In this paper, statistical Quality of Service provisioning in next generation heterogeneous mobile cellular networks is investigated. To this aim, any active entity of the cellular network is regarded as a queuing system, whose statistical QoS requirements depend on the specific application. In this context, by quantifying the performance in terms of effective capacity, we introduce a lower bound for the system performance that facilitates an efficient analysis. We exploit this analytical framework to give insights about the possible improvement of the statistical QoS experienced by the users if the current heterogeneous cellular network architecture migrates from a Half Duplex to a Full Duplex mode of operation. Numerical results and analysis are provided, where the network is modeled as a Matérn point processes with a hard core distance. The results demonstrate the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed scheme, especially in large scale wireless systems.
Colloquium: Light scattering by particle and hole arrays

This Colloquium analyzes the interaction of light with two-dimensional periodic arrays of particles and holes. The enhanced optical transmission observed in the latter and the presence of surface modes in patterned metal surfaces is thoroughly discussed. A review of the most significant discoveries in this area is presented first. A simple tutorial model is then formulated to capture the essential physics involved in these phenomena, while allowing analytical derivations that provide deeper insight. Comparison with more elaborated calculations is offered as well. Finally, hole arrays in plasmon-supporting metals are compared to perforated perfect conductors, thus assessing the role of plasmons in these types of structures through analytical considerations. The developments that have been made in nanophotonics areas related to plasmons in nanostructures, extraordinary optical transmission in hole arrays, complete resonant absorption and emission of light, and invisibility in structured metals are illustrated in this Colloquium in a comprehensive, tutorial fashion.
Modeling of asymmetric and unbalanced composite right/left-handed transmission line

The techniques in the parameter retrieval procedure based on Nicolson-Ross-Weir (NRW) approach are discussed for asymmetric composite right/left-handed transmission line (CRLH TL). A 10mm-long microstrip transmission line is calculated by the revised method for validation and comparison. An improved lumped parameter extraction in equivalent circuit modeling is proposed for unbalanced CRLH TL. The prototype CRLH TL proposed by Caloz et al is analyzed for illustration, which reveals that there is weak-unbalance in this prototype. The characteristic of band gap in unbalanced CRLH TL is fully recovered by the proposed algorithm. Finally, good agreement is observed between the response in circuit modeling and the simulation results in practical structure. The potential application of the algorithm lies in efficient guidance and validation for new designs of CRLH TL structures.
Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for Stormwater Management and Water Quality Assessment

Land use policy in the United States is a predominantly local issue (Giannotti & Arnold, 2002). The challenge is that land use policies and decisions are made by elected and appointed municipal officials (Stocker et al., 1999) whose training may not necessarily be in environmental management. Because of the critical importance of their work, and because they deal with land-use planning and regulation on a daily basis, local officials need decision tools that can allow them to place case-by-case land-use decisions within the broader context of the watershed. These land use managers need tools for assisting them to evaluate environmental impacts of their land-use decisions, visualize alternative scenarios, and educate their constituency (Arnold, 2000). Historically, decision makers have indicated that inaccessibility of required geographic data and difficulties in synthesizing various recommendations are primary obstacles to spatial problem solving (Ascough et al., 2002). Indeed studies have shown that the ability to produce meaningful solutions can be improved if these obstacles are lessened or removed through an integrated systems approach, such as a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). As Ascough et al. (2002) have observed, a SDSS makes a positive contribution to decision-makers’ task if it enables them to reach: (i) a more accurate solution, (ii) a faster solution to a given problem, or (iii) both of these.
Promoting Security Imaginaries: An Analysis of the Market for Everyday Security Solutions

This thesis is centred on the question of the effect security technologies, and the imaginaries associated with them, have on the formation of the present security doxa. With a more nuanced understanding of technology as process, and the role of imagination reintroduced into the nexus, this thesis aims to enable an understanding of how technological security solutions are deployed in everyday life and how this contributes to a reformulating of politics in a world gripped by anxiety about an uncertain future. Of primary interest is the way in which seemingly mundane technologies can enter the dominant security narrative and achieve deployment in everyday life, not only as the prime solution to concerns of risk, but as something to actively be desired in themselves. A vital and understudied arena for the dissemination of specific imaginaries of mundane security tools as the ultimate solution to a risky future ? as an end in and of themselves ? are the spaces of promotion for such technologies. The centrepiece of promotion is found at the trade fairs and exhibitions where one can witness the marketing and sale of the ? latest and greatest? tech fixes from an ever increasing range of private sector security entrepreneurs whose living is made from promoting security. By offering both a mapping of the wider expansion and logic of the security fair world, and an ethnographic study of interactions within the exhibition walls of the International Fire and Security Exhibition and Conference (IFSEC) over the course of three years, this thesis makes it possible to develop a better understanding of both the makeup and relations between these elements, and expose these gatherings as more than just sites of commerce and consumption, and much more than simply a metaphor for the wider security world. Instead, they can be thought of as hotspots of intensive exchange of knowledge, new ideas and network building. Thus, this thesis aims to demonstrate how international trade fairs and exhibitions are more than just an ever more important means of distributing security technologies. It is not a question of the relationship between visitors and exhibitors, or the particular effectiveness of marketing strategies deployed by individual firms. It is about the underpinning logic of a particular mind-set regarding what it means to consume security as a commodity, and a specific imagining of a secured future with such solutions as the ultimate end-in-themselves and how these spaces are pivotal in the dissemination, propagation and reformulation of changing attitudes towards security.
Discriminating Weak Lensing from Intrinsic Spin Correlations Using the Curl-Gradient Decomposition

The distortion field defined by the ellipticities of galaxy shapes as projected on the sky can be uniquely decomposed into a gradient and a curl component. If the observed ellipticities are induced by weak gravitational lensing, then the distortion field is curl-free. Here we show that, in contrast, the distortion field resulting from intrinsic spin alignments is not curl-free. This provides a powerful discriminant between lensing and intrinsic contributions to observed ellipticity correlations. We also show how these contributions can be disentangled statistically from the ellipticity correlations or computed locally from circular integrals of the ellipticity field. This allows for an unambiguous detection of intrinsic galaxy alignments in the data. When the distortions are dominated by lensing, as occurs at high redshifts, the decomposition provides a valuable tool for understanding properties of the noise and systematic errors. These techniques can be applied equally well to the polarization of the microwave background, where it can be used to separate curl-free scalar perturbations from those produced by gravity waves or defects.
Adaptive Intelligence for Turn-based Strategy Games

Computer games are an increasingly popular form of entertainment. Typically, the quality of AI opponents in computer games leaves a lot to be desired, which poses many attractive challenges for AI researchers. In this respect, Turn-based Strategy (TBS) games are of particular interest. These games are focussed on high-level decision making, rather than low-level behavioural actions. Moreover, they allow the players sufficient time to consider their moves. For efficiently designing a TBS AI, in this paper we propose a game AI architecture named ADAPTA (Allocation and Decomposition Architecture for Performing Tactical AI). It is based on task decomposition using asset allocation, and promotes the use of machine learning techniques. In our research we concentrated on one of the subtasks for the ADAPTA architecture, namely the Extermination module, which is responsible for combat behaviour. Our experiments show that ADAPTA can successfully learn to outperform static opponents. It is also capable of generating AIs which defeat a variety of static tactics simultaneously.
A new metric to measure distances between solutions to the Quadratic Assignment Problem

Solutions to the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) can be compared with each other in several ways. In this work a new distance metric for measuring the distance respectively similarity between two solutions will be introduced. Such a metric is useful in measuring the performance of heuristic optimization algorithms and generally in the analysis of the QAP's fitness landscape. The new metric is described, compared to the most commonly used metric and evaluated on a number of problem instances. The correlation between the fitness distance and the solution distance can be improved in several problem instances providing a different and more interesting picture on algorithm performance.
Dimension and organisational behaviour: The Portuguese furniture sector case

The Portuguese economy is characterised by the existence of small companies, for which it is very difficult to find critical dimensions to obtain scale economies to production, distribution, and commercialisation. It became an interesting field to study. This article will study an important Portuguese traditional sector, where quality and know‐how is a reality: the production and commercialisation of the furniture sector. Characterised by a small dimension, almost 3,400 firms with an average of 20 persons each, this article tries to understand the reason why these firms could or could not be interested in co‐operation nets, mergers or acquisitions, compatible with a bigger organisational dimension. While some are interested in co‐operating, increasing their dimension, others resist these changes due to some human resources and organisational behaviour problems.
Inhibition of DNA Topoisomerase Type IIα (TOP2A) by Mitoxantrone and Its Halogenated Derivatives: A Combined Density Functional and Molecular Docking Study

In this study, mitoxantrone and its halogenated derivatives have been designed by density functional theory (DFT) to explore their structural and thermodynamical properties. The performance of these drugs was also evaluated to inhibit DNA topoisomerase type IIα (TOP2A) by molecular docking calculation. Noncovalent interactions play significant role in improving the performance of halogenated drugs. The combined quantum and molecular mechanics calculations revealed that CF3 containing drug shows better preference in inhibiting the TOP2A compared to other modified drugs.
Multi-structural Signal Recovery for Biomedical Compressive Sensing

Compressive sensing has shown significant promise in biomedical fields. It reconstructs a signal from sub-Nyquist random linear measurements. Classical methods only exploit the sparsity in one domain. A lot of biomedical signals have additional structures, such as multi-sparsity in different domains, piecewise smoothness, low rank, etc. We propose a framework to exploit all the available structure information. A new convex programming problem is generated with multiple convex structure-inducing constraints and the linear measurement fitting constraint. With additional a priori information for solving the underdetermined system, the signal recovery performance can be improved. In numerical experiments, we compare the proposed method with classical methods. Both simulated data and real-life biomedical data are used. Results show that the newly proposed method achieves better reconstruction accuracy performance in term of both L1 and L2 errors.
'Soft' Policing: The Collaborative Control of Anti-Social Behaviour

1. Introduction 2. The Institutional Governance of Anti-social Behaviour 3. The Organisation of Decision-making 4. Becoming Antisocial: the Nexus of Welfare/Juridical Control 5. Dealing with the 'Irredeemable': Negotiating the Failings of Reform 6. Policing in a Benevolent Cloak 7. Conclusion
SMALL SCALE TRANSMISSION TO AC NETWORKS BY HVDC LIGHT

HVDC Light is a small scale around 3 150 MW transmission technology combining converters and cables. The converters are based on Voltage Source Converters (VSC) and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). The use of series connection of power semiconductors with capability to turn off is fundamental to the development of the technology to high voltage applications. An HVDC Light transmission is in operation in a commercial network in Sweden since March 1997. A second transmission link is on order to be in operation first half of 1999. Complementary with the new converter technology is a newly developed HVDC Light cable based on modified triple extrusion technology and specially designed insulation material for operation with DC stresses. Such cables can be light and flexible even for fairly high ratings and can be installed in an easy manner by e.g. ploughing in ground, hanging overhead in air or for submarine transmissions. HVDC Light is excellent for transmitting power to distant loads and to feed power from distant generation into networks. Renewable generation is often small scale and local, such as wind, solar, tidal and also small hydro generation. In many cases such plants have been restricted in size or not been built because they have, for technical or economical reasons, not been possible to connect to an AC grid. By use of the combined system HVDC Light converters and cables, it is possible to overcome the technical difficulties to connect small scale generation to the AC grid and to make the connection economical and environmentally friendly.
A comparative analysis of FETToy simulation of CNTFET characteristics

In this paper we analyse the effect of gate oxide thickness on various characteristics of CNTFET. Carbon nanotube based FET devices are more and more important today because of their improved gate capacitance. In nanometre regime quantum capacitance plays the major role for calculating the gate capacitance of a Device. After analysis of FETToy simulation, we found some favourable characteristics of gate capacitance which is decreasing, while reducing the oxide thickness and also observed larger drain current while reducing the oxide thickness, which is not possible to get in MOSFET.
A Virtual Laboratory Structure for Developing Programming Labs

Virtual Laboratories in a Virtual Learning Environment are indispensable spaces for developing practical activities. This paper proposes an integrated structure for Virtual Laboratories for undergraduate degree programmes in Computer Engineering and Software Engineering. The general structure proposed is based on the experience gained in designing and developing Virtual Laboratories during the past eleven years in a virtual university. Technological, pedagogical, strategic and academic staff resources are included in the Virtual Laboratories structure. The proposed structure has been applied to different computer areas and this paper presents the special case of a Virtual Programming Laboratory. Its effectiveness has been evaluated by the students using a web questionnaire.
Multi objective mobile robot path planning based on hybrid algorithm

Mobile robot path planning algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimization and Genetic algorithm is proposed. The algorithm aims to achieve different kinds of optimization objects for planned paths: length, smoothness and security. Evolutionary process of Ant Colony Optimization algorithm adapts genetic operations to enhance ant movement towards solution state. The experimental result derives the optimal final solution, by accumulating the most effective sub-solutions. The Simulation result is shown that the robot can plan a set of optimized path. The optimized path avoids collision from source to destination point in the area with many obstacles.
Ultra-Sensitive Detection of Plasmodium falciparum by Amplification of Multi-Copy Subtelomeric Targets

Background Planning and evaluating malaria control strategies relies on accurate definition of parasite prevalence in the population. A large proportion of asymptomatic parasite infections can only be identified by surveillance with molecular methods, yet these infections also contribute to onward transmission to mosquitoes. The sensitivity of molecular detection by PCR is limited by the abundance of the target sequence in a DNA sample; thus, detection becomes imperfect at low densities. We aimed to increase PCR diagnostic sensitivity by targeting multi-copy genomic sequences for reliable detection of low-density infections, and investigated the impact of these PCR assays on community prevalence data. Methods and Findings Two quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays were developed for ultra-sensitive detection of Plasmodium falciparum, targeting the high-copy telomere-associated repetitive element 2 (TARE-2, ∼250 copies/genome) and the var gene acidic terminal sequence (varATS, 59 copies/genome). Our assays reached a limit of detection of 0.03 to 0.15 parasites/μl blood and were 10× more sensitive than standard 18S rRNA qPCR. In a population cross-sectional study in Tanzania, 295/498 samples tested positive using ultra-sensitive assays. Light microscopy missed 169 infections (57%). 18S rRNA qPCR failed to identify 48 infections (16%), of which 40% carried gametocytes detected by pfs25 quantitative reverse-transcription PCR. To judge the suitability of the TARE-2 and varATS assays for high-throughput screens, their performance was tested on sample pools. Both ultra-sensitive assays correctly detected all pools containing one low-density P. falciparum–positive sample, which went undetected by 18S rRNA qPCR, among nine negatives. TARE-2 and varATS qPCRs improve estimates of prevalence rates, yet other infections might still remain undetected when absent in the limited blood volume sampled. Conclusions Measured malaria prevalence in communities is largely determined by the sensitivity of the diagnostic tool used. Even when applying standard molecular diagnostics, prevalence in our study population was underestimated by 8% compared to the new assays. Our findings highlight the need for highly sensitive tools such as TARE-2 and varATS qPCR in community surveillance and for monitoring interventions to better describe malaria epidemiology and inform malaria elimination efforts.
Statistical Decision Making applied to Text and Dialogue Corpora for Effective Plan Recognition

In this paper, we introduce an architecture designed to achieve effective plan recognition using Bayesian Networks which encode the semantic representation of the user’s utterances. The structure of the networks is determined from dialogue corpora, thus eliminating the high cost process of hand-coding domain knowledge. The conditional probability distributions are learned during a training phase in which data are obtained by the same set of dialogue acts. Furthermore, we have incorporated a module that learns semantic similarities of words from raw text corpora and uses the extracted knowledge to resolve the issue of the unknown terms, thus enhancing plan recognition accuracy and improving the quality of the discourse. We present experimental results of an implementation of our platform for a weather information system and compare its performance against a similar, commercial one. Results depict significant improvement in the context of identifying the goals of the user. Moreover, we claim that our framework could straightforwardly be updated with new elements from the same domain or adapted to other domains as well.
Adverse Outcome Pathways can drive non-animal approaches for safety assessment

Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) provide an opportunity to develop new and more accurate safety assessment processes for drugs and other chemicals, and may ultimately play an important role in regulatory decision making. Not only can the development and application of AOPs pave the way for the development of improved evidence‐based approaches for hazard and risk assessment, there is also the promise of a significant impact on animal welfare, with a reduced reliance on animal‐based methods. The establishment of a useable and coherent knowledge framework under which AOPs will be developed and applied has been a first critical step towards realizing this opportunity. This article explores how the development of AOPs under this framework, and their application in practice, could benefit the science and practice of safety assessment, while in parallel stimulating a move away from traditional methods towards an increased acceptance of non‐animal approaches. We discuss here the key areas where current, and future initiatives should be focused to enable the translation of AOPs into routine chemical safety assessment, and lasting 3Rs benefits. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Applied Toxicology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.