Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new communication scheme for MANETs

The communication protocols used in wireless ad hoc networks today have been designed to support reliable communication between senders and receivers that compete with other sender-receiver sets for the use of the shared bandwidth. This competition-driven approach prevents wireless ad hoc networks from scaling with the number of nodes. We introduce a collaboration-driven approach to the sharing of the available bandwidth in wireless ad hoc networks, which we call opportunistic cooperation. This scheme is based on the integration of multiuser detection and position-location information with frequency and code division in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Transmissions are divided in frequency and codes according to nodal locations, and successive interference cancellation (SIC) is used at receivers to allow them to decode and use all transmissions from strong interfering sources. We show that both the link's Shannon capacity and the per source-destination throughput scale like O(n/sup /spl alpha//2/) (upper-bound) and /spl Omega/[f(n)] (lower-bound), for n nodes in the network, a path loss parameter /spl alpha/ > 2, and 1 /spl les/ f(n) < n/sup /spl alpha//2/.
Computation and Characterization of Surface Roughness of Catchments Extracted from Simulated Digital Elevation Models

In the past few decades, the quantitative computation of surface roughness has received increasing attention due to its importance in numerical surface study. In this paper, concepts of mathematical morphology are employed to compute and characterize the surface roughness of catchments extracted from a simulated digital elevation model (DEM). Morphological smoothing is implemented on the simulated DEM using square kernels of increasing size. The mask of pixels modified in each catchment at each kernel size is computed by performing the intersection operation between the catchment and the mask of pixels modified at each kernel size. The normalized probability functions of the catchments are computed as the ratio of the area of pixels modified in the catchment at each kernel size to the area of the catchment. The computed values of are used to compute two important grayscale granulometric complexity measures; average size of convex and concave regions in the catchments, and the surface roughness of the catchments due to the convex and concave region distribution averaged over the area of catchment. It is observed the larger the average size of the convex and concave regions in the catchment, the larger is the average roughness of the catchment. A power law relationship is also observed between the average size of convex and concave regions in the catchments and the surface roughness of the catchments. This power law arises as a consequence of the fractal properties of the surface roughness of catchments extracted from the simulated DEMs.
Application of Graph-based Data Mining to Metabolic Pathways

We present a method for finding biologically meaningful patterns on metabolic pathways using the SUBDUE graph-based relational learning system. A huge amount of biological data that has been generated by long-term research encourages us to move our focus to a systems-level understanding of bio-systems. A biological network, containing various biomolecules and their relationships, is a fundamental way to describe bio-systems. Multirelational data mining finds the relational patterns in both the entity attributes and relations in the data. A graph consisting of vertices and edges between these vertices is a natural data structure to represent biological networks. This paper presents a graph representation of metabolic pathways to contain all features, and describes the application of graph-based relational learning algorithms in both supervised and unsupervised scenarios. Supervised learning finds the unique substructures in a specific type of pathway, which help us understand better how pathways differ. Unsupervised learning shows hierarchical clusters that describe the common substructures in a specific type of pathway, which allow us to better understand the common features in pathways
Canonical structure of 3-D gravity with torsion

We study the canonical structure of the topological 3D gravity with torsion, assuming the anti-de Sitter asymptotic conditions. It is shown that the Poisson bracket algebra of the canonical generators has the form of two independent Virasoro algebras with classical central charges. In contrast to the case of general relativity with a cosmological constant, the values of the central charges are different from each other.
Recommendation of (IP)TV programs based on Collaborative Filtering using n-tuple item Clustering

With the advent of multi-channel TV services, a prohibited amount of IPTV program contents becomes available to user’s sides. Furthermore, the number of IPTV service providers is rapidly increasing over internets. Therefore such information overload requires large amounts of efforts for users to search and navigate the program contents that they like to watch. In this paper, we incorporate collective intelligence by utilizing collaborative filtering (CF) for grouping community users to recommend user’s preferred (IP)TV programs so that the users can easily find and watch their preferred contents with significantly reduced efforts. The CF is performed in conjunction with a previous probabilistic framework but incorporates similarity-based grouping in terms of the attributes of IPTV programs for which each program is modeled as an n-tuple item with genre, actors/actress, channels, emission times, user’s ages and genders etc. So the item-user relevance of each user group becomes trustier. We also incorporate the time weighting factor into program preference computation which leads to reflecting timely changing user preference on (IP)TV programs. Experimental results show that proposed scheme yields 86.4% of prediction accuracy for top 5 recommended programs.
Estimation of Contaminant Concentration in Ground WaterUsing a Stochastic Flow and Transport

Bioplume II, a widely used computer model developed by researchers at Rice University , models the transport of dissolved hydrocarbons in ground water under the innuence of oxygen-limited biodegradation. The model is deterministic, and it was of interest to allow the model to reeect uncertainty in its input variables and to quantify the resulting uncertainty in output contamination estimates. A Monte Carlo interface to the model was developed. This interface gives contaminant concentration information in the form of mean and standard deviation maps. An improved method of estimating contaminant concentrations using this stochastic version of Bioplume II is presented. This method allows contaminant concentration estimates to be obtained for arbitrary spatial locations, not limited to locations at the centers of the cells on the grid used by the model. Additionally, the method allows for calculation of the probability that the contaminant exceeds some user-speciied threshold for any location within the area being modeled.
Comparison of Internally Cooled Wet Electrode and Hepatic Vascular Inflow Occlusion Method for Hepatic Radiofrequency Ablation

Background/Aims Various strategies to expand the ablation zone have been attempted using hepatic radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The optimal strategy, however, is unknown. We compared hepatic RFA with an internally cooled wet (ICW) electrode and vascular inflow occlusion. Methods Eight dogs were assigned to one of three groups: only RFA using an internally cooled electrode (group A), RFA using an ICW electrode (group B), and RFA using an internally cooled electrode with the Pringle maneuver (group C). The ablation zone diameters were measured on the gross specimens, and the volume of the ablation zone was calculated. Results The ablation zone volume was greatest in group B (1.82±1.23 cm3), followed by group C (1.22±0.47 cm3), and then group A (0.48±0.33 cm3). The volumes for group B were significantly larger than the volumes for group A (p=0.030). There was no significant difference in the volumes between groups A and C (p=0.079) and between groups B and C (p=0.827). Conclusions Both the usage of an ICW electrode and hepatic vascular occlusion effectively expanded the ablation zone. The use of an ICW electrode induced a larger ablation zone with easy handling compared with using hepatic vascular occlusion, although this difference was not statistically significant.
Using the cosine measure in a neural network for document retrieval

An air separation process using pressure swing adsorption techniques, for providing high purity oxygen. Two sections are employed one comprising beds of molecular sieve carbon and the other comprising beds of zeolite molecular sieve. Air is fed to a first of the sections which provides an oxygen-rich gas stream as feedstock for the next section where further enrichment takes place. The zeolite sieve section serves to effect a separation as between oxygen and nitrogen while the carbon sieve section serves to effect a separation as between oxygen and argon and the processes performed at each section are integrated in such a manner as to minimize power consumption and make use of gas recycled from the second section to the first in addition to the flow of gas from the first section to the second.
An infrastructure cost evaluation of single- and multi-access networks with heterogeneous traffic density

Traditional performance measures like capacity, cell radius and supported QoS are often insufficient when comparing wireless networks with different network architectures and cost structures. Instead, in this paper, infrastructure cost is used to compare different operator deployed single- and multi-access wireless networks, including 3G, WLAN and proposed 4G radio access technologies. For this purpose a model for the geographical distribution of traffic is introduced. Despite the spatially non-uniform traffic demand, single-access solutions like WCDMA high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) or long-term 3G evolved, with high capacity macro cellular base stations, typically yield the lowest costs per user. In particular this holds for a hypothetical long-term 3G evolved system operating in 450 MHz spectrum, which indicates the importance of good coverage. Operator deployed WLAN-only solutions are more expensive even for small fractions of supported users. Multi-access solutions, combining for example WCDMA DCH or HSDPA with WLAN, do not seem to provide better cost efficiency than standard hierarchical cell structures in single-access systems. Instead, multi-access solutions have to be motivated by other factors like peak data rates and spectrum availability.
Draft Alpha is for Address ! The Essence of Memory Safety

Languages and systems that guarantee memory safety are fundamental tools for building robust software, protecting programs from numerous security vulnerabilities and bugs. But what, exactly, distinguishes such tools from " memory-unsafe " ones? Traditionally, memory safety has been described in terms of bad behaviors (buffer overflow, use-after-free, etc.) that are guaranteed not to occur, ignoring the question of what good things are guaranteed by memory safety—specifically, what new reasoning principles are available in a memory-safe setting. We study the implications of memory safety for a simple imperative language, articulating a powerful local reasoning principle that extends conventional separation logic. To justify this principle , we give the language a semantics based on nominal sets, using the name restriction operation for characterizing the scope in which some pointer's concrete value is relevant, and giving a convenient means for composing parts of a heap while preserving isolation guarantees. The key idea is that outside of its scope, a pointer should be treated modulo alpha-equivalence. This semantics gives rise to a natural equational theory for heap-manipulating programs.
Experiencing BCI Control in a Popular Computer Game

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are not only being developed to aid disabled individuals with motor substitution, motor recovery, and novel communication possibilities, but also as a modality for healthy users in entertainment and gaming. This study investigates whether the incorporation of a BCI in the popular game World of Warcraft (WoW) has effects on the user experience. A BCI control channel based on parietal alpha band power is used to control the shape and function of the avatar in the game. In the experiment, participants (n=42) , a mix of experienced and inexperienced WoW players, played with and without the use of BCI in a within-subjects design. Participants themselves could indicate when they wanted to stop playing. Actual and estimated duration was recorded and questionnaires on presence and control were administered. Afterwards, oral interviews were taken. No difference in actual duration was found between conditions. Results indicate that the difference between estimated and actual duration was not related to user experience but was person specific. When using a BCI, control and involvement were rated lower. But BCI control did not significantly decrease fun. During interviews, experienced players stated that they saw potential in the application of BCIs in games with complex interfaces such as WoW. This study suggests that BCI as an additional control can be as much fun and natural to use as keyboard/mouse control, even if the amount of control is limited.
Gameplay In An Unfamiliar Environment: Novice and Expert Adult Players Encountering Portal For The First Time

Gameplay In An Unfamiliar Environment: Novice and Expert Adult Players Encountering Portal For The First Time Andrew Keenan Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Information University of Toronto 2018 This thesis asks how adult video game players encounter an unfamiliar game for the first time by examining their gameplay. Gameplay is “the way a game is actually played” (Juul, 2005, p. 83). Players were invited to participate in a recorded gameplay session and share their reflections on their first encounter with Portal, a first-person puzzle video game. Using the video commentary model methodology with an exploratory approach, players reviewed and commented on their gameplay footage immediately following their session using a retroactive talk aloud protocol. These sessions were analyzed, comparing how different players encountered the game, how they identified challenges, and how they created solutions to those challenges. There was a noteworthy diversity in how different players encountered Portal with trends emerging amongst players with similar expertise. Novice players found it more difficult to progress through Portal than expert players. There were differences in times to completion, puzzle comprehension, and assessment of game mechanics when comparing novice and expert players. A continuum of players emerged between those with less gameplay expertise and those with significant gameplay expertise. There were considerable barriers to entry for novice players.
CMOS compatible generic batch process towards flexible memory on bulk monocrystalline silicon (100)

Today's mainstream flexible electronics research is geared towards replacing silicon either totally, by having organic devices on organic substrates, or partially, by transferring inorganic devices onto organic substrates. In this work, we present a pragmatic approach combining the desired flexibility of organic substrates and the ultra-high integration density, inherent in silicon semiconductor industry, to transform bulk/inflexible silicon into an ultra-thin mono-crystalline fabric. We also show the effectiveness of this approach in achieving fully flexible electronic systems. Furthermore, we provide a progress report on fabricating various memory devices on flexible silicon fabric and insights for completely flexible memory modules on silicon fabric.
A Novel Eye Location Algorithm based on Radial Symmetry Transform

A novel and robust eye location algorithm is proposed in this paper. The algorithm is based on a low level, context free generalized symmetry transform. Once the regions of interest are detected, characteristics of eyes can be used to improve detection results. The algorithm is tested using 1460 face images of the BioID database and 2730 images of the BANCA database. A fully automatic face verification system has also been developed using this eye location algorithm. The system was one of the top performers in the 2004 International Face Verification Competition
Effect of Translesion DNA Polymerases, Endonucleases and RpoS on Mutation Rates in Salmonella typhimurium

It has been suggested that bacteria have evolved mechanisms to increase their mutation rate in response to various stresses and that the translesion DNA polymerase Pol IV under control of the LexA regulon and the alternative sigma factor RpoS are involved in regulating this mutagenesis. Here we examined in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2 the rates for four different types of mutations (rifampicin, nalidixic acid, and chlorate resistance and Lac+ reversion) during various growth conditions and with different levels of four translesion DNA polymerases (Pol II, Pol IV, Pol V, and SamAB) and RpoS. Constitutive derepression of the LexA regulon by a lexA(def) mutation had no effect on Lac+ reversion rates but increased the other three mutation rates up to 11-fold, and the contribution of the translesion DNA polymerases to this mutagenesis varied with the type of mutation examined. The increase in mutation rates in the lexA(def) mutant required the presence of the LexA-controlled UvrB protein and endonucleases UvrC and Cho. With regard to the potential involvement of RpoS in mutagenesis, neither an increase in RpoS levels conferred by artificial overexpression from a plasmid nor long-term stationary phase incubation or slow growth caused an increase in any of the four mutation rates measured, alone or in combination with overexpression of the translesion DNA polymerases. In conclusion, mutation rates are remarkably robust and no combination of growth conditions, induction of translesion DNA polymerases by inactivation of LexA, or increased RpoS expression could confer an increase in mutation rates higher than the moderate increase caused by derepression of the LexA regulon alone.
Inlier‐based ICA with an application to superimposed images

This paper proposes a new independent component analysis (ICA) method which is able to unmix overcomplete mixtures of sparce or structured signals like speech, music or images. Furthermore, the method is designed to be robust against outliers, which is a favorable feature for ICA algorithms since most of them are extremely sensitive to outliers. Our approach is based on a simple outlier index. However, instead of robustifying an existing algorithm by some outlier rejection technique we show how this index can be used directly to solve the ICA problem for super‐Gaussian sources. The resulting inlier‐based ICA (IBICA) is outlier‐robust by construction and can be used for standard ICA as well as for overcomplete ICA (i.e. more source signals than observed signals). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 15, 48–55, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ima.20037
A Configurable Natural Language Question Benchmark for Knowledge Bases

Supporting natural language interface is crucial for accessing knowledge bases (KBs) due to the complexity of their schema. Many natural language interfaces to KBs (NLIKBs) have been built to simplify query formulation and facilitate advanced applications like personal intelligent assistant. Unfortunately, there is a lack of a comprehensive natural language question benchmark that is able to fairly evaluate different NLIKBs in terms of accuracy and runtime. In this paper, we propose a framework to construct comprehensive question benchmarks, where an array of question characteristics, including query size, commonness, modifier, answer cardinality, and paraphrasing, are made configurable. The benchmark constructed in this way delivers unprecedentedly fine-grained performance profiling, broken down by each question characteristic, which is important for performance comparison and future improvement.
Querying the History of Software Projects Using QWALKEKO

We present the QwalKeko meta-programming library for Clojure that enables querying the history of versioned software projects in a declarative manner. Unique to this library is its support for regular path expressions within history queries. Regular path expressions are akin to regular expressions, except that they match a sequence of successive snapshots of a software project along which user-specified logic conditions must hold. Such logic conditions can concern the source code within a snapshot, versioning information associated with the snapshot, as well as patterns of source code changes with respect to other snapshots. We have successfully used the resulting multi-faceted queries to detect refactorings in project histories. In this paper, we discuss how applicative logic meta-programming enabled combining the heterogenous components of QwalKeko into a uniform whole. We focus on the applicative logic interface to a new implementation of a well-known change distilling algorithm. We use the problem of detecting and categorizing changes made to Selenium-based test scripts for illustration purposes.
Analythical characterization of variable width integrated spiral inductors

In this paper a general method for characterizing tapered inductors with square, hexagonal or octagonal shape is presented. The method proposed allows the evaluation of the series inductance to integrate in any integrated inductor lumped element model, thus granting the overall characterization of the device and the evaluation of design parameters such as the quality factor or the resonance frequency. In this work, the inductor is divided into several segments and the corresponding self and mutual inductances are calculated. In the end, results obtained for several working examples are compared against a field solver. Relative errors below 3% are obtained for square, hexagonal or octagonal inductors, thus proving the validity of the method proposed. Furthermore, the methodology adopted may be easily applied to any polygonal shape.
Crowdsourcing Event Detection in YouTube Videos

Considerable efforts have been put into making video content on the Web more accessible, searchable, and navigable by research on both textual and visual analysis of the actual video content and the accompanying metadata. Nev- ertheless, most of the time, videos are opaque objects in websites. With Web browsers gaining more support for the HTML5 element, videos are becoming first class citizens on the Web. In this paper we show how events can be detected on-the-fly through crowdsourcing (i) textual, (ii) visual, and (iii) be- havioral analysis in YouTube videos, at scale. The main contribution of this paper is a generic crowdsourcing framework for automatic and scalable semantic anno- tations of HTML5 videos. Eventually, we discuss our preliminary results using traditional server-based approaches to video event detection as a baseline.
Sign to letter translator system using a hand glove

A sign to letter translator system using a hand glove is proposed in this paper. The glove can be used by any deaf and/or mute person to communicate with people that do not understand sign language. The performed signs, with the hand wearing the glove, are displayed as alphabetic letters on the LCD. This glove can be very useful, efficient, and helpful for solving the communication issues that arise between the people suffering from hard of hearing and the people that do not. It consists of flex resistors that sense the change in gestures, a microcontroller that gathers, processes, and sends data to the LCD which shows the respective resulting letter. The Sign to Letter Translator is designed to facilitate the communication between the transmitter and the receiver so that the meaning of the message is properly reached and completely understood.