Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Robot Photographer with User Interactivity

This paper describes a new robot photographer system which can interact with people. The goal of this research is to make the system act like a human photographer. This system is based on a mobile robot having capabilities of wireless communication and stereo vision. It recognizes waving hands of people, moves toward them, and takes pictures with designated compositions. The pictures are transmitted to personal computers over the wireless network. In comparison with previous researches, the most unique things of this system are human interaction and user preference. To realize these properties, this new robot photographer system is considered optical property of lens and applied interesting vision algorithm which was never tried before for previous robot photographer systems
VLSI processor for reliable stereo matching based on adaptive window-size selection

Stereo vision is a well known method to acquire 3D information. One important problem in stereo vision is to establish reliable correspondence between images. Another problem is that the correspondence search is time-consuming. This paper presents a reliable stereo-matching algorithm and a new parallel VLSI processor architecture for stereo matching. One commonly-used method to establish correspondence between images is the SAD (sum of absolute differences) method. A window size is iteratively enlarged to select as small a window for each pixel as possible that can avoid ambiguity based on uniqueness of a minimum of an SAD graph. This process is called a global search. Next, the estimate of the corresponding pixel obtained by the global search is iteratively refined by shrinking the window size. To avoid ambiguity with a small window size, the correspondence estimate obtained by the global search is efficiently used. The proposed algorithm has regular data flow based on iterations of SAD computation so that it is suitable for parallel processing.
Interactive Hatching and Stippling by Example

We describe a system that lets a designer interactively draw patterns of strokes in the picture plane, then guide the synthesis of similar patterns over new picture regions. Synthesis is based on an initial user-assisted analysis phase in which the system recognizes distinct types of strokes (hatching and stippling) and organizes them according to perceptual grouping criteria. The synthesized strokes are produced by combining properties (eg. length, orientation, parallelism, proximity) of the stroke groups extracted from the input examples. We illustrate our technique with a drawing application that allows the control of attributes and scale-dependent reproduction of the synthesized patterns.
Fine-scale spatial and temporal genetic structure of Atlantic cod off the Atlantic coast of the USA

Atlantic cod Gadus morhua in US waters are currently managed as 2 stocks: (1) a Gulf of Maine stock and (2) a Georges Bank and south stock. This designation is decades old and warrants re-evaluation in light of concerns that fisheries management units may not reflect biologically mean- ingful population units. In this study, we used 10 microsatellite loci, the PanI locus, and 5 single nucleotide polymorphism markers to characterize the population genetic structure of cod in US waters. We found significant differentiation among temporally and spatially divergent populations of cod (global FST = 0.0044), primarily stemming from 2 potentially non-neutral loci, and evidence for a population structure that strongly contradicts the current 2-stock management model. This genetic structure was stable over a 5 yr period. Our results indicate that cod in US waters are broadly struc- tured into 3 groups: (1) a northern spring-spawning coastal complex in the Gulf of Maine (GOM), (2) a southern complex consisting of winter-spawning inshore GOM, offshore GOM and sites south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and (3) a Georges Bank population. The strongest differentiation occurs between populations in the northern and southern complex (mean FST = 0.0085), some of which spawn in the same bays in different seasons. By means of mixture analysis, young-of-the-year fish sampled on juvenile nurseries were assigned to the spawning complex of their origin. Our findings contribute to a growing body of knowledge that Atlantic cod and other marine fish populations are structured on a finer scale than previously thought and that this structure supports biocomplexity and locally adapted populations. As such, it may be warranted to re-evaluate current management units and tailor management plans toward this finer scale.
A Kinematic Sensor and Algorithm to Detect Motor Fluctuations in Parkinson Disease: Validation Study Under Real Conditions of Use

Background A new algorithm has been developed, which combines information on gait bradykinesia and dyskinesia provided by a single kinematic sensor located on the waist of Parkinson disease (PD) patients to detect motor fluctuations (On- and Off-periods). Objective The goal of this study was to analyze the accuracy of this algorithm under real conditions of use. Methods This validation study of a motor-fluctuation detection algorithm was conducted on a sample of 23 patients with advanced PD. Patients were asked to wear the kinematic sensor for 1 to 3 days at home, while simultaneously keeping a diary of their On- and Off-periods. During this testing, researchers were not present, and patients continued to carry on their usual daily activities in their natural environment. The algorithm’s outputs were compared with the patients’ records, which were used as the gold standard. Results The algorithm produced 37% more results than the patients’ records (671 vs 489). The positive predictive value of the algorithm to detect Off-periods, as compared with the patients’ records, was 92% (95% CI 87.33%-97.3%) and the negative predictive value was 94% (95% CI 90.71%-97.1%); the overall classification accuracy was 92.20%. Conclusions The kinematic sensor and the algorithm for detection of motor-fluctuations validated in this study are an accurate and useful tool for monitoring PD patients with difficult-to-control motor fluctuations in the outpatient setting.
Analysis of Intonation: the Case of MAE_ToBI

Annotation systems for intonation contours are ideally based on a well-motivated phonological analysis of the language in question, such that instances of indecision are restricted to uncertainties over what intonational structure the speaker has used, rather than over the choice of label in situations where no suitably distinctive label is available or more than one suitable label is available. This contribution inventorizes a number of cases of overanalysis and underanalysis in MAE_ToBI and argues that they are in large part due to the decision by Pierrehumbert (1980) to analyze a rising-falling accent as a rising pitch accent (L+H*) followed by a L-tone from a different source (an ‘on-ramp’ analysis). It is shown how the opposite choice, a falling pitch accent preceded by a L-tone from a different source (an ‘off-ramp’ analysis), avoids most of these problems. Results from a perception experiment testing MAE_ToBI’s prediction of intonational boundaries show that steep falls do not always signal a boundary. The inclusion of a tritonal prenuclear pitch accent, which explains the absence of an intonational boundary after a steep fall followed by a gradual rise, can readily be accommodated in the ‘off-ramp’ analysis, but not in MAE_ToBI.
Governing Complexity: Recent Developments in Environmental Politics and Policy

Using a large sample of articles and books published between 2012 and 2015, this review shows the recent trends in environmental politics and policy scholarship. Environmental policy scholarship has embraced the concept of governance to explain the variety of actors and institutions that surround environmental problems and solutions. Scholars in the past three years used theories and methods to capture these governing dynamics in far-reaching and complicated issues like climate change. This article discusses recent patterns in the literature and demonstrates that new methods, recent theoretical focuses, and even the environmental issues covered by scholars reflect the field's acknowledgement that scholars can and should account for complexity in their work. However, the literature has neglected certain regions and processes, such as the developing world and policy feedback processes, leaving significant gaps in our understanding.
Efficient circuit partitioning to extend cycle simulation beyond synchronous circuits

Cycle simulation techniques, such as levelized compiled code, can ordinarily be applied only to synchronous designs. They usually cannot be applied to designs containing circuit features like combinational paths, multiple clock domains, generated clocks, asynchronous resets, and transparent latches. This paper presents a novel partitioning algorithm that partitions a non-cycle-simulatable circuit containing these features into simulation that can be cycle simulated. Cycle simulation techniques can be applied to the individual sub-circuits, and the whole collection of sub-circuits can be simulated together using conventional co-simulation techniques. Empirical results demonstrate that this approach brings the benefits of cycle simulation to circuits that were previously impossible to cycle simulate. The partitioning algorithm requires time and space linear in the size of the circuit, and in practice is very fast. We also discuss how the key ideas presented here can be applied to accelerate HDL simulation.
Compact portable QEPAS multi-gas sensor

A quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) based multi-gas sensor was developed to quantify concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen chloride (HCl), and carbon dioxide (CO2) in ambient air. The sensor consists of a compact package of dimensions 25cm x 25cm x 10cm and was designed to operate at atmospheric pressure. The HCN, CO2, and HCl measurement channels are based on cw, C-band telecommunication-style packaged, fiber-coupled diode lasers, while the CO channel uses a TO can-packaged Sb diode laser as an excitation source. Moreover, the sensor incorporates rechargeable batteries and can operate on batteries for at least 8 hours. It can also operate autonomously or interact with another device (such as a computer) via a RS232 serial port. Trace gas detection limits of 7.74ppm at 4288.29cm-1 for CO, 450ppb at 6539.11 cm-1 for HCN, 1.48ppm at 5739.26 cm-1 for HCl and 97ppm at 6361.25 cm-1 for CO2 for a 1sec average time, were demonstrated.
Lightly supervised automatic subtitling of weather forecasts

Since subtitling television content is a costly process, there are large potential advantages to automating it, using automatic speech recognition (ASR). However, training the necessary acoustic models can be a challenge, since the available training data usually lacks verbatim orthographic transcriptions. If there are approximate transcriptions, this problem can be overcome using light supervision methods. In this paper, we perform speech recognition on broadcasts of Weatherview, BBC's daily weather report, as a first step towards automatic subtitling. For training, we use a large set of past broadcasts, using their manually created subtitles as approximate transcriptions. We discuss and and compare two different light supervision methods, applying them to this data. The best training set finally obtained with these methods is used to create a hybrid deep neural network-based recognition system, which yields high recognition accuracies on three separate Weatherview evaluation sets.
Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells Directly Utilize Lactate for Promoting Cell Cycling and Differentiation

Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) undergo marked morphological changes to become mature oligodendrocytes, but the metabolic resources for this process have not been fully elucidated. Although lactate, a metabolic derivative of glycogen, has been reported to be consumed in oligodendrocytes as a metabolite, and to ameliorate hypomyelination induced by low glucose conditions, it is not clear about the direct contribution of lactate to cell cycling and differentiation of OPCs, and the source of lactate for remyelination. Therefore, we evaluated the effect of 1,4‐dideoxy‐1,4‐imino‐d‐arabinitol (DAB), an inhibitor of the glycogen catabolic enzyme glycogen phosphorylase, in a mouse cuprizone model. Cuprizone induced demyelination in the corpus callosum and remyelination occurred after cuprizone treatment ceased. This remyelination was inhibited by the administration of DAB. To further examine whether lactate affects proliferation or differentiation of OPCs, we cultured mouse primary OPC‐rich cells and analyzed the effect of lactate. Lactate rescued the slowed cell cycling induced by 0.4 mM glucose, as assessed by the BrdU‐positive cell ratio. Lactate also promoted OPC differentiation detected by monitoring the mature oligodendrocyte marker myelin basic protein, in the presence of both 36.6 mM and 0.4 mM glucose. Furthermore, these lactate‐mediated effects were suppressed by the reported monocarboxylate transporter inhibitor, α‐cyano‐4‐hydroxy‐cinnamate. These results suggest that lactate directly promotes the cell cycling rate and differentiation of OPCs, and that glycogen, one of the sources of lactate, contributes to remyelination in vivo. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 986–995, 2017. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Cellular Physiology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Remogliflozin Etabonate, in a Novel Category of Selective Low-Affinity Sodium Glucose Cotransporter (SGLT2) Inhibitors, Exhibits Antidiabetic Efficacy in Rodent Models

The low-affinity sodium glucose cotransporter (SGLT2) plays an important role in renal glucose reabsorption and is a remarkable transporter as a molecular target for the treatment of diabetes. We have discovered remogliflozin etabonate, which is a novel category of selective SGLT2 inhibitors. Remogliflozin etabonate is a prodrug based on benzylpyrazole glucoside and is metabolized to its active form, remogliflozin, in the body. We identified remogliflozin to be a potent and highly selective SGLT2 inhibitor by examining COS-7 cells transiently expressing either high-affinity sodium glucose cotransporter (SGLT1) or SGLT2. Orally administered remogliflozin etabonate increased urinary glucose excretion in a dose-dependent manner in both mice and rats. By increasing urinary glucose excretion, remogliflozin etabonate inhibited the increase in plasma glucose after glucose loading without stimulating insulin secretion in normal rats. Remogliflozin etabonate also showed antihyperglycemic effects in both streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats in oral glucose tolerance and in db/db mice in the fed condition. Chronic treatment with remogliflozin etabonate reduced the levels of fasting plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin, and it ameliorated glucosuria in db/db mice. In high-fat diet-fed Goto-Kakizaki rats, remogliflozin etabonate improved hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and insulin resistance. This study demonstrates that treatment with remogliflozin etabonate exhibits antidiabetic efficacy in several rodent models and suggests that remogliflozin etabonate may be a new and useful drug for the treatment of diabetes.
Accuracy evaluation of fixed-point LMS algorithm

The implementation of adaptive filters with fixed-point arithmetic requires the computation quality to be evaluated. The accuracy may be determined by calculating the global quantization noise power in the system output. A new model for evaluating analytically the global noise power in the LMS algorithm and in the NLMS algorithm is developed. Two existing models are presented, then the model is detailed and compared with the ones before. The accuracy of our model is analyzed by simulation.
Decreasing Change Impact Using Smart LSB Pixel Mapping and Data Rearrangement

The paper introduces a new optimization strategy in LSB steganography that reduces the image degradation rate in the steganographic carrier. We propose an LSB matching steganographic algorithm based on the principles of genetic algorithms, that aims to reuse the binary image color values in a controlled way so that instead of focusing to change the least significant portion of the color representation (LSBs), we remap the secret data in a manner that reduces the color information loss up to a negligible level. The algorithm improves the statistical analysis immunity of the steganographic image and at the same time offers higher PSNR (an average gain of 2,4 dB) than most of the LSB matching algorithms used in our experiments. Because of the flexibility of this approach, our method represents not only a stand-alone steganographic algorithm, but also an extension to other similar algorithms.
The role of topography and soil characteristics in the relationship between species richness and primary productivity in a Kansas grassland

Abstract Environmental conditions influence patterns of local-scale plant productivity and species richness. We sampled soils and plant communities at a topographically-diverse, mid-successional old field site in Kansas to better understand the abiotic factors underlying a natural plant productivity gradient. We related soil texture, pH, percent nitrogen and carbon, and soil moisture to elevation, plant productivity, and species richness. Most soil qualities were significantly correlated with elevation. The four soil texture classes we identified — clay, silty clay, silty clay loam, and silt loam — were spatially clustered according to topography. The lowest elevation sites, characterized by high C and N, low pH, low light penetration, and soils containing more silt and sand which supported the most productive and least diverse plant communities. We suggest that topography drives spatial heterogeneity in soils at our site. We also suggest that although richness is influenced directly by the filtering effects of the abiotic environment on the species pool, the indirect effects environmental factors have on richness via biomass production are more important for governing plant species richness in our system.
Improved minimum total MSE transceiver design with imperfect CSI at both ends of a MIMO link

In this paper, we propose a novel joint linear transceiver design for single-user multiple-input, multiple-output (SU-MEVIO) systems employing improper signal constellations. In particular, improved minimum mean square error (MMSE) transceiver is designed based on modified cost functions, with channel mean as well as both transmit and receive correlation information at both ends. The joint design is formulated into an optimization problem. The optimum closed-form precoder and decoder are derived. Compared to the case with perfect channel state information (CSI), linear filters are added at both ends to balance the suppression of channel noise and the noise from imperfect channel estimation. The superiority of the proposed joint linear transceiver design over the conventional solutions is verified by simulation results.
Ontologies and Description Logics

Ontologies and Description Logics (DLs). Why putting them in a single chapter for this document devoted to AI research in Italy? Well, a good reason is that both research areas originated from a single, classic mainstream in AI: logic-based knowledge representation (KR). Indeed, starting from the late 80s, Italian researchers brought a radical contribution to the formal understanding of so-called structured representation languages developed in the previous decade, whose most known example was KL-ONE. Their research took however two different directions. On one hand, after Levesque and Brachman’s logicalization of KL-ONE and their discovery of the fundamental tradeoff between expressivity and tractability [8], a whole Italian school emerged under the direction of Maurizio Lenzerini, focusing mainly on the need to develop KR languages with predictable computational behavior and sound and complete inference algorithms. On the other hand, Nicola Guarino started analyzing the implicit and often ambiguous ontological assumptions made by structured logical formalisms, such as those behind the notions of role and attribute, arguing against the ontological neutrality of representation systems and suggesting formal ontological distinctions to be taken into account. In the meanwhile, in the early 90s, a new hot topic captured the attention of AI researchers: knowledge sharing among heterogeneous, distributed sources (very similar to the issue emerging –roughly at the same time– in the DB community: data integration). It became clear soon that, in order to attack these problems, two complementary aspects needed to be addressed: content and reasoning. Ontological analysis and DLs emerged soon as the proper techniques to deal with these aspects, and became later very popular for their key role in the future Semantic Web. Italian researchers contributed in a peculiar way to both.
Oversampled DFT filter banks for error correction coding

In this paper we present a new approach to design parity-check polynomial matrices for oversampled DFT filter banks, which operate in the frequency domain and exploit the efficient polyphase structure of the filter bank. When compared to general filter banks, the design ease is significantly improved due to a reduced number of parameters, the numerical robustness of the parity check polynomial design increases, and an improved localization of errors in the observed syndromes is obtained. We apply our design to the detection of impulse errors in Gaussian background noise and evaluate the performance with respect to filter bank parameters and statistical information on the transmission channel.
Characterization of the Prokaryotic Sodium Channel NavSp Pore with a Microfluidic Bilayer Platform

This paper describes the use of a newly-developed micro-chip bilayer platform to examine the electrophysiological properties of the prokaryotic voltage-gated sodium channel pore (NavSp) from Silicibacter pomeroyi. The platform allows up to 6 bilayers to be analysed simultaneously. Proteoliposomes were incorporated into suspended lipid bilayers formed within the microfluidic bilayer chips. The chips provide access to bilayers from either side, enabling the fast and controlled titration of compounds. Dose-dependent modulation of the opening probability by the channel blocking drug nifedipine was measured and its IC50 determined.
On the Variable Step-Size of Discrete-Time Zhang Neural Network and Newton Iteration for Constant Matrix Inversion

A special kind of recurrent neural network has recently been proposed by Zhang et al for matrix inversion. Then, for possible hardware and digital-circuit realization, the corresponding discrete-time model of Zhang neural network (ZNN) is proposed for constant matrix inversion, which reduces exactly to Newton iteration when linear activation functions and constat step-size 1 are used. In this paper, a variable step-size choosing method is investigated for such a discrete-time ZNN model, in which different variable step-size rules are derived for different kinds of activation functions. For comparative purposes, the fixed step-size choosing method is presented as well. Numerical examples demonstrate the efficacy of the discrete-time ZNN model, especially when using the variable step-size method.
Quintet, tools for reliable enterprise computing

Describes Quintet, a system for developing and managing reliable enterprise servers. Quintet provides tools for the distribution and replication of server components to achieve guaranteed availability and performance. It is targeted to serve the application tier in multi-tier business systems, with components constructed using Microsoft COM. Quintet takes a radically different approach from previous systems that support object replication, in that replication and distribution are no longer transparent and are brought under full control of the developer.