Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Establishing virtual enterprises by means of mobile agents

Electronic commerce is expanding from the simple notion of electronic stores to the notion of virtual enterprises (VE), where existing enterprises dynamically form temporary alliances, joining their businesses in order to share their costs, skills and resources in supporting certain activities. Two fundamental problems in VE are: (1) how a VE is established, and (2) how information is shared among the VE participants in a controlled and efficient manner. Currently, existing enterprises are using workflows to automate their operations by integrating their information systems and human resources. Thus, in this paper, we view the establishment of a VE as a problem of dynamically expanding and integrating workflows in decentralized, autonomous and interacting workflow management systems. The focus is on the idea of mobile agents called "adlets" and their use in establishing VEs that involves advertising, negotiating and exchanging control information and data as well as its management.
High-Speed, Economical Design Implementation of Transit Network Router

Communication latency is a critical determinant of the amount of exploitable parallelism and the cost of synchronization in massively parallel processors. At the same time, some provisions for fault-tolerance is needed in building a large practical parallel processor system. Because commodity processor technology is improving very rapidly, exploiting this fact through fabrication with the latest technology in the shortest time possible will become more and more desirable to be competitive in the industry. This thesis presents a practical and economical chip design that can be used as a component of a Multistage Interconnection Network called the Transit network for improving both communication latency and faulttolerance. Thesis Supervisor: Thomas F. Knight Jr. Title: Principal Research Scientist
The Docking Stage of Yeast Vacuole Fusion Requires the Transfer of Proteins from a Cis-Snare Complex to a Rab/Ypt Protein

The homotypic fusion of yeast vacuoles requires Sec18p (NSF)-driven priming to allow vacuole docking, but the mechanism that links priming and docking is unknown. We find that a large multisubunit protein called the Vam2/6p complex is bound to cis-paired SNAP receptors (SNAREs) on isolated vacuoles. This association of the Vam2/6p complex with the cis-SNARE complex is disrupted during priming. The Vam2/6p complex then binds to Ypt7p, a guanosine triphosphate binding protein of the Rab family, to initiate productive contact between vacuoles. Thus, cis-SNARE complexes can contain Rab/Ypt effectors, and these effectors can be mobilized by NSF/Sec18p-driven priming, allowing their direct association with a Rab/Ypt protein to activate docking.
The Need for a Model of Contact and Perception Feedback in Multimodal Dialogue Systems

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of characterizing a model of contact and perception feedback to be used in multi-sensory natural language dialogue systems. Rightly exploited the natural interactivity metaphor will add substantially to the quality of Human Machine Interaction. The starting point is an analysis of the miscommunication of a dialogue between a user and a robot. The purpose of analysing scenarios in terms of contact and perception can be seen as a way of trying to fit what is largely a design approach of human-robot interaction into a schema that is founded on theoretical models of human-to-human conversational behaviour. We will present an example of a re-design that takes the multimodal aspects of the interaction into consideration and discuss the theoretical paradigms that justify our design claims. The sensory modalities available to the present robot system do not allow this design to be practically implemented yet, but we will examine some technology that could be used to provide a robot with the sensory information required. Working with an information video describing our robot project (Green et al., 2000) we recorded some video clips intended to demonstrate the way a user could interact with a speaking robot. The ”user” was a staff member who was well aware of the lexical and syntactic constraints of the robot’s dialogue system. Nevertheless, due to an unintentional misconfiguration of the system, the dialogue was breaking down constantly. The miscommunication occurring in the dialogues was mostly related to the lack of communicative feedback from the system. Seen from a purely task-oriented system perspective, the robot did nothing wrong when it actually did recieve some input from the speech recognizer. From the user’s perspective, however, the system was fail〈robot in navigation state is moving slowly, and reaches its goal point. 〉 R1: Put the paper on the tray please! 〈user puts the paper on the tray〉 U2: Okay //seven seconds passes// U3: Ok //overlap with (1)// 〈(1) robots starts moving〉
Optimising Controlled Human Malaria Infection Studies Using Cryopreserved P. falciparum Parasites Administered by Needle and Syringe

Background Controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) studies have become a routine tool to evaluate efficacy of candidate anti-malarial drugs and vaccines. To date, CHMI trials have mostly been conducted using the bite of infected mosquitoes, restricting the number of trial sites that can perform CHMI studies. Aseptic, cryopreserved P. falciparum sporozoites (PfSPZ Challenge) provide a potentially more accurate, reproducible and practical alternative, allowing a known number of sporozoites to be administered simply by injection. Methodology We sought to assess the infectivity of PfSPZ Challenge administered in different dosing regimens to malaria-naive healthy adults (n = 18). Six participants received 2,500 sporozoites intradermally (ID), six received 2,500 sporozoites intramuscularly (IM) and six received 25,000 sporozoites IM. Findings Five out of six participants receiving 2,500 sporozoites ID, 3/6 participants receiving 2,500 sporozoites IM and 6/6 participants receiving 25,000 sporozoites IM were successfully infected. The median time to diagnosis was 13.2, 17.8 and 12.7 days for 2,500 sporozoites ID, 2,500 sporozoites IM and 25,000 sporozoites IM respectively (Kaplan Meier method; p = 0.024 log rank test). Conclusions 2,500 sporozoites ID and 25,000 sporozoites IM have similar infectivities. Given the dose response in infectivity seen with IM administration, further work should evaluate increasing doses of PfSPZ Challenge IM to identify a dosing regimen that reliably infects 100% of participants. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01465048
Modification to model reference adaptive control of 5-link exoskeleton with gravity compensation

This paper presents a modified methodology based on the model reference adaptive control (MRAC) for tracking and stability with gravity compensation for the 5-link single support phase lower limb exoskeleton with external disturbance. Different from conventional methods, the proposed method is based on MRAC with adaptive error gain in the presence of external disturbance. Asymptotical stability of the system is investigated by choosing an appropriate lyapunov function, that ensures the convergence of tracking error to zero. The effectiveness of proposed method has been verified with the help of simulation example.
A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Sudanese Refugees in Cairo, Egypt

Approximately one third of a population exposed to mass violence develops posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and approximately half develops depression, yet little is known about how to effectively treat these populations. This study’s objective was to examine the impact of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) on Sudanese refugees living in Cairo, Egypt, who had symptoms of PTSD. A randomized controlled trial (April–August 2008) with 22 Sudanese refugees in Cairo, Egypt, tested two hypotheses: (1) After IPT, participants will have fewer symptoms of depression and PTSD compared with waitlist controls. (2) After IPT, participants will have less interpersonal violence compared with waitlist controls. Participants were randomly assigned to either 6 sessions of IPT delivered by Sudanese community therapists without previous mental health training or a waitlist control group. Measures taken at baseline and trial conclusion included the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Index—II, the Conflict Tactics Scale, and the State-Trait Anger Inventory, all translated and adapted for local use. The effect sizes of IPT treatment for PTSD symptoms, depression, state anger, trait anger, and Conflict Tactics Scale—Violence Toward Household were 2.52, 2.38, 1.21, 1.43, and 0.84, respectively. IPT predicted a significant decrease in symptoms of PTSD, state anger, and depression using a conservative intent-to-treat analysis. This study represents the first randomized controlled trial of IPT to address PTSD, depression, and interpersonal violence in a refugee population. The study’s preliminary success has positive implications for development of effective and sustainable mental health interventions to support the recovery of traumatized populations.
Lattice-guided human motion deformation for collision avoidance

In this paper, we propose a lattice-guided human motion deformation method. Our key idea is to warp the motion space by applying an existing shape deformation technique to efficiently realize motion deformation for collision avoidance. An input motion is deformed based on the deformation of a lattice that covers the input motion. The lattice is constructed so that it covers an input motion, and it is deformed to avoid still or moving obstacles. The constraints to deform the lattice are determined based on the intersections between the vertices of the lattice that overlaps the character's body during the input motion and the space-time volume of the obstacles. Using these constraints, the lattice is deformed by applying an as-rigid-as-possible shape deformation. The joint positions of each frame pose of the input motion are altered by the lattice deformation and used to deform that frame pose. By introducing a lattice deformation, the constraints to deform a pose can be efficiently obtained while keeping space-time consistency. We evaluated our method using several motions and situations. The results show the effectiveness of our approach.
Single Center Experience on Anatomy-and Histopathology-Based Gastric Cancer Molecular Classification

ABSTRACT We analyzed the clinical utility of molecular classification based on anatomical and histological background. The study was conducted on 457 patients treated for gastric cancer with additional information about microsatellite instability status. We divided the patients in three groups of molecular classification based on anatomical and histological background: proximal non-diffused, diffused, and distal non-diffused groups. These groups varied in terms of clinical and pathological factors as well as survival rates. The molecular classification based on anatomical and histological data seems to be a useful tool in a simple classification of gastric cancer.
Oligonucleotide Models of Telomeric DNA and RNA Form a Hybrid G-quadruplex Structure as a Potential Component of Telomeres*

Background: Telomeric repeat-containing RNA has recently been found in mammalian cells. Results: Oligonucleotide models of telomeric DNA and RNA form a hybrid G-quadruplex structure. Conclusion: We suggest a model system for understanding the structure and function of human telomeres. Significance: Our finding provides valuable information for understanding the structure and function of human telomeric DNA and RNA. Telomeric repeat-containing RNA, a non-coding RNA molecule, has recently been found in mammalian cells. The detailed structural features and functions of the telomeric RNA at human chromosome ends remain unclear, although this RNA molecule may be a key component of the telomere machinery. In this study, using model human telomeric DNA and RNA sequences, we demonstrated that human telomeric RNA and DNA oligonucleotides form a DNA-RNA G-quadruplex. We next employed chemistry-based oligonucleotide probes to mimic the naturally formed telomeric DNA-RNA G-quadruplexes in living cells, suggesting that the process of DNA-RNA G-quadruplex formation with oligonucleotide models of telomeric DNA and RNA could occur in cells. Furthermore, we investigated the possible roles of this DNA-RNA G-quadruplex. The formation of the DNA-RNA G-quadruplex causes a significant increase in the clonogenic capacity of cells and has an effect on inhibition of cellular senescence. Here, we have used a model system to provide evidence about the formation of G-quadruplex structures involving telomeric DNA and RNA sequences that have the potential to provide a protective capping structure for telomere ends.
Improvement of the walking robot dynamic stability using the DSmT and the neutrosophic logic

This paper presents an innovative algorithm for improvement of the walking robot dynamic stability, using the Desert Smarandache Theory (DSmT) and the neutrosophic logic set. Starting from the hybrid force-position control, by applying the Robot Neutrosophic Control (RNC) method we extend the fuzzy control for walking robot stability motion on uneven terrain and in unstructured environments. Results analysis through virtual experimentation for motion control of a mobile walking robot proves that the neutrosophic logic leads to performance improvement of real time control through robustness, adaptation to robot's environment, efficient control and fast and clear identification of robot states.
Adaptive MPEG-4 video transmission over PSTN using buffer constraints and RTP feedback

Video transmission over PSTN often suffers from some difficulties such as the bandwidth fluctuation, packet loss and transmission delay. Combining the send buffer and network feedback information, This work brings forward an adaptive video transmission control algorithm, JCBAF, to timely notify the encoder to get a better match between the output bit-rate and fluctuated bandwidth. Furthermore, a smooth control strategy is proposed to inform the encoder to achieve a better tradeoff between a lower delay and a good perceptual video quality. Experimental results show that the method can effectively control delay in very low bit-rate video transmission over PSTN or other error prone channels while maintain the video quality.
Text Independent Automatic Speaker Recognition System Using Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficient and Gaussian Mixture Models

The aim of this paper is to show the accuracy and time results of a text independent automatic speaker recognition (ASR) system, based on Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC) and Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM), in order to develop a security control access gate. 450 speakers were randomly extracted from the Voxforge.org audio database, their utterances have been improved using spectral subtraction, then MFCC were extracted and these coefficients were statistically analyzed by GMM in order to build each profile. For each speaker two different speech files were used: the first one to build the profile database, the second one to test the system performance. The accuracy achieved by the proposed approach is greater than 96% and the time spent for a single test run, implemented in Matlab language, is about 2 seconds on a common PC.
Mechanism of the growth inhibition potentiation arising from combination of 6-mercaptopurine with 6-(methylmercapto)purine ribonucleoside.

Summary The antitumor effects of 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) and 6-(methylmercapto)purine ribonucleoside (Me6MPR) are distinctly potentiated when these agents are used together in the treatment of certain mouse tumors, including the Ehrlich ascites carcinoma. This paper is concerned with the biochemical mechanism of this potentiation. Prior treatment of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells with Me6MPR enhanced several fold their ability to convert 6MP to 6MP ribonucleotide (thioinosinate) and their content of 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate. These related effects were demonstrable 96 hr after a single Me6MPR treatment and were evidently due to the presence in the tumor cells of methylthioinosinate, which had a half-life in excess of 96 hr. Both effects were absent when tumor cells were treated with Me6MPR plus adenine. The inhibition of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cell proliferation in vivo by single 6MP-Me6MPR treatments was distinctly increased if the Me6MPR component was given prior to 6MP. This result and the coincident changes in 6MP and 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate metabolism indicate that the Me6MPR-induced stimulation of 6MP anabolism is an important factor in the 6MP-Me6MPR therapeutic potentiation.
Dual-Channel Speech Enhancement by Superdirective Beamforming

In this contribution, a dual-channel input-output speech enhancement system is introduced. The proposed algorithm is an adaptation of the well-known superdirective beamformer including postfiltering to the binaural application. In contrast to conventional beamformer processing, the proposed system outputs enhanced stereo signals while preserving the important interaural amplitude and phase differences of the original signal. Instrumental performance evaluations in a real environment with multiple speech sources indicate that the proposed computational efficient spectral weighting system can achieve significant attenuation of speech interferers while maintaining a high speech quality of the target signal.
An inverse-gamma source variance prior with factorized parameterization for audio source separation

In this paper we present a new statistical model for the power spectral density (PSD) of an audio signal and its application to multichannel audio source separation (MASS). The source signal is modeled with the local Gaussian model (LGM) and we propose to model its variance with an inverse-Gamma distribution, whose scale parameter is factorized as a rank-1 model. We discuss the interest of this approach and evaluate it in a MASS task with underdetermined convolutive mixtures. For this aim, we derive a variational EM algorithm for parameter estimation and source inference. The proposed model shows a benefit in source separation performance compared to a state-of-the-art LGM NMF-based technique.
Multiple Human Tracking Using Binary Infrared Sensors

To create a context-aware environment, human locations and movement paths must be considered. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that tracks human movement paths using only binary sensed data obtained by infrared (IR) sensors attached to the ceiling of a room. Our algorithm can estimate multiple human movement paths without a priori knowledge of the number of humans in the room. By repeating predictions and estimations of human positions and links from the previous human positions to the estimated ones at each time period, human movement paths can be estimated. Simulation-based evaluation results show that our algorithm can dynamically trace human movement paths.
Comparisons between perivascular adipose tissue and the endothelium in their modulation of vascular tone

The endothelium is an established modulator of vascular tone; however, the recent discovery of the anti‐contractile nature of perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) suggests that the fat, which surrounds many blood vessels, can also modulate vascular tone. Both the endothelium and PVAT secrete vasoactive substances, which regulate vascular function. Many of these factors are common to both the endothelium and PVAT; therefore, this review will highlight the potential shared mechanisms in the modulation of vascular tone. Endothelial dysfunction is a hallmark of many vascular diseases, including hypertension and obesity. Moreover, PVAT dysfunction is now being reported in several cardio‐metabolic disorders. Thus, this review will also discuss the mechanistic insights into endothelial and PVAT dysfunction in order to evaluate whether PVAT modulation of vascular contractility is similar to that of the endothelium in health and disease.
Conditional variance LMMSE estimator for a GARCH process clutter model

A radar detection scheme based on a GARCH clutter model has been proposed recently. This adaptive detector depends on the conditional variance of the GARCH process. We present a linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimator for the conditional variance of a GARCH process that allows us to update the conditional variance at each decision instant. We derive the estimation algorithm with an approach analogous to the Kalman filter, though system matrices turn out to be random ones. We illustrate the LMMSE algorithm behavior by means of simulations with a particular GARCH process.
Intelligent Distributed Surveillance System for People Reidentification in a Transportation Environment

This article presents a solution to track people across a network of cameras with disjoint fields of vision. First, an appearance-based signature is extracted from each frame of the sequence characterizing the passage of a person. This feature, called color-position signature, merges spatial and color information for improved robustness. Moreover, an illuminant invariant procedure has been introduced to manage lighting and camera response changes. Second, the distance between 2 sequences is estimated with dimensionality reduction techniques. Two methods are implemented and compared. The first one is the classical, linear, principal components analysis, whereas the second is a recent nonlinear method called the Laplacian eigenmaps approach. Results from 2 databases acquired in difficult conditions show that the Laplacian eigenmaps method always yields the best results, which confirms the interest of nonlinear approaches in such applications. Moreover, these results show the relevance of this approach combining appearance-based signature and dimensionality reduction technique within the scope of people tracking across distinct fields of vision.
High accuracy citation extraction and named entity recognition for a heterogeneous corpus of academic papers

Citation indices are increasingly being used not only as navigational tools for researchers, but also as the basis for measurement of academic performance and research impact. This means that the reliability of tools used to extract citations and construct such indices is becoming more critical; however, existing approaches to citation extraction still fall short of the high accuracy required if critical assessments are to be based on them. In this paper, we present techniques for high accuracy extraction of citations from academic papers, designed for applicability across a broad range of disciplines and document styles. We integrate citation extraction, reference parsing, and author named entity recognition to significantly improve performance in citation extraction, and demonstrate this performance on a cross-disciplinary heterogeneous corpus. Applying our algorithm to previously unseen documents, we demonstrate high F-measure performance of 0.98 for author named entity recognition and 0.97 for citation extraction.