Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Framework for Dynamic Composition of Communication Services

We propose a framework for dynamic composition of communication services that is well suited for facilitating research and prototyping on real experimental infrastructures of remotely configurable embedded devices. By using the concept of composability, our framework supports modular component development for various networking functions, thereby promoting code reuse. The framework consists of four components: the physical testbed, the module library, the declarative language, and the workbench. Its reference implementation, ProtoStack, developed using semantic web technologies, supports remote experimentation on sensor platform-based infrastructure and is thus well suited also for experimenters who do not possess their own physical experimentation infrastructure. We illustrate how ProtoStack supports research in service-oriented networks and cognitive networking. The cost of increased flexibility and prototyping speed of the protocol stack is paid in terms of increased memory footprint, processing speed, and energy consumption. Compared to the most related noncomposable approach, the CRime library used by ProtoStack has a 16--17% larger footprint, takes 2.4 times longer to execute an open-send-recv-close sequence, and consumes 1.6% more power in doing so. Even though with ProtoStack more resources are consumed by the node, the tradeoff in terms of prototyping speed pays off.
Application of Dynamic Voltage Restorer in microgrid for voltage sag/swell mitigation

Microgrids are becoming increasingly attractive to consumers as it allows utilization of freely available renewable energy sources. They are usually installed at consumer's sites i.e the distribution end. Due to high penetration of distributed generation units with different types of loads, microgrids can cause power quality and power control issues. Some of them are voltage swells and sags, and low power factor which further require reactive power compensation. This paper presents the utilization of the custom power device specifically Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) in mitigating the problem of voltage sags and swells occurring in microgrid. A microgrid is modeled and simulated with different loading conditions causing power quality problems. The performance of DVR, installed in microgrid, is analyzed for reactive power compensation to overcome these concerned issues. The control logic of DVR is designed using phase locked loop (PLL) technique and its effectiveness is observed in Matlab/Simulink.
Strategies for Teaching Research Ethics in Business, Management, and Organizational Studies

Ethics education has become increasingly important in the wake of recent corporate scandals and reported scientific misconduct. The pressure to succeed has spurred the emergence of a ‘cheating culture’ (Callahan, 2004). Callahan suggests that ethics – i.e., integrity, honesty and fairness – is losing ground to a market-driven economy and culture that rewards self-interest, self-gratification, and amoral behaviour. As educators, we are committed to providing students with the preparation, mentoring and guidance they need to address ethical issues that arise in their academic, professional and personal lives. We need to serve as positive role models to encourage ethical conduct. Nowhere is this more critical than in the area of research, particularly human subject research. To ensure integrity in research, students and faculty must demonstrate that they understand the ethical and legal ramifications of their work prior to initiating any research. In addition to legal requirements, universities now use a variety of creative approaches designed to promote integrity in personal and professional conduct. This paper discusses effective strategies for teaching research ethics to undergraduate and graduate students in business, management and organisational studies. Strategies include online interactive training modules, case studies, role-playing, action research, critical inquiry, simulations, the Socratic Method, interest triggers, and research analysis. This paper also includes a brief look at LANGURE, an NSF funded national initiative involving over one hundred faculty and students at eight land grant and historically black universities in the United States. LANGURE is developing a model curriculum in research ethics for doctoral candidates in the physical, social and life sciences, and engineering.
Study and Redesign of a Semi-public Display: Online Enlightenment

Semi-public displays are systems designed to strengthen awareness and collaboration among small co-located group environments. Placed in a semi-public space, Online Enlightenment is a physical device associated with MSN® Messenger to provide information regarding the online status of peers. The raison d'etre of the system is to leverage group members’ awareness of their peers’ availability through changes of their online status in order to facilitate meeting scheduling, promote opportunistic collaboration, and foster project teamwork without introducing distraction. At an early stage of the development process, this paper presents the results of a usability study of the system and proposes a redesigned mock-up to address the identified deficiencies.
Symbolic BDD and ADD Algorithms for Energy Games

Energy games, which model quantitative consumption of a limited resource, e.g., time or energy, play a central role in quantitative models for reactive systems. Reactive synthesis constructs a controller which satisfies a given specification, if one exists. For energy games a synthesized controller ensures to satisfy not only the safety constraints of the specification but also the quantitative constraints expressed in the energy game. A symbolic algorithm for energy games, recently presented by Chatterjee et al., is symbolic in its representation of quantitative values but concrete in the representation of game states and transitions. In this paper we present an algorithm that is symbolic both in the quantitative values and in the underlying game representation. We have implemented our algorithm using two different symbolic representations for reactive games, Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD) and Algebraic Decision Diagrams (ADD). We investigate the commonalities and differences of the two implementations and compare their running times on specifications of energy games.
Comprehensive Analysis Suggests Overlapping Expression of Rice ONAC Transcription Factors in Abiotic and Biotic Stress Responses

NAC (NAM/ATAF/CUC) transcription factors comprise a large plant-specific gene family that contains more than 149 members in rice. Extensive studies have revealed that NAC transcription factors not only play important roles in plant growth and development, but also have functions in regulation of responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, biological functions for most of the members in the NAC family remain unknown. In this study, microarray data analyses revealed that a total of 63 ONAC genes exhibited overlapping expression patterns in rice under various abiotic (salt, drought, and cold) and biotic (infection by fungal, bacterial, viral pathogens, and parasitic plants) stresses. Thirty-eight ONAC genes exhibited overlapping expression in response to any two abiotic stresses, among which 16 of 30 selected ONAC genes were upregulated in response to exogenous ABA. Sixty-five ONAC genes showed overlapping expression patterns in response to any two biotic stresses. Results from the present study suggested that members of the ONAC genes with overlapping expression pattern may have pleiotropic biological functions in regulation of defense response against different abiotic and biotic stresses, which provide clues for further functional analysis of the ONAC genes in stress tolerance and pathogen resistance.
Computing parametric geon descriptions of 3d multi-part objects

A new approach for computing qualitative part-based descriptions of 3D objects from single- and multi-view range data is presented. This research is motivated by both a theory of human image understanding (Recognition-by-Components) and the need for qualitative recognition by an autonomous robot in order for it to efficiently interact with its environment. Object descriptions are obtained in two consecutive steps: (1) object segmentation into parts and (2) part model identification. Segmentation is achieved by first computing the simulated electrical charge density distribution on a tessellated triangular mesh of the object surface. The algorithm then detects the object part boundaries where the charge density achieves a local minimum. The charge density distribution can simultaneously provide an indication of the gross and fine object structures. Parametric geons are introduced as the part models, which indicate both qualitative shape and quantitative attribute information. Model recovery is achieved by fitting all parametric geons to a part and then selecting the best model based on the minimum fitting residual. A new objective function used for model recovery is optimised by a global optimisation technique (Very Fast Simulated Re-Annealing). The advantages of this approach are demonstrated through experimentation. By using a physical analogy to the well known transversality principle, part segmentation does not require an assumption of surface smoothness or the choice of a particular scale to compute local surface features. The formulation for parametric geons provides a global shape constraint, which ensures reliable part model recovery even when the part shape is not an exact instance of a parametric geon. By directly comparing a part with all candidate models, this approach explicitly verifies the shape of the resultant part descriptions. The computed part-based descriptions are well suited for the object recognition task carried out by an autonomous robot.
On expander codes

Sipser and Spielman (see ibid., vol.42, p.1717-22, Nov. 1996) have introduced a constructive family of asymptotically good linear error-correcting codes-expander codes-together with a simple parallel algorithm that will always remove a constant fraction of errors. We introduce a variation on their decoding algorithm that, with no extra cost in complexity, provably corrects up to 12 times more errors.
Multiple-Channel Security Architecture and its Implementation over SSL

This paper presents multiple-channel SSL (MC-SSL), an architecture and protocol for protecting client-server communications. In contrast to SSL, which provides a single end-to-end secure channel, MC-SSL enables applications to employ multiple channels, each with its own cipher suite and data-flow direction. Our approach also allows for several partially trusted application proxies. The main advantages of MC-SSL over SSL are (a) support for end-to-end security in the presence of partially trusted proxies, and (b) selective data protection for achieving computational efficiency important to resource-constrained clients and heavily loaded servers.
Test configurations and Geodesic rays

For smooth test configurations, there always exist C^{1,1} geodesic rays in Kahler metric space parallel to the algebraic ray. The $\yen$ invariant agrees with Futaki invariant, at least under nice assumptions. Explicit examples in Toric cases are calculated. On simple test configurations, Donaldson's correspondence between HCMA solution and holomorphic disc family is extended.
Sensing and Adaptation to Low pH Mediated by Inducible Amino Acid Decarboxylases in Salmonella

During the course of infection, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium must successively survive the harsh acid stress of the stomach and multiply into a mild acidic compartment within macrophages. Inducible amino acid decarboxylases are known to promote adaptation to acidic environments. Three low pH inducible amino acid decarboxylases were annotated in the genome of S. Typhimurium, AdiA, CadA and SpeF, which are specific for arginine, lysine and ornithine, respectively. In this study, we characterized and compared the contributions of those enzymes in response to acidic challenges. Individual mutants as well as a strain deleted for the three genes were tested for their ability (i) to survive an extreme acid shock, (ii) to grow at mild acidic pH and (iii) to infect the mouse animal model. We showed that the lysine decarboxylase CadA had the broadest range of activity since it both had the capacity to promote survival at pH 2.3 and growth at pH 4.5. The arginine decarboxylase AdiA was the most performant in protecting S. Typhimurium from a shock at pH 2.3 and the ornithine decarboxylase SpeF conferred the best growth advantage under anaerobiosis conditions at pH 4.5. We developed a GFP-based gene reporter to monitor the pH of the environment as perceived by S. Typhimurium. Results showed that activities of the lysine and ornithine decarboxylases at mild acidic pH did modify the local surrounding of S. Typhimurium both in culture medium and in macrophages. Finally, we tested the contribution of decarboxylases to virulence and found that these enzymes were dispensable for S. Typhimurium virulence during systemic infection. In the light of this result, we examined the genomes of Salmonella spp. normally responsible of systemic infection and observed that the genes encoding these enzymes were not well conserved, supporting the idea that these enzymes may be not required during systemic infection.
In Front of the Lens: The Expectations, Experiences, and Reactions of Visual Journalism’s Subjects

Visual journalism is a curious form of interaction usually involving strangers who have their private lives transformed—wittingly or not—into public objects of attention. Sometimes the interaction between journalist and subject is extended and in-depth, sometimes it is brief and shallow, and sometimes it is nonexistent. People are often reactive to cameras, and tension can exist between the idealized ways people want to be depicted and the ways journalists visually render them. Considering that visual media are “complex reflections of a relationship between maker and subject in which both play roles in shaping their character and content,” scholars have called for more research on journalists’ subjects and how they behave in front of the visual news media. This work answers that call and provides one of the first empirical glimpses into how people regard the experience of being photographed and video-recorded by journalists. As a primary arc of the work is concerned with the nature of experience, it adopts a phenomenological approach and seeks to identify (a) the expectations that news media subjects have of visual journalists, (b) how journalists’ subjects perceive the experience of being photographed and video-recorded in a news media context, and (c) how the subject’s identities and representational aspirations affect their perception of the imaging event. These questions are explored through a four-pronged approach: (a) nonparticipant observations, (b) word association exercises, (c) in-depth interviews, and (d) photo-elicitations. The findings suggest that subjects are more outcome- rather than process-focused; that technological changes and resulting behavior shifts are altering the nature of reality and experience, which has implications for privacy and consent; and that perception is quite fluid and can be affected by identity, habituation, and emotionally valenced experiences.
A Digital Archives-Based Active Service Framework for Scientific Workflow System

This paper describes the architecture of active service model of scientific workflow system. Digital archives technologies are available for all the resources needed to construct services specific group. This paper reviews the introduction and motivation for active service approach, describes the architecture of scientific workflow system, discusses the technologies used in active service , which uses digital archives technology to enable multi-service organizations achieve scientific workflow goals.
Bankers on the Boards of German Firms: What They Do, What They are Worth, and Why They are (Still) There

We analyze the role of bankers on the boards of German non-financial companies for the period from 1994 to 2005. We find that banks that are represented on a firm's board promote their own business as lenders and as M&A advisors. They also seem to act as financial experts who help firms to obtain funding, especially in difficult times. We find little evidence that bankers monitor management and suggest that bankers on the board cause a decline in the valuations of non-financial firms. Banks' equity ownership declined sharply during our sample period and the German financial system lost some of its formerly distinctive features.
Does Network Economics Allow to Enlighten Banking Organization?

Free banking theory aims at showing that competition is the most efficient system as far as compensation between banking institutions is concerned. Private moneys could then exist simultaneously. Such a point of view seems to be at variance with a general tendency consisting in concentrating payment systems under the authority of a Central Bank. It also contrasts with the creation and development of centralized electronic payment systems resting upon new communication means in order to prevent systemic risk. Four main aspects are thus developed to understand the way monetary systems are organized. The first one consists in examining in what extent central money has to be considered as a specific good, whose existence rests upon the security of transfer mechanisms in which irrevocability appears to be an important element. We demonstrate how the technical organization of inter-bank payment system may limit the potentially disruptive contagion effect of an individual failure leading to collapse of other banks when nothing is done to prevent it. The second section gives a presentation of compensation mechanism resting upon network economics. From the typology established by Katz and Shapiro (1985) we demonstrate that talking about externalities is pertinent whenever a quite small number of agents are involved in the same payment system. We then wonder if one compensation system is preferable or not to several ones. The third section presents a model resting upon the so-called club-goods, i.e. intermediate goods that are neither public goods, nor private goods. We then focus on the club's or network's size owing to the idea according to the utility that an agent receives from its consumption depends on the number of other persons with whom he must share its benefits. We show that pure competition is not an optimal solution but that monopoly can be sub-optimal too for reasons dealing with congestion more than with cost. In the last and conclusive section we present normative considerations concerning compensation systems and the way to regulate them using technical means. We thus demonstrate the need for monetary authorities to have at their disposal several means of action in order to grant the security and durability of the payment systems.
Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública

This study had two primary objectives: 1) to derive a method to determine hemoglobin cutoffs that could be used to better estimate the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy at high altitudes and 2) to estimate the prevalence of anemia in a sample of pregnant women residing in two cities in Bolivia, La Paz (3 600 meters) and El Alto (4 000 meters). We derived a hemoglobin-altitude curve from previously published data on the mean hemoglobin concentrations of nonanemic women of childbearing age at various altitudes. In addition, we abstracted data on hemoglobin concentration during pregnancy from medical records of women from La Paz and El Alto who had given birth at a maternity hospital in La Paz between January and June of 1996. Using our approach and two other previously published, currently used methods, we calculated and compared prevalences of iron deficiency anemia in this population using hemoglobin cutoffs determined from a hemoglobin-altitude curve corrected for pregnancy. The hemoglobin-altitude curve derived in this study provided a better fit to data for women of childbearing age than the two other models. Those models used cutoffs based on non-iron-replete populations of children or men, both of which were residing below 4 000 m, and then extrapolated to women and higher altitudes. The estimated prevalences of iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy using the hemoglobin cutoffs determined in this study were higher than those estimated by the two other approaches.
Alternative Splicing in Oncogenic Kinases: From Physiological Functions to Cancer

Among the 518 protein kinases encoded by the human kinome, several of them act as oncoproteins in human cancers. Like other eukaryotic genes, oncogenes encoding protein kinases are frequently subjected to alternative splicing in coding as well as noncoding sequences. In the present paper, we will illustrate how alternative splicing can significantly impact on the physiological functions of oncogenic protein kinases, as demonstrated by mouse genetic model studies. This includes examples of membrane-bound tyrosine kinases receptors (FGFR2, Ret, TrkB, ErbB4, and VEGFR) as well as cytosolic protein kinases (B-Raf). We will further discuss how regular alternative splicing events of these kinases are in some instances implicated in oncogenic processes during tumor progression (FGFR, TrkB, ErbB2, Abl, and AuroraA). Finally, we will present typical examples of aberrant splicing responsible for the deregulation of oncogenic kinases activity in cancers (AuroraB, Jak2, Kit, Met, and Ron).
Extending Classical Planning Heuristics to Probabilistic Planning with Dead-Ends

Recent domain-determinization techniques have been very successful in many probabilistic planning problems. We claim that traditional heuristic MDP algorithms have been unsuccessful due mostly to the lack of efficient heuristics in structured domains. Previous attempts like mGPT used classical planning heuristics to an all-outcome determinization of MDPs without discount factor; yet, discounted optimization is required to solve problems with potential dead-ends. We propose a general extension of classical planning heuristics to goal-oriented discounted MDPs, in order to overcome this flaw. We apply our theoretical analysis to the well-known classical planning heuristics Hmax and Hadd, and prove that the extended Hmax is admissible. We plugged our extended heuristics to popular graph-based (Improved-LAO*, LRTDP, LDFS) and ADD-based (sLAO*, sRTDP) MDP algorithms: experimental evaluations highlight competitive results compared with the winners of previous competitions (FF-Replan, FPG, RFF), and show that our discounted heuristics solve more problems than non-discounted ones, with better criteria values. As for classical planning, the extended Hadd outperforms the extended Hmax on most problems.
Evaluating crossmodal awareness of daily-partner robot to user's behaviors with gaze and utterance detection

This paper proposes a daily-partner robot, that is aware of the user's situation or behavior by using gaze and utterance detection. For appropriate and familiar anthropomorphic interaction, the robot should wait for a timing to talk something to the user corresponding to the situation of her/him while she/he doing a task or thinking. According to the need, our proposed robot i) estimates the user's context by detecting her/his gaze and utterance, such as the target of the user's speech, ii) tries to notify the need to speak to the user by silent (i.e. without making an utterance) gazeturns toward the user and joint attention with taking advantage of the attentiveness, and iii) tell the message when the user talks to the robot. The results of experiments combining subjects' daily tasks with/without the above steps show that the crossmodal-aware behaviors of the robot are important in respectful communications without disturbing the user's ongoing task by adopting silent behaviors showing the robot's intention to speak and for drawing the user's attention.