Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Services to support consistency in mobile collaborative applications

This paper describes the design of services to support consistency in collaborative mobile applications. The requirements for application level consistency in groupware applications are discussed and it is argued that existing consistency services for mobile environments fail to address these requirements because they assume infrequent (write) sharing of information. We present the design of a group execution service called G-QEX which is designed to support consistency in mobile applications and includes features necessary to cope with the fluctuations in QoS which characterise mobile environments.
Interference Cancellation/Decoding for Coded Synchronous Multi-carrier DS-CDMA

In this paper, by applying Turbo principle to convolutionally coded synchronous multi-carrier DS-CDMA, we propose Turbo parallel interference cancellation and decoding, which is termed Turbo PIC/decoding. We make analysis and simulations for Turbo PIC/decoding by the computer. The simulation results show that Turbo PIC/decoding acquires better performance with a posteriori log-likelihood rate (LLR) feedback than with a priori LLR feedback and outperforms the conventional PIC/decoding in performance significantly. Besides, Turbo PIC/ decoding with a posteriori LLR feedback has a lower complexity than that with a priori LLR feedback, which indicates that Turbo PIC/decoding with a posteriori LLR feedback is more favorable for future application because of its better performance and relatively lower implementation complexity.
Functional specificity for high-level linguistic processing in the human brain

Neuroscientists have debated for centuries whether some regions of the human brain are selectively engaged in specific high-level mental functions or whether, instead, cognition is implemented in multifunctional brain regions. For the critical case of language, conflicting answers arise from the neuropsychological literature, which features striking dissociations between deficits in linguistic and nonlinguistic abilities, vs. the neuroimaging literature, which has argued for overlap between activations for linguistic and nonlinguistic processes, including arithmetic, domain general abilities like cognitive control, and music. Here, we use functional MRI to define classic language regions functionally in each subject individually and then examine the response of these regions to the nonlinguistic functions most commonly argued to engage these regions: arithmetic, working memory, cognitive control, and music. We find little or no response in language regions to these nonlinguistic functions. These data support a clear distinction between language and other cognitive processes, resolving the prior conflict between the neuropsychological and neuroimaging literatures.
Counting rational curves with multiple points and Gromov-Witten invariants of blow-ups

We study Gromov-Witten invariants on the blow-up of P^n at a point, which is probably the simplest example of a variety whose moduli spaces of stable maps do not have the expected dimension. It is shown that many of these invariants can be interpreted geometrically on P^n as certain numbers of rational curves having a multiple point of given order at the blown up point. Moreover, all these invariants can actually be calculated, giving enumerative invariants of P^n which have not been known before.
Optimal Layout Design for Agricultural Facility Using Simulated Annealing

(Keywords) combinatorial optimization problem, rational construction, simulated annealing, agricultural facility, optimal layout design Abstract In this study, optimal layout design approach was used to solve problems related to site layout design of agricultural facilities such as refrigeration house, grading and packing house and warehouse. A basic program to support the rational construction of such facilities using Simulated Annealing (SA), one heuristic algorithm and one solution for combinatorial optimization problems, was coded in C language (Satake(1999)). Layout design simulations were carried out to obtain information for the development of a program for solving practical problems. And, to clarify the feasibility of applying SA to the optimal layout design problems, the layout design simulation using the hill climbing (HC), which is another heuristic algorithm, was carried out for comparison with SA. As a result of the comparison with the optimum solution by HC, the value of cost evaluation by SA using exponential annealing was lower than that of hill climbing. Furthermore, in addition to this simulation, preliminary layout design simulation was also carried out to determine the applicability of the optimal layout design simulator to practical design. In this study, the layout design for a new building and parking was carried out. In the layout design, the site is not rectangular. As a result, the optimal design satisfying our condition was obtained.
Negative Relations Between Pacifier Use and Emotional Competence

Research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that facial mimicry plays a causal role in understanding facial expression of emotion. Accurate understanding of facial emotion, in turn, grounds emotional development. Are pacifiers, which disrupt facial mimicry in the user, associated with compromised emotional development? We examined facial mimicry in children and found that duration of pacifier use was associated with reduced facial mimicry in boys. In two questionnaire studies of young adults, pacifier use also predicted lower perspective taking and emotional intelligence in males. Pacifier use did not predict these emotion processing skills in girls. Future confirmatory studies are proposed.
Towards green cloud computing: Demand allocation and pricing policies for cloud service brokerage

Functioning as an intermediary between tenants and cloud providers, cloud service brokerages (CSBs) can bring about great benefits to the cloud market. CSBs buy the cloud resources, i.e., servers, with lower prices from cloud providers and sell the resources to the tenants with higher prices. To maximize its own profit, a CSB may distribute tenants' requests to the clouds that waste energy resources. However, as energy costs of cloud computing have been increasing rapidly, there is a need for cloud providers to optimize energy efficiency while maintain high service level performance to tenants, not only for their own benefit but also for social welfares (e.g., protecting environment). Thus, for green cloud companies, two questions have arisen: 1) under what pricing policies from the cloud providers to the CSB, a profit-driven CSB is willing to minimize the total cloud energy cost while satisfy tenant demands and 2) how should a CSB distribute tenants' demands to achieve this objective? To address question 1), we find a pricing policy for cloud providers such that maximizing CSB's profit is equivalent to minimizing cloud providers' energy cost. To address question 2), we first devise a greedy solution, and then propose an approximation algorithm with a constant approximation ratio. Both simulation and real-world Amazon EC2 experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our pricing policy to incentivize CSBs to save energy for cloud providers and the superior performance of our algorithms in energy efficiency and resource utilizations in comparison with the previous algorithms.
Conceptualizing the Importance of Libraries in Student Academic Performance: A Brief Review

Abstract This paper concentrates on the importance of libraries in student academic performance. Consideration is given to studies undertaken by other researchers. The aim of this paper is to examine by means of a systematic literature review the importance of libraries in the students’ academic performance. It focuses on school library policy, functional library, library collections, public libraries, and librarians, the aims of a functional library as well as the importance of the school library. The school library is a source center catering to learning and teaching materials of different formats, that is, print and non-print materials. The paper recommends that schools should be provided with school libraries, which are well equipped with library resources that are relevant and at the level of that school in the school premises that it is operating.
Are you talking to me?: Improving the Robustness of Dialogue Systems in a Multi Party HRI Scenario by Incorporating Gaze Direction and Lip Movement of Attendees

In this paper, we present our humanoid robot "Meka", participating in a multi party human robot dialogue scenario. Active arbitration of the robot's attention based on multi-modal stimuli is utilised to observe persons which are outside of the robots field of view. We investigate the impact of this attention management and addressee recognition on the robot's capability to distinguish utterances directed at it from communication between humans. Based on the results of a user study, we show that mutual gaze at the end of an utterance, as a means of yielding a turn, is a substantial cue for addressee recognition. Verification of a speaker through the detection of lip movements can be used to further increase precision. Furthermore, we show that even a rather simplistic fusion of gaze and lip movement cues allows a considerable enhancement in addressee estimation, and can be altered to adapt to the requirements of a particular scenario.
Performance evaluation of a C++ library based multithreaded system

One model of multithreading gaining popularity on multiprocessor systems is the message driven model of computation. The message driven model is a reactive model in which an arriving message starts a block of computation to process that message. The advantage of programming in such a model is that the dependencies are explicit, messages are asynchronous, and the resulting code is highly multithreaded. The message driven model studied in the paper is the actor model of concurrent computation. The paper presents an empirical performance study of the runtime and kernel support of the ProperCAD II C++ class library which supports the actor model. The ProperCAD II C++ class library facilitates the use of multithreading on parallel platforms through object oriented design techniques. The usefulness of the ProperCAD II is shown through the results of various large, real applications. In addition to providing a useful paradigm to program complex parallel applications, we believe that the actor model integrates well with more advanced performance feedback and visualization tools. Further feedback related to multithreading will be presented in the form of dynamically weighted actor method call graphs, method specific statistics, and program visualization.
Active power filter based on DSP digital PI control

With development of modern industry, more and more non-linear loads are used in power system, resulting in increasingly severe harmonic pollution. Harmonic becomes main factors affecting power quality. Active power filter, as the most effective method to eliminate harmonic, has been paid more and more attention recently. The current compensation performance of active power filter depends on the controller. At present, more and more active power filters have been controlled by digital controller, which has the advantage of flexible control strategy, powerful ability of signal processing. However, digital controller has inherent drawbacks, such as quantization error, signal delay caused by Zero-Order hold, sample and computation delay. With analyzing active power filter's decreased performance caused by digital controller, this paper concentrates on two reasons: Zero-Order hold, sample and computation delay.
Translocation and insecticidal activity of Bacillus thuringiensis living inside of plants

The major biological pesticide for the control of insect infestations of crops, Bacillus thuringiensis was found to be present naturally within cotton plants from fields that had never been treated with commercial formulations of this bacterium. The ability of B. thuringiensis to colonize plants as an endophyte was further established by the introduction of a strain marked by production of green fluorescent protein (GFP). After inoculation of this preparation close to the roots of cotton and cabbage seedlings, GFP‐marked bacteria could be re‐isolated from all parts of the plant, having entered the roots and migrated through the xylem. Leaves taken from the treated plants were able to cause toxicity when fed to the Lepidoptera Spodoptera frugiperda (cotton) and Plutella xylostella (cabbage). These results open up new horizons for understanding the natural ecology and evolution of B. thuringiensis and use of B. thuringiensis in insect control.
A Novel Economic-Based Scheduling Heuristic for Computational Grids

In the economic-based computational grids we need effective schedulers not only to minimize the makespan but also to minimize the costs that are spent for the execution of the jobs. In this work, a novel economy driven job scheduling heuristic is proposed and a simulation application is developed by using GridSim toolkit to investigate the performance of the heuristic. The simulation-based experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic both in terms of parameter sweep and sequential workflow type of applications.
Using whole genome presence/absence data to untangle function in 12 Drosophila genomes

The Drosophila 12 genome data set was used to construct whole genome, gene family presence/absence matrices using a broad range of E value cutoffs as criteria for gene family inclusion. The various matrices generated behave differently in phylogenetic analyses as a function of the e-value employed. Based on an optimality criterion that maximizes internal corroboration of information, we show that values of e-105 to e-125 extract the most internally consistent phylogenetic signal. Functional class of most genes and gene families can be accurately determined based on the D. melanogaster genome annotation. We used the gene ontology (GO) system to create partitions based on gene function. Several measures of phylogenetic congruence (diagnosis, consistency, partitioned support , hidden support) for different higher and lower level GO categories, were used to mine the data set for genes and gene families that show strong agreement or disagreement with the overall combined phylogenetic hypothesis. We propose that measures of phylogenetic congruence can be used as criteria to identify loci with related GO terms that have a significant impact on cladogenesis.
Efficiently and effectively finding window representatives

Increasingly many applications leverage geographic data, and display this data to the user, e.g., to show sites of interest or friends in the vicinity. Given a window of interest, it is often advantageous to display only a bounded number k of representative points, instead of the entire contents of the window. This is helpful as a summary of the window contents. It is also quite necessary when the screen is small, and the window contains many points, as displaying all points will yield an incomprehensible output. This paper presents an approach to finding k representatives of a window. Unlike previous methods, which were based on fetching and clustering the relevant data, in this paper a method is presented for exploiting an existing indexing structure of the data to provide high quality results in efficient time, without explicitly accessing the data in the window. Experimental results prove that this new method for choosing representatives provides high quality results (i.e., comparable to fully clustering the data) while achieving significantly better runtime.
Genome-Wide Comparative Analysis of 20 Miniature Inverted-Repeat Transposable Element Families in Brassica rapa and B. oleracea

Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are ubiquitous, non-autonomous class II transposable elements. Here, we conducted genome-wide comparative analysis of 20 MITE families in B. rapa, B. oleracea, and Arabidopsis thaliana. A total of 5894 and 6026 MITE members belonging to the 20 families were found in the whole genome pseudo-chromosome sequences of B. rapa and B. oleracea, respectively. Meanwhile, only four of the 20 families, comprising 573 members, were identified in the Arabidopsis genome, indicating that most of the families were activated in the Brassica genus after divergence from Arabidopsis. Copy numbers varied from 4 to 1459 for each MITE family, and there was up to 6-fold variation between B. rapa and B. oleracea. In particular, analysis of intact members showed that whereas eleven families were present in similar copy numbers in B. rapa and B. oleracea, nine families showed copy number variation ranging from 2- to 16-fold. Four of those families (BraSto-3, BraTo-3, 4, 5) were more abundant in B. rapa, and the other five (BraSto-1, BraSto-4, BraTo-1, 7 and BraHAT-1) were more abundant in B. oleracea. Overall, 54% and 51% of the MITEs resided in or within 2 kb of a gene in the B. rapa and B. oleracea genomes, respectively. Notably, 92 MITEs were found within the CDS of annotated genes, suggesting that MITEs might play roles in diversification of genes in the recently triplicated Brassica genome. MITE insertion polymorphism (MIP) analysis of 289 MITE members showed that 52% and 23% were polymorphic at the inter- and intra-species levels, respectively, indicating that there has been recent MITE activity in the Brassica genome. These recently activated MITE families with abundant MIP will provide useful resources for molecular breeding and identification of novel functional genes arising from MITE insertion.
The evidence of absence: galaxy voids in the excursion set formalism

We present an analytical model for the sizes of voids in the galaxy distribution. Peebles and others have recently emphasized the possibility that the observed characteristics of voids may point to a problem in galaxy formation models, but testing these claims has been difficult without any clear predictions for their properties. In order to address such questions, we build a model to describe the distribution of galaxy underdensities. Our model is based on the 'excursion set formalism', the same technique used to predict the dark matter halo mass function. We find that, because of bias, galaxy voids are typically significantly larger than dark matter voids and should fill most of the Universe. We show that voids selected from catalogues of luminous galaxies should be larger than those selected from faint galaxies: the characteristic radii range from ∼5 to 10 h -1 Mpc for galaxies with absolute r-band magnitudes M r -5 log h < -16 to -20. These are reasonably close to, although smaller than, the observed sizes. The discrepancy may result from the void selection algorithm or from their internal structure. We also compute the halo populations inside voids. We expect small haloes (M ≤ 10 11 M ⊙ ) to be up to a factor of 2 less underdense than the haloes of normal galaxies. Within large voids, the mass function is nearly independent of the size of the underdensity, but finite-size effects play a significant role in small voids (≤7 h -1 Mpc).
Brief study of the relation between AGM postulates (-7) and (+7) under non-classical logics

This paper studies the implication relations between the AGM postulates ( 7) and (+7) under non-classical logics, namely intuitionistic logic, paraconsistent logic, G3 and G3'. In order to do so, some theorems on the implication relations between such postulates are drawn for logics with a special set of axioms. These are later used to deduce similar results under the four logics of interest. Then we discuss a possible solution for our lack of su cient conditions for the implication relations to hold under some of the studied logics.
Perceptually lossless compression of angiogram sequences

Coronary angiography is an X-ray examination of the heart's arteries. This is an essential technique for diagnosis of heart damages. Image sequences from digital angiography contain areas of high diagnostic interest. Loss of information due to compression for regions of interest (ROI) in angiograms is not tolerable. In this paper we present a compression algorithm for compression of angiography sequences. The algorithm separates ROI from other regions. Some of the non-ROI regions are not stored in the coding process but are reconstructed with high visual quality. Block matching, prediction methods and context modelling are parts of the proposed algorithm. The implementation results show that our algorithm is more successful in compression of the angiograms as compared to standard compression routines such as JPEG-LS and JPEG-3D.
Capabilities of three-layered perceptrons

A theorem is proved to the effect that three-layered perceptrons with an infinite number of computing units can represent arbitrary mapping if the desired mapping and the input-output characteristics of the computing units satisfy some constraints. The proof is constructive, and each coefficient is explicitly presented. The theorem theoretically guarantees a kind of universality for three-layered perceptrons. Although two-layered perceptrons (simple perceptrons) cannot represent arbitrary functions, three-layers prove necessary and sufficient. The relationship between the model used in the proof and the distributed storage and processing of information is also discussed. <<ETX>>
Application of generalized discrete logistic model for fitting of pine looper moth time series: Feasible sets and estimations of model parameters

New approach to estimation of ecological model parameters is considered and applied to analysis of wellknown pine looper moth time series (Klomp, 1966). Within the framework of approach it is assumed that before constructing and minimizing of loss-function basic requirements to model and to deviations between empirical and theoretical (model) datasets must be formulated. After that respective statistical criterions must be determined, and with the help of these criterions structure of feasible set in space of model parameters (where these criterions are satisfied) must be obtained. Structures of feasible sets were determined for generalized discrete logistic model with known datasets of pine looper moth population dynamics. Results were compared with estimations obtained with Least Square Method.
Integrating Inductive and Case-Based Technologies for Classification and Diagnostic Reasoning

In this paper, we present two techniques for reasoning from cases: induction, and case-based reasoning. We compare and contrast the two technologies (that are often confused) and show how they complement one-another. We then describe how they can be integrated in a single platform for reasoning from cases: the INRECA system.