Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synchronization and State Estimation for Discrete-Time Complex Networks With Distributed Delays

In this paper, a synchronization problem is investigated for an array of coupled complex discrete-time networks with the simultaneous presence of both the discrete and distributed time delays. The complex networks addressed which include neural and social networks as special cases are quite general. Rather than the commonly used Lipschitz-type function, a more general sector-like nonlinear function is employed to describe the nonlinearities existing in the network. The distributed infinite time delays in the discrete-time domain are first defined. By utilizing a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and the Kronecker product, it is shown that the addressed discrete-time complex network with distributed delays is synchronized if certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are feasible. The state estimation problem is then studied for the same complex network, where the purpose is to design a state estimator to estimate the network states through available output measurements such that, for all admissible discrete and distributed delays, the dynamics of the estimation error is guaranteed to be globally asymptotically stable. Again, an LMI approach is developed for the state estimation problem. Two simulation examples are provided to show the usefulness of the proposed global synchronization and state estimation conditions. It is worth pointing out that our main results are valid even if the nominal subsystems within the network are unstable.
Explicit inversion formulae for the spherical mean Radon transform

We derive explicit formulae for the reconstruction of a function from its integrals over a family of spheres, or for the inversion of the spherical mean Radon transform. Such formulae are important for problems of thermo- and photo-acoustic tomography. A closed-form inversion formula of a filtration-backprojection type is found for the case when the centres of the integration spheres lie on a sphere in surrounding the support of the unknown function.
Online multi-task learning for semantic concept detection in video

In this paper we propose an online multi-task learning algorithm for video concept detection. In particular, we extend the Efficient Lifelong Learning Algorithm (ELLA) in the following ways: (a) we solve the objective function of ELLA using quadratic programming instead of solving the Lasso problem, (b) we add a new label-based constraint that considers concept correlations, (c) we use linear SVMs as base learners instead of logistic regression. Experimental results show improvement over both the single-task learning methods typically used in this problem and the original ELLA algorithm.
Speculatively exploiting cross-invocation parallelism

Automatic parallelization has shown promise in producing scalable multi-threaded programs for multi-core architectures. Most existing automatic techniques parallelize independent loops and insert global synchronization between loop invocations. For programs with many loop invocations, frequent synchronization often becomes the performance bottleneck. Some techniques exploit cross-invocation parallelism to overcome this problem. Using static analysis, they partition iterations among threads to avoid cross-thread dependences. However, this approach may fail if dependence pattern information is not available at compile time. To address this limitation, this work proposes SPECCROSS-the first automatic parallelization technique to exploit cross-invocation parallelism using speculation. With speculation, iterations from different loop invocations can execute concurrently, and the program synchronizes only on misspeculation. This allows SPECCROSS to adapt to dependence patterns that only manifest on particular inputs at runtime. Evaluation on eight programs shows that SPECCROSS achieves a geomean speedup of 3.43× over parallel execution without cross-invocation parallelization.
Development of intestinal inflammation in double IL‐10‐ and leptin‐deficient mice

Leptin‐deficient (ob/ob) mice are resistant in different models of autoimmunity and inflammation, suggesting that leptin regulates immunity and inflammation. To investigate whether leptin deficiency modulates the spontaneous intestinal inflammation observed in interleukin (IL)‐10‐deficient mice, double IL‐10‐ and leptin‐deficient [IL‐10 knockout (KO) ob/ob] mice were generated and compared with single IL‐10 KO mice for colitis severity. Body weight in IL‐10 KO ob/ob mice was significantly reduced compared with that of ob/ob mice. However, when compared with wild‐type or IL‐10 KO mice, IL‐10 KO ob/ob mice were still markedly obese. IL‐10 KO and IL‐10 KO ob/ob mice developed colitis with a comparable time‐course and severity in terms of macroscopic and histologic scores. Likewise, production of inter feron‐γ, IL‐6, and IL‐13 from colon cultures and splenocytes did not differ among these two groups. Conversely, rates of apoptosis were higher in lamina propria lymphocytes obtained from the colon of IL‐10 KO ob/ob compared with IL‐10 KO mice. In conclusion, although leptin deficiency has been associated with resistance in models of autoimmunity and inflammation induced by exogenous stimuli, leptin appears not to play a significant role in the spontaneous colitis of IL‐10 KO mice, although it modulates survival of intestinal lymphocytes.
SyncChecker: Detecting Synchronization Errors between MPI Applications and Libraries

While improving the performance, nonblocking communication is prone to synchronization errors between MPI applications and the underlying MPI libraries. Such synchronization error occurs in the following way. After initiating nonblocking communication and performing overlapped computation, the MPI application reuses the message buffer before the MPI library completes the use of the same buffer, which may lead to sending out corrupted message data or reading undefined message data. This paper presents a new method called Sync Checker to detect synchronization errors in MPI nonblocking communication. To examine whether the use of message buffers is well synchronized between the MPI application and the MPI library, Sync Checker first tracks relevant memory accesses in the MPI application and corresponding message send/receive operations in the MPI library. Then it checks whether the correct execution order between the MPI application and the MPI library is enforced by the MPI completion check routines. If not, Sync Checker reports the error with diagnostic information. To reduce runtime overhead, we propose three dynamic optimizations. We have implemented a prototype of Sync Checker on Linux and evaluated it with seven bug cases, i.e., five introduced by the original developers and two injected, in four different MPI applications. Our experiments show that Sync Checker detects all the evaluated synchronization errors and provides helpful diagnostic information. Moreover, our experiments with seven NAS Parallel Benchmarks demonstrate that Sync Checker incurs moderate runtime overhead, 1.3-9.5 times with an average of 5.2 times, making it suitable for software testing.
Evaluation of IPv6 over low-power wireless personal area networks implementations

A common radio technology used in wireless sensor networks is the IEEE 802.15. 4 standard. Wireless sensor networks have so far used custom, light-weight, and application specific network protocols on top of IEEE 802.15. 4, often optimized for resource constrained low power hardware. In order to achieve interoperability at the network layer, the Internet Engineering Task Force published a standard for the transmission of IPv6 packets over IEEE 802.15. 4 low-power wireless personal area networks, which provides an additional layer adapting the IPv6 network layer to the low power and resource constrained IEEE 802.15. 4 link layer. This paper provides an evaluation of several independent implementations of the IPv6 over IEEE 802.15. 4 standard. We describe the characteristics of the implementations and the protocol features supported. Our interoperability tests, carried out using two different hardware platforms, show that at least three implementations are to a large extend compatible with each other. At the end of the paper, we summarize recent work in the IETF to improve the IPv6 over IEEE 802.15. 4 technology.
DIVERSIONARY ROUTING : ENERGY EFFICIENT ROUTING STRATEGY FOR LOCATION PRIVACY

A Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a network of s ensors which sense the surroundings and communicates the information gathered from the moni tored field through the virtual medium. The system designed for communication should utilize less ener gy. Sensors in the field are very small and can uti lize the energy for constraints like receiving, transfer ring, and data processing. Based on the contextual information during data transmission, the location of monitored objects and sinks has been disclosed t o an adversary. So that protecting the location from str ong adversary is an important task.In general provi ding location privacy from a strong adversary will consu mes high energy and also reduction in network lifet im . This paper aims at reducing energy consumptions by using the clustering technique. For this, we use hotspots generating routing paths in areas away fro m sink which balances energy consumption in overa ll network. The analysis and simulation upshot that th e cluster based Cyclic Diversionary Routing (CDR) c an significantly increase the security for location by reducing the energy consumption without effecting the network lifetime.
Transient covert attention and the perceived rate of flicker.

Transient covert attention affects basic visual dimensions such as contrast sensitivity, spatial resolution, and temporal resolution. Two recent studies provide evidence of corresponding phenomenological changes: The increase in contrast sensitivity and spatial resolution at the attended location is associated with increased apparent contrast (M. Carrasco, S. Ling, & S. Read, 2004) and apparent spatial frequency (J. Gobell & M. Carrasco, 2005). Here, we assessed a phenomenological correlate of attention for temporal vision, asking whether and how transient attention affects perceived flicker rate. We employed a psychophysical method developed to assess changes in appearance by manipulating transient attention via uninformative spatial cues. In each trial, two suprathreshold Gabor stimuli, appearing briefly to the left and right of fixation, were counterphase modulated at either the same or different temporal frequencies. To assess appearance, we asked observers to perform an orientation discrimination task contingent on perceived flicker rate: "What was the orientation of the Gabor that flickered faster? " Results indicated that perceived flicker rate increased at the cued location. A control experiment, in which observers reported the orientation of the Gabor that flickered slower, ruled out a cue bias explanation. We conclude that transient attention increases perceived flicker rate.
Copy–Move Forgery Detection by Matching Triangles of Keypoints

Copy-move forgery is one of the most common types of tampering for digital images. Detection methods generally use block-matching approaches, which first divide the image into overlapping blocks and then extract and compare features to find similar ones, or point-based approaches, in which relevant keypoints are extracted and matched to each other to find similar areas. In this paper, we present a very novel hybrid approach, which compares triangles rather than blocks, or single points. Interest points are extracted from the image, and objects are modeled as a set of connected triangles built onto these points. Triangles are matched according to their shapes (inner angles), their content (color information), and the local feature vectors extracted onto the vertices of the triangles. Our methods are designed to be robust to geometric transformations. Results are compared with a state-of-the-art block matching method and a point-based method. Furthermore, our data set is available for use by academic researchers.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND PERFORMANCE IN HIGH-TECHNOLOGY FIRMS: THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE CONTENT AND STRENGTH

Organizational researchers have long debated the meaning and consequences of organizational culture but the relationship between culture and organizational performance is still not well understood. Conventional wisdom suggests that a strong culture that aligns members’ behavior with organizational objectives should boost performance. A more recent view is that, because strong cultures are associated with greater adherence to routines and behavioral uniformity, they are less effective than weaker culture firms in dynamic environments. Both views fail to recognize that culture as a construct encompasses three dimensions: the content of norms (e.g., teamwork, integrity), how forcefully they are held by organizational members (its intensity), and how widely members agree about the norms within the organization (consensus). We hypothesize that strong cultures will boost performance in dynamic environments if a norm of adaptability is intensely held and cultural norms are widely shared among members. We find an additive interaction such that firms characterized by higher cultural-norm consensus and intensity about adaptability perform better than those characterized by lower consensus, lower intensity about adaptability, or both. We discuss the theoretical implications of differentiating between the content of cultural norms and their strength.
The English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21)

ABSTRACT This test review aims to provide a critical evaluation of the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA 21), a large-scale, standards-based English language proficiency testcurrently used in eight participating member states. The ELPA 21 assessment system was developed by a consortium to help English language learner (ELL) students acquire the academic English language required for accessing content knowledge so they are prepared for college and career. The ELPA 21 assessments are administered fully online. It includes a screener assessment and a summative assessment for ELL students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The ELPA 21 summative and screener tests were officially launched in the spring of 2016 and in the fall of 2016, respectively. The results are used to determine placement in English language services and reclassification of ELL students, measure ELL students’ progress in English language development, and design professional development and formative assessments. Based on the documents and practice items available online, the ELPA 21 test appears to be a useful instrument for evaluating and supporting ELL students’ English language development. However, possibly because of its newness, publicly available materials about its validation research are limited. The lack of published validation research casts some doubts on the test’s quality. When the research results, along with any updated information are available, a follow-up review would be necessary to ensure that the ELPA 21 test is serving ELL students properly.
Longer wings for faster springs – wing length relates to spring phenology in a long‐distance migrant across its range

Abstract In migratory birds, morphological adaptations for efficient migratory flight often oppose morphological adaptations for efficient behavior during resident periods. This includes adaptations in wing shape for either flying long distances or foraging in the vegetation and in climate‐driven variation of body size. In addition, the timing of migratory flights and particularly the timely arrival at local breeding sites is crucial because fitness prospects depend on site‐specific phenology. Thus, adaptations for efficient long‐distance flights might be also related to conditions at destination areas. For an obligatory long‐distance migrant, the common nightingale, we verified that wing length as the aerodynamically important trait, but not structural body size increased from the western to the eastern parts of the species range. In contrast with expectation from aerodynamic theory, however, wing length did not increase with increasing migration distances. Instead, wing length was associated with the phenology at breeding destinations, namely the speed of local spring green‐up. We argue that longer wings are beneficial for adjusting migration speed to local conditions for birds breeding in habitats with fast spring green‐up and thus short optimal arrival periods. We suggest that the speed of spring green‐up at breeding sites is a fundamental variable determining the timing of migration that fine tune phenotypes in migrants across their range.
From Planning to Performance: The Adaptation Process as a Determinant of Outcomes

Currently, teams require adaptation to deal with work demands successfully. However, research concerning team adaptation should necessarily involve a greater empirical effort in defining under which conditions teams prove more adaptable. This article seeks to contribute to the literature by linking plan formulation, plan execution, and team learning behaviors with team outcomes (i.e., team-adaptation perception and objective performance). Participants formed 142 teams, which were involved in structured-problem solving task (i.e. a simulated management competition). Conditional process analysis was used to test a double-mediated relationship. Results show that, although not all parts of the model are directly associated, there is an indirect link from plan formulation to team outcomes through plan execution and team learning behaviors. Our results support the idea of adaptation as a process, providing four ways in which organizations can elicit changes in teams: increasing plan execution, promoting team learning, improving team adaptive behaviors themselves, and building teams composed of members who demonstrate individual adaptability.
Indexing using a spectral encoding of topological structure

In an object recognition system, if the extracted image features are multilevel or multiscale, the indexing structure may take the form of a tree. Such structures are not only common in computer vision, but also appear in linguistics, graphics, computational biology, and a wide range of other domains. In this paper, we develop an indexing mechanism that maps the topological structure of a tree into a low-dimensional vector space. Based on a novel eigenvalue characterization of a tree, this topological signature allows us to efficiently retrieve a small set of candidates from a database of models. To accommodate occlusion and local deformation, local evidence is accumulated in each of the tree's topological subspaces. We demonstrate the approach with a series of indexing experiments in the domain of 2-D object recognition.
Designing interactive objects and spaces for the digital public space

The Internet is evolving, both in form and function, at a rate which is becoming increasingly difficult to match. Through constructs such as The Internet of Things, our consumption of digital information and knowledge is slowly moving away from being primarily consumed through screens to one in which we are generators of data by interacting with the objects and spaces which surrounds us. Thus, the Internet is no longer a space we visit but rather the space we live in and experience in our daily lives. The Digital Public Space, a concept based on the democratisation of privately held knowledge, is intrinsically connected to the notions of Internet, especially around its delivery and reach. Whilst the two are arguably separated by different social and political motivational aspirations as the internet evolves so must our consideration of the Digital Public Space. The AHRC Creative Exchange research project was set to explore the myriad of potentials of the Digital Public Space from understanding, facilitation and creation of digital public spaces to privacy and ethical concerns. I approached this space by considering how our own physicality means that there will always be a tangible aspect to the consumption and production of digital information; a duality in existence which needs to be understood in order to design better experiences. In particular, I am concerned with the characteristics and particularities around the creation processes involved in the design of mixed-reality objects and spaces which might contribute to the Digital Public Space in the context imposed by the juxtaposition of the digital and the physical worlds. Therefore, this research presents the methodological framework required for the understanding of such design processes with a clear focus on the interactions and affordances mixed-reality artefacts make use of in their designs. Through the exploration of five different research projects, resulting from collaborative design-led research, conducted in close partnership between academia and the creative industries, I extract, rationalise and present ideas, individually, in order to present research insights for the design and construction of mixed-reality artefacts. The key aspects of which are summarised in a set of guidelines, taking the shape of a manifesto, to serve prospective designers in the production of mixed-reality artefacts.
SEMICLASSICAL STRING SOLUTIONS ON DEFORMED NS5-BRANE BACKGROUNDS AND NEW PLANE WAVE

We study different Penrose limits of supergravity solution of NS5-brane in the presence of RR field. Although in the case of NS5-brane we get a four-dimensional plane wave, in the case with RR field we will get two different plane waves; a four-dimensional and a three-dimensional one. These plane wave solutions are the backgrounds that a particular string solution feels at one-loop approximation. Using the one-loop correction one can identify a particular subsector of LST/deformed LST which is dual to type II string theories on these plane waves.
Feasibility of PKC in resource-constrained wireless sensor networks

In this paper we present a detailed review of the works on public key cryptography (PKC) in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In the early days of sensor networks, public key cryptography was thought to be completely unfeasible considering its computational complexity and energy requirements. By this time, several works have proved that the lightweight versions of many well-known public key algorithms can be utilized in WSN environment. With the expense of a little energy, public key based schemes could in fact be the best choice for ensuring data security in high-security demanding WSN applications. Here, we talk about the notion of public key cryptography in WSN, its applicability, challenges in its implementation, and present a detailed study of the significant works on PKC in WSN.
Design of DIFFUSE v0.1 – DIstributed firewall and Flow-shaper using statistical evidence

In recent years a growing number of researchers investigated the performance of machine learning based traffic classification using statistical properties – classification techniques that do not require packet payload inspection. Such techniques assist Internet Service Providers to work within any legal or technical limitations on direct payload inspection. Potential new applications include automated ‘market research’, automated traffic prioritisation, and Lawful Interception. For many of these new applications a de-coupling between the flow classification and subsequent flow treatment, such as blocking or shaping, is highly desirable. In the DIFFUSE project we are developing extensions for an existing packet filter that provide ML-based traffic classification based on statistical properties and de-couple flow classification from flow treatment. This report describes the selection of the existing packet filter extended, the design of the overall architecture and key components, as well as the machine learning techniques supported.