Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3D information retrieval for visual odometry system of planetary exploration rovers - A stereo vision approach

Determination of 3-D data from the images is important in the field of machine vision. The most direct way to achieve this is stereo vision. 3-D data obtained from stereo images form the basis for many higher level tasks like robot navigation, object recognition, 3-D modeling, path planning etc. in the field of interplanetary mission, hazardous environments, deep sea exploration, autonomous car driving. In this work, we attempt to recover the 3-D information from the stereo images for developing the vision based navigation of future planetary rover missions. This paper details the process flow and algorithm for the retrieval of 3-D information from the images obtained from our stereo rig. The results obtained in this work closely matches with ground truth.
Quantum programming with mixed states (extended abstract)

In this paper we offer a programming approach to quantum computation using mixed states. Mixed-state quantum systems generalise standard (pure) quantum systems by allowing the state of the system to be a probabilistic distribution of pure states. We build on previous work by Aharonov et al. and generalise their results from quantum circuits to probabilistic (and quantum) programs.
Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in Network Intrusion Detection Using Clusters

Most current network intrusion detection systems employ signature-based methods or data mining-based methods which rely on labelled training data. This training data is typically expensive to produce. Moreover, these methods have difficulty in detecting new types of attack. Using unsupervised anomaly detection techniques, however, the system can be trained with unlabelled data and is capable of detecting previously "unseen" attacks. In this paper, we present a new density-based and grid-based clustering algorithm that is suitable for unsupervised anomaly detection. We evaluated our methods using the 1999 KDD Cup data set. Our evaluation shows that the accuracy of our approach is close to that of existing techniques reported in the literature, and has several advantages in terms of computational complexity.
The Entry Problem of Francophones in the National Hockey League: A Systemic

In this paper the apparent underrepresentation of Francophones (French Canadians) in the National Hockey League (NHL) is reassessed. When measures of player performance and the player selection process are examined carefully, neither of the current explanations of the underrepresentation of Francophones in the NHL, the costs of bilingualism and, most particularly, overt anti-Francophone discrimination, can adequately explain the data. Statements by a wide spectrum of hockey officials, the characteristics of the game and competitive results clearly stress the importance of defensive skills and player size as performance/selection measures/criteria. The main conclusion of the analysis is that the underrepresentation of Francophones, particularly defenders and forwards, is a systemic phenomenon attributable to the application of defensive skill and player size selection criteria, the unintended consequence of which is a disproportionate limitation on employment in the NHL of players from the mainly Francophone Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. An important corollary of this conclusion is that the NHL cannot be used as representative of overt discrimination against Francophones in the wider labour market.
Microcode compaction: looking backward and looking forward

The past decade has seen significant advances in the state of the art in microcode compaction. Microprograms are compacted by placing several microoperations into each microinstruction, subject to the constraints of data dependency in the program and legal resource usage in the machine on which the microcode will execute. The compaction process attempts to make the code run as fast as possible. In this paper we will not only survey the most recent past in microcode compaction but will also speculate about the near future.
A compensation mechanism for bandwidth allocation In IP wireless networks

Bandwidth is an important network resource type that contributes to determine the quality of service. Several research works have investigated on the issue of bandwidth allocation both in fixed networks and wireless networks. However, providing appropriate bandwidth allocation in order to satisfy the quality of service requirements and to ensure the fairness of applications in the converged environment of the new network generation is still a challenging task due to the unpredictable channel error property. This paper discuss some issues related to bandwidth allocation in wireless IP networks and proposes a compensation mechanism for the trade-off between quality of service guarantee and effective use of the limited wireless bandwidth and for ensuring the fairness in bandwidth allocation.
Realising T-Government : A UK Local Authority Perspective

Having successfully e-enabled customer facing processes, the UK government is now working towards reengineering and e-enabling back office processes and information systems to facilitate more joined-up and citizen centric e-government services; these efforts are referred to as the transformational stage of e-government or T-Government. This paper seeks to explore what T-Government means to local authorities in the UK and what process related challenges have to be overcome to successfully implement transformational change in local government. While a number of broader issues of strategic, organisational, socio-cultural and technical origin are identified in the literature as presenting a considerable challenge for this goal, using a case study of a key local government service this paper shows that more obvious, but often ignored process and information systems related issues pose an even more significant challenge in practice.
Trefoil peptides as proangiogenic factors in vivo and in vitro: implication of cyclooxygenase‐2 and EGF receptor signaling

We previously established that the trefoil peptides (TFFs) pS2, spasmolytic polypeptide, and intestinal trefoil factor are involved in cellular scattering and invasion in kidney and colonic cancer cells. Using the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay and the formation of tube‐like structures by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) plated on the Matrigel matrix substratum, we report here that TFFs are proangiogenic factors. Angiogenic activity of TFFs is comparable to that induced by vascular endothelial growth factor, leptin, and transforming growth factor‐a. Stimulation of angiogenesis by pS2 in the CAM assay is blocked by pharmacological inhibitors of cyclooxygenase COX‐2 (NS‐398) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF‐R) tyrosine kinase (ZD1839), but is independent of KDR/Flk‐1 and thromboxane A2 receptors. In contrast, the morphogenic switch induced by pS2 in HUVEC cells could be inhibited by the specific KDR heptapeptide antagonist ATWLPPR and by inhibitors of COX‐2 and EGF‐R signaling. These results implicate TFFs in the formation of new blood vessels during normal and pathophysiological processes linked to wound healing, inflammation, and cancer progression in the digestive mucosa and other human solid tumors associated with aberrant expression of TFFs. —Rodrigues, S. , Van Aken, E. , Van Bocxlaer, S. , Attoub, S. , Nguyen, Q. ‐D. , Bruyneel, E. , Westley, B. R. , May, F. E. B. , Thim, L. , Mareel, M. , Gespach, C. , Emami, S. Trefoil peptides as proangiogenic factors in vivo and in vitro: implication of cyclooxygenase −2 and EGF receptor signaling. FASEB J. 17, 7–16 (2003)
Optimal algorithm for profile-based power gating: A compiler technique for reducing leakage on execution units in microprocessors

This paper proposes a compiler-based solution to the problem of inserting power gating instructions into code to control activation/deactivation (i.e., ON/OFF) of functional units in microprocessor during the code execution, so that the leakage power is maximally saved. Precisely, based on an execution profile of code containing conditional braches and/or loops, we propose a polynomial time optimal algorithm, called PG-instr, of inserting ON/OFF instructions into code with the objective of minimzing the expected total leakage power while considerig the power and delay overhead on power gating.
Performance of UWB receivers using stored channel responses

Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology has been shown to possess several characteristics that are required for the next generation Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) applications: simple implementation, high data rate, coexistence with existing systems. This paper presents performance evaluations of the Multiband OFDM (MB-OFDM) UWB system based on simulations using indoor UWB channel measurements collected by Yingzhi Chen. Comparison of system performance (in terms of bit error rate) with different system parameter settings is presented. The parameters considered included Cyclic Prefix vs. Zero-Padded Suffix used in the OFDM transmitter and receiver, length of the cyclic prefix, modulation, coding and interleaving combinations that allow for data rate of 200 Mbps vs. 53.3 Mbps.
Strong matching of frequentist and Bayesian inferenceBY

SUMMARY We deene strong matching to be the equality of frequentist and Bayesian tail probabilities for the testing of scalar interest parameters; for the special case of a location model strong matching is obtained for any interest parameter linear in the location parameters. A brief survey of methods for choosing a prior, of principles relating to the Bayesian paradigm, and of conndence and related procedures leads to the development of a general location reparameterization. This is followed by a brief survey of recent likelihood asymptotics which provides a basis for examining strong matching with general continuous statistical methods. It is then shown in a general context that a at prior with respect to the general location parameterization gives strong matching for linear parameters. For nonlinear parameters strong matching requires an adjustment to the at prior which is a nuisance information determinant standardized by the corresponding nuisance information determinant for a related linear parameterization. Pivotal quantities are then used to generate second order preferred priors for linear parameters. A concluding section describes a conndence, ducial, or default Bayesian inversion relative to the location parameterization. This gives a means to adjust conndence or related intervals by means of a personal prior taken relative to the at prior in the location parameterization.
Fast and practical instruction-set randomization for commodity systems

Instruction-set randomization (ISR) is a technique based on randomizing the "language" understood by a system to protect it from code-injection attacks. Such attacks were used by many computer worms in the past, but still pose a threat as it was confirmed by the recent Conficker worm outbreak, and the latest exploits targeting some of Adobe's most popular products. This paper presents a fast and practical implementation of ISR that can be applied on currently deployed software. Our solution builds on a binary instrumentation tool to provide an ISR-enabled execution environment entirely in software. Applications are randomized using a simple XOR function and a 16-bit key that is randomly generated every time an application is launched. Shared libraries can be also randomized using separate keys, and their randomized versions can be used by all applications running under ISR. Moreover, we introduce a key management system to keep track of the keys used in the system. To the best of our knowledge we are the first to apply ISR on truly shared libraries. Finally, we evaluate our implementation using real applications including the Apache web server, and the MySQL database server. For the first, we show that our implementation has negligible overhead (less than 1%) for static HTML loads, while the overhead when running MySQL can be as low as 75%. We see that our system can be used with little cost with I/O intensive network applications, while it can also be a good candidate for deployment with CPU intensive applications, in scenarios where security outweighs performance.
National Survey of Pakistan Democratic Values and Support for Militant Politics : Evidence from a

A long-standing research tradition on political culture argues that greater support for core liberal values leads to a rejection of destructive political activities and reduced support for violent politics. In this vein, many contemporary analysts of security policy contend that a lack of democratic values in the Middle East promotes the development of violent political organizations. Unfortunately, there have been few direct tests of the hypothesis that an individual’s rejection of democratic values correlates with support for militant groups. We conduct such a test in Pakistan using an original 6,000-person provincially representative survey. We find that strong supporters of democratic values are actually more supportive of militant groups and that this relationship is strongest among those who believe that Muslim rights and sovereignty are being violated in Kashmir. This is consistent with the context of Pakistani politics, where many militant groups use the principle of azadi (i.e., freedom and self-determination) to justify their actions. These results challenge the conventional wisdom about the roots of militancy and underscore the importance of Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Graduate School of Business, Stanford University Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University Corresponding Author: Jacob N. Shapiro, Department of Politics, Corwin Hall Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Email: jns@princeton.edu Journal of Conflict Resolution 00(0) 1-28 a The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0022002713478564 jcr.sagepub.com at PRINCETON UNIV LIBRARY on April 8, 2013 jcr.sagepub.com Downloaded from understanding how local context mediates the influence of civic culture on political stability and violence.
Intronic Binding Sites for hnRNP A/B and hnRNP F/H Proteins Stimulate Pre-mRNA Splicing

hnRNP A/B proteins modulate the alternative splicing of several mammalian and viral pre-mRNAs, and are typically viewed as proteins that enforce the activity of splicing silencers. Here we show that intronic hnRNP A/B–binding sites (ABS) can stimulate the in vitro splicing of pre-mRNAs containing artificially enlarged introns. Stimulation of in vitro splicing could also be obtained by providing intronic ABS in trans through the use of antisense oligonucleotides containing a non-hybridizing ABS-carrying tail. ABS-tailed oligonucleotides also improved the in vivo inclusion of an alternative exon flanked by an enlarged intron. Notably, binding sites for hnRNP F/H proteins (FBS) replicate the activity of ABS by improving the splicing of an enlarged intron and by modulating 5′ splice-site selection. One hypothesis formulated to explain these effects is that bound hnRNP proteins self-interact to bring in closer proximity the external pair of splice sites. Consistent with this model, positioning FBS or ABS at both ends of an intron was required to stimulate splicing of some pre-mRNAs. In addition, a computational analysis of the configuration of putative FBS and ABS located at the ends of introns supports the view that these motifs have evolved to support cooperative interactions. Our results document a positive role for the hnRNP A/B and hnRNP F/H proteins in generic splicing, and suggest that these proteins may modulate the conformation of mammalian pre-mRNAs.
Extracting Unambiguous Keywords from Microposts using Web and Query Logs Data

In the recent years, a new form of content type has become ubiquitous in the web. These are small and noisy text snippets, created by users of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The full interpretation of those microposts by machines impose tremendous challenges, since they strongly rely on context. In this paper we propose a task which is much simpler than full interpretation of microposts: we aim to build classification systems to detect keywords that unambiguously refer to a single dominant concept, even when taken out of context. For example, in the context of this task, apple would be classified as ambiguous whereas microsoft would not. The contribution of this work is twofold. First, we formalize this novel classification task that can be directly applied for extracting information from microposts. Second, we show how high precision classifiers for this problem can be built out of Web data and search engine logs, combining traditional information retrieval metrics, such as inverted document frequency, and new ones derived from search query logs. Finally, we have proposed and evaluated relevant applications for these classifiers, which were able to meet precision 72% and recall 56% on unambiguous keyword extraction from microposts. We also compare those results with closely related systems, none of which could outperform those numbers.
On the soft X-ray spectrum of cooling flows

Strong evidence for cooling flows has been found in low-resolution X-ray imaging and spectra of many clusters of galaxies. However, high-resolution X-ray spectra of several clusters from the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on XMM-Newton now show a soft X-ray spectrum inconsistent with a simple cooling flow. The main problem is a lack of the emission lines expected from gas cooling below 1–2 keV. Lines from gas at about 2–3 keV are observed, even in a high-temperature cluster such as A1835, indicating that gas is cooling down to about 2–3 keV, but is not found at lower temperatures. Here we discuss several solutions to the problem: heating, mixing, differential absorption and inhomogeneous metallicity. Continuous or sporadic heating creates further problems, including the targeting of the heat at the cooler gas and also the high total energy required. So far there is no clear observational evidence for widespread heating, or shocks, in cluster cores, except in radio lobes which occupy only part of the volume. Alternatively, if the metals in the intracluster medium are not uniformly spread but are clumped, then little line emission is expected from the gas cooling below 1 keV. The low-metallicity part cools without line emission, whereas the strengths of the soft X-ray lines from the metal-rich gas depend on the mass fraction of that gas and not on the abundance, since soft X-ray line emission dominates the cooling function below 2 keV.
Geometrical positioning approached for mobile location estimation

Wireless location is to determine the mobile station (MS) location in a wireless cellular communications system. When fewer base stations (BSs) may be available for location purposes or the measurements with large errors in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments, it is necessary to integrate all available heterogeneous measurements to achieve high location accuracy. This paper illustrates hybrid proposed schemes that combine time of arrival (TOA) at three BSs and angle of arrival (AOA) information at the serving BS to give a location estimate of the MS. The proposed schemes mitigate the NLOS effect simply by the weighted sum of the intersections between three TOA circles and the AOA line without requiring a priori information about the NLOS error. Simulation results show that the proposed methods can achieve better accuracy when compare with Taylor series algorithm (TSA) and the hybrid lines of position algorithm (HLOP).
Roles of Cyclooxygenase-2 and Prostacyclin/IP Receptors in Mucosal Defense against Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Mouse Stomach

We examined the roles of cyclooxygenase (COX) isozymes, prostaglandins (PGs), and their receptors in the mucosal defense against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced gastric lesions in mice. Male C57BL/6 mice, including wild-type animals and those lacking prostaglandin E2 (EP)1, EP3, or prostaglandin I2 (IP) receptors, were used after 18 h of fasting. Under urethane anesthesia, the celiac artery was clamped (ischemia) for 30 min, and then reperfusion was achieved for 60 min through the removal of the clamp, and the stomach was examined for lesions. I/R produced hemorrhagic gastric lesions in wild-type mice. The severity of lesions was significantly increased by pretreatment with indomethacin (a nonselective COX inhibitor) and rofecoxib (a selective COX-2 inhibitor) but not 5-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazole (SC-560; a selective COX-1 inhibitor). The expression of COX-2 mRNA was up-regulated in the stomach following I/R but not by sham operation or ischemia alone. The ulcerogenic response was markedly aggravated in IP receptor knockout mice but not those lacking EP1 or EP3 receptors. I/R increased the levels of 6-keto-PGF1α and PGE2 in the stomach of wild-type mice, and this response was attenuated by indomethacin and rofecoxib but not SC-560. Pretreatment of wild-type mice with iloprost, a prostacyclin (PGI2) analog, significantly prevented the I/R-induced gastric lesions in the absence and presence of indomethacin or rofecoxib. PGE2 also reduced the severity of I/R-induced gastric lesions, yet the effect was much less pronounced than that of iloprost. These results suggest that endogenous PGs derived from COX-2 play a crucial role in gastric mucosal defense during I/R, and this action is mainly mediated by PGI2 through the activation of IP receptors.
Information Quality Aware Routing in Event-Driven Sensor Networks

Upon the occurrence of a phenomenon of interest in a wireless sensor network, multiple sensors may be activated, leading to data implosion and redundancy. Data aggregation and/or fusion techniques exploit spatio-temporal correlation among sensory data to reduce traffic load and mitigate congestion. However, this is often at the expense of loss in Information Quality (IQ) of data that is collected at the fusion center. In this work, we address the problem of finding the least-cost routing tree that satisfies a given IQ constraint. We note that the optimal least-cost routing solution is a variation of the classical NP-hard Steiner tree problem in graphs, which incurs high overheads as it requires knowledge of the entire network topology and individual IQ contributions of each activated sensor node. We tackle these issues by proposing: (i) a topology-aware histogram-based aggregation structure that encapsulates the cost of including the IQ contribution of each activated node in a compact and efficient way; and (ii) a greedy heuristic to approximate and prune a least-cost aggregation routing path. We show that the performance of our IQ-aware routing protocol is: (i) bounded by a distance-based aggregation tree that collects data from all the activated nodes; and (ii) comparable to another IQ-aware routing protocol that uses an exhaustive brute-force search to approximate and prune the least-cost aggregation tree.