Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a visually guided mobile robot for environmental observation as an aid for outdoor crisis management operations

Crisis management teams (e.g. fire & rescue services, anti-terrorist units, . ) are often confronted with dramatic situations where critical decisions have to be made within hard time constraints. A complete overview of the crisis site is necessary to take correct decisions in these circumstances. However, obtaining such a complete overview of a complex site is not possible in real-life situations when the crisis management teams are confronted with large and complex unknown incident sites. In these situations, the crisis management teams typically concentrate their effort on a primary incident location (e.g. a building on fire, a wreckage, . ) and only after some time (depending on the manpower and the severity of the incident), they turn their attention towards the larger surroundings, e.g. searching for victims scattered around the incident site. A mobile robotic agent could aid in these circumstances, gaining valuable time by monitoring the area around the primary incident site while the crisis management teams perform their work. However, as the human crisis management teams are in general already overloaded with work and information in any medium or large scale crisis situation, it is essential that such a robotic agent to be useful does not require extensive human control (hence it should be semi-autonomous) and it should only report critical information back to the crisis management control center. In this paper, we discuss the development of such a semi-autonomous outdoor mobile robot, which is able to search for human victims on an incident site, while navigating semi autonomously, using stereo vision as a main source of sensor information. The design and development of such a robotic agent raises 2 main questions:
Vertex-based Shared Data Allocation in a Mobile Computing System

In mobile environments, mobile users transfer and access a great deal of data. In order to enhance user's access speed in a mobile network, replicated servers can be of great help. But usually a limited number of such servers are deployed in a network due to the cost factor. Thus available replicated servers should be located appropriately; they should be placed at the cells where many users visit frequently. In this paper we propose two vertex-based algorithms that calculate the cumulative numbers of shared data accesses by mobile users at the cells and allocates replicated severs at the cell with the largest numbers of accesses. The proposed algorithms exploit users' moving patterns and data access patterns for locating replicated servers in order to maximize the local access hit ratio of users. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithms improve the system performance over a typical algorithm.
Fine-mapping candidate genes for major depressive disorder: connecting the dots

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized among others by prolonged depressed mood, a loss of interest in enjoyable activities, psychomotor retardation and various cognitive symptoms. Although exact numbers of prevalence may differ between various western countries, partly due to a social taboo of the illness, the life-time prevalence in the USA and Western Europe lies around 15%. Women are more likely to be struck by MDD than men, often with a first episode between 30-40 years of age, with a smaller second peak around 50-60 years of age. Although MDD may appear as a “stand alone” disease, 33% of patients with a chronic illness report symptoms of major depression. In addition, approximately 72% of patients diagnosed with MDD also have a second mental illness diagnosed, in most cases generalized anxiety disorder or a social phobia. Although some patients may only experience a single episode, MDD often appears in multiple episodes.
Quality based Ordering Approach for Spatial Data

Object ranking is a popular retrieval task that is concerned with the ranking of objects in context of a given user query. In relational databases, tuples are ranked using an aggregate score function on their attribute values. Spatial databases manage large collections of geographic entities, where ranking is often associated to nearest neighbor (NN) retrieval. A spatial preference query ranks objects based on the quality of features in their spatial neighborhood. For example, using a real estate agency database of flats for lease, a customer may want to rank the flats with respect to the appropriateness of their location, defined after aggregating the qualities of other features (e.g., restaurants, hospital etc.) within their spatial neighborhood. A neighborhood concept can be specified by the user via different functions. It can be an explicit circular region within a given distance from the object (range score function) or a region obtained by assigning higher weights to the features based on their proximity to the object (influence score function). A wide range of location based applications rely upon spatial preference queries. One of the existing strategies for processing the spatial preference query is brute force, which is not quite adaptable since it is computationally inefficient and it is worthy only for small data inputs. In the proposed system, indexing techniques and query processing algorithms are presented for efficient processing of the top-k spatial preference queries. General Terms Spatial database, Query Processing, Ranking
An Overview of the Implementation of CILogon at NICS

Authentication for HPC resources has always been a double edged issue. On one hand, HPC facilities would like users to login as easily as possible, but with the increase and complexity of system exploits, HPC centers would like to protect their systems to the highest degree possible, which often leads to complicated login mechanisms. While solutions like Two Factor authentication are optimal from a system administration view point, user buy in hasn't been as vociferous as one would hope. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of an alternate solution, CILogon, at NICS. We start with a brief overview of CILogon and then delve into the implementation details. We discuss how we incorporated CILogon to enable users to use their campus credentials to login to the NICS user portal, as well as our compute resource Darter. We discuss the issues we faced during implementation and the strategies we implemented to overcome them.
On task-decoupling by robust eigenstructure assignment for dexterous manipulation

This paper presents a new control scheme for dexterous manipulation of an object by a multifingered hand. The aim of this control is to ensure the tracking by the object of specific trajectories depending on the task. More specifically, we consider a decoupling control according to the motion directions in the task space. The control scheme is based on a new eigenstructure assignment method, where the placement of the closed-loop eigenvalues ensures the stability of the system hand/object, and the strict placement of the object-level eigenvectors ensures the system decoupling. A parallel is made between task specifications and synergies. Current synergy controllers are often bio-inspired and based on the analysis of synergies in the human hand. The proposed algorithm allows the specification of precise object level performance according to the task, and to find the related synergies. Moreover, robustness to uncertainties on the contact point is an additional objective of the control law, and the effect of these uncertainties on the decoupling is investigated. Simulation results are presented and illustrate the decoupling effect of the control law on the system hand/object in the 2D-cartesian space.
Analysis of the mechanism for economic growth of introducing FDI in Jilin province

From studying the influence of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth, foreign and domestic researchers find that FDI is an important factor to improve economic growth. Based on the panel data of nine regions in Jilin province from 2003 to 2007, the paper uses quantitative methods to study impractically the mechanism for economic growth of introducing FDI in Jilin province. The outcome of study shows that FDI is a factor to promote economic growth in Jilin province, and the most significant mechanism for FDI to promote economic growth in Jilin province is capital effect and foreign trade effect.
Using Vital Dyes to Trace Uptake of dsRNA by Green Peach Aphid Allows Effective Assessment of Target Gene Knockdown

RNA interference (RNAi) is an effective tool to study gene function. For in vitro studies of RNAi in insects, microinjection of double-stranded (ds)RNA may cause stress. Non-persuasive oral delivery of dsRNA to trigger RNAi is a better mode of delivery for delicate insects such as aphids because it mimics natural feeding. However, when insects feed ad libitum, some individuals may not feed. For accurate measurement of gene knockdown, analysis should only include insects that have ingested dsRNA. The suitability of eleven dyes was assessed to trace ingestion of dsRNA in an artificial feeding system for green peach aphids (GPA, Myzus persicae). Non-toxic levels of neutral red and acridine orange were suitable tracers: they were visible in the stylet and gut after feeding for 24 h, and may also attract aphids to feed. Nymphs stained with neutral red (0.02%) were analysed for target gene expression after feeding on sucrose with dsRNA (V-ATPase, vha-8). There was a greater reduction in vha-8 expression and reproduction compared to nymphs fed the diet without dye. The results confirm the importance of identifying aphids that have ingested dsRNA, and also provide evidence that the vha-8 gene is a potential target for control of GPAs.
Probing ultrafast carrier-carrier scattering dynamics in epitaxial graphene

Saturable absorption of graphene was experimentally and theoretically investigated in femtosecond time regime with the z-scan technique. The initial ultrafast carrier relaxation time was determined to be ∼8(±3) fs. Such ultrafast dynamics is far beyond the time resolution of other ultrafast techniques with typical hundred fs laser pulses. Our results strongly suggest that graphene is an excellent atomic layer saturable absorber.
An optimal memory allocation scheme for scratch-pad-based embedded systems

This article presents a technique for the efficient compiler management of software-exposed heterogeneous memory. In many lower-end embedded chips, often used in microcontrollers and DSP processors, heterogeneous memory units such as scratch-pad SRAM, internal DRAM, external DRAM, and ROM are visible directly to the software, without automatic management by a hardware caching mechanism. Instead, the memory units are mapped to different portions of the address space. Caches are avoided due to their cost and power consumption, and because they make it difficult to guarantee real-time performance. For this important class of embedded chips, the allocation of data to different memory units to maximize performance is the responsibility of the software.Current practice typically leaves it to the programmer to partition the data among different memory units. We present a compiler strategy that automatically partitions the data among the memory units. We show that this strategy is optimal, relative to the profile run, among all static partitions for global and stack data. For the first time, our allocation scheme for stacks distributes the stack among multiple memory units. For global and stack data, the scheme is provably equal to or better than any other compiler scheme or set of programmer annotations. Results from our benchmarks show a 44.2% reduction in runtime from using our distributed stack strategy vs. using a unified stack, and a further 11.8% reduction in runtime from using a linear optimization strategy for allocation vs. a simpler greedy strategy; both in the case of the SRAM size being 20% of the total data size. For some programs, less than 5% of data in SRAM achieves a similar speedup.
Do Prospect-Based Emotions EnhanceBelievability of Game Characters? A CaseStudy in the Context of a Dice Game

To endow game characters with more realistic affective behavior, the notion of prospect-based emotions plays an important role: recent literature suggests that emotional states of such agents should not only be triggered by present stimuli, but also by anticipation on future stimuli, and evaluation of past stimuli in the context of these anticipations. Within the current study, an extension of the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model with prospect-based emotions is proposed, and is evaluated with respect to its capabilities of enhancing believability of game characters. The model has been implemented in the modeling language LEADSTO. In addition, a game application has been developed, in which a user can play a two games (tic-tac-toe and a game of dice) against an agent that is equipped with the emotion-based model. An empirical evaluation indicates that the model significantly enhances the agent's believability, in particular concerning its involvement in the situation.
Quantification of Nonstationary Structure in High-dimensional Time Series

Closures for containers, such as cans and the like, wherein the closure is comprised of an end panel and a frame member which, preferrably, are attached together during an insert-injection molding operation used for forming the frame member. Depending upon the respective materials, the attachment therebetween may comprise heat-bonding or adhesives, and the like. The various end panels have a displaceable panel portion for providing an opening in the closure to provide access to the product(s) within the container. The various panel portions are defined by weakening lines, perforations or cut lines in the end panel and molded runners for "repairing" and/or sealing weakened or lanced portions of the end panels. The molded runners provide beam strength for protecting against excessive bulging during autoclave or other sterilization processes and against buckling during vacuum processing.
Support Vector Clustering for Web Usage Mining

This paper applies the use of support vector clustering (SVC) in the domain of web usage mining. In this method, the data points are transformed to a high dimensional space called the feature space, where support vectors are used to define a smallest sphere enclosing the data. A soft-margin constant is used to handle outliers. The paper then performs experiments to compare SVC and the K-Means algorithm using a web server log obtained from a real life educational web site. The experimental results show that SVC provides better user session clusters than the K-Means algorithm in term of intra-cluster scatter measure but perform much worst in term of time. SVC does not require the number of clusters to be determined a priori and it can handle outliers and any shape of clusters. INTRODUCTION Web data can be used to understand customers’ browsing behaviors and to gain a strong competitive advantage in e-business. Web usage mining analyzes browsing patterns from Web log data in order to group users having similar browsing patterns. The discovered knowledge is critical for e-commerce businesses in order to derive better business intelligence. Web Usage Mining analyzes Web log usage patterns to cluster users of similar interest. After the users clusters are identified, a new visitor with a limited navigation history can be categorized into one of the clusters. By knowing the new user’s predicted interest, marketer can send the right promotion information to the new user. (Ben-Hur et al., 2001) presents a novel method using the support vector machines approach for clustering called Support Vector Clustering (SVC). SVC does not have a bias of the number or the shape of clusters and it can handle noise or outliers. The objective of this paper is to present a comparison study of SVC and Kmeans for Web usage data mining using real-life Web logs. (http://www.hippocrates.ouhsc.edu) We chose K-means for comparison because it is a widely used algorithm for clustering. (Shahabi et al., 1997) and
An algebraic semantics for object-oriented behaviour modeling

It is often claimed that strengths of object oriented approaches include the integration of data and process perspectives, opportunities for reuse, and high comprehensibility. Focus is on object oriented analysis, and the core models of an object oriented analysis method are examined formalized and enhanced to define a general framework. Jacobson's Objectory method (I. Jacobson et al., 1992) is used as a starting point because of its underlying philosophy and its successful application in practice. Core models are the object oriented data model and the communication model, which is an integration of the interaction and the behaviour model. As Objectory emphasizes interaction between objects, the paper focuses solely on the latter model. The communication model is extended with constructs to specify parallelism within an object, synchronization of concurrent execution paths, and a basic mechanism to receive results from asynchronous service requests.
SCUBA-2: the 10 000 pixel bolometer camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope

SCUBA-2 is an innovative 10000 pixel bolometer camera operating at submillimetre wavelengths on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The camera has the capability to carry out wide-field surveys to unprecedented depths, addressing key questions relating to the origins of galaxies, stars and planets. With two imaging arrays working simultaneously in the atmospheric windows at 450 and 850µm, the vast increase in pixel count means that SCUBA-2 maps the sky 100–150 times faster than the previous SCUBA instrument. In this paper we present an overview of the instrument, discuss the physical characteristics of the superconducting detector arrays, outline the observing modes and data acquisition, and present the early performance figures on the telescope. We also showcase the capabilities of the instrument via some early examples of the science SCUBA-2 has already undertaken. In February 2012, SCUBA-2 began a series of unique legacy surveys for the JCMT community. These surveys will take 2.5years and the results are already providing complementary data to the shorter wavelength, shallower, larger-area surveys from Herschel. The SCUBA-2 surveys will also provide a wealth of information for further study with new facilities such as ALMA, and future telescopes such as CCAT and SPICA.
A Pseudo-physical Framework for Mapping Outdoor Terrains

At least until the field of artificial intelligence is considered completely solved, robots will have an aversion to surprises. The thought processes involved for adequate decision making in a human, when facing an unexpected event, are so complex and unpredictable that no machine learning, statistical or AI methods can claim to be able to model them at this point in time [RNC+10]. Until then, it seems like the best way to deal with unexpected events resides in proper planning and sufficiently robust decision mechanisms when facing exceptional circumstances [ID04]. In practice, this implies carefulness when bringing a robot into a situation it was not programmed, trained, or constructed to deal with. When navigating a robot in terra incognita, these situations arise naturally, by presenting the robot with too few, too much, unexpected or sometimes ill-posed information. In this project, we are interested in one category of environment that may present the robot with such situations, outdoor terrains. Outdoor terrains can present such singular events as their surface can be hard to map at a distance due to occlusion (craggy or bumpy area) or low information content and repeatability of some natural patterns (take a desert with full illumination on a cloudless day for instance)[RL93]. Although aerial robots can be used for the mapping of these environments, we are interested in ground-based robots since they couple more naturally with the pseudo-physical framework we develop. Considering these issues, we investigate a method for constructing the map of an irregular outdoor terrain, using only local odometry information and global positioning. The system combines local topological and contextual information about the terrain with physical forces into a pseudophysical framework that drives the robot into new areas and incrementally builds an implicit representation of the surface. Applications include terrain surveying and surface reconstruction, which could be used in the path planning of other more specific robots in the covered region. The approach is similar to that of Whitaker [Whi98] and others [OF03] in the level set representation of the reconstructed surface but differs in the use of pseudo-physical energy and forces for determining salient regions of exploration. We make the following assumptions and simplifications about our robot and terrain of interest:
Band-Offset Engineering for GeSn-SiGeSn Hetero Tunnel FETs and the Role of Strain

In this paper a simulation study of the effect of conduction and valence band offsets on the subthreshold swing (SS) of a double-gate tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) with gate-overlapped source is presented. The simulations show that if the pn-junction and the hetero-junction coincide, the band offsets can significantly improve the SS by suppressing the so-called point tunneling at the pn-junction. It turns out that the performance of an n-channel TFET is determined by the direct conduction band offset whereas that of a p-channel TFET is mainly effected by the energy difference between the light hole bands of the two materials. Thus, the performance of the hetero-junction TFET can be improved by selecting material systems with high conduction or valence band offsets. The misalignment between the pn-junction and the hetero-junction is shown to degrade the SS. The above-described band-offset engineering has been applied to the GeSn/SiGeSn hetero-structure system with and without strain. Simulations of GeSn/SiGeSn hetero-TFETs with band-to-band-tunneling parameters determined from pseudopotential calculations show that compressive strain in GeSn widens the design space for TFET application while tensile strain reduces it.