Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Formal Framework for Studying Interaction in Human-Robot Societies

As robots evolve into an integral part of the human ecosystem, humans and robots will be involved in a multitude of collaborative tasks that require complex coordination and cooperation. Indeed there has been extensive work in the robotics, planning as well as the human-robot interaction communities to understand and facilitate such seamless teaming. However, it has been argued that their increased participation as independent autonomous agents in hitherto human-habited environments has introduced many new challenges to the view of traditional human-robot teaming. When robots are deployed with independent and often self-sufﬁcient tasks in a shared workspace, teams are often not formed explicitly and multiple teams cohabiting an environment interact more like colleagues rather than teammates. In this paper, we formalize these differences and analyze metrics to characterize autonomous behavior in such human-robot cohabitation settings.
Learning by Automatic Option Discovery from Conditionally Terminating Sequences

This paper proposes a novel approach to discover options in the form of conditionally terminating sequences, and shows how they can be integrated into reinforcement learning framework to improve the learning performance. The method utilizes stored histories of possible optimal policies and constructs a specialized tree structure online in order to identify action sequences which are used frequently together with states that are visited during the execution of such sequences. The tree is then used to implicitly run corresponding options. Effectiveness of the method is demonstrated empirically.
Evaluating the Distributed Datacycle Scheme for a High Performance Distributed Database

The datacycle architecture developed in Bellcore is a relatively new approach to designing extremely fast database machines. This architecture translates the large bandwidths of fiber optic links into high query throughput. The distributed version of the datacycle architecture has not received as much coverage as the centralized version. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first objective is to consider the relative merits/demerits of adopting the distributed datacycle architecture for a distributed database, and discuss the associated problems in such a system. The second objective is to develop an approximate simple analytical model for the distributed datacycle scheme as an aid to gauge its performance. The analytical model is validated using simulations.
Different spatial terms in navigation system for Chinese drivers

There has been some research on the comparison of spatial frame of reference system (FoRs) preferences between different areas in China. The goal of this research was to find out whether different habits could affect the performance in driving with the navigation system, with a dual-task experimental paradigm applied. Forty participants from South and North China (10 male and 10 female in each area group) were required to finish spatial term judgment task while playing simulated driving game. The results showed that Southern participants responded more quickly to relative FoRs terms than absolute terms during driving, but there was no significant difference between these two kinds of terms for Northerners—similarly to their habits. All participants’ driving actions were disturbed by the spatial term judgment. Unexpectedly, the male participants drove better when responding to relative terms than absolute terms, while female performed conversely. These findings would be useful in navigation systems design for Chinese.
Anatomical Changes at the Level of the Primary Synapse in Neuropathic Pain: Evidence from the Spinal Trigeminal Nucleus

Accumulated evidence from experimental animal models suggests that neuronal loss within the dorsal horn is involved in the development and/or maintenance of peripheral neuropathic pain. However, to date, no study has specifically investigated whether such neuroanatomical changes also occur at this level in humans. Using brain imaging techniques, we sought to determine whether anatomical changes were present in the spinal trigeminal nucleus in subjects with chronic orofacial neuropathic pain. In 22 subjects with painful trigeminal neuropathy and 44 pain-free controls, voxel-based morphometry of T1-weighted anatomical images and diffusion tensor images were used to assess regional gray matter volume and microstructural changes within the brainstem. In addition, deterministic tractography was used to assess the integrity of ascending pain pathways. Orofacial neuropathic pain was associated with significant regional gray matter volume decreases, fractional anisotropy increases, and mean diffusivity decreases within the spinal trigeminal nucleus, specifically the subnucleus oralis. In addition, tractography revealed no significant differences in diffusivity properties in the root entry zone of the trigeminal nerve, the spinal trigeminal tract, or the ventral trigeminothalamic tracts in painful trigeminal neuropathy subjects compared with controls. These data reveal that chronic neuropathic pain in humans is associated with discrete alterations in the anatomy of the primary synapse. These neuroanatomical changes may be critical for the generation and/or maintenance of pathological pain.
Perspective Rectification of Document Images Based on Morphology

Documents may suffer from perspective distortion when captured with hand-held digital cameras. A morphology based rectification method is proposed to recover fronto-parallel views of perspectively distorted documents images. Firstly we extend the nearest-neighbor (NN) clustering technique in document skew rectification to locate the horizontal vanishing point of the text plane. Secondly we partition the image into multiple overlapping blocks centered with the centroid of each connected component (CC), and propose a run-length opening algorithm (RLOA) to compute the local orientation of vertical character stroke (VSB), which is used to locate the document's vertical vanishing point. Finally, a three-step hierarchical rectification method is proposed to rectify the distorted images. Experiment results on various types of documents show that the proposed rectification method has achieved accurate recovery of document images
Assessment of Adaptive Traffic Signal Control Using Hardware in the Loop Simulation

Adaptive Traffic Signal Control (ATSC) can potentially mitigate traffic congestion. Research and development in the area of ATSC have produced a number of new systems with promising potential, however the performance of these systems under real-life conditions has been always a concern for practitioners as well as researchers, particularly if and how the new systems would be implementable in the field on controllers with specific capabilities and limitations. Therefore, testing and refining new ATSC systems on actual hardware and under representative traffic conditions prior to field implementation is essential to bridge this gap. In this paper, a hardware in-the-loop simulation (HILS) framework is developed to evaluate MARLIN, as an example of a new self-learning ATSC system. HILS is used for evaluating hardware components running the ATSC software in a simulation environment in which an actual traffic signal controller and an embedded computer are physically connected to a microscopic traffic simulator. Our focus is on the development, implementation of the HILS framework and the evaluation of MARLIN, on an intersection that suffers significant traffic fluctuation and delays - at the City of Burlington, Ontario, Canada. The performance of MARLIN-ATSC is demonstrated with HILS, which consists of a PEEK ATC-1000 traffic controller, an embedded computer running the ATSC system, and Paramics microscopic simulation model. HILS results indicated that MARLIN-ATSC has the potential to reduce the intersection average delay by up to 20% on average compared to the optimized and coordinated actuated signal timing plans.
Simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics (SMASH): Fast imaging with radiofrequency coil arrays

SiMultaneous Acquisition of Spatial Harmonics (SMASH) is a new fast‐imaging technique that increases MR image acquisition speed by an integer factor over existing fast‐imaging methods, without significant sacrifices in spatial resolution or signal‐to‐noise ratio. Image acquisition time is reduced by exploiting spatial information inherent in the geometry of a surface coil array to substitute for some of the phase encoding usually produced by magnetic field gradients. This allows for partially parallel image acquisitions using many of the existing fast‐imaging sequences. Unlike the data combination algorithms of prior proposals for parallel imaging, SMASH reconstruction involves a small set of MR signal combinations prior to Fourier transformation, which can be advantageous for artifact handling and practical implementation. A twofold savings in image acquisition time is demonstrated here using commercial phased array coils on two different MR‐imaging systems. Larger time savings factors can be expected for appropriate coil designs.
Exploring the Influence of Charismatic Characteristics on Flagship Outcomes in Zoo Visitors

ABSTRACT As 21st-century zoos continue to grow into their roles as conservation centers they are challenged to find meaningful ways to engage their publics and contribute to conservation. Flagship species address both issues, as outcomes include increased conservation awareness and action. Flagship species, however, have historically been charismatic megafauna. Today, conservationists are challenged to connect the public with lesser-known species. This article investigated the influence of charismatic characteristics on visitors’ connection to a species, and pro-conservation behavioral intentions. Data were obtained from 250 visitors to the Melbourne Zoo and analyzed with structural equation modeling. A species’ conservation status (β = .37) and relatability (β = .33) directly influenced visitors’ emotional connection and indirectly influenced behavioral intentions. Results suggested wider arrays of species are capable of producing flagship outcomes. Based on these results, zoos could recruit a greater assemblage of species to serve as flagships for conservation initiatives.
Cognitive rationalizations for tanning-bed use: a preliminary exploration.

OBJECTIVES To examine construct and predictive utility of an adapted cognitive rationalization scale for tanning-bed use. METHODS Current/former tanning-bedusing undergraduate students (N = 216; 87.6% females; 78.4% white) at a large northeastern university participated in a survey. A cognitive rationalization for tanning-bed use scale was adapted. Standardized self-report measures of past tanning-bed use, advantages of tanning, perceived vulnerability to photoaging, tanning-bed use dependence, and tanning-bed use intention were also administered. RESULTS The cognitive rationalization scale exhibited strong construct and predictive validity. Current tanners and tanning-bed-use-dependent participants endorsed rationalizations more strongly than did former tanners and not-tanning-bed-use-dependent participants respectively. CONCLUSIONS Findings indicate that cognitive rationalizations help explain discrepancy between inconsistent cognitions.
The case of the missed icon: change blindness on mobile devices

Insights into human visual attention have benefited many areas of computing, but perhaps most significantly visualisation and UI design [3]. With the proliferation of mobile devices capable of supporting significantly complex applications on small screens, demands on mobile UI design and the user's visual system are becoming greater. In this paper, we report results from an empirical study of human visual attention, specifically the Change Blindness phenomenon, on handheld mobile devices and its impact on mobile UI design. It is arguable that due to the small size of the screen - unlike a typical computer monitor - a greater visual coverage of the mobile device is possible, and that these phenomena may occur less frequently during the use of the device, or even that they may not occur at all. Our study shows otherwise. We tested for Change Blindness (CB) and Inattentional Blindness (IB) in a single-modal, mobile context and attempted to establish factors in the application interface design that induce and/or reduce their occurrences. The results show that both CB and IB can and do occur while using mobile devices. The results also suggest that the number of separate attendable items on-screen is directly proportional to rates of CB. Newly inserted objects were correctly identified more often than changes applied to existing on-screen objects. These results suggest that it is important for mobile UI designers to take these aspects of visual attention into account when designing mobile applications that attempt to deliver information through visual changes or notifications.
Bootstrapping Domain Detection Using Query Click Logs for New Domains

Domain detection in spoken dialog systems is usually treated as a multi-class, multi-label classification problem, and training of domain classifiers requires collection and manual annotation of example utterances. In order to extend a dialog system to new domains in a way that is seamless for users, domain detection should be able to handle utterances from the new domain as soon as it is introduced. In this work, we propose using web search query logs, which include queries entered by users and the links they subsequently click on, to bootstrap domain detection for new domains. While sampling user queries from the query click logs to train new domain classifiers, we introduce two types of measures based on the behavior of the users who entered a query and the form of the query. We show that both types of measures result in reductions in the error rate as compared to randomly sampling training queries. In controlled experiments over five domains, we achieve the best gain from the combination of the two types of sampling criteria. Index Terms: Spoken language understanding, semisupervised learning, web search queries, domain detection.
Competing Place Meanings in Complex Landscapes: A Social–Ecological Approach to Unpacking Community Conservation Outcomes on the Wild Coast, South Africa

ABSTRACT Despite a general awareness of the social–ecological complexities within which conservation interventions are embedded, approaches to understanding a diversity of local perspectives of heterogeneous landscapes and how they matter for the outcomes of these interventions are seldom demonstrated. We apply a social–ecological approach to exploring the multiple place meanings related to key landscape elements around a proposed community conservation intervention on the Wild Coast, South Africa, by identifying and analyzing three narratives about this impending change. These narratives mobilize competing meanings of the landscape to argue for or against the conservation project. By linking place meanings to locally defined landscape units (ecotopes), we engage multiple interpretations of the heterogeneous and changing landscape to gain a holistic and more inclusive picture of social–ecological landscape processes such as increasing woodlands and field abandonment. The obstruction of this particular intervention indicates the importance of engaging with multiple cultural values of nature.
Soil and root respiration in mature Alaskan black spruce forests that vary in soil organic matter decomposition rates

Climate warming at high latitudes is expected to increase root and microbial respiration and thus cause an increase in soil respiration. We measured the root and microbial components of soil respiration near Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2000 and 2001, in three black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill) B.S.P.) forests. We hypothesized faster decomposition correlates with greater amounts of both root and microbial contributions to soil respiration. Contrary to our prediction, the site with the coolest summer soil temperatures and slowest decomposition (site identification "high-np") had signifi- cantly (p < 0.05) greater growing season soil respiration (485 g C·m -2 ·year -1 ) than the two other sites (372 and 332 g C·m -2 ·year -1 ). Spruce C allocation to root respiration was significantly greater, and fine-root N concentration was 10% and 12% greater (p < 0.05) at high-np than at the other two sites. High-np spruce foliage was also more enriched in 13 C and depleted in 15 N, suggesting either lower available moisture or slower N turnover. Either factor could drive greater C allocation to roots; however, a literature review suggests moisture deficit corresponds to greater C allocation to roots in black spruce forests across the boreal ecosystem. Controls on spruce C allocation need to be resolved before making the generalization that soil respiration will increase with warming in this forest type. Resume : Le rechauffement du climat aux latitudes elevees devrait augmenter la contribution tant des racines que des decomposeurs heterotrophes a la respiration du sol. Les auteurs mesure les composantes racinaires et heterotrophes de la respiration du sol pres de Fairbanks en Alaska, en 2000 et 2001, dans trois forets d'epinette noire (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) situees a differents endroits dans le paysage. Ils ont assume qu'une decomposition plus rapide corres- pondrait a une plus grande contribution racinaire et heterotrophe a la respiration du sol. Contrairement a leurs predic- tions cependant, la respiration du sol pendant la saison de croissance etait significativement plus elevee (p < 0,05) dans le site avec les temperatures estivales du sol les plus froides et la decomposition la plus lente (site ID « np-eleve »)
Practical linear-time O(1)-workspace suffix sorting for constant alphabets

This article presents an <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>)-time algorithm called SACA-K for sorting the suffixes of an input string <i>T</i>[0, <i>n</i>-1] over an alphabet <i>A</i>[0, <i>K</i>-1]. The problem of sorting the suffixes of <i>T</i> is also known as constructing the suffix array (SA) for <i>T</i>. The theoretical memory usage of SACA-K is <i>n</i> <i>log</i> <i>K</i> + <i>n</i> <i>log</i> <i>n</i> + <i>K</i> <i>log</i> <i>n</i> bits. Moreover, we also have a practical implementation for SACA-K that uses <i>n</i> bytes + (<i>n</i> + 256) words and is suitable for strings over any alphabet up to full ASCII, where a word is log <i>n</i> bits. In our experiment, SACA-K outperforms SA-IS that was previously the most time- and space-efficient linear-time SA construction algorithm (SACA). SACA-K is around 33% faster and uses a smaller deterministic workspace of <i>K</i> words, where the workspace is the space needed beyond the input string and the output SA. Given <i>K</i>=<i>O</i>(1), SACA-K runs in linear time and <i>O</i>(1) workspace. To the best of our knowledge, such a result is the first reported in the literature with a practical source code publicly available.
OpenJML: Software verification for Java 7 using JML, OpenJDK, and Eclipse

OpenJML is a tool for checking code and specifications of Java programs. We describe our experience building the tool on the foundation of JML, OpenJDK and Eclipse, as well as on many advances in specification-based software verification. The implementation demonstrates the value of integrating specification tools directly in the software development IDE and in automating as many tasks as possible. The tool, though still in progress, has now been used for several college-level courses on software specification and verification and for small-scale studies on existing Java programs. 1 Introduction to OpenJML OpenJML is a tool for verification (checking consistency of code and specifications) of Java programs. It is an implementation of the Java Modeling Language (JML) [29, 32] and is built using the OpenJDK [46] compiler. OpenJML can be used both as a command-line tool and through a GUI built on Eclipse. The tool has been under development in bursts since 2009. Initially the project was simply an experiment to see whether OpenJDK would make a good replacement for the custom parser that underlies ESC/Java(2) [37, 16] and the MultiJava compiler that underlies the JML2 tools, neither of which implemented Java generics. The development was reinvigorated in 2011 and is now supporting academic and trial users and staying current with developments in Java. OpenJML’s long-term goal is to provide an IDE for managing program specifications that naturally fits into the practice of daily software development and so becomes a part of expected software engineering practice. To that end, the project has several nearer-term objectives, discussed in more detail in the body of this paper: To create an implementation of JML, replacing ESC/Java2; To provide a tool that can be used in courses and tutorials on software specification and verification; To provide an integration of many techniques proposed in the software verification research or implemented as standalone proofs of concept over the past few decades; To be a platform for experimentation: ‐ with specification language features ‐ with specification encodings ‐ with SMT solvers on software verification problems To enable case studies of verification of industrial software; Eventually, to be a tool to be used in daily, industrial software development. OpenJML includes operations for a number of related tasks: parsing and typechecking of JML in conjunction with the corresponding Java code static checking of code and specifications. OpenJML translates Java + JML specifications into verification conditions that are then checked by SMT solvers.
Mobile Node Localization via Pareto Optimization: Algorithm and Fundamental Performance Limitations

Accurate estimation of the position of network nodes is essential, e.g., in localization, geographic routing, and vehicular networks. Unfortunately, typical positioning techniques based on ranging or on velocity and angular measurements are inherently limited. To overcome the limitations of specific positioning techniques, the fusion of multiple and heterogeneous sensor information is an appealing strategy. In this paper, we investigate the fundamental performance of linear fusion of multiple measurements of the position of mobile nodes, and propose a new distributed recursive position estimator. The Cramér-Rao lower bounds for the parametric and a-posteriori cases are investigated. The proposed estimator combines information coming from ranging, speed, and angular measurements, which is jointly fused by a Pareto optimization problem where the mean and the variance of the localization error are simultaneously minimized. A distinguished feature of the method is that it assumes a very simple dynamical model of the mobility and therefore it is applicable to a large number of scenarios providing good performance. The main challenge is the characterization of the statistical information needed to model the Fisher information matrix and the Pareto optimization problem. The proposed analysis is validated by Monte Carlo simulations, and the performance is compared to several Kalman-based filters, commonly employed for localization and sensor fusion. Simulation results show that the proposed estimator outperforms the traditional approaches that are based on the extended Kalman filter when no assumption on the model of motion is used. In such a scenario, better performance is achieved by the proposed method, but at the price of an increased computational complexity.