Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Gröbner-Sylvester Hybrid Method for Closed-Form Displacement Analysis of Mechanisms

The displacement analysis problem for planar and spatial mechanisms can be written as a system of multivariate polynomial equations. Elimination theory based on resultants and polynomial continuation are some of the methods that have been used to solve this problem. This paper presents a new approach to displacement analysis using the reduced Grobner basis form of a system of equations under degree lexicographic (dlex) term ordering of its monomials and Sylvester's Dialytic elimination method. Using the Grobner-Sylvester hybrid approach, a finitely solvable system of equations F is transformed into its reduced Grobner basis G using dlex term ordering. Next, using the entire or a subset of the set of generators in G, the Sylvester's matrix is assembled. The vanishing of the resultant, given as the determinant of Sylvester's matrix, yields the necessary condition for polynomials in G (as well as F) to have a common factor, The proposed approach appears to provide a systematic and rational procedure to the problem discussed by Roth, dealing with the generation of (additional) equations for constructing the Sylvester's matrix, Three examples illustrating the applicability of the proposed approach to displacement analysis of planar and spatial mechanisms are presented. The first and second examples address the forward displacement analysis of the general 6-6 Stewart mechanism and the 6-6 Stewart platform, whereas the third example deals with the determination of the I/O polynomial of an 8-link 1-DOF mechanism that does not contain any 4-link loop.
A Female-Biased Odorant Receptor from Apolygus lucorum (Meyer-Dür) Tuned to Some Plant Odors

Apolygus lucorum (Meyer-Dür) (Hemiptera: Miridae) is a serious pest of cotton, jujube, grape and many other crops around the world. Understanding how olfactory information directs this insect to its host plants may provide environment-friendly approaches to the control of its population in agriculture. In our study, we cloned an odorant receptor gene, AlucOR46, that was specifically expressed in antennae and female-biased. Functional expression of AlucOR46 in Xenopus oocytes showed that it is tuned to six plant volatiles (S)-(−)-Limonene, (R)-(+)-Limonene, (E)-2-Hexenal, (E)-3-Hexenol, 1-Heptanol and (1R)-(−)-Myrtenol. Electroantennogram (EAG) recordings revealed that all six compounds could elicit electrophysiological responses from the antennae of A. lucorum, higher in females. Our results are in agreement with previous reports showing that (E)-2-Hexenal could attract female A. lucorum in behavior experiments. These results suggest that AlucOR46 might play an important role in locating the host plants of A. lucorum and therefore represents a suitable target for green pest control.
Accuracy of approximated WBAN channel by fundamental modes of spherical wave functions

To design sufficiently reliable wireless body area network (WBAN) system for future health-care, channel modeling plays an important role. Especially from the viewpoint of antenna optimization, the channel modeling approach should be able to de-embed the antenna contribution to the channel response. Two modeling approaches using spherical wave functions (SWFs) and orthogonal dipoles (ODs) have been proposed so far for this purpose, and the simplified form of the SWF channel modeling involving only fundamental modes is equivalent to OD channel modeling. Although the modeling by SWF fundamental modes or the ODs is practical, the accuracy of their channel approximation should be clarified in advance, hence the purpose of this paper. For the analysis of the accuracy, deviated dipole is utilized to model the antennas in finite size which can emit the higher modes. Applying the finite-difference time-domain method to the deviated dipole and the animated human body, the approximated and the exact channel response are obtained. The error due to the approximation is then modeled by log-normal distribution, of which statistical parameters are empirically obtained as the function of either the antenna size or residual power.
A polyrepresentational approach to interactive query expansion

Interactive Query Expansion (IQE) presents suggested terms to the user during their search to enable better Information Retrieval (IR). However, IQE terms are poorly used, and tend to lack information meaningful to the user. The lack of cognitive and functional support during query refinement is a well documented problem, and despite the work carried out, it is still an under researched area. This stagnation in progress has been partly due to the long held belief that users are able to make good IQE term selections, and that the de facto way IQE terms are presented is effective. In this paper, we introduce a novel method to improve the presentation of IQE terms by providing supplementary information alongside them. We describe a user study that compared our novel polyrepresentational approach to IQE against a conventional IQE system and a baseline system. Our findings have shown that a polyrepresentational approach to IQE can address the ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding IQE, and improve the perceived usefulness of the terms.
Mechanism of Activity-Dependent Downregulation of the Neuron-Specific K-Cl Cotransporter KCC2

GABA-mediated fast-hyperpolarizing inhibition depends on extrusion of chloride by the neuron-specific K-Cl cotransporter, KCC2. Here we show that sustained interictal-like activity in hippocampal slices downregulates KCC2 mRNA and protein expression in CA1 pyramidal neurons, which leads to a reduced capacity for neuronal Cl- extrusion. This effect is mediated by endogenous BDNF acting on tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB), with down-stream cascades involving both Shc/FRS-2 (src homology 2 domain containing transforming protein/FGF receptor substrate 2) and PLCγ (phospholipase Cγ)-cAMP response element-binding protein signaling. The plasmalemmal KCC2 has a very high rate of turnover, with a time frame that suggests a novel role for changes in KCC2 expression in diverse manifestations of neuronal plasticity. A downregulation of KCC2 may be a general early response involved in various kinds of neuronal trauma.
Graphic engine resource management

Modern consumer-grade 3D graphic cards boast a computation/memory resource that can easily rival or even exceed that of standard desktop PCs. Although these cards are mainly designed for 3D gaming applications, their enormous computational power has attracted developers to port an increasing number of scientific computation programs to these cards, including matrix computation, collision detection, cryptography, database sorting, etc. As more and more applications run on 3D graphic cards, there is a need to allocate the computation/memory resource on these cards among the sharing applications more fairly and efficiently. In this paper, we describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) scheduler based on Deficit Round Robin scheduling that successfully allocates to every process an equal share of the GPU time regardless of their demand. This scheduler, called GERM, estimates the execution time of each GPU command group based on dynamically collected statistics, and controls each process's GPU command production rate through its CPU scheduling priority. Measurements on the first GERM prototype show that this approach can keep the maximal GPU time consumption difference among concurrent GPU processes consistently below 5% for a variety of application mixes.
Compliant Asymmetric Authenticated Encryption Scheme for JPEG2000 Code-streams

Summary The JPEG2000 syntax requires that any two consecutive bytes in the encrypted packet body should not be larger than 0xFF8F. This stringent requirement has plagued researchers for a few years. In this paper, we present a novel secure encryption and authentication scheme for JPEG2000 code-streams, which does not introduce superfluous JPEG2000 markers in the protected code-stream. The scheme achieves nearly 99.6% of the information protection for data confidentiality and it is computational efficiency. We develop a new public key method. It also provides source authentication without appending additional bits into the raw JPEG2000 code-streams, thus the compliant authenticated encryption is achieved.
Transition-based feature extraction within frame-based recognition

Recognition Zhihong Hu, Etienne Barnard, Ronald Cole ( zhihong,barnard,cole)@cse.ogi. edu Center for Spoken Language Understanding, Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology Abstract Current frame-based speech recognition systems sample speech at a xed set of locations relative to each frame. Modeling the temporal dynamic behavior of speech is thereby complicated. This work shows that by explicitly using transitional information when extracting features, one can better model the acoustic phonetic structure, resulting in higher word level recognition performance. In this proposed approach, features representing local transitional information are used (a constant number of features are selected at each time frame, but the features are sampled near areas of greatest spectrum change within a relatively long window.) By explicitly modeling transitions in this way, we can also model local contextual information. Using this technique, the word level error rate decreased up to 30% on the databases we tested.
Computational Design and Motion Control for Characters in the Real World

Computer graphics techniques allow artists to realize their imaginative visions, leading to immersive virtual worlds that capture the imagination of audiences world-wide. And now, thanks to advancements in rapid manufacturing devices, tangible links between these vivid virtual worlds and our own can be created. But in order to unleash the full potential of this technology, a key challenge lies in determining the fundamental principles and design paradigms that allow digital content to be processed into forms that are suitable for fabrication. A particularly challenging task is that of creating physical representations of animated virtual characters. This paper discusses several techniques that can be applied towards this goal. In particular, a method for controlling the deformation behavior of real-world objects is described, and a computational design system that allows casual users to create animated mechanical characters is presented. In addition, this paper shows that control algorithms developed for physics-based character animation can also be applied to legged robots, allowing them to move with skill and purpose.
ESTIMATION BY SPARSE ATOMIC DECOMPOSITION

The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is used for classification between two populations. Usually two independent random samples from the populations with absolutely continuous cumulative distribution functions (CDF) F and G are considered. Then the ROC curve is defined as ROC(t) = 1−G(F−1(1− t)) for 0 < t < 1 if the inverse F−1 exists. Classical ROC curve estimator is based on empirical CDF, weighted regression estimator of ROC curve is described in [2]. The estimate based on the best unbiased CDF estimator is considered in [3]. In this contribution we look for an functional approach to the ROC curve estimation. The estimate of ROC(t) − t based on the principle of sparse atomic decomposition will be chosen from the class of linear combinations of such curves under binormal model conditions. In the binormal model we can assume without the loss of generality that F is CDF of N(0, 1) and G is CDF of N(μ, σ). Consequently ROC(t) will be written as ROC(t; μ, σ) to stress the dependency on μ and σ.
Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material

Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties remains, however, challenging. Most current designs are based on the multifingered hand, but this approach introduces hardware and software complexities. These include large numbers of controllable joints, the need for force sensing if objects are to be handled securely without crushing them, and the computational overhead to decide how much stress each finger should apply and where. Here we demonstrate a completely different approach to a universal gripper. Individual fingers are replaced by a single mass of granular material that, when pressed onto a target object, flows around it and conforms to its shape. Upon application of a vacuum the granular material contracts and hardens quickly to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback. We find that volume changes of less than 0.5% suffice to grip objects reliably and hold them with forces exceeding many times their weight. We show that the operating principle is the ability of granular materials to transition between an unjammed, deformable state and a jammed state with solid-like rigidity. We delineate three separate mechanisms, friction, suction, and interlocking, that contribute to the gripping force. Using a simple model we relate each of them to the mechanical strength of the jammed state. This advance opens up new possibilities for the design of simple, yet highly adaptive systems that excel at fast gripping of complex objects.
TrkB Receptor Signaling Regulates Developmental Death Dynamics, But Not Final Number, of Retinal Ganglion Cells

We investigated the effects of endogenous neurotrophin signaling on the death-survival of immature retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in vivo. Null mutation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor [(BDNF) alone or in combination with neurotrophin 4 (NT4)] increases the peak rate of developmental RGC death as compared with normal. Null mutation of NT4 alone is ineffective. Null mutation of the full-length trkB (trkBFL) receptor catalytic domain produces a dose-dependent increase in the peak RGC death rate that is negatively correlated with retinal levels of trkBFL protein and phosphorylated (activated) trkBFL. Depletion of target-derived trkB ligands by injection of trkB-Fc fusion protein into the superior colliculus increases the peak rate of RGC death compared with trkA-Fc-treated and normal animals. Adult trkBFL+/- mice have a normal number of RGCs, despite an elevated peak death rate of immature RGCs. Thus, target-derived BDNF modulates the dynamics of developmental RGC death through trkBFL activation, but BDNF/trkB-independent mechanisms determine the final number of RGCs.
TWO-STAGE RECEIVER STRUCTURES FOR CONVOLUTIONALLY-ENCODED DS-CDMA SYSTEMS

We consider alternative structures for subtractive interference cancellation (IC) detectors with single-user Viterbi decoding for convolutionally encoded code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems on synchronous additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and time-uncorrelated Rayleigh fading channels. In the first structure interference cancellation with undecoded decisions (ICUD) is performed followed by single-user decoding of each user. In the second structure post-decoding interference cancellation (PDIC) is applied followed by a second bank of single-user decoders. As expected, the PDIC scheme usually outperforms the ICUD but we find some special cases where the performance of the ICUD is better. This behavior is analyzed and conditions for the existence of an error probability floor for ICUD receivers are derived. Furthermore, a multiuser interleaving scheme, in which each user is assigned a distinct interleaving pattern (DIP), is proposed for the PDIC scheme to overcome a problem caused by decoding prior to IC. The performance gain due to DIP is significant on the AWGN channel and, for a small number of users, on the time-uncorrelated fading channel. By analyzing the residual multiple-access interference (RMAI), we project that the performance gain due to DIP will be significant on time-correlated channels with slow fading even for a large number of users. The complexity of the proposed DIP scheme is analyzed and its applicability to the asynchronous AWGN channel and multipath fading environments is discussed. Finally, a family of approximations to the bit error rate (BER) and some exact results are derived for the various receiver structures. In particular, a novel expression for the variance of the RMAI in the ICUD receiver is derived and shown to improve the accuracy of the BER approximation. CDMA systems using both deterministic and random spreading sequences are considered. ∗This research was supported by NSF grants CCR-9725271 and CCR-981-5002 and ARO grant DAA-19-01-1-0638
Controlling the hidden layers' output to optimizing the training process in the Deep Neural Network algorithm

Deep learning is one of the most recent development form of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) in machine learning. Deep Neural Network (DNN) algorithm is usually used in image and speech recognition applications. As the development of Artificial Neural Network, very possible there are so many hidden layers in Deep Neural Network. In DNN, the output of each node is a quadratic function of its inputs. The DNN training process is very difficult. In this paper, we try to optimizing the training process by slightly construct of the deep architecture and combines several existing algorithms. Output's error of each unit in the previous layer will be calculated. The weight of the unit with the smallest error will be maintained in the next iteration. This paper uses MNIST handwriting images as its data training and data test. After doing some tests, it can be concluded that the optimization by selecting any output in each hidden layer, the DNN training process will be faster approximately 8%.
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Nonstructural Protein 4 Induces Apoptosis Dependent on Its 3C-Like Serine Protease Activity

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a highly contagious disease in pigs caused by PRRS virus (PRRSV). Although PRRSV infection-induced cell apoptosis has been established, the related viral protein is still unknown. Here, we reported that PRRSV nonstructural protein 4 (nsp4) was a critical apoptosis inducer. Nsp4 could activate caspase-3, -8, and -9. Using truncated constructs without different domains in nsp4, we demonstrated that the full-length of nsp4 structure was required for its apoptosis-inducing activity. Furthermore, using site-directed mutagenesis to inactivate the 3C-like serine protease activity of nsp4, we showed that nsp4-induced apoptosis was dependent on its serine protease activity. The ability of nsp4 to induce apoptosis was significantly impaired by His39, Asp64, and Ser118 mutations, suggesting that His39, Asp64, and Ser118 were essential for nsp4 to trigger apoptosis. In conclusion, our present work showed that PRRSV nsp4 could induce apoptosis in host cells and might be partially responsible for the apoptosis induced by PRRSV infection. PRRSV 3C-like protease-mediated apoptosis represents the first report in the genus Arterivirus, family Arteriviridae.
S ECURING D ATA I N A D H OC N ETWORKS U SING M ULTIPATH R OUTING

Development of handheld features and mobile telephony makes Ad hoc networks widely adopted, but security remains a complicated issue. Recently, there are several proposed solutions treating authentication, availability, secure routing and intrusion detection etc, in Ad hoc networks. In this paper we introduce a securing data protocol in Ad hoc networks, SDMP protocol. This solution increases the robustness of transmitted data confidentiality by exploiting the existence of multiple paths between nodes in an Ad hoc network. This paper also includes an overview of current solutions and vulnerabilities and attacks in Ad hoc networks.
Role of ethylene in responses of plants to nitrogen availability

Ethylene is a plant hormone involved in several physiological processes and regulates the plant development during the whole life. Stressful conditions usually activate ethylene biosynthesis and signaling in plants. The availability of nutrients, shortage or excess, influences plant metabolism and ethylene plays an important role in plant adaptation under suboptimal conditions. Among the plant nutrients, the nitrogen (N) is one the most important mineral element required for plant growth and development. The availability of N significantly influences plant metabolism, including ethylene biology. The interaction between ethylene and N affects several physiological processes such as leaf gas exchanges, roots architecture, leaf, fruits, and flowers development. Low plant N use efficiency (NUE) leads to N loss and N deprivation, which affect ethylene biosynthesis and tissues sensitivity, inducing cell damage and ultimately lysis. Plants may respond differently to N availability balancing ethylene production through its signaling network. This review discusses the recent advances in the interaction between N availability and ethylene at whole plant and different organ levels, and explores how N availability induces ethylene biology and plant responses. Exogenously applied ethylene seems to cope the stress conditions and improves plant physiological performance. This can be explained considering the expression of ethylene biosynthesis and signaling genes under different N availability. A greater understanding of the regulation of N by means of ethylene modulation may help to increase NUE and directly influence crop productivity under conditions of limited N availability, leading to positive effects on the environment. Moreover, efforts should be focused on the effect of N deficiency or excess in fruit trees, where ethylene can have detrimental effects especially during postharvest.
Punctuated Equilibria in Simple Genetic Algorithms for Functions of Unitation

During a genetic search, the population may get stuck in a local optimum. The population can escape from this after a long duration. This phenomenon is called punctuated equilibrium. The punctuated equilibria observed in nature and computational ecosystems are known to be well described by diffusion equations. In this paper, simple genetic algorithms are theoretically analyzed to show that they can also be described by a diffusion equation when fitness is the function of unitation. Using theoretical results on the diffusion equation, the duration of equilibrium is shown to be exponential of such parameters as population size, 1/(mutation probability), and potential barrier. This is corroborated by simulation results for one-dimensional bistable potential landscapes with one local optimum and one global optimum.
Recurrent Neural Networks for Facial Action Unit Recognition from Image Sequences

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) has facilitated major advances in the area of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) through its ability to represent facial expressions. Facial expressions are viewed in terms of action units (AU’s), which describe the subtle muscle movements involved in facial expressions. In this paper, we propose to use temporal data from image sequences for the recognition of a set of 6 upper face and 5 lower face action units. We use Gabor filters to extract salient features, apply dimensionality reduction in feature space and train recurrent neural network for the classification of action units. Recurrent neural networks help in handling the temporal dependencies present in image sequences. Our method achieves an average recognition rate of 85.4% for the 11 FACS AU's. Keywords-component; Gabor filters, feature extraction, recurrent neural networks, dimensionality reduction, optimization