Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Algorithms for management of a multi-platooning system of IVC-enabled autonomous vehicles, with high traffic capacity

Intra-platoon positioning management strategies to deal with safe and efficient advanced traffic management system operation are proposed in this paper. New algorithms to ensure high traffic capacity are proposed, and Matlab/Simulink-based simulation results are reported. Recently, we proposed new algorithms to mitigate communication delays using anticipatory information, both from the platoon's leader and the followers, with significant impact on the improvement of platoon string stability [5]. In this paper, we argue that maintaining a constant spacing between platoons' leaders has a positive impact on the traffic capacity of the whole system. As such, when the leader and eventually other vehicles immediately behind it leave the platoon, the new leader must accelerate to reach the position of the previous leader, to ensure inter-leader constant spacing and, consequently, enough spacing to be eventually occupied by new followers. We developed a novel architecture where each vehicle consists of two distinct modules: a leader and a follower. Based on Matlab/Simulink-based simulation, the new algorithms are assessed, and simulation results presented. The obtained simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithms adapt the acceleration pattern, ensuring similar timings for all possible cases of the previous position of new leaders in the platoon, when performing their repositioning maneuvers.
An Evaluation of the Forecasts of the Federal Reserve: A Pooled Approach

The Federal Reserve Greenbook forecasts of real GDP, inflation and unemployment are analysed for the period 1974 to 1997. We consider whether these forecasts exhibit systematic bias, and whether efficient use is made of information, that is, whether revisions to these forecasts over time are predictable. Rather than analyse the forecasts separately for each horizon of interest, we discuss and implement methods that pool information over horizons. We conclude that there is evidence of systematic bias and of forecast smoothing of the inflation forecasts.
Does Offshoring Impact Customer Satisfaction?

Anecdotal reports suggest that offshoring may have negative implications for North American consumers. Despite the anecdotal reports, North American firms are increasingly offshoring front office functions such as customer service and back office functions such as IT. This leads to two primary research questions. Does front office offshoring actually have negative implications for consumers? If so, why would firms increasingly offshore in the face of evidence that offshoring has negative implications for consumers? This research addresses these questions by considering the relationship between offshoring and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, expressed through the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), is an important indicator of firm performance. Higher ACSI scores have been linked to higher firm profitability, shareholder value and risk-adjusted stock returns.We analyze longitudinal data of 150 North American firms and business units from 1998-2006, and find that while front office offshoring is associated with a decrease in customer satisfaction, onshore front office outsourcing is associated with a similar decrease. This finding suggests that declines in customer satisfaction from front office offshoring may be partly attributable to language and cultural issues, and partly related to other gaps for outside service providers (offshore or onshore) to adequately serve and satisfy consumers. We also find that back office offshoring is associated with an increase in customer loyalty. The difference between front office and back office offshoring suggests that in addition to considering whether or not to offshore, firms must carefully evaluate which functions are suitable for offshoring.
Improving digital handoff using the space above the table

Object handoff - that is, passing an object or tool to another person - is an extremely common activity in collaborative tabletop work. On digital tables, object handoff is typically accomplished by sliding them on the table surface - but surface-only interactions can be slow and error-prone, particularly when there are multiple people carrying out multiple handoffs. An alternative approach is to use the space above the table for object handoff; this provides more room to move, but requires above-surface tracking. We have developed two above-the-surface handoff techniques that use simple and inexpensive tracking: a force-field technique that uses a depth camera to determine hand proximity, and an electromagnetic-field technique called ElectroTouch that provides positive indication when people touch hands over the table. We compared the new techniques to three kinds of surface-only handoff (sliding, flicking, and surface-only Force-Fields). The study showed that the above-surface techniques significantly improved both speed and accuracy, and that ElectroTouch was the best technique overall. This work provides designers with practical new techniques for substantially increasing performance and interaction richness on digital tables.
Distributed Power Allocation With Rate Constraints in Gaussian Parallel Interference Channels

This paper considers the minimization of transmit power in Gaussian parallel interference channels, subject to a rate constraint for each user. To derive decentralized solutions that do not require any cooperation among the users, we formulate this power control problem as a (generalized) Nash equilibrium (NE) game. We obtain sufficient conditions that guarantee the existence and nonemptiness of the solution set to our problem. Then, to compute the solutions of the game, we propose two distributed algorithms based on the single user water-filling solution: The sequential and the simultaneous iterative water-filling algorithms, wherein the users update their own strategies sequentially and simultaneously, respectively. We derive a unified set of sufficient conditions that guarantee the uniqueness of the solution and global convergence of both algorithms. Our results are applicable to all practical distributed multipoint-to-multipoint interference systems, either wired or wireless, where a quality of service in (QoS) terms of information rate must be guaranteed for each link.
Thermal stability analysis of particles incorporated in cirrus crystals and of non-activated particles in between the cirrus crystals: Comparing clean and polluted air masses

A thermal volatility technique is used to provide indirect information about the chemical composition of the aerosol involved in cirrus cloud formation. The fraction of particles that disappears after being heated to 125°C is termed volatile and the fraction that disappears between 125 and 250°C is termed semi-volatile. Particles that still remain after being heated to 250°C make up the non-volatile fraction. The thermal composition of residual particles remaining from evaporated cirrus crystals is presented and compared to interstitial aerosol particles (non-activated particles in between the cirrus crystals) for two temperature regimes (cold: T T<250 K), based on in-situ observations. The observations were conducted in cirrus clouds in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) and Northern Hemisphere (NH) midlatitudes during the INCA project. In the cold temperature regime, the non-volatile fraction of the residual particles was typically in the range 10 to 30% in the NH and 30 to 40% in the SH. In the warm temperature regime, the non-volatile residual fraction was typically 10 to 30% (NH) and 20 to 40% (SH). At high crystal number densities the non-volatile fraction in both temperature regimes was even higher: in the range of 30 to 40% (NH) and 40 to 50% (SH). The semi-volatile fraction was typically less than 10% in both hemispheres, causing the volatile fraction to essentially be a complement to the non-volatile fraction. In terms of the fractioning into the three types of particles, the SH cold case is clearly different compared to the other three cases (the two warm cases and the cold NH case), which share many features. In the NH data the distribution of different particle types does not seem to be temperature dependent. In all the cases, the non-volatile fraction is enriched in the residual particles compared to the fractions observed for the interstitial particles. This enrichment corresponds to about 15 (NH) and 30 (SH) percent units in the two cold cases and to 15–25 (NH) and 25–35 (SH) percent units in the two warm cases. In the NH cold case, there is a clear relation between the fractions observed in the interstitial particles and what is observed in the residual particles. The observed large fractions of non-volatile particles show that particles forming ice crystals are not entirely made up of water-soluble sulfate particles.
Validation of both number and coverage of bus schedules using AVL data

It is well known that the definition of bus schedules is critical for the service reliability of public transports. Several proposals have been suggested, using data from Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems, in order to enhance the reliability of public transports. In this paper we study the optimum number of schedules and the days covered by each one of them, in order to increase reliability. We use the Dynamic Time Warping distance in order to calculate the similarities between two different dimensioned irregularly spaced data sequences before the use of data clustering techniques. The application of this methodology with the K-Means for a specific bus route demonstrated that a new schedule for the weekends in non-scholar periods could be considered due to its distinct profile from the remaining days. For future work, we propose to apply this methodology to larger data sets in time and in number, corresponding to different bus routes, in order to find a consensual cluster between all the routes.
Integrated 2.4 GHz class-E CMOS power amplifier

An integrated two-stage class-E power amplifier operating at the 2.4 GHz frequency range is described. The implemented power amplifier is capable of providing 21.3 dBm output power with power added efficiency of 40 % and gain of 14.3 dB at 2.4 GHz. The drain efficiency of the class-E power stage is 55 % at 21.3 dBm power. The power amplifier uses 3.3 V supply voltage and was fabricated with 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. The linear gain is 23.8 dB and the chip area 0.43 mm/sup 2/.
Advantages of using two-switch forward converter for high-voltage applications

The study and implementation of a two-switch forward converter operating at high frequency for high-voltage applications, in a voltage range up to several kV and in a power range up to several kW, is presented in this paper. Trend is to use a resonant converter in this voltage and power range. However progresses in the development of semiconductor components allow the usage of the two-switch forward converter topology operating at high frequency. Comparison of converters for high-voltage applications is performed. Design details of the converter hardware and the high-voltage high-frequency transformer are given. Simple control and simple auxiliary circuits are the major advantages of this topology. The two-switch forward converter, using SiC based semiconductor components, operating at 100kHz is discussed in the article.
Developing deep group reflection within a Critical Reflection Action Learning set

ABSTRACT This account of practice describes how a manufacturing company in the North of England transformed their approach to problem-solving and action through the use of a Critical Reflection Action Learning (CRAL) methodology. The company, who had been in business for over 25 years, experienced problems due to a diminishing customer base and substantial changes in customers’ buying behaviour. The account presented here is based on a 12-session CRAL project I carried out as part of my Ph.D. Research at the University of Hull Business School [Shepherd, G. 2011. “An Inductive Exploration of Group Learning and Knowledge Generation through Group Reflection and Psychoanalysis. ” PhD Thesis, University of Hull Business School]. This paper describes how the organisation changed the way in which they tackled complex, messy problems through the adoption of a CRAL technique using their own hand-drawn images as the focus for their individual, group and critical reflective efforts. As the action learning set improved their reflective practice, the group began to understand and untangle the complex links between the problems they were experiencing and the way in which the business environment had changed. The group completed the project with a more nuanced appreciation of the problems they experienced and developed their own unique problem-solving style, which mixed reflective questioning with emotional honesty.
Wavelet based watermarking approach of hiding patient information in medical image for medical image authentication

Watermarking scheme is required to secure data to protect digital contents from unauthorized modifications. Image watermarking scheme can effectively be used in medical image processing to authenticate or investigate the integrity on medical images. In this paper, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) domain and chaotic system based medical image watermarking scheme has been proposed for hiding patient information in medical image to authenticate, in other words, to trace the origin of the image. The patient information has been embedded into the medical images as watermark, without affecting the image quality. DWT has been applied to the host medical image to decompose the image into four sub-bands of low and high frequency components. Chaotic system shows complex behavior and improves the security level of watermarking scheme by providing secret keys. In this paper, logistic map has been used through which chaotic watermark has been obtained, which has been embedded into the low frequency sub-band of medical image. The low frequency sub-band has been divided into 3×3 non overlapping blocks. The chaotic watermark has been embedded into each block by observing neighbor pixels conditions and modifying one of neighbor pixels. Experimental results of the proposed method have been compared with other existing medical image watermarking scheme. From the experimental results, it can be seen that the proposed watermarking scheme outperforms the existing methods. The proposed method achieves high values of peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) of watermarked image and high values of normalized correlation (NC) of the extracted watermark.
Evaluation of a TV Programs Recommendation using the EPG and Viewer ’ s Log Data

Evaluation results of a TV program recommendation using EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and viewer’s log data are described. Two experiments using the log data of a Japanese video service provider are conducted: (1) an experiment of prediction of TV programs that each viewer usually watched, and (2) a survey of TV program recommendation using the log data and a questionnaire. High precision values are obtained in the first experiment using keyword-based and celebrity-based recommendation methods for terrestrial and satellite broadcasting programs. Meanwhile, the channel & time-based recommendation method for programs in paid channels of the video service provider obtained the high precision in the second experiment. An overview of experiments and results are described.
Temporal patterns of postoperative complications.

HYPOTHESIS A variety of major complications occur after intra-abdominal operations. Knowledge of when specific complications occur during the postoperative period would be useful in their diagnosis, prevention, and management. Our aim was to determine the incidence of major complications during specific postoperative intervals. DESIGN One thousand twenty-one patients undergoing intra-abdominal operations were studied postoperatively as part of a randomized clinical trial. Thirteen defined major complications were sought at the following specific intervals: less than 1, 1 through 3, 4 through 7, and 8 through 30 days after the operation. SETTING Cooperative trial from 15 Veterans Affairs medical centers. INTERVENTIONS Intra-abdominal aortic, gastric, biliary, and colonic procedures. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS Major postoperative complications. RESULTS Four hundred thirty-five major complications were diagnosed within 30 days of the patients' being operated on. Seventy-four (17%) occurred within 1 day, 185 (43%) between 1 and 3 days, 72 (17%) between 4 and 7 days, and 104 (24%) between 8 and 30 days. Three deaths (8%) occurred within 1 day, 3 (8%) in 1 through 3 days, 4 (11%) in 4 through 7 days, and 27 (73%) in 8 through 30 days. The greatest risk of hypotension (43%), myocardial infarction (47%), and respiratory depression (55%) was within 1 day. The highest incidence of congestive heart failure (46%), pulmonary embolus (50%), and respiratory failure (76%) occurred at 1 through 3 days. Pneumonia (38%) was most common at 4 through 7 days. Cerebrovascular accident (53%) and sepsis (71%) occurred preponderantly at 8 through 30 days. Renal failure had a bimodal distribution with maxima at 1 through 3 days (31%) and 8 through 30 days (56%). The risk of cardiac arrhythmia and gastrointestinal tract bleeding was similar throughout all intervals. CONCLUSIONS While major complications occur throughout the postoperative period, the highest incidence is 1 through 3 days after the operation. However, specific complications occur in the following distinct temporal patterns: early postoperative, several days after the operation, throughout the postoperative period, and in the late postoperative period. Knowledge of these patterns should aid clinical management.
Retrieving Land Surface Temperature from Hyperspectral Thermal Infrared Data Using a Multi-Channel Method

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a key parameter in climate systems. The methods for retrieving LST from hyperspectral thermal infrared data either require accurate atmospheric profile data or require thousands of continuous channels. We aim to retrieve LST for natural land surfaces from hyperspectral thermal infrared data using an adapted multi-channel method taking Land Surface Emissivity (LSE) properly into consideration. In the adapted method, LST can be retrieved by a linear function of 36 brightness temperatures at Top of Atmosphere (TOA) using channels where LSE has high values. We evaluated the adapted method using simulation data at nadir and satellite data near nadir. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the LST retrieved from the simulation data is 0.90 K. Compared with an LST product from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on Meteosat, the error in the LST retrieved from the Infared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) is approximately 1.6 K. The adapted method can be used for the near-real-time production of an LST product and to provide the physical method to simultaneously retrieve atmospheric profiles, LST, and LSE with a first-guess LST value. The limitations of the adapted method are that it requires the minimum LSE in the spectral interval of 800–950 cm−1 larger than 0.95 and it has not been extended for off-nadir measurements.
Photospheric magnetic field and surface differential rotation of the FK Com star HD 199178

We present spectropolarimetric observations of the FK Com star HD 199178 obtained between 1998 December and 2003 August at the Telescope Bernard Lyot (Observatoire du Pic du Midi, France). We report the detection of a photospheric magnetic field and reconstruct its distribution by means of Zeeman–Doppler imaging. We observe large regions where the magnetic field is mainly azimuthal, suggesting that the dynamo processes generating the magnetic activity of HD 199178 may be active very close to the stellar surface. We investigate the rapid evolution of surface brightness and magnetic structures from a continuous monitoring of the star over several weeks in 2002 and 2003. We report that significant changes occur in the distribution of cool-spots and magnetic regions on typical time-scales of the order of two weeks. Our spectropolarimetric observations also suggest that the surface of HD 199178 is sheared by differential rotation, with a difference in rotation rate between equatorial and polar regions of the order of 1.5 times that of the Sun.
Designing Domain Specific Word Embeddings: Applications to Disease Surveillance

Traditional disease surveillance can be augmented with a wide variety of realtime sources such as news and social media. However, these sources are in general unstructured and construction of surveillance tools such as taxonomical correlations and trace mapping involves considerable human supervision. In this paper, we motivate a disease vocabulary driven word2vec model (Dis2Vec) which we use to model diseases and constituent attributes as word embeddings from the HealthMap news corpus. We use these word embeddings to create disease taxonomies and evaluate our model accuracy against human annotated taxonomies. We compare our accuracies against several state-of-the art word2vec methods. Our results demonstrate that Dis2Vec outperforms traditional distributed vector representations in its ability to faithfully capture disease attributes and accurately forecast outbreaks.
A Simple Visual Odometry Approach Based on Point Clouds

In this paper, a simple approach for estimating the ego-motion of a vehicle is proposed. The system can estimate the motion based on a sequence of images and point cloud data. The system is capable of estimate the ego-motion through a 2-D to 3-D mapping of the detected features on the image considering that the calibration parameters of the sensors are available. Singular value decomposition is used to estimate the rigid-body transformation between two point clouds, and we employ a RANSAC outlier rejection method to estimate a more accurate ego-motion. Datasets from the KITTI Benchmark Suite are used in order to evaluate the proposed method. The experiments show that our approach performed well with translational errors below 5%.
Disparity Map estimation using semi-global matching based on image segmentation

In this paper, we propose a semi-global matching method based on image segmentation. We perform a k-means clustering algorithm in only left image as image segmentation. Then, to improve result of image segmentation, we integrate adjacent and small labels along edges of objects. After that, we extract feature points to estimate the disparity range in each label, and add weights to the disparity range to reduce disparity errors when choosing the final disparity that minimizes the aggregated cost. The cost aggregation in semi-global matching is applied in each selected label only, which allows parallel computation of the cost aggregation as well as reducing disparity errors along discontinuity regions. As a result, the proposed method generates better results at lower runtime than the original semi-global matching method.
Timing-driven row-based power gating

In this paper we focus on leakage reduction through automatic insertion of sleep transistors using a row-based granularity. In particular, we tackle here the two main issues involved in this methodology: (i) Clustering and (ii) the interfacing of power-gated and non power-gated regions within the same block. The clustering algorithm automatically selects an optimal subset of rows that can be power-gated with a tightly controlled delay overhead. We then address the issue of interfacing different gated regions and propose a novel technique to address this issue with minimal area and power penalty. Our approach is compatible with state-of-the art logic and physical synthesis flows and it does not significantly impact design closure. We achieve leakage power reductions as high as 89% for a set of standard benchmarks, with minimum timing and area overhead.