Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coupling manipulation and locomotion tasks for a humanoid robot

This work deals with the use of tools from robotics for generating whole-body movements on anthropomorphic systems. The problem of coordinating the whole-body joints in order to combine manipulation and locomotion tasks is considered. Using inverse kinematics, the main scientific challenge comes from redundancy. We tackle it by considering a main equality task and additional inequality constraints. These secondary constraints are expressed by repulsive and attractive potential functions. Using this type of function, we provide a relaxation on the positioning of the projected center of mass into the support polygon, in order to increase the accessibility of the robot during reaching tasks. These methods were implemented on Matlab and the motion was simulated on the dynamic simulator OpenHRP of the HRP2 humanoid robot.
Getting started with SUSAS: a speech under simulated and actual stress database

It is well known that the introduction of acoustic background distortion and the variability resulting from environmentally induced stress causes speech recognition algorithms to fail. In this paper, we discuss SUSAS: a speech database collected for analysis and algorithm formulation of speech recognition in noise and stress. The SUSAS database refers to Speech Under Simulated and Actual Stress, and is in-tended to be employed in the study of how speech production and recognition varies when speaking during stressed conditions. This paper will discuss (i) the formulation of the SUSAS database, (ii) baseline speech recognition using SUSAS data, and (iii) pre-vious research studies which have used the SUSAS data base. The motivation for this paper is to famil-iarize the speech community with SUSAS, which was released April 1997 on CD-ROM through the NATO
DisSLib: CC: A Library for Distributed Search with a Central Common Search State

Distributed search is important for finding solutions to hard problems in artificial intelligence. Building distributed search systems can be difficult because the steps required to solve these problems are interdependent. Fortunately, aspects of search systems exhibit commonalities that allow them to be distributed using several different paradigms. These paradigms can be used as the basis for libraries to make implementing new systems, or distributing existing systems, easier. DisSLib:CC is such a library. DisSLib:CC implements the distributed search paradigm search with a central common search state. In this paradigm, agents collaborate to update a central search state. Systems built with DisSLib:CC require very little extra code to implement compared to the standalone versions. These systems can also show improvements in wall-clock run-times, which can be improved by varying the meta-parameters of the distribution paradigm. One such parameter is the number of steps, transitions, that the agents execute before consulting the common search state and in this paper we show how varying this meta-parameter improves the efficiency of the systems.
Monotonic Typestates for the Object Calculus

Static analysis using typestates can ensure that dynamic object protocols are respected, for example that an object is accessed only after it is initialized. Typestate analyses often impose aliasing and linearity constraints, limiting their applicability to common practice. Monotone typestates avoid such constraints by limiting attention to properties that are stable under program dynamics, such as object initialization. This paper presents a new approach to typing using monotone typestates. As in other recent work, our approach is expressive enough to address phased initialization protocols and the creation of cyclic data structures. These innovations allow for the elimination of null and the special status of constructors. Our solution is more general than other published solutions, being the first that is able to statically validate the standard one-pass traversal algorithms for potentially cyclic graphs. These algorithms are both common and important. For example, one such algorithm is the basis for object deserialization.
Design of Passive RFID Reader Based on Mobile Phone

In this paper, we focus on the flat fading problem. The FH signal transmitted through a flat fading channel is analyzed. Then we investigate the application of the time-frequency based techniques in the detection of the faded FH signals without the use of diversity techniques. Time-frequency analysis based on SPW(Smoothed Pseudo WVD) method is introduced to analyze the faded FH signals. The performance of three types of time-frequency distributions is compared with each other.
Asymmetric force feedback control framework for teleoperated robot-assisted surgery

Lack of haptic feedback in teleoperated robot-assisted surgery (RAS) is known to be detrimental in many surgical tasks. While performing a class of force sensitive tasks, surgeons commonly use both hands. Oftentimes, one hand is used to exert tension/compression forces, and the other to hold the suture knot or tissue. A novel control framework to accomplish haptic force feedback for two-handed tasks in teleoperated RAS is presented in this paper. The force applied on the surgical environment by the action hand is not transferred back to the same hand, but rather to the other hand. In two-handed tasks that involve an action and a reaction force, this provides an intuitive way of feeling the action. Because the loop in not closed from the slave back to the master of the same hand, it does not have a destabilizing effect. The technique can be easily implemented using a variable-structure controller that combines two PD controllers and a switch. It has been evaluated with an experimental setup consisting of four haptic devices with promising results.
Fast Controller Failover for Multi-domain Software-Defined Networks

We propose a Fast Controller Failover for Multi-domain Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) (FCF-M) to handle SDN controller failures. The proposed FCF-M is composed of controller failure detection and switch reassignment. In the controller failure detection, each controller checks the timestamp of its preceding controller. If a controller is failed, its succeeding controller will check its preceding controller. Because a failed controller does not prevent its preceding controller from healthy check, the proposed FCF-M can prevent a single point of failure (SPOF) for healthy check. We also make use of an adaptive timeout delay to reduce failure detection time. In the switch reassignment, when a controller is failed, we need to reassign the switches under the failed controller to an alternative controller. We consider controller load and distance between a switch and a controller to choose an alternative controller for reducing delay. The proposed FCF-M can achieve intra-domain controller failover and inter-domain controller failover. Using EstiNet, simulation results show that the proposed FCF-M outperforms the Devolved controller (DC) in terms of average end-to-end delay and failover time.
Combinatorial Optimization and Image Analysis: a literature survey

SUMMARY The EUCLID (EUropean Cooperation for the Long term In Defence) CALMA (Combina-torial Algorithms for Military Applications) RTP (Research and Technology Project) 6.4project has the main objective to investigate the relevance of various existing algorithmictechniques to the actual solution of complex combinatorial problems arising in militaryapplications.Various approaches to combinatorial problem solving have emerged over the last threedecades (e.g. simulated annealing, mean ﬁeld annealing, neural nets, genetic algorithms,tabu search). Most of these have only been tested on a few simpliﬁed problems (e.g. the“Traveling Salesman Problem”). It is presently not known to what extent they can solvecomplex realistic problems as those arising in military appplications, and what the requiredcomputing resources are.Thisreportpresentsaselectionofcombinatorialproblems thatariseatdifferentstagesintheanalysisofrealistic(andmilitaryrelevant)imagery. Theymayserveasatestbedtocomparedifferent optimization techniques. This report is intended for researchers specialized incombinatorial optimization. The combinatorial optimization techniques are therefore onlybrieﬂy introduced. A brief introduction to some image proce ssing terminology is alsoprovided.Onlyfewcomparativestudiesontheeffectivenessofcombinatorialoptimizationtechniquesto solvecombinatorialproblemsin imageanalysisare currently available. Thisreport givesa survey of the results of these studies.
A reliable multicast algorithm for mobile ad hoc networks

A reliable multicast algorithm, called RMA, for mobile ad hoc networks is presented that is based on a new cost criterion, called link lifetime, for determining the optimal path between a pair of nodes. The algorithm has the characteristics of using an undirected graph for its routing operations rather than a fixed structure like a tree or a mesh. Previously proposed routing metrics for mobile ad hoc networks were designed for use in wired environments, where link stability is not a concern. We propose a new metric, called the lifetime, which is more appropriate for mobile ad hoc networks. The lifetime metric is dependent on the predicted future life of the link under consideration. We developed a simulator for the mobile ad hoc networks, which is portable and scalable to a large number of nodes. Using the simulator, we carried out a simulation study to analyze the effectiveness of the routing metrics and the performance of the proposed reliable multicast algorithm. The simulation results show that the lifetime metric helps achieve better performance in mobile ad hoc environments than the hop count metric.
Low Complexity Design Space Exploration from Early Specifications [submitted paper]

Performance evaluation and design space exploration from early specifications is still a time consuming, experience and technology dependant issue in the design process. However, evaluation of architectural alternatives at an early stage of the design process is important because the choices made have a critical impact on the system final characteristics (area, performances, power consumption, flexibility, . . . ). To address those problems, we propose an original exploration methodology based on area / delay estimations and a case study targeting modern FPGAs. Two main steps compose the estimation flow: a structural estimation step that performs automatic exploration of several RTL architectural solutions and a physical estimation step that performs a technology mapping of the RTL solutions to the target FPGA. Experiments conducted on Xilinx (VirtexE) and Altera (Apex20K) FPGAs for a 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform and a G722 speech coder lead to an average error of 10% for temporal values and 18% for area estimations, starting from algorithmic descriptions given in the C language. The low complexity of the method allows fast exploration of many design parameters such as parallelism, target device, resources allocation, scheduling, clock period. Thanks to this methodology, the complexity of the design space exploration process is significantly reduced and permits to reach quickly a reliable solution meeting with both the design constraints (time to market, target FPGA) and the device architecture (cost, performance). Index Terms Design Space Exploration, area / delay estimation, C specification, H/CDFG representation, graph scheduling, architectural synthesis, technology projection, FPGA devices.
Chapter 9: Analyses Using Disease Ontologies

Advanced statistical methods used to analyze high-throughput data such as gene-expression assays result in long lists of “significant genes. ” One way to gain insight into the significance of altered expression levels is to determine whether Gene Ontology (GO) terms associated with a particular biological process, molecular function, or cellular component are over- or under-represented in the set of genes deemed significant. This process, referred to as enrichment analysis, profiles a gene-set, and is widely used to makes sense of the results of high-throughput experiments. The canonical example of enrichment analysis is when the output dataset is a list of genes differentially expressed in some condition. To determine the biological relevance of a lengthy gene list, the usual solution is to perform enrichment analysis with the GO. We can aggregate the annotating GO concepts for each gene in this list, and arrive at a profile of the biological processes or mechanisms affected by the condition under study. While GO has been the principal target for enrichment analysis, the methods of enrichment analysis are generalizable. We can conduct the same sort of profiling along other ontologies of interest. Just as scientists can ask “Which biological process is over-represented in my set of interesting genes or proteins? ” we can also ask “Which disease (or class of diseases) is over-represented in my set of interesting genes or proteins? “. For example, by annotating known protein mutations with disease terms from the ontologies in BioPortal, Mort et al. recently identified a class of diseases—blood coagulation disorders—that were associated with a 14-fold depletion in substitutions at O-linked glycosylation sites. With the availability of tools for automatic annotation of datasets with terms from disease ontologies, there is no reason to restrict enrichment analyses to the GO. In this chapter, we will discuss methods to perform enrichment analysis using any ontology available in the biomedical domain. We will review the general methodology of enrichment analysis, the associated challenges, and discuss the novel translational analyses enabled by the existence of public, national computational infrastructure and by the use of disease ontologies in such analyses.
Interference from Distractors in Reach-to-grasp Movements

Descriptions of interference effects from non-relevant stimuli are extensive in visual target detection and identification paradigms. To explore the influence of features of non-relevant objects on reach-to-grasp movements, we instructed healthy normal controls to reach for and pick up a cylinder (target) placed midsagittally 30 cm from the starting position of the hand. In Experiment 1, the target was presented alone, or accompanied by a narrower, wider, or same-size distractor positioned to the left or right of the target. In Experiment 2, the target was presented alone or accompanied by a distractor, which was slanted at a different orientation to the target. Reflective markers were placed on the wrist, thumb, and index finger of the right hand, and infra-red light-detecting cameras recorded their displacement through a calibrated 3-dimensional working space. Kinematic parameters were derived and analysed. Consistent changes in the expression of peak velocity, acceleration, and deceleration were evident when the distractor was narrower or wider than the target. The impact of the orientation of the distractor, conversely, was not marked. We discuss the results in the context of physiological findings and models of selective attention.
Evaluation of Regional Sustainable Development Based on Particle Swarm Optimization

To evaluate the sustainability of regional development, a comprehensive development index is put forward in this paper. Based on social-economy- environment theme indicator framework, the growth curve is taken to describe the development of each theme, then the comprehensive development index model is constituted. There are 2 parameters in growth curve and 2 parameters in index model. The PSO is applied to optimize the parameters. The region of Hubei Province is taken as a case study. The result shows that the regional development was primarily sustainable from the year 2000 to 2007, and in recent two years, the sustainability trended to increasing because the implement of the Rise of the Central China Plan and the strengthening environment protection and treatment.
Estimation of fiber diameters in the spinal dorsal columns from clinical data

Lack of human morphometric data regarding the largest nerve fibers in the dorsal columns (DCs) of the spinal cord has lead to the estimation of the diameters of these fibers from clinical data retrieved from patients with a new spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system. These patients indicated the perception threshold of stimulation induced paresthesia in various body segments, while the stimulation amplitude was increased. The fiber diameters were calculated with a computer model, developed to calculate the effects of SCS on spinal nerve fibers. This computer model consists of two parts: (1) a three-dimensional (3-D) volume conductor model of a spinal cord segment in which the potential distribution due to electrical stimulation is calculated and (2) an electrical equivalent cable model of myelinated nerve fiber, which uses the calculated potential field to determine the threshold stimulus needed for activation. It is shown that the largest fibers in the medial DCs are significantly smaller than the largest fibers in the lateral parts. This finding is in accordance with the fiber distribution in cat, derived from the corresponding propagation velocities. Moreover, it is shown that the mediolateral increase in fiber diameter is mainly confined to the lateral parts of the DCs. Implementation of this mediolateral fiber diameter distribution of the DCs in the computer model enables the prediction of the recruitment order of dermatomal paresthesias following increasing electrical stimulation amplitude.
Three Essays on Obesity, Poverty, and the Labor Market

The rising rate of obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is now one of the most serious public health challenges facing the U.S. (U.S. DHHS, 2001). But the underlying causes for this increase are unclear. This paper adds to the literature on this topic by exploring the importance of family income for obesity using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort. It does so by using exogenous variation in family income in a sample of low-income women and men obtained from the correlation of their family income with differences in the level of their state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) supplement at a point in time and variations in the value of federal and state EITC benefits over time. Income significantly raises the BMI of EITC–eligible women, and has no appreciable effect on the BMI of EITCeligible men. An additional $1,000 increases women’s (men’s) BMI by 0.24 (0.07) units or 1.4 (0.5) pounds. These results imply that family income increases from 1990 to 2002 explain 15 percent of women’s BMI increases and 3 percent of men’s BMI increases in the sample. JEL classifications: I12; I18; I38
MULTICOLOR NEAR-INFRARED INTRA-DAY AND SHORT-TERM VARIABILITY OF THE BLAZAR S5 0716+714

In this paper, we report results of our near-infrared (NIR) photometric variability studies of the BL Lacertae (BL Lac) object S5 0716+714. NIR photometric observations were spread over seven nights during our observing run on 2007 April 2–9 at the 1.8 m telescope equipped with the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute Near-Infrared Camera System and J, H, and Ks filters at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, South Korea. We searched for intra-day variability (IDV), short-term variability, and color variability in the BL Lac object. We have not detected any genuine IDV in any of the J, H, and Ks passbands in our observing run. Significant short-term variabilities ∼32.6%, 20.5% and 18.2% have been detected in the J, H, and Ks passbands, respectively, and ∼11.9% in (J − H) color.
Research on Resource Integration Competence, Entrepreneurial Orientation and entrepreneurial Performance

Based on the resource angle of view，this paper expands the classical model of the entrepreneurial orientation and the entrepreneurial performance, empirically examines the relationship among the resource integration competence, the entrepreneurial orientation and the entrepreneurial performance, and draws the corresponding conclusion: (1) the resource integration competence is being related positively with the entrepreneurial performance; (2) the entrepreneurial orientation has the intense mediator effect to the relationship between the resource integration competence and the entrepreneurial performance.
ptical and structural properties of ZnO nanorods grown on graphene oxide and educed graphene oxide film by hydrothermal method

ZnO nanorods were grown on graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) films with seed layers by using simple hydrothermal method. The GO films were deposited by spray coating and then annealed at 400 ◦C in argon atmosphere to obtain RGO films. The optical and structural properties of the ZnO nanorods were systematically studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction vailable online 20 November 2011
Constructing Summary Indices of Social Well-Being: A Model for the Effect of Heterogeneous Importance Weights 1

We consider problems associated with the construction of summary indices for a social unit (e.g., cities, states, nations). These problems are motivated by the question of how to construct a social well-being or Quality-of-Life (QOL) index that summarizes many social indicators, and that a majority of individuals can agree with. We specify a model for measuring the extent to which individuals with differing importance weights for the component indicators agree on a summary QOL index, and derive conditions under which an index will be endorsed by a majority of a social group. We show that, in every case, intuition greatly underestimates the extent of agreement among individuals who have different importance weights for the components. Two types of QOL indices are distinguished: (1) those rating multiple social units (e.g., cities, states, countries) in the same time period (cross-sectional data), and (2) those rating a single social unit on multiple time periods (time-series data). In the first case, we show that it is easy to create a QOL index on which most people in society agree. In the second case, we show that it is more difficult, but define conditions under which it is possible. In particular, we show that the equal-weighting strategy is privileged in that it minimizes disagreement among all possible individuals’ weights. When the actual distribution of individuals’ weights is known, one can improve agreement further by using the mean weights applied by individuals. Finally, we examine nationally representative surveys of importance weights and show that they meet the conditions for successful construction of a QOL index that will be endorsed by a majority of individuals in a country. We conclude with recommendations for measuring weights and creating QOL indices that have high levels of support among individual members of social units.
Settling time reduction for underactuated walking robots

This paper introduces a novel way to improve the settling time of transitions between different walking controllers. This improvement is achieved by commanding a sequence of intermediate transitions to the target controller. As a result, the state of the system enters the domain of attraction of the target controller closer to the fixed point of the Poincaré Map. The method is applicable to any walking robot with one degree of underactuation. The problem is expressed as a Markov Decision Process and then solved with Reinforcement Learning. In order to simplify the stability analysis of underactuated walking the Hybrid Zero Dynamics framework is utilized. Another advantage of using the Hybrid Zero Dynamics is the dimensionality reduction of the state representation in the Markov Decision Process. The experimental results suggest that the proposed methodology performs better than a one-step transition for 84.34% of all the considered transitions for a simulated walking robot matching the parameters of RABBIT [1].