Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling and control aspects of a UAV with an attached manipulator

This article addresses the problem of the modeling and control of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) that consists of a UAV carrying a robotic manipulator. The dynamics of the UAS are derived based on the recursive Newton-Euler equations in order to handle the floating-base effect. Accordingly, the dynamics account for the force and torque transferred from the base of the manipulator to the UAV and the translational and angular velocities and accelerations from the UAV to the manipulator. The integrated nonlinear dynamic equations are symbolically derived and efficient code for execution at embedded systems is generated. An efficient nonlinear control scheme regulates the states of the UAS to a desired configuration. Simulation results are provided to evaluate the performance of the developed strategy, in comparison to the ones derived by simplifying the coupling of the UAV and manipulator dynamics by considering only the spatial coordinates of the center of mass of the manipulator.
L-band Lamb mode resonators in Gallium Nitride MMIC technology

We present a theoretical and experimental study of L-band (1-2 GHz) Lamb mode resonators in Gallium Nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave IC technology. These resonators leverage Au-free metallization and optimized anchors, enabling f·Q products up to 5.5×1012, the highest reported in GaN resonators to date. These devices also demonstrate the highest electromechanical coupling (keff2 of 0.39%) measured in GaN resonators using an interdigitated transducer in the absence of a bottom electrode. Achieving such high values of f·Q and keff2, these GaN MEMS resonators can enable channel select filters for wireless communications, with wide bandwidth tuning capabilities (0.18-0.8 MHz) at 1-2 GHz range.
An Overview of SAS Certification and the Test Development Process

In 1999, SAS Institute launched the SAS Certified Professional Program. Today, there are over 3,500 SAS Certified Professionals around the world and interest in the program continues to grow. The intent of the Program has always been to provide a standardized measure to assess the knowledge and skills of SAS users. In order for this to occur, two items must be met. First, certification examinations must be valid and reliable instruments. Second, the examinations must map to credentials that meet the needs of SAS users and assess actual job roles and responsibilities within the SAS user community. This paper will describe the rigid test development process used to develop SAS certification examinations. The paper will also provide an overview of recent enhancements made to the SAS Certified Professional Program along with information on how one can begin the journey to becoming a SAS Certified Professional.
Overlay routing for fast video transfers in CDN

Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are witnessing the outburst of video streaming (e.g., personal live streaming or Video-on-Demand) where the video content, produced or accessed by mobile phones, must be quickly transferred from a point to another of the network. Whenever a user requests a video not directly available at the edge server, the CDN network must 1) identify the best location in the network where the content is stored, 2) set up a connection and 3) deliver the video as quickly as possible. For this reason, existing CDNs are adopting an overlay structure to reduce latency, leveraging the flexibility introduced by the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm. In order to guarantee a satisfactory Quality of Experience (QoE) to users, the connection must respect several Quality of Service (QoS) constraints. In this paper, we focus on the sub-problem 2), by presenting an approach to efficiently compute and maintain paths in the overlay network. Our approach allows to speed up the transfer of video segments by finding minimum delay overlay paths under constraints on hop count, jitter, packet loss and relay node capacity. The proposed algorithm provides a near-optimal solution, while drastically reducing the execution time. We show on traces collected in a real CDN that our solution allows to maximize the number of fast video transfers.
hronic electrical stimulation of cultured hippocampal networks increases pontaneous spike rates

We chronically stimulated hippocampal networks in culture for either 0, 1 or 3 h/day between 7 and 22 days in culture in an effort to increase spontaneous spike rates and to give these networks some portion of external stimuli that brain networks receive during their formation. Chronic electrical stimulation of hippocampal networks on multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) increased spike rates 2-fold after 3 weeks of culture compared to cultures that received no external stimulation prior to recording. More than 90% of the spikes for all experimental conditions occurred within bursts. The frequency of spikes within a burst lectrode array EA timulation etwork ction potential increased with time of stimulation during culture up to 2-fold higher (90 Hz) compared to networks without chronic stimulation. However, spontaneous overall spike rates did not correlate well with the amount of stimulation either as h/day or proximity to the limited number of stimulation sites due to shorter burst duration with 3 h/day stimulation. The results suggest that chronic stimulation applied during network development recruits activity at 50% more electrodes and enables higher rates of spontaneous activity hipp within bursts in cultured
Quantum Chemical Molecular Dynamics Study of Degradation Mechanism of Interface Integrity between a HfO2 Thin Film and a Metal Gate Electrode

Control of the interfacial crystallographic structure between a dielectric film and a gate electrode is one of the most critical issues for assuring the high performance and the reliability of a stacked MOS structure using high-k dielectric thin films. In this study, quantum chemical molecular dynamics was applied to explicate the mechanism of degradation of interfacial integrity of the gate stack systems which is caused by point defects. We found that point defects such as oxygen and carbon interstitials deteriorate the electronic quality of a hafnium dioxide film and the W/HfO2 interface structure. The estimated results were confirmed by experiments using synchrotron- radiation photoemission spectroscopy.
Research on information aggregation methods of electric equipment state monitoring based on data driver

In view of the unsatisfactory results and the low utilization rates of electric equipment application, this paper proposed a hierarchical information aggregation structure and model in data analysis and application, taking the autocorrelation analysis based on data probability distribution as the foundation. The model aimed at predicting equipment state trends and assessing equipment service lifetime, and driven by dada mining, analyzed and processed the state monitoring data of large scale electric equipment. A threshold setting method grounded on the probability distribution of historical data was put forward in this paper, and solved the equipment state boundary division for online monitoring. In addition, an equipment abnormal state analysis and identification approach, taking the correlation feature changes of continuous and multidimensional data as the core, was suggested in this paper. The concepts and methods provided in this paper was used to dig for and analyze the online real data of an 110kV transformer in Shanxi Province, North China, and verified the feasibility of correlation analysis based on data driver in state monitoring application practice.
Methylene blue, a soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor, reduces the sevoflurane minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration and decreases the brain cyclic guanosine monophosphate content in rats.

UNLABELLED The nitric oxide (NO)-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signal pathway plays an important role in anesthetic and analgesic effects. We sought to determine the involvement of inhibition of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) in the anesthetic mechanism and site of action of volatile anesthetics. We examined the effect of intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of methylene blue (MB), a sGC inhibitor, on the minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration (MAC) of sevoflurane and the brain cGMP content in rats in vivo. We also investigated the effect of sevoflurane on NO-stimulated sGC activity in vitro. The rats were divided into three groups. After the ICV administration of MB, sevoflurane MAC and brain cGMP contents were measured in the first group and the second group, respectively. In the third group, brain cGMP contents were determined after sevoflurane anesthesia without the ICV administration of MB to examine the direct effect of sevoflurane on brain cGMP contents. MB significantly decreased sevoflurane MAC and brain cGMP content in a dose-dependent manner. Sevoflurane itself also dose-dependently decreased cGMP contents in brain in vivo and inhibited the NO-stimulated sGC activity in vitro. These results suggest that the inhibition of the NO-cGMP signal pathway at the sGC level could be involved in anesthetic or analgesic effects, and the inhibitory effect of sevoflurane on sGC would be one of the sites of action of this anesthetic. IMPLICATIONS Because the nitric oxide-cyclic guanosine monophosphate signal pathway mediates nociception and the site of action of halogenated volatile anesthetics in uncertain, we examined the possible involvement of inhibition of soluble guanylyl cyclase in the anesthetic mechanism. The inhibitory effect of sevoflurane on soluble guanylyl cyclase could be one of sites of this anesthetic.
Extended Semantic Tagging for Entity Extraction

We present results of a statistical method we developped for the detection of what we define as generalized named entities from manually transcribed conversations. This work is part of an ongoing project for an information extraction system in the field of maritime Search And Rescue (SAR). Our purpose is to automatically detect relevant words and annotate them with concepts from a SAR ontology. Our approach combines similarity score vectors and topical information. Similarity vectors are generated using a SAR ontology and the Wordsmyth dictionary-thesaurus. Evaluation is carried out by comparing the output of the system with key answers of predefined extraction templates. Results on speech transcriptions are comparable to those on written texts in MUC7.
REDfly 2.0: an integrated database of cis-regulatory modules and transcription factor binding sites in Drosophila

The identification and study of the cis-regulatory elements that control gene expression are important areas of biological research, but few resources exist to facilitate large-scale bioinformatics studies of cis-regulation in metazoan species. Drosophila melanogaster, with its well-annotated genome, exceptional resources for comparative genomics and long history of experimental studies of transcriptional regulation, represents the ideal system for regulatory bioinformatics. We have merged two existing Drosophila resources, the REDfly database of cis-regulatory modules and the FlyReg database of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs), into a single integrated database containing extensive annotation of empirically validated cis-regulatory modules and their constituent binding sites. With the enhanced functionality made possible through this integration of TFBS data into REDfly, together with additional improvements to the REDfly infrastructure, we have constructed a one-stop portal for Drosophila cis-regulatory data that will serve as a powerful resource for both computational and experimental studies of transcriptional regulation. REDfly is freely accessible at http://redfly.ccr. buffalo.edu.
Parental behaviour of a precocial species: implications for juvenile survival

Summary 1. Parents determine habitat selection for precocial young by leading their young to foraging areas until the chicks attain full independence. There are potential benefits and costs to reproductive success associated with changing habitats while caring for young. This study investigated the relationship between different types of habitats and their quality on chick survival and brood movements of a declining upland shorebird, the mountain plover Charadrius montanus. 2. From 2004 to 2006, a total of 153 mountain plover broods were monitored on the primary breeding habitats in eastern Colorado, USA; two shortgrass prairie habitats that were either occupied or unoccupied by black‐tailed prairie dogs Cynomys ludovicianus and agricultural lands. Habitat quality hypotheses were tested using newly developed statistical applications to estimate survival of chicks and brood movement patterns. 3. Chick survival and brood movements were influenced by habitat. Chick survival over the 30‐day brood‐rearing period was substantially higher on nesting habitat of shortgrass occupied by prairie dogs compared with agricultural land and shortgrass unoccupied by prairie dogs. The rate of brood movement away from shortgrass with prairie dogs was lower than shortgrass without prairie dogs, but higher than agricultural lands for each year of the study. 4. This study suggests that complex processes influence how different habitats affect brood‐rearing activity of mountain plovers. Even though broods moved off nesting habitat of shortgrass occupied by prairie dogs, this habitat had the highest survival rate and is highly important to mountain plover reproductive success. 5. Synthesis and applications. In order to develop effective conservation strategies, the provision of adequate breeding habitat should include information on patterns of habitat selection for all stages of the breeding cycle, including the nesting and dependent young periods. From a conservation perspective, understanding the habitat use of young birds is critical when population dynamics show great sensitivity to survival of young. Previous studies on mountain plovers have suggested that nest success is similar among shortgrass prairie habitats and agricultural lands. Thus, conservation measures that increase nest success may be ineffective for mountain plovers unless they are accompanied by measures promoting chick survival.
Understanding Effects and Determinants of Mobile Support Tools: A Usability-Centered Field Study on IT Service Technicians

The integration of mobile workplaces is a major challenge for companies. First-wave mobile solutions mostly support existing business processes through adding value in terms of increased efficiency. Second-wave mobile solutions comprise a re-engineering of the mobile business processes, add value through increased effectiveness and may even enable new forms of mobility. In order to achieve a systematic approach to mobile integrated business processes it is important to analyze existing processes, focusing on the effects and determinants of mobile solutions that might be used to support those processes. For this purpose we examined a typical example, the field technician support process of an IT service providing company. Our research approach combines usability and process performance issues. The results show which tasks are suitable for mobile application support, which personnel is most likely to benefit from mobile technology and what improvements on business metrics such as labor time, back office capacity, and invoice cycle are to be expected.
Clustering using Particle Swarm Optimization ( Extended

Document clustering is largely used in many fields, including text mining and information retrieval. Clustering involves dividing a set of objects into a specified number of clusters, so that objects that are similar to other objects located in the same cluster. There are two major styles of clustering techniques: “Partitioning” and “Hierarchical” [1]. Most document clustering algorithms can be classified into these two groups. Hierarchical techniques produce a nested sequence of partition, with a single, all inclusive cluster at the top and singleton clusters of individual points at the bottom. The partitioning clustering method seeks to partition a collection of documents into a set of non-overlapping groups so as to maximize the evaluation value of clustering. Although the hierarchical clustering technique is often portrayed as a better quality clustering approach, this technique does not contain any provision for the reallocation of entities, which may have been poorly classified at the early stage in the text analysis [2]. Moreover, the time complexity of this approach is quadratic [8]. The time complexity of the partitioning technique is almost linear, which makes it widely used. The most well-known partitioning clustering algorithm is the k-means algorithm and its variants. In addition to the k-means algorithm, several algorithms, such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) [3] and Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) [5], have been used for document clustering. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) [4] is another computational intelligence method that has already been applied to image clustering [6]. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, PSO has not been used to cluster text documents. In this study, a document clustering algorithm based on PSO is proposed. PSO is a population based stochastic optimization technique that can be used to find an optimal, or near optimal, solution to a numerical and qualitative problem. A problem space in PSO has as many dimensions as needed to model the real problem space. A particle’s location in the multi-dimensional problem space represents one solution for the problem. When a particle moves to a new location, a different problem solution is generated. This solution is evaluated by a fitness function that provides a quantitative value of the solution’s utility. A particle will remember its current coordinates, its velocity that indicates the speed of its movement along the dimensions in a problem space, the best fitness value received so far, and the coordinates where these values were computed. It is this personal best value combined with its neighbor's best value that influences the movement of each particle through a problem space.
Good vibes: the impact of haptic patterns on stress levels

Stress and anxiety impact almost everyone at some point in life. In the most severe cases the effects can be extremely detrimental to overall health and everyday life. However, two thirds of those suffering go untreated. Good Vibes was created to aid those who suffer from stress regardless of whether they receive professional help. The system consists of three components: a sleeve embedded with actuators, a heart rate monitor, and a smartwatch application. Using dynamic vibration patterns, the system simulates a cascading sensation and soothes the user during stressful situations. The Good Vibes system was tested on eight participants who were put through a stress test. The findings of our evaluations showed that participants who received haptic stimulation experienced a decrease in heart rate as compared to those who did not.
Approximation of first passage times of switching diffusion

This paper studies the approximation of first passage time of a multi-dimensional switching diffusion process to a given target domain. We propose a discrete-time strong approximation scheme for switching diffusion processes with state-dependent switching rates. If τ and τh are the first passage times of the continuous and discretized processes respectively, then under some conditions we show that τh converges in distribution to τ as the discretization step tends to zero.
Insider trading and earnings management ’ s influence on seasoned equity offerings ( SEOs ) ?

The seasoned equity offering (SEO) event is characterized by information asymmetry between firms and investors. Insider trading (overt signal) and managed earnings (covert signal) are important inputs to the price of the SEO firm’s shares. The interaction between earnings management and insider trading around the SEO was examined. It was found that firms that have insiders selling shares manage earnings more aggressively than firms that have insiders purchasing. Insiders’ selling strategy was profitable. Notably, the market did not discount earnings management although it was unable to perfectly infer it from accounting earnings; it weakly rewarded unobservable, inflated earnings.
The sustainability of teamwork under changing circumstances: The case of Volvo‐Ghent

Volvo's car assembly plant in Ghent, Belgium, is currently experiencing turbulent times. The plant is implementing the biggest expansion in its history, with plans to almost double its production capacity in 2004. Moreover, Ford is increasingly consolidating its position as the new owner of Volvo. Both developments are challenging the distinctive model of teamwork that Volvo‐Ghent has established over the last decade. This paper assesses the challenges presented by these two developments and the possible outcomes in terms of teamwork at Volvo‐Ghent. This assessment relies on a combination of theories of team structure and team processes.
The geometric complex of a Morse-Bott-Smale pair and an extension of a theorem by Bismut-Zhang

We define the geometric complex associated to a Morse-Bott-Smale vector field, cf. [Austin-Braam, 1995], and its associated spectral sequence. We prove an extension of the Bismut-Zhang theorem to Morse-Bott-Smale functions. The proof is based on the Bismut-Zhang theorem for Morse-Smale functions, see [Bismut-Zhang, 1992].
Evaluation of Anti-Hyperglycemic and Anti-Hyperlipidemic Activities of Water Kefir as Probiotic on Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Wistar Rats

Diabetes mellitus is a predominant chronic disease which causes mortality of millions of people yearly. Its prevalence is on the rise worldwide. Water kefir is fermented food produced by a matrix of polysaccharides containing bacteria and yeasts, with therapeutic properties. Our study aimed to evaluate anti-hyperglycemic and anti-hyperlipidemic activities of water kefir on streptozotocin-induced diabetic Wistar rats. Adult Wistar rats were made diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin, and were given or not kefir in drinking water for 5 weeks. Body weight, glucose and lipid levels were measured. The results demonstrated evident improvement in body weight, glucose, and lipid profiles of treated rats comparing with diabetic or control rats. Water kefir is found to be less cost hypoglycemic and hypolipidimic treatment and less time consuming. Water kefir can potentially be useful food for diabetes to control glucose and lipid levels.
A Learning to Rank Framework for Developer Recommendation in Software Crowdsourcing

Recently, crowdsourcing has been widely used in many tasks that computers are not good at such as image recognition, entity resolution or some question answering tasks. A key feature of these tasks is that they are all simple tasks even decision making tasks. People can deal with these tasks with common sense knowledge. However, different from crowdsourcing in a general domain, software crowdsourcing is more complex. Only people with software developing skills can finish these tasks which could take a long time. Thus, an essential component of building a successful software crowdsourcing platform is effective developer recommendation, which aims to match a given task to the right crowdworkers. In order to solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a learning to rank framework. Specifically, we first propose a CRF-based model to extract criterias (i.e. skills and locations) from descriptions. Task characteristics learned from their descriptions and developer' characteristic distributions extracted from their historical tasks are fed into our learning to rank algorithms for developer recommendation together with some other features such as topic-based features. We have evaluated our approach on a large dataset crawled from a real-world software crowdsourcing platform. The experimental results show that our approach is feasible and effective.