Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation method and results for the accuracy of an automotive occupancy grid

This paper presents an evaluation method for the accuracy of automotive occupancy grids and results for the influence of the discretization and pose estimation of a radar based grid mapping algorithm. An automotive centric review of evaluation methods and map quality measures developed for robotic applications is given. Based on the results of the review, an extensible toolset to create ground truth maps and to compare them against automotive grid maps using different map quality measurements is proposed. Several map quality measures are compared and the best performing method to evaluate the accuracy of a radar based occupancy grid mapping algorithm is chosen.
The Karlsruhe-Verbmobil speech recognition engine

Verbmobil, a German research project, aims at machine translation of spontaneous speech input. The ultimate goal is the development of a portable machine translator that will allow people to negotiate in their native language. Within this project the University of Karlsruhe has developed a speech recognition engine that has been evaluated on a yearly basis during the project and shows very promising speech recognition word accuracy results on large vocabulary spontaneous speech. We introduce the Janus Speech Recognition Toolkit underlying the speech recognizer. The main new contributions to the acoustic modeling part of our 1996 evaluation system-speaker normalization, channel normalization and polyphonic clustering-are discussed and evaluated. Besides the acoustic models we delineate the different language models used in our evaluation system: word trigram models interpolated with class based models and a separate spelling language model were applied. As a result of using the toolkit and integrating all these parts into the recognition engine the word error rate on the German spontaneous scheduling task (GSST) could be decreased from 30% word error rate in 1995 to 13.8% in 1996.
The Meaning of Success for Students in Statistical Methods Courses: A Phenomenological Study.

The meaning of success as experienced by students in statistical methods courses was studied. Six social science graduate students who had completed several statistical methods courses were interviewed. The qualitative method of phenomenology was used to understand the essence of success by analyzing the students' experience:, an:: perceptions. The students described success as an accumulation of conceptual knowledge that they are able to apply and communicate to others. They experienced success predominantly in the context of working in study groups. Success was precipitated by, and coupled with, positive feelings such as confidence and happiness. Appendixes contain the study cover letter and a transcribed interview. (Contains 44 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Meaning of Success 1 The Meaning of Success for Students in Statistical Methods Courses: A Phenomenological Study. Sara J. Finney University of Nebraska-Lincoln iic.d'ET,laaorn^alERT-e'afi. , EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. 1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Paper presented at the 2000 annual meeting of the American Educational Research co Association in New Orleans, LA. O rt, O BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Meaning of Success 2
δ Eri, ξ Hya, η Boo

Using VLTI/VINCI angular diameter measurements, we constrain the evolutionary status of three asteroseismic targets: the stars δ Eri, ξ Hya, η Boo. Our predictions of the mean large frequency spacing of these stars are in agreement with published observational estimations. Looking without success for a companion of δ Eri we doubt on its classification as an RS CVn star.
Fibroblast Growth Factor Signaling Deficiencies Impact Female Reproduction and Kisspeptin Neurons in Mice1

ABSTRACT Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling is essential for the development of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) system. Mice harboring deficiencies in Fgf8 or Fgf receptor 1 (Fgfr1) suffer a significant loss of GnRH neurons, but their reproductive phenotypes have not been examined. This study examined if female mice hypomorphic for Fgf8, Fgfr1, or both (compound hypomorphs) exhibited altered parameters of pubertal onset, estrous cyclicity, and fertility. Further, we examined the number of kisspeptin (KP)-immunoreactive (ir) neurons in the anteroventral periventricular/periventricular nuclei (AVPV/PeV) of these mice to assess if changes in the KP system, which stimulates the GnRH system, could contribute to the reproductive phenotypes. Single hypomorphs (Fgfr1+/− or Fgf8+/−) had normal timing for vaginal opening (VO) but delayed first estrus. However, after achieving the first estrus, they underwent normal expression of estrous cycles. In contrast, the compound hypomorphs underwent early VO and normal first estrus, but had disorganized estrous cycles that subsequently reduced their fertility. KP immunohistochemistry on Postnatal Day 15, 30, and 60 transgenic female mice revealed that female compound hypomorphs had significantly more KP-ir neurons in the AVPV/PeV compared to their wild-type littermates, suggesting increased KP-ir neurons may drive early VO but could not maintain the cyclic changes in GnRH neuronal activity required for female fertility. Overall, these data suggest that Fgf signaling deficiencies differentially alter the parameters of female pubertal onset and cyclicity. Further, these deficiencies led to changes in the AVPV/PeV KP-ir neurons that may have contributed to the accelerated VO in the compound hypomorphs.
A Metadata-based Recommender System for Statistical Linked Open Data

In recent years, there are increasing efforts of Business Intelligence (BI) and Semantic Web communities to enable On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) over Statistical Linked Open Data. Unlike internal sources where data organization is generally familiar, Linked Data sources are typically uncontrolled and bring challenges regarding the integrity constraints and data completeness required by the multidimensional (MD) data model needed for OLAP. Moreover, users need guidance and recommendations for the analysis process in order to improve the quality of the user experience. This thesis presents an approach to assist users in the exploration process of Statistical Linked Open Data sources as a step towards next generation BI systems. Building on top of an existing approach for constructing MD dimension hierarchies, we address two data completeness challenges in this context caused by the missing links in internal and/or external RDF data sources. Once having an OLAP cube represented in RDF we develop a recommender system to support users in their analysis. The core of recommender system is metadata collected about users, their actions and MD schemas. Thus, we propose the solution named EXR:Extended Enrichment and Exploration Recommendations for Statistical Linked Open Data, present a prototype and demonstrate the feasibility of our solution. Our approach facilitates the analysis of Statistical Linked Open Data and represents a base for further research towards user assistance in this context.
Flyways To De-Congest Data Center Networks

A study of application demands from a production datacenter of  servers shows that except for a few outliers, application demands can be generally met by a network that is slightly oversubscribed. Eliminating over-subscription is hence a needless overkill. In a signi cant departure from recent proposals that do so, we advocate a hybrid architecture. e base network is provisioned for the average case, is oversubscribed, and can be built with any of the existing network designs. To tackle the hotspots that remain, we add extra links on an on-demand basis. ese links called yways provide additional capacity where and when needed. Our results show that even a few additional yways substantially improve performance (by over ), as long as they are added at the right place in the network. We consider two design alternatives for adding yways at negligible additional cost: one that uses wireless links (GHz or .n) and another that uses commodity switches to add capacity in a randomizedmanner.
Evolution Genetic study of Coris julis ( Osteichtyes , Perciformes , Labridae evolutionary history and dispersal abilities

Microsatellite markers have been used to study the genetic variability of rainbow wrasse ( Coris julis) Mediterranean and Atlantic populations. Differentiation tests failed to reveal any significant genetic differentiation among samples from con Portugal and the Azores, despite more than 1800 km of geographical separation. Preliminary results tended to i significant genetic differentiation among Atlantic and Mediterranean samples. It also supported the specific status Verde populations ( Coris atlantica). We compare these results with previous mtDNA analyses and propose a biogeog scenario that could explain our results. To cite this article: D. Aurelle et al., C. R. Biologies 326 (2003).  2003 Académie des sciences. Published by Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.
Fault-tolerant Gang Scheduling in Distributed Real-time Systems Utilizing Imprecise Computations

Distributed real-time systems play an increasingly vital role in our society. The most important aspect of such systems is the scheduling algorithm, which must guarantee that every job in the system will meet its deadline, providing high-quality (precise) results. In this paper we evaluate by simulation the performance of strategies for the scheduling of parallel jobs (gangs) in a homogeneous distributed real-time system with possible software faults. For each scheduling policy we provide an alternative version which allows imprecise computations. We propose a performance metric applicable to our problem, which takes into account the number of jobs guaranteed, as well as the precision of the results of each guaranteed job. The simulation results show that the alternative versions of the algorithms outperform their respective counterparts. To the best of our knowledge, a real-time gang scheduling approach that utilizes imprecise computations has never been discussed in the literature before.
Acute and Long-Term Suppression of Feeding Behavior by POMC Neurons in the Brainstem and Hypothalamus, Respectively

POMC-derived melanocortins inhibit food intake. In the adult rodent brain, POMC-expressing neurons are located in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) and the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), but it remains unclear how POMC neurons in these two brain nuclei regulate feeding behavior and metabolism differentially. Using pharmacogenetic methods to activate or deplete neuron groups in separate brain areas, in the present study, we show that POMC neurons in the ARC and NTS suppress feeding behavior at different time scales. Neurons were activated using the DREADD (designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs) method. The evolved human M3-muscarinic receptor was expressed in a selective population of POMC neurons by stereotaxic infusion of Cre-recombinase–dependent, adeno-associated virus vectors into the ARC or NTS of POMC-Cre mice. After injection of the human M3-muscarinic receptor ligand clozapine-N-oxide (1 mg/kg, i.p.), acute activation of NTS POMC neurons produced an immediate inhibition of feeding behavior. In contrast, chronic stimulation was required for ARC POMC neurons to suppress food intake. Using adeno-associated virus delivery of the diphtheria toxin receptor gene, we found that diphtheria toxin–induced ablation of POMC neurons in the ARC but not the NTS, increased food intake, reduced energy expenditure, and ultimately resulted in obesity and metabolic and endocrine disorders. Our results reveal different behavioral functions of POMC neurons in the ARC and NTS, suggesting that POMC neurons regulate feeding and energy homeostasis by integrating long-term adiposity signals from the hypothalamus and short-term satiety signals from the brainstem.
A method of coherence-based step-size control for robust stereo echo cancellation

A fast adaptive algorithm is required for stereo echo cancellation because the strong interchannel cross-correlation of stereo received signals leads to an ill-conditioned normal equation to be solved by the adaptive filter. An adaptive algorithm for this task should also be robust against disturbances such as near-end speech and near-end noise. We propose a coherence-based method of step-size control that provides robustness in stereo echo cancellation. Computer simulation demonstrates that the method is robust against near-end speech and noise, and is capable of quickly tracking changes in echo paths.
A 16-week comparison of the novel insulin analog insulin glargine (HOE 901) and NPH human insulin used with insulin lispro in patients with type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE To determine the safety and efficacy of the long-acting insulin analog, insulin glargine, as a component of basal bolus therapy in patients with type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Patients with type 1 diabetes receiving basal-bolus insulin treatment with NPH human insulin and insulin lispro were randomized to receive insulin glargine (HOE 901), a long-acting basal insulin analog, once a day (n = 310) or NPH human insulin (n = 309) as basal treatment with continued bolus insulin lispro for 16 weeks in an open-label study NPH insulin patients maintained their prior schedule of administration once or twice a day, whereas insulin glargine patients received basal insulin once a day at bedtime. RESULTS Compared with all NPH insulin patients, insulin glargine patients had significant decreases in fasting blood glucose measured at home (means +/- SEM, -42.0 +/- 4.7 vs. -12.4 +/- 4.7 mg/dl [-2.33 +/- 0.26 vs. -0.69 +/- 0.26 mmol/l]; P = 0.0001). These differences were evident early and persisted throughout the study More patients in the insulin glargine group (29.6%) than in the NPH group (16.8%) reached a target fasting blood glucose of 119 mg/dl (< 6.6 mmol/l). However, there were no differences between the groups with respect to change in GHb. Insulin glargine treatment was also associated with a significant decrease in the variability of fasting blood glucose values (P = 0.0124). No differences in the occurrence of symptomatic hypoglycemia, including nocturnal hypoglycemia, were observed. Overall, adverse events were similar in the two treatment groups with the exception of injection site pain, which was more common in the insulin glargine group (6.1%) than in the NPH group (0.3%). Weight gain was 0.12 kg in insulin glargine patients and 0.54 kg in NPH insulin patients (P = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS Basal insulin therapy with insulin glargine once a day appears to be as safe and at least as effective as using NPH insulin once or twice a day in maintaining glycemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes receiving basal-bolus insulin treatment with insulin lispro.
Sparse Forward-Backward for Fast Training of Conditional Random Fields

Abstract : Complex tasks in speech and language processing often include random variables with large state spaces, both in speech tasks that involve predicting words and phonemes, and in joint processing of pipelined systems in which the state space can be the labeling of an entire sequence. In large state spaces, however, discriminative training can be expensive, because it often requires many calls to forward-backward. Beam search is a standard heuristic for controlling complexity during Viterbi decoding, but during forward-backward, standard beam heuristics can be dangerous, as they can make training unstable. The authors introduce sparse forward-backward, a variational perspective on beam methods that uses an approximating mixture of Kronecker delta functions. This motivates a novel minimum-divergence beam criterion based on minimizing Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence between the respective marginal distributions. This beam selection approach is not only more efficient for Viterbi decoding, but also more stable within sparse forward-backward training. For a standard text-to-speech problem, they reduce CRF training time fourfold -- from over a day to 6 hours -- with no loss in accuracy.
Real-time control of music performance

In this chapter we will look at the real-time control of music performance on ahigher level dealing with semantic/gestural descriptions rather than the con-trol of each note as in a musical instrument. It is similar to the role of theconductor in a traditional orchestra. The conductor controls the overall inter-pretation of the piece but leaves the execution of the notes to the musicians. Acomputer-based music performance system typically consists of a human con-troller using gestures that are tracked and analysed by a computer generatingthe performance. An alternative could be to use audio input. In this case thesystem would follow a musician or even computer-generated music.
Investigation of the Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Approach to Classification in an EEG-based Brain-Computer Interface

Analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) requires a framework that facilitates handling the uncertainties associated with the varying brain dynamics and the presence of noise. Recently, the type-2 fuzzy logic systems (T2 FLSs) have been found effective in modeling uncertain data. This paper examines the potential of the T2 FLS methodology in devising an EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI). In particular, a T2 FLS has been designed to classify imaginary left and right hand movements based on time-frequency information extracted from the EEG with the short time Fourier transform (STFT). Robustness of the method has also been verified in the presence of additive noise. The performance of the classifier is quantified with the classification accuracy (CA). The T2 fuzzy classifier has been proven to outperform its type-1 (T1) counterpart on all data sets recorded from three subjects examined. It has also compared favorably to the well known classifier based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA)
On the Performance Gains of VoIP Aggregation and ROHC over a WirelessMAN-OFDMA Air Interface

A growing number of mobile WiMAX deployments are in progress world-wide and the technology is anticipated to play a key role in next generation mobile broadband wireless networks. However, although the theoretical potential of WiMAX technologies is already well established, independent, publicly released, thorough evaluations of WiMAX network performance in the real world are yet to become available. In this study, we consider synthetic Voice over IP (VoIP) performance over the WirelessMAN-OFDMA air interface of a state of the art mobile WiMAX testbed operating at the 3.5 GHz frequency band and quantify the benefits of employing VoIP aggregation and Robust Header Compression (ROHC). Although VoIP aggregation and ROHC have been proposed and thoroughly evaluated through simulation and modeling, this is the first study to present empirical results from employing them over the Wireless MANOFDMA air interface of a real-world WiMAX system. Our results indicate that the combined use of VoIP aggregation and ROHC can increase the number of flows sustained without loss by approximately a factor of three.
Partial differential equation boundary control of a flexible manipulator with input saturation

ABSTRACT In this study, we consider the boundary control problem of a flexible manipulator in the presence of input saturation and input disturbances. The dynamics of the flexible system are represented by partial differential equations (PDEs). Based on disturbance observers, a boundary control scheme is designed to regulate angular position and suppress elastic vibration simultaneously. The proposed control scheme allows the application of smooth hyperbolic functions, which satisfy physical conditions and input restrictions, easily be realised. It is proved that the proposed control scheme can be guaranteed in handling input saturation and external disturbances. The stability is achieved through rigorous analysis without any simplification of the dynamics. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Manufacturing and Characterization of 3‐D Hydroxyapatite Bone Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

Abstract: Internal architecture has a direct impact on the mechanical and biological behaviors of porous hydroxyapatite (HA) implants. However, traditional processing methods provide very minimal control in this regard. This paper reviews a novel processing technique developed in our laboratory for fabricating scaffolds with controlled internal architectures. The preliminary mechanical property and in vivo evaluation of these scaffolds are also presented.
A Reactive Variable Neighborhood Search for the Vehicle-Routing Problem with Time Windows

The purpose of this paper is to present a new deterministic metaheuristic based on a modification of the variable neighborhood search of Mladenovic and Hansen (1997) for solving the vehicle-routing problem with time windows. Results are reported for the standard 100, 200, and 400 customer data sets by Solomon (1987) and Gehring and Homberger (1999), and two real-life problems by Russell (1995). The findings indicate that the proposed procedure outperforms other recent local searches and metaheuristics. In addition, four new best-known solutions were obtained. The proposed procedure is based on a new four-phase approach. In this approach an initial solution is first created using new route-construction heuristics followed by a route-elimination procedure to improve the solutions regarding the number of vehicles. In the third phase the solutions are improved in terms of total traveled distance using four new local-search procedures proposed in this paper. Finally, in phase four, the best solution obtained is improved by modifying the objective function to escape from a local minimum.