Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating Censorship through Detecting Modified Content

This paper details the process of creation of a tool to monitor and detect censorship among a large set of URLs and its application on a popular Chinese news site. The creation of this tool stemmed from an earlier effort to identify potentially censored keywords based off of lexical relations. Development issues from the censored keyword identification system prompted a shift in strategy from a lexical approach to a crawling and monitoring approach. Results from the censorship detection tool has revealed some amount of content modification to the monitored URLs and further exploration is necessary to realize the full potential of this tool. Future application of this tool can lead to better censored keyword detectors and provide, in a timely manner, stronger insight into topics being censored.
Rare Variants in MYD88, IRAK4 and IKBKG and Susceptibility to Invasive Pneumococcal Disease: A Population-Based Case-Control Study

Although rare variants within the Toll-like receptor signalling pathway genes have been found to underlie human primary immunodeficiencies associated with selective predisposition to invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), the contribution of variants in these genes to IPD susceptibility at the population level remains unknown. Complete re-sequencing of IRAK4, MYD88 and IKBKG genes was undertaken in 164 IPD cases from the UK and 164 geographically-matched population-based controls. 233 single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) were identified, of which ten were in coding regions. Four rare coding variants were predicted to be deleterious, two variants in MYD88 and two in IRAK4. The predicted deleterious variants in MYD88 were observed as two heterozygote cases but not seen in controls. Frequencies of predicted deleterious IRAK4 SNVs were the same in cases and controls. Our findings suggest that rare, functional variants in MYD88, IRAK4 or IKBKG do not significantly contribute to IPD susceptibility in adults at the population level.
Visual Fixation for 3D Video Stabilization

JVRB, 8(2011), no. 2. - Visual fixation is employed by humans and some animals to keep a specific 3D location at the center of the visual gaze. Inspired by this phenomenon in nature, this paper explores the idea to transfer this mechanism to the context of video stabilization for a handheld video camera. A novel approach is presented that stabilizes a video by fixating on automatically extracted 3D target points. This approach is different from existing automatic solutions that stabilize the video by smoothing. To determine the 3D target points, the recorded scene is analyzed with a stateof- the-art structure-from-motion algorithm, which estimates camera motion and reconstructs a 3D point cloud of the static scene objects. Special algorithms are presented that search either virtual or real 3D target points, which back-project close to the center of the image for as long a period of time as possible. The stabilization algorithm then transforms the original images of the sequence so that these 3D target points are kept exactly in the center of the image, which, in case of real 3D target points, produces a perfectly stable result at the image center. Furthermore, different methods of additional user interaction are investigated. It is shown that the stabilization process can easily be controlled and that it can be combined with state-of-theart tracking techniques in order to obtain a powerful image stabilization tool. The approach is evaluated on a variety of videos taken with a hand-held camera in natural scenes.
Map-based long term motion prediction for vehicles in traffic environments

Depending on driver intention and current motion state of vehicle, an infinite set of possible future trajectories exists. In this paper we present a stochastic filter which is able to select a representative set of reasonable trajectories from this solution set using additional information from a digital map. This is achieved by representing the map's traffic lanes by their corresponding centerlines. Each detected vehicle is projected on these centerlines, where the necessary information is modeled as a multivariate random variable. With this stochastic model of traffic lanes and the stochastic vector of vehicle detection we define a new stochastic residual vector, which is used both in the lane assignment and during the generation of the motion predictions. For each traffic lane, which is assigned as relevant for a detected vehicle, we generate a new motion hypothesis by using an Extended Kalman Filter. To assess the plausibility of each motion hypothesis we employ an adaptive multivariate MCUSUM algorithm. The implemented stochastic filter is tested by evaluating real data from the Ko-FAS Research Initiative. While traditional motion prediction based on previous and current motion states of a vehicle only provide plausible prediction for a short term time horizon, we show that our approach achieves a reasonable motion hypothesis for long prediction intervals especially in complex scenarios as road intersections.
Convergence Rate Analysis of a Multiplicative Schwarz Method for Variational Inequalities

This paper derives a linear convergence for the Schwarz overlapping domain decomposition method when applied to constrained minimization problems. The convergence analysis is based on a minimization approach to the corresponding functional over a convex set. A general framework of convergence is established for some multiplicative Schwarz algorithm. The abstract theory is particularly applied to some obstacle problems, which yields a linear convergence for the corresponding Schwarz overlapping domain decomposition method of one and two levels. Numerical experiments are presented to confirm the convergence estimate derived in this paper.
3D GrabCut: Interactive Foreground Extraction for Reconstructed 3D Scenes

In the near future, mobile devices will be able to measure the 3D geometry of an environment using integrated depth sensing technology. This technology will enable anyone to reconstruct a 3D model of their surroundings. Similar to natural 2D images, a 3D model of a natural scene will occasionally contain a desired foreground object and an unwanted background region. Inspired by GrabCut for still images, we propose a system to perform interactive foreground/background segmentation on a reconstructed 3D scene using an intuitive user interface. Our system is designed to enable anyone, regardless of skill, to extract a 3D object from a 3D scene with a minimal amount of effort. The only input required by the user is a rectangular box around the desired object. We performed several experiments to demonstrate that our system produces high-quality segmentation on a wide variety of 3D scenes.
IEEE 802.11 medium access control enhancements based on simultaneous multiple-input multiple-output bandwidth sharing

The demand for higher data rate has spurred the adoption of multiple-input multiple-output MIMO transmission techniques in IEEE 802.11 products. MIMO techniques provide an additional spatial dimension that can significantly increase the channel capacity. A number of multiuser MIMO system have been proposed, where the multiple antenna at the physical layer are employed for multiuser access, allowing multiple users to share the same bandwidth. As these MIMO physical layer technologies further evolve, the usable bandwidth per application increases; hence, the average service time per application decreases. However, in the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function-based systems, a considerable amount of bandwidth is wasted during the medium access and coordination process. Therefore, as the usable bandwidth is enhanced using MIMO technology, the bandwidth wastage of medium access and coordination becomes a significant performance bottleneck. Hence, there is a fundamental need for bandwidth sharing schemes at the medium access control MAC layer where multiple connections can concurrently use the increased bandwidth provided by the physical layer MIMO technologies. In this paper, we propose the MIMO-aware rate splitting MRS MAC protocol and examine its behavior under different scenarios. MRS is a distributed MAC protocol where nodes locally cooperate with one another to share bandwidth via splitting the spatial channels of MIMO systems. Simulation results of MRS protocol are obtained and compared with those of IEEE 802.11n protocol. We show that our proposed MRS scheme can significantly outperform the IEEE 802.11n in medium access delay and throughput. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Image integrity and aesthetics: towards a more encompassing definition of visual quality

Visual quality is a multifaceted quantity that depends on multiple attributes of the image/video. According to Keelan's definition, artifactual attributes concern features of the image that when visible, are annoying and compromise the integrity of the image. Aesthetic attributes instead depend on the observer's personal taste. Both types of attributes have been studied in the literature in relation to visual quality, but never in conjunction with each other. In this paper we perform a psychometric experiment to investigate how artifactual and aesthetic attributes interact, and how they affect the viewing behavior. In particular, we studied to what extent the appearance of artifacts impacts the aesthetic quality of images. Our results indicate that indeed image integrity somehow influences the aesthetic quality scores. By means of an eye-tracker, we also recorded and analyzed the viewing behavior of our participants while scoring aesthetic quality. Results reveal that, when scoring aesthetic quality, viewing behavior significantly departs from the natural free looking, as well as from the viewing behavior observed for integrity scoring.
Generalization and Implementation of RAM-Based Key-Value Store

RAM-based storage aggregates the RAM of thousands of commodity servers in data center networks (DCN) to provide extremely low I/O latency and high I/O throughput. In order to achieve fast failure recovery, MemCube exploits network proximity to restrict failure detection and recovery within 1-hop range. However, previous design is applicable only to the BCube network, which limits the usage of RAM-based storage. In this paper we present CubeG, which Generalizes the "1-hop" principle of MemCube for all cube-based networks, and accelerates the recovery process through integrated implementation. Our evaluation shows that CubeG efficiently supports RAM-based key-value store for generalized cube-based networks.
Design and analysis of a 3-PPR planar robot with U-shape base

In this paper, a planar 3-PPR parallel robot with a non-symmetrical base is proposed. The topology of base platform design is addressed for maximizing the robot's workspace. A robot with U-shape base is designed and analyzed. The new robot reveals some interesting features, such as decoupled degrees of freedom and large reachable and orientational workspace.
Low power FIR filter realization with differential coefficients and input

Most FIR filter realizations use the inputs and coefficients directly to compute the convolution. We present a low power and high speed FIR filter designs by using first order difference between inputs and various orders of differences between coefficients. This design first reformulates the FIR operations with the differences in the algorithm level. Then, in the architecture level, we adopt the distributed arithmetic (DA) architecture to exploit the probability distribution such that the power consumption can be reduced further. The design is applied to an example FIR filter to quantify the energy savings and speedup. It shows lower power consumption than the previous design with the comparable performance.
IPCA, an Architecture for Planning and Real-time Plan Execution

IPCA (Intelligent Process Control Architecture) is an architecture for plan development and plan execution. IPCA is rooted in the Generic Task (GT) approach to knowledgebased systems and incorporates plan generation and realtime plan execution momtoring components. The plan generation component produces a state-based process control plan representation which typically contains a collection of possible paths from initial to desired process states. Selection of the precise path taken through the process control plan is determined by a plan execution monitoring component. The plan execution monitor incrementally determines in real time appropriate partial paths through the process control plan based on sensory input gathered from real-time process monitoring. This real-time selection of appropriate plan fragments and control methods contained in the process control plan is facilitated through the use of a sponsorselector mechanism. The usefulness of this approach to intelligent control is demonstrated by applying the architecture to the control of a microwave-based composite material fabrication process. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of IPCA in this domain.
Quantifying information leaks in software

Leakage of confidential information represents a serious security risk. Despite a number of novel, theoretical advances, it has been unclear if and how quantitative approaches to measuring leakage of confidential information could be applied to substantial, real-world programs. This is mostly due to the high complexity of computing precise leakage quantities. In this paper, we introduce a technique which makes it possible to decide if a program conforms to a quantitative policy which scales to large state-spaces with the help of bounded model checking. Our technique is applied to a number of officially reported information leak vulnerabilities in the Linux Kernel. Additionally, we also analysed authentication routines in the Secure Remote Password suite and of a Internet Message Support Protocol implementation. Our technique shows when there is unacceptable leakage; the same technique is also used to verify, for the first time, that the applied software patches indeed plug the information leaks. This is the first demonstration of quantitative information flow addressing security concerns of real-world industrial programs.
A Logical Account of Hoare's Mismatch Information Hiding via Second Order Framing in Region Logic

We investigate information hiding in object-based programs and the associated mismatch. While client reasoning is in terms of interface specifications, the implementation of an interface is verified against different specifications that involve invariants about internal data structures. Soundness of this mismatched reasoning depends on encapsulation of internal data structures. The problem is that encapsulation is notoriously difficult to achieve in contemporary software in which shared mutable objects are ubiquitous. We account for the mismatch via proof rules that phrase the mismatch using explicit conditions that are imposed on client effects. Effects are tracked using ghost state and separation assertions in a style that has been used in a number of verification tools. Our approach permits the formulation of encapsulation disciplines (such as ownership, or package confinement) as part of the interface specification, in the form of a dynamic boundary, rather than as a discipline directly baked into a verifier. One implication is that we can provide a foundation for the axiomatic semantics of these verifiers. Our approach is flexible in that disciplines can be used on a per-module basis and then combined to achieve end to end soundness.
Novel Multiplexer Topologies Based on All-Resonator Structures

This paper presents two novel multiplexer topologies based on all-resonator structures. Such all-resonator structures remove the need for conventional transmission-line-based splitting networks. The first topology is a diplexer with transmission zeros in the guard band, shared by both channels. These transmission zeros are generated by introducing a cross coupling in a quadruplet in resonators common to both channels. A twelfth-order diplexer with a pair of transmission zeros is presented here as an example. The second topology is a multiplexer with a bifurcate structure that limits the connections to any resonator to three or less, regardless of the number of output channels. A sixteenth-order four-channel multiplexer is presented as an example. Both topologies have been demonstrated at X-band using waveguide technology. Good agreements between measurements and simulations have been achieved.
Tumor Suppressor p53 Functions as a Negative Regulator in IgE-Mediated Mast Cell Activation

Mast cells are known to play a pivotal role in allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis by releasing granules containing histamine, LTC4, and other preformed chemical mediators. Previous reports have demonstrated that IKK2 (also called IKKβ), a central intracellular component of NF-κB activation pathways, plays a critical role in IgE-mediated degranulation of mast cells and anaphylaxis in mice. In this study, we show that protein levels of tumor suppressor p53 are up-regulated upon IgE-mediated activation in mast cells and lack of p53 results in enhanced responses in both early and late phase anaphylaxis. p53 inhibits not only the catalytic activity of IKK2 presumably through the modulation of glycosylation but also p65 (RelA)-mediated transactivation. Our findings are the first to demonstrate that p53 functions as a negative regulator in mast cells.
Aerobic Thermophilic Composting of Municipal Solid Waste

Composting is a natural process that turns organic material into a dark rich substance called compost. Aerobic Composting is the creation of compost that depends on bacteria that thrive in an oxygen rich environment. Aerobic bacteria manage the chemical process by converting the inputs (i.e. air, water and carbon and nitrogen rich materials) into heat, carbon dioxide and ammonium. The ammonium is further converted by bacteria into plant nourishing nitrites and nitrates through the process of nitrification. Thermophilic Composting is breaking down biological waste with thermophilic (heat loving) bacteria. A cylindrical reactor was made. Organic waste included dry vegetable waste collected from MSW ramp, Koregaon park, Pune. The characteristics of compost like pH, moisture content, temperature, C/N ratio and volume reduction were studied for the period of maturation (42days). It can be concluded that the values are within the desired limits and compost is suitable for ornamental plants. The setup of reactor is affordable and thus the compost obtained is effective and economical.
Novel indoor localisation using an unsupervised Wi-Fi signal clustering method

Indoor localisation continues to be an important research challenge. One interesting approach is to realise the localisation without specific additional hardware, such as special tags or ultrasonic systems, but rather with typically already available infrastructure such as Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Localisation techniques based on supervised learning, as observed in many previous investigations, require the availability of location labels that should be provided by experts or users. Unsupervised learning techniques are seen as an alternative where the localisation system automatically detects useful information to recognise locations without requiring explicit labelling from users. In this paper, a novel indoor localisation method using a density-based clustering method is presented. It utilises measured signal strength from surrounding Wi-Fi access points (APs) to automatically create fingerprints according to the accumulative frequency density of the signal strengths. The evaluations have shown that the algorithm is capable of room-level localisation with high precision in a normal office environment.
A Toolkit for Building Collaborative Immersive Multi-Surface Applications

The paper describes a toolkit that integrates spatially-aware multi-surface systems with mixed-reality approaches to create immersive collaborative environments. The toolkit integrates multiple digital displays and multiple Microsoft HoloLens devices with multiple Kinects. The HoloLens' allow several users to look at the same virtual hologram while the Kinects enable them to use body movements to interact with these holograms as well as with other digital surfaces in a space. Effectively, the toolkit enables its users to build collaborative applications that utilize digital displays as well as the space between them to interact with information. Our approach also facilitates the management of virtual objects and overcomes gesture restrictions of HoloLens. We use the toolkit in a prototype application for improving the efficiency and response time in emergency management.
Three-factor model of equity in travel opportunities.

There have not been enough discussions on the issues related to equal travel opportunities even though this study area is important. This paper, applying Adams’ theory of equity, examines the issues of equity/inequity mainly in golf travel opportunities; and three factors (quantity, quality, and psychology) to achieve equity in travel opportunities are suggested as the components of a Three-Factor Model of Equity.
Measurement, Analysis and Modeling of RTOS System Calls Timing

This paper presents a methodology for accurately characterizing the system calls of an operating system for embedded applications. Characterization consists of two phases: measurements and modeling. Measurements allow a coarse-grained quantitative comparison of different operating systems. Models, on the other hand, have been derived to gain a more detailed view of the behavior of a RTOS. Furthermore, they have been used within a source-level execution time estimation framework and their accuracy and usefulness proved through benchmarking. The measurement framework is based on two prototyping boards based on Xilinx and Altera devices and the timing characterization has been performed on two real-time operating systems: VxWorks and RTEMS.
Algorithms for Leakage Reduction with Dual Threshold Design Techniques

The application of devices with different threshold voltages is a state-of-the-art VLSI design technique to reduce the power consumption based on leakage currents. As devices with reduced leakage dissipation have longer delay, the aim of such Dual Threshold CMOS (DTCMOS) approaches is the detection of non-critical gates regarding the circuit's performance to exchange these with slower but less leaky gates. In our talk, we consider the optimization of DTCMOS circuits, which are modeled as directed acyclic graphs. With each vertex v of a directed acyclic graph, we associate two delay values d0(v) les d1 (v) and two leakage values c0 (v) ges c 1 (v). The objective is to choose one of the indices 0 or 1 for each vertex, such that the corresponding total delay along any directed path does not exceed the maximum circuit's delay and that the total leakage is minimized. It is well-known that this problem is NP-hard. We present heuristic approaches to the problem that are based on k-cutsets and k-Sperner families in partially ordered sets