Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dual Optic-flow Integrated Navigation forSmall-scale Flying Robots

This paper addresses the recent development of real-time visual odometry system based on a dual optical-flow system and its integration to an inertial navigation system aiming for smallscale flying robots. To overcome the unknown depth information in optic-flow, a dual opticflow system is developed and tested. The flow measurements are fused with a low-cost inertial sensor using an extended Kalman filter. The experimental results in indoor environment will be presented showing improved navigational performances constraining errors in height, velocity and attitude.
Optimal Replication of Contingent Claims Under Portfolio Constraints

We determine the minimum cost of superreplicating a nonnegative contingent claim when there are convex constraints on portfolio weights. We show that the optimal cost with constraints is equal to the price of a related claim without constraints. The related claim is a dominating claim, that is, a claim whose payoffs are increased in an appropriate way relative to the original claim. The results hold for a variety of options, including some path-dependent options. Constraints on the gamma of the replicating portfolio, constraints on portfolio amounts, and constraints on the number of shares are also considered. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Heart rate variability: a practical review for the beginner

Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to beat-to-beat interval changes on the electrocardiogram (ECG) and is considered a noninvasive measure of the autonomic balance. Although classical ECG is a well-known and standardized clinical method, HRV developed abruptly due to the evolution of computerized data acquisition systems in cardiology (digital electrocardiographs) and their software programs. HRV can be evaluated by visual methods (the beat-to-beat tachogram, the histogram and the Poincaré diagram) or by statistically computed parameters. Its applications include sympathovagal balance evaluation, monitoring of different neuropathies and contribution to survival prediction after cardiac acute events. Studies state that HRV can also be used as a method for rapid screening of some autonomic and cardiac diseases, along with other diagnostic procedures.
Immunization Associated with Erectile Dysfunction Based on Cross-Sectional and Genetic Analyses

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a global disease affecting a large number of people. Some studies have found a relationship between low-grade inflammation and ED. We hypothesized that the immune system might play a key role in the outcome of ED. Five immune agents (C3, C4, IgA, IgM, and IgG) were collected based on the Fangchenggang Area Male Health and Examination Survey (FAMHES), using methods of a traditional cross-sectional analysis. Our results repeated the significant association between ED and metabolic syndrome, obesity, and so forth. However, there seemed to be no positive relation between the tested indexes and ED risk in the baseline analysis (C3: P = 0.737; C4: P = 0.274; IgA: P = 0.943; IgG: P = 0.069; IgM: P = 0.985). Then, after adjusting for age and multivariate covariates, a potentially significant association between ED and IgG was discovered (P = 0.025 and P = 0.034, respectively). Meanwhile, in order to describe the development of ED on a gene level, SNP–set kernel-machine association test (SKAT) was applied with the known humoral immune genes involved. The outcomes suggested that PTAFR (binary P value: 0.0096; continuous P value: 0.00869), IL27 (0.0029; 0.1954), CD37 (0.0248; 0.5196), CD40 (0.7146; 0.0413), IL7R (0.1223; 0.0222), PSMB9 (0.1237; 0.0212), and CXCR3 (0.0849; 0.0478) might be key genes in ED, especially IL27, when we restricted the family-wise error rate (FWER) to 0.5. Our study shows that IgG and seven genes (PTAFR, CD37, CD40, IL7R, PSMB9, CXCR3, and especially IL27) might be key factors in the pathogenesis of ED, which could pave the way for future gene and immune therapies.
A method for solving the permutation problem of frequency-domain BSS using reference signal

This paper presents a method for solving the permutation problem. This is a problem specific to frequency domain blind source separation within the framework of independent component analysis. Towards this problem, we propose a method which uses reference signals. For each frequency bin, the permutation alignment is fixed by calculating correlation coefficients between the reference signal and the separated signal. Reference signals are obtained as signals corresponding to each individual original sources. The reference signals are chosen or obtained subjectively, and do not need to be separated well. For example, the conventional beamforming technique gives suitable reference signals. To show the effectiveness of this method, we conducted a experiment of continuous speech recognition in a real room. The experimental results of double talk recognition with 20K vocabulary show that the proposed method is effective to achieve 20% error reduction rate compared with the established DOA-based approach.
From a UML Platform Independent Component Model to Platform Specific Component Models

In this paper, we propose a set of UML extensions to describe a platform independent model for software components. We use UML extensions to define software component concepts (components, ports and connectors). Architectural constraints are specified as OCL meta-level constraints and mapping rules are defined to map our platform independent model to platform specific models. In particular, our model supports component port adaptation by using conversion connectors.
Massive Stochastic Testing of SQL

Deterministic testing of SQL database systems is human intensive and cannot adequately cover the SQL input domain. A system (RAGS), was built to stochastically generate valid SQL statements 1 million times faster than a human and execute them. 1 Testing SQL is Hard Good test coverage for commercial SQL database systems is very hard. The input domain, all SQL statements, from any number of users, combined with all states of the database, is gigantic. It is also difficult to verify output for positive tests because the semantics of SQL are complicated. ’ Software engineering technology exists to predictably improve quality ([Bei90] for example). The techniques involve a software development process including unit tests and final system validation tests (to verify the absence of bugs). This process requires a substantial investment so commercial SQL vendors with tight schedules tend to use a more ad hoc process. The most popular method’ is rapid development followed by test-repair cycles. SQL test groups focus on deterministic testing to cover individual features of the language. Typical SQL test libraries contain tens of thousands of statements and require an estimated % person-hour per statement to compose. These test libraries cover an important, but tiny, fraction of the SQL input domain. Large increases in test coverage must come from automating the generation of tests. This paper describes a method to rapidly create a very large number of SQL statements without human intervention. The SQL statements are generated stochastically (or ‘randomly’) which provides the speed as well as wider coverage of the input domain. The challenge is to ‘Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the VLDB copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Very Large Data Base Endowment. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or special permission from the Endowment. Proceedings of the 24th VLDB Conference New York, USA, 1998 ’ SQL testing procedures and bug counts are proprietary so there is little public information. 618 distribute the SQL statements in useful regions of the input domain. If the distribution is adequate, stochastic testing has the advantage that the quality of the tests improves as the test size increases [TFW93]. A system called RAGS (Random Generation of SQL) was built to explore automated testing. RAGS is currently used by the Microsoft SQL Server [MSS98] testing group. This paper describes RAGS and some illustrative test results. Figure 1 illustrates the test coverage problem. Customers use the hexagon, bugs are in the oval, and the test libraries cover the shaded circle.
Providing Fairer Resource Allocation for Multi-tenant Cloud-Based Systems

A fundamental premise in cloud computing is trying to provide a more sophisticated computing resource sharing capability. In order to provide better allocation, the Dominant Resource Fairness (DRF) approach has been developed to address the "fair resource allocation problem" at the application layer for multi-tenant cloud applications. Nevertheless conventional DRF only considers the interplay of CPU and memory, which may result in over allocation of resources to one tenant's application to the detriment of others. In this paper, we propose an improved DRF algorithm with 3-dimensional demand vector to support disk resources as the third dominant shared resource, enhancing fairer resource sharing. Our technique is integrated with LINUX 'group' controls resource utilisation and realises data isolation to avoid undesirable interactions between co-located tasks. Our method ensures all tenants receive system resources fairly, which improves overall utilisation and throughput as well as reducing traffic in an over-crowded system. We evaluate the performance of different types of workload using different algorithms and compare ours to the default algorithm. Results show an increase of 15% resource utilisation and a reduction of 59% completion time on average, indicating that our DRF algorithm provides a better, smoother, fairer high-performance resource allocation scheme for both continuous workloads and batch jobs.
Aerosol Optical Properties over Beijing during the World Athletics Championships and Victory Day Military Parade in August and September 2015

A special period in Beijing from 6 August to 17 September 2015, during which the World Athletics Championships and Victory Day military parade took place, and which involved measures to restrict traffic and reduce factory emissions, was selected to analyze the aerosol optical properties and the impact of meteorological conditions on pollution levels. The study was based on AERONET observational and retrieval data, particulate matter measurements (TEOM 1405), meteorological data, and then the HYSPLIT model was used to analyze the pollution sources. The study period was divided into three sub-periods according to the different stages of implementation of the control measures, and the main conclusions can be summarized as follows. During the period in which the restrictive measures were applied, the air quality improved significantly, with the average value of the AOD being 0.34 ± 0.20, about 69% less than before. Meanwhile, the average Angstrom exponent was about 9.5% higher than before, with an average value of 1.38 ± 0.25, indicating that the main pollutants were fine particles. Single scattering albedo decreased as wavelength increased, being higher than in the other two stages (mean value of 0.944 ± 0.045). This showed that the strong scattering capacity and absorption aerosol optical depth was at its lowest, at about 0.008 ± 0.009. The peaks of aerosol volume concentration in the fine and coarse mode were significantly reduced. Meteorological conditions also had a certain effect on the aerosol optical properties, with the blowing of clean and dry wind and the occurrence of precipitation contributing to the overall improvement in air quality.
A branch‐and‐cut‐and‐price algorithm for vertex‐biconnectivity augmentation

In this article, the first approach for solving the vertex‐biconnectivity augmentation problem (V2AUG) to optimality is proposed. Given a spanning subgraph of an edge‐weighted graph, we search for the cheapest subset of edges to augment this subgraph to make it vertex‐biconnected. The problem is reduced to augmentation of the corresponding block‐cut tree [Khuller and Thummella, J Algorithms 14 (1993), 214–225], and its connectivity properties are exploited to develop two minimum‐cut‐based ILP formulations: a directed and an undirected one. In contrast to the recently obtained result for the more general vertex‐biconnected Steiner network problem [Chimani et al., Proceedings of 2nd Annual International Conference on Combinatorial Optimization and Applications, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 5165, Springer, 2008, pp. 190–200. ], our theoretical comparison shows that orienting the undirected graph does not help in improving the quality of lower bounds. Hence, starting from the undirected cut formulation, we develop a branch‐and‐cut‐and‐price (BCP) algorithm which represents the first exact approach to V2AUG. Our computational experiments show the practical feasibility of BCP: complete graphs with more than 400 vertices can be solved to provable optimality. Furthermore, BCP is even faster than state‐of‐the‐art metaheuristics and approximation algorithms, for graphs up to 200 vertices. For large graphs with more than 2000 vertices, optimality gaps that are strictly below 2% are reported. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2010
Ghost in the PLC: Designing an Undetectable Programmable Logic Controller Rootkit via Pin Control Attack

Input/Output is the mechanisms through which embedded systems interact and control the outside world. Particularly when employed in mission critical systems, the I/O of embedded systems has to be both reliable and secure. Embedded system’s I/O is controlled by a pin based approach. In this paper, we investigate the security implications of embedded system’s pin control. In particular, we show how an attacker can tamper with the integrity and availability of an embedded system’s I/O by exploiting cerain pin control operations and the lack of hardware interrupts associated to them.
Children’s social interaction and play environment: an approach to user-centered design

Social interaction is of great importance for 7 to 12 age group. In order to design user-centred play equipment for different environments which improve children’s social interaction, this study aims to identify the role of play environment in players’ interactions. To achieve the objective mothers were asked to fill in a questionnaire. Results indicated that children usually play with their peers at home, park, and school. Comparison of these 3 major environments identified girls prefer to play at home with their peers while boys prefer to play at school. Besides, the most effective conflict issue between players in park and home environments is the authority, but choosing and sharing in the school environment. Considering assignment of conflict issues and social skills, the negotiation skill is the most important skill which should be improved in order to decrease the conflicts in all environments. These results can lead to different design strategies.
‘Tugging at our sleeves’: understanding experiences of obligation in teaching

Abstract Classrooms are complex spaces. These complexities magnify the teacher’s sense of obligation to children and the subsequent experiences of being overwhelmed, which can influence the teacher’s decision to leave the profession. Yet, we believe that a teacher’s obligation to children is inherent to morally defensible teaching. Drawn from a larger research project, we explore one teacher’s experience of obligation as a promissory relation between the teacher and the child, and consider the effect this has on the teacher’s relationships with other professionals and her disengagement from the profession. In doing so, we will illustrate the teacher’s experiences of obligation; the ways these are complicated within the matrix of relationships with professional colleagues; and the possibilities for professional disengagement to be considered an act of moral resistance.
Factors for Assessing the Effectiveness of Early Rehabilitation after Minimally Invasive Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Prospective Cohort Study

The effectiveness of current rehabilitation programs is supported by high-level evidence from the results of randomized controlled trials, but an increasing number of patients are not discharged from the hospital because of the schedule of the critical path (CP). The present study aimed to determine which factors can be used to assess the effectiveness of early rehabilitation. We enrolled 123 patients with medial knee osteoarthritis (OA) who had undergone unilateral minimally invasive total knee arthroplasty for the first time. The following factors were assessed preoperatively: the maximum isometric muscle strength of the knee extensors and flexors, maximum knee and hip joint angle, pain, 5-m maximum walking speed, sex, age, body mass index, exercise habits, Kellgren-Lawrence grade, femorotibial angle, failure side (bilateral or unilateral knee OA), and functional independence measure. We re-evaluated physical function (i.e., muscle strength, joint angle, and pain) and motor function (5-m maximum walking speed) 14 days postoperatively. Changes in physical function, motor function (5-m maximum walking speed), and number of days to independent walking were used as explanatory variables. The postoperative duration of hospitalization (in days) was used as the dependent variable in multivariate analyses. These analyses were adjusted for sex, age, body mass index, exercise habits, Kellgren-Lawrence grade, femorotibial angle, failure side, and functional independence measure. The duration of hospitalization was significantly affected by the number of days to independent walking (p < 0.001, β = 0.507) and a change in the 5-m maximum walking speed (p = 0.016, β = -0.262). Multiple regression analysis showed that the radiographic knee grade (p = 0.029, β = 0.239) was a significant confounding factor. Independent walking and walking speed recovery were considered to reduce the duration of hospitalization. Therefore, these indices can be used to assess the effectiveness of early rehabilitation.
Speech recognition with a re-speak method for subtitling live broadcasts

This paper describes a "re-speak" method for subtitling live TV broadcasts using a speech recognition system. Original on-location speech in live sport or music programs contains background noise, spontaneous or emotional speech, and the voices of speakers unknown to the recognition system, all of which cause recognition performance to deteriorate. However, if a different individual, to which the system has been adapted, carefully rephrases the original utterances in a studio, these problems can be largely overcome. Recognition experiments showed that rephrasing the commentary was effective in reducing perplexities and word error rates compared with simply repeating it. Speech recognition using the re-speak method was applied in practice to a music-based variety show and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in order automatically to produce simultaneous subtitles for hearing-impaired viewers. A word error rate below 5% and a subtitle display delay time below three seconds were achieved.
Control of Depth-Sensing Camera via Plane of Interaction

Depth-sensing cameras (e.g. Kinect or Creative Gesture Camera) are exploited in many computer vision and augmented reality applications. They can also serve as a key component of natural user interaction via virtual keyboard, body pose or hand gestures. We integrated both these functions proposing the "Plane of Interaction" (POI) which is a solid flat surface placed on the reference plane (table top, floor). Calibrated camera/projector system au- tomatically identifies the position of POI surface, projects the virtual menu buttons onto it and recognizes which but- ton was "clicked" by hand (fingertip). The proposed POI was tested with the camera/projector prototyping setup. POI allows natural and quite robust in- teraction in this specific environment.
CES-513 Stages for Developing Control Systems using EMG and EEG Signals: A survey

Bio-signals such as EMG (Electromyography), EEG (Electroencephalography), EOG (Electrooculogram), ECG (Electrocardiogram) have been deployed recently to develop control systems for improving the quality of life of disabled and elderly people. This technical report aims to review the current deployment of these state of the art control systems and explain some challenge issues. In particular, the stages for developing EMG and EEG based control systems are categorized, namely data acquisition, data segmentation, feature extraction, classification, and controller. Some related Bio-control applications are outlined. Finally a brief conclusion is summarized. 1
Iterative Interference Cancellation for Co-Channel Multicarrier and Narrowband Systems

Coexistence of narrowband (NB) and multicarrier technologies will be a major concern in next generation wireless communication systems due to the co-channel interference (CCI) problem. In this paper, an efficient CCI cancellation method is proposed that may be utilized for an improved coexistence. The method treats both co-channel signals as desired signals and enhances them in an iterative manner. Through computer simulations, it is demonstrated that it yields significant gains in the symbol error rate (SER) performance of both the NB and multicarrier systems. Its computational complexity is compared with the complexity of the joint demodulation technique and it is shown to be much lower.
Heart Rate Variability Monitoring during Sleep Based on Capacitively Coupled Textile Electrodes on a Bed

In this study, we developed and tested a capacitively coupled electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement system using conductive textiles on a bed, for long-term healthcare monitoring. The system, which was designed to measure ECG in a bed with no constraints of sleep position and posture, included a foam layer to increase the contact region with the curvature of the body and a cover to ensure durability and easy installation. Nine healthy subjects participated in the experiment during polysomnography (PSG), and the heart rate (HR) coverage and heart rate variability (HRV) parameters were analyzed to evaluate the system. The experimental results showed that the mean of R-peak coverage was 98.0% (95.5%–99.7%), and the normalized errors of HRV time and spectral measures between the Ag/AgCl system and our system ranged from 0.15% to 4.20%. The root mean square errors for inter-beat (RR) intervals and HR were 1.36 ms and 0.09 bpm, respectively. We also showed the potential of our developed system for rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and wake detection as well as for recording of abnormal states.
Holding onto the magic: lightweight augmentation of digital reading devices

Reading devices such as the Kindle are becoming widely used and many users are now routinely reading on tablet computers. The physical form factor of these devices promotes and accommodates comfortable, natural interactions, providing some of the look and feel of their paper predecessors. However, for operations such as searching and cutting and pasting, the magic and charm of paper is lost and the user has to revert to device-centred selections and menu operations. In this paper, we introduce and explore an alternative set of approaches. In the NoteDrop system we use hand-only gestures along with haptic and limited visual feedback. The aim is to enhance the active reading process with a focus on interactions with digital research documents. In addition to describing the concept prototype, we present the findings of an exploratory user-study that highlights the value and challenges of these new methods.