Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Replication Scheme for Load Balancing the Distributed Object Group *

CORBA is a widely used solution for distributed object application. Currently, object implementations facilitate object group model to organize the object services. In addition to the complexity of object grouping, researchers also seek to improve the quality of service (QoS) by various means such as implementing load balancing to the system. This paper deals with the proposed load balancing service of distributed object groups. The proposed load balancing service uses the dynamic replication scheme which is mechanized by flow balance assumption (FBA) that derives from the arrival and service rate to execute request forwarding to new objects. The proposed on-demand replication scheme adjusts the number of replicated objects based on the arrival rate to minimize the waiting time of clients. It consists of procedures such as intercepting the request and executing on-demand activation of objects. The result of the simulation shows the improvement of the total mean client request completion time of the system as compared to other load balancing schemes.
Cooperative manipulation exploiting only implicit communication

This paper addresses the problem of cooperative object manipulation with the coordination relying solely on implicit communication. We consider a decentralized leader-follower architecture where the leading robot, that has exclusive knowledge of the object's desired trajectory, tries to achieve the desired tracking behavior via an impedance control law. On the other hand, the follower estimates the leader's desired motion via a novel prescribed performance estimation law, that drives the estimation error to an arbitrarily small residual set, and implements a similar impedance control law. Both control schemes adopt feedback linearization as well as load sharing among the robots according to their specific payload capabilities. The feedback relies exclusively on each robot's force/torque, position as well as velocity measurements and apart from a few commonly predetermined constant parameters, no explicit data is exchanged on-line among the robots, thus reducing the required communication bandwidth and increasing robustness. Finally, a comparative simulation study clarifies the proposed method and verifies its efficiency.
Gaussian and Gabor Filter Approach for object segmentation

The problem of segmenting the object from the background is addressed in the proposed Gaussian and Gabor Filter Approach (GGFA) for object segmentation. An improved and efficient approach based on Gaussian and Gabor Filter reads the given input image and performs filtering and smoothing operation. The region occupied by the object is extracted from the image by performing various operations like bilateral filtering, Edge detection, Clustering and Region growing. The proposed approach experimented on standard images taken from Caltech datasets, Corel Photo CD's and Weizmann horse datasets show significantly improved results.
Identification of Close Relatives in the HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Database

The HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium has recently released a genome-wide dataset, which consists of 1,719 DNA samples collected from 71 Asian populations. For studies of human population genetics such as genetic structure and migration history, this provided the most comprehensive large-scale survey of genetic variation to date in East and Southeast Asia. However, although considered in the analysis, close relatives were not clearly reported in the original paper. Here we performed a systematic analysis of genetic relationships among individuals from the Pan-Asian SNP (PASNP) database and identified 3 pairs of monozygotic twins or duplicate samples, 100 pairs of first-degree and 161 second-degree of relationships. Three standardized subsets with different levels of unrelated individuals were suggested here for future applications of the samples in most types of population-genetics studies (denoted by PASNP1716, PASNP1640 and PASNP1583 respectively) based on the relationships inferred in this study. In addition, we provided gender information for PASNP samples, which were not included in the original dataset, based on analysis of X chromosome data.
Survey of Audio Feature Representation using Encoding Techniques

: Digital music has become prolific in the web in recent decades. Automated recommendation systems are necessary for users to discover music they love and for artists to reach suitable audience. When manual annotations and user preference data is lacking (e.g. for new artists) these systems must rely on content based methods. Besides powerful machine learning tools for classification and retrieval, a key elements for successful recommendation is the audio content representation. Good representations should catch informative musical patterns in the audio signal of songs. These representations should be to the point, to enable efficient (low storage, easy indexing, fast search) management of huge music repositories, and should also be easy and fast to assess, to enable real-time interaction with a user supplying new songs to the system. Before designing new audio features, the usage of traditional local features are explored, while adding a stage of encoding with a pre-computed codebook and a stage of pooling to get compact vectorial representations.
Head Start: Improving Academic Literature Search with Overview Visualizations based on Readership Statistics

At the beginning of a scientific study, it is usually quite hard to get an overview of a research field. We aim to address this problem of classic literature search using web data. In this extended abstract, we present work-in-progress on an interactive visualization of research fields based on readership statistics from the social reference management system Mendeley. To that end, we use library co-occurrences as a measure of subject similarity. In a first evaluation, we find that the visualization covers current research areas within educational technology but presents a view that is biased by the characteristics of readers. With our presentation, we hope to elicit feedback from the Websci’13 audience on (1) the usefulness of the prototype, and (2) how to overcome the aforementioned biases using collaborative construction techniques.
Beyond the Web Browser-X 3 D and Immersive VR

The semantics of the X3D ISO standard describe an abstract functional behavior of time-based, interactive 3D, multimedia information. It is independent of any specific software or hardware setup. However, X3D clients and applications today are mainly built for desktop systems running a web-browser. During the last years we have build a VR environment which utilizes the VRMLand X3DISO standards as a basis for an application programming and description language. In this paper we discuss some of our results and experiences. We present necessary extensions to the ISO standard, e.g. to support different interaction and navigation tasks, and discuss how existing parts can be interpreted differently in a VR environment.
Pathways for Emotions: Specializations in the Amygdalar, Mediodorsal Thalamic, and Posterior Orbitofrontal Network

The primate amygdala projects to posterior orbitofrontal cortex (pOFC) directly and possibly indirectly through a pathway to the magnocellular mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MDmc), which may convey signals about the significance of stimuli. However, because MDmc receives input from structures in addition to the amygdala and MDmc projects to areas in addition to pOFC, it is unknown whether amygdalar pathways in MDmc innervate pOFC-bound neurons. We addressed this issue using double- or triple-labeling approaches to identify pathways and key cellular and molecular features in rhesus monkeys. We found that amygdalar terminations innervated labeled neurons in MDmc that project to pOFC. Projection neurons in MDmc directed to pOFC included comparatively fewer “core” parvalbumin neurons that project focally to the middle cortical layers and more “matrix” calbindin neurons that project expansively to the upper cortical layers. In addition, a small and hitherto unknown pathway originated from MDmc calretinin neurons and projected to pOFC. Further, whereas projection neurons directed to MDmc and to pOFC were intermingled in the amygdala, none projected to both structures. Larger amygdalar neurons projected to MDmc and expressed the vesicular glutamate transporter 2 (VGLUT2), which is found in highly efficient “driver” pathways. In contrast, smaller amygdalar neurons directed to pOFC expressed VGLUT1 found in modulatory pathways. The indirect pathway from the amygdala to pOFC via MDmc may provide information about the emotional significance of events and, along with a parallel direct pathway, ensures transfer of signals to all layers of pOFC. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The amygdala—the brain's center for emotions—is strongly linked with the orbital cortex, a region associated with social interactions. This study provides evidence that a robust pathway from the amygdala reaches neurons in the thalamus that link directly with the orbital cortex, forming a tight tripartite network. The dual pathways from the amygdala to the orbital cortex and to the thalamus are distinct by morphology, neurochemistry, and function. This tightly linked network suggests the presence of fool-proof avenues for emotions to influence high-order cortical areas associated with affective reasoning. Specific nodes of this tripartite network are disrupted in psychiatric diseases, divorcing areas that integrate emotions and thoughts for decisions and flexible behavior.
Association with emotional information alters subsequent processing of neutral faces

The processing of emotional as compared to neutral information is associated with different patterns in eye movement and neural activity. However, the ‘emotionality’ of a stimulus can be conveyed not only by its physical properties, but also by the information that is presented with it. There is very limited work examining the how emotional information may influence the immediate perceptual processing of otherwise neutral information. We examined how presenting an emotion label for a neutral face may influence subsequent processing by using eye movement monitoring (EMM) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) simultaneously. Participants viewed a series of faces with neutral expressions. Each face was followed by a unique negative or neutral sentence to describe that person, and then the same face was presented in isolation again. Viewing of faces paired with a negative sentence was associated with increased early viewing of the eye region and increased neural activity between 600 and 1200 ms in emotion processing regions such as the cingulate, medial prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, as well as posterior regions such as the precuneus and occipital cortex. Viewing of faces paired with a neutral sentence was associated with increased activity in the parahippocampal gyrus during the same time window. By monitoring behavior and neural activity within the same paradigm, these findings demonstrate that emotional information alters subsequent visual scanning and the neural systems that are presumably invoked to maintain a representation of the neutral information along with its emotional details.
Master Research Project Random Sampling applied to Rapid Disk Analysis

This document is a Research Project report for the Master education in System and Network Engineering at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The main focus of the study is on how random sampling can contribute to rapid forensics investigation of hard disk drives. Forensically investigating several terabytes of data, bit per bit, requires large computing resources. Not only is it inherently long to extract all the data of a hard drive, but any automation tool aimed at parsing, organizing, and encoding all the data for human readability, also demands high amount of memory and computation capabilities. The ever-increasing capacity of digital storage devices, along with new forensics and law-enforcement challenges, raise new concerns: time has become a critical investigation factor. This requires techniques of rapid analysis for digital storage devices, and also balances a trade-off between time and certainty. This document presents a thorough modeling and evaluation of random sampling applied to data analysis on hard disk drives. The influence of most parameters in play are determined, based on general observations on modern digital storage mechanisms, and the precision and scalability of the technique are evaluated. Instructor Prof. C. de Laat University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Supervisors Dr. E. van Eijk, Dr. Z. Geradts Netherlands Forensics Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands
A Method for Automating Geospatial Dataset Metadata

Metadata have long been recognised as crucial to geospatial asset management and discovery, and yet undertaking their creation remains an unenviable task often to be avoided. This paper proposes a practical approach designed to address such concerns, decomposing various data creation, management, update and documentation process steps that are subsequently leveraged to contribute towards metadata record completion. Using a customised utility embedded within a common GIS application, metadata elements are computationally derived from an imposed feature metadata standard, dataset geometry, an integrated storage protocol and pre-prepared content, and instantiated within a common geospatial discovery convention. Yielding 27 out of a 32 total metadata elements (or 15 out of 17 mandatory elements) the approach demonstrably lessens the burden of metadata authorship. It also encourages improved geospatial asset management whilst outlining core requisites for developing a more open metadata strategy not bound to any particular application domain.
Our Peculiar Motion Away from the Local Void

The peculiar velocity of the Local Group of galaxies manifested in the cosmic microwave background dipole is found to decompose into three dominant components. The three components are clearly separated because they arise on distinct spatial scales and are fortuitously almost orthogonal in their influences. The nearest, which is distinguished by a velocity discontinuity at ~7 Mpc, arises from the evacuation of the Local Void. We lie in the Local Sheet that bounds the void. Random motions within the Local Sheet are small, and we advocate a reference frame with respect to the Local Sheet in preference to the Local Group. Our Galaxy participates in the bulk motion of the Local Sheet away from the Local Void. The component of our motion on an intermediate scale is attributed to the Virgo Cluster and its surroundings, 17 Mpc away. The third and largest component is an attraction on scales larger than 3000 km s−1 and centered near the direction of the Centaurus Cluster. The amplitudes of the three components are 259, 185, and 455 km s−1, respectively, adding collectively to 631 km s−1 in the reference frame of the Local Sheet. Taking the nearby influences into account, particularly that of the Local Void, causes the residual attributed to large scales to align with observed concentrations of distant galaxies and reduces somewhat the amplitude of motion attributed to their pull. Concerning the motion of ~260 km s−1 away from the Local Void, given the velocities expected from gravitational instability theory in the standard cosmological paradigm, the distance to the center of the Local Void must be at least 23 Mpc from our position. The Local Void is extremely large.
A Longitudinal Genetic Study of Uric Acid and Liver Enzymes in Adolescent Twins

Abstract Biochemical traits such as plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) and uric acid are associated with obesity, and with risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Each is subject to genetic influences, but little is known about changes in genetic and environmental influences on these traits over time. We investigated the contribution of genetic and environmental influences to variation in these biochemical traits in adolescent twins and their nontwin siblings from 965 twin families. Twins were studied at ages 12, 14 and 16 years. Multivariate genetic models that included effects of age and sex were fitted to determine whether the same or different genetic or environmental factors influence each trait at different ages. Results showed that the genetic factors influencing AST, ALT, GGT and uric acid change over time during adolescence, and that the magnitude of these effects differs between males and females. The nonshared environment effects were generally time specific. There are developmental changes in genes affecting these traits during adolescence.
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Private Databases on the Cloud: Models, Issues and Research Perspectives

—Privacy and security of big data is emerging as one among the most relevant research challenges of recent years, also stirred-up by a wide family of critical applications ranging from scientific computing to social network analysis and mining, from data stream management to smart cities, and so forth. Traditionally, the issue of making (even very-large) databases private and secure has a long history in the context of encrypted databases but, when specifically considered in the Cloud setting, it poses new requirements and challenges to deal with, with particular regard to the scalability of solutions. In line with this emerging research trend, this paper focuses the attention on state-of-the-art proposals in the area of private databases over Clouds, and proposes critical comments about pros and cons of actual research efforts along with future research directions to be considered in future years.
PhosphoBase, a database of phosphorylation sites: release 2.0

PhosphoBase contains information about phosphorylated residues in proteins and data about peptide phosphorylation by a variety of protein kinases. The data are collected from literature and compiled into a common format. The current release of PhosphoBase (October 1998, version 2.0) comprises 414 phosphoprotein entries covering 1052 phosphorylatable serine, threonine and tyrosine residues. The kinetic data from peptide phosphorylation assays for approximately 330 oligopeptides is also included. The database entries are cross-referenced to the corresponding records in the Swiss-Prot protein database and literature references are linked to MedLine records. PhosphoBase is available via the WWW at http://www.cbs. dtu. dk/databases/PhosphoBase/
Social-Emotional Development and Extracurricular Involvement of Sport Club Participants

In an era of increasingly tight budgets, recreational sports professionals must continually justify increasing financing for their programs. An essential component of the recreational sports program that is often overlooked is the social-emotional development opportunities. By developing our programs to be more conducive to social-emotional development, we can enhance the college careers of our students and more satisfactorily justify our financial needs to university administration. Before designing programs to incorporate this development, it is necessary to determine if our current programs are meeting the developmental needs of students.
Is the acetylcholine-regulated inwardly rectifying potassium current a viable antiarrhythmic target? Translational discrepancies of AZD2927 and A7071 in dogs and humans.

AIMS We aimed at examining the acetylcholine-dependent inward-rectifier current (IKAch) as a target for the management of atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AND RESULTS The investigative agents AZD2927 and A7071 concentration-dependently blocked IKACh in vitro with minimal off-target activity. In anaesthetized dogs (n = 17) subjected to 8 weeks of rapid atrial pacing (RAP), the left atrial effective refractory period (LAERP) was maximally increased by 50 ± 7.4 and 50 ± 4.8 ms following infusion of AZD2927 and A7071. Ventricular refractoriness and the QT interval were unaltered. During sustained AF, both drugs significantly reduced AF frequency and effectively restored sinus rhythm. AZD2927 successfully restored sinus rhythm at 10/10 conversion attempts and A7071 at 14/14 attempts, whereas saline converted 4/17 episodes only (P<0.001 vs. AZD2927 and A7071). In atrial flutter patients (n = 18) undergoing an invasive investigation, AZD2927 did not change LAERP, the paced QT interval, or ventricular refractoriness when compared with placebo. To address the discrepancy on LAERP by IKACh blockade in man and dog and the hypothesis that atrial electrical remodelling is a prerequisite for IKACh blockade being efficient, six dogs were studied after 8 weeks of RAP followed by sinus rhythm for 4 weeks to reverse electrical remodelling. In these dogs, both AZD2927 and A7071 were as effective in increasing LAERP as in the dogs studied immediately after the 8-week RAP period. CONCLUSION Based on the present series of experiments, an important role of IKACh in human atrial electrophysiology, as well as its potential as a viable target for effective management of AF, may be questioned.
Stability analysis of periodically switched linear systems using Floquet theory

Stability of a switched system that consists of a set of linear time invariant subsystems and a periodic switching rule is investigated. Based on the Floquet theory, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for exponential stability. It is shown that there exists a slow switching rule that achieves exponential stability if at least one of these subsystems is asymptotically stable. It is also shown that there exists a fast switching rule that achieves exponential stability if the average of these subsystems is asymptotically stable. The results are illustrated by examples.
Children and robots learning to play hide and seek

How do children learn how to play hide and seek? At age 3-4, children do not typically have perspective taking ability, so their hiding ability should be extremely limited. We show through a case study that a 3 1/2 year old child can, in fact, play a credible game of hide and seek, even though she does not seem to have perspective taking ability. We propose that children are able to learn how to play hide and seek by learning the features and relations of objects (e.g., containment, under) and use that information to play a credible game of hide and seek. We model this hypothesis within the ACT-R cognitive architecture and put the model on a robot, which is able to mimic the child's hiding behavior. We also take the "hiding" model and use it as the basis for a "seeking" model. We suggest that using the same representations and procedures that a person uses allows better interaction between the human and robotic system.