Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Demand‐Driven Geometry Transmission for Distributed Virtual Environments

We present a strategy for rendering in distributed virtual environments. A geometry database is maintained by a server, while users invoke individual clients to interact with the environment. Instead of downloading a complete copy of the geometry data, the data is distributed on demand, thus gaining signifcant savings in network bandwidth. Our strategy combines several techniques, including levels of detail, progressive refinement and graceful degradation to deliver the data “just in time” over the network to the rendering process. The method allows operate on a tight resource budget, which important if attempting to use low cost systems for virtual reality applications.
Survivable Traffic Grooming for Anycasting in WDM Mesh Networks

In this paper, we investigate the problem of survivable grooming for anycasting over wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks. Anycasting is a communication paradigm in which a source node sends data to any one out of multiple candidate destinations. In WDM networks, the standard anycasting problem involves the establishment of a connection from the source to any one destination with the objective of minimizing the resources used. In order to provide survivability, the problem can be extended to find both a connection to a primary destination and a connection to a backup destination. The connections, which may require an amount of bandwidth that may be less than the bandwidth of an entire wavelength, can be groomed with other connections in the WDM network. We propose an auxiliary graph approach to solving the survivable grooming problem for anycasting in WDM networks, and we propose three different protection approaches for providing different degrees of survivability against link failures and destination failures. The effectiveness of the proposed schemes is verified through simulation.
Geometry of cyclic pursuit

Pursuit strategies (formulated using constant-speed particle models) provide a means for achieving cohesive behavior in systems of multiple mobile agents. In the present paper, we explore an n-agent cyclic pursuit scheme (i.e. agent i pursues agent i+1, modulo n) in which each agent employs a constant bearing pursuit strategy. We demonstrate the existence of an invariant submanifold, and state necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of rectilinear and circling relative equilibria on that submanifold. We present a full analysis of steady-state solutions and stability characteristics for two-particle “mutual CB pursuit” and then outline steps to extend the nonlinear stability analysis to the many particle case.
Ligand-dependent regulation of intracellular protein transport: effect of vitamin a on the secretion of the retinol-binding protein

As a model of ligand-dependent protein secretion the biosynthesis, intracellular transport, and release of the retinol-binding protein (RBP) were studied in primary cultures of rat hepatocytes pulse-labeled with [35S]methionine. After various periods of chase RBP was isolated by immunoprecipitation and identified by SDS PAGE. Both normal and vitamin A-deficient hepatocytes synthesized RBP. The normal cells secreted the pulse-labeled RBP within 2 h. RBP synthesized by deficient cells was not secreted, and intracellular degradation of the protein appeared to be slow. Deficient cells could be induced to secrete RBP on the addition of retinol to the culture medium. This occurred also after protein synthesis had been blocked by cycloheximide. Since retinol induces the secretion of RBP, accumulated in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), it seems reasonable to conclude that the transport of RBP from the ER to the Golgi complex is regulated by retinol.
Interactive Effects of Salinity, Nitrate, Light, and Seed Weight on the Germination of the Halophyte Crithmum maritimum

Interaction of salinity, nitrate, light, and seed weight on the germination of Crithmum maritimum was investigated. Seeds of three size categories were germinated at 0–200 mM NaCl with either 0, 5 or 20 mM KNO_3. Experiments were done under darkness, white light, or red light. Regardless of seed weight, germination was maximal in distilled water. Under salinity, the smallest seeds showed the highest germination percentage. Salt impact was amplified by darkness, but was mitigated by nitrate supply, red light and their combination. At the same PPFD, germination of T2 seeds was higher, when exposed to red light than under white light, suggesting that germination was more influenced by the light type than by the PPFD. As a whole, not only salinity, nutrient availability, seed weight, and light, but also their interaction may control the germination of this halophyte.
Anthropogenic environmental changes affect ecosystem stability via biodiversity

Biodiversity protects grassland stability How biodiversity interacts with ecosystem stability and productivity is key to understanding the impacts of environmental changes on ecosystem functions. In a series of decade-long experiments in temperate grassland, Hautier et al. manipulated nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide, herbivory, and fire. In all cases, plant species diversity was important for preserving ecosystem function during environmental change. Hence, the preservation and restoration of biodiversity buffer ecosystems against anthropogenic assault. Science, this issue p. 336 Experiments in grassland show that ecosystem stability is affected more by changes in biodiversity than in productivity. Human-driven environmental changes may simultaneously affect the biodiversity, productivity, and stability of Earth’s ecosystems, but there is no consensus on the causal relationships linking these variables. Data from 12 multiyear experiments that manipulate important anthropogenic drivers, including plant diversity, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, fire, herbivory, and water, show that each driver influences ecosystem productivity. However, the stability of ecosystem productivity is only changed by those drivers that alter biodiversity, with a given decrease in plant species numbers leading to a quantitatively similar decrease in ecosystem stability regardless of which driver caused the biodiversity loss. These results suggest that changes in biodiversity caused by drivers of environmental change may be a major factor determining how global environmental changes affect ecosystem stability.
Effects of wall-angle distributions in indoor wireless communications

Providing broadband wireless access in indoor scenarios with multiple indoor transmitters is largely influenced by the blockage of the signals by walls. In this paper, we propose a mathematically tractable approach that relies on stochastic geometry for the distribution of walls in randomly generated scenarios, and investigates on the influence of different distributions of wall orientation angles as well as the influence of the transmitter arrangements. We outline the limited insights that can be obtained by random shape theory and propose the concept of effective wall attenuations to compensate for the remaining deviation from the actual results. The validity of our approach is verified by extensive Monte Carlo simulations.
Person re-identification by using an iterative sparse ranking method

Based on sparse basis expansions of targets, the discriminative which in terms of a labelled gallery of known individuals is proposed as a method for person re-identification. It is capable of ranking many candidate targets by using proposed iterative extension. The approach make sure that the best candidates are ranked at each iteration and redistribute energy among the most relevant contributing elements by using soft and hard weighting. This approach also influences a novel visual descriptor which show to be discriminative while remaining robust to pose and illumination variations. By demonstrating this approach the state-of-the-art performance are achieved on single- and multi-shot person re-identification scenarios on the VIPeR, CAVIAR4REID, ETHZ, and i-LIDS datasets by using the extensive comparative evaluation. The state-of-the-art rank-1 performance are improved by 6 percentage points on VIPeR and whereas by 20 on CAVIAR4REID by the combination of iterative sparse basis expansion and descriptor with a single gallery image per person when compared to other methods. It also improves the state-of-the-art by 17 percentage on i-LIDS and by 72 on CAVIAR4REID at rank-1 by multiple gallery and probe images per person. At about 30 re-identifications per second, the approach is capable of single-shot person re-identification while containing hundreds of individuals over galleries and it is also efficient.
A new integrated education environment for induction motor drives

This paper presents an integrated education environment (IEE) developed for field‐oriented controlled induction motor (IM). This educational environment helps students to develop knowledge about field‐oriented control algorithms for IM through the study of analysis and design. It also increases the effectiveness of the teaching of subjects. The control of IM using field‐orientation methods is implemented on the DS1103 controller board from dSPACE. In the proposed IEE, the controller gains and other numerical parameters such as speed reference and d‐axis current reference, etc. are easily adjusted through the developed graphical user interface (GUI) in dSPACE's ControlDesk environment. The output voltage and current waveforms and their harmonic spectra can be shown on the developed GUI and can also be stored as a MAT file. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 19: 550–560, 2011
‘They stand you in a corner; you are not to speak’: Nurses tell of abusive indoctrination in work teams dominated by bullies

Abstract This paper reports some of the findings from the first qualitative stage of a large national study of bullying in the nursing workplace currently being undertaken in Australia. The findings reported here reveal how relationships between bullies were embedded within informal organizational alliances, enabling bullies to control work teams and use emotional abuse and psychological violence as a means of enforcing bully-defined ‘rules of work’. Within nursing teams, bullies controlled work roles, tasks, and status in the nursing hierarchy through enforcing their ‘rules’. Bullies enforced these rules through a process of ritual indoctrination, destroying the self-confidence and self-image of those targeted, and forcing them to eventually resign their position or acquiesce to survive. The merciless, calculated and deliberate nature of the bullying resulted in profound harm for many of those targeted. The findings of this research have implications for the understanding and management of workplace bullying.
Robust Face Recognition via Block Sparse Bayesian Learning

Face recognition (FR) is an important task in pattern recognition and computer vision. Sparse representation (SR) has been demonstrated to be a powerful framework for FR. In general, an SR algorithm treats each face in a training dataset as a basis function and tries to find a sparse representation of a test face under these basis functions. The sparse representation coefficients then provide a recognition hint. Early SR algorithms are based on a basic sparse model. Recently, it has been found that algorithms based on a block sparse model can achieve better recognition rates. Based on this model, in this study, we use block sparse Bayesian learning (BSBL) to find a sparse representation of a test face for recognition. BSBL is a recently proposed framework, which has many advantages over existing block-sparse-model-based algorithms. Experimental results on the Extended Yale B, the AR, and the CMU PIE face databases show that using BSBL can achieve better recognition rates and higher robustness than state-of-the-art algorithms in most cases.
Sharing live events with the family and friends far away using "emotions transfer kit" (wedding ring and friendship band)

During the past decade a significant ascend in growth of Information and Communication (ICT) Technology has been observed. This growth has been also been witnessed in abutment of social network infrastructure. Nowadays professional and social network portal are the most prominent over the internet. This prominence create a pressing need to device hand held wearable's for effective and efficient social communication. In the literature Tangible User Interface (TUI) has been proposed as a potential candidate for this issue. However, more innovative and interactive concepts are the open area in TUI domain. In this paper we have presented a new concept for TUI. This TUI is primarily comprises of emotions transfer kit which includes, but not limited to, wedding ring and friendship band share your live events and emotions with your love ones.
A Lagrangian optimized rate control algorithm for the H.264/AVC encoder

The H.264/AVC video coding standard has been recently presented by the Joint Video Team of ITU-T and MPEG experts. The AVC encoder achieves video bitstreams at the same quality as the previous standard coders, while requiring typically 50% of the bit rate. This paper proposes a Lagrangian optimized rate control algorithm for the H.264/AVC video encoder. It controls the bit rate by adjusting the Lagrangian multiplier for every picture and specifying the quantizer parameter for every macroblock. In the proposed method, the accuracy of desired bit rate is tunable by allocating more searching time to the encoder. Experimental results show that the proposed method gives a quality improvement of about 0.5 dB when compared to the rate control method utilized in the JM7.4 test model, with an acceptable encoder complexity.
New learning.

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Matsushita, various U.S. district courts have issued a series of rulings that appear to constitute a new learning on the economics of collusive behavior and to elevate the economic evidentiary bar for successful proof of price-fixing and bid-rigging. The rulings use game theory constructs expressed as pure, interdependent behavior that theoretically can result in supracompetitive prices in the absence of any agreement. The most recent explanation of this learning is contained in the 2016 titanium dioxide (TiO2) opinion Valspar v. E. I. DuPont, which raises the bar for proving a Sherman Act Sec. 1 violation. This and earlier rulings appear counterintuitive when their reasoning is tested against the context of Judge Richard Posner’s opinion on the value of circumstantial evidence in High Fructose Corn Syrup and In re Text Messaging. This article identifies market structure and behavioral features typically found in cartel arrangements, and tests the efficacy of what is perceived as a new learning on collusion/competition with empirical data from twelve alleged price-fixing conspiracies successfully litigated over the past two decades.
Different returns to different degrees? Evidence from the British Cohort Study 1970

As in many other countries, government policy in the UK has the objective of raising the participation rate of young people in higher education, while also increasing the share of the costs of higher education borne by students themselves. A rationale for the latter element comes from evidence of a high private return to university undergraduate degrees. However, much of this evidence pre-dates the rapid expansion in the graduate population. In the current paper, we use evidence from a cohort of people born in 1970 to estimate hourly wage returns to a university degree. Among other results, we ? nd (i) that compared to an earlier 1958 birth cohort the average returns to a ? rst degree for men changed very little, while the return for women declined substantially and (ii) substantial evidence of differences in returns to a first degree according to subject area of study and class of degree awarded
Analysis of Two Dense Phase Carbon Dioxide Full-Scale Fracture Propagation Tests

Two full-scale fracture propagation tests have been conducted using dense phase carbon dioxide (CO2)-rich mixtures at the Spadeadam Test Site, United Kingdom (UK). The tests were conducted on behalf of National Grid Carbon, UK, as part of the COOLTRANS research programme.The semi-empirical Two Curve Model, developed by the Battelle Memorial Institute in the 1970s, is widely used to set the (pipe body) toughness requirements for pipelines transporting lean and rich natural gas. However, it has not been validated for applications involving dense phase CO2 or CO2-rich mixtures. One significant difference between the decompression behaviour of dense phase CO2 and a lean or rich gas is the very long plateau in the decompression curve.The objective of the two tests was to determine the level of ‘impurities’ that could be transported by National Grid Carbon in a 914.0 mm outside diameter, 25.4 mm wall thickness, Grade L450 pipeline, with arrest at an upper shelf Charpy V-notch impact energy (toughness) of 250 J. The level of impurities that can be transported is dependent on the saturation pressure of the mixture. Therefore, the first test was conducted at a predicted saturation pressure of 80.5 barg and the second test was conducted at a predicted saturation pressure of 73.4 barg.A running ductile fracture was successfully initiated in the initiation pipe and arrested in the test section in both of the full-scale tests.The main experimental data, including the layout of the test sections, and the decompression and timing wire data, are summarised and discussed.The results of the two full-scale fracture propagation tests demonstrate that the Two Curve Model is not (currently) applicable to liquid or dense phase CO2 or CO2-rich mixtures.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Dynamic obstacle crossing by a biped robot, based on control of the propulsion energy

This paper proposes an energy control method for the dynamic walking of a planar biped, allowing obstacle crossing. This approach was tested in simulation on a numerical model of the Hydroïd robot of the Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes de Versailles, and achieved a dynamic walking with a 1.3 m/s maximum speed and the crossing of an obstacle thanks to inertia forces, by leaning with the front foot on the obstacle. The propulsion energy of the system is produced by the rear leg, endowed with four actuated degrees-of-freedom (hip, knee, ankle, toes), and controlled by a force control using four degrees-of-freedom in the non singular case, and three degrees-of-freedom in the singular case.
The applications of carbon nanostructures and semiconductor materials in the development of biosensors

In recent years, nanomaterials and nanostructures with unique chemical, physical, and mechanical properties have been developed and applied as both sensing matrices and transducers, offering new opportunities for the development of highly sensitive bio-chemical sensors. The chemical and physical characteristics of the electrochemically active carbon nanotubes, nanofibers and fullerenes, as well as their potential applications in biosensors will be first analyzed. In addition, the advances that have been made in the area of biosensors based on semiconductor materials and quantum dots will be presented. The advantages of the use of these two families of nanomaterials in the design of new devices are thus very promising towards future envisioned biosensor applications.
Development of Sound Localization Strategies in Children with Bilateral Cochlear Implants

Localizing sounds in our environment is one of the fundamental perceptual abilities that enable humans to communicate, and to remain safe. Because the acoustic cues necessary for computing source locations consist of differences between the two ears in signal intensity and arrival time, sound localization is fairly poor when a single ear is available. In adults who become deaf and are fitted with cochlear implants (CIs) sound localization is known to improve when bilateral CIs (BiCIs) are used compared to when a single CI is used. The aim of the present study was to investigate the emergence of spatial hearing sensitivity in children who use BiCIs, with a particular focus on the development of behavioral localization patterns when stimuli are presented in free-field horizontal acoustic space. A new analysis was implemented to quantify patterns observed in children for mapping acoustic space to a spatially relevant perceptual representation. Children with normal hearing were found to distribute their responses in a manner that demonstrated high spatial sensitivity. In contrast, children with BiCIs tended to classify sound source locations to the left and right; with increased bilateral hearing experience, they developed a perceptual map of space that was better aligned with the acoustic space. The results indicate experience-dependent refinement of spatial hearing skills in children with CIs. Localization strategies appear to undergo transitions from sound source categorization strategies to more fine-grained location identification strategies. This may provide evidence for neural plasticity, with implications for training of spatial hearing ability in CI users.
Controllable fabrication of novel all solid-state PbS quantum dot-doped glass fibers with tunable broadband near-infrared emission

All solid-state PbS quantum dot (QD)-doped glass fibers with tunable near-infrared (NIR) emission were successfully fabricated by using the “melt-in-tube” method for the first time. The precursor fibers were first prepared without any obvious element diffusion or crystallization by drawing the fiber preform at a heating temperature at which the fiber core was already melted while the fiber cladding was softened. Then the PbS QDs were precipitated evenly in the matrix of the glass fiber core after a careful heat treatment at low temperature. From the PbS QD-doped glass fibers, intense wavelength-tunable broad NIR emission bands were observed upon excitation with an 808 nm laser. The transmission loss of the fibers can be reduced by further matching the thermal expansion of the fiber core and cladding glass. Therefore, after further optimizing the composition and optical properties of the PbS QD-doped glass fiber, it is expected to be a potential gain medium for the development of wavelength-tunable lasers and broadband fiber amplifiers. More importantly, the melt-in-tube method exhibits a feature of completely controllable crystallization in the fiber formation process, which would open a new route for fabricating novel functional QD-doped glass fibers.
Minimizing ambiguity in natural language software requirements specification

Software requirements are typically captured in natural languages (NL) such as English and then analyzed by software engineers to generate a formal software design/model (such as UML model). However, English is syntactically ambiguous and semantically inconsistent. Hence, the English specifications of software requirements can not only result in erroneous and absurd software designs and implementations but the informal nature of English is also a main obstacle in machine processing of English specification of the software requirements. To address this key challenge, there is need to introduce a controlled NL representation for software requirements to generate accurate and consistent software models. In this paper, we report an automated approach to generate Semantic of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) standard based controlled representation of English software requirement specification. The SBVR based controlled representation can not only result in accurate and consistent software models but also machine process able because SBVR has pure mathematical foundation. We also introduce a java based implementation of the presented approach that is a proof of concept.