Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical investigation of closed-loop control of extensible continuum manipulators

This paper details closed-loop control experiments that were conducted on an extensible continuum manipulator, the OctArm. The performance of three controllers are shown here. The controllers can be classified into two categories: Closed-loop configuration-space control and closed-loop task-space teleoperation. Two controllers were tested in the configuration-space control experiments: a proportional-derivative (PD) controller and a nonlinear sliding-mode controller. The third controller is also shown in which the redundant extensible continuum manipulator tip tracks the motion of a kinematically-dissimilar non-redundant rigid-link master system. The results of these experiments confirm the ability of the control strategies to effectively control continuum robot hardware.
Comparative study of maximum power point tracking algorithms

Maximum power point trackers (MPPTs) play an important role in photovoltaic (PV) power systems because they maximize the power output from a PV system for a given set of conditions, and therefore maximize the array efficiency. Thus, an MPPT can minimize the overall system cost. MPPTs find and maintain operation at the maximum power point, using an MPPT algorithm. Many such algorithms have been proposed. However, one particular algorithm, the perturb‐and‐observe (P&O) method, claimed by many in the literature to be inferior to others, continues to be by far the most widely used method in commercial PV MPPTs. Part of the reason for this is that the published comparisons between methods do not include an experimental comparison between multiple algorithms with all algorithms optimized and a standardized MPPT hardware. This paper provides such a comparison. MPPT algorithm performance is quantified through the MPPT efficiency. In this work, results are obtained for three optimized algorithms, using a microprocessor‐controlled MPPT operating from a PV array and also a PV array simulator. It is found that the P&O method, when properly optimized, can have MPPT efficiencies well in excess of 97%, and is highly competitive against other MPPT algorithms. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two-Stage Adaptive Design for Clinical Trials with Survival Data

Abstract In long-term clinical trials we often need to monitor the patients’ enrollment, compliance, and treatment effect during the study. In this paper we take the conditional power approach and consider a two-stage design based on the ideas of Li et al. (2002) for trials with survival endpoints. We make projections and decisions regarding the future course of the trial from the interim data. The decision includes possible early termination of the trial for convincing evidence of futility or efficacy, and projection includes how many additional patients are needed to enroll and how long the enrollment and follow-up may be when continuing the trial. The flexibility of the adaptive design is demonstrated by an example, the Coumadin Aspirin Reinfarction Study.
SDN and ForCES based optimal network topology discovery

Software-defined Networking proposes an alternative paradigm on network programmability based on the separation of control and forwarding planes. Discovering network elements in a dynamic and optimized fashion, able to cope with the ever-growing network traffic, is a key requirement for SDN networks, in order to ensure a data center's robustness and manageability. OpenFlow's approach for creating the topology map is by exchanging LLDP frames between the controller and the forwarding elements. This paper proposes a better usage of LLDP by taking advantage of existing hardware capabilities to extract information directly from the data plane to the control plane in order to construct a dynamic and automatic topology discovery algorithm. Following this procedure to obtain the topology map and using the IETF's ForCES framework, we managed to model a generic method for extracting the required LLDP information from the datapath to the controller.
Thai Final Stops: Cross-Language Perception

Abstract As part of a project seeking a better understanding of the links between speech production and perception, we have conducted experiments on the perception of Thai word-final stop consonants by native speakers of Thai and native speakers of American English. The final stops of Thai are never released audibly. In English, however, final stops occur with and without audible releases. Previous work has shown that released stops are likely to be more intelligible than unreleased ones. That is, identification is better when information as to place of articulation in the formant transitions of the closing articulatory gesture is supplemented by acoustic information in a release burst. Both languages have labial, alveolar, and velar places of articulation, but Thai also has glottal closure. Two native speakers of Thai recorded sets of monosyllabic words minimally distinguished by the four final stops . Randomized lists of the isolated words were presented to 19 native speakers of English who responded with the labels ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, and ‘other’. They were also presented to 30 native speakers of Thai for identification in Thai script as words. The highly significant differences between the two groups imply the possibility that the closing gestures of the Thai stops include a component that compensates somewhat for the absence of release, a component to which the English speakers are perhaps less well attuned. Such an interference will be tested in future work by tracking of the gestures in both languages with the Haskins Laboratories magnetometer.
The Supernova Associated with GRB 030329

The relative proximity of the recent gamma-ray burst GRB 030329 resulted in a large gamma-ray fluence and in the brightest-ever afterglow (AG), hours after the burst, in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands, permitting precise AG measurements, sensitive tests of models, and an excellent occasion to investigate the association of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with supernovae (SNe). The Cannonball model provides a good, simple, and universal description of all AGs of GRBs of known redshift, so that it is straightforward to use it to predict what the expected SN signatures are. In the case of GRB 030329, 10 days after the burst, the AG should begin to reveal the light curve, spectrum, and polarization of an underlying SN—akin to SN 1998bw—which will peak in the optical band around day 15.
Optimizing Client Association in 60 GHz Wireless Access Networks

MillimeterWave communications in the 60 GHz band are considered one of the key technologies for enabling multi-gigabit wireless access. However, the high propagation loss in such a band poses major obstacles to the optimal utilization of the wireless resources, where the problem of efficient client association to access points (APs) is of vital importance. In this paper, the client association in 60 GHz wireless access networks is investigated. The AP utilization and the quality of the rapidly vanishing communication links are the control parameters. Because of the tricky non-convex and combinatorial nature of the client association optimization problem, a novel solution method is developed to guarantee balanced and fair resource allocation. A new distributed, lightweight and easy to implement association algorithm, based on Lagrangian duality theory and subgradient methods, was proposed. It is shown that the algorithm is asymptotically optimal, that is, the relative duality gap diminishes to zero as the number of clients increases. Both theoretical and numerical results evince numerous useful properties of the algorithm, such as fast convergence, scalability, time efficiency, and fair execution in comparison to existing approaches. It is concluded that the proposed solution can be applied in the forthcoming 60 GHz wireless access networks.
Label Consistent Quadratic Surrogate model for visual saliency prediction

Recently, an increasing number of works have proposed to learn visual saliency by leveraging human fixations. However, the collection of human fixations is time consuming and the existing eye tracking datasets are generally small when compared with other domains. Thus, it contains a certain degree of dataset bias due to the large image variations (e.g., outdoor scenes vs. emotion-evoking images). In the learning based saliency prediction literature, most models are trained and evaluated within the same dataset and cross dataset validation is not yet a common practice. Instead of directly applying model learned from another dataset in cross dataset fashion, it is better to transfer the prior knowledge obtained from one dataset to improve the training and prediction on another. In addition, since new datasets are built and shared in the community from time to time, it would be good not to retrain the entire model when new data are added. To address these problems, we proposed a new learning based saliency model, namely Label Consistent Quadratic Surrogate algorithm, which employs an iterative online algorithm to learn a sparse dictionary with label consistent constraint. The advantages of the proposed model are three-folds: (1) the quadratic surrogate function guarantees convergence at each iteration, (2) the label consistent constraint enforces the predicted sparse code to be discriminative, and (3) the online properties enable the proposed algorithm to adapt existing model with new data without retraining. As shown in this work, the proposed saliency model achieves better performance than the state-of-the-art saliency models.
Employees' Perception toward the Dimension of Culture in Enhancing Organizational Learning.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine employees' perception of the dimension of culture toward organizational learning readiness. The study also seeks to compare employees' work experience (longevity), work shifts and their perception toward the dimension of culture in enhancing organizational learning readiness.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was administered to 150 employees of a manufacturing enterprise. ANOVA was utilized to investigate the relationship between longevity, work shift, and perception toward the dimension of culture in enhancing organizational learning. To determine which of the work shifts had a significant relationship with the dependent variable employees' perception toward the dimension of culture in enhancing organizational learning, a posteriori contrasts were established.Findings – The independent variables longevity and work shift were statistically significant, while the interaction effect was nonsignificant. Omega‐squared test statistic revealed long.
The empirical development of the normative message processing scale

The empirical development of a Normative Message Processing Scale (NMPS) is presented. An argument is made for the need to develop an instrument that distinguishes between the tendency to engage in message processing that is selective, effortful, and highly deliberate and message processing that is unselective, low effort, and nondeliberate. Because self reported differences in exerted cognitive effort may indicate both quantitative and qualitative differences in message processing, effort‐based instruments do not allow specific predictions regarding the processing habits of low effort individuals. Understanding and measuring the processing characteristics of high and low effort individuals may explain observed differences in performances between individuals with a high or low need for cognition and between individuals induced to perform in a mindful or mindless manner. Five studies are presented, reporting on the development, conceptual validation, and behavioral validation of the NMPS. In addition, the .
AsOR: an energy efficient multi-hop opportunistic routing protocol for wireless sensor networks over Rayleigh fading channels

In this paper, we describe an efficient and energy conservative unicast routing technique for multi-hop wireless sensor networks over Rayleigh fading channels, which we shall refer to as assistant opportunistic routing (AsOR) protocol. In contrast to previous works, this protocol is presented from a systematic energy conservation perspective. During the source-destination transmission, the AsOR protocol forwards the data stream through a sequence of nodes, which are classified as three different node sets, namely, the frame node, the assistant node and the unselected node. The frame nodes are indispensable to decode-and-forward while the assistant nodes provide protections for unsuccessful opportunistic transmissions. Based on the AsOR protocol, each predetermined route can be divided into several disjoint segments, and we establish a mathematical model to characterize the energy consumptions for each node in one segment. Furthermore, we provide a method for selecting the optimal value N*, the number of nodes in one transmission segment, which can lead to the minimum average energy consumption. Numerical results will confirm that the proposed protocol is energy conservative compared with other two traditional routing protocols both in slow and fast Raleigh fading channels and that the method for searching the optimal value N* is efficient. Finally, robustness analysis for the theoretical results are presented.
Design of forwarder list selection scheme in opportunistic routing protocol

Unlike traditional wireless routing protocols which use a single fixed path,opportunistic routing explicitly takes advantage of the broadcast nature of wireless communicatio ns by using a set of forwarders toopportunistically perform packet forwarding. A key issue in the design of opportunistic routing protocols is the forwarder list selection problem. In this paper we establish a general theory for analyzing the forwarder li st selection problem, and develop an optimal solution, theminimum transmission selection (MTS) algorithm, which minimizes the expected number of transmissions. Through extensive simul ations using the MIT Roofnet dataset, we demonstrate that in more than 90% cases the MTS algorithm outperforms the forwarder selection scheme used in ExOR, the best known opportunistic routing protocol in the literature.
In vitro toxicity studies of polymer-coated gold nanorods

We evaluated cellular responses to polymer-treated gold nanorods, which were synthesized using the standard wet-chemistry method that utilizes hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The nanorod dispersions were coated with either polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) or polyethylene glycol (PEG). Two sizes of nanorods were tested, with optical responses peaking at 628 and 773 nm. The cells were from mammary adenocarcinoma (SKBR3), Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO), mouse myoblast (C2C12) and Human Leukemia (HL60) cell lines. Their mitochondrial function following exposure to the nanorods were assessed using the MTS assay. We found PEGylated particles to have superior biocompatibility compared with PSS-coated nanorods, which showed substantial cytotoxicity. Electron microscopy showed no cellular uptake of PEGylated particles compared with their PSS counterparts. PEGylated gold nanorods also exhibited better dispersion stability in the presence of cell growth medium; PSS-coated rods tended to flocculate or cluster. In the case of the PSS particles, toxicity correlated with surface area across the two sizes of nanorods studied.
Finite temperature effects on the neutrino decoupling in the early Universe

Leading finite temperature effects on the neutrino decoupling temperature in the early Universe have been studied. We have incorporated modifications of the dispersion relation and the phase space distribution due to the presence of particles in the heat bath at a temperature of around 1 MeV. Since both the expansion rate of the Universe and the interaction rate of a neutrino are reduced by finite temperature effects, it is necessary to calculate thermal corrections as precisely as possible in order to find the net effect on the neutrino decoupling temperature. We have performed such a calculation by using finite temperature field theory. It has been shown that the finite temperature effects increase the neutrino decoupling temperature by 4.4{percent}, the largest contribution coming from the modification of the phase space due to the thermal bath. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
SerRS-tRNASec complex structures reveal mechanism of the first step in selenocysteine biosynthesis

Selenocysteine (Sec) is found in the catalytic centers of many selenoproteins and plays important roles in living organisms. Malfunctions of selenoproteins lead to various human disorders including cancer. Known as the 21st amino acid, the biosynthesis of Sec involves unusual pathways consisting of several stages. While the later stages of the pathways are well elucidated, the molecular basis of the first stage—the serylation of Sec-specific tRNA (tRNASec) catalyzed by seryl-tRNA synthetase (SerRS)—is unclear. Here we present two cocrystal structures of human SerRS bound with tRNASec in different stoichiometry and confirm the formation of both complexes in solution by various characterization techniques. We discovered that the enzyme mainly recognizes the backbone of the long variable arm of tRNASec with few base-specific contacts. The N-terminal coiled-coil region works like a long-range lever to precisely direct tRNA 3′ end to the other protein subunit for aminoacylation in a conformation-dependent manner. Restraints of the flexibility of the coiled-coil greatly reduce serylation efficiencies. Lastly, modeling studies suggest that the local differences present in the D- and T-regions as well as the characteristic U20:G19:C56 base triple in tRNASec may allow SerRS to distinguish tRNASec from closely related tRNASer substrate.
Automatic segmentation for czech concatenative speech synthesis using statistical approach with boundary-specific correction

This paper deals with the problems of automatic segmentation for the purposes of Czech concatenative speech synthesis. Statistical approach to speech segmentation using hidden Markov models (HMMs) is applied in the baseline system. Several improvements of this system are then proposed to get more accurate segmentation results. These enhancements mainly concern the various strategies of HMM initialization (flat-start initialization, hand-labeled or speaker independent HMM bootstrapping). Since HTK, the hidden Markov model toolkit, was utilized in our work, a correction of the output boundary placements is proposed to reflect speech parameterization mechanism. An objective comparison of various automatic methods and manual segmentation is performed to find out the best method. The best results were obtained for boundary-specific statistical correction of the segmentation that resulted from bootstrapping with hand-labeled HMMs (96% segmentation accuracy in tolerance region 20 ms).
Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy: Nomenclature and modalities of perfusion

Following international consensus, HIPEC should be the acronym used in the scientific literature to refer to the hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Several modalities of perfusion are used to deliver HIPEC: open abdominal technique (Coliseum), closed abdominal technique, peritoneal cavity expander, semi‐opened abdominal technique. There is no sufficient evidence in literature confirming the superiority of one technique over the others in terms of outcome, morbidity and safety to the personnel of the operating theatre. Each option has its own operational advantages and disadvantages and future prospective studies must be conducted to establish which one is the best alternative. Today, the best technique is the one which is routinely used and improved into each specialized institution involved in the management of peritoneal surface malignancy. J. Surg. Oncol. 2008;98:242–246. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Clean: A race detector with cleaner semantics

Data races make parallel programs hard to understand. Precise race detection that stops an execution on first occurrence of a race addresses this problem, but it comes with significant overhead. In this work, we exploit the insight that precisely detecting only write-after-write (WAW) and read-after-write (RAW) races suffices to provide cleaner semantics for racy programs. We demonstrate that stopping an execution only when these races occur ensures that synchronization-free-regions appear to be executed in isolation and that their writes appear atomic. Additionally, the undetected racy executions can be given certain deterministic guarantees with efficient mechanisms. We present CLEAN, a system that precisely detects WAW and RAW races and deterministically orders synchronization. We demonstrate that the combination of these two relatively inexpensive mechanisms provides cleaner semantics for racy programs. We evaluate both software-only and hardware-supported CLEAN. The software-only CLEAN runs all Pthread benchmarks from the SPLASH-2 and PARSEC suites with an average 7.8x slowdown. The overhead of precise WAW and RAW detection (5.8x) constitutes the majority of this slowdown. Simple hardware extensions reduce the slowdown of CLEAN's race detection to on average 10.4% and never more than 46.7%.
Designing a brain-computer interface controlled video-game using consumer grade EEG hardware

This paper describes our first attempt to port a brain-computer interface (BCI), created in a research lab and running on expensive equipment, to consumer grade equipment, allowing one to reach a much broader audience and raise public awareness of this new technology. With the BCI, the user can perform a complicated task through mind control only: playing a tactical video-game. Reliable control is accomplished by adapting a Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP) classifier to be robust enough to cope with the signal quality of the consumer grade electroencephalography (EEG) device used, i.e. the Emotiv EPOC. The difference in performance of the game running on research grade EEG equipment versus the Emotiv EPOC is examined. The game was tested by a broad audience during a public event and was well received.
Impact of surgical excision of lesions on pain in a rat model of endometriosis

Chronic pain is the most common and disabling feature of endometriosis. Surgical excision of endometriosis lesions provides relief but pain relapse is common. Studies in a preclinical model of endometriosis might help to unravel the role of the ectopic lesions as the source of pain. Thus, we evaluated the impact of lesion excision on mechanical hyperalgesia in a preclinical model of endometriosis pain.
Homoepitaxial Growth of Large‐Scale Highly Organized Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Patterns

Controllable growth of highly crystalline transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) patterns with regular morphology and unique edge structure is highly desired and important for fundamental research and potential applications. Here, single‐crystalline MoS2 flakes are reported with regular trigonal symmetric patterns that can be homoepitaxially grown on MoS2 monolayer via chemical vapor deposition. The highly organized MoS2 patterns are rhombohedral (3R)‐stacked with the underlying MoS2 monolayer, and their boundaries are predominantly terminated by zigzag Mo edge structure. The epitaxial MoS2 crystals can be tailored from compact triangles to fractal flakes, and the pattern formation can be explained by the anisotropic growth rates of the S and Mo edges under low sulfur chemical potential. The 3R‐stacked MoS2 pattern demonstrates strong second and third‐harmonic‐generation signals, which exceed those reported for monolayer MoS2 by a factor of 6 and 4, correspondingly. This homoepitaxial growth approach for making highly organized TMD patterns is also demonstrated for WS2.