Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal and Fast Denoising of AWGN using Cluster based and Filtering Approach

This paper presents the novel framework, which provides the denoising of image which is corrupted because of additive white Gaussian Noise. This introduction of noise causes degradation of an image. In proposed framework, the image is preprocessed after preprocessing, similar clusters of are accumulated for the filtering. After getting similar clusters, Adaptive Wiener filtering is used to denoise an image. The image quality assessment factors used are Peak Signal-tonoise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM).
EXITING EVENTS IN SPANISH: BOUNDARY I-SCHEMA AND MOVE X-SCHEMA 1

This paper analyses the structure and conceptualisation of exiting events in Spanish through the discussion of the construction SALIR-DE, and compares it with an analogous scenario encoded in the English construction OUT-OF. An ‘exiting event’ in Spanish is defined as the translational motion from a region A (the source) through a boundary. Taking the Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG) model as the theoretical framework, our focus is on the kind of mental images Spanish speakers construe it when it comes to understand this construction. Section 1 presents the main theoretical tenets of the Embodied Construction Grammar and a simplified version of their analysis of the English construction OUT-OF. Section 2 yields a description of the construction SALIR-DE and focuses on two schemas: the Boundary I-schema and the Move X-schema. Section 3 discusses the semantics of the landmarks that take part in this construction. Section 4 addresses more marginal cases where landmarks are portals. Finally, section 5 summarises the conclusions.
Improved Bat Algorithm Applied to Multilevel Image Thresholding

Multilevel image thresholding is a very important image processing technique that is used as a basis for image segmentation and further higher level processing. However, the required computational time for exhaustive search grows exponentially with the number of desired thresholds. Swarm intelligence metaheuristics are well known as successful and efficient optimization methods for intractable problems. In this paper, we adjusted one of the latest swarm intelligence algorithms, the bat algorithm, for the multilevel image thresholding problem. The results of testing on standard benchmark images show that the bat algorithm is comparable with other state-of-the-art algorithms. We improved standard bat algorithm, where our modifications add some elements from the differential evolution and from the artificial bee colony algorithm. Our new proposed improved bat algorithm proved to be better than five other state-of-the-art algorithms, improving quality of results in all cases and significantly improving convergence speed.
TiMDPpoly: An Improved Method for Solving Time-Dependent MDPs

We introduce TiMDPpoly , an algorithm designed to solve planning problems with durative actions, under probabilistic uncertainty, in a non-stationary, continuous-time context. Mission planning for autonomous agents such as planetary rovers or unmanned aircrafts often correspond to such time-dependent planning problems. Modeling these problems can be cast through the framework of Time-dependent Markov Decision Processes (TiMDPs). We analyze the TiMDP optimality equations in order to exploit their properties. Then, we focus on the class of piecewise polynomial models in order to approximate TiMDPs, and introduce several algorithmic contributions which lead to the TiMDPpoly algorithm for TiMDPs. Finally, our approach is evaluated on an unmanned aircraft mission planning problem and on an adapted version of the well-known Mars rover domain.
Security for Mobile Agents: Issues and Requirements

Mobile agents are processes which can autonomously migrate to new hosts. Despite its many practical bene ts, mobile agent technology results in signi cant new security threats frommalicious agents and hosts. The primary added complication is that, as an agent traverses multiple hosts that are trusted to di erent degrees, its state can change in ways that adversely impact its functionality. In this paper, we investigate these new threats and develop a set of achievable security requirements for mobile agent systems.
An overall control strategy based on target reaching for the navigation of an urban electric vehicle

This paper deals with reactive and flexible humanlike autonomous vehicle navigation. A human driver reactively guides his vehicle, performing a smooth trajectory within the roads limits until reaching the defined goal. To obtain a similar behavior with an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), this paper proposes a flexible control law to drive a vehicle towards desired static or dynamic targets based on a novel definition of control variables and Lyapunov stability analysis. Moreover, a target assignment strategy, combined with an appropriate sigmoid function, that allow to perform smooth, flexible and safe vehicle navigation through successive waypoints is presented. The stability of the proposed control strategy is proved according to Lyapunov synthesis. Simulations and experiments are performed in different cases to demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of the control strategy.
A simple index for multimodal flexibility

Most interactive tasks engage more than one of the user's exteroceptive senses and are therefore multimodal. In real world situations with multitasking and distractions, the key aspect of multimodality is not which modalities can be allocated to the interactive task but which are free to be allocated to something else. We present the multi¬modal flexibility index (MFI), calculated from changes in users' performance induced by blocking of sensory modalities. A high score indicates that the highest level of performance is achievable regardless of the modalities available and, conversely, a low score that performance will be severely hampered unless all modalities are allocated to the task. Various derivatives describe unimodal and bimodal effects. Results from a case study (mobile text entry) illustrate how an interface that is superior to others in absolute terms is the worst from the multimodal flexibility perspective. We discuss the suitability of MFI for evaluation of interactive prototypes.
Financial Critical Infrastructure: A MAS Trusted Architecture for Alert Detection and Authenticated Transactions

Banking and financial system constitute a critical service for our economy. Being able to foreseen real time attacks and failures on financial institutions network is a crucial challenge. In order to face those problems, research tends to elaborate alert mechanisms in order to support risk assessment, analysis and mitigation solution for real time decision-making processes. Our previous works had proposed a multi-agent based architecture to support that alert mechanism. This architecture exploited the Multi-agent system technology and proposes a static assignment of functions to agents. This static assignment was a weakness because isolating an agent or breaking the communication channel between two of them created serious damage on the crisis management. In this paper, we complete our previous works and make mobile the assignment of functions to agents. Our approach exploits the concept of agent responsibility that we assigned dynamically to agent taking into consideration the agent trust.This mobile assignement is illustrated by a case study that aims at adopting agent's secret key according to the sensibility of the financial context.
In vitro antioxidant properties of a ginseng intestinal metabolite IH-901

IH-901 (20-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol or compound K) is a final intestinal bacterial metabolite of ginseng in humans. It has various pharmacologic effects such as antiaging, immunopotentiation, antistress, and antimetastatic activities. We analyzed the antioxidant activities of IH-901 using several assays including: total antioxidant activity, reductive potential, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl, hydroxyl, superoxide and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging assays, a nitric oxide scavenging assay and a lipid peroxidation assay. At concentrations of 25 and 100 µg/mL, IH-901 inhibited lipid peroxidation of a linoleic acid emulsion with a potency comparable to ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxyanisole. The reductive potential of IH-901 increased in a concentration-dependent manner. IH-901 exhibited strong DPPH, hydroxyl, superoxide and ABTS radical scavenging activities. IH-901 was also an effective inhibitor of lipid peroxidation, although IH-901 had only a mild scavenging activity against nitric oxide. These results suggest that IH-901 may be a useful antioxidant agent against reactive oxygen species.
Moxifloxacin prophylaxis in neutropenic patients.

OBJECTIVES Recent studies have shown a beneficial impact of fluoroquinolones on infection-related morbidity and mortality for patients with haematological malignancies during neutropenia. Among the fluoroquinolones moxifloxacin currently provides one of the broadest spectra of antibacterial activity and may be suitable for prophylaxis during neutropenia. PATIENTS AND METHODS In this controlled before and after observational study, moxifloxacin chemoprophylaxis was used during prolonged neutropenia in haemato-oncological patients (period 2; 282 episodes). Data were compared with two periods with levofloxacin prophylaxis, one preceding period (period 1; 399 episodes) and a post-observational period (period 3; 53 episodes). Endpoints for evaluation were the rates of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteraemia and infection-related mortality. RESULTS We found similar survival rates as compared with levofloxacin. The rate of Gram-negative bacteraemia was higher during prophylaxis with moxifloxacin (11%) when compared with levofloxacin (6% for period 1 and 6% for period 3). In addition we observed a marked increase in diarrhoea associated with Clostridium difficile toxin A (CDAD) after a formula change from levofloxacin to moxifloxacin (attack rate 6% versus 33%). A decrease was attained after changing back to levofloxacin and reinforcing hygienic measures (13%). CONCLUSIONS During moxifloxacin prophylaxis, we observed a significantly increased incidence of Gram-negative bacteraemia and CDAD. Careful attention must be paid not to trade the particularly beneficial effects of fluoroquinolones in the neutropenic setting for such disadvantageous effects. Until further data are obtained, caution is warranted when applying fluoroquinolones with high anaerobic activity in the neutropenic setting.
A formal approach for interoperability between mobile agent systems and component based architectures

We present an algorithm that allows to cut a component from a component based system and transplant it into a mobile agent system. We refer to this process as grafting. The overall goal is to run grafted components in a new execution environment. The approach is generic as it brings the target system into a position to execute any instance of the grafted component type. Moreover it applies for any two systems, not only for component based and agent systems. The approach was tested by grafting OSGi bundles into the mobile agent system SEMOA.
Learning Probabilistic Structure Graphs for Classification and Detection of Object Structures

This paper presents a novel and domain-independent approach for graph-based structure learning. The approach is based on solving the Maximum Common Subgraph-Isomorphism problem to generalise a model graph over a set of training examples. Then a full probabilistic model is assigned to the learnt graph. We call this approach Probabilistic Structure Graphs (PSGs). This article explains how PSG models are learnt and how probabilities for model instances are derived. It shows how to use PSG models to perform MAP classification, and presents evaluation of learnt models in the context of image understanding. Here, we classify observable object structures in the domain of building facade images (average classification rate approx. 80%). Additionally, we present encouraging results from interpreting facade images, where we detect instances of learnt models in a set of cluttered objects. We show that bottom-up scene interpretation based solely on learnt models seems achievable, without any hand-crafted domain knowledge.
Motion planning for a 3-DOF robot with a passive joint

Studies motion planning from one zero velocity state to another for a three-joint robot in a horizontal plane with a passive revolute third joint. Such a robot is small-time locally controllable on an open subset of its zero velocity section, allowing it to follow any path in this subset arbitrarily closely. However some paths are "preferred" by the dynamics of the manipulator in that they can be followed at higher speeds. We describe an algorithm that plans collision-free paths in the robot's configuration space, where the motions correspond to dynamically preferred robot motions. Thus the problem of planning fast trajectories in the robot's six-dimensional state space is reduced to the computationally simpler problems of planning paths in the three-dimensional configuration space and time-scaling the paths according to the manipulator dynamics. Implementation on an underactuated manipulator is described.
GViM: GPU-accelerated virtual machines

The use of virtualization to abstract underlying hardware can aid in sharing such resources and in efficiently managing their use by high performance applications. Unfortunately, virtualization also prevents efficient access to accelerators, such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), that have become critical components in the design and architecture of HPC systems. Supporting General Purpose computing on GPUs (GPGPU) with accelerators from different vendors presents significant challenges due to proprietary programming models, heterogeneity, and the need to share accelerator resources between different Virtual Machines (VMs). To address this problem, this paper presents GViM, a system designed for virtualizing and managing the resources of a general purpose system accelerated by graphics processors. Using the NVIDIA GPU as an example, we discuss how such accelerators can be virtualized without additional hardware support and describe the basic extensions needed for resource management. Our evaluation with a Xen-based implementation of GViM demonstrate efficiency and flexibility in system usage coupled with only small performance penalties for the virtualized vs. non-virtualized solutions.
Design, implementation and evaluation of school-based sexual health education in sub-Saharan Africa: a qualitative study of researchers’ perspectives

Abstract This study investigated facilitators and challenges to designing, implementing and evaluating school-based sexual health education in sub-Saharan Africa, using interviews with intervention designers and researchers. At the pre-planning and planning stages, participants reported that facilitating factors included addressing the reproductive health needs of participants, contextual (culture, religion, economic and social) considerations and the adoption of holistic approach to sexuality education. Lack of open communication about sexual health matters between young people and adults; concerns that sexual health education could encourage sexual activity; and inadequate funding, were key barriers. Implementation was facilitated by the involvement of relevant stakeholders, the training of facilitators and adopting strategies to overcome resistance to sexual health education. The provision of structured, detailed lessons plans and monitoring with supportive supervision optimised fidelity of delivery. Barriers to implementation included facilitators’ resistance to teaching safe sex promotion and logistical challenges in school environments. Participants also reported that the validity of self-reported adolescent sexual behaviour (as part of evaluation) may be improved by complementing well-designed self-report surveys with computerised audio devices for data collection, qualitative interviews and participant observation. Study findings generate recommendations to improve future forms of school-based sexual health education in sub-Saharan Africa.
3GPP LTE Downlink PHY Transceiver using Closed-loop Spatial Multiplexing in Frequency Selective Fading Environment

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) wireless standards that gives us wideband CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) a third generation connectivity. LTE is the fourth generation (4G) of wireless communication technologies that brings the standard OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) modulation , MUMIMO (Multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology and different multipath fading model EVA (Extended Vehicular a), ETU (Extended Typical Urban) and EPA (Extended Pedestrian A) which allows the operator to use spectrum more efficiently to deliver high speed data. This paper characterizes the downlink performance of LTE. There are many metric to characterize the performance, but one of the most convenient and informative metric is the BER (Bit Error Rate). So the performance is characterized in terms of BER. In this paper the LTE system is modeled and simulated using MATLAB and the BER for 2×2 and 4×4 MIMO using QPSK and 16QAM modulation is obtained against different SNR values. General Terms Mobile Communication
Computational Selection of Transcriptomics Experiments Improves Guilt-by-Association Analyses

The Guilt-by-Association (GBA) principle, according to which genes with similar expression profiles are functionally associated, is widely applied for functional analyses using large heterogeneous collections of transcriptomics data. However, the use of such large collections could hamper GBA functional analysis for genes whose expression is condition specific. In these cases a smaller set of condition related experiments should instead be used, but identifying such functionally relevant experiments from large collections based on literature knowledge alone is an impractical task. We begin this paper by analyzing, both from a mathematical and a biological point of view, why only condition specific experiments should be used in GBA functional analysis. We are able to show that this phenomenon is independent of the functional categorization scheme and of the organisms being analyzed. We then present a semi-supervised algorithm that can select functionally relevant experiments from large collections of transcriptomics experiments. Our algorithm is able to select experiments relevant to a given GO term, MIPS FunCat term or even KEGG pathways. We extensively test our algorithm on large dataset collections for yeast and Arabidopsis. We demonstrate that: using the selected experiments there is a statistically significant improvement in correlation between genes in the functional category of interest; the selected experiments improve GBA-based gene function prediction; the effectiveness of the selected experiments increases with annotation specificity; our algorithm can be successfully applied to GBA-based pathway reconstruction. Importantly, the set of experiments selected by the algorithm reflects the existing literature knowledge about the experiments. [A MATLAB implementation of the algorithm and all the data used in this paper can be downloaded from the paper website: http://www.paccanarolab. org/papers/CorrGene/].
Tele-impedance: Towards transferring human impedance regulation skills to robots

This work presents the novel concept of Tele-Impedance as a method for controlling/teleoperating a robotic arm while performing tasks which require significant dynamics variation. As an alternative method to bilateral force-reflecting teleoperation control approach, which uses a position/velocity command combined with force feedback from the robot side, Tele-Impedance enriches the command sent to the slave robot by combining the position reference with a stiffness (or full impedance) reference estimated from the arm of the human operator. We propose a new method to estimate the stiffness of the human arm based on the agonist-antagonist muscular co activations. The concept of the Tele-Impedance is demonstrated using the KUKA light weight robotic arm as the slave manipulator in a ball reception experiment. The performance of Tele-Impedance control method is assessed by comparing the results obtained while receiving the ball, with the slave arm under i) constant low stiffness, ii) constant high stiffness or iii) under Tele-Impedance control. Performance indexes are defined and used for the comparative study of the ball reception performances under the different endpoint elastic profiles. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the task-related Tele-Impedance control method and highlight its potential use to execute tasks which require significant dynamics variation.
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Big Data Analytics As-a-service: Issues and Challenges

—Big Data domain is one of the most promising ICT sectors with substantial expectations both on the side of market growing and design shift in the area of data storage managment and analytics. However, today, the level of complexity achieved and the lack of standardisation of Big Data management architectures represent a huge barrier towards the adoption and execution of analytics especially for those organizations and SMEs not including a sufficient amount of competences and knowledge. The full potential of Big Data Analytics (BDA) can be unleashed only through the definition of approaches that accomplish Big Data users' expectations and requirements , also when the latter are fuzzy and ambiguous. Under these premises, we propose Big Data Analytics-as-a-Service (BDAaaS) as the next-generation Big Data Analytics paradigm and we discuss issues and challenges from the BDAaaS design and development perspective.
Analysis of the processing and sojourn times of Burst Control Packets in Optical Burst Switches

In Optical Burst Switched networks, when a Burst Control Packet arrives at a core node, its scheduling algorithm looks up its internal reservation table for an available gap at which to accomodate the incoming burst. The processing time of the BCP is variable, and depends on the number of available gaps over which to perform the search. This work analyses the gap distribution in such reservation table, and derives an expression for the waiting time of BCPs, assuming LAUC-VF scheduling. Our findings can be applied to the dimensioning of the offset time values in OBS networks, for a realistic case of BCP variable processing times.
Implementation of motor controller using Zynq EPP

In this paper, in order to control motor, we apply latest All Programmable SoC technologies that fuse FPGA technologies and embedded processor technologies. We also propose to apply method that the structure of motor controller decentralizes into FPGA and level of embedded processor. We verify the possibility of application of motor controllers through design, implementation and experiment for multi-axis motor controller using Zynq EPP(Extensible Processing Platform) which is one of All Programmable SoC by made Xilinx.