Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feature Detection in Images with the Hybrid-Pyramid Representation : System Design , Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Evaluation

The purpose of this thesis is to study the capabilities of a multi-scale representation of image data which is referred to as hybrid-pyramid representations. This method tries to combine the advantages of the scale-space and pyramid representations. This is done by allowing for a variable degree of sub-sampling as the scale parameter increases. The goal was to build a system that computes this representation in real-time, and detects blob features suitable as input for a computer vision system for human-computer interaction. Experiments illustrate the efficiency of the representation. In order to be able to compare data at different scale levels a normalizing of derivation approximations between the scales was implemented. In this thesis a variance based normalization method has been studied. Särdragsdetektion i bilder med hybrid-pyramidrepresentationen: Systemdesign, teoretisk analys och experimentell utvärdering Sammanfattning Målet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka möjligheterna med en multiskalrepresentation av bilddata, den så kallade hybrid-pyramidrepresentationen. Denna metod försöker kombinera fördelarna med skalrumsrepresentationen och pyramidrepresentationen. Detta utförs genom en variabel grad av sub-sampling relativt skalparametern. I arbetet ingick också att konstruera ett system som beräknar representationer i realtid och detekterar blob-särdrag som kan användas som indata i ett datorseende system inom människa-datorinteraktion. Utförda experiment illustrerar representationens effektivitet. För att kunna jämföra data på olika skalnivåer implementerades normalisering av derivataapproximationer mellan skalorna. I arbetet undersöktes en variansbaserad normalisering.
EFFECTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC

BOOKLET W O R K S H O P STAFF Organìzing Institute : Istituto di Ricerca "A.Sorti" (IDRAS) Via Passalacqua, 19-10122 Torino Italy Tel. and fax: +39 11 535 252 Director: Massimo Citro (Italy) Organìzing Committee: Al i Kh ora ssani (Iran) Gilles Picard (Canada) Cristina Vinattieri (Italy) Paola Ciaberta (Italy)
NP-Hardness of optimizing the sum of Rational Linear Functions over an Asymptotic-Linear-Program

We convert, within polynomial-time and sequential processing, an NP-Complete Problem into a real variable problem of minimizing a sum of Rational Linear Functions constrained by an Asymptotic-Linear-Program. The coefficients and constants in the real-variable problem are 0, 1, -1, K, or -K, where K is the time parameter that tends to positive infinity. The number of variables, constraints, and rational linear functions in the objective, of the real-variable problem is bounded by a polynomial function of the size of the NP-Complete Problem. The NP-Complete Problem has a feasible solution, if-and-only-if, the real-variable problem has a feasible optimal objective equal to zero. We thus show the strong NP-hardness of this real-variable optimization problem.
ON SQUARES OF IRREDUCIBLE CHARACTERS

We study the finite groups G with a faithful irreducible character whose square is a linear combination of algebraically conjugate irreducible characters of G. In conclusion, we offer another proof of one theorem of Isaacs-Zisser. There are a few papers treating the finite groups possessing an irreducible character whose powers are linear combinations of appropriate irreducible characters, for example, [BC] and [IZ]. Our note is inspired by these two papers, especially, the second one. In what follows, G is a finite group. We use standard notation of finite group theory (see [BZ]). Recall that if χ ∈ Irr(G), then the generalized character χ (see [BZ, Chapter 4]) is defined as follows: χ(g) = χ(g) (g ∈ G). Next, Char(G) denotes the set of characters of a group G and, if θ is a generalized character of G, then Irr(θ) = {χ ∈ Irr(G) | 〈θ, χ〉 6 = 0}. The quasikernel Z(χ) of χ ∈ Char(G) is defined as follows: Z(χ) = {g ∈ G | |χ(g)| = χ(1)}. It is known that Z(χ) is a normal subgroup of G containing ker(χ) and Z(G/ ker(χ)) ≤ Z(χ)/ ker(χ) with equality if, in addition, χ ∈ Irr(G). In what follows, we use freely results stated in this paragraph. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 20C15.
Relationship extRaction fRom liteRaRy fiction

Our paper describes a method for relationship extraction from Russian-language literary fiction, it is expressed in applying lexico-syntactic patterns. The method was used for extracting facts from formal texts and brought meaningful results. The hypothesis is if the method is suitable for texts, which are non-formal. As an instrument, we chose Tomita-parser, which is based on the formalism of context-free grammars.
All-digital on-chip heterogeneous sensors for tracking the minimum energy point of processors

Dynamically scaling the supply voltage (VDD) and the threshold voltage (VTH) is one of the most effective approaches for reducing the energy consumption of processors. However, since the best pair of VDD and VTH, which minimizes the energy consumption of processors is strongly dependent on the operating condition such as an activity factor and a performance required for the processor, it is not trivial to find the best pair of the voltages at runtime when the operating condition widely varies. With all-digital on-chip heterogeneous sensors, we propose a simple runtime method to accurately identify the best pair of VDD and VTH, which minimizes the energy consumption of a processor under a specific operating condition which is determined by a process variation, an activity factor, and a performance requirement for the processor. Measured results for a 32-bit RISC processor integrating the heterogeneous sensors show that the proposed method successfully tracks the minimum energy operating point (i.e. the best pair of VDD and VTH) of the processor even in a case that the operating condition widely varies.
A Probabilistic Paradigm for the Parametric Insurance of Natural Hazards

There is a pressing need for simple and reliable risk transfer mechanisms that can pay out quickly after natural disasters without delays caused by loss estimation, and the need for long historical claims records. One such approach, known as parametric insurance, pays out when a key hazard variable exceeds a predetermined threshold. However, this approach to catastrophe risk, based on making deterministic binary predictions of loss occurrence, is susceptible to basis risk (mismatch between payouts and realized losses).
Cooperation in NOMA networks under limited user-to-user communications: Solution and analysis

This paper proposes a new communication protocol for a cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system. In this system, based on users' channel conditions, each two NOMA users are paired to reduce system complexity. In this concern, the user with a better channel condition decodes and then forwards messages received from the source to the user with a worse channel condition. In particular, the direct link between the paired users is assumed to be unavailable due to the weak transmission conditions. To overcome this issue, we propose a new cooperative NOMA protocol in which an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay is employed to help the user-to-user communications. To evaluate the proposed protocol, the exact closed-form expressions of outage probability (OP) at the two paired users are derived. Based on the analysis of the OP, we further examine the system throughput in a delay-sensitive transmission mode. Finally, our analytical results verified by Monte-Carlo simulation show that the proposed protocol is efficient in enhancing the performance of NOMA system when the user-to-user communications is limited.
Adaptive Transmission Optimization in SDN-Based Industrial Internet of Things With Edge Computing

In recent years, smart factory in the context of Industry 4.0 and industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has become a hot topic for both academia and industry. In IIoT system, there is an increasing requirement for exchange of data with different delay flows among different smart devices. However, there are few studies on this topic. To overcome the limitations of traditional methods and address the problem, we seriously consider the incorporation of global centralized software defined network (SDN) and edge computing (EC) in IIoT with EC. We propose the adaptive transmission architecture with SDN and EC for IIoT. Then, according to data streams with different latency constrains, the requirements can be divided into two groups: 1) ordinary and 2) emergent stream. In the low-deadline situation, a coarse-grained transmission path algorithm provided by finding all paths that meet the time constrains in hierarchical Internet of Things (IoT). After that, by employing the path difference degree (PDD), an optimum routing path is selected considering the aggregation of time deadline, traffic load balances, and energy consumption. In the high-deadline situation, if the coarse-grained strategy is beyond the situation, a fine-grained scheme is adopted to establish an effective transmission path by an adaptive power method for getting low latency. Finally, the performance of proposed strategy is evaluated by simulation. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the related methods in terms of average time delay, goodput, throughput, PDD, and download time. Thus, the proposed method provides better solution for IIoT data transmission.
Robust Guidance Strategy for Target Circulation by Controlled UAV

A controlled fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle is modeled as a simplified low-dimensional nonlinear dynamical system with additive disturbances. The guidance strategy presented, considering simultaneously inputs and states constraints, is shown to be robust to additive perturbations representing norm-bounded uncertainties associated with modeling errors resulting from the lower order model approximation, together with unknown but limited atmospheric disturbances. Mathematical proofs are provided ensuring robustness in achieving target circulation with a minimum prescribed accuracy.
FW_IP: A flexible and lightweight hardware firewall for NoC-based systems

Networks-On-chip are now more and more used to reinforce the security of their own systems. However, a NoC-based security solution needs to be secure, with limited overheads and very flexible. In this work, we discuss the flexibility of FW_IP that is a hardware firewall suited for NoC-based systems. We propose to enhance FW_IP's flexibility by allowing its reprogramming operation with new security rules on-the-fly. We also discuss the impact of this modification on FW_IP's hardware consumption and on its scalability.
Impacts of Water Stress on Forest Recovery and Its Interaction with Canopy Height

Global climate change is leading to an increase in the frequency, intensity, and duration of drought events, which can affect the functioning of forest ecosystems. Because human activities such as afforestation and forest attributes such as canopy height may exhibit considerable spatial differences, such differences may alter the recovery paths of drought-impacted forests. To accurately assess how climate affects forest recovery, a quantitative evaluation on the effects of forest attributes and their possible interaction with the intensity of water stress is required. Here, forest recovery following extreme drought events was analyzed for Yunnan Province, southwest China. The variation in the recovery of forests with different water availability and canopy heights was quantitatively assessed at the regional scale by using canopy height data based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) measurements, enhanced vegetation index data, and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) data. Our results indicated that forest recovery was affected by water availability and canopy height. Based on the enhanced vegetation index measures, shorter trees were more likely to recover than taller ones after drought. Further analyses demonstrated that the effect of canopy height on recovery rates after drought also depends on water availability—the effect of canopy height on recovery diminished as water availability increased after drought. Additional analyses revealed that when the water availability exceeded a threshold (SPEI > 0.85), no significant difference in the recovery was found between short and tall trees (p > 0.05). In the context of global climate change, future climate scenarios of RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 showed more frequent water stress in Yunnan by the end of the 21st century. In summary, our results indicated that canopy height casts an important influence on forest recovery and tall trees have greater vulnerability and risk to dieback and mortality from drought. These results may have broad implications for policies and practices of forest management.
The Active Jasmonate JA-Ile Regulates a Specific Subset of Plant Jasmonate-Mediated Resistance to Herbivores in Nature

The jasmonate hormones are essential regulators of plant defense against herbivores and include several dozen derivatives of the oxylipin jasmonic acid (JA). Among these, the conjugate jasmonoyl isoleucine (JA-Ile) has been shown to interact directly with the jasmonate co-receptor complex to regulate responses to jasmonate signaling. However, functional studies indicate that some aspects of jasmonate-mediated defense are not regulated by JA-Ile. Thus, it is not clear whether JA-Ile is best characterized as the master jasmonate regulator of defense, or if it regulates more specific aspects. We investigated possible functions of JA-Ile in anti-herbivore resistance of the wild tobacco Nicotiana attenuata, a model system for plant-herbivore interactions. We first analyzed the soluble and volatile secondary metabolomes of irJAR4xirJAR6, asLOX3, and WT plants, as well as an RNAi line targeting the jasmonate co-receptor CORONATINE INSENSITIVE 1 (irCOI1), following a standardized herbivory treatment. irJAR4xirJAR6 were the most similar to WT plants, having a ca. 60% overlap in differentially regulated metabolites with either asLOX3 or irCOI1. In contrast, while at least 25 volatiles differed between irCOI1 or asLOX3 and WT plants, there were few or no differences in herbivore-induced volatile emission between irJAR4xirJAR6 and WT plants, in glasshouse- or field-collected samples. We then measured the susceptibility of jasmonate-deficient vs. JA-Ile-deficient plants in nature, in comparison to wild-type (WT) controls, and found that JA-Ile-deficient plants (irJAR4xirJAR6) are much better defended even than a mildly jasmonate-deficient line (asLOX3). The differences among lines could be attributed to differences in damage from specific herbivores, which appeared to prefer either one or the other jasmonate-deficient phenotype. We further investigated the elicitation of one herbivore-induced volatile known to be jasmonate-regulated and to mediate resistance to herbivores: (E)-α-bergamotene. We found that JA was a more potent elicitor of (E)-α-bergamotene emission than was JA-Ile, and when treated with JA, irJAR4xirJAR6 plants emitted 20- to 40-fold as much (E)-α-bergamotene than WT. We conclude that JA-Ile regulates specific aspects of herbivore resistance in N. attenuata. This specificity may allow plants flexibility in their responses to herbivores and in managing trade-offs between resistance, vs. growth and reproduction, over the course of ontogeny.
Effect of coil structures on performance of a four-coil WPT powered medical implantable devices

Wireless power transfer technology (WPT) is rigorously gaining huge prospect in medical implantable devices such as pacemakers, left ventricle assist devices (LVAD), deep brain stimulator etc. The major challenges faced while designing the WPT system for medical implants are the size of the coils and the power transfer efficiency. Hence, alignment of the coils and their structures decides the performance of the overall system. In this paper, a four coil WPT system has been experimentally designed based on the dimensions suitable for LVAD system. The analytical design approach of the system and its parameters are presented in the paper. The performance of the four-coil system is tested at distinct air gaps between the coils and for various source frequencies. The lateral misalignment tolerance of the designed system is also tested for various coil-coil distances. The work presented in this paper, is mainly focused on the analysis of effect of coil structure on various parameters of the WPT system. The comparative results of the system for circular and square coil structures are verified and are documented in this paper.
Communication recurrence and similarity detection in network flows

Network flow analysis has applications in security monitoring. Flow analysis techniques like periodicity and self similarity detection are often used to model and understand the application traffic behavior. In this paper we propose a method to identify recurring and similar network flows which can be used in security monitoring. To identify recurring network flows we generate a communication graph of a host every ΔΤ time interval with its peers and find the intersection of these graphs successively. The edges which remain after the intersection will be used as candidates for similarity detection. We estimate the similarity between successive flows between a pair of hosts by measuring Manhattan distance between the features of flows. The recurring flow which shows small distance between successive flows will be identified as similar. Subsequently we adapt this technique to botnet detection as a case study. We experiment with a recently released public botnet dataset and show that our method is able to identify botnet C&C activities which exhibit similarity in communication.
A survey of autonomous mobile robot path planning approaches

Navigation is one of the pivotal and defining features of an autonomous robot. Essentially, the autonomous robot navigation problem can be divided into four parts namely: perception, localization, cognition and path planning, out of which path planning is important and has been a constant research topic. In this paper, a brief introduction and review of some of the path planning approaches (both classical and heuristic) is provided. The advantages and disadvantages of the methods are discussed.
Trajectory multiobjective optimization of hypersonic morphing aircraft based on variable sweep wing

In order to explore the application of morphing technology in hypersonic aircraft, a hypersonic morphing aircraft based on variable sweep wing is proposed, then the trajectory of glide phase is optimized through multiobjective optimization method. Firstly, the aerodynamic characteristics of different sweep morphing phases are offered, then the 3 degree of freedom dynamic model of free glide phase and the heat flux model of the leading edge of the wing are built. In the multiobjective optimization problem (MOP), the two optimization objectives are range of trajectory, the total heat of the leading edge of the wing, and the optimization variables include the Mach numbers when the aircraft is morphing, the angle of attack of different phases. MOP is solved by using the multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D). The numerical simulation results show that the proposed method can obtain the Pareto Front. Also, comparing to the non-morphing aircraft, the aircraft can achieve a larger range and a smaller total heat of the leading edge of the wing.
DEBTS: Delay Energy Balanced Task Scheduling in Homogeneous Fog Networks

Vehicular ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, Internet of Things, and mobile device-to-device communications can be modeled as different homogeneous fog networks, wherein similar terminals/things/devices/nodes are sharing their computation, communication, and storage resources in the neighborhood for achieving better system performance through effective collaborations. It is very desirable, but quite challenging, to simultaneously reduce service delay and energy consumption in such networks for delay-sensitive and energy-constraint applications, e.g., virtual reality and online 3-D gaming on mobile devices. In this paper, a cross-layer analytical framework is developed to formulate and study the balance between service delay and energy consumption. An effective control parameter <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is derived to characterize their tradeoff relationship during dynamic task scheduling processes in fog networks. Combining this analysis with Lyapunov optimization techniques, a novel delay energy balanced tasking scheduling (DEBTS) algorithm is proposed to minimize the overall energy consumption while reducing average service delay and delay jitter. It is proved that DEBTS can achieve the theoretical [<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${O(1/V), O(V)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>] tradeoff between these two performance metrics. Further, extensive simulation results show that DEBTS can offer much better delay-energy performance in task scheduling challenges. Specifically, for a typical <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> value of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${4 \times 10^{4}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, DEBTS can save 26% and 29% more energy, and at the same time, reduce average service delay by 29% and 32%, than traditional random scheduling and least busy scheduling algorithms, respectively.
An Asymmetric Evolutionary Bayesian Coalition Formation Game for Distributed Resource Sharing in a Multi-Cell Device-to-Device Enabled Cellular Network

We present a novel game, called evolutionary Bayesian coalition formation game, to model and analyze the problem of distributed resource sharing in a multi-cell device-to-device (D2D) enabled cellular network where the rationality of the players, i.e., device pairs, is bounded, e.g., due to limited information. Each player can make its decision on the channel to access with and without coordination. In the former case, the player works in D2D mode. In the latter case, the player forms a coalition with some other players and they connect to one base station in cellular mode. In this case, the player realizes its action after observing the actions of other players. Unlike classical coalition formation games where the player decides on its coalition to form by estimating its payoff, in the proposed game, the player forms a coalition and selects an action based on its current population state which is updated using a simple and scalable learning algorithm. We prove that the evolutionary coalition formation process converges to the unique equilibrium that induces a stable coalitional agreement. The proposed process is applied to a long-term evolution-advanced network where it shows a superior performance compared with other baseline resource sharing strategies.