Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance Evaluation of ARQ Error Control Schemes in HIPERLAN/2 Systems

High data-rate wireless access systems are currently under discussion since the demand for wireless multimedia communication is rapidly increasing due to strong advances in wireless Internet services. Reliable high-speed data communications is one of the major challenges with regards to harsh conditions. With the necessity for high data rates, linear multi-level modulation schemes are becoming more and more important in wireless communication systems since they are bandwidth efficient. In this thesis protocols are designed and evaluated which improve system performance by combining ARQ-induced retransmissions through multipath channels in order to reduce the latency and improve the system throughput. The starting point is to show that the employment of simple packet combining schemes to wireless LANs such as IEEE 802.11, can achieve a considerable performance gain with the addition of only a small increase in complexity. A low-complexity method for enhancing and exploiting retransmission diversity by varying the bit-to-symbol mapping for each retransmission of a packet is evaluated. The selected mappings are chosen in order to maximize a bit log likelihood ratio (LLR) based metric. An ARQ scheme is also proposed, which combines retransmissions and bandwidth efficient multi-level modulation techniques with a change in the symbol mapping for every retransmission. The main idea behind this proposal is to take advantage of the extra dimension provided by a retransmission diversity scheme in improving the power efficiency if the used modulation without altering the diversity order of the system. Considering the overall scheme as one entity it is possible to obtain a transmission scheme able to perform very well in both additive Gaussian and fading channels without increase in receiver complexity. Finally, multiple antenna systems with ARQ functionality are evaluated. It has been established that using multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver along with intelligent signal design enables us to achieve better reliability as well as increase the transmission rate. In this thesis a space-time block coded hybrid ARQ scheme is considered which exploits both the spatial and time diversity of the MIMO channel. A bit-to-symbol mapping ARQ scheme suitable for multiple antenna systems is also considered.
Task-Based Mass Optimization of Reconfigurable Robotic Manipulator Systems

Title of Document: TASK-BASED MASS OPTIMIZATION OF RECONFIGURABLE ROBOTIC MANIPULATOR SYSTEMS Nathan Thomas Koelln, Master of Science, 2006 Directed By: Dr. David L. Akin, Department of Aerospace Engineering This work develops a method for implementing task-based mass optimization of modular, reconfigurable manipulators. Link and joint modules are selected from a library of potential parts and assembled into serial manipulator configurations. A genetic algorithm is used to search over the potential set of combinations to find mass-minimized solutions. To facilitate the automatic evaluation required by the genetic algorithm, Denavit-Hartenberg parameters are automatically generated from module combinations. Reconfigurable manipulators are shown to be lighter than fixed-topology manipulators, demonstrating the potential utility of reconfigurable robotics technology for mass reduction in space robots. TASK-BASED MASS OPTIMIZATION OF RECONFIGURABLE ROBOT MANIPULATOR SYSTEMS
Identification of Histomonas meleagridis by in vitro microculture and polymerase chain reaction

Background: In this study, methods for the in vitro microculture of Histomonas meleagridis were defined to lay the foundation for further study of its diagnosis, life cycle, and pathogenic mechanism. Methods: After serial dilutions of H. meleagridis, a single parasite was taken and cultured at 40°C. Its proliferation was checked by microscopy, and an 18S rRNA gene fragment of H. meleagridis was amplified using specific primers (Hmf/Hmr) and sequenced. The sequences were assembled manually and aligned using the Clustal X 1.81 program. Results: Two tubes showed proliferation of parasites and, after infection with parasites from these tubes, acute histomoniasis was rapidly induced in turkeys. 18S rRNA gene fragments of the two strains were 492 and 495 base pairs in length, respectively, and the sequence homologies with known H. meleagridis sequences were both 99.4%. Sequence homology between these two strains was 99.6%, and the variation between the two sequences and Trichomonas was more than 20%. Conclusion: We conclude that microculture can produce high-purity and highly pathogenic
A Study on the Pitch Search Time Reduction of G.723.1 Vocoder by Improved Hybrid Domain Cross-correlation

In this paper we proposed a new algorithm that can reduce the open-loop pitch estimation time of G.723. 1. The time domain cross-correlation method is simple but has long processing time by recursive multiplication. For reduction of processing time, we use the method that compute the cross-correlation by multiplying the Fourier value of speech by it's complex conjugate. Also, we can reduce the processing time by omitting the bit-reversing of FFT and IFFT for time-frequency domain transform. As a result, the processing time of improved hybrid domain cross-correlation algorithm is reduced by 67.37% of conventional time domain cross-correlation.
Identification of dynamic parameters of modified LuGre model and application to hydraulic actuator (日本フルードパワーシステム学会論文集)

This paper deals with the identification of dynamic parameters included in the modified LuGre model and the identification method is applied to a hydraulic actuator. In order to simulate dynamic behaviors of friction of a hydraulic actuator well, Yanada and Sekikawa have modified the LuGre model by incorporating lubricant film dynamics into the LuGre model and have shown that the dynamic friction behaviors of a hydraulic actuator can be simulated by the modified LuGre model with a relatively good accuracy10). However, no method to identify the dynamic parameters included in the modified LuGre model has been proposed yet. In this paper, a method to identify the dynamic parameters, i.e., the time constant of lubricating film dynamics and the bristle stiffness is proposed. Using a single rod hydraulic cylinder, friction characteristics are experimentally investigated under various conditions of velocity variation under different supply pressures. The friction force of the hydraulic cylinder is measured based on the equation of motion using measured values of the pressures in the cylinder chambers and the acceleration of the hydraulic piston. Measured friction characteristics are compared with simulated ones by the modified LuGre model. It is shown that the dynamic behaviors of friction simulated using the parameters identified by the proposed method agree relatively well with those obtained by experiments and that the proposed identification method is appropriate. It is also shown that the time constant becomes longer under higher pressures and that the bristle stiffness does not depend on the pressure.
Quality Modelling for Web-based Information Systems

The scope and complexity of current World Wide Web applications vary widely: from small scale, short-lived services to large-scale enterprise applications distributed across the Internet and corporate intranets and extranets. As Web applications have evolved, the demands placed on Web-based systems and the complexity of designing, developing, maintaining, and managing these systems have also increased significantly. They provided vast, dynamic information in multiple media formats (graphics, images, and video). Web site design for these and many other applications demand balance among information content, aesthetics, and performance. In accordance with the growth of the Internet and World Wide Web, there has been some research on quality issues of Web-based software systems. The main problems and challenges in a chieving high quality of the Web-based information systems are discussed in the paper.
Computer program for increment-decrement (multistate) life table analysis: a user's manual to LIFEINDEC

This paper lists and describes a FORTRAN computer program to calculate increment-decrement (multistate) life tables. It has been adapted from the program for multiregional life table analysis, published in Willekens and Rogers (1978). The use of the program is illustrated for a four-state marital-status life table for Belgium and a two-state working life table for Denmark.
A Parallel Multiscale Mixed Finite-Element Method for the Matlab Reservoir Simulation Toolbox

We start by giving a brief introduction to reservoirs and reservoir modelling at different scales. We introduce a mathematical model for the two-phase flow, before we look at numerical discretizations. In particular we look at the Multiscale Mixed Finite-Element (MsMFE) Method from the Matlab Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST), developed by SINTEF. Next we introduce a mimetic method, (with the inverse ip_simple inner product, wich is used for solving the local flow problems required to construct the basis functions used in the MsMFE method. After we have given a short introduction to parallel computing, and some common terms, we introduce a parallel MsMFE method. The method makes use of the Matlab Parallel Computing Toolbox, and it lets us calculate the inner products, as well as construct the basis functions of the MsMFE Method, in parallel. The new method makes use of a structure for storing the inner products that proves to be facillitate faster construction of the required basis functions than the regular structure used in MRST. We conclude that the new functions performs quite well, and consequently that the MsMFE method is well-suited for parallelization; additinally we conclude that the Parallel Computing Toolbox works well for this task. We note that, for larger problems, the parallel MsMFE method displays a near linear speedup for up to twelve Matlab workers. The new parallel functions are released as a module for MRST under the GNU General Public License (GPL). They can be downloaded from http://master.andershoff. net.
A Study on Updating the Knowledge Structure Using New Topic Detection Methods

This study utilizes various approaches for new topic detection in the process of assigning and updating descriptors, which is a representation method of the knowledge structure. Particularly in the case of occurring changes on the knowledge structure due to the appearance and development of new topics in specific study areas, new topic detection can be applied to solving the impossibility or limitation of the existing index terms in representing subject concepts. This study confirms that the majority of newly developing topics in information science are closely associated with each other and are simultaneously in the phase of growth and development. Also, this study shows the possibility that the use of candidate descriptor lists generated by new topic detection methods can be an effective tool in assisting indexers. In particular. the provision of candidate descriptor lists to help assignment of appropriate descriptors will contribute to the improvement of the effectiveness and accuracy of indexing.
Ef ﬁ cient Energy Saving Scheme for On-Chip Caches

— With the reduction in feature size the static power component, such as the leakage power, dominates the dynamic power consumption in the on-chip caches. It has been observed that[2] all cache lines need not be kept active at all times. Only a very few lines during a given window of time need to be actively powered from the footprint, i.e., they are accessed during that time. Earlier research [2] has addressed the issue of how to determine the set of active lines and how long to keep them active (powered). Circuit techniques have also been developed to keep a cache line in low leakage state i.e., Drowsy State when the line is not being accessed or used. Such a cache is called drowsy cache. These circuit techniques try to achieve maximum reduction in the leakage power without losing the information content and with minimal performance penalty associated with power transitions. These techniques when used with optimal switching scheme, which decides when and what lines to drowse, results in maximum reduction in energy consumed. In this paper, we study the cache access pattern to evaluate them and arrive at an optimal scheme to implement the drowsy cache. We achieve energy reduction on the average of 88% of maximum gain achievable through the underlying circuit technique. We also compare the performance of our scheme with the earlier proposed schemes and show that we can achieve up to 6% of higher saving in cache energy for the benchmarks studied (with an average on 4% for all benchmarks with equal weights) without any additional performance penalty.
Understanding and Improving the Use of Writing Portfolios in One French Immersion Classroom.

I had three principal goals in using the teaching format of writing portfolios: (a) to provide regular corrective written feedback to my students in order to improve the linguistic accuracy of their written French, (b) to explore how the combined activities required of the students in their writing portfolio improved their written French, and (c) to enhance my students’ responsibility as second language writers.
Layout of functional modules and routing for preliminary design of automatic teller machines

In this study we address the preliminary design for the module layout and bill conveyance routes of automatic teller machines (ATMs). We determine a two-dimensional layout for the modules as below that are approximately rectangular if the ATM is viewed from the side. ATMs require the compact placement of modules within the chassis and conveyance routes that smoothly circulate bills. However, the intersection and overlapping of routes by which the bills are conveyed in opposite directions are not allowed. Applying the bottom-left method and route-design-oriented packing method to the layout of the modules and the direction-oriented maze routing expediting branching and interfl ow of routes to the bill conveyance route, the application orders are optimized simultaneously using genetic algorithms (GAs). Results show that suitable designs for the ATM including the case when modules are selected as well as placed are achievable using the above simultaneous optimization. The design intention is expressible by changing the weights associated with chassis dimensions, route lengths and the number of route bends, which compose the objective function. The proposed method is useful for effi ciently advancing the preliminary design of ATMs. Finally, if island models pursuing individual targets are used along with a GA, the design becomes even more effi cient.
Rational Multiparty Computation

Wallrabenstein, John Ross Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2014. Rational Multiparty Computation. Major Professor: Chris Clifton. The field of rational cryptography considers the design of cryptographic protocols in the presence of rational agents seeking to maximize local utility functions. This departs from the standard secure multiparty computation setting, where players are assumed to be either honest or malicious. We detail the construction of both a two-party and a multiparty game theoretic framework for constructing rational cryptographic protocols. Our framework specifies the utility function assumptions necessary to realize the privacy, correctness, and fairness guarantees for protocols. We demonstrate that our framework correctly models cryptographic protocols, such as rational secret sharing, where existing work considers equilibrium concepts that yield unreasonable equilibria. Similarly, we demonstrate that cryptography may be applied to the game theoretic domain, constructing an auction market not realizable in the original formulation. Additionally, we demonstrate that modeling players as rational agents allows us to design a protocol that destabilizes coalitions. Thus, we establish a mutual benefit from combining the two fields, while demonstrating the applicability of our framework to real-world market environments. We also give an application of game theory to adversarial interactions where cryptography is not necessary. Specifically, we consider adversarial machine learning, where the adversary is rational and reacts to the presence of a data miner. We give a general extension to classification algorithms that returns greater expected utility for the data miner than existing classification methods.
What makes a construction predictable? Using semantic and contextual cues to better model phonetic reduction

There is a growing body of evidence that more predictable linguistic material is processed more quickly. It is read faster in comprehension [8,10] and is phonetically reduced in production [1,4,7]. However, we still only have a limited understanding of which information sources are tracked for the purpose of predicting linguistic events. The predictability measures previously used track simple local and lexical relationships (bigram probability and verb bias). However, nonlocal information has been shown to affect syntactic choices in spontaneous production [2,5,6]. Using a corpus study of the dative alternation, we show that predictability estimates that incorporate contextual and semantic properties predict the extent of phonetic reduction better than strictly local measures.
Towards EDI Enabled Cost Efficient Supply Chain Flexibility

Summary This paper describes a new modelling technique to visualise and assess the impact of EDI enabled process redesign options for a supply chain and its participants, both in terms of flexibility and costs. Flexibility is defined here as the ability to meet a wide variety of customer demand (versatility) in a short period of time (agility). The research claim is that supply chains and organisations are better capable of meeting a wide variety of demand, when EDI enabled process redesign options are implemented which both increase flexibility and reduce costs. Four applications of the new modelling technique, which is called the modular design approach, in the air cargo transportation industry support this claim.
Production Economics: Integrating the Microeconomic and Engineering Perspectives

Overview: Introduction. - Microeconomic Foundations. - Efficiency Measurement. - Productivity and Performance Measurement. - Engineering Models of Technology. - Mathematical Appendix. - A Word of Advice. - Microeconomic Foundations: Production Functions. - Formal Description of Technology. - Nonparametric Models of Technology. - Cost Function. - Indirect Production Function. - Distance Functions. - Nonconvex Models of Technology. - Efficiency Measurement: Efficiency Analysis. - The Two-Dimensional Projection. - Multi-Stage Efficiency Analysis. - Efficiency Analysis of Warehouse and Distribution Operations. - Productivity and Performance Measurement: Index Numbers. - Productivity Measurement. - Performance Measurement. - Economic Analysis. - Engineering Models of Technology: Index-Based Dynamic Production Functions. - Distribution-Based Dynamic Production Functions. - Dynamic Production Function Approximations. - A Stochastic Input-Output Model. - Multi-Stage, Dynamic Models of Technology. - Optimizing Labor Resources Within a Warehouse. - Mathematical Appendix: A Notation and Mathematical Preliminaries: Logical Statements. - Sets. - Vectors. -Correspondences. - Functions. - Matrices. - Differentiability. - B Real Analysis: Linear Spaces. - Definition. - Examples. - Linear Independence and Dimension. -Normed Linear Spaces. - Definition.
Case-based reasoning and its relation to information fusion

This paper gives a survey on case-based reasoning (CBR) and its relation with information fusion. The main content of the paper consists of two parts. The first part highlights the general CBR concept as well as the knowledge modeling issue in CBR systems development. The second part is devoted to exploration of relation between CBR and information fusion. We discuss how CBR can be viewed in an information fusion framework and how both methodologies can support each other. Keywordscasse-based reasoning;, information fusion; knowledge model; similarity, fuzzy rule
Representation, evaluation and editing of feature-based and constraint-based design

This thesis investigates a general and systematic approach to feature-based and constraint-based design. We combine feature-based design and constraint-based design by globally decomposing a design into a sequence of feature attachments and locally defining and positioning each feature by constraints. Analogous to the concept of high-level programming languages, we formalize a layered design model that eliminates the dependency of a design representation on a solid modeler. With this design model, design intent, such as feature descriptions and constraints, is stored in an unevaluated, modeler-independent design representation while the geometry to which it corresponds is stored in an evaluated, modeler-dependent design representation. The separation essentially relies on a naming and matching schema that converts between a geometric reference and a generic name, and a design compiler that automatically instantiates the unevaluated design representation to an evaluated design representation with respect to a solid modeler. The geometric references for defining feature attributes and constraints are recorded with their generic names in the unevaluated design representation. We propose several techniques for naming geometric entities unambiguously. The design compilation or instantiation involves remapping a generic name back to a geometric reference in the selected geometric modeler, solving constraints and implementing feature operations or attachments. Instead of developing a constraint solver for this design compiler, we use an independent and general solver. Feature attachment operations are different from classical Boolean operations in solid modeling. However, we provide a semantics for them that is based on existing operations in solid modeling. The layered design model allows users to edit archived conceptual designs to derive new designs quickly. We investigate the coordination of later features in the unevaluated and modeler-independent representation when a feature is edited and provide a method for editing feature-based and constraint-based design. We also discuss how to extend this work to a commercial feature-based and constraint-based CAD system.
GeoMesa: a distributed architecture for spatio-temporal fusion

Recent advances in distributed databases and computing have transformed the landscape of spatio-temporal machine learning. This paper presents GeoMesa, a distributed spatio-temporal database built on top of Hadoop and column-family databases such as Accumulo and HBase, that includes a suite of tools for indexing, managing and analyzing both vector and raster data. The indexing techniques use space filling curves to map multi-dimensional data to the single lexicographic list managed by the underlying distributed database. In contrast to traditional non-distributed RDBMS, GeoMesa is capable of scaling horizontally by adding more resources at runtime; the index rebalances across the additional resources. In the raster domain, GeoMesa leverages Accumulo's server-side iterators and aggregators to perform raster interpolation and associative map algebra operations in parallel at query time. The paper concludes with two geo-time data fusion examples: using GeoMesa to aggregate Twitter data by keywords; and georegistration to drape full-motion video (FMV) over terrain.