Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Way to Interact With Robots

This thesis presents a new and portable robot control architecture for a multimodal user interface for interactive conversations with a robot. Multimodal user interfaces allow the robot to interact with more than one person within a group. Previous research produced architectures that allowed the robot to respond to different people in the conversation and determine which person is talking. However, there has been no architecture that can keep track of a multi-person conversation in the same way that a human can, by establishing and maintaining an identity for each person involved in the conversation. This thesis presents an architecture that attempts to mimic the way humans interact and view a conversation, allowing the robot to carry different conversations with multiple people. The proposed architecture brings the following main contributions. First, it allows for online learning of people’s faces, which can later be used for appropriately tracking the conversations. Second, it tracks the faces that are recognized in the field of vision to determine who is in the conversation and who has left the conversation. Third, this architecture allows for the robot to respond differently to various people who are in a different stage in the conversation. The robot can give an appropriate response to different people by keeping track of each person and where they are in the conversation. Fourth, in addition to using vision and facial recognition to track and identify users, the architecture will also incorporate sound localization
Realisation of Butterworth-type optical filters using 3×3 coupler ring resonators

Butterworth-type optical filters are realised using a combination of optical resonators which exhibit a single pole and single zero transfer function, quasi-all zero and quasi-all pole optical circuits. Design procedures as well as filter structures are proposed for optical lowpass, highpass and bandpass optical filters of even and odd orders. In particular, the [3/spl times/3] planar optical directional coupler has been employed with a direct feedback path and a single optical delay feedback to form a single-pole single-zero optical resonator. This is the basic block of cascaded sections of optical filters. [2/spl times/2] optical directional couplers have also been employed to construct interferometers and resonators having quasi-all pole or all zeros characteristics for cascading with the double feedback resonators to implement odd- and even-order modular optical filters.
Numerical Stability Analysis of Space-Time Finite Integration Method Based on the Dependent Domain Concept

A method for estimating the stability criterion in the space-time finite integration (FI) method using the subgrid technique was developed. Numerical- and analytical-dependent domains were compared to estimate the stability limit. Space-time subgrids locally refined with two, three, and four divisions were examined. The stability limit based on the proposed method almost agrees with that of the numerical experiment.
The influence and analysis of urban spatial elements on national economic development

ABSTRACT Cities play an essential role in promoting the development of the whole national economy. Many scholars have proposed different methods to study this problem, but all have ignored the critical influence of network attention on the economy. Therefore, this study uses big Network data to profoundly analyse the relationship between urban spatial development and economic growth in eastern, central, and western China, further study this issue, and provide theoretical support for urban economic development. This study first divides China into three regions: eastern, central, and western, then selects the indicators of the national economy and urban development from 2014 to 2019, and finally constructs a panel regression model to explore the relationship between urban space elements and national economic development. The results show that China’s national economic development is closely related to spatial factors such as urban transportation, environment, science and technology, energy consumption, and housing price. These findings will help to make full use of the natural advantages of each region and guide the rational planning of the urban economy. This study provides references for urban development planning and industrial transfer in various regions of China and offers feasible suggestions for China’s overall national economic growth.
TEDdet: Temporal Feature Exchange and Difference Network for Online Real-Time Action Detection

Localizing and interpreting human actions in videos require understanding the spatial and temporal context of the scenes. Aside from accurate detection, vast sensing scenarios in the real-world also mandate incremental, instantaneous processing of scenes under restricted computational budgets. However, state-of-the-art detectors fail to meet the above criteria. The main challenge lies in their heavy architectural designs and detection pipelines to reason pertinent spatiotemporal information, such as incorporating 3D Convolutoinal Neural Networks (CNN) or extracting optical flow. With this insight, we propose a lightweight action tubelet detector coined TEDdet which unifies complementary feature aggregation and motion modeling modules. Specifically, our Temporal Feature Exchange module induces feature interaction by adaptively aggregating 2D CNN features over successive frames. To address actors’ location shift in the sequence, our Temporal Feature Difference module accumulates approximated pair-wise motion among target frames as trajectory cues. These modules can be easily integrated with an existing anchor-free detector to cooperatively model action instances’ categories, sizes, and movement for precise tubelet generation. TEDdet exploits larger temporal strides to efficiently infer actions in a coarse-to-fine and online manner. Without relying on 3D CNN or optical flow models, our detector demonstrates competitive accuracy at an unprecedented speed (89 FPS) that is more compliant with realistic applications. Codes will be available at https://github.com/alphadadajuju/TEDdet.
Robust Optimal Control for Medical Treatment Decisions

ZHANG, YUANHUI. Robust Optimal Control for Medical Treatment Decisions. (Under the direction of Brian T. Denton.) Medical treatment decisions, such as glycemic control for type 2 diabetes patients, involve complex tradeoffs between the risks and benefits of treatment. The diversity of treatment options that patients can choose over time and uncertainty in future health outcomes results in a difficult sequential decision making problem. In this dissertation, we focus on developing quantitative models and methods for medical decision making, and we apply these models in the context of treatment decisions of glycemic control for patients with type 2 diabetes. We begin by reviewing the background of type 2 diabetes with the focus on treatment options for glycemic control. We also provide a review of the Markov decision process (MDP) and robust optimization literature which is relevant to the methodological aspect of this dissertation. We present a glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) Markov model, and use this model to evaluate and compare effectiveness and cost of treatment regimens for new and old hyperglycemia lowering medications for individuals newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Then, we present an MDP, based on the HbA1c Markov model, to optimize the sequence and time to initiate cost-effective medications with the objective of maximizing a patient’s quality-adjusted life-years prior to the first adverse event defined as a microand/or macro-vascular complication (e.g., heart attack, stroke, kidney failure) or death from any cause. The MDP optimally trades off the potential benefits from reducing HbA1c with the disutility associated with side effects of taking hyperglycemia lowering medications. We also analyze the impact of hypoglycemia on the MDP based optimal policy, and compare the MDP based optimal policy with published treatment guidelines. Finally, we extend the MDP to a robust MDP treatment model (RMDP-TM), which considers uncertainty in transition probability matrices. The RMDP-TM with a general uncertainty set is very difficult to solve. To deal with this, we relax the RMDP-TM and incorporate a new uncertainty set model for which we show that the relaxed RMDP-TM can be solved exactly. We also provide a fast algorithm to solve the RMDP-TM approximately. We present theoretical analysis related to properties of the RMDP-TM which can be used to achieve computational efficiency of solving the RMDP-TM. We conclude by summarizing the most important conclusions that can be drawn from this dissertation.
Small Prokaryotic DNA-Binding Proteins Protect Genome Integrity throughout the Life Cycle

Genomes of all organisms are persistently threatened by endogenous and exogenous assaults. Bacterial mechanisms of genome maintenance must provide protection throughout the physiologically distinct phases of the life cycle. Spore-forming bacteria must also maintain genome integrity within the dormant endospore. The nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) influence nucleoid organization and may alter DNA topology to protect DNA or to alter gene expression patterns. NAPs are characteristically multifunctional; nevertheless, Dps, HU and CbpA are most strongly associated with DNA protection. Archaea display great variety in genome organization and many inhabit extreme environments. As of yet, only MC1, an archaeal NAP, has been shown to protect DNA against thermal denaturation and radiolysis. ssDNA are intermediates in vital cellular processes, such as DNA replication and recombination. Single-stranded binding proteins (SSBs) prevent the formation of secondary structures but also protect the hypersensitive ssDNA against chemical and nuclease degradation. Ionizing radiation upregulates SSBs in the extremophile Deinococcus radiodurans.
Nonlinearity Reduction in a Fiber Fabry-Perot Interferometer Interrogated by a Wavelength Scanning Optical Source

A novel method to reduce the nonlinearity effect of a wavelength scanning diode laser interrogating a low-reflectivity Fabry-Perot interferometer is presented. The interferometer is used for refractive index measurement. The proposed method allows improving the resolution of the system from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3\times10$ </tex-math></inline-formula><sup>−4</sup> to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times10$ </tex-math></inline-formula><sup>−5</sup>; and generates a temperature insensitive sensing system. Using the resolution improvement and the temperature insensitivity, the proposed system was used to measure the thermo-optic coefficient of two liquid samples with well-known refractive index. To demonstrate the reliability of the proposed system, experimental results of the long-term performance of a six-month interval, using the same samples but different sensing heads, are presented. The proposed method allows the implementation of a standard four-pin diode laser as an optical source and a standard PIN photodetector for signal detection; permitting the implementation of a high-performance fiber sensor system based on small, light, and standard optoelectronic components. These characteristics are important for different applications such as medical and aerospace, for example, to monitor strain, curvature, pressure, and refractive index using fiber interferometers.
The unrecognized importance of carbon stocks and fluxes from swamps in Canada and the USA

Swamps are a highly significant wetland type in North America both in terms of areal extent and their role in terrestrial carbon cycling. These wetlands, characterized by woody vegetation cover, encompass a diverse suite of ecosystems, including broad-leaved, needle-leaved, mixedwood or shrub/thicket swamps. Uncertainties in the role of swamps in carbon uptake and release continue to be substantial due to insufficient data on variabilities in carbon densities across diverse swamp types and relatively few flux measurements from swamp sites. Robust measurements of rates of vertical accretion of swamp soils and the associated long-term rates of carbon accumulation, alongside measurements of carbon losses from swamps, are needed for emerging frameworks for carbon accounting, and for assessments of the impacts of climate warming and land use change on this important wetland type. Based on data compilation, we present here a comparative analysis from a series of North American swamp sites on carbon dioxide, methane and dissolved organic carbon fluxes, aboveground biomass, net primary productivity (NPP), and soil carbon properties including bulk densities, organic carbon contents, peat depths, rates of vertical accretion, and rates of long-term carbon accumulation. We compare these properties for four major swamp types: needle-leaved, broad-leaved, mixedwood and shrub/thicket swamps. We show differences in carbon fluxes, biomass and NPP across the four types, with broad-leaved swamps having the largest CH4 flux, highest soil bulk densities, thinnest peat depths and lowest soil organic matter contents, whereas needle-leaved swamps have the smallest CH4 flux, highest aboveground biomass and highest NPP. We show high soil carbon stocks (kg C m−2) in all types of swamps, even those where organic deposits were too shallow to meet the definition of peat. However, we note there is a significant lack of studies focused on swamp carbon dynamics despite their abundance across Canada and the United States.
Millimeter-wave UWB architecture for wireless sensor networks

Exploiting wireless communications has had an unstoppable growth in the last years. In this attracting scenario, the Ultra Wide Band (UWB) market represents one of the main interesting targets for semiconductor industry. The availability of newer and larger bandwidth in the frequency spectrum (60 GHz and 77 GHz) opens to the possibility of higher bitrates communications. The technology cost reduction is made possible by the use of silicon as semiconductor substrate in the place of classical heterojunction materials. The rapid reduction of the technological node (seen as the thinning of the gate channel) in the new generation of CMOS transistors allows obtaining faster transistors that become usable on V band applications. Therefore, the digital origin of the technology yields two additional advantages. First of all, the facilities for the circuits' production already exist as well as the recipe to create the devices on the substrate. The only additive cost remains the characterization of the technology at mm-wave frequencies. The second fundamental advantage is the possibility to have a complete integration of the system in the same dies with a substantial reduction of packaging and interconnection costs. The objectives of this thesis is the design and the modeling of a complete 60 GHz UWB transceiver starting from the characterization and the optimization of the single subcomponents. The main feature that constitutes the principal constraint of the entire work of this thesis is the high efficiency required for the transceiver front - end. The energy safe capability, in fact, represents the strength point of this project, being the system conceived for wireless sensors network applications. Passive components as inductors and RF lines, have been the first elements that have been designed and characterized. Then the structure of CMOS transistor have been analyzed and characterized in order to obtain performances as higher as possible, in particular for wide transistors. The knowledge acquired during this first part has allowed the developed of high quality factor inductors and high performance transistors (used in the design of upconversion mixer). In addition, the optimum correspondence between simulations and measurements combined with the gained experience on the RF electromagnetic simulations have been exploited to create a series of innovative (when possible) passive structures as baluns, power splitters and power couplers. The second significant part of this work has been consecrated to the modeling of a series of high performance active circuits in the transmitter and the receiver blocks (upconversion mixer, voltage controlled oscillator ad a series of differential and single-ended buffers). The behavior of these structures has been accurately investigated and optimized in order to be later efficiently integrated in the complete transceiver system. The systems are finally integrated in two different dies, transmitter and receiver blocks, and the 60 GHz link has been yield by a demostrator set-up.
The genome sequence of Anoplius nigerrimus (Scopoli, 1763), a spider wasp

We present a genome assembly from an individual Anoplius nigerrimus (Arthropoda; Insecta; Hymenoptera; Pompilidae) of unknown sex. The genome sequence is 624 megabases in span. In total, 45.75% of the assembly is scaffolded into 15 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome was also assembled and is 17.5 kilobases in length.
Impedance modeling and analysis of voltage‐source converter‐based high‐voltage direct current system for grid‐connected wind farm

Oscillation issues of the gird‐connected offshore wind farm through the voltage‐source converter‐based high‐voltage direct current (VSC‐HVDC) have serios influence on the grid stability. However, in the previous modeling and analysis for the VSC‐HVDC system, the receiving‐end inverter station is usually considered as a constant voltage source, neglecting the impact of the inverter and AC grid. In addition, the commonly used mitigation method by modifying control parameters usually does not consider its influence on the controller's control performance. To analyze the system stability more rigorously and suppress the oscillation effectively, in this work, we firstly establish a detailed impedance model of VSC‐HVDC considering the inverter station and DC transmission line, based on which the stability analysis is also presented. Furthermore, an oscillation suppression method based on intelligent impedance optimization is proposed, which is solved by Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The proposed impedance optimization method can achieve the maximum stability margin while the transient dynamic performance is still guaranteed, thereby suppressing the oscillation of the system. Simulations are conducted in PSCAD/EMTDC to validate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed modeling and suppression method.
Isolation of phosphate solubilizing bacteria from root rhizosphere to supplement biofertilizer

In soil, a large amount of supplemented phosphorus (P) are immediately transferred into insoluble forms and only 0.1 % of them is available for plant uptake. Therefore, exploring naturally occurring phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms is an essential activity to exploit them in reducing mineral phosphorus added to agricultural soils. In this study, we screened and isolated 7 bacteria that solubilized phosphate at different phosphate solubilization indexes, ranging from 4.2 to 226.1. Of them, the most efficient isolate is PSB31, which solubilized tri calcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2 at a rate of 962 mg l-1 and molecularly identified as Bacillus sp. (in: Bacteria) strain IMAU61039. This bacterial strain generated the low supernatant pH and the phosphatase, which are involved in the phosphorus solubilization mechanism. Furthermore, greenhouse experiments showed that tomato seedlings grown in PSB31-inoculated soil contained higher P amount and had much higher biomass than those plants grown in soil without PSB31 addition. These results suggest that the PSB31 strain has potential use as a biofertilizer.
A Bayesian joint model for continuous and zero-inflated count data in developmental toxicity studies

In many applications, we frequently encounter correlated multiple outcomes measured on the same subject. Joint modeling of such multiple outcomes can improve e ﬃ ciency of inference compared to independent modeling. For instance, in developmental toxicity studies, fetal weight and number of malformed pups are measured on the pregnant dams exposed to di ﬀ erent levels of a toxic substance, in which the association between such outcomes should be taken into account in the model. The number of malformations may possibly have many zeros, which should be analyzed via zero-inﬂated count models. Motivated by applications in developmental toxicity studies, we propose a Bayesian joint modeling framework for continuous and count outcomes with excess zeros. In our model, zero-inﬂated Poisson (ZIP) regression model would be used to describe count data, and a subject-speciﬁc random e ﬀ ects would account for the correlation across the two outcomes. We implement a Bayesian approach using MCMC procedure with data augmentation method and adaptive rejection sampling. We apply our proposed model to dose-response analysis in a developmental toxicity study to estimate the benchmark dose in a risk assessment.
Association of Dietary Intake of Polyphenols with an Adequate Nutritional Profile in Postpartum Women from Argentina

HJ-Biplot analysis is a multivariate graphic representation that collects data covariation structure between variables and individuals to represent them in a low-dimensional space with the highest quality in the same reference system. Consequently, it is a promising technique for evaluating dietary exposure to polyphenols and accurately characterizing female nutrition. Herein, we hypothesized that polyphenol intake defines specific clusters with dietary impacts, which can be assessed using HJ-Biplot, based on a cross-sectional study in Argentina. The study included 275 healthy postpartum women who provided information about their food frequency intake and other conditions, which were then used to evaluate polyphenolic intake using the Phenol-Explorer database. Outcomes were established using HJ-Biplot for clustering and ANOVA to compare their impact on diet quality indicators. Two HJ-Biplot models were run (for intakes >20 mg/d and 5∼20 mg/d, respectively) to identify three clusters per model with excellent statistical fitness to explain the data. Thus, specific polyphenolic clusters with potentially bioactive and safe compounds were defined despite significant interindividual variability. In fact, women with the lowest polyphenolic intake exhibited worse dietary quality, body fat, and physical activity. As a result, HJ-Biplot proved to be an effective technique for clustering women based on their dietary intake of these compounds. Furthermore, cluster membership improved the intake of antioxidants, water, fiber, and healthy fats. Additionally, women with formal jobs and a higher educational level showed a better diet. Dietary polyphenols are critical during postpartum because they exert beneficial effects on women and breastfed infants.