Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compact Planar Multistandard MIMO Antenna for IoT Applications

A novel compact single-substrate planar multiband five-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system is presented in this paper. The tunable two-element folded meandered MIMO antenna covers the long-term evolution frequency bands below 1 GHz (687–813 MHz) and radio frequency identification bands centered around 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. The other two-element compact MIMO antennas operate over 754–971 MHz, 1.65–1.83 GHz, 2–3.66 GHz, and 5.1–5.6 GHz frequency bands. Furthermore, the proposed antenna elements are integrated with a wideband sensing antenna for the spectrum sensing in 0.668–1.94 and 3–4.6 GHz, which also acts as the ground plane for the MIMO elements in the cognitive radio application environment. The antenna is fabricated on a 65 mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times \,\, 120$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times \,\, 1.56$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm low-cost FR-4 substrate. The antenna’s radiation characteristics are experimentally verified, and the results are in agreement with the full-wave simulation. The 3-D radiation pattern-based envelope correlation coefficient of the MIMO antennas is also experimentally verified which is below the desired value of 0.5. Finally, to show its utility at the Internet-of-Things platform, the antenna is tested in the realistic application environment.
Geographic patterns of genetic and morphological variation of the Sicilian wall lizard Podarcis wagleriana

The unique conditions of island environments make them particularly interesting systems to study genetic and morphological variation and to assess the evolutionary processes that determine them. Sicily is the largest island of the Mediterranean basin that, considering its complex paleogeographic history and geographic features and its heterogeneous environments, provides an excellent setting to investigate microevolutionary processes that have led to present day diversity of its endemic taxa. In this context, we investigated the diversity, both at the genetic and morphological level, of the wall lizard Podarcis wagleriana, a species strictly endemic to Sicily and its satellite islands. We used two mitochondrial markers (nd4 and cytb) to assess the genetic structure and investigate the phylogeographic patterns of the species based on samples from 24 different localities. This analysis revealed three distinct mitochondrial clades, located in the west, east and north of the range, likely originated in distinct glacial refugia during Pleistocene, thus conforming to the “refugia within refugia” model. Allopatric divergence in isolated refugia as well as demographic expansions followed by secondary contacts, probably played a major role in shaping the genetic diversity patterns of this species. To assess the morphological variation of P. wagleriana, three morphological character sets (size, pholidosis, head shape) were analyzed in individuals from 37 different localities. Our results indicated that in most cases the variation was spatially structured and could be explained as the result of phenotypic plasticity or adaptations to local environmental and ecological conditions. However, some characters (head shape) showed also concordance with genetic patterns, indicating that the long persistence in Pleistocene refugia could have also triggered natural selection on certain characters.
Photo-stimulated discharge current measurements on biaxially oriented polypropylene thin films (BOPP)

The photo-stimulated discharge method (PSD) is a very good tool to estimate charge trap energy levels in transparent or semi-transparent materials. Its advantage, when compared to thermally stimulated discharge (TSD), is to probe deeper charge traps without any thermal effect that can affect the material microstructure and the charge stability. In this work, PSD measurements were performed on biaxially oriented polypropylene films. The PSD spectrum shows two peaks located at 400nm and 240nm scanning light wavelength. The effect of the electrode structure (fingered vs. continuous electrodes) and the effect of applied field intensity are discussed.
An indoor multipath-assisted single-anchor UWB localization method

In this paper, an indoor Ultra Wide Band (U localization system relying on a single-anchor setup is prese Conventional UWB localization systems require at least i anchors for trilateration, which leads to high system complexity and cost. Hence new technologies, such as the Virtual An (VA) approach are emerging to achieve single-anchor localiza The VA concept models Multipath Components (MPCs individual distance measurements thus exploiting reflections the environment to aid the accuracy of the localization. Exi single-anchor approaches require a priori information of pre” tag positions to estimate the current tag position. The novelty of this paper is an initialization method that enables estimate tag position without the use of a priori position information. The proposed solution is validated using both simulations and measurements. Both simulations and measurements have shown positive results, which indicates that single-anchor location is feasible.
Cryptic diversity and unexpected evolutionary patterns in the meadow lizard, Darevskia praticola (Eversmann, 1834)

Darevskia praticola differs from the other species of the genus in having a large but disjunct distribution, covering the Balkan and the Caucasus regions. Furthermore, most Darevskia species occupy saxicolous habitats, whereas D. praticola inhabits meadows and forest environments. Here we determine the phylogeographic and phylogenetic relationships of Darevskia praticola sensu lato and evaluate the current, morphology-based taxonomy. We sequenced two mtDNA genes (Cyt-b and ND4) and two nuclear loci (MC1R and RELN) for samples collected across the species range. Because our sequences amplified with the Cyt-b primers appear to represent a nuclear pseudogene we excluded this marker from the final analysis. Our results support monophyly of D. praticola and show its division into three clades. The first divergence, dated to the Late Pliocene, is between the Balkans and the Caucasus. The Caucasus lineage is further subdivided in a western Greater Caucasus and a Transcaucasia clade, likely due to subsequent differentiation during the Pleistocene. Our findings do not support the current taxonomic arrangement within D. praticola. The main geographic divergence likely happened due to a vicariance event associated with Plio-Pleistocene climatic and vegetation oscillations.
Abnormal Blink Reflex and Intermuscular Coherence in Writer's Cramp

Background: Writer's cramp (WC) is a task-specific focal hand dystonia presenting with pain, stiffness and/or tremor while writing. We explored the involvement of cortical and brainstem circuits by measuring intermuscular coherence (IMC) and pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) of the blink reflex. Methods: IMC was measured in 10 healthy controls and 20 WC patients (10 with associated tremor) while they performed a precision grip task at different force levels. Blink responses were evaluated in 9 healthy controls and 10 WC patients by stimulating the right supraorbital nerve and recording surface EMG from the orbicularis oculi muscles bilaterally. PPI involved conditioning this stimulation with a prior shock to the right median nerve (100 ms interval), and measuring the reduction in the R2 component of the blink reflex. Results: Significant IMC at 3–7 Hz was present in WC patients, but not in healthy controls. Compared to healthy controls, in WC patients the R2 component of the blink reflex showed significantly less PPI. IMC at 3–7 Hz could reliably discriminate WC patients from healthy controls. Conclusion: Cortical or sub-cortical circuits generating theta (3–7 Hz) oscillations might play an important role in the pathogenesis of WC. Moreover, the lack of PPI implicates abnormalities in brainstem inhibition in the emergence of WC. IMC may merit further development as an electrodiagnostic test for focal dystonia.
Gamification and virtual reality for teaching mobile x-ray imaging

Mobile x-ray devices like C-arms are routinely used in the operating room to assist in surgical interventions. C-arms need to be adequately operated to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure and intraoperative delays. We present a simulation-based training system to support training of operating room personnel in a virtual environment. To make learning more efficient and enjoyable we integrated aspects of gamification. In a game-like setting the user has to generate specific radiographs of a virtual patient. Game points are awarded with regard to image accuracy time needed and overall radiation exposure. To learn basics of C-arm handling and x-ray imaging non-medical objects can be examined as a first step. A virtual reality interface is provided to allow the user to interact with the C-arm in a more realistic way. User evaluations show that this approach is widely appreciated as providing a user-friendly and sufficiently realistic training tool with a high educational value for intraoperative C-arm imaging.
Efficient Colorful Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy Reconstruction With Wavelet Fusion

Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) is a recently developed microscope that offers wide field, high resolution, and quantitative phase imaging. Combining the concepts of ptychography, synthetic aperture, and phase retrieval, FPM overcomes the space-bandwidth-product (SBP) limit of the optical system. In FPM, a LED array is used as the illumination module and specimen images illuminated with angular varying illuminations are captured. These images are synthesized to recover the high SBP complex field of the specimen. There have been many improvements of FPM since its appearance and FPM is of great potential in the field of hematology and pathology. However, low efficiency in capturing data, especially in the situation of capturing all three color channels, limits the application of FPM. Although spectral multiplex strategy for FPM is developed, the reconstruction quality and speed is decreased for exchanging the capture efficiency. On the other hand, the reconstruction quality of FPM is significantly degraded by the imaging noise in the dark-field images because the high-frequency information in dark-field images is of low energy and contaminated by noise. In this paper, we propose an efficient colorful FPM reconstruction method using multi-resolution wavelet color fusion. We also propose an adaptive denoising method by analyzing the noise information of the dark-frame. Both simulation and experiment results are carried out to validate our methods. Results demonstrate that the imaging noise is suppressed and the colorful reconstruction is of high efficiency and quality.
Breakdown characteristics of liquid nitrogen in non-uniform electric fields

The AC breakdown (BD) voltages and partial discharge (PD) characteristics of liquid nitrogen (LN2) in non-uniform electric fields were investigated with the objective to improve insulating arrangements of superconducting devices cooled with LN2. The tested electrode configuration consisted of a plane earthed electrode with a diameter of 140 mm and tip electrodes with tip radii from 0.1 mm to 2.0 mm. The distance between plane and tip electrodes was varied from 10 mm up to 50 mm resulting in field utilization factors between roughly 0.006 and 0.233. The pressure of LN2 was changed from normal pressure up to an absolute pressure of 0.49 MPa at a constant temperature of 77 K To investigate the ignition of the BD process more in detail PD inception and extinction voltages of the different arrangements were measured at normal pressure. The results reveal that the pressure has only a rather small influence on the BD strength of LN2 in non-uniform electrode arrangements. The pressure rise from 0.1 MPa to 0.49 MPa leads only to a maximum increase of the BD voltage of 40 %. With increasing electrode distance and decreasing tip radius the mean BD field strength decrease from values of roughly 8 kV/mm to values of 1.5 kV/mm, which are clearly lower than in uniform electric fields. The partial discharge measurements performed at normal pressure show that pre-discharges only occur in the case of field utilization factors smaller than 0.03 at inception voltages, which are roughly 50 % of the BD voltages. In all other cases the BDs occur without any pre-discharges.
Time-Aware Multi-Application Task Scheduling With Guaranteed Delay Constraints in Green Data Center

A growing number of companies deploy their applications in green data centers (GDCs) and provide services to tasks of global users. Currently, a growing number of GDC providers aim to maximize their profit by deploying green energy facilities and decreasing brown energy consumption. However, the temporal variation in the revenue, price of grid, and green energy in tasks’ delay bounds makes it challenging for GDC providers to achieve profit maximization while strictly guaranteeing delay constraints of all admitted tasks. Unlike existing studies, a time-aware task scheduling (TATS) algorithm that investigates the temporal variation and schedules all admitted tasks to execute in GDC meeting their delay bounds is proposed. In addition, this paper provides the mathematical modeling of task refusal and service rates. In each iteration, TATS solves the formulated profit maximization problem by hybrid chaotic particle swarm optimization based on simulated annealing. Compared with several existing scheduling algorithms, TATS can increase profit and throughput without violating delay constraints of all admitted tasks. Note to Practitioners—This paper investigates the profit maximization problem for a green data center (GDC) while meeting delay constraints for all admitted tasks. Previous task scheduling algorithms do not jointly investigate temporal variation in revenue, green energy, and price of grid. Thus, they fail to meet the delay constraints of all admitted tasks. In this paper, a new approach that overcomes drawbacks of existing algorithms is proposed. It is obtained by using a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm that solves a constrained nonlinear optimization problem. Simulation results show that compared with several existing algorithms, it increases both throughput and profit. It can be readily incorporated into real-life industrial GDCs. The future work needs to investigate the repair/failure effect of GDCs on the proposed time-aware task scheduling.
Glass Reflection Removal Using Co-Saliency-Based Image Alignment and Low-Rank Matrix Completion in Gradient Domain

The images taken through glass often capture a target transmitted scene as well as undesired reflected scenes. In this paper, we propose a novel reflection removal algorithm using multiple glass images taken from slightly different camera positions. We first find co-saliency maps for input multiple glass images based on the center prior assumption, and then align multiple images reliably with respect to the transmitted scene by selecting feature points with high co-saliency values. The gradients of the transmission images are consistent while the gradients of the reflection images are varying across the aligned multiple glass images. Based on this observation, we compute gradient reliability such that the pixels belonging to consistent salient edges of the transmission image are assigned high reliability values. We restore the gradients of the transmission images and suppress the gradients of the reflection images by formulating a low-rank matrix completion problem in gradient domain. Finally, we reconstruct desired transmission images from the restored transmission gradients. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm removes the reflection artifacts from glass images faithfully and outperforms the existing methods on challenging glass images with diverse characteristics.
Transparent, Efficient, and Robust Word Embedding Access with WOMBAT

We present WOMBAT, a Python tool which supports NLP practitioners in accessing word embeddings from code. WOMBAT addresses common research problems, including unified access, scaling, and robust and reproducible preprocessing. Code that uses WOMBAT for accessing word embeddings is not only cleaner, more readable, and easier to reuse, but also much more efficient than code using standard in-memory methods: a Python script using WOMBAT for evaluating seven large word embedding collections (8.7M embedding vectors in total) on a simple SemEval sentence similarity task involving 250 raw sentence pairs completes in under ten seconds end-to-end on a standard notebook computer.
Parallel computing for education using single-board computers

This paper describes the design, implementation, and practical use of a Computing Cluster using IoT Technologies in Engineering Education. First, the development goal and its expected application are explained. Current lectures in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Image Processing will benefit of the massive parallel computing cluster. Next, the design and implementation — carried out by a group of students — are described in detail. Finally, the practical use of the cluster including a test application is shown. Here, current super-computing methods like Message Passing Interface (MPI) and Open Multi Processing (OpenMP) are used to show the ability and functionality of the cluster.
Efficient 3D Object Retrieval Based on Compact Views and Hamming Embedding

View-based 3-D object retrieval techniques have been increasingly important in various applications of computer vision. In this paper, we present a novel framework for view-based 3-D object retrieval. First, we exclude the background of views to avoid the disturbance of background noise. Then for these views, we extract the domain-size pooled SIFT descriptor features and encode them using approximate K-means algorithm. After quantizing each object with the approximate near neighbor, the hamming embedding is applied to refine the descriptors by adding binary signatures. Finally, we use the hamming matching to measure the similarity between two 3-D objects. A large number of experiments are performed on the ETH-80 benchmark. Compared with the state-of-art methods, the proposed method is demonstrated to be effective and robust.
Optimized Layered/Enhanced ACO-SCFDM for Short-Reach Optical Interconnects

This letter is the first experimental demonstration of layered/enhanced asymmetrically clipped optical single-carrier frequency-division multiplexing (L/E-ACO-SCFDM) in short-reach optical interconnects. An optimized method is employed to significantly improve the performance of L/E-ACO-SCFDM. L/E-ACO-SCFDM has higher spectral efficiency than ACO-SCFDM, and it also has lower peak-to-average power ratio and computational complexity than L/E-ACO orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (L/E-ACO-OFDM). In the experimental system, the low-cost electrical and optical devices are utilized, which induce serious high-frequency distortion caused by bandwidth limitation. Under the same spectral efficiency and net bit rate, the optimized L/E-ACO-SCFDM has about 4-dB and more than 3-dB receive sensitivity improvement at 7% forward error correction limit compared with the optimized L/E-ACO-OFDM and the optimized ACO-SCFDM, respectively. Therefore, L/E-ACO-SCFDM is a promising scheme for the future short-reach optical interconnects.
An Approach to 3D Building Model Retrieval Based on Topology Structure and View Feature

This paper proposes an approach to 3-D building model retrieval based on a topology structure and view feature using two filter steps to finish the building model retrieval. First, the distance transformation method is used to extract the topological structure of 3-D building models. The obtained skeleton points of 3-D building models are classified by our concentric sphere method. The 3-D building models are then filtered for a first time based on the distribution features. Second, 3-D building models are projected onto 2-D images from the viewpoints of skeleton points. The scale-invariant feature transform algorithm is used to extract feature points from 2-D projection images, and the idea of the bag of feature method is used to compare the projection images. The 3-D building models are then filtered for a second time. Finally, we can get the retrieval result (the matched models). This method first carries out the matching of the overall structure and then carries out the matching of local details. This conforms to the cognitive style of human. In addition, the experiment results show the effectiveness of our method.
Dealing with the Emotions of Non Player Characters

Usually in games, the interaction between player and NPCs are very limited and does not allow the spontaneous creation of long-term relationships. The NPCs are cold, direct and faithfully follow his instructions while keeping a well-defined pattern of behavior. The present paper proposes a model to ease the way NPCs act and react, based on human psychology and simulation of emotions. Therefore, the emotions are used to modify the mental state of the NPC, enabling decisions for different reactions and the same event. Each NPC has a personality described using the OCEAN model that is commonly used by psychologists to determine an individual personality. The personality description of a NPC determines how the emotional stimuli are interpreted differently and its current emotions are calculated based on the influential emotion generated by an event and its personality. Finally, state machines are used taking into account human emotions and the individual personality of each NPC, allowing the player to be friend or foe of NPCs depending on their actions with each NPC. This model has been used to develop an experimental game has shown excellent results. In this game, the player plays the role of an adventurer who explores exotic lands and meet creatures (NPCs) that at first may not react to their presence. If the player decides to attack the NPCs, will react by attacking, evading, or becoming friends depending on their personality modeled through a Big Five test.
Analysis and Optimization of Caching and Multicasting for Multi-Quality Videos in Large-Scale Wireless Networks

Efficient dissemination of videos is an important problem for mobile telecom carriers. In this paper, to facilitate massive video dissemination, we study joint caching and multicasting for multi-quality videos encoded using two video encoding techniques, namely, scalable video coding (SVC) and HEVC or H.264 as in dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) respectively, in a large-scale wireless network. First, for each type of video, we propose a random caching and multicasting scheme, carefully reflecting the relationship between layers of an SVC-based video or descriptions of a DASH-based video. Then, for each type of video, we derive tractable expressions for the successful transmission probability in the general and high user density regions, respectively, utilizing tools from stochastic geometry. The analytical results reveal that in the high user density region, the marginal increase of the successful transmission probability with respect to the caching probability of a video with a certain quality reduces when the caching probability increases. Next, for each type of video, we consider the maximization of the successful transmission probability in the high user density region, which is a convex problem with an exceedingly large number of optimization variables. We propose a two-stage optimization method to obtain a low-complexity near-optimal solution by solving a relaxed convex problem and a related packing problem. The optimization results reveal the impact of the caching gain of a layer for an SVC-based video or a description for a DASH-based video on its caching probability. Finally, we show that the proposed solutions for SVC-based and DASH-based videos achieve significant performance gains over baseline schemes in the general and high user density regions, and demonstrate their respective operating regions, using numerical results based on real video sequences.