Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robotic Controllers for Navigation using Reinforcement-Learning

Understanding the human brain and its behaviour is the main aim of Neuroscience, therefore forming a model with the objective of imitating a special biological behaviour, like the ability to learn, is a research problem with many potential applications. This thesis aims to present a simulation of the Morris water maze [22] using a robot in order to compare two different Reinforcement Learning techniques; modelbased [34], where the transition function between each state is calculated during the interaction with the environment, and model-free [33], without a fully specified model of the environment. It will provide an overview of both principles and algorithms that can be used for Machine Learning in order to simulate animal behaviour, their advantages and disadvantages. A platform will be created to easily determine the best algorithm in both techniques. During the experiment, the robot will produce learning behaviour in order to be able to self-localise in his environment.
Performance of multiple-input multiple-output wireless communications systems using distributed antennas

In this contribution we propose and investigate a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications system, where multiple receive antennas are distributed in the area covered by a cellular cell and connected with the base-station (BS). We first analyze the total received power by the BS through the distributed antennas, when assuming that the mobile's signal is transmitted over lognormal shadowed Rayleigh fading channels. Then, the outage probability of the distributed antenna MIMO systems is investigated, when considering various antenna distribution patterns. Furthermore, space-time coding at the mobile transmitter is considered for enhancing the outage performance of the distributed antenna MIMO system. Our study and simulation results show that the outage performance of a distributed antenna MIMO system can be significantly improved, when either increasing the number of distributed receive antennas or increasing the number of mobile transmit antennas.
Respiratory Presentation of Pediatric Patients in the 2014 Enterovirus D68 Outbreak

Background. In the fall of 2014, a North American outbreak of enterovirus D68 resulted in a significant number of pediatric hospital admissions for respiratory illness throughout North America. This study characterized the clinical presentation and risk factors for a severe clinical course in children admitted to British Columbia Children's Hospital during the 2014 outbreak. Methods. Retrospective chart review of patients with confirmed EV-D68 infection admitted to BCCH with respiratory symptoms in the fall of 2014. Past medical history, clinical presentation, management, and course in hospital was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Comparison was made between those that did and did not require ICU admission to identify risk factors. Results. Thirty-four patients were included (median age 7.5 years). Fifty-three percent of children had a prior history of wheeze, 32% had other preexisting medical comorbidities, and 15% were previously healthy. Ten children (29%) were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. The presence of complex medical conditions (excluding wheezing) (P = 0.03) and copathogens was associated with PICU admission (P = 0.02). Conclusions. EV-D68 infection resulted in severe, prolonged presentations of asthma-like illness in the hospitalized pediatric population. Patients with a prior history of wheeze and preexisting medical comorbidities appear to be most severely affected, but the virus can also cause wheezing in previously well children.
A stable and efficient algorithm for difficult Non-Orthogonal Joint Diagonalization problems

This article deals with the Non-Orthogonal Joint Diagonalization of few matrices of large size: a difficult problem that is not solved by existing methods. The proposed algorithm combines, on the one hand, the efficiency provided by the Givens and hyperbolic rotations parametrization of the mixing matrix and, on the other hand, the stability guaranteed by the minimization of the complete off-diagonal norm. The stability and the quadratic convergence of the algorithm are illustrated by numerical simulations in situations where other techniques are slow or even non-convergent. The improvement is reached at the price of a moderate increase of the computational complexity.
Intelligent power management and improved security in Bluetooth devices through adaptive range and encrypted hopping

Bluetooth is undoubtedly one of today's most fancied ways of wireless communication. It operates in the ISM band and thus is freely available for general and industrial use. Being such a widely used way of communication it should be really promising when is comes to security and power consumption. However today's Bluetooth has not evolved to full its potentials in these areas and this paper is all about taking Bluetooth to its next level. This will promise greater security along with much efficient power consumption. The paper discussed about the present scenario of Bluetooth and about the possible improvements it can receive like adaptive range and encrypted hopping.
Ca2+-Transport through Plasma Membrane as a Test of Auxin Sensitivity

Auxin is one of the crucial regulators of plant growth and development. The discovered auxin cytosolic receptor (TIR1) is not involved in the perception of the hormone signal at the plasma membrane. Instead, another receptor, related to the ABP1, auxin binding protein1, is supposed to be responsible for the perception at the plasma membrane. One of the fast and sensitive auxin-induced reactions is an increase of Ca2+ cytosolic concentration, which is suggested to be dependent on the activation of Ca2+ influx through the plasma membrane. This investigation was carried out with a plasmalemma enriched vesicle fraction, obtained from etiolated maize coleoptiles. The magnitude of Ca2+ efflux through the membrane vesicles was estimated according to the shift of potential dependent fluorescent dye diS-C3-(5). The obtained results showed that during coleoptiles ageing (3rd, 4th and 5th days of seedling etiolated growth) the magnitude of Ca2+ efflux from inside-out vesicles was decreased. Addition of ABP1 led to a recovery of Ca2+ efflux to the level of the youngest and most sensitive cells. Moreover, the efflux was more sensitive, responding from 10−8 to 10−6 M 1-NAA, in vesicles containing ABP1, whereas native vesicles showed the highest efflux at 10−6 M 1-NAA. We suggest that auxin increases plasma membrane permeability to Ca2+ and that ABP1 is involved in modulation of this reaction.
Fast Counting of Triangles in Large Real Networks : Algorithms and Laws

How can we quickly find the number of triangles in a large graph, without actually counting them? Triangles are important for real world social networks, lying at the heart of the clustering coefficient and of the transitivity ratio. However, straight-forward and even approximate counting algorithms can be slow, trying to execute or approximate the equivalent of a 3-way database join. In this paper, we provide two algorithms, the EigenTriangle for counting the total number of triangles in a graph, and the EigenTriangleLocal algorithm that gives the count of triangles that contain a desired node. Additional contributions include the following: (a) We show that both algorithms achieve excellent accuracy, with up to ≈ 1000x faster execution time, on several, real graphs and (b) we discover two new power laws ( Degree-Triangle and TriangleParticipation laws) with surprising properties.
Massively Parallel Hierarchical Scene Sorting with Applications in Rendering

We present a novel method for massively parallel hierarchical scene processing on the GPU, which is based on sequential decomposition of the given hierarchical algorithm into small functional blocks. The computation is organized using a specialized work pool in which different blocks of processing units solve different functional blocks. We present an application of the proposed approach to two methods used in ray tracing: construction of the bounding volume hierarchies and the recently introduced divideand-conquer ray tracing on the GPU. The results indicate that using our approach we achieve high utilization of the GPU even for complex hierarchical problems which pose a challenge for massive parallelization.
Balance recovery for humanoid robot in the presence of unknown external push

It is known that for an external push a humanoid robot can take three strategies, i.e. ankle strategy, hip strategy and step strategy, to recover balance. For the limited joint torque, the response strategy depends on the external push applied. This paper proposes a criterion for balance recovery based on initial phase plane by using inverted pendulum mode including angular moment. The step length and step amount are especially considered in step strategy. Furthermore step-one-out strategy is presented for balance recovery planning based on analytical method, which is divided into four phase and takes vertical CoM (Center of Mass) motion into account. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method under strong external push.
A Low Complexity Fast Inter Prediction Algorithm for H.264/AVC

The MPEG-4 H.264/AVC video coding standard adopts variable block sizes for inter frame coding to increase compression efficiency. However, to achieve this, the H.264 encoder employs a complex mode decision technique based on rate-distortion optimization (RDO) that requires high computational complexity, which significantly increases the encoder complexity. This paper proposes a fast hierarchal cross differences (HCD) algorithm that analyzes the spatial and temporal homogeneity of the block by using cross differences to reduces the number of modes that are required for RDO calculation in inter mode decision. The experimental results show that the proposed method is able to reduce complexity by up to 45% on average with negligible degradation in subjective and objective quality.
Radiative transfer in disc galaxies – III. The observed kinematics of dusty disc galaxies

We present skirt (Stellar Kinematics Including Radiative Transfer), a new Monte Carlo radiative transfer code that allows the calculation of the observed stellar kinematics of a dusty galaxy. The code incorporates the effects of both absorption and scattering by interstellar dust grains, and calculates the Doppler shift of the emerging radiation exactly by taking into account the velocities of the emitting stars and the individual scattering dust grains. The code supports arbitrary distributions of dust through a cellular approach, whereby the integration through the dust is optimized by means of a novel efficient trilinear interpolation technique. We apply our modelling technique to calculate the observed kinematics of realistic models for dusty disc galaxies. We find that the effects of dust on the mean projected velocity and projected velocity dispersion are severe for edge-on galaxies. For galaxies which deviate more than a few degrees from exactly edge-on, the effects are already strongly reduced. As a consequence, dust attenuation cannot serve as a possible way to reconcile the discrepancy between the observed shallow slopes of the inner rotation curves of low surface brightness galaxies and the predictions of cold dark matter cosmological models. For face-on galaxies, the velocity dispersion increases with increasing dust mass owing to scattering, but the effects are limited, even for extended dust distributions. Finally, we show that serious errors can be made when the individual velocities of the dust grains are neglected in the calculations.
Postsecondary Retention And Persistence: An Inquiry Into Tinto’s Conditions For Success

This study evaluated the impact of the Go. Persist. Succeed. 4 Success intervention at a rural community college in western North Carolina. The intervention was designed to provide services under the four conditions suggested by Tinto to promote student persistence in higher education: expectations; support; assessment and feedback; and involvement. Services were provided to a group of 2016 high school graduates from a single district who, historically, have neither enrolled nor persisted in college at the same rates as their peers. The analyses utilized a two-part methodology. The first evaluated whether services provided, in addition to many secondary variables, were significant predictors of persistence. The second employed exploratory text analytics. When comparing intervention to control group students, intervention services were not found to be significant predictors of persistence. Two secondary variables, however, were significant among intervention students. The second part of the evaluation, a set of exploratory analyses of text responses to prompts based on Tinto’s framework, yielded statistically significant differences in the thinking styles of intervention students who returned, as compared to those who did not in two LIWC categories. Results of a SAS text miner exploration also found differences in the ways students wrote about challenges/support and involvement.
Mobile recommendation systems for decision making 'on the go'

This paper discusses the functional and technological opportunities associated with mobile recommendation systems. These are systems that help a mobile user or a group of mobile users with decisions that they encounter 'on the go'. Examples include consumers making purchasing decisions in retail stores, or students having ad hoc meetings to decide on assignment workload. We discuss key findings from behavioural decision theory to provide a set of functional requirements. This is followed by an exploration of technological options to implement mobile recommendation systems. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the user acceptance of these systems can be meaningfully measured and improved.
A new strategy of formant tracking based on dynamic programming

This paper describes a new method for estimating formant frequencies. It operates in two phases. The first phase, which is similar to a technique developed by Talkin [JASA, vol. 82, S1], finds optimal formant track estimates by imposing frequency continuity constraints using Dynamic Programming (DP). DP is used to select a mapping of candidate frequencies to formant frequencies in oral sonorant regions based on the minimum cost from all possible mappings. The second phase performs a series of postprocessing steps to make formant estimates more robust and accurate and extends the formant estimates into nasal and obstruent regions. Performance statistics comparing the formants obtained with this technique with a set of reference formants using 34 sentences randomly selected from the TIMIT database shows our algorithm gives excellent results when the formants are among the candidate frequencies.
Review of constructive analytical methods for determining the amount of aluminum in environmental and human biological samples

Aluminum is a toxic metal and causes pollution in soil, water, and air. Afterward, a lot of patients suffer renal failure due to the accumulation of aluminum in the tissues of kidneys. Also, a high concentration of aluminum in plants tissues makes agricultural food toxic. Therefore, measuring aluminum in water, soil, air, human organs, tissues of plants and each food (or agricultural product is so necessary for protecting human health. Also, the effect of some parameters such as pH and temperature on decrease or increase in the amount of aluminum in water and other samples are stated. In this review, the analytical methods such as fluorimetric, ICP-MS, colorimetric, graphite furnace/flame atomic absorption spectrometry, etc. which have been applied for measuring the amount of aluminum (especially ) in environmental and human biological samples are assesse
Life Events, Social Support, and Blood Pressure Control in Low -Income Hypertensive Patients.

This study examined whether minor, chronic, and major stressors predicted poor blood pressure control in low-income hypertensives, and whether social support served as a moderator of this relation. Additionally, whether the construct of social support served as an independent predictor o f poor blood pressure control was also examined. Participants included 231 patients randomly recruited from primary care medicine clinics at a public medical center. The sample included in this study was selected from an existing data set. The existing data set consisted of 432 patients randomly chosen on consecutive days from a family practice and an internal medicine medical clinic at a public teaching hospital. All participants were determined to have hypertension and categorized as having either controlled or uncontrolled hypertension by a primary care physician. Participants were administered a demographic form, the Weekly Stress Inventory (WSI), the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), questioned about their cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, and their Body Mass Inventory (BMI) was assessed. Following recruitment, the WSI was administered bimonthly over the telephone for 10 months and in-person at a twelve-month follow-up interview. Participants were also administered the ISEL, and their BMI was reassessed at the twelve-month interview. Finally, participants were administered the Life Events Schedule (LES) at the six-month telephone interview and at the twelve-month follow-up interview.
Influence of the Weight of a School Backpack on Spinal Curvature in the Sagittal Plane of Seven-Year-Old Children

The aim of the paper was to determine a correlation between the weight of a child's backpack, their body weight, and certain features of their body posture. Material and Methods. The study group consisted of 109 children, all aged seven years. The parameters of body posture were determined using the Zebris Ultrasonic System. Results. The number of children carrying a school backpack in accordance with recommendations was 44 subjects (40.37%). Statistically significant changes were found in the total length of the spine (Z = 2.223, p = 0.026) and between backpack weight and changes in the following parameters: the total length of the spine (r s = −0.3999, p = 0.017), the length and the angle of the lumbar lordosis (r s = −0.3352, p = 0.049), the angle of the lumbar lordosis (r s = −0.5065, p = 0.002), and the sacral angle (r s = −0.4279, p = 0.010). Conclusions. Wearing a backpack heavier than 10% of one's body weight can cause shallowing of the lumbar lordosis and a tendency towards a vertical position of the sacrum. Monitoring the weight of children's school backpacks and enabling them to leave books and notebooks at school would probably be beneficial in reducing the daily burden put on children's spines.
Cyber Can Kill and Destroy Too: Blurring Borders Between Conventional and Cyber Warfare

Cyberwarfare has become a fashionable topic in the last decade, partly because of the ever increasing sophistication of computer attacks, partly because of malicious actors setting their sight on industrial systems such as plants. Modern production systems are characterized by an IT-infrastructure controlling effects in the physical world. Such systems are called cyber-physical systems. In this paper the authors draw a distinction between information cyberattacks and cyber-physical attacks. Thereafter we provide insights into the specifics of cyber-physical attacks and examine to which extent they are similar to conventional warfare.
Magnetic-room temperature phosphorescent multifunctional nanocomposites as chemosensor for detection and photo-driven enzyme mimetics for degradation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene

In recent decades, considerable efforts related to the study of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) have been focused on either developing ultraselective and ultrasensitive methods for real-time analytical detection or exploiting highly efficient and green technologies for treatment of contaminated waters. In the present work, combining the magnetic response property of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with the chemosensory property of quantum dots (QDs), Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and Mn-doped ZnS QD nanocomposites (MNPs/QD NCs) have been synthesized and used for room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) sensing and magnetic separation of captured ultratrace TNT in water. Notably, magnetic-RTP MNPs/QD NCs were found as photo-driven enzyme mimetics for degradation of TNT through Haber–Weiss cycle reactions for the first time. Meanwhile, MNPs/QD NCs exhibited a highly selective response for TNT with detection limit down to 12.5 nM through the quenching of 4T1–6A1 transition emission. By in situ monitoring electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signals, production of hydroxyl radical (OH˙) is attributed fundamentally to the catalytic reactions occurring at metal ions on the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles rather than those released from the MNPs into a solution. The proposed methods, as well as being suitable for detecting ultratrace TNT and distinguishing different nitro-compounds, could be used as one of the most promising approaches for developing highly efficient degradation of organics contaminated waters to generate treated waters which could be easily reused or released into the environment without any harmful effects.
Regressive Tree Structured Model for Facial Landmark Localization

Although the Tree Structured Model (TSM) is proven effective for solving face detection, pose estimation and landmark localization in an unified model, its sluggish run time makes it unfavorable in practical applications, especially when dealing with cases of multiple faces. We propose the Regressive Tree Structure Model (RTSM) to improve the run-time speed and localization accuracy. The RTSM is composed of two component TSMs, the coarse TSM (c-TSM) and the refined TSM (r-TSM), and a Bilateral Support Vector Regressor (BSVR). The c-TSM is built on the low-resolution octaves of samples so that it provides coarse but fast face detection. The r-TSM is built on the mid-resolution octaves so that it can locate the landmarks on the face candidates given by the c-TSM and improve precision. The r-TSM based landmarks are used in the forward BSVR as references to locate the dense set of landmarks, which are then used in the backward BSVR to relocate the landmarks with large localization errors. The forward and backward regression goes on iteratively until convergence. The performance of the RTSM is validated on three benchmark databases, the Multi-PIE, LFPW and AFW, and compared with the latest TSM to demonstrate its efficacy.
Heads-Join: Efficient Earth Mover's Distance Similarity Joins on Hadoop

The Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) similarity join has a number of important applications such as near duplicate image retrieval and distributed based pattern analysis. However, the computational cost of EMD is super cubic and consequently the EMD similarity join operation is prohibitive for datasets of even medium size. We propose to employ the Hadoop platform to speed up the operation. Simply porting the state-of-the-art metric distance similarity join algorithms to Hadoop results in inefficiency because they involve excessive distance computations and are vulnerable to skewed data distributions. We propose a novel framework, named HEADS-JOIN, which transforms data into the space of EMD lower bounds and performs pruning and partitioning at a low cost because computing these EMD lower bounds has constant or linear complexity. We investigate both range and top-k joins, and design efficient algorithms on three popular Hadoop computation paradigms, i.e., MapReduce, Bulk Synchronous Parallel, and Spark. We conduct extensive experiments on both real and synthetic datasets. The results show that HEADS-JOIN outperforms the state-of-the-art metric similarity join technique, i.e., Quickjoin, by up to an order of magnitude and scales out well.