Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary Colorization of Grayscale Images

We introduce an evolutionary algorithm (EA) for “colorizing” grayscale images by evolving color "square patches" transfer process between a source, color image and a target, grayscale image. The presented EA attempts to automatically choosing color patches from a source image and adding their chromatic information to the achromatic values of the target image patches. The proposed EA uses first -and second- order statistics for luminance and texture information matching between the patches. The genes that can represent best matching over all EA parents are recombined in a single multi-sexual recombination to form a single offspring. Then, mutation forms all other offspring. The results demonstrate the potential of our simple EA in colorizing a variety of images, provided that the source and target images are semantically belong to the same class.
Modified MUSIC algorithm for doa estimation using CRLH leaky-wave antennas

In this paper, we formulate and experimentally demonstrate direction of arrival (DoA) estimation with a two-port composite right/left handed (CRLH) leaky-wave antenna (LWA) using the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm. The CRLH LWA consists of a cascade of metamaterial unit cells, periodically modulated using varactor diodes. By changing the voltages across series and shunt varactors, the antenna is able to uniformly steer its radiation pattern. The proposed modified MUSIC algorithm, uses both antenna's input ports to estimate the DoA. Conventionally, the MUSIC algorithm needs to calculate the correlation matrix from the output vector of an array of antenna elements. In this work, we show in detail how the correlation matrix can be computed when using leaky-wave antennas. The algorithm is demonstrated using LWA in an anechoic chamber and the estimated DoA results are in good agreement with the predicted angles.
Guest Editorial, part of a Special Feature on Ecological Restoration in Northern Regions Ecological and Social Aspects of Ecological Restoration: New Challenges and Opportunities for Northern Regions

ABSTRACT. Interest in ecological restoration has recently intensified as scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders userestoration in management strategies to address and mitigate global climate change and biodiversity loss. Northern ecosystemsoffer special challenges to restoration managers because of their short growing seasons and long recovery periods. This specialfeature of Ecology and Society on ecological restoration in northern regions draws together 11 papers based on presentationsfrom the conference “Restoring the North”, convened in October 2011 in Selfoss, Iceland. We summarize two themes of thisconference: (1) setting objectives and evaluating success in restoration, and (2) legislation, policy, and implementation ofrestoration. We conclude that northern countries altogether comprise a significant knowledge base and suggest five actions toenhance restoration practices within them: (1) improved documentation of restoration actions, including objectives, measuresand results, (2) regular evaluation of restoration progress and outcome, (3) coordination of conservation actions among northerncountries, including location of restoration actions to sites where they are most useful in a global context, (4) formation of acommon platform to strengthen development of research about ecological, political, social, and technical aspects of ecologicalrestoration, and (5) education of new generations of restoration actors who can work in diverse biogeographic settings and cultures.Key Words:
Using Critiquing Systems for Inconsistency Detection in Software Engineering Models

Many approaches have been proposed for consistency management of software engineering documents and specifications. A few others have been proposed to check consistency among software engineering models. For example, abstract state machines, knowledge-based approaches and so on. In this paper, we apply a different technique that uses critiquing systems. A critiquing system monitors user's actions and triggers a signal when one of those actions activates pre-specified rules, called critics. Because critics are small, we argue that they might be used to address two open issues in inconsistency detection, namely efficiency and scalability. An example of this approach is presented to check domain engineering models (feature diagrams) and application engineering models (class diagrams). Feature diagrams are used to abstractly and concisely express commonality and variability across a domain. These diagrams are used as source of information in the generation of critics in UML class diagrams. We present an environment, called DAISY that uses three different critiquing systems to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.
Multifractal analysis of radar rainfall fields over the area of Rome

Abstract. A scale-invariance analysis of space and time rainfall events monitored by meteorological radar over the area of Rome (Italy) is proposed. The study of the scale-invariance properties of intense precipitation storms, particularly important in flood forecast and risk mitigation, allows to transfer rainfall information from the large scale predictive meteorological models to the small scale hydrological rainfall-runoff models. Precipitation events are monitored using data collected by the polarimetric Doppler radar Polar 55C (ISAC-CNR), located 15 km Southeast from downtown. The meteorological radar provides the estimates of rainfall intensity over an area of about 10 000 km2 at a resolution of 2×2 km2 in space and 5 min in time. Many precipitation events have been observed from autumn 2001 up to now. A scale-invariance analysis is performed on some of these events with the aim at exploring the multifractal properties and at understanding their dependence on the meteorological large-scale conditions.
Longitudinal Relations between Parental and Peer Support for Violent and Nonviolent Responses to Conflict and Early Adolescent Dating Aggression

LONGITUDINAL RELATIONS BETWEEN PERCEIVED PARENTAL AND PEER SUPPORT FOR VIOLENT AND NONVIOLENT RESPONSES TO CONFLICT AND EARLY ADOLESCENT DATING AGGRESSION By Rachel C. Garthe, M.S. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2016 Major Director: Dr. Terri N. Sullivan Associate Professor Developmental Psychology High prevalence and the negative legal, health, and psychological consequences of adolescent dating aggression underscore the need to identify risk and protective processes associated with this type of aggression. Studying dating aggression in early adolescence is important, as this is the developmental time frame when most youth are establishing attitudes, beliefs, and norms for dating behaviors. The current study investigated longitudinal associations between perceived parental and peer support for violent and nonviolent responses to conflict and dating aggression perpetration among middle school students. Participants included 1,399 adolescents (52% female) in the sixth (n = 466), seventh (n = 467), and eighth (n = 466) grades. Results showed that peer support for nonviolent responses predicted lower frequencies of subsequent dating aggression among sixth graders, and perceived parental support for nonviolent responses resulted in decreased frequencies of dating aggression in the seventh and eighth grades. Peer support for violent responses predicted increased dating aggression in the seventh grade, and perceived parental support for violent responses led to higher frequencies of dating aggression in the eighth grade. Additionally, dating aggression predicted changes in adolescent perceptions of parental and peer support for violent and nonviolent responses. No sex differences were found in these models. Lastly, moderation analyses identified two significant interactions. These interactions illustrated that different combinations of parental and peer support for violent and nonviolent responses affected dating aggression perpetration, highlighting the importance of examining mixed messages and combinations of messages from parents and peers. Overall, the findings from the current study indicated that adolescent perceptions of parental and peer support for violent and nonviolent responses to conflict are important risk and protective processes, respectively, that are longitudinally associated with dating aggression. These findings can inform dating violence prevention programs, and stress the importance of adolescent, parental, and peer involvement in these programs.
Broadband Photoreceptors Are Involved in Violet Light Preference in the Parasitoid Fly Exorista Japonica

Phototaxis has been described in many insects, which are often attracted to specific wavelengths of light. However, little is known about phototaxis in parasitoid insect species that are potentially useful for integrated pest management. In this study, we investigated the wavelength dependency of the phototactic behavior of the parasitoid fly Exorista japonica and its possible mechanism. Multiple-choice tests with six monochromatic stimuli revealed that the flies were specifically attracted to violet light peaking at 405 nm, which was unexpected because insects are generally attracted to ultraviolet or green light. We measured the spectral sensitivity of the compound eye, and found that the sensitivity peaked at 340 nm, as in other brachyceran flies. We used statistical modeling and optimization of the process parameters to predict the type of photoreceptor contributing to the violet preference. The analysis revealed that the wavelength preference could be explained by linear models of the quanta received by photoreceptors, including the R1-6 broadband receptors. The broadband receptors appear to contribute positively, whereas the R7-8 narrowband receptors contribute negatively to achieve the violet preference; i.e., spectral opponency might be involved.
Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life

The role of money in producing sustained subjective well-being seems to be seriously compromised by social comparisons and habituation. But does that necessarily mean that we would be better off doing something else instead? This paper suggests that the phenomena of comparison and habituation are actually found in a variety of economic and social activities, rendering conclusions regarding well-being policy less straightforward.
5 Dynamic Analysis. Equations of Motion

This chapter deals with the direct dynamic problem which consists of determining the motion of a multibody system that results from the application of the external forces and/or the kinematically controlled or driven degrees of freedom. The direct dynamic analysis is also commonly referred to as the dynamic simulation. Its importance is steadily increasing in fields such as: automobile industry, aerospace, robotics, machinery, biomechanics, and others. The possibility of kinematically controlling some degrees of freedom in a dynamic problem has many practical applications. For example, in the analysis of vehicle suspensions, if the wheel is rigid, its center follows the trajectory determined by the rolling surface. The dynamic problem will determine the resulting motion of all the ve-hicle's remaining elements. It is very important to emphasize the difference between the kinematically and dynamically controlled degrees of freedom. In the previously stated kinematic simulation, all the degrees of freedom were controlled kinematically; that is, the motion of as many input elements as degrees of freedom is known. There are as many additional kinematic or driving constraint equations such as known angles, and known distances, as degrees of freedom. In order for the problem to be truly dynamic, it is necessary that the number of unknown dependent variables be greater than the total number of independent geometric and driving constraint equations. As a result, the motion of the multibody system cannot be unequivocally defined by the geometric and driving constraint equations and by the known motion of points and vectors only. In order to determine the motion of the entire system, it is necessary to establish the dynamic equilibrium condition that leads to a system of second order differential equations generally called the equations of motion. The direct dynamic problem pursues the determination of the system's motion during a period of time originated by known external forces and/or the kinemati-cally driven degrees of freedom. The position of the multibody system is characterized by its dependent coordinates. It is not sufficient to know the values of a minimum set of independent coordinates, because the position is not unequivocally known by simply knowing the independent coordinates. However, at the time of formulating the equations of motion, it is possible to do it with both dependent or independent coordinates. There is not a consensus among the ex
A local shape analysis based on separation logic: Detailed presentation and soundness proof

Shape analysis is a static analysis of the source code of a program to determine shapes and manipulations of the dynamically allocated data structures at each point which that program can reach in an execution. In this report, we give a detailed presentation and soundness proof of a shape analysis method which uses separation logic to represent program memory. A Local Shape Analysis Based on Separation Logic : Detailed Presentation and Soundness Proof ∗ Amin Timany Bart Jacobs amin.timany@cs.kuleuven. be bart.jacobs@cs.kuleuven. be Computer Science Department K. U. Leuven
The Afterglow of Massive Black Hole Coalescence

The final merger of a pair of massive black holes in a galactic nucleus is compelled by gravitational radiation. Gravitational waves from the mergers of black holes of masses 105-107(1 + z)-1 M☉ at redshifts of 1-20 will be readily detectable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, but an electromagnetic afterglow would be helpful in pinpointing the source and its redshift. Long before the merger, the binary "hollows out" any surrounding gas and shrinks slowly compared to the viscous timescale of a circumbinary disk. The inner gas disk is truncated at the radius where gravitational torque from the binary balances the viscous torque, and accretion onto the black holes is diminished. Initially, the inner truncation radius is able to follow the shrinking binary inward. But eventually the gravitational radiation timescale becomes shorter than the viscous timescale in the disk, leading to a merged black hole surrounded by a hollow disk of gas. We show that the subsequent viscous evolution of the hollow, radiation pressure-dominated disk will create an ~1043.5(M/106 M☉) ergs s-1 X-ray source on a timescale ~7(1 + z)(M/106 M☉)1.32 yr. This justifies follow-up monitoring of gravitational wave events with next-generation X-ray observatories. Analysis of the detailed light curve of these afterglows will yield new insights into the subtle physics of accretion onto massive black holes.
Evidence of a Broad Relativistic Iron Line from the Neutron Star Low-Mass X-Ray Binary Serpens X-1

We report on an analysis of XMM-Newton data from the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) Serpens X-1 (Ser X-1). Spectral analysis of EPIC PN data indicates that the previously known broad iron Kα emission line from this source has a significantly skewed structure with a moderately extended red wing. The asymmetric shape of the line is well described with the laor and diskline models in XSPEC and strongly supports an inner accretion disk origin of the line. To our knowledge, this is the first strong evidence of a relativistic line in a neutron star LMXB. This finding suggests that the broad lines seen in other neutron star LMXBs likely originate from the inner disk as well. Detailed study of such lines opens up a new way to probe neutron star parameters and their strong gravitational fields. The red wing of the iron line from Ser X-1 is not as broad as that observed from some black hole systems. This is not unreasonable for a neutron star system, as the accretion disk has to terminate at or before the hard stellar surface. Finally, the inferred source inclination angle in the approximate range 40°-60° is consistent with the lack of dips and eclipses from Ser X-1.
A compact 0-dB coupled-line forward coupler by loading with shunt periodic stubs

A wideband coupled-line forward (co-directional) coupler with tight coupling-level is presented. In this coupler we loaded two coupled microstrip lines with periodic shunt stubs that show capacitive and inductive nature in the even and odd modes, respectively. These periodic stubs, lead to increase the difference between the even and odd mode propagation constants of the coupled-line coupler, and also to decrease the structure length. Compared with the conventional forward coupler, this symmetrical structure, achieves wider operation bandwidth and smaller size with larger coupling level. The designed prototype is a 0-dB microstrip coupler over a wide bandwidth of 66% from 2GHz to 4GHz centered at 3GHz. The length of the coupled line is nearly λg/2 and length of the stubs is 2 mm, which make it more compact than other forward couplers have been proposed. To characterize this structure, the equivalent circuit model is established and verified by simulation. Moreover, we present some curves for selecting dimension of the proposed coupler for indicated coupling-level on FR-4 substrate.
Prevalence of blood parasites in European passeriform birds

Variation in the prevalence of blood parasites among species of birds has been used to test hypotheses about the effects of sexual selection and parental investment on disease resistance, and how vector abundance influences infection. However, the factors causing this variation are still poorly understood. We assessed the statistical effects of biogeographic, plumage–related and life–history traits on the prevalence of the blood parasites Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, Leucocytozoon and Trypanosoma in European passerine birds. Most of the variation in parasite prevalence occurred at low taxonomic levels. Brighter male plumage and greater host body mass were associated with higher prevalence, explaining 32% of the total variation. Male plumage brightness remained a significant factor when we controlled for phylogenetic effects. These relationships were driven primarily by simuliid–transmitted parasites (Leucocytozoon, Trypanosoma), which were more frequent in species with northern distributions. Host species with greater maximum longevity and shorter nestling periods had higher prevalences of Plasmodium; however, the effect was not stable after controlling for phylogeny using pairwise contrasts. Coevolution between hosts and parasites appears to create temporal and spatial variation that disconnects haematozoan prevalence from evolutionarily conservative life–history traits while creating some positive associations with traits that are phylogenetically labile. Clearly, ecologists should be cautious in relating patterns of variation in haematozoan prevalence to particular host traits.
Excitation energy transfer in condensed media

We derive an expression for resonance energy transfer between a pair of chromophores embedded in a condensed medium by considering the energy splitting of the chromophores from their resonant excited states. We employ time-dependent density functional response theory in our derivation. The linear response theory treatment is rigorous within the framework of time-dependent density functional theory, while in obtaining the energy transfer coupling, the standard first-order approximation is used. The density response function for the medium, which can be replaced by the macroscopic dielectric susceptibility, enables the inclusion of the medium influence on the energy transfer coupling between the donor and acceptor. We consider the Coulomb coupling, and determine that our result is isomorphic to the Coulomb interaction between two charge densities inside a dielectric medium. The isomorphism we found not only provides a general and useful expression for applications, but additionally offers a basis for the ex.
Very Large-scale Low-rank Approximation

Low-rank approximation is commonly used to scale kernel-ba sed algorithms to large-scale applications containing as many as several mil lion nstances. We introduce a new family of algorithms based on mixtures of Nystr öm approximations,ensemble Nystr öm algorithms, that yield more accurate kernel approximations than the standard Nystr öm method. We present extensive empirical results on data sets containing up to 1M points demonstrating the imp rovement over the standard Nystr̈ om approximation. Finally, we present a stability bound for Ke nel Ridge Regresion based on the norm of the kernel approximatio n to help determine the impact of the kernel approximation on the generalizatio n error.
Testing generality in JANUS: a multi-lingual speech translation system

For speech translation to be practical and useful, speech translation systems should be portable to multiple languages without substantial modification. The authors present results of expanding the English-based JANUS speech translation system to translate from spoken German sentences to English and Japanese utterances. The authors also report the results of implementing part of the linked predictive neural network (LPNN) speech recognition module on a massively parallel machine. The JANUS approach generalizes well, with overall system performance of 97%. This surpasses English-based JANUS performance. <<ETX>>
Efficient query evaluation on distributed graphs with Hadoop environment

Graph has emerged as a powerful data structure to describe various data. Query evaluation on distributed graphs takes much cost due to the complexity of links among sites. Dan Suciu has proposed algorithms for query evaluation on semistructured data that is a rooted, edge-labeled graph, and algorithms are proved to be efficient in terms of communication steps and data transferring during the evaluation. However, one disadvantage is that communication data are collected to one single site, which leads to a bottleneck in the evaluation for real-life data. In this paper, we propose two algorithms to improve Dan Suciu's algorithms: one-pass algorithm is to significantly reduce a large amount of redundant data in the evaluation, and iter_acc algorithm is to resolve the bottleneck. Then, we design an efficient implementation with only one MapReduce job for our algorithms in Hadoop environment by utilizing features of Hadoop file system. Experiments on cloud system show that one-pass algorithm can detect and remove 50% of data being redundant in the evaluation process on YouTube and DBLP datasets, and iter_acc algorithm is running without the bottleneck even when we double the size of input data.
Energy storage in residential and commercial buildings via Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC)

This contribution proposes the usage of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) for the establishment of a decentralised energy storage network. Due to the continually increasing amount of renewable energy within the power grid, in particular in countries of the European Union, a huge demand for storage capacities develops that can hardly be met by large-scale systems alone. Because of their high storage density and good manageability LOHC substances permit the local storage of excess energy in residential and commercial buildings. Following the approach of a CHP system (‘combined heat and power’ or more precisely a ‘combined heat and storage’ system), thermal losses from the storage processes can be used for heating (and cooling) purposes in order to increase the overall efficiency. An evaluation of the economic feasibility identifies possible approaches to generate income from storage operation. The usage of exhaust heat for heating proves to significantly support the business case by providing a considerable financial contribution that is usually not exploitable for centralised storage units.