Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the influence of culture on proxemic behaviors for humanoid robots

In social robotics, the behavior of humanoid robots is intended to be designed in a way that they behave in a human-like manner and serve as natural interaction partners for human users. Several aspects of human behavior such as speech, gestures, eye-gaze as well as the personal and social background of the user need therefore to be considered. In this paper, we investigate interpersonal distance as a behavioral aspect that varies with the cultural background of the user. We present two studies that explore whether users of different cultures (Arabs and Germans) expect robots to behave similar to their own cultural background. The results of the first study reveal that Arabs and Germans have different expectations on the interpersonal distance between themselves and robots in a static setting. In the second study, we use the results of the first study to investigate the users' reactions on robots using the observed interpersonal distances themselves. Although the data of this dynamic setting is not conclusive, it suggests that users prefer robots that show behavior that has been observed for their own cultural background before.
focusing on the design and optimization of a large scale biopharmaceutical facility using process simulation and scheduling tools . Design and Optimization of a Large Scale Biopharmaceutical Facility Using Process Simulation and Scheduling Tools by

Introduction The global competition in the biopharmaceutical industry and the increased demand for affordable and effective medicines has shifted the industry’s focus on manufacturing efficiency. Therefore, process development and design are gaining importance. For new products, it is crucial to minimize market entry time without compromising product and process quality. This is particularly true for biopharmaceuticals for which it is commonly said that “the process makes the product” and process changes are very difficult to implement after the regulatory approval of a new product. Process development scientists have a short time window to optimize the process of a promising new molecule. Similarly, engineering teams face challenges within the design and construction of new production lines and facilities required for manufacturing newly developed products. The challenges of both groups can be lessened by the use of appropriate computer aids, such as process simulators and production scheduling tools.1,2,3,4
Decentralized adaptive pinning control for cluster synchronization of complex networks in the presence of delay-coupled and noise

This paper studies the pinning control for cluster synchronization of complex networks in the presence of coupling delay, and perturbation by noise. We propose a novel decentralized adaptive pinning control scheme for cluster synchronization of complex networks using a local adaptive strategy on both coupling strengths and feedback gains. The stochastic LaSalle invariance principle is employed to theoretically prove the almost certain synchronization of complex networks. An example is examined to illustrate the proposed synchronization scheme and demonstrate its effectiveness.
An Assessment of Radiation Damage Models and Methods

The current state of development of the primary models used for investigating and simulating irradiation effects in structural alloys of interest to the U.S. DOE's Generation-IV reactor program are discussed. The underlying theory that supports model development is also described where appropriate. First, the key processes that underlie radiation-induced changes in material properties are summarized, and the types of radiation effects that subsequently arise are described. Future development work needed in order for theory, modeling, and computational materials science to support and add value to the Gen IV reactor materials program are then outlined. The expected specific outcomes and overall benefits of the required effort are: the knowledge to extrapolate material behavior to conditions for which there are no experimental data; systematic understanding of mechanisms and processes to enable confident interpolation between point-by-point experimental observations; acceleration of the development, selection, and qualification of materials for reactor service; and prediction of material response to real-world operating load histories which often involve a complicated superposition of time, temperature, radiation dose rate, and mechanical loading conditions. Opportunities for international collaboration to accelerate progress in all of the required research areas are briefly discussed, particularly in the context of two well coordinated, broad-based researchmore » projects on modeling and simulation of radiation effects on materials that are currently funded in Europe. In addition to providing the opportunity for substantial leveraging of the DOE-funded activities in this area, these projects may serve as models for future development within the Gen-IV program. The larger of these two projects, which involves 12 European research laboratories and 16 universities, is called PERFECT and is funded by the European Union. A smaller effort focusing on developing predictive models for fusion reactor materials is funded within the United Kingdom. Increased formal collaboration with these projects by DOE-funded materials scientists would be of substantial benefit to the Gen-IV program. « less
Generation of Diverse Biological Forms through Combinatorial Interactions between Tissue Polarity and Growth

A major problem in biology is to understand how complex tissue shapes may arise through growth. In many cases this process involves preferential growth along particular orientations raising the question of how these orientations are specified. One view is that orientations are specified through stresses in the tissue (axiality-based system). Another possibility is that orientations can be specified independently of stresses through molecular signalling (polarity-based system). The axiality-based system has recently been explored through computational modelling. Here we develop and apply a polarity-based system which we call the Growing Polarised Tissue (GPT) framework. Tissue is treated as a continuous material within which regionally expressed factors under genetic control may interact and propagate. Polarity is established by signals that propagate through the tissue and is anchored in regions termed tissue polarity organisers that are also under genetic control. Rates of growth parallel or perpendicular to the local polarity may then be specified through a regulatory network. The resulting growth depends on how specified growth patterns interact within the constraints of mechanically connected tissue. This constraint leads to the emergence of features such as curvature that were not directly specified by the regulatory networks. Resultant growth feeds back to influence spatial arrangements and local orientations of tissue, allowing complex shapes to emerge from simple rules. Moreover, asymmetries may emerge through interactions between polarity fields. We illustrate the value of the GPT-framework for understanding morphogenesis by applying it to a growing Snapdragon flower and indicate how the underlying hypotheses may be tested by computational simulation. We propose that combinatorial intractions between orientations and rates of growth, which are a key feature of polarity-based systems, have been exploited during evolution to generate a range of observed biological shapes.
DTail: a flexible approach to DRAM refresh management

DRAM cells must be refreshed (or rewritten) periodically to maintain data integrity, and as DRAM density grows, so does the refresh time and energy. Not all data need to be refreshed with the same frequency, though, and thus some refresh operations can safely be delayed. Tracking such information allows the memory controller to reduce refresh costs by judiciously choosing when to refresh different rows Solutions that store imprecise information miss opportunities to avoid unnecessary refresh operations, but the storage for tracking complete information scales with memory capacity. We therefore propose a flexible approach to refresh management that tracks complete refresh information within the DRAM itself, where it incurs negligible storage costs (0.006% of total capacity) and can be managed easily in hardware or software. Completely tracking multiple types of refresh information (e.g., row retention time and data validity) maximizes refresh reduction and lets us choose the most effective refresh schemes. Our evaluations show that our approach saves 25-82% of the total DRAM energy over prior refresh-reduction mechanisms.
Stochastic stability of linear quadratic controller over intermittent actuator inputs

In this paper, we analyze Lyapunov stability of linear quadratic controller, when control inputs are communicated to actuators over a lossy network. We study properties of stochastic Lyapunov function, and establish necessary and sufficient network conditions for ensuring boundedness of the function in steady state. These conditions essentially establish existence of critical probability of successful transmission; followed by computation of upper and lower bound on critical probability. We further establish upper and lower bound on convergence of Lyapunov function in steady state. This result illustrates the performance trade-off between stability and quality of underlying communication network.
Probabilistic Cache Filtering

Distinguishing transient blocks from frequently used blocks enables servicing references to transient blocks from a small highly-associative auxiliary cache structure. By inserting only frequently used blocks into the main cache structure, we can reduce the number of collision misses, thus achieving higher performance and allowing the use of direct mapped caches which offer lower power consumption and lower access latencies. In this paper we introduce a simple probabilistic filtering mechanism to identify and select the frequently used blocks. We show that a 16K direct-mapped L1 cache, augmented with a fully-associative 4K filter, achieves on average 11% more instructions per cycle than a regular 16K, 4way set-associative cache, and even 4% higher IPC that a 32K, 4-way cache, while consuming about 60– 70% less dynamic power than either of them.
Functional concepts in C++

We describe a parser-translator program that translates typed λ-terms into C++ classes so as to integrate functional concepts. We prove the correctness of the translation of λ-terms into C++ with respect to a denotational semantics using a Kripke-style logical relation. We also introduce a general technique for introducing lazy evaluation into C++ and illustrate it by carrying out in C++ the example of computing the Fibonacci numbers efficiently using infinite streams and lazy evaluation.
Wideband tunable stubs using phase shifters

A novel technique to realize a tunable λ/2 stub is presented. The technique can be applied in the realization of tunable filters with stubs. The effective length of the stub is made tunable by replacing part or whole of the line by a phase shifter. This technique can overcome limitations of tunable stubs using varactor diodes such as the limited Cmax/Cmin ratio of varactors which in turn limits the tuning range. In addition, in filter applications it is possible to decrease the size of a filter by using a phase shifter instead of several varactor diodes in series or in parallel. The amplitude response of the tunable stub is a function of the slope of the insertion phase of the phase shifter. If the insertion phase is a linear function of frequency, a tunable transmission line is mimicked best. The technique is demonstrated using the commercially available PS094-315 phase shifter from Skyworks and a tuning range of 35% is achieved. The tunable shunt stub can be further enhanced by introducing a transmission zero in the second passband using a transmission line and a varactor. The fabricated enhanced shunt stub has a tuning range of more than 35%. In addition, phase shifter with a larger bandwidth can increase the tuning range further. This can be realized for example with switched binary phase shifter. The phase shifter used here was not specifically designed for application in tunable stubs and it is anticipated that custom designed phase shifters can improve the performance substantially.
Caspase-Dependent and -Independent Death of Camptothecin-Treated Embryonic Cortical Neurons

This study investigates the mechanisms underlying death of cultured embryonic cortical neurons exposed to the DNA-damaging agent camptothecin and in particular the interdependence of the roles of cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks), caspases, and mitochondrial function. Camptothecin evokes rapid neuronal death that exhibits nuclear features of apoptosis. This death is accompanied by loss of cytochromec and mitochondrial transmembrane potential as well as by induction of caspase-3-like activity and caspase-2 processing. The Cdk inhibitor flavopiridol provides long-term rescue from death and prevents loss of cytochrome c and mitochondrial transmembrane potential as well as caspase activation and processing. General caspase inhibitors rescue neurons from this rapid apoptotic death but do not prevent them from undergoing delayed death in which nuclear features of apoptosis are absent. Moreover, the caspase inhibitors do not affect early cytochrome c release and delay but do not prevent the loss of transmembrane potential. Agents that directly disrupt mitochondrial function without inducing cytochrome c release lead to a caspase-independent death. These observations favor a model in which (1) DNA damage leads to Cdk activation, which lies upstream of release of cytochromec and caspase activation; (2) cytochromec release is caspase-independent and may occur upstream of caspase activation; (3) early apoptotic death requires caspases; and (4) delayed nonapoptotic death that occurs in the presence of caspase inhibitors is a consequence of prolonged loss of mitochondrial function. These findings shed light on the mechanisms by which DNA damage kills neurons and raise questions regarding the general utility of caspase inhibitors as neurotherapeutic agents.
Examining PLAY to increase levels of physical activity among youth during leisure time

Physical activity has a number of benefits for people of all ages. For children and youth, regular physical activity improves health and well-being, including attention and academic performance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that youth between the ages of 6 to 17 years participate daily in at least 60 minutes of physical activity. One of the Healthy People 2020 objectives is to increase the proportion of youth meeting the federal physical activity guidelines. The present study examined the effects of providing opportunities for youth to engage in preferred types of physical activities on levels of participation in physical activity during leisure-time. Study participants were youth ages 6 to 13, who resided in a low-income housing complex and participated in an after-school program. The Assessment of Preferred Leisure Alternatives for Youth (A-PLAY), a web-based preference assessment tool, was used to identify activities that were highly preferred by the youth. A reversal design using momentary time sampling was used to examine whether access to highly preferred activities increased the percentage of youth engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity. Results suggest an increase in participation in physical activities occurred from baseline to intervention phases. The results have implications for examining the efficacy of using online preference assessments to inform interventions that may be used to increase youth physical activity in community-based settings.
Wavelet Based Automatic Lesion Detection Using Improved OTSU Method

Mammography is one of the available techniques for the early detection of masses or abnormalities which is related to breast cancer. Breast Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells in the breast region, which may affect the other parts of the body. Digital Mammography is one of the best available technologies currently being used for the early detection of breast cancer. In this paper, we have proposed a new method- Improved Otsu method that helps in the segmentation process for lesion detection. In this method before segmentation preprocessing and DWT of image in done. Preprocessing is one of the most important stages in medical images to remove the unwanted noise and for the enhancement of image. Discrete Wavelet Transform is considered for segmentation as it contains most significant information of the input image.
a Meshsweeper o : Dynamic Point-to-Polygonal-Mesh Distance and Applications

ÐWe introduce a new algorithm for computing the distance from a point to an arbitrary polygonal mesh. Our algorithm uses a multiresolution hierarchy of bounding volumes generated by geometric simplification. Our algorithm is dynamic, exploiting coherence between subsequent queries using a priority process and achieving constant time queries in some cases. It can be applied to meshes that transform rigidly or deform nonrigidly. We illustrate our algorithm with a simulation of particle dynamics and collisions with a deformable mesh, the computation of distance maps and offset surfaces, the computation of an approximation to the expensive Hausdorff distance between two shapes, and the detection of self-intersections. We also report comparison results between our algorithm and an alternative algorithm using an octree, upon which our method permits an order-of-magnitude speed-up. Index TermsÐTriangular mesh, closest point, multiresolution hierarchy, priority process, dynamic queries.
MDL patch correspondences on unlabeled images

Automatic construction of shape and appearance models from examples via establishing correspondences across the training set has been successful in the last decades. One successful measure for establishing correspondences of high quality is minimum description length (MDL). In other approaches it has been shown that parts+geometry models which model the appearance of parts of the object and the geometric relation between the parts have been successful for automatic model building. In this paper it is shown how to fuse the above approaches and use MDL to fully automatically build optimal parts+geometry models from unlabeled images.
Automated Function Prediction, 2006 High-resolution Functional Assignments of Genes through Mapping Kegg Pathways to Bacterial Genomes Corrie: Probabilistic Proteins Sequence Annotation Based on Functional Classifications Gene Function Prediction Based on Synteny and Discriminative Learning Proteome

This year's program reflects the wide variety of exciting new approaches that have recently emerged for gene and protein function prediction. The Program Committee and the Scientific Committee were tasked with selecting 19 presentations from the 32 submitted. We have striven to provide a mix of scientific excellence and variety of approaches, and we believe that this effort is reflected in the program you are now holding. Our keynote speakers will address the wide variety of problems associated with automated function prediction. New to this year, we have introduced a discussion panel engaging the audience with the keynote speakers. We are especially excited about discussing our plans for 2007, which include a Critical Assessment of Function Annotations, in the spirit of ongoing activities in the fields of computational structure prediction, and the prediction of protein-protein interactions. Please join us for this discussion on the second day of the conference. Special thanks to John Wooley, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at UCSD for securing conference funds and for his ongoing and enthusiastic backing of this endeavor. Finally, we would like to thank everyone who supported this conference financially. AFP 2006 was made possible by grants from the We hope you will find AFP 2006 a stimulating and fruitful meeting. The AFP 2006 organizers are grateful to the following individuals for serving on the program committee and / or refereeing the papers in this supplement. We have taken the utmost care to acknowledge everyone. We apologize in advance for any omissions: Identifying meaningful functional modules in the yeast protein protein interaction network
Maestro: Orchestrating Concurrent Application Workflows in Mobile Device Clouds

A hybrid mobile/fixed device cloud that harnessessensing, computing, communication, and storage capabilities of mobile and fixed devices in the field as well as those of computing and storage servers in remote data centers is envisioned. Mobile device clouds can be harnessed to enable innovative applications that rely on real-time, in-situ processing of sensor data collectedin the field. To support concurrent mobile applications on the device cloud, a robust distributed computing framework, called Maestro, is proposed. The key components of Maestro are(i) a task scheduling mechanism that employs controlled task replication in addition to task reallocation for robustness and (ii) Dedup for task deduplication among concurrent workflows. Experimental evaluation via prototype testbed of Android- and Linux-based mobile devices as well as simulations is performedto demonstrate Maestro's capabilities.
Microscopic theory of black hole superradiance

We study how black hole superradiance appears in string microscopic models of rotating black holes. In order to disentangle superradiance from finite-temperature effects, we consider an extremal, rotating D1D5-P black hole that has an ergosphere and is not supersymmetric. We explain how the microscopic dual
T-wave alternans: predicting the unpredictable?

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) due to ventricular arrhythmias has a high morbidity and mortality. It is no wonder that cardiologists, rather than patching up survivors, are dedicated to finding predictors of cardiac electrical instability to prevent SCD. The implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) has evolved as the ultimate strategy for sudden arrhythmic death. In secondary prevention, individuals are recognized by an aborted arrhythmic event. By stratifying according to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) below 35%, SCD may also be prevented by an ICD in individuals without any prior arrhythmic event.1 However, the relative SCD risk based on LVEF alone is lower, and additional stratifiers are needed that can more accurately identify who is at risk, and so save health care resources. Over the last 10 years, a new diagnostic strategy has emerged based on defining the electrical stability of the heart. Regional heterogeneity in refractoriness may provide a mechanism for re-entrant arrhythmias. Under specific conditions, beat-to-beat oscillations in repolarization setting the stage for ventricular arrhythmias can be observed in the ECG microvoltage T-wave alternans (TWA). 2 This was translated into a diagnostic test where spectral TWA was determined during some minutes at a heart rate of up to 110 b.p.m. At higher heart rates, TWA is less specific and may also be observed in normal hearts. The test is either normal or abnormal, depending on a pre-specified amount of TWA. In patients with a history of myocardial infarction (MI), … *Tel: +31 30 6092396; fax: +31 30 6092274. E-mail address: l.boersma{at}antonius.net