Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autonomous Manoeuvring Systems for Collision Avoidance on Single Carriageway Roads

The accurate perception of the surroundings of a vehicle has been the subject of study of numerous automotive researchers for many years. Although several projects in this area have been successfully completed, very few prototypes have actually been industrialized and installed in mass produced cars. This indicates that these research efforts must continue in order to improve the present systems. Moreover, the trend to include communication systems in vehicles extends the potential of these perception systems transmitting their information via wireless to other vehicles that may be affected by the surveyed environment. In this paper we present a forward collision warning system based on a laser scanner that is able to detect several potential danger situations. Decision algorithms try to determine the most convenient manoeuvre when evaluating the obstacles’ positions and speeds, road geometry, etc. Once detected, the presented system can act on the actuators of the ego-vehicle as well as transmit this information to other vehicles circulating in the same area using vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The system has been tested for overtaking manoeuvres under different scenarios and the correct actions have been performed.
Balancing Privacy and Awareness in Home Media Spaces 1

Always-on video provides rich levels of awareness for collaborators separated by distance, yet it has the potential to threaten privacy as sensitive details may be broadcast to others. This threat increases for telecommuters who work at home and connect to office-based colleagues using video. Our research addresses the problem of how to develop and evaluate privacy-protecting strategies and user interface design techniques for balancing privacy with awareness in a home media space (HMS)—defined as an always-on video media space used in a home setting. First, we show that image processing techniques alone are unable to balance privacy and awareness for typical home situations involving a telecommuter. Second, using social-psychological theory, we develop a design framework for a privacy-preserving HMS. Third, we present the prototype design of a context-aware HMS, designed to balance privacy and awareness for telecommuters and others in the home.
Setting basestock levels in multi-product systems with setups and random yield

This paper provides procedures for setting optimal, or near-optimal, basestock levels in a multi-product system with setups and random yield. The procedures are derived using a novel polling system model of the system that contains both queues for production orders and queues for temporary storage of rework orders with routing occurring between these two types of queues. Both systems with backlogging and lost sales are analyzed using existing work on polling models with routing and possibly finite buffers. For a system with backlogging, we provide a cost function that is minimized by solving a set of single-item newsvendor problems. In systems with lost sales, each queue is given a finite buffer equal to the basestock level and excess demand is lost. We provide a cost function and show that finding optimal solutions for large problems is not tractable; thus, we provide a heuristic for finding the basestock levels and demonstrate the effectiveness of the heuristic and accuracy of the cost approximation through numerical tests.
Skill-Biased Organizational Change? Evidence from a panel of British and French establishments

This paper investigates the determination and consequences of organizational changes (OC) in a panel of British and French establishments. Organizational changes include the decentralization of authority, delayering of managerial functions, and increased multitasking. We argue that OC and skills are complements. We offer support for the hypothesis of "skill-biased" organizational change with three empirical findings. First, organizational changes reduce the demand for unskilled workers in both countries. Second, OC is negatively associated with increases in regional skill price differentials (a measure of the relative supply of skill). Third, OC leads to greater productivity increases in establishments with larger initial skill endowments. Technical change is also complementary with human capital, but the effects of OC is not simply due to its correlation with technological change but has an independent role.
A combinatorial characterization of the testable graph properties: it's all about regularity

A common thread in recent results concerning the testing of dense graphs is the use of Szemerédi's regularity lemma. In this paper we show that in some sense this is not a coincidence. Our first result is that the property defined by having any given Szemerédi-partition is testable with a constant number of queries. Our second and main result is a purely combinatorial characterization of the graph properties that are testable with a constant number of queries. This characterization (roughly) says that a graph property P can be tested with a constant number of queries if and only if testing P can be reduced to testing the property of satisfying one of finitely many Szemerédi-partitions. This means that in some sense, testing for Szemerédi-partitions is as hard as testing any testable graph property. We thus resolve one of the main open problems in the area of property-testing, which was raised in the 1996 paper of Goldreich, Goldwasser and Ron [25] that initiated the study of graph property-testing. This characterization also gives an intuitive explanation as to what makes a graph property testable.
Development of a control system for a stair-climbing inverted pendulum robot

In this paper, we develop the control system of a stair-climbing inverted pendulum robot using a planetary wheel mechanism. The purpose of the control system is to ensure that the robot adjusts its orientation towards a given step before climbing the step and keep its main body stable before and after performing the climbing maneuver. The proposed system operates as follows. We utilize a state feedback control with a reference speed input and additional torque in order to guarantee the stability while moving and performing climbing maneuver. We use a proportional-derivative controller to control the orientation of the robot towards the stairs before climbing and to maintain the same orientation after the ascent or descent. Experimental results confirmed that the robot successfully ascended and descended the stairs by using the proposed method, even though the angles of each step's riser surface varied.
Performance Prediction of Distributed Applications Using Block Benchmarking Methods

An ongoing work is presented for accurately predicting the performance of distributed applications in heterogeneous systems. We are developing dPerf, a tool built using the Rose framework for performing static analysis and an automatic instrumentation on the input source code of programs written in C, C++ or Fortran. The accuracy in predicting program computation time resides in using hardware counters, as well as in applying two block benchmarking techniques that we propose in this paper. The current work makes use of a network simulator in order to calculate the communication time used in our approach. Afterwards, the computation and communication times are being summed up obtaining an estimation of the distributed application execution time. The approach is proven experimentally using NAS Integer Sort benchmark, the communications being simulated with SimGrid.
Microbial Community Responses to Increased Water and Organic Matter in the Arid Soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

The soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica are an extreme polar desert, inhabited exclusively by microscopic taxa. This region is on the threshold of anticipated climate change, with glacial melt, permafrost thaw, and the melting of massive buried ice increasing liquid water availability and mobilizing soil nutrients. Experimental water and organic matter (OM) amendments were applied to investigate how these climate change effects may impact the soil communities. To identify active taxa and their functions, total community RNA transcripts were sequenced and annotated, and amended soils were compared with unamended control soils using differential abundance and expression analyses. Overall, taxonomic diversity declined with amendments of water and OM. The domain Bacteria increased with both amendments while Eukaryota declined from 38% of all taxa in control soils to 8 and 11% in water and OM amended soils, respectively. Among bacterial phyla, Actinobacteria (59%) dominated water-amended soils and Firmicutes (45%) dominated OM amended soils. Three bacterial phyla (Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Firmicutes) were primarily responsible for the observed positive functional responses, while eukaryotic taxa experienced the majority (27 of 34) of significant transcript losses. These results indicated that as climate changes in this region, a replacement of endemic taxa adapted to dry, oligotrophic conditions by generalist, copiotrophic taxa is likely.
Modulation of Excitability by α-Dendrotoxin-Sensitive Potassium Channels in Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons

Many neurons transduce synaptic inputs into action potentials (APs) according to rules that reflect their intrinsic membrane properties. Voltage-gated potassium channels, being numerous and diverse constituents of neuronal membrane, are important participants in neuronal excitability and thus in synaptic integration. Here we address the role of dendrotoxin-sensitive “D-type” potassium channels in the excitability of large pyramidal neurons in layer 5 of the rat neocortex. Low concentrations of 4-aminopyridine or α-dendrotoxin (α-DTX) dramatically increased excitability: the firing threshold for action potentials was hyperpolarized by 4–8 mV, and the firing frequency during a 1-sec-long 500 pA somatic current step was doubled. In nucleated outside-out patches pulled from the soma, α-DTX reversibly blocked a slowly inactivating potassium current that comprised ∼6% of the total. This current first turned on at voltages just hyperpolarized to the threshold for spiking and activated steeply with depolarization. By assaying α-DTX-sensitive current in outside-out patches pulled from the axon and primary apical dendrite, it was found that this current was concentrated near the soma. We conclude that α-DTX-sensitive channels are present on large layer 5 pyramidal neurons at relatively low density, but their strategic location close to the site of action potential initiation in the axon may ensure that they have a disproportionate effect on neuronal excitability. Modulation of this class of channel would generate a powerful upregulation or downregulation of neuronal output after the integration of synaptic inputs.
Double Reference Points in Risky Decision Making

According to prospect theory, decision makers' gain or loss determined by their current states has a profound effect on decisions under risk. In the current paper, the status quo of decision makers is defined as individual reference point, which determines the context as individual gain or loss. Individual reference point is direct, actual, and absolute given that it affects the actual payoffs of decision makers. However, as social comparison theory goes, decision making is also a matter of social comparison. Thus, the status of others is defined as social reference point, which determines social gain or loss. Social reference point is indirect, hypothetical, and relative because it does not influence the actual payoffs of decision makers directly. Risky decision making is affected by social reference point through self-concept, emotion, and cognition. More importantly, both individual and social reference points exist in risky decision making. They have similar impacts on decision makers, both psychologically and behaviorally, thus affecting risky choice jointly. Therefore, the paper proposes the effects of double reference points on risky decision making. However, further research is needed on the mechanisms of double reference points.
Memory Matters: Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network for Scene Text Recognition

Text recognition in natural scene is a challenging problem due to the many factors affecting text appearance. In this paper, we presents a method that directly transcribes scene text images to text without needing of sophisticated character segmentation. We leverage recent advances of deep neural networks to model the appearance of scene text images with temporal dynamics. Specifically, we integrates convolutional neural network (CNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN) which is motivated by observing the complementary modeling capabilities of the two models. The main contribution of this work is investigating how temporal memory helps in an segmentation free fashion for this specific problem. By using long short-term memory (LSTM) blocks as hidden units, our model can retain long-term memory compared with HMMs which only maintain short-term state dependences. We conduct experiments on Street View House Number dataset containing highly variable number images. The results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over traditional HMM based methods.
Pseudo-Color Coding Based on Visual Model and Perceptual Space

In this paper, a new approach of pseudo-color coding of gray image based on retina-inspired model is proposed, which uses human visual physiological characteristics. Firstly, the gray image is processed by retina-inspired model, which enhances the edge of the image. Then, the corresponding values of red, green, blue colors are obtained through the transformation from the IHS perceptual space to RGB tri-primary color space. Experimental results show that the proposed method stands out the contour of the image and is coincident for human's perception
Un survol du concept d'entrepreneuriat ( An overview of the concept of entrepreneurship )

Entrepreneurship is a concept whose borders have greatly expanded over the last decades, and this is both in terms of research than practice. Entrepreneurship is the most effective means that enables to bridge the gap between science and the market, the creation of new businesses and new products and services on the market. This research will attempt to clarify the phenomenon of entrepreneurship by referring to different disciplines and different approaches.
Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries as an Emerging Field of Study

Given the rising interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) globally, its local expressions are as varied as they are increasingly visible in both developed and developing countries. This paper presents a multilevel review of the literature on CSR in developing countries and highlights the key differentiators and nuanced CSR-related considerations that qualify it as a distinctive field of study. This review entails a content analysis of 452 articles spanning two-and-a-half decades (1990–2015). Based on this comprehensive review, the authors identify the key differentiating attributes of the literature on CSR in developing countries in relation to depictions of how CSR is conceived or ‘CSR Thinking’ and depictions of how CSR is practiced and implemented or ‘CSR Doing’. The authors synthesize from there five key themes that capture the main aspects of variation in this literature, namely: (1) complex institutional antecedents within the national business system (NBS); (2) complex macro-level antecedents outside the NBS; (3) the salience of multiple actors involved in formal and informal governance; (4) hybridized and other nuanced forms of CSR expressions; and (5) varied scope of developmental and detrimental CSR consequences. The paper concludes by accentuating how the nuanced forms of CSR in the developing world are invariably contextualized and locally shaped by multi-level factors and actors embedded within wider formal and informal governance systems.
Systems dynamics applied to reconstruct the dispersal of modern man on Earth and language patterns during the last 120,000 years

Movement of populations and languages in Eurasia has been mathematically modeled. The movements are explained by primarily demographic expansion caused by climatic change in the historic past, ecological factors and the introduction of agriculture from the Near East and Southeast Asia into the neighboring territories. This study use model outputs for the time period 120,000 BC-1,500 BC to investigate the relation between language families such as Nostratic, Austric and Dene-Sino-Caucasian, the approximate date of splitting into member languages, assuming that language follow etnicity. The model is capable of reproducing the archaeological dates available for initial settlement during the paleolithic period and the archaeological dates for the neolithic transition in Europe, Middle East, India, Indochina and Far East simultaneously within approximately +/-20%. The calculations supports the existence of Nostratic, Austric and Dene-Sino-Caucasian, and the date of initial settlement of Eurasia and the spread of different types of agriculture economies provide important clues to the dating of the splitting of language families. The calculations suggest that it is not probable that the forst humans arrived in America earlier than 25,000 years ago. The integrated interpretation of the modeling study that the origin of language is significantly earlier than 100,000 years ago, in Africa, and that language transfer and diversification has been driven by ecological factors.
Cladribine Exposure Results in a Sustained Modulation of the Cytokine Response in Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

Background and Objectives Cladribine is a cytotoxic drug which ameliorates the clinical course of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. In addition to cytotoxicity, the mode of action may include immunomodulatory mechanisms. This in vitro study was designed to investigate cladribine’s effects on cell function after the removal of cladribine to distinguish cytotoxic versus immunomodulatory effects. Methods Cells were incubated in the absence or presence of cladribine (1×10-8 M to 1×10-5 M) for 72 h. Cladribine was removed from the cell culture and surviving peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured up to 58 days to determine the immunomodulatory effects of cladribine on cell function (e.g., proliferation and cytokine release). Results In the long-term, brief cladribine exposure did not impair the proliferation of surviving peripheral blood mononuclear cells. However, it induced an anti-inflammatory shift in the cytokine milieu with significantly enhanced release of IL-4 (Days 9 and 44, p<0.01; Day 58, p<0.05) and IL-5 (Day 9, p<0.01), resulting in an increased IL-4/INF-gamma ratio (Days 9 and 44, p<0.01; Day 58, p<0.05). Additionally, a trend towards an increased IL-10 production was observed. No changes were found in the production of IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17A, IL-23 or NGF-beta. Conclusions In vitro cladribine exposure induces a sustained anti-inflammatory shift in the cytokine profile of surviving peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This immunomodulatory action might contribute to cladribine’s beneficial effects in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Research of Commonly Used Association Rules Mining Algorithm in Data Mining

This paper introduces the concept of data mining and its an important branch - association rules, describes the basic concept of association rules, the basic model of mining association rules, introduces the classical algorithm of association rules, and then classified discusses the association rules mining from several angles such as width, depth, partition, sampling and incremental updating. Finally, this paper prospects the association rules mining.
Metamaterial fishnet structures and small (70 nm) split ring resonators formed by nanoimprint lithography

We report on the fabrication and optical characterisation of fishnet structures of various dimensions on a polymer layer with metal-dielectric-metal compressed rectangular pillars. The metamaterial structures are fabricated using nanoimprint lithography, allowing large areas to be patterned quickly with good reproducibility through multiple use of a nanoimprint stamp. We also report on the use of NIL to produce 70 nm wide single spilt ring resonators on silicon substrates pushing the magnetic resonance to 830 nm.
Long-term optical variability properties of the Palomar–Green quasars

We present results from a monitoring programme of 42 quasars from the Palomar–Green sample. The objects were observed for seven years at the Wise Observatory, as part of a long-term effort to monitor AGN of various types. This is the most extensive programme of its kind carried out to date on a well-defined, optically selected quasar sample. The typical sampling interval is ∼ 40 d. One-third of the quasars were observed at ∼ 60 epochs, and the rest at ∼ 30 epochs in two bands (B and R) with a photometric accuracy of ∼ 0.01 mag. We present light curves for all of the sources, and discuss the sample variability properties. All of the quasars in the sample varied during the campaign with intrinsic rms amplitudes of 5 <σB<34 per cent and 4 <σR<26 per cent. The rms amplitude and colour for the entire sample are σB=14 per cent, σR=12 per cent and σB-R=5 per cent. On time-scales of 100 to 1000 d the power spectra of the sources have a power-law shape, Pν≺ν−γ, with γ≈ 2.0 and a spread ≲ 0.6. At least half of the quasars, particularly those that are most variable, become bluer when they brighten, and the rest do not show this behaviour. We quantify this phenomenon, which has been observed previously mainly in Seyfert galaxies. The quasars which are most variable tend also to exhibit asymmetry in their variations, in the sense that the brightening phases last longer than the fading phases. We have searched for correlations between the measured variability properties and other parameters of the quasars, such as luminosity, redshift, radio loudness and X-ray slope. We find several new correlations, and reproduce some of the correlations reported by previous studies. Among them are an anticorrelation of variability amplitude with luminosity, a trend of the autocorrelation time-scale with luminosity, and an increase in variability amplitude with Hβ equivalent width. However, all of these trends have a large scatter despite the low observational uncertainties.
RECOGNITION OF CONTINUOUS BROADCAST NEWS WITH MULTIPLE UNKNOWN SPEAKERS AND ENVIRONMENTS

Practical applications of continuous speech recognition in realistic environments place increasing demands for speaker and environment independence. Until recently, this robustness has been measured using evaluation procedures where speaker and environment boundaries are known, with utterances containing complete or nearly complete sentences. This paper describes recent efforts by the CMU speech group to improve the recognition of speech found in long sections of the broadcast news show Marketplace. Most of our effort was concentrated in two areas: the automatic segmentation and classification of environments, and the construction of a suitable lexicon and language model. We review the extensions to SPHINX-II that were necessary to enable it to process continuous broadcast news and we compare the recognition accuracy of the SPHINX-II system for different environmental and speaker conditions.
Least Trimmed Squares-Sensitivity Study

Abstract: Asymptotic representation of the difference of estimates by the least trimmed squares for the whole population of data and for the data without the `-th observation is derived. It shows that in the case when the supremum of absolute value of any explanatory variable is not (uniformly in number of observations) bounded (e.g. as (usual) in the framework with random carriers), this difference cannot be bounded, too.