Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diverse Yet Efficient Retrieval using Locality Sensitive Hashing

Typical retrieval systems have three requirements: a) Accurate retrieval, i.e., the method should have high precision, b) Diverse retrieval, i.e., the obtained set of samples should be diverse, and c) Retrieval time should be small. However, most of the existing methods address only one or two of the above mentioned requirements. In this work, we present a method based on randomized locality sensitive hashing which tries to address all of the above requirements simultaneously. While earlier hashing-based approaches considered approximate retrieval to be acceptable only for the sake of efficiency, we argue that one can further exploit approximate retrieval to provide impressive trade-offs between accuracy and diversity. We also extend our method to the problem of multi-label prediction, where the goal is to output a diverse and accurate set of labels for a given document in real-time. Finally, we present empirical results on image and text retrieval tasks and show that our method retrieves diverse and accurate images/labels while ensuring 100x-speed-up over the existing diverse retrieval approaches.
Integrated capacitor for common-mode EMI mitigation applicable to high frequency planar transformers used in electric vehicles DC/DC converters

Currently, there is immense incentives-driven research, in the automotive industry to develop Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PIEVs) to reduce the green-house gas emissions and to comply with the Kyoto accord. Isolated High frequency AC-DC converters are a major component to transfer power from utility mains to the traction battery packs which store energy for the EV motors propulsion. The front-end AC/DC converters used in EVs are essentially made of two stages, the PFC stage at the input side and an isolated DC/DC converter at the battery side. Due to the switching frequency operation of these converters, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is required, to ensure a safe and secure operation of the electrical sub-system components in the vicinity. Thus, strict EMC standards of the on-board power converters must be met according to the CISPR 12 or SAEJ551/5 Conventional passive EMI filters comes at the expense of cost, size and weight, power losses and PCB real estate. In this paper, an EMI filter embedded into the main high frequency (HF) planar transformer used in the DC/DC converter is proposed as a cost-effective and efficient solution for EVs. The proposed structure is able to significantly suppress the Common-Mode (CM) EMI noise generated in the DC/DC converter by using different dielectric material to achieve the required capacitance and to reduce the numbers of the planar transformer PCB layers. Experimental results have been obtained from a 3KW prototype in order to prove the feasibility and performance of the proposed EMI solution. The results show that the proposed embedded EMI filter can effectively suppress the CM noise particularly for high switching frequency based power converters using a minimum number of PCB layers for the main HF transformer. The proposed structure is a simple and cost-effective EMI filtering solution for future PIEVs.
Generating Targeted rhythmic Exercises for Music Students with Constraint Satisfaction Programming

Generating technical exercises for various levels of playing ability is important for any instrument method book. Writing exercises by hand can be quite tedious, and severely limits the number of exercises which could be created. This is particularly apparent when we consider computer music tutoring systems, which could benefit from a library of thousands of exercises. This library could be used to pick material which addresses the specific weaknesses of students, or to ensure that the student always practices new material while working on sight-reading. We therefore turn to computer-assisted composition to generate these technical drills. This is a challenging problem for which the use of constraints provides an elegant solution.
Reports in Informatics

A new representation of proper interval graphs with an application to clique-width A new representation of proper interval graphs with an application to clique-width Abstract We introduce a new representation of proper interval graphs that can be computed in linear time, and stored in O(n) space. This representation is a two dimensional vertex partition and it is particularly interesting with respect to clique-width. Based on this, we prove new non-trivial upper bounds on the clique-width of proper interval graphs.
Novel full-chip gridless routing considering double-via insertion

As the technology node advances into the nanometer era, via-open defects are one of the dominant failures. To improve via yield and reliability, redundant-via insertion is a highly recommended technique proposed by foundries. Traditionally, double-via insertion is performed at the post-layout stage. The increasing design complexity, however, leaves very limited space for post-layout optimization. It is thus desirable to consider the double-via insertion at both routing and post-routing stages. In this paper, we present a new full-chip gridless routing system considering double-via insertion for yield enhancement. To fully consider double vias, the router applies a novel two-pass, bottom-up routability-driven routing framework. We also propose a new post-layout double-via insertion algorithm to achieve a higher insertion rate. Based on a bipartite graph matching formulation, we develop an optimal double-via insertion algorithm for the cases with up to three routing layers and the stack-via structure, and then extend the algorithm to handle the general cases. Experiments show that our methods significantly improve the via count, the number of dead vias, double-via insertion rates, and running times
New techniques for ensuring the long term integrity of digital archives

A large portion of the government, business, cultural, and scientific digital data being created today needs to be archived and preserved for future use of periods ranging from a few years to decades and sometimes centuries. A fundamental requirement of a long term archive is to ensure the integrity of its holdings. In this paper, we develop a new methodology to address the integrity of long term archives using rigorous cryptographic techniques. Our approach involves the generation of a small-size integrity token for each digital object to be archived, and some cryptographic summary information based on all the objects handled within a dynamic time period. We present a framework that enables the continuous auditing of the holdings of the archive depending on the policy set by the archive. Moreover, an independent auditor will be able to verify the integrity of every version of an archived digital object as well as link the current version to the original form of the object when it was ingested into the archive. We built a prototype system that is completely independent of the archive's underlying architecture, and tested it on large scale data. We include in this paper some preliminary results on the validation and performance of our prototype.
Advanced Algorithms for Design and Optimization of Quiet Supersonic Platforms

This paper describes the work carried out within the Stanford University group as part of the DARPA-funded Quiet Supersonic Platform (QSP) project. The objective of our work was to develop advanced numerical methods to facilitate the analysis and design of low sonic boom aircraft. The focus of the boom reduction activities was placed on two main ideas: the shaping of the configuration and a multidisciplinary design approach to minimize its total empty weight. Accurate and efficient tools are needed to achieve these tasks. Our approach was meant to enhance the existing state-of-the-art which was developed in the 1970s and during the early stages of the High Speed Research (HSR) program. For that purpose, we designed tools that would ultimately become fully non-linear (in contrast with current design efforts based on linear theories of the 1970s). These tools are also able to account for important tradeoffs between boom reduction and aerodynamic perormance, as well as other disciplines. Because of the difficulty of the problem, the tools were designed to support a combination of gradient and non-gradient automatic optimization techniques. As a result of our efforts, rapid turnaround boom analysis and design methods were developed. These methods permit the investigation of radical configuration changes and their effect on the ground boom signature and the L/D ratio of the aircraft. We have also created an environment for the automatic nonlinear analysis of QSP configurations based on the multiblock flow solver FLO107-MB. In addition , we have extended the adjoint-based design method to treat remote sensitivities to near-field pressure signatures, allowing for a very large number of parameters to be used in modifications of the aircraft geometry. All tools were carefully validated against existing experimental data, other boom prediction programs, and with systematic mesh refinement studies.
Explaining cross-linguistic differences in effects of lexical stress on spoken-word recognition

Experiments have revealed differences across languages in listeners’ use of stress information in recognising spoken words. Previous comparisons of the vocabulary of Spanish and English had suggested that the explanation of this asymmetry might lie in the extent to which considering stress in spokenword recognition allows rejection of unwanted competition from words embedded in other words. This hypothesis was tested on the vocabularies of Dutch and German, for which word recognition results resemble those from Spanish more than those from English. The vocabulary statistics likewise revealed that in each language, the reduction of embeddings resulting from taking stress into account is more similar to the reduction achieved in Spanish than in English.
Advanced MOS calculation for network based QoE Estimation of TCP streamed Video Services

Video streaming services, such as YouTube, are responsible for a major part of the transmitted data volume in the Internet and it is expected, that they will also strongly affect mobile networks. Streaming video quality mainly depends on the sustainable throughput achieved during transmission. In order to provide an acceptable video quality in mobile networks (with limited capacity resources), traffic engineering mechanisms have to be applied. For that, the streaming video quality needs to be measured and monitored permanently. In this paper we propose a network based Quality of Experience (QoE) estimation method for progressive download video, where the video file is downloaded into a buffer and played out from there. This allows for transparent monitoring without the requirement to install any monitoring tools on the users' end devices or on the server platform. Compared to already existing network based QoE estimation algorithms our method achieves a better monitoring performance with less processing effort and negligible loss in accuracy. The proposed Quality Monitoring (QMON) mechanism performs a playout buffer fill level estimation based on TCP flow observation in the measurement point and does a QoE evaluation based on the number and duration of occurred stalling events. The time elapsed from the last stall event to the current time is also taken into account for the calculation of the Mean Opinion Score (MOS). Besides the basic offline and online estimation method three differently powerful flavors of the estimation algorithm are presented in the paper. The QMON method has already been implemented and covers a wide range of video codecs like the highly compressing h.264 codec which is mainly used in the MP4 container as well as the new VP8 codec provided by Google in WebM container based download services. The former commonly used Flash Video service type is supported as well. The cutting edge scalable video codecs like Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) also known as MPEG-DASH or Scalable Video Codec (SVC) are targeted too with the QMON method and are considered in this paper within a conceptual study.
Reliability and validity of noninvasive imaging of internal carotid artery pseudo-occlusion.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Our study evaluated noninvasive tests for the diagnosis of atheromatous internal carotid artery (ICA) pseudo-occlusion. METHODS Twenty patients (17 men, 3 women; mean age +/-SD, 64.3+/-11.6 years) with angiographically proven atheromatous ICA pseudo-occlusion (20 vessels) were prospectively examined with MR angiography (MRA; 2D and 3D time-of-flight techniques), color Doppler-assisted duplex imaging (CDDI) and power-flow imaging (PFI) with and without an intravenous ultrasonic contrast agent. As a control group, 13 patients (13 men; mean+/-SD age, 63.0+/-9.0 years) with angiographically proven ICA occlusion (13 vessels) were studied with the same techniques. For the determination of interobserver agreement (kappa statistics), the findings of each diagnostic technique were read by 2 blinded and independent observers who were not involved in patient recruitment and initial data acquisition. Specificity and sensitivity were calculated for all noninvasive techniques (observer consensus) in comparison to the standard of reference (intra-arterial angiography). RESULTS Interobserver reliabilities were kappa=0.86 for intra-arterial angiography, kappa=0.90 for unenhanced CDDI, kappa=0. 93 for enhanced CDDI, kappa=0.93 for unenhanced PFI, kappa=1.0 for enhanced PFI, kappa=0.93 for 2D MRA, and kappa=0.77 for 3D MRA, respectively (P<0.0001). Specificities and sensitivities were 0.92 and 0.70 for unenhanced CDDI, 0.92 and 0.83 for enhanced CDDI, 0.92 and 0.95 for unenhanced PFI, 1.0 and 0.94 for enhanced PFI, 1.0 and 0.65 for 2D MRA, and 0.89 and 0.47 for 3D MRA, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Advanced ultrasonographic techniques, especially PFI (with only 1 false-positive diagnosis of occlusion in the present series), can provide reliable and valid data to differentiate between ICA pseudo-occlusion and complete occlusion. In contrast, time-of-flight MRA at its present state is not capable of predicting minimal residual flow within a nearly occluded ICA.
Rab11 Is Required for Epithelial Cell Viability, Terminal Differentiation, and Suppression of Tumor-Like Growth in the Drosophila Egg Chamber

Background The Drosophila egg chamber provides an excellent system in which to study the specification and differentiation of epithelial cell fates because all of the steps, starting with the division of the corresponding stem cells, called follicle stem cells, have been well described and occur many times over in a single ovary. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we investigate the role of the small Rab11 GTPase in follicle stem cells (FSCs) and in their differentiating daughters, which include main body epithelial cells, stalk cells and polar cells. We show that rab11-null FSCs maintain their ability to self renew, even though previous studies have shown that FSC self renewal is dependent on maintenance of E-cadherin-based intercellular junctions, which in many cell types, including Drosophila germline stem cells, requires Rab11. We also show that rab11-null FSCs give rise to normal numbers of cells that enter polar, stalk, and epithelial cell differentiation pathways, but that none of the cells complete their differentiation programs and that the epithelial cells undergo premature programmed cell death. Finally we show, through the induction of rab11-null clones at later points in the differentiation program, that Rab11 suppresses tumor-like growth of epithelial cells. Thus, rab11-null epithelial cells arrest differentiation early, assume an aberrant cell morphology, delaminate from the epithelium, and invade the neighboring germline cyst. These phenotypes are associated with defects in E-cadherin localization and a general loss of cell polarity. Conclusions/Significance While previous studies have revealed tumor suppressor or tumor suppressor-like activity for regulators of endocytosis, our study is the first to identify such activity for regulators of endocytic recycling. Our studies also support the recently emerging view that distinct mechanisms regulate junction stability and plasticity in different tissues.
Men Also Like Shopping: Reducing Gender Bias Amplification using Corpus-level Constraints

Language is increasingly being used to de-fine rich visual recognition problems with supporting image collections sourced from the web. Structured prediction models are used in these tasks to take advantage of correlations between co-occurring labels and visual input but risk inadvertently encoding social biases found in web corpora. In this work, we study data and models associated with multilabel object classification and visual semantic role labeling. We find that (a) datasets for these tasks contain significant gender bias and (b) models trained on these datasets further amplify existing bias. For example, the activity cooking is over 33% more likely to involve females than males in a training set, and a trained model further amplifies the disparity to 68% at test time. We propose to inject corpus-level constraints for calibrating existing structured prediction models and design an algorithm based on Lagrangian relaxation for collective inference. Our method results in almost no performance loss for the underlying recognition task but decreases the magnitude of bias amplification by 47.5% and 40.5% for multilabel classification and visual semantic role labeling, respectively。
Asymptotics of blowup solutions for the aggregation equation

We consider the asymptotic behavior of radially symmetric solutions of the aggregation equation $ u_t = \nabla\cdot(u\nabla K*u) $ in $\mathbb{R}^n$, for homogeneous potentials $K(x) = |x|^\gamma$, $\gamma>0$. For $\gamma>2$, the aggregation happens in infinite time and exhibits a concentration of mass along a collapsing $\delta$-ring. We develop an asymptotic theory for the approach to this singular solution. For $\gamma < 2$, the solution blows up in finite time and we present careful numerics of second type similarity solutions for all $\gamma$ in this range, including additional asymptotic behaviors in the limits $\gamma \to 0^+$ and $\gamma\to 2^-$.
Private investment and financial development in a globalized world

Using recently developed panel data techniques on data for 43 developing countries over the period 1970–1998, this article provides an exhaustive analysis of causality between aggregate private investment and financial development. A common factor approach on annual data, allowing for global interdependence and heterogeneity across countries, suggests positive causal effects going in both directions. The finding has rich implications for the development of financial markets and the conduct of macroeconomic policies in developing countries in an integrated global economy.
A fingerprint method for variability and robustness analysis of stochastically controlled cellular actuator arrays

In this paper we present a ‘fingerprint method’ for modeling and subsequently characterizing stochastically controlled actuator arrays. The actuator arrays are built from small actuator cells with structural elasticity. These cells are controlled using a bistable stochastic process wherein all cells are given a common input probability (control) value which they use to determine whether to actuate or relax. Arranging the cells in different networks gives different actuator array properties, which must be found before the actuator arrays can be applied to manipulators. The fingerprint method is used to describe and automatically generate every possible stochastic actuator array topology for a given number of cells, and to calculate actuator array properties such as: travel, required actuator strength/displacement, force range, force variance, and robustness for any array topology. The properties of several illustrative examples are shown and a discussion covers the importance of the properties, and trends between actuator array layouts and their properties. Finally, results from a validation experiment using a stochastically controlled solenoid array are presented.
Liquid-phase thermodynamics and structures in the Cu–Nb binary system

An embedded atom method (EAM) interatomic potential is constructed to reproduce the main topological features of the experimental equilibrium phase diagram of the Cu–Nb system in both solid and liquid states. The potential is fitted to composition-dependent enthalpies of mixing for bcc and fcc random solid solutions obtained from first-principles calculations at 0 K. Compared with two other EAM Cu–Nb potentials in the literature, the phase diagram of the current potential shows better agreement with the experimental phase diagram. Our potential predicts that the Cu–Nb liquid phase at equilibrium is compositionally patterned over lengths of about 2.3 nm. The newly constructed potential may be used to study the effect of liquid thermodynamics and structure on properties of binary systems, such as radiation-induced mixing.
AMA- and RWE- Based Adaptive Kalman Filter for Denoising Fiber Optic Gyroscope Drift Signal

An improved double-factor adaptive Kalman filter called AMA-RWE-DFAKF is proposed to denoise fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) drift signal in both static and dynamic conditions. The first factor is Kalman gain updated by random weighting estimation (RWE) of the covariance matrix of innovation sequence at any time to ensure the lowest noise level of output, but the inertia of KF response increases in dynamic condition. To decrease the inertia, the second factor is the covariance matrix of predicted state vector adjusted by RWE only when discontinuities are detected by adaptive moving average (AMA). The AMA-RWE-DFAKF is applied for denoising FOG static and dynamic signals, its performance is compared with conventional KF (CKF), RWE-based adaptive KF with gain correction (RWE-AKFG), AMA- and RWE- based dual mode adaptive KF (AMA-RWE-DMAKF). Results of Allan variance on static signal and root mean square error (RMSE) on dynamic signal show that this proposed algorithm outperforms all the considered methods in denoising FOG signal.
Mechanism and regulation of kinesin‐5, an essential motor for the mitotic spindle

Mitotic cell division is the most fundamental task of all living cells. Cells have intricate and tightly regulated machinery to ensure that mitosis occurs with appropriate frequency and high fidelity. A core element of this machinery is the kinesin‐5 motor protein, which plays essential roles in spindle formation and maintenance. In this review, we discuss how the structural and mechanical properties of kinesin‐5 motors uniquely suit them to their mitotic role. We describe some of the small molecule inhibitors and regulatory proteins that act on kinesin‐5, and discuss how these regulators may influence the process of cell division. Finally, we touch on some more recently described functions of kinesin‐5 motors in non‐dividing cells. Throughout, we highlight a number of open questions that impede our understanding of both this motor's function and the potential utility of kinesin‐5 inhibitors.