Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization using L 1 Minimization Method in Image Processing

In this proposal, the colorization-based coding problem is formulated into an optimization problem, i.e., an L1 minimization problem. In colorization-based coding, the encoder chooses a few representative pixels (RP) for which the chrominance values and the positions are sent to the decoder, whereas in the decoder, the chrominance values for all the pixels are reconstructed by colorization methods. The main issue in colorization-based coding is how to extract the RP well therefore the compression rate and the quality of the reconstructed color image becomes good. By formulating the colorization-based coding into an L1 minimization problem, it is guaranteed that, given the colorization matrix, the chosen set of RP becomes the optimal set in the sense that it minimizes the error between the original and the reconstructed color image. In other words, for a fixed error value and a given colorization matrix, the chosen set of RP is the smallest set possible.
TA-RE: an exchange language for mining software repositories

Software repositories have been getting a lot of attention from researchers in recent years. In order to analyze software repositories, it is necessary to first extract raw data from the version control and problem tracking systems. This poses two challenges: (1) extraction requires a non-trivial effort, and (2) the results depend on the heuristics used during extraction. These challenges burden researchers that are new to the community and make it difficult to benchmark software repository mining since it is almost impossible to reproduce experiments done by another team. In this paper we present the TA-RE corpus. TA-RE collects extracted data from software repositories in order to build a collection of projects that will simplify extraction process. Additionally the collection can be used for benchmarking. As the first step we propose an exchange language capable of making sharing and reusing data as simple as possible.
From fitness landscape to crossover operator choice

Genetic algorithms are applied to numerous problems that demonstrate different properties. To efficiently solve these problems, during the years a significant number of variation operators have been and still are created. It is a problem by itself how to correctly choose between those operators, i.e. how to find the most suitable operator (or a set) for a given problem. In this paper we investigate the choice of the suitable crossover operator on the basis of fitness landscape. The fitness landscape can be described with a number of properties, so a thorough analysis needs to be done to find the most useful ones. To achieve that, we experiment with 24 noise-free problems and floating point encoding. The results indicate it is possible to either select a suitable operator or at least to reduce the number of adequate operators with fitness landscape properties.
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF RECTANGULAR MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA USING METAMATERIAL FOR BETTER EFFICIENCY

In this present work, “Design and analysis of patch antenna using metamaterial (MTM) structure” is proposed for better improvement in the impedance bandwidth and reduction in the return loss at operating frequency 1.89 GHz. The proposed antenna is designed at a height 3.2 mm from the ground plane. This design is operated at 1.89 GHz and 2.553 GHz. At 1.89GHz, the bandwidths are increased up to 29.2 MHz and 19.8 MHz in comparison to 10.1MHz of RMPA alone. The Return loss of proposed antenna are reduced by 32.64dB and -29.26dB at dual band frequency as comparison to -10.26 dB of RMPA alone. Microstrip Patch antenna has advantages than other antenna is lightweight, inexpensive, easy to fabricate and achieve radiation characteristics with higher return loss. CST MICROWAVE STUDIO is used to design the metamaterial based rectangular microstrip patch antenna. KeywordsRectangular microstrip patch antenna (RMPA), Metamaterial (MTM), Directivity, Impedance Bandwidth, Return loss, Gain.
Numerical conformal mapping via a boundary integral equation with the adjoint generalized neumann kernel

This paper presents a new uniquely solvable boundary integral equation for computing the conformal mapping, its derivative and its inverse from bounded multiply connected regions onto the five classical canonical slit regions. The integral equation is derived by reformulating the conformal mapping as an adjoint Riemann-Hilbert problem. From the adjoint Riemann-Hilbert problem, we derive a boundary integral equation with the adjoint generalized Neumann kernel for the derivative of the boundary correspondence function $\theta'$. Only the right-hand side of the integral equation is different from a canonical region to another. The function $\theta'$ is integrated to obtain the boundary correspondence function $\theta$. The integration constants as well as the parameters of the canonical region are computed using the same uniquely solvable integral equation. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed method.
Reverse scheduling approach for burst loss minimization in WDM OBS based networks

In optical burst switched (OBS) networks burst scheduling is one of the key issue, which affects the burst loss in the optical networks. Scheduling algorithms utilizes wavelength channels by scheduling burst efficiently and reduces burst losses. Several types of scheduling algorithms such as horizon and void filling are used to schedule bursts. Horizon algorithms consider only unscheduled time whereas void filling algorithms consider time gap created by two successive scheduled burst on a channel. Horizon and void filling algorithms are simple and easy to implement but accounts in poor utilization of channels. In this paper, we present a novel approach for burst scheduling called reverse scheduling. In reverse scheduling normal flow of void filling algorithm is reversed for better utilization of channels capacity. Hence the effect of dropping probability can be studied through the analytical and simulation experiments.
Competitive Repair by Naturally Dispersed Repetitive DNA during Non-Allelic Homologous Recombination

Genome rearrangements often result from non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) between repetitive DNA elements dispersed throughout the genome. Here we systematically analyze NAHR between Ty retrotransposons using a genome-wide approach that exploits unique features of Saccharomyces cerevisiae purebred and Saccharomyces cerevisiae/Saccharomyces bayanus hybrid diploids. We find that DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) induce NAHR–dependent rearrangements using Ty elements located 12 to 48 kilobases distal to the break site. This break-distal recombination (BDR) occurs frequently, even when allelic recombination can repair the break using the homolog. Robust BDR–dependent NAHR demonstrates that sequences very distal to DSBs can effectively compete with proximal sequences for repair of the break. In addition, our analysis of NAHR partner choice between Ty repeats shows that intrachromosomal Ty partners are preferred despite the abundance of potential interchromosomal Ty partners that share higher sequence identity. This competitive advantage of intrachromosomal Tys results from the relative efficiencies of different NAHR repair pathways. Finally, NAHR generates deleterious rearrangements more frequently when DSBs occur outside rather than within a Ty repeat. These findings yield insights into mechanisms of repeat-mediated genome rearrangements associated with evolution and cancer.
Bowel ultrasound in assessment of Crohn's disease and detection of related small bowel strictures: a prospective comparative study versus x ray and intraoperative findings

Background and aim: Despite the fact that bowel ultrasound (US) has recently been proved to be useful in the assessment of bowel diseases, uncertainty persists as to its diagnostic role in patients with complicated Crohn's disease (CD). Therefore, we have prospectively investigated the accuracy of US compared with x ray procedures and intraoperative findings in detecting small bowel strictures complicating CD as well as its reliability in assessing disease extent and location within the bowel. Methods: A series of 296 consecutive patients with proven CD admitted to L Sacco University Hospital between 1997 and 1999, having undergone complete radiographic evaluation (including small bowel x ray, colonoscopy, or double contrast barium enema), were enrolled in the study. Bowel US was performed in each patient by two experienced operators unaware of the results of other diagnostic procedures. The accuracy of US in detecting strictures compared with x ray studies was determined separately in two different groups of patients: 211 patients treated conservatively (non-operative CD) and 85 patients who were candidates for surgery for CD complications or unresponsiveness to medical therapy (operative CD). Results: Overall sensitivity and specificity of US in assessing the anatomical distribution of CD were 93% and 97%, respectively. The extent of ileal disease measured at US correlated well with that determined by x ray (r=0.52, p<0.001) in medically treated patients as well as with that measured intraoperatively in surgical patients (r=0.64, p<0.001). One or more stenoses were detected in 75 patients (35.5%) at small bowel enteroclysis in the non-operative CD group compared with 70 (82%) in the operative CD series. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values of bowel US in the detection of strictures were 79%, 98%, and 95% in non-operative CD patients and 90%, 100%, and 100% in operative CD cases, respectively. Conclusions: In experienced hands, bowel US is an accurate technique for assessing CD extent and location and is very helpful in detecting small bowel strictures, especially in very severe cases that are candidates for surgery. The use of bowel US is therefore justified as a primary investigation in CD patients in whom complications are suspected.
Two tiered service differentiation and data rate adjustment scheme for WMSNs cross layer MAC

Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) have recently attracted more attention and have contributed to new potential wireless sensor network (WSN) applications such as border surveillance, battlefield monitoring, target detection, target tracking and habitat monitoring. WMSNs carry heterogeneous traffic with different urgency and quality of service (QoS) requirements. While the need to minimize energy consumption is important in WSNs, offering QoS for multimedia transmission is a challenging issue due to resource constrained nature of sensor nodes, unreliable wireless links and unpredictable environments. Currently, there is a need for a new QoS aware, priority based cross layer Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol on WMSNs. Proposed new two tiered service differentiation mechanism and data rate adjustment scheme provides 8.7 times lower average end to end delay for urgent real time video traffic while providing lower end-to end delay for each urgent traffic class. Proposed mechanism has been focused on QoS provisioning at MAC layer for urgent traffic on especially military applications providing data rate adjustment by application layer.
Action Potential Initiation and Propagation in Layer 5 Pyramidal Neurons of the Rat Prefrontal Cortex: Absence of Dopamine Modulation

Somatic and dendritic whole-cell recording was used to examine action potential (AP) initiation and propagation in layer 5 pyramidal neurons of the rat prelimbic prefrontal cortex. APs generated by somatic current injection, or via antidromic stimulation, were reliably recorded at apical dendritic locations as far as 480 μm from the soma. Although the backpropagation of single APs into the apical dendrite was robust, frequency-dependent attenuation was observed during AP trains delivered at 10-100 Hz. APs were usually initiated close to the soma (presumably in the axon); however, strong depolarizing input to the apical dendrite could generate dendritic spikes that preceded somatic APs. AP backpropagation was dependent solely on activation of dendritic voltage-gated sodium channels and did not require activation of dendritic calcium channels. Despite not playing a role in AP backpropagation, calcium-imaging experiments demonstrated that dendritic calcium channels are activated by backpropagating APs, leading to transient increases in intracellular calcium. In addition, calcium imaging revealed that AP backpropagation into the distal apical tuft was frequency dependent. Finally, we tested whether dopamine, a prominent neuromodulator associated with prefrontal activity, could alter AP initiation or backpropagation. Bath-applied dopamine (10 or 100 μm) did not effect AP backpropagation, frequency-dependent depression, local dendritic spike initiation, or AP-induced calcium signaling. These data indicate that AP backpropagation in prefrontal layer 5 pyramidal neurons is robust but frequency dependent in the distal tuft, requires dendritic sodium rather than calcium channel activation, and, unlike other aspects of neuronal excitability, insensitive to modulation by dopamine.
Comparative Study of Evolutionary Model and Clustering Methods in Circuit Partitioning Pertaining to VLSI Design

Partitioning is a critical area of VLSI CAD. In order to build complex digital logic circuits its often essential to sub-divide multi -million transistor design into manageable Pieces. This paper looks at the various partitioning techniques aspects of VLSI CAD, targeted at various applications. We proposed an evolutionary time- series model and a statistical glitch prediction system using a neural network with selection of global feature by making use of clustering method model, for partitioning a circuit. For evolutionary time-series model, we made use of genetic, memetic & neuro-memetic techniques. Our work focused in use of clustering methods - K- means & EM methodology. A comparative study is provided for all techniques to solve the problem of circuit partitioning pertaining to VLSI design. The performance of all approaches is compared using benchmark data provided by MCNC standard cell placement benchmark net lists. Analysis of the investigational results proved that the Neuro-memetic model achieves greater performance then other model in recognizing sub-circuits with minimum amount of interconnections between them.
An optimal lower bound for anonymous scheduling mechanisms

We consider the problem of designing truthful mechanisms to minimize the makespan on m unrelated machines. In their seminal paper, Nisan and Ronen [14] showed a lower bound of 2, and an upper bound of m, thus leaving a large gap. They conjectured that their upper bound is tight, but were unable to prove it. Despite many attempts that yield positive results for several special cases, the conjecture is far from being solved: the lower bound was only recently slightly increased to 2.61 [5,10], while the best upper bound remained unchanged. In this paper we show the optimal lower bound on truthful anonymous mechanisms: no such mechanism can guarantee an approximation ratio better than m. This is the first concrete evidence to the correctness of the Nisan-Ronen conjecture, especially given that the classic scheduling algorithms are anonymous, and all state-of-the-art mechanisms for special cases of the problem are anonymous as well.
An improved pseudo-exponential, pseudo-logarithmic circuit

In this paper a useful pseudo-exponential and pseudo-logarithmic circuit is proposed that offers improved performance compared to a current-conveyorbased design. The circuit employs two operational amplifiers and several resistors and mimics the exponential and logarithmic functions over predefined ranges. Control of the pseudo-functions is achieved by a single resistance, which may be digitally switched or implemented by tunable transconductors. Measured results using digitally switched resistors and commercially available components demonstrate the versatility of the circuit for audio/video applications.
A nonlinear quadrotor trajectory tracking controller with disturbance rejection

This paper addresses the problem of designing and experimentally validating a controller for steering an autonomous quadrotor vehicle along a time-dependent trajectory, while rejecting constant force disturbances. The proposed solution consists of a nonlinear adaptive state feedback controller that asymptotically stabilizes the closed-loop system and ensures perfect tracking even in the presence of force disturbances. We consider quadrotors vehicles actuated in thrust and angular velocity, and ensure that the actuation does not grow unbounded as a function of the position error. The constant force disturbance is estimated through the use of a smooth projector operator. We build a rapid prototyping and testing environment to streamline the implementation and the tuning of the control laws and present experimental results to demonstrate the performance and robustness of the proposed controller.
Lessons Learned in Creating Real-World Interfaces

In many help systems, users are either distracted with a constant barrage of help or have to stop working on the task at hand and explicitly search for help. In this paper, we propose intuitive methods to present on-demand, in-place help in mixed reality interfaces. In these interfaces, users interact with virtual objects that are superimposed on the real world by manipulating physical cards. We describe Tiles, a prototype application for designing aircraft instrument panels, from which our work on help systems grew. In Tiles, Tangible Bubble Help is used, in which users manipulate special ‘help’ cards in combination with data cards to invoke detailed help. Tangible Bubble Help may be multi-modal, taking the form of text, audio, graphics, and animations. We also present Tangible Tooltips, a lightweight technique in which users control the amount of textual help by tilting data cards to different degrees. In both cases, users can seamlessly transition between performing the main task and acquiring help.
A Critical Role for Interleukin 18 in Primary and Memory Effector Responses to Listeria monocytogenes That Extends Beyond Its Effects on Interferon γ Production

The stimulation of interferon (IFN)-γ by interleukin (IL)-12 has been shown to provide protection from intracellular pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is also a major player in the resolution of Listeria infections and is suggested to have more global effects than can be explained by the induction of IFN-γ alone. Since IL-18 synergizes with IL-12 to induce IFN-γ production by natural killer and T helper (Th)1 cells, we determined its role in responses to Listeria. IL-18 appeared to be even more potent than either IL-12 or IFN-γ for protection against this pathogen and IL-18 enhanced bacterial clearance in the complete absence of IFN-γ. Indeed IL-18 was comparable to TNF in its ability to resolve the infection and showed a lowered protective capacity in the absence of TNF. Moreover, IL-18 induced macrophages to secrete both TNF and nitric oxide after a Listeria infection. IL-18 was also essential for optimal IFN-γ production by antigen-specific T cells. Therefore, IL-18 operates via its effects on both the innate immune response, including macrophages, as well as on Th1 cells, to protect against Listeria.
Moduli spaces for quilted surfaces and Poisson structures

Let G be a Lie group endowed with a bi-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric. Then the moduli space of flat connections on a principal G-bundle, P\to \Sigma, over a compact oriented surface, \Sigma, carries a Poisson structure. If we trivialize P over a finite number of points on the boundary of \Sigma, then the moduli space carries a quasi-Poisson structure instead. Our first result is to describe this quasi-Poisson structure in terms of an intersection form on the fundamental groupoid of the surface, generalizing results of Massuyeau and Turaev. Our second result is to extend this framework to quilted surfaces, i.e. surfaces where the structure group varies from region to region and a reduction (or relation) of structure occurs along the borders of the regions, extending results of the second author. We describe the Poisson structure on the moduli space for a quilted surface in terms of an operation on spin networks, i.e. graphs immersed in the surface which are endowed with some additional data on their edges and vertices. This extends the results of various authors.
The Evaluation of Investment in Inter-Organizational Information System

Today inter-organizational information system (IOS) provides supply chains with new opportunities to promote communication efficiency and create competitive advantage. However, IOS adoption is costly and time-consuming. Enterprises that are not well prepared may run a loss from the project. Therefore, the primary concern before IOS installation is at what cost the project is fulfilled to achieve the maximal profit. To address the problem, this paper sets up a two-player model based on the profit generated by IOS. The model helps companies determine the level of IOS investment that produces the best utility. Furthermore, after figuring out the optimal amount of investment, we work out a solution to the problem of cost sharing between trading partners with different power by applying asymmetric Nash bargaining solution.
Machine Learning-Based Network Vulnerability Analysis of Industrial Internet of Things

It is critical to secure the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices because of potentially devastating consequences in case of an attack. Machine learning (ML) and big data analytics are the two powerful leverages for analyzing and securing the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. By extension, these techniques can help improve the security of the IIoT systems as well. In this paper, we first present common IIoT protocols and their associated vulnerabilities. Then, we run a cyber-vulnerability assessment and discuss the utilization of ML in countering these susceptibilities. Following that, a literature review of the available intrusion detection solutions using ML models is presented. Finally, we discuss our case study, which includes details of a real-world testbed that we have built to conduct cyber-attacks and to design an intrusion detection system (IDS). We deploy backdoor, command injection, and Structured Query Language (SQL) injection attacks against the system and demonstrate how a ML-based anomaly detection system can perform well in detecting these attacks. We have evaluated the performance through representative metrics to have a fair point of view on the effectiveness of the methods.
Flipping the switch: How a sperm activates the egg at fertilization

Sperm interaction with an egg in animals was first documented 160 years ago in sea urchins by Alphonse Derbès (1847) when he noted the formation of an “envelope” following the sperm's “approach” to the egg. The “envelope” in sea urchins is an obvious phenotype of fertilization in this animal and over the past 35 years has served to indicate a presence of calcium released from cytoplasmic stores essential to activate the egg. The mechanism of calcium release has been intensely studied because it is a universal regulator of cellular activity, and recently several intersecting pathways of calcium release have been defined. Here we examine these various mechanisms with special emphasis on recent work in eggs of both sea urchins and mice. Developmental Dynamics 236:2027–2038, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.