Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emergency, Automation Off: Unstructured Transition Timing for Distracted Drivers of Automated Vehicles

In future automated driving systems, drivers will be free to perform other secondary tasks, not needing to stay vigilant in monitoring the car's activity. However, there will still be situations in which drivers are required to take-over control of the vehicle, most likely from a highly distracted state. While highly automated vehicles would ideally accommodate structured takeovers, providing ample time and warning, it is still very important to examine how drivers would behave when they are subjected to an unstructured emergency transition of control. In this study, we observed how participants (N=30) in a driving simulator performed after they experienced a loss of automation. We tested three transition time conditions, with an unstructured transition of control occurring 2 seconds, 5 seconds, or 8 seconds before the participants encountered a road hazard that required the drivers' intervention. Participants were given a passive distraction (watching a video) to do while the automated driving mode was enabled, so they needed to disengage from the task and regain control of the car when the transition occurred. Few drivers in the 2 second condition were able to safely negotiate the road hazard situation, while the majority of drivers in the 5 or 8 second conditions were able to navigate the hazard safely. Similarly, drivers in the 2 second condition rated the vehicle to be less trustworthy than drivers in the 5 and 8 second conditions. From the study results, we are able to narrow down a minimum amount of time in which drivers can take over the control of vehicle safely and comfortably from the automated system in the advent of an impending road hazard.
Adaptive Locking Strategies in a Multi-node Data Sharing Environment

This paper describes some of the concurrency control 1” lgorithms used in RdMVMS RdbIVMS uses the ,fac.ilities provided by the VMS lock manager in order to perform locking among concurrent processes. The locking algorithms adapt to the contention among concurrent users by adjusting the number of locks required as well as the number of lock requests that are required per transaction. l‘his makes it possible to reduce the 1ockinR overhead considerably without sacrificing correctness or concurrency in a data sharing environment. These algorithms indicate that it is possible to achieve substantial improvements in certain situations.
The (re)production of health inequalities through the process of disseminating preventive innovations: the dynamic influence of socioeconomic status

ABSTRACT Fundamental Cause Theory suggests the replacement of mechanisms that produce the persistent relationship between socioeconomic status and health over time. Understanding how this process operates is central to explaining the reproduction of health inequality. We use data from the Onco-barometer survey (2010) to test a set of hypotheses derived from FCT, Diffusion Of Innovations theory and the intersection between these theories to examine how socioeconomic inequality emerges and evolves across the cycle of diffusion of six relevant preventive practices in Spain: faecal occult blood tests, prostate-specific antigen tests, Papanicolaou tests, mammograms, cholesterol readings and blood-pressure checks. Because these preventive measures are characterised by differing rates of spontaneous knowledge and use amongst the Spanish population, we assume that they are at different stages in the diffusion cycle. Results suggest that SES has a dynamic influence according to the diffusion stage of each preventive measure. We argue that the conjunction of these theories offers a dynamic ‘imagery’ that can help to explain the generation and diminishment of inequalities. Moreover, this integration has the potential to bring ‘social change’ back into the study of health inequalities, which is essential to understanding equitable (and inequitable) returns produced by preventive innovations.
Children Using Cellular Phones: The Effects of Shortcomings in User Interface Design

Differences in cellular phones' complexity and their impact on children's performance are under study in this experiment. Twenty children (age 9--14 years) solved tasks on two phones that were simulated according to existing models on a PC with a touch screen, holding constant display size, fonts, and colors. Actions were logged and analyzed regarding execution time, detour steps, and specific errors. Results show that children using the Siemens C35i with 25% higher complexity (with regard to number of required production rules) spent double the time solving tasks and undertook three times as many detour steps as children using the less complex Nokia 3210. A detailed analysis of user actions revealed that the number of production rules to be learned fails to account for most difficulties. Instead, ambiguous naming, poor categorization of functions, and unclear functionality of keys undermined performance. Actual or potential applications of this research include guidelines to improve the usability of all devices with small displays and hierarchical menu structures, such as cellular phones.
Regulation of murine lymphokine production in vivo. III. The lymphoid tissue microenvironment exerts regulatory influences over T helper cell function

We investigated the capacity of murine T lymphocytes, isolated from various lymphoid organs of normal or antigen-primed donors, to produce IL-2 or IL-4 after activation with anti-CD3 or specific antigen. Our results established that T cells resident within lymphoid organs being drained by nonmucosal tissue sites (e.g., axillary, inguinal, brachial lymph nodes, or spleen) produced IL-2 as the predominant T cell growth factor (TCGF) after activation. Conversely, activated T cells from lymphoid organs being drained by mucosal tissues (Peyer's patches, and cervical, periaortic, and parathymic lymph nodes) produced IL-4 as the major species of TCGF. Analysis of the lymphoid tissues obtained from adoptive recipients of antigen-primed lymphocytes provided by syngeneic donors provided evidence that direct influences were being exerted on T cells during their residence within defined lymphoid compartments. These lymphoid tissue influences appeared to be responsible for altering the potential of resident T cells to produce distinct species of TCGF. Steroid hormones, known transcriptional enhancers and repressors of specific cellular genes, were implicated in the controlling mechanisms over TCGF production. Glucocorticoids (GCs) were found to exert a systemic effect on all recirculating T cells, evidenced by a marked dominance in IL-4 production by T cells obtained from all lymphoid organs of GC-treated mice, or after a direct exposure of normal lymphoid cells to GCs in vitro before cellular activation with T cell mitogens. Further, the androgen steroid DHEA appeared to be responsible for providing an epigenetic influence to T cells trafficking through peripheral lymphoid organs. This steroid influence resulted in an enhanced potential for IL-2 secretion after activation. Anatomic compartmentalization of the DHEA-facilitated influence appears to be mediated by differential levels of DHEA-sulfatase in lymphoid tissues. DHEA-sulfatase is an enzyme capable of converting DHEA-sulfate (inactive) to the active hormone DHEA. We find very high activities of this enzyme isolated in murine macrophages. The implications of our findings to immunobiology are very great, and indicate that T cells, while clonally restricted for antigen peptide recognition, also appear to exhibit an extreme flexibility with regards to the species of lymphokines they produce after activation. Regulation of this highly conservative mechanism appears to be partially, if not exclusively, controlled by cellular influences being exerted by distinct species of steroid hormones, supplied in an endocrine or a paracrine manner where they mediate either systemic or tissue-localized influences, respectively. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Soil Functional Operating Range Linked to Microbial Biodiversity and Community Composition Using Denitrifiers as Model Guild

Soil microorganisms are key players in biogeochemical cycles. Yet, there is no consistent view on the significance of microbial biodiversity for soil ecosystem functioning. According to the insurance hypothesis, declines in ecosystem functioning due to reduced biodiversity are more likely to occur under fluctuating, extreme or rapidly changing environmental conditions. Here, we compare the functional operating range, a new concept defined as the complete range of environmental conditions under which soil microbial communities are able to maintain their functions, between four naturally assembled soil communities from a long-term fertilization experiment. A functional trait approach was adopted with denitrifiers involved in nitrogen cycling as our model soil community. Using short-term temperature and salt gradients, we show that the functional operating range was broader and process rates were higher when the soil community was phylogenetically more diverse. However, key bacterial genotypes played an important role for maintaining denitrification as an ecosystem functioning under certain conditions.
Performance Profiling in a Virtualized Environment

Virtualization is a key enabling technology for cloud computing. Many applications deployed in a cloud run in virtual machines. However, profilers based on CPU performance counters do not work well in a virtualized environment. In this paper, we explore the possibilities for achieving performance profiling in virtual machine monitors (VMMs) built on paravirtualization, hardware assistance, and binary translation. We present the design and implementation of performance profiling for a VMM based on the x86 hardware extensions, with some preliminary experimental results.
A New Version of the Stream Cipher Polar Bear

In April 2005, the stream cipher Polar Bear was proposed as a response to the eSTREAM Call for Primitives. Since then, a few attacks, [7] and [5], have indicated certain weaknesses in the design. In this paper we propose a new version of Polar Bear, called Polar Bear 2.0. The main dierence is a key-dependent premixing of the D8 table in conjunction with the key schedule. The new version does not only appear to be more secure, the performance on all packet sizes is improved.
THE HYPOTHESES OF FLA AND CHILDREN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

This article is aimed at explaining the hypotheses of FLA (First Language Acquisition) and children language development. As we know that there are many hypotheses and theories concerning about language FLA and language development as well. Therefore this article attempts to explain the most applicable hypothesis of FLA and also explain the justifications. Then this paper also explains what the sequences stages of children language development. Literally there are only three most prominent related hypotheses dealing with FLA. They are Innateness or nativism, behaviorism, and cognitivism. From those three hypotheses the author regards that the most applicable hypotheses dealing with FLA is innateness hypothesis. It explains that children automatically acquire language because they are equipped with a special language device called LAD (Language Acquisition Device) in their brain. While the other two are more appropriate to explain second language learning or SLA. Then concerning the language development of children, basically there are three main processes of language acquisition. They are phonological development, syntactical development, and semantic development.
La fiscalité optimale du capital

• Nous montrons que l'incoherence dynamique de politiques optimales ne resulte que de l'hypothese peu realiste selon laquelle une expropriation de droits de propriete ou un defaut de la dette publique peuvent etre optimaux. Sous la condition d'une politique sans defaut, la politique optimale est toujours coherente. Nous trouvons cette politique. Si les impots au niveau microeconomique sont choisis de facon optimale, alors le taux de taxation du rendement du capital est nul et la regle de Friedman est respectee des le debut de la politique optimale. Les taux de taxation de la consommation et du travail sont approximativement constants, mais ils sont ajustes d'une facon particuliere au debut de la reforme fiscale. • Nous trouvons la solution du probleme de fiscalite optimale dans une economie qui accumule du capital humain. Tous les principes de la fiscalite optimale sont revises. Au niveau microeconomique, les conditions du premier ordre du probleme de Ramsey sont revisees. Au niveau macroeconomique, le taux de taxation du rendement du capital physique n'est pas zero meme si les preferences sont homothetiques. Les ressources investies dans le capital humain sont taxees. Meme le principe d'efficacite de production n'est pas respecte. • Nous cherchons le taux optimale de taxation du rendement du capital dans une economie ou il y a une recherche de rente. Nous montrons que l'intervalle dans lequel varie le taux optimal de taxation du rendement du capital est assez etroit, et un taux de taxation egal a zero semble une bonne approximation de la realite. • Nous aussi donnons des nouvelles explications intuitives de resultats connus sur la fiscalite optimale.
The Wavelet Transform for Image Processing Applications

In recent years, the wavelet transform emerged in the field of image/signal processing as an alternative to the well-known Fourier Transform (FT) and its related transforms, namely, the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and the Discrete Sine Transform (DST). In the Fourier theory, a signal (an image is considered as a finite 2-D signal) is expressed as a sum, theoretically infinite, of sines and cosines, making the FT suitable for infinite and periodic signal analysis. For several years, the FT dominated the field of signal processing, however, if it succeeded well in providing the frequency information contained in the analysed signal; it failed to give any information about the occurrence time. This shortcoming, but not the only one, motivated the scientists to scrutinise the transform horizon for a “messiah” transform. The first step in this long research journey was to cut the signal of interest in several parts and then to analyse each part separately. The idea at a first glance seemed to be very promising since it allowed the extraction of time information and the localisation of different frequency components. This approach is known as the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT). The fundamental question, which arises here, is how to cut the signal? The best solution to this dilemma was of course to find a fully scalable modulated window in which no signal cutting is needed anymore. This goal was achieved successfully by the use of the wavelet transform.
EphA4‐deleted microenvironment regulates cancer development and leukemoid reaction of the isografted 4T1 murine breast cancer via reduction of an IGF1 signal

EphA4 belongs to the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). Although EphA4 is highly expressed in the central nervous system, EphA4 has also been implicated in cancer progression. Most of the studies focus on the expression and function in tumor cells. It is unknown whether EphA4‐deleted microenvironment affects tumor progression. Some of cancers in animals and humans, such as 4T1 cancer cells, are known to produce a large amount of granulocyte colony‐stimulating factors (G‐CSF/Csf3) which can stimulate myeloproliferation, such as myeloid‐derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) leading to a poor recipient prognosis. We isografted 4T1 breast cancer cells into both EphA4‐knockout and control wild‐type female littermate mice. The results showed that the EphA4‐deleted host could inhibit primary tumor growth and tumor metastasis mainly by decreasing the amount of IGF1 synthesis in the circulation and locally tissues. The EphA4‐deleted microenvironment and delayed tumor development reduced the production of G‐CSF resulting in the decrease of splenomegaly and leukemoid reaction including MDSCs, which in turn inhibit the tumor progression. This inhibition can be reversed by supplying the mice with IGF1. However, an excess of IGF1 supply over demand to the control mice could not further accelerate the tumor growth and metastasis. A better understanding and re‐evaluation of the main role of IGF1 in regulating tumor progression could further enhance our cognition of the tumor development niche. Our findings demonstrated that EphA4‐deleted microenvironment impairs tumor‐supporting conditions. Conclusion: Host EphA4 expression regulates cancer development mainly via EphA4‐mediated IGF1 synthesis signal. Thus, targeting this signaling pathway may provide a potential therapeutic option for cancer treatment.
Cryopreservation of Embryos and Oocytes in Human Assisted Reproduction

Both sperm and embryo cryopreservation have become routine procedures in human assisted reproduction and oocyte cryopreservation is being introduced into clinical practice and is getting more and more widely used. Embryo cryopreservation has decreased the number of fresh embryo transfers and maximized the effectiveness of the IVF cycle. The data shows that women who had transfers of fresh and frozen embryos obtained 8% additional births by using their cryopreserved embryos. Oocyte cryopreservation offers more advantages compared to embryo freezing, such as fertility preservation in women at risk of losing fertility due to oncological treatment or chronic disease, egg donation, and postponing childbirth, and eliminates religious and/or other ethical, legal, and moral concerns of embryo freezing. In this review, the basic principles, methodology, and practical experiences as well as safety and other aspects concerning slow cooling and ultrarapid cooling (vitrification) of human embryos and oocytes are summarized.
On distributed multiple access control for wireless sensor networks

We consider the problem of efficiently “emptying” a wireless sensor network that has accumulated a large amount of data at its nodes and seeks to relay them to designated gateways so as to maximize a concave function of achievable transmission rates. Transmissions are subject to physical communication constraints, interference constraints, and fairness constraints. We adopt a framework where transmissions are scheduled (instead of randomly initiated) and formulate the problem as an optimization problem. Due to its structure the formulation grows exponentially with the size of the network. We devise polynomial-time algorithms for maximizing weighted throughput in some special network topologies (stars and trees) which, under some additional assumptions, admit analytical solutions. For more general networks, we build on the decomposition framework proposed in our prior work [1] and develop a decentralized polynomial-time algorithm for solving a key subproblem. This leads to a decentralized algorithm for computing the schedule guided by some “light” centralized computations.
An intelligent and task-independent controller for video sequence analysis

This paper describes a task-independent controller that allows for an easy implementation of vision systems for processing video sequences. The controller does not have a fixed dataflow or any fixed steps. The dataflow is constructed by the modules by describing themselves for the controller. During operation the modules and their parameters are selected using an independent decision module. This makes the system flexible and allows comparison of different learning techniques and decision strategies. The controller is being used by the CAVIAR system and its current decision module is a rule-based system written in Clips.
Feature Matching Algorithm of Trees in Natrual Scenery

It can improve the recognition rate and segmentation accuracy of moving objects in strong wind and no buildings to extract the features of trees. In this paper, the similarity criterion about the pore texture feature matching of tree crown is proposed by analyzing the pore texture feature and experimenting. The feature difference matrix of 5×5 pixels is chosen as the basic operator of tree features. The feature extraction method and matching algorithm are developed for trees in natural scenery. The matching algorithm presented in this paper could greatly reduce the calculation workload of motion detection and improve the calculation accuracy, and has universal significance for the structural modeling of repeated texture feature. The experimental results show that this approach is reliable and feasible.
Globalisation and Labour Struggle in Asia: A Neo-Gramscian Critique of South Korea's Political Economy

Korean development has not occurred in a vacuum, but is a specific series of events that provide insight into the way that international struggles for hegemony affect local environments. Ongoing struggle between workers and the state in the former 'hermit kingdom' show that despite appeals to nationalism and human nature seen in training and education programmes to assist economic and social 'progress', Phoebe Moore argues that Korea has not become a 'hegemonic' nation, even since democratization in the early 1990s, but has known ongoing struggle in the face of pressures to develop and to catch up with advanced nations. The neo-Gramscian school theorises that world history reveals periods of hegemonic stability at some points such as during the period of 'Pax Americana', but this account of Korean development demonstrates that this speculation cannot be fully justified. Through making creative links between forms of state, education programmes, and labour relations and the global climate throughout a series of 'historical blocs', the book covers the story of South Korean development with all fairy tales removed. From Japanese colonisation to contemporary neoliberal social and economic polisymaking, the book notes that during each historical bloc, conditions for trasformismo, or a limited concession programme to prevent complete grass roots revolution, have been evident. Using Gramsci's ideas of passive revolution and trasformismo to understand totalitarianism and exploitation, the book reveals how accelerated development has matched global economic relations but has not resulted in hegemony at the national level using the case of South Korea. This book shows that revolution is not always emancipatory, but can become a passive, elite, reformist display of elite practice that is becoming increasingly transnational in character. Through the case study of Korean development in the context of international power relations, Moore argues that the concept of global hegemony, popular in the International Political Economy school today, is fundamentally, a myth.
An information theoretic tool for investigating speech perception

A method for investigating human speech perception that com-bines information about human perception of speech, auditory modeling, signal detection theory, and information theory is described. For that purpose, a model for detection of signals in the auditory nerve is developed and used to analyze speech sounds. Examples are given that combine detectability information with P ( heard = h | spoken = s ) to access information about “cues” to some some speech sounds. These example agree qualitatively with previous results about perception of these sounds. Reﬁne-ments and prospects for this approach are discussed in light of the examples.
Measuring fine-grained change in software: towards modification-aware change metrics

In this paper we propose the notion of change metrics, those that measure change in a project or its entities. In particular we are interested in measuring fine-grained changes, such as those stored by version control systems (such as CVS). A framework for the classification of change metrics is provided. We discuss the idea of change metrics which are modification aware, that is metrics which evaluate the change itself and not just the change in a measurement of the system before and after the change. We then provide examples of the use of these metrics on two mature projects