Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Segment-of-Interest driven live game streaming: Saving bandwidth without degrading experience

Live game streaming is tremendously popular, and recent reports indicate that such platforms impose high traffic volume, leading to degraded user experience. In this paper, we propose a Segment-of-Interest (SoI) driven platform, so as to optimize live game streaming. Our platform uses various features collected from streamers and viewers to determine if the current segments of gameplays attract viewers. Upon determining the importance of individual segments, the limited bandwidth is allocated to the interested viewers in a Rate-Distortion (R-D) optimized manner, where the levels of segment importance are used as weights of game streaming quality. The underlaying intuition is: viewer experience is degraded only when the game streaming degradation is noticed by viewers. Simulation results show the benefits of our proposed solution: (i) it improves viewing quality by up to 5 dB, (ii) it saves bandwidth by up to 50 Gbps, and (iii) it efficiently performs resource allocation and scales to many viewers. Our presented testbed is opensource and can be leveraged by researchers and engineers to further improve live game streaming platforms.
Textual Requirement Analysis for UML Diagram Extraction by using NLP

Requirement analysis is the preliminary step in software development process. The requirements stated by the clients are analyzed and an abstraction of it, is created which is termed as requirement model. The automatic generation of UML diagram from natural language requirements is highly challenging and demanding very efficient methodology. Unified Modeling Language (UML) models are helpful for understanding the problems, communicating with application experts and preparing documentation. The static design view of the system can be modeled using a UML class diagram. System requirements stated by the user are usually in natural language form. This is an imprecise and inconsistent form which is difficult to be used by the developer for design UML model. We present a new methodology for generating UML diagrams or models from natural language problem statement or requirement specification. We have named our methodology as Requirement analysis and UML diagram extraction (RAUE). General Terms
Intelligent RF-Based Gesture Input Devices Implemented Using e-Textiles †

We present an radio-frequency (RF)-based approach to gesture detection and recognition, using e-textile versions of common transmission lines used in microwave circuits. This approach allows for easy fabrication of input swatches that can detect a continuum of finger positions and similarly basic gestures, using a single measurement line. We demonstrate that the swatches can perform gesture detection when under thin layers of cloth or when weatherproofed, providing a high level of versatility not present with other types of approaches. Additionally, using small convolutional neural networks, low-level gestures can be identified with a high level of accuracy using a small, inexpensive microcontroller, allowing for an intelligent fabric that reports only gestures of interest, rather than a simple sensor requiring constant surveillance from an external computing device. The resulting e-textile smart composite has applications in controlling wearable devices by providing a simple, eyes-free mechanism to input simple gestures.
Patterns of Aggressive Attack in uvenile Stee head Trout

Nipping is a potentially damaging aggressive behavior of juvenile steelhead trout (SaBmo gairdneri). By analyzing videotaped interactions of pairs of fish we determined where nips were aimed and where they contacted the opponent's body. Patterns of fin damage were also assessed. Aims and nips (contacts) were distributed differently i n reciprocal and nonreciprocal aggressive bouts. In nonreciprocal bouts, aims were directed mainly at the dorsal fin, central body section, and caudal fin. Nip contact. was biased towards the caudal fin. I n reciprocal bouts, both aims and nips were concentrated o n the dorsal f in and anterior portions of the body. We suggest that juvenile steelhead adjust their fighting tactics in response to opponent behavior. Mouth fighting, a novel behavior in juvenile trout, was observed in some reciprocal bouts. The dorsal f in incurred the greatest damage. We conclude that aggression (nipping) is responsible for the dorsal f in damage commonly observed in hatchery-reared salmonids.
Performance enhancement of Hadoop MapReduce framework for analyzing BigData

In this BigData era processing and analyzing the data is very important and tedious job. An open source framework called Hadoop, implementation of MapReduce provides efficient platform for BigData analytics. The performance of Hadoop MapReduce mainly depends on its configuration parameters. Tuning the job configuration parameters is an effective way to improve performance so that we can reduce the execution time and the disk utilization. The performance tuning mainly based on CPU usage, disk I/O rate, memory usage, network traffic components. In this paper we are discussing the tuning methods to enhance the performance of MapReduce jobs. From our experiment we can say that performance has improved by 32.97% over the baseline system.
QoS Provisioning power of optimal aggregate-flow scheduling

Providing scalable QoS-sensitive services to applications with varying degrees of elasticity using aggregate-flow scheduling is a challenging problem. Our previous work advanced a theoretical framework where an optimal differentiated services provisioning problem is formulated and solved to yield solutions for optimal per-hop behavior(PHB) and absolute QoS shaping using end-to-end control. In this paper, we build on our previous work and achieve the following innovations. First, we generalize the mean square error criterion employed in the previous work for measuring goodness of aggregate-flow scheduling by introducing a scaling function which is applied to the TOS field label value in the IP header. This allows the service provider to configure the PHB so as to export customized QoS differentiation---essential when shaping end-to-end absolute QoS over per-hop relative QoS---commensurate with the QoS profiles of its user base. Second, we put the theoretical framework and analysis ``to the test'' by presenting a comprehensive performance evaluation study of differentiated services as affected by optimal aggregate-flow per-hop control. In particular, we show that end-to-end QoS shaping power degrades gracefully as the number of service classes at routers in a multi-hop path is decreased, which admits heterogeneity in router configurations and incremental deployment. Collectively, our results demonstrate that relative QoS can be effectively harnessed to achieve absolute QoS in WAN environments if the PHB implements optimal aggregate-flow scheduling in the generalized framework.
Evaluation of an Elementary School–based Educational Intervention for Reducing Arsenic Exposure in Bangladesh

Background Chronic exposure to well water arsenic (As) remains a major rural health challenge in Bangladesh and some other developing countries. Many mitigation programs have been implemented to reduce As exposure, although evaluation studies for these efforts are rare in the literature. Objectives In this study we estimated associations between a school-based intervention and various outcome measures of As mitigation. Methods We recruited 840 children from 14 elementary schools in Araihazar, Bangladesh. Teachers from 7 schools were trained on an As education curriculum, whereas the remaining 7 schools without any training formed the control group. Surveys, knowledge tests, and well-water testing were conducted on 773 children both at baseline and postintervention follow-up. Urine samples were collected from 210 children from 4 intervention schools and the same number of children from 4 control schools. One low-As (< 10 μg/L) community well in each study village was ensured during an 18-month intervention period. Results After adjustment for the availability of low-As wells and other sociodemographic confounders, children receiving the intervention were five times more likely to switch from high- to low-As wells (p < 0.001). We also observed a significant decline of urinary arsenic (UAs) (p = < 0.001) (estimated β = –214.9; 95% CI: –301.1, –128.7 μg/g creatinine) among the children who were initially drinking from high-As wells (> Bangladesh standard of 50 μg/L) and significantly improved As knowledge attributable to the intervention after controlling for potential confounders. Conclusions These findings offer strong evidence that school-based intervention can effectively reduce As exposure in Bangladesh by motivating teachers, children, and parents. Citation Khan K, Ahmed E, Factor-Litvak P, Liu X, Siddique AB, Wasserman GA, Slavkovich V, Levy D, Mey JL, van Geen A, Graziano JH. 2015. Evaluation of an elementary school–based educational intervention for reducing arsenic exposure in Bangladesh. Environ Health Perspect 123:1331–1336; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1409462
How force perception changes in different refresh rate conditions

In this work we consider the role of different refresh rates of the force feedback physical engine for haptics environments, such as robotic surgery and virtual reality surgical training systems. Two experimental force feedback tasks are evaluated in a virtual environment. Experiment I is a passive contact task, where the hand-grip is held waiting for the force feedback perception given by the contact with virtual objects. Experiment II is an active contact task, where a tool is moved in a direction until the contact perception with a pliable object. Different stiffnesses and refresh rates are factorially manipulated. To evaluate differences in the two tasks, we account for latency time inside the wall, penetration depth, and maximum force exerted against the object surface. The overall result of these experiments shows an improved sensitivity in almost all variables considered with refresh rates of 500 and 1,000 Hz compared with a refresh rate of 250 Hz, but no improved sensitivity is showed among them.
Security in Outsourced Storage: Efficiently Checking Integrity and Service Level Agreement Compliance

The storage as a service paradigma has recently raised interest in the security community, where a few works have been proposed to check whether an outsourcer has tampered with the integrity of the outsourced data. In this paper, we assume that storage is outsourced in accordance to some integrity enforcing protocol. Under this assumption, we focus on a specific issue; that is, when the outsourcer is requested to provide access to the outsourced data within a given time-bound—for instance, set in a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This paper provides several contributions: first, we identify and motivate the above requirement in the outsourced storage context; second, we show that current integrity enforcing protocols fail in detecting the violation of the time-bound limit against a rationale malicious outsourcer; third, we show how the outsourcer can actively perform such an attack. Results are supported by thorough analysis and extensive simulations.
A Framework for the Selection of Binarization Techniques on Palm Leaf Manuscripts Using Support Vector Machine

Challenges for text processing in ancient document images are mainly due to the high degree of variations in foreground and background. Image binarization is an image segmentation technique used to separate the image into text and background components. Although several techniques for binarizing text documents have been proposed, the performance of these techniques varies and depends on the image characteristics. Therefore, selecting binarization techniques can be a key idea to achieve improved results. This paper proposes a framework for selecting binarizing techniques of palm leaf manuscripts using Support Vector Machines (SVMs). The overall process is divided into three steps: (i) feature extraction: feature patterns are extracted from grayscale images based on global intensity, local contrast, and intensity; (ii) treatment of imbalanced data: imbalanced dataset is balanced by using Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique as to improve the performance of prediction; and (iii) selection: SVM is applied in order to select the appropriate binarization techniques. The proposed framework has been evaluated with palm leaf manuscript images and benchmarking dataset from DIBCO series and compared the performance of prediction between imbalanced and balanced datasets. Experimental results showed that the proposed framework can be used as an integral part of an automatic selection process.
A 0.18-$\mu$ m CMOS RF Transceiver With Self-Detection and Calibration Functions for Bluetooth V2.1  ${+}$ EDR Applications

An RF front-end transceiver is implemented in standard 0.18-μm CMOS for V2.1 Bluetooth applications. All signal detection and gain calibrations are realized without the need of baseband control, but using an incoming Gaussian frequency-shift keying signal detection mechanism, auto low-noise amplifier gain mode selection, and autogain calibration with a combined programmable gain amplifier/received-signal-strength indicator function. Moreover, a simple control interface between transceiver and baseband is designed. The differential error vector magnitude performance of the transmitter is less than 6%, and a less than 7.5-dB system noise figure is achieved in the receiver. Continuous current consumptions in receiver and transmitter are 32 and 42 mA, respectively, with a 1.8-V internal regulator voltage.
A Hybrid TDMA/MC-CDMA System Utilizing Multiuser Detection for Integrated Wireless Networks

The essence of this work is to introduce an interaction between the physical layer and higher network layers, thus enabling a more practical utilization of multiuser detection and supporting services with different QoS parameters. In this paper, a new hybrid TDMA/ Multicode (MC)-CDMA medium access control utilizing multiuser detection is proposed and analyzed. Further, two traffic flow control approaches accompanied the TDMA/MC-CDMA system are proposed. One approach deterministically controls the flow of traffic into the TDMA slots, while the other statistically controls the flow of traffic depending on the instantaneous changes in the traffic load. The two approaches have been examined under a wide range of traffic characteristics where AWGN is only considered besides the mutual interferers from other intracell users. Both approaches show superiority as well as less sensitivity in terms of BER to the traffic changes compared with the conventional system.
The tropicalization of the moduli space of curves

We show that the skeleton of the Deligne-Mumford-Knudsen moduli stack of stable curves is naturally identified with the moduli space of extended tropical curves, and that this is compatible with the "naive" set-theoretic tropicalization map. The proof passes through general structure results on the skeleton of a toroidal Deligne-Mumford stack. Furthermore, we construct tautological forgetful, clutching, and gluing maps between moduli spaces of extended tropical curves and show that they are compatible with the analogous tautological maps in the algebraic setting.
A service composition model for dynamic service creation and update in IMS/Web 2.0 converged environment

Relying on an IMS/Web 2.0 converged environment, this paper proposes an extensible service composition model which uses the concept of policy for encapsulating the service composition information. Then based on this model, the policy concept is enhanced by being divided into two types (abstract service policy and concrete service policy) for realizing the automatic service composition which mainly relates to the service update and service creation processes. Moreover, an active approach, a passive approach, and a hybrid approach are proposed for balancing the latency and real-time characteristic. With these enhancements, both user's experience and involvement are greatly improved, the service lifecycle is optimized, and the costs for service creation and maintenance are decreased.
Contexto familiar e implicación en el ámbito físico-deportivo durante la adolescencia

Among the contextual factors that mediate in youth’s well-being and personal adjustment, parental influence is one of the most studied. In this research we focus on the effects that parental support has in youth’s engagement in physical and sport activities, which improves adolescents’ well-being and personal adjustment. Participants were 169 adolescents between 11 – 19 years old (M = 14.22; SD = 1.52) and their families. Results show that parental support (both from parents and mothers) has a stronger effect in daughters. On the other hand, mothers’ support reveals a stronger effect both in sons and daughters engagement.
Improved Green’s functions from seismic interferometry

Under certain theoretical assumptions, the theory of seismic inter- ferometry allows the construction of artificial (or virtual) sources and receivers at the locations of receivers in a physical experiment. This is done by redatuming the physical sources to be at the locations of the physical receivers. Each redatumed trace is formed by stacking the cross-correlations of appropriate recorded traces from each physi- cal shot. For the resulting stacked traces to be a valid approximation certain requirements, like an adequate number of surface sources with a small enough spacing in the acquisition geometry, must be met. If these requirements are not met, the resulting virtual shot gather will contain artifacts. In this paper, we analyze both the sets of correlated traces (correlograms) and their stack. We observe that it is possible to reduce certain artifacts in the stacked traces by novel filtering op- erations. These filtering operations may have broad utility in all of seismic interferometric applications. 1
Light-dependent K+ Channels in the Mollusc Onchidium Simple Photoreceptors Are Opened by cGMP

Light-dependent K+ channels underlying a hyperpolarizing response of one extraocular (simple) photoreceptor, Ip-2 cell, in the marine mollusc Onchidium ganglion were examined using cell-attached and inside-out patch-clamp techniques. A previous report (Gotow, T., T. Nishi, and H. Kijima. 1994. Brain Res. 662:268–272) showed that a depolarizing response of the other simple photoreceptor, A-P-1 cell, results from closing of the light-dependent K+ channels that are activated by cGMP. In the cell-attached patch recordings of Ip-2 cells, external artificial seawater (ASW) was replaced with a modified ASW containing 150 mM K+ and 200 mM Mg2+ to suppress any synaptic input and to maintain the membrane potential constant. When Ip-2 cells were equilibrated with this modified ASW, the internal K+ concentration was estimated to be 260 mM. Light-dependent single-channels in the cell-attached patch on these cells were opened by light but scarcely by voltage. After confirming the light-dependent channel activity in the cell-attached patches, an application of cGMP to the excised inside-out patches newly activated a channel that disappeared on removal of cGMP. Open and closed time distributions of this cGMP-activated channel could be described by the sum of two exponents with time constants τo1, τo2 and τc1, τc2, respectively, similar to those of the light-dependent channel. In both the channels, τo1 and τo2 in ms ranges were similar to each other, although τc2 over tens of millisecond ranges was different. τo1, τo2, and the mean open time τo were both independent of light intensity, cGMP concentration, and voltage. In both channels, the open probability increased as the membrane was depolarized, without changing any of τo2 or τo. In both, the reversal potentials using 200- and 450-mM K+-filled pipettes were close to the K+ equilibrium potentials, suggesting that both the channels are primarily K+ selective. Both the mean values of the channel conductance were estimated to be the same at 62 and 91 pS in 200- and 450-mM K+ pipettes at nearly 0 mV, respectively. Combining these findings with those in the above former report, it is concluded that cGMP is a second messenger which opens the light-dependent K+ channel of Ip-2 to cause hyperpolarization, and that the channel is the same as that of A-P-1 closed by light.
A Marker-Based Cyber-Physical Augmented-Reality Indoor Guidance System for Smart Campuses

This paper proposes to design and implement a guidance system to guide new students, such as freshmen, to navigate buildings within the campus as an experience to design and implement similar systems in the context of smart cities. The proposed system consists of three main subsystems: the marker-based cyber-physical interaction (CPI) system, the indoor positioning (IP) system, and the augmented-reality (AR) system. With the help of visible markers and invisible markers, the CPI system allows the users to do interactions between the physical and cyber environments, the IP system produces accurate user position information, the AR system provides the users with good user experiences. An Android application, named Engfi Gate, is developed to realize the system design in the test environment. This paper also shows the comparisons of the proposed system with other related systems.
A Possible Explanation for the "Parallel Tracks" Phenomenon in Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries

An explanation is proposed for the observation that in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), the correlation between most observable X-ray spectral and timing parameters on the one hand, and X-ray luminosity on the other, while generally good in a given source on a timescale of hours, is absent both on longer timescales and between sources. This phenomenon, particularly evident in kHz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) sources, leads to parallel tracks in plots of such parameters versus luminosity. It is pointed out that where previously proposed explanations require at least two time-variable independent parameters, such as accretion rate through the disk and through a more radial inflow, just one independent variable is in fact sufficient, provided that the systemic response to time variations in this variable has both a prompt and a time-averaged component. A specific scenario is explored in which most observable spectral and timing parameters to first order depend on the disk accretion rate normalized by its own long-term average, rather than on any individual accretion rate (luminosity, on the contrary, just depends on the total accretion rate). This provides a way in which parameters can be uncorrelated with accretion rate, yet vary in response to variations in accretion rate. Numerical simulations are presented of such a model, describing the relation between kHz QPO frequency and X-ray luminosity, which observationally is characterized by a striking pattern of parallel tracks in the frequency versus luminosity plane, both in individual sources and across sources. The model turns out to reproduce the observations remarkably well. Physical interpretations are suggested that would produce such a scenario; particularly promising seems an interpretation involving a radial inflow with a rate that derives through a time-averaging process from the disk accretion rate, and an inner disk radius that depends on the balance between the accretion through the disk and the total luminosity. The consequences of this idea for our understanding of states and tracks in LMXBs are discussed, and the applicability of the idea to black hole candidates, where the observational situation is more complex, is briefly addressed.