Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emergent Storylines Based on Autonomous Characters with Mindreading Capabilities

Virtual storytelling often uses a fixed, pre-scripted storyline, constraining the characters' autonomy and behaviour. An agent-based approach provides possibilities of a narrative emerging from interaction between a number of autonomous characters. In this paper such an approach is proposed, based on autonomous virtual agents that have mindreading capabilities. The approach is applied to generate out of a number of interacting characters a soap storyline, in which some of the characters use mindreading in order to mislead and manipulate the other characters.
Image hiding based on block difference

In this paper, a novel image hiding scheme based on block difference is proposed to hide a secret-image into a cover-image such that an unintended observer will not be aware of the hidden secret-image. By exploring the property of block difference between the cover-image and the secret-image, the image quality of the resulting stego-image can be greatly improved. Experimental results demonstrate that the resulting stego-image has high peak signal-to-noise ratio and the visual quality of the stego-image is indistinguishable from the original cover-image.
A Linear Complexity Direct Volume Integral Equation Solver for Full-Wave 3-D Circuit Extraction in Inhomogeneous Materials

An H2-matrix based linear complexity direct matrix solution is developed for the volume integral equation (VIE) based broadband full-wave extraction of general 3-D circuits. Such circuits are in general electrically small or moderate, but contain arbitrarily shaped lossy conductors immersed in inhomogeneous dielectrics with ports located anywhere in the physical layout of the circuit. In the proposed direct solver, we first develop a well-conditioned VIE formulation without sacrificing the rigor and the advantages of the prevailing formulations. This formulation facilitates a robust direct solution of good accuracy even with a rank-1 representation. We then overcome the numerical challenge of solving the resultant highly unstructured system matrix mixed with both square and rectangular dense and sparse matrices by developing a fast linear complexity direct solution. This direct solution is capable of inverting dense matrices involving over 2 million unknowns in less than 1 h on a single CPU core running at 3 GHz. Numerical simulations of large-scale 3-D circuits and comparisons with state-of-the-art linear complexity iterative VIE solvers have demonstrated the accuracy, efficiency, and linear complexity of the proposed direct VIE solver.
A review of multiobjective test problems and a scalable test problem toolkit

When attempting to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of an algorithm, it is important to have a strong understanding of the problem at hand. This is true for the field of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (EAs) as it is for any other field. Many of the multiobjective test problems employed in the EA literature have not been rigorously analyzed, which makes it difficult to draw accurate conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the algorithms tested on them. In this paper, we systematically review and analyze many problems from the EA literature, each belonging to the important class of real-valued, unconstrained, multiobjective test problems. To support this, we first introduce a set of test problem criteria, which are in turn supported by a set of definitions. Our analysis of test problems highlights a number of areas requiring attention. Not only are many test problems poorly constructed but also the important class of nonseparable problems, particularly nonseparable multimodal problems, is poorly represented. Motivated by these findings, we present a flexible toolkit for constructing well-designed test problems. We also present empirical results demonstrating how the toolkit can be used to test an optimizer in ways that existing test suites do not
A MIMO Broadcast Approach to Downlink Multi-Cell Processing

Introduction The main focus of information theoretic efforts is to provide ultimate performance bounds on different cellular models, and to identify efficient communications strategies coming close to these bounds Joint processing of signals related to different users is evidently the most appealing approach in either the uplink or downlink The uplink channel is a multiple access channel (MAC): Joint processing of the received signals at the cell-sites Commonly no user cooperation is assumed User cooperation is also studied lately [Laneman-Tse-Wornell '04] and others – p. 2/4
Diffserv’s Assured Forwarding PHB: What Assurance does the Customer Have?

This paper examines issues related to assuring the throughput performance parameters of a Service Level Agreement in an Assured Forwarding based Diffserv-capable IP network. In an effort to understand the kinds of quantifiable parameters that can be included in a contract, the analysis of detailed studies on throughput are presented. Seven different factors are discussed which can bias bandwidth assurance for equal paying customers. Design options for various Traffic Conditioning schemes at the edge of the network to mitigate the effect of these factors are also discussed. The scope of network for which such schemes are viable is assessed. There are open issues that need to be addressed before such schemes can achieve their desired effect on the general Internet.
Investigating Coordination in Multidegree of Freedom Control I: Time-On-Target Analysis of 6 DOF Tracking

In these two companion papers, methods developed in a series of studies in the 1940's and 1950's are applied to the analysis of 6 DOF control devices used in modern human machine systems such as teleoperation and virtual environments. Contrary to the early studies, the current work showed that the simultaneous time-on-target in multidegree of freedom tracking was higher than the product of component time on target scores. The distribution of linear correlation coefficients between the tracking errors of different degrees of freedom tended to be skewed towards the positive values. These results suggested that subjects' discoordination in early multidegree of freedom tracking studies was likely due to the limitation of human machine interfaces at that time. With well designed interfaces, subjects exhibited more coordinated trials than discoordinated trials in multidegree of freedom tracking.
Cosmological Model Predictions for Weak Lensing: Linear and Nonlinear Regimes

Weak lensing by large-scale structure induces correlated ellipticities in the images of distant galaxies. The two-point correlation is determined by the matter power spectrum along the line of sight. We use the fully nonlinear evolution of the power spectrum to compute the predicted ellipticity correlation. We present results for different measures of the second moment for angular scales θ ≃ 1'-3° and for alternative normalizations of the power spectrum, in order to explore the best strategy for constraining the cosmological parameters. Normalizing to observed cluster abundance, the rms amplitude of ellipticity within a 15' radius is ≃0.01z s0.6, almost independent of the cosmological model, with zs being the median redshift of background galaxies. Nonlinear effects in the evolution of the power spectrum significantly enhance the ellipticity for θ < 10'—for θ ≃ 1' the rms ellipticity is ≃0.05, which is nearly twice as large as the linear prediction. This enhancement means that the signal-to-noise ratio for the ellipticity is only weakly increasing with angle for 2' < θ < 2°, unlike the expectation from linear theory that the signal-to-noise ratio is strongly peaked on degree scales. The scaling with cosmological parameters also changes because of nonlinear effects. By measuring the correlations on small (nonlinear) and large (linear) angular scales, different cosmological parameters can be independently constrained to obtain a model-independent estimate of both power spectrum amplitude and matter density Ωm. Nonlinear effects also modify the probability distribution of the ellipticity. Using second-order perturbation theory, we find that over most of the range of interest there are significant deviations from a normal distribution.
Therapy-Induced Morphological Alterations in Brain Tumors

Routine therapeutic options for tumors of the brain or spinal cord comprise surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy, all of which are associated with several possible complications. The most important consequences of brain tumor therapy are hemorrhage, acute brain swelling with external herniation of parts of the brain, CSF leaks, and coagulopathies. The anatomical location of surgical manipulation may have additional special effects, like diabetes insipidus following pituitary or adjacent base of the brain surgery. New techniques of radiotherapy applied in neuro- oncology such as "gamma knife" (stereotactic radiosurgery), intracavital brachytherapy, three dimensional conformal radiation, are also associated with iatrogenic changes in the brain. Pathologic changes induced by various radio- therapeutic modalities are discussed in this review, with special emphasis on terminology, timing and the importance of pathologic examination for assessing the tumor response to therapy, signs of peritumoral tissue damage and tumor recurrence. Therapy-induced secondary neoplastic lesions are also discussed.
Effects of Shadowing and Tracking on Intermediate EFL Learners’ Oral Fluency

The present study attempted to explore the effects of employing shadowing and tracking on Iranian EFL learners’ speaking fluency. From among 112 intermediate Iranian EFL learners at Jahad Danesheshgahi Language Institute in Isfahan, Iran, 60 were selected in the wake of administering the Preliminary English Test and divided into four groups: shadowing group (SG), tracking group (TG), shadowing and tracking group (STG), and control group (CG). The data elicitation techniques employed as the pre-test and post-test were semi-structured interviews in which learners answered several questions. Fluency scores were derived out of the formula suggested by Yuan and Ellis (2003). One-way between-groups ANOVA and paired samples t test were used to make between-groups and within-group comparisons and to discern whether the participants in each group could gain an advantage from their specific methods of instruction. The analysis of the obtained data via SPSS indicated that (a) the successful performance of the participants in the experimental groups was shown to be attributable to using shadowing and tracking techniques as tools for improving oral fluency, and that (b) among these experimental groups, STG was shown to be significantly better than the SG, which in turn was significantly better than TG.
Toward a complete human genome sequence.

We have begun a joint program as part of a coordinated international effort to determine a complete human genome sequence. Our strategy is to map large-insert bacterial clones and to sequence each clone by a random shotgun approach followed by directed finishing. As of September 1998, we have identified the map positions of bacterial clones covering approximately 860 Mb for sequencing and completed >98 Mb ( approximately 3.3%) of the human genome sequence. Our progress and sequencing data can be accessed via the World Wide Web (http://webace.sanger.ac.uk/HGP/ or http://genome.wustl.edu/gsc/).
Bioactive Food Components and Cancer-Specific Metabonomic Profiles

Cancer cells possess unique metabolic signatures compared to normal cells, including shifts in aerobic glycolysis, glutaminolysis, and de novo biosynthesis of macromolecules. Targeting these changes with agents (drugs and dietary components) has been employed as strategies to reduce the complications associated with tumorigenesis. This paper highlights the ability of several food components to suppress tumor-specific metabolic pathways, including increased expression of glucose transporters, oncogenic tyrosine kinase, tumor-specific M2-type pyruvate kinase, and fatty acid synthase, and the detection of such effects using various metabonomic technologies, including liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and stable isotope-labeled MS. Stable isotope-mediated tracing technologies offer exciting opportunities for defining specific target(s) for food components. Exposures, especially during the early transition phase from normal to cancer, are critical for the translation of knowledge about food components into effective prevention strategies. Although appropriate dietary exposures needed to alter cellular metabolism remain inconsistent and/or ill-defined, validated metabonomic biomarkers for dietary components hold promise for establishing effective strategies for cancer prevention.
PhosphoSitePlus: a comprehensive resource for investigating the structure and function of experimentally determined post-translational modifications in man and mouse

PhosphoSitePlus (http://www.phosphosite.org) is an open, comprehensive, manually curated and interactive resource for studying experimentally observed post-translational modifications, primarily of human and mouse proteins. It encompasses 1 30 000 non-redundant modification sites, primarily phosphorylation, ubiquitinylation and acetylation. The interface is designed for clarity and ease of navigation. From the home page, users can launch simple or complex searches and browse high-throughput data sets by disease, tissue or cell line. Searches can be restricted by specific treatments, protein types, domains, cellular components, disease, cell types, cell lines, tissue and sequences or motifs. A few clicks of the mouse will take users to substrate pages or protein pages with sites, sequences, domain diagrams and molecular visualization of side-chains known to be modified; to site pages with information about how the modified site relates to the functions of specific proteins and cellular processes and to curated information pages summarizing the details from one record. PyMOL and Chimera scripts that colorize reactive groups on residues that are modified can be downloaded. Features designed to facilitate proteomic analyses include downloads of modification sites, kinase–substrate data sets, sequence logo generators, a Cytoscape plugin and BioPAX download to enable pathway visualization of the kinase–substrate interactions in PhosphoSitePlus®.
IL 13 Rα 2 signaling in colorectal cancer metastasis 1 IL-13 receptor α 2 signaling requires a scaffold protein , FAM 120 A , to activate the FAK and PI 3 K pathways in colon cancer metastasis

1 IL-13 receptor α2 signaling requires a scaffold protein, FAM120A, to activate the FAK and PI3K pathways in colon cancer metastasis Rubén A. Bartolomé, Irene García-Palmero, Sofía Torres, María López-Lucendo, Irina V. Balyasnikova and J. Ignacio Casal 1. Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB-CSIC). Ramiro de Maeztu 9. 28040 Madrid, Spain. 2. Proteomics Facility, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB-CSIC). Ramiro de Maeztu 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain 3. The Brain Tumor Center, University of Chicago, 5841 S. Maryland Ave., MC 3026, Chicago, IL, USA.
A weighted k-nearest neighbor method for gene ontology based protein function prediction

Numerous genome projects have produced a large and ever increasing amount of genomic sequence data. However, the biological functions of many proteins encoded by the sequences remain unknown. Protein function annotation and prediction become an essential and challenging task of post-genomic research. In this paper, we present an automated protein function prediction system based on a set of proteins of known biological functions. The functions of the proteins are characterized with gene ontology (GO) annotations. The prediction system uses a novel measure to calculate the pair-wise overall similarity between protein sequences. The protein function prediction is performed based on the GO annotations of similar sequences using a weighted k-nearest neighbor method. We show the prediction accuracies obtained using the model organism yeast (Sacchyromyces cerevisiae). The results indicate that the weighted k-nearest neighbor method significantly outperforms the regular k-nearest neighbor method for protein molecular function prediction.
Rotating line cameras: Model and calibration

The studied camera is basically just a line of pixel sensors, which can be rotated on a full circle, describing a cylindrical surface this way. During a rotation we take individual shots, line by line. All these line images define a panoramic image on a cylindrical surface. This camera architecture (in contrast to the plane segment of the pinhole camera) comes with new challenges, and this report is about a classification of different models of such cameras and their calibration. Acknowledgment. The authors acknowledge comments, collaboration or support by various students and colleagues at CITR Auckland and DLR Berlin-Adlershof. report1_HWK. tex; 22/03/2006; 9:47; p.1
An overview of solid-state electronic sources and detectors for Terahertz imaging

An overview of the solid-state electronic approaches for THz sources and detectors aiming at THz imaging is presented in this review paper. Various diode- and transistor-based THz sources are compared for their operation principles and the performances comparison is made based on the literature available at this moment. Similarly, diode- and transistor-based detectors are compared for their operation and performance. This paper is expected to provide a snap shot of current status of the solid-state THz electronics, serving to help those who want to get an initial idea of this field.
Collisionless magnetic reconnection in space plasmas

Magnetic reconnection, the merging of oppositely directed magnetic fields that leads to field reconfiguration, plasma heating, jetting and acceleration, is one of the most celebrated processes in collisionless plasmas. It requires the violation of the frozen-in condition which ties gyrating charged particles to the magnetic field inhibiting diffusion. Ongoing reconnection has been identified in near-Earth space as being responsible for the excitation of substorms, magnetic storms, generation of field aligned currents and their consequences, the wealth of auroral phenomena. Its theoretical understanding is now on the verge of being completed. Reconnection takes place in thin current sheets. Analytical concepts proceeded gradually down to the microscopic scale, the scale of the electron skin depth or inertial length, recognizing that current layers that thin do preferentially undergo spontaneous reconnection. Thick current layers start reconnecting when being forced by plasma inflow to thin. For almost half a century the physical mechanism of reconnection has remained a mystery. Spacecraft in situ observations in combination with sophisticated numerical simulations in two and three dimensions recently clarified the mist, finding that reconnection produces a specific structure of the current layer inside the electron inertial (also called electron diffusion) region around the reconnection site, the X line. Onset of reconnection is attributed to pseudo-viscous contributions of the electron pressure tensor aided by electron inertia and drag, creating a complicated structured electron current sheet, electric fields, and an electron exhaust extended along the current layer. We review the general background theory and recent developments in numerical simulation on collisionless reconnection. It is impossible to cover the entire field of reconnection in a short space-limited review. The presentation necessarily remains cursory, determined by our taste, preferences, and kn
Time-Critical Distributed Visualization with Fault Tolerance

It is often desirable or necessary to perform scientific visualization in geographically remote locations, away from the centralized data storage systems that hold massive amounts of scientific results. The larger such scientific datasets are, the less practical it is to move these datasets to remote locations for collaborators. In such scenarios, efficient remote visualization solutions can be crucial. Yet the use of distributed or heterogeneous computing resources raises several challenges for large-scale data visualization. Algorithms must be robust and incorporate advanced load balancing and scheduling techniques. In this paper, we propose a time-critical remote visualization system that can be deployed over distributed and heterogeneous computing resources. We introduce an "importance" metric to measure the need for processing each data partition based on its degree of contribution to the final visual image. Factors contributing to this metric include specific application requirements, value distributions inside the data partition, and viewing parameters. We incorporate "visibility" in our measurement as well so that empty or invisible blocks will not be processed. Guided by the data blocks' importance values, our dynamic scheduling scheme determines the rendering priority for each visible block. That is, more important blocks will be rendered first. In time-critical scenarios, our scheduling algorithm also dynamically reduces the level-of-detail for the less important regions so that visualization can be finished in a user-specified time limit with highest possible image quality. This system enables interactive sharing of visualization results. To evaluate the performance of this system, we present a case study using a 250 Gigabyte dataset on 170 distributed processors.
Advances in Shader Lamps Avatars for telepresence

Since the introduction of the animatronic Shader Lamps Avatar in 2009, several aspects of the system's design have been improved to create a more effective telepresence experience. This includes an analysis of the tradeoffs between front and rear projection and bethardware deviceween rigidly aligning the projector with the display surface or needing to track it. A new control mode is implemented for the pan-tilt unit that enables the avatar head pose to better emulate real human motion and a new hardware device allows the motorized wheelchair that carries the avatar to be controlled by the remote inhabiter. With the recognition of the importance of high quality audio, the audio components for both the inhabiter and the avatar have also been updated. Finally, some preliminary live tests are presented and areas of continued research are discussed.