Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flexible Time-Triggered Sampling in Smart Sensor-Based Wireless Control Systems

Wireless control systems (WCSs) often have to operate in dynamic environments where the network traffic load may vary unpredictably over time. The sampling in sensors is conventionally time triggered with fixed periods. In this context, only worse-than-possible quality of control (QoC) can be achieved when the network is underloaded, while overloaded conditions may significantly degrade the QoC, even causing system instability. This is particularly true when the bandwidth of the wireless network is limited and shared by multiple control loops. To address these problems, a flexible time-triggered sampling scheme is presented in this work. Smart sensors are used to facilitate dynamic adjustment of sampling periods, which enhances the flexibility and resource efficiency of the system based on time-triggered sampling. Feedback control technology is exploited for adapting sampling periods in a periodic manner. The deadline miss ratio in each control loop is maintained at/around a desired level, regardless of workload variations. Simulation results show that the proposed sampling scheme is able to deal with dynamic and unpredictable variations in network traffic load. Compared to conventional time-triggered sampling, it leads to much better QoC in WCSs operating in dynamic environments.
Articulated Motion Capture from 3-D Points and Normals

In this paper we address the problem of tracking the motion of articulated objects from their 2-D silhouettes gathered with several cameras. The vast majority of existing approaches relies on a single camera or on stereo. We describe a new method which requires at least two cameras. The method relies on (i) building 3-D observations (points and normals) from image silhouettes and on (ii) fitting an articulated object model to these observations by minimizing their discrepancies. The objective function sums up these discrepancies while it takes into account both the scaled algebraic distance from data points to the model surface and the offset in orientation between observed normals and model normals. The combination of a feed-forward reconstruction technique with a robust model-tracking method results in a reliable and efficient method for articulated motion capture.
Threshold-voltage instability of polymer thin-film transistor under gate-bias and drain-bias stresses

Polymer thin-film transistors (PTFTs) based on MEH-PPV semiconductor are fabricated by spin-coating process and characterized. Gate-bias and drain-bias stress effects at room temperature are observed in the devices. The saturation current decreases and the threshold voltage shifts toward negative direction upon the gate-bias stress. However, the saturation current increases and the threshold voltage shifts toward positive direction upon the drain-bias stress. For variable bias stress conditions, carrier mobility is almost unchanged. The results suggest that the origin of threshold-voltage shift upon negative gate-bias stress is predominantly associated with holes trapped within the SiO2 gate dielectric or at the SiO2/Si interface due to hot-carrier emission under high gate-bias stress, while time-dependent charge trapping into the deep trap states in the channel region is responsible for the drain-bias stress effect in the PTFTs.
Constructing Anatomically Accurate Face Models usingComputed Tomography and Cyberware databyFaisal

Constructing Anatomically Accurate Face Models using Computed Tomography and Cyberware data Faisal Zubair Qureshi Master of Science Graduate Department of Computer Science University of Toronto 2000 Facial animation and cranio-facial surgery simulation both stand to bene t from the development of anatomically accurate computer models of the human face. State-of-theart biomechanical models of the face have shown promise in animation, but they are inadequate for the purposes of cranio-facial surgery simulation. The goal of this thesis is to develop an improved facial model, using Cyberware data which captures the external structure and appearance of the face and head, as well as computed tomography (CT) data which captures the internal structure of facial soft and hard tissues. To this end, we develop algorithms to (1) register the CT and Cyberware datasets, (2) extract from the CT data a skull subsurface which serves as a foundation of the soft-tissue model, and (3) compute thickness of facial soft-tissues over the face. ii Dedication I dedicate this thesis to Tahira. Acknowledgements I thank my advisor, Professor Demetri Terzopoulos, for the many fresh ideas that he suggested, for encouraging me to work to the best of my abilities and for providing the resources and creating the environment that made this work possible. I also thank Dr. Tim McInerney for his guidance and support. I very much appreciate the suggestions and assistance that I received from fellow graduate student Victor Lee. I would also like to thank Dr. Jacques-Olivier Lachuad for his assistance and valuable ideas about this work, and for providing me with CT datasets and the marching cubes program. I am grateful to Dr. Jun Ohya, who invited me to work at the Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Labs in Kyoto, Japan, for his ideas and direction. Part of the work presented here was done under his supervision. I thank Dr. Shigeo Morishima for providing lots of ideas during our long discussions at ATR. I would like to thank my fellow graduate students, KiamChoo, Chakra Chennubhotla, Alex Vasilescu, Bonny Biswas, and Robert Majka. They made working in the lab a lot more fun and stimulating. They provided much insight during many long, involved conversations. Chakra helped me start exploring and using many of the computer and research resources. My thanks to Kathy Yen for her assistance with departmental and university documents. Finally, I am grateful to my parents and my siblings for their love, support and encouragement. They instilled in me a love of knowledge and a love of life. iii
Tracing idiomaticity in learner language : the case of BE 3 U ]

It is a widely known fact that language learners, especially less advanced ones, tend to rely excessively on flexible, high-frequency, ‘core’ vocabulary items in their foreign language use . One of such commonly overused verbs is the primary verb lemma BE, whose multifarious nature must discourage many corpus researchers from devoting it time. In this paper I attempt to construct a version of the traditional tripartite scale of idiomaticity (frozen restricted free combinations) in order to encode various types of occurrence of lexical BE and test the extent(s) to which particular level(s) of fixedness are responsible for the reported overuse. The matter is vital, for core words are prone to forming extensions of all kinds which, contrary to the simple ‘building-block’ metaphor of learner lexical performance (cf. Kjellmer 1991: 124), indicate proficiency rather than non-proficiency. Before we announce that learners overuse the commonest words and possibly give them make-up work, it is useful to find out what exactly learners do with the core lemmas . The premises underlying the idiomatic chart proposed here rest on both the traditional, grammatical criteria for idiomaticity (semantic opacity, lexical/syntactic fixedness, lexical/syntactic anomaly, cf. Moon 1997: 44, Hudson 1998: 8-9) as well as on corpora-inspired views of conventionality (viz. frequency and distribution, as reported in LDOCE3) and pragmatic specialisation in discourse (formulae). Since many tendencies regarding EFL vocabulary production are transferrelated, the distribution of BE’s postulated idiomaticity bands will be shown in a contrastive scheme comprising both EFL learner and control non-learner and L1-based text collections. The practical goal of these examinations is to characterise quantitatively the use of BE by Polish advanced EFL learnerwriters. An underlying methodological objective of the study is to demonstrate how the needs of learner language phraseological research fail to be served by modern, robust, corpus-driven methods of text analysis.
Crop Selection: Adapting to Climage Change in Africa

This paper examines whether the choice of crops is affected by climate in Africa. Using a multinomial logit model, the paper regresses crop choice on climate, soils, and other factors. The model is estimated using a sample of more than 7,000 farmers across 11 countries in Africa. The study finds that crop choice is very climate sensitive. For example, farmers select sorghum and maize-millet in the cooler regions of Africa; maize-beans, maize-groundnut, and maize in moderately warm regions' and cowpea, cowpea-sorghum, and millet-groundnut in hot regions. Further, farmers choose sorghum, and millet-groundnut when conditions are dry; cowpea, cowpea-sorghum, maize-millet, and maize when medium wet; and maize-beans and maize-groundnut when wet. As temperatures warm, farmers will shift toward more heat tolerant crops. Depending on whether precipitation increases or decreases, farmers will also shift toward drought tolerant or water loving crops, respectively. There are several policy relevant conclusions to draw from this study. First, farmers will adapt to climate change by switching crops. Second, global warming impact studies cannot assume crop choice is exogenous. Third, this study only examines choices across current crops. Future farmers may well have more choices. There is an important role for agronomic research in developing new varieties more suited for higher temperatures. Future farmers may have even better adaptation alternatives with an expanded set of crop choices specifically targeted at higher temperatures.
Wayfinding strategies and behaviors in large virtual worlds

People have severe problems wayfinding in large virtual worlds. However, current implementations of virtual worlds provide little support for effective wayfinding. We assert that knowledge about human wayfinding in the physical world can be applied to construct aids for wayfinding in virtual worlds. An experiment was conducted to determine whether people use physical world wayfinding strategies in large virtual worlds. The study measures subject performance on a complex searching task in a number of virtual worlds with differing environmental cues. The results show that subjects in the treatment without any additional cues were often disoriented and had extreme difficulty completing the task. In general, subjects' way finding strategies and behaviors were strongly influenced by the environmental cues in ways suggested by the underlying design principles.
Integrated analysis of differential gene expression profiles in hippocampi to identify candidate genes involved in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with largely unknown genetic mechanisms. Identifying altered neuronal gene expression in AD may provide diagnostic or therapeutic targets for AD. The present study aimed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and their further association with other biological processes that regulate causative factors for AD. The present study performed an integrated analysis of publicly available gene expression omnibus datasets of AD hippocampi. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analyses, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis and Protein-Protein interaction (PPI) network analysis were performed. The present study detected 295 DEGs (109 upregulated and 186 downregulated genes) in hippocampi between AD and control samples by integrating four datasets of gene expression profiles of hippocampi of patients with AD. Respiratory electron transport chain (GO: 0022904; P=1.64×10−11) was the most significantly enriched GO term among biological processes, while for molecular functions, the most significantly enriched GO term was that of protein binding (GO: 0005515; P=3.03×10−29), and for cellular components, the most significantly enriched GO term was that of the cytoplasm (GO: 0005737; P=8.67×10−33). The most significant pathway in the KEGG analysis was oxidative phosphorylation (P=1.61×10−13). PPI network analysis showed that the significant hub proteins contained β-actin (degree, 268), hepatoma-derived growth factor (degree, 218) and WD repeat-containing protein 82 (degree, 87). The integrated analysis performed in the present study serves as a basis for identifying novel drug targets to develop improved therapies and interventions for common and devastating neurological diseases such as AD.
Transponder-Aided Single Platform Geolocation

Emitter localization using a single receiving station is explored. We propose algorithms for transponder-aided positioning of an emitting station where the transmitted waveform is either known or unknown a priori. The emitter position is estimated directly (in a single-step) from the received signal samples. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the performance. The results are compared with the Cramér-Rao lower bound, for which a closed-form expression is derived.
The SmoA1 Mouse Model Reveals That Notch Signaling Is Critical for the Growth and Survival of Sonic Hedgehog-Induced Medulloblastomas

To develop a genetically faithful model of medulloblastoma with increased tumor incidence compared with the current best model we activated the Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) pathway by transgenically expressing a constitutively active form of Smoothened in mouse cerebellar granule neuron precursors (ND2:SmoA1 mice). This resulted in early cerebellar granule cell hyper-proliferation and a 48% incidence of medulloblastoma formation. Gene expression studies showed an increase in the known Shh targets Gli1 and Nmyc that correlated with increasing hyperplasia and tumor formation. Notch2 and the Notch target gene, HES5, were also significantly elevated in Smoothened-induced tumors showing that Shh pathway activation is sufficient to induce Notch pathway signaling. In human medulloblastomas reverse transcription-PCR for Shh and Notch targets revealed activation of both of these pathways in most tumors when compared with normal cerebellum. Notch pathway inhibition with soluble Delta ligand or γ secretase inhibitors resulted in a marked reduction of viable cell numbers in medulloblastoma cell lines and primary tumor cultures. Treatment of mice with D283 medulloblastoma xenografts with a γ secretase inhibitor resulted in decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis, confirming that Notch signaling contributes to human medulloblastoma proliferation and survival. Medulloblastomas in ND2:SmoA1 mice and humans have concomitant increase in Shh and Notch pathway activities, both of which contribute to tumor survival.
The Azospirillum brasilense Che1 Chemotaxis Pathway Controls Swimming Velocity, Which Affects Transient Cell-to-Cell Clumping

ABSTRACT The Che1 chemotaxis-like pathway of Azospirillum brasilense contributes to chemotaxis and aerotaxis, and it has also been found to contribute to regulating changes in cell surface adhesive properties that affect the propensity of cells to clump and to flocculate. The exact contribution of Che1 to the control of chemotaxis and flocculation in A. brasilense remains poorly understood. Here, we show that Che1 affects reversible cell-to-cell clumping, a cellular behavior in which motile cells transiently interact by adhering to one another at their nonflagellated poles before swimming apart. Clumping precedes and is required for flocculation, and both processes appear to be independently regulated. The phenotypes of a ΔaerC receptor mutant and of mutant strains lacking cheA1, cheY1, cheB1, or cheR1 (alone or in combination) or with che1 deleted show that Che1 directly mediates changes in the flagellar swimming velocity and that this behavior directly modulates the transient nature of clumping. Our results also suggest that an additional receptor(s) and signaling pathway(s) are implicated in mediating other Che1-independent changes in clumping identified in the present study. Transient clumping precedes the transition to stable clump formation, which involves the production of specific extracellular polysaccharides (EPS); however, production of these clumping-specific EPS is not directly controlled by Che1 activity. Che1-dependent clumping may antagonize motility and prevent chemotaxis, thereby maintaining cells in a metabolically favorable niche.
Significance of the sedimentary Al∶Ti ratio as an indicator for variations in the circulation patterns of the equatorial North Atlantic

This paper presents results of geochemical investigations conducted on three gravity cores recovered along an E-W transect (3°–5°N) in the equatorial Atlantic. Considering the high terrigenous content of the sediments (approximately 12–74 wt%), Al and Ti concentrations are predominantly associated with the input of lithogenous phases. The terrigenous fraction of western equatorial Atlantic sediments is more influenced by material derived from the Amazon River than by deposition of African dust particles. As a possible route of transport, the North Equatorial Countercurrent is considered. Fluctuations in Al/Ti records generally reflect changes in the low-latitude insolation cycle (19–23 kyr) and thus indicate a close coupling to variations of the trade-wind systems and continental climate changes. However, characteristics of the terrigenous signals in the eastern and western equatorial Atlantic differ significantly. While the precessional signal in the Al/Ti record and low latitude portion in the δ18O record are in phase in the eastern equatorial Atlantic, variations in the terrigenous fraction westward of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge precede the marine signal by 2–3 kyr, which we ascribe to a shift between trade-wind systems of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
On the effective aerodynamic and scalar roughness length of Weddell Sea ice

We study the effective aerodynamic roughness length z0_eff and scalar roughness length for temperature zT_eff over different compact sea ice types in the Antarctic Weddell Sea by aircraft measurements during two austral summer seasons. z0_eff and zT_eff are highly variable in the Weddell Sea ice area. The averaged value of in all main sea ice areas was smaller than the averaged value of . The ratio between the two roughness lengths was relatively small for new/young sea ice with / ≈ 2, but the ratio became significantly large for the multiyear pack ice with / ≈ 227. For the pack ice area, with sea ice concentration ranging between 95% to 100%, we determined a median = 4.1 × 10−03 m and a median = 1.8 × 10−05 m. In the new, young sea ice area, with sea ice concentration ranging between 98% and 100%, we observed a median = × 10−04 m and a median = 2.2 × 10−04 m. These values of and differ from published observations conducted in a pack ice and new, young sea ice area in the northern hemisphere, such as the Arctic. Most model parameterizations require the roughness lengths as constant values as boundary input parameters. Our study shows that by using the $\overline{z_{0}\_ {\rm eff}}$ and values of this study, instead of commonly used sea ice roughness length values, the accuracy of parameterized heat and momentum fluxes in the Weddell Sea ice area can significantly be improved.
Lightning in volcanic clouds

Positive charge is carried aloft by the clouds formed when molten lava comes in contact with seawater, and thus positive potential gradient values sometimes exceed 7000 V/m. Lightning flashes often occur, associated with the more violent steam eruptions; they effectively lower positive charge to earth in single strokes, apparently in single element discharges that are opposite the polarity of those observed in normal thunderstorms. As was inferred from the shape of the potential gradient changes and from time-lapse photographs, the charge appeared to be distributed in a vertical column extending upward from the sea to a height not exceeding about 100 m.
Connected Smart Cities: Interoperability with SEG 3.0 for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving the technology and advances of the Internet and every day it is becoming more popular to talk about IoT systems in multiple domains: Smart Cities, Agriculture, and Industrial Internet, etc. Increasingly, IoT systems will need to interact and be interconnected for offering the always-promoted everything-connected paradigm. Current IoT systems rely on semantic web technologies for integrating data and ensure web services interoperability. However there are yet a gap to ensure semantic interoperability among IoT systems. Most of the existing proposed (open) approaches and solutions lack on formal methodologies for interoperability in technology and standard format of the data. We studied and analyzed most available semantic-based IoT approaches to identify the main requirements hindering IoT semantic interoperability. In this paper, we present SEG 3.0 a methodology to federate, unify and provide semantic interoperability. SEG 3.0 emerges from methodologies for ontology engineering and the idea of unification and federated systems. We propose SEG 3.0 and apply it to Internet of Things (IoT) and particularly on use cases for smart cities as proof of concept. Firstly, we define characteristics required for the methodology. Secondly, we describe the processes and the different formal steps. Thirdly, we provide a proof of concept framework and architecture applying this methodology, thus the benefits of using SEG 3.0 methodology in IoT domains are described. Finally, we demonstrate that the SEG 3.0 methodology is applied to three use cases: (1) the M3 framework to assist developers in designing semantic-based IoT applications, (2) the VITAL EU project for smart cities, and (3) the FIESTA-IoT EU project for IoT semantic interoperability. SEG 3.0 is a formal methodology generic enough to be applied to other domains than IoT and smart cities, since the main benefit of the SEG 3.0 is integrating heterogeneous data and adding value to it to build innovative applications.
Handover in VLC systems with cooperating mobile devices

Visible Light Communications (VLC) is emerging as viable means to overcome the crowded radio spectrum for highly-localized communications systems. With such an approach, luminaires can be adopted for supporting data communication in addition to illumination in what we call Cellular Lighting. However, in these systems, the directionality of light as the communication medium introduces new challenges in sustaining network connectivity especially under mobility scenarios. In this paper we investigate mobility in VLC devices and propose an approach to managing handover adopted from wireless cellular systems, but with very small cells and directional characteristic. Moreover, this technique provides the coordination and cooperation among VLC devices to achieve seamless connectivity in two different indoor scenarios consisting of overlapping (uniform lighting) and non-overlapping (spotlighting) cases. Results indicate how different design decisions in supporting luminaire placement achieve full coverage at varying data rates.