Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of the INQUISITIVE 1 Interaction Toolkit-Concept and Realisation

All virtual reality (VR) run-time systems provide support for one or more input devices and facilities for user interaction within a virtual environment (VE). These facilities usually consist of a limited set and style of interaction processes associated with the supported input devices. An application developer has to use this set of interaction processes to provide the user with the means to carry out all the interaction tasks required for the application. VR systems usually provide some limited capability for customising the behaviour of the available interaction processes using configuration files and it may be possible to incorporate new input devices, however these changes are usually at a relatively low level. The way these changes are made will generally be different for each VR system and any customisation performed on one system will have to be repeated in a different way for other systems. Indeed there is no guarantee that another VR system will even support the same interaction processes or input devices so an application may have to be completely redesigned if it needs to use another VR system, perhaps on a different hardware platform. This leads to higher application development costs because of the need to develop solutions from scratch each time and it inhibits the portability of new interaction processes which may not easily be implemented in a different system. The limited sets of interaction processes available with current VR systems also provide disjoint interaction metaphors which are not consistent across the required application tasks thus reducing user efficiency and task performance.
Product Development: Knowledge Discovery through Decision Tree Approach

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for generating an innovation through knowledge discovery from integrated design and analytic al systems in monitored and controlled environment by making accurate, timely, precise and profitable decisions. This paper proposes a framework for manufacturing sector to evaluate their product development ideas through integrated technologies to meet th quality and design expectations of the local and international buyers. Previous s t die have made contribution in the development of data-driven systems whereas, this study evaluates the internal dimensions of the organizations’ tacit and explicit knowledge to generate the idea and make contribution in creating a expert-driven system that take into consideration the factors that effect the organizational decision making proc ess in the development of a new idea.
A uniformly semiglobally exponentially stable nonlinear observer for GNSS- and camera-aided inertial navigation

In this paper a nonlinear observer for estimation of position, velocity, acceleration, attitude and gyro bias of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is proposed. The sensor suite consists of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, a video camera, an altimeter, and an inclinometer. The camera and machine vision systems can track features from the environment and calculate the optical flow. These data, together with those from the other sensors, are fed to the observer, that is proven to be uniformly semiglobally exponentially stable (USGES). The performance of the observer is tested on simulated data by assuming that the camera system can provide the necessary information.
Words Jump-Start Vision: A Label Advantage in Object Recognition

People use language to shape each other's behavior in highly flexible ways. Effects of language are often assumed to be “high-level” in that, whereas language clearly influences reasoning, decision making, and memory, it does not influence low-level visual processes. Here, we test the prediction that words are able to provide top-down guidance at the very earliest stages of visual processing by acting as powerful categorical cues. We investigated whether visual processing of images of familiar animals and artifacts was enhanced after hearing their name (e.g., “dog”) compared with hearing an equally familiar and unambiguous nonverbal sound (e.g., a dog bark) in 14 English monolingual speakers. Because the relationship between words and their referents is categorical, we expected words to deploy more effective categorical templates, allowing for more rapid visual recognition. By recording EEGs, we were able to determine whether this label advantage stemmed from changes to early visual processing or later semantic decision processes. The results showed that hearing a word affected early visual processes and that this modulation was specific to the named category. An analysis of ERPs showed that the P1 was larger when people were cued by labels compared with equally informative nonverbal cues—an enhancement occurring within 100 ms of image onset, which also predicted behavioral responses occurring almost 500 ms later. Hearing labels modulated the P1 such that it distinguished between target and nontarget images, showing that words rapidly guide early visual processing.
BOOTKITS: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

Bootkit threats have always been a powerful weapon in the hands of cybercriminals, allowing them to establish a persistent and stealthy presence in their victims’ systems. The most recent notable spike in bootkit infections was associated with attacks on 64-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows platform, which restrict the loading of unsigned kernel-mode drivers. However, these bootkits are not effective against UEFI-based platforms. So, are UEFI-based machines immune against bootkit threats (or would they be)? The aim of this presentation is to show how bootkit threats have evolved over time and what we should expect in the near future. First, we will summarize what we have learned about the bootkits seen in the wild targeting the Microsoft Windows platform: from TDL4 and Rovnix (the one used by the Carberp banking trojan) up to Gapz (which employs one of the stealthiest bootkit infection techniques seen so far). We will review their infection approaches and the methods they have employed to evade detection and removal from the system. Secondly, we will look at the security of the increasingly popular UEFI platform from the point of view of the bootkit author as UEFI becomes a target of choice for researchers in offensive security. Proof-of-concept bootkits targeting Windows 8 using UEFI have already been released. We will focus on various attack vectors against UEFI and discuss available tools and what measures should be taken to mitigate against them.
Antioxidant Defense Enzyme Genes and Asthma Susceptibility: Gender-Specific Effects and Heterogeneity in Gene-Gene Interactions between Pathogenetic Variants of the Disease

Oxidative stress resulting from an increased amount of reactive oxygen species and an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants plays an important role in the pathogenesis of asthma. The present study tested the hypothesis that genetic susceptibility to allergic and nonallergic variants of asthma is determined by complex interactions between genes encoding antioxidant defense enzymes (ADE). We carried out a comprehensive analysis of the associations between adult asthma and 46 single nucleotide polymorphisms of 34 ADE genes and 12 other candidate genes of asthma in Russian population using set association analysis and multifactor dimensionality reduction approaches. We found for the first time epistatic interactions between ADE genes underlying asthma susceptibility and the genetic heterogeneity between allergic and nonallergic variants of the disease. We identified GSR (glutathione reductase) and PON2 (paraoxonase 2) as novel candidate genes for asthma susceptibility. We observed gender-specific effects of ADE genes on the risk of asthma. The results of the study demonstrate complexity and diversity of interactions between genes involved in oxidative stress underlying susceptibility to allergic and nonallergic asthma.
Supporting creative acts beyond dissemination

In this workshop, we describe and expose the mysterious creative process. We discuss models (both classical and contemporary) of creative practice and experience and their potential application to new media arts and technology. Models that connect the roles of creator and viewer/participant are of particular interest. The goal is to catalyze new ideas and foster creative collaboration across disciplines.
Lower bounds and efficient algorithms for multiprocessor scheduling of dags with communication delays

We present here an n T+I algorithm for optimally scheduling a dag of n nodes on a multiprocessor when the message-to-instruction ratio parameter is ~. Our algorithm constructs an optimum schedule which uses at most n processors. We furthermore show lower bound results on the amount of recomputations needed, thus answering an open question posed by Papadimitriou and Yannakakis. In addition, precise lower bounds are demonstrated for the scheduling time of full binary trees. Our techniques may contribute to an important new understanding of parallel scheduling when the message delay is significant, which is usually the case.
Finding extraterrestrial sites for thermophiles.

Virtually our entire knowledge of the universe comes from two sorts of measurement of the electromagnetic radiation from the stars and galaxies within it; either their flux through relatively wide bandpasses (photometry), or measurements of the shape and wavelength of relatively narrow lines via spectroscopy. These techniques are now being used to discover planets outside our solar system, and perhaps in the next 10 years will begin to characterize them. If a serious search is to be made for extraterrestrial thermophiles, we need predictions for the effects of thermophiles on their host planets that are observable with these techniques. In this paper I shall outline what sorts of observation are likely to be used in the next 15 years for extra-solar planet work. All of the journal articles quoted here can be found through http://adsabs.harvard. edu/abstract_service. html, and often also accessed as preprints at http://uk.arxiv. org/form/astro%20ph? MULTI=form%20+/-%20interface.
Long-term hmF2 trends in the Eurasian longitudinal sector from the ground-based ionosonde observations

The method earlier used for the foF2 long-term trends analysis is applied to reveal hmF2 long-term trends at 27 ionosonde stations in the European and Asian longitudinal sectors. Observed M(3000)F2 data for the last 3 solar cycles are used to derive hmF2 trends. The majority of the studied stations show significant hmF2 linear trends with a confidence level of at least 95% for the period after 1965, with most of these trends being positive. No systematic variation of the trend magnitude with latitude is revealed, but some longitudinal effect does take place. The proposed geomagnetic storm concept to explain hmF2 long-term trends proceeds from a natural origin of the trends rather than an artificial one related to the thermosphere cooling due to the greenhouse effect.
Pre-school education and attainment in the NCDS and BCS

This paper considers the effect of how children pass time before entrance to school on attainment in primary school. We find in NCDS data that children perform marginally better at seven and eleven if they spent time with their mother, or at a pre-school, rather than in informal care. This holds when one controls for parental education, social class, and assessed parental interest in the child's education, as well as the quality of the peer group. In the BCS, however, time spent in nurseries effected no improvement in maths at ten as compared to time in informal care and pre-school children were performing much worse in reading. This worse performance was traceable to reduced vocabulary at five. Pre-school children were more advanced in copying at five relative to children in informal care but, while copying is a good predictor of scores in both maths and reading at ten, this advancement had been offset by then.
Tropical Atlantic Variability: Patterns, Mechanisms, and Impacts

This chapter reviews the progress made in the past decade in understanding tropical Atlantic climate variability. In addition to an equatorially anti-symmetric seasonal cycle forced directly by the seasonal march of the sun, Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) displays a pronounced annual cycle on the equator that results from continental monsoon forcing and air-sea interaction. This cycle interacts with and regulates the meridional excursions of the Atlantic intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). On interannual timescales, there is an equatorial mode of variability that is similar to El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the Pacific. This Atlantic Nino is most pronounced in boreal summer coinciding with the seasonal development of the equatorial cold tongue. In boreal winter, both ENSO and the North Atlantic Oscillation exert a strong influence on the northeast trades and SST over the northern tropical Atlantic. In boreal spring when the equatorial Atlantic is uniformly warm, anomalies of cross-equatorial SST gradient and the ITCZ are closely coupled, resulting in anomalous rainfall over northeastern Brazil. There is evidence for a positive air-sea feedback through wind-induced surface evaporation that organizes off-equatorial SST anomalies to maximize their cross-equatorial gradient. The resultant anomalous shift of the ITCZ may affect the North Atlantic Oscillation, helping to organize ocean-atmospheric anomalies into a pan-Atlantic pattern.
Designing packet buffers in high-bandwidth switches and routers

High-speed routers rely on well-designed packet buffers that support multiple queuing, large capacity and short response times. Some researchers suggested a combined SRAM/DRAM hierarchical buffer architecture to meet these challenges. However, both the SRAM and DRAM need to maintain a large number of dynamic queues which is a real challenge in practice and limits the scalability of these approaches. In this paper, we present a scalable, efficient and novel distributed packet buffer architecture. Two fundamental issues need to be addressed to make this feasible: (a) how to design scalable packet buffers using independent buffer subsystems; and (b) how to dynamically balance the workload among multiple buffer subsystems without any blocking. We address these issues by first designing a basic framework that allows flows to dynamically switch from one subsystem to another without any blocking. Based on this framework, we further devise a load-balancing algorithm to meet the overall system requirements. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that our load-balancing algorithm and the distributed packet buffer architecture can easily scale to meet the buffering needs of high bandwidth links with large number of active connections.
Trefoil factor family 2 expression inhibits gastric cancer cell growth and invasion in vitro via interactions with the transcription factor Sp3

The trefoil factor family (TFF) is a group of short secretory peptides of gastric mucous neck cells. The loss of TFF2 protein expression enhances gastric inflammation and occurs in gastric cancer. In this study, we examined the effect of TFF2 on gastric cancer cell lines in vitro and characterized the interaction between TFF2 and Sp3, including the mechanisms that mediate this interaction, using genomics and proteomics approaches, as well as genetics techniques, such as RNA interference and gene knockdown. Assays were performed to examine the role of TFF2 and Sp3 in cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration. We found that TFF2 expression inhibited the proliferation and invasion capacity of gastric cancer cells, and induced apoptosis. TFF2 interacted with the Sp3 protein, as shown by immunofluorescence staining and immunoprecipitation with western blot analysis. Sp3 knockdown in gastric cancer cells antagonized TFF2 anti-tumor activity. Additionally, TFF2 upregulated the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins, such as Bid, but downregulated the expression of NF-κB and the anti-apoptotic proteins, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1. By contrast, Sp3 knockdown significantly blocked TFF2 activity, affecting the expression of these proteins. The data from our study demonstrate that the antitumor activity of TFF2 is mediated by an interaction with the Sp3 protein in gastric cancer cells. Additional in vivo and ex vivo warrned in order to fully characterize this interaction.
Energy Extraction from a Rotating Black Hole by Magnetic Reconnection in the Ergosphere

We investigate mechanisms of energy extraction from a rotating black hole in terms of negative energy at infinity. In addition to the Penrose process through particle fission, the Blandford-Znajek mechanism by magnetic tension, and the magnetohydrodynamic Penrose process, we examine energy extraction from a black hole caused by magnetic reconnection in the ergosphere. The reconnection redistributes the angular momentum efficiently to yield the negative energy at infinity. We derive a condition for the process to operate in a simple situation, where the plasma is incompressible and the magnetic energy is converted completely to the plasma kinetic energy locally. Astrophysical situations of magnetic reconnection around the black holes are also discussed.
Anticipatory and Improvisational Robot via Recollection and Exploitation of Episodic Memories

Previously, we have introduced an anticipatory robot that could generate a cognitive map while simultaneously localizing itself relative to it. Inspired by recent hippocampal research, there, we demonstrated that the robot could exhibit anticipatory behavior if episodic memories that encode both spatial/nonspatial stimuli and behavioral actions are adequately utilized. In this paper, we will propose various ways to improve the previous method. For example, to address the computational complexity problem observed in the previous method, we will incorporate a new internal state variable inspired by the somatic marker hypothesis (a biological premise that speculates the role of emotional responses in our brain in terms of memory and decision making). Furthermore, we conjecture that this framework for anticipation can be even extended farther for a robot to deal with a novel situation (i.e., improvisation). We will discuss the concept of our improvisational robot in terms of anticipatory failures and their possible solutions.
Tabling with Support for Relational Features in a Deductive Database

Tabling has been acknowledged as a useful technique in the logic programming arena for enhancing both performance and declarative properties of programs. As well, deductive database implementations benefit from this technique for implementing query solving engines. In this paper, we show how unusual operations in deductive systems can be integrated with tabling. Such operations come from relational database systems in the form of null-related (outer) joins, duplicate support and duplicate elimination. The proposal has been implemented as a proof of concept rather than an efficient system in the Datalog Educational System (DES) using Prolog as a development language and its dynamic database.
An Attentional · Gate Model of Prospective Time Estimation

1. INTRODUCTION Time estimation is a cognitive process contingent upon contextual factors. Block (1989, p.334) argued that "a complete understanding of any kind of temporal experience is possible only if we consider complex intemctions among all of these factors". Some of the factors which contribute substantially [0 the understanding of time estimation processes are the estimation paradigm, the estimation method and stimulus information processing load showed that the structure of events comprising the to be estimated interval affect time estimation processes as well. The need to rely on complex interactions among contextual factors for explaining lime estimation processes emerges as a result of a puzzling picture of contradicting empirical findings reported in the literature. estimated durations of intervals filled with some task demanding IPreparation of Ihis chapler was supponed by a grant from Ihe Israel·US binational fund.
Every 2-choosable graph is circular consecutive 2-choosable

Suppose G is a graph, r is a positive real number and S(r) is a circle of perimeter r. For a positive real number t ≤ r, a (t, r)circular consecutive colour-list assignment L is a mapping that assigns to each vertex v of G an interval L(v) of S(r) of length t. A circular L-colouring of G is a mapping f : V (G) → S(r) such that for each vertex v, f(v) ∈ L(v) and for each edge uv, the distance between f(u) and f(v) in S(r) is at least 1. A graph G is called circular consecutive t-choosable if for any r ≥ χc(G), for any (t, r)-circular consecutive colour-list assignment L, G has a circular L-colouring. This paper proves that every 2-choosable graph is circular consecutive 2-choosable.
Application of the homology method for quantification of low-attenuation lung region inpatients with and without COPD

Background Homology is a mathematical concept that can be used to quantify degree of contact. Recently, image processing with the homology method has been proposed. In this study, we used the homology method and computed tomography images to quantify emphysema. Methods This study included 112 patients who had undergone computed tomography and pulmonary function test. Low-attenuation lung regions were evaluated by the homology method, and homology-based emphysema quantification (b0, b1, nb0, nb1, and R) was performed. For comparison, the percentage of low-attenuation lung area (LAA%) was also obtained. Relationships between emphysema quantification and pulmonary function test results were evaluated by Pearson’s correlation coefficients. In addition to the correlation, the patients were divided into the following three groups based on guidelines of the Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease: Group A, nonsmokers; Group B, smokers without COPD, mild COPD, and moderate COPD; Group C, severe COPD and very severe COPD. The homology-based emphysema quantification and LAA% were compared among these groups. Results For forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity, the correlation coefficients were as follows: LAA%, −0.603; b0, −0.460; b1, −0.500; nb0, −0.449; nb1, −0.524; and R, −0.574. For forced expiratory volume in 1 second, the coefficients were as follows: LAA%, −0.461; b0, −0.173; b1, −0.314; nb0, −0.191; nb1, −0.329; and R, −0.409. Between Groups A and B, difference in nb0 was significant (P-value = 0.00858), and those in the other types of quantification were not significant. Conclusion Feasibility of the homology-based emphysema quantification was validated. The homology-based emphysema quantification was useful for the assessment of emphysema severity.