Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of remote robot control system for snake-like robot based on SSH protocol and iOS system

Remote robot control system has been applied for various purposes, such as inspection and monitoring. The next generation of remote robot control system is asked to be utilized efficiently and conveniently via Internet protocol (IP) based network. However, a critical issue about security of the IP based system is network attacks, which is need to be prevented. In this paper, we propose an iOS (Apple Mobile Operating System) based application with SSH (Secure Shell) protocol to realize teleoperation with a snake-like robot via Wi-Fi network. The system is divided into three modules, motion module, middleware module and teleoperation module. Arduino Nano microcontroller board, BeagleBone Black board installed Ubuntu operating system and iPhone 6 were used as calculation units. Experiments were conducted to show the validity of the system.
Can GPCR, such as Kappa Opioid Receptor, be a Viable Therapeutic Target for Reducing or Preventing Neuroinflammation?

Copyright: © 2014 Park SW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are 7-transmembrane domain containing proteins that mediate a wide range of biological processes and are the most favored drug targets. Approximately 40% of modern drugs are designed to target specific GPCRs, directly as agonists or antagonists, or indirectly as modulators to intervene in the pathophysiological processes of diseases. For most neurological disorders where GPCR could contribute to disease progression, particularly those of chronic in nature, inflammation in the brain seems to be the culprit.
A platform for evolving characters in competitive games

Entertainment software developers face significant challenges. In designing games with broad appeal. One of the challenges concerns creating lifelike nonplayer characters that can adapt their behavior in light of the current and prospective situation. This adaptation should be inherently novel, unrepeatable, yet within the bounds of realism. Evolutionary algorithms provide a suitable method for generating such behavior. This work provides background on the entertainment software industry and on a platform for evolving nonplayer characters with genetic and behavioral traits.
An implicit prioritized access protocol for wireless sensor networks

Recent advances in wireless technology have brought us closer to the vision of pervasive computing where sensors/actuators can be connected through a wireless network. Due to cost constraints and the dynamic nature of sensor networks, it is undesirable to assume the existence of base stations connected by a wired backbone. In this paper, we present a network architecture suitable for sensor networks along with a medium access control protocol based on earliest deadline first.
Scheduling Refresh Queries for Keeping Results from a SPARQL Endpoint Up-to-Date (Extended Version)

Many datasets change over time. As a consequence, long-running applications that cache and repeatedly use query results obtained from a SPARQL endpoint may resubmit the queries regularly to ensure up-to-dateness of the results. While this approach may be feasible if the number of such regular refresh queries is manageable, with an increasing number of applications adopting this approach, the SPARQL endpoint may become overloaded with such refresh queries. A more scalable approach would be to use a middle-ware component at which the applications register their queries and get notified with updated query results once the results have changed. Then, this middle-ware can schedule the repeated execution of the refresh queries without overloading the endpoint. In this paper, we study the problem of scheduling refresh queries for a large number of registered queries by assuming an overload-avoiding upper bound on the length of a regular time slot available for testing refresh queries. We investigate a variety of scheduling strategies and compare them experimentally in terms of time slots needed before they recognize changes and number of changes that they miss.
Perceptual wavelet decomposition for speech segmentation

A non-uniform speech segmentation method based on wavelet packet transform is used for the localisation of phoneme boundaries. Eleven subbands are chosen by applying the mean best basis algorithm. Perceptual scale is used for decomposition of speech via Meyer wavelet in the wavelet packet structure. A real valued vector representing the digital speech signal is decomposed into phone-like units by placing segment borders according to the result of the multiresolution analysis. The final decision on localisation of the boundaries is made by analysis of the energy flows among the decomposition levels. Index Terms: speech segmentation, wavelet packet transform, speech recognition
Clinical Evidence of Chinese Massage Therapy (Tui Na) for Cervical Radiculopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective. The review is to assess the current evidence of Chinese massage therapy (Tui Na) for cervical radiculopathy. Methods. Seven databases were searched. Randomised controlled trials incorporating Tui Na alone or Tui Na combined with conventional treatment were enrolled. The authors in pairs independently assessed the risk of bias and extracted the data. Results. Five studies involving 448 patients were included. The pooled analysis from the 3 trials indicated that Tui Na alone showed a significant lowering immediate effects on pain score (SMD = −0.58; 95% CI: −0.96 to −0.21; Z = 3.08, P = 0.002) with moderate heterogeneity compared to cervical traction. The meta-analysis from 2 trials revealed significant immediate effects of Tui Na plus cervical traction in improving pain score (MD = −1.73; 95% CI: −2.01 to −1.44; Z = 11.98, P < 0.00001) with no heterogeneity compared to cervical traction alone. No adverse effect was reported. There was very low quality or low quality evidence to support the results. Conclusions. Tui Na alone or Tui Na plus cervical traction may be helpful to cervical radiculopathy patients, but supportive evidence seems generally weak. Future clinical studies with low risk of bias and adequate follow-up design are recommended.
Synthesising Game Worlds Using Computational Creativity Methodologies

Many modern computer games contain a variety of complex worlds that have often been carefully designed and constructed by a team of graphics artists who manually place hundreds of thousands of objects in order to generate realistic and interesting environments. However, manually generated worlds contribute little towards the replay value of the game, since the player is always presented with the same situations and will often find little challenge in playing through them a second time. In an attempt to overcome this, recent games boast very large game worlds that make the initial play-through experience longer, but these are often very time consuming to create manually without repetition. Automatically generated worlds overcome these problems, firstly by decreasing the amount of manual effort required to create large worlds and secondly by allowing new worlds to be generated each time the game is played. However, previous attempts to do this have often resulted in either very repetitious worlds with few interesting differences between them or highly random worlds which only work well for organic environments. This project attempts to overcome these problems by combining well-known constraint satisfaction methods with computational creativity techniques that will attempt to learn the properties that produce interesting worlds and realistic, artificial environments without noticeable repetition. Previous Work Much research already exists on procedural synthesis and can be built upon for the purposes of this project. The majority of this work has gone into creating organic scenes, where the inherent randomness of nature is exploited to produce realistic-looking foliage using fractals and L-systems [1]. Ground formations such as hills and mountains can, to some extent, be built up using Perlin Noise, then additional algorithms can simulate water erosion to produce highly realistic organic landscapes such as those in Terragen [2]. When combined, these techniques can be used to produce a wide range of realistic landscapes, and are to be used extensively in upcoming games such as Oblivion [7] and Spore [8]. Synthesis of artificial landscapes such as towns and cities is far less advanced. Early roleplaying games would generate dungeons by randomly choosing from pre-made rooms in order to give the player a slightly different experience each time, and this advanced into random placement of pre-made objects in some modern games. Some work has gone into generation of buildings by unioning primitive, angular shapes and extruding them to form tall structures. Common town planning methods can then be applied to guide the placement of buildings across a landscape to form a cityscape [3]. However, while these are a good starting point, they do not provide the detail needed for game worlds, since repetition is often very obvious when observed at the street level.
Time Domain Coupled Field Dyadic Green Function Solution for Maxwell's Equations

The free space time domain coupled electric and magnetic field integral equation solution for Maxwell's differential equations is derived. The coupled field integral equation solution is expressed as a vector containing the electric and magnetic fields found in terms of a surface integral over the equivalent surface currents on a boundary, an integral over the electric and magnetic current sources in the region enclosed by the boundary, and a volume integral over the initial field in the bounded region. Because of the irreversibility of the vector differential equation and the lack of spatial symmetry in the corresponding free space dyadic Green function, as a starting point the Green differential equation is replaced by the reciprocal (adjoint) equation and the dyadic Green function is replaced by its transpose. These replacements plus identities that relate the components of the Green function to its transpose lead in a straightforward way to the coupled field solution. The general dyadic expression derived here provides a framework for developing source current, boundary integral, and propagator methods that are based on the interaction between the electric and magnetic vector field components in the time domain.
Reflecting on the rhetoric of corporate social responsibility : a case study of inter-organizational bullying

Many organizations have embraced aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in response to public concern and allegations of unethical and improper business practice. However, in some instances, CSR is arguably undertaken to evoke positive public relations outcomes and enhanced profits, with many claiming that CSR activity involves more rhetoric than reality. We present a fictional case study1 depicting as an example of inter-organisational bullying – bullying of one organization by another – claiming also that it offers a further example of the cleavage between the rhetoric and reality of CSR undertaken by organizations purporting to be socially responsible corporate citizens.
Natural Language Engineering: The Study of Word Sense Disambiguation in Punjabi

Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) is an important part of Machine Readable Dictionary (MRD) which is extensively used in Expert System/Intelligent Systems. All languages have multiple meanings of words or phrases depending on the context of their usage. WSD draws the correct (intended) meaning using a database called Machine Readable Dictionary (MRD). Some rudimentary designs of MRD have been made for some European Languages. In this paper a preliminary attempt has been made towards the formulation and design of MRD in Punjabi Language using modified Lesk Algorithm which uses a simple method for relating the appropriate word sense relative to set of dictionary meanings of the word or phrase.
Simultaneous Dual-Color Fluorescence Microscope: A Characterization Study

Background: High spatial resolution and geometric accuracy is crucial for chromosomal analysis of clinical cytogenetic applications. High resolution and rapid simultaneous acquisition of multiple fluorescent wavelengths can be achieved by utilizing concurrent imaging with multiple detectors. However, such class of microscopic systems functions differently from traditional fluorescence microscopes. Objective: To develop a practical characterization framework to assess and optimize the performance of a high resolution and dual-color fluorescence microscope designed for clinical chromosomal analysis. Methods: A dual-band microscopic imaging system utilizes a dichroic mirror, two sets of specially selected optical filters, and two detectors to simultaneously acquire two fluorescent wavelengths. The system’s geometric distortion, linearity, the modulation transfer function, and the dual detectors’ alignment were characterized. Results: Experiment results show that the geometric distortion at lens periphery is less than 1%. Both fluorescent channels show linear signal responses, but there exists discrepancy between the two due to the detectors’ non-uniform response ratio to different wavelengths. In terms of the spatial resolution, the two contrast transfer function curves trend agreeably with the spatial frequency. The alignment measurement allows quantitatively assessing the cameras' alignment. A result image of adjusted alignment is demonstrated to show the reduced discrepancy by using the alignment measurement method. Conclusions: In this paper, we present a system characterization study and its methods for a specially designed imaging system for clinical cytogenetic applications. The presented characterization methods are not only unique to this dual-color imaging system but also applicable to evaluation and optimization of other similar multi-color microscopic image systems for improving their clinical utilities for future cytogenetic applications.
A 60-GHz FSK transceiver with automatically-calibrated demodulator in 90-nm CMOS

A fully-integrated 60-GHz transceiver utilizing analog FSK modulation/demodulation to replace baseband processor has been demonstrated. Employing a discriminator with automatic adjustment and a folded dipole antenna pair (5-dBi gain for each), the transceiver achieves > 1Gb/s data transmission over 1 meter with BER < 10−12 while consuming a total power of 500 mW.
The Query Cube: A Framework for Assessing User Productivity with Database Information Retrieval

Three key factors that affect user productivity on database information retrieval are representation realism, expressive ease, and task complexity. Representation realism is the level of abstraction used in formulating queries. Expressive ease is the syntactic flexibility of a query language. Task complexity is the level of difficulty of queries. These factors formed a three dimensional query cube. A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate user productivity on database information retrieval corresponding to. different vertices of the query cube. The results show that the query cube is a viable framework for assessing user productivity, both on effectiveness and efficiency perspective.
Query-Focused Summaries or Query-Biased Summaries?

In the context of the Document Understanding Conferences, the task of Query-Focused Multi-Document Summarization is intended to improve agreement in content among human-generated model summaries. Query-focus also aids the automated summarizers in directing the summary at specific topics, which may result in better agreement with these model summaries. However, while query focus correlates with performance, we show that high-performing automatic systems produce summaries with disproportionally higher query term density than human summarizers do. Experimental evidence suggests that automatic systems heavily rely on query term occurrence and repetition to achieve good performance.
Making Updates Disk-I/O Friendly Using SSDs

Multiversion databases store both current and historical data. Rows are typically annotated with timestamps representing the period when the row is/was valid. We develop novel techniques for reducing index maintenance in multiversion databases, so that indexes can be used effectively for analytical queries over current data without being a heavy burden on transaction throughput. To achieve this end, we re-design persistent index data structures in the storage hierarchy to employ an extra level of indirection. The indirection level is stored on solid state disks that can support very fast random I/Os, so that traversing the extra level of indirection incurs a relatively small overhead.The extra level of indirection dramatically reduces the number of magnetic disk I/Os that are needed for index updates, and localizes maintenance to indexes on updated attributes. Further, we batch insertions within the indirection layer in order to reduce physical disk I/Os for indexing new records. By reducing the index maintenance overhead on transactions, we enable operational data stores to create more indexes to support queries. We have developed a prototype of our indirection proposal by extending the widely used Generalized Search Tree (GiST) open-source project, which is also employed in PostgreSQL. Our working implementation demonstrates that we can significantly reduce index maintenance and/or query processing cost, by a factor of 3. For insertions of new records, our novel batching technique can save up to 90% of the insertion time.
PLAY AND BUILDING HISTORIES / IDENTITIES OF MATH COMPETENCIES FOR LATINOS / AS *

The purpose of this paper is to reconfigure the functions and effects of ‘play’ as a developmental tool. We describe how researchers can apply sociocultural theory in order to better understand, and ultimately address issues related to Latinos’ development in mathematics. The discussion draws on work conducted in an after-school, non-remedial mathematics club and focuses on the nature and role of ‘play’ in understanding the cultural and linguistic resources Latino students utilize as they do mathematics. One purpose of this work is to create an alternative pedagogical model that challenges today’s dominant perspective of learning environments, which have proven ineffective for minority populations in the U.S. In framing our research, we maintain that students develop most efficiently through dialogues and interactions with others (Vygotsky, 1978; Cole, 2006) in order to make meaning of mathematics.
The Dilemma of the Supreme Audit Institutions: Autonomy or Relevance? A Case Study of the Government Accountability Office (GAO)

The "Institutions of Accountability" (IOA) are considered as important instruments for ensuring horizontal accountability and of these, the role played by the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) is particularly important. These SAIs are set up based on the constitutional and legal framework of countries and they help the legislatures to enforce accountability, reduce fiduciary risk and measure the outcome of different programs. Even though the SAIs are supposed to be "autonomous" and free from all types of political pressure, while performing their roles and responsibilities, these institutions have to interact with different political actors. As a result of this interaction, the SAIs, through concentrating on measuring the performance of different government programs/agencies, have started playing an important role in the political/policy arena and this has made the SAIs more relevant in the political realm. Consequently, the SAIs are now facing a unique dilemma - whereas autonomy requires that the SAIs be completely independent from the political actors while performing its duties, relevance requires keeping close connection with these actors so that their recommendations are being implemented. In other words, if the institution concentrates too much on protecting its autonomy by maintaining its distance from the other political actors, it may fail in affecting the policies/programs as per its recommendations. On the other hand, if the institution focuses on being relevant in the policy arena by interacting with the political actor, it may find itself vulnerable to political demand or pressure and thereby, may lose its autonomy. This paper has attempted to capture the dynamics of the autonomy-relevance dilemma faced by the SAIs and explore the strategies adopted by these institutions in dealing with this. While doing that, it has made an effort to develop a theoretical framework as a way to begin unpacking the political relationships and roles played by SAIs throughout the world
Financial Repression and Structural Imbalances

This paper analyzes the relationship between financial repression and structural change. We present a simple theoretical model of structural transformation in which the impact of financial repression on unbalanced growth is studied. Governments may choose to repress the financial sector to allow for the development of the industry sector while inhibiting growth in the domestic service sector. When investigating the predictions of our model using data for a panel of countries, we find that financial repression have a significant negative effect on structural transformation. In countries with higher levels of financial repression, the industry sector is developed rapidly while the service sector is held back. The results are robust to different country sample compositions, alternative measures of sectoral structure, and different measures of financial repression. The analysis suggests that financial repression is an important driver of structural imbalances, especially in countries with heavy state intervention and where the government strongly favors industrial expansion. Our findings have policy implications for governments that are experiencing rapid economic transformation and that are using financial repression to achieve a long-run industrial output growth.
Managing Invention and Innovation

OVERVIEW: 2007 is Research-Technology Management's 50th year of publication. To mark the occasion, each issue will reprint one of RTM's six most frequently referenced articles. The articles were identified by N. Thongpapanl and Jonathan D. Linton in their 2004 study of technology innovation management journals, a citation-based study in which RTM ranked third out of 25 specialty journals in that field (see RTM May–June 2004, pp. 5–6). The article reprinted here was Number 1 on their list. Published in 1988 and updated now with its author's “reflections,” the article surveyed what had been learned about the management of invention and innovation during the previous 50 years since the Industrial Research Institute's founding in 1938. Following a discussion of definitions of the invention and innovation process, it focused on three major dimensions of the process: staffing, structure and strategy. Taken together, their improved management was found to contribute critically to achieving successful institutionalized innovation.
Thermal Face Recognition – Matching Algorithms Performance

Face recognition based on thermal images belongs to less known biometric methods. The method works with images of human face captured in near infrared light spectrum. Infrared face recognition can be either use in stand-alone applications, or as a part of multimodal biometric system in combination with other methods (e.g. face recognition based on 2D or 3D images in visible light spectrum). This article presents different methods of normalization and matching algorithms and shows how they affect the performance of the biometric system. Results of all described methods are summarized to see, which combination of normalization and matching algorithms have the best performance.