Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A linear-size conversion of HCP to 3HCP

We provide an algorithm that converts any instance of the Hamiltonian cycle problem (HCP) into a cubic instance of HCP (3HCP), and prove that the input size of the new instance is only a linear function of that of the original instance. This is achieved by first considering various restrictions of HCP. Known conversions from directed HCP to undirected HCP, and sub-cubic HCP to cubic HCP are given. We introduce a subgraph called a 4-gate and show that it may be used to convert sub-quartic HCP into sub-cubic HCP. We further generalise this idea by first introducing the 5-gate, and then the s-gate for any s >= 4. We prove that these subgraphs may be used to convert general instances of HCP into cubic HCP instances, where the input size of the converted instance is a quadratic function of that of the original instance. This result improves upon the previously best known approach which results in cubic growth in the size of the instance. We further prove that the quadratic function is reduced to a linear function if the maximum initial degree is bounded above by a constant. Motivated by this result, we describe an algorithm to convert general HCP to HCP of bounded degree and prove that it results in only linear growth. All of the above results are then used in the proof that any instance of HCP may be converted to an equivalent instance 3HCP with only linear growth in the input size.
DC microgrid operation planning

Distributed generation (DG) and microgrid will play important roles in the future electric network operations. They could improve energy efficiency, minimize environmental impacts and enhance power system reliability. A power scheduling approach considering load/generation changes and time of use (TOU) tariff for a low voltage DC microgrid incorporating energy storage battery, fuel cell and photovoltaic power generations, is presented in this paper. The problem is solved by a multi path dynamic programming (MPDP) approach. Simulation results illustrate the benefits of DG and energy storage integrations in reducing electricity bill for customers adopting DC distribution system.
A Modular Approach to Model Heterogeneous MPSoC at Cycle Level

This paper proposes a system-level cycle-based framework to model and design heterogeneous multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoC), called GRAPES. The approach features flexibility and modularity maintaining high simulation speed despite modeling at cycle level. Intellectual property (IP) system modules can be described as C++or System C entities and they are wrapped into C++ objects, called plug-ins. Plug-ins, that are modeled by the transaction level modeling (TLM) style, are managed by the GRAPES kernel, which is the core of the simulation framework. GRAPES structural approach permits to easily model run-time reconfiguration and power modeling. Furthermore, GRAPES has been used to model and to simulate a case study: a scalable and heterogeneous MPSoC based on network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect.
Review of Perceptual Resemblance of Local Plastic Surgery Facial Images using Near Sets

Plastic surgery is becoming prevalent due to advances in technology, and the speed with which these procedures are performed. Many efforts are being made by various researchers to address the challenges of human face detection and recognition. Variations in pose, expression, illumination, aging and disguise are the important challenges in this domain. Research focus is now shifted to plastic surgery of human faces. In this paper, review of Perceptual resemblance of local plastic surgery of facial images using Near Sets is proposed. We find different aspects related to plastic surgery and face recognition. When an individual undergoes plastic surgery, the facial features are reconstructed in both ways either globally or locally. Generally, this process changes the appearance of an individual. As these procedures become more and more prevalent, future face recognition systems will be challenged to recognize individuals after plastic surgery has been performed. However, to alleviate the problems of face recognition after local plastic surgery of faces, we are using near set theory to identify resemblance between pre-surgical and post-surgical faces.
The cell adhesion molecule NrCAM is crucial for growth cone behaviour and pathfinding of retinal ganglion cell axons

We investigated the role of the cell adhesion molecule NrCAM for axonal growth and pathfinding in the developing retina. Analysis of the distribution pattern of NrCAM in chick embryo retina sections and flat-mounts shows its presence during extension of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons; NrCAM is selectively present on RGC axons and is absent from the soma. Single cell cultures show an enrichment of NrCAM in the distal axon and growth cone. When offered as a substrate in addition to Laminin, NrCAM promotes RGC axon extension and the formation of growth cone protrusions. In substrate stripe assays, mimicking the NrCAM-displaying optic fibre layer and the Laminin-rich basal lamina, RGC axons preferentially grow on NrCAM lanes. The three-dimensional analysis of RGC growth cones in retina flat-mounts reveals that they are enlarged and form more protrusions extending away from the correct pathway under conditions of NrCAM-inhibition. Time-lapse analyses show that these growth cones pause longer to explore their environment, proceed for shorter time spans, and retract more often than under control conditions; in addition, they often deviate from the correct pathway towards the optic fissure. Inhibition of NrCAM in organ-cultured intact eyes causes RGC axons to misroute at the optic fissure; instead of diving into the optic nerve head, these axons cross onto the opposite side of the retina. Our results demonstrate a crucial role for NrCAM in the navigation of RGC axons in the developing retina towards the optic fissure, and also for pathfinding into the optic nerve.
A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Secondary Education Output in Portugal

This paper contributes to the discussion about the performance and efficiency of Portuguese secondary schools, using the stochastic production frontier analysis. We discuss the impact of school variables and the environment on output (measured by the average national examination scores), as determinants of the shape of technology and degree of efficiency. We find, in particular, that teacher seniority, school size and private management have a positive impact on output. The area where the school is located also plays an important role. Further, results show that schools differ considerably in their efficiency levels, and we also address the use of the stochastic frontier methodology in order to improve the computation of school rankings.
Watch your steps: designing a semi-public display to promote physical activity

Sedentary time is considered a health risk factor, even when it is compensated with some exercise. Frequent activities of minimal physical exertion throughout the day like walking or climbing stairs are therefore recommended. To promote these activities through social play and collective awareness, we designed a semi-public display that shows the step count of a group of players in near real-time, using a wearable self-monitoring device that senses their physical activity. We included a fictional player that walked at constant speed during the whole day to promote a shared goal. Our preliminary findings suggest that the display motivated players to use a self-monitoring device everyday and enabled new conversations among players without producing privacy issues. Emotional connections with non-collocated participants and creative ways of cheating were also observed. We believe our work highlights the opportunities to extend the potential of self-monitoring devices, which require little effort and resources to be implemented.
Design and Control of Five-Fingered Haptic Interface Opposite to Human Hand

This paper presents the design and control of a newly developed five-fingered haptic interface robot named HIRO II. The developed haptic interface can present force and tactile feeling to the five fingertips of the human hand. Its mechanism consists of a 6 degree of freedom (DOF) arm and a 15 DOF hand. The interface is placed opposite the human hand, which ensures safety and freedom of movement, but this arrangement leads to difficulty in designing and controlling the haptic interface, which should accurately track the fingertip positions of the operator. A design concept and optimum haptic finger layout, which maximizes the design performance index is presented. The design performance index consists of the product space between the operator's finger and the hapic finger, and the opposability of the thumb and fingers. Moreover, in order to reduce the feeling of uneasiness in the operator, a mixed control method consisting of a finger-force control and an arm position control intended to maximize the control performance index, which consists of the hand manipulability measure and the norm of the arm-joint angle vector is proposed. The experimental results demonstrate the high potential of the multifingered haptic interface robot HIRO II+ utilizing the mixed control method.
Facial non-repetitive vertex colouring of some families of 2-connected plane graphs

A sequence a1a2 . a2n such that ai = an+i for all 1 ≤ i ≤ n is called a repetition. A sequence S is called non-repetitive if no subsequence of consecutive terms of S is a repetition. Let G be a graph whose vertices are coloured. A path in G is a called nonrepetitive if the sequence of colours of its vertices is non-repetitive. If G is a plane graph, a facial non-repetitive vertex colouring of G is a vertex colouring such that any facial path (i.e. a path of consecutive vertices on the boundary walk of a face) is non-repetitive. We denote πf (G) the minimum number of colours of a facial non-repetitive vertex colouring of G. In this article, we show that πf (G) ≤ 16 for any plane hamiltonian graph G and πf (G) ≤ 112 for any 2-connected cubic plane graph G. These bounds are improved for some subfamilies of 2-connected plane graphs. All proofs are constructive.
A 1.2-V 90-nm Fully Integrated Compact CMOS Linear Power Amplifier Using the Coupled L-Shape Concentric Vortical Transformer

This paper presents a 90-nm fully integrated CMOS linear power amplifier (PA) using a coupled L-shape concentric vortical transformer (CL-CVT) for the fourth-generation long-term evolution (LTE) communication standard. Using the proposed output combining CL-CVT architecture, the outer diameter required by the power combiner is reduced by 66% compared to the distributed active transformer with similar performance. Moreover, the PA is able to efficiently combine four push-pull output stages and achieve nearly constant power over several LTE bands with a total chip area less than 1 mm2. With a 1.2-V supply voltage, the PA delivers 27.3-dBm maximum output power with a peak drain efficiency of 47% at 2.4 GHz. Using a 20-MHz LTE 16-QAM test signal, the PA achieves 24.6% power-added efficiency at an output power level of 22 dBm and passes the spectral requirements defined by the LTE standard without using any pre-distortion or calibration techniques.
Early rheumatoid arthritis is associated with a deficit in the CD4+CD25high regulatory T cell population in peripheral blood.

OBJECTIVE Our aim was to test the hypothesis that there is a deficit in the CD4+CD25high regulatory T-cell population in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), either in size or functional activity. METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were examined from subjects with early active RA who had received no previous disease-modifying therapy (n = 43), from individuals with self-limiting reactive arthritis (n = 14), from subjects with stable, well-controlled RA (n = 82) and from healthy controls (n = 72). The frequencies of CD4+CD25high T-cells were quantified using flow cytometry, and function was assessed by the ability to suppress proliferation of CD4+CD25- T-cells. Paired blood and synovial fluid was analysed from a small number of RA and reactive arthritis patients. RESULTS There was a smaller proportion of CD4+CD25high T-cells in the peripheral blood of early active RA patients (mean 4.25%) than in patients with reactive arthritis or in controls (mean 5.90 and 5.30%, respectively, P = 0.001 in each case). Frequencies in stable, well-controlled RA (mean 4.63%) were not significantly different from early active RA or controls. There were no differences in suppressor function between groups. Higher frequencies of CD4+CD25high T-cells were found in synovial fluid than blood in both RA and reactive arthritis. CONCLUSIONS These data demonstrate a smaller CD4+CD25high regulatory T-cell population in peripheral blood of individuals with early active RA prior to disease-modifying treatment. This may be a contributory factor in the susceptibility to RA and suggests novel approaches to therapy.
How To Get Your SIGGRAPH Paper Rejected

I've submitted a lot of papers that SIGGRAPH didn't like, as well as a few they did. Also, I've been on the papers committee a few times and know what it is they look for. This note tells you something about what happens to your paper as it goes through the reviewing process as well as what people discuss when they're trying to decide whether to accept or reject your paper. I'll try to tell you everything I've learned about the SIGGRAPH secret: What SIGGRAPH wants, and how you can give it to them so they'll accept your paper. I'll also talk about some of the flaws in the reviewing process and how you can protect yourself against them. Finally, I want to share some thoughts on the present course and the future of technical papers for SIGGRAPH.
BBA: An Efficient Batch Bundle Authentication Scheme for Delay Tolerant Networks

To realize efficient in-transit messages (bundles) authentication in delay tolerant networks (DTNs), this paper introduces a novel batch bundle authentication (BBA) scheme to validate the bundles in a batch instead of authenticating them one by one. We take the advantage of identity based cryptography to dramatically reduce the transmission cost, and adopt batch signature technique to realize the efficient bundle signature verification. Compared with existing message authentication approaches, our scheme has the superiority on improved efficiency even under the invalid signature attack. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can be an enhancement for current bundle security protocol specification.
Enhanced digestion and alginate-like-exopolysaccharides extraction from Nereda sludge

Aerobic granular sludge/Nereda technology has proven to be more beneficial compared to activated sludge systems. Until now not much research has been spend on treatment of Nereda excess sludge (NES). In this study the biodegradability of NES is investigated, combined with thermal pressure hydrolysis (TPH) as pre-treatment method and the application of an up-flow digester concept. The maximal biodegradability is estimated at 50% volatile solids (VS) (VS content of raw sludge is 80%). In a conventional CSTR digester 42% VS is converted, whereas TPH increased this to 48% (HRT=20 days). The up-flow digester performed slightly better than the conventional system: 43% VS is converted. Modelling of the CSTR systems showed to yield well fitting results; modelling of up-flow digesters yielded results which deviated a lot from the measured values. Besides anaerobic digestion, the extraction procedure of alginate-like-exopolysaccharides (ALE) is optimized and the mutual influence of digestion and ALE extraction is researched. Extraction of ALE can be done with a lower amount of chemicals as the initial procedure. ALE seems to be slowly biodegraded during anaerobic digestion, although the amount of ALE recovered from digested sludge did not differ from undigested sludge. ALE extraction applied prior to digestion could be a synergistic hybrid, as the extraction procedure can act as a pre-treatment method to reduce sludge volume and increase biodegradability rate. The optimal combination is however not yet found. Finally the influence of ALE-extraction method and protein content is investigated. ALE seems to contain a significant fraction of protein (20-40%), although large differences were observed between protein detection methods and ALE extraction methods.
Multicast routing and its QoS extension: problems, algorithms, and protocols

Multicast services have been increasingly used by various continuous media applications. The QoS requirements of these continuous media applications prompt the necessity for QoS-driven, constraint-based multicast routing. This article provides a comprehensive overview of existing multicast routing algorithms, protocols, and their QoS extension. In particular, we classify multicast routing problems according to their optimization functions and performance constraints, present basic routing algorithms in each problem class, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. We also categorize existing multicast routing protocols, outline the issues and challenges in providing QoS in multicast routing, and point out possible future research directions.
The evolutionary trade‐off between stem cell niche size, aging, and tumorigenesis

Many epithelial tissues within multicellular organisms are continually replenished by small independent populations of stem cells largely responsible for maintaining tissue homeostasis. These continually dividing populations are subject to mutations that can lead to tumorigenesis but also contribute to aging. Mutations accumulate in stem cell niches and change the rate of cell division and differentiation; the pace of this process and the fate of specific mutations depend strongly on niche population size. Here, we create a mathematical model of the intestinal stem cell niche, crypt system, and epithelium. We calculate the expected effect of fixed mutations in stem cell niches and their effect on tissue homeostasis throughout the intestinal epithelium over organismal lifetime. We find that, due to the small population size of stem cell niches, mutations predominantly fix via genetic drift and decrease stem cell fitness, leading to niche and tissue attrition, and contributing to organismal aging. We also explore mutation accumulation at various stem cell niche sizes and demonstrate that an evolutionary trade‐off exists between niche size, tissue aging, and the risk of tumorigenesis. Further, mouse and human niches exist at a size that minimizes the probability of tumorigenesis, at the expense of accumulating deleterious mutations due to genetic drift. Finally, we show that the trade‐off between the probability of tumorigenesis and the extent of aging depends on whether or not mutational effects confer a selective advantage in the stem cell niche.
Attraction-Selection and Socialization of Work Values

This article advances the research investigating the process of sector choice (attraction-selection) and changes in work values (socialization) over time using panel data. We find little evidence that work values predict actual employment in public schools, but there are differences in changes of work values after entering into public organizations, compared with private organizations. Overall, the findings reveal that after employment, individuals became more likely to have stronger preferences for monetary and job security values. The results offer support for prior studies, demonstrating that work values could be a dynamic state.
MuViSync: Realtime music video alignment

In recent years, the popularity of compressed music files and online music downloads has increased dramatically. Today's users own large digital collections of high quality music on their computers and portable devices to be played in their homes or on the go. In addition, music videos are being offered online both for free and through monthly subscriptions, opening up the opportunity to turn the music listening activity into a multimedia experience. The work presented in this paper addresses the challenge of music audio and music video synchronisation. In particular, we have developed a prototype, named MuViSync, to automatically synchronise music videos to the songs that users are listening to in real-time. At the core of the MuViSync prototype are novel audio synchronization algorithms to tackle the differences in tempo, pitch, sampling rates, structure, and introductions and endings that are common in the various digital recordings of the same song in modern music. The music and the music video are initially aligned and then kept in sync within the limits of human perception. In experiments with 320 matching pairs of audio files and music videos, the proposed algorithms successfully synchronise music and video to within 100 milliseconds of each other in over 90% of the cases.
Estimation of Coast-Wide Population Trends of Marbled Murrelets in Canada Using a Bayesian Hierarchical Model

Species at risk with secretive breeding behaviours, low densities, and wide geographic range pose a significant challenge to conservation actions because population trends are difficult to detect. Such is the case with the Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), a seabird listed as ‘Threatened’ by the Species at Risk Act in Canada largely due to the loss of its old growth forest nesting habitat. We report the first estimates of population trend of Marbled Murrelets in Canada derived from a monitoring program that uses marine radar to detect birds as they enter forest watersheds during 923 dawn surveys at 58 radar monitoring stations within the six Marbled Murrelet Conservation Regions on coastal British Columbia, Canada, 1996–2013. Temporal trends in radar counts were analyzed with a hierarchical Bayesian multivariate modeling approach that controlled for variation in tilt of the radar unit and day of year, included year-specific deviations from the overall trend (‘year effects’), and allowed for trends to be estimated at three spatial scales. A negative overall trend of -1.6%/yr (95% credibility interval: -3.2%, 0.01%) indicated moderate evidence for a coast-wide decline, although trends varied strongly among the six conservation regions. Negative annual trends were detected in East Vancouver Island (-9%/yr) and South Mainland Coast (-3%/yr) Conservation Regions. Over a quarter of the year effects were significantly different from zero, and the estimated standard deviation in common-shared year effects between sites within each region was about 50% per year. This large common-shared interannual variation in counts may have been caused by regional movements of birds related to changes in marine conditions that affect the availability of prey.
Robust Stabilization for a Class of Neutral Systems with Time-Varying Delays via Delta Operators

In this paper, the problem of robust stability of time varying delay neutral system using delta operator is investigated. As is well known, neutral system has been investigated by some academician, there are a lot of academician who investigates the delta operator,the delta operator model also has the advantage of better numerical properties at high sampling rates, so we can combine neutral system with delta operator. Based on the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional in delta domain, a new delay-dependent stability criteria is presented in terms of LMIs. We can gained robust stability of time-varying delay neutral system using delta operator. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed method.