Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Reduced Order Source Identification

In this paper we propose a distributed approach for model-based Source Identification (SI) that minimizes communication cost and allows for on demand balancing of computational resources, based on the specifications of the sensors. Specifically, we consider the steady-state Advection-Diffusion equation which we discretize using the Finite Element (FE) method, and then apply Proper Orthogonal Decomposition to reduce the order of the model. The concentration measurements that are needed to solve the SI problem are collected by a team of mobile sensors that move in pre-assigned subdomains in the environment. We formulate an $\ell_{2}$-regularized least squares optimization problem that the sensors solve in a distributed way using the Accelerated Distributed Augmented Lagrangian method. Our formulation results in an algorithm whose communication cost is independent of the FE mesh size and its time complexity grows only linearly with it. We present simulation results that show that the proposed method can handle large-scale SI problems and compare our formulation to an alternative derivation using Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers.
Circulating orexin changes during withdrawal are associated with nicotine craving and risk for smoking relapse

We examined the extent to which orexin measured during smoking and the early phase of abstinence was related to craving, withdrawal, stress hormones, and risk for smoking relapse in men and women. Considering its role in modulating nicotine‐related reward, we predicted that a reduction in circulating orexin during withdrawal would be associated with increased craving and risk for smoking relapse. Two hundred and eighty five participants provided biological samples and self‐report information to identify predictors of smoking relapse. All participants attended two laboratory sessions, which were before and after a period of required abstinence from smoking. After quitting, participants also attended four weekly sessions to track smoking relapse. Only smokers who relapsed within the follow‐up period exhibited reduced orexin levels during the initial withdrawal period; ACTH, but not craving nor cortisol, increased across the abstinence period for successful abstainers but not for relapsers. Sex differences in orexin and craving or withdrawal associations also emerged. Adding sex, HPA hormones, and self‐reported measures of craving and withdrawal as potential mediators had minimal effects on the above abstinence and orexin effects. These results provide the first evidence that circulating orexin may be a useful marker of risk for relapse; and sex, adrenal hormones, and self‐reported craving and withdrawal were not mediators of this effect. The results point to a promising pathway to investigate objective biological markers for craving and smoking relapse and highlight the complexity of the neurobiology of relapse.
A Physical Layer Security-Based Transmit Antenna Selection Scheme for NOMA Systems

In this paper, we propose a novel transmit antenna selection (TAS) scheme to improve the physical layer security of two-user non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems. Specifically, the proposed TAS scheme aims to select an antenna that is the most robust against the interception of an eavesdropper, in particular, the antenna that minimizes the maximum capacity of the eavesdropper channels. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, we derive an exact closed-form expression for the secrecy outage probability (SOP) of the near user and a tight approximated closed-form expression for the SOP of the far user. Numerical results reveals that the proposed TAS scheme improves the total secrecy outage probability compared to that of some existing schemes. We also provide some insightful discussions on the impact of the number of antenna and the location of the eavesdropper on the security capability of the considered system.
Distributed Secret Sharing Over a Public Channel From Correlated Random Variables

We consider a secret-sharing model where a dealer distributes the shares of a secret among a set of participants with the constraint that only predetermined subsets of participants must be able to reconstruct the secret by pooling their shares. Our study generalizes Shamir’s secret-sharing model in three directions. First, we allow a joint design of the protocols for the creation of the shares and the distribution of the shares, instead of constraining the model to independent designs. Second, instead of assuming that the participants and the dealer have access to information-theoretically secure channels at no cost, we assume that they have access to a public channel and correlated randomness. Third, motivated by a wireless network setting where the correlated randomness is obtained from channel gain measurements, we explore a distributed setting where the dealer is an entity made of multiple sub-dealers. Our main results are inner and outer regions for the achievable secret rates that the dealer and the participants can obtain in this model. To this end, we develop two new achievability techniques, a first one to successively handle reliability and security constraints in a distributed setting, and a second one to reduce a multi-dealer setting to multiple single-user dealer settings. Our results yield the capacity region for threshold access structures when the correlated randomness corresponds to pairwise secret keys shared between each sub-dealer and each participant, and the capacity for the all-or-nothing access structure in the presence of a single dealer and arbitrarily correlated randomness.
ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer Modulation and Coding Performance Analysis

This paper presents ATSC 3.0 physical (PHY) layer modulation and coding performance through computer simulations, laboratory tests, and field trials. Analysis results show that the measured results in laboratory and field are generally well aligned with computer simulation results. The ATSC 3.0 PHY layer performance covers ultra-robust reception (negative SNR operation with QPSK and 2/15 LDPC code) to very high-throughput (over 50 Mbps with 4096-NUC with 13/15 LDPC code) in real field environment.
Robust Position Control of Series Elastic Actuator with Sliding Mode Like and Disturbance Observer

Series elastic actuators (SEAs) are powerful devices in the area of human-robot collaboration. However, they still suffer from difficult position control issues, mainly because of the increased model complexity inherent in the actuation and dynamics. Therefore, an efficient approach is proposed to solve this problem in this paper, in which a disturbance observer (DOB) and a nonlinear robust sliding mode like (SML) controller are synthesized. The DOB is designed to estimate not only the modeling uncertainties like parameters perturbation but also unmodeled dynamics; the nonlinear robust controller is designed to attenuate the estimation error and stabilize the closed loop system. The boundedness analysis is presented and the global convergence is analytically proven. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated on a self-built SEA platform and experiment results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Coverage Evaluation of LTE FeMBMS: a Case Study Based on a DVB-T2 Network

In Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 14, the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced a significant extension to the 3GPP evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service named Further evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (FeMBMS). In FeMBMS the option of a dedicated broadcast transmission mode on a separate carrier with an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Cyclic Prefix (CP) length of up to 200 μs was introduced, potentially enabling broadcasters to transmit FeMBMS via existing High Tower, High Power (HTHP) infrastructure. Synchronization and basic signaling for FeMBMS needs to be provided periodically via a Cell Acquisition Subframe (CAS) utilizing the traditional OFDM CP length of 16.67 μs. To evaluate the capabilities of the FeMBMS dedicated broadcast transmission mode and the influence of the short CP length used for transmitting the CAS in a realistic environment of a city, we integrated FeMBMS into the Simulator for Mobile Networks (SiMoNe), a software platform for realistic mobile network simulations developed by Technische Universitaet Braunschweig. SiMoNe provides pathloss predictions based on a ray-tracer that takes into account 3D building data. In this paper, we present simulation methods and evaluate the impact of the CAS on the coverage of portable and mobile devices that can be achieved when three existing HTHP TV towers are used for the transmission of FeMBMS. Simulation results show a significant reduction of coverage area due to the CAS and indicate a coverage difference between subframe types.
Endoscopic Appearance and Management of Recto-Sigmoid Endometriosis: Case Report

Endometriosis is the presence of endometrial glands outside the uterine cavity. Endometriosis can involve any part of the bowel but most commonly affects the recto-sigmoid part of the bowel. This case shows the endoscopic views of bowel endometriosis and also elaborates on how to approach and manage similar cases of bowel endometriosis. Patients with bowel endometriosis are better managed and treated with a multidisciplinary team including gastroenterologist, gynecologist and colorectal surgeon.
Autonomous Control of Current and Voltage Controlled DG Interface Inverters for Reactive Power Sharing and Harmonics Compensation in Islanded Microgrids

 Abstract — In microgrids, Voltage Source Inverters (VSIs) interfacing Distributed Generation (DG) units can be operated in Voltage or Current Controlled Modes (VCM/CCM). In this paper, a coordinated control of CCM and VCM units for reactive power sharing and voltage harmonics compensation is proposed. This decentralized control scheme is based on the local measurement of signals. In this way, the need for communication links is removed which results in a simpler and more reliable structure compared to the communication based control structures. To be more exact, the VCM units contribute to harmonics compensation by using capacitive virtual impedance which can fully compensate the effect of output inductance of the LCL filters. Furthermore, an adaptive virtual admittance regulated based on remaining capacity of the CCM units is implemented for the CCM units. For reactive power sharing, modified droop and reverse droop control methods are used for VCM and CCM units, respectively. The related droop coefficients are set by taking the limited capacity of the inverters and the distorted power into account. An experimental prototype is developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. Experimental and simulation studies show that the harmonics compensation is achieved by using only local measurements in presence of virtual admittance/impedance schemes of CCM/VCM units. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the reactive power sharing among the CCM and VCM units is obtained based on their remaining
Granular computing for data analytics: a manifesto of human-centric computing

In the plethora of conceptual and algorithmic developments supporting data analytics and system modeling, humancentric pursuits assume a particular position owing to ways they emphasize and realize interaction between users and the data. We advocate that the level of abstraction, which can be flexibly adjusted, is conveniently realized through Granular Computing. Granular Computing is concerned with the development and processing information granules – formal entities which facilitate a way of organizing knowledge about the available data and relationships existing there. This study identifies the principles of Granular Computing, shows how information granules are constructed and subsequently used in describing relationships present among the data.
Lasing in compact injection microdisks with InAs/InGaAs quantum dots

We present results of characterization of injection microdisk and microring lasers with InAs/InGaAs self-organized quantum dots grown on a GaAs substrate. The microresonator diameters are within 9-31 μm. The microlasers operate without external cooling in continuous wave regime at room temperature and up to 100°C. In case of ring resonator geometry, a reduction of threshold current in comparison with the disk resonator is observed, that is due probably to reduction of current waste in the center of the resonator where field of whispering gallery lasing modes is negligible. This also indicates that the effects of non-radiative surface recombination and carrier diffusion are insignificant for QD-based microlasers.
Deacetylation of Histone H4 Accompanying Cardiomyogenesis is Weakened in HDAC1-Depleted ES Cells

Cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes requires activation of differentiation-specific genes and epigenetic factors that contribute to these physiological processes. This study is focused on the in vitro differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) induced into cardiomyocytes. The effects of clinically promising inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACi) on mESC cardiomyogenesis and on explanted embryonic hearts were also analyzed. HDAC1 depletion caused early beating of cardiomyocytes compared with those of the wild-type (wt) counterpart. Moreover, the adherence of embryonic bodies (EBs) was reduced in HDAC1 double knockout (dn) mESCs. The most important finding was differentiation-specific H4 deacetylation observed during cardiomyocyte differentiation of wt mESCs, while H4 deacetylation was weakened in HDAC1-depleted cells induced to the cardiac pathway. Analysis of the effect of HDACi showed that Trichostatin A (TSA) is a strong hyperacetylating agent, especially in wt mESCs, but only SAHA reduced the size of the beating areas in EBs that originated from HDAC1 dn mESCs. Additionally, explanted embryonic hearts (e15) responded to treatment with HDACi: all of the tested HDACi (TSA, SAHA, VPA) increased the levels of H3K9ac, H4ac, H4K20ac, and pan-acetylated lysines in embryonic hearts. This observation shows that explanted tissue can be maintained in a hyperacetylation state several hours after excision, which appears to be useful information from the view of transplantation strategy and the maintenance of gene upregulation via acetylation in tissue intended for transplantation.
Walking in Minimalist Shoes Is Effective for Strengthening Foot Muscles

Introduction Weakness of foot muscles may contribute to a variety of loading-related injuries. Supportive footwear may contribute to intrinsic foot muscle weakness by reducing the muscles’ role in locomotion (e.g., absorbing forces and controlling motion). Increased stimulus to the foot muscles can be provided through a variety of mechanisms, including minimalist footwear and directed exercise. Purpose To determine the effect of walking in minimalist footwear or performing foot strengthening exercises on foot muscle size and strength. Methods Fifty-seven runners were randomly assigned to one of three groups—minimalist shoe walking (MSW), foot strengthening (FS) exercise, or control (C). All groups maintained their prestudy running mileage throughout the study. The MSW group walked in provided footwear, increasing weekly the number of steps per day taken in the shoes. The FS group performed a set of progressive resistance exercises at least 5 d·wk−1. Foot muscle strength (via custom dynamometers) and size (via ultrasound) were measured at the beginning (week 0), middle (week 4), and end (week 8) of the study. Mixed model ANOVA were run to determine if the interventions had differing effects on the groups. Results There were significant group–time interactions for all muscle size and strength measurements. All muscle sizes and strength increased significantly from weeks 0 to 8 in the FS and MSW groups, whereas there were no changes in the C group. Some muscles increased in size by week 4 in the FS and MSW groups. Conclusions Minimalist shoe walking is as effective as foot strengthening exercises in increasing foot muscle size and strength. The convenience of changing footwear rather than performing specific exercises may result in greater compliance.
Tensor Completion Based on Triple Tubal Nuclear Norm

Many tasks in computer vision suffer from missing values in tensor data, i.e., multi-way data array. The recently proposed tensor tubal nuclear norm (TNN) has shown superiority in imputing missing values in 3D visual data, like color images and videos. However, by interpreting in a circulant way, TNN only exploits tube (often carrying temporal/channel information) redundancy in a circulant way while preserving the row and column (often carrying spatial information) relationship. In this paper, a new tensor norm named the triple tubal nuclear norm (TriTNN) is proposed to simultaneously exploit tube, row and column redundancy in a circulant way by using a weighted sum of three TNNs. Thus, more spatial-temporal information can be mined. Further, a TriTNN-based tensor completion model with an ADMM solver is developed. Experiments on color images, videos and LiDAR datasets show the superiority of the proposed TriTNN against state-of-the-art nuclear norm-based tensor norms.
RTSP-based Mobile Peer-to-Peer Streaming System

Peer-to-peer is emerging as a potentially disruptive technology for content distribution in the mobile Internet. In addition to the already well-known peer-to-peer file sharing, real-time peer-to-peer streaming is gaining popularity. This paper presents an effective real-time peer-to-peer streaming system for the mobile environment. The basis for the system is a scalable overlay network which groups peer into clusters according to their proximity using RTT values between peers as a criteria for the cluster selection. The actual media delivery in the system is implemented using the partial RTP stream concept: the original RTP sessions related to a media delivery are split into a number of so-called partial streams according to a predefined set of parameters in such a way that it allows low-complexity reassembly of the original media session in real-time at the receiving end. Partial streams also help in utilizing the upload capacity with finer granularity than just per one original stream. This is beneficial in mobile environments where bandwidth can be scarce.
Periodic Trajectory Planning Beyond the Static Workspace for 6-DOF Cable-Suspended Parallel Robots

This paper proposes a dynamic trajectory planning technique for six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) cable-suspended parallel robots (CSPRs). First, a passive mechanical system that is equivalent to the CSPR is introduced to provide insight and facilitate the design of trajectories that can extend beyond the robot's static workspace. The tilt-and-torsion angle convention is used to develop the mathematical model and impose restrictions for the rotational component of the trajectories. The dynamic differential equations that govern the translational component of the trajectories are shown to become linear under some conditions. Natural frequencies of an equivalent passive linear system of constant-stiffness springs are, thus, obtained and the set of linear differential equations associated with this system is integrated to produce a general solution for natural, periodic trajectories. This approach is used to produce pure translation trajectories and more complex motion that includes changes in position and orientation. An experimental implementation is also presented using a 6-DOF prototype and a supplementary video file is included to demonstrate the results.
Computing regions of stabilizability for nonlinear control systems with input constraints

The growing interest in robust motion planning under safety constraints for robotic systems, such as autonomous vehicles or collaborative robots, lead to an increased interest to prove the stability or stabilizability of dynamic models of such systems. The proofs are usually based on Lyapunov theory and often rely on “funnels”, tubes or similar invariants that bound variations along reference trajectories. Recent methods have shown how to compute such funnels via sum-of-square (SoS) optimization. In this work we propose a new approach to solve this problem relying on optimal control based state-space partitioning and relaxation techniques for polynomial programming. In contrast to SoS techniques, our approach is inherently suitable to supply certificates of local stability and deal with bounded control inputs without increasing the complexity of the arising optimization problem. We present how to use our approach to obtain a large inner approximation of the true region of attraction around a given trajectory for which it is ensured that all states inside the funnel will reach goal states in a given time period. This property makes it interesting to integrate our approach in a general path or task planning algorithm. We compare our results in simulation with the ones obtained using a state-of-art method based on SoS techniques for a torque controlled simple pendulum and an underactuated double pendulum (Acrobot).
In vivo diffuse reflectance for bone boundary detection in orthopedic surgery

Real-time detection of tissue boundaries in orthopedic surgery could help prevent trauma, severe postoperative complications and reduce the risk of revisions. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is a potential candidate technique to enable tissue and boundary identification with a sufficient look ahead distance to anticipate breach. The aim of this study is to differentiate between four different types of tissue based on results from in vivo measurements.
Parallel Development of Chromatin Patterns, Neuron Morphology, and Connections: Potential for Disruption in Autism

The phenotype of neurons and their connections depend on complex genetic and epigenetic processes that regulate the expression of genes in the nucleus during development and throughout life. Here we examined the distribution of nuclear chromatin patters in relation to the epigenetic landscape, phenotype and connections of neurons with a focus on the primate cerebral cortex. We show that nuclear patterns of chromatin in cortical neurons are related to neuron size and cortical connections. Moreover, we point to evidence that reveals an orderly sequence of events during development, linking chromatin and gene expression patterns, neuron morphology, function, and connections across cortical areas and layers. Based on this synthesis, we posit that systematic studies of changes in chromatin patterns and epigenetic marks across cortical areas will provide novel insights on the development and evolution of cortical networks, and their disruption in connectivity disorders of developmental origin, like autism. Achieving this requires embedding and interpreting genetic, transcriptional, and epigenetic studies within a framework that takes into consideration distinct types of neurons, local circuit interactions, and interareal pathways. These features vary systematically across cortical areas in parallel with laminar structure and are differentially affected in disorders. Finally, based on evidence that autism-associated genetic polymorphisms are especially prominent in excitatory neurons and connectivity disruption affects mostly limbic cortices, we employ this systematic approach to propose novel, targeted studies of projection neurons in limbic areas to elucidate the emergence and time-course of developmental disruptions in autism.