Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional Multi-Armed Bandits With Partial Informativeness

We consider a variant of the classic multi-armed bandit problem where the expected reward of each arm is a function of an unknown parameter. The arms are divided into different groups, each of which has a common parameter. Therefore, when the player selects an arm at each time slot, information of other arms in the same group is also revealed. This regional bandit model naturally bridges the classical non-informative bandit setting where the player can only learn the chosen arm, and the global bandit model where sampling one arm reveals information of all arms. We propose an efficient algorithm, UCB-g, that solves the regional bandit model by combining the Upper Confidence Bound (UCB) and greedy principles. Both parameter-dependent and parameter-free regret upper bounds are derived. We also establish a matching lower bound, which proves the order optimality of UCB-g. Moreover, we propose SW-UCB-g, which is an extension of UCB-g for a non-stationary environment where the parameters vary over time.
A Hybrid Algorithm for Multi-Objective Test Case Selection

Testing is crucial to ensure the quality of software systems-but testing is an expensive process, so test managers try to minimise the set of tests to run to save computing resources and speed up the testing process and analysis. One problem is that there are different perspectives on what is a good test and it is usually not possible to compare these dimensions. This is a perfect example of a multi-objective optimisation problem, which is hard-especially given the scale of the search space here. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid algorithm to address this problem. Our method is composed of three steps: a greedy algorithm to find quickly some good solutions, a genetic algorithm to increase the search space covered and a local search algorithm to refine the solutions. We demonstrate through a large scale empirical evaluation that our method is more reliable (better whatever the time budget) and more robust (better whatever the number of dimensions considered)-in the scenario with 4 objectives and a default execution time, we are 178% better in hypervolume on average than the state-of-the-art algorithms.
A Crosstalk Sensitivity Analysis on Bundles of Twisted Wire Pairs

Uncertainties in the geometry of complex cable bundles highly complicate crosstalk predictions. A change in for instance the position or the twist rate of individual cables in a bundle might have an impact on crosstalk levels. Application of sensitivity analyses can indicate which model parameters are most sensitive, and in which cabling configurations. In this paper, the efficient Stochastic Reduced Order Models (SROM) method is used to perform such a sensitivity analysis. It is applied to two cable bundles with two and seven twisted wire pairs, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to determine the accuracy of the SROM method. The sensitivity of parameters like inter-pair and intra-pair separation distance and the twist rate is determined in two different cases. Moreover, the effects of bundle twist and cable meandering to parameter sensitivities is investigated.
Regulation of dndB Gene Expression in Streptomyces lividans

DNA sulfur modification is a unique modification occurring in the sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA, with a nonbridging oxygen atom substituted with sulfur in a sequence-specific and Rp stereo-specific manner. Bioinformatics, RNA-seq, and in vitro transcriptional analyses have shown that DNA sulfur modification may be involved in epigenetic regulation. However, the in vivo evidence supporting this assertion is not convincing. Here, we aimed to characterize two sulfur-modified sites near the dndB promoter region in Streptomyces lividans. Single mutation of either site had no effect on dndB transcription, whereas double mutation of both sites significantly elevated dndB expression. These findings suggested that DNA sulfur modification affected gene expression, and the role of DNA sulfur modification in epigenetic regulation depended on the number of sulfur-modified sites. We also identified an inverted repeat, the R repeat sequence, and showed that this sequence participated in the positive regulation of dndB gene expression.
Adaptive Control for a Class of Unknown Nonlinear Systems Without Using Function Approximators

This paper is concerned with the problem of universal control for a class of second order nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics. Without utilizing function approximators, a universal adaptive control scheme is developed via backstepping approach, where the system nonlinearities are adaptively compensated at each step. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, it is proven that, for any initial system condition, all the resulting closed loop signals are globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.
Optimal Resource Allocation of Communicating Multi-Agent System Using Genetic Algorithm

The artificial ant problem [1], [2] describes ants searching for food pellets on a grid using limited knowledge of the local environment. We generalize this model by means of a multi-agent system of communicating ants with intelligence evolved from genetic algorithm. The objective is to find the most food pellets with given energy constraint. A smart ant can ignore the broadcast if it has already collected plenty of food locally, but has received few broadcasts from its teammates lately. On the other hand, if an ant cannot find any food locally, yet some of its teammates are sending out a lot of food broadcast elsewhere, then it may be wise to follow the broadcast and escape the current no-food region. We model this decision strategy on the response to broadcast using genetic algorithm and the result shows that the performance of multiple-ant team in fixed-total-energy search is improved. Since total energy consumed by the team of ants is constant, the number of steps per ant used will be smaller for team with more member, we find that there exists optimal number of team members from simulation. The result depends on both the resource allocated to the team and the food distribution. We distribute food uniformly over an annulus of radius r at the rim of a disk with a bigger radius R, where the ants start their search in the center of the disk. This food distribution provides both a control on the average food density, and a density gradient, while avoiding anisotropic food distribution. This provides a first step to model general food distribution for real application.
Single Image Super-Resolution via the Implementation of the Hardware-Friendly Sparse Coding

Sparse representation is one of the effective approaches to perform the feature extraction on the high-dimensional signals and has been widely used in the field of image processing. In this paper, a novel single image super-resolution (SR) reconstruction algorithm based on sparse coding is presented. Specifically, due to the fact that sparse coding has the potential to greatly facilitate the biological-neural system and to deal with a large amount of complex data, while consuming a finite amount of energy, a memristor crossbar array synthesized by a threshold-type memristor model is constructed for the implementation of a hardware-friendly sparse coding method, i.e., the Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA). Meanwhile, the relevant online dictionary learning method is provided, along with the description of weight programming strategy. Furthermore, the specific description of the image SR via the LCA sparse coding is provided. For the verification purpose, a series of experiments are carried out to illustrate the validity and effectiveness of the entire scheme.
Effect of Ni barrier layer thickness on IMCs evolution in Ф5μm Cu/Ni/Sn pillar bumps

Uniform 5μm diameter Cu/Ni/Sn micro-bump array has been fabricated by multilayer electrodeposition, and the effect of Ni barrier thickness (0μm, 0.42μm, 0.67μm, 1.12μm) on microstructure evolution and growth behaviors of Intermetallic Compounds (IMCs) have been studied through SEM and EDS. It has been found that the thicker the Ni layer, the slower the rate of IMCs growth. The diffusion coefficient of Cu/Ni/Sn system with 0μm, 0. 42μm, 1. 12μm Ni is calculated to be 7.46×10<sup>−17</sup>m<sup>2</sup>s<sup>−1</sup>, 5.51×10<sup>−17</sup>m<sup>2</sup>s<sup>−1</sup>, and 1.71×10<sup>−17</sup>m<sup>2</sup>s<sup>−1</sup> for total IMCs, respectively. In the Sn/0. 42μm Ni/Cu system, (Cu,Ni)<inf>6</inf>Sn<inf>5</inf> is formed firstly. After the consumption of Ni layer, the growth behavior of Cu<inf>6</inf>Sn<inf>5</inf> and Cu<inf>3</inf>Sn is similar to that of the Sn/Cu system; In the Sn/1. 12μm Ni/Cu system, 1. 12μm Ni barrier layer can form Ni3Sn4 preventing Cu atoms from diffusing into Sn phase and there is almost no formation of (Cu,Ni)<inf>6</inf>Sn<inf>5</inf>.
Broadband Full-Duplex Monostatic Circular-Antenna Arrays: Circular Arrays Reaching Simultaneous Transmit and Receive Operation

Broadband copolarized monostatic circular-antenna arrays based on mode orthogonality principles are presented for in-band full-duplex (FD) applications. The simultaneous excitation of circular phase modes in a circular array with four elements provides ideally infinite isolation. However, once the realistic beamformer network (BFN) is used, the isolation between the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) is reduced and becomes bound by the internal leakages. To mitigate the undesired leakages, two possible configurations are demonstrated: 1) a single-layer (SL) circular array excited simultaneously with mode 1 (M1) at the Tx and mixed modes at the Rx, and 2) a dual-layer (DL) circular array excited with M1 at the Tx and mode 0 (M0) at the Rx. The arrays are prototyped, in which each SL array is made of four broadband monocone antennas. A measured voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) &lt;2 and average isolation of 45 dB for a SL array more than at least an octave bandwidth, and 35 dB from 0.8 to 1.3 GHz and 45 dB more than 1.3 GHz for the DL array are obtained. A simple isolation enhancement layer is integrated with the shared BFN to recover from the imbalances and asymmetric leakages with an isolation improvement of up to 50 dB more than a 2.8-MHz tuneable bandwidth. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is used to quantify the similarity between circular Tx/Rx array modes, and the ECC &gt;0.6 for M1 Tx/mixed-modes Rx and &gt;0.75 for M1 Tx/M0 Rx are achieved.
Minimax Lower Bounds for H∞-Norm Estimation

The problem of estimating the $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ -norm of an LTI system from noisy input/output measurements has attracted recent attention as an alternative to parameter identification for bounding unmodeled dynamics in robust control. In this paper, we study lower bounds for $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ -norm estimation under a query model where at each iteration the algorithm chooses a bounded input signal and receives the response of the chosen signal corrupted by white noise. We prove that when the underlying system is an FIR filter, $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ -norm estimation is no more efficient than model identification for passive sampling. For active sampling, we show that norm estimation is at most a factor of log $r$ more sample efficient than model identification, where $r$ is the length of the filter. We complement our theoretical results with experiments which demonstrate that a simple nonadaptive estimator of the norm is competitive with state-of-the-art adaptive norm estimation algorithms.
A Quantum Audio Watermarking Scheme

The study presented in this work explores the implementation of a watermarking scheme for quantum audio signals based on quantum Discrete Cosine Transformation (qDCT). The qDCT transforms the quantum host audio signal which is encoded as an FRQA (flexible representation of quantum audio) content from time domain to frequency domain and manipulates or modifies the high-frequency positions to embed the quantum watermark audio information into it. The strong energy compaction property of DCT is utilized in this scheme, i.e. after the DCT process to a digital audio, most of the signal information tends to be concentrated in a few low-frequency components and its high-frequency components could record some extra information like watermark audio. Built on the circuit model of quantum computation, the circuit networks to execute the embedding and extraction procedures of qDCT-based watermarking algorithm are designed and simulation-based experiments are conducted to demonstrate their implementation.
Overview of Electric Vehicle Machines - From Tesla to Tesla, and Beyond

Starting from the rotating magnetic field theory developed by Nikola Tesla in 1882, the induction machine has become the most popular electric machine for over a century. Actually, the Tesla's AC Induction Motor is dubbed one of the ten greatest discoveries of all time. This popularity has been extended to the latest Tesla Motors which has set a new world speed record for production electric vehicles (EVs). Meanwhile, the permanent-magnet (PM) brushless machines are superseding the induction machine because of their high efficiency and high power density. In order to fulfill the ever increasing demand on electric propulsion, innovation of electric machines accelerates. For instance, the stator-PM machines combine the merits of both PM brushless and switched-reluctance machines to offer energy-efficient robust operation; the vernier PM in-wheel machines incorporate the vernier effect into the PM brushless machines to provide low-speed high-torque direct-drive operation; and the advanced magnetless machines adopt innovative topologies to compensate the reduction of torque and power densities due to the absence of PM material. Increasingly, the development of electric machines has been expanded to incorporate the heat engine for hybrid propulsion. Rather than using the planetary-geared machine system to perform power split for electronic continuously variable transmission (ECVT), the double-rotor machine system is developed to achieve gearless ECVT, and the magnetic-geared machine system is proposed to achieve ECVT without physical gearing or brushes. In this paper, various electric machines and machine systems for electric and hybrid vehicles will be discussed, with emphasis on the challenges and opportunities of those emerging machine topologies.
Vertical Channel GaN Field Effect Transistor Without Junction for High Power Application

In this paper, we proposed a vertical channel GaN FET without junctions particularly suitable for power application. It offers less fabrication complexity and cost with enhanced device characteristics as compared to the referenced device. GaN vertical channel junction field effect transistor (VC-JFET) of equal dimension and doping concentrations is considered as the reference device. A comprehensive simulation study of parameter variation on proposed device characteristics has been performed and studied. The study envisaged the impact of lateral and vertical dimensions and doping on various device characteristics like current, ON resistance ($R_{ON}$), breakdown voltage, trans-conductance (gm), capacitance, and unity gain frequency $(f_{T})$. The obtained results and their effect on device characteristics have been thoroughly analyzed.
An Analog CMOS Silicon Photomultiplier Using Perimeter-Gated Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes

Perimeter-gated single-photon avalanche diodes (PGSPADs) have been shown to mitigate premature edge breakdown without unduly increasing the area of the device. PGSPADs are three terminal devices. In this paper, we develop a probability-based SPICE model for the PGSPAD and fully characterize an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$18 \times 18$ </tex-math></inline-formula> pixel analog PGSPAD-based CMOS silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). The noise model is derived using theories of carrier thermal generation, carrier diffusion, and inter-band tunneling. Parameters are derived using fabricated PGSPAD devices and model validity is verified with experimental measurements. The designed PGSPAD SiPM is implemented in standard <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.5~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 2-poly, 3-metal CMOS process, and is characterized for dark current, sensitivity, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) throughout the visible spectral range for varying bias voltages. Models show that the reduction of dark events in the PGPSAD is primarily caused by a reduction in band-to-band tunneling. Thus, as a function of the applied gate voltage the PGPSAD shows an improvement of SNR over a range of 1 to 1150. The sensitivity of the presented SiPM is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.06 \times 10^{3}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> A/W/cm<sup>2</sup>. The designed PGSPAD SiPM shows great promise over standard SiPM for applications, such as neutron detection which requires high sensitivities and high SNRs.
Prognostic Value of White Blood Cells Detected for the First Time After Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Primary Operable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Objective: To investigate the prognostic value of white blood cells detected for the first time after adjuvant chemotherapy in primary operable non-small cell lung cancer. Methods: From January 2010 to May 2016, data from 208 patients who underwent surgery for non-small cell lung cancer were retrospectively analyzed. Results: A white blood cell count detected for the first time after adjuvant chemotherapy greater than 7.00 was an independent predictor of poor disease-free survival (Hazard ratio: 1.736, 95% confidence interval: 1.267-2.378; P = .001) and overall survival (Hazard ratio: 1.802, 95% confidence interval: 1.305-2.471; P = .000). In a further study, after myelosuppression, survival analysis indicated that the patients with white blood cell counts <2.5 had poorer survival than patients with blood cell counts 2.5 to 4.0, P = . 031. When the analysis was stratified by the type of histology, patients with a white blood cell count >7.00 and increased white blood cell after chemotherapy compared to pretreatment had a poorer prognosis than patients with white blood cell ≤7.00 and no increase in white blood cell, P = . 000 and P = . 002, respectively. We further evaluated the prognosis of the 2 groups in different levels of white blood cell. In the group of patients with white blood cell ≤4.0, patients with chemotherapy cycles ≤2, and >2 showed no differences (Hazard ratio: 2.346, 95% confidence interval: 0.288-19.073, P = .425). In the group of patients with white blood cell of 4.0 to 7.0, the prognosis of patients with chemotherapy cycles ≤2 and patients with chemotherapy cycles >2 showed no difference (Hazard ratio: 0.560, 95% confidence interval: 0.248-1.261, P = .161). In the group of patients with white blood cell >7.0, patients with >2 chemotherapy cycles had a better prognosis than patients with chemotherapy cycles ≤2 (Hazard ratio: 0.573, 95% confidence interval: 0.338-0.971, P = .037) Conclusions: The level of white blood cells detected for the first time after adjuvant chemotherapy is an independent risk factor for non-small cell lung cancer, especially for patients with nonadenocarcinoma. In addition, the level of white blood cells after postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and its change compared with pretreatment might also provide useful information regarding the best choice of cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy.
Siamese Network with Deconvolution for Matching Cost Computation

An efficient Siamese network (SiaNet) with deconvolution is proposed for matching cost computation of the stereo estimation. The architecture of such a proposed SiaNet with deconvolution which is established by learning a similarity measure on small image patches, is a multi-class classification with the classes corresponding to all possible disparities. By adding some deconvolution layers, the architecture of our SiaNet can obtain a larger receptive field as a greater descriptor for the output of network branches. Then, a new loss function based on cross-entropy is developed by taking all the pixels in the receptive field with the corresponding ground-truth patch into account. As such, the performance can be effectively improved by considering the more information of the input patches. Finally, some experiments for matching network on the KITTI 2012 and KITTI 2015 are utilized to demonstrate the validity of the proposed SiaNet with deconvolution.
From Amazonia to southern Africa: atmospheric moisture transport through low‐level jets and atmospheric rivers

A Lagrangian analysis is applied to identify the main moisture source areas associated with atmospheric rivers (ARs) making landfall along the west coast of South Africa during the extended austral winter months from 1980 to 2014. The results show that areas that provide the anomalous uptake of moisture can be categorized into four regions: (1) the South Atlantic Ocean between 10°S and 30°S, (2) a clear local maximum in the eastern South Atlantic, (3) a continental source of anomalous uptake to the north of the Western Cape, and (4) over South America at a distance of more than 7000 km from the target region. It emerges that the South American moisture source can be linked to a particular phase of the South American low‐level jet, known as a no Chaco jet event (NCJE), which transports moisture to the western and central South Atlantic basin. Concisely, we provide strong evidence that the two margins of the South Atlantic Ocean appear connected by two meteorological structures, with the NCJE playing a key role of transporting moisture from South America to the western and central South Atlantic basin, feeding the AR that transports some of the moisture to the west coast of South Africa.
Summary of Medical Robot Technology Development

In the past few decades, medical robots have developed rapidly. In this paper, medical robots are divided into the following categories based on the application of medical robots: neurosurgery robots, orthopedic robots, endoscopic surgery robots, instrutive robots, rehabilitation-assisted robots and capsule robots. The research and application status of typical surgical robots at home and abroad are briefly introduced, and medical 3D image modeling, virtual surgery simulation, open-source surgical systems, and remote surgery in complex environments involved in medical robots are studied. Key technologies were discussed, and the future direction of medical robots was pointed out.
Practical Parameters for Somewhat Homomorphic Encryption Schemes on Binary Circuits

Post-quantum cryptography gets increasing attention lately, as we have to prepare alternative cryptographic solutions that will resist attacks from quantum computers. A very large effort is being done to replace the usual primitives such as encryption, signature or authentication. This effort also pulls new cryptographic features such as Somewhat or Fully Homomorphic Encryption schemes, based on lattices. Since their introduction in 2009, lots of the burden has been overcome and real applications now become possible. However many papers suffer from the fast constant pace of evolution on the attack side, so their parameter analysis is usually incomplete or obsolete. In this work we present a thorough study of two schemes that have proven their worth: FV and SHIELD, providing a deep analysis of how to setup and size their parameters, to ensure both correctness and security. Our overall aim is to provide easy-to-use guidelines for implementation purposes.