Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Potential of Seated and Standing Short Duration Casual Exergames to Increase Positive Affect

Decreasing sedentary behavior and taking active short duration breaks offers several positive benefits for office workers. One way to encourage active short duration breaks in an office environment is through the use of casual exergames. Previous research has shown that casual exergames offer benefits in terms of enjoyment, exertion, and increased positive affect. However, little is known about whether this holds true for short duration (e.g., 2 minutes) casual exergames and if seated compared to standing gameplay offers similar benefits. Through a quasi-experimental within-subjects design we investigated whether positive affect differs before and after short duration casual exergaming for seated and standing positions, and if seated compared to standing short duration casual exergaming differs in terms of positive affect, perceived exertion, enjoyment, and performance. The main results showed that short duration casual exergaming increased positive affect significantly for both standing and seated gameplay and that there were no differences between seated and standing gameplay in terms of positive affect, perceived exertion, enjoyment, and performance.
Cognitive Perception as a Base Model of the Feeling Artificial Intelligence

The need for more advanced Unmanned Systems (US) is supported by the development trends of world society. Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays an important role in maintaining the required level of US autonomy. AI-enabled US developers are focusing on the creation of the third generation of AI namely Feeling AI (FAI) for Autonomous Intelligent US (AIUS). One of the components of the FAI is a Cognitive Perception (CP) model, which overcomes the gap between the two paradigms "data from sensors" and "natural words", which was and is the main problem for the deployment of AIUS. The CP model considered in the work takes into account such cognitive processes as the mapping of data from sensors in iconic memory and its further processing in short-term memory by generalizing and abstracting in order to distill the sense of sensor data and represent it in the form of concepts. An important feature of cognitive perception is the sustainable aging of information and its forgetting over time. The article considers an algorithm that implements a model of cognitive perception with an aging mechanism. The results of computer experiments in which a wheeled warehouse robot was used as an AIUS showed that by adjusting the aging rate coefficients included in the CP model in accordance with the dynamic characteristics of the environment, it is possible to minimize the risks of violating the autonomy of the AIUS when making decisions in conditions of incomplete information.
Vulnerabilities of Mediated Embodiment: Towards Unmasking Security and Privacy Risks of Ability-Mediating Wearables

Wearables designed to mediate user perception and/or action present specific challenges regarding the security and privacy of their users. The objective of this position paper is to raise awareness about the potential threats that arise when mediating user perception and action through technology that draws from wearable computing, ambient intelligence, and virtual and augmented reality environments. As the boundaries between these areas of computing become increasingly blurred, security and privacy threats escalate. Consequently, it is crucial to start examining the potential risks associated with wearable systems that provide highly personal, embodied, and intimate experiences taking place on the user’s body or experiences that are integrated with the body.
Realizing Linear Controllers for Quadruped Robots on Planetary Terrains

Until now, planetary exploration has been accomplished with whee-led vehicles, making movement in highly complex, sandy, and sloping terrain incredibly tough. On the other hand, legged robots have come a long way in the last decade and have reached a stage of development where practical applications appear to be possible. To collect critical scientific data, legged robots can overcome wheeled vehicles’ difficulties when exploring harsh environments like impact craters. As a result, there is a need to develop simple, stable walking controllers given the limited power resources and reserve maximum onboard computing for scientific equipment while exploring such regions. This work proposes a walking controller for legged robots that is computationally efficient at runtime for traversing planetary terrains. We implement this walking controller on our custom-built quadruped, using learned linear feedback policies that modulate the end-foot trajectories. The proposed walking controller can traverse various planetary terrains such as flat, sloped, rugged, loose, and lower-than-Earth gravity conditions in simulation environments. Our controller outperforms the baseline open-loop controller on planetary landscapes by reducing slippage and increasing stability. We have also provided preliminary hardware testing results of our controller. In addition, video results can be found at: https://youtu.be/La3y-xhWm1U
A Novel Control Strategy for Stance Stability of a Quadruped Robot against external disturbance

The stability of a quadruped robot under unforeseen external disturbances has been an exciting area among researchers for a long time. The complexity of quadruped locomotion makes this problem difficult. This paper represents a novel optimized control strategy to achieve the stance stability of a quadruped against external disturbance. The proposed methodology utilizes the well-known concept of Centroidal Dynamics and Momentum Jacobian matrix (MJM) to attain stability against external disturbances. The novelty of the current work lies in the optimization framework of the control problem of quadruped stability that utilizes eigenvalue analysis. A new term called ‘Effective Disturbance Ratio (EDR)’ is introduced to show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology compared to the ones available in the literature. The control law is tested on a quadruped standing on a flat surface and an inclined plane. In the results, the Centre of Mass (CoM) motions upon external disturbances are plotted to show the significance of the proposed methodology.
Efficient Area Coverage with Optimal Morphologies of Reconfigurable Smorphi Robot

The use of reconfigurable robots for cleaning is ideal due to their versatility and ability to adapt to the environment. However, frequent shape changes consume a lot of energy, limiting the battery life. This paper presents a framework that uses metaheuristic algorithms to determine the optimal shape of the robot to maximize coverage and minimize energy consumption. The approach uses Speed constrained multi-objective particle swarm optimization (SMPSO) and Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm2 (SPEA2) to generate the optimal shapes out of high number of possible morphologies for a given area and its map layout. The unique feature of this approach is the implementation of footprint-based path planning that can be used for all robot configurations. The effectiveness of the framework is demonstrated using a Tetris-inspired robot named Smorphi. The results show that the proposed framework is suitable for selecting optimal energy-efficient morphology of the Tetris inspired reconfigurable robot for area coverage task.
Asymptotic methods for queueing systems and networks with application to telecommunications

This dissertation is concerned with the study of non-Markovian queueing systems and networks, with applications to communication networks. The main contribution of the dissertation consists in deriving results for non-Markovian networks that have been obtained so far only for Markovian queueing networks. We study large closed client/server communication networks and losses in single-server queueing systems, with an application to communication networks of loss queues. We apply stochastic calculus and the theory of martingales to the case when one of the client stations is a bottleneck in the limit, where the total number of tasks in the server increases to infinity. The main results of this study are (i) an explicit expression for the interrelation between the limiting non-stationary distributions in non-bottleneck client stations; thus when one distribution is found in a simulation, the others can be computed; (ii) derivation of diffusion and fluid approximations for the non-Markovian queue length in the bottleneck client station. For the loss networks considered, we find an asymptotic expression for the loss probability and other performance measures, as buffer capacity increases to infinity. We also find the changes in the loss probability when redundant packets are added to the messages. The application of martingale methods for the study of the asymptotic behavior of non-Markovian queueing systems seems to be new.
Algorithms for NP-Hard problems related to strings and for approximate pattern matching and repeats

This thesis has two main topics. The first one is design and analysis of approximation algorithms for NP-hard problems that are related to strings. The second topic is algorithms that are related to approximate pattern matching. The first part is about the traveling salesperson problem on directed graphs (ATSP) and the shortest common superstring problem. We give approximation algorithms for several variants of the traveling salesperson problem on directed graphs, with better approximation ratios than what was previously known. We assume that we have a complete directed graph with non-negative weights w(u, v) assigned to the arcs (u, v). We say that the edges satisfy the triangle inequality, if for every u, v and z, w(u, v) ≤ w(u, z)+w(z, v). In the minimum ATSP, we assume that the edge weights satisfy the triangle inequality, and the problem is to find a closed tour, visiting each vertex exactly once, of minimum weight. We give a 0.842 log2 n-approximation algorithm for this problem. In maximum asymmetric TSP, the problem is to find a closed tour visiting each vertex exactly once of maximum weight. We give a 2/3-approximation algorithm for maximum ATSP with general non-negative edge weights, and a 10/13-approximation algorithm for maximum ATSP when the edge weights satisfy the triangle inequality. The shortest common superstring problem is defined as follows. The input is a set S = s1, · · · , sn of strings and we seek the shortest possible string s such that every string in S is a (contiguous) substring of s. This problem is known to be NP-hard and even MAX-SNP hard. Using a known reduction from the shortest superstring problem to maximum asymmetric TSP, our approximation algorithm for maximum ATSP yields a 2.5approximation algorithm for the shortest common superstring problem, which matches the best approximation ratio known for the problem with a simpler algorithm. We also analyze the simple greedy algorithm for this problem and show that its approximation ratio is 3.5. This improves upon the previously known approximation ratio of 4. Another NP-Hard problem that we address is edit distance with block moves. The problem is defined as follows. Given two strings S and T , where |S| + |T | = n, find the minimum number of insert character, delete character, and move substring operations required to transform the string S into the string T . We give a lower bound of Ω(n) on the approximation ratio of a greedy algorithm for the problem. The second topic of this thesis is approximate pattern matching and approximate re-
From Pixels to Generalization: Ensuring Information Security and Model Performance with Design Principles for Synthetic Image Data in Deep Learning

This paper explores the ethical and effective utilization of synthetic image data in computer vision deep learning. It addresses the challenges of acquiring real-world training data and proposes design principles for selecting, generating, and integrating synthetic images. These principles cover aspects such as ethical compliance, privacy protection, scene diversity, and complexity management. By adopting a design science research approach and using a multi-method research design, the study provides actionable guidance for researchers and practitioners, as these design principles ensure responsible use of synthetic image data while improving model performance and privacy protection. The paper contributes to design knowledge in the general IS, deep learning, and IS ethics field, highlighting the theoretical and practical relevance of the proposed principles. The reusability of the design principles promotes the efficient use of synthetic image data in computer vision and has been positively evaluated.
Análise comparativa entre linguagens de programação em sistemas embarcados móveis Android

Com o surgimento de dispositivos móveis de poder computacional cada vez maior, novas linguagens de programação também surgem de modo a dar suporte ao desenvolvimento de sistemas cada vez mais complexos que atendam aos desafios crescentes do mercado e às necessidades dos usuários. Cada linguagem de programação possui características específicas e a escolha da mais adequada depende de um conjunto de fatores associados aos requisitos do projeto a ser implementado, bem como à plataforma em que será executado. Neste trabalho foi investigado o desempenho de smartphones, que são considerados sistemas embarcados móveis devido possuírem configuração específica de hardware e software, em relação ao tempo de execução e aos consumos de energia e de memória, na execução de aplicativos móveis Android desenvolvidos em linguagens de programação clássicas, sendo C, C++, Java, Python, e também Kotlin, uma das linguagens oficiais do Android e Google, recentemente proposta e ainda pouco investigada, através de códigos abertos de algoritmos de benchmark multilinguagem.
Algorithmic infrastructure for the prediction of structure and motion in transmembrane proteins

Introduction Manuscripts Assigning transmembrane segments to helices in intermediate-resolution M1 structures Quasi-symmetry in the cryo-EM structure of EmrE provides the key to M2 modeling its transmembrane domain Prediction and simulation of motion in pairs of transmembrane α-helices M3 Generation, comparison and merging of pathways between protein M4 conformations: Gating in K-channels Rapid sampling of molecular motions with prior information constrains M5 Discussion Hebrew Introduction Hebrew Abstract
Intermittent Control: Stability and performance analysis of intermittent threshold functions for unstable systems

Intermittent control is widely used in various robotic applications and a variety of literature is available on the same. An intermittent control strategy monitors variables of interest continuously and takes corrective action intermittently when variables exceed threshold criteria. The threshold functions evaluated are mostly complex, though simple functions using logical operations on state variables are not much explored. In this paper, we study performance of intermittent control with different threshold functions on state variables in 1-DOF and 2 DOF robotic systems. The performance analysis is conducted using the controller efforts measurement and the stability is evaluated with the phase-plane analysis. We find that in the SIP system, functions with both the logic operations are stable in state-space and the function with the OR operator is more performance efficient than the AND operator. Similar results are found in the RDIP system with the bounds on the states being very low to reduce the controller efforts.
VISION BASED DEPARTURE WARNING FOR LANE KEEPING ASSISTANCE SYSTEM

The increasing amount of vehicle usage leads in traffic accidents and most lane departure crashes occur especially on high-way roads due to driver’s inattention or incompetence or drowsiness. Therefore lane keeping assistance system is needed to save the considerable number of lives by warning the driver from imminent danger. Reducing the possibility of traffic accident occurrence is important for both developed and developing country. Moreover, lane departure warning is one of the most interesting parts in traffic safety system which still needs to develop. Most systems are based on computer vision and image processing with the use of visible-light cameras. Therefore, vision based image processing techniques are used in implementation of the system. This system is aimed to alerts the driver when the vehicle begins to drift out of its lane markings and road edges. In this system lanes are detected using improved Hough Transfrom. By testing with different datasets under various road conditions, results show that the proposed system has accuracy more than 99% on straight lanes.
A YOLO-Deep Learning Algorithm for Improved Detection of Cell Phone Usage in Restricted Places

- Due to the close relationship of object detection with video analysis and image perception, it has gained a great deal of momentum in research over the years. In computer vision, detecting human-object interactions is a fundamental problem because it provides semantic information about the interactions between detected objects. To process an extensive amount information from the video data, a deep learning framework using YOLOv3 and YOLOv4 for the problem of human-object interaction detection is used. Real life scenarios containing human activities (using cell phone) recorded via camera can be addressed via static images, videos, real-time webcam, and real-time CCTV surveillance. All these possible dimensions have been covered in this paper along with the count of mobile phone users. The use of mobile phone action recognition in prohibited areas has been addressed by the detection of objects predicted by the bounding box. Two public datasets, HICO-DET and MS-COCO are used for the training and evaluation of the model. Experimental results and analysis are produced to compare the YOLOv3 and YOLOv4 algorithms before and after applying 4k cross-validation. Since, YOLOv4 is an improvement on the YOLOv3 algorithm, it requires high end machine with GPU where as YOLOv3 is compatible with commonly available machine. Therefore, we have compared our results of commonly available machine and for a dedicated machine. The results indicated that the performance of YOLOv4 is far better than that of YOLOv3. The limitations of the existing framework and some improvements on it are suggested in this research paper.
Does Duration of Residency and Prior Experience Affect Impacts, Evacuation, and Adaptation Behavior Among Survivors?

This study explores the extent to which people’s prior experience of a natural disaster influenced subsequent behavior concerning the threats of a hydrometeorological disaster and if duration of residency in a disaster-prone landscape affects the extent of preparedness for an impending disaster. Mixed methods research strategies involving survey, field observation, and participant observations at several locations including rescue and evacuation centers in New Orleans, Louisiana, Austin, Texas, and Lawrenceville, Georgia, were used, during the immediate impact phase, emergency shelter phase, and postimpact and recovery phase of Katrina catastrophe. For the survey, a sample of 598 subjects completed a 15-page, 54-item questionnaire addressing various aspects of the Katrina flood in the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. The qualitative aspect consists of field observations of the event, interviews, and direct comments by the victims dispersed across the South. In the regression analysis performed, prior experience was found to be less important than friends’ and family members’ influence in determining evacuation behavior. However, duration of residency and prior experience were found to be slightly significant in predicting the odds of evacuation.
Enigmatic tsunami waves ampliﬁed by repetitive source events in the southwest of Torishima Island, Japan

On 9 October 2023 (JST), mysterious tsunamis with a maximum wave height of 60 cm were observed in Izu Islands and southwestern Japan, although only seismic events of body-wave magnitudes mb 4–5 have been documented in the southwest of Torishima Island. To investigate the source process, we analyze tsunami waveforms recorded by an array network of ocean-bottom pressure gauges. A stacked waveform of 16 records suggests recurrent arrivals of multiple wave trains. Deconvolution of the stacked waveform by a tsunami waveform from the ﬁrst event revealed over 10 source events that intermittently generated tsunamis for ˜1.5 hours. The temporal history of this sequence corresponds to the origin times of T-phases estimated by an ocean-bottom seismometer, and the mb 4–5 seismic swarm, implying a common origin. Larger events later in the sequence
Detection and Identification of Bovine Tuberculosis in Indian Cattle ( Bos indicus )

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle is a serious zoonotic disease of worldwide distribution. Bovine tuberculosis is increasingly prevalent among farmed cattle in India, exerting a heavy economic burden on the farming industry and Government. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in Indian cattle ( Bos indicus ), based on Post-mortem, Ziehl-Neelsen, Mycobacterial culture and ELISA. In post-mortem were found eight positive samples, twelve negative samples and three doubtful samples. With the help of Ziehl-Neelsen technique fifteen cattle sample were screened, seven positive samples, six negative samples and two doubtful samples. Thirty two cattle sample were identified based on mycobacterial culture, eleven positive samples, fourteen negative samples and seven doubtful samples. Sixteen positive samples, thirteen negative samples and thirty one doubtful samples were detected in ELISA test with M. bovis standard positive and control serum sample. The study found a high infection rate of bTB among cattle and majority of the lesions were found on lungs. We conclude that different laboratory testing requires the combination of a set of available diagnostic tools for better sensitivity and specificity of results.
Late Jurassic Age of the Santiago Peak Volcanics, California

The structurally complex, prebatholithic strata in western San Diego County consist primarily of metamorphosed volcanic and volcanically derived sedimentary rocks. M. A. Hanna (1926) designated this unit “Black Mountain Volcanics” and proposed a late Triassic to Jurassic age. Because prior usage invalidated the name “Black Mountain Volcanics,” E. S. Larsen, Jr. (1948) substituted “Santiago Peak Volcanics” and attributed the unit to the Jurassic Period. Neither Hanna nor Larsen reported any fossils. The metavolcanic rocks are interbedded with argillite, graywacke, and slate, which were found to contain marine fossils at three localities. The fossils include Buchia piochii, belemnoids, and a few unidentifiable forms. The presence of Buchia piochii is indicative of a late Jurassic (Portlandian) age. Therefore, the interbedded sedimentary rocks indicate a Portlandian age for the more characteristic volcanic rocks of the Santiago Peak Volcanics.