title: A pattern recognition approach to voiced-unvoiced-silence classification with applications to speech recognition

text: Absb-act—In speech analysis, the voiced-unvoiced decision is usually performed in conjunction with pitch analysis. The linking of voiced-unvoiced (V-UV) decision to pitch analysis not only results in unnecessary complexity, but makes it difficult to classify short speech segments which are less than a few pitch periods in duration. In this paper, we describe a pattern recognition approach for deciding whether a given segment of a speech signal should be classified as voiced speech, un-voiced speech, or silence, based on measurements made on the signal. In this method, five different measurements axe made on the speech segment to be classified. The measured parameters are the zero-crossing rate, the speech energy, the correlation between adjacent speech samples, the first predictor coefficient from a 12-pole linear predictive coding (LPC) analysis, and the energy in the prediction error. The speech segment is assigned to a particular class based on a minimum-distance rule obtained under the assumption that the measured parameters are distributed according to the multidimensional Gaussian probability density function. The means and covariances for the Gaussian distribution are determined from manually classified speech data included in a training set. The method has been found to provide reliable classification with speech segments as short as 10 ms and has been used for both speech analysis-synthesis and recognition applications. A simple nonlinear smoothing algorithm is described to provide a smooth 3-level contour of an utterance for use in speech recognition applications. Quantitative results and several examples illustrating the performance of the methOd are included in the paper.


title: Feudal Multi-Agent Hierarchies for Cooperative Reinforcement Learning

text: We investigate how reinforcement learning agents can learn to cooperate. Drawing inspiration from human societies, in which successful coordination of many individuals is often facilitated by hierarchical organisation, we introduce Feudal Multiagent Hierarchies (FMH). In this framework, a ‘manager’ agent, which is tasked with maximising the environmentally-determined reward function, learns to communicate subgoals to multiple, simultaneously-operating, ‘worker’ agents. Workers, which are rewarded for achieving managerial subgoals, take concurrent actions in the world. We outline the structure of FMH and demonstrate its potential for decentralised learning and control. We find that, given an adequate set of subgoals from which to choose, FMH performs, and particularly scales, substantially better than cooperative approaches that use a shared reward function.


title: Feature Selection with Linked Data in Social Media

text: Feature selection is widely used in preparing highdimensional data for effective data mining. Increasingly popular social media data presents new challenges to feature selection. Social media data consists of (1) traditional high-dimensional, attribute-value data such as posts, tweets, comments, and images, and (2) linked data that describes the relationships between social media users as well as who post the posts, etc. The nature of social media also determines that its data is massive, noisy, and incomplete, which exacerbates the already challenging problem of feature selection. In this paper, we illustrate the differences between attributevalue data and social media data, investigate if linked data can be exploited in a new feature selection framework by taking advantage of social science theories, extensively evaluate the effects of user-user and user-post relationships manifested in linked data on feature selection, and discuss some research issues for future work.


title: River flow estimation using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system

text: Accurate estimation of River flow changes is a quite important problem for a wise and sustainable use. Such a problem is crucial to the works and decisions related to the water resources and management. In this study, an adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach was used to construct a River flow forecasting system. In particular, the applicability of ANFIS as an estimation model for River flow was investigated. To illustrate the applicability and capability of the ANFIS, the River Great Menderes, located the west of Turkey and the most important water resource of Great Menderes Catchment’s, was chosen as a case study area. The advantage of this method is that it uses the input–output data sets. Totally 5844 daily data sets collected in 1985–2000 years were used to estimate the River flow. The models having various input structures were constructed and the best structure was investigated. In addition four various training/testing data sets were constructed by cross validation methods and the best data set was investigated. The performance of the ANFIS models in training and testing sets were compared with the observations and also evaluated. The results indicated that the ANFIS can be applied successfully and provide high accuracy and reliability for River flow estimation. © 2006 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


title: CASIA@V2: A MLN-based Question Answering System over Linked Data

text: We present a question answering system (CASIA@V2) over Linked Data (DBpedia), which translates natural language questions into structured queries automatically. Existing systems usually adopt a pipeline framework, which contains four major steps: 1) Decomposing the question and detecting candidate phrases; 2) mapping the detected phrases into semantic items of Linked Data; 3) grouping the mapped semantic items into semantic triples; and 4) generating the rightful SPARQL query. We present a jointly learning framework using Markov Logic Network(MLN) for phrase detection, phrases mapping to semantic items and semantic items grouping. We formulate the knowledge for resolving the ambiguities in three steps of QALD as first-order logic clauses in a MLN. We evaluate our approach on QALD-4 test dataset and achieve an F-measure score of 0.36, an average precision of 0.32 and an average recall of 0.40 over 50 questions.


title: Offset Reduction of CMOS Based DynamicComparator by using Charge Storage Techniques- A Comparative Study

text: Comparator is one of the most widely used building block for analog and mixed signal systems. For the implementation of high-performance CMOS A/D converters, low offset comparators are essential. In this paper, dynamic comparator offset is calculated to the extent of high accuracy. The offset so calculated has been reduced by the charge storage techniques to achieve an efficient design. In addition to the offset, propagation delay and power dissipation, being the important parameter of the comparator, has been analyzed. It is observed that offset voltage in the comparator has been reduced to 350μV for output offset storage technique and 400μV for input offset storage techniques from 91mV. In this paper, BPTM model has been used in analyze the dynamic comparator. KeywordsDynamic comparator, offset voltage, storage capacitor, input offset storage, output offset storage.


title: Super-resolution through neighbor embedding

text: In this paper, we propose a novel method for solving single-image super-resolution problems. Given a low-resolution image as input, we recover its high-resolution counterpart using a set of training examples. While this formulation resembles other learning-based methods for super-resolution, our method has been inspired by recent manifold teaming methods, particularly locally linear embedding (LLE). Specifically, small image patches in the lowand high-resolution images form manifolds with similar local geometry in two distinct feature spaces. As in LLE, local geometry is characterized by how a feature vector corresponding to a patch can be reconstructed by its neighbors in the feature space. Besides using the training image pairs to estimate the high-resolution embedding, we also enforce local compatibility and smoothness constraints between patches in the target high-resolution image through overlapping. Experiments show that our method is very flexible and gives good empirical results.


title: Example-Based Super-Resolution

text: Image-based models for computer graphics lack resolution independence: they cannot be zoomed much beyond the pixel resolution they were sampled at without a degradation of quality. Interpolating images usually results in a blurring of edges and image details. We describe image interpolation algorithms which use a database of training images to create plausible high-frequency details in zoomed images. Image pre-processing steps allow the use of image detail from regions of the training images which may look quite di erent from the image to be processed. These methods preserve ne details, such as edges, generate believable textures, and can give good results even after zooming multiple octaves. This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonpro t educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America. All rights reserved. Copyright c Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America, 2001 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 1. First printing, TR2001-30, August, 2001. Egon Pasztor's present address: MIT Media Lab 20 Ames St. Cambridge, MA 02139 Example-based Super-resolution William T. Freeman, Thouis R. Jones, Egon C. Pasztor MitsubishiElectricResearchLaboratories(MERL) 201Broadway Cambridge,MA 02139 (a) (b) Figure 1: An object modelledby traditionalpolygon techniques may lack someof the richnessof real-world objects,but behaves properlyunderzooming,(b).


Journey to Data Quality


title: Mediating intimacy: designing technologies to support strong-tie relationships

text: Intimacy is a crucial element of domestic life, and many interactive technologies designed for other purposes have been appropriated for use within intimate relationships. However, there is a deficit in current understandings of how technologies are used within intimate relationships, and how to design technologies to support intimate acts. In this paper we report on work that has addressed these deficits. We used cultural probes and contextual interviews and other ethnographically informed techniques to investigate how interactive technologies are used within intimate relationships. From this empirical work we generated a thematic understanding of intimacy and the use of interactional technologies to support intimate acts. We used this understanding to inform the design of intimate technologies. A selection of our design concepts is also presented.


title: The dynamics of innovation : from National Systems and ‘ ‘ Mode 2 ’ ’ to a Triple Helix of university – industry – government relations

text: The Triple Helix of university–industry–government relations is compared with alternative models for explaining the current research system in its social contexts. Communications and negotiations between institutional partners generate an overlay that increasingly reorganizes the underlying arrangements. The institutional layer can be considered as the retention mechanism of a developing system. For example, the national organization of the system of innovation has historically been important in determining competition. Reorganizations across industrial sectors and nation states, however, are induced by Ž . Ž . new technologies biotechnology, ICT . The consequent transformations can be analyzed in terms of neoevolutionary mechanisms. University research may function increasingly as a locus in the ‘‘laboratory’’ of such knowledge-intensive network transitions. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


title: Text and Object Detection on Billboards

text: To captivate people’s attention in a blink of an eye, a billboard as a commercial advertisement must be attractive and informative. When space means money like on the billboard, much important information must be dropped out. Unfortunately, insufficient details and the difficulty of accessing those details might easily kill the customer’s attention in a flash as well. In this work, we propose a system that automatically connects a billboard with the product website instantly. More specifically, given the billboard image as an input, the system will lead users immediately to the product website for more details, or contact information. The results demonstrate that our system is significantly outperform the Google image search baseline where the product website is always included in the top 10 websites. Finally, We posit that the system can save the customers’ time and complexity to access their product of interest, resulting the increasing of product sale.


title: Lean, six sigma and lean sigma: fads or real process improvement methods?

text: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore if six sigma and lean are new methods, or if they are repackaged versions of previously popular methods – total quality management (TQM) and just-in-time (JIT). Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a critical comparison of lean with JIT and six sigma with TQM, a study of the measure of the publication frequency – the number of academic articles published every year of the previous 30 years – for each topic, and a review of critical success factors (CSF) for change efforts. Findings – The more recent concepts of lean and six sigma have mainly replaced – but not necessarily added to – the concepts of JIT and TQM. lean and six sigma are essentially repackaged versions of the former, and the methods seem to follow the fad (product) life cycle. The literature offers fairly similar and rather general CSF for these methods, e.g. top management support and the importance of communication and information. What seems to be missing, however, is the need for a systemic approach to organizational change and improvement. Practical implications – A prediction is, given the fad or product life cycle phenomenon, that there will be a new method promoted soon, something perhaps already experienced with the borderline preposterous concept of lean six sigma. On the other hand, based on the gap in time between both JIT and lean, and TQM and six sigma – a gap filled by BRP/reengineering – the next method will be process oriented. This paper concludes with the discussion of the need for a process-based approach to organizational improvement efforts. Originality/value – This paper is of value in that it analyzes what lessons can be learnt from organizational change and improvement efforts. The analysis includes a comparison of CSF for any change project before discussing the need for a process (systems) perspective for successful organizational improvement efforts.


title: THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL EXTENSION OF SPACE SYNTAX 048

text: The purpose of this study is to develop a new space syntax technique by adding third dimension in analysis of urban structure that is important to understand the formation of the cities. The theoretical framework of the study is put forward by integrating space syntax with the theory of the image of city. This entails the essential elucidation of spatial cognition pattern and image and the integration of space syntax and the image of city. The paper analyzes and demonstrates the prerequisite and feasibility of the mutual complementarily between space syntax and the image of city. The threedimensional space syntax integrated with the image of city is different from the traditional syntax that is only limited to non-figurative two-dimensional spatial cognition. It also emphasizes the important influences of the three-dimensional image points on people's behaviour in space and it is quite close to the accurate description of “natural movement”. Based on the three-dimensional theory, a concept model of the threedimensional syntax is constructed, and its content includes how to describe forming process of the three-dimensional spatial image pots during the cognition activity, how to construct the objective evaluation model for the three-dimensional image pots and how to put forward the concept of weighted-integration to calculate the concept mathematical model. In the end, the paper carries through three experimental analyses. The paper argues that the extended three-dimensional syntactical model is much closer to people's spatial illation and cognition. It should be more accurate to use the model to describe and grasp the urban configuration.


title: ISCEV Standard for full-field clinical electroretinography (2015 update)

text: This document, from the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV), presents an updated and revised ISCEV Standard for full-field clinical electroretinography (ffERG or simply ERG). The parameters for Standard flash stimuli have been revised to accommodate a variety of light sources including gas discharge lamps and light emitting diodes. This ISCEV Standard for clinical ERGs specifies six responses based on the adaptation state of the eye and the flash strength: (1) Dark-adapted 0.01 ERG (rod ERG); (2) Dark-adapted 3 ERG (combined rod-cone standard flash ERG); (3) Dark-adapted 3 oscillatory potentials; (4) Dark-adapted 10 ERG (strong flash ERG); (5) Light-adapted 3 ERG (standard flash “cone” ERG); and (6) Light-adapted 30 Hz flicker ERG. ISCEV encourages the use of additional ERG protocols for testing beyond this minimum standard for clinical ERGs.


title: Analysis and Design of Current-Fed Half-Bridge (C)(LC)–( LC) Resonant Topology for Inductive Wireless Power Transfer Application

text: This paper proposes and analyzes a new power electronics circuit topology for wireless inductive power transfer application using current-fed half-bridge converter with CCL-LC resonant network. The major focus is analysis and implementation of a new current-fed resonant topology with current-sharing and voltage doubling features. Generally, inductive power transfer circuits with current fed converter use parallel CL resonant tank to transfer power effectively through air gap. However, in medium power application, this topology suffers from a major limitation of high voltage stress across the inverter semiconductor devices owing to high reactive power consumed by loosely coupled coil. In proposed topology, this is mitigated by adding a capacitor in series with the coil developing series-parallel CCL tank. The power flow is controlled through variable frequency modulation. Soft-switching of the devices is obtained irrespective of the load current. For grid-to-vehicle or solar-to-vehicle, the converter is analyzed and detailed design procedure is illustrated. Experimental results are presented to verify the analysis and demonstrate the performance.


title: A Comparative Study of the Differences in Family Communication among Young Urban Adult Consumers and the Development of their Materialistic Values : A Discriminant Analysis

text: The study attempts to uncover the characteristics of materialism groups in Malaysia. It assesses the differences between materialism groups, i.e., low and high materialistic groups, using demographic and family communication dimensions. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. The sample consisted of 956 respondents. The majority of the respondents were Malays followed by Chinese and Indians. The proportion of female respondents was higher than the male respondents. Most of the respondents were single and in the age group of between 19-29 years old. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare mean scores for the study variables between ‘high’ materialism and ‘low’ materialism groups and significant mean differences were found between ‘high’ and ‘low’ materialism groups in terms of socio-oriented family communication construct. Specifically, it was found that the ‘high’ materialism group has considerably greater ratings on the constructs. Internal consistency reliability assessment using Cronbach coefficient alpha revealed that all the three dimensions had high reliability. A stepwise discriminant analysis performed on two family communication variables found that one variable was significant in differentiating the two materialism groups. The variable was socio-oriented family communication. The implications, significance and limitations of the study are discussed.


title: Near Optimal Online Algorithms and Fast Approximation Algorithms for Resource Allocation Problems

text:
We present prior robust algorithms for a large class of resource allocation problems where requests arrive one-by-one (online), drawn independently from an unknown distribution at every step. We design a single algorithm that, for every possible underlying distribution, obtains a 1−ε fraction of the profit obtained by an algorithm that knows the entire request sequence ahead of time. The factor ε approaches 0 when no single request consumes/contributes a significant fraction of the global consumption/contribution by all requests together. We show that the tradeoff we obtain here that determines how fast ε approaches 0, is near optimal: We give a nearly matching lower bound showing that the tradeoff cannot be improved much beyond what we obtain.
 Going beyond the model of a static underlying distribution, we introduce the adversarial stochastic input model, where an adversary, possibly in an adaptive manner, controls the distributions from which the requests are drawn at each step. Placing no restriction on the adversary, we design an algorithm that obtains a 1−ε fraction of the optimal profit obtainable w.r.t. the worst distribution in the adversarial sequence. Further, if the algorithm is given one number per distribution, namely the optimal profit possible for each of the adversary’s distribution, then we design an algorithm that achieves a 1−ε fraction of the weighted average of the optimal profit of each distribution the adversary picks.
 In the offline setting we give a fast algorithm to solve very large linear programs (LPs) with both packing and covering constraints. We give algorithms to approximately solve (within a factor of 1+ε) the mixed packing-covering problem with O(γ m log (n/Δ)/ε2) oracle calls where the constraint matrix of this LP has dimension n× m, the success probability of the algorithm is 1−Δ, and γ quantifies how significant a single request is when compared to the sum total of all requests.
 We discuss implications of our results to several special cases including online combinatorial auctions, network routing, and the adwords problem.


title: Modeling wrinkles on smooth surfaces for footwear design

text: We describe two new shape operators that superimpose wrinkles on top of a smooth NURBS surface. Previous research studying wrinkles focused mostly on cloth modeling or in animations, which are driven more by visual realism, but allow large elastic deformations. Our operators generate wrinkle-shaped deformations in a region of a smooth surface along a given boundary based on a few basic parametric inputs such as wrinkle magnitude and extent (these terms will be defined in the paper). The essential geometric transformation to map the smooth surface to a wrinkled one will be defined purely in terms of the geometry of the surface and the input parameters. Our model is based on two surface properties: geodesic offsets and surface energy. Practical implementation of the operators is discussed, and examples presented. Finally, the motivation for the operators will be given through their application in the computer-aided design and manufacture of footwear.


title: STREAM: A First Programming Process

text:
Programming is recognized as one of seven grand challenges in computing education. Decades of research have shown that the major problems novices experience are composition-based---they may know what the individual programming language constructs are, but they do not know how to put them together. Despite this fact, textbooks, educational practice, and programming education research hardly address the issue of teaching the skills needed for systematic development of programs.
 We provide a conceptual framework for incremental program development, called Stepwise Improvement, which unifies best practice in modern software development such as test-driven development and refactoring with the prevailing perspective of programming methodology, stepwise refinement. The conceptual framework enables well-defined characterizations of incremental program development.
 We utilize the conceptual framework to derive a programming process, STREAM, designed specifically for novices. STREAM is a carefully down-scaled version of a full and rich agile software engineering process particularly suited for novices learning object-oriented programming. In using it we hope to achieve two things: to help novice programmers learn faster and better while at the same time laying the foundation for a more thorough treatment of more advanced aspects of software engineering. In this article, two examples demonstrate the application of STREAM.
 The STREAM process has been taught in the introductory programming courses at our universities for the past three years and the results are very encouraging. We report on a small, preliminary study evaluating the learning outcome of teaching STREAM. The study indicates a positive effect on the development of students’ process competences.


title: Clustering short text using Ncut-weighted non-negative matrix factorization

text: Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) has been successfully applied in document clustering. However, experiments on short texts, such as microblogs, Q&A documents and news titles, suggest unsatisfactory performance of NMF. An major reason is that the traditional term weighting schemes, like binary weight and tfidf, cannot well capture the terms' discriminative power and importance in short texts, due to the sparsity of data. To tackle this problem, we proposed a novel term weighting scheme for NMF, derived from the Normalized Cut (Ncut) problem on the term affinity graph. Different from idf, which emphasizes discriminability on document level, the Ncut weighting measures terms' discriminability on term level. Experiments on two data sets show our weighting scheme significantly boosts NMF's performance on short text clustering.


title: Vessel enhancement algorithm in digital retinal fundus microaneurysms filter for nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy classification

text: Diabetic Retinopathy is one of a complication of diabetes which can cause blindness. There are two levels of diabetic retinopathy which are nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). The presence of microaneurysms in the eye is one of the early signs of diabetic retinopathy. Automated detection of microaneurysms in digital color fundus photographs is developed to help opthalmologist to detect the emergence of its early symptoms and determine the next action step for the patient. In this study we developed microaneurysms filter algorithm with the concept of vessel enhancement in order to extract the structure of microaneurysms in medical imagery, especially in the retinal image. Microaneurysms filter algorithm has been able to extract part of microaneurysms in the retinal image and detect pretty well. In addition, microaneurysms filters can also be developed to detect the next symptoms of diabetic retinopathy-hemorraghes (bleeding) that has features in common with microaneurysms which are larger and have irregular shape. Furthermore, the nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) classification system was developed based on the microaneurysms and hemorraghes detection. The system was tested against the patient data. Microanuerisyms detection results on DiaRetDB data has sensitivity value by 57,4% to ophthalmlogist 1, 35,37% for opthalmologist 2 and 62,68% for opthalmologist 3.


title: IRFs: master regulators of signalling by Toll-like receptors and cytosolic pattern-recognition receptors

text: The interferon-regulatory factor (IRF) family of transcription factors was initially found to be involved in the induction of genes that encode type I interferons. IRFs have now been shown to have functionally diverse roles in the regulation of the immune system. Recently, the crucial involvement of IRFs in innate and adaptive immune responses has been gaining much attention, particularly with the discovery of their role in immunoregulation by Toll-like receptors and other pattern-recognition receptors.


title: A Scalable Framework for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Location-based Social Media Data

text: In the past several years, social media (e.g., Twitter and Facebook) has been experiencing a spectacular rise and popularity, and becoming a ubiquitous discourse for content sharing and social networking. With the widespread of mobile devices and location-based services, social media typically allows users to share whereabouts of daily activities (e.g., check-ins and taking photos), and thus strengthens the roles of social media as a proxy to understand human behaviors and complex social dynamics in geographic spaces. Unlike conventional spatiotemporal data, this new modality of data is dynamic, massive, and typically represented in stream of unstructured media (e.g., texts and photos), which pose fundamental representation, modeling and computational challenges to conventional spatiotemporal analysis and geographic information science. In this paper, we describe a scalable computational framework to harness massive location-based social media data for efficient and systematic spatiotemporal data analysis. Within this framework, the concept of space-time trajectories (or paths) is applied to represent activity profiles of social media users. A hierarchical spatiotemporal data model, namely a spatiotemporal data cube model, is developed based on collections of space-time trajectories to represent the collective dynamics of social media users across aggregation boundaries at multiple spatiotemporal scales. The framework is implemented based upon a public data stream of Twitter feeds posted on the continent of North America. To demonstrate the advantages and performance of this framework, an interactive flow mapping interface (including both single-source and multiple-source flow mapping) is developed to allow real-time, and interactive visual exploration of movement dynamics in massive location-based social media at multiple scales. ∗Corresponding author Preprint submitted to Computers, Enviroment and Urban Systems September 10, 2014 ar X iv :1 40 9. 28 26 v1 [ cs .S I] 8 S ep 2 01 4


title: Speedy bus mastering PCI express

text: PCI Express is a ubiquitous bus interface providing the highest bandwidth connection in the PC platform. Sadly, support for it in FPGAs is limited and/or expensive. The Speedy PCIe core addresses this problem by bridging the gap from the bare bones interface to a user friendly, high performance design. This paper describes some of the fundamental design challenges and how they were addressed as well as giving detailed results. The hardware and software source code are available for free download from [12].


title: Real-Time or Near Real-Time Persisting Daily Healthcare Data Into HDFS and ElasticSearch Index Inside a Big Data Platform

text: Mayo Clinic (MC) healthcare generates a large number of HL7 V2 messages—0.7–1.1 million on weekends and 1.7–2.2 million on business days at present. With multiple RDBMS-based systems, such a large volume of HL7 messages still cannot be real-time or near-real-time stored, analyzed, and retrieved for enterprise-level clinic and nonclinic usage. To determine if Big Data technology coupled with ElasticSearch technology can satisfy MC daily healthcare needs for HL7 message processing, a BigData platform was developed to contain two identical Hadoop clusters (TDH1.3.2 version)—each containing an ElasticSearch cluster and instances of a storm topology—MayoTopology for processing HL7 messages on MC ESB queues into an ElasticSearch index and the HDFS. The implemented BigData platform can process 62 ± 4 million HL7 messages per day while the ElasticSearch index can provide ultrafast free-text searching at a speed level of 0.2-s per query on an index containing a dataset of 25 million HL7-derived-JSON-documents. The results suggest that the implemented BigData platform exceeds MC enterprise-level patient-care needs.


title: egoSlider: Visual Analysis of Egocentric Network Evolution

text: Ego-network, which represents relationships between a specific individual, i.e., the ego, and people connected to it, i.e., alters, is a critical target to study in social network analysis. Evolutionary patterns of ego-networks along time provide huge insights to many domains such as sociology, anthropology, and psychology. However, the analysis of dynamic ego-networks remains challenging due to its complicated time-varying graph structures, for example: alters come and leave, ties grow stronger and fade away, and alter communities merge and split. Most of the existing dynamic graph visualization techniques mainly focus on topological changes of the entire network, which is not adequate for egocentric analytical tasks. In this paper, we present egoSlider, a visual analysis system for exploring and comparing dynamic ego-networks. egoSlider provides a holistic picture of the data through multiple interactively coordinated views, revealing ego-network evolutionary patterns at three different layers: a macroscopic level for summarizing the entire ego-network data, a mesoscopic level for overviewing specific individuals' ego-network evolutions, and a microscopic level for displaying detailed temporal information of egos and their alters. We demonstrate the effectiveness of egoSlider with a usage scenario with the DBLP publication records. Also, a controlled user study indicates that in general egoSlider outperforms a baseline visualization of dynamic networks for completing egocentric analytical tasks.


title: Has the Internet become indispensable?

text: As was empirically demonstrated in [3], “the adoption rate of the Internet has exceeded that of earlier mass communication technologies by several magnitudes,” making it an “irreversible” innovation. Studies have also shown that for the generation of U.S.-based youth that grew up with the Internet, it is gradually displacing television as their main source of entertainment, communication, and education [6]. Here, we explore how the Internet has become indispensable to people in their daily lives and develop a conceptual model allowing us to address the associated research questions. The idea is that the Internet has become so embedded in the daily fabric of people’s lives that they simply cannot live without it. How is the Internet indispensable and in what ways? For which groups of people is it indispensable, for what tasks, and how has BY DONNA L. HOFFMAN, THOMAS P. NOVAK, AND ALLADI VENKATESH


title: Improved Microaneurysm Detection using Deep Neural Networks

text: In this work, we propose a novel microaneurysm (MA) detection for early dieabetic ratinopathy screening using color fundus images. Since MA usually the first lesions to appear as a indicator of diabetic retinopathy, accurate detection of MA is necessary for treatment. Each pixel of the image is classified as either MA or non-MA using deep neural network with dropout training procedure using maxout activation function. No preprocessing step or manual feature extraction is required. Substantial improvements over standard MA detection method based on pipeline of preprocessing, feature extraction, classification followed by postprocessing is achieved. The presented method is evaluated in publicly available Retinopathy Online Challenge (ROC) and Diaretdb1v2 database and achieved state-of-the-art accuracy.


title: Orthogonal nonnegative matrix t-factorizations for clustering

text: Currently, most research on nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF)focus on 2-factor $X=FG^T$ factorization. We provide a systematicanalysis of 3-factor $X=FSG^T$ NMF. While it unconstrained 3-factor NMF is equivalent to it unconstrained 2-factor NMF, itconstrained 3-factor NMF brings new features to it constrained 2-factor NMF. We study the orthogonality constraint because it leadsto rigorous clustering interpretation. We provide new rules for updating $F,S, G$ and prove the convergenceof these algorithms. Experiments on 5 datasets and a real world casestudy are performed to show the capability of bi-orthogonal 3-factorNMF on simultaneously clustering rows and columns of the input datamatrix. We provide a new approach of evaluating the quality ofclustering on words using class aggregate distribution andmulti-peak distribution. We also provide an overview of various NMF extensions andexamine their relationships.


title: Continuous deployment of software intensive products and services: A systematic mapping study

text: BACKGROUND The software intensive industry is moving towards the adoption of a value-driven and adaptive real-time business paradigm. The traditional view of software as an item that evolves through releases every few months is being replaced by continuous evolution of software functionality. OBJECTIVE This study aims to classify and analyse literature related to continuous deployment in the software domain in order to scope the phenomenon, provide an overview of its state-of-the-art, investigate the scientific evidence in the reported results and identify areas that are suitable for further research. METHOD We conducted a systematic mapping study and classified the continuous deployment literature. The benefits and challenges related to continuous deployment were also analyzed. RESULTS The systematic mapping study includes 50 primary studies published between 2001 and 2014. An in-depth analysis of the primary studies revealed ten recurrent themes that characterize continuous deployment and provide researchers with directions for future work. In addition, a set of benefits and challenges of which practitioners may take advantage were identified. CONCLUSION Overall, although the topic area is very promising, it is still in its infancy, thus offering a plethora of new opportunities for both researchers and software intensive companies.


title: On the journey to continuous deployment: Technical and social challenges along the way

text: Context: Continuous deployment (CD) is an emerging software development process with organisations such as Facebook, Microsoft, and IBM successfully implementing and using the process. The CD process aims to immediately deploy software to customers as soon as new code is developed, and can result in a number of benefits for organizations, such as: new business opportunities, reduced risk for each release, and prevent development of wasted software. There is little academic literature on the challenges organisations face when adopting the CD process, however there are many anecdotal challenges that organisations have voiced on their online blogs. Objective: The aim of this research is to examine the challenges faced by organisations when adopting CD as well as the strategies to mitigate these challenges. Method: An explorative case study technique that involves in-depth interviews with software practitioners in an organisation that has adopted CD was conducted to identify these challenges. Results: This study found a total of 20 technical and social adoption challenges that organisations may face when adopting the CD process. The results are discussed to gain a deeper understanding of the strategies employed by organisations to mitigate the impacts of these challenges. Conclusion: While a number of individual technical and social adoption challenges were uncovered by the case study in this research, most challenges were not faced in isolation. The severity of these challenges were reduced by a number of mitigation strategies employed by the case study organization. It is concluded that organisations need to be well prepared to handle technical and social adoption challenges with their existing expertise, processes and tools before adopting the CD


title: Using thematic analysis in psychology

text: Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 2006; 3: 77 /101


title: The qualitative interview in IS research: Examining the craft

text: The qualitative interview is one of the most important data gathering tools in qualitative research, yet it has remained an unexamined craft in IS research. This paper discusses the potential difficulties, pitfalls and problems of the qualitative interview in IS research. Building on Goffman’s seminal work on social life, the paper proposes a dramaturgical model as a useful way of conceptualizing the qualitative interview. Based on this model the authors suggest guidelines for the conduct of qualitative interviews. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


title: Recommendations without user preferences: a natural language processing approach

text: We examine the problems with automated recommendation systems when information about user preferences is limited. We equate the problem to one of content similarity measurement and apply techniques from Natural Language Processing to the domain of movie recommendation. We describe two algorithms, a naïve word-space approach and a more sophisticated approach using topic signatures, and evaluate their performance compared to baseline, gold standard, and commercial systems.


title: Development of Inchworm In-Pipe Robot Based on Self-Locking Mechanism

text: In-pipe robots are used to carry sensors and some other repairing instruments to perform inspection and maintenance jobs inside pipelines. In this paper, a self-locking mechanism is presented to improve the traction ability of in-pipe robots and avoid their traditional limitations. The structure of this type of in-pipe robot is presented and some critical design issues on the principle of self-locking mechanism are discussed. Prototypes of 19 mm diameter were produced, and related experiments were performed on specially designed test platform. The traction ability of the proposed in-pipe robot was measured experimentally to be 15.2 N, far beyond its maximum static friction of 0.35 N with the inner surface of pipeline. It means that this development has broken the traditional limitation of in-pipe robot whose traction ability was smaller than its maximum static friction with the pipeline.


title: StyleCheck : An Automated Stylistic Analysis Tool

text: StyleCheck is a user-friendly tool with multiple functions designed to aid in the production of quality writing. Its features include stylistic analysis (on both documentwide and individual-sentence scales) and spelling and grammar check, as well as generating suggested replacements for all types of errors. In addition, StyleCheck includes the capability to identify the famous author (out of a limited corpus) with the style most similar to the user’s. The source code for StyleCheck is available online at: https://github.com/alexpwelton/StyleCheck Dartmouth Computer Science Technical Report TR2014-754


title: Capacitive coupling for power and data telemetry to implantable biomedical microsystems

text: This paper proposes a new method for power telemetry and wireless data transfer to biomedical implants. Confinement of the transferred energy within a predefined area, hence not influencing the neighboring sensitive circuitry on the microsystem, and also allowing for more than one telemetry link on the same platform and even operating at the same carrier frequency are among the advantages of the proposed method over the traditional approaches for power and data telemetry.


title: Document classification through image-based character embedding and wildcard training

text: Languages such as Chinese and Japanese have a significantly large number (several thousands) of alphabets as compared to other languages, and each of their sentences consists of several concatenated words with wide varieties of inflected forms; thus appropriate word segmentation is quite difficult. Therefore, recently proposed sophisticated language-processing methods designed for languages such as English cannot be applied. In this paper, we address those issues and propose a new and efficient document classification technique for such languages. The proposed method is characterized into a new “image-based character embedding” method and character-level convolutional neural networks method with “wildcard training.” The first method encodes each character based on its pictorial structures and preserves them. Further, the second method treats some of the input characters as wildcards in the classification stage and functions as efficient data augmentation. We confirmed that our proposed method showed superior performance when compared conventional methods for Japanese document classification problems.


title: Depth inpainting by tensor voting.

text: Depth maps captured by range scanning devices or by using optical cameras often suffer from missing regions due to occlusions, reflectivity, limited scanning area, sensor imperfections, etc. In this paper, we propose a fast and reliable algorithm for depth map inpainting using the tensor voting (TV) framework. For less complex missing regions, local edge and depth information is utilized for synthesizing missing values. The depth variations are modeled by local planes using 3D TV, and missing values are estimated using plane equations. For large and complex missing regions, we collect and evaluate depth estimates from self-similar (training) datasets. We align the depth maps of the training set with the target (defective) depth map and evaluate the goodness of depth estimates among candidate values using 3D TV. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches on real as well as synthetic data.


title: A linear algorithm for finding Hamiltonian cycles in 4-connected maximal planar graphs

text: The Hamiltonian cycle problem is one of the most popular NP-complete problems, and remains NP-complete even if we restrict ourselves to a class of (3-connected cubic) planar graphs [5,9]. Therefore, there seems to be no polynomial-time algorithm for the Hamiltonian cycle problem. However, for certain (nontrivial) classes of restricted graphs, there exist polynomial-time algorithms [3,4,6]. In fact, employing the proof technique used by Tutte [lo], Gouyou-Beauchamps has given an 0(n3) time algorithm for finding a Hamiltonian cycle in a 4-connected planar graph G, where n is the number of vertices of G [6]. Although such a graph G always has a Hamiltonian cycle [lo], it is not an easy matter to actually find a Hamiltonian cycle of G. However, for a little more restricted class of graphs, i.e., the class of 4-connected maximal planar graphs, we can construct an efficient algorithm. One can easily design an O(n*) time algorithm to find a Hamiltonian cycle in a 4-connetted maximal planar graph G with n vertices, entirely based on Whitney’s proof of his theorem [l 11. In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm for the problem, based on our simplified version of Whitney’s proof of his result. We employ ‘divide and conquer’ and some other techniques in the algorithm. The computational complexity of our algorithm is linear, thus optimal to within a constant factor.


title: Improving Vector Space Word Representations Via Kernel Canonical Correlation Analysis

text: Cross-lingual word embeddings are representations for vocabularies of two or more languages in one common continuous vector space and are widely used in various natural language processing tasks. A state-of-the-art way to generate cross-lingual word embeddings is to learn a linear mapping, with an assumption that the vector representations of similar words in different languages are related by a linear relationship. However, this assumption does not always hold true, especially for substantially different languages. We therefore propose to use kernel canonical correlation analysis to capture a non-linear relationship between word embeddings of two languages. By extensively evaluating the learned word embeddings on three tasks (word similarity, cross-lingual dictionary induction, and cross-lingual document classification) across five language pairs, we demonstrate that our proposed approach achieves essentially better performances than previous linear methods on all of the three tasks, especially for language pairs with substantial typological difference.


title: Data integration with uncertainty

text: This paper reports our first set of results on managing uncertainty in data integration. We posit that data-integration systems need to handle uncertainty at three levels and do so in a principled fashion. First, the semantic mappings between the data sources and the mediated schema may be approximate because there may be too many of them to be created and maintained or because in some domains (e.g., bioinformatics) it is not clear what the mappings should be. Second, the data from the sources may be extracted using information extraction techniques and so may yield erroneous data. Third, queries to the system may be posed with keywords rather than in a structured form. As a first step to building such a system, we introduce the concept of probabilistic schema mappings and analyze their formal foundations. We show that there are two possible semantics for such mappings: by-table semantics assumes that there exists a correct mapping but we do not know what it is; by-tuple semantics assumes that the correct mapping may depend on the particular tuple in the source data. We present the query complexity and algorithms for answering queries in the presence of probabilistic schema mappings, and we describe an algorithm for efficiently computing the top-k answers to queries in such a setting. Finally, we consider using probabilistic mappings in the scenario of data exchange.


title: SLAM-based Pseudo-GNSS/INS localization system for indoor LiDAR mobile mapping systems

text: The emergence of Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) has set a marked paradigm in the photogrammetric and mapping community that has not only facilitated comprehensive 3D mapping of different environments but has also paved way for new aspects of applied research in this direction. Out of the many essential blocks that make these MMS a viable tool for mapping, the positioning and orientation module is considered to be a crucial yet an expensive component. The integration of such a module with mapping sensors has allowed for the extensive implementation of such systems to provide high-quality maps. However, while such systems do not lack in system robustness and performance in general, the deployment of these systems is restricted to applications and environments where a consistent availability of GNSS signals is assured. Extending these MMS to GNSS-denied areas, such as indoor environments, is therefore quite challenging and necessitates the development of an alternative module that can act as a viable substitute to GNSS/INS for system operation without having to resort to an exhaustive modification of the same to function in GNSS-denied locations. In this research, such a case has been considered for the implementation of an indoor MMS using an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) and a 3D laser scanner for the task of generating high density maps of GNSS-denied indoor areas. To mitigate the absence of GNSS data, this paper proposes a Pseudo-GNSS/INS module integrated framework which utilizes probabilistic Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques to estimate the platform pose and heading from 3D laser scanner data. This proposed framework has been implemented based on three major notions: (i) using geometric methods for sparse point cloud extraction to carry out real-time SLAM, (ii) generating position data and geo-referencing signals from these real-time SLAM pose estimates, and (iii) carrying out the entire operation through use of a single 3D mapping sensor. The final geo-referenced point cloud can then be generated through post-processing by the Iterative Closest Projected Point (ICPP) registration technique which also diminishes the effect of sensor measurement noise. The implementation, performance and results of the proposed MMS framework for an indoor mapping system have been presented in this paper that demonstrate the ability of this Pseudo-GNSS/INS framework to operate flexibly in GNSS-denied areas.


title: Semantic Lexicon Induction from Twitter with Pattern Relatedness and Flexible Term Length

text: With the rise of social media, learning from informal text has become increasingly important. We present a novel semantic lexicon induction approach that is able to learn new vocabulary from social media. Our method is robust to the idiosyncrasies of informal and open-domain text corpora. Unlike previous work, it does not impose restrictions on the lexical features of candidate terms – e.g. by restricting entries to nouns or noun phrases – while still being able to accurately learn multiword phrases of variable length. Starting with a few seed terms for a semantic category, our method first explores the context around seed terms in a corpus, and identifies context patterns that are relevant to the category. These patterns are used to extract candidate terms – i.e. multiword segments that are further analyzed to ensure meaningful term boundary segmentation. We show that our approach is able to learn high quality semantic lexicons from informally written social media text of Twitter, and can achieve accuracy as high as 92% in the top 100 learned category members.


1 USES OF TECHNOLOGY THAT SUPPORT PUPILS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS


title: Cell-Balancing Techniques: Theory and Implementation

text: In the safety chapter we briefly discussed the issue that when multiple cells are connected in series, the cell voltage is not always equal to the pack voltage divided by the number of cells. How does this happen? This chapter explores that question in detail, but the first question to answer is this: Why do we care? The first reason is safety. Remember, when lithium ion cell voltage exceeds 4.2V by a few hundred millivolts, it can undergo thermal runaway, melting the battery pack and device it is powering. It can even blow up as a big ball of fire. Although a well-designed pack has an overvoltage protection circuit that will prevent such an event (usually even two independent circuits!), it is better not to tempt fate by triggering this protection unnecessarily. The second reason is longevity. If the maximal recommended charging voltage is exceeded even a little, it will cause very accelerated degradation. Just increasing the charging voltage from 4.2 to 4.25V causes the degradation rate to increase by 30%. For this reason, the misbehaving cell that has higher than its due share of voltage will degrade faster. The third reason is incomplete charging of the pack. Let's assume the protector circuit does its job and that charging stops when just one cell gets close to unsafe conditions. Now we have successfully prevented thermal runaway, but all of the other cells now have lower voltages and are not fully charged. If we look at the pack voltage, it will be much less than 4.2V multiplied by the


title: Concepts for dynamic obstacle avoidance and their extended application in underground navigation

text: An effective approach to dynamic obstacle avoidance for mobile robots is described in this paper. The main concepts in this approach include local Polar Object Chart (POC) for defining possible ways out, obstacle definition, detour mode, anchor for preventing getting lost, steering delimiting and velocity delimiting. The presented concepts and methods were tested and verified both by simulations and experiments on a developed prototype industrial Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV). This paper also presents the extended application of some of the concepts in underground navigation. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


title: Design Principles for Industrie 4.0 Scenarios

text: The increasing integration of the Internet of Everything into the industrial value chain has built the foundation for the next industrial revolution called Industrie 4.0. Although Industrie 4.0 is currently a top priority for many companies, research centers, and universities, a generally accepted understanding of the term does not exist. As a result, discussing the topic on an academic level is difficult, and so is implementing Industrie 4.0 scenarios. Based on a quantitative text analysis and a qualitative literature review, the paper identifies design principles of Industrie 4.0. Taking into account these principles, academics may be enabled to further investigate on the topic, while practitioners may find assistance in identifying appropriate scenarios. A case study illustrates how the identified design principles support practitioners in identifying Industrie 4.0 scenarios.


title: Improved Forms for Controlling the Acrobot with Motors of Atypical Size Using Artificial Intelligence Techniques

text: An acrobot is a planar robot with a passive actuator in its first joint. The control problem of the acrobot tries to make it rise from the rest position to the inverted pendulum position. This control problem can be divided in the swing-up problem, when the robot has to rise itself through swinging up as a human acrobat does, and the balancing problem, when the robot has to maintain itself on the inverted pendulum position. We have developed three controllers for the swing-up problem applied to two types of motors: small and big. For small motors, we used the SARSA controller and the PD with a trajectory generator. For big motors, we propose a new controller to control the acrobot, a PWM controller. All controllers except SARSA are tuned using a Genetic Algorithm.


title: Learning Depth from Single Monocular Images

text: We consider the task of depth estimation from a single monocular image. We take a supervised learning approach to this problem, in which we begin by collecting a training set of monocular images (of unstructured outdoor environments which include forests, trees, buildings, etc.) and their corresponding ground-truth depthmaps. Then, we apply supervised learning to predict the depthmap as a function of the image. Depth estimation is a challenging problem, since local features alone are insufficient to estimate depth at a point, and one needs to consider the global context of the image. Our model uses a discriminatively-trained Markov Random Field (MRF) that incorporates multiscale localand global-image features, and models both depths at individual points as well as the relation between depths at different points. We show that, even on unstructured scenes, our algorithm is frequently able to recover fairly accurate depthmaps.


title: HW/SW Codesign and FPGA Acceleration of Visual Odometry Algorithms for Rover Navigation on Mars

text: Future Mars exploration missions rely heavily on high-mobility autonomous rovers equipped with sophisticated scientific instruments and possessing advanced navigational capabilities. Increasing their navigation velocity and localization accuracy is essential for enabling these rovers to explore large areas on Mars. Contemporary Mars rovers move slowly, partially due to the long execution time of complex computer vision algorithms running on their slow space-grade CPUs. This paper exploits the advent of high-performance space-grade field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to accelerate the navigation of future rovers. Specifically, it focuses on visual odometry (VO) and performs HW/SW codesign to achieve one order of magnitude faster execution and improved accuracy. Conforming to the specifications of the European Space Agency, we build a proof-of-concept system on an HW/SW platform with processing power resembling that to be available onboard future rovers. We develop a codesign methodology adapted to the rover's specifications, design parallel architectures, and customize several feature extraction, matching, and motion estimation algorithms. We implement and evaluate five distinct HW/SW pipelines on a Virtex6 FPGA and a 150 MIPS CPU. We provide a detailed analysis of their cost-time-accuracy tradeoffs and quantify the benefits of employing FPGAs for implementing VO. Our solution achieves a speedup factor of 16× over a CPU-only implementation, handling a stereo image pair in less than 1 s, with a 1.25% mean positional error after a 100 m traverse and an FPGA cost of 54 K LUTs and 1.46-MB RAM.


title: Automatic Detection of Malware-Generated Domains with Recurrent Neural Models

text: Modern malware families often rely on domain-generation algorithms (DGAs) to determine rendezvous points to their command-and-control server. Traditional defence strategies (such as blacklisting domains or IP addresses) are inadequate against such techniques due to the large and continuously changing list of domains produced by these algorithms. This paper demonstrates that a machine learning approach based on recurrent neural networks is able to detect domain names generated by DGAs with high precision. The neural models are estimated on a large training set of domains generated by various malwares. Experimental results show that this data-driven approach can detect malware-generated domain names with a F1 score of 0.971. To put it differently, the model can automatically detect 93 % of malware-generated domain names for a false positive rate of 1:100.


title: Microstrip Rectangular 4x1 Patch Array Antenna at 2.5GHz for WiMax Application

text: This paper presents the design of microstrip rectangular patch antenna with center frequency at 2.5GHz for WiMAX application. The array of four by one (4x1) patch array microstrip rectangular antenna with microstrip line feeding based on quarter wave impedance matching technique was designed and simulated using Computer Simulation Tool (CST) Microwave Environment software. The performance of the designed antenna was than compared with the single patch rectangle antenna in term of return loss, Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR), bandwidth, directivity, radiation pattern and gain. The array antenna was then fabricated on the substrate type FR-4 with dielectric constant of 4.9 and thickness of 1.6mm respectively. The array antenna was measured in the laboratory using Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and the results show good agreement with the array antenna simulated performances.


title: A comparison of the performance of latent Dirichlet allocation and the Dirichlet multinomial mixture model on short text

text: The expansion of the World Wide Web and the increasing popularity of microblogging websites such as Twitter and Facebook has created massive stores of textual data that is short in length. Although traditional topic models have proven to work successfully on collections of long texts such as books and news articles, they tend to produce results that are less coherent when applied to short text, such as status messages and product reviews. Over the last few decades it has become of greater relevance to analyse short texts due to the realisation that such bodies of text could potentially hold useful information. Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is one of the most popular topic models and it makes the generative assumption that each document contains multiple topics in varying proportions, which is a sensible assumption about long text. On the other hand, the Dirichlet multinomial mixture model (GSDMM), a seemingly less popular topic model, assumes that a document can only belong to a single topic, which seems to be a more appropriate assumption for short text. The objective of this paper is to investigate the hypothesis that GSDMM will outperform LDA on short text, using topic coherence and stability as performance measures.


title: A Four-Plate Compact Capacitive Coupler Design and LCL-Compensated Topology for Capacitive Power Transfer in Electric Vehicle Charging Application

text: This paper proposes a four-plate compact capacitive coupler and its circuit model for large air-gap distance capacitive power transfer (CPT). The four plates are arranged vertically, instead of horizontally, to save space in the electric vehicle charging application. The two plates that are on the same side are placed close to each other to maintain a large coupling capacitance, and they are of different sizes to maintain the coupling between the primary and secondary sides. The circuit model of the coupler is presented, considering all six coupling capacitors. The LCL compensation topology is used to resonate with the coupler and provide high voltage on the plates to transfer high power. The circuit model of the coupler is simplified to design the parameters of the compensation circuit. Finite-element analysis is employed to simulate the coupling capacitance and design the dimensions of the coupler. The circuit performance is simulated in LTspice to design the specific parameter values. A prototype of the CPT system was designed and constructed with the proposed vertical plate structure. The prototype achieved an efficiency of 85.87% at 1.88-kW output power with a 150-mm air-gap distance.


title: Bundle Adjustment - A Modern Synthesis

text: This paper is a survey of the theory and methods of photogrammetric bundle adjustment, aimed at potential implementors in the computer vision community. Bundle adjustment is the problem of refining a visual reconstruction to produce jointly optimal structure and viewing parameter estimates. Topics covered include: the choice of cost function and robustness; numerical optimization including sparse Newton methods, linearly convergent approximations, updating and recursive methods; gauge (datum) invariance; and quality control. The theory is developed for general robust cost functions rather than restricting attention to traditional nonlinear least squares.


title: Design, modeling and control of a 5-DoF light-weight robot arm for aerial manipulation

text: The design, modeling and control of a 5 degrees-of-freedom light-weight robot manipulator is presented in this paper. The proposed robot arm, named Prisma Ultra-Lightweight 5 ARm (PUL5AR), is employed to execute manipulation tasks equipped on board of a vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle. The arm is compact and light-weight. Its mechanics is designed such that it can fold on itself during landing manoeuvres. Moreover, the design is conceived to constrain the center of gravity of the arm as close as possible to vehicle base, thus reducing the total inertia and static unbalancing of the system. Experimental tests have been carried out in order to validate the dynamic model, the communication library, the developed electronics, and the control schemes implemented for the designed robot arm.


title: A Unified Passivity Based Control Framework for Position, Torque and Impedance Control of Flexible Joint Robots

text: In this paper we describe a general passivity based framework for the control of flexible joint robots. Herein the recent DLR results on torque-, position-, as well as impedance control of flexible joint robots are summarized, and the relations between the individual contributions are highlighted. It is shown that an inner torque feedback loop can be incorporated into a passivity based analysis by interpreting torque feedback in terms of shaping of the motor inertia. This result, which implicitly was already included in our earlier works on torqueand position control, can also be seized for the design of impedance controllers. For impedance control, furthermore, potential shaping is of special interest. It is shown how, based only on the motor angles, a potential function can be designed which simultaneously incorporates gravity compensation and a desired Cartesian stiffness relation for the link angles. All the presented controllers were experimentally evaluated on the DLR light-weight robots and proved their performance and robustness with respect to uncertain model parameters. Herein, an impact experiment is presented briefly, and an overview of several applications is given in which the controllers have been applied.


title: Modeling and Control of MM-UAV: Mobile Manipulating Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

text: Compared to autonomous ground vehicles, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) have significant mobility advantages and the potential to operate in otherwise unreachable locations. Micro UAVs still suffer from one major drawback: they do not have the necessary payload capabilities to support high performance arms. This paper, however, investigates the key challenges in controlling a mobile manipulating UAV using a commercially available aircraft and a light-weight prototype 3arm manipulator. Because of the overall instability of rotorcraft, we use a motion capture system to build an efficient autopilot. Our results indicate that we can accurately model and control our prototype system given significant disturbances when both moving the manipulators and interacting with the ground.


title: Construction of Cubic Structures with Quadrotor Teams

text: We propose and investigate a system in which teams of quadrotor helicopters assemble 2.5-D structures from simple structural nodes and members equipped with magnets. The structures, called Special Cubic Structures (SCS), are a class of 2.5-D truss-like structures free of overhangs and holes. Grippers attached to the bottom of each quadrotor enable them to pick up, transport, and assemble the structural elements. The design of the nodes and members imposes constraints on assembly which are incorporated into the design of the algorithms used for assembly. We show that any SCS can be built using only the feasible assembly modes for individual structural elements and present simulation and experimental results with a team of quadrotors performing automated assembly. The paper includes a theoretical analysis of the SCS construction algorithm, the rationale for the design of the structural nodes, members and quadrotor gripper, a description of the quadrotor control methods for part pickup, transport and assembly, and an empirical analysis of system performance.


title: Impact of FinFET Technology Introduction in the 3T1D-DRAM Memory Cell

text: In this paper, the 3T1D-DRAM cell based on FinFET devices is studied as an alternative to the bulk one. We observe an improvement in its behavior when IG and SG FinFETs are properly mixed, since together they provide a relevant increase in the memory circuit retention time. Moreover, our FinFET cell shows larger variability robustness, better performance at low supply voltage, and higher tolerance to elevated temperatures.


title: IoT security attacks using reverse engineering methods on WSN applications

text: With the rapid technological advancements of sensors, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have become a popular technology for the Internet of Things (IoT). We investigated the security of WSNs in an environmental monitoring application with the goal to demonstrate the overall security. We implemented a Secure Temperature Monitoring System (STMS), which served as our WSN application. Our results revealed a security flaw found in the bootstrap loader (BSL) password used to protect MSP430 micro-controller units (MCUs). We demonstrated how the BSL password could be brute forced in a matter of days. Furthermore, we illustrate how an attacker can reverse engineer WSN applications to obtain critical security information such as encryption keys. We contribute a solution to patch the weak BSL password security flaw and improve the security of MSP430 MCU chips. The Secure-BSL patch we contribute allows the randomization of the BSL password. Our solution increases the brute force time to decades. The impractical brute force time enhances the security of the MSP430 and prevents future reverse engineering tactics. Our research serves as proof that the security of WSNs and the overall IoT technology is broken if we cannot protect these everyday objects at the physical layer.


title: Cybersecurity Through Secure Software Development

text: Reports about serious vulnerabilities in critical IT components have triggered increased focus on cybersecurity worldwide. Among the man y initiatives to strengthen cybersecurity it is common to see the establishment and stre gthening of CERTs and other centers for cybersecurity. On the other hand , strengthening education in IT security and applying methods for secure systems d velopment are methods that receive much less attention. In this paper we expla in how the lack of focus on security in IT education programs worldwide is a signifi cant contributor to security vulnerabilities, and we propose an agile method for s ecure software design that requires team members to have received adequa te security education and training.


title: Identifying Important Places in People's Lives from Cellular Network Data

text: People spend most of their time at a few key locations, such as home and work. Being able to identify how the movements of people cluster around these “important places” is crucial for a range of technology and policy decisions in areas such as telecommunications and transportation infrastructure deployment. In this paper, we propose new techniques based on clustering and regression for analyzing anonymized cellular network data to identify generally important locations, and to discern semantically meaningful locations such as home and work. Starting with temporally sparse and spatially coarse location information, we propose a new algorithm to identify important locations. We test this algorithm on arbitrary cellphone users, including those with low call rates, and find that we are within 3 miles of ground truth for 88% of volunteer users. Further, after locating home and work, we achieve commute distance estimates that are within 1 mile of equivalent estimates derived from government census data. Finally, we perform carbon footprint analyses on hundreds of thousands of anonymous users as an example of how our data and algorithms can form an accurate and efficient underpinning for policy and infrastructure studies.


title: ExerLink: enabling pervasive social exergames with heterogeneous exercise devices

text: We envision that diverse social exercising games, or exergames, will emerge, featuring much richer interactivity with immersive game play experiences. Further, the recent advances of mobile devices and wireless networking will make such social engagement more pervasive - people carry portable exergame devices (e.g., jump ropes) and interact with remote users anytime, anywhere. Towards this goal, we explore the potential of using heterogeneous exercise devices as game controllers for a multi-player social exergame; e.g., playing a boat paddling game with two remote exercisers (one with a jump rope, and the other with a treadmill). In this paper, we propose a novel platform called ExerLink that converts exercise intensity to game inputs and intelligently balances intensity/delay variations for fair game play experiences. We report the design considerations and guidelines obtained from the design and development processes of game controllers. We validate the efficacy of game controllers and demonstrate the feasibility of social exergames with heterogeneous exercise devices via extensive human subject studies.


title: WNGrad: Learn the Learning Rate in Gradient Descent

text: Adjusting the learning rate schedule in stochastic gradient methods is an important unresolved problem which requires tuning in practice. If certain parameters of the loss function such as smoothness or strong convexity constants are known, theoretical learning rate schedules can be applied. However, in practice, such parameters are not known, and the loss function of interest is not convex in any case. The recently proposed batch normalization reparametrization is widely adopted in most neural network architectures today because, among other advantages, it is robust to the choice of Lipschitz constant of the gradient in loss function, allowing one to set a large learning rate without worry. Inspired by batch normalization, we propose a general nonlinear update rule for the learning rate in batch and stochastic gradient descent so that the learning rate can be initialized at a high value, and is subsequently decreased according to gradient observations along the way. The proposed method is shown to achieve robustness to the relationship between the learning rate and the Lipschitz constant, and near-optimal convergence rates in both the batch and stochastic settings (O(1/T ) for smooth loss in the batch setting, and O(1/ √ T ) for convex loss in the stochastic setting). We also show through numerical evidence that such robustness of the proposed method extends to highly nonconvex and possibly non-smooth loss function in deep learning problems. Our analysis establishes some first theoretical understanding into the observed robustness for batch normalization and weight normalization.


title: Hierarchical Committee of Deep CNNs with Exponentially-Weighted Decision Fusion for Static Facial Expression Recognition

text: We present a pattern recognition framework to improve committee machines of deep convolutional neural networks (deep CNNs) and its application to static facial expression recognition in the wild (SFEW). In order to generate enough diversity of decisions, we trained multiple deep CNNs by varying network architectures, input normalization, and weight initialization as well as by adopting several learning strategies to use large external databases. Moreover, with these deep models, we formed hierarchical committees using the validation-accuracy-based exponentially-weighted average (VA-Expo-WA) rule. Through extensive experiments, the great strengths of our committee machines were demonstrated in both structural and decisional ways. On the SFEW2.0 dataset released for the 3rd Emotion Recognition in the Wild (EmotiW) sub-challenge, a test accuracy of 57.3% was obtained from the best single deep CNN, while the single-level committees yielded 58.3% and 60.5% with the simple average rule and with the VA-Expo-WA rule, respectively. Our final submission based on the 3-level hierarchy using the VA-Expo-WA achieved 61.6%, significantly higher than the SFEW baseline of 39.1%.


title: Communicating neuronal ensembles between neuromorphic chips

text: I describe an interchip communication system that reads out pulse trains from a 64 64 array of neurons on one chip, and transmits them to corresponding locations in a 64 64 array of neurons on a second chip. It uses a random-access, time-multiplexed, asynchronous digital bus to transmit log2N -bit addresses that uniquely identify each of theN neurons in the sending population. A peak transmission rate of 2.5MSpikes/s is achieved by pipelining the operation of the channel. I discuss how the communication channel design is optimized for sporadic stimulus-triggered activity which causes some small subpopulation to re in synchrony, by adopting an arbitered, event-driven architecture. I derive the bandwidth required to transmit this neuronal ensemble, without temporal dispersion, in terms of the number of neurons, the probability that a neuron is part of the ensemble, and the degree of synchrony.


title: Intent Mining for the Good , Bad & Ugly Use of Social Web : Concepts , Methods , and Challenges

text: The social web has empowered us to easily share information, express opinions, and engage in discussions on events around the world. While users of social media platforms often o↵er help and emotional support to others (the good), they also spam (the bad) and harass others as well as even manipulate others via fake news (the ugly). In order to both leverage the positive e↵ects and mitigate the negative e↵ects of using social media, intent mining provides a computational approach to proactively analyze social media data. This chapter introduces an intent taxonomy of social media usage with examples and describes methods and future challenges to mine the intentional uses of social media.


title: K-nearest correlated neighbor classification for Indian sign language gesture recognition using feature fusion

text: A sign language recognition system is an attempt to bring the speech and the hearing impaired community closer to more regular and convenient forms of communication. Thus, this system requires to recognize the gestures from a sign language and convert them to a form easily understood by the hearing. The model that has been proposed in this paper recognizes static images of the signed alphabets in the Indian Sign Language. Unlike the alphabets in other sign languages like the American Sign Language and the Chinese Sign language, the ISL alphabet are both single-handed and double-handed. Hence, to make recognition easier the model first categorizes them as single-handed or double-handed. For both categories two kinds of features, namely HOG and SIFT, are extracted for a set of training images and are combined in a single matrix. After which, HOG and SIFT features for the input test image are combined with the HOG and SIFT feature matrices of the training set. Correlation is computed for these matrices and is fed to a K-Nearest Neighbor Classifier to obtain the resultant classification of the test image.


title: Decentralized Edge Clouds

text: Cloud computing services are traditionally deployed on centralized computing infrastructures confined to a few data centers, while cloud applications run in a single data center. However, the cloud's centralized nature can be limiting in terms of performance and cost for applications where users, data, and computation are distributed. The authors present an overview of distributed clouds that might be better suited for such applications. They briefly describe the distributed cloud landscape and introduce Nebula, a highly decentralized cloud that uses volunteer edge resources. The authors provide insights into some of its key properties and design issues, and describe a distributed MapReduce application scenario to illustrate the benefits and trade-offs of using distributed and decentralized clouds for distributed data-intensive computing applications.


title: A 5-Gbps CMOS Burst-Mode CDR Circuit With an Analog Phase Interpolator for PONs

text: This paper presents a 5-Gb/s low-power burst-mode clock and data recovery circuit based on analog phase interpolator for passive optical network applications. The proposed clock recovery unit consists of two double-edge triggered sample-and-holds (DTSHs) and a phase interpolator. The PI instantaneously locks the recovered clock to incoming burst-mode data by coefficients generated at the DT-SHs’ outputs. To reduce power dissipation in clock recovery unit, instead of two buffers, only one is utilized for the DT-SH. The proposed PI-based BM-CDR has been designed and simulated in 0.18-μm standard CMOS technology. The Results show that reduction in power dissipation of 40% for the clock recovery unit has been achieved. The proposed BM-CDR circuit retimes data at 5Gb/s for a 210-1 pseudo-random binary sequence within the first UI. The recovered data shows jitter at 14ps (pp). The circuit, including 1:2 data demux, draws 29mW power from a 1.8-V supply.


title: User Requirements Analysis: A Review of Supporting Methods

text: Understanding user requirements is an integral part of information systems design and is critical to the success of interactive systems. However specifying these requirements is not so simple to achieve. This paper describes general methods to support user requirements analysis that can be adapted to a range of situations. Some brief case studies are described to illustrate how these methods have been applied in practice.


title: Shape from shading for the digitization of curved documents

text: Document digitization is faster and more affordable using digital cameras than scanners. On the other hand, if we aim at extending the basic digital camera functionalities for such a purpose, post-processings will be of first importance, at least to improve the text legibility. In this paper, we address the specific problem of the virtual flattening of curved documents, as for example the pages of an opened book lying on its spine. In order to compute the document shape, we use the shape from shading technique and discuss why, in some cases, it is more suitable than other 3D single-view reconstruction techniques. We extend the seminal work by Wada et al. (Proceedings of the IAPR Workshop on machine vision and applications, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 591–594, 1992) and consecutive papers, reformulating the problem in terms of perspective shape from shading. Finally, we design a complete post-processing algorithm and test it on real images. Even if the documents are much curved, it is shown that the restored images are almost identical to scanned images of the flattened documents.


title: Direct Synthesis of Complex Loaded Chebyshev Filters in a Complex Filtering Network

text: In this paper, a direct synthesis approach is proposed for designing a Chebyshev filter that matches the frequency variant complex loads at both the ports. The approach is based on the power wave renormalization theory and two practical assumptions: 1) the prescribed transmission zeros are stationary and 2) the reflection zeros are located along an imaginary axis. Three conditions are derived to stipulate the characteristic polynomials of the filter's responses through the renormalization of reference load impedances. These conditions are sequentially applied to ensure that the filter is physically realizable and well matched to the complex loads. It has been shown that the optimally synthesized filtering network that consists of an ideal filter cascaded with a piece of transmission line of an optimal length at each port can match the complex loads over a given frequency band with the best effort. By incorporating with an adjustment of the junction parameters, the approach provides an analytical yet flexible way to synthesize advanced microwave circuits composed of multiple filters connected together through some generalized junctions. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated through three synthesis examples.


title: Analyze your Scratch projects with Dr . Scratch and assess your Computational Thinking skills

text: In this paper we present the feature of Dr. Scratch that allows to automatically assessing the Computational Thinking skills of Scratch projects. The paper reviews similar initiatives, like Hairball, and investigates the literature with proposals for assessment of Scratch projects that we have studied and remixed in order to develop the Computational Thinking analysis. Then it introduces the various aspects that Dr. Scratch takes into consideration to compute a Computational Thinking score for a Scratch project and presents some preliminary findings of the analysis of over 100 investigated Scratch projects. Finally, future directions and limitations are presented and discussed.


title: Hatha yoga: improved vital capacity of college students.

text:
CONTEXT
The vital capacity of the lungs is a critical component of good health. Vital capacity is an important concern for those with asthma, heart conditions, and lung ailments; those who smoke; and those who have no known lung problems.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effects of yoga postures and breathing exercises on vital capacity.

DESIGN
Using the Spiropet spirometer, researchers measured vital capacity. Vital capacity determinants were taken near the beginning and end of two 17-week semesters. No control group was used.

SETTING
Midwestern university yoga classes taken for college credit.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 287 college students, 89 men and 198 women.

INTERVENTION
Subjects were taught yoga poses, breathing techniques, and relaxation in two 50-minute class meetings for 15 weeks.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Vital capacity over time for smokers, asthmatics, and those with no known lung disease.

RESULTS
The study showed a statistically significant (P < .001) improvement in vital capacity across all categories over time.

CONCLUSIONS
It is not known whether these findings were the result of yoga poses, breathing techniques, relaxation, or other aspects of exercise in the subjects' life. The subjects' adherence to attending class was 99.96%. The large number of 287 subjects is considered to be a valid number for a study of this type. These findings are consistent with other research studies reporting the positive effect of yoga on the vital capacity of the lungs.


title: PinPoint: Localizing Interfering Radios

text: This paper presents PinPoint, a technique for localizing rogue interfering radios that adhere to standard protocols in the inhospitable ISM band without any cooperation from the interfering radio. PinPoint is designed to be incrementally deployed on top of existing 802.11 WLAN infrastructure, and used by network administrators to identify and troubleshoot sources of interference which may be disrupting the network. PinPoint’s key contribution is a novel algorithm that accurately computes the line of sight angle of arrival (AoA) and cyclic signal strength indicator (CSSI) of the target interfering signal at all APs, even when the line of sight (LoS) component is buried by stronger multipath components, interference and noise. PinPoint leverages this algorithm to design an optimization technique, which can localize interfering radios and simultaneously identify the type of interference. Unlike several localization techniques which require extensive pre-deployment calibration (e.g. RFFingerprinting), PinPoint requires very little calibration by the network administrator, and uses a novel algorithm to self-initialize its bearings, even if the locations of some AP are initially unknown and are oriented randomly. We implement PinPoint on WARP software radios and deploy in an indoor testbed spanning an entire floor of our department. We compare PinPoint with the best known prior RSSI [8, 11] and MUSIC-AoA based approaches and show that PinPoint achieves a median localization error of 0.97 meters, which is around three times lower compared to the RSSI [8, 11] and MUSIC-AoA based approaches.


title: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Forest Harvesters

text: A real-time SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) approach to harvester localization and tree map generation in forest environments is presented in this paper. The method combines 2D laser localization and mapping with GPS information to form global tree maps. Building an incremental map while also using it for localization is the only way a mobile robot can navigate in large outdoor environments. Until recently SLAM has only been confined to small-scale, mostly indoor, environments. We try to addresses the issues of scale for practical implementations of SLAM in extensive outdoor environments. Presented algorithms are tested in real outdoor environments using an all-terrain vehicle equipped with the navigation sensors and a DGPS receiver.


title: Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets : The Case of Payment Networks

text: In this article, we construct a model to study competing payment networks, where networks offer differentiated products in terms of benefits to consumers and merchants. We study market equilibria for a variety of market structures: duopolistic competition and cartel, symmetric and asymmetric networks, and alternative assumptions about multihoming and consumer preferences. We find that competition unambiguously increases consumer and merchant welfare. We extend this analysis to competition among payment networks providing different payment instruments and find similar results. JEL Classifications: D43, G21, L13


title: Forecasting Intraday stock price trends with text mining techniques

text: In this paper, we describe NewsCATS (news categorization and trading system), a system implemented to predict stock price trends for the time immediately after the publication of press releases. NewsCATS consists mainly of three components. The first component retrieves relevant information from press releases through the application of text preprocessing techniques. The second component sorts the press releases into predefined categories. Finally, appropriate trading strategies are derived by the third component by means of the earlier categorization. The findings indicate that a categorization of press releases is able to provide additional information that can be used to forecast stock price trends, but that an adequate trading strategy is essential for the results of the categorization to be fully exploited.


title: Use alone or in Combination of Red and Infrared Laser in Skin Wounds.

text: A systematic review was conducted covering the action of red laser, infrared and combination of both, with emphasis on cutaneous wound therapy, showing the different settings on parameters such as fluency, power, energy density, time of application, frequency mode and even the type of low-power lasers and their wavelengths. It was observed that in general, the lasers brings good clinical and histological results mainly, but there is not a protocol that defines a dosage of use that has predictability of therapeutic success in repairing these wounds.


title: Ultra-stretchable and skin-mountable strain sensors using carbon nanotubes-Ecoflex nanocomposites.

text: Super-stretchable, skin-mountable, and ultra-soft strain sensors are presented by using carbon nanotube percolation network-silicone rubber nanocomposite thin films. The applicability of the strain sensors as epidermal electronic systems, in which mechanical compliance like human skin and high stretchability (ϵ > 100%) are required, has been explored. The sensitivity of the strain sensors can be tuned by the number density of the carbon nanotube percolation network. The strain sensors show excellent hysteresis performance at different strain levels and rates with high linearity and small drift. We found that the carbon nanotube-silicone rubber based strain sensors possess super-stretchability and high reliability for strains as large as 500%. The nanocomposite thin films exhibit high robustness and excellent resistance-strain dependency for over ~1380% mechanical strain. Finally, we performed skin motion detection by mounting the strain sensors on different parts of the body. The maximum induced strain by the bending of the finger, wrist, and elbow was measured to be ~ 42%, 45% and 63%, respectively.


title: Improv: A System for Scripting Interactive Actors in Virtual Worlds

text: Improv is a system for the creation of real−time behavior−based animated actors. There have been seve recent efforts to build network distributed autonomous agent But in general these efforts do not focus on the author’s view To create rich interactive worlds inhabited by believable animated actors, authors need the proper tools. Im prov provides tools to create actors that respond to users and each other in real−time, with personalities and mood consistent with the author’s goals and intentions. Improv consists of two subsystems. The first subsystem is an Animation Engine that uses procedur techniques to enable authors to create layered, continuo non−repetitive motions and smooth transitions between the The second subsystem is a Behavior Engine that enab authors to create sophisticated rules governing how acto communicate, change, and make decisions. The combin system provides an integrated set of tools for authoring th "minds" and "bodies" of interactive actors. The system uses a english−style scripting language so that creative experts wh are not primarily programmers can create powerful interactiv applications.


title: The EMOTE model for effort and shape

text: Human movements include limb gestures and postural attitude. Although many computer animation researchers have studied these classes of movements, procedurally generated movements still lack naturalness. We argue that looking only at the psychological notion of gesture is insufficient to capture movement qualities needed by animated charactes. We advocate that the domain of movement observation science, specifically Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and its Effort and Shape components, provides us with valuable parameters for the form and execution of qualitative aspects of movements. Inspired by some tenets shared among LMA proponents, we also point out that Effort and Shape phrasing across movements and the engagement of the whole body are essential aspects to be considered in the search for naturalness in procedurally generated gestures. Finally, we present EMOTE (Expressive MOTion Engine), a 3D character animation system that applies Effort and Shape qualities to independently defined underlying movements and thereby generates more natural synthetic gestures.