Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A fast image segmentation algorithm for interactive video hotspot retrieval

This paper presents a fast image segmentation algorithm for extracting areas-of-interest ("hotspots") from video sequences. Because video hotspots, which are the visual analogues of HTML hyperlinks, highly depend on a user's interest, it is very difficult to automatically extract the exact outlines of objects of interest in videos. Our approach to interactive video hotspot retrieval is to provide candidate hotspots with segmented regions of video frames when requested, and a Web designer using the tool for Web site creation may select the area (or areas) he is interested in as a video hotspot. This segmentation algorithm follows a three step coarse-to-fine scheme. The original image is first divided into blocks and a block-merging process is applied to get a coarse segmentation. Then we represent the pre-segmented image as a graph where the value of edges in this graph are evaluated based on multi features, and by using a minimum spanning tree searching algorithm, we merge the vertices in the graph to generate the segmented regions of the image. Finally, we refine the boundary of segmented regions on the pixel level using an improved K-means clustering algorithm. This segmentation algorithm is fast and efficient and our final segmentation results compare favorably with the results obtained using manual outlining. We also provide a convenient way for the Web page designer to select multiple regions as a video hotspot. Our method allows the designer to click on an image during video playback and to get a segmented image almost instantly. The extracted video hotspots can then be used for video hyperlinks, an extension of the general concept of hyperlink to interactive videos.
Error location in Python: where the mutants hide

5 Dynamic scripting programming languages present a unique challenge to software engineering tools that depend on static analysis. Dynamic languages do not benefit from the full lexical and syntax analysis provided by compilers and static analysis tools. Prior work exploited a statically typed language (Java) and a simple n-gram language model to find syntax-error locations in programs. This work investigates whether ngram-based error location on source code written in a dynamic language is effective without static analysis or compilation. UnnaturalCode.py is a syntax-error locator developed for the Python programming language. The UnnaturalCode.py approach is effective on Python code, but faces significantly more challenges than its Java counterpart did. UnnaturalCode.py generalizes the success of previous statically-typed approaches to a dynamically-typed language. 6
Biasing in Gaussian Random Fields and Galaxy Correlations

In this Letter, we show that in a Gaussian random field, the correlation length—the typical size of correlated structures—does not change with biasing. We interpret the amplification of the correlation functions of subsets identified by different thresholds as being caused by the increasing sparseness of peaks over threshold. This clarifies a long-standing misconception in the literature. We also argue that this effect does not explain the observed increase of the amplitude of the correlation function ξ(r) when galaxies of brighter luminosity or galaxy clusters of increasing richness are considered.
DOE / SC-ARM-13-009 Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon : Year-to-Year Differences

United States nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Government or any agency thereof.
Teacher knowledge and professional development in geometry

The successful teaching of geometry depends on teachers knowing a good deal of geometry and how to teach it effectively. This report provides a review of what is known about teacher knowledge in geometry, how the knowledge develops and how this knowledge development can be supported by professional development . The available evidence suggests that attention could usefully be paid both to the initial and continuing education of teachers of mathematics in terms of their background and understanding of geometry.
Estimating the net energy balance of corn ethanol. Agricultural economic report

Studies conducted since the late 1970's have estimated the net energy value of corn ethanol. However, variations in data and assumptions used among the studies have resulted in a wide range of estimates. This study identifies the factors causing this wide variation and develops a more consistent estimate. We conclude that the net energy value of corn ethanol has become positive in recent years due to technological advances in ethanol conversion and increased efficiency in farm production. We show that corn ethanol is energy efficient as indicated by an energy ratio of 1.24.
The arbitrarily varying wiretap channel - communication under uncoordinated attacks

We give a complete characterization of the secrecy capacity of arbitrarily varying wiretap channels (AVWCs) with correlated random coding under a strong secrecy criterion where the eavesdropper may also know the correlated randomness. We obtain that the correlated random coding secrecy capacity is continuous as a function of the AVWC. We show that the deterministic coding secrecy capacity of the AVWC either equals 0 or the correlated random coding secrecy capacity. For the case that only a weak secrecy criterion is applied, a complete characterization of the corresponding secrecy capacity for deterministic codes is possible. In the proof of the secrecy capacity formula for correlated random codes, we apply an auxiliary channel which is compound from the sender to the intended receiver and varies arbitrarily from the sender to the eavesdropper. We discuss the relation between the usual mutual information secrecy criterion and a criterion formulated in terms of total variation distance, and investigate the robustness of the AVWC model.
FIRST REPORT ON Cryptococcus neoformans IN PIGEON EXCRETA FROM PUBLIC AND RESIDENTIAL LOCATIONS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF CUIABÁ, STATE OF MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL

SUMMARY Cryptococcosis is a severe systemic mycosis caused by two species of Cryptococcus that affect humans and animals: C. neoformans and C. gattii. Cosmopolitan and emergent, the mycosis results from the interaction between a susceptible host and the environment. The occurrence of C. neoformans was evaluated in 122 samples of dried pigeon excreta collected in 49 locations in the City of Cuiabá, State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, including public squares (n = 5), churches (n = 4), educational institutions (n = 3), health units (n = 8), open areas covered with asbestos (n = 4), residences (n = 23), factory (n = 1) and a prison (n = 1). Samples collected from July to December of 2010 were seeded on Niger seed agar (NSA). Dark brown colonies were identified by urease test, carbon source assimilation tests and canavanine-glycine-bromothymol blue medium. Polymerase chain reaction primer pairs specific for C. neoformans were also used for identification. Cryptococcus neoformans associated to pigeon excreta was isolated from eight (6.6%) samples corresponding to six (12.2%) locations. Cryptococcus neoformans was isolated from urban areas, predominantly in residences, constituting a risk of acquiring the disease by immunocompromised and immunocompetent individuals.
Affective States Influence Sport Performance in Swimming

Abstract Introduction. Sports activity involves experiencing affective states, which have a substantial effect on actions taken by the athlete. The results of previous studies on the relationship between emotional states and sport performance outcomes are ambiguous. The aim of the study was to establish the relationships between affective states (both emotional states and moods) and performance in swimming. Material and methods. The study examined 9 female swimmers and 22 male swimmers competing at the national level aged from 15 to 23 years (M = 18.1; SD = 2.397). Affective states were evaluated by means of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) completed once a day before the competition and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) completed before each race. The subject’s life record was divided by the time obtained in each race and expressed as a percentage. Results. Immediately before the races where the best results were obtained, the swimmers experienced the strongest positive emotions and the lowest level of negative emotions. The lowest level of positive states was recorded before the races with the worst performance. The lower the level of negative moods (fatigue, depression, anger, and tension) and the higher the level of positive moods (vigour and kindness) were, the better the results obtained by swimmers were. One exception was confusion, which unexpectedly correlated positively with the swimmers’ results. Preliminary analyses showed no indication of statistically significant differences between the women and men surveyed. Conclusions. The results of the study suggest that affective states influence performance outcomes in swimming. This influence may vary according to the valence and content as well as duration of affective states (emotional states vs. mood). On the basis of the results obtained, guidelines for coaches and their athletes can be formulated. A properly prepared trainer can choose training tasks in such a way as to optimise the intensity and content of the emotions experienced by athletes. Emotions seem to be important not only with regard to athletes’ well-being, but also as indirect and direct predictors of the results they achieve. Expression of emotion and emotional awareness in persons connected with sport should be included in training work.
Mesoscopic Structure Conditions the Emergence of Cooperation on Social Networks

Background We study the evolutionary Prisoner's Dilemma on two social networks substrates obtained from actual relational data. Methodology/Principal Findings We find very different cooperation levels on each of them that cannot be easily understood in terms of global statistical properties of both networks. We claim that the result can be understood at the mesoscopic scale, by studying the community structure of the networks. We explain the dependence of the cooperation level on the temptation parameter in terms of the internal structure of the communities and their interconnections. We then test our results on community-structured, specifically designed artificial networks, finding a good agreement with the observations in both real substrates. Conclusion Our results support the conclusion that studies of evolutionary games on model networks and their interpretation in terms of global properties may not be sufficient to study specific, real social systems. Further, the study allows us to define new quantitative parameters that summarize the mesoscopic structure of any network. In addition, the community perspective may be helpful to interpret the origin and behavior of existing networks as well as to design structures that show resilient cooperative behavior.
Performance and accuracy of a GRAPE‐3 system for collisionless N‐body simulations

The performance and accuracy of a GRAPE-3 system for collisionless N-body simulations is discussed. After an initial description of the hardware configurations available to us at Marseille, and the usefulness of on-line analysis, we concentrate on the actual performance and accuracy of direct summation and of tree code software. For the former we discuss the sources of round-off errors. The standard Barnes–Hut tree code cannot be used as such on a GRAPE-3 system. Instead particles are divided into blocks and the tree traversal is performed for the whole block, instead of for each particle in the block separately. The forces are then calculated by direct summation over the whole interaction list. The performance of the tree code depends on the number of particles in the block, the optimum number depending on the speed of the front end and the number of boards. We find that the code scales as O(N) and explain this behaviour. The time per step decreases as the tolerance increases, but the dependence is much weaker than for the standard tree code. Finally, we find that, contrary to what is expected for the standard version, the speed of our tree code increases with the clustering of the configuration. We discuss the effect of the front end and compare the performance of direct summation and of tree code on GRAPE-3 with that of other software on general purpose computers. The accuracy of both direct summation and the tree code is discussed as a function of number of particles and softening. For this we consider the accuracy of the force calculation as well as the energy conservation during a simulation. Because of the increased role of the direct summation in the force calculation, our tree code is much more accurate than the standard one. Finally, we follow the evolution of an isolated barred galaxy using different hardware and software in order to assess the reliability and reproducibility of our results. We find excellent agreement between the pattern speed of the bar in direct summation simulations run on the high-precision GRAPE-4 machines and that in direct summation simulations run on our GRAPE-3 system. The agreement with the tree code is also very good provided the tolerance values are smaller than about 1.0. We conclude that GRAPE-3 systems are well suited for collisionless simulations and in particular for those of galaxies. This is due to their good accuracy and their high speed, which allows the use of a large number of particles.
The dimensions of fish gills in relation to their function.

1. Measurements have been made of the gill areas of fourteen species of British fish, all marine except for the tench and trout. In addition the gill area of the Antarctic icefish, Chaenocephalus (lacking haemoglobin) has been measured. 2. The different parameters of the gill sieve have been considered quantitatively in relation to the size of the gill area, resistance to the passage of water, and the diffusion conditions at the gills. 3. From calculations of the expected flow through a sieve of the measured dimensions it has been concluded that a sufficient volume would pass in the inter-lamellar spaces despite their fine dimensions. Differences in the nature of the sieve relative to the theoretical one and changes during the respiratory cycle account for the ventilation volumes measured being less than those calculated. 4. The theoretical analysis of the operation of the gill sieve are discussed in relation to measurements of Gray (1954) and to the developmental studies of Price (1931). 5. It is concluded that more active fish not only have larger gill areas but that the conditions for gaseous exchange are better than for more sluggish forms and that the area is increased in such a way as to keep the resistance to flow to a low value. This is mainly achieved by having an increased total filament length and a large number of secondary folds. More sluggish fish have more widely spaced and higher lamellae and their total filament length is reduced. The resistance to flow relative to the area is less in these forms than in the more active species. 6. Consideration is given to the different pathways along which water can infiltrate past the respiratory epithelium and analogies are drawn with the alveolar air, and the physiological and anatomical dead-spaces of the mammalian lung.
The expression of the BPIFB4 and CXCR4 associates with sustained health in long-living individuals from Cilento-Italy

The study of the health status in long-living individuals (LLIs) may help identifying health-span and life-span determinants. BPI-Fold-Containing-Family-B-Member-4 (BPIFB4) protein is higher in healthy vs. non-healthy (frail) LLIs serum and its longevity-associated variant forced expression improves cardiovascular outcomes in ischemia mice models. Thus, we tested the association of BPIFB4 and ischemia-responding HIF-1ɑ pathway components (i.e. CXCR4, AK3, ALDO-C, ADM, VEGF-A, GLUT-1 and miR-210) with human life-span and health-span by analyzing mRNA expression in circulating mononuclear cells (MNCs) of LLIs (N=14 healthy; N=31 frail) and young controls (N=63). ALDO-C, ADM, VEGF-A and GLUT-1 significantly decreased and miR-210 increased in LLIs vs. controls. Only VEGF-A and GLUT-1 showed further significant reduction in healthy-LLIs vs. frail-LLIs comparison. While BPIFB4 and CXCR4 were similar between LLIs and controls, BPIFB4 was significantly higher and CXCR4 lower in healthy- versus frail-LLIs. On a new set of LLIs (N=7 healthy and N=5 non-healthy) we assessed a potentially correlated function with low CXCR4 expression. Healthy donors' MNCs showed efficient migration ability toward CXCR4 ligand SDF-1ɑ/CXCL12 and high percentage of migrated CXCR4pos cells which inversely correlated with CXCR4 RNA expression. In conclusion, BPIFB4 and CXCR4 expression classify LLIs health status that correlates with maintained MNCs migration.
Handwritten digit recognition using sparse deep architectures

A lot of research has been lately focusing on deep neural networks as an alternative to shallow ones. The added advantage among many, is the automated feature extraction of pattern from data. These models have been applied successfully to many tasks, including handwritten digit recognition, where they lead the state of the art performance. In this paper we apply a sparse deep belief network and a denoising autoencoder to a new dataset proposed in the ICDAR 2013 handwritten digit competition, which is a challenging alternative in multiple aspects to many popular digit datasets. Additionally we raise some difficulties met during modelling. We finally put the spot on some elements that could improve the performance for subsequent attempts in improving models' accuracy.
Towards detecting emotional communities in Twitter

The analysis of social networks is a very challenging research area while a fundamental aspect concerns the detection of user communities. In this paper we present a novel methodology for community detection based on users' emotional behavior. The methodology analyzes user's tweets in order to determine their emotional behavior in Ekman emotional scale. We define one metric so as to count the influence of produced communities. Our results are quite promising in terms of creating influential enough communities.
Brain development in Chinese children and adolescents: a structural MRI study

This is the first systematic study of Chinese children's brain development. Using optimized voxel-based morphometry, we investigated age-related changes in gray and white matter in Chinese children and adolescents aged 7 to 23 years. Results showed mostly linear reductions, but also some linear increases, in gray matter in many regions of the brain. Gray matter changes were more evident in the parietal and temporal regions than in the frontal and occipital regions. White matter showed significant linear increases in internal capsule, arcuate fasciculus, superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and cingulate fasciculus.
The significance of denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms in biological nutrient removal activated sludge systems.

In this paper the advantages and disadvantages of denitrifying PAOs (polyphosphate accumulating organisms) in conventional BNRAS (biological nutrient removal activated sludge) and external nitrification BNRAS (ENBNRAS) systems are evaluated, with experimental data exhibiting a range of anoxic P uptake from low (<10%) to very high (>60%). The results indicate that the specific denitrification rate of the PAOs on internally stored PHB COD is about 1/5th of that of the "ordinary" heterotrophic organisms on SBCOD, and the PAOs contribute little (maximum 20%) to the denitrification in BNRAS systems even when the anoxic P uptake is high (60% of the total P uptake). Considering the unpredictable nature of anoxic P uptake and the reduction in BEPR it causes compared with aerobic P uptake BEPR, it is concluded that anoxic P uptake does not add a significant advantage to the BNR system.
Citation Prediction in Heterogeneous Bibliographic Networks

To reveal information hiding in link space of bibliographical networks, link analysis has been studied from different perspectives in recent years. In this paper, we address a novel problem namely citation prediction, that is: given information about authors, topics, target publication venues as well as time of certain research paper, finding and predicting the citation relationship between a query paper and a set of previous papers. Considering the gigantic size of relevant papers, the loosely connected citation network structure as well as the highly skewed citation relation distribution, citation prediction is more challenging than other link prediction problems which have been studied before. By building a meta-path based prediction model on a topic discriminative search space, we here propose a two-phase citation probability learning approach, in order to predict citation relationship effectively and efficiently. Experiments are performed on real-world dataset with comprehensive measurements, which demonstrate that our framework has substantial advantages over commonly used link prediction approaches in predicting citation relations in bibliographical networks.
Consequences of driving cessation: decreased out-of-home activity levels.

OBJECTIVES Increasing age, socioeconomic factors, and declining function and health have been linked to driving cessation, but little is known about the consequences of stopping driving. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that driving cessation leads to a decline in out-of-home activity levels. METHODS In 1989 a survey of driving practices was administered to surviving noninstitutionalized members of the New Haven Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) cohort. Of 1,316 respondents, 502 were active drivers as of 1988, 92 had stopped driving between 1982 and 1987, and 722 never drove or stopped before 1982. Information on sociodemographic and health-related variables came from in-home EPESE interviews in 1982, 1985, and 1988, and from yearly phone interviews. Activity was measured at all three in-home interviews, and an activity measure was created based on self-reported participation in nine out-of-home activities. A repeated measures random-effects model was used to test the effect of driving cessation on activity while controlling for potential confounders. RESULTS Driving cessation was strongly associated with decreased out-of-home activity levels (coefficient-1.081, standard error 0.264, p < .001) after adjustment for sociodemographic and health-related factors. DISCUSSION The potential consequences of driving limitations or cessation should be taken into account when advising older drivers and developing alternative transportation strategies to help maintain their mobility.