Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human Motion Tracking by Temporal-Spatial Local Gaussian Process Experts

Human pose estimation via motion tracking systems can be considered as a regression problem within a discriminative framework. It is always a challenging task to model the mapping from observation space to state space because of the high-dimensional characteristic in the multimodal conditional distribution. In order to build the mapping, existing techniques usually involve a large set of training samples in the learning process which are limited in their capability to deal with multimodality. We propose, in this work, a novel online sparse Gaussian Process (GP) regression model to recover 3-D human motion in monocular videos. Particularly, we investigate the fact that for a given test input, its output is mainly determined by the training samples potentially residing in its local neighborhood and defined in the unified input-output space. This leads to a local mixture GP experts system composed of different local GP experts, each of which dominates a mapping behavior with the specific covariance function adapting to a local region. To handle the multimodality, we combine both temporal and spatial information therefore to obtain two categories of local experts. The temporal and spatial experts are integrated into a seamless hybrid system, which is automatically self-initialized and robust for visual tracking of nonlinear human motion. Learning and inference are extremely efficient as all the local experts are defined online within very small neighborhoods. Extensive experiments on two real-world databases, HumanEva and PEAR, demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model, which significantly improve the performance of existing models.
Prefrontal cortex mediation of cognitive enhancement in rewarding motivational contexts

Increasing the reward value of behavioral goals can facilitate cognitive processes required for goal achievement. This facilitation may be accomplished by the dynamic and flexible engagement of cognitive control mechanisms operating in distributed brain regions. It is still not clear, however, what are the characteristics of individuals, situations, and neural activation dynamics that optimize motivation-linked cognitive enhancement. Here we show that highly reward-sensitive individuals exhibited greater improvement of working memory performance in rewarding contexts, but exclusively on trials that were not rewarded. This effect was mediated by a shift in the temporal dynamics of activation within right lateral prefrontal cortex, from a transient to predominantly tonic mode, with an additional anticipatory transient boost. In contexts with intermittent rewards, a strategy of proactive cognitive control may enable globally optimal performance to facilitate reward attainment. Reward-sensitive individuals appear preferentially motivated to adopt this resource-demanding strategy, resulting in paradoxical benefits selectively for nonrewarded events.
On the Computational Complexity of Naive-Based Semantics for Abstract Dialectical Frameworks

Abstract dialectical frameworks (ADFs) are a powerful generalization of Dung's abstract argumentation frameworks. ADFs allow to model argumentation scenarios such that ADF semantics then provide interpretations of the scenarios. Among the considerable number of ADF semantics, the naive-based ones are built upon the fundamental concept of conflict-freeness. Intuitively, a three-valued interpretation of an ADF's statements is conflict-free iff all true statements can possibly be accepted, and all false statements cannot possibly be accepted. In this paper, we perform an exhaustive analysis of the computational complexity of naive-based semantics. The results are quite interesting, for some of them involve little-known classes of the so-called Boolean hierarchy (another hierarchy in between classes of the polynomial hierarchy). Furthermore in credulous and sceptical entailment, the complexity can be different depending on whether we check for truth or falsity of a specific statement.
Time Evolution of Galaxy Scaling Relations in Cosmological Simulations

Philip Taylor ad Chiaki Kobayashi, ‘Time evolution of galaxy scaling relations in cosmological simulations’, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 463(3): 2465-2479 (August 30, 2016). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of MNRAS. The version of record is available online at doi: 10.1093/mnras/stw2157
Influence of FFA Activities on Critical Thinking Skills in Texas Three-star Chapters

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of FFA activities on critical thinking skills of Texas FFA members in three-star FFA chapters. This descriptive study was conducted in eight purposively selected three-star FFA chapters throughout Texas. Three-star chapters are those chapters who have emerged as outstanding programs within the state based on the National FFA Chapter Awards Program guidelines. Seniors within each chapter were selected to complete a demographic survey and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) instrument (Watson & Glaser, 2008a). The mean score for all FFA members who completed the survey was 39.85, which is considerably lower than the WGCTA norm group at 48.5 (Watson & Glaser, 2008b). With a mean score of 39.85, the FFA members who completed the WGCTA scored between the 20 and 25 percentile of high school students in the 12 grade (Watson & Glaser, 2008b). FFA members performed best on the Evaluation of Arguments subtest with a mean of 9.02 and scored lowest on the Inference subtest with a mean of 5.35. The only FFA activity that was an indicator of FFA members’ critical thinking ability was the State Leadership Development (LDE) contest. Gender was an indicator of FFA members’ critical thinking ability.
An Effective and Robust Method for Short Text Classification

Classification of texts potentially containing a complex and specific terminology requires the use of learning methods that do not rely on extensive feature engineering. In this work we use prediction by partial matching (PPM), a method that compresses texts to capture text features and creates a language model adapted to a particular text. We show that the method achieves a high accuracy of text classification and can be used as an alternative to state-of-art learning algorithms.
A new white dwarf constraint on the rate of change of the gravitational constant

In this paper we derive a bound on the rate of change of the gravitational constant G based on observations of the pulsating white dwarf G117-B15A. This star is a ZZ Ceti pulsator which has been extensively studied with astroseismological techniques for the last three decades. The most recent determination of P = (2.3 ± 1.4) x 10 -15 s s -1 for the 215.2-s fundamental mode agrees very well with predictions of the best-fitting theoretical model. The rate of change of the oscillation period can be explained by two effects: the cooling (dominant factor) and change of gravitational binding energy (residual gravitational contraction). Since the white dwarfs are pulsating in g-modes, the frequencies of which are related to the Brunt-Vaisala frequency (explicitly dependent on G), observational determination of the change of the period (more precisely the difference between the observed and calculated P) can be used to set an upper bound on the rate of change of G. In light of the current data concerning G117-B15A we derive the following bound: |G/G| ≤ 4.10 x 10 -10 yr -1 . We also demonstrate that a varying gravitational constant G does not modify the cooling of white dwarfs in a significant way, at least at the luminosities where white dwarfs are pulsationally unstable.
Working Paper n ° : 2012-58-01 GLOBAL EXCESS LIQUIDITY AND ASSET PRICES IN EMERGING COUNTRIES : A PVAR APPROACH

The overly accommodating monetary policy is often accused of creating surplus liquidity and bubbles on the asset markets. In particular, it could have contributed to strong capital inflows in emerging countries, which may have had a significant impact on financial stability in these countries, affecting domestic financing conditions and creating a risk of upward pressures on asset prices. We focus in this paper on the impact of global excess liquidity on goods and asset prices for a set of emerging market countries by estimating a panel VAR model. We define first global liquidity and highlight situations of excess liquidity. We then find that excess liquidity at global level has spillover effects on output and price levels in emerging countries. The impact on real estate, commodity and share prices in emerging countries is less clear. JEL Classification Numbers: E44, E52, F3, G01
The influence of age and type of school of primary school teachers on their teaching competency

The present study focused on the influence of age and type of school of primary school teachers on their teaching competency. The study was of descriptive nature. Randomly selected 300 primary school teachers of Pilibhit district of U.P. were taken as sample of the study. General Teaching Competency Scale (GTCS) was used to collect the data. F–test and t–test were used for statistical analysis of the data. The result drawn from the study that government school teachers were more competent than private school teachers. It is also found that age of teachers did not affect the teaching competency of primary school teachers.
KiSS1 Metastasis Suppressor Gene Product Induces Suppression of Tyrosine Kinase Receptor Signaling to Akt, Tumor Necrosis Factor Family Ligand Expression, and Apoptosis

The powerful metastasis suppressor function of KiSS1 gene products has been demonstrated in both clinical studies and experimental models, but its mechanism is still incompletely understood. Studies on the antimetastatic function of KiSS1 and GPR54 largely focused on the autocrine inhibition of cell motility, despite experimental evidence of an alternative post-migratory effect. We showed previously that the activation of its cognate receptor GPR54 by kisspeptin-10 suppressed the capacity of the prometastatic chemokine receptor CXCR4 to induce chemotaxis in response to stromal cell derived factor 1 and abolished the activation of Akt by CXCR4. We demonstrate here that activation of GPR54 can also abolish the activation of Akt by the tyrosine kinase receptors for epidermal growth factor and insulin. The signaling of GPR54 was sufficient to trigger apoptosis in epithelial and lymphoid cell lines. Surprisingly, this phenomenon depended largely on the activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) rather than the inhibition of Akt. Activation of GPR54 resulted in the ERK-dependent expression of tumor necrosis factor-α and FasL in a lymphoid cell line, the latter being the main trigger of apoptosis. These data provide novel mechanisms relevant to a potential autocrine metastasis suppression effect of KiSS1 on GPR54-positive tumor cells. More importantly, they also establish an experimental basis for a paracrine mode of action by which kisspeptins suppress the metastatic potential of tumor cells lacking expression of the receptor, as observed in several animal models of metastasis. The action on stromal cells significantly broadens the clinical relevance of this metastasis suppressor.
SAR Imaging of Ship Wakes and Inverse Ship Wake Problem

Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of sea surface often reveal ship wakes, which appear in a form of bright and dark streaks. It is believed that some of them pertain to the ship generated Kelvin wave system and some to the ship turbulent wake (Reed et al., 1990). The streaks in SAR images are sufficiently narrow to consider them as straight segments. Assuming that the location and orientation of the straight segments representing the ship wake in SAR images are defined, a related question arises: do these images contain sufficient information to extract from it certain ship characteristics, e.g. its speed and some principal geometric parameters?
Empowering students’ metacognitive skills on sscs learning model integrated with metacognitive strategy

This research was conducted to investigate the effect of Search Solve Create and Share learning model integrated with metacognitive strategy (SSCS + MS) on student’s metacognitive skills. The quasi experimental research design was used to compare the effect of traditional learning, as well as the learning models of SSCS, and SSCS+MS on metacognitive skills of class X Senior High School students in Kupang, Indonesia. Data were analyzed by using one-way ANCOVA continued with post hoc analysis of Least Significant Different test. The results of research show that SSCS + MS learning model increases the students’ metacognitive skills, with an increase of 25.58% higher than that of the SSCS learning model and 67.33% higher than that of the traditional learning. These research findings indicate that the SSCS + MS learning model has the biggest potential in empowering students’ metacognitive skills compared to the two other learnings. Based on these findings, teachers need to implement SSCS + MS learning model to empower student’s metacognitive skills.
Biologically Motivated Edge Localization and Contour Integration-Adaptable Relaxation Approach

The paper describes edge localization and contour integration techniques that are parallel and modular in terms of the communication and computation structures. The computational framework can accommodate a sequence of images and track moving objects accurately. It also detects corners and junctions accurately. Our technique is biologically motivated, in particular the biological behavior known as dynamic receptive fields or short-term plasticity. The behavior has been observed in different orders of time course and our interest is the one at the order of milliseconds. We believe such instantaneous adaptability is crucial in designing reliable vision systems. The technique is also related to the relaxation labeling and field based edge grouping techniques. An extensive amount of experiments conducted on both synthetic and non-synthetic data demonstrates the effectiveness of the technique. 1 A shorter version of the paper has been submitted to ECCV 2002.
Numerical investigation of S822 wind turbine airfoil

We carried out direct numerical simulations of the flow past a two-dimensional S822 wind turbine blade section at a chord Reynolds number of Re=100,000 and an angle of attack of � = 5deg. Without blade rotation the separated boundary layer “rolls up” into spanwise vortices which then “break up” into smaller scale structures leading to transition to turbulence. Simulation results compare favorably with XFoil predictions and wind tunnel data by the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. By adding volume forcing terms to the right-hand-side of the Navier-Stokes equations the effect of blade rotation can be simulated. Blade rotation is shown to result in a radial velocity component towards the blade tip in areas where the velocity is substantially different from its free stream value, such as near the stagnation point and especially in the separated flow region. The spanwise velocity component makes the flow crossflow unstable resulting in stationary and traveling crossflow vortices. A linear stability theory analysis which compares favorably with the simulation data provides proof that the primary instabilities are of mixed type, including both a two-dimensional mode (Tollmien-Schlichting and Kelvin-Helmholtz type) and a stationary and unsteady crossflow mode. The crossflow instability results in an earlier transition and a separation delay, lift increase, and drag reduction. This effect is more pronounced at 20% than at 80% blade radius. Because we apply periodicity conditions in the spanwise direction our results provide an explanation for rotational augmentation that is not based on the transfer of fluid from the inboard region towards the blade tips (“centrifugal pumping”). Instead, we argue that rotational augmentation, at least for low Reynolds number flows, is a direct consequence of crossflow instabilities which destabilize the flow leading to earlier transition and separation delay.
Identifying Students at Risk: An Examination of Computer-Adaptive Measures and Latent Class Growth Analysis

ABSTRACT Multitiered systems of support depend on screening technology to identify students at risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a computer-adaptive test and latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to identify students at risk in reading with focus on the use of this methodology to characterize student performance in screening. Participants included 3,699 students in Grades 3–5. Three time points of administration (fall, winter, and spring) of the computer-adaptive reading measure were selected. LCGA results indicated 6–7 classes, depending on grade, informed by level and growth in student performance that significantly predicted failure on the statewide test administered at the end of the year. The lowest-performing classes had failure rates above 90% across all grades. The results indicate that identifying homogeneous groups of learners through LCGA may be valuable as an approach to determining students who need additional instruction. Practical implications and future directions are discussed.
HUBUNGAN KESEJAHTERAAN SPIRITUAL DENGAN DEPRESI PADA PASIEN DENGAN PENYAKIT JANTUNG KORONER (PJK)

Latar Belakang: PJK menyebabkan akibat yang besar terhadap penderita pada seluruh aspek kehidupan penderita. Depresi dapat muncul pada pasien PJK. Depresi dapat memberikan efek yang lebih berat terhadap penurunan kualitas hidup pada pasien PJK. Kesejahteraan spiritual merupakan salah satu hal yang perlu dimiliki pasien PJK. Tujuan: Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui hubungan antara kesejahteraan spiritual dengan depresi pada pasien dengan penyakit jantung koroner . Metode: Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kuantitatif dengan menggunakan pendekatan korelasional dilakukan secara potong lintang. Populasi pada penelitian ini adalah pasien dengan penyakit jantung kororner yang dirawat jalan di Poli Jantung RS X di Bandung dan sudah menjalani rawat jalan minimal 1 bulan. Teknik pengambilan sampel dengan simple random sampling dan didapat ukuran sampel 100 responden. Hasil dan Kesimpulan: Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan adanya hubungan yang signifikan antara kesejahteraan spiritual dengan depresi (r=-0,571,p<0,01). Semakin tinggi kesejahteraan spiritual pasien dengan penyakit jantung coroner maka semakin rendah tingkat depresi pasien tersebut. Kata Kunci: Depresi, kesejahteraan spiritual, penyakit jantung koroner
Occupational health hazards of female hairdressers in Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hairdressing is a common worldwide job which embraces a female staff. They are exposed to a variety of prospective health hazards in their work environment. This study aims to identify potential health problems that may be associated with their work. It was conducted to investigate the prevalence of common health problems and their self-perception of health in female hairdressers. Thirty hairdressing salons in Jacarepagua district of, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were included in the study. Deprived health status such as respiratory illness, and reproductive outcomes were observed in female hair dressers irrespective of age. A high prevalence of smoking and a lack of consciousness to use protective equipment such as gloves to undertake wet work and handling a range of chemicals were noticed. Awareness regarding the prevailing risks in the working environment is recommended for all hairdressers. Employment of proper guidelines and systematic self-monitoring according to the guidelines to minimize health problems in hair dressers is recommended.
Simultaneous Mosaicing and Tracking with an Event Camera

© 2014. The copyright of this document resides with its authors. An event camera is a silicon retina which outputs not a sequence of video frames like a standard camera, but a stream of asynchronous spikes, each with pixel location, sign and precise timing, indicating when individual pixels record a threshold log intensity change. By encoding only image change, it offers the potential to transmit the information in a standard video but at vastly reduced bitrate, and with huge added advantages of very high dynamic range and temporal resolution. However, event data calls for new algorithms, and in particular we believe that algorithms which incrementally estimate global scene models are best placed to take full advantages of its properties. Here, we show for the first time that an event stream, with no additional sensing, can be used to track accurate camera rotation while building a persistent and high quality mosaic of a scene which is super-resolution accurate and has high dynamic range. Our method involves parallel camera rotation tracking and template reconstruction from estimated gradients, both operating on an event-by-event basis and based on probabilistic filtering.
Factors affecting psychological help-seeking in men

This thesis focuses on the psychology of men, and in particular the factors that are associated with their disclosure and help-seeking experiences in two particular contexts: following sexual abuse and when experiencing a psychological difficulty. This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 is a systematic review of the literature, investigating the barriers to disclosure and help-seeking for male survivors of sexual abuse. Five barriers were identified: unwillingness to acknowledge the abuse, the nature of the abuse and abuser factors, perceptions of sexual orientation, stigma and shame, and mistrust of others and services. These barriers are discussed within the context of masculinity. Clinical implications are discussed, such as the importance of training in the sexual abuse of men for professional staff groups. Chapter 2 is a vignette based empirical study which explores factors associated with help-seeking for psychological difficulties in men. The study used the theory of planned behaviour as a guiding framework in order to test a number of hypotheses. Data were collected using an online survey and participants were men aged 18-65, living in the UK, who were recruited via social media. Perceived behavioural control and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were significant variables within the theory of planned behaviour model. Men were most likely to endorse seeking help from their intimate partners and GPs and least likely from helplines and religious leaders. Clinical implications are discussed and areas of future research recommended. Chapter 3 is a reflective paper which discusses how the topic of the thesis originated. This paper reflects on the experiences of being a male trainee clinical psychologist in a predominantly female profession, as well as in relation to carrying out research on male psychology. The paper concludes with final thoughts about how the work started in this thesis can be continued post-qualification.