Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CLASSIFICATION AND SEGMENTATION OF TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNER POINT CLOUDS USING LOCAL VARIANCE INFORMATION

With the use of terrestrial laser scanning, it is possible to capture thousands of 3-dimensional points on the surface of an object. The problem is that the vast quantity of data that needs to be manipulated sometimes hinders its application. There exist several techniques for the semi-automatic extraction of low-level features that help compensate for this problem. In addition to reviewing some of these techniques, some modiﬁcations will also be discussed, along with their use in developing a covariance based procedure to preform classiﬁcation and feature extraction for terrestrial laser scanning point clouds using local neighbourhoods. Results from this procedure are then used to segment the surface features of the point cloud. The application of this is demonstrated on several captured data sets. Additional information such as methods for deﬁning local surface intersections and direction of principle curvature will also be detailed based on using local information.
Urban aerosols and their variations with clouds and rainfall: A case study for New York and Houston

[1] Diurnal, weekly, seasonal, and interannual variations of urban aerosols were analyzed with an emphasis on summer months using 4 years of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations, in situ Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations, and in situ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) PM2.5 data for one midlatitude city (New York) and one subtropical city (Houston). Seasonality is evident in aerosol optical thickness measurements, with a minimum in January and a maximum in April to July. The diurnal variations of aerosols, however, are detectable but largely affected by local and regional weather conditions, such as surface and upper-level winds. On calm clear days, aerosols peak during the two rush hours in the morning and evening. Furthermore, the anthropogenic-induced weekly cycles of aerosols and clouds are analyzed, which by themselves are weak, as the anthropogenic signal is mixed with noise of natural weather variability. In addition, corresponding cloud properties observed from MODIS demonstrate an opposite phase to the seasonality of aerosols. Nevertheless, no clear relationship was observed between monthly mean aerosols and rainfall measurements from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), implying that in the summer the aerosol impact may not be the primary reason for the change of urban rainfall amount.
Securing modbus transactions using hash-based message authentication codes and stream transmission control protocol

Traditionally supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) networks were physically isolated, providing some inherent level of security; yet, as these networks slowly converged with both corporate intranets and the Internet, their security continually eroded. The gradual evolution of SCADA systems has introduced many novel and previously unknown security risks. During the advent of SCADA technologies, a heavy focus was put on providing system robustness, safety, and reliability. Because of this, widely deployed SCADA protocols like Modbus and DNP3 provide no inherent security controls. In this paper, we will propose a novel Modbus alternative capable of providing secure, backward-compatible Modbus message transmission using stream control transmission protocol and hash-based message authentication code technologies. This proposed protocol improvement ensures the availability and integrity of Modbus messages while providing a robust and secure mutual authentication mechanism. Improvements upon the legacy Modbus protocol aim to mitigate common SCADA protocol attack vectors.
Implementing and sustaining ICT integration in schools: A case study of two primary schools in Taiwan

The main purpose of this research was to explore the reasons why some schools are successful in pedagogical innovations in ICT integration, while others are less so. This research centres on two rural schools in Taiwan with different levels of sustainability of ICT implementation. In this research, ‘School A’ was identified as successfully sustaining pedagogical innovations in ICT integration; ‘School B’ was identified as not yet successfully sustaining pedagogical innovations in this regard. Questionnaires, interviews and documentary reviews were the research sources. The results confirmed a clear difference between School A and School B in their leadership approaches in the processes of implementing ICT. Leadership in School A was collaborative and proactive. Leadership in School B was limited to ICT experts and formal leaders. Moreover, compared with ICT resources and training, perceived compatibility of the ICT-integrated pedagogy and informal learning had a greater impact on teachers’ persistence of ICT integration. Finally, compared with parents’ support and cross-school learning, the governmental support was found to be more influential to ICT implementation in school settings. Currently, there is still limited research examining ICT implementation in Taiwanese rural schools. This study could serve as a reference for further research in this regard.
Notes on CEPII’s distances measures

We have calculated and made available different measures of bilateral distances (in kms) available for most countries across the world (225 countries in the current version of the database). For most of them, different calculations of “intra-national distances” are also available. There are two distinct files: a country-specific one (geo_cepii.xls or geo_cepii.dta) and a bilateral one (dist_cepii.xls or dist_cepii.dta), including the set of different distance variables and common dummy variables used in gravity equations to identify particular links between countries such as colonial past, common languages, contiguity. A common use of those files is the estimation of gravity equations describing bilateral trade flows. We try to improve upon the existing similar datasets in terms of geographical coverage, measurement and number of variables provided.
Signaling Microdomains Regulate Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate-Mediated Intracellular Calcium Transients in Cultured Neurons

Ca2+ signals in neurons use specific temporal and spatial patterns to encode unambiguous information about crucial cellular functions. To understand the molecular basis for initiation and propagation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3)-mediated intracellular Ca2+ signals, we correlated the subcellular distribution of components of the InsP3 pathway with measurements of agonist-induced intracellular Ca2+ transients in cultured rat hippocampal neurons and pheochromocytoma cells. We found specialized domains with high levels of phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate kinase (PIPKIγ) and chromogranin B (CGB), proteins acting synergistically to increase InsP3 receptor (InsP3R) activity and sensitivity. In contrast, Ca2+ pumps in the plasma membrane (PMCA) and sarco-endoplasmic reticulum as well as buffers that antagonize the rise in intracellular Ca2+ were distributed uniformly. By pharmacologically blocking phosphatidylinositol-4-kinase and PIPKIγ or disrupting the CGB-InsP3R interaction by transfecting an interfering polypeptide fragment, we produced major changes in the initiation site and kinetics of the Ca2+ signal. This study shows that a limited number of proteins can reassemble to form unique, spatially restricted signaling domains to generate distinctive signals in different regions of the same neuron. The finding that the subcellular location of initiation sites and protein microdomains was cell type specific will help to establish differences in spatiotemporal Ca2+ signaling in different types of neurons.
A Comprehensive Analysis of MAC Enhancements for Leveraging Distributed MAC

Increased dependability of users, businesses and government on computing systems for research and computations on sensitive data raises serious issues regarding security. Operating systems conventionally provide Discretionary Access Control (DAC, superuser logic) to maintain security. Malicious users and applications are major threats to organizations and DAC seriously fails to address the required level of security. Former research has proven that enforcement of Mandatory Access Control (MAC, security labels/contexts for subjects and objects) restricts the malicious agents to their own domain, thus eliminating risk of damage it can cause to rest of the system and data. MAC implementations depend upon access control mechanisms. These mechanisms are added to operating systems as kernel enhancements. There are four prominent kernel enhancements: RSBAC, SELinux, GRSecurity and AppArmor. This paper assesses and reviews the differences in their implementation and enforcement techniques to achieve their similar goals and then compares their effectiveness. We give special attention to the implementation details and network labeling, in order to evaluate and understand this underlying layer of security. Our research objective is to propose a framework for Distributed MAC (DMAC), which depends on a clear perception of the architecture, internals and features of these enhancements.
A review of probabilistic analysis in orthopaedic biomechanics

Abstract Probabilistic analysis methods are being increasingly applied in the orthopaedics and biomechanics literature to account for uncertainty and variability in subject geometries, properties of various structures, kinematics and joint loading, as well as uncertainty in implant alignment. As a complement to experiments, finite element modelling, and statistical analysis, probabilistic analysis provides a method of characterizing the potential impact of variability in parameters on performance. This paper presents an overview of probabilistic analysis and a review of biomechanics literature utilizing probabilistic methods in structural reliability, kinematics, joint mechanics, musculoskeletal modelling, and patient-specific representations. The aim of this review paper is to demonstrate the wide range of applications of probabilistic methods and to aid researchers and clinicians in better understanding probabilistic analyses.
Following EAU recovery there is an associated MC5r-dependent APC induction of regulatory immunity in the spleen.

PURPOSE IRBPp-specific regulatory immunity is found in the spleens of mice recovered from experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU). Induction of this regulatory immunity is dependent on the expression of the melanocortin 5 receptor (MC5r). Therefore, the authors investigated whether dependence on the expression of MC5r was with the T cells or with the APCs mediating protective regulatory immunity in the EAU-recovered mouse spleen. METHODS Wild-type and MC5r-/- mice were immunized to induce EAU. The IRBPp-stimulated T-cell response in spleens of wild-type and MC5r-/- mice were compared for surface markers and cytokine production. Spleen APC were isolated and used to stimulate cytokine production and regulatory activity in IRBP-specific T cells from wild-type or MC5r-/- mice assayed in culture by ELISA, by flow cytometry, and in vivo by adoptive transfer into EAU mice. RESULTS IRBPp-specific CD25+CD4+ T cells from spleens of EAU-recovered wild-type mice express a Treg cell phenotype of FoxP3 and TGF-β compared with the effector T-cell phenotype of IFN-γ and IL-17 production in EAU-recovered MC5r-/- mice. APCs from the spleens of wild-type mice recovering from EAU promoted regulatory T-cell activation in IRBP-specific effector T cells from the spleens of EAU-recovering MC5r-/- mice. Spleen APCs from EAU-recovering wild-type, but not MC5r-/-, mice induced TGF-β expression by primed IRBP-specific effector T cells. CONCLUSIONS Dependence on MC5r expression is with an APC that promotes or selectively activates IRBP-specific FoxP3+ TGF-β+ CD25+CD4+ Treg cells in the spleens of EAU-recovered mice.
Bin packing with directed stackability conflicts

Abstract The Bin Packing problem is a well-known and highly investigated problem in the computer science: we have n items given with their sizes, and we want to assign them to unit capacity bins such, that we use the minimum number of bins. In this paper, some generalizations of this problem are considered, where there are some additional stackability constraints defining that certain items can or cannot be packed on each other. The corresponding model in the literature is the Bin Packing Problem with Conflicts (BPPC), where this additional constraint is defined by an undirected conflict graph having edges between items that cannot be assigned to the same bin. However, we show some practical cases, where this conflict is directed, meaning that the items can be assigned to the same bin, but only in a certain order. Two new models are introduced for this problem: Bin Packing Problem with Hanoi Conflicts (BPPHC) and Bin Packing Problem with Directed Conflicts (BPPDC). In this work, the connection of the three conflict models is examined in detail. We have investigated the complexity of the new models, mainly the BPPHC model, in the special case where each item have the same size. We also considered two cases depending on whether re-ordering the items is allowed or not. We show that for the online version of the BPPHC model with unit size items, every Any-Fit algorithm gives not better than -competitive, when it is forbidden for the optimum to re-order the items, even if only 2 stackability classes, called Hanoi classes, are applied. This lower bound is generalized for arbitrary number of Hanoi classes. However, we also prove, that asymptotically the First-Fit algorithm is 1-competitive for this case. Finally, we introduce an algorithm for the offline version of the BPPHC model with unit size items, which has polynomial time complexity, if the number of the Hanoi classes and the capacity of the bins are constant.
Multiscale Analyses of Mammal Species Composition – Environment Relationship in the Contiguous USA

Relationships between species composition and its environmental determinants are a basic objective of ecology. Such relationships are scale dependent, and predictors of species composition typically include variables such as climate, topographic, historical legacies, land uses, human population levels, and random processes. Our objective was to quantify the effect of environmental determinants on U.S. mammal composition at various spatial scales. We found that climate was the predominant factor affecting species composition, and its relative impact increased in correlation with the increase of the spatial scale. Another factor affecting species composition is land-use–land-cover. Our findings showed that its impact decreased as the spatial scale increased. We provide quantitative indication of highly significant effect of climate and land-use–land-cover variables on mammal composition at multiple scales.
Magnetic field strength of active region filaments

Aims. We study the vector magnetic field of a filament observed over a compact active region neutral line. Methods. Spectropolarimetric data acquired with TIP-II (VTT, Tenerife, Spain) of the 10 830 A spectral region provide full Stokes vectors that were analyzed using three different methods: magnetograph analysis, Milne-Eddington inversions, and PCA-based atomic polarization inversions. Results. The inferred magnetic field strengths in the filament are around 600–700 G by all these three methods. Longitudinal fields are found in the range of 100–200 G whereas the transverse components become dominant, with fields as high as 500–600 G. We find strong transverse fields near the neutral line also at photospheric levels. Conclusions. Our analysis indicates that strong (higher than 500 G, but below kG) transverse magnetic fields are present in active region filaments. This corresponds to the highest field strengths reliably measured in these structures. The profiles of the helium 10 830 A lines observed in this active region filament are dominated by the Zeeman effect.
Experiences of Gender Minority Stress in Cisgender Parents of Transgender/Gender-Expansive Prepubertal Children: A Qualitative Study

Per minority stress theory, sexual and gender minorities are susceptible to bias-related social stressors that can internalize and increase their susceptibility to poor physical and mental health. Parents of transgender/gender-expansive (TGE) children may also encounter a number of stressors on account of their child’s gender experience. No known research had examined how these stressors align within a minority stress framework. This qualitative study examined and characterized minority stress phenomena in a clinically derived sample of English-speaking, cisgender parents of TGE children aged ≤11 years. Study findings included reports of distal and proximal forms of minority stress, with notable impact on health and well-being. Researchers highlight treatment implications and suggest studies continue to examine minority stress in parents of TGE children.
The Equity Risk Premium is Lower than You Think it is: Empirical Estimates from a New Approach

We offer ex ante estimates of the equity risk premium based on forecasted accounting numbers. Although our approach is isomorphic to dividend growth models, it generates various diagnostics that help to narrow the range of reasonable assumed growth rates. Our results, based on IBES consensus earnings forecasts over the 1985-1998 period, contrast sharply with those of prior research. Our estimates of risk premium are considerably lower than (about 3 percent) the estimates commonly cited (about 8 percent), and are also more stationary over time. This result has important implications both for academe (e.g., the equity premium puzzle) as well as practice (e.g., discount rates for valuation and over-valued stock markets).
Event-related Repetitive TMS Reveals Distinct, Critical Roles for Right OFA and Bilateral Posterior STS in Judging the Sex and Trustworthiness of Faces

Judging the sex of faces relies on cues related to facial morphology and spatial relations between features, whereas judging the trustworthiness of faces relies on both structural and expressive cues that signal affective valence. The right occipital face area (OFA) processes structural cues and has been associated with sex judgments, whereas the posterior STS processes changeable facial cues related to muscle movements and is activated when observers judge trustworthiness. It is commonly supposed that the STS receives inputs from the OFA, yet it is unknown whether these regions have functionally dissociable, critical roles in sex and trustworthiness judgments. We addressed this issue using event-related, fMRI-guided repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Twelve healthy volunteers judged the sex of individually presented faces and, in a separate session, whether those same faces were trustworthy or not. Relative to sham stimulation, RTs were significantly longer for sex judgments when rTMS was delivered over the right OFA but not the right or left STS, and for trustworthiness judgments on male but not female faces when rTMS was delivered over the right STS or left STS but not the right OFA. Nonetheless, an analysis of the RT distributions revealed a possible critical role also for the right OFA in trustworthiness judgments, limited to faces with longer RTs, perhaps reflecting the later, ancillary use of structural cues related to the sex of the face. On the whole, our findings provide evidence that evaluations of the trustworthiness and sex of faces rely on functionally dissociable cortical regions.
COEFFICIENT-MODULATED FIRST-ORDER ALLPASS FILTER AS DISTORTION EFFECT

A novel approach to implement the distortion effect is introduced. The proposed approach is based on time-varying phase distortion of the input signal, and it is implemented using a coefficient modulated first-order allpass filter. This new technique provides control over the distorted band with a proper choice of the modulating signal. By choosing a modulating signal that applies the phase distortion only for low frequencies, the aliasing often generated by conventional distortion effects, which modify the signal amplitude, can be greatly reduced. Modulation signals that produce distortion effects applicable for electric guitar playing are also discussed. Sound examples on the use of the filter can be found at http://www.acoustics. hut.fi/~jpekonen/ Papers/dafx08/.
The Unit of Selection in Viscous Populations and the Evolution of Altruism.

Group selection can overcome individual selection for selfishness and favour altruism if there is variation among the founders of the spatially distinct groups, and groups with many altruists become substantially larger (or exist longer) than groups with few. Whether altruism can evolve in populations that do not have an alternation of local population growth and global dispersal ("viscous populations") has been disputed for some time. Limited dispersal protects the altruists from the non-altruists, but also hinders the export of altruism. In this article, we used the Pair Approximation technique (tracking the dynamics of pairs of neighbours instead of single individuals) to derive explicit invasion conditions for rare mutants in populations with limited dispersal. In such viscous populations, invading mutants form clusters, and ultimately, invasion conditions depend on the properties of such clusters. Thus there is selection on a higher level than that of the individual; in fact, invasion conditions define the unit of selection in viscous populations. We treat the evolution of altruism as a specific example, but the method is of more general interest. In particular, an important advantage is that the spatial aspects can be incorporated into game theory in a straightforward fashion; we will specify the ESS for a more general model. The invasion condition can be interpreted in terms of inclusive fitness. In contrast with Hamilton's model, the coefficient of relatedness is not merely a given genetical constant but depends on local population dynamical processes (birth, dispersal and death of individuals). With a simple birth rate function, Hamilton's rule is recovered: the cost to the donor should be less than the benefit to the recipient weighted with the coefficient of relatedness. As the coefficient of relatedness is roughly proportional to an individual's number of neighbours, benefits to the recipient must be substantial to outweigh the costs, confirming earlier studies. We discuss the consequences for the evolution of dispersal and outline how the method may be extended to study evolution in interacting populations.Copyright 1998 Academic Press
Adjuvant corneal crosslinking to prevent hyperopic LASIK regression

Purpose To report the long term outcomes, safety, stability, and efficacy in a pilot series of simultaneous hyperopic laser assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and corneal crosslinking (CXL). Method A small cohort series of five eyes, with clinically suboptimal topography and/or thickness, underwent LASIK surgery with immediate riboflavin application under the flap, followed by UV light irradiation. Postoperative assessment was performed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, with late follow up at 4 years, and results were compared with a matched cohort that received LASIK only. Results The average age of the LASIK-CXL group was 39 years (26–46), and the average spherical equivalent hyperopic refractive error was +3.45 diopters (standard deviation 0.76; range 2.5 to 4.5). All eyes maintained refractive stability over the 4 years. There were no complications related to CXL, and topographic and clinical outcomes were as expected for standard LASIK. Conclusion This limited series suggests that simultaneous LASIK and CXL for hyperopia is safe. Outcomes of the small cohort suggest that this technique may be promising for ameliorating hyperopic regression, presumed to be biomechanical in origin, and may also address ectasia risk.