Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast Polygonization and Texture Map Extraction from Volumetric Objects Based on Surface Fairing Using a Modified Discrete Laplacian Operator

This work proposes a new method for the polygonization and texture map extraction from volumetric objects based on a polyhedral surface extraction and surface fairing approach. The surface faring approach is based on a mesh signal processing technique that uses an approximation of an adaptive low-pass filtering based on a function that combines the discrete laplacian operator and an adaptation of the Lanczos kernel. Differently from other works that propose surface fairing approaches we deal mainly with voxelized models created by artists for games which led us to design a filtering approach that smoothes strongly in high frequency regions to remove the jagging effects of the sampling and less intensively in the low frequency regions to preserve the natural behavior of the model. The overall aim of this work is to propose a simple methodology in which it is efficient and easy to use voxel manipulation techniques to produce a final boundary representation of the model together with the appearance function codified in a texture atlas. The proposed method produced very promising results and enabled us to extract smooth texturized models that preserve the features of the original volumetric object at interactive times.
Increased Vertical Impact Forces and Altered Running Mechanics with Softer Midsole Shoes

To date it has been thought that shoe midsole hardness does not affect vertical impact peak forces during running. This conclusion is based partially on results from experimental data using homogeneous samples of participants that found no difference in vertical impact peaks when running in shoes with different midsole properties. However, it is currently unknown how apparent joint stiffness is affected by shoe midsole hardness. An increase in apparent joint stiffness could result in a harder landing, which should result in increased vertical impact peaks during running. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of shoe midsole hardness on apparent ankle and knee joint stiffness and the associated vertical ground reaction force for age and sex subgroups during heel-toe running. 93 runners (male and female) aged 16-75 years ran at 3.33 ± 0.15 m/s on a 30 m-long runway with soft, medium and hard midsole shoes. The vertical impact peak increased as the shoe midsole hardness decreased (mean(SE); soft: 1.70BW(0.03), medium: 1.64BW(0.03), hard: 1.54BW(0.03)). Similar results were found for the apparent ankle joint stiffness where apparent stiffness increased as the shoe midsole hardness decreased (soft: 2.08BWm/º x 100 (0.05), medium: 1.92 BWm/º x 100 (0.05), hard: 1.85 BWm/º x 100 (0.05)). Apparent knee joint stiffness increased for soft (1.06BWm/º x 100 (0.04)) midsole compared to the medium (0.95BWm/º x 100 (0.04)) and hard (0.96BWm/º x 100 (0.04)) midsoles for female participants. The results from this study confirm that shoe midsole hardness can have an effect on vertical impact force peaks and that this may be connected to the hardness of the landing. The results from this study may provide useful information regarding the development of cushioning guidelines for running shoes.
Incidence of Pneumococcal and Varicella Disease in HIV-infected Children and Adolescents in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 1996–2011

Background: To define the burden of hospitalization due to 2 vaccine-preventable infections, invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and varicella zoster (VZ), among HIV-infected children in the UK and Ireland. Methods: Analysis of hospitalizations of HIV-infected children <18 years receiving pediatric care and reported to the Collaborative HIV Paediatric Study (CHIPS) between 1996 and 2011. Results: Admissions for IPD and VZ combined accounted for ~5% of all hospital admissions for HIV-infected children each year. When compared with background rates for healthy children, the admission rate ratio for HIV-infected children on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) was 16.7, 14.8 and 126.7 for IPD, varicella and herpes zoster, respectively, and 156.7, 86.1 and 470, respectively, for HIV-infected children not on cART. Those admitted with IPD or VZ were more likely to have Centers for Disease Control stage B/C at presentation with HIV than those without such admissions (36.8% for IPD, 29.7% for VZ and 22.1% for no IPD or VZ, P = 0.006), and were more likely to subsequently commence cART (94.7%, 91.3% and 80.2% respectively, P = 0.004). Conclusions: There is a clear increased risk of admission with IPD or VZ in HIV-infected compared with uninfected children, magnified in those who have not yet commenced cART. It is anticipated that the introduction of new guidelines will result in improved vaccine uptake and thereby reduce the burden of IPD and VZ disease. Subsequent evaluation will assess the impact of these guidelines.
Minimum classification error interactive training for speaker identification [interactive robot applications]

This paper describes an online discriminative training algorithm aiming at achieving speaker identification on interactive robots. A robot incrementally acquires speakers' voice characteristics during the interaction with the speakers. We simulate the situation that the speakers never give their IDs and the robot can only know whether the identification decision was correct or not from the speaker's positive or negative behavioral reaction. The speaker models are adjusted based on this limited information using minimum classification error (MCE) training consisting of positive and negative adaptation. In cases of correct identification, the conventional MCE training algorithm can be used. We compare three kinds of negative adaptation algorithms for the cases of incorrect identification. Experimental results show that the combination of the positive and negative adaptation achieves faster convergence, and negative adaptation which adjusts only a misclassified speaker model reaches an identification rate of 80% four times faster than the positive adaptation alone.
Real-time 3D Collision Avoidance Method for Safe Human and Robot Coexistence

A novel solution to the three-dimensional dynamic human-robot collision problem is presented. Sphere-based geometric models are used for the human and robot due to the efficiency of the distance computation. The collision avoidance algorithm searches for collision-free paths by moving the end-effector along a set of pre-defined search directions. An optimization method is employed to select the search direction that balances between the robot approaching its goal location, and maximizing the distances between the human and robot models. The optimization incorporates predictions of the motions of the robot and human to reduce the negative effects of a non-instantaneous robot time response. The robot prediction is based on a transfer function model of its experimental time response at the joint level. The human prediction is performed at the sphere level using the weighted mean of past velocities. Predicting at the sphere level eliminates the difficulty introduced by the limbs moving in different directions. After describing the collision avoidance algorithm, a human walking towards a moving Puma robot arm is simulated. Captured motion data is used to make the human motion realistic. Monte Carlo simulations using 1000 random human walking paths passing through the robot workspace are used to evaluate the algorithm. The algorithm prevented all collisions due to the robot. The algorithm is deterministic and efficient enough to be used in real-time. On a 1.8 GHz Pentium IV PC, a 40 Hz sampling rate was achieved
Sequence Mining Automata: A New Technique for Mining Frequent Sequences under Regular Expressions

In this paper we study the problem of mining frequent sequences satisfying a given regular expression. Previous approaches to solve this problem were focusing on its search space, pushing (in some way) the given regular expression to prune unpromising candidate patterns. On the contrary, we focus completely on the given input data and regular expression. We introduce sequence mining automata (SMA), a specialized kind of Petri Net that while reading input sequences, it produces for each sequence all and only the patterns contained in the sequence and that satisfy the given regular expression. Based on this automaton, we develop a family of algorithms. Our thorough experimentation on different datasets and application domains confirms that in many cases our methods outperform the current state of the art of frequent sequence mining algorithms using regular expressions (in some cases of orders of magnitude).
Knowledge Level on Administration of Chemotherapy through Peripheral and Central Venous Catheter among Oncology Nurses

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the knowledge levels of oncology nurses about peripheral and central venous catheter during their chemotherapy administration. Methods: Data collection of this descriptive study was started on April 15, 2015–July 15, 2015. The data presented in this summary belong to 165 nurses. Data were collected with data collection form including questions related to sociodemographic qualifications and knowledge levels of nurses. Data collection forms were E-mailed to the members of Turkish Oncology Nursing Society. Data presented with numbers, percentages, and mean ± standard deviation. Results: The mean age of nurses was 33.60 ± 7.34 years and mean duration for oncology nursing experience was 2.65 ± 0.91 years. Nurses had correct information about the importance of selecting peripheral venous catheter and choosing the placement area for chemotherapy administration (63.6%), control of catheter before the administration (93.9%), influence of chemotherapeutic agent on length of catheter (40.6%), and management of extravasation (75.7%). Nurses also had correct information about the first use of port catheter (67.3%) and checking the catheter whether it is working properly or not (75.8%). Conclusions: In General, nurses' level of knowledge related to catheter is 50% and higher. It is recommended to increase the knowledge of nurses about evidence-based information for catheter care as a step to safe chemotherapy practice.
Geography, Informal Information, and Mutual Fund Portfolios

This paper explores how informal information channels impact the investment performance of mutual funds. We measure the strengths of two specific information channels linked to the geographical location of fund managers: information transfers among managers (fund-fund links), and between fund managers and the companies in which they invest (fund-company links). We analyze the marginal impact of these information channels on abnormal returns generated from stock holdings. We find that each channel increases investment performance in the absence of the other. Investment performance is reduced when the two information channels act in combination, an effect that appears to be driven by “crowded trades” that reduce profitability. The stock selections that are associated with the presence of one information channel but the absence of the other earn positive future returns. Overall, our results show that the economic benefits of informal information channels depend critically on the nature of their interactions.
The management of end user computing

End users can be classified into six distinct types. Each of them needs differentiated education, support, and control from the Information Systems function. To support a large number of their applications a new computing environment, “the third environment” must be developed by Information Systems (I/S) management. Close attention must also be paid by I/S management to the need to involve “functional support personnel” (end users in each functional area who spend most of their time programming and aiding other end users) in the I/S end user management process.
Prevalence of TEM and SHV Genes in Clinical Isolates of Klebsiella Pneumonia From Mashhad, North- East Iran

Background & Objectives: Extended-spectrum-B-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strains of Klebsiella Pneumonia are an important cause of many serious infections in hospitalized and nonhospitalized patients and delayed treatment of these infections in crease chance of death in patients. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of ESBL-producing K. Pneumonia and to evaluate the frequency of TEM and SHV genes among the clinical samples. Methods: One hundred and thirty isolates of K. Pneumonia were collected at Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad (Iran) from May 2011 to July 2012. ESBL production was determined by the double disk diffusion (DDs) test. PCR method was used to detect TEM and SHV genes. Results: Of 130 patients with K. pneumonia infection 28 were out-patients and 102 hospitalized patients. The most specimens was urine samples (n=25 in out-patients, n=39 in hospitalized patients, totally 49.2%) followed by wound samples (n=3 in out-patients, n=21 in hospitalized patients, totally 21.5%), blood samples (n=19 in hospitalized, 14.6%). The prevalence of ESBL producing K. pnemoniae was estimated 43% (n=56) including three of ESBLs positive isolates from out-patients and 53 from hospitalized patients. Of 56 ESBLs positive isolates, 44(87.54%) TEM, 39(69.64%) SHV and in 27 cases (48.21%) both TEM and SHV were detected. Conclusion: A high prevalence of ESBL-producing K. Pneumonia among the hospital isolates obtained of urinary followed by blood and wound samples were documented. The majority of them carried both TEM and SHV genes. Results of this study alarm for the physicians because treatment and control nosocomial infections for them were difficult.
Two Forms of Inhibition of Return Dissociated by Reflexive Oculomotor Engagement

Inhibition of return (IOR) is usually viewed as an inhibitory aftermath of visual orienting typically seen in the form of slower responses to previously cued targets. Arguments have been posed for ‘attentional’ and ‘motoric’ components to this effect, as well as ‘space’ and ‘object’ distinctions. Taylor and Klein (2000) suggested that there may be two dissociable forms of IOR one with its effect closer to the input end of the information processing continuum, and one effect closer to the output end of this continuum. This thesis will explore various boundary conditions on this dissociation in order to reconcile discrepancies between the ‘two forms’ account of inhibitory cueing and other theoretical frameworks for these phenomena. We conclude that there are two forms of inhibition of return: an input form that operates as a bias against previously attended objects, and an output form that operates as a spatial bias against orienting.
ElastiCon; an elastic distributed SDN controller

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has become a popular paradigm for centralized control in many modern networking scenarios such as data centers and cloud. For large data centers hosting many hundreds of thousands of servers, there are few thousands of switches that need to be managed in a centralized fashion, which cannot be done using a single controller node. Previous works have proposed distributed controller architectures to address scalability issues. A key limitation of these works, however, is that the mapping between a switch and a controller is statically configured, which may result in uneven load distribution among the controllers as traffic conditions change dynamically. To address this problem, we propose ElastiCon, an elastic distributed controller architecture in which the controller pool is dynamically grown or shrunk according to traffic conditions. To address the load imbalance caused due to spatial and temporal variations in the traffic conditions, ElastiCon automatically balances the load across controllers thus ensuring good performance at all times irrespective of the traffic dynamics. We propose a novel switch migration protocol for enabling such load shifting, which conforms with the Openflow standard. We further design the algorithms for controller load balancing and elasticity. We also build a prototype of ElastiCon and evaluate it extensively to demonstrate the efficacy of our design.
Model-based design of distributed collaborative bioinformatics processes in the jABC

Our approach to the model-driven collaborative design of workflows for bioinformatic applications uses the jABC for model driven mediation and choreography to complement a Web service-based elementary service provision. jABC is a framework for service development based on lightweight process coordination. Users (product developers and system/software designers) develop services and applications by composing reusable building-blocks into (flow-)graph structures that can be animated, analyzed, simulated, verified, executed, and compiled. This way of handling the collaborative design of complex processes has proven to be effective and adequate for the cooperation of non-programmers (in this case biologists) and technical people, and it is now being rolled out in the operative practice
System fusion and speaker linking for longitudinal diarization of TV shows

Performing speaker diarization while uniquely identifying the speakers in a collection of audio recordings is a challenging task. Based on our previous work on speaker diarization and linking, we developed a system for diarizing longitudinal TV show data sets based on the fusion of speaker diarization system outputs and speaker linking. Agreement between multiple diarization outputs is found prior to speaker linking, largely reducing the diarization error rate at the expense of keeping some speech data unlabelled. To deal with noisy clusters, a linear prediction based technique was used to label speakers after linking. Considerable gains for both fusion and labelling are reported. Despite the challenges of the longitudinal diarization task, this system obtained similar performance for linked and non-linked tasks under moderate session variability, highlighting the viability of a linking approach to longitudinal diarization of speech in the presence of noise, music and special audio effects.
Modeling heads from uncalibrated video sequences

We show that we can effectively fit a very complex facial animation model to uncalibrated video sequences, without benefit of targets, structured light or any other active device. Our approach is based on regularized bungle-adjustment followed by least-squares minimization using a set of progressively finer control triangulations. It takes advantage of three complementary sources of information: stereo data, silhouette edges and 2-D feature points. In this way, complete head models can be acquired with a cheap and entirely passive sensor, such as an ordinary video camera. They can then be fed to existing animation software to produce synthetic sequences.
WHAT DETERMINES THE SCOPE OF THE FIRM OVER TIME? A FOCUS ON INSTITUTIONAL RELATEDNESS

“What determines the scope of the firm? ” is one of the most fundamental questions in strategic management. We argue that, in addition to product relatedness, a focus on institutional relatedness—defined as an organization’s informal linkages with dominant institutions that confer resources and legitimacy—helps answer this question. We address this question both longitudinally (firms in developed and emerging economies over time) and cross-sectionally (developed versus emerging economies), thus contributing to an institution-based theory of corporate diversification.
Rigorous dynamics and radiation theory for a Pauli-Fierz model in the ultraviolet limit

The present paper is devoted to the detailed study of quantization and evolution of the point limit of the Pauli-Fierz model for a charged oscillator interacting with the electromagnetic field in dipole approximation. In particular, a well defined dynamics is constructed for the classical model, which is subsequently quantized according to the Segal scheme. To this end, the classical model in the point limit, already obtained by Noja and Posilicano [Ann. I.H. P. Phys. Theor. 71, 425 (1999)], is reformulated as a second order abstract wave equation, and a consistent quantum evolution is given. This allows a study of the behavior of the survival and transition amplitudes for the process of decay of the excited states of the charged particle, and the emission of photons in the decay process. In particular, for the survival amplitude the exact time behavior is found. This is completely determined by the resonances of the systems plus a tail term prevailing in the asymptotic, long time regime. Moreover, the sur.
Searching Large Lexicons for Partially Specified Terms using Compressed Inverted Files

There are many advantages to be gained by storing the lexicon of a full text database in main memory. In this paper we describe how to use a compressed inverted file index to search such a lexicon for entries that match a pattern or partially specified term. This method provides an effective compromise between speed and space, running orders of magnitude faster than brute force search, but requiring less memory than other patternmatching data structures; indeed, in some cases requiring less memory than would be consumed by a single pointer to each string. The pattern search method is based on text indexing techniques and is a successful adaptation of inverted files to main memory databases.
Do Feelings of Loneliness Mediate the Relationship between Sociocognitive Understanding and Depressive Symptoms During Late Childhood and Early Adolescence?

ABSTRACT An interesting association between sociocognitive understanding and depression has been documented in clinical populations, with high levels of depression apparently related to theory-of-mind deficits. Yet no research has so far investigated this relationship among typically developing preadolescents. Therefore, the authors' main aim was to extend previous findings to the general population and to a younger age group. A secondary aim was to explore the role of feelings of loneliness referring to the previous link. A sociocognitive understanding task followed by self-report questionnaires on depressive symptoms and perceived loneliness were administered to a sample of 326 students attending primary and middle schools. Mediation analyses revealed that feelings of loneliness mediated the effect of sociocognitive understanding on depressive symptoms, but only among girls. In boys, depressive symptoms were directly linked to sociocognitive skills. In girls, on the contrary, the relationship between sociocognitive skills and depressive symptoms was significantly mediated by feelings of loneliness. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Neural mechanisms of observational learning

Individuals can learn by interacting with the environment and experiencing a difference between predicted and obtained outcomes (prediction error). However, many species also learn by observing the actions and outcomes of others. In contrast to individual learning, observational learning cannot be based on directly experienced outcome prediction errors. Accordingly, the behavioral and neural mechanisms of learning through observation remain elusive. Here we propose that human observational learning can be explained by two previously uncharacterized forms of prediction error, observational action prediction errors (the actual minus the predicted choice of others) and observational outcome prediction errors (the actual minus predicted outcome received by others). In a functional MRI experiment, we found that brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex respectively corresponded to these two distinct observational learning signals.