Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast and reliable obstacle detection and segmentation for cross-country navigation

Obstacle detection (OD) is one of the main components of the control system of autonomous vehicles. In the case of indoor/urban navigation, obstacles are typically defined as surface points that are higher than the ground plane, but in cross-country and unstructured environments the notion of "ground plane" is often not meaningful. We introduce a fast, fully 3D OD technique that overcomes such a problem, reducing the risk of false-negatives while keeping the same rate of false-positives. A simple addition to our algorithm allows one to segment obstacle points into clusters, where each cluster identifies an isolated obstacle in 3D space. Obstacle segmentation corresponds to finding the connected components of a suitable graph, an operation that can be performed at a minimal additional cost during the computation of obstacle points. Rule-based classification using 3D geometrical measures derived for each segmented obstacle is then used to reject false-obstacles (for example, objects that are small in volume, or of low height). Results for a number of scenes of natural terrain are presented, and compared with a pre-existing obstacle detection algorithm.
Managing Change in Healthcare: Using Action Research

Healthcare - A Changing Environment Action Research as a Strategy for Implementing Change The Social Context of Change Management in Healthcare - Theory and Practice Leadership in Health Care Approaches to Change Organizational and Professional Cultures in Healthcare Organizational Analysis and Learning Reactions to Change 1 - Resistance Reactions to Change 2 - Conflict Strategies for Implementing Change
Subcertification and Relationship Quality: Effects on Subordinate Effort

This study considers the decision to impose a control system increasingly seen in practice, subcertification, and the resulting impact on the effort exerted by the controlled individual. I experimentally examine the interaction of subcertification with existing manager-subordinate relationship quality. I draw upon the leader-member exchange (LMX) literature to define relationship quality, providing evidence consistent with subordinates in high quality relationships exerting greater effort to report an accurate accounting estimate than those in low quality relationships. I next consider the effects of the decision to require subcertification on effort, finding that higher quality relationship subordinates decreased effort relative to those not required to subcertify. The results I present are of particular importance to managerial accountants who are charged with control system design and implementation decisions. To the extent that greater effort yields higher quality estimates, this study has financial statement quality implications as well.
Classification of Mouse Sperm Motility Patterns Using an Automated Multiclass Support Vector Machines Model1

Vigorous sperm motility, including the transition from progressive to hyperactivated motility that occurs in the female reproductive tract, is required for normal fertilization in mammals. We developed an automated, quantitative method that objectively classifies five distinct motility patterns of mouse sperm using Support Vector Machines (SVM), a common method in supervised machine learning. This multiclass SVM model is based on more than 2000 sperm tracks that were captured by computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) during in vitro capacitation and visually classified as progressive, intermediate, hyperactivated, slow, or weakly motile. Parameters associated with the classified tracks were incorporated into established SVM algorithms to generate a series of equations. These equations were integrated into a binary decision tree that sequentially sorts uncharacterized tracks into distinct categories. The first equation sorts CASA tracks into vigorous and nonvigorous categories. Additional equations classify vigorous tracks as progressive, intermediate, or hyperactivated and nonvigorous tracks as slow or weakly motile. Our CASAnova software uses these SVM equations to classify individual sperm motility patterns automatically. Comparisons of motility profiles from sperm incubated with and without bicarbonate confirmed the ability of the model to distinguish hyperactivated patterns of motility that develop during in vitro capacitation. The model accurately classifies motility profiles of sperm from a mutant mouse model with severe motility defects. Application of the model to sperm from multiple inbred strains reveals strain-dependent differences in sperm motility profiles. CASAnova provides a rapid and reproducible platform for quantitative comparisons of motility in large, heterogeneous populations of mouse sperm.
Automated Estimation of Human Age , Gender and Expression EE 368 Digital Image Processing Final Project Report

Recognition of facial variations has been a hot research area for the past decade. Age, gender and expression are three important facial variations attaining increasing attentions. This report presents a software system for automatic estimation of age, gender and expression. To make the system robust to any input image containing a face, a pre-processing stage is implemented to calibrate the face. Pre-processing stage also involves detection of eyes and nose. The age estimation subsystem is composed of aging feature extraction and feature classification. We use local binary patterns (LBP) and Gabor filter to describe the aging features. Feature classification is implemented based on histograms from LBP analysis. A minimum distance classifier is built upon training using images from FG-NET aging database. Furthermore, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) with fisher faces is used to identify gender and expression information. Experimental results based on training images demonstrate accuracies of 39.8%, 95.1% and 54.2% for age, gender and expression, respectively. Real-world testing also shows the estimation capability of this system. Keywords—Facial variations, age, gender, expression, automatic estimation, local binary pattern, linear discriminant analysis
On a blind fractionally sampling-based carrier frequency offset estimator for noncircular transmissions

This letter deals with the problem of nondata-aided carrier frequency offset estimation of noncircular modulations transmitted through unknown frequency-selective channels. By exploiting the unconjugated cyclostationary statistics induced by oversampling in the received waveform, an optimized carrier frequency offset estimator is proposed and its asymptotic (large sample) performance analyzed. In order for the proposed frequency estimator to achieve the minimum mean-square estimation error, it is shown that the oversampling rate need not be larger than twice the symbol rate. It is also shown that the proposed synchronizer is asymptotically jitter-free, admits a feedforward structure that may be implemented in digital form, and is suitable for burst transmissions.
Frequency Band-Specific Electrical Brain Stimulation Modulates Cognitive Control Processes

A large body of findings has tied midfrontal theta-band (4–8 Hz) oscillatory activity to adaptive control mechanisms during response conflict. Thus far, this evidence has been correlational. To evaluate whether theta oscillations are causally involved in conflict processing, we applied transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) in the theta band to a midfrontal scalp region, while human subjects performed a spatial response conflict task. Conflict was introduced by incongruency between the location of the target stimulus and the required response hand. As a control condition, we used alpha-band (8–12 Hz) tACS over the same location. The exact stimulation frequencies were determined empirically for each subject based on a pre-stimulation EEG session. Behavioral results showed general conflict effects of slower response times (RT) and lower accuracy for high conflict trials compared to low conflict trials. Importantly, this conflict effect was reduced specifically during theta tACS, which was driven by slower response times on low conflict trials. These results show how theta tACS can modulate adaptive cognitive control processes, which is in accordance with the view of midfrontal theta oscillations as an active mechanism for cognitive control.
Political Affiliation and Trade Credit Extension by Chinese Firms

This paper examines the role of political affiliation in the extension of trade credit by Chinese firms. Using a dataset of more than 70,000 firms over the period 2000-2007, we find that, because they benefit from easier access to short-term external funding, politically affiliated firms can extend more trade credit to their business partners than their non-affiliated counterparts. In other words, politically affiliated firms redistribute bank funding via trade credit. Furthermore, the sensitivity of trade credit extension to short-term debt is larger for non-affiliated private firms producing differentiated goods, which are more constrained in their access to external funding.
Effects of Country of Origin Labeling in the U.S. Meat Industry with Imperfectly Competitive Processors

The study examines the impacts of implementing mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) on producer and consumer welfare in the U.S. meat industry. The equilibrium displacement model developed in this study includes twenty-nine equations representing retail-, processing-, and farm-level equilibrium conditions for the beef, pork, and chicken industries. Unlike previous studies, the model allows trade between domestic- and foreign-origin products and considers the imperfectly competitive market structure of meat processers. Empirical results show that without a significant increase in domestic meat demand, producers are not expected to benefit from the mandatory COOL implementation. Results of a sensitivity analysis indicate that consumers tend to bear more COOL costs than producers, as the own-price elasticity becomes more inelastic, and that producers’ benefits increase as the elasticity of domestic demand becomes more elastic with respect to the price of imported products. The existence of market power in upstream and downstream markets of processors negatively affects both consumer and producer surplus. One implication of our findings is that U.S. beef and pork producers’ promotion and advertising programs would be successful in expanding domestic demand when the programs make the own-price elasticity of domestic demand more inelastic and the cross-price elasticity of domestic demand more elastic with respect to import price.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Important Underrecognised Cardiometabolic Risk Factor in Reproductive-Age Women

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder amongst women of reproductive age. Although PCOS is diagnosed exclusively based on reproductive criteria, it is also a metabolic disorder. Insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, and dyslipidemia are more common in women with PCOS than in age-comparable women without PCOS. Many of the metabolic abnormalities that manifest in PCOS are worsened by the concurrent incidence of obesity. However, some of these metabolic perturbations occur even in lean women with PCOS and therefore are rightfully recognized as intrinsic to PCOS. The intrinsic factors that produce these metabolic disturbances are reviewed in this paper. The consequences of obesity and the other metabolic aberrations are also discussed. The metabolic perturbations in PCOS patients lead to chronic low-grade inflammation and to cardiovascular impairments that heighten the risk of having cardiovascular disease. Even though many studies have shown an elevation in surrogate biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in PCOS women, it is still not clear to what extent and magnitude the elevation precipitates more frequent and earlier events.
The Determinants Of The Adoption Of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

The paper investigates empirically the decision of firms to adopt ‘Advanced Manufacturing Technologies’ (AMT) based on a comprehensive specification of a ‘rank model’ of technology adoption using firm-level data for Swiss manufacturing. The explanatory variables include numerous dimensions of (anticipated) benefits from and costs of technology adoption allowing for uncertainty as well as for information and adjustment costs. Moreover, the effect of complementarities between various functional groups of AMT (design, fabrication, communication, etc.) as well as of learning from the use of previous technology vintages within such functional groups is analyzed, Finally, the size-dependence of the adoption decision is studied in detail. The model yields a quite robust pattern of explanation across estimates with different adoption variables (time period of introduction of AMT, intensity of use of AMT, etc.) with plausible differences of the results based on the alternative adoption measures used.
Cross-sectional Variation of Measurement Error and Predictability of Earnings and Stock Returns

In capital markets research, market expectation of future earnings plays a vital role. However, almost all proxies inevitably measure the market expectation of future earnings with error, which results in unsatisfactory empirical outcomes in prior research (e.g., small empirical values of earnings response coefficient and poor quality estimates of expected rates of return). Using analysts' consensus forecasts, this study investigates how noisy measurement of the market expectation of future earnings affects the predictability of future earnings and stock returns. Based on the errors-in-variables approach, this study first provides a framework to capture cross-sectional variation of the measurement error in analysts' consensus forecasts. With this framework in place, this study documents that analysts' consensus forecasts with more measurement error have less ability to predict future earnings and stock returns, and that incorporating information about cross-sectional variation of the measurement error can improve the predictability of future earnings and stock returns. These findings will be useful to accounting research that relies on the market expectation of future earnings and to practitioners seeking to forecast profitability and stock returns.
The formation and evolution of protostellar discs; three-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement hydrosimulations of collapsing, rotating Bonnor–Ebert spheres

We present a detailed study of the collapse of molecular cloud cores using high-resolution three-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) numerical simulations. In this first in a series of investigations our initial conditions consist of a spherical molecular core obeying the hydrostatic Bonnor‐Ebert profile with varying degrees of initial rotation. Our simulations cover both the formation of massive discs, in which massive stars form, and low-mass discs. We use a customized version of the FLASH code the AMR technique, which allows us to follow the formation of a protostellar disc and protostellar core(s) through more than 10 orders in density increase, while continuously resolving the local Jeans length (i.e. obeying the Truelove criterion). Our numerical simulations also incorporate the energy loss due to molecular line emission in order to obtain a more realistic picture of the protostellar core and disc formation.
Summerhill, A Radical Approach to Child Rearing

This is an account of the author's 40 years experience in a school named Summerhill in England. What he described is not so much a radical approach to child rearing as the literal and patient application of ideas that have received much lip-service in the past half-century. The school was conducted on complete faith in the natural goodness of children and their need for affection. Happiness, rather than fame or material success, is taken as life's aim. The book is stimulating reading if only because it describes a unique experiment. The author seems to recount his experience with great objectivity. He does not even claim that the children who went through Summerhill School behaved remarkably differently in later life from others educated in more orthodox establishments, except for chosen examples who exhibited happiness and self-confidence to a gratifying degree.
Are Educational Reforms Necessarily Growth-Enhancing? Weak Institutions as the Cause of Policy Failures

We study a developing economy in which the representative firm’s production function exhibits complementarities between human capital and the available level of technology. The firm invests in the acquisition of new technology, while employees decide how much human capital to acquire. The speed of human capital accumulation positively affects the growth rate of the economy, and as a result a reform that improves the educational system can lead to faster growth. Importantly though, if property rights are weakly enforced, firms have limited incentives to invest in the acquisition of new technologies. This might constrain the demand for human capital, making an educational reform potentially unsuccessful. If property rights are weakly protected, an educational reform results in the choice of a higher level of education only if individuals can transfer their human capital to a different economy, where the demand for their skills is higher. We thus conclude that only if an improvement in the school system is combined with better property rights enforcement will an educational reform unambiguously lead to faster growth.
Nociceptive and Neuronal Evaluation of the Sciatic Nerve of Wistar Rats Subjected to Compression Injury and Treated with Resistive Exercise

Background. To investigate the climb stairs resistance exercise on nociception and axonal regeneration in the sciatic nerve of rats. Methods. 24 Wistar rats were divided: control group (CG—no injury), exercise group (EG—no injury with physical exercise), lesion group (LG—injury, but without exercise), and treated group (LEG—injury and physical exercise). LG and LEG were subjected to sciatic nerve compression with hemostat. From the 3rd day after injury began treatment with exercise, and after 22 days occurs the removal of a nerve fragment for morphological analysis. Results. Regarding allodynia, CG obtained values less than EG (p = 0.012) and larger than LG and LEG (p < 0.001). Histological results showed that CG and EG had normal appearance, as LG and LEG showed up with large amounts of inflammatory infiltration, degeneration and disruption of nerve fibers, and reduction of the myelin sheath; however LEG presented some regenerated fibers. From the morphometric data there were significant differences, for nerve fiber diameter, comparing CG with LG and LEG and comparing axon diameter and the thickness of the myelin of the CG to others. Conclusion. Climb stairs resistance exercise was not effective to speed up the regenerative process of axons.
Intra-household correlations of nutritional status in rural Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND It is commonly believed that households are relatively homogeneous with respect to nutritional status and occurrence of diseases. We therefore examined how anthropometric measurements are correlated between different household members in famine-prone Ethiopian communities. METHODS We studied 1147 people in the Elka village in the Rift Valley. RESULTS The results show that the correlations between the state of nutrition among household individuals are weak. Thus, anthropometric indices of young children, older children and adult men are an inefficient means of screening for maternal malnutrition. The low sensitivity and high specificity suggest that intra-household members may not fully share risk factors for malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS We question the commonly held view on the use of childhood nutritional indicators as proxies of household nutritional risks. Our study may have practical implications for screening programmes and interventions during famines. There is no short cut to separate screening of population subgroups.
Traditional Chinese Medicine for Neck Pain and Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Neck pain (NP) and low back pain (LBP) are common symptoms bothering people in daily life. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to treat various symptoms and diseases in China and has been demonstrated to be effective. The objective of the present study was to review and analyze the existing data about pain and disability in TCM treatments for NP and LBP. Methods Studies were identified by a comprehensive search of databases, such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library, up to September 1, 2013. A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of TCM in managing NP and LBP. Results Seventy five randomized controlled trials (n = 11077) were included. Almost all of the studies investigated individuals experiencing chronic NP (CNP) or chronic LBP (CLBP). We found moderate evidence that acupuncture was more effective than sham-acupuncture in reducing pain immediately post-treatment for CNP (visual analogue scale (VAS) 10 cm, mean difference (MD) = -0.58 (-0.94, -0.22), 95% confidence interval, p = 0.01), CLBP (standardized mean difference = -0.47 (-0.77, -0.17), p = 0.003), and acute LBP (VAS 10 cm, MD = -0.99 (-1.24, -0.73), p< 0.001). Cupping could be more effective than waitlist in VAS (100 mm) (MD = -19.10 (-27.61, -10.58), p < 0. 001) for CNP or medications (e.g. NSAID) for CLBP (MD = -5.4 (-8.9, -0.19), p = 0.003). No serious or life-threatening adverse effects were found. Conclusions Acupuncture, acupressure, and cupping could be efficacious in treating the pain and disability associated with CNP or CLBP in the immediate term. Gua sha, tai chi, qigong, and Chinese manipulation showed fair effects, but we were unable to draw any definite conclusions, and further research is still needed. The efficacy of tuina and moxibustion is unknown because no direct evidence was obtained. These TCM modalities are relatively safe.
Supporting Ontology Alignment Tasks with Edge Bundling

Ontologies are commonly used for knowledge representation and to exchange information between multiple applications. When the same information is represented by different overlapping ontologies, information sharing requires a mapping between corresponding pairs of entities. While ontology alignment algorithms have been developed to support such tasks, they generally do not offer entirely complete and precise mappings. As a result, an important interactive aspect of the ontology alignment process is the validation of automatically generated mappings, as well as the addition of new mappings, by a knowledge manager. While visual ontology alignment interfaces exist to support these tasks, showing a large number of mappings can result in a significant amount of visual clutter. To address this issue, an edge bundling approach has been adapted to the constraints of an existing ontology alignment interface. A user study was designed and conducted to evaluate the value of edge bundling in this context, with positive results for both mapping validation and addition tasks.