Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Low-Complexity Approach for Color Display of Hyperspectral Remote-Sensing Images Using One-Bit Transform Based Band Selection

—This paper presents a new approach for color display of hyperspectral images. It is proposed to use the one-bit transform of hyperspectral image bands to select three suitable bands for RGB display. The proposed approach has low complexity and is very suitable for hardware implementation. A dedicated hardware architecture that computes the transitions in the one-bit transform of hyperspectral image bands to determine bands that contain more information and the corresponding FPGA implementation of the proposed architecture is presented. In the proposed approach, less-structured bands are initially eliminated using the total number of transitions in the one-bit transform of hyperspectral image bands. Then, three suitable bands are selected from within this remaining set of well structured bands, for RGB color display. The proposed approach provides a new method to facilitate color display of hyperspectral images, that has very low-complexity.
Social Psychological and Personality Science

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that low-level construals—a known contributor to self-control failure—can improve self-control under some circumstances. In support of this hypothesis, the authors found evidence that low-level construals (relative to high-level construals) improve performance on a measure of response inhibition that requires close attention and responsiveness to the immediate environment—the stop signal task (SST). They also found evidence, consistent with previous research, that high-level construals (relative to low-level construals) improve performance on a modified version of the SST (i.e., the delay SST) that requires both response inhibition and goal maintenance in working memory. These results suggest that, depending on the nature of the task, either low-level construals or high-level construals can enhance self-control.
Path planning and control of multiple aerial manipulators for a cooperative transportation

This paper presents planning and control of multiple aerial manipulators for cooperative transportation. Individual aerial manipulators which consist of a hexacopter and 2-DOF robotic arm are controlled by an augmented adaptive sliding mode controller based on a closed-chain robot dynamics. The desired path for each aerial manipulator is obtained by using RRT* to transport an object to the desired position. It also considers the constraints about the grasping point at the end effector. To validate the proposed planning and control algorithm, an experimental result with multiple custom-made aerial manipulators is presented, which involves two aerial manipulators tracking the user-guided command and planned trajectory.
User Experience Design and Agile Development: From Theory to Practice

We used existing studies on the integration of user experience design and agile methods as a basis to develop a framework for integrating UX and Agile. We performed a field study in an ongoing project of a medium-sized company in order to check if the proposed framework fits in the real world, and how some aspects of the integration of UX and Agile work in a real project. This led us to some conclusions situating contributions from practice to theory and back again. The framework is briefly described in this paper and consists of a set of practices, artifacts, and techniques derived from the literature. By combining theory and practice we were able to confirm some thoughts and identify some gaps—both in the company process and in our proposed framework—and drive our attention to new issues that need to be addressed. We believe that the most important issues in our case study are: UX designers cannot collaborate closely with developers because UX designers are working on multiple projects and that UX designers cannot work up front because they are too busy with too many projects at the same time.
Consequences and Predictors of Sexting Among Selected Southern Undergraduates

ABSTRACT Objectives: The aims of this study were to assess sexting behaviors and consequences among selected Southern undergraduate students and to determine predictors of current sexting behavior. Methods: Data from 469 surveys were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, Spearman's Rho correlations, and regression analysis. Results: Most sexters perceived their overall sexting experience as positive. Although negative consequences were experienced considerably less frequently, these consequences were profoundly harmful. Positively perceived overall sexting experience and total number of sexual partners were predictors of current sexting status. Complementing the uses and gratifications theory, perceived overall positive sexting experiences reinforce sexting by fulfilling gratifications.
Possession and the double object

This paper argues that double-object verbs decompose into two heads, an external-argument-selecting cause predicate (vCAUSE) and a prepositional element, PHAVE. Two primary types of argument are presented. First, a consideration of the well-known Oerhle’s generalization effects in English motivate such a decomposition, in combination with a consideration of idioms in ditransitive structures. These facts mitigate strongly against a Transform approach to the dative alternation, like that of Larson 1988, and point towards an Alternative Projection approach, similar in many respects to that of Pesetsky 1995. Second, the PHAVE prepositional element is identified with the prepositional component of verbal have, treated in the literature by Benveniste 1966; Freeze 1992; Kayne 1993; Guéron 1995. Languages without PHAVE do not allow possessors to c-command possessees, and show no evidence of a double-object construction, in which Goals c-command Themes. On the current account, these two facts receive the same explanation: PHAVE does not form part of the inventory of morphosyntactic primitives of these languages.
A theory on merger timing and announcement returns

This paper develops a dynamic model for the timing and terms of mergers and acquisitions. In contrast to other models, we show that firms agree about the timing independently from how the merger surplus is shared. Firms agree on the timing and discuss the sharing rule of the merger surplus according to their bargaining power or some other exogenous factor. We also show that, under asymmetric information, the combination of surprises regarding merger timing and merger terms, can produce either negative or positive abnormal returns for the merging firms.
Impact of individual components and their combinations within a family history of hypertension on the incidence of hypertension

AbstractAlthough a family history (FH) of hypertension is a risk factor for the development of hypertension, only a few studies have investigated in detail the impact of individual components of an FH on incident hypertension. We investigated the impact of individual components and their combinations on the presence or development of hypertension considering obesity, smoking habits, physical activity, and other metabolic parameters.Studied were 12,222 Japanese individuals without hypertension (n = 9,766) and with hypertension (n = 2,456) at the baseline examination. The presence or incidence of hypertension during 5 years after a baseline examination was assessed by the presence of systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg or a self-reported history of clinician-diagnosed hypertension. In this prospective study, the odds ratio for incident hypertension was 1.39 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22, 1.59) for individuals with any FH of hypertension compared with those without such an FH. Individuals with an FH of hypertension in both parents and one or more grandparents had an odds ratio of 3.05 (95% CI 1.74, 5.36) for hypertension compared with those without an FH of hypertension. FH was associated with incident hypertension independently of other modifiable risk factors such as obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, hyperglycemia, hyperuricemia, and hypertriglyceridemia.A parental history of hypertension was an essential component within an FH for incident hypertension. FH of hypertension over two generations with both parents affected was the most important risk factor for incident hypertension. Although an FH is not a modifiable risk factor, modifying other risk factors could contribute to reducing the risk of hypertension even among individuals with a family history of hypertension.
An efficient part-based approach to action recognition from RGB-D video with BoW-pyramid representation

In this paper, we propose an efficient part-based approach for action recognition. The main concept is to recognize human actions by less occluded parts without using a large set of part filters. Therefore, our approach is robust to occlusion and cost-effective. We extract spatiotemporal features from RGB-D videos, and assign a part-label to each feature. Then, for each part, a recognition score is computed for each action class by pyramid-structural bag of words (BoW-Pyramid) representation. The final result is determined by weighted sum of these scores and contextual information, which is based on the ratio of features between every pair of parts. Several contributions have been made in this work. First, the proposed part-based method is robust to occlusion and operates on-line. Second, our BoW-Pyramid representation can distinguish actions with reversed temporal orders. Third, recognition accuracy is increased by incorporating contextual information. The provided experimental results have verified effectiveness of our method and demonstrated high promise of surpassing performance of the state-of-the-art works.
The VIMOS VLT deep survey. The K-band follow-up in the 0226-04 field

We present a new K_s-band survey that represents a significant extension to the previous wide-field K_s-band imaging survey within the 0226-04 field of the VIMOS-VLT deep survey (VVDS). The new data add ~458 arcmin2 to the previous imaging program, thus allowing us to cover a total contiguous area of ~600 arcmin2 within this field. Sources were identified both directly on the final K-band mosaic image and on the corresponding, deep χ^2-g'r'i' image from the CFHT Legacy Survey in order to reduce contamination, while ensuring compilation of a truly K-selected catalogue down to the completeness limit of the K_s-band. The newly determined K_s-band magnitudes are used in combination with the ancillary multiwavelength data for determining accurate photometric redshifts. The final catalogue totals ~52 000 sources, out of which ~4400 have a spectroscopic redshift from the VVDS first epoch survey. The catalogue is 90% complete down to KVega = 20.5 mag. We present K_s-band galaxy counts and angular correlation function measurements down to this magnitude limit. Our results are in good agreement with previously published work. We show that using K magnitudes to determine photometric redshifts significantly lowers the incidence of catastrophic errors. The data presented in this paper are publicly available through the CENCOS database. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory New Technology Telescope, La Silla, Chile, programme 075.A-0752(A), on data obtained with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, Paranal, Chile, programme 070.A-9007(A), and on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.
Assessment of the quality of dialysate.

In order to estimate the risk of pyrogenic reactions in haemodialysis patients due to contaminated dialys-bacteria; pyrogens ate, bacteriological methods have to be adjusted for bacteria found in water in order to obtain relevant results. In addition to the culture of dialysate samples to determine bacterial growth, assays should be
Stoichiometry of Expressed KCNQ2/KCNQ3 Potassium Channels and Subunit Composition of Native Ganglionic M Channels Deduced from Block by Tetraethylammonium

KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 potassium-channel subunits can form both homomeric and heteromeric channels; the latter are thought to constitute native ganglionic M channels. We have tried to deduce the stoichiometric contributions of KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 subunits to currents generated by the coexpression of KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 cDNA plasmids in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, and to native M currents in dissociated rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons, by comparing the block of these currents produced by tetraethylammonium (TEA) with the block of currents generated by a tandem KCNQ3/2 construct. TEA concentration–inhibition curves against coexpressed KCNQ2 plus KCNQ3 currents, and against native M currents in SCG neurons from 6-week-old [postnatal day 45 (P45)] rats, were indistinguishable from those for the expressed tandem construct, and fully accorded with a 1:1 stoichiometry. Inhibition curves in neurons from younger (P17) rats could be better fitted assuming an additional small proportion of current carried by KCNQ2 homomultimers. Single-cell PCR yielded signals for KCNQ2, KCNQ3, and KCNQ5 mRNAs in all SCG neurons tested from both P17 and P45 rats. Quantitative PCR of whole-ganglion mRNA revealed stable levels of KCNQ2 and KCNQ5 mRNA between P7 and P45, but excess and incrementing levels of KCNQ3 mRNA. Increasing levels of KCNQ3 protein between P17 and P45 were confirmed by immunocytochemistry. We conclude that coexpressed KCNQ2 plus KCNQ3 cDNAs generate channels with 1:1 (KCNQ2:KCNQ3) stoichiometry in CHO cells and that native M channels in SCG neurons adopt the same conformation during development, assisted by the increased expression of KCNQ3 mRNA and protein.
Interfirm Relationships and Value Creation : A Synthesis , Conceptual Model and Implications for Future Research

395 words) Interfirm relationships are at the very core of new trends in the present business environment, trends such as market orientation, time-based competition, supply-chain management, strategic partnerships and electronic business. More and more frequently, these relationships are being examined as a major source of value creation in the fields of strategic management, marketing, operations management, logistics and information systems. The attention paid to interfirm relationships has resulted in an extensive but somewhat fragmented literature on the subject. It is therefore increasingly difficult to get a clear idea of the ins and outs of these buyer-seller relationships. The present theoretical study addresses this shortfall by providing an integrative framework of interfirm relationships as a means of value creation. It aims at fostering a better understanding of these relationships and at clearly positioning value creation within interfirm relationships. A synthesis of the theories used to study interfirm relationships and a cross-disciplinary literature review allow the authors to identify, and then to elucidate, three key elements of interfirm relationships: (1) the outcomes of interfirm relationships, (2) the nature of interfirm exchange and (3) the governance of interfirm exchange. These elements are combined in a conceptual model showing their interrelation. In short, a set of six factors – environmental, situational, behavioral, regulative, structural and coordinative – is identified as determining the nature and governance of exchange. Continuums ranging from the adversarial to the collaborative and from the transactional to the relational are used to characterize interfirm exchange. According to the positioning of the exchange nature and governance in these continuums, interfirm relationships result in more or less value creation and/or value
Face Verification Using the LARK Face Representation

We present a novel face representation based on locally adaptive regression kernel (LARK) descriptors [1]. Our LARK descriptor measures a self-similarity based on “signal-induced distance” between a center pixel and surrounding pixels in a local neighborhood. By applying principle component analysis (PCA) and a logistic function to LARK consecutively, we develop a new binary-like face representation which achieves state of the art face verification performance on the challenging benchmark “Labeled Faces in the Wild” (LFW) dataset [2]. In the case where training data are available, we employ oneshot similarity (OSS) [3], [4] based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA) [5]. The proposed approach achieves state of the art performance on both the unsupervised setting and the image restrictive training setting (72.23% and 78.90% verification rates) respectively as a single descriptor representation, with no preprocessing step. As opposed to [4] which combined 30 distances to achieve 85.13%, we achieve comparable performance (85.1%) with only 14 distances while significantly reducing computational complexity.
A Digital Watermarking Algorithm Based On DCT and DWT

This paper introduces an algorithm of digital watermarking based on Discrete Cosine Transform(DCT) and Discrete Wavelet Transform(DWT). Accoring to the characters of human vision, in this algorithm, the information of digital watermarking which has been discrete Cosine transformed, is put into the high frequency band of the image which has been wavelet transformed. Then distills the digital watermarking with the help of the original image and the watermarking image. The simulation results show that this algorithm is invisible and has good robustness for some common image processing operations.
Reduced Contractility and Motility of Prostatic Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts after Inhibition of Heat Shock Protein 90

Background: Prostate cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) can stimulate malignant progression and invasion of prostatic tumour cells via several mechanisms including those active in extracellular matrix; Methods: We isolated CAF from prostate cancer patients of Gleason Score 6–10 and confirmed their cancer-promoting activity using an in vivo tumour reconstitution assay comprised of CAF and BPH1 cells. We tested the effects of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitors upon reconstituted tumour growth in vivo. Additionally, CAF contractility was measured in a 3D collagen contraction assay and migration was measured by scratch assay; Results: HSP90 inhibitors dipalmitoyl-radicicol and 17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-DMAG) reduced tumour size and proliferation in CAF/BPH1 reconstituted tumours in vivo. We observed that the most contractile CAF were derived from patients with lower Gleason Score and of younger age compared with the least contractile CAF. HSP90 inhibitors radicicol and 17-DMAG inhibited contractility and reduced the migration of CAF in scratch assays. Intracellular levels of HSP70 and HSP90 were upregulated upon treatment with HSP90 inhibitors. Inhibition of HSP90 also led to a specific increase in transforming growth factor beta 2 (TGFβ2) levels in CAF; Conclusions: We suggest that HSP90 inhibitors act not only upon tumour cells, but also on CAF in the tumour microenvironment.
Merging Information Under Constraints: A Logical Framework

The paper considers the problem of merging several belief bases in the presence of integrity constraints and proposes a logical characterization of operators having a majority behaviour or a consensual one. Then a representation theorem in terms of pre-orders on interpretations is given. The close connection between belief revision and merging operators is shown and it is shown that the proposal extends the pure merging case (i.e. without integrity constraints) studied in a previous work. Finally it is shown that Liberatore and Schaerf commutative revision operators can be seen as a special case of merging.
Introducing requirements engineering: how to make a cultural change happen in practice

Introducing requirements engineering appears to involve a cultural change in organizations. Such a cultural change requires that requirements are defined and managed systematically, not only from a technical point of view, but also from the customers' and users' points of view. This paper describes experiences gained from four Finnish organizations that have started to introduce requirements engineering to their product development. The goal of this study was to evaluate which factors support, and which prevent, a cultural change. Linking business goals to technical requirements via user needs and user requirements was one of the key improvement actions that supported cultural change. Eliciting needs directly front real users and representing user requirements in the form of use cases were also key activities. However, bringing about a change of culture was challenging because both managers and product development engineers held beliefs that prevented active user need elicitation and systematic user requirement documentation.
Série Scientifique Scientific Series Marginal Likelihood for Markov-switching and Change-point Garch Models

Reproduction partielle permise avec citation du document source, incluant la notice ©. Short sections may be quoted without explicit permission, if full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. CIRANO Le CIRANO est un organisme sans but lucratif constitué en vertu de la Loi des compagnies du Québec. Le financement de son infrastructure et de ses activités de recherche provient des cotisations de ses organisations-membres, d'une subvention d'infrastructure du Ministère du Développement économique et régional et de la Recherche, de même que des subventions et mandats obtenus par ses équipes de recherche. CIRANO is a private non-profit organization incorporated under the Québec Companies Act. Its infrastructure and research activities are funded through fees paid by member organizations, an infrastructure grant from the Ministère du Développement économique et régional et de la Recherche, and grants and research mandates obtained by its research teams.
The Promise and Challenges of Incorporating Genetic Data into Longitudinal Social Science Surveys and Research

In this paper, I argue that social science and genomics can be integrated; however, the way this marriage is currently occurring rests on spurious methods and assumptions and, as a result, will yield few lasting insights. However, recent advances in both econometrics and in developmental genomics provide scientists with a novel opportunity to understand how genes and environment interact to produce social outcomes. Key to any causal inference about the interplay between genes and social environment is that either genotype be exogenously manipulated (i.e. through sibling fixed effects) while environmental conditions are held constant, and/or that environmental variation is exogenous in nature, i.e. experimental or arising from a natural experiment of sorts. Further, initial allele selection should be motivated by findings from genetic experiments in model animal studies linked to orthologous human genes. Likewise, genetic associations found in human population studies should then be tested through knock-out and over-expression studies in model organisms.
Bias correction and confidence intervals following sequential tests

An important statistical inference problem in sequential analysis is the construction of confidence intervals following sequential tests, to which Michael Woodroofe has made fundamental contributions. This paper reviews Woodroofe's method and other approaches in the literature. In particular it shows how a bias-corrected pivot originally introduced by Woodroofe can be used as an improved root for sequential bootstrap confidence intervals.