Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pedestrian Detection and Tracking for Counting Applications in Crowded Situations

This paper describes a vision based pedestrian detection and tracking system which is able to count people in very crowded situations like escalator entrances in underground stations. The proposed system uses motion to compute regions of interest and prediction of movements, extracts shape information from the video frames to detect individuals, and applies texture features to recognize people. A search strategy creates trajectories and new pedestrian hypotheses and then filters and combines those into accurate counting events. We show that counting accuracies up to 98 % can be achieved.
Governance and Taxes: Evidence from Regression Discontinuity

We implement a regression discontinuity design to examine the effect of institutional ownership on tax avoidance. Positive shocks to institutional ownership around Russell index reconstitutions lead, on average, to significant decreases in effective tax rates (ETR) and prioritisation of cash over book-tax savings. They also lead to greater use of international tax planning using tax haven subsidiaries. These effects are smaller for firms with initially strong governance and high executive equity compensation, suggesting poor governance as an explanation for the undersheltering puzzle. Furthermore, we observe the largest decreases among high ETR firms, and increases for low ETR firms, consistent with institutional ownership pushing firms towards a common level of tax avoidance.
Opportunities and Challenges for Community Involvement in Public Service Provision in Rural Guatemala

The purpose of the research summarized in this paper is to provide policy-relevant knowledge on the governance of rural services in Guatemala and thus to contribute to improving the provision of services that are essential for agricultural and rural development. Based on quantitative and qualitative primary data, we examine how services are actually provided today and how community preferences and participation affect service provision in rural Guatemala. Our main finding is that the provision of formally decentralized services by local governments is incomplete.
Finding Independent Components using spikes : a natural result of learning in a sparse spike coding scheme

As an alternative to classical representations in machine learning algorithms, we explore coding strategies using events as is observed for spiking neurons in the central nervous system. Focusing on visual processing, we have previously shown that we may define a sparse spike coding scheme by implementing accordingly lateral interactions [Perrinet et al., 2002]. This class of algorithms is both compatible with biological constraints and also to neurophysiological observations and provides a possible algorithm to explain the speed of visual processing despite the relatively slow time of response of single neurons. We explore here learning mechanisms to unsupervisely derive a overcomplete set of filters which provide a sparse representation of the input. We first based this work on previous work of Olshausen et al. (1998) and the results leads to similar results on the same architecture, suggesting that this provide a neural implementation to Blind Source Separation. However, this neuromimetic algorithm may be more easily extended to realistic architectures of cortical columns in the primary visual cortex. We show results for simple models of cortical colums but also for a strategy of higher-order representation.
Improvement in risk stratification with the combination of the tumour marker antigen carbohydrate 125 and brain natriuretic peptide in patients with acute heart failure.

AIM Elevated brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and tumour marker antigen carbohydrate 125 (CA125) levels have shown to be associated with higher risk for adverse outcomes in patients with acute heart failure (AHF). Nevertheless, no attempt has been made to explore the utility of combining these two biomarkers. We sought to assess whether CA125 adds prognostic value to BNP in predicting 6-month all-cause mortality in patients with AHF. METHODS AND RESULTS We analysed 1111 consecutive patients admitted for AHF. Antigen carbohydrate 125 (U/mL) and BNP (pg/mL) were measured at a median of 72 +/- 12 h after instauration of treatment. Antigen carbohydrate 125 and BNP were dichotomized based on proposed prognostic cutpoints, and a variable with four categories was formed (BNP-CA125): C1 = BNP < 350 and CA125 < 60 (n = 394); C2 = BNP > or = 350 and CA125 < 60 (n = 165); C3 = BNP < 350 and CA125 > or = 60 (n = 331); and C4 = BNP > or = 350 and CA125 > or = 60 (n = 221). The independent association between BNP-CA125 and mortality was assessed with the Cox regression analysis, and their added predictive ability tested by the integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) index. At 6 months, 181 deaths (16.3%) were identified. The cumulative rate of mortality was lower for patients in C1 (7.8%), intermediate for C2 and C3 (17.8% and 16.9%, respectively), and higher for C4 (37.2%), and P-value for trend <0.001. After adjusting for established risk factors, the highest risk was observed when both biomarkers were elevated (C4 vs. C1: HR = 4.05, 95% CI = 2.54-6.45; P < 0.001) and intermediate when only one of them was elevated: (C2 vs. C1: HR = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.00-2.93; P = 0.050) and (C3 vs. C1: HR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.30-3.39; P = 0.002). Moreover, when CA125 was added to the clinical model + BNP, a 10.4% (P < 0.0001) improvement in the IDI (on the relative scale) was found. CONCLUSION In patients admitted with AHF, CA125 added prognostic value beyond the information provided by BNP, and thus, their combination enables better 6-month risk stratification.
Clinical Outcomes and Risk Factors of Rebleeding Following Endoscopic Therapy for Nonvariceal Upper Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage

Background/Aims Rebleeding after endoscopic therapy for non-variceal upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (NGIH) is the most important predictive factor of mortality. We evaluated the risk factors of rebleeding in patients undergoing endoscopic therapy for the NGIH. Methods Between January 2003 and January 2007, 554 bleeding events in 487 patients who underwent endoscopic therapy for NGIH were retrospectively enrolled. We reviewed the clinicoendoscopical characteristics of patients with rebleeding and compared them with those of patients without rebleeding. Results The incidence of rebleeding was 21.7% (n=120). In the multivariate analysis, initial hemoglobin level ≤9 g/dL (p=0.002; odds ratio [OR], 2.433), inexperienced endoscopist with less than 2 years of experience in therapeutic endoscopy (p=0.001; OR, 2.418), the need for more 15 cc of epinephrine (p=0.001; OR, 2.570), injection therapy compared to thermal and injection therapy (p=0.001; OR, 2.840), and comorbidity with chronic renal disease (p=0.004; OR, 2.908) or liver cirrhosis (p=0.010; OR, 2.870) were risk factors for rebleeding following endoscopic therapy. Conclusions Together with patients with low hemoglobin level at presentation, chronic renal disease, liver cirrhosis, the need for more 15 cc of epinephrine, or therapy done by inexperienced endoscopist were risk factors for the development of rebleeding.
Concentration ratios of morphine to codeine in blood of impaired drivers as evidence of heroin use and not medication with codeine.

BACKGROUND Both the illicit drug heroin and the prescription drug codeine are metabolized to morphine, which tends to complicate interpretation of opiate-positive samples. We report here the concentrations of morphine and codeine, the morphine/codeine ratios, and 6-acetylmorphine (6-AM) in blood specimens from individuals arrested for driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) in Sweden. The results were compared with positive findings of 6-AM in urine as evidence of heroin intake. METHODS In 339 DUID suspects, both blood and urine specimens were available for toxicologic analysis. In another 882 cases, only blood was available. All specimens were initially analyzed by immunoassay, and the positive results were verified by isotope-dilution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In routine casework, the limits of quantification (LOQs) for unconjugated opiates were 5 ng/g for blood and 20 microg/L for urine. RESULTS The median concentration of morphine in blood was 30 ng/g with 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles of 5 and 230 ng/g, respectively (n = 979). This compares with a median codeine concentration of 20 ng/g and 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles of 5 and 592 ng/g, respectively (n = 784). The specific metabolite of heroin, 6-AM, was identified in only 16 of 675 blood specimens (2.3%). This compares with positive findings of 6-AM in 212 of 339 urine samples (62%) from the same population of DUID suspects. When 6-AM was identified in urine, the morphine/codeine ratio in blood was always greater than unity (median, 6.0; range, 1-66). In 18 instances, 6-AM was present in urine, although morphine and codeine were below the LOQ in blood. The morphine/codeine ratio in blood was greater than unity in 85% of DUID cases when urine was not available (n = 506), and the median morphine and codeine concentrations were 70 ng/g and 10 ng/g, respectively. When morphine/codeine ratios in blood were less than unity (n = 76), the median morphine and codeine concentrations were 10 ng/g and 180 ng/g, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Only 2.3% of opiate-positive DUID suspects were verified as heroin users on the basis of positive findings of 6-AM in blood. A much higher proportion (62%) were verified heroin users from 6-AM identified in urine. When urine was not available for analysis, finding a morphine/codeine concentration ratio in blood above unity suggests heroin use and not medication with codeine. This biomarker indicated that 85% of opiate-positive DUID blood samples were from heroin users.
The Environmental Impact of Cambodia's Ancient City of Mahendraparvata (Phnom Kulen)

The Khmer kingdom, whose capital was at Angkor from the 9th to the 14th-15th century, was founded in 802 by king Jayavarman II in a city called Mahandraparvata, on Phnom Kulen. Virtually nothing more is known of Mahandraparvata from the epigraphic sources, but systematic archaeological survey and excavation have identified an array of cultural features that point to a more extensive and enduring settlement than the historical record indicates. Recent remote sensing data have revolutionized our view, revealing the remains of a city with a complex and spatially extensive network of urban infrastructure. Here, we present a record of vegetation change and soil erosion from within that urban network, dating from the 8th century CE. Our findings indicate approximately 400 years of intensive land use, punctuated by discrete periods of intense erosion beginning in the mid 9th century and ending in the late 11th century. A marked change in water management practices is apparent from the 12th century CE, with implications for water supply to Angkor itself. This is the first indication that settlement on Mahendraparvata was not only extensive, but also intensive and enduring, with a marked environmental impact.
A Phrase-Discovering Topic Model Using Hierarchical Pitman-Yor Processes

Topic models traditionally rely on the bag-of-words assumption. In data mining applications, this often results in end-users being presented with inscrutable lists of topical unigrams, single words inferred as representative of their topics. In this article, we present a hierarchical generative probabilistic model of topical phrases. The model simultaneously infers the location, length, and topic of phrases within a corpus and relaxes the bag-of-words assumption within phrases by using a hierarchy of Pitman-Yor processes. We use Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques for approximate inference in the model and perform slice sampling to learn its hyperparameters. We show via an experiment on human subjects that our model finds substantially better, more interpretable topical phrases than do competing models.
Abundances of Metal-rich H II Regions in M51

We have obtained multiobject spectroscopy of H II regions in the spiral galaxy M51 with the Keck I telescope and the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer. For 10 objects we have detected the auroral line [N II] λ5755, while [S III] λ6312 has been measured in seven of these. This has allowed us to measure the electron temperature of the gas and to derive oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen abundances for the 10 H II regions. Contrary to expectations from previous photoionization models of a few H II regions in M51 and from strong-line abundance indicators, the O/H abundance is below the solar value for most objects, with the most metal-rich H II regions, P203 and CCM 72, having log(O/H) = -3.16 [~1.4(O/H)☉] and log(O/H) = -3.29 [~1.0 (O/H)☉], respectively. The reduction of O/H by factors of up to 2 or 3 with respect to previous indirect determinations has important consequences for the calibration of empirical abundance indicators, such as R23, in the abundance and excitation range found in the central regions of spiral galaxies. The abundance gradients in these galaxies can therefore be considerably flatter than those determined by using such empirical calibrations. The H II regions with a measured electron temperature span the range (0.19-1.04) R0 in galactocentric radius and indicate a shallow abundance gradient for M51: -0.02 ± 0.01 dex kpc-1. The S/O abundance ratio is found to be similar to previous determinations of its value in other spiral galaxies, log(S/O) ≈ -1.6. Therefore, we find no evidence for a variation in massive-star initial mass function or nucleosynthesis at high oxygen abundance. An overabundance of nitrogen is measured, with log(N/O) ≃ -0.6. On the basis of our new abundances, we revise the effective yield for M51, now found to be almost 4 times lower than previous estimates, and we discuss this result in the context of chemical evolution in galactic disks. Features from Wolf-Rayet stars (the blue bump at 4660 Å and the C III line at 5696 Å) are detected in a large number of H II regions in M51, with the C III λ5696 line found preferentially in the central, most metal-rich objects.
RAY ENERGY AND POWER SPECTRA OF SEYFERT 1 AND NARROW LINE SEYFERT 1 GALAXIES : COMPARISON TO BLACK HOLE BINARIES

I review observational data on X–ray energy spectra and variability of Seyfert 1 and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies, and compare them to black hole binary (BHB) systems. There seems to be greater similarity of time averaged properties (i.e. energy spectra) than time variability between the supermassive and stellar-mass black hole accreting systems. Energy spectra of Seyfert 1 galaxies are similar to BHB in low/hard state, but power spectra of Sy 1 are intermediate in properties between those for hard and soft states of BHB. There is growing evidence that NLSy 1 are accreting at higher accretion rate than Sy 1, which supports the view that they correspond to soft states of BHB. Again, they are more similar to their stellar counterparts with respect to their spectral properties than to timing properties. I briefly outline some theoretical ideas which suggest explanations of those differences.
Centralized, Distributed or Something Else? Making Timely Decisions in Multi-Agent Systems

In multi-agent systems, agents need to share information in order to make good decisions. Who does what in order to achieve this matters a lot. The assignment of responsibility influences delay and consequently affects agents' abilities to make timely decisions. It is often unclear which approaches are best. We develop a model where one can easily test the impact of different assignments and information sharing protocols by focusing only on the delays caused by computation and communication. Using the model, we obtain interesting results that provide insight about the types of assignments that perform well in various domains and how slight variations in protocols can make great differences in feasibility.
SOCIUS Working Papers

In a global economy, global, universal ethics are a necessity. How can ethics be connected to the economy in an interdependent world? From all the different theories on ethics, which one should we choose? Does utilitarianism and the maximisation of utility promote the happiness of all, or does it promote selfishness? What is the role of the international institutions in the definition and the respect of universal duties and rights? These are the questions that this working document raises and attempts to answer, putting forward some contributions to the definition of a global ethic based on duties, virtues and fraternity; a universal ethic which reconciles the partiality of feelings with the impartiality of duties; an ethic which reconciles justice with solidarity; an ethic in which the means justify the ends.
Made-Up Minds: A Constructivist Approach to Artificial Intelligence

Two of the main goals of artificial in1 lenged this traditional approach. One of it, then we have a vicious circle between telligence understanding human cogthese is constructivism, which has spread the original and the knowledge of it. Innition, and building computer systems particularly in the last 20 years but whose stead, Piaget’s view is that “to know is to that perform as well as people in tasks sources can be traced to Kant, Vito, construct. ” requiring intelligence can be mutually Berkeley, Montaingne, Phyrro, and even But to construct what? In knowing, he supportive. For example, an engineer the Pre-Socratics. says, we construct actions and intellectuwho wants to enable a computer to peral (mental) operations that he considers form tasks requiring intelligence might to be systems of transformations. These be aided by a viable model of human inare not copies of the transformations that telligence, while a researcher who wants constitute reality, he says, but consistent to develop a viable model of human inJean Picrget documents some and coherent models that are compatible telligence might verify and improve that striking uniformities with reality. Within these models, it is model by experimenting with an artificial throughout cogtdtive our experience that enables us to make I version. development, and refers to choices.7 Understanding human cognition these as the funttionul So, according to Piaget, the knowledge acquired by an intelligent organism is Especially in cognitive science and AI invarrirrnts of intelligence. compatible with the world (it organizes research, two requisites have been fundaDresrker proposes a schema the world) and is acquired by constructmental in all established theories of mwhanism that corresponds ing coherent systems of mental operaknowing:’ to Piaget’s theory of stages. tions and physical actions (it organizes l Whatever we would like to call “true itself).
On the Use of Prosody for On-line Evaluation of Spoken Dialogue Systems

This paper focuses on the users’ signaling of information status in human-machine interactions, and in particular looks at the role prosody may play in this respect. Using a corpus of interactions with two Dutch spoken dialogue systems, prosodic correlates of users’ disconfirmations were investigated. In this corpus, disconfirmations may serve as a signal to ‘go on’ in one context and as a signal to ‘go back’ in another. With the data obtained from this corpus an acoustic and a perception experiment have been carried out. The acoustic analysis shows that the difference in signaling function is reflected in the distribution of the various types of disconfirmations as well as in different prosodic variables (pause, duration, intonation contour and pitch range). The perception experiment revealed that subjects are very good at classifying disconfirmations as positive or negative signals (without context), which strongly suggests that the acoustic features have communicative relevance. The implications of these results for human-machine interactions are discussed.
ICTs in Industrial Districts: An Empirical Analysis on Adoption, Use and Impact in the Biella Textile District

This paper is aimed at analysing the determinants of the adoption and use of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in one Italian industrial district, specialised in medium to high quality woollen yarns and textiles. Moreover, the relation between adoption and use of ICTs and patterns of innovation is also investigated in the same district. Different studies have recently analysed in different contexts and countries, ICTs diffusion in the manufacturing sectors and their impact on performance. This paper provides a further analysis in that direction, under particular conditions. In the first place we analyse a localised industrial structure, characterised by important linkages with external markets
Visualization , Summarization and Exploration of Large Collections of Images : State Of The Art

This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art of the recent technical achievements in visualization of large collections of images. Major recent publications are included in this survey covering different aspects of the research in this area, including visualization, summarization and exploration. In addition, some other related issues such as performance measures and experimental setup are also discussed. Finally, based on existing technology and the demand from realworld applications, a few promising future research directions are suggested.
A Spectroscopic Survey of Faint Quasars in the SDSS Deep Stripe. I. Preliminary Results from the Co-added Catalog

In this paper we present the first results of a deep spectroscopic survey of faint quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Southern Survey, a deep survey carried out by repeatedly imaging a 270 deg2 area. Quasar candidates were selected from the deep data with good completeness over 0 < z < 5 and 2-3 mag fainter than the SDSS main survey. Spectroscopic follow-up was carried out on the 6.5 m MMT with Hectospec. The preliminary sample of this SDSS faint quasar survey (SFQS) covers ∼3.9 deg2, contains 414 quasars, and reaches g = 22.5. The overall selection efficiency is ∼66% (∼80% at g < 21.5); the efficiency in the most difficult redshift range (2 < z < 3) is better than 40%. We use the 1/Va method to derive a binned estimate of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) and model the QLF using maximum likelihood analysis. The best model fits confirm previous results showing that the QLF has steep slopes at the bright end and much flatter slopes (-1.25 at z ≲ 2.0 and -1.55 at z ≳ 2.0) at the faint end, indicating a break in the QLF slope. Using a luminosity-dependent density evolution model, we find that the quasar density at Mg < -22.5 peaks at z ∼ 2, which is later in cosmic time than the peak of z ∼ 2.5 found from surveys of more luminous objects. The SFQS QLF is consistent with the results of the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey, the SDSS, and the 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey, but probes fainter quasars. We plan to obtain more quasars from future observations and establish a complete faint quasar sample with more than 1000 objects over 10 deg2.
Data-driven biped control

We present a dynamic controller to physically simulate under-actuated three-dimensional full-body biped locomotion. Our data-driven controller takes motion capture reference data to reproduce realistic human locomotion through realtime physically based simulation. The key idea is modulating the reference trajectory continuously and seamlessly such that even a simple dynamic tracking controller can follow the reference trajectory while maintaining its balance. In our framework, biped control can be facilitated by a large array of existing data-driven animation techniques because our controller can take a stream of reference data generated on-the-fly at runtime. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through examples that allow bipeds to turn, spin, and walk while steering its direction interactively.