Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strathprints Institutional Repository2010) Modelling of Content- Aware Indicators for Effective Determination of Shot Boundaries in Compressed Mpeg Videos. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 54 (2). Pp. 219-239. Issn 1380-7501 Modelling of Content-aware Indicators for Effective Determination of Shot

Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Abstract. In this paper, a content-aware approach is proposed to design multiple test conditions for shot cut detection, which are organized into a multiple phase decision tree for abrupt cut detection and a finite state machine for dissolve detection. In comparison with existing approaches, our algorithm is characterized with two categories of content difference indicators and testing. While the first category indicates the content changes that are directly used for shot cut detection, the second category indicates the contexts under which the content change occurs. As a result, indications of frame differences are tested with context awareness to make the detection of shot cuts adaptive to both content and context changes. Evaluations announced by TRECVID 2007 indicate that our proposed algorithm achieved comparable performance to those using machine learning approaches, yet using a simpler feature set and straightforward design strategies. This has validated the effectiveness of modelling of content-aware indicators for decision making, which also provides a good alternative to conventional approaches in this topic.
Impact of IPv4 address allocation practice on BGP routing table growth

Rapid BGP (border gateway protocol) routing table growth has been a main concern for the operation of the Internet in recent years. We study how current IPv4 address allocation practice affects the BGP table growth. The practice includes both newly-made allocations and two address policies, i.e., allocation size and minimum allocation size. We first found that the address blocks allocated during the past five years contributed to more than 71% of the BGP table growth within the same period. Moreover, contributions made by allocated address blocks quickly become static after the allocation. Based on this observation, we propose an empirical model to emulate table growth. We next study the impact of two address policies and show that while the "allocation size" policy is observed to have visible impact on the growth, there is no clear evidence that the "minimum allocation size" policy, designed for slowing down table size increase, has suppressed growth. We finally discuss how the address policies could have better controlled the BGP table growth.
Social Media Use and Substance Use During Emerging Adulthood

This study examined the relationship between daily time spent using social media and substance use in a national sample of 563 emerging adults from the United States (18- to 22-year-olds, 50% female, 63% non-Hispanic White). Results revealed that males reported more social media use and more substance use in comparison to females. In addition, greater daily social media use was related to more alcohol consumption, more problematic alcohol use, and more frequent drug use. A significant gender × social media use interaction was also observed for drug use, revealing that greater daily social media use was significantly related to more frequent drug use for females but not for males. Results from this study emphasize the importance of considering different types of social media in relation to substance use and abuse during emerging adulthood and the need to examine these relations by gender.
Fixed versus Random Proportions Demand Models for the Assortment Planning Problem under Stock-out based Substitution

We consider the problem of determining the optimal assortment of products to offer in a given product category when each customer is characterized by a type, which is a list of products he is willing to buy in decreasing order of preference. We assume consumer-driven, dynamic, stock-out based substitution and random proportions of each type. No efficient method to obtain the optimal solution for this problem is known to our knowledge. However, if the number of customers of each type is a fixed proportion of demand there exists an efficient algorithm for solving for the optimal assortment. We show that the fixed proportions model gives an upper bound to the optimal expected profit for the random proportions model. This bound allows us to obtain a measure of the absolute performance of heuristic solutions. We also provide a bound for the component-wise absolute difference in expected sales between the two models, which is asymptotically tight as the inventory vector is made large, while keeping the number of products fixed. This result provides us with a lower bound to the optimal expected profit and a performance guarantee for the fixed proportion solution in the random proportion model.
Concept Mapping – A Pedagogical Tool for Grammar Lessons

Introduction Grammar is the description of the regularities in a language. Knowledge of these regularities provides the learner with the means to generate potentially enormous number of original sentences. Grammar teaching can proceed in two ways: covert grammar teaching where the rules are taught to a communicative syllabus and overt grammar teaching where the rules of grammar are presented explicitly using the grammar syllabus. Looking at the prescribed textbooks and the teacher handbooks used in Indian schools, one can infer that the pedagogy of English grammar teaching in India, by and large, follows the overt method. The teaching relies heavily on explicitly stating the concept and the rules governing it. The inductive or deductive approach is then used to understand the syntax of the language and solving examples strengthens the rules hence learnt.
UWB Geolocation Techniques for IEEE 802.15.4a Personal Area Networks

A UWB positioning system which performs NLOS identification and TOA-based location estimation is described. For NLOS identification, we consider both a simple variance test, and a more complex non-parametric identification test. The ranging technique is based on TOA estimation, where the nodes can adopt a two-way ranging scheme in the absence of a common clock. From the NLOS identification and range estimation steps, an approximate MLE technique is employed for the node positioning.
Renin-angiotensin system blockers regulate the metabolism of isolated fat cells in vitro

Due to the presence of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in tissues and its specific influence on white adipose tissue, fat cells are possible targets of pharmacological RAS blockers commonly used as anti-hypertensive drugs. In the present study, we investigated the effects of different RAS blockers on fat cell metabolism, more specifically on lipolysis, lipogenesis and oxidation of energy substrates. Isolated primary adipocytes were incubated with different RAS blockers (aliskiren, captopril and losartan) in vitro for 24 h and lipolysis, lipogenesis and glucose oxidation capacities were determined in dose-response assays to a β-adrenergic agonist and to insulin. Although no change was found in lipolytic capacity, the RAS blockers modulated lipogenesis and glucose oxidation in a different way. While captopril decreased insulin-stimulated lipogenesis (−19% of maximal response and −60% of insulin responsiveness) due to reduced glucose derived glycerol synthesis (−19% of maximal response and 64% of insulin responsiveness), aliskiren increased insulin-stimulated glucose oxidation (+49% of maximal response and +292% of insulin responsiveness) in fat cells. Our experiments demonstrate that RAS blockers can differentially induce metabolic alterations in adipocyte metabolism, characterized by a reduction in lipogenic responsiveness or an increase in glucose oxidation. The impact of RAS blockers on adipocyte metabolism may have beneficial implications on metabolic disorders during their therapeutic use in hypertensive patients.
On the “Why” of Social Experiments: Some Lessons on Overcoming Barriers from 45 Years of Social Experiments

Nearly a half century has passed since August 1968 when the first families were enrolled in the New Jersey Income Maintenance Experiment, the first large‐scale social policy evaluation to use random assignment. Over that time, the field of social policy experiments has expanded greatly with particularly fast growth occurring since the turn of the 21st century. This dramatic growth has several dimensions, including both the volume of experiments and the numbers of areas of social policy involved. This chapter focuses on the evolving contexts in which social policy experiments have taken place, with attention to how they have overcome obstacles to their use.
The overall pattern of ocular dominance bands in cat visual cortex

This study describes the overall arrangement of geniculocortical input representing the system of cortical ocular dominance bands in layer IV of striate cortex in the adult cat. The pattern of ocular dominance bands was revealed by transneuronal transport of the intraocularly injected tracer wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP). Our data indicate that this procedure does not damage the retina and that it results in relatively uniform uptake and transport of the tracer. Using previously published techniques (Olavarria and Van Sluyters, 1983, 1985), both cortical hemispheres of each cat were unfolded, flattened and tangentially sectioned. Analysis of the WGA-HRP labeling patterns in these sections revealed a relatively continuous network of irregularly branching bands in layer IV of area 17 in both hemispheres. Because of a systematic difference in the level of interband labeling, ocular dominance bands appear less distinct in the hemisphere contralateral to the injected eye. There is also a tendency for interband labeling to be greater in cortical regions that represent the more peripheral aspects of the binocular portion of the visual field. The width of an individual ocular dominance band in the cat fluctuates, so that it appears to be made up of a series of uniformly sized, roughly circular beads of label. The diameter of these beads averages 667 micron, and preliminary counts indicate that there are 650–675 beads in each striate cortex. Contrary to earlier suggestions, in 4 out of 6 hemispheres analyzed quantitatively there was no tendency for ocular dominance bands to be oriented along a preferred axis in cat striate cortex, including an axis orthogonal to the border between areas 17 and 18. Ocular dominance bands in area 18 appear to be broader than those in area 17, and they seem to have a greater tendency to be oriented orthogonal to the 17/18 border than those in area 17. Compared with the ocular dominance pattern in monkey striate cortex, the ocular dominance pattern in the cat is much less regular. In general, cat ocular dominance bands appear to fluctuate more in width, to change direction more often, and to be less likely to run orthogonal to the 17/18 border. The greater regularity of the primate ocular dominance pattern may be related to differences in the way in which the visual hemifield is mapped onto the striate cortex in these 2 species.
Massive Black Hole Binary Evolution

Coalescence of binary supermassive black holes (SBHs) would constitute the strongest sources of gravitational waves to be observed by LISA. While the formation of binary SBHs during galaxy mergers is almost inevitable, coalescence requires that the separation between binary components first drop by a few orders of magnitude, due presumably to interaction of the binary with stars and gas in a galactic nucleus. This article reviews the observational evidence for binary SBHs and discusses how they would evolve. No completely convincing case of a bound, binary SBH has yet been found, although a handful of systems (e.g. interacting galaxies; remnants of galaxy mergers) are now believed to contain two SBHs at projected separations of <~ 1kpc. N-body studies of binary evolution in gas-free galaxies have reached large enough particle numbers to reproduce the slow, “diffusive” refilling of the binary’s loss cone that is believed to characterize binary evolution in real galactic nuclei. While some of the results of these simulations - e.g. the binary hardening rate and eccentricity evolution - are strongly N-dependent, others - e.g. the “damage” inflicted by the binary on the nucleus - are not. Luminous early-type galaxies often exhibit depleted cores with masses of ~ 1-2 times the mass of their nuclear SBHs, consistent with the predictions of the binary model. Studies of the interaction of massive binaries with gas are still in their infancy, although much progress is expected in the near future. Binary coalescence has a large influence on the spins of SBHs, even for mass ratios as extreme as 10:1, and evidence of spin-flips may have been observed.
Accuracy of gender and ethnic labels and personality perception as moderated by prejudice

PERCEPTION AS MODERATED BY PREJUDICE By BRANDON P. LABBREE A thesis submitted to the Graduate School-Camden Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts Graduate Program in Psychology Written under the direction of Wayne Chan And approved by ______________________________ Wayne Chan ______________________________ Kristin August ______________________________ Christopher Nave
An efficient system for collaboration in tele-immersive environments

The paper describes the development of a high-performance system for visualizing complex scientific models in real-time. The architecure of the system is a client/server model, in which the simulator generates lists of 3D graphics objects in parallel to the simulation, from where they are sent to a streaming server. The server transfers the 3D objects to viewer clients. Clients communicate over a second connection with each other, which adds the ability to perform collaborative tasks. An application related to computational fluid dynamics is specified where such a tele-immersive system can be used. The approach differs to other solutions because it offers a large set of graphics primitives for visualization, and it is optimized for distributed, heterogenous environments.
Constructing time-homogeneous generalized diffusions consistent with optimal stopping values

Consider a set of discounted optimal stopping problems for a one-parameter family of objective functions and a fixed diffusion process, started at a fixed point. A standard problem in stochastic control/optimal stopping is to solve for the problem value in this setting. In this article we consider an inverse problem; given the set of problem values for a family of objective functions, we aim to recover the diffusion. Under a natural assumption on the family of objective functions, we can characterize the existence and uniqueness of a diffusion for which the optimal stopping problems have the specified values. The solution of the problem relies on techniques from generalized convexity theory.
A decade of research and development in disability , virtual reality and associated technologies : promise or practice ? S

The International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies (ICDVRAT) this year holds its sixth biennial conference and celebrates ten years of research and development in this field. A total of 180 papers have been presented at the first five conferences, addressing potential, development, exploration and examination of how these technologies can be applied in disabilities research and practice. The research community is broad and multi-disciplined, comprising a variety of scientific and medical researchers, rehabilitation therapists, educators and practitioners. Likewise, technologies, their applications and target user populations are also broad, ranging from sensors positioned on real world objects to fully immersive interactive simulated environments. A common factor is the desire to identify what the technologies have to offer and how they can provide added value to existing methods of assessment, rehabilitation and support for individuals with disabilities. We review this first decade of research and development in the ICDVRAT community and ask how far we have progressed: are we still discussing potential and promise or has our technology found its way into practical implementation?
Human identification using ECG feature extracted from innovation signal of Extended Kalman Filter

Electrocardiogram is one of the most prominent cardiac signals being capable to be utilized for medical uses such as arrhythmia detection. Over the years, the feasibility of using this signal for human identification issue has been investigated, and some methods have been proposed. In this Paper a novel approach is proposed for electrocardiogram (ECG) based human identification using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The innovation signal of EKF has been considered as feature which is used to classify different subjects. In this paper a general issue, human identification, is summarized to a classification problem in which the proposed features of each subject is calculated, and the classification based on extracted features is done via Artificial Neural Network. In order to assess the proposed method, the algorithm is applied to 10 normal subjects of MIT-BIH Database using single lead data, and a 95.6% human identification rate is reached. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it guarantees high accuracy even in noisy data in comparison to existing methods. EKF is a robust tool used for ECG denoising, and is able to eliminate the noise of signal even in high noise power contaminating the signal. Afterwards noisy data with various SNRs is generated simply by adding artificial white noise to signals. The proposed method is evaluated on noisy data, and the results show that the method is nearly accurate in SNRs above 0dB in normal subjects.
Thermal solitons and Solectrons in 1D anharmonic Lattices up to Physiological temperatures

We study the thermal excitation of solitons in 1D Toda–Morse lattices in a wide range of temperatures from zero up to physiological level (about 300 K) and their influence on added excess electrons moving on the lattice. The lattice units are treated by classical Langevin equations. The electron distributions are in a first estimate represented by equilibrium adiabatic distributions in the actual fields. Further, the electron dynamics is modeled in the framework of the tight-binding approximation including on-site energy shifts due to electron-lattice coupling and stochastic hopping between the sites. We calculate the electron distributions and discuss the excitations of solectron type (electron-soliton dynamic bound states) and estimate their life times.
Increasing patient medical record completion by assigning nurses to specific patients in maternity ward at Munini hospital

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the quality improvement project to increase the medical record documentation completion rate in a district hospital in Rwanda. Despite the importance of medical records to support high quality and efficient care, incomplete documentation is common in many hospitals. Design/methodology/approach The pre- and post-intervention record completion rate in the maternity unit was assessed. Intervention included assigned nurse to specific patients, developed guideline, provided trainings and supervisions. Findings The documentation completion rate significantly increased from 25 per cent pre-intervention to 67 per cent post-intervention, p < 0.001. The completeness of seven out of the ten elements of medical records also significantly increased. Practical implications The quality improvement project created a cost-effective intervention that successfully improved the documentation completion rate. Ongoing monitoring should be continued to learn sustainability. Originality/value The results are useful for hospitals with similar settings to improve completion of nursing documentation and increase nursing accountability on patient care.
Role of S-Layer Protein Antigenic Diversity in the Immune Responses of Sheep Experimentally Challenged with Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus

ABSTRACT Surface layer proteins (SLPs) are essential for induction of abortion by Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus in experimentally challenged ewes. These proteins are encoded by multiple sap genes and vary in size and antigenicity. The role of SLP antigenic variation during experimental ovine infection was investigated. Following subcutaneous challenge, the SLPs were highly antigenic, and antibodies were detected in serum, milk, bile, and urine. Fecal anti-SLP antibodies were detected only in animals challenged orally. Ewes challenged with wild-type strain 23D with variable SLPs developed detectable circulating anti-SLP immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies by 2 weeks postchallenge. In contrast, ewes challenged with mutants of 23D that had fixed expression of a single SLP developed antibodies within 1 week postchallenge, suggesting that antigenic variation in SLPs may delay the host antibody response. Although not statistically significant, the data from challenge experiments in which vaccinated ewes were used suggested that SLP-expressing vaccines could protect animals from abortion and that this effect was independent of the SLP expressed, indicating involvement of conserved epitopes in the SLP. The conserved 184-amino-acid N-terminal region of the SLP, identified from previously published sequences, was epitope mapped with rabbit anti-SLP antisera by using overlapping synthetic 20-mer peptides. Two putative epitopes were identified at amino acids 81 to 110 and 141 to 160. Amino acids 81 to 100 also bound serum IgG antibodies from experimentally challenged sheep. Conserved antigenic regions of the SLP that induce protective immune responses may enable development of synthetic vaccine candidates for C. fetus subsp. fetus-associated ovine abortion.
H-2K mutation controls immune response phenotype of autoimmune thyroiditis. Critical expression of mutant gene product in both thymus and thyroid glands

Autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT) can be induced by immunizing mice against mouse thyroglobulin. A gene critical to the phenotypical expression of EAT was mapped to the H-2K locus by studying B6 mice and its mutant strain B6.H-2ba. To identify organs in which expression of the gene was decisive for the EAT phenotype, we transplanted thyroid or irradiated thymus glands into various strains of normal mice or thymusless nude mice. We found that the pathophysiology of EAT was controlled by the expression of specific H-2 genes in both the target thyroid gland and the thymus gland.