Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leveraging Image‐based Localization for Infrastructure‐based Calibration of a Multi‐camera Rig

Most existing calibration methods for multi‐camera rigs are computationally expensive, use installations of known fiducial markers, and require expert supervision. We propose an alternative approach called infrastructure‐based calibration that is efficient, requires no modification of the infrastructure (or calibration area), and is completely unsupervised. In infrastructure‐based calibration, we use a map of a chosen calibration area and leverage image‐based localization to calibrate an arbitrary multi‐camera rig in near real‐time. Due to the use of a map, before we can apply infrastructure‐based calibration, we have to run a survey phase once to generate a map of the calibration area. In this survey phase, we use a survey vehicle equipped with a multi‐camera rig and a calibrated odometry system, and self‐calibration based on simultaneous localization and mapping to build the map that is based on natural features. The use of the calibrated odometry system ensures that the metric scale of the map is accurate. Our infrastructure‐based calibration method does not assume an overlapping field of view between any two cameras, and it does not require an initial guess of any extrinsic parameter. Through extensive field tests on various ground vehicles in a variety of environments, we demonstrate the accuracy and repeatability of the infrastructure‐based calibration method for calibration of a multi‐camera rig. The code for our infrastructure‐based calibration method is publicly available as part of the CamOdoCal library at https://github.com/hengli/camodocal.
Essays in Game Theory

This thesis explores interactions among agents whose rationality is bounded in distinct ways. It consists of three self-contained chapters/papers. Chapters 2 and 3 consider myopic and hard-wired strategy revisions based on evolutionary game dynamics, while Chapter 4 deals with rationally inattentive agents who acquire costly information in a flexible manner. The thesis, thus, spans two extremes of the range of models with boundedly rational agents. The first paper proposes a novel way to formalize matching mechanisms in evolutionary games. The proposed formalization nests group selection models such as the haystack (Maynard Smith, 1964) and trait-group models (Wilson, 1975). It is shown that evolutionary optima can be obtained as Nash equilibria under appropriately defined matching rules. In the second paper matching rules are endogenized and the co-evolution of cooperation and matching is studied in social dilemma situations. It turns out that only full-or-null assortativity levels are evolutionarily stable. The extent to which efficient outcomes are achieved by this endogenization process is evaluated, which crucially depends on the structure of the particular interaction considered. The third paper extends recent models of flexible information acquisition to an uncountable-action-space setting: a beauty contest coordination game. Necessary conditions for the existence of equilibria with well-behaved strategies are derived. It is established that affine equilibria exist only if the fundamental is normally distributed. A higher coordination motive, a more concentrated prior distribution of the fundamental and higher information costs lead to less attention being paid to the fundamental. Moreover, flexible information acquisition technology is shown to result in equilibrium multiplicity under certain parameter combinations.
The Characteristics of Road Traffic Fatalities in Kazakhstan’s Semey Region, 2006-2010: A Descriptive Retrospective Study

Abstract Background Kazakhstan, a developing middle-income country, has the highest road traffic collision (RTC) mortality in the European Region. The aims of this study were to determine main characteristics of road traffic fatalities in Semey region, Kazakhstan and to compare findings with National data and middle-income European countries. Methods This descriptive surveillance study assesses RTC mortality rates and epidemiology in the Semey Region of East Kazakhstan Oblast. Data of all 318 road traffic fatalities form the Semey Regional Center for Forensic Medicine were analyzed for the 5-year period of January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2010. Results Over the study period, the average road traffic mortality in the Semey Region was 12.1 per 100,000 population with downward trend by 35.1% (p=0.002). The victims mean age was 37.1 (SD=17) years. Males predominated at 74.5%. Vehicle fatality was the most common mode of fatality at 61.3%. The majority of collisions, 53.1%, occurred on highways. Most victims, 67.3%, have died at the scene of collision; in 67.3% of fatalities, autopsies identified multiple injuries as cause of death. The high number of fatal collisions took place in “no snow” season (P<0.001), with an overall 5-years downward dynamic. Conclusion High proportion of males, pedestrians and car occupants among road traffic fatalities; high proportion of death on scene in case of highway collisions are specifics for Semey region, Kazakhstan. These findings can be used to formulate preventive strategies to reduce fatalities and to improve the medical care system for road traffic fatalities.
State of the Art and Research Challenges for VANETs

Recent advances in wireless communications technology and car industry made it possible to consider wireless Ad-hoc (or mixed Ad-hoc/infrastructure) networks, providing connectivity among vehicles on the road. Such network, often referred to as VANET (Vehicular Ad-hoc Network) is seen to be one of the most valuable concept for improving efficiency and safety of the future transportations, as well as boosting operators' revenue. Thus, several ongoing research projects supported by industry, governments and academia, establishing standards for VANET networks. This paper covers current research challenges and future applications for such networks, discusses possible deployment scenarios and provides some insights to the state-of-the-art of the current standardization of interfaces and protocols on a global scale.
Interleukin-6-Deficient Mice Are Highly Susceptible to Giardia lamblia Infection but Exhibit Normal Intestinal Immunoglobulin A Responses against the Parasite

ABSTRACT In the present study, interleukin-6 (IL-6)-deficient mice were infected with Giardia lamblia clone GS/M-83-H7. Murine IL-6 deficiency did not affect the synthesis of parasite-specific intestinal immunoglobulin A. However, in contrast to wild-type mice, IL-6-deficient animals were not able to control the acute phase of parasite infection. Reverse transcription-PCR-based quantitation of cytokine mRNA levels in peripheral lymph node cells exhibited a short-term up-regulation of IL-4 expression in IL-6-deficient mice that seemed to be associated with failure in controlling the parasite population. This observation suggests a further elucidation of IL-4-dependent, Th2-type regulatory processes regarding their potential to influence the course of G. lamblia infection in the experimental murine host.
Assessment of knowledge and factors that may predict willingness to volunteerism: a pilot study of community-directed distributors in Anambra state.

BACKGROUND Malaria as a leading cause of death in many developing countries requires urgent interventions. In order to improve access to healthcare, trained volunteers are used to distribute health commodities. The present study aims at determining knowledge and factors that may predict willingness to volunteerism in a developing country. METHODOLOGY This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in 2014 among 284 community-directed distributors in three rural communities in Anambra, Southeast Nigeria using pretested semi-structured questionnaires. RESULTS The age range of volunteers was 21-79 years. Most (71.8%) are females and are married (83.1). Only 5.6% of the volunteers did not have any formal education. The predominant occupation is trading (52.5). Most volunteers (78.5%) could define the term volunteerism. Less than half (40.1%) knew the resources that could be volunteered. Most (67.3%) felt that volunteerism is most needed in church activities. Many respondents (58.8%) had volunteered for one or more programs previously. The most common challenge faced was interference with other income generating activities (66.5%). Retired males were more likely to volunteer than retired females (P ≤ 0.01). However, females are more likely to volunteer if the main reason of volunteering is to help people (P ≤ 0.01). The more educated ones believe that volunteerism will help them to be selected for other community programs. CONCLUSION Most respondents had volunteered for other programs and the motivating factors included the satisfaction derived from helping others and the hope of being used for other community programs.
The Exclusion Problem, the Determination Relation, and Contrastive Causation*

• Argue that Yablo is probably wrong about (b); and show that the account of causal relevance that he uses to motivate (a) is not satisfactory. • Motivate and defend an account of causal relevance that does a better job than Yablo’s of explaining the phenomena. • Show how this account provides a better answer to one version of the exclusion problem. • Show that this account yields a very surprising answer to a more recalcitrant version of the exclusion problem.
A Contemporary History of Bullying & Violence in South Korean Schools

At the end of 2011 a bully-suicide case set off a wave of public and political concern for and increased sensitivity toward bullying-and-violence in South Korean schools. Following yet another high-profile bully-suicide case in 2013 the issue of school violence was designated a ‘social evil,’ with punitive-leaning and security-centric measures quickly implemented to try and ‘eradicate’ bullying-and-violence from South Korean society. During this period a particular discourse emerged - seemingly supported by survey data - claiming violence in schools in recent years has: a) become more pervasive, b) is occurring earlier and, c) like ‘gangsters,’ violent students are becoming more ‘organized. ’ This paper critically analyzes this discourse by offering a ‘history of the present’ of school violence in South Korea from the 1950s until the present. Historical, empirical, developmental and international data are used to more accurately situate student-initiated violence, and, at the same time, to call in to question the current perceptions of juvenile delinquency and of juvenile justice.
How fast can eventual synchrony lead to consensus?

It is well known that the consensus problem can be solved in a distributed system if, after some time T/sub S/, no process fails and there is some upper bound /spl delta/ on how long it takes to deliver a message. We know of no existing algorithm that guarantees consensus among N processes before time T/sub S/+O(N/spl delta/). We show that consensus can be achieved by time T/sub S/+O(/spl delta/).
Extracting semantic prototypes and factual information from a large scale corpus using variable size window topic modelling

In this paper a model of textual events composed of a mixture of semantic stereotypes and factual information is proposed. A method is introduced that enables distinguishing automatically semantic prototypes of a general nature describing general categories of events from factual elements specific to a given event. Next, this paper presents the results of an experiment of unsupervised topic extraction performed on documents from a large-scale corpus with an additional temporal structure. This experiment was realized as a comparison of the nature of information provided by Latent Dirichlet Allocation and Vector Space modelling based on Log-Entropy weights. The impact of using different time windows of the corpus on the results of topic modelling is presented. Finally, a discussion is suggested on the issue if unsupervised topic modelling may reflect deeper semantic information, such as elements describing a given event or its causes and results, and discern it from pure factual data.
MR imaging after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and surgery: a long-term follow-up study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We assumed that patients with surgically treated aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) might have more lesions than those revealed by CT that could be visible on MR images. METHODS We conducted a retrospective study of a series of 147 patients with aneurysmal SAH who were treated surgically within 3 days of the onset of SAH. One hundred four patients (mean age, 48.8 years) underwent MR imaging studies 2.1 to 5.6 years (mean, 3.3 years) postoperatively. RESULTS Eighty-four (81%) patients presented a total of 152 areas of increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images, consistent with infarction; 48% of the patients had lesions in the frontal lobes. CT performed 3 months postoperatively revealed hypodense areas on the scans of only 57% of the patients and showed lesions in the frontal lobes of only 16% of the patients. CONCLUSION Patients who undergo early surgery for aneurysmal SAH have more lesions than are revealed by CT. The difference is remarkable, especially in the frontal lobes.
Prospect and Markowitz stochastic dominance

Levy and Wiener (J Risk Uncertain 16(2), 147–163, 1998), Levy and Levy (Manage Sci 48(10), 1334–1349, 2002; Rev Fin Stud 17(4), 1015–1041, 2004) develop the prospect and Markowitz stochastic dominance theory with S-shaped and reverse S-shaped utility functions for investors. In this paper, we extend their work on prospect stochastic dominance theory (PSD) and Markowitz stochastic dominance theory (MSD) to the first three orders and link the corresponding S-shaped and reverse S-shaped utility functions to the first three orders. We also provide experiments to illustrate each case of the MSD and PSD to the first three orders and demonstrate that the higher order MSD and PSD cannot be replaced by the lower order MSD and PSD. Furthermore, we formulate the following PSD and MSD properties: hierarchy exists in both PSD and MSD relationships; arbitrage opportunities exist in the first orders of both PSD and MSD; and for any two prospects under certain conditions, their third order MSD preference will be ‘the opposite of’ or ‘the same as’ their counterpart third order PSD preference. By extending the work of Levy and Wiener and Levy and Levy, we provide investors with more tools to identify the first and third order PSD and MSD prospects and thus they could make wiser choices on their investment decision.
Consistency Matters! How and When Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Employees’ Organizational Identification?

Despite the increasing attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the management literature, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions explaining employees' responses to CSR. Drawing on social identity and cue consistency theory, we develop a mediated moderation model that explains how and under which conditions perceived CSR affects employees' organizational identification. We test the model by carrying out a three-wave longitudinal study on employees of an international utility company. The findings indicate that perceived CSR interacts with overall justice to predict organizational identification through the successive mediation of perceived external prestige and organizational pride. The study clarifies and advances some of the theoretical foundations surrounding the micro-level approach of CSR and has key implications for management research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
High-frequency, depressing inhibition facilitates synchronization in globally inhibitory networks

Motivated by the study of sharp wave-associated ripples, high-frequency (∼200 Hz) extracellular field oscillations observed in the CA1 region of the rat hippocampus during slow-wave sleep and periods of behavioural immobility, we consider a single inhibitory neuron synapsing onto a network of uncoupled, excitatory neurons. The inhibitory synapse is depressing and has a small synaptic delay. Each excitatory cell provides instantaneous, positive feedback to the inhibitory cell. We show that the interneuron can rapidly synchronize the action potentials of the pyramidal cells if the frequency of inhibitory input is increased in a ramp-like manner as occurs during the ripple. We show that the basin of attraction of the synchronous solution is larger when the inhibition frequency is gradually increased as opposed to remaining constant.
Immigration and displacement across local labour markets

This paper investigates the impact of contemporary flows of immigrants on internal movements of natives and earlier immigrants across the local authorities of England and Wales. To analyse the impact of immigration, a theoretical framework where natives and immigrants are imperfect substitutes is adopted. The econometric analysis, based on the instrumental variable approach proposed by Card (2001), shows that immigration does not displace native working-age population; instead, flows of natives are complementary with those of new immigrants. There is evidence of displacement for earlier immigrants, with a substantial impact for those with no or low qualifications. Robustness tests are provided to corroborate the results Keywords; census, displacement, england and wales, migration, local authority
Wood dynamics in headwater streams of the Colorado Rocky Mountains

An 11‐year monitoring study begun in 1996 evaluates wood mobility in five Colorado Rocky Mountain streams. Each channel reach is 40–70 m in length. Initial surveys included channel dimensions and arrangement of each piece of wood. Annual resurveys focused on wood arrangement and persistence. Average diameter of 15 cm and length of 3.2 m varied little among sites. Average yearly mobility ranged from 16% to 23%. Average residence time was 3.4 years. Wood load correlates positively with valley width and channel gradient, and negatively with relative substrate submergence and mean annual peak discharge. Survival analysis revealed that individual piece residence time was controlled by a nondimensional piece length and peak unit stream power during the year of removal. Residence time increases as piece length relative to channel width decreases, which could be explained by a greater integration of the flow field for longer pieces. Mobility of individual pieces of wood is controlled primarily by piece characteristics (length, diameter, type). Likelihood of mobility is smallest for buried pieces. The brevity of residence time relative to studies from other regions likely results from relatively low wood loads in these channels after timber harvesting cleared both instream and riparian wood supply more than a century ago. Although individual pieces of wood are exchanged, wood load and the location of individual logjams remain relatively constant.
miRNA143 Induces K562 Cell Apoptosis Through Downregulating BCR-ABL

Background Leukemia seriously threats human health and life. MicroRNA regulates cell growth, proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle. Whether microRNA could be treated as a target for leukemia is still unclear and the mechanism by which microRNA143 regulates K562 cells needs further investigation. Material/Methods miRNA143 and its scramble miRNA were synthesized and transfected to K562 cells. MTT assay was used to detect K562 cell proliferation. Flow cytometry and a caspase-3 activity detection kit were used to test K562 cell apoptosis. Western blot analysis was performed to determine breakpoint cluster region-Abelson (BCR-ABL) expression. BCR-ABL overexpression and siRNA were used to change BCR-ABL level, and cell apoptosis was detected again after lipofection transfection. Results miRNA143 transfection inhibited K562 cell growth and induced its apoptosis. miRNA143 transfection decreased BCR-ABL expression. BCR-ABL overexpression suppressed miRNA143-induced K562 cell apoptosis, while its reduction enhanced miRNA143-induced apoptosis. Conclusions miRNA143 induced K562 cell apoptosis through downregulating BCR-ABL. miRNA143 might be a target for a new leukemia therapy.
Interplay between activin and Hox genes determines the formation of the kidney morphogenetic field

The kidney develops in a specific position along the anterior-posterior axis. All vertebrate kidney tissues are derived from the intermediate mesoderm (IM), and early kidney genes such as Lim1 and Pax2 are expressed in amniotes posterior to the sixth somite axial level. IM cells anterior to this level do not express kidney genes owing to changes in their competence to respond to kidney-inductive signals present along the entire axis. We aimed to understand the molecular mechanisms governing the loss of competence of anterior IM cells and the formation of the anterior border of the kidney morphogenetic field. We identified the dorsal neural tube as the potential kidney-inductive tissue and showed that activin, a secreted morphogen, is necessary but insufficient for Lim1 induction and establishment of the kidney field. Activin or activin-like and BMP signaling cascades are activated along the entire axis, including in anterior non-kidney IM, suggesting that competence to respond to these signals involves downstream or other components. Detailed expression pattern analysis of Hox genes during early chick development revealed that paralogous group four genes share the same anterior border as the kidney genes. Ectopic expression of Hoxb4 in anterior non-kidney IM, either by retinoic acid (RA) administration or plasmid-mediated overexpression, resulted in ectopic kidney gene expression. The anterior expansion of Lim1 expression was restrained when Hoxb4 was co-expressed with a truncated form of activin receptor. We suggest a model in which the competence of IM cells to respond to TGFβ signaling and express kidney genes is driven by RA and mediated by Hoxb4.
Branes, boundary CFT and non-commutativity

Braneshaveaworld-sheetdescriptionintermsofboundaryconformaleldtheory,which allows to characterize possible branes for a given closed string background as possible conformal boundary conditions for a CFT on the plane. The world-sheet approach accommodates phenom- ena which seem to reach beyond the classical target space picture of branes and point towards a non-commutative texture of branes. We discuss the appearance of non-commutative geometry within branephysicsforthe exampleofbranesinSU(2). Insomerespects,thissituationismorecomplicated than the widely discussed case offlat branes with constant B-eld, but it still oers an approximate classicaldescription,wherebraneworld-volumesaresphericalorpoint-likeconjugacyclassesofSU(2). The 'traditional approach to non-commutativity' is based on a computation of the eective action of low-lying brane excitations, which generically leads to Lagrangians that are 'geometrical' only in an appropriate non-commutative sense. Concentrating on the innite level limit of the SU(2) theory, one nds a Yang-Mills-Higgs action on a fuzzy two-sphere (the truncation quantization of a sphere), complemented by a Chern-Simons term. Studying solutions to the eective equations of motion with the help of techniques from conformal perturbation theory, one is led to interpreting spherical branes as bound states of point-like branes. We also discuss how a more direct, though somewhat specula- tive,link betweenbranesandnon-commutativegeometrycanbe establishedby dening analgebraof 'functions on the brane world-volume' in terms of the boundary CFT data.