Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scalable Seams for Gigapixel Panoramas

Gigapixel panoramas are an increasingly popular digital image application. They are often created as a mosaic of smaller images composited into a larger single image. The mosaic acquisition can occur over many hours causing the individual images to differ in exposure and lighting conditions. Therefore, to give the appearance of a single seamless image a blending operation is necessary. The quality of this blending depends on the magnitude of discontinuity along the boundaries between the images. Often image boundaries, or seams, are first computed to minimize this transition. Current techniques based on the multi-labeling Graph Cuts method are too slow and memory intensive for panoramas many gigapixels in size. In this paper we present a multithreaded out-of-core seam computing technique that is fast, has a small memory footprint, and gives near perfect scaling up to the number of physical cores of our test system. With this method the time required to compute image boundaries for gigapixel imagery improves from many hours (or even days) to just a few minutes on commodity hardware while still producing boundaries with energy that is on-par, if not better, than Graph Cuts.
Microfabrication of capillary columns on silicon

This paper describes the design and fabrication techniques of micro capillary columns as the main components in a microengineered gas chromatography system. The system is to be developed using silicon micromachining technology, and is designed as a flexible device consisting of four basic modules: a sample injection system, an open tubular column, a gas detector system, and an electronic circuit. Being designed in a modular structure, the system can be operated in a single and multidimensional configurations. The overall device measures 6 cm X 11 cm, making it very portable for field operation. The micromachined capillary columns are isotopically etched on silicon and sealed by Pyrex glass cover plate, measuring 125 cm long, and having rectangular shaped cross sections.
Image enhancement using Wavelet transforms and SVD

Resolution and contrast are the two important attributes of an image. In this paper we developed a method to enhance the quality of the given image. The enhancement is done both with respect to resolution and contrast. The proposed technique uses DWT and SVD. To increase the resolution, the proposed method uses DWT and SWT. These transforms decompose the given image into four sub-bands, out of which one is of low frequency and the rest are of high frequency. The HF components are interpolated using conventional interpolation techniques. Then we use IDWT to combine the interpolated high frequency and low frequency components. To increase the contrast, we use SVD and DWT. The experimental results show that proposed technique gives good results over conventional methods.
Audio / Video Fusion : a Preprocessing Step for Multimodal Person Identification

In the audiovisual indexing context, we propose a system for automatic association of voices and images. This association can be used as a preprocessing step for existing applications like person identification systems. We use a fusion of audio and video indexes (without any prior knowledge) in order to make the information brought by each of them more robust. If both audio and video indexes are correctly segmented, this automatic association yields excellent results. In order to deal with oversegmentation, we propose an approach which uses one index to improve the segmentation of the other. We show that the use of the audio index improves an oversegmented video index on a corpus composed of French TV broadcasts.
Transport of Neuronal BC1 RNA in Mauthner Axons

In neurons, localized RNAs have been identified in dendrites and axons; however, RNA transport in axons remains poorly understood. Here we analyzed axonal RNA transport in goldfish Mauthner neurons in vivo. BC1 RNA, a noncoding RNA polymerase III transcript that is targeted to dendrites in neurons of the rodent nervous system, was used as a probe for axonal RNA transport. Somata of Mauthner neurons were microinjected with various RNAs. Full-length BC1 RNA, but not control RNAs of similar length, was targeted to both axons and dendrites of Mauthner neurons. BC1 RNA was transported in the form of a rapidly advancing wave front that progressed along axons, in a microtubule-dependent manner, at a rate of 2 μm/sec. Whereas a BC1 5′ segment of 65 nucleotides was transported to axons and dendrites in a way indistinguishable from full-length BC1 RNA, a BC1 3′ segment of 60 nucleotides did not enter Mauthner cell processes to any significant extent. In the wake of the wave advancing through the axon, BC1 RNA was found localized to discrete, spatially delimited domains at the axonal surface. Such demarcated cortical concentrations of BC1 RNA could not be observed after disruption of F-actin organization in the axon. It is concluded that the specific delivery of BC1 RNA to spatially defined axonal target sites is a two-step process that requires the sequential participation of microtubules for long-range axial transport and of actin filaments for local radial transfer and focal accumulation in cortical domains.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Creating a bird-eye view map using an omnidirectional camera

An omnidirectional camera has properties which are highly beneficial for navigation of a mobile robot. In this paper this is demonstrated with a new application; a visual map of the environment created from bird-eye view perspective. This visual map can be created on-line, which allows an operator to navigate the robot through an unknown environment based on this visual map. The quality of the map is tested in a self-localization experiment.
Nucleic acid metabolism in regenerating rat liver. VI. Soluble enzymes which convert thymidine to thymidine phosphates and DNA.

T h e presence of a m u l t i e n z y m e s y s t e m wh ich i nco rpo ra t e s t h y m i d i n e in to D N A in t he soluble f r a c t i o n of r e g e n e r a t i n g r a t l ive r h o m o g e n a t e s (5, 6) ra ises t h e ques t i on of t h e b io logica l sign i f icance of th i s e n z y m e sys t em. T h e r a t e of D N A s y n t h e s i s in vivo as a f u n c t i o n of t i m e a f t e r p a r t i a l h e p a t e e t o m y h a s been s tud ied in severa l l a b o r a tor ies , w i t h a v a r i e t y of i sotopic s u b s t r a t e s (1, 11-13, a n d re fe rences c i ted) . T o e x a m i n e t h e rel a t i o n b e t w e e n D N A s y n t h e s i s in vivo a n d a c t i v i t y of t h e soluble e n z y m e s y s t e m , a t echn ic for s t u d y ing these p h e n o m e n a s i m u l t a n e o u s l y in t h e s ame a n i m a l was used, fo l lowing t h e p l a n p r e v i o u s l y used to co r re la t e D N A s y n t h e s i s in vivo a n d in t i s sue slices (13). T h e resu l t s h a v e s h o w n t h a t t h e a p p e a r a n c e of t h e e n z y m e s y s t e m is co r r e l a t ed w i t h t h e a p p e a r a n c e of D N A s y n t h e s i s in vivo, b u t t h a t e n z y m a t i c a c t i v i t y c o n t i n u e s to inc rease o v e r t h e pe r iod 24 -48 h o u r s a f t e r h e p a t e c t o m y , w h e r e a s D N A s y n t h e s i s in vivo decreases .
Constraint propagation on interval bounds for dealing with geometric backtracking

The combination of task and motion planning presents us with a new problem that we call geometric backtracking. This problem arises from the fact that a single symbolic state or action may be geometrically instantiated in infinitely many ways. When a symbolic action cannot be geometrically validated, we may need to backtrack in the space of geometric configurations, which greatly increases the complexity of the whole planning process. In this paper, we address this problem using intervals to represent geometric configurations, and constraint propagation techniques to shrink these intervals according to the geometric constraints of the problem. After propagation, either (i) the intervals are shrunk, thus reducing the search space in which geometric backtracking may occur, or (ii) the constraints are inconsistent, indicating the non-feasibility of the sequence of actions without further effort. We illustrate our approach on scenarios in which a two-arm robot manipulates a set of objects, and report experiments that show how the search space is reduced.
Instrument design and protocol for the study of light controlled processes in aquatic organisms, and its application to examine the effect of infrared light on zebrafish

The acquisition of reliable data strongly depends on experimental design. When studying the effects of light on processes such as behaviour and physiology it is crucial to maintain all environmental conditions constant apart from the one under study. Furthermore, the precise values of the environmental factors applied during the experiment should be known. Although seemingly obvious, these conditions are often not met when the effects of light are being studied. Here, we document and discuss the wavelengths and light intensities of natural and artificial light sources. We present standardised experimental protocols together with building plans of a custom made instrument designed to accurately control light and temperature for experiments using fresh water or marine species. Infrared light is commonly used for recording behaviour and in electrophysiological experiments although the properties of fish photoreceptors potentially allow detection into the far red. As an example of our experimental procedure we have applied our protocol and instrument to specifically test the impact of infrared light (840 nm) on the zebrafish circadian clock, which controls many aspects of behaviour, physiology and metabolism. We demonstrate that infrared light does not influence the zebrafish circadian clock. Our results help to provide a solid framework for the future study of light dependent processes in aquatic organisms.
Behavior understandings based on state transition of postures and locations at railway station

Public safety and security in the railway station is significant. This paper describes a development of a framework composed of pedestrian detection and tracking, analysis based on both interactions between postures and location contexts and interactions between multiple pedestrians for behavior understanding in the railway station. In the railway station, a lot of pedestrians are passing through, and occlusions occur frequently. The occlusions have an influence on the accuracy of trajectories, and postures recognitions. Our framework uses ST-MRF model to reduce the influence of the occlusions. We also develop a method correcting the foot position of the occluded pedestrians to improve the accuracy of trajectories. In addition, the posture of occluded pedestrians can not be seen in single camera situation. For the problem, we develop a pedestrian matching technique between two cameras to detect the postures of the occluded pedestrians by selecting the camera without occlusions adaptively. By our framework, we improve the precision of behavior understandings in the railway station including occluded conditions.
EINDHOVEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

We consider linear dynamical systems defined by differential algebraic equations. The associated input-output behaviour is given by a transfer function in the frequency domain. Physical parameters of the dynamical system are replaced by random variables to quantify uncertainties. We analyse the sensitivity of the transfer function with respect to the random variables. Total sensitivity coefficients are computed by a nonintrusive and by an intrusive method based on the expansions in series of the polynomial chaos. In addition, a reduction of the state space is applied in the intrusive method. Due to the sensitivities, we perform a model order reduction within the random space by changing unessential random variables back to constants. The error of this reduction is analysed. We present numerical simulations of a test example modelling a linear electric network.
Helium Plasma Treatment to Improve Biocompatibility and Blood Compatibility of Polycarbonate

Radiofrequency discharge of helium gas at low pressure was employed to modify surface properties of polycarbonate. The effects of process parameters on wettability and plasma etching were determined by monitoring surface energy and weight loss, respectively. Quadratic equations for surface energy and weight loss, in terms of process variables, namely power, pressure, flowrate and treatment time were developed. Multiple response optimization was performed using central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) to maximize the surface energy and minimize the weight loss. Helium plasma treated polycarbonate resulted in increased hydrophilicity. From optical emission spectroscopic studies helium was identified as excited and metastable atom and ions which caused surface chemistry and morphology changes. Enhanced biocompatibility in terms of increased cell adhesion and proliferation was observed for all plasma treatment conditions. Confluent cell growth was observed with helium plasma treated polycarbonate. Both reduced platelet adhesion and increased partial thromboplastin time (increased to 204 s from 128 s corresponding to untreated polycarbonate) confirm the improved blood compatibility of plasma treated polycarbonate.
A Generic Approach for Energy Efficient Context Recognition Using Smart Phones

Intelligent environments rely on context information for providing services to their users. Among various existing platforms for context recognition, smart phones are one of the most widely used. However, despite numerous advantages, smart phones exhibit limited energy resources. To mitigate this there exist approaches for energy efficient context recognition for smart phones but these approaches are usually fine-tuned for specific types of context. As a result their applicability to other context types is limited. In this paper, we present an energy efficient context recognition system for smart phones which provides generalized applicability of four generic energy efficiency techniques which have been described in the literature and applied to location sensing using mobile phones. These four techniques as termed by authors include Suppression, Substitution, Adaptation and Piggybacking. Our system provides their generalized applicability by modelling context recognition applications using a state machine abstraction. Consequently the resulting applications are structured as combinations of states and transitions. To aid rapid prototyping our system is equipped with an off-line development tool which allows the creation and (code) generation of state machines using a graphical editor. We evaluate our system by creating a test application. Using a precise hardware set up, we perform energy measurements to demonstrate the energy savings of these different techniques.
Prevalence of the erm(T) Gene in Clinical Isolates of Erythromycin-Resistant Group D Streptococcus and Enterococcus

ABSTRACT Among 48 erythromycin-resistant group D streptococci (GDS), 36 had the erm(T) resistance gene. erm(T) was also found in 4 of 31 erythromycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolates. This is the first report of the erm(T) gene in U.S. GDS isolates and the first report of the erm(T) gene in enterococci.
Optimal Control with Heterogeneous Agents in Continuous Time

This paper introduces the problem of a planner who wants to control a population of heterogeneous agents subject to idiosyncratic shocks. The agents differ in their initial states and in the realization of the shocks. In continuous time, the distribution of states across agents is described by a Kolmogorov forward equation. The planner chooses the controls in order to maximize an optimality criterion subject to an . aggregate resource constraint. We demonstrate how the solution should satisfy a system of partial differential equations that includes a generalization of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation and the Kolmogorov forward equation. JEL Classification: C6, D3, D5, E2
Design and Implementation of IEEE 802.11n in Multi-hop over Wireless Mesh Networks with Multi-Channel Multi-Interface

In this paper, we present an implementation schemes of the IEEE 802.11n standard on wireless mesh network using multi-channel multi-interface technology and study for experimental results in an outdoor mesh testbed. We analyze the features of the IEEE 802.11n such as channel bonding, MIMO, and its behavior in multi-hop environment. In addition, we define the considerations for optimized design of mesh routers using IEEE 802.11n, and propose implementation schemes that can satisfy design requirements. As a result, we show the design techniques of high-performance wireless backbone network. Furthermore, we have implemented the real mesh router on an embedded board, and performed several experiments in an outdoor testbed. From experimental results, we evaluate the performance of the IEEE 802.11n over wireless mesh network with multi-channel multi-interface technique.
Nanocarbon Film as a Percolation Network for Nanocarbon/Polymer Composites

Starting with a nanocarbon film, which has some special characteristics, the present study uses this film as a cluster of connected particles that induces the percolation of electrical carrier in composites. The composite is formed through the free infiltration of the polymer through the filler’s aggregates. This method forms nanocarbon/polymer composites which have an electrical conductivity more than three orders of magnitude greater than those prepared by mixing.
Storing a sparse table

The problem of storing and searching large sparse tables is ubiquitous in computer science. The standard technique for storing such tables is hashing, but hashing has poor worst-case performance. We propose a good worst-case method for storing a static table of <italic>n</italic> entries, each an integer between 0 and <italic>N</italic> - 1. The method requires <italic>O</italic>(<italic>n</italic>) words of storage and allows <italic>O</italic>(log<subscrpt>n</subscrpt> <italic>N</italic>) access time. Although our method is a little complicated to use in practice, our analysis shows why a simpler algorithm used for compressing LR parsing tables works so well.
CEU-UPV English-Spanish system for WMT11

This paper describes the system presented for the English-Spanish translation task by the collaboration between CEU-UCH and UPV for 2011 WMT. A comparison of independent phrase-based translation models interpolation for each available training corpora were tested, giving an improvement of 0.4 BLEU points over the baseline. Output N-best lists were rescored via a target Neural Network Language Model. An improvement of one BLEU point over the baseline was obtained adding the two features, giving 31.5 BLEU and 57.9 TER for the primary system, computed over lowercased and detokenized outputs. The system was positioned second in the final ranking.
Synthesis, Analysis, Cholinesterase-Inhibiting Activity and Molecular Modelling Studies of 3-(Dialkylamino)-2-hydroxypropyl 4-[(Alkoxy-carbonyl)amino]benzoates and Their Quaternary Ammonium Salts

Tertiary amines 3-(dialkylamino)-2-hydroxypropyl 4-[(alkoxycarbonyl)amino]benzoates and their quaternary ammonium salts were synthesized. The final step of synthesis of quaternary ammonium salts was carried out by microwave-assisted synthesis. Software-calculated data provided the background needed to compare fifteen new resulting compounds by their physicochemical properties. The acid dissociation constant (pKa) and lipophilicity index (log P) of tertiary amines were determined; while quaternary ammonium salts were characterized by software-calculated lipophilicity index and surface tension. Biological evaluation aimed at testing acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase-inhibiting activity of synthesized compounds. A possible mechanism of action of these compounds was determined by molecular modelling study using combined techniques of docking; molecular dynamics simulations and quantum mechanics calculations.
Focused Plenoptic Camera and Spatial Resolution Improving Technology

The focused plenoptic cameras based on the rays resampling of microlens array on the image formed by main lens, captures radiation on sensor includes the 4D radiance information.Because of both spatial and angular information are recorded on the sensor of fixed pixels number, when rendering image with fixed view there are limited pixels from sub_image are adopted, this results in disappointingly low resolution of the result image. Our approach presents a new approach to rendering an image with higher spatial resolution than the traditional approach, allowing us to render high resolution images that meet the high requirements.
Ontological Knowledge Management Framework for Grasping and Manipulation

A holistic task based grasping system requires the use of perception modules that are tied with knowledge representation systems in order to provide optimal solutions. Task based grasping has been a well-researched field. One of the most comprehensive systems for task based grasping is the KCoPMan system that uses semantic information in mapping and planning for grasping. However, this system as well as other lacks conceptual knowledge that can aid the perception module in indentifying the best objects in the field of view for task based manipulation. Furthermore, the system depends on full 3D models of objects in order to perform grasping. This restricts the scalability, extensibility, usability and versatility of the system. In this paper, we propose an alternate knowledge representation and inference framework based on the concept of functional and geometric part affordances in order to aid task based grasping. The performance of the system is evaluated based on complex scenes and indirect queries. KeywordsOntologies, Knowledge Representation, Grasp Affordances, ConceptNet
Analysis of energy harvesting from multiple sources for wireless sensor networks with focus on impedance matching

Multiple energy harvesting system architecture combining energy from solar, thermal and vibration sources is presented, with the configurable impedance matching features is to be analyzed. The system consists of maximum power point tracking mechanism. The system can handle the input voltage from 20mV to 5V from three distinct energy harvesting sources. The matching load is individually tuned for photovoltaic, thermoelectric and piezoelectric. Analog driving scheme and ultra low power components make the Power efficiency not less than 85%, 40% and 60% of the circuit voltage respectively. The intermediate storage element such as lithium batteries and super capacitor of 3.3V is used. The time it takes to fully charge up to 3.3 V with the rate of charging is 1.8 mV/sec.