Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Implementation of Practical Bidirectional Texture Function Measurement Devices Focusing on the Developments at the University of Bonn

Understanding as well as realistic reproduction of the appearance of materials play an important role in computer graphics, computer vision and industry. They enable applications such as digital material design, virtual prototyping and faithful virtual surrogates for entertainment, marketing, education or cultural heritage documentation. A particularly fruitful way to obtain the digital appearance is the acquisition of reflectance from real-world material samples. Therefore, a great variety of devices to perform this task has been proposed. In this work, we investigate their practical usefulness. We first idey a set of necessary attributes and establish a general categorization of different designs that have been realized. Subsequently, we provide an in-depth discussion of three particular implementations by our work group, demonstrating advantages and disadvantages of different system designs with respect to the previously established attributes. Finally, we survey the existing literature to compare our implementation with related approaches.
Network Visualization by Semantic Substrates

Networks have remained a challenge for information visualization designers because of the complex issues of node and link layout coupled with the rich set of tasks that users present. This paper offers a strategy based on two principles: (1) layouts are based on user-defined semantic substrates, which are non-overlapping regions in which node placement is based on node attributes, (2) users interactively adjust sliders to control link visibility to limit clutter and thus ensure comprehensibility of source and destination. Scalability is further facilitated by user control of which nodes are visible. We illustrate our semantic substrates approach as implemented in NVSS 1.0 with legal precedent data for up to 1122 court cases in three regions with 7645 legal citations
A class of photometric invariants: separating material from shape and illumination

We derive a new class of photometric invariants that can be used for a variety of vision tasks including lighting invariant material segmentation, change detection and tracking, as well as material invariant shape recognition. The key idea is the formulation of a scene radiance model for the class of "separable" BRDFs, that can be decomposed into material related terms and object shape and lighting related terms. All the proposed invariants are simple rational functions of the appearance parameters (say, material or shape and lighting). The invariants in this class differ from one another in the number and type of image measurements they require. Most of the invariants in this class need changes in illumination or object position between image acquisitions. The invariants can handle large changes in lighting which pose problems for most existing vision algorithms. We demonstrate the power of these invariants using scenes with complex shapes, materials, textures, shadows and specularities.
Perceptual compensation mechanisms when viewing stereoscopic 3D from an oblique angle

Mathematically, 3D content should appear distorted unless viewed from the position the content was produced for. However, 3D content regularly gets viewed from incorrect angles, not perpendicular to the screen as intended. This distortion is not noticed, or at least does not affect the impression of 3D. This may be because a compensation mechanism known to exist with 2D content extends to 3D.Using canonical-form testing, we show that 3D content can appear warped when viewed from oblique angles, but the effect is small and non-stereo cues help to restore the effect.
Diagenetic facies quantitative evaluation of low-permeability sandstone: A case study on Chang 82 reservoirs in the Zhenbei area, Ordos basin

Quantitative characterization of diagenetic facies has great significance for reservoir evaluation and prediction. In order to find out the method to evaluate diagenetic facies, the author took Chang 82 reservoir low-permeability sandstone in Zhenbei area of Ordos basin as research object and divided the reservoir into six types of diagenetic facies by analysis of casting thin section, scanning electron microscope, cathode luminescence, and physical property. According to 14 quantitative evaluating parameters which were related with petrology characteristic, diagenesis strength, pore structure, etc. quantitative evaluation of diagenetic facies of low-permeability sandstone reservoir was done by data envelopment analysis. The result showed that in the Chang 82 reservoir low-permeability sandstone in Zhenbei area of Ordos basin, quantitative representative indexes of diagenetic facies ranged from 0 to 1.00. Various diagenetic facies and their indexes had interval corresponding relation. The diagenetic facies of weak corrosion with chlorite mat and the diagenetic facies of corrosion of unstable components had the best reservoir quality. Their diagenetic facies indexes ranged from 0.66 to 1.00. The reservoir quality of the diagenetic facies filled with kaolinite was not as good as the former. The indexes ranged from 0.50 to 0.66. The diagenetic facies of quartz secondary enlargement and the diagenetic facies of clay mineral cementation replacement had poor reservoir quality. Their diagenetic facies indexes ranged from 0.30 to 0.40. The diagenetic facies of carbonate cementation had the poorest reservoir quality. It hardly possessed fluid storage capability. After comparing diagenetic facies indexes, absorption strength and remaining oil saturability, the perfect corresponding relation between quantitative evaluation results and reservoir quality could be verified.
Exploiting domain geometry in analogical route planning

Abstract. Automated route planning consists of using real maps to automatically find good map routes. Two shortcomings to standard methods are (1) that domain information may be lacking, and (2) that a ‘good’ route can be hard to define. Most on-line map representations do not include information that may be relevant for the purpose of generating good realistic routes, such as traffic patterns, construction, and one-way streets. The notion of a good route is dependent not only on geometry (shortest path),but also on a variety of other factors, such as the day and time, weather conditions,and perhaps most importantly,user-dependent preferences. These features can be learned by evaluating real-world execution experience. These difficulties motivate our work on applying analogical reasoning to route planning. Analogical reasoning is a method of using past experience to improve problem solving performance in similar new situations.Our approach consists of the accumulation and reuse of previously traversed rou.
The Role of Mechanical Loading in the Onset and Progression of Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a progressive joint disease characterized by an imbalance of articular cartilage biosynthesis and degradation attributed to both inflammatory and biomechanical factors. Whereas moderate mechanical loading appears necessary for maintaining healthy cartilage, abnormal joint loading increases the risk of osteoarthritis. Obesity-induced osteoarthritis and the benefits of physical activity may be mediated by systemic levels of proinflammatory mediators as well as local biomechanical factors in the joint.
Information theoretic method for classification of packed and encoded files

Malware authors make use of some anti-reverse engineering and obfuscation techniques like packing and encoding in-order to conceal their malicious payload. These techniques succeeded in evading the traditional signature based AV scanners. Packed or encoded malware samples are difficult to be analysed directly by the AV scanners. So, such samples must be initially unpacked or decoded for efficient analysis of the malicious code. This paper illustrates a static information theoretic method for the classification of packed and encoded files. The proposed method extracts fragments of fixed size from the files and calculates the entropy scores of the fragments. These entropy scores are then used for computing the Similarity Distance Matrix for fragments in a file-pair. The proposed system classifies all the encoded and packed samples properly, thereby obtaining improved detection. The proposed system is also capable of differentiating the type of packers used for the packing or encoding process.
Computational approaches towards understanding human long non-coding RNA biology

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) form the largest class of non-protein coding genes in the human genome. While a small subset of well-characterized lncRNAs has demonstrated their significant role in diverse biological functions like chromatin modifications, post-transcriptional regulation, imprinting etc., the functional significance of a vast majority of them still remains an enigma. Increasing evidence of the implications of lncRNAs in various diseases including cancer and major developmental processes has further enhanced the need to gain mechanistic insights into the lncRNA functions. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the various computational approaches and tools available for the identification and annotation of long non-coding RNAs. We also discuss a conceptual roadmap to systematically explore the functional properties of the lncRNAs using computational approaches.
Characterising the Transmission Dynamics of Acinetobacter baumannii in Intensive Care Units Using Hidden Markov Models

Little is known about the transmission dynamics of Acinetobacter baumannii in hospitals, despite such information being critical for designing effective infection control measures. In the absence of comprehensive epidemiological data, mathematical modelling is an attractive approach to understanding transmission process. The statistical challenge in estimating transmission parameters from infection data arises from the fact that most patients are colonised asymptomatically and therefore the transmission process is not fully observed. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) can overcome this problem. We developed a continuous-time structured HMM to characterise the transmission dynamics, and to quantify the relative importance of different acquisition sources of A. baumannii in intensive care units (ICUs) in three hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. The hidden states were the total number of patients colonised with A. baumannii (both detected and undetected). The model input was monthly incidence data of the number of detected colonised patients (observations). A Bayesian framework with Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm was used for parameter estimations. We estimated that 96–98% of acquisition in Hospital 1 and 3 was due to cross-transmission between patients; whereas most colonisation in Hospital 2 was due to other sources (sporadic acquisition). On average, it takes 20 and 31 days for each susceptible individual in Hospital 1 and Hospital 3 to become colonised as a result of cross-transmission, respectively; whereas it takes 17 days to observe one new colonisation from sporadic acquisition in Hospital 2. The basic reproduction ratio (R 0) for Hospital 1, 2 and 3 was 1.5, 0.02 and 1.6, respectively. Our study is the first to characterise the transmission dynamics of A. baumannii using mathematical modelling. We showed that HMMs can be applied to sparse hospital infection data to estimate transmission parameters despite unobserved events and imperfect detection of the organism. Our results highlight the need to optimise infection control in ICUs.
Two Integrator Loop Filters: Generation Using NAM Expansion and Review

Systematic synthesis method to generate a family of two integrator loop filters based on nodal admittance matrix (NAM) expansion is given. Eight equivalent circuits are obtained; six of them are new. Each of the generated circuits uses two grounded capacitors and employs two current conveyors (CCII) or two inverting current conveyors (ICCII) or a combination of both. The NAM expansion is also used to generate eight equivalent grounded passive elements two integrator loop filters using differential voltage current conveyor (DVCC); six of them are new. Changing the input port of excitation, two new families of eight unity gain lowpass filter circuits each using two CCII or ICCII or combination of both or two DVCC are obtained.
Symmetry and Antisymmetry of the CMB Anisotropy Pattern

Given an arbitrary function, we may construct symmetric and antisymmetric functions under a certain operation. Since statistical isotropy and homogeneity of our Universe has been a fundamental assumption of modern cosmology, we do not expect any particular symmetry or antisymmetry in our Universe. Besides fundamental properties of our Universe, we may also figure our contamination and improve the quality of the CMB data products, by matching the unusual symmetries and antisymmetries of the CMB data with known contaminantions. If we let the operation to be a coordinate inversion, the symmetric and antisymmetric functions have even and odd-parity respectively. The investigation on the parity of the recent CMB data shows a large-scale odd-parity preference, which is very unlikely in the statistical isotropic and homogeneous Universe. We investigated the association of the WMAP systematics with the anomaly, but did not find a definite non-cosmological cause. Besides the parity anomaly, there is anomalous lack of large-scale correlation in CMB data. We show that the odd-parity preference at low multipoles is, in fact, phenomenologically identical with the lack of large-angle correlation.
Efficiency optimizations for interpolating subqueries

A large class of queries can be viewed as linear combinations of smaller subqueries. Additionally, many situations arise when part or all of one subquery has been preprocessed or has cached information, while another subquery requires full processing. This type of query is common, for example, in relevance feedback settings where the original query has been run to produce a set of expansion terms, but the expansion terms still need to be processed. We investigate mechanisms to reduce the time needed to process queries of this nature. We use RM3, a variant of the Relevance Model scoring algorithm, as our instantiation of this arrangement. We examine the different scenarios that can arise when we have access to the internal structure of each subquery. Given this additional information, we investigate methods to utilize this information, reducing processing costs substantially. Depending on the amount of accessibility we have into the subqueries, we can reduce processing costs over 80% without affecting the score of the final results.
Dynamic and self-stabilizing distributed matching

Finding a maximal or maximum matching in a graph is a well-understood problem for which efficient sequential algorithms exist. Applications of matchings in distributed settings make it desirable to find self-stabilizing asynchronous distributed solutions to these problems. We first present a self-stabilizing algorithm for finding a maximal matching in a general anonymous network under read/write atomicity with linear round complexity. This is followed by a self-stabilizing algorithm, with quadratic time complexity, for finding a maximum matching in a bipartite network under composite atomicity. These results represent significant progress in the area of distributed algorithms for matchings.
Multimedia recommendation: technology and techniques

In recent years, we have witnessed a rapid growth in the availability of digital multimedia on various application platforms and domains. Consequently, the problem of information overload has become more and more serious. In order to tackle the challenge, various multimedia recommendation technologies have been developed by different research communities (e.g., multimedia systems, information retrieval, machine learning and computer version). Meanwhile, many commercial web systems (e.g., Flick, YouTube, and Last.fm) have successfully applied recommendation techniques to provide users personalized content and services in a convenient and flexible way. When looking back, the information retrieval (IR) community has a long history of studying and contributing recommender system design and related issues. It has been proven that the recommender systems can effectively assist users in handling information overload and provide high-quality personalization. While several courses were dedicated to multimedia retrieval in the recent decade, to the best of our knowledge, the tutorial is the first one specifically focusing on multimedia recommender systems and their applications on various domains and media contents. We plan to summarize the research along this direction and provide an impetus for further research on this important topic
Metal mesh couplers using evanescent waves at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths

In this paper we introduce a metal mesh evanescent wave coupler that makes use of evanescent wave coupling between a metal mesh and a dielectric plate, as a quasi-optical component for millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The transmission properties of this type of couplers have been investigated experimentally and theoretically for both capacitive and inductive metal meshes in the frequency range from 40 GHz to 60 GHz. The transmittance of a capacitive metal mesh evanescent wave coupler can be adjusted more than 70% by changing the spacing between the capacitive mesh and the silicon plate less than 0.15 mm at around 57 GHz.
ttention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Preliminary Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

ackground: The purpose of this study was to explore whether there are white matter (WM) abnormalities in children with ttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using diffusion tensor imaging. Based upon the literature, we predicted decreased ractional anisotropy (FA) findings in the frontal and cerebellar regions. ethods: Eighteen patients with ADHD and 15 ageand gender-matched healthy volunteers received DTI assessments. Fractional nisotropy maps of WM were compared between groups with a voxelwise analysis after intersubject registration to Talairach space. esults: Children with ADHD had decreased FA in areas that have been implicated in the pathophysiology of ADHD: right premotor, ight striatal, right cerebral peduncle, left middle cerebellar peduncle, left cerebellum, and left parieto-occipital areas. onclusions: These preliminary data support the hypothesis that alterations in brain WM integrity in frontal and cerebellar regions ccur in ADHD. The pattern of decreased FA might implicate the corticopontocerebellar circuit in the pathophysiology of ADHD.
Nonlinear system identification by SOM with GP based local modeling

Genetic programming (GP) is a useful tool of nonlinear model building, however it tends to give much complicated model structure. Local modeling describes one nonlinear model as a set of sweet models, this approach is one of the practical ways to handle nonlinear systems. In this paper, a novel nonlinear system identification technique is proposed by combining GP and local modeling. In this approach, an identification procedure is divided into three steps, which are Self-organizing map (SOM) based clustering of the regression vectors consisting of observed input and output signals, local system identification by using GP, and model fusion of local models by fuzzy inference to provide the global model. The applicability of the proposed method is shown by the results of some numerical experiments.
A Noise Suppression Technique using an Auditory Model

In this paper we describe an efficient speech analysis model based on the properties of the peripheral auditory system. This model uses a bank of gamma-tone filters followed by a model of adaptation that occurs in auditory nerve fibers. The model produces a speech representation in terms of the mean firing rate. A noise suppression mechanism is included in order to obtain higher speech recognition robustness under noise conditions. We performed several digit recognition experiments under clean and noisy conditions in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this noise suppression method. Results show that the method substantially improves the recognition performance.
Proper allocation and utilization of spectrum by using cognitive radio networks: Bangladesh perspective

In recent years, spectrum scarcity is a major problem in wireless communication system which has been brought to a solution by using cognitive radio technology. This technology tends to increase the spectrum utilization. In this paper, an energy detection method has been proposed for proper utilization and allocation to the spectrum and also an overview of spectrum in Bangladesh. In real time system energy detection can be broadly used as a signal detection method for its lower complexity characteristics. Our scheme helps any channel distributor, by measuring the quantity of bandwidth that can be provided at any given time to any unlicensed user. From result we found that the output could be beneficial for the improvement of spectrum scarcity problem, save money and can develop our communication network system.
CHARIOT: An IoT Middleware for the Integration of Heterogeneous Entities in a Smart Urban Factory

The main innovation behind Internet of Things (IoT) is the fact that numerous devices will be able to communicate with their surroundings and the world in general. This communication ability of devices is expected to transform the existing network infrastructure in a radical way. The massive growth of the number of connected devices with IoT and the diversity of IoT use-cases and services bring significant technical challenges to existing communication network infrastructures, as they need to integrate heterogeneous and networked devices, objects and services with different requirements. In order to overcome these issues and to realize the potential of IoT, we propose a middleware called CHARIOT, which devises a runtime environment integrating heterogeneous resource-constrained devices and sensors communicating with various protocols, and a scalable and dynamic communication layer that abstracts the connected devices and enables their intercommunication. An urban smart factory scenario is used to highlight the future IoT requirements and the need for CHARIOT.
Professional Sports Firm Values

Since 2004, Forbes has proposed a list of the most valuable soccer clubs. One year later, Transfermarkt began to estimate European soccer players’ value. This article estimate the determinants of firm values in European soccer over the period 2005-2013 incorporating player valuations, clubs’ operating income, and new ownership, three variables not included previously. The results of this study demonstrate that these variables are significant factors in club valuations. More generally, club assets including stadium age, club ownership type, supporter numbers and income, and past sports performances all have a significant impact.
Nonparametric Time Series Analysis , a selectivereview with examplesWolfgang

Nonlinear time series analysis has drawn much attention recently and has shown to be the appropriate tool in many elds, in particular in nancial time series analysis. Following the principle of 'letting data speak for themselves,' researchers have developed nonparamet-ric models for nonlinear time series. This article gives a survey on these nonparametric procedures in time series analysis. We also report on applications on the analysis of several real data including gold prices and foreign exchange rates. RRsumm L'analyse des ssries temporelles non linnaires a reeu beaucoup d'attention dans les derniires annnes. Les moddles non linnaires sont utilisss, notamment, dans l'analyse-nanciire. Cet article prrsente un survey des proccdures non parammtriques en analyse des ssries temporelles. Nous l'illustrons au moyen d'exemples portant sur l'analyse de ssries du prix de l'or et de ssries de taux de change.