Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Privacy-Preserving and Copy-Deterrence Content-Based Image Retrieval Scheme in Cloud Computing

With the increasing importance of images in people's daily life, content-based image retrieval (CBIR) has been widely studied. Compared with text documents, images consume much more storage space. Hence, its maintenance is considered to be a typical example for cloud storage outsourcing. For privacy-preserving purposes, sensitive images, such as medical and personal images, need to be encrypted before outsourcing, which makes the CBIR technologies in plaintext domain to be unusable. In this paper, we propose a scheme that supports CBIR over encrypted images without leaking the sensitive information to the cloud server. First, feature vectors are extracted to represent the corresponding images. After that, the pre-filter tables are constructed by locality-sensitive hashing to increase search efficiency. Moreover, the feature vectors are protected by the secure kNN algorithm, and image pixels are encrypted by a standard stream cipher. In addition, considering the case that the authorized query users may illegally copy and distribute the retrieved images to someone unauthorized, we propose a watermark-based protocol to deter such illegal distributions. In our watermark-based protocol, a unique watermark is directly embedded into the encrypted images by the cloud server before images are sent to the query user. Hence, when image copy is found, the unlawful query user who distributed the image can be traced by the watermark extraction. The security analysis and the experiments show the security and efficiency of the proposed scheme.
Interactivity improvement of group synchronization control in collaborative haptic play with building blocks

This paper proposes a group synchronization control scheme with prediction in collaborative haptic play with building blocks. The scheme adjusts the output timing among multiple terminals and keeps the interactivity high. It outputs position information by predicting a future position later than the last-received position information by a fixed amount of time. It also advances the output time of position information at each local terminal by the same amount of time. By experiment, we subjectively assess the output quality of haptic media so as to demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme.
eLORM: Learning Object Relationship Mining based Repository

The development of learning objects (LO) has brought significant promise for creating highly personalized learning programs and it has resulted in the huge amount of various LOs all over the world. Learning object repository is regarded as a good median to manage the learning resources such as storing, indexing, retrieval and so on. However, due to the LOs' distribution and diversity, learners usually lack sufficient awareness and comprehension to make effective selection among the large numbers of available learning resources. It is difficult for the learners to properly integrate information to address their immediate learning need, for example, the related learning resources, or prerequisite learning domains, etc. In this paper, we put forward the idea of mining LO relation based on the learners' usage information in our LO repository (called as eLORM). By analyzing the LO relation patterns from their learning domain, granularity, categories, etc., the correlated various learning objects are able to be recommended to the learners. Based on the definitions of the LO relation patterns such as association pattern and sequence pattern, we apply the web usage mining methodologies in our LO relation patterns' model. We also develop a LO repository system based on our LO-relationship-mining approach.
Animating Instructional Materials in Computer Education: An Approach to Designing and Teaching Concepts in Data Structures Using LATEX

Animation gives a di erent perception on what is being visually presented. Research has shown that students are likely to understand what is being taught from the combination of animation and text than just with text. Students easily understand scientific concepts in narrative and animated forms. Data structure is a way of storing and arranging data. The e cacy of searching these stored data is very important, so is it vital that they are stored with the right algorithm. This paper presents animations designed to support teaching in computer education. Our main focus is to present controlled animated instructional materials in teaching topics in data structures. We have created three scientifically animated instructional materials in data structures consisting of the Stacks, Queues and Trees. These scientific spheres have been chosen to demonstrate the basic ideas of this work, because of its simplicity in representing the animations. We hope to develop reasonable sets of instructional material of di erent subject areas that will be stored in a database repository. These are intended to be delivered to students through an e-learning website and/or Mobile phones to support them with additional learning opportunities.
Former male elite athletes and risk of hypertension in later life

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether a former career as an elite athlete protects from hypertension in later life. We hypothesized that vigorous physical activity during young adulthood protects against hypertension later in life. Methods: The study population (n = 3440) consists of 2037 former male elite athletes and 1403 matched controls. Of those, 599 (392 former athletes, 207 controls) participated in a clinical study in 2008. The athletes were divided into three groups: endurance, mixed and power sports. Assessment of hypertension was based on athletes’ entitlement to reimbursable antihypertensive medication from the Finnish Social Insurance Institution; among the clinical study participants, this was also based on self-reported current use of antihypertensive drugs or measured hypertension. The current volume of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) was determined by questionnaires. Results: Among the participants, the former athletes had lower age-adjusted prevalence of hypertension than the controls [odds ratio (OR) 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.49–0.98] and the endurance athletes had the lowest OR (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.23–0.80). OR for the prevalence of hypertension decreased (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.84–0.96 per 10 metabolic equivalent hours/week) when there was an increase in the volume of LTPA. The former athletes without blood pressure-lowering medication had significantly lower SBP than the controls [139.2 mmHg (SD 18.7) vs. 144.2 mmHg (SD 19.5)] (P = 0.027). Conclusion: A former career as an elite athlete seems to be associated with a lower prevalence of hypertension in later life. The volume of current LTPA was inversely related to prevalence of hypertension.
A fair spectrum sharing method in consideration of CoMP

With the development of various radio communication systems in recent years, spectrum sharing in heterogeneous networks has received a considerable amount of research attention for the efficient use of spectral resources, as the lack of these has emerged as an important problem. Prevalent spectral sharing methods focus on improving total throughput, and ignore lower throughput along the cell edges. Hence, users receive unfair throughput that is dependent on their place. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose improving fairness in spectrum sharing by considering Coordinated Multi-Point transmission /reception (CoMP). In order to promote cell edge performance in particular, we propose a method to allocate parts of spectral resources to cell edges to use CoMP and wireless systems therein using spectrum sharing. We used simulations to confirm that the proposed method improves cell edge performance and fairness in terms of user throughput.
Surface-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide, water, and heat across a dryland wheat-fallow rotation

Summerfallow – the practice of keeping a field out of production during the growing season – is a common practice in dryland wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cropping systems, including those of Montana. It is currently unknown how seasonal patterns of carbon dioxide, water, and heat flux between ecosystems and the atmosphere differ between fallow and wheat. This study quantifies the impact of dryland wheat vs. chemical fallow agricultural management practices on these important surfaceatmosphere exchanges using the eddy covariance method across a winter wheat – spring wheat – fallow rotation in the Judith Basin, MT. I used a suite of meteorological sensors to measure relative humidity, air temperature, soil moisture, wind speed and direction, incident and reflected shortwave radiation, upwelling and downwelling longwave radiation, crop height, and soil heat flux to further quantify the impacts of this cropping sequence on biophysical attributes of the land surface and to model turbulent fluxes. Both wheat fields were carbon sinks on the order of 110 to 205 g C m during the April to September study periods of 2013 and 2014, while the fallow field was a carbon source to the atmosphere on the order of 135 g C m during the April to September study period of 2014. Evapotranspiration (ET) was over 100 mm greater in a spring wheat field than in a simultaneously measured fallow field during the 2014 study period, and modeled maximum daily atmospheric boundary layer height was up to 800 m higher in fallow compared to spring wheat. Results demonstrate that fallow has a detrimental impact to soil carbon resources yet is less water intensive, with consequences for regional climate via its impacts on atmospheric boundary layer development and global climate via its carbon metabolism.
What Makes Photo Cultures Different?

Billions of photos shared online today are created by people with different socio-economic characteristics living in different locations. We introduce a number of methods for quantifying the differences between such "photo cultures" and apply them to a large collection of Instagram images shared in five mega-cities around the world. First, we extract image content and style features and use them to design a new visualization technique for qualitative analysis of photo cultures. We then use supervised learning to automatically recognize and compare visual activity at different locations and expose surprising connections between geographically distant photo cultures. Finally, we perform a low-level quantitative analysis to understand what makes photo cultures different from each other.
Parameter estimation for gene regulatory networks: A two-stage MCMC Bayesian approach

Genetic regulatory networks have emerged as a useful way to elucidate the biochemical pathways for biological functions. Yet, determination of the exact parametric forms for these models remain a major challenge. In this paper, we present a novel computational approach implemented in C++ to solve this inverse problem. This takes the form of an optimization stage first after which Bayesian filtering takes place. The key advantage of such a flexible, general and robust approach is that it provides us with a joint probability distribution of the model parameters instead of single estimates, which we can propagate to final predictions. We apply these ideas to time series data from gene circuit models using state space representation. We show that unsound terms from a more generalized model can be efficiently pruned by our approach. We believe our work offers a new insight towards understanding the behaviour, mechanisms and thermodynamics of system biology.
Meta-population evidence of oriented chain migration in northern gannets (Morus bassanus)

Although oriented migrations have been identified in many terrestrial bird species, the post-breeding-season movements of seabirds are generally regarded as dispersive. We used geolocator tags to reveal post-breeding movements and winter distribution of northern gannets (Morus bassanus) at a meta-population scale. By focusing on five breeding colonies of European gannets, we show that their breeding and wintering grounds are connected by a major flyway running along the coasts of Western Europe and Africa. Moreover, maximum winter distance to colony was similar across colonies despite their wide latitudinal range. In contrast with the general opinion that large pelagic birds such as gannets have unlimited ranges beyond the breeding season, our findings strongly suggest oriented chain migration in northern gannets (a pattern in which populations move uniformly southward) and highlight the benefit of meta-population approaches for studying seabird movements. We argue that the inclusion of such processes in ocean management plans is essential to improve efforts in marine biodiversity conservation.
Facial Anthropometric Norms among Kosovo - Albanian Adults

Background The development of an anthropometric craniofacial database is a necessary multidisciplinary proposal. Aim The aim of this study was to establish facial anthropometric norms and to investigate into sexual dimorphism in facial variables among Kosovo Albanian adults. Materials and Methods The sample included 204 students of Dental School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pristina. Using direct anthropometry, a series of 8 standard facial measurements was taken on each subject with digital caliper with an accuracy of 0.01 mm (Boss, Hamburg-Germany). The normative data and percentile rankings were calculated. Gender differences in facial variables were analyzed using t- test for independent samples (p<0.05). The index of sexual dimorphism (ISD) and percentage of sexual dimorphism were calculated for each facial measurement. Results: N ormative data for all facial anthropometric measurements in males were higher than in females. Male average norms compared with the female average norms differed significantly from each other (p>0.05). The highest index of sexual dimorphism (ISD) was found for the lower facial height 1.120, for which the highest percentage of sexual dimorphism, 12.01%. , was also found. The lowest ISD was found for intercanthal width, 1.022, accompanied with the lowest percentage of sexual dimorphism, 2.23%. Conclusion The obtained results have established the facial anthropometric norms among Kosovo Albanian adults. Sexual dimorphism has been confirmed for each facial measurement.
Scalable Training of Markov Logic Networks Using Approximate Counting

In this paper, we propose principled weight learning algorithms for Markov logic networks that can easily scale to much larger datasets and application domains than existing algorithms. The main idea in our approach is to use approximate counting techniques to substantially reduce the complexity of the most computation intensive sub-step in weight learning: computing the number of groundings of a first-order formula that evaluate to true given a truth assignment to all the random variables. We derive theoretical bounds on the performance of our new algorithms and demonstrate experimentally that they are orders of magnitude faster and achieve the same accuracy or better than existing approaches.
Introducing real world physics and macro-actions to general video game ai

The General Video Game AI Framework has featured multiple games and several tracks since the first competition in 2014. Although the games of the framework are very assorted in nature, there is an underlying commonality with respect to the physics that govern the game: all of them are based on a grid where the sprites make discrete movements, which is not expressive enough to cover any meaningful physics. This paper introduces an enhanced physics system that brings real-world physics such as friction, inertia and other forces to the framework. We also introduce macro-actions for the first time in GVGAI in two different controllers, Rolling Horizon Evolution and Monte Carlo Tree Search. Their usefulness is demonstrated in a new set of games that exploits these new physics features. Our results show that macro-actions can help controllers in certain situations and games, although there is a strong dependency on the game played when selecting which configuration fits best.
Effects of overtime work on blood pressure and body mass index in Japanese male workers.

BACKGROUND Effects of overtime work on health is a controversial issue. AIMS To determine the effects of overtime work on blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) for male workers in Japan. METHODS Participants were 323 male participants of three companies. Data were collected by occupational physicians at periodic physical examinations and additional examinations. The time courses for the development of definite hypertension and an increase in BMI were recorded. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the cumulative incidence rates of developing definite hypertension and increasing BMI, and the Cox proportional hazard model was used to determine the adjusted relative hazard of overtime work. RESULTS The age-adjusted incidence rates of developing definite hypertension and increasing BMI were significantly lower among the participants whose mean overtime was > or =50 h than among those whose mean overtime was <50 h/month (log-rank P < 0.05). The Cox proportional hazard model indicated that those who worked a mean overtime of > or =50 h/month had lower risks of developing definite hypertension (hazard ratio, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.15-0.88; P < 0.05) and increasing their BMI (hazard ratio, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.31-0.63; P < 0.01) after adjusting for age. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study indicate that workers whose mean overtime was > or =50 h have lower risks of developing definite hypertension and increasing their BMI.
An empirically-grounded framework for the information systems development process

It is generally taken as axiomatic that systems development methodologies play a useful role in guiding the systems development process, and that their increased adoption would improve the process and product of systems development. This paper summarizes the arguments and pressures which support the use of methodologies. However, the problems associated with the use of methodologies have not perhaps received as much attention in previous research. A number of factors are identified in the paper which question the value of methodologies. These dichotomous arguments—in favor of and against the use of methodologies—bring about a dilemma for systems developers as to whether to adopt a formalized development methodology or not. This research study was therefore concerned with investigating the nature of systems development and the use and role of systems development methodologies in actual practice. The study adopted a comprehensive multiphased and pluralist research strategy. First, the researcher’s commercial experience as a systems developer, coupled with a detailed examination of the literature, and a pilot study involving personal interviews with experienced developers in five organizations were drawn upon to validate and refine the research objective. The next stage of the research involved a postal survey of developers in 776 organizations. Quantitative statistical techniques were used to analyze the survey responses. Following this, the final phase of the research involved a field study comprising personal interviews with 16 experienced practitioners in eight organizations. The field interview data was analyzed in a qualitative manner so as to elucidate and elaborate on the survey findings. Based on the research findings, the paper presents an empirically-grounded framework which describes the development process as it pertains to modern organizations. The components of the framework are discussed in detail and relevant implications are identified.
Manifold Matching: Joint Optimization of Fidelity and Commensurability

Fusion and inference from multiple and massive disparate data sources ‐ the requirement for our most challenging data analysis problems and the goal of our most ambitious statistical pattern recognition methodologies ‐ has many and varied aspects which are currently the target of intense research and development. One aspect of the overall challenge is manifold matching ‐ identifying embeddings of multiple disparate data spaces into the same low-dimensional space where joint inference can be pursued. We investigate this manifold matching task from the perspective of jointly optimizing the fidelity of the embeddings and their commensurability with one another, with a specific statistical inference exploitation task in mind. Our results demonstrate when and why our joint optimization methodology is superior to either version of separate optimization. The methodology is illustrated with simulations and an application in document matching.
Query Clustering using Segment Specific Context Embeddings

This paper presents a novel query clustering approach to capture the broad interest areas of users querying search engines. We make use of recent advances in NLP - word2vec and extend it to get query2vec, vector representations of queries, based on query contexts, obtained from the top search results for the query and use a highly scalable Divide & Merge clustering algorithm on top of the query vectors, to get the clusters. We have tried this approach on a variety of segments, including Retail, Travel, Health, Phones and found the clusters to be effective in discovering user's interest areas which have high monetization potential.
Ag+ as a More Effective Elicitor for Production of Tanshinones than Phenolic Acids in Salvia miltiorrhiza Hairy Roots

Phenolic acids and tanshinones are two groups of bioactive ingredients in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. As a heavy metal elicitor, it has been reported that Ag+ can induce accumulations of both phenolic acids and tanshinones in S. miltiorrhiza hairy roots. In this study, the effects of Ag+ treatment on accumulations of six phenolic acids and four tanshinones in S. miltiorrhiza hairy roots were investigated. To further elucidate the molecular mechanism, expressions of key genes involved in the biosynthesis of these ingredients were also detected. The results showed that although the total phenolic acids content was almost not affected by Ag+, accumulations of rosmarinic acid (RA), caffeic acid and ferulic acid were significantly increased, while accumulations of salvianolic acid B (LAB), danshensu (DSU) and cinnamic acid were decreased. We speculate that LAB probably derived from the branch pathway of DSU biosynthesis. Contents of four tanshinones were enhanced by Ag+ and their accumulations were more sensitive to Ag+ than phenolic acids. Genes in the upstream biosynthetic pathways of these ingredients responded to Ag+ earlier than those in the downstream biosynthetic pathways. Ag+ probably induced the whole pathways, upregulated gene expressions from the upstream pathways to the downstream pathways, and finally resulted in the enhancement of ingredient production. Compared with phenolic acids, tanshinone production was more sensitive to Ag+ treatments. This study will help us understand how secondary metabolism in S. miltiorrhiza responds to elicitors and provide a reference for the improvement of the production of targeted compounds in the near future.