Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Remote sensing of earth’s energy budget: synthesis and review

ABSTRACT The Earth’s climate is largely determined by its energy budget. Since the 1960s, satellite remote sensing has been used in estimating these energy budget components at both the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and the surface. Besides the broadband sensors that have been traditionally used for monitoring Earth’s Energy Budget (EEB), data from a variety of narrowband sensors aboard both polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites have also been extensively employed to estimate the EEB components. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the satellite missions, state-of-the art estimation algorithms and the satellite products, and also synthesizes current understanding of the EEB and spatio-temporal variations. The TOA components include total solar irradiance, reflected shortwave radiation/planetary albedo, outgoing longwave radiation, and energy imbalance. The surface components include incident solar radiation, shortwave albedo, shortwave net radiation, longwave downward and upwelling radiation, land and sea surface temperature, surface emissivity, all-wave net radiation, and sensible and latent heat fluxes. Some challenges, and outlook such as virtual constellation of different satellite sensors, temporal homogeneity tests of long time-series products, algorithms ensemble, and products intercomparison are also discussed.
Influence of head orientation in perception of personality traits in virtual agents

The aim of this research is to explore the influence of static visual cues on the perception of a character's personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability. To measure how users perceived personality, we conducted a web-based study with 133 subjects who rated 54 images of a virtual character with varying head orientations and gaze.
Using ANOVA to analyse thalidomide’s molecular mechanisms in human PBMC microarrays

Thalidomide is an anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory drug that is the treatment of choice for erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL), an inflammatory cutaneous and systemic complication of multibacillary leprosy. Its use in leprosy and other conditions is controversial due to its teratogenic effects. Fifty years after the development of thalidomide, its action mechanism is still not well understood. In the present study we analyzed the in vitro effect of thalidomide on global gene expression in cultured human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC) of normal donors. We normalized the background subtracted spotted cDNA microarray data using a locally weighted linear regression and modeled its residual by a two-step analysis of variance to detect differentially expressed PBMC human genes in response to thalidomide. Using the full set of spotted genes, 13 genes were identified as differentially expressed genes. A reduced set was derived with a direct simple filtering approach and this set resulted in eight differentially expressed genes. Among these 21 genes, 15 are involved in the immune regulation processes.
Mutual adaptation in neuro fuzzy system for human posture recognition

Posture recognition is one of the most important techniques for human-robot communication. If robots could read personal intention from the human postures, the communication would become more smooth and natural. Many works of human posture recognition have been published in the literature. Gesture and posture recognition by using Kinect Sensor is an important technique for many types of application. In the related works, many effective techniques composed of feature extraction, classification and pattern recognition have been proposed so far. The processing components are independently designed and evaluated by their own criteria. However, it is difficult to design the components without considering the relationship between each component. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a method of mutual adaptation between information processing components for human posture recognition. In this study, we applied a Neuro-Fuzzy System (NFS) to the classification of human posture. Furthermore, we propose a learning structure that uses Evolution Strategy (ES) to tune the membership function during learning process of the neural network. The proposed method can select suitable membership functions from the candidate solutions generated in ES.
Adaptation Control Parameters of Multipath Model of an Adaptive Acoustic Echo Canceller

An overview of acoustic echo cancellation systems is presented. First the basics of echo’s, type of echo’s , why echo canceller are required and what are the difference between echo canceller are explained then the application where they can be used is discussed. This paper presents applications of acoustic echo control and shows most recent solutions. For some selected applications (LEM) results achieved are presented.
The effects of various irradiation doses on the growth and differentiation of marrow‐derived human mesenchymal stromal cells

Abstract: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are progenitors of mesenchymal tissues including bones. Irradiation can damage the osteogenic activity of human marrow by suppressing osteoblasts leading to post‐irradiation osteoporosis. However, the effect of therapeutic irradiation on MSC remains unexplored. We investigated the effects of various doses of X‐ray irradiation on human MSC (hMSC) by measuring its post‐irradiation proliferation and differentiation activities. Standard immunophenotypes and differentiating functions of the MSC were determined. Irradiation inhibited proliferation of hMSC up to two wk post‐irradiation but thereafter, those residual surviving cells regained their normal proliferation rate. Bone forming activity as reflected by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and calcium deposition were both reduced in a dose‐dependent fashion. Maximum suppressive effect on osteogenic activity was noted in MSC treated with high‐dose irradiation (12 Gy). Adipocyte percentage was also reduced by 50% in cultures that received >4 Gy. Attempts to protect the irradiated cells with 1 μm all‐trans retinoic acid did not show any beneficial effect on MSC proliferation and differentiation. The direct impairment of proliferation and osteogenic differentiation potential of MSC by irradiation may contribute partly to the post‐transplant osteoporosis.
Local Consistency and Junction Tree for Diagnosis of Discrete-Event Systems

We extend the decentralised/distributed approach of diagnosis of discrete-event systems modeled using automata. The goal is to avoid computing a global diagnosis, which is expensive, and to perform local diagnoses instead. To still ensure global consistency, we transform the topology of the system into a junction tree where each vertex represents a subsystem. Local consistency between the diagnoses of these subsystems ensures global consistency due to the tree structure. This technique will work best for systems whose natural structure is close to a tree structure, as the generated automata will be of reasonable size.
In Vitro to In Vivo Comparison of the Substrate Characteristics of Sorafenib Tosylate toward P-Glycoprotein

Sorafenib (Nexavar) is a novel oral Raf kinase and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitor. Most anticancer drugs are substrates for ATP-binding cassette efflux pumps especially for P-glycoprotein (P-gp). To evaluate the influence of P-gp on the pharmacokinetics of sorafenib substrate properties for this transporter were investigated. Therefore, permeability of sorafenib across Caco-2 and P-gp-overexpressing cells was determined. To determine the in vivo relevance of these in vitro findings, pharmacokinetics of sorafenib in mdr1a/1b(−/−) and wild-type (WT) mice was studied. Sorafenib is highly permeable and exhibits a slight efflux across Caco-2 cells. In P-gp-overexpressing cells, a small concentration-dependent efflux was observed, which was completely blocked by the addition of ivermectin. In mdr1a/1b(−/−) and WT mice, unchanged compound represented by far the majority of radioactivity in plasma. After intravenous and oral administration, brain/plasma concentration ratios in mdr1a/1b(−/−) mice were 1.3- to 1.5-fold higher than those in WT mice. However, after intravenous or oral administration, plasma concentrations were similar in both mouse strains. In conclusion, sorafenib is highly permeable and a weak P-gp substrate in vitro. These findings were confirmed by the small factor of 1.3 to 1.5 observed for the brain/plasma ratios in mdr1a/1b(−/−) versus WT mice in vivo. Based on these in vitro and in vivo results, it is unlikely that P-gp has a major effect on the plasma concentrations of sorafenib in humans. Because of the high permeability and low P-gp-mediated transport, sorafenib might be able to cross the blood-brain barrier and target tumors within the brain.
Prediction of Video Popularity in the Absence of Reliable Data from Video Hosting Services: Utility of Traces Left by Users on the Web

With the growth of user-generated content, we observe the constant rise of the number of companies, such as search engines, content aggregators, etc., that operate with tremendous amounts of web content not being the services hosting it. Thus, aiming to locate the most important content and promote it to the users, they face the need of estimating the current and predicting the future content popularity. In this paper, we approach the problem of video popularity prediction not from the side of a video hosting service, as done in all previous studies, but from the side of an operating company, which provides a popular video search service that aggregates content from different video hosting websites. We investigate video popularity prediction based on features from three primary sources available for a typical operating company: first, the content hosting provider may deliver its data via its API, second, the operating company makes use of its own search and browsing logs, third, the company crawls information about embeds of a video and links to a video page from publicly available resources on the Web. We show that video popularity prediction based on the embed and link data coupled with the internal search and browsing data significantly improves video popularity prediction based only on the data provided by the video hosting and can even adequately replace the API data in the cases when it is partly or completely unavailable.
Errors of omission in translation

Automatic detection of translation errors represents one of the more promising applications of NLP techniques to this domain. This paper concentrates on one class of error, the inadvertent omission. To a greater extent than `false friends', terminological inconsistency, etc., the detection of omissions raises problems both theoretical and practical in nature. These problems are discussed, and a technique is presented for identifying possible omissions in a completed translation by employing a model of translational equivalence between words. Examples are taken from a varied corpus of French-English bitext, and illustrate how di(cid:11)erent settings of the parameters of the system a(cid:11)ect its performance. The approach is implemented as part of a translation-checking program.
The Financial Reality of Overeating

Objective: Obesity has been linked to frequency of meals eaten outside the home and the associated large portion sizes. These large portions, which have been shown to promote overeating, are often offered for a small additional cost which may appear economical to the consumer. The aim of this study was to calculate additional costs from medical, gasoline, and increased caloric needs that result from weight gain attributable to overeating and thus provide consumers with added incentive not to upsize their meal, or overeat in general. Methods: The effects and costs of overeating were estimated for men and women with a BMI of 22.5, 27.5, and 32.5 by conducting a Pubmed search for relevant literature combined with US statistics obtained from open Federal and other websites. Results: Among fast food restaurants, the average upsized meal increases energy content of the meal from 927 to 1324 kcal at an added cost of $0.67. Because the regular meal is already 37% of a 2500 kcal diet, the extra energy of upsizing is likely to be in excess of need and thus potentially stored as 36 grams of added adipose tissue. This hypothesized weight gain predicts an average increase auto fuel cost by $0.05 for both men and women, maintenance food cost by $0.36 and $0.35 for men and women, respectively, and health care cost from $0.82 to $6.64. Conclusions: These calculated costs exceed the value of upsized meals and may provide motivation to some consumers not to upsize their meals. The same rationale can be applied to other environments notorious for encouraging overeating. Thus, this information could be presented to individuals along with other more well publicized health risks and consequences during weight control counseling.
Symbolic model checking of probabilistic knowledge

This paper describes an algorithm for model checking a fragment of the logic of knowledge and probability in multi-agent systems, with respect to a perfect recall interpretation of knowledge and agents' subjective probability. The algorithm has been implemented in the epistemic model checker MCK. Some experiments with the implemented algorithm are reported, in which some properties of agents' probabilistic knowledge are verified in two security protocols: Chaum's Dining Cryptographers protocol, and a protocol for Oblivious Transfer due to Rivest.
Real-Time Camera Tracking and 3D Reconstruction Using Signed Distance Functions

The ability to quickly acquire 3D models is an essential capability needed in many disciplines including robotics, computer vision, geodesy, and architecture. In this paper we present a novel method for real-time camera tracking and 3D reconstruction of static indoor environments using an RGB-D sensor. We show that by representing the geometry with a signed distance function (SDF), the camera pose can be efficiently estimated by directly minimizing the error of the depth images on the SDF. As the SDF contains the distances to the surface for each voxel, the pose optimization can be carried out extremely fast. By iteratively estimating the camera poses and integrating the RGB-D data in the voxel grid, a detailed reconstruction of an indoor environment can be achieved. We present reconstructions of several rooms using a hand-held sensor and from onboard an autonomous quadrocopter. Our extensive evaluation on publicly available benchmark data shows that our approach is more accurate and robust than the iterated closest point algorithm (ICP) used by KinectFusion, and yields often a comparable accuracy at much higher speed to feature-based bundle adjustment methods such as RGB-D SLAM for up to medium-sized scenes.
Efficiency of multiple imputation to test for association in the presence of missing data

The presence of missing data in association studies is an important problem, particularly with high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) maps, because the probability that at least one genotype is missing dramatically increases with the number of markers. A possible strategy is to simply ignore the missing data and only use the complete observations, and, consequently, to accept a significant decrease of the sample size. Using Genetic Analysis Workshop 15 simulated data on which we removed some genotypes to generate different levels of missing data, we show that this strategy might lead to an important loss in power to detect association, but may also result in false conclusions regarding the most likely susceptibility site if another marker is in linkage disequilibrium with the disease susceptibility site. We propose a multiple imputation approach to deal with missing data on case-parent trios and evaluated the performance of this approach on the same simulated data. We found that our multiple imputation approach has high power to detect association with the susceptibility site even with a large amount of missing data, and can identify the susceptibility sites among a set of sites in linkage disequilibrium.
Pattern Search Methods for Linearly Constrained Minimization

We extend pattern search methods to linearly constrained minimization. We develop a general class of feasible point pattern search algorithms and prove global convergence to a Karush--Kuhn--Tucker point. As in the case of unconstrained minimization, pattern search methods for linearly constrained problems accomplish this without explicit recourse to the gradient or the directional derivative of the objective. Key to the analysis of the algorithms is the way in which the local search patterns conform to the geometry of the boundary of the feasible region.
Estimation of psychological stress levels using Facial Expression Spatial Charts

This paper presents a new framework to describe individual facial expression spaces, particularly addressing the dynamic diversity of facial expressions that appear as an exclamation or emotion, to create a unique space for each person. We name this framework Facial Expression Spatial Charts (FESCs). The FESCs are created using Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) and Fuzzy Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) of unsupervised neural networks. In the experiment, we created an original facial expression dataset consisting of three facial expressions—happiness, anger, and sadness—obtained from 10 subjects during 7–20 weeks at one-week intervals. Results of creating FESCs in each subject show that the method can adequately display the dynamic diversity of facial expressions between subjects, in addition to temporal changes in each subject. Moreover, we used stress measurement sheets to obtain temporal changes of stress in each subject for analyzing psychological effects of the stress that subjects feel. We analyzed relations between numerous individual facial expression patterns and psychological stress values. Results show that facial expressions when influenced by stress differ among subjects. Moreover, we estimated stress levels of four grades using Support Vector Machines (SVMs). The estimation accuracy for all 10 subjects and for 5 subjects over more than 10 weeks were, respectively, 68.6 and 77.4%.
An Experimental Multi-Agent Environment For Engineering Design

Real world engineering design projects require the cooperation of multidisciplinary design teams using sophisticated and powerful engineering tools. The individuals or the individual groups of the multidisciplinary design teams work in parallel and independently often for quite a long time with different tools located on various sites. In order to ensure the coordination of design activities in the different groups or the cooperation among the different tools, it is necessary to develop an efficient design environment. This paper discusses a distributed architecture for integrating such engineering tools in an open design environment, organized as a population of asynchronous cognitive agents. Before introducing the general architecture and the communication protocol, issues about an agent architecture and inter-agent communications are discussed. A prototype of such an environment with seven independent agents located in several workstations and microcomputers is then presented and demonstrated on an example of a small mechanical design.
Timeouts: Beware Surprisingly High Delay

Active probing techniques, such as ping, have been used to detect outages. When a previously responsive end host fails to respond to a probe, studies sometimes attempt to confirm the outage by retrying the ping or attempt to identify the location of the outage by using other tools such as traceroute. The latent problem, however, is, how long should one wait for a response to the ping? Too short a timeout risks confusing congestion or other delay with an outage. Too long a timeout may slow the process and prevent observing and diagnosing short-duration events, depending on the experiment's design. We believe that conventional timeouts for active probes are underestimates, and analyze data collected by Heidemann et al. in 2006--2015. We find that 5% of pings from 5% of addresses take more than 5 seconds. Put another way, for 5% of the responsive IP addresses probed by Heidemann, a false 5% loss rate would be inferred if using a timeout of 5 seconds. To arrive at this observation, we filtered artifacts of the data that could occur with too-long a timeout, including responses to probes sent to broadcast addresses. We also analyze ICMP data collected by Zmap in 2015 to find that around 5% of all responsive addresses observe a greater than one second round-trip time consistently. Further, the prevalence of high round trip time has been increasing and it is often associated with the first ping, perhaps due to negotiating a wireless connection. In addition, we find that the Autonomous Systems with the most high-latency addresses are typically cellular. This paper describes our analysis process and results that should encourage researchers to set longer timeouts when needed and report on timeout settings in the description of future measurements.
Matched Filter-Autocorrelation (MF-AC) for Packet Detection in Multipath Channels

In the present study, we investigate burst packet detection in multipath environment. Conventional detectors either cannot collect multipath energy, or combine too much noise when collecting it. Thus, they suffer performance degradation. A cascaded matched filter-autocorrelation (MF-AC) detector is proposed to address this problem. By exploiting a MF, the multipath energy is first converged within a small window equal to the multipath delay spread; subsequently, the autocorrelator combines the multipath energy within this window. Therefore, the combination window is shortened, and the combined noise is reduced. Performance comparisons show that MF-AC achieves a significantly better performance than the conventional detectors, with the superiority depending on the multipath delay spread.
Prediction of daily sea surface temperature using artificial neural networks

ABSTRACT We present an artificial neural network model to predict the sea surface temperature (SST) and delineate SST fronts in the northe-astern Arabian Sea. The predictions are made one day in advance, using current day’s SST for predicting the SST of the next day. The model is used to predict the SST map for every single day during 2013–2015. The results show that more than 75% of the time the model error is ≤ ±0. 5ºC. For the years 2014 and 2015, 80% of the predictions had an error ≤±0. 5ºC. The model performance is dependent on the availability of data during the previous days. Thus during the summer monsoon months, when the data availability is comparatively less, the errors in the prediction are slightly higher. The model is also able to capture SST fronts.
MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS STUDY OF LAXMI ODHA BASIN, SANGLI DISTRICT, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

: Morphometric analysis provides us quantitative description of the basin. Morphometric analysis includes the linear aspects, areal aspects and relief aspects of a drainage basin through which a general perception about the physiography, geology, recent diastrophism, nature of rock material etc can be developed. In the present investigation various morphometric parameters of the LaxmiOdha basin are outlined. The Laxmi Odha basin is 6 th order and its different morphometrical parameters are found to be useful for the proper land use planning and water resources management studies in the basin. Dendritic drainage pattern in the area shows that the area consists of homogeneous rock material, which is structurally undisturbed. The Basin is passing through an early mature stage to old stage of the fluvial geomorphic cycle. The elongation and circulatory ratio reveals that the Laxmi Odha basin is highly elongated and flood flows are easier to manage than that of circulatory basins.