Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and implementation of the teleoperation platform based on augmented reality

Predictive display based on virtual environment models is an effective method of solving the problem of time delay in teleoperation. However, this method will not work well without the precise virtual environment model. Thus, it is of great significance that augmented reality with video feedback is introduced into teleoperation, instead of the virtual environment models. A teleoperation system platform based on augmented reality was developed to improve system stability and enhance system telepresence, facilitating the operator's observation and operation. The improved algorithm ARToolkit-based made the system adaptable to many types of lighting environments. This paper introduces system structure and the realization of key modules. Lots of experiments such as pressing the button, pulling the drawer and so on are also conducted to evaluate the system performance. The simulation results indicate that the proposed system can compensate the defect of prediction and improve teleoperation system reliability.
Cultivating DNN Diversity for Large Scale Video Labelling

We investigate factors controlling DNN diversity in the context of the Google Cloud and YouTube-8M Video Understanding Challenge. While it is well-known that ensemble methods improve prediction performance, and that combining accurate but diverse predictors helps, there is little knowledge on how to best promote & measure DNN diversity. We show that diversity can be cultivated by some unexpected means, such as model over-fitting or dropout variations. We also present details of our solution to the video understanding problem, which ranked #7 in the Kaggle competition (competing as the Yeti team).
Real-time multi-mode robust filtering method for rocket upper stage

A real-time multi-mode robust filtering method is proposed for the large thrust and slow spin characteristics of the rocket above the flight stage. The rocket upper stage in the sliding section of the existence of slow spin characteristics, which will lead to ground measurement equipment tracking instability, poor measurement data quality. In order to solve this problem, the robustness theory and CKF filter algorithm are combined to improve the system robustness. The rocket upper stage in the track stage, because the thrust is too large lead to poor performance tracking. The method of multi — modal orbit determination based on embedded maneuvering decision method can adjust the state variance matrix at the time of maneuver, which can speed up the correction of the system information and improve the tracking performance of the system. Through a rocket upper stage experimental data analysis, this method can effectively reduce the measurement data of poor quality problem, improve the system tracking performance, has a certain application value for the upper stage tracking trajectory reconstruction.
Exact Bayesian Structure Discovery in Bayesian Networks

Learning a Bayesian network structure from data is a well-motivated but computationally hard task. We present an algorithm that computes the exact posterior probability of a subnetwork, e.g., a directed edge; a modified version of the algorithm finds one of the most probable network structures. This algorithm runs in time O(n 2n + nk+1C(m)), where n is the number of network variables, k is a constant maximum in-degree, and C(m) is the cost of computing a single local marginal conditional likelihood for m data instances. This is the first algorithm with less than super-exponential complexity with respect to n. Exact computation allows us to tackle complex cases where existing Monte Carlo methods and local search procedures potentially fail. We show that also in domains with a large number of variables, exact computation is feasible, given suitable a priori restrictions on the structures; combining exact and inexact methods is also possible. We demonstrate the applicability of the presented algorithm on four synthetic data sets with 17, 22, 37, and 100 variables.
State estimation, wireless tropes, demons and uncertainty

Consider observation of a system with initial state x(0) through some signal r(t) corrupted by white noise of spectral height N0. When the system is cast in state-space form and the observations projected onto the relevant orthonormal bases, completely unbidden, two well-known wireless communications tropes emerge: a colored noise channel and a multi-access channel wherein elements of system state are associated with different “signatures” defined by the system. That is, from a mathematical perspective, the system could communicate to the observer in a well-understood way. Taking these tropes at face value, we investigate the efficiency of conveying a state vector x(0) through classical estimation to that wherein a “demon” manipulates an identical initially-at-rest system so as to communicate x(0) to the observer on successive epochs (channel uses). An energy constraint on the initial state E[|x(0)|2]=ε is assumed, and the demon's signaling efforts over the ensemble of epochs are constrained similarly. In all cases, the demon conveys the x(0) with less error - by orders of magnitude for moderate signal to noise ratio ε/N0. Furthermore, the demon scenario results in some number of reliably-conveyed bits of information and imposes crisp limits on relative uncertainty of different state element estimates. In fact, the form of these limits is identical to that of the quantum mechanical Uncertainty Principle (although there is no requirement of a momentum-position analog). Nonetheless, the appearance of these tropes raises the question of whether communication and information theory have something deeper to say about physical interactions and the cacophony of system voices in conversation.
A simple method for rectified noise floor suppression: Phase‐corrected real data reconstruction with application to diffusion‐weighted imaging

Diffusion‐weighted MRI is an intrinsically low signal‐to‐noise ratio application due to the application of diffusion‐weighting gradients and the consequent longer echo times. The signal‐to‐noise ratio worsens with increasing image resolution and diffusion imaging methods that use multiple and higher b‐values. At low signal‐to‐noise ratios, standard magnitude reconstructed diffusion‐weighted images are confounded by the existence of a rectified noise floor, producing poor estimates of diffusion metrics. Herein, we present a simple method of rectified noise floor suppression that involves phase correction of the real data. This approach was evaluated for diffusion‐weighted imaging data, obtained from ethanol and water phantoms and the brain of a healthy volunteer. The parameter fits from monoexponential, biexponential, and stretched‐exponential diffusion models were computed using phase‐corrected real data and magnitude data. The results demonstrate that this newly developed simple approach of using phase‐corrected real images acts to reduce or even suppress the confounding effects of a rectified noise floor, thereby producing more accurate estimates of diffusion parameters. Magn Reson Med, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Proposal to Sequence a Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel : A Community Resource for the Study of Genotypic and Phenotypic Variation

Overview: We propose the sequencing of a D. melanogaster genetic reference panel of 192 wild-type lines from a single natural population which have been inbred to homozygosity, and for which extensive information on complex trait phenotypes has been collected; and an additional 96 lines to be chosen with input from the community. This will create: (1) A community resource for association mapping of quantitative trait loci. Within this project we will demonstrate such mapping and provide candidate quantitative trait polymorphisms for traits relevant to human health. (2) A community resource of common Drosophila sequence polymorphisms (SNPs and indels) with a minor allele frequency (MAF) of ~ 0.01 or greater. These variants will be valuable for high resolution QTL mapping as well as mapping alleles of major effect, molecular population genetic analyses, and allele specific transcription studies, among others. (3) A “test bench” for statistical methods used in QTL association and mapping studies for traits affecting human disease.
Timed ATL: Forget Memory, Just Count (Extended Abstract)

Étienne André and Laure Petrucci Université Paris 13 {Etienne.Andre,Laure.Petrucci} @lipn.univ-paris13.fr Wojciech Jamroga and Michał Knapik Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences {mknapik, wojciech.jamroga} @ipipan.waw. pl Wojciech Penczek Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences and University of Natural Sciences and Humanities, Siedlce, Poland penczek@ipipan.waw. pl
Wireless Energy and Information Transfer Tradeoff for Limited-Feedback Multiantenna Systems With Energy Beamforming

In this paper, we consider a multiantenna system where the receiver should harvest energy from the transmitter by wireless energy transfer to support its wireless information transmission. To maximize the harvesting energy, we propose the performance of adaptive energy beamforming according to the instantaneous channel state information (CSI). To help the transmitter obtain the CSI for energy beamforming, we further propose a win-win CSI quantization feedback strategy to improve the efficiencies of both power and information transmission. The focus of this paper is on the tradeoff of wireless energy and information transfer by adjusting the transfer duration with a total duration constraint. By revealing the relationship between transmit power, transfer duration, and feedback amount, we derive two wireless energy and information transfer tradeoff schemes by maximizing an upper bound and an approximate lower bound of the average information transmission rate, respectively. Moreover, the impact of imperfect CSI at the receiver is investigated, and the corresponding wireless energy and information transfer tradeoff scheme is also given. Finally, numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.
Socially developing the man : exploring the perceptions of young, male university students in relation to gender studies.

The present study set out to explore how male university students perceive their involvement in gender studies and how this intersects with their masculine identities. The research was a qualitative one and semi-structured individual interviews were used to collect data from ten Humanities postgraduate students attending a large, urban university comprising men who do gender studies and those who do not. Two key informants were also interviewed for the study. Qualitative thematic content analysis was employed to analyse the data collected; these reflected themes that bordered around the men and their identities, gender equality, engagement in gender studies, and changing attitudes towards observable gender transformation. In comparing the responses of both categories of men, an inference made was that, although the men mostly expressed positive attitudes towards engagement in gender studies, there does not seem to be a direct relationship between exposing men to gender studies courses or not, and changes in perception towards gender relations. This was evidenced by the fact that both groups of men predominantly upheld traditional hegemonic ideals of masculinity through displays of complicit, accommodating and defensive masculinities amidst a couple of progressive representations. The study affirms the thesis that masculinity is socially constructed based on the contradictory manner in which the men spoke about their identities. This reaffirms the essentiality of speaking about men in diverse ways and rejecting any notions of singularity.
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics Modelling and Forecasting Oil Prices: the Role of Asymmetric Cycles Modelling and Forecasting Oil Prices: the Role of Asymmetric Cycles

We propose a new time series model aimed at forecasting crude oil prices. The proposed specification is an unobserved components model with an asym-metric cyclical component. The asymmetric cycle is defined as a sine-cosine wave where the frequency of the cycle depends on past oil price observations. We show that oil price forecasts improve significantly when this asymmetry is explicitly modelled.
Introduction of a Novel HRP Substrate-Nanogold Probe for Signal Amplification in Immunocytochemistry

Amplification of immunological signals with catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD) allows improved detection of scarce tissue antigens in light and electron microscopy. The technique takes advantage of the oxidation ability of horseradish peroxidase (HRP), in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, to yield the accumulation of one of its specific reporter-tagged substrates. This immunocytochemical approach continues to be improved by the introduction of new reporter molecules tagged to tyramine or to other HRP substrates. In this study we introduced a novel HRP substrate tagged to Nanogold particles. The amplification protocol is based on the application of a specific primary antibody, a biotinylated secondary antibody, streptavidin-HRP, and an HRP substrate coupled to Nanogold, followed by silver intensification. In addition to amplification of immunological signals of high resolution, direct accumulation of Nanogold particles at target sites by enzymatic activity of HRP improves the efficiency of the technique compared to other amplification protocols. Moreover, this approach combines the CARD amplification potentials with the ultrasmall gold probe and the silver intensification method. Immunolabeling obtained by light and electron microscopy, as well as immunodot assay using this new amplification strategy, appear to be highly sensitive, specific, and of enhanced intensity.
Disentangling the dynamic relationships between party performance, issue proximity and party attachment

Two rival models of issue voting are policy performance and policy proximity. While these are usually treated as distinct assessments made by voters, evaluations of performance and of proximity may in fact be related. Moreover, both assessments may shape and be shaped by partisanship, so the relationship between performance and proximity cannot be examined without taking party attachment into account. Given the relative ease of assessing performance, we argue that performance and partisanship are more closely integrated than proximity and partisanship. We examine the dynamic relationships between performance assessments, proximity perceptions and partisanship using five waves of the 2005 to 2010 BES internet panel survey. Using an autoregressive cross-lagged model, we test multiple specifications using a variety of different measures for each attitude. Our results confirm our expectations, and these findings have important implications for how we understand and study issue voting as well as the phenomenon of partisanship.
'Nice to do' and essential: improving neighbourhood policing in an English police force

In this paper, we outline findings from an innovative action research project in an English police force that aimed to enhance community engagement in four neighbourhood policing teams. We describe the principles that lie at the heart of neighbourhood policing and how, for a variety of reasons, these were often seen to be peripheral rather than essential to the teams’ activities. We describe how a lack of understanding about the role of neighbourhood policing, limited knowledge about communities and their differing needs, narrow methods of engagement and consultation, as well as the perception that community engagement was ‘nice to do but not essential’ all reduced the potential benefits of neighbourhood policing. We then discuss the ways we sought to tackle these issues using action research.
Programmed death-1 polymorphisms is associated with risk of esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma in the Chinese Han population: A case-control study involving 2,740 subjects

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) gene may contribute to the development of cancer. In this study, we selected PD-1 rs10204525 T>C, rs2227982 A>G, rs36084323 T>C and rs7421861 A>G polymorphisms and designed a hospital-based case-control study to determine the potential relationship between these functional SNPs in PD-1 gene and esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EGJA) risk. A total of 1,063 EGJA patients and 1,677 controls were enrolled from Eastern Chinese Han population. SNPscanTMgenotyping assay was used to analyze the genotyping of PD-1 polymorphisms. We found that PD-1 rs7421861 A>G polymorphism was associated with the development of EGJA. However, PD-1 rs2227982 A>G polymorphism was a protective factor for EGJA. In addition, PD-1 rs36084323 CC homozygote genotype might be associated with a borderline decreased risk of EGJA. In a subgroup analysis, a decreased risk of EGJA in never drinking and never smoking groups was identified. Haplotype comparison analysis suggested that PD-1 Trs10204525Grs2227982C36084323Ars7421861 haplotype significantly decreased the risk of EGJA. However, Trs10204525Grs2227982C36084323Grs7421861 haplotype in PD-1 gene may confer risk to EGJA. In conclusion, our study highlights rs2227982 A>G, rs36084323 T>C and rs7421861 A>G polymorphisms and haplotypes in PD-1 gene, especially within the intron region, are significantly associated with the risk of EGJA. Further case-control studies with larger sample size and detailed gene-environmental data to replicate these findings in different populations are needed to validate our conclusion.
Improved Depth-Assisted Error Concealment Algorithm for 3D Video Transmission

In this paper, a whole frame loss error concealment algorithm for three-dimensional video coding is proposed. The main concept of the proposed algorithm is to extrapolate the motion vectors for concealing a current error block by jointly considering the available motion vector and the depth information. In addition, the depth information is adopted to help the derivation of reference pixels for concealing errors in the case that suitable motion vectors cannot be obtained by the motion vector extrapolation process alone. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can achieve up to 0.52 dB PSNR, as well as subjective quality improvement, compared to previous work.
The Nature of the Business Group: A Social Network Perspective

This article takes as its point of departure the ambiguous and inconsistent way in which the concept of the ‘business group’ and other associated concepts has been used in the literature to describe and label different types of interfirm relationships. To remedy this state of affairs, a preliminary conception of the business group is presented and elaborated upon, in which the business group is conceptualized as comprising three analytically separable elements: network(s) of interrelated firms, the institutionalized logic of reciprocity, and the intersubjective interpretation of actors inside as well as outside the group. Further, a social network perspective on organizations is suggested for the analysis of business groups.
Exploring dimensionality reduction of animal flight kinematics in an interactive virtual reality setting

We discovered that displaying experimentally captured kinematics data in an interactive three-dimensional setting provided an intuitive biological interpretation of biomechanical patterns. In particular, feedback from users who compared this environment with traditional two-dimensional graph methods showed that the advantage of seeing inherently 3D data in a virtual environment allowed them to better concentrate on data analyses. Subsequently, they were able to notice new motion patterns as well as differences and similarities in flight behavior at varying flight speeds.
Chemical and toxicological characterization of the bricks produced from clay/sewage sludge mixture

The present study aimed to characterize chemical properties of clay bricks containing 20 % of sewage sludge. After detection of potentially hazardous metals, we simulated precipitation exposure of such material to determine the amount of heavy metals that could leach out of the bricks. Metals, such as copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, chromium, etc., were detected in leachate in low concentrations. Moreover, human peripheral blood lymphocytes were exposed to brick leachate for 24 h in order to evaluate its possible negative impact on human cells and genome in vitro. Cytotoxicity tests showed no effect on human peripheral blood lymphocytes viability after exposure to brick's leachate. On the contrary, the alkaline comet assay showed slight but significant increase in DNA damage with all three parameters tested. As we might predict, interactions of several heavy metals in low concentrations could be responsible for DNA damaging effect. In that manner, our findings suggest that leachates from sewage sludge-produced bricks may lead to adverse effects on the exposed human population, and that more stabile bricks should be developed to minimize leaching of heavy metals into the environment. Bricks with lower percentage of the sludge may be one of the solutions to reduce the toxic effect of the final product.
Functionality-aware retargeting of mechanisms to 3D shapes

We present an interactive design system to create functional mechanical objects. Our computational approach allows novice users to retarget an existing mechanical template to a user-specified input shape. Our proposed representation for a mechanical template encodes a parameterized mechanism, mechanical constraints that ensure a physically valid configuration, spatial relationships of mechanical parts to the user-provided shape, and functional constraints that specify an intended functionality. We provide an intuitive interface and optimization-in-the-loop approach for finding a valid configuration of the mechanism and the shape to ensure that higher-level functional goals are met. Our algorithm interactively optimizes the mechanism while the user manipulates the placement of mechanical components and the shape. Our system allows users to efficiently explore various design choices and to synthesize customized mechanical objects that can be fabricated with rapid prototyping technologies. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by retargeting various mechanical templates to different shapes and fabricating the resulting functional mechanical objects.
Optimization of the bluff body in vortex flowmeter

In order to improve the intensity of the vortices at low flow velocity, a series of simulations have been performed for vortex flowmeters to optimize the trapezoid bluff body in terms of its geometrical parameters through FLUENT software. Comparative tests of the flow field characteristic are carried out between the bluff bodies with different rear body angles and parallel part lengths respectively and the results demonstrate that the strongest vortex signals are generated by the bluff body with its rear angle of 45deg and parallel part length of 4 mm. Then liquid flow calibrations have been conducted on the optimized vortex sensors and the results agree approximately with those simulations. The optimized vortex sensor has a lower limit of 0.25 m/s.